I got up to get away from there just as the desk man called out, "Last call for Flight 884." They couldn't have watchers at all the boarding areas. I'd just have to get to Chicago, call the Blind Man, and try and work something out. As I walked past the desk, a guy slammed into me. He bounced back a few feet, put a nasty expression on his face, and then dropped it when he saw mine. A clown in his late thirties, trying to pass for a much younger guy: hair carefully styled forward to cover a receding hairline, silk shirt open to mid-chest, fancy sunglasses dangling from a gold chain around his neck. I moved away slowly and watched as he approached the desk.
"I got a ticket for this flight," he barked out, like he was used to being obeyed.
"Of course, sir. May I see your boarding pass?"
"I don't have a goddamn pass. Can't I get one here?"
"I'm sorry, sir," the desk man told him," the flight is all boarded at this time. We have four more boarding passes outstanding. We can certainly issue one to you, but it has to be on what we call the 'modified standby' basis. If the people holding boarding passes don't show up five minutes before flight time, we will call your name and give you the pass."
"What kind of crap is this?" the clown demanded. "I paid good money for this ticket."
"I'm sure you did, sir. But that's the procedure. I'm sure you won't have any trouble boarding. This happens all the time on these short flights. Just give us your ticket, and we'll call you by name just before the flight leaves, all right?"
I guess it wasn't all right, but the clown had no choice. He slammed his ticket down on the counter, tossed his leather jacket casually over one shoulder, and took a seat near the desk.
It wasn't a great shot, but it was the best one I'd had in a while. I waited a couple of heartbeats and followed the clown to the desk. I listened patiently to their explanation, left my ticket, and was told that they would call me by name when my turn came.
I didn't have much time. I walked over to where the clown was sitting, smoking a cigarette like he'd invented it. "Look," I told him, "I need to get on that flight to Augusta. It's important to me. Business reasons."
"So what's that to me?" he smirked, shrugging his shoulders.
"I know you got ahead of me on the list, okay? It's worth a hundred to me to change places with you. Let me go when your name is called, and you can go when they call mine, if they do," I told him, taking out a pair of fifties and holding them out to him.
His eyes lit up. I could see the wheels turning in his head. He knew a sucker when he saw one. "What if we both get one' he wanted to know.
"That's my tough luck," I said. "I need to do everything possible to get on the flight. It's important to me."
He appeared to hesitate, but it was no contest. "My name's Morrison," he said, taking the fifties from my hand. "Steele," I said, and walked toward the desk.
The watchers hadn't looked at us. A couple of minutes passed. I gently worked myself away from the clown, watching the watchers. The desk man piped up: "Mr. Morrison, Mr. Albert Morrison, we have your boarding pass." I shot up from my seat, grabbed the pass, and hit the walkway. The little blonde sang out, "Have a pleasant flight, Mr. Morrison," as I passed. I could feel the heat of the hunters' eyes on my back.
I wasn't fifty feet into the runway when I heard, "Mr. Steele, Mr. Henry Steele, we have your boarding pass." I kept going and found my seat in the front of the plane.
I watched the aisle and, sure enough, the clown passed me by, heading for the smoking section in the rear. I thought he winked at me, but I couldn't be sure.
The flight to Augusta was only half an hour, but the plane couldn't outrun a phone call. The airport was a tiny thing, just one building, with a short walk to the cabs outside. The clown passed by me as I was heading outside, bumped me with his shoulder, held up my two fifties in his hand, and gave me a greasy smile. "It's a hard world," he said, moving out ahead of me.
I watched as two men swung in behind him. One was carrying a golf bag; the other had his hands free.
Joyride
Just past midnight on the Old Motor Parkway, outside of town where there used to be factories. They closed the road down years ago—when they closed the mills. Nobody uses it anymore.
My car was standing at the beginning of the two–lane crumbling blacktop road. Me looking straight ahead through the narrow slit of windshield on the chopped–down '49 Ford coupe, Wendy next to me in the passenger seat, her left hand on the inside of my right thigh, smoking. To her right, a new guy. In a snarling Mopar, giant rear tires raking the nose almost down to the pavement.
I didn't know him, an outsider, invading. He'd cruised into the drive–in, looking for me. Offered me out to the highway. Cash, pink slips, anything I wanted to play for.
People were watching. They always watch. I upped the stakes—first man over the bridge takes it. His girl was a busty little brunette with a slashy red mouth, draping her heavy breasts over the windowsill of his shiny car, watching us lay it out in the parking lot.
"Do it!" she told him.
Wendy just watched her. Arched her back. Nodded okay to me.
The road turns to dirt after the first bend and ends with a sharp hook–turn just before the abandoned wood bridge. There's no water under that bridge anymore. My little car was hunched over, waiting. Growling, ticking. I felt what it wanted to do.
Velvet–ink out there but I knew the road. I'd done this before. Slower, in daylight. Practicing my moves.
I pulled the switch for the cut–outs. The motor crackled now, unmuffled. We'd only have a few minutes before the Highway Patrol heard the noise and came after us. I'd be long gone.
They'd chased me before, knew who I was. But they'd have to catch me to hold me.
We don't use a flagman for these runs—Wendy shouts out the count, a white silk scarf in her right hand. We go on Three. I'd feel her quick, sharp squeeze on my thigh just before she dropped the scarf—that was my edge.
I blipped the throttle, looked past Wendy's profile to the other guy. He gave me the thumbs–up, grinning. She gave me a quick kiss—as wet under her jeans as I was hard under mine.
I pressed down the heavy clutch, shrieked the potent engine, grabbed the floor shift and slipped it toward me and down. First gear. I telescoped my eyes down to the little bridge, spit my chewed cigarette out the window.
Wendy squeezed my thigh a split second before Three! as I dropped the clutch. The rear wheels clawed for a foothold and the Ford got burning sideways…straightened out and launched.
I was off first but he was closing. Couldn't see the tach needle—I power–shifted into second, grabbed half a length on him. The bridge: I saw the hook coming, pumped the brake with my left foot, squatting for the turn. The beast screamed on…ignoring me. It was too close. All by myself. One long second left. I gambled: clutch in, tramp the gas, ram the lever back into first. No time now…I popped the clutch, heard the vicious crack! as the transmission dropped and we went freewheeling…no traction. Lost. The shift knob came off in my fist. I crouched low and whipped the wheels inside the opening to the bridge but it was no good—the rear end slid out and hit the wall. We started to roll—I dove for the floor, Wendy's blond hair flying ahead of me. The icy metal of the shift lever stabbed into my mouth, shattering teeth and coming out my ripped cheek just as we went over.
I heard the sirens. Couldn't move. When the law came I was still pinned by the long stick, an insect on their spreading board. Everything in flames.
The young cop was crying when I came to and some white–coated liar was telling me how all right things were going to be.
Lynch Law
May 1959
The predator slouched against the soft leather seat, eyes half–closed. Parked near the edge of a drive–in hamburger joint on a thick summer night, listening to the frightened voices swirl like fog around his open windows. The little weasels were whining about a story they thought only their pitiful little town knew. But the predator knew better—he heard th
e same story everywhere he traveled: some ancient black madman living in the swamp out past the abandoned factories and mill works; a monster with the strength of a dozen men, escaped from a chain gang years ago and never brought to justice. And he waited out there every night, living on human flesh. You don't give Fear a Christian name in the Bible Belt, so they called him "The Nigger." Those who claimed to have seen him said he had a hideous scarred face and only one hand—the other stump ended in a hooked spike.
The Nigger only lived to make people die.
A stupid myth—the predator had used it before.
And this time, he couldn't miss. Last Saturday night, two of the town's bright little stars hadn't returned from their date. They found them the next morning on the edge of the swamp. Both heads hacked off—not cleanly. The boy's wallet had been torn open and his mouth stuffed with dollar bills. The girl's body was naked except for her underpants, but the investigators couldn't tell who took her that far.
The kids knew. Everybody had known about Rob and Sally for quite a while. Rob talked a lot because it was his first, and Sally didn't care if he did because it wasn't. Or so people said.
The church people got hard around the eyes when they heard the stories. Punishment for sin was one thing, but God wouldn't pick a nigger to do his work.
Frightened wisps of talk floated past the predator's window:
"It was a tramp—some hobo who got thrown off the train. Probably camping out there when he saw them…"
"He didn't take the money."
"An escaped convict…run off from the prison farm."
"It was the Nigger…had to be the Nigger!"
"There is no goddamned Nigger out there."
"Lots of folks saw him."
"Yeah, well, whatever it is, I'm not going out there again without a gun."
"I suppose you'd go even with a gun, huh?"
"I might…"
The predator listened carefully. He was a good listener. Patient, doing his work. Teenagers gathered around his new Coupe de Ville, sat on the hood, lit their cigarettes with the lighter from his dashboard. The predator blended in easily—a professional stranger with soft ways about him. He was twenty–four years old—could look seventeen or thirty, depending on what he needed.
The predator added nothing to the conversation unless someone pushed him. His smile never got near his eyes.
That was his way— stand close, but apart. A wolf watching the campfire. He remembered one night in Chicago. A crap game behind a car wash where he'd been working to build up a stake after they let him out the last time. He faded the shooter all night long, never touching the dice. But finally they passed cubes to him, telling him he had to roll. He refused again. Politely. One of the men patiently explained to him that the odds were always a little bit against the shooter, so it wasn't fair to hang back like he was. The predator listened to the explanation, no expression on his young face. He knew all about the odds. But he didn't touch the dice. They crowded in around him, telling him to roll or walk…and leave his winnings behind. With a frozen face and a crackling thunderstorm in his chest he grabbed the dice and threw eight straight passes. He walked away from the car wash with four hundred dollars of their rent money. Miserable slugs didn't know how lucky they'd been—if he'd had a gun instead of the straight–edged razor in his jacket pocket…
An old man who had been in the game caught up with the predator at the end of the alley.
"I hope you learned something, son," he said.
The predator looked at the old man. "I'm not your fucking son."
The old man knew it was the truth.
But this was way south of Chicago. And young people never knew the truth. He got Joanne's phone number from one of the grinning boys at the drive–in. He knew why they were smiling—any number they gave up so easily had to be a girl they hadn't gotten to. The kind he wanted.
Three nights later, they were coming back from the movies. Driving in the Cadillac an old woman had bought for him in Phoenix. There had been a newsreel about the lynching of Mack Charles Parker in nearby Mississippi. A mob had stormed the jail where Parker had been waiting trial for rape—his body had never been found. Joanne had been horrified. She kept saying, "It's not right—he didn't do it."
The predator knew she would have sacrificed the black bastard in a minute if he had. Knowing things—that's how you got on in this world. Patience. He drove out past the old factories, watching the quick pulse throb in her neck.
"Where're you going?"
"I thought we'd park the car and talk for a bit. I can't handle the drive–in and all those silly kids."
Joanne responded to the implied threat to her sophistication. "Anything's better than that," she agreed.
The predator parked near the edge of the swamp, fitting his car inside the sulfurous mist. He left the engine running—windows up, air conditioner on. Started his work in the dead–quiet night.
"I can't believe those punks were really serious about some nigger living out here and slicing people up…. You can tell when a kid's never left home."
"Well," she said, "they really are pretty immature. I never go out with any of the boys around here anymore, not since I got back from college…."
"Christ, you can't see a thing out there, huh?"
"This is the first time I've ever been out here. None of the town boys come out here now. You know, ever since…"
The predator lit a cigarette, watching her face over his cupped hands. "Doesn't bother you, right?"
The old factories shifting on their rotten foundations made a moaning sound that seemed to blossom from the ground around the car. A tiny red light appeared in the distance. The predator glanced at the glowing tip of his cigarette—just a reflection in the windshield. He smiled his smile.
Joanne shuddered in the chill of the air conditioner. "I know a much better place, out by the lake. It's really beautiful in the summer…"
"Ah, let's stay here. Besides. I thought you liked niggers, the way you were carrying on in the movies and all…."
The predator pumped the gas pedal, listening to the engine roar against the swamp–sounds. The Caddy rocked in its place, a frightened beast chained by the predator's foot.
"No," the girl said. "I don't want to stay here. I don't…please…"
"Come on, what's the big deal? Wouldn't you like to have some big black gorilla get hold of you? You might like it."
Joanne opened her mouth, trying for indignation, but nothing came out. The predator reached for her with his right hand, flicking away the hem of her full skirt, shoving his hand roughly between her legs. He grabbed the soft flesh of her inner thigh, pulling her around to face him, holding tight.
"It's getting pretty stuffy in here; I think I'll just open this window and…"
"No!"
"What's your problem?" he whispered, still holding her. "I've got this." The predator pulled a shiny little automatic from under the dash, holding it up so she could see it gleam in the darkness.
"Please…please. I want to go home…."
"I got something to do first," he told her, watching the dice bounce on the blanket and thinking "natural" in his mind. It was a word he liked.
Joanne's head whipped back and forth on her neck, no longer feeling the pain in her thigh. "No, no, no…no, please, take me home…I'm so afraid…god, please!"
The predator twisted his hand, making her see his face. The swamp–sounds tightened around the car, but the predator was calm within himself. The key was knowing when to move—picking your time. He made her look until she understood.
"Take me home and I'll do whatever you want," Joanne said, her voice quiet now.
"Sure. With Mommy and Daddy watching, huh' You must think I'm a fucking idiot."
"No! I think you're wonderful…so strong. My parents are up north on vacation…we'd be all alone. Please?"
The predator's teeth flashed. He had known all about the vacation before he'd called Joanne.
"I d
on't believe you," he said. "How do I know you wouldn't just run in the house and call the cops?"
"Oh, I wouldn't. I never would. Just take me home…to my house…and…"
"You do something for me first. Just so I'm sure."
"Wh…what?"
The predator took his left hand off the wheel. He stepped on the gas, hearing the engine scream as he unzipped his slacks. He backed off the engine, letting the car idle down. "Show me," he told her.
Joanne reached uncertainly toward him—his slap! was a whipcrack in the quiet night.
"Not with your hand."
"No! I can't…I never…"
The predator took his hand from her thigh and moved it to the back of her neck. He slowly forced her head down and held her against him, the pistol in his left hand tapping a steady rhythm against the driver's window. When he was sure she was going to do the right thing, he took his hand away from her neck and let it rest across the top of the seat.
When she finished he jerked her back by the short hair at the base of her neck.
She looked at the predator, her eyes milky, unreadable.
"Do you believe me now?"
He nodded, waiting.
"I love you," Joanne told him. "I swear I do. Take me home now. Please…hurry! We have to leave, honey…I will, oh…anything! Just take me home."
The predator stomped the gas, shoving the Caddy into gear—it fishtailed on the soft ground, clawing for a grip. The predator flicked the wheel expertly, guiding the big car out of the dying swamp. He released the girl, shoving her against the passenger door.
The predator drove straight to her house. He didn't need directions. When they pulled up, he pushed her out her side of the car, following close behind, never taking his hand off her.
An hour later the predator remembered he'd left his pistol in plain view inside the car, but the doors were locked, so he went back to what he was doing. He kept asking Joanne, "Isn't this better?" and she didn't know what he meant but knew enough to say "Yes" every time.
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