Bahama Crisis

Eighteen

It nearly went sour even then.

I climbed down from the tree, wincing as the rough bark scraped my bruised and bloody feet. As I reached the ground I said, ‘Where’s the nearest telephone? I need help.’

Sherry-Lou laughed. She looked me up and down, taking in my bleeding arms, the tattered tee-shirt with its incongruous inscription, the ripped jeans and my bare feet. ‘You sure do,’ she said. ‘You look like you tangled with a cougar.’ She saw the expression on my face and the laughter vanished. ‘Got a telephone back at the house,’ she offered.

‘How far?’

‘Two — three miles.’

‘You won’t make that in under an hour,’ said Dade. ‘Yo’ feet won’t. Can Sherry-Lou go ahead an’ talk for you?’

I was not feeling too well. I leaned against the tree, and said, ‘Good idea.’

‘Who do I talk with?’ she asked. ‘What number?’

I had forgotten the number and had no secretary handy to ask. ‘I don’t know — but it’s easy to find. Houston — the Cunningham Corporation; ask for Billy Cunningham.’

There was an odd pause. Sherry-Lou seemed about to speak, then hesitated and looked at her father. He glanced at her, then looked back at me. ‘You a Cunningham?’ he asked, and spat at the ground. That ought to have warned me.

‘Do I sound like a Cunningham?’ I said tiredly.

‘No,’ he admitted. ‘You talk funny. I reckoned you was from Californy — some place like that.’

‘I’m a Bahamian,’ I said. ‘My name’s Mangan — Tom Mangan.’

‘What’s the Cunninghams to you?’

‘I married one,’ I said. ‘And Leroy’s got her.’ Perkins said nothing to that. I looked at his expressionless face and said desperately, ‘For Christ’s sake, do something! She was screaming her head off when I busted out this morning. I couldn’t get near her.’ I found I was crying and felt the wetness of tears on my cheek.

Sherry-Lou said, ‘Those Ainslees...’

‘Cunningham or Ainslee — dunno which is worst,’ said Dade. ‘Ainslee by a short haid, I reckon.’ He nodded abruptly. ‘Sherry-Lou, you run to the house an’ talk to Billy Cunningham.’ He turned to me. ‘The young sprout or Billy One?’

‘Young Billy would be best.’ I thought he would be better able to make quick decisions.

Dade said, ‘Tell young Billy he’ll need guns, as many as he can get. An’ tell him he’d better be fast.’

‘How far are we from Houston?’ I did not even know where I was.

‘Mebbe hundred miles.’

That far! I said, ‘Tell him to use helicopters — he’ll have them.’

‘An’ tell him to come to my place,’ said Dade. ‘He sure knows where it is. Then come back an’ bring a pair of Chuck’s sneakers so as Tom here can walk comfortable.’

‘Sure,’ said Sherry-Lou, and turned away.

I watched her run up the hill until she was lost to sight among the trees, then I turned to look about. ‘Where is this place?’

‘You don’t know?’ said Dade, surprised. ‘Close to Big Thicket country.’ He pointed down the hill to the right. ‘Neches River down there.’ His arm swung in an arc. ‘Big Thicket that way, an’ Kountze.’ His thumb jerked over his shoulder. ‘Beaumont back there.’

I had never heard of any of it, but it seemed I had just come out of Big Thicket.

Dade said, ‘Seems I remember Debbie Cunningham marryin’ a Britisher a few months back. That you?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then it’s Debbie Leroy’s got,’ he said ruminatively. ‘I think you’d better talk.’

‘So had you,’ I said. ‘What have you got against Cunninghams?’

‘The sons of bitches have been tryin’ to run me offen my own land ever since I can remember. Tried to run my Paw off, too. Been tryin’ a long time. They fenced off our land an’ big city sportsmen came in an’ shot our hogs. They reckoned they was wild; we said they belonged to people — us people. We tore down their fences an’ built our own, an’ defended ‘em with guns. They ran a lot of folks offen their land, but not us Perkinses.’

‘The Cunninghams don’t want your land just to hunt pigs, do they?’

‘Naw. They want to bring in bulldozers an’ strip the land. A lot of prime hardwood around here. Then they replant with softwoods right tidy, like a regiment of soldiers marchin’ down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington like I seen on TV once. Ruinin’ this country.’

Dade waved his arm. ‘Big Thicket was three million acres once. Not much left now an’ we want to keep it the way it is. Sure, I cut my timber, but I do it right an’ try not to make too many big changes.’

I said, ‘I can promise you won’t have trouble with the Cunninghams ever again.’

He shook his head. ‘You’ll never get that past Jack Cunningham — he’s as stubborn as a mule. He’ll never let go while there’s a dollar to be made outta Big Thicket.’

‘Jack will be no trouble; he had a heart attack a couple of days ago.’

‘That so?’ said Dade uninterestedly. ‘Then it’s Billy One — that old bastard’s just as bad.’

‘I promised,’ I said stubbornly. ‘It’ll hold, Dade.’

I could see he was sceptical. He merely grunted and changed the subject. ‘How come you tangled with Leroy Ainslee?’

‘Debbie was kidnapped from Houston,’ I said. ‘So was I. Next thing I knew I was at the Ainslee place locked up in a hut with Leroy on guard with a shotgun. That one,’ I added, pointing to the shotgun leaning against the tree where Sherry-Lou had left it.

‘Kidnappin’!’ said Dade blankly. He shook his head. ‘Ainslees have mighty bad habits, but that ain’t one of ‘em.’

‘They didn’t organize it. There was an Englishman; called himself Robinson, but I doubt if that’s his real name. I think all the Ainslees provided was muscle and a place to hide. Who are they, anyway?’

‘A no account family of white trash,’ said Dade. ‘No one around here likes ‘em. An’ they breed too damn fast. Those Ainslee women pop out brats like shelling peas.’ He scratched his jaw. ‘How much did they ask for ransom?’

‘They didn’t tell me.’ I was not about to go into details with Dade; he would never believe me.

‘Did you really kill Earl? An’ gut Tukey?’

‘Yes.’ I told him how I had done it and he whistled softly. I said, ‘And Debbie was screaming all the time and I couldn’t get near her.’ I found myself shaking.

Dade put his hand on my arm. ‘Take it easy, son; we’ll get her out of there.’ He looked down at my feet. ‘Think you can walk a piece?’

‘I can try.’

He looked down the hill. ‘Them Ainslees might take it into their haids to come back. We’ll go over the rise an’ find us a better place to be.’ He picked up Leroy’s shotgun and examined it. ‘Nice gun,’ he said appreciatively.

‘You can have it,’ I said. ‘I doubt if Leroy will come calling for it.’

Dade chuckled. ‘Ain’t that so.’

Just over an hour later Dade nudged me. ‘Here’s Sherry-Lou. Got Chuck with her, too.’ He put two fingers in his mouth and uttered a peculiar warbling whistle, and the two distant figures changed course and came towards the tumble of rocks where Dade and I were sitting.

Sherry-Lou had brought more than footwear. She produced a paper bag full of chunky pork sandwiches and I suddenly realized I had not eaten for about twenty-four hours. As I ate them she rubbed my feet with a medicament and then bandaged them.

More important than this was the news she brought. When Billy had heard her story he exploded into action and promised all aid short of the US Navy as fast as humanly possible. ’He’s flyin’ here direct,’ she said. ‘I told him to bring a doctor.’ She avoided my eyes and I knew my hurts were not in her mind when she said that.

‘What’s all this about?’ asked Chuck.

I let Dade tell the story — I was too busy eating. When he had finished Chuck said, ‘I always knew the Ainslees were bad.’ He shook his head. ‘But this...’ He stared at me. ‘An’ you kilt Earl?’

‘He’s dead, unless he can walk around with his brains leaking out,’ I said sourly.

‘Jeez! Leroy will be madder than a cornered boar. What’s to do, Pop?’

Dade said, ‘Did Billy Cunningham say how long he’d be?’

‘ ’Bout three o’clock,’ said Sherry-Lou.

Dade hauled out an old-fashioned turnip watch and nodded. ‘Chuck, you get back to the house right smartly. When Billy drops by in his whirlybird you show him the big meadow near Turkey Creek. We’ll be there. No reason for Tom to walk more’n he has to.’

‘Jeez!’ said Chuck with enthusiasm. ‘Never flown in one of them things.’ He loped away. I thought that Dade Perkins’s kids could stand a chance in the Olympics marathon; they did everything on the dead run.

Sherry-Lou snorted. ‘He’s never been in the air in his life — in anythin’.’ She finished knotting a bandage over the deepest gash on my arm. ‘You all right, Tom?’

‘I’ll be better when I know Debbie’s all right.’

She veiled her eyes. ‘Sure.’

Dade stood up. ‘Take us fifteen minutes to get down to the creek. Might as well start.’

When the helicopter came down in the meadow Billy had the door open before the shock absorbers had taken up the weight, and came running across the grass towards us, stooping as people always do when they know rotors are turning overhead. He took in my condition in one swift glance. ‘Christ! How are you? How’s Debbie?’

Dade and Sherry-Lou moved tactfully to one side, out of earshot, and were joined by Chuck who was talking nineteen to the dozen and windmilling his arms wildly. I gave Billy the gist of it, leaving out everything unimportant; just outlining the ‘whats’ and ignoring the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’. He winced. ‘Torturing her!’ he said incredulously.

‘She was screaming,’ I said flatly. ‘I was being shot at — I had to move fast.’ I paused. ‘I should have stayed.’

‘No,’ said Billy, ‘you did the best you could.’ He looked back at the helicopter. ‘The State Police and some of our own security men are coming up behind. We’d better get back to the Perkins place.’

‘One more thing,’ I said. ‘Seems Dade Perkins doesn’t like Cunninghams, and from what little he told me I know why. Now, he just saved my life, so from now on you haul off your dogs.’

‘It’s not up to me,’ said Billy. ‘Jack won’t...’

‘Jack doesn’t matter any more and you know it.’

‘Yeah, but Dad won’t be buffaloed either.’ He frowned. ‘Let me think about it. Come on.’

A few minutes later we dropped next to the Perkins’s family residence and to two more helicopters with State Police markings. More were in the sky coming in. When all six were on the ground we had a conference — a council of war.

Dade Perkins was in on it, and outlined on a table what the Ainslee place was like, using match books and tobacco tins. Then there was a brief argument when Sherry-Lou announced that she was coming along.

The senior police officer was Captain Booth who was inclined to want to know the whys and wherefores until he was cut down by Billy. ‘For Christ’s sake, Captain, quit yammering! We can hold the inquest after we’ve gotten my cousin out of there.’ It was a measure of Cunningham influence that Booth stopped right then and there.

Now he said decidedly, ‘No place for a woman. There might be shooting.’

‘Miz Mangan will need a woman if she’s...’ Sherry-Lou swallowed the words ‘still alive’, and continued, ‘I know Leroy Ainslee.’

Dade turned red in the face. ‘Has he interfered with you?’

‘No, he hasn’t!’ she retorted. ‘Not since I laid a rock against his head an’ then got me a gun an’ told him I’d perforate him.’

Dade glowered, and Booth said thoughtfully, ‘There’ll be one chopper in the air all the time. They might scatter and we’ll want to see where they go. I reckon Miss Perkins could be in that one.’

We left in the helicopters and descended like a cloud of locusts on the Ainslee place less than five minutes later with the precision of a military operation. I was in the chopper which dropped right in the middle. No one shot at us because there was no one there to shoot. All the Ainslee menfolk were absent and only the women and a few kids were left. The children were excited by the sudden invasion but the slatternly women merely looked at us with apathetic eyes.

Billy had a gun in his hand when he jumped out, and Dade carried Leroy’s shotgun. I looked about and saw cops closing in from all sides. Billy holstered his pistol. ‘They’re not here.’

‘Still out lookin’ for Tom, I reckon,’ said Dade. He squinted up at the helicopter hovering overhead. ‘They’ll know somethin’s wrong. Been nothin’ like this since I seen the Vietnam war on TV. They won’t be back in a hurry.’

I said, ‘For God’s sake, let’s find Debbie.’ I picked out the biggest house, a ruinous shack, and began to run.

It was Billy who found her. He came out of a smaller shack bellowing, ‘A doctor! Where is that goddamn doctor?’ He caught me by the shoulders as I tried to go in. ‘No, Tom. Let the doctor see to her first. Will you quit struggling?’

A man ran past us carrying a bag and the door of the shack slammed shut. Billy yelled at me, ‘She’s alive, damn it! Let the doctor tend to her.’

I sagged in his arms and he had to hold me up for a moment, then I said, ‘Okay, Billy, I‘m all right now.’

‘Sure,’ he said. ‘I know you are.’ He turned and saw Booth. ‘Hey, Captain, better get the Perkins girl down here.’

‘Right, Mr Cunningham.’ Booth spoke to one of the pilots standing by, then came over to us. ‘Mr Mangan, I’d like you to come with me.’ I nodded and was about to follow him, but he was looking at Billy. ‘You okay, Mr Cunningham?’

Billy had developed a curious greenish pallor and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He sat down on the stoop of the shack. ‘I’ll be all right. You go with the Captain, Tom.’

I followed Booth to the shack in which I had been held prisoner. Earl’s body had been laid out parallel to the wall and beneath the window. The big pitcher was lying on its side, still intact, and a pool of water lay on the floor, as yet unevaporated. Tukey lay on the bed; he was dead and stank of faeces.

Booth said, ‘Know anything about this?’

‘Yes. I killed them.’

‘You admit it,’ he said in surprise. I nodded, and he said, ‘You’d better tell me more.’

‘I thought about that, then shook my head. ‘No, I’ll say what I have to say in a courtroom.’

‘I don’t think I can accept that,’ he said stiffly. ‘Not in a case of murder.’

‘Who said anything about murder?’ I asked. ‘When you lift Tukey you’ll find the bed has been ripped up by buckshot. I happened to be sitting there when Earl pulled the trigger. I stabbed Tukey when he was going to shoot me. Don’t prejudge the case, Captain; it’s for a court to decide if it was murder.’ He made a hesitant movement, and I said, ‘Are you going to arrest me?’

He rubbed his chin and I heard a faint rasping sound. ‘You’re not an American, Mr Mangan. That’s the problem. How do I know you’ll stay in State jurisdiction?’

‘You can have my passport, if you can find it,’ I offered. ‘I had it on me when I was snatched. It may be around here somewhere. Anyway, Billy Cunningham will guarantee I’ll stay, if you ask him.’

‘Yeah, that’ll be best.’ Booth seemed relieved.

‘There was a murder.’ I nodded towards the window. ‘It happened out there. Leroy Ainslee shot a man in the back. I saw it.’

‘There’s no body.’

‘Then have your men look for a new-dug grave.’ I turned on my heel and walked out of that stinking room into the clean sunlight. The hovering helicopter had come down, and I saw Sherry-Lou hurrying into the shack the doctor had gone into. I felt curiously empty of all feeling, except for a deep thankfulness that Debbie was still alive. My rage was muted, dampened down, but it still smouldered deep in my being, and I knew it would not take much for it to erupt.

I went over and stood in the shade of a helicopter. Presently I was found by Chuck Perkins. ‘Jeez, you sure kilt Earl,’ he said. His face sobered. ‘Tukey died bad.’

‘They deserved it.’

‘Pop’s been looking for you.’ He jerked his thumb. ‘He’s over there.’

I walked around the helicopter and saw Dade talking to Sherry-Lou. His face was serious. As I approached I heard Sherry-Lou say, ‘...tore up real bad.’

He put his hand on her arm in a warning gesture as he saw me. He swallowed. ‘Sherry-Lou’s got something to tell you,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, Tom, real sorry.’

I said, ‘Yes, Sherry-Lou?’

‘Did you know Miz Mangan was pregnant?’

‘Yes.’ I knew what was coming.

‘She lost the baby. I’m sorry.’

I stared blindly into the sky. ‘Rape?’

‘An’ worse.’

‘God damn their souls to hell!’ I said violently.

She put out her hand to me. ‘Some women are hurt more in birthin’ a baby,’ she said. ‘She’ll be all right.’

‘In her body, maybe.’

‘She’ll need a lot of love... lot of attention. She’ll need cherishin’.’

‘She will be. Thanks, Sherry-Lou.’

They brought her out on a stretcher, the doctor walking alongside, and a nurse holding up a bottle for an intravenous drip. All that could be seen of her was her face, pale and smudgy about the eyes. I wanted to go with her in the helicopter back to Houston, but the doctor said, ‘There’s no use in it, Mr Mangan. She’ll be unconscious for the next twenty-four hours — I guarantee it. Then we’ll wake her up slowly. We’ll want you there then.’

So the helicopter lifted without me aboard and I turned to find Captain Booth standing close by talking to Dade. I said bitterly, ‘If I find Leroy Ainslee before you, Captain, I can guarantee you’ll have a murder case.’

‘We’ll get him,’ Booth said soberly, but from the way Dade spat on the ground I judged he was sceptical.

Billy came up. He had recovered something of his colour. ‘Dade Perkins, I want to talk with you. You too, Tom.’

Dade said, ‘What do you want?’

Billy glanced at Booth, then jerked his head. ‘Over here.’ He led us out of earshot of Booth. ‘I know we’ve been putting pressure on you, Dade.’

Dade’s face cracked in a slow smile. ‘An’ not gettin’ far.’

‘All I want to say is that it stops right now,’ said Billy.

Dade glanced at me then looked at Billy speculatively. ‘Reckon you big enough to make yo’ Paw eat crow?’

‘This crow he’ll eat with relish,’ said Billy grimly. ‘But there’s something I want from you.’

‘Never did know the Cunninghams give anything away free,’ observed Dade. ‘What is it?’

‘I want the Ainslees out of here,’ said Billy. ‘I don’t want to feel there’s folks like that dirtying up the place.’

‘The cops’ll do that for you,’ said Dade. ‘Why pick me?’

‘Because I saw your face when Sherry-Lou said what she did about Leroy back at your place. Where do you suppose Leroy is now?’

‘Easy. Hidin’ out in Big Thicket.’

‘Think the cops will find him there?’

‘Them!’ Dade spat derisively. ‘They couldn’t find their own asses in Big Thicket.’

‘See what I mean.’ Billy stuck his forefinger under Dade’s nose. ‘I don’t want that son of a bitch getting away. I’d be right thankful if he didn’t.’

Dade nodded. ‘There’s a whole passel of folks round here that don’t like the Ainslees. Never have — but never gotten stirred up enough to do anythin’. This might do it. As for Leroy — well, if the devil looks after his own, so does the Lord. So let’s leave it to the Lord.’ Dade spat again, and said thoughtfully, ‘But mebbe he could do with a little help.’

Billy nodded, satisfied. ‘That make you happy?’ he said to me.

‘It’ll do — for now.’ I was thinking of Robinson.

‘Then let’s go home.’

I said goodbye to the Perkinses, and Dade said, ‘Come back some time, you hear? Big Thicket ain’t all blood. There’s some real pretty places I’d like to show you.’

‘I’ll do that,’ I said and climbed up into the helicopter. I slid the door closed and we rose into the sky and I saw Big Thicket laid out below. Then the chopper tilted and there was nothing but sky as we slid west towards Houston.