Beyond the Grave jq-2

by Bill Pronzini

  A show at Lobero's Opera House? A quiet evening in bed with William Wordsworth? No, neither of those seemed appropriate to his mood. Well then? What was appropriate to his mood?

  He still had not decided when he left the restaurant. It was a fine night, cool without being chilly, the sky a silky purple-black brimming with stars and a pale white moon that reminded him of the flesh of a woman's thigh. He stood for a moment in wistful contemplation and then sighed and set out aimlessly along Rancheria Street to the north.

  He walked for some time, enjoying the feel of the evening and the silvery shimmer of moonlight on the ocean. There were fewer buildings in this direction, and consequently fewer people; the solitude and the quiet were soothing. Ahead and some distance to his left, a narrow strip of beach gleamed an almost luminescent white beyond a fringe of palm trees. It was an attractive sight, and it drew him toward it. He stopped alongside one of the palms and began to pack fresh tobacco into his pipe, watching the waves break gently around the dark remains of a derelict fishing boat that lay humped and half-buried near the water's edge. The beach was deserted. It might have been a beach on some tropical island, one of those where the native women reportedly went about with bare breasts for all eyes to feast upon. He might be alone upon it, with no other human being within miles-except, of course, for a bare-breasted native girl awaiting his return to their palm-roofed hut….

  So he was thinking, fancifully enough, when he became aware of the soft shuffle of movement through the sand behind him. He turned just in time to hear a familiar voice say, “Gawddam, if it ain't Mr. Boggs. How are ye this evening, Mr. Boggs?”

  Quincannon smiled wryly and without mirth as Oliver Wither-spoon and another, smaller man came up to him. Witherspoon was dressed as he had been that afternoon, in teamsters' garb-and the smile he wore with it was no more humorous than Quincannon's, and no friendlier than a shark's. But it was the other man who was responsible for the tension Quincannon felt. In the moonlight he could see a thin, sharp face, like a fox terrier's, but the eyes were shadowed under a cloth cap that covered most of his head. The man stood with his legs slightly apart, one hand out of sight under his coat, Napoleon-fashion. There was no doubt in Quincannon's mind that the hand held a pistol or some other lethal weapon, and that as fast as he himself was on the draw of his Navy revolver, he was at a mortal disadvantage if violence was in the offing.

  He said slowly, speaking to Witherspoon but keeping his eyes on the smaller man, “Fancy this. Gut for a stroll, are you, Ollie?”

  “You might say that. We been followin' you, Boggs.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Ever since you left the Arlington Hotel.”

  “How did you know I'm stopping at the Arlington?”

  Witherspoon tapped the peanut atop his shoulders. “I got brains,” he said, lying shamelessly. “I noticed the brand on that horse you was riding this afternoon. Didn't take no time to track it down and find out who done the hiring.”

  “Very shrewd, Ollie. But why track me down at all? What's the game?”

  “That's what we want to know.”

  “We, is it? And who would this gent be?”

  “You don't know him?”

  “No.”

  “Well, this here's Jimmy Evans. And he don't know you, either.”

  Quincannon feigned surprise. “Well, well. I heard you blew wise to better pickings down south, Jimmy.”

  “I did, but now I'm back.” Evans owned a hard, clipped voice as deep as Witherspoon's was thin and reedy. “Ollie's right-I never heard of you. What're you after me for?”

  “Luther Duff sent me to look you up.”

  “The hell he did. I've done business with Luther a lot of years. Nobody works for him; he squeezes a nickel hard enough to make the eagle shit. He wouldn't hire his mother if he had one. And he'd sure never put her up at a fancy hotel like the Arlington.”

  “The Arlington was my idea. I favor living high.”

  “On whose jack? Not Luther's.”

  “Mine.”

  “Where'd you get it?”

  “On the game with Luther. I met him in Frisco a couple of months ago-put him onto a couple of things. Told him I'd double his business inside a year, and he took a flier on me. I've done all right.”

  “Maybe you have,” Evans said, “but not for Luther. He's a wise old bugger-too wise to send a sharpie like you out on a daffy hunt for gold statues. Who are you, Boggs? What's your real game? And damn your eyes, why're you after me?”

  “I'm not after you, not anymore. I told Ollie-”

  “I don't believe it, by God.” Evans jerked his hand from under his coat and showed his weapon-a small Colt automatic, by the moonlit looks of it. “I want the truth, Boggs, and I want it fast.”

  “You've already had it, I tell you.”

  “Shoot him in the leg, Jimmy,” Witherspoon said. “It hurts 'em in the leg real bad. Then they talk so's you won't shoot 'em in the other leg.”

  “No,” Quincannon said, “don't shoot me! Don't shoot me!”

  “Shut up, Boggs.”

  Evans said, “Somebody might hear the shot.”

  “Not out here. There's nobody around.”

  “We're too close to the road.”

  “Down the beach, then, by that old derelict.”

  “No!” Quincannon yelled. “No, you can't-!”

  Witherspoon cuffed him above the right ear-a casual blow that knocked his head against the palm bole and set up a ringing in both ears. “I told you once, Boggs. Shut up.”

  “Down the beach it is,” Evans said. “Frisk him, Ollie. See if he's heeled.”

  Witherspoon stepped around behind Quincannon, expertly frisked him, and removed the Remington Navy from its holster. “Nice rod,” he said admiringly. “How many muggs you shoot with this, Boggs?”

  “None. I never shot nobody with it.”

  “Well, maybe we'll shoot you with it.”

  “No, no!”

  “Shut up, I said.” He caught Quincannon's shoulder, spun him around, and gave him a shove. “Get movin'.”

  Quincannon obeyed. He slogged through loose sand until he was fifty yards from the derelict; then the footing became somewhat firmer. The break and roll of the surf was no louder than a whisper, even this close to the water's edge. The night was still except for random sounds in the far distance.

  When they got to within a few feet of the derelict, Evans told him to stop. The boat was a big trawler and had been there for some time; there were gaping holes in its hull and what was left of its superstructure, and sand was mounded all around it. The shadows it threw over the moonlit beach were long and deep; Quincannon moved another pace into them before he obeyed Evans's command. He turned to face the two men again.

  “All right, you son of a bitch,” Evans said, “now you'll tell me your game or by Christ you'll walk with crutches the rest of your days.”

  “No, please, don't shoot me!” Quincannon sank to his knees in the loose sand and ducked his head between hunched shoulders. “I'll talk, I'll talk, only please don't hurt me!”

  Witherspoon made the rumbling and squeaking-mice sound that passed for laughter. “Didn't I tell you, Jimmy? Big as he is, he's a gawddam yellow-back-”

  Quincannon reared up and threw a handful of sand into Witherspoon's face. At the same time he hurled another handful of sand into Evans's face. His aim was better with Witherspoon: the sand struck the peanut square on, stung the eyes, and sent him staggering backward, bellowing. Evans managed to avoid most of the handful that was flung his way; he twisted his body to one side, and the Colt automatic made a flat cracking sound. But Quincannon was moving by then, in a forward roll, and the bullet came nowhere close to him. An instant later, before Evans could set himself to fire again, Quincannon's shoulder connected with the little man's legs and pitched him sideways and down on his back. Quincannon rolled atop the thrashing figure, clamped hard fingers around the wrist that held the weapon. With his other hand he cracked Evans
smartly on the point of the jaw. Evans said “Uh!” and assumed the flaccid aspect of a pile of seaweed.

  Quincannon rolled off him and made an agile move to gain his feet just as Witherspoon, still bellowing, pawing at his eyes with one hand and brandishing a leather cosh with the other, charged him. He ducked away from the first wild swing, or would have if he'd had firmer footing. As it was one boot got mired and the cosh struck him a glancing blow on the left shoulder. The force of it was enough to knock him down, which gave Witherspoon sufficient time to kick him in the shin. This made Quincannon angry. He dodged another wild swing, successfully this time, and delivered a mighty blow to the side of Witherspoon's peanut. Witherspoon grunted and lunged again, unhurt. The head, clearly, was not the place to attack if you intended to stretch out the likes of Ollie Witherspoon.

  Taking another offensive tack, Quincannon succeeded in knocking the cosh out of Witherspoon's hand on the next swing and then smote him in the stomach. The blow broke him at the middle but it, too, failed to stop him. He struck Quincannon in the chest, once more in the right side; the second punch might have caved in his rib cage if it had come straight on instead of at a glancing angle. This made Quincannon even more angry. To hell with the Marquess of Queensbury, he thought. He ducked another punch, feigned one of his own, and promptly kicked Witherspoon in the crotch with all the force he could muster.

  Witherspoon lay down on the sand and commenced screaming. It was an unpleasant noise on such a peaceful night; Quincannon found his Navy revolver in the big man's pocket and used the butt of it on the Witherspoon peanut. Witherspoon stopped screaming immediately. And the night was quiet again except for the soothing whisper of the surf as it rolled in over the beach.

  Quincannon limped to the derelict and sat down on a driftwood log that had washed up next to her. His shin hurt where Witherspoon had kicked him; his shoulder hurt and his ribs hurt and the knuckles on his right hand hurt. And as if that wasn't enough, there was a six-inch rend in the sleeve of his new Cheviot coat.

  He sat there for five minutes, holding the Navy revolver and alternately looking at the ocean and the two inert forms on the sand a few feet away. Twice during that time he considered going over and presenting each of them with another bruise or two, but he did not give in to the impulses. He was a civilized man, after all, not a ruffian of their ilk. He had no taste for violence. He was a detective who preferred to use his wits, like that fictional fellow in London Conan Doyle wrote about. What was his name? Holmes? Yes, like Sherlock Holmes. Refined. Cerebral. Genteel at heart.

  He wondered if he had ruptured Witherspoon. He hoped so. If not, and if Ollie ever came after him again, he would deliver a kick of such magnitude that it would explode the bastard's scrotum like a balloon.

  He stood finally and went to where Evans lay and had a look at him. Then he had a look at Witherspoon. Neither man had moved; neither man was likely to move for some time yet. Moonshine showed him where Evans's Colt automatic and his own derby lay. He picked up the gun first, hurled it through one of the holes in the derelict's hull. Then he picked up the derby and clamped it on his head.

  “Let that be a lesson to you,” he said to the two unconscious felons, and limped away toward Rancheria Street.

  Now he knew how he would spend the rest of the evening. He would spend it in bed, nursing his wounds and sleeping. A pox on Charles Nordhoff. Santa Barbara was not good for everyone's health, especially not John Frederick Quincannon's.

  FOUR

  Quincannon awoke at dawn-stiff, sore, and in a peevish frame of mind. After ten minutes, restlessness drove him out of bed. He examined himself in the mirror in the adjoining bath and found four bruises, all of them on parts of his anatomy that would be concealed by his clothing. The one on his shin was the largest and tenderest, but it hurt only when he put too much pressure on that foot; he could walk more or less normally. And except for a scratch that was all but lost in the tangle of his beard, his face had miraculously escaped being marked.

  The examination buoyed his spirits somewhat, though not enough to put an end to either his cranky mood or his restlessness. Going back to bed was out of the question. Instead he washed, dressed, and went down to the dining room for coffee and hot pastry.

  Traffic was sparse and desultory on State Street when he emerged from the hotel and its grounds half an hour later. The rim of the sun was just visible above the Santa Ynez Mountains to the east; the sky still wore a pink flush, like a bride on the morning after her wedding night, and the air was salty and had a crisp bite to it. lit was going to be another glorious spring day. At least, Quincannon thought grumpily, insofar as the weather was concerned.

  It was too early to conduct business, but he felt that a long, brisk stroll might clear away some of his muscle stiffness and the remnants of a dull headache. He set off down State Street, found himself approaching the St. Charles Hotel, remembered that Felipe Velasquez was due to leave for his ranch at eight o'clock, and consulted his big turnip-shaped watch. Ten minutes before eight. He detoured into the alley that ran behind the St. Charles, looking for the hotel stables. The odors of fresh hay, old leather, and horse manure led him straight to them.

  The first person he saw when he got there was Barnaby O'Hare.

  O'Hare, dressed in riding breeches and an old-fashioned duster, was watching a stablehand saddle a ewe-necked chestnut horse. The historian's presence here surprised Quincannon-and vaguely annoyed him, for no particular reason. There was no sign of Velasquez, although a fine Appaloosa stallion stood waiting nearby, outfitted in a silver-studded bridle and a high-forked Spanish saddle with tasseled stirrup-skirts.

  Quincannon was within ten strides of O'Hare before the moonfaced young man glanced up and saw him. “Ah, Mr. Quincannon,” he said with a smile. “Have you decided to join us?”

  “Us?”

  “Senor Velasquez and I. Didn't he tell you I am accompanying him to Rancho Rinconada de los Robles today?”

  “No, he didn't.”

  “Well, one of the men I shall be interviewing for my book is a neighbor of his. And there are geographical details of the old grant that I'll want to reexamine. Senor Velasquez was again kind enough to extend his hospitality for a few days.”

  Quincannon thought uncharitably: After you promised him an entire chapter in your book, no doubt. He said nothing.

  “Will you be joining us?” O'Hare asked.

  “Not today. At the hacienda in a day or two.”

  “I look forward to it. Perhaps we'll find time for a talk. I find your profession fascinating, and I should like to know more about it-your methods and such.”

  “If I confided my methods to everyone who wanted to know them,” Quincannon said, “then I wouldn't be a very successful detective, would I?”

  The rear door of the hotel opened just then and Felipe Velasquez emerged. He, too, wore riding clothes, and a wide-brimmed sombrero. As the rancher approached, Quincannon saw that he looked pale and hung-over this morning. It gave him a perverse pleasure to think of this pompous grandee listing a few degrees to starboard under a burden of too much wine.

  “Buenos dias, Senor Velasquez.”

  Instead of acknowledging the greeting, Velasquez fixed him with a sharp look. “Have you something new to report?”

  “Not as yet-”

  “Then why are you here? Why are you not doing what you're being paid to do?”

  “May I remind you, sir,” Quincannon said, managing-just barely-to keep the testiness out of his voice, “that it is not yet eight o'clock?”

  Velasquez muttered something in Spanish that Quincannon failed to catch but that O'Hare evidently understood; the smile the young man directed at Quincannon was boyishly amused. Velasquez turned his back, went to where the Appaloosa stood, and began checking the fit of its bridle. O'Hare gave his attention to the stablehand, who had finished saddling the chestnut.

  Gentlemen, Quincannon thought, to hell with you both. And he stalked out to State Street without loo
king back.

  He finished his stroll in a dark humor and returned to the Arlington, where he consumed a breakfast of five eggs, bacon, potatoes, cornbread, orange marmalade, more hot pastry, and more coffee. That improved his mood somewhat. When he considered himself sufficiently fortified, he walked to the stables, hired the same claybank he had ridden yesterday, and trotted away to the Mexican quarter.

  Luis Cordova's dry-goods store was not yet open when he arrived; a hand-lettered sign bearing the word CERRADO hung on the front. door and was visible from the street. Quincannon turned his horse., came down the opposite side of the block, drew rein in front of the tonsorial parlor. It was open for business, and when he entered, he found a mustachioed barber and no one else-a fact that satisfied him. If anyone knew his neighbors and could be drawn into talking about them, especially when none was around to monitor the conversation, it was a barber. They were a notoriously loquacious breed, no matter what their race or color.

  This barber, once he overcame his surprise at having a well-dressed Americano for a customer, and once he discovered that Quincannon spoke passable Spanish, proved to be no exception to the rule. His name, he said, was Enrico Garcia. And while he trimmed Quincannon's hair and beard he obligingly answered the questions he was asked about Luis Cordova.

  Cordova had operated his dry-goods store at its present location for many years and had lived above it just as long. His widowed and aged mother had lived with him until her death two years ago; he had never married. He was a private man with no close friends in the community, and as such he seldom talked about his background. Garcia thought he had come from the Mexican state of Oaxaca but was not positive. When he spoke of Cordova as a “shrewd businessman,” Quincannon took the opportunity to ask if this meant the storekeeper was perhaps a shade dishonest. Garcia's reaction was one of shock. “Oh no, senor,” he said. “No. Luis is very religious. He would do nothing to offend God.”

  He wouldn't, eh? Quincannon thought. Well, that remains to be proved.