Miss Callaghan Comes To Grief

Raven sat on the bed. “I've brought you so far,” he said, “and I guess I'm entitled to a little consideration from you. But I won't force myself on you. I'll put it like this. If you want to go on with me you'll stay here tonight and be nice. If you want either to stay in this burg an' rot or walk back to St. Louis, then I'll go off now an' take the car an' leave you to it. What's it to be?”

She said, “Oh, all right. You've got me where you want me, haven't you? I trade my body for the ride.

That's what you mean, isn't it?”

Raven's face twitched. “I thought of lettin' you down easy,” he said between his teeth, “but if you're goin'

to swap smart cracks you'll go the whole way.”

She sat on the other side of the bed away from him and began to cry. “My God!” she said. “I've been a fool.”

He suddenly lost patience with her and pushed her on to the bed. She saw the sudden lust that had come into his eyes and for a moment a scream hovered in her throat.

Raven said, “Don't yell.” He pinched her jaw between two fingers. “Do you want to go through with this or shall I beat it?”

She lay flat on her back and looked up at him. She saw the blank lustful look that made him almost animal.

She could see the little beads of sweat standing out on his toad−coloured skin. She could see his body trembling and she could feel the vibrations shaking the bed. She wanted to say no, but she knew he'd have no mercy on her. He'd leave her here. She had one dollar and forty cents in her purse. What could she do with that?

So she shut her eyes, blotting out the strange inhuman face so close to hers, and through dry lips she told him to go ahead.

He put his hand on the front of her dress and ripped it. The thin material tore easily. She half sat up, but he shoved her down again. “Stay still,” he said, his eyes blazing savagely. “I'll buy you everything you want.

Stay still.”

“No, not like this,” she said, taking his wrist in both hands as he gripped her slip. “Pleaseit's horrible. Not like this.”

“Let go. Do you hear? Let go.”

Her hands dropped away as he ripped the silk from her and the hot night air slid over her frightened nakedness. She put both her hands over her eyes and began to cry.

Her long white body and her tight drawn−up breasts inflamed him. He reached out two shaking hands towards her, when a heavy rap sounded on the door.

For a second Raven stood paralysed. Then his instinct overrode his lust and he jerked up, his hand pulling his gun from its holster.

“What is it?” he said. His voice sounded cracked and hoarse to him.

Marie half turned on her side, hiding her head in her arms. Her white shoulders heaved with her crying.

“Come on out, Raven, with your hands in the air,” someone called.

Raven turned very cold. His mind sprang to the clerk and the start he'd given when he had signed the book.

He was trapped. He hadn't even the Thompson, which, like the crazy fool he was, he'd left in the boot of the car. He fired one shot that crashed through the door and he heard footsteps move hastily away.

Marie sat up on the bed with a scream. “What is it?” she said, staring at his gun. “Why are youshooting?

What”

Raven turned on her savagely. “Shut up!” he snarled.

“Hi, Raven,” someone called again, “you can't get away. The place's surrounded. Better give up. You've got no chance in the world.”

“Come an' get me!” he shouted back savagely, sending another shot through the door.

“Raven?” Marie gasped. “Are you Raven?”

He turned on her. “Yeah. Now you know, you stupid little bitch. You got me outta town, do you understand? Now, by God, you'll get me out of here too!”

Shoving his gun into his side pocket, he grabbed her by her arm and pulled her to her feet. He wrenched off the ripped clothes that hung on her.

She was too terrified to feel her shame. “What are you going to do with me?” she said.

“You're goin' out there,” Raven told her, pulling his gun out again. “You're goin' to walk in front of me. If they shoot at me it's goin' to be too bad for you.”

“You can't do that. It's not my fight. You wouldn't force me into this... please... not like this!”

Twisting her arms behind her, he gripped her two wrists in one of his hands, then, crouching close behind her, he shoved her to the door.

“I'm comin' out!” he yelled. “Don't shoot. I'm comin' out.”

In a low, savage voice, he said to her, “If you faint, or try any tricks I'll spread your goddamn' guts all over the town.” He rammed the cold gun into her backbone, making her cry out with the pain, then he unlocked the door and pushed her out.

The two Federal Agents were so startled when Marie suddenly appeared that for a moment they hesitated.

It was that moment that Raven had gambled on. He fired twice almost as one shot. The flash of the gun burnt Marie's arm and she screamed wildly.

The two Agents slowly folded up, one of them shot through the head and the other in the middle of his chest.

Raven said, “Keep moving.”