Devil Girls

by Ed Wood

  “You’re holdin’ the pat hand,” replied Jockey. “This deal anyway.”

  “Glad you see it my way Jockey, since this is the only time we’re dealing in this game.” He turned away, but before going he snapped his last words to Claude. “Keep your gun on them and don’t waste time talking if they make a funny move.”

  “They ain’t going no place.” And as Lark moved back along the deck toward the bridge ladder, Claude once more moved the pistol menacingly at his captives. “Why don’t you two sit down on the anchor rope there where I can watch you better? Besides, you’ll be more comfortable. It’s quite a way back to the dock.”

  “Chief know—Chief rowed,” grunted the big Indian as he squatted down beside Jockey on the anchor rope.

  Lark walked across the bridge and entered the wheel house where he snapped on the ignition. He listened for the motors to purr into being, then looked to Lila who had followed him inside. “Get your girls loaded up. Claude’s got the stuff in the bow. I want them loaded and ready to jump ashore the second I hit the dock. I don’t want any waiting around or delays.”

  “You’re taking The Phantom in?” she asked, her voice a high-pitched entity of surprise,

  “Stop asking fool questions and do as you’re told. You got just about nine minutes to load up and have the girls at the starboard rail.”

  Without another word, Lila raced out of the wheel house and Lark pressed a lever marked “ANCHOR”.

  Claude bellowed in hysterical glee as the anchor rope pulling the chair moved suddenly under Jockey and Chief. Both men fell flat on their faces on the deck.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Lila, with Dee’s help, had the narcotics spilled from their waterproof coverings and spread out on the galley table before the other girls arrived on the scene. It was the largest haul any of them had ever seen, and Babs remarked about it as her eyes bugged at the array of pills, glassine-enclosed powders and small, flat bricks of pressed marijuana. “Man,” she said. “If this ain’t a junkie’s paradise.”

  “That’s more’n a million bucks you’re lookin’ at, fruitcake,” jeered Lila. “So get it in your girdle and make it quick. You ain’t got much time.” Lila concluded her orders at the galley entrance, then went out as the girls began to strip off their outer clothing.

  Hollow, foam rubber falsies received their share of narcotic padding. Girdles with built-up sides and fannies, also of hollow foam rubber with hidden accesses were soon stuffed to capacity. Small plastic vials found their way into the vagina and rectum. Smaller glassine packets were glued under false finger- and toenails. Smooth arms and legs suddenly developed ugly theatrical make-up scars which could hide a pill or two.

  Dee loaded up quickly, then, as she buttoned her sweater, she looked across to Rhoda who, fully dressed, made her way through the galley door as she headed for the deck. Surprised that anyone could have beaten her in loading up and getting dressed since she had started first, she went went out after the girl. Rhoda leaned over the railing looking toward the dock which was gettting closer with each passing moment when Dee leaned in beside her. “You must be in a hurry to load up that fast.”

  Rhoda did not look to her. “I didn’t take any.”

  “Lila will kill you!”

  “So she’ll kill me!”

  “Well, look at it another way. Think of all the loot.”

  “I’m not sure I want any of it . . . now.”

  “You gotta be crazy.”

  “It doesn’t seem important anymore.” Her eyes held a vacant stare which bothered Dee. They appeared to be looking but not seeing anything. “I didn’t think I’d ever want anything more than I did gold—and good times—and excitement. I guess I lived it day and night. Gold! Bread! Loot! I quit school to get it. Money was the only thing that was important in the whole world to me and I didn’t care much how I got it. And I liked it so’s I could buy fly juice and powder! Pot! Hashish! Now it’s all changed. I don’t want any of it. Why fly when there’s no place left to fly?”

  Dee shrugged broadly. “You know what I think? I think you’re loony. I think you’ve flipped your everlovin’ wig. I never heard such a thing. Don’t like bread? You better not let your sister hear you talkin’ that way.”

  “Just leave me alone, will you Dee?”

  Dee’s eyes hardened. “That’s the way you want it? Okay! But don’t cry to me when Lila feeds your tits to Babs.” The girl walked off toward the fan tail where several of the other girls had already started to gather for their quick disembarkation.

  Although Chief still faced Claude and his gun, Jockey looked out over the bow railing to the dock. The lights seemed to be coming toward them instead of the other way around. Claude beamed self-confidently. “Don’t let the sight of dry land throw you, boys. We’ll be out to sea again in a few minutes.”

  “I can hardly wait,” muttered Jockey without turning around.

  Claude moved a step closer to Chief and prodded him a few times with the muzzle of his gun. “You know how I’m going to give it to you, big shit?” He watched the Indian’s eyes and saw no change in them. “Slow! Real slow! I want you should see the fishes that’s gonna eat your insides for a long time before you die. I owe you plenty for that beatin’ you give me the other night. I only wish I had a window I could throw you through before you hit the water down there.” He stepped back again to his original position a few paces from Chief. “Now sit down behind the rail guard so you can’t be seen from the other side.”

  Jockey turned on Claude as Chief did as he was told. “You better lay off him. He might get real mad.”

  Claude tapped his gun with his left hand. “This makes me as big as him. Maybe even bigger.”

  “What makes you think one little bullet can stop a big hulk of an Indian like him?”

  “I’m an excellent shot,” bragged Claude.

  “So was General Custer,” grinned Jockey.

  Rhoda stood in the shadows just below the wheel house but she could see Claude and the others quite clearly. She didn’t like to see Jockey hurt, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She felt alone, against everyone else, and she felt even more alone as Lark maneuvered the trawler’s starboard side into the dock, with the bow facing toward the open sea in case he had to make the sudden getaway he felt he was ready for.

  Having been given their orders, and told that there would not be time to tie up, the girls began jumping to the dock as soon as the boat hit it.

  Lark kept the starboard side hitting the piling with all the pressure his motors could afford. He didn’t want any of the girls slipping into the water where he would lose any of the stuff, and as the last one jumped to the dock he turned to Lila. “Now you get ashore.”

  Lila’s mouth fell open. “I thought I was going across the border with you . . . you said . . .”

  Lark cut her off. “That don’t go any more, broad. You and your crazy sister have been enough trouble. How long you think it’s going to take them to find out it was you two who did in Lonnie and Rick? Beat it. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep your mouth shut. I’ve got friends inside prison as well as outside. Maybe the judge won’t give you the big black, but one of my friends and a shiv will. You couldn’t prove nothin’ against me anyway. Just cause me a lot of trouble. There’s no room for PIGS in the BIG TIME!”

  “They’ll grab me.”

  “That’s your problem. Get going.” And he slapped her a sharp crack across the face which sent her out of the door and to the bridge railing.

  As she came away from the railing, rubbing her arm where it had cracked against the railing, she glared at the man in the wheel house with all the hatred she possessed. “Oh brother! Bastard, are YOU going to be sorry you did that!” She moved off toward the bridge ladder. “I once said . . . only once.”

  Unseen by the others, Rhoda slipped over the side and into a dark spot on the dock near a thick set of pilings. It was easy for her to grab up a mooring rope which dangled over t
he starboard side of the trawler, and she fastened it to an iron dock link. The boat was at least temporarily secured to the dock.

  Lark shifted into forward gear and pressed the accelerator lever forward. The boat shot out to the end of the line, then snapped to a dead stop. Lark slid to the deck near the wheel.

  Claude lost his footing and fell into the arms of the seated Indian. The giant arms went around the man like giant boa constrictors. Claude’s back snapped before he could utter a sound.

  In the same jerking action, Lila tumbled forward and slid over the gun Claude had dropped. She quickly grabbed up the gun and disappeared back under the wheel house just as the floodlight from the dock covered the entire ship, and Sheriff Buck Rhodes’ voice came over a bull-horn. “You on the boat! All of you! Put your hands up and come ashore.”

  “Claude,” screamed Lark from the deck of the wheel house. His leg was broken. “Claude, for Christ’s sake cut that rope . . . Claude!”

  “He’s dead,” said Lila from the doorway, and she fired the pistol. The bullet went straight into his left eye.

  Lark died without a sound. Only a look of terror.

  But the sound of the shot brought a volley from the police on the pier. Lila ducked down behind the bridge guard, then made her way down the ladder. She belly-crawled along the deck until she found a dark spot near the stern, then she climbed over the side and came up behind Rhoda. She locked her strong left arm around the younger girl’s neck.

  “We’ve got all the girls. The rest of you come out,” shouted Buck’s voice over the bull-horn again.

  “You just stay back. I’m comin’ through your lines, or my sister gets it!” screamed Lila, and the searchlights were turned on her. She held Rhoda securely around the neck with her left arm, and the pistol ready for instant action with the right.

  “Put that girl down,” ordered Buck.

  “Lila,” came the voice of Reverend Steele as he stepped up beside Buck. “This is not the way.”

  “You get back, preacher, or you’ll be meetin’ that Lord you’re always talkin’ about before you grow another minute older.”

  “She means what she says!” The voice from the darkness, hoarse and weak, caused the lawmen and Reverend Steele to look around. Mrs. Purdue, clutching her side where the blood had soaked through her coat, came out of the darkness.

  “Ma!” screamed Rhoda in utter disbelief.

  Lila pulled Rhoda back through an opening in the guard railing so that they stood on the deck of the trawler again as Mrs. Purdue, some few feet ahead of the police, walked toward them. “When my Lila shot her own father she was signing a death warrant for anybody she would ever point a gun at again!”

  “Shut up!” screamed Lila and fired a shot into the planking in front of the old woman. But Mrs. Purdue didn’t blink an eye. She moved forward. “Keep her back, or I swear I’ll gun her down where she stands.”

  “Please, Mrs. Purdue. Wait!” pleaded Reverend Steele.

  The voice caused the old woman to stop momentarily, only a few steps from the girls. She looked back to the Reverend. “I have little time for waiting,” she spluttered, then coughed bitterly.

  “We’d better humor Lila,” whispered Reverend Steele to Buck.

  “Yeah. Maybe we can get the other girl. If she gets to sea, she can’t get far. We’ll have the coastguard on it in minutes.” Then he raised his voice. “Okay, Lila. You let the others go and we won’t stop you from getting away. Just let the others go”

  “I feel safer this way. My sister and those jerks go with me.” She indicated Jockey and Chief who had remained in the bow. “Jockey and Chief get it first in case of trouble. My sister respects me,” she beamed but did not lessen her hold on Rhoda’s neck. “We’ll beat this rap yet, kid. You and me together. Just you and me, all the way.” Lila’s mind began to jump.

  “I don’t want to go with you, Lila,” sobbed Rhoda.

  “Sure you do. Say, who’s been gettin’ through to you? If I thought it was that Holy Joe up there . . .”

  “I want to go with them,” Rhoda pleaded.

  “Why, you yellow cow. You’re goin’ where I say. To hell maybe, but you’re goin’ with me.”

  “That’s my girl who said that,” rendered Mrs. Purdue and again started moving forward.

  “Please don’t go any closer, Mrs. Purdue,” pleaded Reverend Steele again. But the old woman continued until she stood only a foot or two in front of Lila and the gun.

  “My own daughter shoot me, Reverend Steele?” She smiled weakly and shook her head. “Maybe she’d shoot her own father dead, but not her own mother. She would have her little sister do that job for her.” Mrs. Purdue grimaced suddenly in complete pain. She doubled over slightly.

  “You’re hurt badly,” shouted Buck. “Please come back here, Mrs. Purdue, or I’ll have to come after you.”

  She straightened again. “Don’t do that Sheriff Rhodes. Don’t risk your life. She will not shoot me. And there may still be a chance to save my little Rhoda.” She looked sadly to Rhoda. “You ain’t all bad yet, Rhoda. You still got a chance. You got a lifetime ahead of you. Leave her now. She ain’t no good. You still got a chance.”

  “Shut up you fool. She ain’t leavin’ cause she can’t get outta’ this neck lock. She stays right here.”

  “We try!” The old woman began and the tears flooded her pain-tired eyes. “We try so very hard to do it all so right. We try so hard. Maybe we can’t do the things we’d like to do for our kids. Maybe we’d like to give them all the things in the world. But what do we do when we ain’t got it to give them? And ain’t got no way of getting it for them? But we try. We try ever so hard for them!” Then her eyes suddenly seemed to dry. They hardened noticeably and even Lila was taken back by the suddeness of the change. “We’ve talked long enough Lila. Rhoda, go up on the dock with the others.”

  “Another word outta’ you, bitch-bat . . .”

  “Don’t waste your bullet. I ain’t got much time left.” Then, softly for a brief instant, she looked to Rhoda again. “Under my bed is a package for you. A present. For your birthday tomorrow.”

  Rhoda cried unrestrainedly. “Ma! Ma! I’m sorry . . . so very sorry.”

  “Go to them, child, to your friends. Your real friends.” And the old woman leaned forward to brush her cheek with a kiss. In the same move she lightly took Lila’s arm from around her neck and pushed Rhoda behind her and toward the police beyond.

  Lila levelled the gun. “Come back here! Come back or you’re a dead broad!”

  Mrs. Purdue used every ounce of strength she had left as she pushed Lila’s arm upward and the gun fired harmlessly into the air. She at the same time pushed her backward and both, losing their footing, went over the guard rail and into the speeding propeller at the fan tail.

  Jockey raced forward tearing at his shirt. “Somebody cut that motor quick!” He dove over the stern as the police and Reverend Steele raced in to board the ship. The little man’s head came up for the first time just as the screw stopped its speeding revolutions, then he dove under again. After several minutes and many more dives, Chief reached over and pulled Jockey back aboard the ship. He looked to Reverend Steele who had his arm comfortingly around Rhoda’s shoulders.

  “Not a sign, Reverend. They’re gone,” he said slowly.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Buck and Reverend Steele stood looking through the Sheriff’s office window, across to the court-house as two of Buck’s deputies brought Rhoda out and put her into the back seat of an awaiting squad car. One of the deputies got in beside her while the other took his place behind the steering wheel.

  “She’s got a long, rough, lonely day ahead of her,” advanced Reverend Steele.

  Buck picked up a paper cup from the water cooler as he walked back to his desk where he took out the half-bottle of whiskey. “Join me, Hank?”

  Reverend Steele looked to him, shook his head, then turned back to look out through the window again.

  The Sh
eriff glanced from the bottle to the paper cup, then crumpled the paper cup, let it fall into his waste basket and took a long pull at the bottle before he fastened the cap and replaced it in the desk. “Illicit narcotics breed a lonely life.” He walked back to stand beside the clergyman at the window just as two hearses and several cars of a funeral procession passed. They watched intently as the squad car bearing Rhoda and the two deputies moved out from the curb and fell in immediately behind the last hearse.

  “How do you say a service for a nice old lady and a rotten daughter, both at the same time, Hank?” Buck was serious.

  Reverend Steele watched in silence until the last of the cars drove by. Then without turning he said strongly. “The Bible said it all for me, centuries ago . . . ‘Tho’ I walk in the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil’.”

  The two men walked out to the squad car which would take them along their street and to the cemetery at the edge of town.

  —THE END—