Harry Doing Good

by Canaway, W. H.

  ‘Going to the lake,’ the co-driver said with a nod. ‘Fishing on company time. Oh well, boys will be boys.’

  The girls sat silent. The driver turned to them, weighing them up pleasantly.

  He said, ‘It’s warm for the time of year, and we’ve had a long dusty old drive. We saw you from the main road, having a lovely brew-up. I suppose you couldn’t spare a cup of char for a couple of male chauvinist pigs, by any chance?’

  They stared, suddenly limp with relief.

  Linda said, ‘You mean you just want a cup of tea?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘There’s some in the pot,’ Ann said in a cracked voice.

  So the policemen drank tea, chatting up the girls in a mild inoffensive way, and listening from time to time to the radio, but ignoring it for the most part. Ray and Cheryl came into view round a turn in the lane uphill, unseen by the policemen. The couple stopped, hesitating, then Ray gripped Cheryl’s arm, and they walked slowly down to the Kombi and the patrol car.

  Simon said, ‘Here’s two of our friends now.’

  The patrolmen nodded in greeting.

  ‘These gentlemen are just having an unofficial tea-break,’ Linda said quickly. ‘Where’s Harry? Running up the hills like a ball of fire, I suppose.’

  Ray said. ‘Yeah, he just took off. Said we were too slow.’

  Simon had been congratulating himself on his inspired story of the truck-driver fisherman, and now he felt proud of Ray for being similarly quick on the uptake.

  The police driver said to Ray, ‘American, are you?’

  ‘Right,’ said Ray. ‘Just visiting with friends.’

  ‘Can you answer a question?’ asked the co-driver. ‘Something that’s been puzzling me.’

  ‘I’ll do my best.’

  ‘It was a television series called 77 Sunset Strip. Caused a lot of argument. All the police cars were Los Angeles County Highway Patrol, and we couldn’t make it out. I mean, it’s in the middle of the city, isn’t it? Why didn’t they have City Police cars?’

  Ray said, ‘That’s mighty percipient, but the guys that made the show were right. The Strip is part of Sunset Boulevard, but it’s outside the jurisdiction of the city — some historic-type anomaly. The Strip is in the jurisdiction of the county, and that’s why all those Highway Patrol cars.’

  ‘Well, thank you very much indeed,’ said the co-driver. ‘I’d never have worked that out in a hundred years. That series finished a long time ago, but it’s worried me ever since.’

  Ray said, ‘You’re very welcome.’

  The policemen finished their tea, while Ray thought, You limey policemen are wonderful, you truly are.

  And Simon, when he should have felt only surcease from anxiety at this turn of events, suddenly felt a queasiness in his lower stomach, and a concomitant disturbance of vision; he lost consciousness at once. The others saw him fall; he emitted a strange, barking cry as the muscles of the larynx contracted. His eyeballs rolled upwards, his body rigid.

  Linda cried, ‘Oh, Simon!’ and darted over to him. holding his head from behind. The policemen reacted quickly, moving the stove to a safe distance.

  ‘Epilepsy?’ the driver asked.

  ‘Yes,’ Linda said. ‘Poor Simon, he hasn’t had a fit for ages.’

  After the rigid phase, Simon started thrashing violently on the ground in jerking rhythm, breathing stertorously, flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth. The police co-driver bent over to help, but the driver pulled him back.

  ‘Nothing you can do,’ he said. ‘Just let him get over it, that’s all.’

  Linda said, ‘He’ll come round in a minute, then he’ll want to sleep.’

  *

  Harry walked down by the ropeway, beginning to feel better. When you added it all up, he hadn’t done badly, he considered. It had been a battle against tremendous odds, finding those keys. But he had won, just as he had won against those crooks. Mind you, Ray had taken a part, but those steel spheres of sudden death had been Harry’s. He fingered the remaining bearing. The other two had been agents of divine retribution. He had prayed, and in the Lord’s good time that prayer had been answered. At the moment when Ray had snatched the ball bearings, Harry had first thought that Ray was going to use them as an aid to prayer, and when Ray had killed Lumpy, Harry’s initial reaction had been that this was a blasphemy. But he saw it all now. God had been taking a hand.

  ‘I’m probably invincible,’ he said to himself.

  So his mood changed to one of pride in his achievements. He had defeated the enemy, administered justice (and experienced a rare orgasm in the process, though he kept that fact firmly at the back of his mind), and had surmounted all the obstacles that fate had placed in his path. And now he was coming down from the mountain, to resume his task of ministering to those of lesser spirit. His pride should be tempered with humility, and concealed from those he served. He must remember that he would be tested, and tested again, as he had already been tested. Why, back there, just for a moment, he had been led to doubt his own sanity!

  He came into view of the Kombi, and stopped as he saw the group in front of it: Simon, on the ground, flailing and jerking; the others; and two policemen. A patrol car. Harry withdrew out of sight, and then began to run blindly to the northward, keeping to the contour to the best of his ability. He ran for about a quarter of a mile, then flung himself down in the heather to recover his breath. It was a patch of white heather, a few late blooms gleaming on the light-green stems; Harry remained staring at them while his breathing eased. He stood and walked slowly down to the main road through the heather and bracken, crossing three low stone walls dividing small paddocks. At the main road he paused irresolutely for a moment, then walked in the direction of the lane, which he could not see because the road made a wide right-hand curve. He had been walking for only a couple of minutes when the police car came into view, was abreast of him, and had swished past. Harry quickened his steps.

  I wasn’t scared, he thought. I’d have gone straight down to them, but it might have led to questions. Put everybody in danger if I’d popped up out of the blue. I wonder what those coppers were doing. Never mind, soon find out.

  Harry turned up the lane. The Kombi had gone. Harry went to the spot where it had been parked, and looked all round as if expecting to find it under one of the small bushes or hidden in a tree.

  ‘They’ve gone,’ he said. ‘They’ve gone and left me.’

  Then he remembered telling Ray earlier that if for any reason they should be separated, Ray was to stay on the A5. He knew that they would be heading in a southerly direction, and had the AA handbook into the bargain. Harry moved up to the truck, unlocked the cab with Egan’s key, sat in the driving seat and inserted the ignition key, then checked the gear lever and the position of the instruments; the refrigeration unit loomed above his head. He switched on the ignition, and noted that the fuel tank was three-quarters full as he started the truck. He backed and then turned down the lane and headed left on to the main road. Driving slowly, overtaken by impatient traffic, he familiarised himself with the vehicle and at the same time kept a close watch for the Kombi; after twenty minutes’ drive he spotted it parked in a small layby, and pulled in behind it.

  ‘I see you found the keys,’ Ray said, as Harry came to the driver’s door of the Kombi. Cheryl was sitting next to Ray.

  ‘Those coppers: what did they want?’

  Ray said, ‘Cool it, Harry. All they wanted was a cup of nice hot tea.’

  Harry peered through into the back of the Kombi. Simon was sleeping on the bench seat, Linda supporting his head; his legs trailed limply. Ann sat opposite. She turned and smiled at Harry.

  Linda said, ‘He’s asleep now, Harry. Don’t wake him up.’

  ‘I won’t,’ Harry said. ‘I saw him from up top. And when I saw those coppers too, I took another way round, but you’d all gone. So I had to follow in the truck… You sure nobody gave anything away?’

  Ray said,
‘I wasn’t there all the time. What do you think, girls?’

  Ann said, ‘We didn’t give anything away, I’m positive. They asked about the truck, and we said two men got out of it and went up the hill with fishing tackle.’

  ‘Well, thank goodness for that,’ Harry said. ‘Now we can get on. Stay close behind me, but don’t tailgate me. It mustn’t be obvious we’re together. Let a vehicle or two get in between us. I’ll give you a signal in plenty of time before we pull in. I reckon we’ll go for about four hours before we get rid of the truck.’

  Ray said, ‘Harry?’

  ‘What is it? All that’s clear, surely?’

  ‘When you saw us — the cops, Simon having a fit — why didn’t you just come right down? We had a cover for you: we said you were taking a walk.’

  Harry said, ‘I wasn’t to know that, was I? It seemed best for you all if I kept out of the way.’

  ‘You know something?’ Ray said quietly. ‘I think you chickened out, Harry.’

  Furious, Harry said, ‘Don’t talk nonsense. I’ve told you. I just made a detour to avoid drawing attention to myself. What about you? You nipped off in the Kombi a bit smartish, didn’t you?’

  Cheryl said, ‘We had to go, Harry. We told those policemen we’d stopped to make tea while some of us had a little walk.’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Why, you and me and Ray. Just three of us.’

  ‘That’s what I mean,’ Harry said heavily. ‘Three. Coppers can add up, you know. What if they’d seen this van swanning along with one person missing?’

  ‘We never thought of that,’ Ray said.

  ‘No. That’s the trouble. You should think. Now let’s not have any more of this.’

  Harry went back to the truck, climbed in and started the engine. As he moved off and the Kombi followed, he thought with satisfaction that he’d turned the tables on Ray then. The chap was no match for Harry. Come to think of it, who was?

  *

  The journey south was perfectly uneventful, everything going according to plan. They drove just short of four hours, into twilight and then darkness, and were somewhere near Brownhills when Harry signalled a left turn and pulled into the car park of a huge transport café; the building and the car park were splashed with orange and hard white and red light from sodium streetlights and neon signs. Harry parked the truck amongst a couple of dozen others. He locked it carefully, then went to the Kombi, which had parked with the smaller vehicles and cars.

  ‘Go inside and order,’ he said. ‘I’ll have ham and egg and chips. Be with you in a minute.’

  He strolled out into the street beside the roaring traffic; there were no pedestrians in sight. Harry walked until he came to a storm drain, pulled out a handkerchief, dropped it, and slid the keys of the truck down the drain as he picked up the handkerchief. You had to think of everything if you were Harry, he told himself as he walked back to the cafe. He was turning into an expert.

  Harry joined the others inside the crowded café. There was no room for the six of them at one table, so he sat with Linda and Simon, opposite the three others at an adjoining table.

  ‘All right now, Simon?’ he asked.

  ‘Fine,’ said Simon, and indeed he had made a complete recovery; if anything he looked fresher than before, and ate with a keen appetite. They spoke little, because the fourth person at their table, a stocky truck-driver, inhibited conversation; and as soon as they had finished they went outside again to the Kombi.

  Harry said, ‘Right. I’ll drive this time, Ray. We’ll get into Birmingham and post Peter’s card. That’ll be far enough.’

  ‘I’m heading west again,’ Ray said. ‘I can’t say it’s been all that great, but I’m glad to have been of help. Now it’s time for me to go.’

  Cheryl gazed at him in shocked incredulity.

  ‘You’re going? Ray, you can’t just go like that!’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Ray said. ‘That’s how it is, honey.’

  He reached into the Kombi and brought out his rucksack with the Stars and Stripes on it.

  ‘I’ll bum a ride outside here. No problem.’ He grinned, with a hint of ruefulness. ‘We certainly share some dark and deadly secrets.’

  Ann said, ‘We’ll be sorry to see you go, Ray.’

  And Linda said, ‘We owe you a lot. More than…well, you know what I mean.’

  ‘Think nothing of it,’ Ray said. ‘Over and done with. So long now.’

  He raised a hand in farewell, and left them. Cheryl detached herself from the group and ran after him, pulling at his arm.

  She said, ‘Ray, you can’t just walk out on me like that! Not after you made love with me. I thought you meant we’d be together. You said!’

  ‘Honey, you got me wrong,’ Ray told her. ‘I figured you had a real bad experience, and you’re lovely anyway. I thought if we made love that would help to normalise things. I didn’t say anything about a lasting relationship. You’ll be okay now, don’t you understand? You’ll make it with some nice guy, and you’ll forget all about me. Well, I guess not quite. So try to remember we were good together, huh?’

  He kissed her cheek, and went. Cheryl watched him go, her face set but her eyes dry.

  ‘You bastard,’ she said. ‘Oh, you bastard.’

  She rejoined the others and sat with them in the Kombi; she nourished a silent fury as they swung out on to the road and caught sight of Ray, standing on the other side with thumb raised at passing traffic, a solitary figure in a pool of orange light.

  Harry said, ‘It’s true. We owe him a lot. I’ll never say anything about Americans, not ever again. Mind you, he had some bad points as well as good, but if it hadn’t been for him, we probably wouldn’t be here now.’

  And if it hadn’t been for me, he added to himself, we certainly wouldn’t be here now, scot-free. Except for Peter, and he is sanctified.

  Simon said, ‘I just want it to be next year or something.’

  Harry said, ‘If I post this card in Birmingham on a Wednesday night, it’ll be no good at all. Would anybody believe that Pete had only got as far as Birmingham by tonight, when he was supposed to have left last Thursday? What we’ll have to do is hole up somewhere tonight. Tomorrow’s Thursday. We’ll nip down the M1 tomorrow, and post the card a lot nearer London, from a place where he might be staying.’

  The others tried to demur, but Harry was firm with them, pointing out that attention to little details like that could well make the difference between success and failure in covering Peter’s tracks. He drove south until he found a suitable place to turn, then reversed the Kombi and drove north again. Passing the transport café, they saw the freezer truck still parked inconspicuously amongst the other trucks, but there was no sign of Ray. Harry drove back along the A5 as far as Gailey, then turned off through Penkridge to Cannock Chase. They camped that night between two sections of conifer forest, on a small heath where deer drifted like shadows under a drizzle of light rain. They drank tea and had hot soup with pieces of bread in it, then turned in shortly after ten o’clock. As Harry said, it had been a big day. Simon and the girls soon went to sleep, but Harry lay awake for some time in his tent, his mind affected by the day’s driving into producing an endless succession of the images of travel. In the end, after two hours or so, these were replaced by flickering geometrical patterns through which, ever and again, Egan’s white dead face loomed disembodied. Towards one in the morning, Harry slept, shallowly and restlessly, which was most unusual for him, for he had always been a deep sleeper.

  *

  On the following morning, after an early breakfast, they drove to Misterton and on to the M1. The M6 would have been more convenient, but Harry didn’t fancy negotiating the Gravelly Hill interchange. At first, all went well. They had a smooth trip to Stanmore, where Harry parked at the station and posted Peter’s card.

  ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. ‘That’ll ring true. I’ve sent it first class, so it’ll get there tomorrow, all being well.’

&nb
sp; And he thought, A hundred pounds. I’ll give the old girl a hundred. She’ll be as pleased as Punch with that.

  They drove north again, eating lunch at the Newport Pagnell service area, and pushing on after a half-hour break. Then, just short of Misterton, Simon went into status epilepticus. The first fit followed more or less the same pattern as the one he had had on the previous day, and Harry shouted to the girls to get out all the sleeping bags and range them round him before the seizure ended and the tumultuous phase began, so as to protect him; there was no question of stopping on the motorway. Cheryl left the front passenger seat to help Ann and Linda, and they managed to cocoon Simon in the padded material. The fit took its course; but instead of brief consciousness supervening, followed by deep sleep, Simon went immediately into another fit, and another.

  Linda said, ‘We’ve got to get him to hospital, Harry.’

  Harry glanced over his shoulder. Simon lay in tonic contraction, his face cyanotic and a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth.

  He said, ‘We’ll get back on the A5 and take him to Shrewsbury.’

  ‘But that’s miles and miles!’ Ann said. ‘We’re nearest to Nuneaton. Let’s take him there.’

  Harry said wearily, ‘Can’t you see? We’re supposed to be in North Wales. How can we take him to Nuneaton? There’s lots of hospitals between here and Shrewsbury, but Shrewsbury’s the first big one an English person in North Wales would think of. It does make a bit of sense to take him there on the way home from North Wales.’

  Simon had begun to thrash and drum on the floor of the Kombi. Grimly Harry turned off at Misterton and headed through Ullesthorpe and Claybrooke Magna until he reached the A5 again. Fit succeeded fit, and during the piteously brief intervals Simon grew perceptibly weaker.

  It was an eighty-mile trip to Shrewsbury.

  Harry thought, They’ll keep him in hospital, bound to. What if he gives anything away?

  He looked over his shoulder again. Linda was cradling Simon’s head, sitting on the floor with him, and the other two girls were rearranging the soft quilted material of the sleeping bags, blue and red and green, around the still form. Linda was crying quietly.