by Jack Lacey
‘Exactly what it sounds like…’ he said revealing a knife, which he opened up with a deft flick.
I tensed as he placed the blade underneath my crutch.
‘You like that, boy?’
‘Not really.’
‘I think you do. You sure do look like some Limey fag to me.’
I didn’t reply, trying not to look intimidated.
‘And you know what we do with your type down here…boy?’
‘No.’
‘We cut off their queer dicks and shove them into their queer mouths.’
‘You want to play with my dick, is that it?’ I replied smartly, unable to hold my tongue.
He pulled away laughing, the sort of laugh that always pre-empts a physical response, then in what seemed slow motion, turned, spun around, and landed a hard right in my face with everything he had.
My head whiplashed to one side as I took the full impact. I spat out some blood and stared at him blankly as if unaffected. He was going to have to do a lot better than that to rough me up. He stepped closer again and slid the knife back under my genitals.
‘Think you’re tough, boy, do you?’
I didn’t answer.
‘Do you?’
I felt the knife press tightly up under my testicles, the blade paring through the fabric.
‘Where’s the girl?’
‘I want to know the same thing.’
‘Why are you trying to find her?’ he pushed, sounding more agitated. ‘Does she have something to give to you? A package?’
‘I don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about, Tony...’
‘Sure you do…’
‘Can I have some water at least, while we talk about this?’
He eyed me for a second, then turned and walked back to the truck. A moment later he returned with a canteen, which he then drank in front of me, intermittingly spitting water out in my face before throwing the half-empty bottle at my feet after he’d finished.
I watched the contents glug out onto the ground then felt even thirstier.
‘When you’re prepared to tell us the truth, you’ll get some, boy,’ he said kicking the empty bottle away. ‘For the final time, where’s the girl, and why are you trying to find her?’
‘You can cut my balls off and wear them as earrings, Tony, but you won’t hear anything different, okay, because I’m telling you the truth.’
He stared at me for a while blankly, as if debating how he would kill me, then walked behind me out of view. I tensed, waiting for the knife to slash across my wrists.
‘If you’re going to kill me, I’d rather you stuck the knife in my guts while you looked me in the face, like a fucking man,’ I said defiantly.
Lutz didn’t respond. I held my breath for what I thought was going to be the last time then felt the blade saw its way through the rope. As the last strands were severed I fell to my knees and felt the circulation pump its way back through the deep creases in my wrists and ankles.
‘Jesus...’
‘Next time it won’t be just the one fingernail we’ll pull if we find out that you’re lying,’ he said, replacing his knife with a gun.
‘Where in the hell am I anyway?’ I said, looking up at him as I rubbed my numb wrists back into life.
‘In a forest a long way away from home, buddy’ he said, offering another smirk.
I stared at the barrel of his semi, wondering if he was the sort who enjoyed playing with someone first before he pumped a bullet into them.
‘You got any more of that water, Tony?’ I said hauling myself up, trying to get the circulation going in my legs.
‘There are plenty of rivers around here, boy. You’ll find some sooner enough,’ he said, taking a step back so that I remained at a safe distance. ‘Now, when you find civilisation, you just get on the nearest train, plane bus or camel and never come back you hear...or we’ll hunt you down and take you apart one piece at a time. And I don’t mean your damned fingernails.’
I didn’t answer him and lowered myself onto my haunches trying to shift some of the painful cramp still gripping my lower legs. Lutz turned as if to walk away, then spun around suddenly and kicked me hard in the face.
‘You hear me, boy!’ he yelled as I hauled myself up from the forest floor, groaning, ‘I asked you a question...’
‘Fuck you, Tony,’ I muttered, spitting out some blood over his expensive-looking shoes.
He pulled his leg back and swung again, but this time I was ready for him and caught his boot with my hand just before it made contact. Quickly I yanked him around sharply sending him spinning to the floor in a violent twist.
He went for his gun, which had been thrown a good few metres away in the undergrowth. I leapt at him knowing I had a second at most before he reached it and pulled the trigger. He got to it first. I grabbed his arm desperately. He swung it around towards me. I ducked as the shot fired over my shoulder and held on tighter.
In a surprising show of strength he then managed to push me off. I scrambled up and leapt at him again as a second round fired over my head. Then we grappled like snakes until finally I got on top and pinned him down.
‘Fuck you!’ he yelled desperately.
I smashed his wounded hand against a rock releasing the gun, then dodged a lame sideways punch and released one of my own, hard into his face with every last ounce of energy I had. The contact was sweet. He slumped back in a daze like he’d been bayoneted in the guts. I scrambled up and stood over him triumphant, then picked up the automatic.
‘Please, mother of mercy, don’t…I have kids,’ he said groaning.
‘Who you working for? And why are you guys trying to scare people off?’ I pushed, racking the slide.
He shook his head. I cursed and pressed the gun against his forehead.
‘Okay, okay...don’t shoot!’ he whimpered, a man shrunken to a boy.
‘Who are you working for, Tony?’ I growled.
‘If I tell you, then I’m as good as dead myself,’ he replied terrified.
‘Sure you can, Tony, if you want to remain alive. I’ll ask you one more time, just once...Who are you working for?’
‘Lyle, Lyle Corrigan,’ he said eventually.
‘Who?’ I said sharply.
‘He owns half of Kentucky, mister. Everyone knows Lyle Corrigan.’
I shrugged.
‘Not everyone it seems.’
‘And if I don’t return soon, he’s going to have all the other guys, the local Sheriff, the State Police and the whole of the damned National Guard out looking for me, you can bet on it.’
I listened with amusement.
‘And what does this Mr Corrigan do, to have so much control over everyone?’
‘He owns the god damn Corrigan Mining Corporation, that’s what he does, Limey. Haven’t you heard of it?’
‘And what do they mine exactly?’
‘Coal...’ he replied as if I was stupid.
Gradually Lutz edged himself up onto his elbows then tentatively felt his nose.
‘Jesus, I think you busted it…’
I ignored his moaning, trying to resist shooting him there and then.
‘So how did my friend Mr Corrigan know I was in Minneapolis?’ I pushed.
He dabbed his bloody nose on his sleeve.
‘Mr Corrigan doesn’t like people snooping around his concerns so he had the gallery watched as the girl once worked there. There’s been a lot of prying around recently and he doesn’t like it at-all.’
‘Why the interest in the girl?’
‘You tell me. We just do what we’re told. And don’t even ask me where she is, cus I don’t know. We’ve been looking for her too. Corrigan just wants to talk to her about something.’
Interesting…I let him continue.
‘All I do know is that she’s come to the wrong place if she wants to stir up trouble, pal.’
‘What sort of trouble?’ I pressed.
‘I don’t know. Mr Corrigan wouldn’
t say. I just work for him alright.’
‘When was the last time you saw her?’ I said, lifting the gun away.
He winced in pain as he righted himself.
‘I aint never seen her, but some of the other guys have, maybe two or three weeks back. I’m not sure where. And you can kill me here and now, mister, but that’s the truth.’
‘I believe you,’ I said, seeing the resignation in his swollen face. ‘And what about the other investigators, what did they tell you?’
‘Not much. The first guy got the hint pretty quickly and went back to Minneapolis when he knew who he was dealing with. The other we had to get a little bit rougher with...Mr Corrigan is a man of influence you see, in this state and beyond. If he wants people to disappear, then they disappear, right. So people generally back off when they find out who they’ve come up against.’
‘Go on…’ I said ignoring the threat.
‘The second guy who was down here a couple of weeks, took a little more persuasion to leave. He told us about the gallery where the girl was supposed to have worked. We thought that she might have gone back there after the recent protests, so Corrigan sent me up there to watch the place in case she did...’
Lutz felt his nose tentatively and grimaced.
‘Think you busted it…’
‘I’ll break your legs too if you don’t continue…’ I said getting impatient.
‘Look, if I was you, mister, I would fly back to England and forget that you ever came down here, okay. Forget about the girl.’ Lutz paused for a moment as if thinking about how much he was going to reveal. ‘Head back while you still got the chance...’
‘All the threats are getting very boring you know, Tony. Us English don’t take kindly to threats.’
He looked at me bewildered.
‘Where are we? And how far is the nearest town?’ I pushed.
This time he offered the information easily.
‘We’re in the Daniel Boone Forest, a good hundred miles or so, south west of Lexington. Bear’s Rock is the nearest town here, around ten miles away to the south east.’
‘Which is what direction exactly?’
He pointed gingerly over his head with his thumb.
‘Not much but creek and forest in between though…and tough road.’
I eyed him suspiciously.
‘And the girl was involved in some of the mining protests?’
‘That’s what I heard.’
‘Whereabouts?’
‘Up in the Cumberland Mountains. I wouldn’t head up there if I was you though. You’ll only find trouble, as I say. Big trouble...’
‘Well, I’ll be the judge of that,’ I said recovering his keys and the knife from his jacket.
I bound Tony to the same tree I’d been tied to, tossed the knife and gun deep into the undergrowth, then headed to where his Dodge was parked up, much to his futile protestations.
Just as I was sliding his key into the ignition, a phone started ringing loudly from somewhere inside. For a second I ignored it, just wanting to escape the suffocating forest, until I realized suddenly it was a calling tone I recognized...
Hurriedly, I searched for its source then traced it to the glove compartment just as it cut off. I clicked open the door and picked it up. It looked like the exact same Nokia I’d bought back in Minnesota, along with the wallet I’d taken from the bounty hunter. Corrigan’s henchmen must have left my belongings in the vehicle then Lutz borrowed the pick-up, to come out and interrogate me. My luck was in...
I checked the number of the caller. It was Nancy Stringer. I redialled it quickly.
‘Hello?’ a soft, southern voice answered instantly.
‘Hi, the name’s Blake. It’s good to finally make contact with you.’
‘What can I do for you, Mr Blake?’
Her tone was wary.
‘Your friend, Martha Reynolds, gave me your number, I hope you don’t mind. I’m a friend of a friend of hers, and as I was passing through Lexington she said that you might be able to help me.’
‘Go on,’ she said sounding more relaxed.
‘I’m over here looking for a girl who’s gone missing. Her name’s Olivia Deacon.’
The resulting silence spoke volumes.
‘And why do you think I can help?’ she quizzed, sounding more defensive again.
‘Because she came down to Kentucky to help out with the mountain protests. I got the impression from Martha that you might be involved in them too?’
‘What’s the girl’s name again?’
‘Olivia Deacon.’
She stammered for a moment. I cut in.
‘Look, I know that she probably doesn’t want to be found, Nancy, but she might actually be in some serious danger, okay.’
‘Errr…’
‘I’m not here to drag her back kicking and screaming to England. I’m just trying to find out if she’s safe or not, for her father’s peace of mind.’
‘Look, Blake, I don’t want to get involved in some on-going family dispute. I’ve got enough on my plate as it is. She didn’t tell me her surname, but an English girl called Olivia helped me take some water samples around a fortnight ago in the mountains. I haven’t seen her since though, okay...’
‘Did she say where she was going?’
‘Back to Minnesota I think, to try and get some more money together. Her and her boyfriend were running low on funds she said.’
I placed my hand over the phone and swore angrily.
‘How did she come over? Was she nervous? Scared?’
‘A little anxious, but then there’s a lot going on down here that she didn’t expect to find, so it’s understandable. And she’s still young, you know…’
‘Concerning the protests?’
‘Yes.’
‘And have the mining people directed any violence at you before?’ I said, wanting to bring up the situation with the house.
She laughed.
‘I’ve had plenty of scrapes with those assholes, sure. It’s part of life down here.’
‘Well, I think you may have just had another, because I went around to your house the other night and your office was trashed.’
‘You’ve been in my house?’ she said, sounding shocked.
‘Yes, I asked the barman in McCluskey’s on Martha’s recommendation, and he told me where you lived.’
‘God damn it.’
‘In his defence, I said I was a good friend.’
‘Go on...’ Nancy said, sounding deeply annoyed.
‘So I headed over to your place and knocked on the door. You didn’t answer, so I tried around the back. The door was open. I went inside to check that you were okay…’
‘The sons of a bitches! Look, I’m on the road heading back now. I’ve been up in the mountains where the signal’s poor, which is why I’ve only just seen your calls.’
She sighed.
‘Did they wreck it bad?’
‘The office, yes…’
‘Did you see them?’
‘I felt them, put it like that. I woke up bound to a tree in a forest way out of town.’
‘Oh my god, are you alright?’
‘Yes...when I finally managed to shake them off. Things got a bit rough though...’
‘Did you find out who they were working for?’
‘Some guy called Lyle Corrigan. Do you know him?’
‘Everyone knows Lyle Corrigan, Blake.’ She paused as if uneasy about the latest revelation. ‘And if you’ve got any sense, you’d stay well clear of him.’
‘They kind of found me really, Nancy. It seems like Olivia may have ruffled a few feathers down here already, and it may be why you’ve been burgled too.’
‘God damn it…’
‘Look, I think we need to talk properly, face to face.’
‘Where are you?’
‘Somewhere near a place called Bear’s Rock on the edge of the Daniel Boone Forest. I was heading over to the mountains to try and find some protester
s who might know something, when you rang. Where abouts are you?’
‘I’ll be heading back that way in around twenty, coming up through Letcher County. We could meet halfway in between near a place called Hexville if you want. Do you think you can find it?’
I sucked some air through my teeth.
‘I haven’t got a map, but I’ll do my best.’
‘Do you know what road you are on now?’
‘No.’
‘Look, if find your way to Bear Rock, you’ll probably find highway Fifty-Two. Stay on that and keeping heading south-east out of the forest, through a town called Greening until you pick up the Fifteen to Hexville. I’ll be heading back on the One-Sixty. We can’t miss each other.’
‘Right,’ I said, unsure of her optimism.
‘I’ll meet you at a truck-stop south side of the town, okay? There’s a burger joint next to it called, Sizzlers, just as you’re heading out. You can’t miss it.’
‘Sounds like a plan.’
‘You got gas?’
‘Half-full,’ I said staring at the dial.
‘Should be enough...I’ll ring in fifteen to make sure you’re on the right track.’
Nancy clicked off and I pressed down hard on the accelerator making the wheels spin in the dirt as they fought for traction. Slowly, I weaved my way upwards through the dense forest as I mulled over the case piece by piece, feeling relieved to be finally escaping the wilds where I’d been held for far too long.
After a good ten minutes of hard driving I pulled off the track onto a more substantial road, which then wound its way down to Bear’s Rock, where I found the Fifty-Two, which gradually cut its way through a majestic expanse of rolling foothills as it left the Daniel Boone in the distance.
After another fifteen minutes of open road I passed through Greening just as she said, then arrived on the outskirts of Hexville a short while after that. I eased off the gas as I worked my way along the main drag, looking for a truck-stop with a gaudy-looking burger joint opposite.
As I came to the end of the street I cursed under my breath. I couldn’t see anything even vaguely resembling what she’d described. Was I even in the right bloody town? I looked straight ahead and eyed the faint blur of snow-capped mountains beckoning me in the distance. I needed to talk face to face with Stringer first, get some decent leads.