The Whip Hand

by Whip Hand (epub)

  "I was rather lucky, Miss Dixon. If you'll let us in, as agreed in our contract, we'll see what's in this bag I took away from that boy, as you call him." He held up a large leather grip and pushed the kid through the door ahead of him with his other hand.

  I closed the door and led the way to the library, thinking that Brown took Dad and me to be pretty gullible. I announced our arrival to Dad, who still sat quietly by the large garden window.

  "Mr. Brown's back, Dad. He thinks he has one of the gang--" Dad turned and watched them enter, with more life in his eyes than I had seen all day. I thought he was in for a big disappointment before this visit was over.

  "Sit right over there, Donald," Brown said. He motioned, and the boy sidled over to the chair in a circle that took him beyond Brown's reach. The chair was at the end of the big desk; and Donald propped himself on the front edge, twisting nervously. He watched as Brown unzipped the bag, and I thought there were tears brimming in the kid's eyes. I didn't know what to think of it. Donald looked like any average, nice boy off the farm.

  Brown turned the leather grip upside down over the desk, and I was certainly surprised to see it pour packages of currency in a spreading pile before us. I looked at Dad and saw him jerk his eyes away from Donald, glance at freckled face distorted in honor. Words came--fast, high-pitched.

  I liked her, I tell you! I never done anything to her! I bought her ice cream and was good to her, and she was a-calling me Uncle--"

  I heard the short sibilant sound ending in a cruel, wet snap; and I blinked my eyes at the suddenness of it. A wretched scream broke from Donald's throat and echoed through the library. Dad's movement had been a blur, but the money, then look bleakly at Brown.

  "Just a minute," I said. "How do we know the boy and the bag go together, Brown? You didn't pick them up separately and then put them together, did you?"

  "My God, Miss Dixon--" Brown whirled and glared fiercely at Donald. "How much did the bag cost you, Donald?"

  "A hundred--" The boy saw then that he could have denied it, and also that now it was too late. His voice was a whisper as he said, "dollars."

  "All right, Kay," Dad said. "That's good enough for me." He nodded towards the money on the desk and spoke to Brown. "Is that all of it, Mr. Brown?"

  Brown's head did a half-shake. "Only part, Mr. Dixon. His part." He pointed at Donald with his thumb. Then Brown reached for the edge of the pile and took out a bundle of twenties. "And this is my part of his part. He's alive." He smiled and said, "The bonus."

  Fees were not in Dad's mind as his eyes bore holes across the room at the squirming kid on the chair. His knuckles gleamed white around the whipstock. A shock ran down my spine and it was hard for me to name it. Pleasure, or dread? Dad spoke.

  "So you didn't get away with it, huh, boy?"

  "N-no s-sir. Reckon not."

  The outright admission startled me. I had at least expected him to blurt out a denial. But maybe the boy thought Dad was speaking of getting away with the money.

  "Why did you kill my little girl, boy?" Dad's voice was cold and soft.

  Donald licked his lips, looked at Dad, dropped his eyes again. A picture of guilt if I could recognize one. I resolved that I would enjoy whatever was coming now. No matter what my dreams might be afterward. The kid started lying then, too late.

  "I didn't hurt her, mister, honest I never! Nary hair of her head. It wasn't me what done it!" The words tumbled out of his mouth in fear.

  "Why did you do it?" The same chill tone stayed in Dad's voice. The tension in his hand caused his arm to move slightly and attracted Donald's eye to the whip for the first time. He cringed back against the chair with his I was watching Donald. I saw the blood spurt from the two halves of his upper lip. It quickly flooded his chin. The lip was split up into one side of his nose and laid back bright and ugly on both sides. He screamed again and his hands were red and slick from trying to hold back the flow.

  I forced my thoughts to Mary Ann, choked and bruised and broken, and stifled all compassion for the boy. I knew I should be ashamed, but excitement started building up in me, and I intended to see it to whatever point Dad intended to carry it. Calling him Uncle! Poor Mary Ann. Such a friendly and trusting child, he might really have had her calling him Uncle just before she was killed!

  "God!"

  That had come in a gagging voice from Brown, who was standing beside me. A lot of the tan was gone from his craggy cheeks. He stared as if he couldn't believe his eyes, first at Dad, then back at Donald.

  Donald finally got himself under a little better control and started trying to plead with Dad. His eyes, streaming tears, begged for mercy. His tongue tried to push words out and crimson bubbles built up and burst on the wreckage of his mouth.

  "Just a minute, Dad," I said. I raised my voice. "Donald, is this man Brown here a friend of yours? Did he help steal my little sister, help kill her?"

  The boy shook his head between sobs. Well, could I or could I not believe that? Did he understand clearly what I asked? I had no time to go through it with him again.

  Crack! Dad's whip crashed through the air again.

  The whip went into the flesh under the kid's left eye, tearing a mushy hole. The eyeball was almost torn out. Donald jerked erect with a wounded animal's yelp, then fell off his chair in a dead faint.

  Brown started yelling at Dad.

  "Goddammit, Dixon!" He started toward Dad. "Give me that whip--there'll be no--"

  "Brown! Get out! Now!"

  Brown hesitated. Their eyes met in a wicked cross-challenge. I knew Brown thought of his gun, and wanted to try to take the whip away from Dad. I sort of hoped he wouldn't do either. He turned suddenly and walked quickly out into the hall. I followed right behind him and shut the door. He was leaning against the wall, with his eyes closed and perspiration glistening on his face.

  "What did you expect?"

  He whirled on me. "Miss Dixon, I've been around. I'm a cop--or was. I've watched, yes, and even helped, the toughest policemen in the country take confessions from men determined not to talk. When I was sure we were right and the crime was serious. I've been through the mill. But in there--I just got plain sick."

  "I know," I told him. So he was or had been a policeman!

  "You know nothing! That boy could easily be killed in there."

  "I wouldn't doubt it."

  "Your father will burn--on my testimony--if he dies. Don't you understand that?"

  "I do doubt that, Mr. Brown. This is still Texas, you know."

  "I'll be damned if I stay here and see a kid whipped to death!"

  He started for the front door. I didn't want him to go. I wanted to learn more about him.

  "Wait! I'll go with you."

  "No you won't. I'm going after the rest of them."

  "Don't argue, please. Wait out front. I'll bring a car around."

  He went through the door. My keys were in my purse in the library. I took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked over and picked up the purse. The scene was still the same. Donald was lying where he had fallen and Dad was glaring at him. I took a good look at Donald and turned to leave.

  "Kay."

  "I'm leaving for a while, Dad. To help Bi--Mr. Brown."

  "Good luck, Kay. But be careful."

  "Sure, Dad."

  I hurried out the back door. I crossed the garden to the garage and unlocked the Cad convertible, ran the top down, and drove around to the front. He had waited, but he wasn't happy.

  "I'll drive," he said.

  "I'll drive," I said.

  "Okay, Okay!" He got in and almost pulled the door through the side after him. The man was sore. He was used to having his way, I supposed. I waited, saying nothing.

  "Donald's pals are probably waiting for me. Somewhere around the summer amphitheater at the fairgrounds. My small problem is to persuade one or both to join me."

  "Join us." I laid my hand on his thick forearm. "I'll help you, Bill."

  He moved his a
rm. "Thanks." He didn't expect much help from me. "You can drive me to the gate and then you can stay out of it."

  "No. I'll drive you to where you think they are."

  "Fat chance. The fair is no public scenic drive. You don't take the family bus right in with you."

  "A few families do. The Dixon family does. A fair on the Texas scale takes a big slice of financing. Galin Dixon is one of the names on the honor roll of the State Fair Association."

  "So--do the guards know you?"

  "They know the state seal on the letter of special privileges in my purse."

  I waited while he digested our privileged ranking.

  "Donald's partners won't expect me to arrive in such luxury. Maybe I could surprise them and get this .45 leveled on one--preferably Junior--and march him into your car."

  "And?"

  "If so, you can drive back while I control his emotions. He's dangerous. But it's just stupid enough to work, driving up and saying hello that way."

  "It sounds simple."

  "It is. So am I. If anything goes wrong and Junior sees Donald like I saw him--it's not too late for you to get out and stay home with all the doors locked."

  "I'm going with you, Bill."

  "Well, drive! Don't just park here. Move it out!"

  I did, but too fast; and his head bounced backward. He groaned and held both hands over his face.

  "Dear God! Deliver me from Dallas--and women drivers!"

  Chapter 15

  Junior Knowles

  WHEN I was shore my brother Donald knowed just what to do I moseyed on back to them trees and hid. All I had to do was wait on that greedy feller to come and poke his nose into my business for the last time.

  I figgered to turn his damper down for good. He must of had a awful hard head to git over that blackjacking I done give him without going to a hospital. I'd be real shore he wouldn't never wake up this time.

  He hadn't made nothing off of me, nohow. But he shore was hell on El. As long as him and El was both around they was liable to gum up my business most anytime.

  If I could find out what he done with El's money, I didn't know if I'd give El any of it or not. Come to think of it, bringing that stranger to the fairgrounds was the first thing El hisself done right since we come to Texas.

  I hadn't waited long when I heard a flap-flapping noise. Sounded like loose corners of a tarp over a truck-load of cotton, a-whipping in the wind. I got behind a big tree and taken out my blackjack. I soon seen what it was.

  Old El, running with his tongue hanging out and his big feet making them slapping noises. He come tearing into them trees lickety-high-cut, yelling my name over and over.

  The fool! I should of let him bust his brains out on a limb. But I couldn't; I wanted to know what he was so rambunctious about. When he come close to the tree where I was standing, I slung out my foot and tripped him up. He plowed the ground head first and come up a-danging everything in sight. I kicked him in the fat of his rump.

  "Quit yore cussing, El."

  One good look at his face and I knowed him or Donald had done got me in some more trouble. Like I never had plenty awready. They kept a-piling my load bigger and bigger. But Donald was my brother. El wasn't no kin of mine. I taken holt of his ear and twisted him up onto his feet, him squawking like a stubborn old setting hen shoved off her nest.

  "Shut up before I give you something to holler about. Where's that there feller was with you? What happened up yonder?"

  "Dang it, boy, gimmie a chance! That man done took Donald's money away from him!"

  I watched him rub his ear and wipe his nose. So Donald had finally managed to give away his part of the reward. God knowed he'd been a-trying to. Just like El. Maybe it was catching! El's underwear ripped when I grabbed a handful of his chest and shook him back and forth.

  "You derned old fool! Tell me what's going on!" I was blind mad, and scairt I'd bash his head in before he could tell me.

  "Now, wait a minute now Junior, dang it. All right! I'm a-telling it as fast as I can!--Everything was going fine. We was all on the way down here to find you. First thing we knowed that feller jerked Donald's bag out of his hand! He got a head start on us and run right into that place up yonder with the lights in front, and he's in there now."

  "Keep a-talking, El. Where's my brother at while all this is going on?"

  "He bought a ticket and follered him in, yelling at me to come and fetch you. He'll probably stick to that feller like a tick on a jack rabbit."

  "It shore taken you long enough to say so! C'mon! Let's git up there!"

  I picked up my bag on the run and heard El trying to keep up with me. I begin to think maybe the big stranger was smarter than I'd give him credit for up to now. Leastways he never done things I figgered him to do, and he did have a nose for money.

  I slid to a stop in front of the show and taken a good look around, trying to plan the best way of sitting to him and Donald. Wasn't nobody in sight and the ticket window was closed. Reckon they quit selling tickets after Donald got his'n. El come up all petered out. He was pointing up the steps to show me where they went in--as if I never figgered that out first off.

  "El. You stay right here with yore eyes peeled to make shore they don't come out. And by God you better not miss nothing!"

  I went on in. It was darker than pitch except up on the stage where the shindig was going on. There was bright lights up there on the people in the show. Out where people was setting they all looked alike. Just dim heads and shoulders. None of them moving a hair and all of them watching the stage like blinded cottontails looking into bright headlights.

  Wasn't no use walking up and down them rows a-looking. I went on back out to where El was waiting on me. Like always he started blabbing.

  "Did you find 'em, Junior? You seen 'em, didn't you?"

  "I never looked."

  "But Junior--"

  "Shut yore mouth, old man. Wasn't for yore mouth, I'd be plumb shut of all this here mess now. Stand here and watch some more."

  I moseyed around the place both ways from the steps. Only found two ways to git out besides the front doors. There was a side door a little ways back on both sides. I figgered they might open them up when the show was over. Only three doors to watch. I knowed I could see everbody coming out the front and same time watch the door on the left side. If El couldn't take care of that other side, he was even a bigger damn fool than what I thought.

  "El. Come around here."

  "What you found, Junior?"

  "A hole, fool. You're gonna play like a big fat torn cat and watch the hole. From right here."

  El was flabbergasted, but I made it plain. I pointed to the door in the side of the fence.

  "See that there door, El? If Donald or that other feller comes out, or both of them, you got to light a shuck around to that tree at the other side of the steps and git me. You understand?"

  "Yeah, Junior--Yeah, I see what I got to do, but--"

  "Shut up and commence yore watching. El, if they git past you, don't you never let me catch up to you. You hear?"

  I went back to my spot under the tree at the left side of them front steps and started watching and waiting, straining my eyes back and forth, front and side and back again. Time drug by like cold molasses. I leant my back against the tree trunk and shifted around every so often. I was standing in soft white sand, and I wanted to git barefooted and shuffle my hot feet around in it; but I was scairt I'd have to leave there in too big of a hurry to put them new shoes back on. I was plumb tuckered out, and I wondered if Donald and El would ever let me git our business straightened out enough to git me some shut-eye.

  When all the clapping and whistling started inside the walls, I taken a big breath. The show was over, and now we'd git some action and see who was so dang smart. I had to watch close. Two out of three chances they'd come out one of my doors.

  People come a-rolling out like ants deserting a hole in the ground, but I managed to git a look at every dern one. The c
rowd started thinning out after a short spell. I never seen hide nor hair of Donald or the feller with his money.

  I figgered El to come high-tailing it after me any time. But he never come, neither.

  Nobody else was coming out a-tall and lights started blinking off a few at a time. I was standing under the tree by myself, trying to think what went wrong. Then I heard El clomping up and I swung around.

  "Whichaway did they go, El?"

  "Ain't you seen them neither, Junior? They never come out my--Junior! They never come out my side', now-- I'm shore of that! Don't you try to say they--Honest, Junior, you seen them, didn't you?"

  "Iff'n I seen them would I be standing here listening to yore blabber? I'm going in for another look."

  I taken a good look all around inside. All I seen was bottles of all kinds, paper cups, popcorn sacks and such, scattered from hell to breakfast. I went on back out.

  "They done give us the slip, El. You better pray when I find Donald he don't say they come out on yore side."

  "Aw, Junior--Donald wouldn't want to give you the slip, would he?"

  "Naw he wouldn't want to."

  "What we gonna do, Junior?"

  "I ain't got the slightest idee, El."

  El blinked at me and his mouth fell open. But I'd spoke the truth. I never had no idee a-tall. This Dallas was a awful big place with Donald lost somewheres in it. I never even knowed whichaway he went.

  "You ain't gonna let that feller keep our money, are you? Huh, Junior? You ain't, are you?"

  Looking at him and listening to him made me sicker to my stomach than worrying about Donald. I made up my mind once't and for all.

  "El, Goddammit, you git away from me--you hear me? I don't never want to see you again! Git!"

  "But Junior--What's got into you? We're friends, ain't we? You're joshing me!"

  "Old man, do like I'm a-telling you while you can."

  "I swear, I cain't figger you out, son. Where you want me to go?"

  "El, I'm telling you to save yore fool life. Git away from me.

  "Dang it, Junior, I cain't go nowheres a-tall without no money. I ain't even got a car no more since you taken it-- and that's all I ever did have, that there car. You know it, boy!"