Kelly was almost captured by humanity when he set his pencils down. If Billy had shown Pam any mercy at all, perhaps he might have acted differently, for his own wounds were, just as Billy had said, only a business matter – more correctly, had been occasioned by his own stupidity, and he could not in good conscience harm a man for taking advantage of his own errors. But Billy had not stopped there. He had tortured a young woman whom Kelly had loved, and for that reason Billy was not a man at all, and did not merit Kelly’s solicitude.
It didn’t matter in any case. The damage had been done, and it progressed at its own speed as tissues torn loose by the barometric trauma wandered about blood vessels, closing them off one at a time. The worst manifestation of this was in Billy’s brain. Soon his sightless eyes proclaimed the madness that they held, and though the final depressurization was a slow and gentle one, what came out of the chamber was not a man – but then, it never had been.
Kelly loosed the retaining bolts on the hatch. He was greeted with a foul stench that he ought to have expected but didn’t. The buildup and release of pressure in Billy’s intestinal tract and bladder had produced predictable effects. He’d have to hose it out later, Kelly thought, pulling Billy out and laying him on the concrete floor. He wondered if he had to chain him to something, but the body at his feet was useless to its owner now, the major joints nearly destroyed, the central nervous system good only to transmit pain. But Billy was still breathing, and that was just fine, Kelly thought, heading off to bed, glad it was over. With luck he would not have to do something like this again. With luck and good medical care, Billy would live for several weeks. If you could call it that.
CHAPTER 21
Possibilities
Kelly was actually disturbed by how well he slept. It wasn’t fitting, he worried, that he should have gotten ten hours of uninterrupted sleep after what he’d done to Billy. This was an odd time for his conscience to manifest itself, Kelly said to the face in the mirror as he shaved; also a little late. If a person went around injuring women and dealing drugs, then he should have considered the possible consequences. Kelly wiped his face off. He felt no elation at the pain he’d inflicted – he was sure of that. It had been a matter of gathering necessary information while meting out justice in a particularly fitting and appropriate way. Being able to classify his actions in familiar terms went a long way towards keeping his conscience under control.
He also had to go someplace. After dressing, Kelly got a plastic drop cloth. This went to the after well-deck of his cruiser. He was already packed, and his things went into the main salon.
It would be a trip of several hours, most of it boring and more than half in darkness. Heading south for Point Lookout, Kelly took the time to scan the collection of derelict ‘ships’ near Bloodsworth Island. Built for the First World War, they were an exceedingly motley collection. Some made of timber, others of concrete – which seemed very odd indeed – all of them had survived the world’s first organized submarine campaign, but had not been commercially viable even in the 1920s, when merchant sailors had come a lot cheaper than the tugboat crews who routinely plied the Chesapeake Bay. Kelly went to the flying bridge – and while the autopilot handled his southerly course, he examined them through binoculars, because one of them probably held interest. He could discern no movement, however, and saw no boats in the morass that their final resting place had become. That was to be expected, he thought. It wouldn’t be an ongoing industrial enterprise, though it was a clever hiding place for the activity in which Billy had so recently played a part. He altered course to the west. This matter would have to wait. Kelly made a conscious effort to change his thinking. He would soon be a team player, associated again with men like himself. A welcome change, he. thought, during which he would have time to consider his tactics for the next phase of his operation.
The officers had merely been briefed on the incident with Mrs Charles, but their alert level had been raised by follow-up information on the method by which her assailant had met his end. No additional cautionary words were needed. Two-man patrol cars handled most of them, though some solo cars driven by experienced – or overly confident – officers performed the same function in a way that would have grated on Ryan and Douglas had they seen it. One officer would approach while the other stood back, his hand resting casually on his service revolver. The lead officer would stand the wino up and frisk him, checking for weapons, and often finding knives, but no firearms – anyone in possession of one pawned it for money with which to buy alcohol or, in some cases, drugs. In the first night eleven such people were rousted and identified, with two arrests being made for what the officers deemed an improper attitude. But at the end of the shift, nothing of value had been turned up.
‘Okay – I found something out,’ Charon said. His car sat in the parking lot outside a supermarket, next to a Cadillac.
‘What’s that?’
‘They’re looking for a guy disguised as a bum.’
‘You kidding me?’ Tucker asked with some disgust.
‘That’s the word, Henry,’ the detective assured him. ‘They have orders to approach with caution.’
‘Shit,’ the distributor snorted.
‘White, not too tall, forties. He’s pretty strong, and he moves real good when he has to. They’re going soft on the information that’s out, but about the same time he interfered with a yoking, two more pushers turned up dead. I’m betting it’s the same guy who’s been taking pushers out.’
Tucker shook his head. ‘Rick and Billy, too? It doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Henry, whether it makes sense or not, that’s what the word is, okay? Now, you take this seriously. Whoever this guy is, he’s a pro. You got that? A pro.’
‘Tony and Eddie,’ Tucker said quietly.
‘That’s my best guess, Henry, but it’s only a guess.’ Charon pulled out of his parking place.
But none of it made any real sense, Tucker told himself, driving out onto Edmondson Avenue. Why would Tony and Eddie try to do – what? What the hell was going on? They didn’t know much about his operation, merely that it existed, and that he wanted it and his territory left alone while he evolved into their principal supplier. For them to harm his business without first suborning his method of importing the product was not logical. Suborning … he’d used the wrong word … but –
Suborned. What if Billy were still alive? What if Billy had cut a deal and Rick hadn’t gone along with it – a possibility; Rick had been weaker but more reliable than Billy.
?ill? kills Rick, takes Doris out and dumps her somewhere – ?ill? knows how to do that, doesn’t he? – why? ?ill? has made contact with – who? Ambitious little bastard, Billy, Tucker thought. Not all that smart, but ambitious and tough when he has to be.
Possibilities. ?ill? makes contact with somebody. Who? What does ?ill? know? He knows where the product is processed, but not how it comes in … maybe the smell, the formaldehyde smell on the plastic bags. Henry had been careful about that before; when Tony and Eddie had helped him package the product in the start-up phase, Tucker had taken the trouble to rebag everything, just to be on the safe side. But not the last two shipments… damn. That was a mistake, wasn’t it? Billly knew roughly where the processing was done, but could he find it on his own? Henry didn’t think so. He didn’t know much about boats and didn’t even like them all that much, and navigating wasn’t an easily acquired art.
Eddie and Tony know about boats, you idiot, Tucker reminded himself.
But why would they cross him now, just when things were blooming?
Whom else had he offended? Well, there was the New York crew, but he’d never even had direct contact with them. He’d invaded their market, though, taking advantage of a supply shortfall to establish an entry position. Might they be upset about that?
What about the Philadelphia crew? They had become the interface between himself and New York, and perhaps they were greedy. Perhaps they had found out about Billy.
Perhaps Eddie was making his move, betraying Tony and Henry at the same time.
Perhaps a lot of things. Whatever was happening, Henry still controlled the import pipeline. More to the point, he had to stand and defend what he had, his own territory, and his connections. Things were just starting to pay off big. Years of effort had been required to get to where he was now, Henry told himself, turning right towards his home. Starting over would entail dangers that, once run, were not easily repeated. A new city, setting up a new network. And Vietnam would be cooling off soon. The body count upon which he depended was declining. A problem now could wreck everything. If he could maintain his operation, his worst-case scenario was banking over ten million dollars – closer to twenty if he played the cards right – and leaving the business for good. That was not an unattractive option. Two years of high payoff to reach that spot. It might not be possible to start over from scratch. He had to stand and fight.