Bahama Crisis

by Desmond Bagley

  I could see he was sceptical. He merely grunted and changed the subject.

  "How come you tangled with Leroy Ainslee?"

  "Debbie was kidnapped from Houston," I said.

  "So was I. Next thing I knew I was at the Ainslee place locked up in a hut with Leroy on guard with a shotgun. That one," I added, pointing to the shotgun leaning against the tree where Sherry-Lou had left it.

  "Kidnappin'!" said Dade blankly. He shook his head.

  "Ainslees have mighty bad habits, but that ain't one of'em."

  "They didn't organize it. There was an Englishman; called himself Robinson, but I doubt if that's his real name. I think all the Ainslees provided was muscle and a place to hide. Who are they, anyway?"

  "A no account family of white trash," said Dade.

  "No one around here likes 'em. An' they breed too damn fast. Those Ainslee women pop out brats like shelling peas." He scratched his jaw.

  "How much did they ask for ransom?"

  "They didn't tell me." I was not about to go into details with Dade; he would never believe me.

  "Did you really kill Earl? An' gut Tukey?"

  "Yes." I told him how I had done it and he whistled softly. I said, "And Debbie was screaming all the time and I couldn't get near her."

  I found myself shaking.

  Dade put his hand on my arm.

  "Take it easy, son; we'll get her out of there." He looked down at my feet.

  "Think you can walk a piece?"

  "I can try."

  He looked down the hill.

  "Them Ainslees might take it into their ha ids to come back. We'll go over the rise an' find us a better place to be." He picked up Leroy's shotgun and examined it.

  "Nice gun," he said appreciatively.

  "You can have it," I said.

  "I doubt if Leroy will come calling for it."

  Dade chuckled.

  "Ain't that so."

  Just over an hour later Dade nudged me.

  "Here's Sherry-Lou. Got Chuck with her, too." He put two fingers in his mouth and uttered a peculiar warbling whistle, and the two distant figures changed course and came towards the tumble of rocks where Dade and I were sitting.

  Sherry-Lou had brought more than footwear. She produced a paper bag full of chunky pork sandwiches and I "So had you," I said.

  "What have you got against Cunninghams?"

  "The sons of bitches have been tryin' 10 run me often my own land ever since I can remember. Tried to run my Paw off, too. Been tryin' a long time. They fenced off our land an' big city sportsmen came in an' shot our hogs. They reckoned they was wild; we said they belonged to people us people. We tore down their fences an' built our own, an' defended 'em with guns. They ran a lot of folks of fen their land, but not us Perkinses."

  "The Cunninghams don't want your land just to hunt pigs, do they?"

  "Naw. They want to bring in bulldozers an' strip the land. A lot of prime hardwood around here. Then they replant with softwoods right tidy, like a regiment of soldiers marchin' down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington like I seen on TV once. Ruinin' this country."

  Dade waved his arm.

  "Big Thicket was three million acres once. Not much left now an' we want to keep it the way it is. Sure, I cut my timber, but I do it right an' try not to make too many big changes."

  I said, "I can promise you won't have trouble with the Cunninghams ever again."

  He shook his head.

  "You'll never get that past Jack Cunningham he's as stubborn as a mule. He'll never let go while there's a dollar to be made outta Big Thicket."

  "Jack will be no trouble; he had a heart attack a couple of days ago."

  "That so?" said Dade uninterestedly.

  "Then it's Billy One that old bastard's just as bad."

  "I promised," I said stubbornly.

  "It'll hold, Dade."

  I could see he was sceptical. He merely grunted and changed the subject.

  "How come you tangled with Leroy Ainslee?"

  "Debbie was kidnapped from Houston," I said.

  "So was I. Next thing I knew I was at the Ainslee place locked up in a hut with Leroy on guard with a shotgun. That one," I added, pointing to the shotgun leaning against the tree where Sherry-Lou had left it.

  "Kidnappin'!" said Dade blankly. He shook his head.

  "Ainslees have mighty bad habits, but that ain't one of'em."

  "They didn't organize it. There was an Englishman; called himself Robinson, but I doubt if that's his real name. I think all the Ainslees provided was muscle and a place to hide. Who are they, anyway?"

  "A no account family of white trash," said Dade.

  "No one around here likes 'em. An' they breed too damn fast. Those Ainslee women pop out brats like shelling peas." He scratched his jaw.

  "How much did they ask for ransom?"

  "They didn't tell me." I was not about to go into details with Dade; he would never believe me.

  "Did you really kill Earl? An' gut Tukey?"

  "Yes." I told him how I had done it and he whistled softly. I said, "And Debbie was screaming all the time and I couldn't get near her."

  I found myself shaking.

  Dade put his hand on my arm.

  "Take it easy, son; we'll get her out of there." He looked down at my feet.

  "Think you can walk a piece?"

  "I can try."

  He looked down the hill.

  "Them Ainslees might take it into their ha ids to come back. We'll go over the rise an' find us a better place to be." He picked up Leroy's shotgun and examined it.

  "Nice gun," he said appreciatively.

  "You can have it," I said.

  "I doubt if Leroy will come calling for it."

  Dade chuckled.

  "Ain't that so."

  Just over an hour later Dade nudged me.

  "Here's Sherry-Lou. Got Chuck with her, too." He put two fingers in his mouth and uttered a peculiar warbling whistle, and the two distant figures changed course and came towards the tumble of rocks where Dade and I were sitting.

  Sherry-Lou had brought more than footwear. She produced a paper bag full of chunky pork sandwiches and I ^1 suddenly realized I had not eaten for about twenty-four hours. As I ate them she rubbed my feet with a medicament and then bandaged them.

  More important than this was trfe news she brought. When Billy had heard her story he exploded into action and promised all aid short of the US Navy as fast as humanly possible.

  "He's flyin' here direct," she said.

  "I told him to bring a doctor." She avoided my eyes and I knew my hurts were not in her mind when she said that.

  "What's all this about?" asked Chuck.

  I let Dade tell the story I was too busy eating. W^hen he had finished Chuck said, "I always knew the Ainslees were bad." He shook his head.

  "But this…" He stared at me.

  "An' you kilt Earl?"

  "He's dead, unless he can walk around with his brains leaking out," I said sourly.

  "Jeez! Leroy will be madder than a cornered boar. What's to do, Pop?"

  Dade said, "Did Billy Cunningham say how long he'd be?"

  "Bout three o'clock," said Sherry-Lou.

  Dade hauled out an old-fashioned turnip watch and nodded.

  "Chuck, you get back to the house right smartly. W^hen Billy drops by in his whirlybird you show him the big meadow near Turkey Creek. We'll be there. No reason for Tom to walk more'n he has to."

  "Jeez!" said Chuck with enthusiasm.

  "Never flown in one of them things." He loped away. I thought that Dade Perkins's kids could stand a chance in the Olympics marathon; they did everything on the dead run.

  Sherry-Lou snorted.

  "He's never been in the air in his life- in anythin'." She finished knotting a bandage over the deepest gash on my arm.

  "You all right, Tom?"

  "I'll be better when I know Debbie's all right."

  She veiled her eyes.

  "Sure."
r />   Dade stood up.

  "Take us fifteen minutes to get down to the creek.

  Might as well start. "

  When the helicopter came down in the meadow Billy had the door open before the shock absorber s had taken up the weight, and came running across the grass towards us, stooping as people always do when they know rotors are turning overhead. He took in my condition in one swift glance.

  "Christ! How are you? How's Debbie?"

  Dade and Sherry-Lou moved tactfully to one side, out of earshot, and were joined by Chuck who was talking nineteen to the dozen and windmilling his arms wildly. I gave Billy the gist of it, leaving out everything unimportant; just outlining the 'whats' and ignoring the 'hows' and 'whys'. He winced.

  "Torturing her!" he said incredulously.

  "She was screaming," I said flatly.

  "I was being shot at I had to move fast." I paused.

  "I should have stayed."

  "No," said Billy, 'you did the best you could. " He looked back at the helicopter.

  "The State Police and some of our own security men are coming up behind. We'd better get back to the Perkins place."

  "One more thing," I said.

  "Seems Dade Perkins doesn't like Cunninghams, and from what little he told me I know why. Now, he just saved my life, so from now on you haul off your dogs."

  "It's not up to me," said Billy.

  "Jack won't…"

  "Jack doesn't matter any more and you know it."

  "Yeah, but Dad won't be buffaloed either." He frowned.

  "Let me think about it. Come on."

  A few minutes later we dropped next to the Perkins's family residence and to two more helicopters with State Police markings. More were in the sky coming in. When all six were on the ground we had a conference a council of war.

  Dade Perkins was in on it, and outlined on a table what the Ainslee place was like, using match books and tobacco tins. Then there was a brief argument when Sherry-Lou announced that she was coming along.

  The senior police officer was Captain Booth who was inclined to want to know the whys and wherefores until he was cut down by Billy.

  "For Christ's sake, Captain, quit yammering! We can hold the inquest after we've gotten my i79 cousin out of there." It was a measure of Cunningham influence that Booth stopped right then and there.

  Now he said decidedly, "No place for a woman. There might be shooting."*' "Miz Mangan will need a woman if she's…" Sherry-Lou swallowed the words 'still alive', and continued, "I know Leroy Ainslee."

  Dade turned red in the face.

  "Has he interfered with you?"

  "No, he hasn't!" she retorted.

  "Not since I laid a rock against his head an' then got me a gun an' told him I'd perforate him."

  Dade glowered, and Booth said thoughtfully, "There'll be one chopper in the air all the time. They might scatter and we'll want to see where they go. I reckon Miss Perkins could be in that one."

  We left in the helicopters and descended like a cloud of locusts on the Ainslee place less than five minutes later with the precision of a military operation. I was in the chopper which dropped right in the middle. No one shot at us because there was no one there to shoot.

  All the Ainslee menfolk were absent and only the women and a few kids were left. The children were excited by the sudden invasion but the slatternly women merely looked at us with apathetic eyes.

  Billy had a gun in his hand when he jumped out, and Dade carried Leroy's shotgun. I looked about and saw cops closing in from all sides. Billy bolstered his pistol.

  "They're not here."

  "Still out lookin' for Tom, I reckon," said Dade. He squinted up at the helicopter hovering overhead.

  "They'll know something's wrong.

  Been nothin' like this since I seen the Vietnam war on TV. They won't be back in a hurry. "

  I said, "For God's sake, let's find Debbie." I picked out the biggest house, a ruinous shack, and began to run.

  It was Billy who found her. He came out of a smaller shack bellowing, "A doctor! Where is that goddamn doctor?" He caught me by the shoulders as I tried to go in.

  "No, Tom. Let the doctor see to her first. Will you quit struggling?"

  A man ran past us carrying a bag and the door of the shack slammed shut. Billy yelled at me, "She's alive, damn it! Let the doctor tend to her."

  1 sagged in his arms and he had to hold me up for a moment, then I said, "Okay, Billy, I'm all right now."

  "Sure," he said.

  "I know you are." He turned and saw Booth "Hey, Captain, better get the Perkins girl down here."

  "Right, Mr. Cunningham." Booth spoke to one of the pilots standing by, then came over to us.

  "Mr. Mangan, I'd like you to come with me." I nodded and was about to follow him, but he was looking at Billy.

  "You okay, Mr. Cunningham?"

  Billy had developed a curious greenish pallor and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He sat down on the stoop of the shack.

  "I'll be all right. You go with the Captain, Tom."

  I followed Booth to the shack in which I had been held prisoner.

  Earl's body had been laid out parallel to the wall and beneath the window. The big pitcher was lying on its side, still intact, and a pool of water lay on the floor, as yet unevaporated. Tukey lay on the bed; he was dead and stank of faeces

  Booth said, "Know anything about this?"

  "Yes. I killed them."

  "You admit it," he said in surprise. I nodded, and he said, "You'd better tell me more."

  I thought about that, then shook my head.

  "No, I'll say what I have to say in a courtroom."

  "I don't think I can accept that," he said stiffly.

  "Not in a case of murder."

  "Who said anything about murder?" I asked.

  "When you lift Tukey you'll find the bed has been ripped up by buckshot. I happened to be sitting there when Earl pulled the trigger. I stabbed Tukey when he was going to shoot me. Don't prejudge the case, Captain; it's for a court to decide if it was murder." He made a hesitant movement, and I said, "Are you going to arrest me?"

  He rubbed his chin and I heard a faint rasping sound "You're not an American, Mr. Mangan. That's the problem How do I know you'll stay in State jurisdiction?"

  "You can have my passport, if you can find it," I offered.

  "I

  i8i had it on me when I was snatched. It may be around here somewhere.

  Anyway, Billy Cunningham will guarantee I'll stay, if you ask him.

  "

  "Yeah, that'll be best." Booth seethed relieved.

  "There was a murder." I nodded towards the window.

  "It happened out there. Leroy Ainslee shot a man in the back. I saw it."

  "There's no body."

  "Then have your men look for a new-dug grave." I turned on my heel and walked out of that stinking room into the clean sunlight. The hovering helicopter had come down, and I saw Sherry-Lou hurrying into the shack the doctor had gone into. I felt curiously empty of all feeling, except for a deep thankfulness that Debbie was still alive.

  My rage was muted, dampened down, but it still smouldered deep in my being, and I knew it would not take much for it to erupt.

  I went over and stood in the shade of a helicopter. Presently I was found by Chuck Perkins.

  "Jeez, you sure kilt Earl," he said. His face sobered.

  "Tukey died bad."

  "They deserved it."

  "Pop's been looking for you." He jerked his thumb.

  "He's over there."

  I walked around the helicopter and saw Dade talking to Sherry-Lou.

  His face was serious. As I approached I heard Sherry-Lou say,"… tore up real bad. "

  He put his hand on her arm in a warning gesture as he saw me. He swallowed.

  "Sherry-Lou's got something to tell you," he said.

  "I'm sorry, Tom, real sorry."

  I said, "Yes, Sherry-Lou?"

  "Did you
know Miz Mangan was pregnant?"

  "Yes." I knew what was coming.

  "She lost the baby. I'm sorry."

  I stared blindly into the sky.

  "Rape?"

  "An' worse."

  "God damn their souls to hell!" I said violently.

  She put out her hand to me.

  "Some women are hurt more in birthin' a baby," she said.

  "She'll be all right."

  "In her body, maybe."

  "She'll need a lot of love… lot of attention. She'll need cherishin'."

  "She will be. Thanks, Sherry-Lou."

  They brought her out on a stretcher, the doctor walking alongside, and a nurse holding up a bottle for an intravenous drip. All that could be seen of her was her face, pale and smudgy about the eyes. I wanted to go with her in the helicopter back to Houston, but the doctor said, "There's no use in it, Mr. Mangan. She'll be unconscious for the next twenty-four hours I guarantee it. Then we'll wake her up slowly. We'll want you there then."

  So the helicopter lifted without me aboard and I turned to find Captain Booth standing close by talking to Dade. I said bitterly, "If I find Leroy Ainslee before you, Captain, I can guarantee you'll have a murder case."

  "We'll get him," Booth said soberly, but from the way Dade spat on the ground I judged he was sceptical.

  Billy came up. He had recovered something of his colour.

  "Dade Perkins, I want to talk with you. You too, Tom."

  Dade said, "What do you want?"

  Billy glanced at Booth, then jerked his head.

  "Over here." He led us out of earshot of Booth.

  "I know we've been putting pressure on you, Dade."

  Dade's face cracked in a slow smile.

  "An' not getting' far."

  "All I want to say is that it stops right now," said Billy.

  Dade glanced at me then looked at Billy speculatively.

  "Reckon you big enough to make yo' Paw eat crow?"

  "This crow he'll eat with relish," said Billy grimly.

  "But there's something I want from you."

  "Never did know the Cunninghams give anything away free," observed Dade.

  "What is it?"

  "I want the Ainslees out of here," said Billy.

  "I don't want to feel there's folks like that dirtying up the place."

  "The cops'll do that for you," said Dade.

  "Why pick me?"

  "Because I saw your face when Sherry-Lou said what she did about Leroy back at your place. Where do you suppose Leroy is now?"