Chapter 54 Get away with it

Henry Tommen was very proud that he had killed a man and got away with it. He often thinks about it, and the more he thinks about it, the more he feels great.He therefore despised the common people, and felt that he was already among the wisest and most outstanding criminals.He's a murderer on the loose! Only one person knew about it, and that was his wife, Louise.She happened to be in the living room that night. She clearly saw two dark figures walking to the balcony.At first there were two figures, then only one remained. It was because of Louise that he killed. After he pushed Scott Lansing off the balcony, he worried that he couldn't handle Louise.Women are very emotional, and she is even more so, perhaps because she is a theater actress.For a moment, she behaved like a character in a scene: she was stunned, her eyes wide open, and she remained motionless.

However, before the police arrived, Henry had restored her to calm.It's actually quite simple.He pointed out that whatever she knew, she couldn't prove.Besides, she didn't want to be involved in a scandal, to have her picture on the front page of the paper, or to have her affair with Scott the subject of casual conversation.Besides, she had to think about her mother.The old lady is over seventy years old and has a very bad heart.Louise didn't want her mother to suddenly die of a heart attack, did she? Finally, Louise gave in.She answered the police's inquiries honestly, and her answers were very favorable to Henry.

Yes, she said, Scott seemed depressed that night.He has been out of work for a long time, not even a TV station job.He drank a great deal before and during supper; and during the investigation, others testified that Scott had been drinking heavily of late. An autopsy on the body proved that Scott had drunk a great deal that night--all to Henry's advantage. Louise wasn't lying when she said Scott was in a bad mood.Scott's closest friend also confirmed that he has been depressed recently, even a little hopeless.Finally, she describes what Scott did when he walked up to the balcony irritably and alone.She made no mention of Henry following him to the balcony.

She didn't mention that photo. It was that photo that started it all, it was the trigger that led to this brutal murder. Louise insisted that the photograph had no special meaning at all, and that it was Henry himself who was too jealous and thought things badly.It was a large portrait of Scott, smiling, apparently for his agent and director.A very exaggerated dedication was written on it, which was a typical showbiz style: "To my heroine—your eternal slave." Louise explained to Henry that there was no particular meaning to the words, that all actors wrote such words without any real feeling in them.The friendship between her and Scott was very average, except that they acted in a few scenes together in that season, had a few meals together, that's all.

However, no matter what Louise said, Henry still didn't believe it.Henry remembers the love scenes on stage and how fidgety he was offstage that hot night.Also, Louise was very hesitant about marrying him at the beginning—was it because she had an affair with Scott at that time? After their marriage, Scott visited their home often enough that Henry became suspicious.Louise said it was because Scott liked to hang out at other people's houses.Henry didn't believe this explanation. Jealousy and suspicion gnawed at him like cancer cells until he couldn't stand the pain anymore.

Just then, he found that photo in her drawer, saw that smiling face and those ugly inscriptions, and he knew that he had to kill Scott Lansing. Because he couldn't get rid of that face whether he was awake or asleep, and that face seemed to be everywhere.He looked around and all he saw was that face, that face was staring at him all the time, even in his dreams.The face grew bigger and bigger, took over his life, ruined it, and he had no choice but to eliminate the owner of the face. Only in this way, he will not be tortured by that face again. The day the police left for the last time, he felt a sense of relief, like a man who has finally had a tumor removed from his body.He shouted to Louise: "It's gone forever! I've wiped Scott out like he never existed. I'll never see him or think of him again! I've got rid of Scott completely .Understand?"

She looked him in the eye, for the first time since she found out he was a murderer. Her eyes were calm and expressionless.He knew, and she was still in shock.Maybe now she has no feelings for him.But that's okay, the situation will change and he will make it happen. Now that Scott was dead, they would be inseparable, they would be one, which was what he had always longed for. She spoke, and there was only curiosity in her voice, and she asked, "Do you really think so? Can you really go on living like nothing happened? You'll be punished, Henry." He was very angry that now was his moment of victory, and she actually wanted to spoil his good mood.He wanted to slap her a few times. "Don't lecture me," he growled. "I killed your lover, just like I killed the beasts that threatened us. Anyone would do it. This is a matter of course. How can there be any punishment or non-punishment?"

That was the last time she wanted him to believe that Scott and she were just friends, one of a dozen before her marriage.After marriage, in the face of her husband's rudeness and surlyness, he was the only one with whom she maintained a friendship.In order to monopolize her, Henry drove her other friends away. Even after the murder, Henry discovered, the face didn't disappear. The couple attended Scott's funeral and sent a wreath.During the funeral, they sat quietly on the bench, like two of Scott's relatives. Henry had thought that, after the funeral, the face would be gone forever.

However, that face kept appearing in front of him.He began to wonder if some relic of Scott's was at work.He rummaged through Louise's things, searched for her memorabilia and program lists from the past, and burned everything related to Scott.He didn't find that photo. He was furious, and at last he asked Louise where the photograph was, and she replied calmly that she had burned it. He was quiet for hours. But then, the face appeared again. Will the ghost of the man he killed stay in this room?He pushed Scott down from the balcony on the twelfth floor. Would Scott's ghost still stay on the balcony?Louise saw that terrible scene in the living room. Could there be a ghost in the living room?

He started thinking about moving out of his current house.In an unfamiliar setting, he and Louise might forget everything that happened that night.She still avoids him.She hadn't had sex with Scott since he killed Scott, and she seemed to resent him touching her.She spends more and more time with her mother, as if being with her mother can temporarily return her to her carefree childhood.In his opinion, they should move to a distant place. If I can take her away from here, then that face will not be able to follow us. Henry's luck is really good. He just wanted to leave here when this opportunity came. It seemed that the god of fate was smiling at him.He was promoted to manager of the Midwest region, which meant moving to Chicago, which meant greater responsibility and higher pay.

Of course, Louise was reluctant to leave at first.She didn't want to leave her mother, the few friends she had in New York: she didn't like going to a strange city. Henry has his own way. "Your old mother!" he said disdainfully. "You always use her as a shield!" "She's really not well," pleaded Louise, "and I have to think about it. I can't leave her here alone." "Think about it. Think about your lover, why I killed him. Do you want to tell her? You'd better not tell her, it's not good for her health." "He could see in her eyes what she was thinking. She was horrified to realize that he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted, that he would do anything if she didn't obey. "In that case, what else is there to say?" She asked helplessly. "But you have to promise me that I will come back to see her often." He made a promise, but it was an empty promise, meaningless.They both knew that she would never come back.From then on, she could only live a life of two people. The day they left New York, it rained heavily.Henry drove carefully, and there was a pile of things in the back of the car that Louise didn't want the moving company to move. "As soon as the weather clears, we'll have a beautiful pastoral view," Henry said after they crossed the George Washington Bridge. "We don't need to rush. I'm due in a week. We can stop and play as we please. It's like a second honeymoon, just you and me. That's what I always wanted." She shivered, tightened her thick coat, and did not answer.He realized that he had to give her time.She will gradually recover.At that point, he had everything—money, success, and a wife who belonged to him alone.Eventually he would get rid of Scott completely and completely. In the evening, the heavy rain continued.The poor visibility, combined with the slippery road, drove the car very slowly. Henry drove off the highway looking for a motel.On the second road, they followed closely behind a large truck.For miles on end, their car was blocked by the car, the behemoth that drove slowly in front of them. Henry was getting impatient.He cursed softly and kept honking the horn.The truck finally backed away from the curb and slowed down.Henry slammed on the accelerator, crossed the white line, and flew forward. At that moment, a pair of dazzling headlights came head-on.A car coming from the opposite direction was rushing towards them. Henry hurried to the brakes, but it was too late.The two cars collided head-on, and Henry was thrown through the windshield. However, he did not die.He was very happy about it.Louise was only slightly injured, and when she came to his bedside, his first words were: "The punishment you said is pure nonsense! According to you, this car accident should have killed me. But you see, I'm alive, and the doctors say I'm going to survive." His face was covered in bandages, and he could barely hear himself speaking.But he was telling the truth.The doctor's words echoed in his ears like the most beautiful music. "It's a miracle, Mr. Tommen, but you'll be back. We'll have you back in no time." Henry had to tell Louise these words, though he had difficulty even speaking. "A miracle, that's what he said. It's a word for a saint, not a criminal!" he said triumphantly. She told him not to talk.Later, she spent more and more time in his ward, she was very gentle and quiet.He told himself happily that now, after nearly losing him, she finally realized how valuable he was. Of course, being in the hospital all the time made him very irritable.After spending weeks in bed, he was often abusive towards nurses and doctors.He felt they were purposely prolonging his stay in the hospital so that he could not be reunited with his wife. The doctor who had been in charge of him since his car accident told him that his days were coming to an end. "You will be discharged from the hospital soon. What is there to worry about? Your job is still reserved for you. This is what your wife fought for you. You don't have to worry about medical bills, the insurance company will pay for it Yes. Now, all we have to do is put plastic surgery on your injured face, and then you can go to work." Only then did Henry know that his face was almost completely destroyed on the night of the car accident.If he doesn't want to be a scary monster, then he has to have plastic surgery. That was his only hope. Everyone tried their best to comfort him, telling him that the current plastic surgery is very advanced and can work miracles.After the operation, no scars will be left, and his appearance will be completely restored to what it used to be. Perhaps the doctors, nurses, and even Louise thought he was terrified of plastic surgery and that's why they comforted him.In fact, he is not afraid of plastic surgery at all.Now, he believes that he is God's favorite, which is different from ordinary people.He killed people and got away with it.He was in a horrific car accident and survived.Why should he be afraid of a minor facelift?When he had just received anesthesia and was waiting to be carried into the operating room, he mocked Louise softly and said, "You said that crimes will be punished, why hasn't this punishment come?" Then he gritted his teeth, determined not to say a word until the anesthesia wore off. It was the only thing that made him uneasy, worried that he would say something he shouldn't have said while under anesthesia. After the operation, the first thing he did when he woke up was to ask the nurse if he had said anything during the anesthesia. "Not a word," the nurse reassured him. "You are very quiet and motionless." Great.His only worry vanished... Louise was by his side as they unwrapped him.She brought a mirror with a handle so he could see the results of the surgery.He sat up in bed and she handed the mirror into his hand.At this time, the doctors and nurses stepped back and looked at the surgeon's masterpiece in admiration. Henry raised one hand and gently stroked the soft, newly grafted skin.The doctor told him to rub his face with a special oil until the skin became firm. "Because this skin is very delicate, you must take good care of it," the doctor said to him. Henry grunted impatiently, held up the mirror, and looked at his new face. In that nightmarish moment, when he let out a scream, he understood, he understood suddenly, that for months Louise had been keeping a picture of Scott Lansing. When the surgeons made him a new face upstairs in the operating room, they relied on that photograph. It was Scott Lansing's face that stared at Henry in the mirror.