Gulf Coast Girl

Nine

“Here, George.”

Barclay took the handkerchief from the breast pocket of his jacket and tossed it, waddled into a ball, to the big towhead. “Put that in her mouth, so she doesn’t cry out in the alley.”

George tilted her face up and rammed the handkerchief into her mouth. Then he tied his own across it and around her neck to hold it in. She was crying softly and offered no resistance.

“Go, shall we?” Barclay said.

I saw him through dancing flickers of rage. My head was splitting and I was helpless and weak as a cat, nothing seemed to matter. “Suppose I don’t”? I asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he answered crisply. “Would you like to have her knocked about a bit to convince you?”

There was nothing else to do. I stood up. George gave me a bright, hard grin, and led her past. As they started out through the archway she pulled suddenly away and tried to fall to her knees beside Macaulay. George cursed and yanked her back. Barclay watched me with his hand in the pocket of his jacket. He shook his head warningly.

“Your boy’s good,” I said.

“He’s efficient.”

“Don’t overmatch him and get him hurt,” I said. “He might lose his confidence.”

George glanced back over his shoulder at me. Barclay said, “Let’s not be heroic, Manning. Suppose you follow them.”

I followed them. Barclay followed me. As we went through the kitchen I could hear the phonograph softly playing Victor Herbert for a dead man, and then we were outside in the darkness and Barclay eased the door shut. I could see nothing but the pale gleam of her head, and that very faintly. Barclay had taken the gun from his pocket and was holding it against my back as we walked slowly through the garden and out the gate. At the end of the alley George stopped and I bumped gently against her. He stepped ahead to peer up and down the sidewalk. I put my hand on her arm and let it slide down until I had her hand in mine. I squeezed it, but there was no answering pressure. All her lines were down.

“All right,” George whispered.

We moved ahead across the walk. There was no one in sight. It was just another peaceful evening in an upper-middle-class suburb where the only violence was on 21-inch screens. George opened the door of the truck and tipped the seat up. He helped Shannon Macaulay into the back and got in himself.

“Get in,” Barclay whispered to me. I slid under the wheel and he sat beside me. “You know where to pick up Carl. Don’t attempt anything foolish.”

They couldn’t get away with it, but they did. We rolled downtown through increasing streams of traffic. I counted three police cars, and once one stopped beside us at a traffic light almost near enough to touch. It was like a nightmare. Every turn of the wheels was taking her farther beyond the reach of help by anyone. There was nothing in the house to indicate the others had ever been there, and when the police found her car abandoned at the airport they would be sure she had done it and fled.

Just before we reached the corner of Lindsay and Second, Barclay climbed over the seat and sat on the floor in back with the others. I stopped. Carl got in. We went on, going out of town now. Nobody said anything. I thought of their three guns. It was like driving a nitro-glycerin truck over a rough road.

Traffic thinned out. We were driving through dimly lighted streets. I made the last turn and stopped before the gates of the boat yard. I beeped the horn. The old watchman swung them open. I pulled inside and he stood by my elbow.

“I’m going to get under way in a few minutes,” I said. “This man will drive the truck back to a garage for me.”

He glanced at Carl. There was dead silence from the rear of the truck. I could hear my own breathing. Carl nodded.

“Okay, Mr. Manning,” the watchman said. “You need any help down there at the dock?”

I shook my head. “No. Thanks.”

We rolled ahead.

At the lower end of the yard I swung the truck in a circle and backed it up against the end of the pier. The watchman was settling down with his magazine again, in the pool of light at the gate. Everything was black behind us.

“Get out and open the rear door, Manning,” Barclay said softly.

I stepped out. Carl slid behind the wheel. I went around in back and pulled the door open. They stepped out. “Give us two minutes,” Barclay whispered to Carl. “Then drive on out.”

I led the way down the pier with Barclay close behind me and then George and Shannon Macaulay. It was intensely dark and I had to keep my eyes averted from the glow of lights over the city off to the left in order to make out the form of the pier and the clots of shadow which were the craft moored to it. Beyond in the channel the buoy winked on and off and the bell clanged restlessly in the night. Then the tall stick of the Ballerina was above us, shadowy against the stars. I felt my way aboard and stepped down into the cockpit.

“Stand clear,” Barclay whispered. “Move to the aft end of the cockpit and sit down.”

He was taking no chances of our being scrambled too closely together in close quarters in the dark. I stepped back. I could have jumped over the side and possibly escaped, but he knew I wouldn’t. I had nowhere to go, with the police looking for me, and I couldn’t leave her. They helped her down into the cockpit.

“Take her below and stay there with her,” Barclay said quietly. “I’ll watch Manning.”

I could hear the soft scraping of shoes on the companionway and two shadows disappeared. “Start your auxiliary, Manning, and cast off,” Barclay said. “Let’s go to sea.”

“Where?” I asked.

“I’ll give you a course when we’re outside. Now, step to it.”

“I’ll have to light the running lights first. Is that all right with you?”

“Certainly.”

“I just wanted to be sure I had your permission.”

He sighed in the darkness. “I assure you this is no game, Manning. It should have penetrated before now, but in case it hasn’t I’d like to call your attention to the fact that your position is very poor, and Mrs. Macaulay’s is even more dangerous. What happens to her depends on the way the two of you co-operate. Now suppose you take this sloop away from the dock before the watchman hears us and comes down here to investigate.”

Getting the watchman killed would accomplish nothing. “All right,” I said. As soon as the running lights were burning I started the engine and cast off the lines. We moved slowly away from the pier. I took her straight out toward the channel and swung hard over as we cleared the buoy. The twin rows of the channel markers stretched ahead of us, going seaward between the long dark lines of the jetties. There was no other traffic.

Barclay sat down across from me in the cockpit and lit a cigarette. The tip glowed. “Neat, wasn’t it?” he asked, above the noise of the engine.

“I suppose so,” I said. “If killing people is your idea of neatness.”

“Macaulay? It was unavoidable. We were afraid of it.”

“Of course,” I said coldly. “It was an accident.”

“No. Not an accident. Call it calculated risk.” He paused for a moment, the cigarette glowed redly, and then he went on. “And speaking of that, perhaps I’d best brief you now as to your part in this expedition. You’re also a calculated risk, for the reason that—quite frankly—I’m not a navigator and neither is Barfield. I can handle small sailing craft well enough to take this sloop across the Gulf, but I couldn’t find the place we’re looking for. Therefore we need you, and while we both have guns and are quite expert in their use we won’t kill you except as a last resort. Score yourself one point.

“But before you start plotting a mutiny, try to imagine a bullet-shattered knee, complicated by gangrene, with a medicine chest which probably consists of aspirin tablets and Mercurochrome. Not an enchanting picture, is it? And while you’re about it, you might consider how unpleasant life could be made for Mrs. Macaulay if you don’t co-operate with us.

“One of us will be watching you every minute. Do as you’re told and there’ll be no trouble. Try to get out of hand, and both you and Mrs. Macaulay will be badly hurt; we’re not amateurs at this sort of thing. Is it all clear, Manning?”

“Yes,” I said. “Except you keep telling me this is no game, so there must be some point to it. Would you mind telling me where you think you’re going, and what you’re after?”

“Not at all. We’re looking for an airplane.”

I stared at the end of his cigarette. “You mean the one Macaulay crashed in? You’re going to try to find it after you’ve killed the one person on earth who knew where it is?”

“There’s one more who knows,” he said calmly. “Why do you think we brought her?”

“Look,” I said. “Don’t be stupid. He was alone in it when it crashed. How could she possibly know?”

“He told her.”

“You’ll never find it in a million years.”

“I think we shall. He knew where it was, obviously, and was certain he could go back to it, or he wouldn’t have tried to hire a diver and a boat. Therefore it has to be near some definite location, such as a reef or promontory. And if he knew, he could tell her. All she has to do is tell us. In fact, she has already given me the general location. It’s to the westward of Scorpion Reef. You know where that is, I presume?”

“It’s on the chart,” I said curtly. I swung the tiller a little to line up the channel buoys again. “Listen, Barclay. You’re stupid as hell. Even if you found the plane, that money’s not recoverable. I didn’t tell her, because the main thing they wanted was to get away from you and your damned thugs, but that currency’s pulp by now. It’s been submerged in sea water for weeks—”

“Money?” he asked. There was faint surprise in his voice.

“Don’t be cute, for Christ’s sake. You’re not looking for that plane just to recover the ham sandwich he probably had with him.”

“She told you there was money on the plane? Is that it?”

“Of course that’s it. What else? They were trying to get to some place in Central America so they could quit running from you and your gorillas—”

“I wondered what sort of story she gave you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re rather naive, Manning. We’re not looking for some trifling sum of money Macaulay might have had with him. We’re after something he stole from us. He was a thief.”

“I don’t believe it.”

“What you believe or don’t believe is of no importance whatever. But what makes you so sure, when you’d never met him and knew nothing about him at all?”

“I know her. She wouldn’t lie about it.”

He chuckled. “I rather thought that was it. And, by the way, that puts me in a somewhat awkward spot.”

“Why?”

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? One of us, it would appear, is lying. I think I can prove it was the lady; but should I, as a matter of policy? It’s a delicate point. We’re depending to some extent on your regard for the toothsome Mrs. Macaulay to ensure your co-operation in this venture, and it would seem we’d be doing ourselves a disservice in proving to you she’s been having you on. You might become indifferent as to what happened to her—”

“You got out of that all right,” I said.

“—but, on the other hand,” he went on as if he hadn’t even heard me, “if you were thoroughly disenchanted with the enchantress, you might be more inclined to help us in recovering what her husband stole from us. Interesting psychological point, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” I said contemptuously. “Very interesting. We’ll be down to the bar in a few minutes. Could I interest you in taking the tiller when we’re outside so I can get sail on her?”

“Certainly, old boy.”

The Ballerina began lifting slowly on the long ground swell running in through the mouth of the jetties. I searched the darkness ahead and could see the sea buoy winking on and off. There was a moderate breeze, a little north of east. I wondered why Barclay had tried to get off a cock-and-bull story like that. He was in control; why bother to lie?

“I found their bag, the one she sent aboard.”

I looked around. It was the voice of George Barfield, issuing from the companionway.

“Any chart in it?” Barclay asked.

“No.” Barfield came out and sat down beside Barclay. In the faint starlight I could see he was carrying something in one hand. “The satchel was in it, all right. About eighty thousand, at a rough count. But no chart.”

“What?” It exploded from me before I could stop it.

“What’s the matter with Don Quixote?” Barfield asked. “Somebody goose him?”

“I’m afraid you’ve spoiled Manning’s illusions,” Barclay murmured. “Mrs. Macaulay told him that money was in the plane.”

“Oh,” Barfield said. “Well, I wanted to see everything before I died, and now I have. A man over thirty who still believes women.”

I could only keep my hand on the tiller and stare straight ahead. I felt sick. “Shut up, you son of a bitch,” I said. “Put that bag down and throw a flashlight on it. There’s one on the starboard bunk.”

“I’ve got it here.” Barfield put the bag down at my feet.

The light flipped on and he pressed the catch on top of the bag. I looked at bundle after bundle of twenties, fifties, and hundreds.

I sold my jewelry and borrowed what I could on the car. It’s the last chance we’ll ever have. I don’t know why they’re trying to kill him; it was something that happened at a party—

“All right,” I said. “Turn it off.”

“Didn’t you forget my rank?” Barfield asked.

“What?”

“You’re supposed to say, ‘Turn it off, you son of a bitch.’ ”

“Shut up,” I said.

“How long would it take you to learn enough navigation, Joey?”

“Too long,” Barclay answered. “Leave him alone.”

“I was pretty good at math,” Barfield said; “Want me to try it? I could get sick of this guy.”

“Stop it,” Barclay ordered curtly. “Even if we could find the place alone, we still need a diver.”

“Anybody can dive with an aqualung.”

“George, old boy—” Barclay said softly.

“All right. All right.”

“What’s in the plane?” I asked.

“Diamonds,” Barclay answered. “You might say a considerable amount of diamonds.”

“Whose?”

“Ours, obviously.”

“And she knows about it?”

“Yes.”

I wondered if I had a latent tendency toward masochism. I wanted to hear it all. “And they weren’t trying to get to Central America?”

“Yes. As a matter of fact, they were. Or at least originally. But Macaulay couldn’t take her in the plane because he had to take a diver. These particular diamonds appear to have an affinity for water. This will be the third time they’ve been recovered by a diver.”

“Why don’t you write him a book about it?” Barfield asked.

“Are you worrying over matters of policy again, George?”

“No,” Barfield said hastily. “But I don’t see any sense telling this jerk the time of day—”

“Well, I assure you he isn’t likely to tell anybody out here.”

Or ever come back. The implication was obvious.

I didn’t even hear them any more. They faded away as if I were alone in the cockpit. She had lied about the whole thing. Why try to find a way out now? It was perfectly clear; anybody but a fool would have seen it long ago. I wasn’t interested in their airplane or their stupid diamonds, or where they had come from, or what it was all about. The fact that she’d been lying all the time seemed to be the only thing that mattered.

I was a chump. A sucker. I’d believed her. Even when I’d had intelligence enough to realize the story sounded fishy I’d still believed it. She wouldn’t lie. Oh, no, of course not. Why, you could look at those big innocent, come-on-in-and-drown-yourself gray eyes and just know she couldn’t tell a lie. Jesus, how stupid could you get? She couldn’t go in the plane because he’d had to add a fuel tank to stretch out its cruising radius. I was their last chance to escape; she had trusted me with all the money they had left. She must have been laughing herself sick all the time. I had no desire to spare myself any of it. I even imagined her telling her husband about it. Dear, this poor sap will believe anything.

So I’d gone for it like a high-school sophomore. And because I’d believed it I had killed that poor vicious little bastard in a fight and now the police would be looking for me as long as I lived. Only I wasn’t going to be living very long. That was as obvious as the fact that I’d been a fool. I was scheduled for extinction just as soon as I located Macaulay’s plane and brought up what they wanted.

So was she. And wasn’t that too bad? I wondered if she realized just what her chances were of selling Barclay and that big thug a sob story of some kind. As soon as she told them where to look for that plane they’d kill her with no more compunction than a monkey cracking the life out of a louse. And if she didn’t tell them they’d enjoy beating it out of her. Well, let her turn up the rheostats in those big beautiful eyes and see what it bought her on this moonlight cruise. There should have been some satisfaction in knowing her double-crossing had got her killed as well as me, but when I looked for it, it wasn’t there. I just felt sick.

So I was going back to feeling sorry for her? I was like hell. The dirty, lying, double crossing—I stopped. A puzzling thought had occurred to me. If she knew what was in the plane and where it was, why hadn’t they grabbed her off long ago? Why had they kept trying to sweat Macaulay out of hiding so they could take him alive and make him tell, when they could have picked her up any time they pleased?

I cursed myself. What the hell, was I still trying to find a way out for her? Of course they hadn’t wanted her as long as there was a chance she would lead them to Macaulay. Her information about the plane would be secondhand, and they’d only taken her as second choice after Macaulay was dead. She was all they had left.

Well, I thought, they didn’t have much.

We were on the bar now. The breeze was kicking up a moderate sea that was choppy and confused as it fought with the ebbing tide. We shipped a little water on deck now and then as I held her on course toward the sea buoy.

“Here, take the helm,” I said to Barclay. He slid over and I went forward and got the mainsail and jib on her. Barfield sat where he was, smoking. When I had the sails set we were passing the sea buoy. I cut the auxiliary.

“All right, what course?” I asked Barclay.

“Make it a little west of Scorpion Reef,” he replied in the darkness. “That will do until in the morning and we can have a little quiz session with Mrs. M.”

“Right.”

I went below, pulled down the chart table over the port bunk, and clicked on the small light above it. 155 degrees true would do it. I was just guessing at the leeway we’d make, having never sailed her before, but that was close enough since we didn’t even know where we were going anyway. And since nothing made any difference and I didn’t care whether we ever got there or not. Unless the wind changed we’d be able to run down on that course all night without tacking.

Before I went back I looked swiftly around the cabin. I didn’t even know what I was looking for, but since it was the first time I’d been alone, there must have been some idea in my mind of trying to find a weapon. I was just kidding myself. They had brought nothing aboard with them, so there was no hope they’d have another gun down here. I didn’t have a chance. There were two of them; I’d never be where one wouldn’t be watching me or at least aware of where I was. If I got behind one of them and tried to get his gun, the other would kill me. They were professionals; even a man armed with another gun would have no chance against them.

The sloop heeled down a little, the cabin deck tilting. Barclay had cleared the sea buoy and was letting her pay off a little before the wind, guessing at the course as approximately southeast. She lifted on a sea, and eased across and down, the only sound the hissing of water past the hull and the creaking of cordage. It was like home again until I remembered I was laying down a course which went in only one direction—outbound.

They wouldn’t need me going back. Anybody could find the coast of Florida.

On some impulse I couldn’t explain, I stepped to the curtain and looked into the forward part of the cabin. There was just enough illumination from the chart lamp behind me to make her out, lying on the starboard bunk with her face in the pillow. The big lovely body looked defenseless and utterly beaten.

I didn’t know why I did it. I stepped inside and stood near the bunk, as if I had no control over my own movements. She must have heard me, for she stirred and turned on her side and her eyes opened. They were wet.

“Bill,” she whispered, “I’m sorry—”

I snapped out of whatever it was. I grinned coldly at her. “Have a nice trip,” I said.

Turning, I went back through the after part of the cabin and on deck. Barfield had his legs stretched out in the cockpit. I kicked at them savagely.

“Keep your goddamned feet out of the way,” I said.

It had all the potentialities of lighting a cigarette in a tanker’s pump room. Barclay’s cold professionalism was all that saved it.

He was going to have his hands full. You could see that.