The Whip Hand

by Whip Hand (epub)

  Mama had cried a lot and tried to talk me out of coming to Dallas. She said I'd ought to wait until Junior was more settled and could come after me proper-like, and have a wedding among my own folks. But I didn't want to be such a bother to my Junior in his new job, to worry him about taking off after me. Papa outright forbid me to go, but I didn't pay him no mind, neither. He said Junior wasn't no good and would only ruin my life. But they wasn't really worried about my life. They was thinking the canning wasn't, half-finished, and about the extra cows they'd have to milk, and the diapers they'd have to wash and all the meals they'd have to fix. But anyhow I knew I'd always miss them and the younguns too, a whole lot.

  I was real nervous about me and Junior having to live in a big town like Dallas; but I made up my mind to learn the ways of townfolks as fast as ever I could, so as to help Junior be a success in his new job. Folks back home always said I was a right pretty girl; but now I sort of wished my hair wasn't so bright red and I didn't have so many freckles, and that my hands wasn't so rough, now that I was going to have to make friends with city-bred girls.

  I was wishing I had more book learning, too; but when the other older girls in our family left home with the first man that would take them away from Papa after they was fifteen, Mama and Papa had took me out of school when I was eleven and made me work around the house and farm and do most of the raising of the new babies. I didn't never have a chance to Team much of anything except how to work. I hoped me and Junior wouldn't have to be society folks. I wasn't a mite worried about making Junior a good wife at home by ourselves, because the Lord knows there wasn't nothing I couldn't do in a house or a kitchen. And I wasn't scared of how we would be matched in our bed, cause me and Junior knew the answer to that already. I just hadn't been able to turn down every pleasure in this life for Mama and Papa and the younguns.

  I thought the bus never would find the station in Dallas, but it finally did. I carried my old suitcase and the paper sack full of fried chicken I'd brung along and went on into the waiting room. Lots of people was in there, but I didn't see me no Junior Knowles while I was walking around and looking.

  I set down to wait on Junior, like he told me on the phone, and wondered if Donald would be with him when he come for me. I hoped he would, cause Donald was a real nice boy, and I was going to be right happy at having him in the family. But I sure hoped Junior wouldn't have that old El Mercer with him when he come. If there was only one man in the whole wide world I didn't want to see, it was El Mercer. To start with, El had always drank too much, and when he was drinking he'd talk your ears off. You just couldn't shut him up. More than once't he'd come 'twixt me and my Junior, too. They was always into something together. I couldn't stand El, and I didn't want him around us a-tall. But I was getting upset over nothing; and while I was thinking about it, I seen my Junior come into the station by his-self.

  Golly, but he was handsome! All dressed up in a new blue suit and wearing a rainbow-colored tie. He stood there just inside the door with that way of his, sort of looking down on everybody like they was dirt, with his chin stuck way out and them blue eyes a-flashing. He needed him a shave, like always; but somehow I was thinking he was the best looking man in the whole wide world. I ran towards him in a hurry.

  "Junior!" I yelled.

  He grinned real big and shoved a bundle he was carrying up under his arm so's he could tote my suitcase.

  "There's my gal!" he said, smiling big. And he grabbed me and kissed me hard enough to make me know he meant it. I pert-nigh suffocated. Then he held my arm and we started out.

  "Let's git out of here, Leonie."

  We went out the door to the street and got into a car Junior took me to. The motor was still running, and he drove right off from the station. Only time I'd ever rode anywhere with Junior before was when he borrowed El Mercer's old car.

  "Where'd you get this car, Junior?"

  "Oh--down where I work. Belongs to the company."

  "You mean, they give you a car to use yoreself?"

  "Shore. Look, Leonie, quit talking so much. I want you to git yore clothes out of yore suitcase and stick this here bundle in it."

  "What in the world for, Junior?"

  "Leonie, gal, we got to git one thing straight, right now. Don't you be asking dern-fool questions every time I say something. Me and you we're going to be doing some fast moving for a while which won't leave me no time for all them questions. So when I say do something, you just go ahead and do it cause I say so. You hear me?"

  Of all things! Well, I'd let him have his way for a little while. I done like he told me and stacked my clothes on the floor of the car and stuffed the bundle in my suitcase. But there was still room for my new nylon nightie, and I put it back in, careful-like.

  Then I turned back around and said, "Where's Donald at, Junior?"

  "There you go, Leonie, asking fool questions. Don't ask me no more about Donald. What you got in that there sack, honey?"

  "Just some fried chicken I fixed and brung along."

  That made Junior grin again. He always bragged about my fried chicken.

  "Now you tell me what you got in that old bundle in my suitcase you're so all-fired proud of, Junior. And it wouldn't hurt you to tell me why Donald didn't come with you to meet me."

  "Reckon you'll find out about the bundle anyhow. Just take yoreself a peek in it, Leonie."

  I opened the lid of the suitcase and unrolled one corner of the bundle and looked in. It was plumb full of money! When I got the corner folded back up, I shut and locked the suitcase and set it back down on the floor of the car.

  "Where'd you get it, Junior?"

  He just laughed.

  "It's a funny way to carry money, Junior."

  He laughed louder that time. "You think I could git all that long green in my billfold, Leonie?"

  "Belongs to your company, don't it?"

  "Maybe so."

  "All right, then--don't tell me!"

  I was put out with him cause he wouldn't say, so I shut my mouth and looked out the window. We was getting out to the edge of town.

  "Where we going?" I asked him.

  "If I ain't mistook, I asked you to come down here and git hitched. You forgit awready?"

  "Oh, Junior! Junior, sweetheart--you mean that's where we're going? To get married?"

  "I never meant nothing else but."

  For a minute I was so happy I nearly cried. But things was happening too fast for me. Before I could get one thing figgered out something else come along to mix me all up.

  "Junior, sweetheart, I'm real happy that's where we're going--but if you don't tell me where all that money come from, I think I'm gonna bust!"

  He just laughed. Times, if he wanted to, he was the most aggravating man in the whole wide world--besides being the handsomest. I felt like shaking him.

  He turned off the highway onto a dirt road so quick I was throwed over against him. Then he stopped and backed up and got on the highway again. We was going right back the way we had come!

  "Where you going, Junior? Forget something?"

  "Didn't you see them fool policemen blocking the road?"

  "You mean that bunch way up yonder?" I pointed back.

  "I mean them. They ain't waiting just to kill time. They was waiting for us. Good thing I seen them first."

  "Us? Waiting for us? I--Junior, you're in trouble, ain't you?"

  "Sort of, I reckon. But not if they don't catch me, and I ain't aiming to let 'em."

  "What sort of trouble? Tell me!"

  "Look, Leonie. You know I don't like lying, specially to you. If I was to tell you what's what, you wouldn't like that, neither. So it's better if I don't tell you nothing a-tall and better if you don't ask no questions."

  "But I got to know! And you got to tell me. You got to sometime, Junior, so it might as well be now."

  "Maybe I got to tell you sometime--but not now."

  "Did you steal that money?"

  "Sort of, I reckon. Hard t
o say. I sort of earned it, too."

  "That's mighty funny talk, Junior. And you ain't said yet where Donald is at. That's mighty funny, too. Where we headed now?"

  "I been trying to figger the same thing. If they got police on the highways it's a cinch they're watching the bus stations and the depot. We better try the airport. They might not figger me to try and git out of Dallas on a airplane."

  "Junior, I just got to say something. I know you're in trouble and I'll stick by you cause I love you. But I don't want to git in no trouble myself. I don't want to wind up in no jail."

  Junior slammed on the brakes and slid to a stop so quick. I bumped my head against the windshield.

  "Git out, Leonie," he said. I couldn't believe my own ears. I looked at him and started crying. I couldn't help it.

  "I don't want to get out."

  "If you cain't trust me, don't figger on going with me and marrying up with me!"

  "I trust you, Junior, sweetheart, it's just--"

  "Then quit yore bellyaching and asking me all them questions. I'm trying to think and doing my best to git us both out of trouble. Yore dang nagging ain't helping me ary bit."

  I promised not to nag him any more and he started the car. Wasn't long till we was in sight of the airport. Junior turned into a dirt side-road and went a little ways. Then he turned right off of the dirt road across the weeds and stopped in a big clump of trees alongside the road. In amongst them trees I couldn't see the road, so I knew nobody couldn't see us from the road. I felt a little safer and started to say so.

  "We'll walk the rest of the way."

  "Ain't somebody liable to take the car?" I asked.

  "I reckon so."

  "You stole it, along with the money, didn't you, Junior? Huh?"

  "Shut up and git out of the car!"

  I did and he follered me, toting my suitcase.

  "Gimmee that sack of chicken, Leonie.'

  He opened up the sack and stuck his hand in, and we walked up the road towards the airport. I was scared about out of my skin, finding out he done stole everything he had. But he wasn't. Not him. He just walked on up the road eating on the piece of chicken like he didn't care about nothing in the whole wide world.

  I cared and was scared. He must of done something mighty, mighty mean to have policemen all over Dallas trying to catch him.

  I sure wished I knew more about what he done.

  Chapter 19

  Bill Brown

  BY unloading some of what I knew, I had hoped to give the brainy Dallas detective a generous chunk of my headache. It didn't work. He left, but the headache stayed.

  I felt a little better after Miss Dixon finished spooning that hot broth into me and rubbing my temples with her fingers. I relaxed, even dozed again. I don't know how long, but not very. Unfortunately I woke up, and the little riveters were still working on my skull. Miss Dixon was there.

  "Guess I dropped off. Was I out long?"

  "Not enough to do you much good. How do you feel?"

  "So-so. Headache, of course."

  "Want an aspirin?"

  "Not an aspirin--ten aspirin."

  "Here's one. Hold it till I get some fresh water."

  I swallowed the one lousy aspirin. I could hear her moving about the room while I held my eyes screwed together against the throbbing.

  "Get me my clothes, Miss Dixon. I think I'll get up."

  "You'll never make it."

  Swinging my feet out from under the sheet, I slid to the floor on my knees and couldn't stand up. I crawled back into the bed. Lying there felt mighty nice.

  "Stay there and rest. You'll never make it," Miss Dixon said.

  "You said that."

  "You just proved it."

  "I think you ought to get in here with me." When my words registered in my own mind I got ready to dodge.

  "I thought of that before you did, Bill. It's a pleasant thought."

  I stared at her. Rather an unpredictable woman at times, this Miss Dixon. I picked up the ball.

  "Well?" I said.

  "When you're strong again: Not before. I don't want us to be half-good, Bill."

  I wanted to argue the time element, with the pressure of desire building up in me. She walked over to the bed, leaned down on me and engulfed my mouth in a hot, moist promise from her full lips.

  "You'll wait," she said.

  I looked at her face. She was beautiful; even with the dark bruise on her temple leading to the corner of her eye. She was lucky Junior hadn't killed her. But then, so was I. I couldn't remember getting out of the car and into the shrubbery where she found me. She had kidded me a little about being mercenary because when they found me I had her purse clutched in one hand. I didn't remember how I got that either; but she said Junior had dumped me in the car on top of it.

  Thinking of Junior I entered enchanting reverie. How nice it would be to kill, torture or maim little Junior from Oklahoma. I imagined several very satisfying ways to handle it. I must have been smiling as I conjured up these brutal scenes.

  "Why the happy face? Headache gone?"

  "Why'd you interrupt?" I groaned. "I was just mentally putting Junior through his paces--Get me my clothes, will you?"

  I tried again, this time just sitting up for a starter. My head peeled off like a plane leaving a tight formation, buzzed the field, then settled down for a straight shot at the horizon. The ceiling cleared. I pushed the sheet off. Moving gingerly I got my feet to the floor and sat on the edge of the bed.

  They had really prepared me for comfort--I didn't even have shorts on. Miss Dixon was sitting there watching me.

  "Will you get my clothes?"

  "All right, Bill. I wanted to see if you could make it-- that's all."

  She left the room, but the nurse came in, quick like a panther.

  "You can't get up Mr. Brown! You have to stay in bed Mr. Brown!"

  I pushed a hand through the air. "Go and get me an aspirin."

  "It's too soon. You've taken too many now. You lie down, do you hear?"

  "Nurse. I'm going to count three and you'd better be gone. Or I'll do something I'll be sorry for the rest of my life--a terrible thing. One--Two--" and the door closed behind her as she ran.

  I opened my eyes again. I stood up, and danced a mad, uncontrollable tango across the room to a chair. I landed in it. Wow! A bit rocky. Quite a bit! I felt the bandage on my head. Junior wasn't a nice playmate.

  Miss Dixon came in carrying my green gabardine suit, a white sport shirt, and underwear.

  "The suit wasn't cleaned, but I had it sponged and pressed."

  "I'll need shoes too."

  She pointed to them, under the bed. I remembered my buck-and-wing across the room.

  "Would you--?" I waved vaguely at the shoes.

  She brought them over to the chair and took a sock out of each one. She pulled on for me the socks. Then the shoes. What the hell, I thought. If it didn't bother her, why me? I was too weak to be conspicuous, anyhow.

  I stepped into the shorts, getting up as I did so. Taking it easy, I balanced myself into the pants of my suit, then slid into the shirt. I was beginning to feel a little like a normal man. Back in the land of the living.

  My mind began clicking again, things to do.

  "May I use your phone?"

  She brought it over and I sat down with it. I dialed the operator and asked for Western Union.

  "Hello. Put me on with an operator, please-- Hi. Take this message. To Ed Brown. Apartment 3C, 4125 Figueroa Street, L. A.--That's Los Angeles--Yes, that's what we call it out yonder in California. Want the message? Okay, here goes: How are things on West Coast. Question mark. Clear comma or warmer. Question mark. Having a terrible time. Wish I was there. Rush answer care Western Union. Love. Bill. Just sign it Bill-All right! The sender is Bill Brown, operator--What?-- Oh. F-i-g-u-e-r-o-a.--Yeah, odd. Think it comes from Mex. Now read me the wire, will you?.... Fine. Very good--No, I appreciate your helpfulness but I can't possibly cut this wire to te
a words. Charge it to this number and if I'm not here to receive the answer just deliver it to this address."

  She finally got the phone number and Miss Dixon's address right. I hung up, hoping I wouldn't have to send any more telegrams.

  "Well, Miss Dixon, guess I'd better get going and earn my retainer."

  "You don't have to. Why don't we just wait for some news?"

  "I'll feel much better after I find Junior."

  "Let Lieutenant Campbell find him. He refused our help."

  "He's a little better cop than I first thought, at that. But he can't recognize Junior--never saw him."

  "We gave him a good description."

  "It's not the same."

  "He'll find him."

  "I'll find him," I said.

  "Then we'll find him."

  "You can lose lots of cars that way."

  "There are three left in the garage."

  "Okay. Let's go downstairs."

  I stood up and waited a minute for the dizziness to clear. Then Miss Dixon helped me get as far as the bottom step. That stopped me. I sat down. Chimes sounded.

  "It's the door," she said. "I'll get it."

  In walked the curious detective. I wondered if he'd drawn his blank from Lancaster yet.

  "We found your car, Miss Dixon. One of the men is driving it over. Should be here soon." He spotted me. "What got you out of bed, Brown?"

  "Insomnia."

  "Don't leave the house--you're still under arrest."

  "I wouldn't think of it."

  "You heard that, Miss Dixon. He's in your charge, and you're responsible when I want him."

  "Thank you for your confidence. Where was my Cad?"

  "At a motel, just as I thought we'd find it."

  "Brilliant!" I murmured.

  "Merely routine. As a matter of fact, it was reported by the motel's manager. Seems someone stole a blanket and left your Cadillac."

  "Tsk, tsk," I put in. He got sore.

  "Listen, Brown. I'm talking to Miss Dixon. No remarks from you are required."