‘Mrs. Essex! Can I move you?’
Again her eyes opened. She shook her head and the glassy look went out of those wonderful violet eyes.
‘I’m all right.’ She moved her arms, then her legs. ‘God! My head!’
‘Take it easy.’ I looked around. A jeep skidded to a standstill. A big buck was at the wheel, his eyes rolling. ‘I’ll take you to hospital.’ I gathered her up in my arms and she moaned a little. I carried her to the jeep and got in beside the negro, holding her across my knees. ‘Get to the hospital,’ I told him. ‘Not fast... be careful.’
The negro stared at the woman, let in the clutch and began a slow drive along the tarmac. It took ten minutes to reach the airport’s hospital. Someone must have phoned Two interns, a couple of nurses and a grey-haired man in a white coat surrounded the jeep as it stopped.
There was a stretcher and everything was very efficient. They had her of my lap and onto the stretcher and inside the hospital in seconds.
I sat there wondering if by moving her I had done damage and the thought made me sweat.
A jeep came roaring up and O’Brien tumbled out. I told him what had happened.
‘Hell!’ He wiped his sweaty face. ‘What did she want to come down there for? She’s always sticking her goddamn nose into anything that doesn’t concern her! This could lose me my job when Essex hears about it!’
I shoved by him and entered the air-conditioned coolness of the hospital. There was a nurse at the reception desk.
‘How is she?’ I asked
‘Dr. Winters is examining her now.’ She regarded me as if I were a bum begging a dime.
I hesitated, then seeing one of the interns who had handled her come out through a doorway, I went to him. ‘How is she? Did I do wrong moving her?’
‘You did dead right,’ he said and smiled. ‘Nothing broken, but concussion. She’s asking about her horse.’
‘Okay. Tell her not to worry about it. I’ll take care of the horse.’
As I started towards the exit, I heard the intern say to the nurse, ‘Get Mr. Essex and snap it up!’
I went out into the hot sunshine, got in the jeep and started off in the direction where the horse had bolted. O’Brien had gone. It took me two long sweaty hours to come up with the horse. It was at the far end of the airport in a thicket and it was only luck that I spotted it. It had got over its scare and I had no trouble tying it to the jeep and I drove slowly back with the horse trotting behind.
Mrs. Essex’s groom appeared from nowhere as I pulled up outside the hospital. He grinned at me and took charge of the horse.
I went into the hospital and to the reception desk.
The nurse regarded me, lifting her eyebrows.
‘Yes?’
‘Will you arrange to tell Mrs. Essex I’ve found her horse and it is safe and undamaged,’ I said. ‘It’s news that might do her good.’
She inclined her head.
‘And you are...?’
‘Jack Crane. Mrs. Essex knows me.’
Sudden doubt came into her eyes. Suddenly it entered her stupid, snobby mind that in spite of my sweat, filthy hands and shabby clothes, I just might be someone important in the Essex kingdom.
‘I’ll tell Dr. Winters at once, Mr. Crane. Thank you for telling us.’
I gave her a long hard stare, then nodding, I went back to the jeep and drove to the site.
As I got out of the jeep, I heard another bang from the blasting site. At least, O’Brien wasn’t stopping work. He didn’t give a goddamn about Mrs. Lane Essex, but I did.
I remembered the feel of her body as I had held her. I remembered those violet eyes and the Venetian red hair against my face as I lifted her.
I walked across to the stalled bulldozer and began work on it again. As I worked I thought of her. I was still thinking of her when the whistle blew and we knocked off for the day.
Back in my cabin, I took a much-needed shower. I was getting into a pair of slacks when there came a knock on my door. Thinking it was Tim, I shouted to come in and reached for a shirt.
The door opened and Pam Osborn slid in. She quickly shut the door and I saw her face was pale and her eyes angry.
‘What do you want?’ I didn’t want her here. ‘Run away, baby.’ I tucked in my shirt. ‘I made a mistake about you.’
I could see from the expression on her face she hadn’t heard what I had said.
‘Must you act like a moron?’ she demanded ‘Now you’re under a spotlight and that’s just what Bernie didn’t want.’
I moved over to the table and sat on it.
‘What are you yakking about?’
‘It’s all over the airport. You taking that bitch to hospital and then finding her goddamn horse.’
‘What’s so wrong about it?’
‘Everyone is asking who this Jack Crane is. Don’t you see — every one of the creeps here would have given their right arms to have done what you did?’
‘What the hell did you expect me to do? Leave her lying there?’
‘It’s the horse!’ She clenched her facts, then unclenched them. ‘That bitch cares more about that horse than she does about herself, her husband or even her money! Couldn’t you have thought of that instead of spending hours looking for the blasted brute when anyone could have found it?’
‘How was I to know?’
‘And another thing... what made you start working with O’Brien? Didn’t Bernie tell you to supervise him and to keep out of sight? Didn’t he tell you not to mix with any of the gang? You have to go out there and fool around with the machines! When Bernie hears about this, he’ll blow his stack!’
I began to get angry.
‘Oh, shove off!’ I said. ‘I’m not taking talk like that from you! I’ll talk to Bernie. Now get the hell out of here!’
‘I came to warn you, you jerk! Before long the establishment will investigate you. The grapevine here is really something. Have a story ready. This sonofabitch Wes Jackson will be descending on you. He’s Essex’s manager. Watch him! He’s so sharp he could cut you by just looking at you. He’ll want to know everything there is to know about you. What you are doing here. Who you are. Why Bernie hasn’t put you on the pay roll. Have a story ready or we’ll be sunk. Do you understand?’
‘No.’ I stared at her. ‘I don’t understand and I don’t like any of it. If you...’
The sound of a car pulling up outside my cabin made both of us turn fast to the window.
‘He’s here... Wes Jackson!’ Pam’s face was whiter than a fresh fall of snow. ‘He mustn’t find me here.’ She looked around wildly, then darted into the bathroom and closed the door.
That left me standing there on my own.
Three
Wes Jackson stood in the doorway of my cabin like an undersized King Kong, but not all that undersized. He was around 6 ft. 5 ins., massively built and around thirty-two or three years of age. He had a turnip-shaped head that sat on his vast shoulders without suggesting he had any neck. His small nose, his small mouth and his small eyes struggled to survive in a sea of pink-white fat. His jet-black hair was close cropped. He wore heavy black shell glasses that slightly magnified his sea-green eyes. He was immaculately dressed in a blue blazer with some fancy badge on the pocket, white linen slacks and some club tie pinned to a white shirt with a large gold tie pin.
‘Mr. Crane?’
The tiny mouth went through the motions of a smile: the sea-green eyes, like points of ice picks dipped in green paint, moved over me.
I knew at once this man was a natural born sonofabitch and I would have to handle him with care.
‘That’s correct,’ I said and waited.
He moved his bulk into the cabin and closed the door.
‘I’m Wesley Jackson. I take care of Mr. Essex’s affairs.’