Bloodfire

31

What came into the clearing was something long and wet and gleaming dully in the moonlight. First a blunt snout, then a pair of bulbous eyes, then the rest of the alligator. It made no sound as it slithered from the tall saw grass and lay still, peering at Beth, who hadn’t yet noticed it.

“Bitch didn’t even scream nor make any noise,” Junior whispered.

B.J. said, “She surely will scream. ’Gator musta been watchin’ us all along from the dark.”

“It’s a big’n,” Junior said, admiring the alligator. “Least nine, ten foot long.”

There was a faint splashing sound, and another, much smaller alligator eased into the clearing. The moon sent shimmers off its rough, wet flank. It bared its rows of pointed teeth, a ghastly ivory grin in the faint light.

Beth must have heard the splashing. She raised her head and looked at the small alligator, which was no more than three feet long. Her body grew rigid and, legs pumping, she scooted back against the tree. She wriggled in a final attempt to free her hands, then sat staring at the small alligator. It stared back at her.

Carver whispered, “Christ, don’t let this happen!”

Junior said, “What’s this? You beggin’, tough man?”

“Call it that if you want,” Carver said. “Don’t let her die this way. Please!”

“Gonna be some sight to see,” Junior said.

B.J. said, “Shut the fuck up, both of you.” A hoarse command.

The large alligator seemed to notice the smaller one. It suddenly raised itself on surprisingly long, bent legs and hissed loudly. Beth’s head jerked around. She saw the huge creature and her eyes widened. Her mouth gaped. She tried to scream; Carver could see her throat working. But she made no sound. The huge ’gator hissed again and switched its tail.

Beth thrashed against her bonds.

Encouraged by her desperate movements, the big alligator started to drag itself toward her in a terrible lizard waddle. It seemed to be moving slowly, but it was covering ground fast.

Junior pressed his thick body against Carver and prodded the base of Carver’s skull with the rifle barrel. “No noise now, tough man, lest I-”

His body gave a slight jerk. He said, “What the shit?. .” and began convulsing against Carver. The rifle barrel slid off to the side like an errant compass needle.

Carver was aware there’d been a shot. He turned and looked into Junior’s glazing eyes, feeling something warm and wet against his back. He knew it was blood; he could smell the coppery stench of it.

B.J. said, “What the hell’s goin’ on?” He moved out from the tangle of cypress roots. Carver saw that the big alligator had been frozen by the sound of the shot.

B.J. caught sight of Junior, who’d slumped to an awkward lean. He stared at him in disbelief, then at Carver. “You motherfucker!” he screamed, and bared his teeth like the alligator. Apparently he thought Carver had somehow wrested the rifle from Junior and shot him. He leveled the Uzi at Carver.

Carver yelled, “ ’Gator! ’Gator!”

B.J. only half believed him, but had to chance a backward look.

Another shot sounded from the blackness of the swamp.

B.J. spun around, then staggered out into the clearing.

There was a third shot, like a dull handclap muffled by the thick night, Carver saw B.J.’s head jerk to the side and back, as if he were trying to flip his hair out of his eyes. The Uzi discharged half a dozen chattering rounds into the ground.

Carver had grabbed the rifle and eased himself out from in front of Junior’s inert bulk. Junior, propped upright in the tangle of thick roots, seemed to be watching him, drooling in the shadowed, yellow light.

Carver trained the rifle on B.J., but the lanky swamp man had survived his brother by only a few seconds. He lay on his back with his arms flung wide and his legs splayed out, as if he’d dropped lifeless from high up.

The staccato bark of the Uzi must have scared the alligators back into the swamp. The clearing was empty except for Beth, who was staring numbly at Carver, not comprehending. The whites of her eyes showed all the way around her dark pupils. There was a horror in those eyes that tore at his heart.

He rushed to her and dug his fingernails into the damp rope that was looped and knotted tightly around her wrists. He managed to loosen a knot. Another.

“Listen!” he was saying to her. “Listen. We gotta get outa here! Can you understand me?”

He thought she nodded, but he couldn’t be sure. He kept working on the knots with painful, stiffening fingers.

Didn’t hear anyone approach.

“I’ll take over, Carver,” someone said.

He knew the voice.

Roberto Gomez.

Carver gripped his cane and turned, staring up at Gomez and Hirsh. Gomez was wearing khaki pants, a black or green pullover shirt, and rubber boots that laced tight around his tucked-in pants legs. Hirsh had on his dark, vested suit, and what looked like a pair of hip boots. The golden arc of his watch chain gleamed across his stomach paunch. Gomez was holding an Uzi like the one on the ground beside B.J.’s body. Hirsh was gripping a long dark revolver.

Hirsh said, “Toss the rifle out into the clearing and move away, Carver.”

Carver hadn’t realized the rifle he’d taken from Junior’s dead hands was lying next to his extended bad leg. He picked it up by the stock and slung it over near B.J.’s corpse. Then he stood up slowly and limped across the soggy ground toward Gomez and Hirsh.

Hirsh said, “Far enough.”

Carver stopped and stood still, centering his weight on the cane.

Gomez walked over and stood near Beth, who’d loosened the rope enough to slip her hands free. She sat rubbing her wrists, not looking up at Gomez.

He bent down and grabbed a handful of her hair, then yanked her head back so she had to look at him. After muttering something to her in Spanish, he spat in her face.

She bowed her head again and sat quietly, trembling.

Gomez bent down and picked up the loose end of the rope, He looked over at Hirsh and said, “This alligator idea couldn’t be improved upon, eh?”

Hirsh said, “Doubt it. But what about the construction site?”

Gomez said to Carver, “He means a place where the highway department’s gonna pour concrete tomorrow for a new section of road. Gonna be your grave, Carver, yours and Beth’s. You two are gonna have a long, flat tombstone with a yellow line on it.”

Hirsh said, “I don’t think he cares for that idea, Mr. Gomez.”

“Does it fucking matter?”

Hirsh looked over at Carver with his sad eyes. “Nope, don’t matter a gnat’s ass.”

“We can do them here,” Gomez said, “then stuff ’em in the trunk and drive ’em to the construction site. We got plastic in the trunk, don’t we?”

“Always,” Hirsh said.

“Then the ’gator gets a snack and we’ll bury the leftovers.” Gomez smiled at Carver. “What about it, my man? You think of a better way for a bitch like this to leave life?”

“If you can’t think of one,” Carver said, “why’d you stop it from happening? Why didn’t you sit back and watch?”

Gomez narrowed his eyes at Carver and looked confused. He glanced at B.J., then turned to face Carver. “Hold on. You didn’t shoot these swamp turkeys?”

Hirsh said, “Jesus!”

The big ’gator was back, at the edge of the clearing, standing amazingly tall on its long legs so it could see above the saw grass, baring its sharp teeth. It hissed. It didn’t like to have its meal interrupted.

Hirsh couldn’t help staring at the alligator. His mouth was hanging open as if he were imitating it.

Carver brought his cane down hard across Hirsch’s wrist. The revolver dropped to the ground. Hirsh instinctively grabbed at the probably broken wrist and Carver crossed the cane over his neck. Heard and felt cartilage give.

Hirsh was down on his back, clutching his crushed larynx and thrashing his legs, gasping and choking and dying.

Beth screamed, “Carver!”

Carver saw Gomez swinging the barrel of the Uzi in his direction. He dived for Hirsh’s revolver but couldn’t find it. Hirsh must have fallen on it. Gomez was advancing on him now, the Uzi leveled, his eyes darting back and forth between the gagging and thrashing Hirsh, and Carver.

The huge ’gator hissed again. Gomez whipped his head around in the direction of the sound.

Carver had his chance. He flung his cane at Gomez and prepared to rush at him. The cane whispered as it cut the air.

Gomez must have sensed something. Or maybe heard the cane pinwheeling toward him.

He ducked.

The cane merely brushed his shoulder and dropped behind him.

He smiled at Carver. “Time for you to join the fucking swamp turkeys, my man.”

Both of them heard the shot and paused. Glanced around.

Then Gomez realized he’d been hit. He grabbed at his chest. Tried to raise the Uzi but dropped it. He said, “Goddammit!” and sat down hard, then fell back and lay still.

Beth was standing up, holding on to the tree with both hands for balance. Staring beyond Carver.

Carver turned to see what she was looking at.

There was a rhythmic splashing sound.

Someone walking.

McGregor emerged from the swamp, cradling a hunting rifle and grinning.

The big alligator saw him and slithered on its lizard legs back into the blackness of nightmares. Surrendering the moonlit clearing to a more ferocious predator.