by Tony Masero
‘Howdy, Billy Lee. Sit yourself down,’ he greeted, once Billy Lee had been shown into his office. It was a ground floor room with a view through tall French windows to the lawn outside where peacocks paraded and squawked with unearthly sounding strangled cries. ‘You had some trouble so I hear.’
Billy Lee was not surprised he had already heard, as Burk had eyes and ears everywhere.
‘Yeah, four of them, trying to rob the place. They gave me no choice.’
Burk tilted his head questioningly; ‘You left one of them alive?’
‘A kid. He didn’t know what he was doing.’
‘You getting charitable in your old age, Billy Lee?’
‘The sheriff’s got him in custody,’ Billy Lee answered evenly. ‘It’s enough.’
Burk chuckled and got up from behind his desk, ‘You want a drink?’
Billy Lee shook his head and Burk crossed over to a stylish dresser bearing a decanter and glasses.
It was a pleasant room, high ceilinged and airily dressed all in cream white with long pale drapes and an air of class about the place. Billy Lee reckoned Minnie had handled the décor, as he doubted Burk was up to such niceties.
The door behind opened and Burk’s two main men came in, Jed Crone and Abernathy Boulder, both big in body but not so well equipped in the smarts department. Crone with a heavy black beard and the fair-haired Boulder, rat faced with a permanent sneer written on his lips.
‘Hey there, fellows!’ greeted Burk as he poured from a decanter. ‘You boys want one?’
‘No, sir,’ answered Crone, and Boulder, standing beside him, also gave a declining shake of the head.
‘You fellows hear about Billy Lee’s spot of trouble last night?’
‘So we did,’ answered Crone. ‘You done a good job there, Billy Lee. Suckers should know better than to try it on with a James Burk establishment.’
‘It’s what I’m paid for,’ Billy Lee answered. ‘I don’t take no joy in it.’
‘No matter how you think on it,’ said Burk, sipping his drink. ‘It was well done and I thank you. We have to set a precedent here or any damned fool will think he can walk in and take my money.’
‘Yeah, you done good,’ agreed Crone, coming up behind and slapping a broad hand on Billy Lee’s shoulder.
‘Seems my lady wife was out walking the cliff last night,’ said Burk, eyeing Billy Lee over the rim of his glass. ‘You see her up there?’
‘I did,’ said Billy Lee casually. ‘Just to pass the time of night.’
‘Don’t know what it is with that woman,’ grinned Burk disarmingly. ‘She just wanders off without a by your leave. Damndest thing, I am much too remiss in my husbandly attentions, wouldn’t you say, Billy Lee?’
‘I really couldn’t say,’ Billy Lee answered with a dismissive shake of the head.
His muscles tensed under his shirt though as he did not like the direction the conversation was taking.
‘Oh, I think you can,’ said Burk.
He curled his lip in a sneer and lowered his head menacingly, he gave a sharp jerk of his body and Billy Lee heard the door being opened behind him. He tried to turn but the barrel of a revolver punched into his jaw just below the ear and the click of it being cocked was loud.
‘Just you rest easy a minute,’ ordered Crone and Billy Lee could feel the weight of the man pressing up close against his chair back.
‘What’s this about?’ he asked, trying for innocence.
Burk sniffed and rested back against the dresser, his arms folded and the whiskey glass still held in one hand.
‘Come on in, honey,’ he said in a kindly tone to a point over Billy Lee’s shoulder. ‘I got your friend here, come say hello.’
From the corner of his eye, Billy Lee saw Minnie being pushed forward roughly by Boulder. She was thrust staggering into the room and forced down to her knees before Burk’s desk, a big heavyset affair covered with ostentatious carvings.
Burk pushed himself away from the dresser and went to stand over her. Minnie knelt with her back to Billy Lee and her swaying body and slumped shoulders told him that she had not been served well.
‘What’s going on here?’ he asked.
‘I been too kind, that’s what it is,’ said Burk, looking down at his wife and setting his glass aside on the desk. ‘I just let her have her own way too much. It’s my fault, I recognize that. It’s what happens when you’re too generous with a body. Kind of wicked, isn’t it?’ he asked, turning meaningfully to Billy Lee. ‘What love will do to a man.’
‘I don’t like this, Burk,’ growled Billy Lee, moving restlessly in his chair.
Crone jabbed the pistol deeper, ‘Mister Burk to you, asshole,’ he snarled.
‘I gave it all to dear Minnie,’ Burk continued, ignoring the interruption. ‘Didn’t I, honey? Gave you money to spend, a nice house, freedom to do what you wanted. Fancy clothes from England and France, the best of food and lodgings, all of this. In fact I gave you all any woman could wish for,’ he waved encompassing hands. ‘I even gave you my body,’ the last was uttered through gritted teeth and his blue eyes glittered and hardened to a cold gray.
Burk looked up at Billy Lee, ‘She told me everything,’ he said, fixing a malevolent stare on Billy Lee. ‘Everything! Every little detail of how good it was,’ spittle was falling from his lips as his anger grew and the scar on his forehead glowed as red as a hot iron. ‘And you thought you could stop thieves stealing money from me but it gave you the right to steal my wife?’ The last he barked loudly, so that it rang in the still air of the tense room.
Leaning down, Burk quickly grabbed Minnie by the hair and twisted her head sharply so that Billy Lee could stare into what they had done to her.
Minnie’s face was swollen and discolored, the rosy cheeks inflamed and puffed up below her deeply ringed and tear stained eyes that looked across at Billy Lee plaintively. Blood streamed from the corners of her bruised lips and dripped down from her chin onto the torn front of her shift, the same thin dress she had worn the night before.
‘Of course she can’t tell you how much she cares for you now,’ said Burk in a quieter and more deadly tone. ‘She’s had her tongue cut out, you see.’
Billy Lee lurched forward from his chair, his one intention to grasp Burk by the throat but as he did so, Crone savagely pistol-whipped him from behind, bringing down the gun butt hard two-times and instantly putting out all the lights for Billy Lee.
When Billy Lee came to he was tightly lashed to the chair, his hands bound behind him and rope fastened across his chest and around the chair back.
He shook his aching head and blinked his eyes clear to take a look around. He was still in the office but he was alone now and everywhere was full of a hollow silence.
The door opened behind him.
‘You with us again, Billy Lee?’ asked Burk in a businesslike fashion. ‘You’ve been out a while. Look here, its getting on to dark now.’
Billy Lee glanced across to the patio windows and could see that it was indeed late evening. He reckoned he must have been out for some four or five hours.
‘I guess old Crone belted you too good, huh? That boy doesn’t know his own strength, but then, maybe he felt a mite aggrieved in my behalf. No accounting for loyalty, is there?’
Burk moved around to stand in front and Billy Lee glowered up at him.
‘You shouldn’t have done that to Minnie,’ he said.
Burk shrugged, ‘Why not? She’s my wife, ain’t she? I’ll do what I like with her.’
‘What are you going to do now?’
Billy Lee’s throat was dry and the words were hard to get out but the rest of him felt fine except for the back of his skull that hurt like hell and was full of darkly throbbing pain.
‘With her? Well, she ain’t much good to me anymore. Tainted goods, you see? I guess she’ll supply some use up at The Broken Wing; she can service them hoary fishermen and any odd traveller passing through. Seems she’s real good at spreading
herself for strangers and that’ll make me a buck or two. Pay for all the cash money I wasted on her up until now.’
‘You can’t do that to her!’ begged Billy Lee, twisting his head in despair.
‘She ain’t saying much on the matter at the moment,’ Burk barked a brief laugh before his attitude turned spiteful. ‘Why, I reckon she’ll be right popular amongst the regulars up there. Quiet and all like she is now, no kiss and tell there, they’ll soon find something better for her to do with her mouth, I reckon.’
‘You bastard!’ spat Billy Lee.
Burk folded his arms, leaned back against the edge of his desk and looked down his nose at his prisoner with a sneer marking his lips.
‘You’re alright, so far, ain’t you? Nothing happened to you just yet awhile, so quit complaining. What I do to my woman is none of your concern, Billy Lee. You just went and dipped your wick somewhere you shouldn’t ought to and as you appreciate I can’t let that go unattended, now can I?’
‘So what you got on the cards for me?’
‘You’ll see soon enough. Just hope you enjoy the ride. I’ll say goodbye now, Billy Lee,’ he leaned forward from the waist and gave Billy a gentle pat on the cheek. ‘Guess I won’t be seeing you around too much in the future,’ he smiled with his lips but not with his eyes that remained as cold and steady as stone.
Billy Lee stared back equally coldly, ‘You’d better make sure, Burk. You just better make sure, you don’t and I’ll be coming back for you, you can take that as gospel.’
Burk shook his head, ‘I don’t think so, sucker.’
He hurried past without another word and Billy Lee heard the door open behind him and heavy footsteps come in.
‘You ready, fool?’ Crone breathed in his ear, the breath ripe with whiskey fumes.
Then Billy Lee’s chair was jerked over onto its two back legs and Crone began to drag him across the floor and out of the door. Boulder walked along beside, a smug expression on his face and a half empty whiskey bottle swinging from his fingers.
‘Been taking our time with your lady friend,’ he grinned. ‘Real nice.’
‘You sonsabitches,’ growled Billy Lee. ‘I’ll cut your hearts out, I swear it.’
‘Shut him up will you?’ snarled Crone. ‘Stuff something in his mouth.’
As the chair was bounced backwards down the front steps of the mansion, Boulder leisurely undid the bandana at his neck and forced it into Billy Lee’s mouth.
‘Take the rear end,’ ordered Crone and Boulder bent down to take up the front pair of chair legs.
‘We got a special carriage waiting on you, Mister LaBone,’ he sneered and Billy Lee saw the flat-bedded buckboard with two mules in the traces waiting on them in the driveway. ‘We’re going on a little ride and you ain’t going to like the outcome much I fear.’
As Boulder bent to take the weight and lift the chair and its bound passenger, Billy Lee delivered a kick that smacked underneath Boulder’s jaw and snapped his head back surprising him into dropping his bottle and smashing it on the stones.
‘Hot damn!’ cursed Boulder, his face twisting into a snarl as his bunched fist wiped a trickle of blood from his lip. He leant forward and delivered a hard blow to the pit of Billy Lee’s stomach, ‘I’m about to cut your damned manhood off, you know that don’t you?’
‘Come on,’ snapped Crone irritably. ‘Lets get on with it.’
They lifted Billy Lee up and tossed him unceremoniously onto the bare boards of the buckboard.
‘You got it coming,’ promised Boulder. ‘By God, you have. I’m going to peel you like a grape.’
Billy Lee’s muffled curse was barely audible but his meaning was clear.
‘Get up here, Abernathy,’ ordered Crone, already seated in the driving seat. ‘You’ll have time to play with that sonofabitch later.’
They drove off into the coming night and Billy Lee lay on his back looking up at the sky as they rumbled out of the drive and took the road down towards The Beach. Billy Lee smelt the salt in the air and he could see the fishermen’s heaped lobster pots and storage sheds that marked the edge of the road as they rumbled over the cobblestones on the marginal beach road. Lanterns swung from posts and by their light Billy Lee caught the hurried glances of men in the gloom. Men with sou’westers on their heads and oilskins carried over their shoulders. Their faces were solemn as the fishermen watched Billy Lee pass by. It was coming on to the night fishing and they were gathered in preparation to crew the well smacks and take the evening tide. None of them dared interfere, James Burk held the town in his merciless grip and every man knew if he made any attempt he would lose his boat and his people would go hungry.
A few called out, words lost in the rumble of the buckboard and Crone turned angrily towards the crowd.
‘You men shut your mouths!’ he roared. ‘This ain’t your concern. This old boy here done what he shouldn’t and you know James Burk is fair in all his dealings. You don’t cross Mister Burk and get away with it.’
Boulder leaned over the back of the driving seat and silently wagged a reprimanding finger at the men who watched them sullenly as they disappeared into the gloom.
The buckboard drew up at the end of the quay and Billy Lee was pulled from the wagon bed to be dropped hard on the flagstones, then both men took the chair back in a hand each and dragged Billy Lee along onto the quay edge.
‘You like the sea, Billy Lee?’ asked Boulder. ‘Don’t get seasick, do you? We’re going on a little sailing trip.’
Billy Lee was dropped down into a large dory boat fitted with sail and tiller. It was a twenty-foot long wooden clinker boat painted cream with a brown sail and a man who stood at the steering looking uncomfortable as Crone and Boulder jumped down into the boat.
‘You ready?’ grunted Crone.
‘Y…. yes, sir,’ mumbled the man.
‘Then get her going,’ he turned to Boulder and indicated Billy Lee. ‘Set him upright, Abernathy. Let him see what’s coming.’
‘Sure,’ smiled Boulder. ‘You bring them gutting knives like I told you?’ he asked the man at the tiller.
‘There,’ said the man pointing at a canvas sack lying in the well of the boat.
It was crowded in the small boat and the fisherman had to struggle around the other two as he raised the sail and pushed off from the quay. Billy Lee watched him work from the stern of the boat where his chair had been set upright. He could tell the man did not favor his task or the men he was sailing with.
Crone and Boulder got out of his way and sat in the prow and began rolling cigarettes whilst the fisherman took his place in the stern and controlled the boat.
‘I’m sorry, mister,’ he whispered to Billy Lee. ‘I don’t want no part of this but they got me by the short end.’
Billy Lee turned towards him and jerked his chin showing the gag stuffed in his mouth. With a grim look at the two in the prow part hidden from view by the opening sail, the fisherman leaned over and pulled the cloth free.
‘I don’t like this none,’ he husked. ‘But I don’t see why a man can’t breath proper, no matter where he’s bound.’
‘They aim to kill me,’ said Billy Lee.
‘I guess,’ the man answered, lapsing into silence.
The boat bucked as it left the calm waters of the bay and made its way out into the open sea but the dory was built to handle rough waters and rode the waves well. The fisherman was a deft hand and he brought the boat around onto a beam reach so that the sail filled and they raced speedily across the water.
Boulder stood up and made his way back down the boat and circumnavigated the stretched canvas of the sail to crouch down and study the bag and its contents. He leered at Billy Lee as he took out a long and slender needle-sharp skinning knife.
‘I’m going to enjoy this,’ he nodded his head knowingly at Billy Lee who stared back at him with firmly compressed lips.
‘Light that lamp,’ Boulder told the fisherman and obediently a lantern hanging from a r
ear post was lit. It swung with the tip of the boat and the swaying beam flickered over the men. Billy Lee felt the chair slide from side to side with the roll of the skiff and he steadied the movement with his feet.
‘Don’t you worry none, Billy Lee,’ joked Boulder. ‘You ain’t going over the side just yet, Mister Burk wants you to have a real special experience before that happens.’
The rest of the fishing fleet had taken off from the beach and were busy exploring their lobster pots, hauling them up and placing the prized catch into the tanks positioned in the well of the ship and full of circulating seawater to keep the creatures fresh. Lights were evident everywhere on the water but the tiller man steered the dory away and made a heading towards the dark shape of a rocky promontory where the darkness was doubled by the advent of a sweep of pine forest.
There were lots of hidden beaches and bays along this part of the rocky coast off the Gulf of Maine and Billy Lee surmised he was about to be taken to one where Crone and Boulder could do their master’s bidding in secret. Boulder was obviously getting in the mood as he had a pocket flask out and was sipping regularly whilst he leered at Billy salaciously.
‘You been fishing this part of the coast long?’ Billy Lee asked the tiller man.
‘All my life,’ was the grunted reply.
‘What’s your name?’
‘Joab Barnes.’
‘You have a knife at your belt, Joab. I seen it when we came aboard.’
‘Most every fishermen do have one,’ came the reply.
‘Well, sir,’ said Billy Lee. ‘I’m about to go for a swim and I’d sure appreciate that blade in my hand when I go.’
There was a stolid silence from the fisherman behind and Billy Lee kept his eyes fixed on Boulder who squatted under the sail and drank his liquor. Crone kept his station in the prow, smoking and looking out into the night.
Billy Lee felt the wooden handle of the knife pushed surreptitiously into his hand.
