by Howe, A. E.
When she was through with Anna, she went down the stairs to the door leading into Blasko’s basement apartment. It was too early for him to be awake, but she wanted to make sure that Anton was fully prepared. There was no answer to her first knock at the door, so she rapped more loudly.
“Yeeessss?” came a hesitant and suspicious voice from the other side of the door.
When he’d first shown up, Josephine had been unnerved by Anton’s immunity to criticism and his habit of always hiding right outside any room where Blasko was. But he’d proven his loyalty and usefulness to the baron on several occasions since he’d assumed the role of manservant. Lackey, more like it, Josephine thought, glaring at the closed door.
“It’s the owner of the house,” Josephine said.
“Oh, Mistress.” Anton opened the door, though he didn’t move out of the way so that she could enter. “HE is resting,” Anton said, and Josephine could hear the capital letters.
“I’m well aware of his schedule,” she said. “I wanted to see if you’ve made all the necessary preparations for our trip to the coast.”
Anton’s eyes opened wide and a smile grew on his face. “Ah, yes, yes. Come in! I show you!” He backed away from the door and ushered her in with wide, sweeping motions of his arms.
Josephine followed him reluctantly, wary of getting caught up in a long conversation with the man. Between his wandering narratives and broken English, it could go well beyond the boundaries of her patience.
“Look!” Anton said, standing in the middle of Blasko’s Victorian-inspired parlor and pointing at three square objects made of finely polished wood. They looked like collapsed folding tables with elaborate brass hinges.
“I should put one more coat of varnish on them, but no time. Here, here, I show.”
Excitedly, Anton began to unfold the three objects, then connected them together by an intricate series of latches. When he was finished, the three pieces had been assembled into a single box that looked like what it was—a coffin.
“For the baron,” Anton said proudly.
In spite of herself, Josephine was impressed. She stepped forward and ran her hand along the wood. “You did this?”
Anton bowed, then saw her looking at the hinges. “No, no, not the metalwork. I send back to my country. A friend, he is a great worker in metal. He make them from the baron’s design.”
“This is beautiful,” Josephine told him.
“Too kind. I am but a woodworker. Now you don’t worry, I will pack everything. The baron gave me very detailed instructions.”
“Is your English getting better?”
“Yes. The baron will not let me speak our native tongue. He tells me that I am no use to him without I’m able to talk to people.”
Josephine was sure that’s exactly what he’d told Anton.
“You are doing very well.”
“The baron said we will leave as soon as he wakes.”
Josephine nodded and left to finish her own preparations.
The sun had been down less than an hour when two black automobiles rumbled out of Josephine’s driveway and through the streets of Sumter toward the dark stretch of two-lane roads that led south toward Florida.
Josephine drove her ’32 Chevrolet with determined skill, peering into the night and hoping that the headlamps would illuminate any cows or deer that might decide to stand in the middle of the road. She also checked the rearview mirror regularly to make sure that Blasko was keeping up. When she’d seen him don his black leather driving gloves and get behind the wheel of his enormous Daimler Double-Six, she’d felt a little queasy. Blasko loved to drive, but he wasn’t that good at it.
Two hours into the trip, they had their first flat tire. The roads were rough and the tires were only somewhat reliable. Josephine had made sure they had several spares tied to the luggage racks before they’d left home. Now, as she watched Anton and Blasko work at changing the tire while getting in each other’s way, she wondered if it had been a mistake to come on this journey.
“Too late to turn back now,” Grace said, reading her thoughts. “’Course, with those two doing the work, we’ll be lucky to get a foot farther from home.”
“Is this crazy?”
“Was it crazy to go into those mountains and bring your baron home?” Grace asked. “I accepted long ago that you’re going to do the unpredictable and take the path that leads through the darkest woods.”
“I don’t try to make life difficult.”
“Sure you do. You’re a rich woman who doesn’t have to lift a finger, but the truth is, you can’t stand being safe and warm. You got to go out and find trouble.”
“That’s taking it too far,” Josephine protested.
“Who’s sittin’ right here beside you? So if you’re loony, so am I,” Grace said, fanning herself.
Finally, Josephine saw Blasko stand up and look at the wheel with satisfaction. “We can proceed,” he told her.
In a short while they passed a metal sign that welcomed them to Florida, but they were all getting nervous when, five hours later, they were still seventy-five miles from Cedar Island. Josephine cursed herself for not making better plans. She hadn’t considered just how bad the roads would be through the pine woods of North Florida, and traveling at night had slowed them down more than she’d planned.
“We’re going to have to stop somewhere for the day,” she told Grace, who had just woken up from a nap.
“Where we goin’ to find a place?”
“It’s not much farther to Apalachicola. We’ll find something there,” Josephine said as she slowed down and pulled off to the side of the road.
“The baron wants to know why we have stopped.” Anton shuffled up to the window almost before Josephine made a complete stop. “He is very worried about the dawn.”
“I’m going back to talk with him,” she said, trying to open the door with Anton standing beside it. With a nudge of the door, he retreated to let her out.
“We must hurry.” Blasko leaned out the window as she approached his car.
“We aren’t going to make it to Cedar Island tonight.”
“What do you mean, we aren’t going to make it?!” Blasko’s eyes blazed. “How could you—”
Josephine didn’t let him finish. “There is a town just a few miles away where we should be able to find someplace to hole up for the day.” As she said it, she wondered how easy it would be to find someone who’d let them take a room at five in the morning.
“Bah! You do realize that I will die in agonizing pain if I’m exposed to the sunlight?”
“We could bury you out here in the woods and come back for you tonight,” Josephine offered sweetly.
“Go! Move!”
Josephine couldn’t really blame him. She was worried herself.
Twenty minutes later, they reached the oystering town of Apalachicola and she saw a sign for the Gulf Waters Hotel. It was a large clapboard house with a number of added wings. There were lights on at the back of the building, where Josephine assumed the staff must have been preparing breakfast in the kitchen. They parked the cars and Josephine tried to convince Blasko to let her go in and make the arrangements.
“I will talk to the innkeeper,” Blasko said, trying to push ahead of her.
“All you’re likely to do is get us kicked out. Do you want to sleep in the swamp?” Josephine knew that in Blasko’s current frame of mind, he might do or say anything if they weren’t allowed to check in. And anything might include tossing the clerk through a window.
“Go then. But I’m going with you. Do not take ‘no’ for an answer,” he hissed under his breath.
Josephine tread lightly up the steps to the expansive wooden porch that held a dozen rocking chairs. Her knocks at the front door brought no one. Behind her, Blasko was pacing back and forth.
“Knock louder,” he told her.
“Let’s go around back. There are people in the kitchen.” She didn’t wait for him to agree.
As they approached the back door, they could smell bacon frying and hear a couple of women speaking softly.
“Remember, I’ll do the talking,” Josephine said.
“Remember, they have to give us a room,” Blasko growled.
“Can I help you?” said the young woman who answered the door. She wore an apron over a plain brown dress and swept her hair back from a sweaty forehead as she talked.
“We need to get a couple of rooms,” Josephine said, trying to sound somewhere between desperate and exhausted, which she gauged would get them the most sympathy. Fortunately, it wasn’t much of an act.
“Mr. Hanson isn’t up yet. I can’t check you in. Come back around ten and he’ll be glad for the business.” The woman started to close the door.
Josephine could feel Blasko tensing up behind her. “I’m afraid it’s rather urgent. My father isn’t feeling very well. He needs to lay down on a bed. We’ve been traveling all night…”
“Your father?” The woman sounded puzzled and Josephine saw her looking at Blasko.
“My father is in the car. This is my… cousin.”
“I can’t wake Mr. Hanson up. He’d fire me,” the woman said plaintively.
Josephine felt time ticking away as she tried to think of the best way to break down the woman’s resistance. Before she could say anything else, Blasko stepped in front of her.
“We need two rooms. I promise you that Mr. Hanson will be glad you woke him up,” Blasko said, giving the woman a five-dollar bill and showing her the twenty that he intended to give to Mr. Hanson to expedite their check-in.
“Yes, sir!” the woman said, her eyes wide as she took the cash. She turned and disappeared into the building. Blasko and Josephine heard a brief discussion in the kitchen before it grew quiet again. Blasko went back to pacing as Josephine shifted from foot to foot, whispering a prayer.
The sound of heavy shoes clumping down a hallway signaled the approach of Mr. Hanson. A frumpy-looking man opened the door and stared down at them.
“Tess said you needed a room right away. Why?”
Blasko handed Hanson the twenty-dollar bill. “We’ve been driving all night and her father needs a place to rest.”
“He’s not sick, is he?” Hanson asked with a querulous tone, but his hand slipped the twenty into his pocket.
“No. Just tired from traveling,” Josephine said, regretting that she’d presented Anton as her father. She hoped that Hanson wouldn’t want to meet him before checking them in.
“Good, good. We’ve had a few dead bodies in the last couple of years. Messy business. Fine. Come around front. I’ll meet you there.” He closed the door before they could say anything else.
They managed to get signed in and pay for the rooms just as the first pink streaks of dawn lightened the eastern sky. Blasko quickly grabbed two of the folded sections of his portable coffin and carried them upstairs, followed by Anton carrying the third, along with Blasko’s suitcase.
Hanson looked at Anton struggling up the stairs behind Blasko and turned to Josephine. “That’s your father?”
“He’s very independent,” Josephine said. Before he could ask any more questions, she grabbed her own suitcase and followed Grace up the stairs.
The rooms were satisfactory, if a bit musty. Josephine opened her window and turned on the electric fan. The room had a small adjoining alcove where Grace could sleep.
Before settling down, Josephine went across the hall to Blasko’s room to make sure he had gotten safely settled in before the sun came up.
“The baron is resting,” Anton said, peeking through the door.
“We told the innkeeper that you are my father.” Anton looked amused. “Just in case anyone asks.”
“Yes, I remember,” he said and started to close the door.
“Get some rest. We’ll continue on to Cedar Island as soon as the sun goes down.”
“I will guard the baron,” Anton said, sounding offended that she thought he would sleep with his master resting in a strange hotel.
Chapter Five
Josephine went back to her room and was getting ready to lie down when she heard the sound of heavy boots coming up the stairs and down the hallway, stopping outside her door. As she walked to the door, she heard several hard raps on Blasko’s door across the hall. Quickly putting on a robe, she opened her door and stepped out into the hallway. Two men turned and stared at her.
“What’s going on out here?” she asked, trying to sound like she’d been disturbed from her sleep.
A large man with grey hair and a neat beard swept off his hat. “Sorry, ma’am. Hanson here thought there might be some—”
“She’s one of them,” Hanson said, looking slightly embarrassed.
“Her?” The bearded man frowned at Hanson. Josephine took note of the badge pinned to the man’s belt and the large revolver in his holster.
“I told you they rented two rooms,” Hanson reminded him.
“What you said…” The man started to argue with Hanson, then said, “Oh, never mind.” He turned to Josephine. “I’m Sheriff Luke Avery. Mr. Hanson here had some concerns about the… odd way you chose to arrive this morning.”
“He didn’t seem too concerned when he took our twenty dollars,” Josephine said, giving Hanson a hard look. The man’s face turned a dark crimson before he became very interested in the floor.
Sheriff Avery looked at Hanson, then continued, “Be that as it may, we’ve had some dangerous characters come through here headed south. Seems like gangsters prefer Florida vacations, just like everyone else.”
“You think we’re gangsters?” Josephine could hardly keep a straight face.
“Ma’am, you got to admit that showin’ up here at the crack of dawn was a bit unorthodox. Bribes aside.” He cast another hard look at Hanson, who’d obviously failed to mention the exchange of cash. “Seems your traveling companion cut a rather rakish figure.”
“That’s easily explained. He’s from Romania. A baron, in fact.”
“I see. Well, I’d like to meet this baron,” Avery said, and it didn’t escape Josephine’s notice that he placed his hand on the butt of his revolver when he said it.
“I’m sure that he will be delighted to meet you. He’s asleep right now, but plans on being up about sundown so that we can continue on our way,” she said, trying to sound perky and good-humored.
“Now,” the sheriff said.
Josephine could tell that he’d seen right through her stalling tactics. What could she do now? Finding Blasko in his coffin wasn’t going to make the sheriff any more relaxed about their presence in town.
“I’m afraid the baron is very allergic to the sun.”
“I’ve never heard of that.” His manner toward her hardened.
“Nonetheless, it is a medical condition.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not going to take him for a walk down the pier. I just want to get my eyes on him and make sure he doesn’t have a poster down at the post office, if you get my drift.”
“I do. I guess it would be all right if he doesn’t have to go outside,” Josephine said, her voice raised. She hoped that Anton had been hearing all of this and was doing whatever he needed to wake Blasko and prepare him to meet the lawman.
“By the way, what is your relationship with… the baron?”
Josephine didn’t mind the question if it gave Anton and Blasko more time to get ready. She even thought she heard a slight noise coming from Blasko’s room.
“He’s a distant cousin. I met him last year when I went to Romania to spread my grandfather’s ashes. We got to know each other and I invited him to come to America for a visit. I live in Sumter, Alabama. Now that the heat is so atrocious, I thought it was the perfect time to come down to Florida and show him what a wonderful state y’all have,” Josephine said, laying it on thick to give Blasko more time.
“I see. Let’s meet this baron,” Sheriff Avery said and abruptly turned back to the door. He brought his fist d
own with four sharp knocks.
“Yes?” said Anton from the other side.
“That’s his… my father,” Josephine said, barely remembering her earlier lie.
“I’m the sheriff. I’d like to have a word with you and the baron.”
“Of course,” Anton said, opening the door slowly. The sheriff became impatient and half pushed Anton out of the way. Behind him, Josephine could see the dark silhouette of the baron standing at the back of the room. The portable coffin had been disassembled and the curtains carefully pulled together so that no light shone into the room.
The sheriff clicked on the overhead light and squinted at Blasko, who stood silent in his silk dressing gown.
“You the baron?”
“I am,” Blasko said politely. Josephine was glad to see that he was on his best behavior. If for any reason the sheriff became irritated, he could drag Blasko out into the open, which would not end well. She suspected that Blasko would not allow himself to be pulled into the daylight without a fight. Josephine hoped she wouldn’t get to see how such a confrontation played out.
“You got papers?” the sheriff asked suspiciously.
“As a matter of fact, I have my passport,” Blasko said, pulling a small booklet out of his suitcase like a magician retrieving a rabbit from a hat.
Don’t overdo it, Josephine thought. She also wondered where he’d gotten the passport. It was the first she’d heard of it. When they’d come to the States, he’d arrived traveling with the baggage.
Sheriff Avery inspected the document carefully.
“Did I hear you say that you thought we might be gangsters?” Blasko asked with a smile.
“We keep an eye on strangers these days.” Sheriff Avery handed the passport back to Blasko. Josephine could tell by his expression that he wasn’t happy. “Where are you all headed?”
“Cedar Island,” Josephine said, glad that she could step in. She didn’t trust Blasko not to do or say something stupid that could get them all in hot water… or bright sunlight, as the case may be.
Hearing their destination, Sheriff Avery clenched his teeth. “You might want to reconsider that plan.”