by S G Read
‘I can’t afford your outrageous prices, 55 cents.’
Both knew at the start of the haggling that Dan wanted to pay 60 cents for it to be able to afford a bottle as well but the haggle had to run its course. If he haggled, the shopkeeper knew he would get all of Dan’s money, if he refused to haggle Dan would buy the bottle and go.
‘60 cents and that’s as low as I can go!’ The shopkeeper responded.
‘Done and give me a bottle of red eye.’
Dan took his broach and his bottle then started back toward his boat. The shopkeeper put the money in his till but watched Dan as he went. He thought for a minute then picked up the phone.
Marco sat in the corner of Joe’s diner. He was a partner in the business, not by force but by setting Joe up when Joe had come out of the army and could not find work. They had been friends since childhood.
‘It’s Al from the liquor store for you Marco.’ Joe called across.
Marco walked over.
‘Yes Al.’
‘A little bird tells me you’re after the same girl you caught earlier and you lost her on the river.’
‘Right so far Al; what about it?’
‘Dan Craigrose has just bought a broach for a dress.’
‘Was he drunk?’
‘As sober as I’ve seen him for some time, he even haggled with me.’
‘He lives on a boat doesn’t he?’ Marco asked, putting two and two together.
‘Yeah, a houseboat moored on the same river that you lost the girl in; a coincidence or what?’
‘I reckon it’s worth looking into.’ Marco replied. ‘I won’t forget this, how do I find this house boat?’
‘There’s a track that leads right past Will’s place going into the trees and straight to the boat. Drive out here and I’ll show you it.’
‘And you will have your hand out!’
‘We all gotta make a living aint we?’
‘Did he take a bottle with him Al?’
‘Yeah: Rot gut red eye.’
‘We won’t have to worry about him stopping us then!’ Marco snorted. ‘It will be like taking candy from a baby.’
‘As you say, give Dan half an hour and he’ll be out of it!’
‘We’ll be there in ten minutes.’
Marco walked outside, looking for Barney. He was asleep in the car.
‘What’s up?’ He grunted when Marco nudged him.
‘She might be alive and if she is we just found her!’
‘Well, well, well, pay back time!’ Barney cried.
CHAPTER 8
Dan walked back to the boat the bottle in his hand untouched and found Cally fast asleep. At first he thought to leave her asleep but the broach was the first present he had bought anyone since Lucy died. He shook her gently and was surprised by her reaction. She jumped up and backed away frightened until she saw who it was.
‘What’s up Cally? Who’s after you?’ He asked.
‘I think it’s better if you don’t know Dan.’ Cally replied. ‘I’m afraid they’d hurt you; they seem very good at doing that.’
‘Getting hurt don’t worry me none, after all the other sort of pain I’ve suffered, physical pain will be a relief in a way.’
‘It’s a long story! Well it seems long to me.’
‘I’ll look in my diary to see if I have any free time.’ Dan replied and sat down beside her.
Cally smiled.
‘That’s better a smile always helps.’ He remembered the broach. ‘Here I bought this for you.’
He gave her the bag with the broach in it. Normally, she would not have been seen dead wearing it, especially near the boys she played with but she tried her hardest to look pleased with the present.
‘It’s lovely. It goes with Lucy’s dress a treat; I wonder if it will go with mine?’
She walked over to where her dress was hanging, drying and held it up against it.
‘Won’t really know until I put it back on but it looks like it will!’
Dan stood the bottle of whisky down untouched and filled the kettle.
‘I think I’ll have a coffee, do you want more orange?’
She remembered the earlier orange and decided against, she could always change her mind if she was thirsty!
‘I woke up this morning and tied my dads tie before he went to work but after he had gone someone broke in and trashed the place. When I heard them break in I hid. When they came back for seconds, I ran but they chased me. I ended up in the storm drain, that’s why my dress is wet, dirty and torn. Well it's less dirty since I fell in the river. I loaned a bike to go to hospital, to see if the man taken there was my dad but the same men grabbed me, when I tried to go in. I managed to escape into the river which is when you saved me.’
Dan whistled slightly.
‘Makes my day seem pretty tame compared with that.’
Marco drove to the hardware store and the storekeeper showed him the track, the one that led to the houseboat. Marco gave him a ten-dollar note.
‘The ten spot is for keeping your eyes open and letting us know what you see, as soon as you see it.’
‘I’ll keep them peeled.’
Marco and Barney walked along the path, past the other store and into the woods. The track was easy to follow and after half an hour, they came to where the boat was moored.
‘How do we do it?’ Barney asked.
‘Head on. He’s most likely drunk as a skunk by now, all we have to do is pick her up and take her back with us and then we are in the clear.’ Marco answered.
‘What if he isn’t drunk?’
‘We do what we have to. If we don’t take her back I can see me dropping into the river with a concrete overcoat on. If it’s him or me, he gets it!’ Marco answered.
The boat had no plank to walk across to get aboard that had long since rotted away. You either got your feet wet or jumped. Dan used the tree at the front of the boat and stepped on the rail to get on and off but they did not know that, or figure it out. Barney had no desire to jump on to the boat and walked out to it but he found it hard to pull him self up. Marco jumped on board and landed heavily.
Drummond had sat watching Barney while Marco was it the diner, then he followed them as best he could to the liquor store. By the time he arrived he saw them walk into the woods. He sat astride his bike and wondered where they were going. It was then he remembered the grumpy old man in the houseboat. If Cally was there with the grumpy old man, it meant she was still alive. It also meant she was going to be in a heap more trouble and, somehow, he had to warn her. There was no way of overtaking them in the woods especially on his bicycle but he knew where the boat was moored on the river. As he pedalled he wondered why he had not thought about the boat before. He crossed the bridge and careered down the track onto the towpath, pedalling even faster along the flat towpath. He stopped opposite the boat in time to see Barney trying to pull himself on board, by then, it was too late to shout a warning.
Dan heard Marco land on the boat and went to investigate.
‘If there’s trouble there’s a hatch up out of the front cabin, you can get out that way.’ He warned as he went up the stairs.
He found Marco on deck and Barney just climbing on to the deck.
‘Get off my boat!’ Dan shouted.
‘We just want a look round pops.’ Marco replied.
‘Over my dead body.’ Dan answered and meant every bit of it.
‘It can be arranged old man.’ Barney warned.
‘Run Cally, run.’ Dan shouted and pushed Marco on to Barney.
Cally hurried into the front cabin but the hatch Dan was talking about had not been opened in years and was not about to open now, not for a little girl. Cally struggled to open it but it was no good. Hearing the girl’s name spurred Marco and Barney into action and they knocked Dan to the ground. Cally ran up the steps in an effort to escape but Barney grabbed hold of her. Dan heaved himself up and hit Barney, not a hard blow but it was on his damaged nose. Barney
yelled in pain and Cally found herself free for a second but then Marco had her and his gun was pointing at her head.
‘Cool it old man or the girl gets it!’ He warned.
Dan stopped his fight and stood up; Barney was still holding his nose with one hand but hit Dan with his gun barrel using the other hand.
‘That’ll teach you to interfere where you aint wanted old man.’ He cried. ‘He pointed the pistol at Dan and would have shot him if Cally hadn’t kicked out at him. Her foot caught his elbow and the shot went wide. She used Marco for support to do it and he staggered backwards under the extra weight. He ended up against the side of the boat. As he reached the side of the boat, a hand grabbed his legs and pulled his feet back, under the rail, he fell hitting his face on the deck and slid under the rail into the water, trying to grab hold of something to stop himself falling. Dan lay on the deck unconscious and Cally turned to see Drummond hanging on the side of the boat.
‘Well. What are you waiting for Cally? Jump!’ He cried.
'Not the river again!' Cally wailed.
She jumped into the water, she knew she had to, to get away from the smelly man. Drummond followed her and they swam off downstream, using the current for speed. Marco was hanging on a branch as they passed him but he was more interested in saving his own skin, than catching them. They swam out of sight of Marco and then kept going until they were half way between the houseboat and the lock.
‘We can’t go to the lock!’ Drummond warned. ‘It’s too dangerous.’
‘Let’s get out and get away from this river,’ Cally suggested, 'I am beginning to dislike it quite a lot.
Drummond nodded. They landed at a spot where they were able to reach the bank by going underneath the overhanging branches then climbed up on to the bank. They lay on the bank, gasping for breath.
‘Thanks.’ Cally said when she could.
‘Any time.’ Drummond answered casually. ‘Nice dress.’
Cally looked at the dress. She was still in Lucy’s bright red dress with the broach pinned to it.
‘I’ll stand out a mile away!’ She moaned. ‘At least mine was-’ she searched for the word she wanted.
‘Drab!’ Drummond said finishing the sentence for her.
Cally glared at him for a few seconds then smiled. ‘I suppose it was, compared with this one.’
‘You could just take it off!’ Drummond said idly.
Cally stuck her tongue out at him, it was subtle a change from her normal answer, which was a punch.
‘You’re quite pretty really when you wear pretty clothes,' Drummond admitted, 'nice broach!’
‘Dan bought it for me as a present. I hope he’s okay.’
‘Not a lot we can do about it is there, unless you want to swim back upstream to help him?’
‘No way, I’ve had enough of this river! Let’s head away from the river and find somewhere to hide, it’ll be dark soon.’
They climbed to their feet and made their way carefully through the trees and shrubs. Cally did not want to tear Lucy’s dress, before she had a chance to return it to Dan, as it seemed important to him.
Marco clambered up the bank and found Barney kicking the unconscious Dan.
‘Enough of that! We got to get the girl. At least we know she is still alive and she’s out there somewhere. She is going over fields and stuff now and I know just the man to find her! Drive me to the diner I have to make a call.’
They hurried back to the car and drove off with the storekeeper watching. He saw that they did not have the girl and pictured her floating face down in the river. It was not his problem, it is not wise to anger them! At the diner, Marco changed out of his wet clothes.
‘Who you gonna call?’ Barney asked.
‘Baptiste who else, he can find a tick on a buffalo and the buffalo wouldn’t even know he was there!’
‘There aint any buffalo round here anymore.’
Marco shook his head in amazement and phoned Baptiste.
‘He’s going to meet us there in ten minutes.’ He announced when he put the mouthpiece back in its cradle, then added. ‘He’ll bring the buffalo!’
He phoned Clo next.
‘She jumped in the river.’ Marco explained, simplifying things. ‘I’m meeting Baptiste there and he’s going to track her.’
‘If she tries to run again shoot her somewhere that won’t kill her until I want her dead! She won’t run so far then.’
‘Yes boss.’
They drove back and met Baptiste by the boat.
‘Where did she go?’ Baptiste asked, eyeing the inert form on the boat.
‘Down river.’ Marco replied.
‘There were two of them!’ Barney added.
‘Then we go down river and see where they came out! No?’ He said and brandished a wicked looking machete.
They started down the bank, Baptiste chopping and the other two following.
Dan woke to hear three men talking. He did not open his eyes he just lay there listening, until they started cutting their way downstream. He was badly injured but he remembered seeing Lucy’s pathetic little body after the river had given her up and found the strength to stand. He staggered down the stairs and found the whisky bottle.
‘Old friend you’ve done me no good until now, now all I want from you is enough strength to get to a phone. He took two long gulps then put the stopper back in. The climb back up the stairs hurt him a lot but he ignored the pain and kept ignoring it all the way to the first store he came to. He sometimes bought his bootleg whisky here. Now he had run up a tab that he could not pay but for now he was no longer worried about that, he was running out of time!
‘I need the phone.’ Dan said grey with pain.
‘You need a doctor Dan not a phone.’ The storekeeper replied seeing the state he was in.
‘Phone first, it’s important!’ The tone in Dan’s voice stopped any further argument from the storekeeper.
‘You know where it is and as I don’t suppose you got any money it’s on the house!’
Dan phoned the police. He sat in the store conscious until they arrived. He wanted to be able to tell them the story of fishing the girl out of the water as soon as they arrived. He went on to tell them about the visit from the two men and the three men going down river after her. He had no idea how she had managed to get away from them but he was glad she had. Lieutenant Stone listened intently until Dan slumped in a heap on the floor then barked out orders.
‘Where’s that ambulance?’ He called.
‘On its way lieutenant.’ Pruitt replied.
‘Ring Grogan and tell him to get me some dogs out here! We got some rats to flush out and a girl to save!’
His prompts to get more out of Dan were wasted and he gave up when the ambulance arrived. Twice he walked to the edge of the wood where the path led in. Each time he yelled.
‘Where are those damned dogs?’
Cally and Drummond walked and walked until they came to a derelict farmhouse, the foreclosure notice still readable on the door.
‘No one in.’ Cally observed by the state of the house.
They walked round it and found a way in.
They were both hungry and wet but there was no food to be found anywhere in the farmhouse.
‘What about the barn?’ Drummond asked.
Cally shrugged her shoulders.
‘Won’t hurt to look.’ She replied.
They fared slightly better in the barn. One lone hen had a clutch of eggs. They had no idea how long the hen had been sitting on them but they were willing to take the chance that a chick might drop out, when they cracked one. An old skillet hung on the wall in the barn; it had obviously been used to dish out the corn for the animals. It was all they had to cook the eggs with. Drummond gave Cally the skillet and picked up all but two of the eggs.
‘At least she’ll have something to show for her trouble!’ He said as an explanation.
Cally held out the skillet.
‘Why give it
to me?’ She asked.
‘You’re the girl! Don’t tell me you don’t know how to cook?’
‘Of course I don’t know how to cook! My pa did the cooking when we weren’t going to a restaurant! You do the cooking!’
‘I don’t know how to cook either, Caleb got the food. We don’t even have a stove!’
‘Great. Well I do know we need heat to cook with so you get a fire lit. Pa put fat in the skillet with the eggs to fry them, I’ll try to find some fat.’
Drummond lit the fire but there was no fat in the farmhouse.
‘What now?’ Drummond asked.
‘We boil them.’ Cally answered.
'I’ll throw up if they come out as boiled chick!’ Drummond warned.
‘I know we’ll crack them into the water and if they’re okay we can boil the lot up and eat it.’
‘Are you sure it’s okay like that?’
‘No! Have you any other suggestions?’ Cally retorted.
Drummond shook his head and turned away.
‘You baby.’ Cally teased.
She cracked an egg into the water and was relieved herself when she saw the white and yolk drop out.
‘It’s okay you can look now, they’re just eggs.’
They watched the eggs change as the water grew hotter up until they looked ready to eat. She tipped away most of the water then they ate the eggs straight out the skillet, half the eggs each. With food inside them and the warmth of the fire they settled down together in front of the fire. Outside the light was fading fast.
‘What now?’ Drummond asked.
Once more Cally shrugged her shoulders.
‘I suppose we wait here for tonight and go back to your shack in the morning.’
‘What if someone comes?’
‘We run. I for one don’t want to meet any of those men again, ever!’ She noticed that Drummond was staring at her. ‘What are you staring at?’
‘I am looking at a pretty girl, Cally, why don’t you like to look pretty?’
‘I don’t know, I’m always playing with boys and being pretty don’t count for much but beating up someone who talks back to you; now that counts.’