Jailbreak

by Giles Tippette

  Getting in went pretty much as it had the time before—stepping around the lounging policemen, giving a five-dollar bill to the officer at the desk, waiting for the jailers to take me back to the cells. The only difference this time was that I was wearing my side gun. I entrusted it to the care of Luís, Obregon’s clerk, who would await my return. It amused me to see how nervous it made the young man to accept the gun. He was a serious hombre, this Luís, and he obviously considered a gun on the same par with a live rattlesnake. But he took it and, at my direction, shoved it down in his waistband. I think even that made him nervous for fear it might go off and blow away some of his delicate parts.

  I paid particular attention to the search the two jailers gave me before letting me into the cell area. They just sort of carelessly patted me down, the kind of search that might have revealed a shotgun but not much else. They paid no attention to my boots at all.

  Once we were inside and the door shut I gave them each a ten-dollar bill. It astonished them. I think they’d expected to get the one bribe and that was to cover my brother’s entire stay. To now get another was two Christmases in one year. I reckoned ten dollars was about a month’s wages for each of them. But I wanted their goodwill and their carelessness—especially their carelessness.

  I had a cigarillo and a lucifer match out as we stepped into the run between the cells. I could see that Senor Elizandro had come to the front of his cell as soon as we’d entered. He was standing close to the bars. I stopped when we got right in front of him. My escorts made no protest.

  “Howdy,” I said.

  “Buenos días, señor,” he said. “Cómo le va?”

  “Very good,” I said.

  I handed him the cigarillo. While I was lighting it I said, “I’ve sent word to your ranch where you are.”

  Puffing at the cigarillo to get it drawing, he said, “Good.”

  I said, “You say you have good men?”

  “Very good. Very loyal.”

  “How many will come?”

  “All,” he said, exhaling smoke.

  “It will be tomorrow night or the night after.”

  “Good,” he said. “It’s better a leetle before six o’clock of the evening.”

  “”Why?“

  “They change guards at six. They are tired, careless. Sabe?”

  “Yes.”

  One of the jailers nudged me tentatively. I nodded at the caballero. He said, “Mil gracias, ” and held up the cigarillo as if that was what he was giving me a thousand thanks for.

  Norris at least got off his bunk when I came up to his cell. But he still looked sullen, though his appearance had improved. Either he’d been allowed to shave or someone had shaved him. And it appeared they’d brought him fresh clothes.

  But he was still blaming me for getting himself into a mess. More than that, though, I think he blamed me because I’d come to help him out. Norris wasn’t one to ever much let on he needed help. Of any kind.

  He said, “Well?”

  I said, “Get over here to these bars so I don’t have to yell.”

  “Those guards don’t speak English.”

  “Dammit, Norris, move!”

  The guards were keeping a respectful distance, demonstrating once again how loud money talked in Mexico.

  He finally came grudgingly over to stand in front of me. I said, in a half whisper, “I’m getting you out of here in the next couple of days. Can’t say exactly when. Just be ready.”

  “Buying me out?” He said it with a sneer.

  “No, they won’t sell. Apparently you’re pretty valuable, judging from the way the price keeps going up.”

  His face took on hope. “Legally?”

  “Well, sort of.” I wasn’t about to tell Norris what I had planned. His convictions being what they were he might feel it his duty to tip off the chief of police.

  He said, “What do you mean, sort of?”

  I said, “Well, in trying to save some time we might have to cut some corners. You know how this Mexican judicial system is. Could take forever if we just followed the letter of the law.”

  He slammed his palm up against a bar. “Justa, I want my rights! I want to be heard on this matter! I want the ones that should be in this cell to be occupying it.”

  I said, “Just simmer down. That’s exactly what we’re trying to arrange, a prisoner exchange.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “You don’t have to. I got to go now. You need anything?”

  “Yes! An American lawyer.”

  “Just take it easy, Norris. It will all work out the way you want it to.”

  “And are you looking into the clear title of our five thousand acres in Laredo?”

  I just stared at him. Here he was, rotting away in jail, and he was worrying about a piece of land that wasn’t worth half the money I’d already paid out. I said, “You bet, Norris. Got Hays working on it right now.”

  “Hays? Justa, you can’t mean you’ve put Hays on such a delicate matter. I can’t believe that.”

  I said, mildly, “He can’t do no worse than you did, can he?”

  I left him staring after me, openmouthed. For once he had nothing to say.

  My escorts jabbered at me all the way back and then opened the door for me and escorted me through with great courtesy. It’s very easy to make friends in Mexico. All you got to do is buy them.

  Outside, I retrieved my six-gun from Luís, who looked only too happy to be rid of the dangerous thing. As we crossed the street I asked him if it was certain my brother would be released that afternoon.

  It made him more nervous than he usually appeared. He said, “Es possible. Es muy possible.”

  “Sure,” I said.

  I veered off and headed for the hotel. I didn’t expect Ben and Jack to be back yet, but, it being noontime, I figured I knew where to find Hays.

  He was in the hotel café, eating watermelon and drinking beer. I sat down across from him and eyed his meal. I said, “You’ll piss for a week eating like that.”

  He said, “Too hot for anything else, boss. When in hell we gettin’ outta here?”

  I signaled for a waiter and then said to Hays, “Pretty quick now. There is one complication, however.”

  He was busy spitting out watermelon seeds. Finally he said, “Wha’s ’at?”

  I said, “Well, they’re willing to let Norris go, but I’ve got to leave somebody in his place until the trial. Kind of like a hostage, you know.”

  He looked up, holding a slice of watermelon halfway to his mouth.

  I said, shrugging, “And it has to be a gringo. Of course I can’t give orders to Jack Cole, he don’t work for me. And Ben’s my brother so there ain’t no use swapping one brother for another. I’d do it except I’m getting married.” I looked up at him. “So . . .”

  Like I say, it ain’t no fun teasing Hays. He’ll bite on anything. If he’d been a fish he’d have swallowed the first hook got dangled in front of his mouth. His eyes got round and his hand started shaking. He swallowed hard. “Boss, now you be funnin’ me, ain’t you? Tell me you be funnin’ me.”

  I shook my head. “No, you can relax Hays. I tried, but they wouldn’t go for it. Said I’d have to throw in two good saddle horses as boot.”

  “Aw ...” he said. He tried to act like he’d known all along, but he couldn’t keep the relief out of his face. He said, “I knowed you was joshin’. They don’t let a feller do that. Trade one fer the other’n.”

  I said, “Actually, they do. Only reason I didn’t do it was because I figured you’d rather be layin’ up there in a bunk eating and sleeping and not having any work to do. I know you, Hays.”

  I ate some tacos and drank some beer and then went out looking for a general mercantile that sold guns. Took me three tries to find what I was after, but I finally found a kind of gun shop. There I bought two .44 caliber derringers. They were used and the rifling in the short little barrels was gone, but they’d serve the purpose. I
got them and six cartridges for thirty dollars. It was a touch high, especially when I didn’t figure to get but the one use out of them.

  I went back to the hotel to wait out the afternoon. It was becoming a familiar routine and I knew it would go as the others had gone—with no Norris and no word.

  I just sat there drinking whiskey and smoking cigarettes and wishing that Señor Obregon would prove me wrong just this once. But I knew he wouldn’t; I knew what the son of a bitch was up to. Jack had known right from the start. He was going to bleed me as long as he could and then tell me to either get gone or join Norris.

  The afternoon passed just like the other two. Hays came in, but he took one look at my face and retired to a chair and stared out the window at the business on the street.

  Then, and a good deal to my surprise, there came a knock at the door. Hays opened it and there stood Obregon’s clerk. The first thought that hit me was that I had wasted money on powder and kerosene and derringers and sending for Lew for nothing. Obregon was going to keep his word.

  Luís looked extremely nervous. He refused to come in, just stood in the doorway twisting his hands. He said, “The Senor Obregon has sent me. He regrets, he regrets—”

  “He regrets what?”

  He got hold of himself enough then to deliver his practiced speech. He said, “The señor regrets that there have been complications. Also at the last moment. It will be but a small delay and he begs you be patient. Unfortunately, he cannot tell you theese thengs himself because he will be from the city tomorrow. When he returns, on the day following, he bids you call on him. He is certain of success. It may require perhaps a little, a leetle, uh . . .”

  I helped him. “Little more money?”

  He looked grateful. “Yes. Thank you and good day, señor.”

  I smiled thinly at him. “What about me seeing my brother?”

  “Oh!” He looked like a schoolboy that had forgot part of his lesson. “The Señor Obregon wishes me to tell you you may visit your brother at any time.”

  I said, “Well, you just tell the good lawyer that I appreciate his help. Tell him I will most certainly see him on his return. He will be back the day after tomorrow?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Fine,” I said. I gave him that thin smile again.

  When he was gone Hays said, “What if he runs off with the money, boss?”

  “Oh, he ain’t going to do that,” I said. “He’ll be back for some more milk. He’s just trying to make me a little anxious is all. Figures that makes the milk easier to get.”

  I settled back comfortably and poured myself a drink. For a second I’d been confused, but now I was content to know that Obregon was dependably undependable.

  Hays said, “Well, what you reckon?”

  I said, “I reckon some folks around here have gone to the thin edge of the outside. Only they ain’t discovered it yet.”

  Hays said, “You sound downright cheerful.”

  I said, “I am. Never did like my business being handled by other people. Say, ain’t you supposed to be down at the train depot meeting Lew Vara?”

  “Next train ain’t ’til seven an’ it’s jest goin’ five now.”

  I said, “You always got an excuse, ain’t you, Ray.”

  He left and I did some more waiting. I reckoned I’d done more waiting in the last several days than I’d ever been guilty of in my whole life before. One thing I was doing was keeping my mind carefully away from Nora and our wedding. I didn’t truthfully know how many days off it was, but I knew it was getting uncomfortably close. The reason I couldn’t pinpoint the time exactly was because I didn’t actually know what the date was and didn’t have a calendar handy to find out. Of course I could have figured it out by counting backwards to a day the date of which I knew. But I was in no hurry to do so. I figured to handle one worry at a time.

  Jack and Ben came back at about six o’clock looking dusty and tired. They came in and slumped down at the table and reached for the whiskey. I let them get a drink apiece down before I asked how it had went.

  Jack shook his head. He said, “Depend on a Mex to git it wrong. ’Twas more like twenty miles than twenty kilometers.”

  “Hot as hell,” Ben said.

  I said, “Hell, I didn’t send you on no pleasure ride. Did you find the damn ranch?”

  “We found it,” Jack said. “Not a hell of a big spread. Not the kind of place you’d need ten men to work.”

  Ben laughed.

  I said, “I ain’t interested in Señor Elizandro’s managing talents. I want to know about his men. Will they come?”

  “Seven will,” Jack said.

  “He said he had ten. ”

  Jack glanced at Ben and then came back to me. “Justa, I thank you ought to know this here Elizandro ain’t prezactly what you might call in the cattle business. At least not his cattle. Near as I could figure out, the bunch had a run-in with the rurales and three of ’em didn’t make it back.”

  “You saying Elizandro is a cattle thief?”

  Ben said, “It ain’t that so much, Justa. I mean he ain’t no out-and-out cattle thief. Jack says he’s what they call a politico down here. Seems he’s mixing in politics at a pretty high level. Like taking on the governor of the state of Coahuila. At least that’s what Jack thinks they were talking about.”

  I said, “Hell, I don’t care if he’s running for president. Or whatever. You say his men are coming?”

  Jack took another drink. “Yeah,” he said. “Fact of the business is they’d just about figured out where he was ’fore we showed up an’ was comin’ in to git him anyways. But I hope you taken note of what Ben was saying about him bein’ a politico. I figure you’re plannin’ on takin’ him out along with Norris in return for the use of his men?”

  “Of course.”

  Jack shifted uneasily. “I just hope you un’erstand that it gits a mite more serious breakin’ a politico out than if it was jest Norris. We liable to draw considerable more attention than you’d bargained for.”

  I said, “Hell, a jailbreak is a jailbreak. It’s gonna make them hot as hell anyway. Besides, once the deed is done Elizandro is going one way and we’re going the other.”

  Jack poured himself out another drink with a hand that was none too steady. He said, shaking his head, “Wahl, for all our sakes I hope you do be right.”

  I said to Ben, “His men—are they pistoleros?”

  “They sure as hell ain’t ranch hands. I’d say they’re about half bodyguards, half troublemakers and half thieves. Of one kind or another.”

  “Are they any good?”

  “Three are pretty good. The rest just so-so.”

  “What do mean, ’pretty good’? As good as Hays?”

  He gave me a look like I ought to go back to school. He said, “Hell, no! Hell, Hays is somewhere near as good as I am. Well, not really, but kind of. They better than Norris, let me put it that way.”

  “The rest?”

  “They’re about as good as Norris. Only difference is they’ll shoot without talking matters over first.”

  I looked at Jack. “When are they due?”

  “Sometime ’fore noon. They is a place jest outsida town. Kind of a cross between a boardin’house an’ a whorehouse an’ a saloon where most of the Mex cowhands put up. Ben an’ I is supposed to meet ’em out there. I din’ know if you wanted them comin’ into town an’ being seen with all of us.”

  I said, “I didn’t, Jack. You done good.”

  Ben said, “When do we get to know what you got planned? Some of us are gettin’ a little curious.”

  I said, “I ain’t altogether certain myself. I just know we are going to get Norris out of that jail. I’d druther wait until Lew gets here before going in to what little I got planned.”

  “You figure he’ll get in tonight?”

  I took out the pocket watch ol’ Howard had given me for my eighteenth birthday. It was going on for eight o’clock. I said, “We’ll know soon. Las
t train is due in here just about now. At least the last one due in from up our way.”

  Then it wasn’t long before they showed up. Lew came in ahead of Hays carrying a small valise. It reminded me I’d forgot to tell him to bring his horse. It was a matter of no import, seeing we were going to have to buy a couple anyway.

  It was good to see him. I had Ben and I had Hays, but it was damn reassuring to see another gun I knew I could depend on.

  We shook and howdied and then he turned a chair around, straddled it and pulled up to the table. I poured him out a drink. He downed half of it and then said, “Well, I figured you couldn’t get along without my help. I knowed what was in that telegram ’fore I even opened it.”

  I said, “Careful. You are liable to break your arm patting yourself on the back so hard.”

  I studied him. Yes, he could pass for Mex. And, God knows, he spoke it well enough. Plus he had that air of authority about him that would work well on the Mexican policemen.

  He finished his drink and held out his glass. I poured it full and he said, “Well, what the hell is up?”

  As best I could I explained what all had gone on since we’d reached Monterrey and how I didn’t figure it was going to get any better.

  He said, “So they playin’ you for a milk cow, huh?”

  “Appears so.”

  He drank and said, “I ain’t surprised. Did you think of trying another lawyer?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t think it would make much difference. Neither does Jack.”

  They’d been introduced when Lew had come in and now Lew looked over at Jack. Jack just shrugged. “We were already in considerable money before it began to appear that Obregon was givin’ us a fast shuffle. I took him on what recommendations I could git. After him we’d of just been drawin’ blind.”

  Lew came back to me. “So now you figure to bust Norris out.”

  I nodded.

  He rubbed his jaw. “What’s the jail look like?”

  It was Ben that spoke. “Like a damn fort. Enough damn police around there to hold a convention.”

  Lew raised his eyebrows at me. “Don’t sound too good.”

  I said, “It ain’t all that bad. Plus we got some help. Seven other guns that Ben rates fair.”