Bahama Crisis

When the helicopter came down in the meadow Billy had the door open before the shock absorber s had taken up the weight, and came running across the grass towards us, stooping as people always do when they know rotors are turning overhead. He took in my condition in one swift glance.

"Christ! How are you? How's Debbie?"

Dade and Sherry-Lou moved tactfully to one side, out of earshot, and were joined by Chuck who was talking nineteen to the dozen and windmilling his arms wildly. I gave Billy the gist of it, leaving out everything unimportant; just outlining the 'whats' and ignoring the 'hows' and 'whys'. He winced.

"Torturing her!" he said incredulously.

"She was screaming," I said flatly.

"I was being shot at I had to move fast." I paused.

"I should have stayed."

"No," said Billy, 'you did the best you could. " He looked back at the helicopter.

"The State Police and some of our own security men are coming up behind. We'd better get back to the Perkins place."

"One more thing," I said.

"Seems Dade Perkins doesn't like Cunninghams, and from what little he told me I know why. Now, he just saved my life, so from now on you haul off your dogs."

"It's not up to me," said Billy.

"Jack won't…"

"Jack doesn't matter any more and you know it."

"Yeah, but Dad won't be buffaloed either." He frowned.

"Let me think about it. Come on."

A few minutes later we dropped next to the Perkins's family residence and to two more helicopters with State Police markings. More were in the sky coming in. When all six were on the ground we had a conference a council of war.

Dade Perkins was in on it, and outlined on a table what the Ainslee place was like, using match books and tobacco tins. Then there was a brief argument when Sherry-Lou announced that she was coming along.

The senior police officer was Captain Booth who was inclined to want to know the whys and wherefores until he was cut down by Billy.

"For Christ's sake, Captain, quit yammering! We can hold the inquest after we've gotten my i79 cousin out of there." It was a measure of Cunningham influence that Booth stopped right then and there.

Now he said decidedly, "No place for a woman. There might be shooting."*' "Miz Mangan will need a woman if she's…" Sherry-Lou swallowed the words 'still alive', and continued, "I know Leroy Ainslee."

Dade turned red in the face.

"Has he interfered with you?"

"No, he hasn't!" she retorted.

"Not since I laid a rock against his head an' then got me a gun an' told him I'd perforate him."

Dade glowered, and Booth said thoughtfully, "There'll be one chopper in the air all the time. They might scatter and we'll want to see where they go. I reckon Miss Perkins could be in that one."

We left in the helicopters and descended like a cloud of locusts on the Ainslee place less than five minutes later with the precision of a military operation. I was in the chopper which dropped right in the middle. No one shot at us because there was no one there to shoot.

All the Ainslee menfolk were absent and only the women and a few kids were left. The children were excited by the sudden invasion but the slatternly women merely looked at us with apathetic eyes.

Billy had a gun in his hand when he jumped out, and Dade carried Leroy's shotgun. I looked about and saw cops closing in from all sides. Billy bolstered his pistol.

"They're not here."

"Still out lookin' for Tom, I reckon," said Dade. He squinted up at the helicopter hovering overhead.

"They'll know something's wrong.

Been nothin' like this since I seen the Vietnam war on TV. They won't be back in a hurry. "

I said, "For God's sake, let's find Debbie." I picked out the biggest house, a ruinous shack, and began to run.

It was Billy who found her. He came out of a smaller shack bellowing, "A doctor! Where is that goddamn doctor?" He caught me by the shoulders as I tried to go in.

"No, Tom. Let the doctor see to her first. Will you quit struggling?"

A man ran past us carrying a bag and the door of the shack slammed shut. Billy yelled at me, "She's alive, damn it! Let the doctor tend to her."

1 sagged in his arms and he had to hold me up for a moment, then I said, "Okay, Billy, I'm all right now."

"Sure," he said.

"I know you are." He turned and saw Booth "Hey, Captain, better get the Perkins girl down here."

"Right, Mr. Cunningham." Booth spoke to one of the pilots standing by, then came over to us.

"Mr. Mangan, I'd like you to come with me." I nodded and was about to follow him, but he was looking at Billy.

"You okay, Mr. Cunningham?"

Billy had developed a curious greenish pallor and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. He sat down on the stoop of the shack.

"I'll be all right. You go with the Captain, Tom."

I followed Booth to the shack in which I had been held prisoner.

Earl's body had been laid out parallel to the wall and beneath the window. The big pitcher was lying on its side, still intact, and a pool of water lay on the floor, as yet unevaporated. Tukey lay on the bed; he was dead and stank of faeces

Booth said, "Know anything about this?"