THE BUTLER

by Bill WENHAM

  We might lose our clothes and everything else but it was all replaceable. Right now, our top priority was to get ourselves out of the room and out of the hotel.

  Ellie reached for the metal door handle but I slapped her hand down. I had known too many people who’d severely burned their hands when there was fire on the other side of the door. The handle could be red hot. The doors themselves were steel on all the rooms.

  I tentatively but quickly, touched first the door and then the handle with my forefinger. Neither of them was hot. I turned the handle and opened the door. Smoke from the corridor outside billowed past us into the room.

  The end of the corridor, towards the elevators, was ablaze and filled the whole area with an orange glow. As we turned the other way, even through the smoke, I could faintly see the illuminated stairwell exit sign. We’d just reached it and had opened the door when the hotel’s sprinkler system came on, soaking us both.

  We were on the sixth floor and as we dashed into the stairwell more people were coming out of their rooms, screaming. The stairwell was filled with smoke, even worse than the corridor had been. I was holding Ellie’s hand and dragging her down the stairs with me, coughing and choking as we went. Almost immediately I tripped on something.

  Two bodies, one male and one female were completely blocking the stairs, as the smoke billowed up from the floor below. I asked Ellie to take care of my gun, my wallet and the Jeep’s keys for me. The guy was huge and I had a weird sense of deja vu as I hoisted the woman up over my shoulder, making just enough room for both of us to get past.

  I went ahead with Ellie following close behind. I felt Ellie pluck at my arm and I turned as she pointed to the guy now behind us. I just shook my head, hoisted the woman up a bit further and kept going. I could only handle one of them.

  I could feel the acrid smoke being drawn down into my lungs with every breath and I started to panic. I knew smoke inhalation was just as much a major cause of death in a fire as burning was.

  Ellie eased past me on the stairs and pushed open the door to the fifth floor as we reached it. The corridor there was ablaze also and filled with smoke and screaming people. We had no choice but to continue on down, choking on the smoke and with our eyes running.

  Ellie tried the door of the fourth floor and when she opened it we found it to be relatively clear of smoke, but also filled with people. Most of them were crowded together down at the elevators.

  I set the woman I’d been carrying down and leaned her against the wall for a moment in order to take a couple of relatively smoke free breaths. The water from the sprinkler system was helping to clear the air a little.

  Ellie looked at me with a shocked look.

  “My God, Lover, you’re bleeding! What the hell have you done?”

  “Nothing” I said, also looking at the blood mingling with the sprinkler water running down my chest. I wasn’t hurt though. I knew I wasn’t.

  Then I looked at the woman I’d been carrying. I knelt down in front of her. I could see clearly now that she’d been stabbed in the chest. This put a completely different slant on the situation. This fire had been no accident. It was the Butler’s work and the two bodies had been placed in the stairwell just for our benefit. He’d even tried to simulate my rescue of Patino, for God’s sake. I shuddered to think how many more people might die in this building tonight because of his obsession with me.

  Ellie reached down and ripped the bottom of the woman’s skirt off and I wondered why she’d do that. Both of us were practically naked and soaked to the skin now. I wore only boxer shorts and all Ellie had on was the tee shirt and panties she’d worn as nightwear.

  She tore the flimsy cotton material in half and handed me a piece.

  “Wrap this around your face,” she said urgently, “And let’s get out of here. We’ll have to hit the stairwell again, smoke or no smoke. Take a couple of deep breaths.”

  With the cloth wrapped around our faces, I wrenched open the stairwell door and we went through. Not before time either, as a group of people broke away from the crowd at the elevators and came running towards us.

  We passed the third floor, not bothering to stop. We could hear other people on the stairs now, both above and below us. At the second floor, we opened the door and stepped out into the corridor, as we’d done on the fourth.

  It was clear of smoke but a couple of people immediately pushed past us, eager to scramble down the stairs. Once again we took a couple of smoke free breaths and turned back into the stairwell. We were immediately caught up in a stampede of terrified people, coughing and spluttering, desperate to escape from the floors above us. We had no option but to join them.

  Moments later, almost exhausted, we were all exiting on the ground floor. The whole lobby area was crowded with panic stricken people in various stages of undress. Some of them, hopefully from the lower floors, had even stayed to pack their suitcases. It amazes me sometimes what things some people will risk their lives for.

  We joined the crowd who were pushing and shoving at each other to get outside. Those who pushed at me and Ellie got pushed right back. Finally we found ourselves outside in the fresh night air. Behind us we could see the whole upper section of the hotel, maybe four or five floors, was now completely ablaze. We could hear the screams of those poor souls still trapped inside.

  The police and several fire departments had responded to the fire and people were now being directed to safety away from the hotel.

  Luckily, we’d parked our Jeep, not in the hotel parking, but in a small lot down the street, and we now made our way to it.

  We both looked like hell, half naked and soaking wet, but both grateful to be alive. This episode, if I could call it that, had really thrown me. I hadn’t expected the Butler to go that route at all.

  As we got into the Jeep, Ellie started to cry and I turned to hug her.

  We stayed that way, holding tight to each other for some time and when we finally parted, she looked at me and started to laugh.

  “Oh, my, Lover,” she said, “I must look as bad as you do and you look like hell.”

  I looked in the rear view mirror and laughed as well. My face was black with soot, with just white patches where I’d wiped my stinging eyes. We looked like a negative of a pair of raccoons. We used the cloth from the poor woman’s skirt to wipe each other’s faces and then I kissed her.”

  “I’m glad you’re safe, El,” I said.

  “I’m glad you are too,” she replied.

  “You know that was the Butler’s doing, don’t you?” I said.

  She nodded.

  “I guessed,”

  “Somehow he knew we’d be able to get out, El. That wasn’t the way he’d want to end this thing.”

  “You mean all those poor people are dying in there just because of us,” she said, with her eyes brimming with tears again.

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so, El,” I said.

  “Oh, Sandy, that bastard is such a monster,” she said, letting the tears run freely now.

  I put my arm around her and we sat there like that again for a while longer. Finally I said, “Do you want to go to a hospital, Babe?”

  “Hospital?” she queried.

  “Yeah, smoke inhalation, check up, whatever?”

  “No, Lover, I’m okay, I think. How about you?”

  “Same.”

  “They’ll be busy enough tonight with folks who really need their help, I’m thinking. I’ll be fine, really, messy, but fine,” she said.

  “Me too,” I said. “So let’s get to hell out of here then, okay?”

  I didn’t wait for her to agree but started the Jeep and drove back up to Hwy 10 again. Just off the highway, we spotted a small, single storey motel.

  A sleepy eyed desk clerk did a wonderful, almost cartoon, double take as we walked into the lobby in our underwear.

  We explained what had happened and that we needed a place to spend the rest of the night. I didn’t feel it would be wise for us to add that we�
��d been indirectly responsible for the fire.

  “Well, fella, you really ain’t exactly dressed too well for traveling, are you? You neither, ma’am. It’s really tough to lose all your gear like that, but I’ll tell you what. Me and the wife, we live right here at the motel and if you like, we can p’raps fix you up with something temporary like, ‘til you can get yourselves to the stores in the morning.”

  “Thank you,” Ellie said, “But won’t your wife be sleeping?”

  “Sure, but she won’t mind a bit. She’s a good girl, my Cissie is. She wouldn’t want to see another lady in a right pickle like this, I just know she wouldn’t. You wait here a minute and I’ll call her.”

  He made the call and a few minutes later a young woman came into the lobby from out back somewhere. She said she was Cissie, Leon’s wife, and why didn’t we all go out back and she’d see what she could fix us up with, temporary like.

  Fortunately, Ellie now had both of our service revolvers in her handbag. We didn’t want these two good people to think we were the reincarnations of Bonnie and Clyde.

  Cissie found Ellie a skirt, a bra and a blouse, plus an old pair of sandals. For me, she dug up some old stuff of Leon’s. A pair of patched jeans, a tee shirt, socks and a pair of well worn boots. They were a bit too tight but what the hell, I thought. I offered to pay for everything, since we wouldn’t be able to get back after we left in the morning, but Cissie wouldn’t hear of it.

  “We’re leaving in the morning?” Ellie said, surprised.

  “Have to, don’t we, Hon,” I said, giving her a tiny shake of my head.

  “Right, of course we do,” she said, catching on. “In all this excitement, I’d forgotten.”

  “Well now, then,” Cissie said, “Let’s just get you two into a room, shall we? The pair of you must be dead beat.”

  Ellie looked at me with raised eyebrows as Cissie said ‘shall we’.

  We followed her back to the lobby, where her husband now introduced himself to us as Leon Tucker.

  “Good,” he said, “My girl there got you fixed up okay, then? Let’s get you over to your room.”

  Our room was just two doors down from the lobby. He handed us our key at the door and wished us both good night.

  “Better make that a good morning. There ain’t much night left now, is there?” he said with a wave and went back to the office.

  We both went inside gratefully and each of us immediately stripped our newly acquired finery off. It had been nice of her to give it to us but we had put it on right over the top of our soaking wet underwear. We needed to dry that out a bit before morning.

  When we were both standing there stark naked, Ellie said, “I have an idea, Lover.” She paused for a brief moment and then said, “And before you get any of your own, I think we should both have a shower and get all this muck off of us, don’t you?”

  “Together?” I said hopefully.

  “Okay,” she agreed, “And then sleep. No shenanigans, right?”

  “Is shenanigans the same as wrestling?” I asked.

  “It is, and you aren’t getting any of either. Shower and go to sleep, dammit, Spicer. I’m tired.”

  When she called me ‘Spicer’ like that, I knew I’d pushed my charm to the limit, but it did seem to be a hell of a waste of being naked, didn’t it?

  It was now 4 a.m. and actually, the moment my head hit the pillow, naked lady beside me or not, I was sound asleep.

  At 7 a.m. sharp, the phone rang. It was the Butler.

  “Good morning, Detective Spicer,” he said, “and I trust it is a good morning. I hope you both enjoyed the warm welcome that I …”

  Before he could say anything else, I yelled into the phone at him, “Listen, you crazy, warped bastard. If you want us, you’d better come and get us, but I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to have a bloody long drive!”

  I slammed the phone down.

  “Let’s get out of here, El, right now. Don’t wait for anything. Just get dressed and wait for me in the Jeep. I’ll see you in a minute.”

  I’d been throwing Leon’s old clothes on as I was talking. I grabbed my gun, wallet and the room key off the night table and headed out of the door.

  I took the key back to the office. Leon was gone now and Cissie was behind the desk. As I got my wallet out to pay for the room, she said, “It’s on the house. You two had enough trouble for one night, without having to pay for a room as well.” She looked me up and down and said with a smile, “You, know something, honey, my Leon never looked that good in them clothes. Anyway, good luck to you both and drive carefully. And this is for you too.”

  She handed me a paper grocery bag.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “Just a few sandwiches and a flask of coffee, just in case you don’t care to stop for a while.”

  Maybe she did think we were another Bonnie and Clyde after all!

  I thanked her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then I left. I got the feeling I’d made her day somehow. I also had no doubt that, in the countless retellings of this incident that would follow, Ellie’s and my clothes would gradually disappear until we’d become two naked and wild eyed Yankees who’d burst into their motel in the middle of the night, probably waving guns.

  A little exaggeration always adds a little spice to a story, doesn’t it?

  If the truth was known, I bet some of those hot shot Western heroes couldn’t hit a barn door with a six-gun, even if they were leaning on it!

  When I got to the Jeep, Ellie was behind the wheel with the engine running.

  “Where to, Master,” she asked sweetly.

  “West,” I said.

  “Where west?”

  “Anywhere west,” I said. “I’ll tell you when we get there.”

  After a few stops along the way for more food, gas, clothing, toiletries and about 500 miles later, we pulled into San Antonio, Texas. All told it had taken us almost 12 hours of solid driving, alternating drivers every hundred miles or so.

  The Butler had found us before and he could damned well find us again, I thought. We had to stay ahead of him and keep him off balance if we possibly could. The madder we could make him, the more mistakes he was likely to make.

  We were the ones on the run now but we believed we’d outsmarted him. At least we hoped we had. Once again, our lives depended on it.

  “Why are we driving so far, Hon,” Ellie had asked me curiously. “San Antonio is halfway across the goddamned country.”

  “Because I want to tire them out and keep them constantly off balance if I can,” I said.

  She gave a short, derisive laugh.

  “Those two bastards are already seriously unbalanced, Lover. Just how much more off kilter do you want them to be, for God’s sake?”

  “Just as far as I can tip them, Babe,” I said.

  “But surely all this driving is going to tire us as much as it will them won’t it?”

  “Not if we keep going, Hon, and not if one of us drives while the other one sleeps in the back of the Jeep,” I said.

  I’d thought this way we could gain a bit of time on the Bastard Brothers. There were two other things I wanted to get done if I could. I wanted to get the Jeep into a Chrysler dealership in San Antonio for some of the scheduled servicing required under our lease agreement, and I wanted to check for a bug. I figured while they had it up on the hoist, I could remove it to a more convenient spot on the car for me to reach if I wanted to.

  They’d still be able to track us, which I was banking on, but if I could find it, I had a trick or two for them up my own sleeve!

  I told Ellie what I was planning to do, in part.

  “You want to deliberately let them find the Jeep?” she said incredulously. “If they find the Jeep, they find us as well, don’t they? And you think that’s being smart, pal?”

  “God, Babe, I hope so,” I said, but I wouldn’t elaborate on it any further.

  I could see she was starting to get mad at me.r />
  “I thought we were supposed to be partners, Spicer?” she complained angrily. “So what’s with all the big secrets?”

  “Not secrets, Ellie honey,” I said consolingly. “I just haven’t got all the details sorted out in my head yet, that’s all. I want it to go right and I want to keep us out of danger if I can.”

  She laughed outright at that one, but she wasn’t so angry now.

  “Lover, you’re a goddamned danger magnet, you know that? Especially to rattlesnakes and psychopathic serial killers who like to set fire to hotels.”

  “But neither of those things killed me, did it?” I said defensively.

  “And what do you think you are then? A bloody ball player? Three strikes and you’re out? Let me remind you, Buddy Boy, you’re two down already and it looks to me as though the game is just about to end. Those guys don’t play by the regular rules, Hon. They make up their own as they go along, and you know that.”

  “Trust me, Babe,” I said. “I think what I have in mind will work out okay.”

  She groaned.

  “You’ve just this minute finished telling me you don’t have this thing worked out in your tiny little mind yet,” she said, “And in any case, Buster, ‘I think it will work out fine’ just doesn’t cut it. I need to know it will work out fine before I slip my neck into this noose you’re thinking about! Just tell me what it is, dammit!”

  I very patiently outlined what I planned to do and was gratified to see that she was nodding her head. That could mean one of two things. Either she agreed with me or I was boring her so much she was dozing off.

  “Yeah, Lover,” she said, when I finished. “I agree. I think it’ll work out okay too.”

  Like an idiot, I couldn’t resist it.

  “Only think, El. I really need to know,” I said, grinning at her.

  Instead of answering, she just punched me in the arm and grinned back at me.

  Man, I thought, she was one hell of a partner for a guy to have, in whatever situation you wanted to share with her.

  One thing about Ellie, I could always tell what kind of mood she was in and what kind of reception I was getting or was about to get, from the terms of endearment she used with me.