Nazareth

by Tony Masero

  ‘Hell hath no fury, Mister LaBone, be sure of it.

  ‘Maybe,’ agreed Billy Lee distantly, he was thinking about Minnie and their new discovery of each other and wondering how he felt about that.

  The fat lady turned up with two large china mugs of coffee held by their handles in one hand and a plate pilled high with bacon, fried eggs, beans and biscuits in the other. She banged it down unceremoniously on the table and frowned at Val.

  ‘You got money to pay for this, you old bastard?’ she growled.

  ‘Nice to see you too, Emilia,’ grinned Val, showing her a row of brown-stained and uneven teeth.

  ‘You shut your foul mouth,’ she growled. ‘It’s like looking down a pit of broken tombstones when you part those withered lips.’

  ‘Don’t worry, ma’am,’ butted in Billy Lee. ‘This here is on me.’

  ‘Just like this bum,’ sniffed Emilia. ‘Always scrounging off somebody.’

  ‘How’s your sister these days?’ asked Val with wide innocent eyes as she bustled away.

  Val reached over and stole one of Billy Lee’s biscuits, ‘Not that her sister was worth a minute of it,’ he confided. ‘Gave me as much leeway as a nun in holy orders. You got yourself a regular lady, Mister LaBone?’

  ‘Reckon I have,’ allowed Billy Lee around a mouthful of crispy bacon.

  ‘She nice, is she?’

  ‘She’s the quiet type.’

  ‘Uhuh, good enough, its nice when they’re peaceful. So you want to get up to Nazareth, do you?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘You know the place ain’t easy, don’t you? They got some hard case that runs that town….’

  Billy Lee let him ramble on as he devoured his breakfast hungrily.

  ‘It’s a strange place if you don’t know it, set in three levels, top, bottom and middle all resting on a cliff face. They call it, Old Town, Middle and Beach, should properly be called Heaven, Purgatory and Hell, to my way of thinking. Though the devil himself lives in the Middle, fellow by the name of James Burk runs it all with a bunch of badhats.’

  Despite himself, Billy Lee’s body stiffened at the name and Val did not miss it.

  ‘Oho! I see you know that particular schemer. Well, you’d best be advised to watch yourself in that direction.’

  ‘I think it’s him who had better be watching,’ Billy Lee muttered through clenched teeth.

  Val supped his coffee and eyed Billy Lee shrewdly for a moment.

  ‘Got a bone to pick, huh? I heard something about some trouble up there a little while back.’

  ‘You going to tell me how to get up there or is it going to cost me another cup of coffee?’

  Val set down his cup and sniffed, ‘Freight is your best bet. They have supply wagons leaving here from the depot yard. You can pick up a ride on one of those that’ll take you there.’

  ‘Well, I sure can’t afford a pony. Had to sell my last one before I took the train here. How often do these wagons head out?’

  ‘Usually one every two or three weeks, I’ll ask around if you like.’

  ‘Be obliged.’

  ‘You got a dollar to grease a palm? I’ll need to take a look at the log book, see who’s going out.’

  Billy Lee let him have one of his few remaining bills and the old man slurped his coffee down quickly and stood up, promising to be back directly, he hurried from the restaurant.

  It was a good half hour later and Billy Lee was beginning to worry he had been set up for a dollar and a mug of coffee when Val returned, his eyes sparkling with success.

  ‘Okay, got you a ride, pard. It ain’t the regular freight delivery but a special. Seems someone in Nazareth is purchasing a piano and they’re taking it up there today.’

  ‘That’s great,’ said Billy Lee. ‘When they going?’

  ‘If you’re ready I’ll take you on there now.’

  ‘Where’s it at?’

  ‘Pianny makers yard, it ain’t far.’

  Billy Lee settled up with the irate Emilia, who warned him dourly in a whisper to watch of for that rascal Val, and they set out.

  Val scurried on ahead, ducking down side streets between high overhanging buildings and leading the way up narrow alleyways full of litter on a circuitous path that left Billy Lee with no sense of where they were or in which direction they had come. They were obviously in the warehouse district at back of the docks as the sea scent was strong and the tang of spice and tanneries filled the air.

  ‘How far is this place?’ Billy Lee called after the leading figure of Val, who skipped on ahead at a nimble rate as if a man on a mission.

  ‘We’re there,’ he answered, grinning toothily and pointing at a pair of large peeling wooden doors with a smaller portal in one of them.

  The place looked pretty run down and seedy to Billy Lee but he could make out the faded lettering on the wall of the warehouse building in the yard behind the gates. ‘Castlereigh & Joberth, Finest Piano and Instrument Makers.’

  Val pushed the side door open and ushered Billy Lee inside. The door opened out into a large cobbled yard faced by an empty opening in a high brick wall opposite, the place was cluttered with stacked crates and bales of hay and there was the warm smell and whinny of horses coming from the opening beyond.

  ‘So where….’ Billy Lee asked turning to Val, just as he slammed the door shut in Billy Lee’s face. ‘What’re you doing?’

  That was all Billy Lee managed before the world turned topsy-turvy and something hard hit him on the head and everything went black.

  The bucket full of cold water that hit Billy Lee full in the face and brought him back to consciousness filled his mouth, nose and eyes and he was coughing fit to bust and blinking his eyes as he struggled to rise. That was when Billy Lee found that both his ankles and wrists were bound tight and an indistinct shape was looking over him.

  ‘Well, hello again,’ rasped a voice. ‘Long time no-see.’

  Billy Lee’s vision cleared and he saw looming over him the large outline of a figure he recognized.

  Abernathy Boulder leered down at him, a smug grin of victory written across his rat face.

  Val hopped from foot to foot behind Boulder, one hand rubbing against the other, ‘Got him for you, didn’t I? I got that sucker fair and square.’

  ‘Yeah, Valentine, you did well,’ agreed Boulder, his eyes fixed malevolently on Billy Lee.

  ‘You going to see me straight now, Mister Boulder?’ asked Val.

  ‘Sure, sure, but I need your help a little longer first.’

  ‘Aw!’ wheedled Val. ‘I don’t know about that. We agreed….’

  ‘Oh, its just a little extra curricula,’ said Boulder warmly. ‘There’ll be a bonus in it for you.’

  ‘Really? Well, maybe then.’

  ‘Thing is I need you to help me get this fool up into the wagon and then show me the best route out of town. See, I don’t know my way around this burg too well. You get me out of town and there’ll be another five dollars in it for you, how’s that sound?’

  Billy Lee’s head was pounding where he had been struck by Boulder but he was beginning to understand that Val had sold him out and somehow got in touch with the gunman who must have been in Portland already.

  ‘Seems like Emilia was right about you,’ he growled at Val. ‘You ain’t nothing but a two-bit piece of scum after all.’

  Val looked down his nose at Billy Lee, ‘What does she know? Or you either come to that, look at you lying on your back in the dirt. Stupid pissant.’

  Billy Lee turned his attention to Boulder, ‘And where’s that other asswipe you hang with? Ain’t like you to travel without holding onto Jed Crone’s hand.’

  Boulder shook his head dismissively, ‘Sass me all you like, LaBone, you’ll get what’s coming to you. We had this coast covered from north to south looking for you and Jed will be along shortly I’ve no doubt. Right now though, you’re going back to see Mister Burk, he’s real keen to make your acquaintance again.’

&nb
sp; ‘That’s what I came here for,’ smiled Billy Lee, sounding more confident that he felt.

  ‘I don’t think you’re going to like it any better than last time, asshole.’

  ‘I know what you did to Minnie, Boulder. You and Crone and I aim to make you pay for that.’

  ‘That so? Well, I really don’t know how you’ll manage that with your tripes hanging round your feet. ‘Cos that’ll be the way it’ll go when Mister Burk gets his hands on you.’ Boulder turned to Val, ‘Come on, old man, get ahold of his feet and help me get him in the wagon.’

  ‘You know, my back ain’t so good any longer,’ complained Val.

  ‘Just do it!’ snapped Boulder, coming around and grasping Billy Lee by the shoulders.

  ‘Man, he is heavy,’ sighed Val, struggling with Billy Lee’s feet.

  ‘Dead meat always is,’ chuckled Boulder.

  Together they heaved Billy Lee up into the bed of the open wagon and Boulder dragged a tarpaulin over him. Billy Lee heard the two men climb up onto the driving seat and felt the wagon lurch as Boulder geed the team on. The iron tires crashed and scraped over the cobbles and Billy Lee could hear nothing over the sound as the wagon creaked out through the yard gates and onto the road.

  ‘You alright back there, Billy Lee?’ called Boulder. ‘Yeah, me and Jed really enjoyed our time with Minnie. That’s one sweet piece of poontang, I can see why Mister Burk was so pissed off with you.’

  ‘Just keep it up,’ Billy Lee shouted back over the rumble of the wagon.

  ‘Minnie got away, you know? Killed a man in the doing of it though, there’s a price on her head now. You wouldn’t know where she is, would you?’

  A plan started to form in Billy Lee’s mind, ‘I might,’ he replied.

  ‘Maybe we’ll have a few words about that when we get outside town then.’

  They drove on for an hour and Billy Lee could hear Val giving regular directions to take them free of the town suburbs and onto a northern route. Another hour passed before Boulder drew the horses off the road and Billy Lee felt them cross over grass and then lumber a-ways over rough ground before pulling to a stop.

  ‘This’ll do,’ he heard Boulder tell Val.

  ‘You aim to do some questioning now?’ asked Val.

  ‘Sure do, there’s a five thousand dollar reward on that woman’s head and I aim to get me some of it.’

  ‘Ooh! Five thousand dollars!’ breathed Val greedily.

  ‘Yeah, come on, let’s get him down.’

  Billy Lee felt the tarpaulin dragged from off him and he blinked in the bright daylight. Looking around he could see they were in open country and surrounded by a grove of trees that hid them from the roadway. Val lowered the rear flap on the wagon and grabbed hold of Billy Lee’s ankles, and then he paused as he looked down at the new pair of boots.

  ‘Say?’ he asked Boulder. ‘I could really do with some new shoes, you reckon I could have me these boots when you’re done with him?’

  Boulder leaned on the wagon wall and studied the boots, ‘You like them?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘They do you better than that bonus I promised?’

  Val did not pick up on it but Billy Lee could see that Boulder was toying with him.

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ sniffed Val.

  ‘Well, they’re mighty fine pair of boots, must be worth all of ten dollars, I reckon. You’ll come out ahead you take them in lieu.’

  ‘No, I reckon I’d prefer the cash money.’

  ‘You want them or not?’ asked Boulder, his face dropping a fraction.

  ‘No, I’ll take the money, Mister Boulder.’

  ‘Go on, get them off, see if they fit you good.’

  Val twisted awkwardly beginning to wish he had never started this conversation, ‘Nah, it’s alright, I’ll leave it.’

  ‘Take them off him,’ Boulder ordered coldly.

  Val bit his lip uncomfortably and then reached forward to grasp Billy Lee’s ankles, ‘I’ll have to untie him….’

  He did not get a chance to go further as Billy Lee bent back both knees and delivered a kick in Val’s chest that sent the old man reeling over to land on the grass on his backside.

  ‘Oho!’ laughed Boulder. ‘Nicely done, Billy Lee, right in the pie basket.’

  Val struggled to his feet, his face twisted into a mask of hate, ‘I’ll get that sonofabitch.’

  He started forward but Boulder stepped in front of him, ‘You ain’t touching nobody, old man. This body belongs to James Burk and he wants it delivered unharmed and in one piece.’

  Val lowered his eyebrows resentfully and stared up at Boulder, ‘Just give me my money and I’ll get out of here then.’

  ‘Sure thing, Val. You done some good work you deserve what you got coming.’

  In one slick movement, Boulder drew his pistol and fired twice at point blank range into Val’s torso. The old man bucked and folded under the impact, his eyes wide in disbelief. He tried to say something, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish out of water before his eyes glazed over and he fell as limp as a damp towel to the ground.

  Boulder shrugged, twisted the smoking pistol around his finger a time or two before dropping it back in his holster. ‘Damned old fool,’ he muttered.

  ‘What you aiming to do now?’ asked Billy Lee.

  Boulder looked across at him, the killing gleam slowly dying from his eyes along with the drift of gunsmoke as it evaporated amongst the trees, ‘We get you back where you belong, that’s what we do now.’

  ‘You just stopped here to get rid of that old man?’

  ‘That’s about it, Billy Lee. He weren’t no use to me anymore.’

  ‘You’re one cold sonofabitch, Boulder, you surely are.’

  ‘Guess I am,’ agreed Boulder, dragging the tarpaulin over Billy Lee and shutting up the rear gate of the wagon again. ‘Be back in Nazareth come tomorrow, then you’ll get first hand knowledge of how downright mean spirited I really am.’

  Boulder retook his seat and got the team moving and the wagon rolled bumpily back onto the track.

  Chapter Fourteen

  With the two hundred dollars he had taken from Minnie, Jethro bought them all tickets for a train journey that sped them across country. They were lucky in their connections and caught an express train with a dining car and sleeping carriages. Aboard the train they all finally got to eat their fill in the dining car and afterwards were replete as they sat drinking coffee and smoking cigars whilst the night outside clattered past under a veil of smoke from the locomotive smokestack.

  Jethro remained grimly silent, staring out of the window and ignoring the others, his face a steady picture of unmoving bitterness reflected in the glass.

  ‘Sure beats all, don’t it?’ said Freddie; his head wound about in a large bandage from the blow Minnie had delivered.

  ‘What does?’ asked his cousin.

  ‘This here,’ said Freddie, waving in direction of the window. ‘I mean to say, look at this speed. Hell! A horse couldn’t run this fast for so long.’

  ‘Yeah, but a locomotive don’t run down no steep gullies and through no open coulees, can’t step over a sand dune and it don’t swim through a river or pick its way between cows. It just goes in a straight line, up and over by way of a road laid on steel rails set in one direction.’

  ‘Still, this is fast,’ Freddie insisted.

  ‘As long as the wood fire under the boiler lasts.’

  ‘And a pony don’t need feeding I suppose?’ Freddie came back.

  ‘Will you two shut up,’ growled Jethro, without turning to look at them. ‘You make more noise than biddies at a sewing bee.’

  ‘What’s bugging you, Jethro?’ asked Barnaby. ‘We been partners a long time and this ain’t like you.’

  ‘I just want to get there and get this over,’ snarled Jethro.

  ‘Okay we understand that but taking all kinds of hell out on us ain’t going to help.’

  Jethro spun around to face
him, ‘I been spit on by a damned woman I thought I had something with, had my kid brother shot down by a killer that’s running loose and it seems every blasted thing I touch these days turns to a heap of nothing in my hands.’

  Barnaby jabbed a finger at the window reflection, ‘You see that?’ he said. ‘That’s what you look like. You see that miserable reflection of humanity? Where’d you go to, pard? This ain’t you.’

  Jethro breathed hard through his nostrils and hunched his shoulders, ‘This ain’t me?’ he sneered cynically. ‘You think so, what would you know, you dumb lummox. What you got going for you, Barnaby? No wife, no kids, no home or hearth to cherish and worst of all no money. All you got is your long gun and a straight aim. We’re all like that, don’t you see it? We ain’t got shit, none of us has.’

  Barnaby lowered his gaze to the dining table and crisply starched tablecloth lying between them, he ran his fingers along the neatly ironed folds, ‘That’s right,’ he said softly. ‘I ain’t got those things, but I though we was friends. Least I had that.’

  Jethro curled his lips, ‘You hear how you sound? Like some damned Valentines Day card.’

  ‘It’s eating at you, Jethro,’ promised Barnaby. ‘You ain’t seeing things straight.’

  ‘No, its before I wasn’t seeing straight. We piddled around, stealing a little here and there, laughing and joking our way through it like kids in a schoolyard. Now I got my mind set right, its dog eat dog from now on.’

  Silently, Les and Freddie looked across the table at each other, neither of them liking the conversation any more than Barnaby.

  ‘Sorry to hear you say that,’ muttered Barnaby.

  ‘Take it or leave it,’ snapped Jethro sharply. ‘You want out of this, then get. The three of you just get, I’ll go it alone.’

  Without a word the three rose to leave and eased their way from their seats as Jethro turned to look out of the window at the dark night again.

  ‘See you back in the carriage,’ said Freddie.

  Jethro nodded once and said nothing.

  ‘This can’t go on,’ said Barnaby as they moved along the corridor back to their seats.