Death Island
Page 22
She could not expect anything to happen. Danny had been devoted to his wife, Katie, and he had been through a year of hell. Not that Charlie had not endured her own kind of hell. They would both need time to heal.
The helicopter wobbled off, an awkward insect chopping through the whitecaps of the sky. It went faster than Charlie expected it to, and her heart thumped so loudly she assumed everyone could hear it, as the dark ocean slid by below them.
“Mrs. Adjavon!” the pilot called. “Want to come here with me and see how we locate him?”
She slid into the seat beside the young, sandy-haired pilot. He looked much too young to be responsible for flying this machine. He introduced himself: Tony, he said with a grin and gave her a snappy salute.
“Look!” he said, pointing at a small screen in the center of the control panel.
“You can see the island. We’re approaching it now.”
Charlie gazed at the red cliffs, the black rocks encircling the coastline, the dense green patches of jungle, the river, curving across the island like a silver snake. How often she had seen it on television, but here it was for real. And Danny was down there, somewhere. Her heart jumped like an anxious frog under her pale blue sweater.
Tony began to drop in altitude. Charlie leaned forward, fascinated. Ponds and lakes, groves of trees, open fields of tall, wavy grass, huge silvery rocks. She felt as though her eyes could never take it all in. “There!” she said. “There’s the trail that leads up the mountains to the little cave everyone finds at first.”
“Yep,” Tony said.
The helicopter droned on. A flash of silver streaked up toward them. “There’s the crashed plane,” Tony said.
She nodded, enthralled. “And there’s a little pond at the edge of the forest. That must be where Tom died.
“Probably,” Tony agreed. He peered out the window. “My last info was that Danny is in the Village, in Talon’s Cabin.”
“Where is it? Where’s the Village?” She hardly recognized that squeaky voice as hers. Was she that anxious to see him?
“Coming up in a little bit,” Tony said. They droned on, and finally there was the Village, on the screen, and in actuality, beneath them.
Tony dropped until they were just over the treetops. Men began to come out of the cabins and look up at the helicopter, shielding their eyes from the sun. Charlie searched the faces. Would she even recognize Danny after a year of living here?
She peered down through the tiny windows, as the copter descended.
“See him yet?” Jerry asked, as he guided the bird lower through the trees and hovered.
Charlie scanned the men who stood there, staring up at the helicopter. Ragged, scraggly, thin—she felt a jolt of sympathy for them, murderers that they were. Didn’t human beings deserve better treatment than this? Then she saw a tall, thin man come out of the cabin and limp toward the rest of the group.
“There he is!” she cried, pointing down at him. His blue shorts were frayed and hung on his bones. His shirt was torn at one shoulder. His hair hung limply, chopped off shoulder length with God only knew what kind of implement. He stared up at them, incomprehension on his face—and then he saw her.
Jerry picked up the megaphone again. “That him?”
“Yes!” Charlie could hardly speak. She tried to wave at him, but she couldn’t see him through her tears.
Jerry’s strong voice rang out over the copter’s loudspeaker, sending a no-nonsense message down to the Villagers: “Everyone back! We’re here to pick up Danny Manning and Talon Larsen. You two come out into the clear space please, so we can land. Daniel Douglas Manning, you have been granted a full pardon and cleared of any conviction of the crime for which you were sent to Death Island.”
Jim and Chuck had come forward again, and were looking nervously out the windows, scanning the nearby woods. Several soldiers picked up their guns and took up stations by the door.
“Doesn’t look like any trouble, Boys,” Jerry observed.
Danny looked as if he had turned into a statue. Two of the men took him by the arms and began to walk him to the clearing. Others shouted and tagged him on the arm or shoulder as he went by. No one attempted to interfere; on the contrary, they all looked happy for him. One slapped him so hard on the shoulder that she saw him wince. A man she instantly recognized from watching the show called something to Danny, which she couldn’t hear over the roar of the copter. Danny turned, laughed in his direction and waved. He blew Danny a kiss.
My God—she thought—Martin Sicilia, in the flesh, and just as gorgeous. The other embraced him awkwardly as they escorted him to the helicopter and Phil and Bert unrolled the stairway. As Jerry reached a hand down to help him up, the Villagers broke into cheers, waving and shouting good wishes. Danny turned and grinned, waving at the rag-tag band.
“Talon Larsen, please come into the clearing,” boomed Jerry’s voice. “You’ve been voted off the island by popular demand. We’re here to take you home. You will also be granted a full pardon.”
“Goodbye! Good luck!” they shouted.
“Jerry Forbes,” Jerry said, taking Danny’s arm as he brought him down the aisle and helped him to a seat opposite Charlie. Here’s the lady who never lost faith in you.”
Charlie reached for him, but he pulled back, almost shyly. “I’m dirty—dirty and smelly. Believe me, Charlie, I want to put my arms around you more than anything in the world, but I need a shower first.”
“You do smell,” Charlie agreed, laughing through her tears. “Oh, Danny, you’ve had such an awful time. I watched all year and my heart broke for you. When you crashed on the rocks and we all thought you were dead—”
“That was a close one, all right,” Danny nodded. He looked at Charlie, and his eyes were warm with gratitude. “I talked to you. Did you hear me? I felt you, felt your presence. It’s all that kept me going at times.”
“I heard you, she said, “if not in actual words, in other ways. I felt your pain, but also your hope and faith in me. That’s what kept me going.
He looked around the helicopter, as if he couldn’t believe where he was. “Did I get voted off?’ he asked.
“No,” she answered, smiling. “The real axe murderer was caught. I’ll tell you about it later. Talon was voted off.” She peered out the window again at the handsome blond man. “That’s Martin Sicilia, isn’t it?” Charlie asked, peering out again at the man who had called to Danny. His tattered clothing and unkempt hair still couldn’t hide his golden good looks. “He’s just as gorgeous in person.”
“And funny,” Danny said. “He said to send him a Christmas card.”
She laughed. “You can’t help but like him, in spite of what he did. He just might get voted off some year.”
“I hope not,” Danny said. “He’s an amazing man in some ways, and was a good friend to me, but I think I was just an interesting diversion. He’s a total psycho. He’d burn down Chicago if they let him back into the States.”
The megaphone boomed out again. “Talon Larsen! You have been voted off the island. Please come out to the helicopter.”
For the first time, a look of concern crossed Danny’s face. He peered out the window. The Villagers looked around in confusion, and Martin pointed toward a small cabin, then took off at a run toward it.
Jerry came back from peering out the door into the onlookers, and looked at Danny. “Where’s your pal, Talon?”
Danny twisted around in his seat, and gazed out the window over the Village. “He might have gone out somewhere, but he was there a couple of hours ago. It looks like Martin’s gone to get him. Maybe he was asleep.”
“How could he sleep through this?” Jerry asked.
“He was pretty beaten up, in and out of consciousness for a while. Maybe I should go check on him.” Danny started to get up from his seat, but Jerry put a hand on his shoulder and halted him. “Looks like Martin’s bringing him out.”
Danny sank back, looking relieved, and they watched Talon
hobbling toward the copter, supported by Martin, who wore a fixed grin on his face. The Villagers parted to let them through, some of them not as pleased as they had seemed about Danny’s departure. Charlie saw the jealously on some of the faces, how a few turned their backs and started walking away. One man even picked up a rock and tossed it from hand to hand, as if wondering whether to throw it or not. Someone else nudged him, said something, and he dropped the rock, scraping dirt over it with his foot. Several clumps of men moved together, muttering, their faces dark.
Charlie watched the expression on Danny’s face change from expectation to alarm, as if he had just gained some terrible insight. He jumped up and grabbed Jerry’s arm. “Get the guys out there to help Talon!” he yelled. “Martin’s never going to let him board!”
“Well, he seems to be helping him along,” Jerry began, but Danny pushed him aside and began a dash for the door. The guards caught him, and they all struggled while Jerry shouted at Danny to sit down, and at the guards to unhand him. Still resisting, Jerry and the guards pushed Danny down into a seat.
Talon lifted his head and stared at the plane, his face so full of innocence and hope that Charlie’s heart nearly broke for him. They were ten feet from the door.
Martin looked up and caught Charlie’s eyes as he and Talon approached the helicopter. His grin widened and he winked at her. Fascinated, she couldn’t tear her gaze away from him. She heard Danny yelling, as the guards still held him down, refusing to let him leave his seat. Then, as they watched, all hell broke loose.
A rock hit Talon on the shoulder. Some of the crowd of condemned men began to surge toward the copter. Others tried to intercept and control them, so a number of fights broke out. More rocks flew out of the crowd. Martin picked Talon up and slung him over his shoulder like a bag of groceries, no effort at all apparent on his part.
“Oh, my God! Oh, Christ!!” Jerry yelled. “Get this copter out of here! Close the fuckin’ doors—now!” Rocks began to hit the sides of the ship.
The bird lifted off, faster than Charlie thought it could have moved, and the guards brought Danny, his white face twisted with anguish, back to his seat. Charlie, still not able to accept what had happened, moved over beside him and held him as he caved in against himself and slumped down in the seat, silent as death.
“What happened down there?” Charlie asked, as Jerry reappeared beside them, his face pale, his expression disbelieving. “Why didn’t Talon get on?”
Jerry looked down at Danny, his eyes dark and unreadable.
Martin threw him into the propeller blades,” he said tonelessly. “There’s nothing left of Talon Larsen.”
* * * *
“Zoom in for a close-up,” Pierre LeGrande signaled to his cameraman. He did as he was told, and everyone in America who happened to be watching Death Island that Thursday evening watched as Martin Sicilia cavorted around in the clearing of the Village, his tattered clothing fluttering in the breeze, his hair like dried straw ablaze in the fading evening sunlight. The Villagers drew back, allowing him his moment in the limelight. A maniacal grin distorted his handsome face as a few of the men laughed and clapped.
“Vote me off, America!” He yelled, shaking his fists after the departing helicopter. “Vote me off next”!
Joan Conning Afman grew up in central New York State and Western Massachusetts and attended schools in both regions. She has an AA degree from SUNY, Farmingdale, a BFA from the Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, and an M.A.Ed. degree from CCSU in New Britain, Connecticut. For sixteen years she taught art in the Hartford Public School System before retiring to Florida, where she taught as an adjunct for Northwood University.
Joan now divides her time between painting and writing, enjoying the Sunshine State’s balmy weather and various social activities.
The cover of Death Island is her art work. She has often been told that she “has quite an imagination,” and Death Island is certainly a testament to that. She has written one previous novel, The Last Time We Were Here. Joan has four wonderful children and six beautiful grandchildren, is thoroughly enjoying life, and continues to believe that the best is still ahead.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four