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| Detective Fiction Weekly for August 8th 1936, showing the story as an anonymous publication |
“The Point about me is
that I should stay on the right side of the fence all those years, and then
when I did go over, go over heart and soul like I did – all in the space of one
night. In one hour, you might say.”
I’ve no
idea how many noir stories pivot on
the idea that a man’s life can change in an instant (usually for the worst),
but I’d guess lots. Usually in these stories it’s the man’s life which changes; the woman is the one who’ll make the
changes happen because she’s got into some mess, been kidnapped maybe, or is being
blackmailed, so he has to rescue her or get her out of trouble. Or she’s a Machiavellian
scheming bitch that any man with sense would run a mile from, but we just know
he’s got such a bad case of the hots they’re going to end up swinging together.
There are
some things that a man in a noir story
should never do. He should never let his wife take out life insurance
for him. And he should never never go
home early to give her a surprise. You just know if he does that, the one in
for the real surprise will be him.
So when Ben
Cook goes home earlier than usual with a bag of toffees for Thelma, he probably
deserves all he’ll get and, as he goes into the house, we’re not the least
surprised that he hears voices. Or that
the voices are those of Thelma and a man he doesn't know. And the next thing he
knows, he hears the two of them plotting his death.
With the
advantage of surprise on his side, Ben takes control of the situation and
Thelma’s scheme now undergoes some fundamental restructuring as Ben drops out
of sight in order that the world will believe he’s dead and that that all-important
insurance claim will be paid – initially, at least – to Thelma.
But we have
a fair way to go before we’re at the end, and the path is likely to get a mite
bloody.
This story was first published in Detective Fiction Weekly, August 8th, 1936 . Happily I've been able to locate the cover of that issue at The Fiction Mags Index. And look closely at that cover. Did he really publish this story anonymously? I read the story in Four Novellas of Fear, 2010, A J
Cornell. Publications.
