Deep Water

Victor Van Allen, the thirty-six-year-old owner of the Greenspur Press, a small publishing house in Little Wesley, Massachusetts, has an arrangement with his wife, Melinda: She may take as many lovers as she likes, provided she does not abandon their family. For three years, Vic has tolerated her affairs with a succession of undistinguished men, sitting up all night to deny them privacy, never raising his voice. He sleeps in a separate room on the far side of the garage, tends his pet land snails, and grows herbs. They have a six-year-old daughter, Trixie.

At a party hosted by their friends the Mellers, Vic watches Melinda dance with Joel Nash, a visiting chemical company salesman. When Joel thanks Vic for being "sporting," Vic responds with chilling calm: He does not bother punching people he dislikes. He kills them. He claims responsibility for the unsolved murder of Malcolm McRae, an advertising executive and former admirer of Melinda killed months earlier in his Manhattan apartment. Joel is visibly shaken. Vic tells the same story to Ralph Gosden, Melinda's current lover, a young portrait painter, who registers the threat. Joel leaves town ahead of schedule. Melinda is furious when Ralph reveals what Vic said, but Vic admits his intent was to scare off men he considers intellectually beneath her.

The story spreads through Little Wesley. Vic's close friends, including Horace Meller, a chemist, find it darkly amusing. Don Wilson, a humorless hack writer newly arrived in town with his wife June, takes the tale seriously and begins telling people Vic should be watched. For several weeks, Vic enjoys a reprieve. He takes Melinda to concerts and plays, brings her daily gifts, and their friends treat them as a couple again. At the annual Fourth of July dance, Vic waltzes with Mary Meller, Horace's wife, and feels proud of Melinda's gracious behavior.

Then the New York Times reports that the real McRae killer has been found. Melinda is triumphant, and Vic's leverage vanishes overnight. She begins spending her afternoons with Charles De Lisle, a furtive pianist at the local hotel bar. Vic recognizes the familiar pattern. Despite his protests, Melinda denies everything. She arranges for De Lisle to play piano at a costume party hosted by the Cowans, where their social circle watches Melinda hover over De Lisle and disappear with him into a locked room.

Late that night, Vic finds himself alone in the pool with De Lisle. He grabs De Lisle by the throat and pulls him under, holding him down until the struggling stops. Vic climbs out, changes behind a bush, and returns to the kitchen. When Melinda discovers the body and screams, Vic administers artificial respiration, performing it correctly even though he does not want De Lisle to revive. A doctor pronounces De Lisle dead. Melinda becomes hysterical, shrieking that Vic killed him. Their friends restrain and sedate her.

A coroner's inquest follows. The Mellers and Cowans state the death was accidental. The doctor notes faint red marks on De Lisle's shoulders but attributes them to being pulled from the pool. Melinda tells the coroner she believes her husband was responsible but offers no proof. The death is ruled accidental. Vic experiences no guilt and returns to his routines, watching his snails and printing his books.

Melinda launches a sustained campaign, telling their friends for weeks that Vic is a murderer. Vic notices unexplained bank withdrawals and suspects she has hired a private detective. His suspicion is confirmed when she introduces Harold Carpenter, a tall blond man claiming to be a psychotherapist at a local institute. Carpenter moves into De Lisle's former house and observes Vic with professional attentiveness. When Horace discovers that Carpenter's claimed academic credentials are fraudulent, Vic confronts Don Wilson, who admits Carpenter works for the Confidential Detective Service in Manhattan. Vic calls the agency and terminates the assignment. Melinda is furious but defeated.

Vic offers Melinda a divorce with generous alimony. She refuses, vowing to destroy him. The Wilsons, ostracized for their campaign against Vic, leave Little Wesley. At a November dance, Melinda meets Anthony Cameron, a loud, physically imposing building contractor. Cameron begins spending entire days with Melinda and evenings in the Van Allen living room, playing his clarinet and consuming beer. Horace warns Vic that Cameron has two airplane tickets to Mexico City and appears ready to take Melinda away. Melinda confirms she wants a divorce and intends to marry Cameron.

Shortly after seeing off Brian Ryder, a young poet whose first book Vic is publishing, Vic spots Cameron on the street and offers him a ride. He drives to an abandoned limestone quarry outside town, a vast excavation with a deep lake at the bottom. At the edge, Vic hurls a jagged rock at Cameron's head. Cameron staggers, and a second rock sends him over the cliff. Vic descends, wraps the body in a snow chain weighted with stones, and rolls it into the deepest water. He washes his hands and drives to hear Trixie's school chorus perform.

Cameron's disappearance triggers an investigation. Detective Pete Havermal of the Star Investigation Bureau arrives, confrontational and tactless. Vic admits giving Cameron a ride but says he dropped him at his car. Havermal interviews nearly everyone in town, but the community defends Vic and resents the detective. The local newspaper editor refuses to publish the story. Finding nothing, Havermal leaves.

In the aftermath, Melinda undergoes a startling transformation. She becomes sweet and attentive, apologizes to friends for her years of disloyalty, and throws Vic a surprise birthday party. When she touches his hair and asks if they can try again, Vic agrees but finds he loathes her touch. His suspicion that she is acting proves correct during a Sunday picnic at the quarry, where Melinda asks him to confess to both killings, assuring him a wife cannot be compelled to testify against her husband. Vic refuses. Her weeks of tenderness, he realizes, were a strategy devised with Don Wilson to extract a confession.

The next day, Vic returns to the quarry to check whether Cameron's body has surfaced. He finds only a roll of waterlogged paper and bloodstains nearly invisible under limestone dust. Don Wilson appears at the rim, having come to retrieve a scarf Melinda deliberately left behind. Wilson sees Vic brushing stones over a faint reddish stain and declares he will bring the police to examine the site.

Vic drives home and finds Melinda on the phone with Wilson. He rips the telephone wires from the walls. In a sudden eruption of fury, he strikes Melinda and strangles her. Wilson arrives with a policeman. Melinda is dead. As Vic is led to the police car, he feels strangely free and buoyant. He imagines he sees Trixie on the lawn but knows she is not really there. He reflects that he has left his life behind: his guilt and shame, his achievements, and the failure of his experiment in tolerating an intolerable marriage. Looking at Wilson's grim face, Vic walks on with a spring in his step.