The Brat (13 page)

“You’re sorry.” She was terrific.

“Ed killed Jefferies,” she said.

“He sure as hell can’t say different.”

“I was crazy, Lee—just plain crazy. I wanted too many things. So much we didn’t have. It’s always been that way.”

“Only now you’re not crazy any more.”

She kept looking at me.

“You’re both crazy,” DeGreef said, working on the fire. “But, hell—I can’t see as it’ll do either one of you any good.”

I
T WAS QUIET
for a time. You could hear sounds that came from deeper in the island growth. There had been a note of resignation in the way she spoke, but she was a sweet actress.

She glanced across at DeGreef, then stepped up to the tent. Her voice was bitter as she called to him.

“You want to keep tabs on me? You—out there by the fire! I’ll leave the tent open. I’m tired and sick and I want to lie down.”

She flung the tent open and stepped inside. The firelight played across her body. Her mouth was set, the eyes glistening as she peered out at me.

I turned to DeGreef, feeling helpless. He looked at me from under the eyebrows, then went back to his fire. I moved inside the tent and stood above her, trying to think.

She lay back on one elbow across a heavy blanket.

“You’re not going to get away from here,” she said. “At least not the way it looks. Why not relax?”

All right, Sullivan, I thought. Okay. There she is. Right there. Plain and fancy. Let’s see you read her.

“Come on,” she said. “Sit down and relax. Boy, you had me scared out there, Lee. I’ve been scared for hours. Staying here all alone.”

She lay back, turned on her stomach, and pushed her face down into the blanket. Then she rolled her head to the side, looking away from me. “I’ve done wrong, Lee—I know that. I can’t expect you to forgive me all I’ve done. I don’t ask for that. I just want you to know I’m sorry—that’s all. There’s nothing else I can say.”

“On top of everything else,” I said, “you were sleeping with Ed.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness out of my voice.

“He told you that?”

“That and everything else.”

“He was a dreamer, Lee. He tried, plenty—but he never succeeded.”

It was quiet again. I stood there. It was like soft chocolate fudge; you ate it with a spoon and it was real sweet.

“I was out to Ed’s place a few times. That’s all. We were planning what to do.” She spoke evenly now. “I knew you’d never go through with it. That was plain enough. So I brought Ed into it.”

“Nice.”

“I—sure, I promised him plenty if he’d do it with me. I’d have promised him anything—I did. But I never went through with it, Lee.”

I could have choked her then, but for some reason I didn’t want to touch her. Right then, if I had touched her, I might have killed her.

“I was at his cabin,” I said. “I saw! You were using me to take the rap. I know how you two were.”

She sighed, not moving. “I don’t want to argue—I just don’t. I did plenty of promising—that’s all.”

“They call it promising now? Well, you can sure promise to beat the band.”

“Any woman can.”

I turned and went outside the tent and stood there a moment. Thoughts of what she’d done had me all fogged up. Everything—all the trouble—hinged on her, lying there at my feet.

“Ed wanted that money bad as soon as he saw how it could be taken so easy,” she said. “I really didn’t have to do a whole lot of persuading on that score, Lee. And—well, frankly, he was in love with me. He’d been after me for a long time. Ever since he brought you home that night, drunk. He tried that night, Lee—chased me all over the house. He got me on the bed, but I cut his leg with the scissors.”

There was nothing that could help. Not now. It was all gone to hell. I began to realize all over again that I had to get that money somehow and return it to where it belonged. Only it was gone with Kaylor.

They could even claim Kaylor had been in on it with us.

“I don’t much care what happens to me now,” she said. “I’m telling you the truth. That’s the way it is. It’s all blown up. It’s all over with.”

“Ed said you planned to kill me.”

“That’s how
he
planned it, Lee. I’d never have let that happen. You know me better than that.” She hesitated, then said, “All right. Sure. I fixed it so you’d be trapped. True. Only I didn’t think anybody’d be killed. Ed and I were arguing in the office when Ray came back with the coffee. Jesus. Ray went out of his head. He saw what was going on. Ed had the money in his hands. He’d been drinking, said he’d been drinking with you. He got his gun out when Ray yelled—Ray yelled like hell, you know—and started running out of the place. With that coffee—and Ed simply shot him. I don’t think Ed really believed he’d done it.”

“There’s just one thing:
why? Why, Evis?”

She went on speaking in that same deadly, washed-out monotone. “Then I talked Ed into coming down here. It’s where I had to come. I guess you knew that. Right away, it was like old times, with Berk after us. He saw us together the way we were, and Ed was getting pretty bad, by then. He didn’t want to take no for an answer any more.”

“So you decided it would be best to tell Berk. After all, maybe he could help. Right?”

“Yes. Certainly. I couldn’t keep Ed away from me. And, honestly, I never cared much for Ed Fowler. Berk was a friend. He’d always been a friend, no matter what you think.”

“So he left you here alone and he’s a friend?”

She sighed. “What’s the use? How can I explain that to you. You can’t understand—you never could. Sure, I kind of hate him for leaving me here the way he did.”

“Kind of hate him.”

“I understand him!”

“How often did you
promise
him?

“I wanted that money, Lee. I still wanted it, even when Berk got his dirty hands on it. But it’s gone now. That’s the way the ball bounces. It’s all gone out of me, too. Berk Kaylor wanted the same things I did. Only he just waited for them to happen. Lots of people down here are like that. That’s why they never leave this damned, stinking, horrible country.”

I let her go to it.

“I wanted a lot of things. Things you could never really give me. I know now it was all foolishness, but I didn’t know it then. People make mistakes, Lee.”

“Sure.”

“I wanted a name. A name as unlike my own as anything I could get. I wanted to be away from where I lived—out where you read about—those places. All the glass and blue skies—I had to get out.”

“You got out. That’s for sure.”

“Not the way I wanted. I wanted everything I couldn’t have. Oh, I finally got it, only the wrong way. I didn’t have it for long. I had to come back here—the way I wanted to come back. I had the paper—the money. But that wasn’t right, either. I wanted the things it bought. I wanted to come back here and show them all the things I had; things I’d dreamed of having, only it never was right. They didn’t know what I was talking about. Rich,” she said. “It was crazy. I know that now. But I couldn’t stop myself—everything went wrong.”

“So now what?”

She moved faintly on the blanket, lifting her hips for comfort, but still holding her face away from me. Then she rolled on her back and blinked at me. “There’s nothing left,” she said. “Nothing that anybody wants. You don’t want me. I don’t care about anything any more.” She kept looking at me that way. She smiled briefly, then turned her head away. “The only thing is, I still love you. Not that it matters. You see?”

“You let Kaylor kill Ed Fowler, Evis. You’re saying these things, yet you were along when two murders were committed.”

“I know.”

I knelt down on the blanket. She did not stir. It seemed as if she were holding her breath.

“Berk had me take Ed out there,” she said. “So we could wait. Wait for Berk, that is. I wasn’t supposed to tell Ed, and I didn’t. I didn’t know what Berk had planned. I thought maybe we’d just leave Ed in the boat. Berk went over to my folks', because word was already out you were down here and he had to know how things stood. He found you there. So right away my crazy sister Rona tells you everything.”

“She didn’t.”

“Don’t kid with me. I’ve had all I can stand. Berk heard her.” She looked at me. “Rona’s in love with you, Lee. She’s been crazy in love with you as long as I have. That’s the one other thing I can feel—hate for Rona!”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s be truthful,” she said. “What’s the cost at a time like this? Berk told me everything. How she ripped her clothes off. Did you like that, Lee? Sure, you did. And how she flung herself at you! She’s an animal when it comes to you.”

There was sharp bitterness in her voice now.

“She carries your picture around between her breasts, where it stays warm—warm,” she repeated. “Hot. Nice? You like that?”

“Shut it off.”

“She sleeps with your picture. In a little gold locket. I’ve seen her kiss that picture—mouth it—laughing at me. It was a snapshot of the two of us, taken when you met me down on the pier, remember? And she cut me off and saved you.” She nearly laughed then. “She got your head, but I had all the rest, and I had what she really wanted. I used to tell her all the time. It made her plenty mad.”

“Used to tell her?”

“Oh. You wouldn’t know—how could you? She wrote me a lot, and I could read between the lines. Jealous as hell, she was. Wrote at least once a week. She’d keep asking about you, everything she could. She tried not to let me know, but it was easy to see in the letters. I’d write back all sorts of things about you, tantalizing her.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

“I felt mean,” she said. “That’s all gone now. I hate her—but this isn’t what you want to hear, is it?”

“No.”

“Well, when Berk came out where Ed and I were waiting in the boat, he just shot Ed. He came up in the air boat and just took his revolver and shot him. Like he’d shoot a snake—anything. Ed screamed—he screamed awful.”

“Only you understand Berk. That’s swell!”

“Yes. He left me here. ‘You’ll get out all right,’ he said. ‘Take care of yourself,’ he said. ‘I don’t need you any more, I reckon.’ That’s the way he said it. He said, ‘I can buy all the likes of you I’ll ever want and then some. They’ll come a-running.’” She laughed softly. “Anyway, he got all that money—took it away from me, and now he’s gone.”

I looked at her lying there. My wife. It was something.

“One more thing,” she said, “then I’ll shut up. I know you don’t understand me, Lee. You never tried hard enough. Sometimes it would get so I didn’t understand myself. But—if you would, I’d go back with you. If we ever could get back, I’d go through whatever we have to go through—with you. I want that. I’d be glad, and I guess you’d call it honored, to start all over again—if you’d have me. I know you won’t. I know it can’t be. But I want you to know I would.”

She watched me steadily, not blinking now. Then she turned over again and lay very still.

Outside by the fire, Hugo DeGreef lifted his gun into the air and fired three well-spaced shots. The explosions echoed very loud over the island.

There was no answer to his signal.

H
UGO
D
E
G
REEF
walked over to the tent and stood at the opening, staring in at us. His black shadow wavered across Evis’s body. He said nothing. He just stared, with the fire blazing back there in the middle of the clearing.

“Sullivan,” he finally said. “Ask little Miss Explanation what this island is? I’ve noticed some things that look Indian over there in the woods. And what’s all that truck out in the water?”

Evis didn’t answer him.

“That is, if she can bring herself to talk at a time like this,” DeGreef said.

“It’s an old Seminole camp,” Evis said, her voice flat and muffled in the blanket. “Very, very old—nothing much left of the shacks. But in the late thirties Hollywood sent a crew in here to film a swamp picture. Those are the piers and old buildings you saw out by the water.”

“Fine place to film a picture,” DeGreef said.

“This is only a small part of it,” Evis said. “There’s lots more over near the main highway. A good ways from here, to the east. Took over an entire area. The whole thing failed. The star got bitten by a rattler and died. Hurricane came up and smashed equipment—they lost a big pile of money. Finally abandoned it. Then another motion picture outfit bought rights and moved in for an attempt. That failed, too. If you don’t know the swamp, sometimes it kind of reaches out and grabs you by the throat.”

“I see,” DeGreef said.

“You’ll find signs lying around. They were bitter, but they kept on trying. They called the thing ‘Calamity Run.’ Finally gave it up as a lost cause.”

“Calamity Run?” I said.

“Uh-huh. They started filming here, on this island, see? Then when the rains came, the island flooded and they tried to move equipment over to the new location. They’d built over there. They lost everything in a storm. Three people drowned. I was a little girl then—we came out and watched them once. I remember. There was—” She stopped talking.

“There was what?” DeGreef said.

She didn’t answer.

I hadn’t realized, but now I noticed the wind had come up, and I heard thunder. A slow white streak of lightning flashed far out above the trees.

“God damn it!” DeGreef said. “We’re going to catch it.”

“Maybe not,” Evis said.

He stepped into the tent, moving quietly and walked between Evis and me. Suddenly he leaned down, grabbed her arm and whipped her to her feet. She came up snarling, ready to claw him. He rammed her back against the side of the tent, holding her there.

“Don’t come near me, Sullivan!” he said. “That’s a threat!”

I started for him. He came around with the gun in his fist, his face working in the shadows.

“I’m not fooling with you,” he said gently.

I waited, watching that gun. He turned to her again.

“Where’d you hide that money, sister?” he said.

“You fool!” she whispered.

“No. Not fool. Where did you bury this guy, Kaylor?”

That hadn’t occurred to me. You had to hand it to DeGreef. It was like putting a white light on her. She held both hands up to her face and for a moment I thought she was going to scream.

Her voice was strained. “I didn’t. I told you I didn’t. He left me here—went away and left me here.”

DeGreef whirled at her. “How come you were making coffee?”

“Go to hell!”

“How come you built a fire that didn’t smoke? Tell me that one thing and I’ll listen to you.” He leaned forward, and began yelling at her. “Why the hell did you build a fire that didn’t smoke!”

She didn’t answer him. DeGreef turned savagely and went stomping back to the fire. He jammed the gun into his belt, scraped his fingers through his hair, and stood there with whatever it was eating the devil out of him.

The wind was stronger now and the sides of the tent puffed a little off and on.

I sat down beside her. She didn’t move.

DeGreef stood by the fire. He was plenty worried, I could tell that. He knew there wasn’t gas enough to take us out of the swamp; there was every chance we’d be here for a long time. And he knew I’d do something about that. What he couldn’t know was, I had no idea what to do.

“Sullivan? Come out here.”

I started to get up. Evis’s hand reached out and touched my arm. Her fingers squeezed and she sat half up, looking at me. Then she came all the way up and her shoulder brushed mine.

“He’s going to do something, Lee.”

“What can he do?”

“Don’t go out there. He’s planning something. I can tell.”

“Sullivan?” DeGreef said. “Get out here. I want a word with you.”

Her voice was hurried. “Lee, sooner or later they’ll come. Is that what you want? You want them to come and take us?”

She looked closely at me and leaned nearer, her hand sliding down my arm to my hand, and her bare thigh laid over against my knee.

“Lee?”

“Sullivan!”

“Lee—do you want to go through with that? Do you?”

I reached for her and my palm touched the soft warm flesh.

“Is that what you want?” she said. “Or do you still want me—what we could have together. Lee!” She spoke very quickly and softly.

I stood up and left her there.

• • •

DeGreef was breathing heavily. He ran a hand across his face and took my arm, leading me over toward the fire.

“Sullivan, that kid’s lying, you know.”

“No. She’s not.”

“Look—don’t be a fool. She’s got the money here some place. I mean that I know she has. She’ll never tell me unless I beat it out of her. I’m not quite ready for that yet.”

“You’ll never get that far, DeGreef.”

He tightened his lips, watching me. “No? That’s where you’re wrong. You figure you’ll stop me? I don’t think so. I put a slug in your knee, where’ll you be? I can do that, understand!” He glanced toward the tent. “I could beat it out of her. Only I want you to get it out of her—you, Sullivan. Either that, or I’ll fix you—the both of you. You’ll rot behind bars for a while, Sullivan. Then you’ll burn up there in Raiford.”

“She’s telling the truth.”

“Go see what you can do. A word from me could make things easier for you when this thing comes to trail.”

“Maybe it never will, DeGreef.”

He looked at me, blew air through his nose, and moved away. He had talked low enough so none of what we said would reach the tent. I felt heavy and tired.

I went over to the tent and sat down beside Evis.

“Lee?”

“Yeah.”

“What did he want?”

“Nothing. He says you’re lying.”

“Lee—they’ll follow the air-boat trail, the same as you did. Cops must be down here by now. They’re bound to find us.”

“This wind will wipe that out.”

“No, there’s not enough wind for that.” She lowered her voice still more. “Lee, we’ve got to do something.”

I looked at her. She moved closer to me.

“How much gas is there in that motor?” she said.

“Not enough to get us a quarter of a mile.”

“I’ve got gas.”

“Sure.”

“Yes. Don’t talk so loud, he’ll hear. I’m telling you. When Berk left, he threw the tent off the air boat, see? He was kind of mad at the time—we’d been fighting—and he threw two five-gallon gas cans off with the tent.”

“Why the hell would he do that?”

She squirmed close against me. “Lee—I love you—will you believe that?”

I started to say something but she touched her fingers to my lips.

“Lee, we could get away. All you’ve got to do is jump DeGreef, somehow. Can’t you do that?”

It was as if we both held our breaths for a second or two, and I almost knew what was coming, when she said, “I’ve got the money, Lee—I’ve got it, honestly! I’ve hidden it. We could have it—all of it—just the way I planned.”

She came to her knees beside me, her hair falling across her face, eyes excited. I don’t know, you keep getting it. I mean, I sat there and it was like being whacked across the head with a board. I hadn’t been thinking at all for quite a while, just absorbing things, not trying to understand anything. And then she dropped the bomb. Only it just lay there fizzling between us.

“If you don’t do like I say,” she said. “I’ll never tell. You can kill me—but I’ll never tell.”

“All right,” I said. “Fine. That’s great.” I thrust myself to my feet, staring at her without really seeing anything, then turned toward the opening of the tent.

DeGreef stood by the fire. Across the clearing, Berk Kaylor walked slowly toward him, a rifle in his hands.

• • •

“Sullivan?” DeGreef called. “Sullivan—do something. Get out here and do something!”

Kaylor laughed and spat across the barrel of the rifle. He still wore khaki shirt and trousers, the heavy combat boots. He stepped warily on across the clearing toward DeGreef.

“Evis?” Kaylor said. “Evis, honey—you all right?”

She came to her feet and ran past me out of the tent, over toward Kaylor. Her legs moved in a pale flashing through the firelight.

“Careful, honey,” Kaylor said. “Don’t get between me and that fellow over there. Looks as if he’s kind of top heavy.”

Evis began to laugh. She paused by the fire and laughed lightly and with sudden, sharp happiness.

“Berk,” she said. “I thought for sure you’d never get here. Where in God’s name have you been?”

DeGreef moved slowly backward and sat heavily on the stump of cabbage palm. His voice was sick.

“Nobody’d believe me,” he said. “There’s nobody would believe me and all the time I knew it. I knew it all the time.”