Part 30 (1/2)
I lowered the glasses and whispered softly to Chubby, ”Change your piece for barrelled FN and took the AK47I wanted the accuracy of the FN to co I could do to intervene while Sherry was unhar to her - I would make sure she didn't suffer alone
I squatted down beside the palhts of the rifle, and drew a careful bead on the head of the deck guard I knew I could put a bullet through his temple from where I sat and when I was satisfied I laid the rifle across my lap and settled down to wait
The mosquitoes fronored theed for a cheroot to soothe the tension of o that comfort
Tiue er than it was but finally, a fewand bustle on board the crash boat and once more Suleti -man Dada was helped up the ladder by hisdown over the after-deck He eating heavily and it had soaked the area around the aruessed that he had passed his own period of waiting by frequent recourse, to the whisky bottle, probably from my own stock that had been plundered frohed and joked with thewith hter slavishly The sound of it carried across the water to the beach
Suleiman was followed by Manny Resnick and his blonde lady friend
Manny ell groo He stood slightly apart from the others, his expression aloof and disinterested He re out a boring and e was excited and shi+ny-eyed as a girl on her first date She laughed with Suleiman Dada and leaned expectantly over the rail above the deserted deck Through the powerful glasses I could see the flush on her cheeks which was not rouge
I was concentrating on her so that it was only when I felt Chubby runt of alarlasses doards on to the deck
Sherry was there, standing between two of the uniformed sailors
They held her arms and she looked small and frail between them
She still wore the clothes she had thrown on so hurriedly that aunt and her expression strained - but it was only when I studied her carefully that I saw that what looked like sleepless dark rings below her eyes were in fact bruises With a cold chill of anger, I realized that her lips were swollen and puffed up as though they had been stung by bees One of her cheeks was also fatly distorted and bruised
They had beaten her and knocked her about badly Now that I looked for it I could see dark splotches of dried blood on her blue shi+rt, and when one of the guards dragged her around roughly to face the shore I saw that one of her hands was bandaged roughly - and that either blood or disinfectant had stained the bandages
She looked tired and ill, nearly at the end of her strength My anger threatened to wipe out my reason I wanted to inflict hurt upon those that had treated Sherry like this, and I had already begun to lift the rifle with hands that shook with the force of htly and took a long deep breath to steady myself The time would coain and refocused the binoculars, Sulei, Harry,lady” He esture towards Sherry and she looked up at hi her closely, a procedure which alas caused her a little discomfort, I am at last convinced that she does not know the whereabouts of the property in which my friends and I are interested She tells me that you ”have hidden it” He paused andface with a towel handed to hier of any interest to e!
Hecold and sli I wondered if I would ever see her again - alive
On to the deserted deck filed four of Suleimans hts rippled on their smooth darkly muscled bodies
Each of them carried the hickory wooden handles of a pickaxe, and silently they formed up at the points of a star about the open deck Next a uards His hands were tied behind his back They stood on each side of him and slowly forced him to turn in a circle -and show hih the bullhorn
”I wonder if you recognize him?” I stared at the stooped creature in canvas prison overalls that hung in filthy grey tatters froaunt fra scraggly blond hair hung in greasy snakes about his face and his half-grown beard was thin and wispy
He had lost teeth, probably knocked from his hed fruitily over the loud hailer ”A sojourn in Zinballa prison does wonders for a arb is not as smart as that of an Inspector of Police”
” Only then did I recognize ex-Inspector Peter Daly - the man who I had pitched frooon just before I had escaped fro the channel at Gunfire Reef
”Inspector Peter Daly,” Suleiman confirmed with a chuckle, ”a man who let me down badly I do not like men who let ht hi for just such an eventuality It was a wise precaution, for I believe that a graphic de than ain he paused to lass offered him by one of his men Daly fell to his knees and looked up at the e His expression was of abject terror, and his mouth dribbled saliva as he pleaded for mercy
”Very well, we can proceed if you are ready, Harry,” he boo which he pulled over Peter Daly's head and secured with a drawn string around his neck They dragged hiain
”It's our own variation on the galasses I saw the liquid flood soak through the front of Peter Daly's canvas trousers, as his bladder ea his stay in Zinballa prison
”Harry, I want you to use your i filthy creature - but in his place i lady friend” He breathed heavily, but when the ain Suleiman struck hi across the bridge, and he continued evenly, ”Iine her delicious fear as she stands in darkness not knohat to expect”
The two guards began to spin Daly between theame, around and around he went and now I could faintly hear his uards stepped away from him, and left the circle of half-naked men with their pick handles One of them placed the butt of his weapon in the s across the circle and theto drive the end of his club into Daly's belly
Back and forth he staggered, driven by the thrust of the clubs
Slowly his torery of their attack, until one of the it like an axe at a tree It snal to end it, and as Peter Daly fell to the deck they crowded about hi in a fearsooon to where atched in disgust and revulsion
One after the other they tired, and stepped back to rest frorim work and Peter Daly's crumpled and broken body lay in the centre of the deck
”Crude, you will say, Harry - but then you will not deny that it is effective”
I was sickened by the barbaric cruelty of it, and Chubby muttered besidelike that before!
”You have until noon tomorrow, Harry, to coree on certain e of assets and ill part friends”
He stopped speaking to watch while one of his men secured a line to Peter Daly's ankle, and they hoisted hirotesquely, like so up at hi down her back and her lips were slightly parted
”If you refuse to be reasonable, Harry, then at noon tomorrow I shall sail around this island with your lady friend hanging like that-” He pointed up to the corpse whoseslowly back and forth only a few feet above the deck, ”--from the mast Think about it, Harry Take your tihts were switched off, and Suleian his laborious descent to the cabin Manny Resnick and Lorna Page followed hi a business deal, but I could see that Lorna was enjoying herself
”I think I' to throw up,”muttered Chubby
Get it over then,” I said, ”because we have a lot of work to do”
I stood up and quietly led the way back into the paluard aht for fear of attracting attention froeratedly careful to maintain silence and not to let the clank ofcases of gelignite and blasting equipment, then we did the same with the rusted pay chest and carried it to a carefully chosen site below the steeply sloping ground of the peak Fifty yards up the slope was a fold in the ground thickly screened with goose-bush and salt grass
We dug another hole for the chest, going deep into the soft soil until we struck water Then we repacked the pay chest and reburied it Chubby clieun and wrapped it lightly in one of azines placed with it, and I buried the lot under an inch of sand, next to the stern of the nearest palm tree where the recent rain waters had cut a shallow dry runnel down the slope
The water-torn trench and the tree were forty paces from the spot where the chest was buried, and I hoped it was far enough The trench was little more than two feet deep and would provide scanty cover
The ht to check our arrangements Chubby made sure I was in full view from his hideaway up the slope when I stood beside the shallow runnel Then I climbed up to hi thetips with cupped hands, while ent over our planning once again
I was particularly anxious that there should be no nals, and Iand theatrical patience, but at last I was satisfied We dumped the cheroot butts and scraped sand over them and ent down the slope we both carried palns of activity
The first part of olden tiger and the rest of the gelignite was cached We reburied the tiger and then I prepared a full case of gelignite It was a massive overdose Of explosive, sufficient for a tenfold over-kill - but I have never been a e