Frederick Zackel - Dark Red And Deadly

Mad Dog said, "Relax, Lester."

"We gotta get off this island," Lester said.

"We will when the heat's off."

"It ain't never gonna be off of us after what we did."

Mad Dog corrected his son. "After what you did."

Lester was itchy. "We gotta get off this island."

Mad Dog said, "We need money to get away."

"Where we gonna get money?"

"Jeremiah Quint just sold his crop, right?"

"He's dead, daddy, remember? We don't even know where his money is."

Mad Dog said, "I wonder how hard it'll be to find."

"You think it's still up there?"

Rafferty left his parked rental outside the Ilima Chapel and walked up to the front door. A sign said "Ilima Chapel Virginia Hong, Prop." Rafferty entered.

Inside Rafferty met with Ginny Hong.

Rafferty said, "How's Eddie?"

Ginny fought hard not to cry. Rafferty embraced her. Pulling herself together, she pushed away and then went toward her private office. After a moment, Rafferty followed.

Ginny went to her desk. "Sheriff Hartman didn't arrest you."

"He thought about it," Rafferty said.

"He's a good man, Terry. You know, his wife died earlier this year. A drunk driver. They were the happiest married couple I ever met. Eighteen years together and they still walked hand-in-hand on the beach. The Sheriff was on duty that night. He heard about the accident and drove over there. My Eddie was the one who gave him his wife's wallet."

Ginny opened her desk and brought out a frosted bottle of cognac and two snifters and then poured great dollops in each. "Fortifier for my customers." After tasting hers she said, "Let's get outa here."

That twilight Rafferty and Ginny walked together on a country road, passing the bottle back and forth to fill their snifters.

Ginny said, "Janis Buchanan was a wild one. She surprised everybody marrying the Sheriff."

"And that nurse in the ambulance? That's her sister?"

Ginny nodded. "Janis might've been wild, but Nora was always much wilder. She's been through a lot of men."

"Anybody in particular?"

"This guy named Tomo. Part Tahitian, part Hawaiian. Big guy. "

"Ginny, tell me about Lester and Mad Dog," Rafferty said.

"Lester Rahler is pupule, a crazy man. Insane. His father Mad Dog is both a rock and a hard place. Those two aren't fit to breathe the same air as my Eddie."

Rafferty tried to pass her the bottle, but Ginny refused it. Rafferty put his arm around her shoulder, and they walked together in silence.

At the same time, wearing her nurse's uniform, Nora was leaving her apartment for her job at the hospital, and Henry held the door for her.

Nora said, "I won't let him die."

Henry watched her walk down the staircase.

Inside the Sheriff’s private office Paula Grayson was cradling her sleeping baby and watching her other daughter playing with a cap pistol on the carpet. Sheriff Hartman listened intently.

"I told him he shouldn't be doing it," Paula said. "He had kids and a wife."

Hartman said, "How was his crop this year?"

"His best," Paula said. "He harvested about fifteen days ago."

"Who was his buyer?"

"I never knew the details."

"How much did he get for it?"

"Audrey told me between seven and eight hundred thousand dollars."

"What happened to the money?"

"In the bank, I suppose," Paula said.

Hartman said, "If it isn't there, where would he hide it?"

Paula Grayson had no idea.

On a hillside many miles away Mad Dog and Lester drank by the light of an opened van, passing back and forth a frosted bottle of cognac.

Lester said, "But we looked everywhere."

Mad Dog said, "We didn't look good enough, is all."

He passed the frosted bottle. His son drank deeply, was overcome by the powerful cognac, and started choking. Mad Dog took back the bottle.

Lester said, "Whoa! Goddam!"

Mad Dog explained, "Fifty year old cognac."

"Fuck, that dude was rich!"

Mad Dog raised a toast. "Here's to a rich dude with a lot of class who got whacked by my kid."

Mad Dog drank deep, then broke off gasping. He said with great respect, "This is good shit!" He drank more. "That miserable old man drinking bourbon and Gatorade, Jesus, what piss that was!"

Lester agreed. "Somebody oughta put Henry outa his misery."

They passed the bottle back and forth.

Lester asked, "D'you think that old man's gonna snitch on us?"

Mad Dog said, "No, Lester."

"You want me to waste him?"

"Jesus Christ, no!"

"Why not? Fuck him. Henry never did you any good."

"His son did," Mad Dog said belligerently.

"Henry knows too much about us already. Maybe he'll trade where we are for dropping some of those charges against him."

Mad Dog said, "Doncha ever get tired thinking about who you're gonna kill next? I mean, Jesus Christ, Lester, you can't look at the whole world like it's gonna betray you."

"The whole world's not gonna betray me," Lester said. "See, the whole world don't know me. But those fuckers who know me could send me behind those walls, and I won't go there again. They'll haveta blow me away before they'll ever take me alive again."

"Lester -- Son -- "

"A man has to make a stand sometime."

"Give it up, boy!"

"Daddy, I can't."

Mad Dog said, "I still remember that man in Houston."

"Hey, he started it. He said fuck you and I said fuck you ... "

"And then you shot him."

"A man shouldn't go around calling people out unless he's prepared to back himself up."

"You don't kill a guy just because he says fuck you."

Lester tried explaining again. "You can say fuck you a million times in this life, daddy, but until you say fuck you and pull the trigger on the son of a bitch at least once in your life, they'll always win and whip you down. Like a dog gets whipped down."

Mad Dog said, "No."

"I'm telling you the old man'll snitch on us."

"He won't. Don't lay a finger on him."

"Are you telling me not to?"

Mad Dog said, "Don't touch him."

Lester stopped talking, took his truck keys, and went to his truck.

Mad Dog called after him, "Lester!"

Lester drove off into the night.

Mad Dog said, "Damn you, son." He drank more.

Prim in her crisp nurse uniform, Nora Buchanan walked through the white corridors of County General Hospital, carrying an airline flight bag until she reached a door marked "BLOOD BANK."

Nora reached into the opened refrigerator at the blood bank, removed several units of plasma and whole blood, and placed them in the flight bag.

Minutes later Nora removed bandages, gauze, adhesive tape, throwaway hypos from several shelves in the supply room, and she placed them inside the airline flight bag.

Five minutes after that Nora removed antibiotics and other drugs from the emergency room cabinet, and then she placed them inside the flight bag.

Nora walked through white corridors, carrying her airline flight bag with its precious cargo. As she rounded a corner, Lester Rahler grabbed her and slammed her into the wall. His left forearm was wedged under her throat and pressed against her windpipe. His right hand ripped at her uniform, caught the cup of her bra and exposed her breast. He stuck the tip of his knife to her breast.

Lester hissed, "Snitch on me or my daddy ... "

He jabbed her breast with his knife, enough to break the skin and make her jump in terror.

Cheryl Park, the Korean nurse from Suszie's Sugar Shack, stood at the end of the hallway. She saw Lester sticking his knife at Nora.

She screamed, "Security! Security! Security!"

She pulled down the fire alarm.

The alarm echoed through the hospital.