Джон Макдональд - A Flash of Green

“It’s my answer. I want it known, beyond any possibility of misunderstanding, that I’m all the way out of the picture.”

“And I suppose it makes it easier for you.”

“That’s a low blow, but I guess I left myself open. Yes, it will make it easier. I thought of sending Nat back to her mother and leaving it up to the opposition to try something else. But I’m afraid they would, and I’m afraid it would work. They’ll leave Natalie alone when they find out I’ve left.”

“Who phoned you?”

“Two of them talked to me, and I haven’t the slightest idea who either of them were. The first one was very suave and indirect. The second one lost patience, I guess. He took the phone. He sounded like a mean ignorant man. He was very direct. He had a very dirty mouth.” Dial leaned forward and dropped his voice slightly. “I didn’t tell my daughter this. And I don’t want you to tell her. I’m telling you because... I don’t want you to have too bad an opinion of me, Kat. I want you to stand up for me, with the others, but without telling them what I’m going to tell you. What do you know about the Army of the Lord?”

She was startled. “Just what everybody knows, I guess. It’s sort of a crackpot sect down in the southern part of the county, with a sort of a church near Wister. And a strange man who seems to run it.”

“The so-called Reverend Darcy Harkness Coombs. Yes.” His voice was strange. “It’s quite a militant little group, Kat. They burn books. They preach on street corners. And they have... punished some evildoers.”

“Like that woman last year?”

“And some other women you didn’t hear about, and some drunks and some thieves. I can tell you almost the exact words the second man used. I’ve been hearing them ever since. ‘If’n you don’t unjoin that red Communist committee, Sinnat, we’ll one dark night snatch that black-hair daughter of yourn out from that whore automobile an’ run her off into the piny woods, strip her down, knot her up to a tree and flog the pretty hide off’n her back so as she’ll realize how decent folks treats loose women and fornicators.’ ”

“But... that’s horrible! They wouldn’t!”

“They’ve done it to some other people, Katherine. That man sounded as if he’d enjoy it. You see, I can’t take a chance on it being a bluff.”

“She shouldn’t stay here!”

“She won’t consider leaving. I can’t force her. If I told her what they told me, there’d be no chance of her leaving. You know the spirit she has. And she’s too young to understand what a thing like that can do to any sensitive human being. And they could probably get away with it. There’s been no identification made the other times. He said she would be in absolutely no danger if I quit Save Our Bays, so I’m quitting as obviously and completely as I can. I couldn’t make her promise to stay away from whoever she’s having the affair with, but I have the hunch that if she doesn’t, she’ll at least be a lot more cunning about it. How did she get into such an idiotic thing?”

“Di, I don’t think it’s... anything she’s ashamed of.”

“Obviously,” he said with a bitter smile. “She’s of the most vulnerable breed in the world — an idealist. Somebody sold her some good reasons. I respect her too much to accuse her of having cheap motives. But she can get into a cheap situation from the best of motives, even as you and I, Katherine. And she wouldn’t be stable enough to take a public flogging. Who would? God knows what it would do to her.”

“Have you told Claire all this?”

“Of course not.”

“Are you being fair to her?”

“I am going to tell her the whole thing as soon as we are en route, Kat, when she can’t try to do anything about it. She’s got more fight than is good for her. She acts first and thinks later. We’re getting on a ship late tomorrow afternoon at Port Everglades, en route to Lisbon. Tomorrow evening, when she can’t turn the ship around, I’ll tell her. By the time we get to Lisbon she should be settled down. Am I keeping you here too long? There’s one other thing I want to say. I told you all this for two reasons. I guess you can guess the second one.”

She stared at him blankly, then with a growing comprehension and horror. “Oh, no, Dial! They couldn’t do that to...”

“Those people down there are blinded by their own righteousness, Katherine. But they are not going to go out and select a victim on the basis of rumor. Coombs is a fanatic, but I don’t think he’d turn his army loose on anybody without proof which satisfied him. That’s why they’ve been able to get away with these floggings. In the case of Natalie, they had the proof. I checked it with her. I’m saying that you and Jackie Halley should avoid... I don’t know how to say this... the appearance of evil. You shouldn’t, either of you, do anything which could be interpreted the wrong way. I say this with complete seriousness, Kat. Somebody with a lot to gain out of that bay fill is out to smash the committee completely. They want to take the heart out of everybody in any position to publicly oppose the bay fill. That’s the pattern. That’s what the rest of you are up against. Believe me, they’ve taken the heart out of me.”

“I... I remember what that girl said. There were five of them, dressed in black, wearing black hoods. All they said was ‘Repent, repent.’ They were still trying to find out who the men were when she moved away. She was a nurse, wasn’t she?”

“Having an affair with a married doctor. That was the rumor.”

“I have to get back. I’m late now.”

“Do you understand?”

“Of course I do, Di.”

“Natalie has money of her own. She’d have just moved out of my house. She wouldn’t leave, probably because of the man. I’m trying to keep myself from being the outraged father. I don’t want to make moral judgments. I’ve lived in a lot of glass houses. If she’d had more security, maybe she wouldn’t be in this mess now. I didn’t give it to her. Maybe I could have. Maybe I was too lazy, emotionally. Katherine, keep an eye on her. She respects you.”

“I’m fond of her.”

She was late getting back to her desk. When she had a chance she asked McGowan if Jimmy Wing had looked in.

“Not today. I would have seen him. And he’s not good enough for you anyway.”

“It’s not like that, Dennie. Really. It’s not like that at all.”

He winked at her. “Maybe not for you, sweetheart. But I say it is like that for him.”

At quarter of twelve Burton Lesser and Leroy Shannard came in. Swarthy little Doctor Felix Aigan was with them. The three men were laughing at something as they came in. Doc and Leroy were in sports shirts. Burt wore a necktie and a linen jacket, and looked sweaty. This is three-fifths of the opposition, she thought. Ordinary men in a small southern city on a hot day. There is nothing menacing about them, nothing which could be involved in spying on a young girl or threatening her with flogging by hooded men. She felt the smile of welcome on her mouth.

“Gentlemen?” she said briskly.

“Katherine, dear, check Mr. Martin for us, will you?” Burt Lesser asked.

She picked up her inside phone and punched the button for Martin Cable’s secretary. “Helen? Mr. Lesser, Mr. Shannard and Doctor Aigan are here.”

“We’re early, Mrs. Hubble,” Doc Aigan said.

“Send them right on back,” Helen said.

Katherine hung up and smiled and gave them the message. Leroy said, “Got yourself a burn, Miz Katherine.”

“I’ll never learn,” she said ruefully.

Doc Aigan said, “I’ll have my girl drop off a sample of stuff for you to try, honey. Supposed to make what little melanin you got in your skin do a better job for you. A good house puts it out so it ought to be okay. Matter of fact, I’d like a report on how it works for you.”