Stuart Kaminsky - The Howard Hughes Affair

Skeleton put his gloved hands together and shook his head sadly. “Mr. Peters,” he said. “We can easily cut your insides out so the birds can carry them home to their young. Would you like that?”

“You have a way with words,” I said, and he hit me again in the stomach. It was bad. If I had a bleeding ulcer, it would have been worse. Which gave me an idea. I bit the inside of my cheek hard. It hurt like hell, battling the ache in my stomach for the pain championship. I tasted blood, leaned forward and spit a red mass at Skeleton’s feet. He danced back quickly.

“Ulcer, bleeding,” I gasped and pretended to pass out.

I rolled my eyes back instantly and held them, looking somewhere into the top of my skull. Skeleton lifted my head by the hair and forced my right eye open. Since I was looking into my skull, I couldn’t see him, but my blank eye seemed to convince him I was out and bleeding internally from a ruptured ulcer.

The boys had a discussion in German, and I waited while they decided whether to kill me or keep me for a while. I was betting on their keeping me, since I hadn’t told them anything much yet. I was counting on them expecting a terrified man With internal injuries who would gladly talk to keep from further pain. The blood from my cut cheek dribbled down my partly open mouth. I was giving them the best show I could.

The radio went off, and I felt myself being dragged across the floor, one man on each arm. It didn’t do my wrists any good, but at least they weren’t dragging me by the feet and bumping my head.

A door opened and I felt myself thrown into a room. My chest hit something hard and I bounced into what I decided was a bed. My hands were tied tight behind me and hurting.

Hans and Fritz said something more in German and closed and locked a door. I opened my eyes to darkness and listened. They talked more and then I heard footsteps going out the front door and the faint slam of a car door.

From the other room, I heard the radio come on again, and whoever was left in there caught the end of District Attorney . My guess was that the listener was the wheezer and that Skeleton had gone somewhere to get or give instructions or buy himself some carryout ribs. Since wheezer seemed to have no knowledge of English, I wondered what the attraction of Mr. District Attorney might be.

One thing was in my favor: they were sure I was unconscious and badly hurt. I knew I was awake and hurt, but not as badly as I was half the months of a given year. It took about five minutes to work my way off the bed without making too much noise. The radio helped cover me while the rusty springs did their best to give me away. I crawled under the bed with my face in the dusty carpet. I swallowed some blood to keep from sneezing and felt around for a sharp spring. I found one and as quietly as I could, ripped the cloth away to give it more room. Then I slowly worked the ropes against the sharp point of the spring. I went strand by strand on one spot, hoping I’d get through before Hans decided to take a look at me. I figured he’d at least listen through to the end of the show, which was just about what it took me to get the rope frayed enough so I could give it a tug and come free.

I had trouble getting my hands back in front of me and convincing the blood to recirculate. I was numb from the shoulders down, and it took about three minutes before there was any feeling in my arms and hands. I crawled out from under the bed and tested my legs just as Jay Joyston was saying, “And it shall be my duty as district attorney, not only to prosecute to the limit of the law all persons accused of crimes perpetrated within this country, but to defend with equal vigor the rights and privileges of all its citizens.”

I got behind the door just as the radio was clicked off. Heavy footsteps came toward me. I felt for a weapon and found a lamp on a table near the bed. The door came open and Hans the short wheezer stepped in. He flipped a wall switch and the light came bright in my hand. I gave it a pull, sending the room back into darkness and lunged, hitting him in the face with the base of the lamp. He staggered back into the living room and I came out, dropping the lamp. He was sitting on the floor, stunned, holding his bloody nose and groping for something under his jacket. I ran across the room and kicked at his stomach. His hands came up and he let out a loud “oooph,” which suited me just fine. When he turned to avoid any other attack, his head hit the side of an end table and he was out.

I touched my torn cheek and rubbed my sore belly while I did some wheezing myself. I could have waited for the Skeleton to come back and try to surprise him, or I could have called the cops; but the only charge I could use was assault, and I didn’t think I could make that stick. I also didn’t think I could get the Skeleton to talk, and I wasn’t sure of what I could get out of the wheezer when he got up.

I decided to get the hell out of there. I went toward the front door and heard a car pulling up, so I turned and went through the house and found the back door. I opened it just as I heard the front door open and Skeleton’s voice hiss something in German. The hiss did more to scare me than a good shout. I ran for the dark and the trees and turned when I got behind a bush about fifty yards away.

In the back door against the light, I could see the Skeleton standing with his pistol and staring into the night. “I underestimated you,” he said, “but I won’t the next time.”

“Who’s writing your dialogue?” I said unable to resist. “Monogram?”

He fired a shot in the general direction of my voice, but it didn’t come within ten yards. At least I didn’t think it did.

I scrambled down the hill in the general direction of where I thought the road might be. I could hear Fritz the skeleton breaking bushes behind me. It was dark enough to hide, but the evening’s exercise had taken a lot out of me. I also knew from my experience at the Y how persistent a tracker Fritz could be. He didn’t seem to know the area very well, which gave me a good start, but I soon saw that he had an advantage, a flashlight. He may have picked it up back in the kitchen or had it in his coat pocket. Wherever it came from, it sent out a firm beam I could see back over my shoulder.

He seemed to gain a little ground on me, and with the beam extending his distance about thirty yards I didn’t want it and a bullet to hit me. I went behind a tree, trying to keep from panting. The tree broke the beam, which fell on both sides of me and then moved away. I could hear the skeleton’s footsteps on the other side of the tree. A bug about the size of a quarter decided to nest in my mouth. I spit him out reflexively.

“I hear you, Peters,” said Fritz. “And be assured I will find you.”

It was confident talk for a man I could now hear walking in the wrong direction, away from me. I didn’t give a damn about the road anymore. I moved as quietly and as fast as I could in the opposite direction of his footsteps.

It was about twenty-five minutes later that I finally stumbled on the main road and found a gas station with a wash room. I cleaned myself up, after paying the kid attendant five bucks and telling him I had an accident. I don’t know what the kid believed.

The gas station clock said it was 10:30. My watch said it was 4:15. I called Shelly Minck at home, told him where I was and asked him to come and get me. It took some arguing with his wife, but he finally agreed.

I gave the kid another five and told him I’d wait in his toilet till my doctor came for me. I described Shelly and told the kid to tell no one else I was there. He agreed, and I sat there waiting.

Shelly arrived in about 45 minutes, during which time I had stopped the bleeding in my mouth and had come up with no great ideas other than to be careful, have another talk with Gurstwald and talk to the only one present at the Hughes house that night who I had not seen-the butler, Martin Schell. I also had an appointment with Hughes at midnight and would have to hurry if I wanted to come even close to making it.