The Aviators

by W. E. B Griffin

  "Horsey, Johnny!" Allan demanded, and Oliver obligingly flexed his knees and bounced him around.

  "I mean, since we were there," Liza snapped.

  "I haven't talked to her since we were there. What the hell are you talking about?"

  "She called me up."

  "She called you up?" Oliver asked, genuinely surprised.

  "What did she want?"

  "Among other things she called me a grasping bitch. and said I would never get a dime of your father's money if she had to take it to the Supreme Court."

  My God! She's telling me the truth.

  "Honey, I don't know what brought that on," Oliver said.

  "Horsey, Johnny!" Allan demanded, and Oliver bounced him around again.

  "Hold on to him," Liza said sharply. "I tell you that and tell you that!"

  "I'm not going to let him fall," Oliver said. "Jesus!"

  "I think she was drunk," Liza said. "I know she was hysterical."

  "I wonder what that's all about."

  "Maybe if you called her on the telephone you could find out," Liza said sarcastically.

  Oliver reached up and swung Allan off his shoulders.

  "Go in the living room ,and break something," he said, smiling, as he set the child on his feet.

  "That's nice," Liza said furiously.

  "Hey, take it easy," Johnny said and glared at her a moment. "Until otherwise proven, I'm innocent." He turned and took the handset from the wall telephone.

  When the operator finally came on the line, he put in a person-to-person call to Mrs. Thomas Chaney in Burlington, Vermont.

  As the number was ringing, he motioned for Liza to stand by him so that she could listen in. She shook her head, no.

  "Then go get on the extension," he said. "You know you're curious."

  She glared at him, but then walked out of the kitchen. He heard the click of her picking up as Tom Chaney came on the line.

  "Tom, this is Johnny," Oliver said. "Is Shirley there?"

  "Shirley can't come to the phone right now, Johnny," Tom said. His voice was cold and unfriendly. And wary.

  "She called my girl today, Tom," Oliver said. "Mrs. Wood. Do you have any idea what that was all about?" Shirley Chaney came on the extension at that point. "You ungrateful sonofabitch!"

  "I'm fine, Sis, and how are you?" She's drunk, that's why Tom said she can't come to the phone.

  "Take it easy, honey," Tom Chaney said.

  "Take it easy? After what he's done?"

  "You want to tell me what I've done?" Johnny asked.

  "You know goddamned well what you've done, you and that greedy slut of a girlfriend of yours. Mother and Daddy must be spinning in their graves."

  "Watch what you say about Liza, Shirley!" Johnny flared.

  'She hasn't done a damned thing to you!"

  "Huh! "

  "You want to tell me what all this is about?"

  "I'll tell you this," Shirley said. "I'll bum the fucking place to the ground before I'll see you, you ungrateful bas- .

  ~.u, or you~ goddamned slut getting a goddamned dime-"

  "John," Tom Chaney said, interrupting her

  "maybe it would be best if you-" .

  "Now you won't get a goddamned dime!" Shirley screamed. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Johnny!" He heard the telephone being slammed down.

  "Tom, you still there?" Oliver asked in a moment.

  "I'm here," Chaney said.

  "Tom, you want to tell me what the hell is going on?"

  "I think we better let the lawyers handle this, John. You'll bee hearing from our lawyers."

  There was a second click and the line went dead. 0liver hung up, leaned against the wall, and waited for Liza to return to the kitchen. In a moment she was standing in the doorway.

  "I think I would have to say that my beloved sister is annoyed about something," he said. "Pity she wasn't sober enough to tell me what's bothering her."

  "You don't know?" Liza asked incredulously.

  "Haven't the foggiest. But, clever fellow that I am, I think it may have something to do with Foxworth T. Mattingly, Esquire. "

  "Who?" Liza asked, smiling at the name, and then remembering. "Oh, that lawyer. What about him? You think he's done something?"

  "I would hazard a guess that he has. Lawyers, I have noticed, do seem to tend to piss people off."

  "You're going to have to start watching your language," Liza said. "Mother Wood told me what Allan 'said to her: 'Don't piss me off!' he told her."

  "Really?" Oliver said, for some reason delighted.

  "It's not funny, Johnny," Liza said, but she was unable to restrain a smile. "Well, call him and find out what this is all about."

  "I don't know where to call him."

  "Come on!"

  "I don't. All I know is that Colonel Lowell said he worked out of Atlanta."

  "What's the name of the firm? Wouldn't the Yellow Pages list lawyers?" Atlanta information reported there was no listing for an attorney by that name. "

  "Are we to presume that Foxworth T. Mattingly, Esquire, is practicing law without a degree?" Johnny asked rhetorically.

  "This is serious, Johnny, do something?"

  "I'm thinking. "

  "I hate to do this, but. ." he said, and dialed a number from memory.

  "General Bellmon's quarters, Lieutenant Bellmon speaking, Sir."

  "Bobby, ask your mother if she can come to the phone," Oliver said.

  "Mom! It's Johnny. Maybe he knows where she is!"

  "Hello, Johnny," Barbara Bellmon said.

  "Was he talking about Marjorie?" Johnny asked.

  "Yes, he was."

  "I know where she is," Johnny said. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

  "Maybe a little prayer," Barbara Bellmon said.

  "You know where she went?"

  "Yes," Barbara Bellmon said. "Do you want to talk to my husband, Johnny? He's standing right here."

  "He doesn't know?"

  "No. "

  "Jesus Christ!"

  "That isn't exactly the prayer I had in mind, Johnny," Barbara Bellmon said.

  "Well, you have the other kind, too, I guess you know that."

  "I know, dear," she said. "But thank you. Do you want to talk to my husband?"

  "I'm now embarrassed," Oliver said. "What I called for was a sort of desperate hope that you might happen to know the phone number of Colonel Lowell's lawyer in Atlanta. "

  "Oh, dear. I was so concerned with what's been going on around here since Marjorie called and told us she was going away for a few days that I completely forgot about your sister calling. Did she manage to get in touch with you?"

  "Oh, boy!"

  "Yes, she called here, too. Is there anything I can do to help, Johnny?"

  She called the Bellmons' quarters! And, if I'm reading Mrs. B right, she was drunk when she did. Oh, Jesus Christ. "No. Ma'am, unless you happen to know that number, or even the name of the firm."

  "It's in the den," Barbara Bellmon said matter-of-factly.

  "Hang on, I'll get it for you." General Bellmon came on the line.

  " Johnny, are you privy to Marjorie's idiocy?"

  "Mrs. Bellmon just told me she called and said she was going away for a few days;" Oliver replied carefully.

  "That wasn't the question, Johnny."

  "Sir, please don't ask me to answer that question."

  "You just did, Johnny."

  " Johnny?" Barbara Bellmon picked up on the extension in the den. "It's 555-4586 in Atlanta."

  He wrote the number down. "Thank you, Ma-'am," he said.

  Very faintly, but clearly, he heard Bellmon's voice in the background.

  "I will be damned, my aide has just decided his greater loyalty is to my wife and daughter!"

  "Bob!" Barbara Bellmon said "that's an utterly despicable thing to say!" Arid then the. phone went dead.

  "What was that all about?" Liza asked.

  He looked at her and motioned for her to c
ome to him.

  She hesitated a moment, and then went to him. He put his' arms around her.

  "Jack Portet is in some kind of trouble with the Air Commandos at Hurlburt," he began.

  "I don't know what that means," Liza said against his chest.

  "It doesn't matter. Marjorie heard about it and went down there. I saw her on my way here. And I just refused to answer Bellmon when he asked if I know where she is." She raised her face to his.

  "Good. I hope he fires you. I hope he's mad enough to throw you out of the Army."

  "He won't do that,'" Oliver said. "He may fire me. Why not? I have just proven ~myself to be pretty fucking disloyal. "

  "Fucking dissel," Allan said very clearly.

  "Oh, shit," Oliver said.

  "Oh, shit," Allan said, very clearly.

  "Allan! Naughty!"'" Liza said, giving Johnny a dirty look.

  "Fucking dissel," Allan said, very pleased with himself.

  Oliver told the operator to get him 555-4586 in Atlanta.

  "Sutton Holdings," a pleasant female voice said.

  Meanwhile, Allan, bent over the kitchen counter with his pants lowered, had his bottom whacked and began to howl.

  "Mr. Foxworth Mattingly, please," Johnny said.

  "One moment, please, I'll connect you."

  "Mr. Mattingly's office.," a different but equally pleasant voice said.

  "Mr. Mattingly, please. Liza, please take him in: the other room. I can't hear."

  "I'm sorry, Sir, Mr. Mattingly is out of the office. If you'd care to give me your name and number, I'll tell him you have called. "

  "My name is John Oliver," Johnny said. "Captain John Oliver-' ,

  "Oh, yes, Captain Oliver. You're: Colonel Lowell's friend." Well, hardly. But why argue?

  "Yes, Ma'am. I really have to talk to ML Mattingly as ~on as possible. Is there some other number where I could !:et him?" - "I doubt it," she said. "He just left St. Croix for Mexico City". Until he arrives in Mexico City and checks in, I won't have even a number for him. But if it's an emergency-"

  "No, it's not an emergency," Johnny said. "But. as soon .i5 you do hear from him, would you ask him to please call me."

  "Has he your number?"

  "1 think he does, but here it is again," Oliver said, and lye her his office, BOQ, and Liza's numbers.

  Liza came back in the kitchen as he took a Millers High life from the refrigerator. He could hear Allan howling in .=s room, as if his heart were breaking.

  "That's your fault-I feel like beating you

  " she said.

  "I'm sorry," he said, genuinely contrite.

  "What happened in Atlanta?"

  "Mattingly is out of town, between St. Croix and Mexico City. When he comes down to earth, he will call me."

  "So we have to wait"

  "Oh, no. The ever resourceful John Oliver never says die." Oliver opened the beer bottle, took a swallow from the neck, and went back to the telephone.

  "Operator, person-to-person, Colonel Craig Lowell, at Headquarters STRIKE Command, McDill Air Force Base, Florida," he ordered.

  He had to repeat the directions twice before the operator understood him, and there was. a long delay when she finally got McDill on the line.

  "Sir, they want to know who's calling," the operator said.

  "Captain John Oliver, aide-de-camp to General Bellmon." This !s personal business; you had no right to say that. Fuck it!

  "Hello, Johnny, what's up?" Lowell came on the line thirty seconds later.

  "Sir, there are two things."

  "One having to do with the fair Marjorie, no doubt? Are you calling for an enraged Bob Bellmon?"

  "No, Sir. General Bellmon doesn't know I'm calling. I saw her just before she drove to Hurlburt."

  "I was playing cupid," Lowell said. "Apparently things got a little out of hand. Barbara Bellmon called me awhile back. Have you spoken to her?" .

  "Yes, Sir."

  "Well, relax. Felter sent Portet up there to teach people how to fly in an area he is familiar with. You take my meaning?'

  "Yes, Sir."

  "Portet's not in trouble. But I'm touched with your concern."

  "Sir, there's something else."

  "Shoot. "

  "My sister called up in a rage and said some very rough things to my girl. And me. I suspect it has to do with Mr.

  Mattingly."

  "I guess she is a little pissed," Lowell said. "When people carefully lay plans to screw other people, and then those plans go awry, they tend to become very annoyed."

  "Sir? "

  "Mattingly called me and told me he'd found out that the trust provided an optional buyout."

  "Sir, I don't know what that means."

  "It means that either party-that is, you or your sister-is authorized to make a buyout offer to the other party. The other party then has the option of accepting the offer of sending a check in the same amount and buying it themselves. When I heard what the offer was, I told Mattingly to send the check"

  "Sir? "

  "They offered you-your sister offered you-a little over three hundred thousand in round figures," Lowell said.

  "Which meant she thought, to be kind, the property was worth six hundred thousand. Mattingly valued the property at a little over two million. He had it appraised by an outside firm, and they said two million three. So I told him to send a check. The exact figure, I think, was three hundred seventeen thousand and change." Oliver could hardly believe what he was hearing. He was and he didn't understand it all.

  "What check? How could he send a check?"

  "Well, he had your power of attorney. So he borrowed the money from the firm, using your share as collateral. That's what investment bankers do, Johnny, loan money on sure things. "

  ""SO what happens now?" Oliver asked.