1944 - Just the Way It Is

by James Hadley Chase

  Clare ran over to Duke and knelt at his side. She saw blood running down his sleeve and she tried to lift his head.

  Joe swept Lorelli to the door, keeping his eyes on Kells. ‘Start anything and see what you get,’ he said.

  Kells sat, with his hands on the table, gaping at him.

  Duke said to Clare, ‘It’s okay . . . don’t get excited,’ as Joe and Lorelli backed out of the room, slamming the door behind them.

  When Duke spoke, Clare flushed and let go of him. ‘I thought. . . I thought he had. . .’ she stopped.

  Duke shouted to Kells, ‘What the hell are you waiting for? Get after them, you slow-witted monkey.’

  Kells came to life. Jerking out his gun, he rushed across the room and threw open the door. He heard Duke’s car start up and he blundered out into the darkness.

  He was met by gunfire, but the car was already moving fast and he didn’t even hear the bullets as they passed well overhead.

  He steadied himself against the doorway and fired after the car. Then a new sound startled him. A burst of machine gun fire came from the front of the house.

  He could no longer see the car, so he stopped firing and listened.

  The night seemed suddenly full of rifle and machine gun fire. Korris and his mob had arrived.

  He ran back to the house where he found Duke sitting up, his coat off and Clare bandaging his arm.

  ‘They’ve got away,’ he said, breathlessly. ‘And Korris is moving in.’

  Duke looked at Clare. She was close to him and her hair touched his face. ‘Can you hurry?’ he said, ‘I’ve got to get going.’

  She wound the bandage skillfully over a pad she had put on the wound. ‘You can’t go out with this,’ she said, handling him as if he were made of china.

  ‘I’m okay,’ Duke returned. He looked at Kells. ‘How many are there?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Kells said, peering through the slit in the sandbags. ‘It’s dark out there.’ He glanced back over his shoulder. ‘You hurt bad?’

  ‘No . . . a couple of inches lower and I might have been. I didn’t know the little rat could pull a gun as fast as that.’

  ‘What’s the idea?’ Kells said, still watching out of the window. ‘What did he have to do that for? Gone crazy or something?’

  ‘Those two have got the dough,’ Duke said, grimly.

  Kells nearly fell over. He left the window and came close to Duke. ‘What dough?’

  ‘Noakes’s nest egg,’ Duke said, getting to his feet. ‘All right, honey,’ he said to Clare. ‘Don’t worry. I’m okay now.’

  She drew away from him and after giving him a searching look, she began to gather up the bowl of water and the spare dressings. She went into the kitchen.

  ‘What’re you talking about?’ Kells snarled.

  ‘It’s a double-cross. They waited until the last minute, then sprang it on us. If Joe hadn’t been so eager, I’d’ve fallen for it. They were up in that room all the morning and they found the dough. Then they put their heads together and decided to cross us up. Well, it looks as if they’ve got away with it.’ Duke laughed shortly. ‘And we’ve been left with this baby,’ he jerked his thumb to the window.

  As he finished speaking more gunfire came from the field and they heard bullets smack against the wall of the house.

  ‘Call this fight off,’ Kells said, furiously. ‘Tell Korris and we can get after those two.’

  Duke shook his head. ‘Korris wouldn’t play,’ he said. ‘Now we’ve got to see this through and then get after them Let’s face it, Lew, we’ve been outsmarted.’

  Before Kells could protest, the door opened and Casy came in. His eyes were bright with excitement. ‘There’s a bunch of guys out there looking for trouble. My boys are getting the jitters. What do you want me to do?’

  ‘I’ll be with you in a second,’ Duke said. He turned to Kells, ‘I’ll send some of those guys back here. You watch the house and see nothing happens to Clare. I’ll have a look round and if I think they’re too many, I’ll get the boys inside. We stand a better chance if we keep together.’

  Kells bit his nails. ‘It’s the dough that worries me,’ he said. ‘We’re not getting anything out of this fight.’

  Duke grinned. ‘Yes, we are,’ he said, ‘we’re cleaning Bentonville up. That’s good enough for me, even if I never see Noakes’s money.’

  Kells turned away in disgust. ‘You’re crazy,’ he said.

  Duke went into the kitchen. Clare turned swiftly as he came in and they stood looking at each other.

  ‘I’m going out to have a look round,’ he said. ‘I want you to keep under cover. Kells will stay here, so you’ve got nothing to worry about.’

  She said, ‘You don’t think I’m frightened, do you?’

  He shook his head. ‘No, I just don’t want anything to happen to you.’

  She turned away. ‘I don’t see why you should care,’ she said, coldly.

  He crossed over and pulled her round gently. ‘Don’t let’s fight,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry for everything . . . really sorry.’

  Suddenly she was clinging to him, crying. He held her against him and didn’t say anything.

  Casy put his head round the door and stared at them and after a moment, he went away.

  More gunfire came from the front of the house and suddenly Clare said, ‘Don’t go out there. You’ll get killed. I know you’ll get killed.’

  ‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘We want to get this over. There are things we’ve got to do.’ He patted her shoulder, and then pushed her gently from him. ‘What I said about being crazy about you still goes,’ he said, and went out of the room before she could say anything.

  He found Casy waiting in the passage. ‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Let’s go.’

  ‘They’ve got the front door spotted,’ Casy said. ‘We’d better go out the back.’

  Duke knelt down, opened the front door and slid out on to the porch. From a tree on the far side of the field came a flash of gunfire and a bullet zipped a couple of feet above his head.

  ‘Keep down,’ he called to Casy. He took a snapshot at the tree with his .38. A second later the sniper returned his fire and again the bullet seemed very close.

  ‘That guy can shoot,’ Duke said, shifting his position cautiously. ‘Almost as if he could see me. Got a rifle there, Casy?’

  There was a moment’s delay and then Casy crawled up beside him with a rifle. Duke took it, winced a little as his shoulder pained sharply and then brought the rifle up, covering the tree.

  He took a long time settling himself and then very gently he squeezed the trigger. He didn’t move after he had fired but kept the sights on the tree. The return fire was almost immediate and he instantly pressed his trigger again. The gun crashed as splinters flicked up not a yard from him. A faint yell came across the field and then came the sound of a body crashing through the branches of the tree.

  Duke laid the rifle down. ‘I guess that guy ain’t going to like sausage anymore,’ he said. ‘Let’s go before they start something else.’

  Keeping low they ran towards the nearest slit trench. When they were within fifty yards, Casy called softly.

  The two men in the trench jerked round and sprayed bullets with the Thompson. They were so jittery that they aimed too high, otherwise Casy and Duke would have been cut to pieces.

  Casy, at the top of his voice, cursed them. Korris’s mob heard him and for several minutes, they had to lie flat while bullets hummed all round them. Then when the firing had died down, they scrambled into the trench.

  ‘What the hell are you playing at?’ Casy snarled. ‘You nearly had us.’

  Jetkin and a little guy named Singer peered at him nervously. ‘They were crawling all over us,’ Jetkin said. ‘Can’t you get us out of here?’

  ‘That’s okay,’ Duke said, taking the Thompson out of his hand. ‘We’ll stay for a while. You two get back to the house. They might easily bypass this spot, so watch out as you go back
. I wish the moon would get up.’

  ‘It’ll be up in another ten minutes,’ Casy said. ‘You can see it coming up behind those trees now.’

  ‘Careful how you go,’ Duke said to the other two. ‘When we come back, we’ll whistle. Don’t start trying to knock us off, will you?’

  Jetkin peered uneasily out into the darkness. ‘Can’t say I look forward to that crawl home,’ he said. ‘These guys shoot straight.’

  ‘You’d better get off before the moon gets up,’ Casy said. ‘Go on, you two, beat it.’

  Singer scrambled out of the trench,

  ‘Get down flat, you fool,’ Duke called quickly.

  Gunfire came from across the field and Singer rolled back into the trench.

  ‘The crazy fool,’ Duke said, savagely. ‘What was he thinking about?’

  Jetkin wanted to strike a match, but Duke knocked the box out of his hand. He bent over Singer and then straightened. ‘He’s dead,’ he said. ‘And he asked for it.’

  Casy and Jetkin stood uneasily, looking down into the dark trench. They had known Singer for a long time. They knew his wife and kids. They both felt a little sick.

  Duke’s shoulder began to ache. This blind shooting wasn’t going to get them anywhere. He suddenly decided to take the fight to Korris.

  ‘Go back to the house,’ he said to Jetkin, ‘and tell Kells to come out here. Tell him to bring a Thompson.’

  Jetkin didn’t want to go, but he finally decided that it would be safer in the long run and he began his long crawl home.

  When Jetkin was out of sight, Duke turned to Casy, ‘I’m going to try and get across the field with Kells. If we can catch Korris by surprise we might do him a bit of damage.’

  Casy grunted. ‘It’s a long way across there,’ he said. ‘And the moon will be up by the time Kells gets back here.’

  ‘We’ll try anyway. They may not think we’d have the nerve to come all that way,’ Duke returned. ‘I’m sorry about him,’ he jerked his thumb to where Singer lay.

  ‘Yeah,’ Casy said. ‘It’s tough. He’d got a wife and kids.’

  ‘You guys may come off badly in this business,’ Duke said, quietly. ‘Maybe you won’t even make money out of it.’

  Casy thought about this, then he said, ‘You’ll have to do something for us, mister.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Duke said, peering into the darkness, ‘I guess I will.’ He had no idea what he could do, but this wasn’t the time to worry about that. As soon as he had shaken Korris off he would get after Joe and Lorelli. It wasn’t going to be easy and he had a feeling that this business might go on for a long time. Whatever happened he was quite determined to see it through to the finish.

  After a little while, he heard someone coming towards them and then Kells called, ‘Don’t you start shooting.’ A moment later he had rolled into the trench, clutching a Thompson.

  He trod on Singer before Duke could warn him. It gave him a shock. He stepped hastily back. ‘I heard you had a casualty,’ he said, peering down. ‘Those two guys were in a swell state.’

  ‘Listen,’ Duke said, ‘I ain’t going to stay here and get shot at. My idea is to get over to Korris’s mob and surprise ‘em. With Thompsons we could do a lot of damage.’

  Kells made a face. ‘Yeah, I know,’ he said. ‘And they could do us a lot of damage too.’

  ‘We’ll go forward under covering fire, like they do in the movies,’ Duke said. ‘It should work out okay.’

  Kells shrugged. ‘If that’s the way you want it,’ he said.

  ‘Let’s go then,’ Duke said. He turned to Casy. ‘When we get out into the field start firing at the road and trees. Nice long bursts. I’ll tell the other guys to do the same when we pass ‘em.’

  ‘Mind how you go,’ Casy said and watched them crawl out of the trench.

  The moon was above the trees now and the field was no longer dark. Crawling forward, Duke felt very naked and expected someone in Korris’s mob to start shooting at him. But nothing happened and they reached the next trench safely.

  The two men in the trench had seen them coming and had recognized Duke. He told them what to do and then crawled on to the last trench.

  Casy began firing over their heads, and after they had stopped at the last trench, talked with the occupants and then moved on, the others took up the covering fire.

  The night became alive with gun flashes as Korris’s mob replied to the firing.

  ‘They’re over there to the left,’ Duke said, pointing to where the heaviest firing was coming from.

  ‘I wish we had a few grenades,’ Kells said, ‘I’d feel a lot safer.’

  Duke grinned in the darkness. He was getting a big kick out of this. If his shoulder didn’t pain him, he would have thoroughly enjoyed himself.

  They went on and finally reached the bushes that skirted the road.

  ‘No more talking,’ Duke whispered to Kells. ‘They can’t be far away now.’

  Kells grunted and keeping close to the bushes, they edged their way forward. After a few minutes’ crawling, Duke suddenly held up his hand. They both crouched down and listened.

  They could hear men talking farther down the road and Duke moved on.

  Both he and Kells took care not to make any noise and the sound of voices became more distinct. Peering through the bushes, Duke could see shadowy forms standing round two cars. He saw the glow of cigarette ends and he grinned to himself.

  These guys were certainly not expecting trouble.

  One of them said, ‘It’ll blow up in a minute. He must have reached the house by now.’

  ‘Give him a little longer,’ another voice said. ‘He had to go round in a big circle. Have you got everything?’

  ‘Yeah, I don’t fancy crossing that field. They’ve got a couple of machine guns there. What do you think they’re firing at?’

  Someone laughed. ‘Just jitters,’ he said. ‘Let ‘em waste their slugs if they feel that way.’

  Duke rose on to his knees cautiously, signalling for Kells to keep down. He could see five men standing by the car in a bunch. They all had shotguns and they were looking away from him, across the field.

  He bent over Kells. ‘They’re in a bunch,’ he said. ‘Five of them.’

  Kells grinned, He tucked the butt of the Thompson into his hip and together they rose quietly to their feet.

  ‘Okay,’ Duke shouted suddenly. ‘Let ‘em have it!’

  Casy, in his trench across the field, saw the sudden flashes and heard the staccato crash of gunfire. He wondered uneasily what was going on.

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  You’re going the wrong way,’ Joe said, as Lorelli turned the car on to the Bentonville road.

  ‘I’m going home,’ she said. ‘We may have all the money in the world, but there are still some things I’m not going to part with.’

  ‘Don’t be a fool.’ Joe struggled upright. His head throbbed and his wrist was very painful. He felt a sheet of hot flame running up and down his arm, like a little red car on a switchback. ‘Turn round and let’s get over the Stateline.’

  ‘Talk sense,’ Lorelli said, treading hard on the gas and sending the car flying along the deserted road. ‘We’ve got all the time we want. Do you think Duke’ll wriggle out of that spot in five minutes?’

  Every jolt of the car made Joe wince with pain. He was getting worried about his wound. He didn’t seem to be able to think straight and he was scared that he might collapse. Lorelli had the bonds and he didn’t trust her with so much money. If anything happened to him she might make off and leave him flat.

  ‘Some car,’ she said, as the needle flicked to seventy-five. ‘We certainly fooled Duke. You were quick, Joe. I thought for a moment that you had left it too late.’

  Joe grunted. He was riding the pain and he began to feel lightheaded. Huddled up in his seat, he thought about the money. Five hundred thousand in bonds. He knew whom he could take them to. He might not get more than half their value, but even that was nice going.
He glanced at Lorelli and his mouth set. It might be an idea to get rid of her. A woman could be a nuisance if the cops got on to him. There was something about Lorelli that would catch any copper’s eye.

  But he was too tired and his wrist hurt too much to make plans. The first thing to do was to get over the Stateline. He felt a weak fury rising inside him. If he hadn’t felt like hell, Lorelli would never have dared to go to Bentonville.

  ‘What do you want, that you’re going back there?’ he said, suddenly.

  ‘My clothes and my jewellery,’ she returned, her full lips set in an obstinate line. ‘Why should I lose them when we’ve got the time to pick them up?’

  ‘We haven’t got the time,’ Joe said, feverishly. ‘Every minute we waste might go against us.’

  ‘You’re losing your nerve,’ she returned, giving him a curious glance. ‘Get hold of yourself. What’s the matter with you? Don’t you feel well or something?’

  He gritted his teeth and sat up. Blood seemed to rush to his head and the road and lights of the car converged in on him. He closed his eyes and held on to the door of the car, feeling himself sliding off the edge of the earth.

  ‘We’re nearly there,’ she said, after she had been driving for some time. She turned off the main street and a few minutes later she drew up outside Schultz’s house.

  Joe’s head cleared slightly when the car stopped. He watched her get out and then opened the car door. His legs nearly let him down and he had to cling to the car. The smell of the flowers in Schultz’s garden had an almost overpowering effect on him.

  Lorelli came round the car and took his arm. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ Her voice was hard and impatient.

  She peered at his face and saw how ill he looked and her eyes hardened. She saw that Joe was not going to be much use to her, anyway for the time being. While she stood looking at him, the thought entered her head that this was the time to leave him and look after herself.

  Joe sensed this and clutched at her arm. ‘You’d better stick close to me,’ he said. ‘If you try a double-cross you’ll get a surprise.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ she said. ‘Don’t you trust me?’ She knew that she could easily wrench away from him, but she remembered how quick he was with a gun, so she decided to wait.