The Fairfax Incident

by Terrence McCauley

  I grabbed the countess by the arm and put the gun against her side. If she was frightened, she hid it well. “Same goes for you. Tell your boys to back off and we all take a nice quiet drive back to Manhattan. They rush us, you go first.” I pushed the gun a little harder into her ribs to make a point. In her native language, I said, “Just don’t forget I speak German.”

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t forget a thing about you.”

  I didn’t think she would. The klaxon kept wailing as I nudged her forward. “Ladies first.”

  Chapter 20

  The crowd in front of the bunkhouse door was twenty kids deep when we tried to leave.

  With Tessmer using both hands to try to keep Otto upright, Hauser aimed the Luger at the kids. “Clear a path. Move!”

  The campers backed away. Not as quickly as I would have liked, but enough for us to get out of the building. A gasp went up from the boys when they saw me step out with a gun against Alexandra’s side.

  I tensed up as she called out to the boys in English. “Do as they say, men. Don’t put yourselves in harm’s way. That is an order. They will be dealt with soon enough.”

  I spun her around so Hauser and I were back to back. The crowd moved with us, keeping a constant distance, but keeping pace, too, like a goddamned pack of wolves waiting for the chance to pounce. Teen trepidation and adolescent bravado didn’t mix with guns. I knew from experience.

  But I wasn’t fooling myself. We were moving because they let us move. Hauser and I were still outnumbered fifty to one. If one of these punks decided to be a hero and save a lady in distress, we were in trouble.

  Over my shoulder, I asked Hauser, “Anyone else in this place have guns?”

  “Yeah, but no bullets,” he answered. “The rifles are just for show. The two men at the gate are cops, but they’re my men. They’ll back our play. They didn’t sign on for this shit any more than I did.”

  Tessmer said something in German, and Hauser smacked him in the back of the head with his free hand. “Shut your mouth and move.”

  “You got a car here?”

  “Cars are left in town. Parents drop their kids off at the gate. Less attention that way. But we’ve got a truck we can use.”

  One of the oldest and biggest kids in the group charged through the line like a running back and came straight for me. I had enough time to shift Alexandra to the side and kick him in the balls. He went down like a sack of flour. Maybe I should’ve shot him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

  I pulled Alexandra closer to me as we walked backward, panning the crowd with my pistol. “Anyone else?”

  Seeing one of their leaders moaning in the mud killed their courage. The group backed up a little more, but the circle still followed. It faltered a bit as they stopped to help their friend, but they closed ranks pretty quick.

  Someone had trained these kids and trained them well.

  Someone who probably wasn’t with us. Like that crazy bastard who’d been yelling at them from the tower above the bonfire.

  I flinched when I heard what could’ve only been a bullet whiz through the air between Hauser’s head and mine.

  Hauser called it before I could think it. “Sniper in the watchtower. Center of the compound.”

  The kids all hit the deck, leaving the five of us exposed. Alexandra went dead weight, but I grabbed her around the waist and tried to keep her upright. My grip slipped from around her waist up to her neck.

  I lowered her slowly, taking a knee as I pressed my face right alongside hers. I tucked the .38 under her chin. “You do anything stupid, you die, and I grab one of the brats, got it? One hostage is as good as another to me.”

  Hauser moved Tessmer and the doctor in front of him as a shield and crouched behind them. “Damn it, that’s Burnitz.”

  I didn’t know who the hell Burnitz was, but I saw the outline of a man atop the tower. The bastard had a clear field of fire and was well out of range of our pistols.

  “You people built a regular base here, didn’t you?”

  “It’s supposed to teach the kids discipline,” Hauser yelled back at me. “Someone’s always on fire watch. Hell, some Boy Scout camps have the same thing.”

  Another round slammed into the ground about five yards in front of us.

  “Except the Boy Scouts don’t have snipers. I thought you said this camp didn’t have any bullets.”

  “Guess I was wrong,” Hauser admitted. “What are we going to do about it?”

  Alexandra struggled to get her wind with my arm around her throat. “You should do the sensible thing and surrender before Burnitz puts a bullet in your eye.”

  The camp speakers crackled to life as a heavily-accented German voice filled the air. “All unarmed personnel are to remain where they are until further orders. Hauser, you and your friend must throw away your weapons or you will be shot for trespassing. You have three seconds to obey my orders.”

  I stole a glance over at Hauser. “Is he that good?”

  “He’s supposed to be ex-German army. Talks big about being a sniper back in the war.”

  But the war had been a long time ago. I should know. I felt it in my bones every morning I climbed out of bed. I bet Burnitz felt it, too. Probably hadn’t shot at anyone in a long time, either. I wasn’t worried about his accuracy. I was worried about him getting lucky.

  But I’d had snipers shoot at me before and I was still around. I intended on keeping my streak going.

  I called out to Hauser, “We crab-walk out of here, back to back, using the krauts here as cover. I’ll cover the right side and the tower while you cover the left side of the road. I have a feeling Burnitz isn’t the only asshole in here with a gun.”

  “Imbeciles,” Alexandra rasped as I pulled her to her feet. She didn’t like it, but the .38 gave her incentive. When she got to full height, I wrapped my arm around her waist again. “Neither of you will make it out of here alive.”

  “Sure we will.” I tucked the .38 under her chin as we started moving sideways. “Just keep moving and everything will be fine. Don’t get any ideas about going for my eyes, either, or I squeeze the trigger and you die just like Walter.”

  “Burnitz will kill you before we get three paces.”

  “Then my hand will spasm and you die anyway. Ask Otto if you don’t believe me.”

  She must’ve believed me, because she moved without fighting me. Her hair was soft against my skin. Another time and place, I might’ve liked that, but I had other things on my mind just then.

  I kept her face just in front of mine as the five of us began walking sideways.

  We moved sideways as one. Hauser’s back to mine as we kept our prisoners as cover. In perfect conditions, a good sniper might still be able to take me down. But in near-dark conditions, with a burning bonfire just below him, Burnitz didn’t have much of a shot. And the war had ended a long time ago.

  Probably just long enough for a new one to start.

  I could see the outline of the man in the tower, the barrel of the rifle tracking us as we moved. But he hadn’t fired yet, even though we were well past his three second deadline.

  Why?

  We were more than halfway to the main gate when I heard someone call out, “Steve! What the hell is going on out there?”

  “Shut up and bring the truck out here. We’re leaving. Don’t ask questions, Donnie. Just do it.”

  To me, Hauser said, “Donnie and Jack are my guys. We’re safe with them, don’t worry.”

  But I didn’t have time to worry, even if I had wanted to.

  Fire tore through my right side as the countess flew out of my arms. She landed on top of some of the kids who were lying flat on the ground. I saw her as I fell to the ground. I knew by the size of the hole in her side she was already dead.

  I turned in time to see another of
the camp guards levering another round into a rifle. Hauser and I fired at the same time, hitting the man in the chest and head.

  I ignored the burning in my side as I scrambled for Tessmer, leaving the wounded doctor with Hauser. The two sons of bitches were the only trace of cover we had left.

  From his perch in the tower, Burnitz rushed another shot that went wide. One of the kids on the ground screamed, probably hit by the bullet.

  Donnie, Hauser’s man, drew his service pistol and began firing up at the sniper’s position. He must have been using a .45 because I heard round after round striking the tin roof of the watch tower.

  As I watched the outline of the sniper disappear, I knew this was our chance. Hauser and I practically dragged Tessmer and Otto toward the main gate. Tessmer bellowed for Alexandra, but I pushed him along. The effort took a lot out of me, but I had no choice. If Burnitz or one of his friends shot at us again, we were done for.

  We got past Donnie as he slapped a new clip into the .45. “Mike’s backing the truck up so we can all get the hell out of here.”

  A bullet slammed into a tree next to Donnie’s head. He returned fire, but didn’t stick around long enough to give Burnitz another shot. He fell in behind us, covering our flank.

  The kids on the ground looked like they wanted to chase us. They looked like they wanted to rip us apart. But with bullets flying around and a couple of their own injured, their brains overruled their balls.

  Mike backed up the truck and Donnie helped Hauser pull Dr. Otto into the flatbed while I kept a good hold on Tessmer’s neck. I felt my legs start to go and put more pressure on Tessmer. “Anyone have any cuffs for this one?”

  Tessmer saw his chance to get away and took it. He punched me in the right side, exactly where the bullet had gone through me. The shot took my breath away and strength along with it. I crumpled to the ground, fully expecting Tessmer to kick me in the face.

  But all I felt was Donnie and Hauser’s arms lift me up into the flatbed as the truck.

  The pain in my side spiked, and my world snapped into black as the truck sped away.

  ***

  I didn’t know how long I was out of it, but when I opened my eyes, I saw Tessmer hogtied next to me in the flatbed. I blinked my eyes clear and saw Hauser tending to Otto’s shoulder wound. The doctor was moaning as Hauser applied a makeshift bandage of torn clothing to dress the wound.

  Hauser must’ve noticed my eyes were open. “Look who decided to wake up. Have a nice rest, sweetie?”

  I tried to sit up, but the pain in my right side kept me on my back. “How long was I out for?”

  “About three hours.”

  Three hours? It didn’t make sense. I felt cold and tried to pull my coveralls over me. But my coverall was gone and so was my shirt. A field dressing had been placed over the bullet hole in my side. “You do this?”

  “Wasted all of the first aid supplies on you. Making due with what I’ve got left so the good doctor here doesn’t bleed out on us.”

  “I didn’t know you were a medic.”

  “I’m not,” Hauser admitted. “I’ve just had plenty of practice piecing guys back together after Carmichael’s done with them. Don’t thank me too much, though. The bullet went right through you, so I didn’t have to dig. You’ll be fine when we get to wherever we’re going.”

  That didn’t make any sense. I remembered them loading me into the truck and, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “About an hour after you passed out, you started babbling about some number you had to call. Kept saying it over and over again.”

  My chills got worse. It must’ve told him the number Mr. Van Dorn had told me to call in D.C. His private number, given away in my sleep like some goddamned drunk spilling his guts in a dive somewhere. “You didn’t call it, did you?”

  The doctor screamed as Hauser pulled the bandage tight over his wound. Hauser backhanded him. “Shut up, Otto. It’s better than you deserve.” Hauser moved to the other side of the truck to check on Tessmer’s bindings.

  “Of course I called it.” He fished out his cigarettes and offered me one. I reached for it, but the pain in my side made me stop. Hauser lit one for me and stuck it in my mouth, then lit one for himself. “Couldn’t have done us any harm, at least no more harm than the crazy bastards we left at the camp. I didn’t know it Mr. Van Dorn at first, but I figured it out soon enough. He was concerned as hell about you. Gave us an address in Delaware where we can go to get you and Otto looked at while we hide out for a while. That Van Dorn guy doesn’t seem too bad, considering how rich he is.”

  I didn’t give a damn about this. “Did you tell him about Alexandra? About—”

  “I tried to, but he cut me off. Said we’d talk about it in Delaware.” He rolled the lit cigarette between his fingers. “So you really have been working for Van Dorn all this time. And here I was thinking you were working for the Fairfax widow. Funny how things aren’t always what you think they are, ain’t it?”

  I took a drag as I looked at his uniform. “Just like I hadn’t pegged you for a goddamned Nazi.”

  “Knock that shit off,” Hauser said. “I’m no more a Nazi than I am Chinese.” He blew smoke at Otto, which made him cough and paw at his wounded shoulder. “I’ve grown up my whole life ashamed of my father being German. The poor bastard was already here when the war broke out and they wouldn’t even let him enlist. Instead, they had him shoveling shit for cavalry horses in a stable up in the Bronx. So when the Bund started up, I went to a couple of meetings. Suddenly, people weren’t hiding the fact they were German anymore. We were having events and picnics and speaking our language again, openly.”

  “Yeah.” I patted my field dressing. “You bastards throw a hell of a picnic.”

  Hauser flicked his ash at me. “Like I told you back there, it was our version of the Boy Scouts. We didn’t want kids growing up the way we did, thinking our people were monsters, that we were less than dirt. We got them out of the city and brought them to places like that camp back there, where they could get fresh air, play sports, and learn the parts of their heritage they weren’t getting in the schoolbooks.”

  The cigarette made me want to cough. Hauser’s nonsense made me want to gag. The pain from the hole in my side kept me from doing either. “Nice speech. Now that you’ve gotten it out of your system, try telling me the real reason.”

  Hauser finished his cigarette and flicked it out of the back of the truck. “That’s a hell of a way to talk to the guy who just saved your life.”

  I stifled a cough that made the pain in my side spike. “Knock it off. You’re Carmichael’s hatchet man, just like I used to be. He doesn’t give that spot to choirboys or saps gullible enough to fall for that Germanic pride bullshit.” As much as the pain fogged my brain, things began to make sense. “You wouldn’t be working for them without his permission, either. You two were playing some kind of an angle with these bastards, or else you would’ve shot me back there. Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Tessmer grunted and squirmed a little, but his binds held and the gag kept him quiet.

  Hauser smiled as he rested his head back against the wall of the truck. “You know, Charlie, you never get credit for having a brain. Everyone says Charlie Doherty is as crooked as the day is long. That he’s got file a mile high on everyone in the department. They forget you’re a smart cookie, Charlie. Myself included.”

  I wasn’t in the mood for compliments. “Gee, thanks. Now quit stalling and tell me the truth.”

  “The German pride bit was true,” Hauser admitted, “at least at first. But after I went to a few meetings, word got around that I was a cop. They started inviting me to parties and meetings where the rest of the members weren’t invited. They asked me to provide security for certain people, drive them around from time to time in my off hours.”

  “P
eople,” I said, “like Alexandra and Dr. Otto and Tessmer. And Fairfax, right?”

  Hauser looked at me, and must’ve read the expression on my face. I’d never been a very good poker player. “Yeah, and all I did was drive.”

  “And you reported everything you saw and did back to Carmichael, didn’t you?” He tried to talk, but I didn’t let him. “Don’t bother denying it. There’s no way you could dedicate that much time to these bastards without him knowing about it. And if you didn’t have his permission first, you would’ve been bounced off the force. How much did you tell him?”

  Hauser folded his hands over his knees. “Everything. I told him when they asked me to drive for them, and he let me do it as long as I told him everything, just like you said.” He closed his eyes. “Between my regular job and my night job for this crew and all the reports Carmichael made me right each day, I was run pretty ragged.”

  “I don’t blame you,” I said. “Being an accessory to murder is a hell of a weight on the soul.”

  He pushed himself off the truck wall and snatched me by the collar, his right hand back ready to punch me. I didn’t scream out when the pain in my side exploded. I didn’t try to defend myself either. I just let him hold me like a rag doll, making sure I kept eye contact with him the whole time.

  The rage passed as quickly as it had come. He let me go with a shove, returning to his seat against the truck wall. “I had nothing to do with that and you know it.”

  “Maybe you didn’t kill Fairfax or Blythe,” I said, “but you know who did.”

  Dr. Otto croaked something in German. “Traitor.”

  Hauser kicked at his leg and the wounded man went quiet again.

  Hauser lit another cigarette and looked at me through the smoke. “Carmichael and I suspected, but we didn’t know for sure. We knew Fairfax was close to the countess and these two here. When he killed himself, we didn’t know why. Carmichael white-washed it as an accident until he could get more facts. When Blythe turned up dead, we wondered if Alex and her friends weren’t covering their tracks somehow. No one thought of poison until you brought it up.”