Chase: Roman

silencer.’
        Chase said, ‘I have money. You know that. If I paid you off, would you let me alone?’
        ‘How much?’ Judge sounded eager.
        ‘Five thousand,’ Chase said.
        ‘It's not enough.’
        ‘Seven, then.’
        ‘Ten,’ Judge said. ‘Ten thousand dollars, and I'll stop trying to kill you, Mr Chase.’
        Chase felt himself smiling, a very tight smile but a smile nonetheless. He said, ‘Fine. How do I make the payment?’
        Judge's voice was suddenly so loud and furious that Chase could only barely understand what he said. ‘You bastard, don't you realize I can't be bought off, not with your money, not with anything in this world? You deserve to die, because you killed children and you're a fornicator, and you are going to be punished accordingly. I am not corrupt. I can't be bribed!’
        Chase waited, listening as Judge regained control of himself. In the tone and fury of the tantrum, Judge's madness had been more evident than ever.
        At last Judge said, ‘Do you see my point?
        ‘Yes.’
        ‘Good!’ Judge paused, sighed. ‘I saw you going into her apartment, you know, and I can be certain that you spent the night in her bed, with that blonde slut.’
        ‘She's no slut.’
        ‘I know exactly who and what she is.’
        ‘Oh?’
        ‘Yes. She's that tall blonde slut from the Press-Dispatch. I saw her Tuesday when I was there looking over their back issues.’
        ‘What does this have to do with our situation?’ Chase asked.
        ‘A great deal, because I've decided to kill her first.’
        Chase was silent.
        ‘Did you hear me, Chase?’
        ‘You can't be serious.’
        ‘Oh, but I am!’
        Chase took a slow, deep breath, and said, ‘You told me that you kill only those who deserve it, after researching their lives and learning all their sins. Are you breaking that rule now? Are you going to start killing indiscriminately?’
        ‘She deserves to die,’ Judge said. ‘She's a fornicator. She let you stay the night with her, just the two of you, and she deserves to have judgment passed on her for that alone.’
        ‘Is that why you called for the first time in three days, to tell me you'll kill her first?’
        ‘Yes.’
        ‘Why?’
        ‘Do you like her, Chase?’
        Chase said nothing.
        ‘I hope you like her,’ Judge said, ‘because then it will be more fun to see how you react when I've finished with her.’
        Chase waited, not daring to speak.
        ‘Do you like her, Chase?’
        ‘No.’
        ‘That's a lie. I saw how you acted when you left her place, whistling and very jaunty - oh, very jaunty indeed!’
        Chase said, ‘I know who you are.
        Judge laughed and said, ‘I doubt that.’
        ‘Listen. You're about my height, blond, with a long thin nose. You walk with your shoulders hunched forward, and you're a neat dresser. You are a perfectionist in the way you do things.’
        ‘That's only a description,’ Judge said. ‘And not a particularly good one at that.’
        ‘I think you're also a homosexual,’ Chase said.
        ‘That's not true!’ Judge said, but he said it too vehemently. Evidently he realized that as well as Chase did, for he took a softer tone when he said, ‘You've got wrong information.’
        ‘I don't think so,’ Chase said. ‘I think I've just about got you nailed down.’
        ‘No,’ Judge said. ‘You don't know my name, because if you knew it, you'd already have been to the cops.’
        Chase said, ‘Don't harm her.’
        Judge only laughed again, deep and throaty, and hung up.
        Chase tapped the buttons until he got the dial tone, looked up Glenda's number in the book and dialled it. She answered on the third ring. He said, ‘I've got to see you.’
        She hesitated a moment, then said, ‘You sound serious. I hope you don't think we have to go through any more self-recrimination.’
        ‘Not that,’ he said. ‘It's very important, Glenda, as important as life and death.’
        She chuckled. That's one of the oldest lines in the book.’
        ‘Please,’ he said, ‘I'm serious. I'm coming over.’
        ‘You forget what day it is.’
        ‘Your mother's still there?’
        ‘Yes.’
        ‘When will she leave?’
        ‘After dinner.’
        That's too late!’
        ‘Really, Ben,’ she said, ‘you're