Dark Red And Deadly

by Frederick Zackel

  The two reached the screen door where the body of Jeremiah Quint was. Now there was only a splotch of blood to mark the spot.

  Doctor Wu said, "One of them reloaded here. We found an unfired shell. As we figure it, he was reloading his weapon—there are ejection scratches on the casing—and he jammed the shell in back assward."

  Hartman said, "Forensics can't match shotgun shells, Deanna."

  "No, but we can match marks made in loading and extracting the shells, if you can locate the shotgun used here."

  "A shotgun shell, and all you need is the shotgun it was jammed into?"

  Doctor Wu nodded. "The dead man was shotgunned twice, struck in the back and again in the left side of his face. Also, there are machete marks on his face after he fell to the ground."

  "Ambushed when he stepped outside?"

  Doctor Wu corrected him. "He got one shot off with his handgun before they got him."

  "Good for him."

  "We think one of them was hit." Doctor Wu pointed to another blood stain in the dirt.

  Hartman called for a deputy and told her, "Get on the horn to Dispatch, alert all medical units, emergency rooms, County General, be on the lookout for any gunshot victims."

  Then Hartman and Doctor Wu toured the kitchen.

  Hartrman pointed out the gunshot holes in the kitchen walls. "Any other room like this?"

  "No."

  Doctor Wu took Sheriff Hartman upstairs and through the master bedroom. "Two dead in this closet. First he blew a hole through the door, then he opened the door and fired the other barrel at extreme close range."

  Hartman was horrified. "Oh my God!"

  "She was shot once under the right arm. She raised her arm to defend herself and to protect her baby."

  Hartman interrupted her. "The second man got so pissed at his partner getting hit, he went inside the house and wasted anyone and everyone he could find."

  Doctor Wu said sadly, "That's how I figured it."

  Then Hartman and Doctor Wu went in the children’s bedroom.

  Doctor Wu said, "The boy made it to the rear window. Trying to make his escape—"

  Hartman was hoarse. "Those miserable stinking lowlife dirty dogs!’

  * * *

  Inside Jeremiah Quint's safe house, which stood on neighboring property, Jimmy Quint broke a window was broken with a rock. Jimmy Quint, who was still grieving and weeping, broke into the safe house and went directly to a floorboard that he ripped up. Under the floorboard were several weapons. Jimmy Quint took up handfuls of ammunition, several automatic pistols and a mini-14 semi-automatic rifle, then left the way he came.

  * * *

  Sheriff Hartman sat with Terry Rafferty at the Quint kitchen table. Special Agent Jack Draper stood behind them by the sink. Sheriff Hartman was reading Rafferty's identification in his wallet.

  Hartman said, "What's an investigator from Washington doing here?"

  Rafferty said, "I'll tell you in private."

  Draper was angry. "Bullshit! He's a buyer from the Mainland."

  Repulsed by the DEA agent’s paranoia, Rafferty asked Hartman, "Is he always this hyper?"

  Hartman said, "Jeremiah Quint was a grower. You were seen meeting with him last night."

  Draper told Rafferty, "You're the only one alive here now."

  Rafferty told Hartman, "Call the Senator. He'll vouch for me."

  Thoughtfully, Sheriff Hartman left the table and picked up the telephone on the counter.

  * * *

  Nora Buchanan answered the knocking at her back door. She watched as Mad Dog and Lester carried the semiconscious Tomo Oteas inside her apartment. His bloodied shirt was matted against his wound, his eyes were closed and his head rolled around.

  Nora was horrified, crushed, agonized. "Tomo!"

  Mad Dog said, "Where do you want him, Nora?"

  Nora said, "In my bed."

  Nora followed them and watched Mad Dog and Lester place Tomo on her bed. She examined him and then discovered how bad his wound was.

  "He got shot by raiders," Lester said.

  Nora said, "He has to go to County General."

  Lester punched Nora in the head. She staggered sideways, nearly fell. He punched her again. This time she hit the floor. Mad Dog stopped him from kicking her in the face.

  Mad Dog spoke calmly to Nora. "We'll get you whatever you need, Nora, but he'll get well here in your apartment."

  Lester threatened Nora. "Understand, bitch?"

  Nora told Mad Dog, "Get him out of my apartment."

  Lester tried to punch her again, but Mad Dog stopped him.

  Mad Dog said, "That's enough, Lester."

  Nora caught on. "Oh god, what did you get Tomo into?"

  Mad Dog said, "The Sheriff busted his grandfather's farm, busted all his dope, his grandfather, too, and shot up Tomo here."

  Nora was stung. "You crazy—"

  Lester went to punch her again. She ducked.

  Mad Dog said, "Go wait in the truck, Lester."

  Snarling, Lester left the room.

  Mad Dog told Nora, "Don't come between me and my son. It won't work."

  Helpless against this crazy logic, Nora reexamined Tomo's wounds.

  Nora said, "In the bathroom under the sink there's a cardboard box marked with a red cross."

  Nora heard a gun cocked. She saw Mad Dog had his gun at her head.

  Mad Dog warned her, "I will kill you if you try taking him to the hospital. Understand?"

  Nora was desperate. Worse, she was powerless.

  * * *

  Terry Rafferty and Sheriff Hartman sat at a picnic table beneath a flame tree in Quint’s back yard. Rafferty now sported a bandage.

  Hartman said, "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

  Rafferty was stone-faced. "I was married to a CIA combat instructor. We divorced, but not before she had taught me more than I wanted to know about hand to-hand combat."

  Hartman was cold and disbelieving. "What are you doing here?"

  Rafferty lied, saying, "The Senator asked me to look in on one of his former employees, find out if and when he can return to work. He's been staying with his older brother here, and his brother's wife and their kids."

  "What's he doing in Hawaii?"

  Rafferty admitted, "He had a nervous collapse."

  Hartman said, "What's his name?"

  "James Sebastian Quint," Rafferty said.

  "Where is he right now?"

  "I don't know. He was living in a tent by a waterfall in Wild Banana Gulch."

  "Do you think James Sebastian Quint could have done this?"

  Rafferty was emphatic. "No, Jimmy's the gentlest man I've ever met. Besides, more than one person had a hand in this."

  "Why say that?"

  "Jeremiah Quint got at least one shot off before somebody else came up and blasted him in the back. There's a fresh bloodstain eight yards away from him."

  "Tell me about Jimmy Quint going nuts with a gun in the kitchen."

  "How did you know?"

  "We got eleven holes in the plaster made by a weapon that wasn't used anywhere else in the house."

  Rafferty said, "Jimmy found his family massacred, he was in shock, started jerking the trigger at anything, and it just happened to be me."

  "He's a lousy shot," said Hartman.

  Rafferty agreed, saying, "Thank God."

  Hartman was pensive. "You know, I don't care about dopers killing dopers—in some ways that's the best of all possible worlds—but when they start killing women and children—"

  As Special Agent Draper approached, Hartman asked, "Any drugs in the house?"

  Draper would not concede defeat. "If there isn't any, that's because the killers got it." He glared at Rafferty.

  * * *

  The Strike Force and Rafferty followed overhead electric wires over a hillside to what looked like an abandoned chicken coop covered with army surplus camouflage netting.

  The chicken coop was actually three buildings
in one.

  In the first part they discovered Jeremiah's research laboratory. The deputies found some bookshelves, chairs and a desk, drug paraphernalia, photo albums, weight scales, records and labels, marijuana manuals, plant food and Jeremiah's seed bank. His seed bank was a tackle box, with each drawer labeled and filled with seeds from all over the world.

  Behind his laboratory they found a greenhouse with two-inch starter planters, some mature plants in two-foot plastic pails, and a patch of seven footers in gravel-filled tubs. The coop also held cultivation gear. There were gardening tools, rodent traps, pesticides, camouflage paint, irrigation pipes, and chlordane.

  Lastly, the Strike Force found a weapons stash, including Uzis, shotguns, pistols and hand grenades, in the storage space in the rear of the coop.

  Hartman, awed, told Rafferty, "He wasn't the biggest grower on the island. Just the best."

  Draper approached. "We found his garden."

  Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty exchanged looks.

  * * *

  The Strike Force and Rafferty came over a hillside and discovered where Jeremiah Quint's marijuana garden had been. Now there were only the several hundred stumps left behind from harvesting. Everyone wandered aimlessly, until Sheriff Hartman gestured to his men to fan out and looked around. Deputies went off in all directions

  Jimmy Quint squatted in the bushes, fiddling with his brother's semi-automatic rifle, when three prowling deputies came face to-face with him. Startled, Jimmy fired his rifle at their direction. The deputies hit the dust, drawing their weapons, while Jimmy took off running.

  The Strike Force heard the rifle shot. Sheriff Hartman sent Draper and several deputies after the shooter.

  Jimmy Quint ran through the woods. The three deputies fired after him, then ran after him. Draper and the deputies crashed through the underbrush. They made much noise.

  * * *

  Draper approached Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty. "He got away, Sheriff.

  Rafferty said, "What did he look like?"

  Draper said, "Sunburned, skinny and hairy."

  Rafferty said, "Jimmy Quint."

  Hartman was amused. "He's still a lousy shot."

  Rafferty was not amused.

  * * *

  Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty walked to a Sheriff's Department helicopter. A bumper sticker on the runner read "If you can read this, you're too close." Alice Taylor, the pilot, waited there. With man-hungry eyes, she looked Rafferty over, practically licking her lips over him.

  Alice gave him her best smile. "I'm Alice Taylor. What's your name?"

  "Rafferty. Just Rafferty."

  They all climbed into the chopper, Rafferty beside the pilot, and Hartman in the back. After a minute of warm-up, the helicopter leaped straight up into the air. The pilot spun the tail 360 degrees and flew off fast.

  The helicopter skimmed the treetops at full speed. Inside Rafferty and Sheriff Hartman watched the landscape zipping under them. All wore headphones.

  Rafferty realized Alice kept turning her head to look at him. In fact, she was paying more attention to Rafferty than to the sky ahead of them.

  Alice told Rafferty, "I've got tomorrow afternoon off. I'd love to spend it with you. How about lunch and drinks?"

  Sheriff Hartman was surprised and bemused.

  "I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings," Rafferty said.

  Alice seemed temporarily satisfied.

  The helicopter skimmed over the treetops at full speed.

  Alice told Rafferty, "Have you ever made love in a helicopter?"

  Before Rafferty could answer, the chopper shuddered and bucked, and Alice goosed the stick. Then the chopper roared ahead.

  Rafferty and Sheriff Hartman watched Alice flying.

  Rafferty looked over his shoulder. "Is she always like this?"

  "Only when she's flying. She's worse driving a car."

  Alice looked back. "Did you say you wanted to walk?"

  * * *

  The Sheriff's car drove uphill in backcountry Hawaii.

  Rafferty said, "Where are we going now?"

  Hartman said, "Paula Grayson. Audrey Quint's sister."

  Sheriff Hartman parked his car in Paula Grayson's driveway. Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty left the car and walked towards the house.

  Paula Grayson, a housewife in her early twenties who wore braces on her teeth, saw them coming and stepped from the house to meet them. "Sheriff?"

  Hartman said, "May we come in?"

  Reluctantly, Paula Grayson let them inside her house.

  Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty took turns telling Paula Grayson what happened to her sister and her family. She was horrified and anguished.

  Paula disbelieved. "All of them?"

  Hartman said, "Yes.

  Paula wept and told the heavens above, "God help me!"

  Hartman told Paula, "We need somebody to identify the bodies."

  Paula wept and hugged herself.

  * * *

  Tomo Oteas lay in Nora's bed in her bedroom, pale and sweating, his body shuddering. Nora sat on the edge of the bed reading a thermometer. Henry Oteas stood near, not knowing what he could do, but waiting to help out.

  Nora said, "He needs blood, Henry. Antibiotics, too."

  "I give him my blood, " Henry said.

  Nora was skeptical. "What's your blood type?"

  Henry dug out his wallet and a dog-eared Red Cross card. Nora read the card, then shook her head.

  "You're not his blood type," Nora said. "Neither am I."

  Tomo stirred and whimpered. His eyes opened; he saw Henry and Nora hovering. Tomo said with great difficulty, "Peacocks—"

  Henry was horrified. He told Nora, "I heard about the raid in jail. Jeremiah Quint's whole family got wiped out. Massacred. Even the children." With great difficulty, he said, "They had peacocks for watchdogs."

  Nora didn’t understand what Henry was saying.

  "I didn't connect it—" Henry said.

  Tomo opened his eyes again. He was conscious and more aware. Seeing Nora, he said, "Nora?" And smiled as best as he could.

  Nora said, "Tomo, were you at Jeremiah Quint's this morning?"

  Tomo couldn’t hear her through with the pain. "I got shot—shot by that haole Quint."

  "Tomo, did you shot anybody?"

  Tomo shook his head.

  Henry said, "Tomo, did you see anybody shoot anybody?"

  Tomo shook his head. He whispered, "I'm sorry, honey. I got drunk and stupid."

  Henry and Nora caught on; they were horrified.

  Nora howled: "No! No!"

  * * *

  Yee’s Place was a roadside restaurant specializing in family style Chinese food. Sheriff Hartman and Rafferty ate Chinese lunch together.

  Hartman said, "Jimmy Quint's no longer in Wild Banana Gulch.

  Rafferty said, "How many other gulches are there?

  "What made him go native?"

  "About six months ago he met a woman in Washington and they fell in love. Three days later they got married," Rafferty said. "So off they went on their honeymoon. Off to the South of France. One morning they got up early, felt like going for a swim. A rip tide took her. He tried to save her, but she drowned. Jimmy's life crashed around him. He came here to hide out."

  Sheriff Hartman was abruptly cold and distant. "A heart-breaker. Am I s'posed to believe it?"

  "She was my ex-wife."

  Hartman believed Rafferty, then grunted. "Now I feel stupid."

  "Jimmy thinks I blame him for it," Rafferty said. "That he failed to save her. But I don't. And that's why I have to help him. To prove that to him. Any word on Eddie Ka’aina yet?"

  "He's better. But he still has a long way to go.

  "And his assailant?"

  "Lester Rahler. He's still out there somewhere." Hartman was pensive.

  "His father they call the Mad Dog."

  "Nobody calls themselves Mad Dog unless they expect to be shot dead in the streets."

  "Mad Dog
got his name in the Oahu State Penitentiary. One of those classic hand-to-hand combat stories in the laundry room. He was separated from his homies, fought a duel to the death with some wacko. Mad Dog won by clenching his teeth on the other man's windpipe until he was dead."

  "Christ!"

  "Mad Dog himself was nearly dead by this time. It was a toss-up whether to carry him out or leave him for the scavengers. And it wasn't long before the legends started filtering out of the cellblock about the asshole who kills like a mad dog."

  "And Lester's his son?"

  Hartman remembered. "When I was just a deputy starting here, the Sheriff once had Lester Rahler arrested for biting an attack dog."

  "Seriously—,"

  Hartman said, "Seriously. " His voice was like ice. "Lester is a lunatic. When the heat came over him, you will have to kill him to stop him."

  "Do you think Lester and Mad Dog could have whacked Jeremiah and his family?"

  "They could have done it, yes."

  "How is your search going for the killers?"

  "Catching them will be easy. They're on an island. They got nowhere to run. And I've got the privilege of hunting them down."

  "Good hunting, my friend. Be careful."

  "Wanna ride along?"

  "I've got to find Jimmy before he gets hurt or hurts someone else."

  * * *

  Lester and Mad Dog were together, with Lester driving. Lester fisted his truck horn, stuck his head out the window and screamed at the truck ahead of his.

  "Are you deaf as well as dumb and blind!" Lester screamed.

  A sugar cane truck, as big as a two-storied house, crowned by cane stalks, was blocking Lester's truck. At the first opportunity, Lester passed it like a rocket.

  Mad Dog said, "Relax, Lester."

  "We gotta get off this island," Lester said.

  "We will when the heat's off."

  "It ain't never gonna be off of us after what we did."

  Mad Dog corrected his son. "After what you did."

  Lester was itchy. "We gotta get off this island."

  Mad Dog said, "We need money to get away."

  "Where we gonna get money?"

  "Jeremiah Quint just sold his crop, right?"

  "He's dead, daddy, remember? We don't even know where his money is."

  Mad Dog said, "I wonder how hard it'll be to find."

  "You think it's still up there?"