The Getaway (Read a Great Movie) (13 page)

She was holding a flashlight in her hand, shining the beam into her face. Swinging loosely from her other hand was a shotgun. A rawboned giant of a woman, she wore overalls and a sheepskin coat. She stared at them-at the cab rather; flicked the beam of the flashlight across it.

Then she made a brief swinging motion with it, the light disappeared, and so did she.

Doc let out a suppressed shout. He glanced over his shoulder quickly, waited for the two cars behind him to pass.

Carol shook him fiercely. "Doc, what's the matter with you? Who-what was that?" And Doc laughed a little wildly, babbled that he couldn't believe it himself. And then he slammed the cab into low gear, cut the wheels to the right, and went roaring up over the embankment and into the field.

It was wasteland, an expanse of eroded top-soilless rock. Ahead of them, the tall shadow of the woman beckoned, then moved away swiftly, guiding them up over a rise in the land and down into a cup-like valley.

There was a house there, a dark, deserted-looking shack. Two great forms came bounding from behind it-mastiffs-and streaked toward the cab in deadly silence. But the woman spoke, gestured to them, and they came meekly to heel. Trotted along with her as she strode past the shack, and on into the darkness beyond it.

"Doc! Do you hear me? I want to know what this is all about!"

Doc didn't answer her. It was in his mind perhaps that he had already explained fully; and all his thoughts now were on the woman and the deliverance which she represented.

About a hundred yards beyond the house, she came to a stop; turned and faced them, beckoned them forward slowly until they were almost upon her. Then she stopped them with a pushing motion of her hand and yanked open the door of the cab. "Got anything in here that you want to save, Doc? Well, pile out then. We're gettin' rid of it for good."

They piled out. Just back of the point where the woman had been standing was a broad crater, the dull gleam of moonlight on dark water.

"Gravel pit," the woman explained succinctly. "Ain't got no bottom to it that lever found. Now, we'll just give this buggy a good hard push…"

They pushed, straining, then trotting sluggishly as the cab gathered speed. Then, at a warning grunt from the woman, they came to a halt. And the cab shot over the brink of the pit, descended with a resounding splash and disappeared beneath the oily surface.

The woman turned and gripped Doc's hand. "Doc, you're a sight for sore eyes, and that's a fact. Couldn't hardly believe it was you when I got the word on the radio tonight."

"And you, needless to say, are also a sight for sore eyes," Doc murmured. "You were waiting for us down there on the highway?"

"Yep. Knew you was headin' this way. Just took a chance on you spotting me. Incidentally," her voice altered slightly, "not that I really give a whoop, but what happened between you and Rudy?"

"Well-" Doc hesitated. "You know Rudy. He never was quite right in the head and he'd gotten a lot worse. The more reasonable you tried to be with him, why…"

"Yeah, sure. Finally blew his top, huh? Well, I been expecting it for a long time." The woman shook her head wisely. "But to hell with the poor devil. Right now we got to hide you an'-and…"

She paused with rough delicacy, glancing at Carol.

Doc apologized hastily. "I'm sorry. Ma-Mrs. Santis-I'd like you to meet my wife, Carol."

It is scarcely to be wondered at that Carol's handshake had been a little limp. She had heard so much of this gaunt, craggy-faced woman for so long that she had almost come to regard her as a myth.

Ma Santis. Daughter of a criminal, wife of a criminal, mother of six criminal sons. Two of Ma's boys had died in gun battles with the police; two others-like their father-had died in the electric chair. Of the remaining two, one was in jail, and the other, Earl, was at liberty. The Santises were hill people, rebels and outlaws rather than criminals in the usual sense of the word. They never forgot a favor nor forgave an injury. They were that rare thing in the world of crime, people with a very real sense of honor. In another era, they might have been pirates or privateers or soldiers of fortune. It was their misfortune and perhaps the nation's as a whole that they had been born into a civilization which insisted upon conformity and pardoned no breakage of its laws, regardless of one's needs or motives.

The Santises were unable to conform. They would have died, and did die, rather than attempt to. And now at age sixty-four, and after more than twenty years in prison, Ma was as completely unreconstructed as she had been at fourteen.

Her son Earl was living over in the back country, she explained. Doin' enough farming to look respectable, and livin' high on the hog from cached loot. "Been so long since me or him turned a trick that people plumb forgot all about us," Ma chuckled. "So I figured we'll probably get a good goin' over here at my place, but no more'n t'any other. You just hole up where I put you until Earl shows up, an'-by the by, you was headin' for El Rey's, Doc?"

"That's right."

"Well, don't you never doubt you'll make it," Ma said firmly. "Me'n Earl, we helped plenty of friends to get there-Pat Gangloni, Red Reading, Ike Moss an' his woman. 'Course, you're maybe a little hotter'n any of them, but-come here."

She turned and went back to the brink of the pit; squatted there, pointing with the beam of her flashlight. "You see that? Them two clumps of bushes? Now look right below them, there at them kind of shady places just under the water line."

"I see them," Doc nodded. "Caves?"

"You could call 'em that. Really ain't much more than holes. Just about big enough to crawl into and get out of sight, but that's all you need, ain't it?" Ma laughed jovially.

Doc hesitated, shooting a quick glance at Carol's taut face. "It-you think this is necessary, Ma? I mean…"

"Wouldn't have you do it if I didn't think so." There was a hint of tartness in her voice. "It ain't so bad, Doc. There's fresh air seeps in from somewhere, and it ain't really so cramped. Pat Gangloni took it, and you know Pat. Makes two fellas your size with half a man left over."

Doc forced himself to laugh at the joke. "We'll have to strip, I suppose?"

"I'd say so. Unless you want to keep on your unmentionables. They's blankets down there, an' it's kind of hot anyways."

"Fine," Doc said. "Well…"

He unbuttoned his jumper and dropped it to the ground. He sat down and began taking off his shoes and socks. Ma looked at Carol. She said, "Prob'ly need a rope," and disappeared into the darkness.

Carol remained standing, motionless, making no move to remove her clothes.

"Carol," Doc said. Then, "Carol!"

"No-no," Carol said shakily. "No, I can't! How do I know that-that…"

"You're with me. You're riding on my ticket. Now get out of those clothes!"

He stood up, stripped out of the jeans. He unbuckled the money belt and dropped it on top of the pile of clothing. He waited a moment, working up an encouraging smile, storing up warmth for his voice. Then, hand outstretched, he took a step toward Carol.

She backed desperately away from him. "N-no!
No!
" she gasped. "I know what you're planning! You'll get me down there and…"

"Stop it! What else can you do, anyway?"

"I know you! I'd never get back up again! She's your friend, not mine! She-y-you'd leave me down there under the ground and…"

"Well, here we are." Ma Santis was suddenly back with them. "Trouble?"

"I'm sorry," Doc said. "My wife's a little upset."

"Uu-huh," Ma drawled. "Thought she kind of sounded like she was. Me, I'm just a leetle upset myself. Figured I was goin' a long ways to do you two a favor, and now I ain't so sure. Like to get set straight before I go any farther."

Doc repeated that he was sorry. Ma shifted the shotgun under her arm, and behind her the two mastiffs suddenly came to attention. She waited, staring stonily at Carol. And as if from some great distance, Carol heard her own voice; felt her face stiffen in a conciliatory smile.

She was sorry. She hadn't meant what she said. She was very grateful to Ma. She…

She broke off, stooping to pull the voluminous black dress over her head. Almost eagerly she unfastened the money belt, made a tentative gesture of offering it to the older woman. Ma motioned laconically with the gun. "Just drop it on the pile. An' don't worry about none of it showin' up missing."

"You help yourself to as much as you want," Doc said warmly. "I mean that, Ma. We…"

Ma nodded. She knew he meant it, but she wasn't needin' nothing. "Always thought you was a hell of a guy, Doc. Heard a thing or two to the contrary, but you was always square with me an' mine. Ain't a one of us that didn't think the world of you."

"And I've felt exactly the same way about all of you, Ma."

"But," she continued. "I ain't buyin' in on no one else's fight. I ain't putting myself any further in the middle than I am already. You two got a quarrel, which I hope you ain't, you settle it somewheres else. Elsewise, I'll do the settlin' and it won't be no fun for the party that starts the trouble."

She paused, looking from one to the other, waiting for their acknowledgments of her statement. Carol's was somewhat readier than Doc's.

"Well, that's fine," Ma said mildly. "Now there's some water in them holes; prob'ly a little stale but you can drink it if you're thirsty enough. No grub, o'course. You can do without for as long as you're down there. No smokin' and no matches; ain't enough air to allow it. Well, that about does it, I guess. Want me to help you down, Doc?"

Doc shook his head. "I can make it all right, thanks. Have you any idea how long it will be, Ma?"

"Well, I'd say tomorrow night. But you know how it is, Doc. Come see, come sah." She laughed throatily. "Oh, yeah, I knew! was forgettin' something. Sleepin' pills. Can't tell you where they are exactly, but just feel around an' you'll find 'em."

"Oh, fine. I was just going to ask about them. Now, if you'll just give me a little light for a moment, Ma…"

Ma squatted again, beamed the flashlight down the wall of the pit. Doc studied it, gave her shoulder a pat of thanks, and poised himself on the brink.

"Good night," he said, and shooting a smile at Carol, "and a very good night to you, my dear."

Then he jumped, stiff-legged.

There was an audible grunt as he struck the water.

He went under, and he came up. And then, getting a grip on the bushes, he pushed himself under again.

And stayed under.

"Now, there," Ma said quietly, "there is one hell of a guy. Just in case you didn't know it."

"I know it," Carol said.

She took the rope that Ma handed her, took a turn around her waist with it. Bellying down on the ground, she got her legs over the edge of the pit and squirmed slowly backward. She paused there, half-suspended in space, breathing very rapidly. Then she looked up and gave Ma the nod to lower her.

"Got somethin' on your mind." Ma held her where she was for a moment. "Maybe you better unload it while you can."

"I-nothing, I guess. I was just going to ask about the sleeping pills. I mean, why you and Doc seem to take it for granted that we'll need them."

"Why?" Ma frowned incredulously. "Hey, you ain't been around much, have you, honey?"

"Well-I used to think so."

"Uh-huh," Ma said. "Mmm-hum. Well, I'll tell you somethin' about them pills. Don't you doubt that you'll need 'em. An' don't wait to take 'em until you do. You gulp you down some right to begin with, an' when them wears off…"

She tugged upward on the rope, then slacked off on it. Carol swung off of the brink, and moved slowly down toward the water.

"Yes?" she called, shivering as her feet touched the water. "When they begin to wear off?"

"Take some more," Ma said.

The hole lay on a slant, and for its first two or three feet it was largely filled with water, making it all but impossible to breathe until one had navigated it.

Carol came through it at a frantic scramble; continued to scramble forward with eyes closed, breath held, until her head butted against the rock at the end of the hole. And then gratefully, gasping in the air, she let herself go prone.

Strangely, it was not absolutely dark. Wherever the faint seepage of air came from, there was an equally faint seepage of light, if only the relative light of the night outside, to relieve the blackness of this hidden cave.

It was like being in a coffin, she thought. A dimly lit, well-ventilated coffin. It wasn't uncomfortable; not yet at least. Merely confining. As long as one was content to remain in it, and did not try to get out…

Abruptly, she cut off the thought.

Fumbling in the dimness, running her hands up to the end of the hole, she encountered the oval canvas-covered surface of a water canteen. She shook it, felt the swish and swing of the liquid inside. She laid it down again and continued to fumble until she found a small tightly capped bottle. She got the cap off and sniffed the contents. Taking out one of the capsules, she pinched it and touched her tongue to it.

Mildly bitter; a faintly salty taste. She dropped it back into the bottle and screwed the lid back on.