Elmore Leonard - Escape from Five Shadows

Moments later, something touched Bowen’s foot. He sat up quietly.

“Who is it?”

“Come over here.”

He recognized Earl Manring’s voice. As he rose, Manring moved away. A moment later he saw Manring’s outline against the window that was almost directly across from him. It was early and there was little moonlight, but enough to show the narrow shape of the window. Half of the opening had been boarded up from the outside, the other half covered by a heavy-gauge wire screen.

As Bowen reached him, Manring asked, “He scare you?”

Bowen’s hand touched the window sill. “He gave you something to think about.”

“That’s all talk.”

“You didn’t see Chick get shot.”

“Brazil didn’t like Chick. He never did. That’s why he killed him.”

“Brazil doesn’t like anybody.”

Manring shook his head. “If you don’t make any noise, you don’t get in any trouble. Chick was always talking. Brazil got to the point he couldn’t stand it any more. He might’ve thought he was even doing everybody a favor shooting him.”

“That’s a nice thought,” Bowen said.

“You’re in the same spot as Chick,” Manring went on. “They’re watching you because you tried to run one time. I told you it wasn’t the right time, but you wouldn’t listen to me…Corey, they’re no meaner than they ever were. They’ll shoot anybody they don’t like…let you alone if you don’t make trouble.”

“You’re one of the good ones, Earl?”

“One of the smart ones if you want to get down to it. I didn’t spend no twenty days in the hole.”

“You were out working.”

“And looking around,” Manring said.

“Go on.”

“You’re still thinking about it…after what Renda said?”

“Frank makes you want to get out all the more.”

“I’ve got to be sure of you,” Manring said.

“As sure as I am of you?”

Manring’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You think about it a while.”

“Look,” Manring said. “I don’t have to include you. If you’re going to start accusing me again we’ll forget about it. I’ll get somebody else.”

“Earl, the only reason you’re asking anybody is because getting out of here is something you can’t do alone. I’m not sure yet why you’re picking me. Maybe because you thought I was easy to manage before. Whatever the reason, it’s something that’ll do you the most good.”

Manring shrugged. “Forget about it then.”

“I can, Earl, but you can’t. I just told you why.”

“You’re pretty sure of yourself.”

Bowen started to turn away.

“Wait a minute-” Manring’s hand came out to take his arm. “Listen, there’s no sense in arguing over it. Let’s get down to cases…you either want to go or you don’t. Which is it?”

“I haven’t heard any plan yet,” Bowen said.

“That’ll come.”

“It’ll come right now, or I don’t.”

“I’ll tell you part of it,” Manring paused. Then, his voice was lower as he said, “You know what happens at the end of the canyon.”

“We climb,” Bowen said.

“That’s right. Have you figured how we’re going to cut a road up through the rocks?”

“It isn’t my problem.”

“It wasn’t mine either,” Manring said, “till I was taken on Renda’s survey party. That was over a month ago…when we planned this swing through the canyon. We got up to the end and he says, ‘How in hell we going to get out of here?’ Right then is when the idea came. I said to him, ‘What’re you worrying about those big rocks for when you got a gang of Yuma boys on your payroll?’ He stopped to listen and I told him how at Yuma we cut whole cell blocks out of granite and shaped them just right. He thought about it and then says, ‘You’re making work for yourself, aren’t you?’ That’s when I told him. I said, ‘Well, it’s not so bad if you got dynamite.’ ”

“So he’s going to use it?” Bowen prompted.

“It’s already ordered,” Manring said. “Should be here by next week.”

“Earl, are you going to tell me you talked him into using dynamite?”

“I put the idea in his head. You can call it whatever you want.”

“You think,” Bowen said, “he would’ve plotted down that canyon without planning on dynamite?”

“Renda don’t know anything about road building!”

Bowen paused. “Let me ask you something else, Earl. Do you know how to use dynamite?”

“I saw enough of it at Yuma.”

“That’s right, you saw it…but there’s only one man here you’re sure ever worked with it. That’s where I figure in. You’ve got the plan, but you need me to set it off.”

“You’re taking on a lot of credit all of a sudden,” Manring muttered. “Next you’ll tell me you were planning on it all the time.”

“No,” Bowen admitted. “I never thought of breaking out of here as being worth blowing somebody up.”

“Well, think about it now,” Manring said quietly. “Think about this afternoon, the way that gunhand busted Chick Miller…think about them watching you, looking for the littlest excuse to bust you…and let me know what you come to.”

That same evening, Lizann Falvey learned from her husband that a convict had been killed. She thought of Bowen, and for some time was very sure that he was dead. Willis did not know the convict’s name. He knew only what Renda had told him-that a convict had tried to run away and Brazil had no choice but to shoot him. By then, the convicts were locked in the barracks for the night and Lizann had no way of finding out whether or not the man had been Bowen.

She considered asking Renda directly, but almost immediately decided against it. Her interest in Bowen could arouse Renda’s suspicion and she could not risk any word or action which might do that. Not now. Not with the plan that would enable her to leave here already in her mind. She had thought it out carefully and deliberately. It was the simplest way, as far as Lizann’s part in it was concerned, and it offered the least chance of error. Still, the decision to carry out the plan remained with Bowen.

The next morning Lizann was up before six o’clock and standing at the window as the wagons made their slow turn coming away from the barracks. There. Bowen was in the third wagon. She watched him until the wagon passed through the gate, relieved now in knowing she would not have to go to the trouble of-as she heard it in her own mind-breaking in a new man. Now her only problem was to get Bowen alone.

The opportunity came the next Sunday. It came unexpectedly and Lizann was almost unprepared for it.

Willis had left for Fuegos by midmorning. For almost an hour after that Lizann gazed out of the window watching the convicts standing along the front of the barracks. Bowen was among them. Bowen, and next to him, the man who had been with him in the punishment cell.

He could be sent to the stable again, Lizann thought. She went into the bedroom and changed to her riding suit, but when she returned, Bowen was still there.

Be patient, she thought. But even while thinking this she decided to take her horse out.

Frank Renda closed his door behind him as Lizann stepped outside.

“Going for a ride?” Renda asked.

How do you answer a question like that? Lizann thought and decided not to answer it at all. She started across the compound and Renda fell in next to her.

“You’re not very sociable today.”

“Is today different from any other?”

“It’s Sunday. The day of rest…Rest for most.” Renda was looking toward the convicts. His eyes found Bowen and Pryde and he called out to them. As they came toward him Renda said, “But no rest for these two.”