Haunted

19

I opened the camper door but sniffed the air before entering. Forever imprinted on my memory was the primal stink of Oliver, half ape, half chimp. Only reassuring odors greeted me, however-diesel and shower soap-so I stepped inside, whispering, “Hello…?”

In reply, a voice said, “Thank god, you’re alive.”

Belton’s voice. I clicked the door shut. “Don’t turn on the lights. How do you lock this damn thing?”

“Carmelo broke the latch with a hammer. Did he follow you? Please tell me the police are coming.”

I fiddled with the lock anyway but soon gave up. Moonlight filtered through the curtains. I pulled them back so I could see. The man was on his belly on the couch, hands tied behind him-a needless cruelty that revived my anger. “They left you tied up like this the whole time?”

“Carmelo would have done worse, but I pretended to have a heart attack and pass out. Remember me saying he’s not as dumb as he acts? In some ways, he’s dumber because he’s greedy. What about the police?”

“Theo took my phone,” I said and went past him to check the ignition. “Do you have a key hidden?”

“Not in a rental vehicle. My hands… I lost feeling an hour ago. Untie me. I can’t take much more. Oh-and my glasses. I need my glasses. They’re somewhere on the counter.”

“Any idea where they parked my SUV?”

“It’s all a blur, dear.”

I retrieved the box cutter from the sack and knelt. As I did, Belton added in a sheepish way, “Sorry about the mess. They blew some kind of drug up my nose. My bladder turned traitor. Nothing I could do.”

Through the knees of my jeans, I could feel that the carpet was wet. “Hold still so I don’t cut you,” I said. They had used tie wraps on his wrists and ankles. Snip-snip and he was free. I helped him set up. “Can you walk?”

“Give me a second. What about my glasses?”

Two minutes later he got to his feet, hobbled from the back of the RV to the front but had to stop twice to steady himself. Then almost fell again when he pulled on a clean polo, even buttoned two buttons.

“I’m practically a cripple.”

“You’re better than when you started. It’ll take a few minutes.”

“No police, huh?”

“We need to get moving. Theo doesn’t know I’m loose. But he will. In fact, he probably knows already.”

“Then they’ll come looking. I’ll be fine now that I’ve got some blood circulating. The smart thing to do is, I stay here while you go get help.”

“Not a chance,” I said, although in truth that’s exactly what I yearned to do-run for my life. If I made it to the river, I could swim if there wasn’t a canoe or boat to steal. No point in telling him I’d been darted, that my mind was a jumble of fear, constantly scanning for new symptoms.

He sensed my distress and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Hannah, dear, I’ll be eighty-one in December. My wife is dead and… and my only child is dead. So-”

“Stop that kind of talk right now. We’re leaving together.” I went toward the door and peered through the frosted window. “What about weapons? I don’t suppose you have a gun or an axe or anything we could use?”

Up until then, the man had sounded coherent but feeble. My question changed that. “If I did, I’d send you on your way and kill both those sons of bitches.”

When he added, “It’s a long story,” I thought, He came here looking for revenge.

True or not, his story would have to wait. “Come on. You can use my shoulder as a brace.”

Belton, sheepish again, said, “I’ve got clean slacks if there’s time.”

There wasn’t, which I was about to tell him when I saw in the frosted window someone approaching: a black silhouette, hunch-shouldered and moving with an odd loping gait.

No… not someone, something. Our visitor had distinctive ears, like two clamshells tacked to his head-chimpanzee ears. Oliver or the other one, Savvy, was tracking me but hadn’t yet settled on the camper.

I whispered, “Don’t make a sound,” and stupidly felt for the broken latch on a door that couldn’t be locked.

“Is it Carmelo?”

I hushed him with a hiss while I took the box cutter from the sack. Placed it beside me and got a firm grip on the doorknob using both hands.

I felt the camper shift with Belton’s weight. “A fillet knife-I forgot. There’s a knife in one of these drawers.”

“Quiet.”

Too late. Outside, the silhouette stopped… turned… listened. At the same instant, a drawer full of silverware clanged to the floor. I heard a grumbled “Damn,” then Belton made more noise by searching through the mess.

“Find that knife,” I whispered. “You’re going to need it.”

I expected the chimp to sprint immediately toward us, but he approached warily, limping on one bad leg. Carrying something in his hands, too-a bag, possibly. The combination struck me as more humanlike than monkeylike, but it certainly wasn’t Theo or Carmelo. And even if it was, there was no way I could hold the door closed if a man was determined to get in. We had to try something else.

“Go to the front of the camper,” I told Belton and pushed him along. “Did you find the knife?”

“A steak knife. And not a very good one… Who’s out there?”

“I’m not sure. We’ll wait until he’s inside the camper, then you jump out the driver’s-side door and hide. I’ll get him to follow me out the passenger side.”

“That’s crazy. How?”

“I don’t know. I’ll outrun him. Don’t worry, I’m faster than most people.”

“Hannah, I won’t use you as bait-”

“Please don’t argue.” The RV’s cab had twin captain’s chairs that swiveled. I took Belton by the shoulders, backed him into his chair, and turned him so he was closer to the door. A fire extinguisher was mounted next to the console. I popped the straps and freed it.

He said, “I should have thought of that.”

I hefted the canister-it was full-and removed the safety pin. “Don’t do anything until I tell you. Then try to get to the river. Theo has a canoe. Or said he did. I’ll meet you, but don’t wait if I’m not there. Or go to the road, if it’s easier, and flag someone down.” As I whispered, my eyes were fixed on the camper door. In one hand, I held the box cutter, razor out. In the other, the fire extinguisher.

Belton started to protest, but I hushed him, saying, “He’s coming in.”

Not quite, but the chimp-or whoever it was-was close enough to blacken the frosted window that had been silver with moonlight. My hip was braced against a bulkhead while my heart pounded. “Get ready,” I told Belton and walked toward the door.

“What are you doing?”

Watching the doorknob, is what I was doing. Watched the knob turn while something in me decided which was the better weapon, a razor blade or a pressurized steel canister? I slipped the box cutter into my jeans and backed away, the fire extinguisher in both hands. First I would blind our intruder with spray, then throw the empty canister. After that, run for my life-if I was able.

Slowly… slowly… the door swung open. A black silhouette spilled in with a gusting breeze. I sniffed the air, expecting the worst, while the RV shifted with our intruder’s weight.

I took another step back and hollered, “I’ve got a gun and I’ll use it.”

A voice I didn’t recognize responded, “No, Hannah, you don’t. But I won’t hurt you.” More like a growl, the voice was so deep.

“Think what you want,” I said, while Belton yelled, “We’re both armed. Get the hell away.”

The shadow retreated while the camper leveled itself. The door closed but then opened a moment later. Along with the breeze, the shadow reclaimed the room. “Stay away from the campground. The Gypsies will call Theo and they’ll be watching the roads. Don’t trust anyone.”

I was stunned. “You’re willing to help? Call the police, if you want to help us. Or tell me where my car is.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why? Who are you?” I stepped toward the door. “Come in before someone sees you.”

The silhouette retreated. “No closer. And no lights. Head for the river. You’ll have to climb the fence. There’s a boat with a half a tank of gas. A little aluminum boat. Pull start with a kicker. Hike straight west if you can’t find the path.”

“How do you know my name?”

“Because I do. On the river, go north. The campground is south and Theo will find out. Remember-north. You saw what happened to that little girl?”

Krissie, he meant. “Then call the police,” I said. “At least tell them what happened. If we go north, there’s nothing for miles.”

A long dark arm appeared and placed a bag on the floor. I got a glimpse of the man’s jaw and his odd clamshell ears. “This is yours,” he said and started to close the door, then remembered something. “I’m glad Lucia’s dead. Did she dart you?”

“Yes.”

“How many times?”

Belton asked, “What’s he talking about?”

“Once,” I said, “but I pulled it out right away.”

“I think I saw Benadryl tablets in there.”

Only then did I realize that it was my backpack on the floor. “What kind of poison did she use?”

“Lucia was a vicious, evil woman,” the voice said. “I’ve always wanted to thank you, Hannah. Now I have.”

The shadow retreated. The door closed.

Belton asked, “Who the hell was that?”

I stood there dumbly for a moment, then rushed to open my backpack. A box of Benadryl tablets had been placed strategically on top. The 9mm Devel pistol, still loaded, was beneath it.

“I think I know,” I said, “but I hope I’m wrong.”

Belton didn’t have an opportunity to press. Outside the camper, security lights flashed on with the siren scream of the burglar alarm.

“Theo found Lucia’s body,” I told him. “We’ve got to run.”

RUNNING IS something an eighty-one-year-old man with a bad heart cannot be asked to do, but there was nothing typical about Belton Matás. He jogged ahead of me with an odd wide-legged, arm-pumping gait that would have been humorous in a movie but wasn’t funny under the circumstances. A Land Rover, lights blazing, had skidded around the side of the serpentarium, coming fast. Until then, we had been walking at a steady pace but were only halfway to the fence.

Belton ducked low. “Did they see us?”

“I don’t think so,” I said, removing the pistol from the backpack. “If they did, there’s nothing we can do but make our stand here.”

Wrong. That’s when the man from Virginia decided he was spry enough to run. He took off at a pretty good clip, fast enough to worry me, although it was no struggle to keep up. “A heart attack isn’t going to help our situation any. Belton? Belton?”

The man kept running. He was a big fellow, still had some power in his thighs, but was also carrying a lot of weight around the belly. Finally I grabbed his shoulder. “They’re headed for your RV. Slow down. But be careful where you put your feet.”

It was the second time I had warned him.

“Don’t ever get old, Hannah, it’s humiliating.” Hands on knees, he sucked in air.

“I’d like to get a little older, if you don’t mind, so keep moving.”

“Why are you worried about snakes? At the homestead, you walked through weeds, muck, never a word. Totally fearless.”

“I’ll explain when we’re in the boat. Would it help if I took your arm?”

Belton watched the Land Rover brake to a stop outside his RV. “Do you know how to use that pistol?” Carmelo had appeared in the headlights, carrying what I guessed was a sawed-off shotgun, then jogged toward the door, while Theo, the driver, stayed at the wheel.

I said, “He’s going to be crazy mad when he sees you’re gone. Please, Belton, we’ve got to get over the fence before they spot us.”

“I did two tours in Vietnam, Army intelligence, and I still know how to shoot.” He stood, eyes fixed on Carmelo, who ducked into the trailer. “Give me the pistol, Hannah. You won’t get very far towing my tired old ass. It’s what I want.”

“I’d prefer not to discuss your backside or your ailments until we’re in the boat,” I said and tugged at his arm while lights blinked on inside the RV. Soon, Carmelo, from the distance, yelled something in a language that wasn’t English or Spanish-a guttural profanity, it sounded like.

“Stubborn girl,” Belton grumbled. He pivoted and began to match my long strides, the two of us walking fast, hugging tree shadows, the fence a jumble of vines only twenty yards away. Yet it seemed to take hours to cross the last stretch of open ground. Every step, I expected a spotlight to find us or to hear a gunshot.

That didn’t happen until Belton was straddling the chain-link fence where we’d found a break in the barbed wire. I had helped boost the man up and his shirt had snagged. As he tried to free himself, we heard grinding gears, then the whistling roar of a diesel engine. I didn’t have to look to know they were coming because shadows were displaced by dazzling white lights. Belton, with his glasses and heavy chin, appeared to be glazed with frost. For the first time I saw that his arms had been gouged bloody by the chimpanzee Oliver.

I said, “I’ll cut you loose,” and pulled myself up onto the bar, but his shirt ripped away when he lost his balance. Belton landed hard and rolled. A second later, I was on the river side of the fence, helping him up. “Can you walk?”

He made a mewling sound so childlike, it was heartbreaking-frustration, indignity. But there was nothing he could do to change what had happened. Although he tried, saying, “I really wish you’d give me that damn pistol.”

Behind us, the Land Rover was accelerating, not slowing: four bright fog lights mounted on the roof.

“You’re going to get me killed, too, Belton. Please don’t argue.”

The man sputtered, “I give up!” He stumbled to his feet and went toward the river, crashing through bushes with his weight. A moment later, he called, “I found the path.”

I stayed where I was and faced the Land Rover, the pistol level in both hands. I had never used the gun at night before and was surprised that its sights glowed like numerals on a watch: three intersecting green dots. The sights made it easier to draw a bead on the Land Rover’s windshield. As an afterthought, I thumbed the hammer back, then touched my finger to the trigger and waited. Stood there in full view and didn’t flinch even when a spotlight snapped on and found me.

Shoot Theo first through the driver’s-side window. That’s what I decided to do. Shoot Carmelo next. And shoot him again if he exits carrying that shotgun.

I wasn’t afraid. Belton’s childlike mewling had changed me in some cold and empty way. There was no indecision. No quibbling with my conscience. No labored breathing or panicky voice that urged me to flee. It was as if a darkness had been set loose inside me. I felt free and focused and sure, as the Land Rover bore closer, speeding as if to crush me, bouncing tail-high over ruts.

Let them see you, I thought. Make sure they know who is behind these bullets.

I did… Then, when the vehicle suddenly braked to a halt, I felt a trickling disappointment-not relief. Fifty yards was a risky shot for a pistol that contained only seven bullets. I didn’t shoot.

A shotgun appeared from the passenger’s window. I ducked when Carmelo fired one blind shot but stood taller after pellets had rained down through the foliage. Fifty yards was also too far for a double-barreled shotgun.

Theo ground the gears. The vehicle crept closer. Once again, I took aim and placed my finger on the trigger while the spotlight illuminated what I was doing… possibly, even what I was thinking:

Shoot Theo first. One round. Then one for Carmelo. Maybe the bullets will pierce the windshield, maybe they won’t-let God decide.

My thinking was so clear and sure.

The Land Rover stopped again. More grinding of gears, then Theo found reverse and backed away fast while the transmission whined. Carmelo yelled a profanity out the window just before the vehicle lurched forward, then kicked dirt toward the moon and sped away.

“Did you fire that shot?” Belton had returned to check on me.

“Cowards,” I said, watching the Land Rover. “Both them just cowards. They ran away.”

“You hit their car?”

I used the de-cocking lever so the pistol could ride safely in my backpack. It made a satisfying steel-on-steel click. “They didn’t give me a chance.” I walked past Belton toward the river. “You know where it is, so show me the path.”

THE ALUMINUM BOAT that awaited was flat-bottomed, painted green, with a small outboard motor that coughed and sputtered but didn’t fire the first few times I pulled the starter rope.

“Use those oars,” I told Belton. “You row while I work on this. It’s probably a bad fuel connection.” I pushed the boat away from the bank and felt a weightless sense of freedom. The moon filled a crevice between the trees where wind gusted from the northwest, but the water was calm.

“Oarlocks,” he said as if reminding himself what to do. “North, the guy told us, right? Is that north?” Belton pointed upriver with an oar.

I said, “If I get this engine started, maybe we should risk being seen by the campground people. There’s nothing north of here but wild country and cattle. If we go south, the Caloosahatchee is only fifteen miles or so, then another few miles east to Labelle. We can call police from there.” I looked up from the fuel tank. “You explored this river with Carmelo, what do you think?”

“That’s the problem. Carmelo lives in a houseboat about three miles south of the RV park, and there are more houseboats where the river widens. I don’t know if they’re all buddy-buddy, but I doubt if we could get past without being seen. One phone call and he’d run us down with that Bass Cat of his.” Belton fitted the second oar into the lock, then spun us around with an expertise that was encouraging. “We’ll start north and see how it goes, okay?”

The gas tank was plastic with a heavy plastic screw top. I burped the tank, checked the fittings, and tried again. The little 15 horsepower engine was too simple to need computer chips yet still wouldn’t start. “Why in the world would he loan us a bad engine?”

The aluminum boat surged forward, oars dripping. Belton replied, “He knew your name. Who is he?”

“We’ve never met, but… Well, I’m not sure. Tyrone, probably. I didn’t get a close look at him.”

“I wonder how he got your backpack.”

“He must have beaten Theo to my SUV. I don’t know why he’d want to help us-I just wish he had better judgment when it came to boats.”

“Maybe it’s because of what happened to Lucia.”

I unclipped the fuel line from the engine and squeezed the rubber bulb until pressure built. “It was an ugly thing to see, Belton. Let’s not talk about it.”

“I met her and her friends my first night here. There was something nasty about those three. Or sinister. I’m not sure how to describe it. Mean, I guess.” The boat skated ahead, the oarlocks creaked, while frogs and night birds trilled. “Hannah… if you killed Lucia, I’m sure you had no choice. We were kidnapped. The police will understand that.”

“The chimp got his hands on her,” I said. “It was… awful. He’ll kill us, too, if we don’t get away from here.”

“You don’t think that… thing is smart enough to come after us? He picked me up like I was nothing, could’ve ripped my arms off. I don’t know why he didn’t. Theo and Carmelo are bad enough.”

“The chimp knows what I look like, knows my scent, too. I cut him pretty badly with a razor-”

“Good!”

“And I tricked him into grabbing a coral snake.”

“A snake? Outstanding. Then he’s dead by now.”

“I’m not sure he was bitten. Even if he was, it’s a slow poison. What I’m telling you is, Oliver the chimp has got his reasons to attack me. You should know that in advance.”

“As if I’d leave you. He’s just a damn animal. Short attention span and all that. No… Carmelo’s the one we need to worry about.”

“The girl Oliver killed, Krissie, she wouldn’t agree.”

Belton murmured, “Ah yes… poor little thing,” then went silent and concentrated on the oars while I knelt in the boat’s stern. It was possible the carburetor was flooded. I pulled the rope starter several times, then reconnected the fuel hose. In the microsilence that followed came the baffled roar from far downriver of an outboard motor starting.

Belton continued to row but now harder. “That’s Carmelo’s Bass Cat. He’ll come here first, thinking we’re on foot.” He started to say something else but then jerked around in his seat. “What the hell was that?” Oars out of the water, the man stared at the nearby shore.

“Did you see something?”

“You didn’t hear it? Branches breaking, something high up in the trees, I could’ve sworn.”

I crouched to get the pistol while my eyes searched, seeing stars above the river’s gloom. The tree canopy was a ridge of gray that pulsated in the wind. “How far?”

“Just over there. But now… I don’t know. Maybe I imagined it.”

I said, “Cross your fingers and pray this works.” I leaned over the motor and yanked the rope. After two failures, I opened the choke and tried again. Finally the engine caught, belched smoke, and fired to life. I slammed the choke closed and sat with the tiller in my left hand. “Get those oars in and move forward. Let’s see if I can get this thing on plane.”

Belton did it, but his eyes remained focused on trees that lined the shore, a silver tunnel of oak and moss that followed us as we snaked upriver in a boat that wasn’t fast and plowed a wake.