She gets off the bed, sits down at the table with me. I push one of the mugs of coffee her way, put her cheese sandwich down beside it. I’ve cut it into little pieces, the way my mother always cut things up for me when I was little. She cut bread into fingers, and each finger was a train ready to drive into the station, and the station was my mouth.
‘Like me to feed you?’ She nods, smiles at me.
I pick up finger after finger of the cheese sandwich and put it in her mouth. She chews, and starts talking even with her mouth full. ‘Suppose we get the money from that safe together?’
At first I don’t understand, I’ve no idea what she’s talking about. The money? But she doesn’t have the key. I searched her clothes.
She goes on smiling at me.
Tilting her head slightly, she looks at me. I sit there, I don’t say a word. After a while she asks, ‘Why haven’t you taken me back?’
‘I don’t know. I wanted you to stay here.’ I look at her, look into her eyes.
We sit there in silence, and I feed her with fingers of cheese sandwich and help her to sip the hot coffee.
‘So what do you think, shall we go and get the key now? And then get the money out of the safe?’
Well, why not? This whole thing has gone off course from the start, but if she can help me to lay my hands on the money now…and after that we’ll see. I wait another minute, keep her guessing, then I say, ‘How are you going to get hold of the key?’ I’m curious to know what she’s thought up.
‘My boss always keeps the key in the inside pocket of his jacket.’
‘And how do we get at his jacket?’
‘He fancies me, I know that. I’ll call him and tell him to come here. Then I’ll distract his attention, you can knock him down and take the key. We’ll do it today, then we’ll have all night to empty the safe and clear out.’
I sit there listening to her plan. It’s rather vague, but I don’t have a better one, so why not? I’ve nothing to lose. I rub my chin, think it over. ‘You think that will work?’
‘Let’s just try it. Then we’ll know if it works or not.’
I think for a moment longer, and then I bring the flat of my hand down on the table.
‘Right, then let’s try it, darling.’
She looks at me with a mixture of disbelief and astonishment. You can positively see her thinking feverishly. There, my love, you weren’t expecting me to be so easily persuaded to go along with your plan!