by PAUL BENNETT
‘We’ll meet again for my wedding,’ I said. ‘Better fix it soon before the baby arrives. Good to have everything legitimate.’
‘Can’t wait,’ said Red. ‘Seems like every time I meet you I turn out richer.’
‘In that case you better come to me next,’ said Stan. ‘Give my hotel and restaurant a kick start.’ He paused. ‘Forgot to tell you, Red, but I’m taking your cook. When you’ve found a replacement she’s going to join me.’
‘As a cook?’ Pieter said. ‘Beautiful girl like that deserves more.’
Stan blushed. ‘Let’s see what the future brings. Don’t want to rush things.’
‘Don’t want to delay either,’ I said. ‘In this life we’ve proved that you have to take your opportunities when they present themselves.’
‘Not content with planning Red’s life, you have to move on to mine,’ Stan said.
‘How about you, Pieter?’ I said. ‘What will you be doing?’
‘Back to the personalized high-end safari business. It’s the kind of life I like – freedom, the thrill of the wild – what you’ll see that day, how they’ll react. Clients are mostly good people, treat me with respect. Mind you,’ he said, ‘I’ll have to watch my weight from now on. I don’t want another punishing fitness regime from Bull when we next meet up.’
I looked at the remains of the apple tree. ‘We were lucky with that tree,’ I said. ‘I doubt whether we could pull that off a second time.’
‘Didn’t put him off, though, did it?’ said Bull. ‘Thought all he needed to do was overwhelm us with numbers.’
‘We’re an easy bunch to underestimate,’ said Pieter. ‘Old-fashioned values, old-fashioned skills. We’d have fitted in well in the old Wild West.’
‘Is that what we are,’ I said. ‘An anachronism?’ Bull looked at me and shook his head – showing off is probably what he was thinking. ‘Something living outside its time? Are we the new dinosaurs? Will guys like us cease to exist in the future? Be replaced by people who don’t care or don’t have the skills to do something about things? To make a difference?’
‘Too heavy for me, man,’ said Bull. ‘All I want to do is get back to St Jude and be with my family. And have another beer in the meantime.’ He stood up. Went inside. Came back with five more beers. Handed them around. ‘Let’s toast a successful mission,’ he said, ‘rather than getting melancholy.’
‘I’ll drink to that,’ said Red.
‘You’ll drink to anything,’ I said. ‘But it’s a good idea. Cheers.’ I looked out over his land towards the mountains. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The fields were a rich green, shining in the rays of he sun. ‘Hope your luck holds. This really is God’s land. Are you going to settle down here for good?’
He nodded. ‘Like to find a good woman to join me, though. It can be lonely out here, even with the ranch hands being around most of the time. Yeah,’ he said. ‘Time to settle down.’
‘There’s always Fey,’ I said. ‘She’d make a good wife. Pretty, too.’
‘Will you stop trying to plan out my life. Anyway,’ he said, ‘I don’t think I could cope with the diet, or the sweetcorn wine.’ He shuddered, involuntarily emphasizing the point.
I looked at my watch. Nearly time to go. ‘Are you all packed?’ I asked Bull.
‘What’s to pack?’ he said. ‘I travel light.’
‘We’ll leave the guns on our bunks,’ I said. ‘Maybe the miserable guy who runs the gunshop will buy them back off you.’
‘I might just keep them,’ Red said. ‘Kind of souvenir. And you never know when you’ll need a Kalashnikov or a sniper rifle.’
‘There is such a thing as being overcautious,’ I said.
‘And that from a man who buried his Browning,’ Bull said.
‘Touché,’ I said. ‘Hang on a minute. I was only following your lead.’
‘That’s no excuse. I never claimed to be a good role model.’ He laughed. ‘Still, it’s fun being sneaky sometimes.’
‘Are you only just discovering that? Red said.
‘I don’t have Johnny’s experience,’ Bull replied.
‘Time to go,’ I said. ‘Before someone else criticizes me.’
I stood up. Shook Stan’s and Pieter’s hands. Gave them a man-hug. Went off to the bunkhouse to collect my things. Took one last look at the weapons. Hoped I’d never have to pick one up again. That my adventures were over for good, rather than just for the time being.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Anna greeted me by jumping into my arms, wrapping her legs around me and giving me the biggest hug and kiss I’d ever had. Coming back makes up for going away.
Life on St Jude slipped into its casual routine. Bull and I would swim along the beach and run back each morning; he would take hotel guests out fishing on his boat; Anna and I would open up our bar/café and give the guests more of the flavour of the Caribbean at half the price. It was idyllic, even more so because I had Anna: life had never been so good.
We set a date and planned the wedding. We would keep it simple and have Bull and his family, the other three guys in the mercenary gang as our guests, together with my mother, Uncle Gus, Scout, Carlo and Natasha. They would all have to stay at the hotel, so we booked that first and worked around available dates. The wedding breakfast would be kept simple, too: a barbecue on the beach with lots of fresh fish, although if Stan got involved there was a likelihood that it would get more complicated, but conducted with military precision – plus pickled gherkins, of course.
By the time of the wedding Anna would be six months pregnant, but she was insistent on wearing a white dress. She went to Barbados with Mai Ling and came back with lots of bags which she hid secretly where I wasn’t supposed to find them. In a cabin as small as ours, that was difficult. We would need to start work on a bigger place that would accommodate three of us.
Bull was taking four men from the hotel on a marlin-fishing expedition and I was helping him with the preparations. I carried out a cool bag with beers and soft drinks and added a bottle of Cockspur rum. Anna was putting the finishing touches to some flying-fish sandwiches for their lunch. Bull and I stood on the jetty and looked out at the deep blue sea.
‘Do you ever get to wonder,’ he said, ‘why we ever leave this place?’
‘That’s two evers in the same sentence.’
‘Deserves it,’ he said.
‘You’re right,’ I said. ‘Has to be a really good reason. Apart from one of us, like Red, getting into trouble he can’t handle, there isn’t anything that would drag me away.’
‘Life’s good,’ he said simply.
‘You heard of hubris and nemesis?’
‘Who are they? Some new comedy double-act?’
‘Hubris means not tempting fate or the gods. Nemesis is what you get when you do so. The gods pull you back down to earth.’
‘What am I supposed to do? Touch wood when I say something good? Cross my fingers?’
‘Always best to keep your feet on the ground.’
‘If you say so,’ he said. ‘But it’s impossible to do it right here and now when nothing could be better.’
‘I know how you feel. Hard for me to see that it can’t get even better. A child is going to make a big difference to our lives. Like some sort of fulfilment. I know Anna feels that way and it’s hard to disagree. I only hope that I can handle the responsibility. Be a good father.’
‘Hell,’ he said, ‘you’ll make a great dad. You’re always thinking of other people. That won’t change.’
‘Pretty scary, though,’ I said.
He nodded. ‘But good at the same time. Believe me.’
Anna called across to me to tell me she’d finished making the sandwiches. I walked back to the bar and took another cool bag with them inside across to Bull. His guests were walking along the beach. Bull hailed them and started to make preparations for leaving. The men climbed on board and I stood on the jetty, casting off the ropes. I waved them goodbye. Walked back to the bar and stood there t
alking to Anna. A boat came into view and it moved towards the jetty. A man stepped off, made fast and walked towards the bar. He had on a flowery-print shirt over shorts that came halfway between his shins and his feet. He was wearing small steel-rimmed sunglasses that made him look like a myopic banker in disguise. He came up to the counter and ordered a cold beer. Then I felt the gun in the small of my back.
‘Don’t try anything funny,’ he said, ‘or the girl gets it.’
‘Hardly an original line,’ I said.
‘But effective,’ he said.
I nodded. No sense denying it. ‘The man in black?’ I said.
It was his turn to nod. ‘Let’s move into the shade.’
He turned me round, the gun not wavering from my back and indicated a table at the fringes of the bar. He picked up his beer in his left hand and we moved across to the table. ‘Sit over there,’ he said. ‘Put your hands on the table where I can see them.’
‘I’m only wearing a pair of shorts. There’s no place to conceal a weapon.’
‘Just do as I say,’ he said. He levelled the gun at my chest and sat down opposite me, just enough out of range of me so that my options were nil.
‘What brings you here?’ I asked.
‘I’ve got a reputation to uphold. Won’t do it any good if you beat me and get away with it. Nothing personal, but I’m going to have to kill you.’
‘If you’re going to kill me, I’d like three last requests.’
‘No harm in asking,’ he said.
‘First, I want your word that the girl is left out of this.’
‘It’s business,’ he said. ‘This is only between you and me. What’s next?’
‘I’d like to see your eyes.’
He smiled and took off his sunglasses. There was that cold glint of steel that I had expected to see.
‘Last,’ I said, ‘I’d like a cold beer. Might as well enjoy my final moments.’
‘Not unreasonable,’ he said.
I called across to Anna who, having worked out what was going on, was standing shaking at the bar. ‘I’d like a cold beer,’ I said. ‘One of the really cold ones at the base of the refrigerator. When you’ve got it, you stay behind the bar as safe as you can get. Throw the beer to me. Make it high so that I can catch it easily. Understand?’
‘Yes, Johnny,’ she said, her voice wavering with fear. ‘I understand.’
‘Why couldn’t you guys have left me alone?’ he said. ‘I gave you plenty of warning.’
‘As we did you.’
‘Cheap tricks; like shooting that tree and attacking the bikers at night. Molotov cocktails.’ He shook his head. ‘You are one lucky bastard.’
‘Looks like my luck has just run out.’
‘Reckon so,’ he said, stealing my catchphrase.
‘I’ve got your beer, Johnny,’ Anna called.
‘Do as I said, throw it high.’
‘Yes, Johnny.’
She dipped her hand under the bar and sent out a long looping throw. The man in black looked up and was momentarily blinded by the sun. It was all the edge I needed. I caught the Browning in my right hand and in one move aimed it at the man in black’s head and shot him between the eyes. He fell backwards and toppled off the chair. I ran across to Anna, opened the counter and put my arms around her. She buried her face in my neck and sobbed, shivering all the time as if she couldn’t get rid of the fear.
‘You did well,’ I said. ‘It’s all over now. Nothing’s going to hurt us.’
She stood up straight and looked me in the eye. ‘You were right,’ she said.
‘Not about the man in black,’ I said. ‘I thought we’d never see him again. That he had nothing to gain by seeking revenge.’
‘Not about that,’ she said. ‘About the gun. Thank God you didn’t throw it into the sea.’
‘I wasn’t sure you’d get my meaning. I owe my life to you and your quick thinking. Good throw, too.’
‘You have my permission to tape it under the bar like you used to.’ She gave me a thin smile. ‘Hold me tight,’ she said. ‘I never want to lose you. You’re too precious to me.’
I put my arms around her and pressed her body into mine. We must have stayed that way for a full five minutes, unmoving apart from our breathing.
‘What are you going to do about that?’ she asked, pointing at the man in black’s body lying on the sand.
‘I’ll phone the police on Barbados.’ There were no police on St Jude. There was no crime on St Jude. Not until today, that is.
‘Pour us both a large measure of rum,’ I said. ‘Purely medicinal. And before you say anything, one drink won’t harm the baby.’
I reached across the bar and picked up my mobile phone. The Barbados police said they’d come straight away. I looked at the body and the thin line of blood staining the sand red. I couldn’t very well leave it there like that. Not good for business. I dragged it into the shade behind the bar and covered it with a blanket from our cabin. And that was the end of the man in black.
The police came by helicopter, took a statement from me and loaded the body on board. Bull arrived back at that precise moment.
He shook his head. ‘I can’t leave you for a few hours without you leaving dead bodies all over the place.’
‘Only the one dead body,’ I said.
‘I was using the plural for dramatic effect.’
‘It worked,’ I said.
‘How’s Anna?’
‘She’ll be OK. She’s a strong woman with a cool head.’
‘We were wrong, weren’t we?’ he said. ‘He damn well came back. Is this that hubris thing you talked about?’
‘Reckon so,’ I said. ‘Never anger the gods by showing arrogance or committing the sin of pride.’
‘I’ll remember that,’ he said.
‘Pretty hard to forget after today.’
‘Reckon so,’ he said. ‘Is this the end of it?’
‘You better believe it. It’s the end.’
‘Until the next time,’ he said.
‘Reckon so.’
THE END
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