Elmore Leonard - Escape from Five Shadows

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No one breaks out of the brutal convict labor camp at Five Shadows -- but Corey Bowen is ready to die trying. They framed him to put him in there, and beat him bloody and nearly dead after his last escape attempt. He'll have help this time -- from a lady with murder on her mind and a debt to pay back. Because freedom isn't enough for primed dynamite like Bowen. And he won't leave the corrupt desert hell behind him until a few scores are settled…permanently.

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“I said that was too bad about Chick,” Manring repeated.

“I heard you.”

“Don’t you think it was?”

“Earl, if you have something to say, say it.”

Manring grinned. “I hear you got a sweetheart.”

Bowen turned to him. “That’s the way Chick started. He went right on talking till the end.”

“That was too bad about Chick,” Manring said thoughtfully. “Something that could happen to anybody. Right?”

Bowen shrugged.

“Corey, I got something to talk over with you.” Manring leaned closer to him to say it.

“What about?”

“Later on tonight we’ll talk about it.”

“Then what’d you bring it up for?”

“To see if you were still as agreeable as ever,” Manring grinned.

The last red reflection of the sun showed in the sky behind them as the wagons rolled down the slope toward the camp-toward the silent, cold-looking, deserted-looking adobes that were already enveloped in the dull shadow of this slope the wagons were descending.

Now, at the gate, a lantern flickered, then went up to full brightness. Minutes later, off to the right of the gate, another light appeared showing the black square of the stable entrance. As the wagons neared the gate, a third lantern blinked on, this one to the left. It hung from the ramada in front of Renda’s quarters, and now a shadowy figure could be seen standing close to one of the support posts.

One of the night guards turned the corner of the convict’s barracks as the wagons pulled up. Hestruck a match to light the lantern that hung head-high next to the middle door, then leaned against the wall, the match stick in the corner of his mouth, and watched the convicts unload. When they were lined up he counted them. Then counted them again before looking at Renda.

“You’re one short.”

“We’re supposed to be,” Renda answered. “Feed ’em and put ’em to bed.” He turned away, walking across the yard toward the lantern that hung from the ramada. In the dimness a figure waited for him, then stepped into the light as Renda approached the adobe.

“I heard what that guard said.”

Renda looked up. “Then you got good ears, Willis.”

“You let somebody escape, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t let anybody escape.”

“Damn it, the guard said you were short one!”

“Willis, we buried a man today. That’s why we’re short.”

“What happened?”

“What do you think? He tried to run. Brazil shot him.”

Falvey exhaled slowly. “What if he’d made it?”

“Nobody has yet,” Renda answered.

“But what if he had?”

“What if you stop worrying about it?”

“Frank, if a man got out and told what’s going on here-”

“Who’d listen to him? It’d be your word against his.”

Falvey shook his head. “We can’t take a chance on even the possibility of it.”

“Willis, nobody’s ever escaped from me and nobody’s going to.”

“Those men are thinking about it all the time.”

“Let them. Thinking about it and doing it are about seven hundred miles apart.”

“But sooner or later-”

Renda shook his head. “Not sooner or later or any time. I’ll talk to them, Willis. All I got to do is talk to them.”

After the evening meal, the convicts were marched to the stock tank in back of the stable-a round, waist-high tin-lined tank fed by a thin but steady flow of water that emptied from a rusted pipe connected to the well shaft of the windmill.

They were given fifteen minutes to wash as much of themselves as they cared to, and shave if they wanted to do that. Part of a mirror was fastened to a timber of the windmill structure and above it a lantern hung from a nail. One mirror, four dull razors and a few chunks of soap for thirty men. For that reason few of the men shaved more than twice a week and almost a third of them wore beards. For them, Renda produced a pair of scissors once a week.

Most of the convicts removed only their shirts, splashed water over their faces and upper bodies to remove twelve hours of grime and sweat, then dried themselves with the shirts before putting them on again.

After that, they were marched back to the barracks, counted again, then moved inside. The three lanterns that hung from wires hooked to the ceiling would burn for an hour and a half. At the end of that time, a night guard would come in for a last check and order the lanterns out.

But this night did not follow the usual routine.

Shortly before nine o’clock, one of the guards came in. Two of the convicts rose from their mats to put out the lanterns.

“Keep them on!”

They looked at the guard. Then every man in the room looked at him and a silence followed. They watched him glance over his shoulder then step aside as Renda came in, his shotgun under his arm, followed by Brazil and the two day guards who were all carrying Winchesters. Brazil stopped near Renda, but the two guards moved past him to cover the convicts nearer the end of the room.

Renda waited and his eyes moved slowly over the convicts. Most of them were on their own mats now, but a few of them here and there were still grouped together over a card game. Renda waited until he was sure they were all looking toward him, until there was not the smallest foot-scuffing sound.

Then he began: “Chick Miller got killed today,” Renda stated. “He was trying to escape. Brazil warned him-called out for Chick to halt, but Chick kept going, so he didn’t have any choice but to shoot him. That’s what happened, so that’s what the official report will say that goes to Prescott,” Renda paused. “Does anybody say it happened any different?”

No one spoke. Renda’s eyes moved along the line of men, then stopped at Bowen. “Stand up.”

Bowen pushed himself up, turned to face Renda.

Renda’s eyes held on him. “Isn’t that how it happened?”

Calmly, quietly, Bowen said, “If you say so, then that’s how it happened.”

“Chick tried to run and Brazil had to shoot him,” Renda stated.

Bowen nodded. “All right.”

“Sit down.” Renda’s eyes moved to Pryde, then to the Mexican. He asked them the same question and both of them agreed that it had happened as Renda said it did.

“Now I’ll tell you something,” Renda said, including all the convicts. “Nobody here’s going to ever try that again. I’m giving the orders to shoot, the least move out of line. You hesitate one second when you’re told to do something, you’re dead. You take one step in the wrong direction and you won’t know what hit you. I want you to understand that. I want you to get it in your heads so clear you won’t move without thinking about it.” He turned to Bowen suddenly. “You understand that?”

Bowen nodded, looking up at Renda.

“You understand it,” Renda said. “You were standing close to Chick. Listen, I’ll tell you something else. That stunt you pulled a while back…jumping off the wagon. You wouldn’t get just twenty days for it the second time.”

He looked over all the convicts. “You get past the guards, the Mimbres have got orders to take your scalp. You won’t be brought back here…just part of you. To prove you’re dead.

“I’m giving you warning now,” Renda continued. “One move out of line and somebody shoots. You’ll even think before spitting over the side of the wagon. What you’re doing to get shot don’t matter to me. It goes in the report as trying to escape and the report’s the only thing that means anything. So you think about that.”

Again his gaze moved slowly over the convicts, then he turned and left the barracks. Brazil and the guards followed him, the last one giving the order for the lanterns to be put out. Outside, they heard the lock snap on the door, the sound of footsteps fading away, then silence.

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