by PAUL BENNETT
I nodded. Didn’t seem there was much to say. I couldn’t deny it.
‘Let’s go back a few nights. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about an attack on a diner.’
‘What diner?’
‘Thought so,’ he said. ‘Now let’s fast forward to this morning. What’s your story?’
‘We were quietly sipping coffee, enjoying the sweet morning air that you get in these parts, when all of a sudden these bikers turn up waving pistols. We couldn’t sit there and do nothing about it, so we used reasonable force to defend our property.’
‘Reasonable force? Do you call Kalashnikovs reasonable force?’
‘And an Uzi,’ I said.
‘What did I say?’
‘Sorry, it’s a hard habit to break. Forget the bit about the Uzi. What would you do in those circumstances?’
‘Call in a SWAT team. But you seem to have one of those already, don’t you?
I shrugged.
‘These guys show up out of the blue and just happen to fall into a pit you’d dug. And into some barbed wire, and, well you get the picture. Seems a bit coincidental, don’t you think?’
‘We’d had a run-in with some of the bikers in town last week. They said they’d come back and exact revenge.’
‘Exact revenge? Got that wrong, didn’t they. I’ve not seen this kind of carnage for a long while, and that was in Vietnam. I’m surprised you didn’t add napalm to your box of tricks.’
‘We knew we would be heavily outnumbered, so we had to try to even up the odds a little. What else could we do? Call on you and expect you to mount an around-the-clock guard team?’
‘Point taken,’ he said. ‘But we can’t let a bunch of vigilantes run the county.’
‘Don’t seem like a good job has been done in the past. Did Tucker tell you about our ranch hand who was beaten to a pulp? Not to mention all the other incidents that have been going down?’
‘Tucker mentioned something of the sort. You got any unfinished business?’
‘There’s the man in black. He’s still out there somewhere.’
‘Tucker told me about him. Is he behind all this?’
‘He set up today’s battle. But someone’s pulling his strings.’
‘Any ideas?’
‘I’ve not got any proof, but I think it’s Senator O’Hara.’
‘Boy, this day just keeps getting better and better. The last thing I need is the senator on my back. What’s behind all this?’
‘It all leads back to land. Someone wants it and is prepared to play dirty to get it.’
‘Haven’t had a range war here since the days of the Wild West. Seems to me you guys would have fitted in there real fine.’
‘We each do what we’re good at. It’s our business to defend the weak and right wrongs.’
‘Laudable. But someone has to clean up the mess you leave. And that someone happens to be me. I’m the one who has to work out how to get six motor bikes out of a pit nine feet deep.’ He sighed.
‘We could just bury them,’ I said. ‘We’ve got all the soil we took out.’
‘Unfortunately, there’s six men stuck in the hole as well.’
‘Would anyone miss them?’
‘Probably not, but I happen to like my job and don’t want to get busted and finish up back on the beat.’ He looked at me and shook his head. ‘I pity the sheriff. Go see Tucker later today and give him full statements. And then don’t go anywhere. I might want to talk to you again, although I sincerely hope not.’
He nodded his head at me, roved his gaze over the others, then turned his back and walked away.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
My mobile rang. It sounded deafening. Then I realized that it wasn’t the mobile, it was me. Somewhere inside my head a pixie was using a sledge-hammer to wake me up. I instantly regretted all the celebration we had done last night and all the booze that had gone with it. I fumbled around, felt the phone and sat upright on the bed. I looked at my watch – it said ten o’clock. Even the lie-in hadn’t done me any good.
I answered the call. It was Jerome, sounding agitated, a strange hollowness in his voice.
‘You better come to town straight away,’ he said. ‘Something bad has happened. I got to go. I’ll explain when I see you.’
‘What’s up?’ Bull asked.
I started to get dressed. ‘Jerome. Says something bad has happened. I’m going to town.’
‘Sounds like I should come with you. Watch your back. Another pair of hands. Whatever.’
‘Curiosity?’
‘Bit of that, too.’
We dressed quickly and woke Red to tell him where we were going. He insisted on coming too and grabbed the keys to the jeep. We jumped in and he sped away across country to avoid the pit. At some stage we would have to fill it in and give Pa Blenkenstein his digger back. Seemed like that could wait.
Red skidded the jeep to a halt outside the hotel, a cloud of dust coming from the wheels. There were two horses tied up to a rail. I recognized them as the ones the girls had ridden. My heart dropped to my boots.
Jerome was standing on the porch with Cameron in his arms. Her shoulders were shaking.
We jumped out of the jeep and Red ran straight to Cameron. She broke off from Jerome and buried herself in Red’s body. He held her tightly. She was sobbing, unable to utter a word.
I went up to Jerome. ‘What’s going on?’ I said.
‘Come inside where we can talk without being overheard. We don’t want the sheriff getting to know what happened.’
We went inside and Jerome led us to a table in an alcove. We were the only people there. Too early even for the hardest drinkers. Bull followed us, then Red and Cameron came in. We sat down and waited for Jerome to tell us what was wrong. I had a feeling that this would sober us up real good.
‘He’s got her,’ Jerome said. ‘I couldn’t stop him. He was too strong for an old man like me.’
‘Slow down,’ I said. ‘Who’s got who?’
‘I don’t know his name. Dressed in a black suit. Mirrored aviator sunglasses. Drove up in a silver Mercedes.’
‘The man in black,’ Bull said. ‘Hell! I thought he would have given up; that we’d seen the last of him.’
‘He’s got Lucy,’ Cameron said. ‘She didn’t have a chance.’
‘The two girls were outside,’ Jerome said.
‘We came to get some shopping,’ Cameron added.
‘This silver Mercedes pulls up right by them,’ Jerome said. ‘He – the man in black – got out and put a rag or something over Lucy’s mouth. She went all limp. He bundled her into the car. I tried to stop him. Grabbed him by the arms, but he hit me and I fell to the floor. The dog didn’t like what he had done and attacked him. He shot the dog.’ He looked at me sadly. ‘He went and shot the dog. Why’d he do that? Dog wouldn’t have done him any harm. Hardly got a tooth in his mouth. You know that, Johnny.’
A tear rolled down his cheek.
‘He was a good dog,’ I said. ‘None finer. We’ll do right by him. We’ll make the man in black pay for what he’s done.’
Jerome nodded. ‘Make him pay real good.’ He reached inside his jacket, pulled out two envelopes. ‘Says when you’ve signed the letters he’ll let Lucy go. He’d be in touch with me. Told me that you shouldn’t get the law involved. If you do, he’ll kill her. Said she’s pretty and he might have some fun with her first. Do you think he means it?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ I said.
‘He’s mean enough to do anything,’ Bull said.
Jerome passed the envelopes to me. One had Rafael’s name on it, the other had Red’s. I gave one to Red and opened the one to Rafael.
‘It’s an agreement to buy the ranch,’ Red said.
‘Same here,’ I said.
‘All that work for nothing,’ Bull said. ‘We been wasting our time. He’s going to get what he wants after all. We might as well never have come.’
‘It’s too soon to give up,’ I sai
d. ‘He has to make the exchange. We’ve got to stop him getting away with it. Our first priority must be Lucy. We need to think of a way round this. Get her safe and neutralize the man in black for good.’
‘Does neutralize mean what I think it do?’ asked Red.
‘It do,’ I confirmed. ‘You guys get back. Take Cameron home. I’ll ride Lucy’s horse back when I’m finished here. Maybe someone could pick me up from the Retreat in a couple of hours.’
‘What are you going to do?’ asked Bull.
‘I got a dog to bury.’
Jerome’s cabin was a ten-minute walk away. We went slowly so as not to tire him out. All the way he cradled the dog in his arms, his eyes moist.
‘There’s a place out back,’ he said. ‘Sort of special place for us. We would sit there in the evening when the hotel had shut for the night. I’d give the dog his meal and we’d sit there together, me with a beer and him munching his food. I’d cut it up real small for him. Best part of the day. The heat gone, nothing to hear but the chirruping of the crickets and the hoot of an owl. Won’t be the same without him.’
‘Go get a spade, Jerome. And some wood, too. Hammer and nails for a cross.’ I took the dog from him and set him on the ground in front of a wrought-iron bench. ‘Did he have a name?’
‘When I first got him I called him Blue, like in the song.’
‘You’re a good dog, too,’ I said.
‘You got it,’ he said. ‘But people laughed at it; one even sprayed him blue for a joke. Wouldn’t wash out, had to shave all the hair off him, so he became just “the dog”.’
‘Nothing wrong with that,’ I said. ‘A rose by any other name.’
‘Don’t know about that,’ he said, ‘but he didn’t deserve to die, whatever you called him.’
He placed the dog in front of the bench and went inside his cabin. Came back a couple of minutes later with everything we needed. He passed me the spade and I started digging by the side of the bench where the dog would have lain during the evening. It wasn’t hard work, just dispiriting. The soil here was much lighter than at Red’s ranch and within fifteen minutes I had a rectangular hole big enough to take the body. Jerome set him down in the hole and stood in silence as I filled in the earth I had removed. I made a cross from two pieces of wood and pushed it into the ground where the dog’s head would have been. Stood back and surveyed my handiwork. Sighed.
‘Got some bourbon indoors,’ Jerome said. ‘Take a nip with me?’
I nodded and we moved inside his cabin. It wasn’t big, but it was real neat: pots and pans shining, hanging from hooks dangling from the ceiling. A bed, made up, in one corner, a pair of cane chairs in another and a small table and two chairs in a third. Jerome got two tumblers from a cupboard, picked up a bottle of bourbon from the table and sat himself down in one of the cane chairs. I sat in the other and took the bourbon he offered me. It slipped down easily. Hair of the dog.
‘What you gonna do about this man in black?’ Jerome asked, sipping his drink.
‘Kill him,’ I said. ‘We’ve given him two opportunities to back off, but he keeps coming back. Seems like killing him is the only way to stop him.’
‘I ain’t never shot a gun, but if I can help you can count on me.’
‘Thanks, Jerome. I’ll bear that in mind.’
‘What’s behind all this? Town was peaceful till Red arrived.’
‘I think the senator wants to cleanse the town of a half-breed Comanche. Offends his sensibilities. Spoils his idea of paradise. Willing to do anything to achieve his goal. When money wouldn’t solve the problem, he turned to dirty tricks – scaring off the ranch hands, poisoning the water, sending in the bikers, now kidnapping Lucy. Don’t seem to be an end to it.’
‘You could give in.’
‘Seems like we may have to.’
‘But it would rankle.’
‘A hell of a lot.’
He topped up our glasses. Leaned back in the chair and sighed.
‘We’ll find a way to beat him. We’re not finished yet. If he thinks that, he’s read us all wrong.’
‘Wouldn’t like to be on the wrong side of you. You need an edge. Something that the senator and the man in black are not prepared for. Got any ideas?’
‘A germ of one, but I have to think it through. Lucy’s safety is paramount. Once we can get over that, we can move to the offensive. I think the man in black may have underestimated us yet again.’
‘Bad mistake,’ Jerome said.
‘You betcha.’
I rode the horse back slowly, partly for its benefit as it wasn’t used to someone of my weight, and partly for my benefit as I wasn’t used to riding bareback. It was even more difficult than it looked. After a while I decided that I should curl my legs round its belly and trust in the horse. It took nearly an hour to get back to the Retreat, where I found everyone in a sombre mood. No smiles, no singing in the fields. It was as if life had been put on hold and nobody knew how to cope with it.
Rafael came out to greet me. I climbed down and he gave the horse to a teenage boy, who led it off to the stables.
‘Good of you to come,’ Rafael said.
‘Least I could do,’ I said. ‘I feel responsible for what has happened. If it hadn’t been for me you might have taken the offer to sell and never have got involved in this business.’
‘Things happen for a purpose,’ he said. ‘We might not be able to see it now, but in good time all will be revealed.’
‘How’s Cameron?’ I asked. ‘Has she got over the shock of it all?’
‘She’s still upset and very worried about Lucy. We all are. When can we get her back?’
‘We have to wait for the man in black to make his play. He’s mean enough to make us sweat.’
I showed him the letter. He read it a couple of times so that he was sure what he was committing himself to.
‘Do you want me to sign it now?’ he said. ‘In case things move quickly.’
‘Not yet,’ I said. ‘Leave it with me for a while. I’m working on a plan.’
‘It will need to be a good one. You can’t take any risks with Lucy’s life.’
‘I know. Trust me. I wouldn’t put her in jeopardy.’
‘Are you getting the sheriff involved?’
‘The man in black says not to. Can’t risk it. It’s down to us and us alone.’
‘It’s a heavy burden,’ he said.
I nodded. Suppressed a sigh. Took out my mobile and called Red to come and pick me up. I shook Rafael’s hand and started walking. It would help me think. I hoped Stan, having heard what had happened, was having better luck with coming up with a plan. Mine had too many ifs in it. Too many maybes as well. I inhaled then let the sigh come out. It didn’t help.
It was after dinner and we were back round the long dining table. Red had the map out again and it was spread out before us. Stan was in planning mode.
‘We have to second-guess the man in black,’ he said. ‘Get into his mind. Choose what site he would pick for the exchange. Guard it from a distance. That’s our best chance. Take him out with the sniper rifle.’
‘I’ve made that shot once before,’ I said. ‘I don’t know if I could pull it off a second time. It takes a lot of practice and you have to set the sights for the exact distance away from the target. Until we know the place of the exchange, you can’t zero the sights. Get anything wrong and you might hit Lucy. It’s very risky.’
‘Let’s get back to that after we’ve tried to guess the location of the exchange,’ Stan said. ‘There might be things about the terrain – the amount of cover and so on – that we can use to our advantage. Cut down the risks.’
‘Cutting down might not be enough,’ said Bull. ‘With the girl’s life at stake we should be aiming at eliminating all the risks.’
‘Red,’ I said. ‘You know the terrain. Where would you pick for an exchange?’
‘It would need to be somewhere where he could keep us at a distance so that attack by handgu
ns is out. Then he would want some cover while doing the exchange and some route for a quick getaway. Let me think for a moment.’
Pieter, always the first to break when drinks were overdue, got up and went to the side table where all the drinks were set up. He picked up some bottles and placed them on the table. To these he added five highball glasses, a tub of ice and some mixers. He poured himself a whiskey and dry and gestured for the rest of us to help ourselves. I picked up a bottle of vodka, poured a large measure into the glass, added ice and orange juice. Took a sip and started thinking. How to outwit the man in black? He’d know we would try to rescue Lucy and not have to sign the forms. He’d be trying to second-guess us. I shook my head at the complexity of bluff and double bluff.
Red stared at the map and shook his head. ‘I’m too new to the area. Much of it is still a mystery to me. We need an old hand. Someone who’s been around here a while. I’ll get Curly – he’s been here the longest. He’ll be working in the lower pasture. Give me ten minutes and I’ll be back with him.’
True to his word, he arrived back ten minutes later with a grizzled guy who looked about sixty – conservatively. He had on a pair of tattered blue jeans and a check shirt. His face was lined from many years of blinking into the sun. He looked like he hadn’t shaved for a week, the stubble standing out against the red of his skin. Curly wasn’t an apt description any more – he was as bald as a billiard ball and there was sweat on his head. He took out a pipe and looked at Red, waiting for permission to smoke.
‘Go ahead,’ Red said.
If he’d known what was to follow he would probably have said no. Curly took a penknife and a pouch of tobacco from his pocket. He dug around in the bowl of the pipe and tipped the charred remains of his last smoke into the ashtray. He inspected the bowl and nodded to himself. Then he took a large fingerful of tobacco and flaked it into the pipe. Next he tamped the tobacco down with the end of the penknife, took out a box of matches, struck one and inhaled deeply. He let out a stream of smoke and looked at the bottles on the table.
‘Thirsty work,’ he said.
‘Help yourself,’ I said. Anything to get down to business.
