by M. E. Kerr
“Yes.” It was beginning to fit, all of it. I knew then why Mr. Deem was so eager to get Nina to The Charles Dance that weekend, and why he’d allowed her to stay overnight. He was making all the arrangements in the house, packing up, preparing to close it and clear out.
I said, “And I suppose Nina thought you were eloping with her tonight!”
“She probably did, but there was no other way. When she told me she could stay overnight on The Hill, I was afraid Deem might take off solo…. Maybe not, but we couldn’t take that chance, so we moved. We put a man on Jericho while Ann and I went for Nina. I wanted her out of there, and I wanted her prepared for what she’s going to have to find out about her father. Ann’s taking her in, and telling her everything. She’ll be good with her, John.”
“Fell,” I said.
“Fell. I care a lot about Nina, too.”
We went down Jericho and parked two doors away from the house.
We weren’t there long before a man rapped on my window.
Eddie Dragon said, “You sit tight, Fell.”
He got out.
I heard him say he had a Hill boy with him who’d stay in the jeep. I watched him stop and drop something. Then he turned around and came back to the passenger side.
The man was right behind him.
I rolled down my window.
“I didn’t count on this, Fell. Sorry,” Dragon said.
“No conversations!” a voice barked. “Just get him out and in the house!”
It wasn’t a voice I’d ever heard before, but I knew the face when I saw it.
Mark Twain from Miami.
He was stopping to pick up Dragon’s gun from the street. Then he had two.
Chapter 24
The phone wires were cut, Deem told me, and there was a naked man locked in the crawl space. Deem said he had no idea who the man was, that Meatloaf had been let out to do his business and routed him out of the bushes. Then Hunter had taken his clothes, to go through them and to limit his action.
We were locked in, too, Deem and I, in Deem’s study. If we tried anything, Hunter’d warned us, he’d kill us both.
From the sounds below, Dragon was being put in with the backup.
“At least Nina’s safe,” I said.
“No she isn’t. Hunter made me call the school and say she was to come home immediately, alone. He sent a taxi for her.”
I explained that she was with Ann, that Dragon had seen to that. Then I told him who Dragon was, or what he was … that Ann was his partner, and the naked man part of their team.
He looked too frightened to understand what I’d told him. “Don’t try anything, Fell,” he said. “Hunter means it when he says he’ll kill us.”
He was sitting in his big Eames chair hugging Meatloaf.
“What could I try? There’re bars on those windows.”
I was still absorbing the idea this man was involved with dope. He looked the same to me, right down to the suit, the necktie, and the shine on his shoes. It was hard for me to imagine him jaywalking, much less “facilitating” drug sales.
He knew I’d been told something by Dragon. He was having trouble looking at me, though I was right there on his footstool. It was the first time we’d ever been face-to-face when I’d had shoes on.
“Hunter killed his own stepbrother,” he said finally. “Now he’s going to kill me, too.”
“How do you know he killed Creery, sir?” I didn’t mean to call him “sir,” but habit won out. He seemed to respond to the respect I’d given him unintentionally, and he met my eyes for the first time.
“I suspected as much,” he said, “and when I accused him of it tonight, he told me he’d kill Nina, too, if I didn’t cooperate with him…. What have I done, Fell?” he sighed. “What have I done?”
“How did you ever get involved with someone like Hunter?” I said. He had a handkerchief out and was mopping his brow.
He said, “You might as well hear it from me, Fell. Tell Nina, too; otherwise she’ll never learn the truth. I won’t live to tell her.”
He lifted Meatloaf up to his chest and held him hard. “A long time ago, Bob Creery and I had dinner one night in Miami. We’d been friends in Sevens. My business was bad. He said he could help me out.” He leaned down and brushed his lips against the top of the dog’s head. “Bob was sort of an entrepreneur. That’s a polite name for it. He had his paint business in Miami, a couple of warehouses. He was sometimes legitimate, mostly not. Bootleg stuff. We formed DOT together. I sold stolen goods…. It wasn’t right, of course, but no one got hurt. Insurance covered the losses…. That was the way I rationalized it. DOT thrived. So did I…. Oh, Fell, Sevens did something to me. It gave me a taste for certain comforts, small luxuries. I’d never been as happy as when I lived as a Sevens…. I got spoiled for any kind of life that wouldn’t be easy.”
Meatloaf jumped out of his lap and down to my feet to sniff me.
Deem said, “Everything turned sour right before Barbara died. Bob had his stroke, and his stepson couldn’t wait to take over! Next thing I knew we were in the cocaine business. It was being shipped from South America to the paint factory inside croquet mallets, the handles of tennis rackets, anything wooden. It holds up well in wood and doesn’t add that much extra weight…. He sent me samples to show me until I said, ‘I don’t want to know about it — stop it.’ He’d empty out the cocaine, paint the stuff, and ship it on. My equipment and DOT gave him another outlet. He’s got outlets all over the country.”
“Did Creery’s father know, or Creery?”
“Bob wouldn’t have allowed it, not Bob. He wasn’t a man of any integrity, but he wouldn’t have okayed drug trafficking…. It’s too dirty … and it’s too risky. I wouldn’t have either, if Hunter hadn’t known all about DOT. Bob was paralyzed all down one side, and that left me at Hunter’s mercy.” Deem folded his handkerchief neatly and placed it carefully back in his breast pocket. “The boy didn’t know, I’m sure. Hunter pretended to get the kid off pot by substituting pills. That’s why there were rumors that Cyril was selling, because he could get all he wanted. Of course the kid got hooked. Hunter wanted him addicted. But that boy thought it was his own fault he couldn’t stop…. And he was being bullied by that Lasher boy.”
“Well … they bullied each other.”
“I think he taunted him once too often. Didn’t Nina say he had proof of some kind that Bob told him how to get into Sevens?”
“Yes. There was a letter.”
“I believe the story going around The Hill is that Cyril killed Lasher. An associate of Hunter’s told me, just last fall, that the boy was on a combination of amphetamines and Quaaludes. There was plenty of Miami gossip regarding young Cyril, speculation about how Hunter’d deal with him after Bob’s death…. And drugs change your whole personality. You live a nightmare. You love the drug more than you love anything. Well” — he gave a strange little choked cough — ”that’s how we got rich. Cocaine made us rich. Richer than we’d ever been…. Hunter is a greedy man, Fell. He wanted that little empire for himself. Bob’s near death. Cyril would have inherited everything from Bob … and there’d be a lot of explaining to do. So Hunter saw his chance.”
“But if he knew Creery’d killed Lasher, why didn’t he just turn him in?”
Deem shook his head. “No. In our business we know too well how elastic the law is. Hunter didn’t want Cyril alive. The law wouldn’t kill him, so Hunter did…. I didn’t even know he was up north until Cyril was found dead. We never made phone calls to each other. We met in Florida, always. We never wanted any record of rapport … Even after young Cyril’s death, I never expected him to walk through that door the way he did tonight…. Walked in here and caught me red-handed, said, You’re not going anywhere…. Poor Nina. My poor, poor Nina.”
I picked Meatloaf up and handed him to Deem. He needed to hold on to something, do something with his hands, which he’d begun to wring. I’d never make a good policeman. I felt too sorr
y for people I knew who got themselves into trouble. I could see myself in them, maybe, see how easy it was to start heading down the wrong road.
“They say it’s a small world.” Deem was talking into Meatloaf’s neck. “And it is indeed. Do you know how Hunter learned I was planning to bolt?”
He didn’t wait for my answer.
He said, “Hunter spent some time with Inge Lasher’s daughter these past few weeks. She told him her brother thought a man named Eddie Dragon was supplying Cyril with the pills. Cyril’d never told her the truth…. Then she told Hunter about Nina being mixed up with Dragon: She’d heard her on the answering machine…. One day Dr. Inge told her, Don’t worry, she won’t be calling here after Easter, Mr. Deem is taking her away…. Well. That was all Hunter needed to hear. He did a little investigating on his own, called the travel bureau, and found out I was leaving tomorrow morning.”
“Thank God for Eddie Dragon,” I said. “Or whatever his real name is. He got Nina out, anyway.”
“He started it all,” Deem said bitterly.
I noticed Deem blamed everyone but himself. Sevens. Hunter. Eddie Dragon.
“By now Hunter knows he’s trapped, too. He can’t lock up the whole Cottersville police force in the dry cellar, can he? They’ll be along, won’t they?” He seemed ready to cry. “I hope you’ll be kind enough to take care of Meatloaf, Fell. And to tell Nina I truly love her…. Hunter won’t hurt you. Just me. I never should have put bars on those windows.”
I was praying that he was right about the police coming, that by then Ann had gotten to them. But I was also remembering my father telling me of times local police didn’t interfere with federal arrests.
We didn’t say any more for a while. Deem sat there cradling Meatloaf in his arms like a baby. Then we heard a door slam.
Meatloaf began barking. “Don’t, darling,” Deem told the dog. “Hush and don’t make trouble.” He put his thumb and finger over Meatloaf’s nose like a muzzle.
Hunter unlocked the study door and appeared with an armful of clothes, a gun peeking out from under trousers and shirts, underpants, coats, and shoes.
“I’ll take your car keys, David,” he said.
I petted Meatloaf with trembling hands. He was making low sounds close to growling. The gun in Hunter’s hand was aimed at me and the dachshund.
The dog jumped down as Deem reached into his pocket.
Hunter looked at me and said, “You’re coming!”
“Why take the boy?” Deem asked.
“For a shield,” Hunter said.
Deem dropped the keys into Hunter’s palm.
At first when I heard the noise, I thought there was a radio on in the house.
Then, as it became louder, I knew what it was.
“What the hell is that?” Hunter snapped.
He walked over to the window.
I could see the look on his face, and I knew I’d always remember it. The flesh caved in, and the eyes got wide.
“Get over here!” he said to me. “What the hell is this?”
They were in the yard with their gold flashlights shining on their faces. Singing.
I could see Charles Dickens and Charles II, Charles Bronson and two Charlie Chaplins.
There were about a dozen Sevens there. Kidder I recognized, and Fisher. Schwartz next to Fisher.
They were in good voice and I’d never felt more like joining in.
The time will come as the years go by,
When my heart will thrill
At the thought of The Hill,
And the Sevens who came
With their bold cry,
WELCOME TO SEVENS!
Then they began to shout our names, seven times apiece.
“DEEM! DEEM! DEEM! DEEM! DEEM! DEEM! DEEM!”
Behind me Meatloaf was dancing to the door and barking.
“Shut that damn dog up!” Hunter cried out.
There were tears rolling down Deem’s cheeks as he realized they’d come to rescue him, however they had gotten word he needed them.
I might have bawled myself, but I had gone to quiet Meatloaf, near the door, telling him to be still, a moment before my hand reached for the knob and my legs did the rest.
I had my own cheering section to spur me on.
“FELL! FELL! FELL! FELL! FELL!” — and I was out of there for the last two.
Chapter 25
When the Cottersville police arrived in their car, Dr. Skinner pulled up in the Gardner limo.
I told one cop about the naked man in the crawl space while another began calling to Deem and Lowell Hunter through a bullhorn, advising them that the house was surrounded, to come out hands up.
“I want you and Schwartz to come with me, Fell,” Skinner said to me.
“Can’t we wait to see them come out?”
“No. We’re going back to The Hill with Lieutenant Hatch. He’s going to ask some questions, and I hope he’s going to answer some…. Schwartz had better answer some, too — about how Sevens got dragged into this!”
Skinner went over and tapped Schwartz on the shoulder.
I could hear Schwartz tell him he’d go back in Kidder’s van with the other Sevens. But Skinner shook his head no. He pointed to the limo.
“Right now?” Schwartz said.
“Right this minute!” said Skinner. Then he walked over to The Sevens and said that they were to leave. Immediately.
Even though we were coatless in the bitter cold, we dragged our heels getting down to the limo. We were looking over our shoulders at the red brick house, the front porch illuminated by mobile spotlights.
In his brown flannel suit, striped cotton shirt, and silk tie, with the square cotton pocket handkerchief, Deem appeared there like someone yanked out of a PBS-TV play and pushed into the set of a cops-and-robbers sitcom. He had his hands up. He was smiling grimly.
“Is his daughter in there, too?” Schwartz asked me.
“No. But she’s all right.”
“What in the hell was going on, Fell? Did Dragon try to run off with her?”
Dr. Skinner said, “Get in back, boys! You’ll have ample opportunity to discuss this on The Hill! Ready, Lieutenant?”
Hatch was looking over his shoulder too, in time to see Lowell Hunter follow Deem. All four of us were standing by the limo gawking.
Then Skinner said to the lieutenant, “I don’t have a driver. You sit up front with me.”
We got in, reluctantly.
Skinner leaned around to say, “I’m going to put up this window, but I advise you boys not to try collaborating on any story to shield Sevens! I’ve had my fill of Sevens skulduggery! … I’ll put the heat on. Fell, you’re shivering.”
He didn’t have to tell me that. My teeth were chattering.
The glass partition between the front and the backseats went up, and soon after we began gliding down Jericho, I felt the warm air.
Schwartz said, “Lauren and I couldn’t figure out what happened to you. Kidder said you took off after the Deem girl like a bat out of hell.”
“I did.” I was beginning to feel all the fear I hadn’t dared feel for my own poor ass. Fear, then the fatigue coming in with the relief that it was over.
“Skinner doesn’t know it, but I called the police,” Schwartz said. “I told them to call Deem. They said the phones were out here, that something was going on down here, but they didn’t know what. And Saturday night — most of their cars are out looking for impaired drivers…. They said they were going to radio them over to Jericho, where you were, probably…. How did they know that, Fell?”
The yawn came moaning out of me. I couldn’t help it. It was the delayed sound of panic or relief, all that was left from a frustrated scream, probably.
Schwartz gave me a look. “You’re a cool one, Fell.”
“Far from it.”
Schwartz continued, “We figured you two Sevens could use some help maybe. We were warned not to go into the house, so I said we’d do a little street theat
er outside and see what happened.”
“I was never so glad to see you all! Thanks, Lion!”
“How did Creery’s stepbrother get in on the act, Fell? And where’s Eddie Dragon?”
I held one hand up. “Later. Not right now.”
Schwartz gave my leg a punch. “See? I told you Fate arranges exits and entrances…. But I have to admit I never really thought Dragon would pull something like this!”
Another punch, that time to my arm. “We came through for you, though, Fell!”
Whatever Schwartz imagined had been going on at the Deems’, it had him bubbling over. “That Deem!” He laughed. “Did you see him come out? Nothing ruffles our boy, does it? He looked like he was coming out of church on a Sunday morning.”
“Since when do you come out of church with your hands up?” I said.
“The police didn’t mean for Deem to do it. And I think they got Hunter confused with Dragon…. But I never liked the looks of Lowell Hunter. Guys in their thirties with white hair make me nervous.”
“How about guys seventeen with white hair?” I said. “I think mine’s turning white after tonight.”
“Not you, Fell. You’re too nervy.”
I put my head back against the leather seat and shut my eyes. I didn’t want to think about Nina, but it was hard not to. Not to imagine her face when she found out about her dad. Not to wonder how she’d deal with that, and with the stunt Dragon had played on her: making her think her dreams had come true, he was whisking her away with him … and she’d worn that white dress, the kind a bride would choose.
Schwartz was humming a familiar tune.
What was it … Something about your voice calling … something right on the tip of my tongue.
Then he was whistling it softly.
Heavenly shades of night are falling —
it’s Twilight Time,
Out of the mist your voice is calling —