Part 20 (1/2)
She kept on getting rid of the ants while I quickly took the chain off ankles and wrists. He had stopped being a dangerous person. Though his gestures seemed weak and uncertain, he was of some help in removing the ants. The ones that were being brushed off were climbing back onto him, so I got him onto his feet and trundled him another fifty feet before he stumbled and fell.
When he was down I pulled his shoes and socks off, undid the bra.s.s buckle, and pulled his khaki trousers off. The ants were thick on his legs, way up to the upper thigh and the groin. I pulled his underwear shorts off and wadded them up and used them to brush away the ants. I noted that, dimensionally, he more than lived up to the billing Joanna had given him. I rolled him over and over, away from the area where the brushed-off ants could get back on him.
They are aggressive, these red ants, but they are certainly not the menace the farming fraternity and the petrochemical industry would have us believe. If you stand too near a nest, they will come out and climb up your shoes and sting your ankles. You know immediately, and you move away and knock them off. The bites make little white blisters which, if untended, are likely to fester. The easiest remedy is rubbing alcohol applied as soon as possible after being bitten. Vodka or gin will do.
Ninety-nine out of a hundred fire-ant horror stories are false. Freddy was the one in a hundred. I had never heard of anybody being so completely bitten. We had him free of the ants at last. He made said weak sounds as he rolled his head from side to side. He was gray and sweaty. I wedged him back into his pants and clinched the big bra.s.s buckle.
I now knew why he had been so anxious to do me in. But it seemed idiotic to have killed Jason Breen.
I leaned close to him and said, ”Hey! Why did Jason come out here?”
”Money.” he said in a dull voice. ”Called me at four in the morning on the private line. I chained the dogs. Waited in the grove. Twenty thousand.”
”Why?”
”He'd snooped. Figured it all out. Saw the Christina come in without Jack. Told me he had killed Cal with a wire and he had to run, and unless I gave him money he'd claim I paid him to kill Cal. I said okay. He was very jumpy. Then he said he was going to beat up on me anyway, on account of what happened with the Dobrovsky girl. He hit me and I hit him. I caught him in the throat. It broke something. He grabbed his throat. Tried to breathe. Fell onto his knees. Made choking noises. Fell over dead in less than two minutes. By dawn light his face was black and his eyes bulged out. I dragged him down to the stables. Wheeled his bike down. Oh; Christ, everything is getting so... so far away.”
He was looking worse by the moment, face bloating, tongue thickening. His lips were fat. He was close to blacking out.
”He told me once a bee sting can make him real sick,” Jane said. ”What's keeping... them.” A moment later we both heard the distant hooting as the cruiser blew its way through the highway traffic. When in another minute it drove into sight around the stand of trees, I stood up and waved my arms at it. It came bounding across the track and the infield, stopped near us, and two deputies piled out, very smart in pale blue s.h.i.+rts, dark blue pants, and trooper hats. They were big, young and ruddy, creaking with equipment.
”Hey, Miz Jane!” one of them said.
”Why, h.e.l.lo, Harvey!”
”Now just who is this here, Miz Jane?”
”You know him! This is Frederick Van Harn.”
Harvey stared. ”You've got to be kidding,” he said in an awed voice. ”What in h.e.l.l happened to him?”
”He got into fire ants,” I said, ”and he's allergic. He's going into shock. Can you get a radio patch through to hospital emergency?”
”Yes, but-”
”You better get on it and tell them you're heading in there wide open. Tell them it's shock from insect bites. They'll know what to have ready. I think it's called anaphylactic shock.”
”But-”
Jane stepped closer to him and said, ”Maybe you want to explain to my uncle Jake why you let Frederick die?”
That is one of the interesting things about power. Everybody who really has it seems to know exactly how to use it. The ones who pretend to have it make the wrong moves.
While he was on the radio, the other deputy and I lifted Freddy and put him in the back of the cruiser, on his back on the seat. The deputy said, ”There's supposed to be a body here?”
”There is.”
”Harv, I'll stay here and look into what the call was about. You come back or have them send somebody, okay?”
Jane had gotten in the back and she was kneeling on the floor, holding Freddy's hand. Harvey made a tight circle and went bucketing out of there. We heard him hooting his way down the highway toward the city.
The one left behind said, ”Those far ants are mean.”
I inspected the bites on the backs of my hands and between the fingers. ”They're very convincing.”
He took out his notebook. ”Who was it phoned in?”
”Me. Travis McGee.”
”My name is Simmons. Frank Simmons.” He almost started to shake hands and apparently decided it wasn't professional.
”Have you been a deputy long?”
”Just over three weeks. Address, Mr. McGee?”
He wrote the ID information down, slowly and carefully. ”Now where'd this dead body be?”
”Over there in that hole.”
”Is it a real old dead body? I mean dead long?”
”Only since last night.”
We walked to the hole. In a higher voice he said, ”That there is a dead horse! You funnin' me? What's that jeep doing down in there?”
”Frank, there's a small hole I want you to look in, there by the front of the jeep.”
He went over and looked down into the smaller hole. There were some flies on the brown arm. He swayed slightly, then whirled and took two big steps and threw up. When he was finished he straightened up slowly and said, ”That didn't give me a d.a.m.n bit of warning. It just come on me all at once.”
”It can happen that way.”
”This is my first one on duty. Jesus! Look, don't tell Harv about my barfin', okay?”
”I'd have no reason to.”
”He rides me. He thinks I won't make it. I'll make it. Now, who discovered the, body? You or Miz Schermer or Mr. Van Harn?”
”I discovered it.”
”Who put it there?”
”Mr. Van Harn.”
”The h.e.l.l you say!” He bent and slapped at his ankles. ”Far ants all over the place. Let's get out of this here hole. You think there's a water tap around here anyplace?”
”Over there at the stables.”