Ragged Man

by Ken Douglas

  He jerked the free hand to his mouth, ripped off the tape and spit blood. He took a deep breath, spit more blood. He untied his other hand. He untied his feet. Then he tried to untie the noose that held his neck back against the hot and cold water faucets and couldn’t.

  He struggled with his hands behind his head, against the knot, but it wouldn’t give. Either it was too tight or it was the kind of knot that couldn’t be untied, like the kind he used to get in his shoelaces. When he got that kind of knot the only way to undo it was with a scissors.

  He needed a rest.

  He looked at the clock.

  It was 10:15.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Rick Gordon turned the Montero off Mountain Sea and onto the pier, ignoring the No Vehicles on the Pier sign.

  He hit the horn and kept it blaring for the length of the pier, scattering tourists and locals from his path. When he got to the boat, Captain Stewart and Judy Donovan were waiting. He jumped out of the car, causing the waiting couple to jump back at his bloody appearance.

  “ My God,” Judy gasped, “what happened to you?”

  “ I’ve been shot.”

  “ We need to get you to a doctor!”

  “ Later. First we have to dump some human garbage out at sea.”

  “ No. We have to get you to a doctor!” Wolfe Stewart echoed Judy.

  “ We have a much more important thing to take care of.” Rick went to the back of the Montero, opened the rear door.

  “ Is he alive?” Wolfe asked.

  “ Not for long, we’re going to dump him at sea and leave him for the sharks.”

  “ No, we’re not!” Wolfe Stewart said. “We’re not taking the law into our hands. We’ll call the sheriff,”

  “ He killed J.P.”

  “ Load him on the boat,” Wolfe Stewart said.

  “ I was afraid of that.” Judy turned ashen, her voice cracking.

  “ I’m sorry. I tried, but I was too late.”

  Wolfe started for the unconscious man when Judy said, holding back her tears, “I know that man.”

  Rick Gordon and Wolfe Stewart stopped.

  “ He took me to dinner.”

  “ He won’t be taking anyone else to dinner,” Rick said. Then to Wolfe Stewart, “Let’s get him on the boat.”

  Wolfe took Storm under the arms, Rick grabbed the legs and they hauled him out of the back of the car and up onto the deck.

  Wolfe went up to the bridge and started the engines. Judy released the lines and Rick went to the galley and gulped water from the faucet.

  Judy hopped on board as the boat started to pull away from the pier and stood over the unconscious Sam Storm, eyeing the man, more out of curiosity than anger.

  “ I would have expected tears,” Rick said, coming up from behind.

  “ She will have time to cry later, after we dispose of Mr. Storm,” Judy said.

  “ She?” Rick leaned against the rail for support.

  “ Haven’t you wondered about all this? Haven’t you asked yourself, why? Why you?”

  “ Yes.”

  “ And?”

  “ And I think this is the galka that Ann was afraid of. I think he can’t be killed, or is damn hard to kill.”

  “ Go on,” she said.

  “ I think that when he dies, he moves into another body, someone close by.”

  “ That’s why you want to dump him at sea? Alive?”

  “ Yes.”

  “ So he’ll be alone in death?”

  “ Yes.”

  “ How far away do we have to be when he goes?”

  “ I don’t know.”

  “ What if we’re not far enough?”

  “ I don’t know.”

  “ What if we’re not far enough and he tries to take over you?”

  “ I don’t think he can.”

  “ Or me?”

  “ I don’t know.”

  “ He can’t take me.”

  “ Why not?”

  She moved in close and kissed him on the lips, then she ran her tongue along the scar under his ear. “This is why not. It’s you and me Flash, just like it always was.”

  “ Ann?”

  “ I’m here, Flash.”

  “ What are you talking about?”

  “ I’m here, inside, with Judy. That’s why I came to you instead of waiting for J.P. You were in trouble and we thought, in error, that J.P. wasn’t.”

  “ This can’t be happening.”

  “ We are Marangit, you and I. We are the sum of everything and everyone that made up those old Aborigines. I am the sum of all the old woman’s lives plus Judy’s, or put another way, she is the sum of all the old woman’s lives plus mine. Either way, I’m here.”

  “ I don’t believe it.”

  “ Believe it, Flash.” She kissed him again as only Ann had been able to kiss him and once again she ran her tongue over the scar. “Believe it.”

  “ Why don’t I feel any different?”

  “ Usually it takes a while before one realizes he is Marangit. Sometimes one never knows, but usually when the Marangit are called upon to fight the Galka, one knows, or is made to know. When that happens, the strongest personality, or the most capable, takes over the living body.”

  “ And you have taken over Judy?”

  “ Not exactly. We’ve decided to share, to merge ourselves. My memories are Judy’s and Judy’s are mine. I’m not Ann and I’m not Judy.”

  “ You kiss like Ann. You know about the scar, and only Ann would know that. You called me Flash, and only Ann did that. But I’m finding this hard to buy into.”

  “ You bought into the galka concept. You’re taking a barely alive man out to sea to die far away from any potential victim.”

  “ I’m not sure I believe in God, but if I was going down for the third time, I’d pray.”

  “ You’re doing this, just in case?”

  “ No, I guess not. He’s evil. He is what you were afraid of. He is the Ragged Man.”

  “ And me?”

  “ You’re Judianne.”

  “ A nice name for us, because now we are one.” She paused for a second, then said, “Say it.”

  “ Judianne.”

  “ Say it, and kiss me.”

  “ Judianne.” He took her in his arms and kissed her.

  She broke the embrace and said. “We still have a problem.”

  “ We have lots of problems.”

  “ No, we have an immediate problem. The galka can’t take you and it can’t take me, but what about Wolfe?”

  “ Did I hear my name?” the bearded sea captain said, walking toward them, holding a well-worn flannel shirt.

  “ We were just wondering,” Judianne said, “if you’ll get into any trouble for helping us.”

  “ I’ll take my chances.” Then he added, “And I think right now it would be a good idea, Judy, if you took Mr. Gordon into the galley and cleaned him up some. Then he can get into this,” he offered the shirt. “It might be cool, but you can burn just as well on a cool day at sea as you can a hot one.”

  Judianne took Rick by the arm and said, “Lean on me. The captain’s right, you need to clean up, and that shoulder needs looking at.” She started to lead him away.

  They heard a grunt of surprise as they moved away from the captain. They turned to see Sam Storm grab Wolfe Stewart from behind the left knee and jerk him to the ground. With rattlesnake speed he grabbed Stewart’s Bowie knife from its scabbard and slit his throat, all the while staring at them with death defying eyes. He put the knife to his mouth and licked off the captain’s still-dripping blood.

  “ I heard what you said.” Blood dripped from his chin as Rick and Judianne stood spellbound. “I enjoyed the killing. It’s like I have a bad side. It wanted me to kill, but I picked the victims.”

  “ You didn’t try to fight it?” Rick asked.

  “ I didn’t want to. I’d been beaten down all my life, a nobody man in a nobody job. I had a chance to shine when
the RIAA hired me to track you and your bootlegger pals down, but I couldn’t even do that. Then, all of sudden, in that bait store, when you killed that man with the bottle of wine, I was somebody. I was supreme, above anyone, above the law, above fear, till I tried to fuck her.” He pointed at Judianne with knife. “Then I knew I was in for a fight, but I won’t die easy and I’ll win in the end.”

  “ Bootlegs? You did all this because of the records?” Rick couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “ And what about any of this does?” He looked at the knife, turned it, as if he were fascinated with it. “And one more thing,” he said, “the boy is alive. He’s in your upstairs bathroom, tied with a noose around his neck, sharing a tub full of water with a radio on a timer set to go off at noon. Pretty quick the boy fries.” He brought the sharp edge of the blade to his lips again and licked off the remaining blood.

  Judianne reacted with a combination of Ann’s determination and Judy’s youth. She screamed and charged the wounded man, kicking him in the face, driving the blade of the Bowie knife through his mouth to the back of his head. Then she whirled, building momentum, and slammed her foot into his blood gushing mouth with full force, splattering blood and brains on the deck.

  She looked down at what she had wrought and said, “He was wrong, he died easy.”

  After he caught his breath and allowed his thumping heart to cool down, J.P. wanted a drink. He looked at the blood tinged water and the thought of drinking that made him gag. He reached his right hand behind his back, stretched and managed to turn on the cold water. He set the tap at a dribble. Then he cupped his hand, grabbing a lap of water and brought it to his lips. Repeating the gesture several times he was able to satisfy his thirst.

  When his parched throat no longer screamed, he looked at the clock and frowned, 11:15. He had forty-five minutes left.

  He wanted out of the tub. He wanted clothes. He wanted his mother. And he knew that help was probably not coming. He was on his own.

  His hands were free, so things that were out of reach, when they were tied up, might now be within grasp. With a renewed eye, he studied the bathroom. The bathroom sink, next to the tub was off limits. Too high. But the drawers below were not. He stretched against the noose, reached for a drawer. He was able to ease a it open and using his hand like an eel, he snaked it into the drawer and felt around.

  A few small bottles, emery boards, a larger bottle, then pay dirt, a pair of nail clippers. He could snip away at the rope and get free. He latched onto the clippers and pulled his hand out, banging it on the top of the drawer, dropping the clippers on the wet floor, where they bounced and slid out of reach.

  “ It’s not fair,” he said, but he wouldn’t give up.

  He sat in the tub with the noose pulling at his neck and thought, and he realized there was something nagging at him, like in school when the teacher calls on you and you know you know the answer, but can’t remember it. It’s on the tip of your tongue, but your tongue is frozen.

  There was a way, he was sure. He just had to reason it out.

  Without talking, they dragged Storm’s body to the rail, Judianne at the shoulders, Rick at the feet. They lifted the lifeless form and hoisted him over the side. Then Judianne made a quick trip to the galley and returned with a painter’s tarp that covered the grill when it wasn’t in use and draped it over Wolfe Stewart’s body.

  “ Can you drive this thing?” she asked.

  “ How hard can it be?” he answered.

  She helped him up to the bridge.

  “ Where are we and where is back?” She looked around, seeing only fog, mist and blue ocean.

  “ We’re on a heading of two-seventy,” he said, looking at the compass, “so in theory, if we swing the boat around to a heading of ninety degrees, we’ll wind up back where we started.”

  “ You’re sure?”

  “ No. In an airplane you’d have to take wind direction into account, so I would assume in a boat you would have the same problem with the current.”

  “ So what do we do?”

  “ Turn to a course of ninety degrees and pray.” He swung the wheel around, shoving the throttle full forward.

  “ I’m going down to get some hot water. I’ll be right back.” She left the bridge, returning a few minutes later with a pan from the galley, a wet rag and the ship’s first aid kit. Then she washed and bandaged his wounds. When she was finished she handed him Wolfe Stewart’s flannel shirt and he put it on.

  “ Does the shoulder hurt much?” she asked.

  “ I’m trying not to think about it.”

  “ I’m sorry.”

  “ Don’t be, it’s not your fault.

  “ It’s 11:30, we only have a half hour left.”

  “ We’ll make it?” he said.

  “ What if we don’t?”

  “ We will.”

  “ How do you stop it?”

  “ What?”

  “ The boat. When we get there, how do we stop it?”

  “ I suppose we slow down and throw it into reverse just before we dock, then shove it into neutral.”

  “ Oh,” then she said. “Is that what you’re going to do?”

  “ I don’t know.”

  They spent the next five minutes silently on the bridge, with their eyes reaching out ahead, then Judianne said, “I see it,” and Rick saw it too, land dead ahead.

  “ We’re about half a mile south of the pier,” she said.

  He continued on a straight course.

  “ You have to make a left if you want the pier.”

  “ I don’t want the pier.”

  “ Why not.”

  “ There’s no time. If I have to slow down and try and park this damn thing, we’ll never make it.”

  “ So what are you going to do?”

  “ Run it onto the beach.” He pulled the throttle back to a quarter. “When we get as close as we dare, I’ll make a hard right and you can dive off and swim to shore. Then flag a car and save J.P.”

  “ What about you?”

  “ I’ll beach the boat and follow you up.”

  “ I don’t want to leave you.”

  “ I’ll slow you down, right now the important thing is to save J.P.”

  “ You’re right.”

  “ You better get on deck.”

  “ I love you,” she said, leaving the bridge.

  “ I love you, too.”

  She climbed down the ladder, stood on the starboard side, waiting and watching as the beach closed out of the fog, and when it looked like the beach was impossibly close, Rick slid the boat into a left turn. She took her shoes off and dove into the surf, swimming for shore with long easy strokes. As Ann, she had been a mediocre swimmer, but as Judy, she was world class and in excellent shape.

  She caught a six foot wave as she closed on the beach and body surfed into three feet of water, where she stood and sloshed her way to the sand. Then, without looking back, she broke into a dead run for the road, waving and screaming at a black Toyota that sped up as she approached, its driver ignoring her.

  In frustration she turned and watched as Rick took the Seawolf into a wide circle under full power. When he had completed the first half of the circumference he straightened it out and headed for the beach.

  The Seawolf ended its last voyage with a scraping crash as she scratched along the bottom, but Judianne couldn’t wait and see what happened to Rick, because a green Porsche was coming down the road.

  This one wasn’t going to ignore her. She staggered like she was hurt and fell on the road. The Porsche stopped and a leggy, young blond in a low cut sailor shirt and skimpy white shorts, scrambled out of the car.

  When she heard the door open, Judianne jumped up, saying, “Sorry, but I need the car.”

  “ What,” the blonde said, startled.

  “ Life and death-Sorry.” Judianne pushed the girl aside, jumped behind the wheel and sped away.

  Rick braced him
self, but when the boat hit ground, he was thrown against the wheel and knocked onto his back. Painfully, he got up and when he was sure the boat was beached, he climbed down from the bridge. He stumbled along the deck and thought he saw someone approaching as he went over the side and into the water. He hoped he could touch, because he was too worn out to fight the waves.

  He slid into the sea, holding his breath and his heart cried in dismay when his feet didn’t hit bottom. He opened his eyes and saw only black. He held his breath and pushed toward the surface. Flapping his arms, he grabbed a great gulp of air, flopped onto his back, trying to do the back stroke, but only one arm wanted to obey and he went under again.

  He came up, gasping for air, fighting a wave.

  “ Don’t panic, I’ve got you.” It was the voice of an angel.

  He tried hard not to panic.

  “ Relax, let me do the work and everything will be all right.” Not an angel, a living, breathing human being. A woman.

  He lay back and obeyed as she circled his chest with a strong arm, then kicked with her long legs, pulling him safely and surely toward shore.

  Rick leaned on her as she helped him out of the water and, once they were safely on the sand, he told her, through panting breath, that he needed to get up the hill, could she flag down a car, “It’s a matter of life and death.”

  “ I’ve heard that before,” she said as she went up to the road to stop a passing car.

  Judianne slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car. She fumbled with her keys on the front porch, opened the door and dashed up the stairs. Out of breath, she flung the bathroom door open and sank to her knees in anger and frustration. The bathroom was empty.

  She looked at her watch. 11:59. Dammit, she’d made it on time. He should be here. The man said he would be here. She stared at her watch and watched as the digital seconds ticked away to 12:00 and she cried.

  At 12:05 she heard a car drive up and she went outside and met Rick and the woman whose car she’d hijacked. She saw a green van drive away, its driver apparently wanting nothing more to do with a situation he was beyond understanding.