Thirty-three years later, in 1977, when women were at last being admitted into the Air Force, the WASPs were retroactively given military status. It was then, through a reunion group, that I found out what had become of Cleo Remington; she had found a sky high and wide enough to hold her fierce spirit, and freedom as a bush pilot in Alaska.
And she was, as I discovered, even more breathtaking at sixty than she’d been at twenty-six.
But that’s another chapter of the story.
Death on Denial by O’Neil De Noux
The Mississippi. The Father of Waters.
The Nile of North America.
And I found it.
– Hernando de Soto, 1541
The oily smell of diesel fumes wafts through the open window, filling the small room above the Algiers Wharf. Gordon Urquhart, sitting in the only chair in the room, a grey metal folding chair, takes a long drag on his cigarette and looks out the window at a listless tugboat chugging up the dark Mississippi. The river water, like a huge black snake, glitters with the reflection of the New Orleans skyline on the far bank.
Gordon’s cigarette provides the room’s only illumination. It’s so dark he can barely see his hand. He likes it, sitting in the quiet, waiting for the room’s occupant to show up. Not quite six feet tall, Gordon is a rock-solid 200 pounds. His hair turning silver, Gordon still sees himself as the good-looking heartbreaker he was in his twenties.
He wasn’t born Gordon Urquhart those 40 years ago. When he saw the name in a movie, he liked it so much he became Gordon Urquhart. He made a good Gordon Urquhart. Since the name change, he’d gone up in life.
He yawns, then takes off his leather gloves and places them on his leg. He wipes his sweaty hands on his other pants leg.
The room, a ten-by-ten-foot hole-in-the-wall, has a single bed against one wall, a small chest of drawers on the other wall, and a sink in the far corner. Gordon sits facing the only door.
He closes his eyes and daydreams of Stella Dauphine. He’d caught a glimpse of her last night on Bourbon Street. She walked past in that short red dress without even noticing him. As she moved away, bouncing on those spiked high heels, he saw a flash of her white panties when her dress rose in the breeze. He wanted to follow, but had business to take care of.
Sitting in the rancid room, Gordon daydreams of Stella, of those full lips and long brown hair. She’s in the same red dress, only she’s climbing stairs. He moves below and watches her fine ass as she moves up the stairs. Her white panties are sheer enough for him to see the crack of her round ass.
They’re on his ship from his tour in the US Navy. Indian Ocean. Stella stops above him and spreads her legs slightly. He can see her dark pubic hair through her panties. She looks down and asks him directions.
Gordon goes up and shows her to a ladder, which she goes up, her ass swaying above him as he goes up after her, his face inches from her silky panties. Arriving at the landing above, she waits for him atop the ladder. He reaches up and pulls her panties down to her knees, runs his fingers back up her thighs to her bush and works them inside her wet pussy. She gasps in pleasure.
A sound brings Gordon back to the present. He hears footsteps coming up the narrow stairs up to the hall and moving to the doorway. Gordon pulls on his gloves and lifts the 22-calibre Bersa semiautomatic pistol from his lap. He grips the nylon stock, slips his finger into the trigger guard, and flips off the safety as the door opens. He points the gun at the midsection of the heavyset figure standing in the doorway.
Faintly illuminated by the dull, yellowed hall light, Lex Smutt reaches for the light switch. Gordon closes one eye. The light flashes on and Smutt freezes, his wide-set hazel eyes staring at the Bersa.
“Don’t move, fat boy!” Gordon opens his other eye and points his chin at the bed. “Take a seat.”
Smutt moves slowly to his bed and sits. At five-seven and nearly 300 pounds, Smutt knows better than to think of himself as anything but a toad. He runs his hands across his bald head and bites his lower lip. Wearing a tired, powder-blue seersucker suit, white shirt, and mud-brown tie, loosened around his thick neck, Smutt is as rumpled as a crushed paper bag.
“Keep your hands where I can see them.” Gordon rises, his knees creaking, and closes the door. In his black suit, Gordon wears a black shirt and charcoal-grey tie.
Yawning again, Gordon says, “Long time, no see.”
Smutt lets out a nervous laugh.
Gordon’s mouth curls into a cold grin. “Lex Smutt. That’s your real name, ain’t it? It’s a stupid name. You stupid?”
Smutt shakes his head slowly, his gaze fixed on the Bersa.
“You know why I’m here.”
Smutt’s eyes widen as if he hasn’t a clue.
“Give me the 15,000. Or die.”
A shaky smile comes to Smutt’s thin lips. “I don’t have it.”
“Then die.” Gordon cocks the hammer – for effect – and points the Bersa between Smutt’s eyes.
Raising his hands, Smutt stammers, “Come on, now. Gimme a minute.”
“You’ll have the money in a minute?” Gordon’s hand remains steady as he closes his left eye and aims careful at the small, dark mole between Smutt’s eyebrows. The loud blast of a ship’s horn causes Smutt to jump. Gordon is unmoved.
As long seconds tick by, Gordon takes the slack up in the trigger and starts to pull it slowly. Staring eye-to-eye, Smutt blinks.
“I got six grand,” Smutt says.
Gordon’s trigger finger stops moving, but his hand remains steady. He blinks and nods.
“Where?”
“On me.”
“Where?”
Smutt wipes away the sweat rolling down the sides of his face and exhales loudly. “For a minute there I thought -”
“Where?” Gordon interrupts.
Leaning back on his hands, Smutt looks around the room.
Gordon raises his size-eleven shoe and kicks him in the left shin. Smutt shrieks and grabs his leg. He rocks back and forth twice before Gordon presses the muzzle of the Bersa against the man’s forehead.
“Where?” Gordon growls.
“Under the bed.” Smutt rubs his shin with both hands. “Under the floorboard.”
Gordon grabs the seersucker suit collar with his left hand and yanks Smutt off the bed, shoving the man to the floor. Kicking the bed aside, Gordon orders Smutt to pull up the floorboard.
“Come up with anything except money and you’re dead.”
On his hands and knees now, Smutt crawls over to where his bed used to stand. Reaching for the loose board, he looks up at Gordon and says, “We have to come to an understanding.”
Gordon points the Bersa at the floor next to Smutt’s hand and squeezes off a round. A pop is followed by the sound of the shell casing bouncing on the wood floor.
Smutt looks at the neat hole next to his hand, looks back at Gordon, then yanks up the loose board. He reaches inside and pulls out a brown paper bag. He hands it to Gordon without looking up.
Snatching the bag, Gordon takes a couple of steps back. He opens the bag and quickly counts the money. Six grand exactly.
“You’re 9,000 short.”
Smutt rolls over on his butt and sits like a Buddha, hands on his knees. He wipes the sweat away from his face again and says, “Mr Happer will just have to understand. You just came into this but it’s been goin’ on awhile. I need time. Most of the 15 is vig… interest. You know.”
Gordon points the Bersa at the mole again. “You’re certain this is all you have?”
Smutt nods slowly, looking at the floor now. He waves a hand around. “Does it look like I got more?”
“Try yes or no!”