The Kill.

Chapter three

Two things made him do this earlier than he intended. One was the way she refused to talk about her money. She kept all her business papers locked in a desk drawer, and refused to discuss them. His other worry was her unnecessary interest in his job. Ronald had told Edyth that he was a partner in an engineering company, which was giving him a long period of absence. Edyth accepted the story, but she asked a lot of questions and wanted to visit his office and the factory.
So Ronald had decided that it was time to act.
He turned from the window, and began to run water into the bath. His heart was beating loudly, he noticed. He didn't like that. He needed to keep very calm.
The bathroom was the only room they had painted. He had done it himself soon after they arrived. He had also put up the little shelf over the bath which held their bottles and creams and a small electric heater. It was a cheap one, with two bars, and it was white, like the walls, and not too noticeable. There was no electric point in the bathroom, but he was able to connect the heater to a point just outside the door.
He turned on the heater now, and watched the bars become red and hot. Then he went out of the room. The controls for all the electricity in the house were inside a cupboard at the top of the stairs. Ronald opened the door carefully and pulled up the handle which turned off the electricity. (He had a cloth over his hand, so that he would not leave fingerprints.)
Back in the bathroom the bars of the heater were turning black again. Still using the cloth, he lifted the heater from the shelf and put it into the bath water, at the bottom end of the bath. Of course, you could still see it. It looked as if it had fallen off the shelf by accident.
Edyth was coming back from the garden: he could hear her moving something outside the kitchen door. He pulled a small plastic bottle out of his pocket and began to read again the directions on the back.
A small sound behind him made him turn suddenly. There was Edyth's head, only two metres away, appearing above the flat roof of the kitchen which was below the bathroom window. She was clearing the dead leaves from the edge of the roof. She must be standing on the ladder which was kept outside the kitchen door.
He stayed calm. 'What are you doing there, dear?'
Edyth was so surprised that she nearly fell oft the ladder. 'Oh, you frightened me! I thought I'd just do this little job before I came to get ready.'
'But I'm preparing your beauty bath tor you.'
'It's kind of you to take all this trouble, Ronald.'
'Not at all. I'm taking you out tonight and I want you to look as nice as - er - possible. Hurry up, dear. The bubbles don't last very long, and like all these beauty treatments, this one's expensive. Go and undress now, and come straight here.'
'Very well, dear.' She began to climb down the ladder.
Ronald opened the little bottle, and poured the liquid into the bath. He turned on the water again, and in a moment the bath was lull of bubbles, smelling strongly of roses. They covered the little heater completely;
hey even covered the sides of the bath.
Edyth was at the door. 'Oh Ronald! Its all over everything - even on the floor!'
'That doesn't matter. You get in quickly, before it loses its strength. I'll go and change now. Get straight in and lie down. It will give your skin a bit of colour!'