Chapter 12

Russ had been a good businessman and must have made a lot of money. And I remembered him mentioning that he'd done pretty well with investments too. But whatever he'd done with his money, he sure as hell hadn't used it to buy a decent bed in his bungalow.

The damn thing seemed older than the Wright brothers' airplane. I eyed it skeptically before I climbed in, not at all sure it could support either one of us, let alone the two of us together. It creaked rather ominously but didn't collapse. Still, it might have been better if it had. The mattress or springs or whatever was supposed to be holding us up was doing a half-ass job of it. I didn't know any bed could sink that far down in the middle and still not touch the floor. It was like trying to sleep on the edge of a hill. I'd climb way out to the side and hang on to the edge, but the minute I relaxed I slid down into the middle where I collided with Judy who had just slid in from the other side. And I figured I'd probably have to go to an orthopedic surgeon to have him straighten out my spine after a night in this monstrosity.

I suggested to Judy that we might try the bed in the other room, but she wouldn't hear of it. This had been her room since she was a little girl and she'd had some romantic dream about coming here when she was grown up and sleeping in the same bed with a man, and now that her dream had come true nothing was going to spoil it.

So I gritted my teeth and slid down into the middle and climbed back up to the edge several more times. Finally I decided I'd be better off sleeping on the floor. But by then she'd fallen asleep and we were lying braced against each other in the middle and there was no way I could get out without waking her up.

By the time the night was almost over I went to sleep at last.

In the morning I climbed stiffly out of the goddamn bed and tried to straighten up. I couldn't. For about ten minutes I walked around in a bent-over position before I finally limbered up enough to get my clothes on. By that time Judy had breakfast ready and with some food inside of me and my spine reasonably straight, I was better able to face the day.

Then Judy raised the question I'd been dreading.

"Well," she said, "what are we going to do?"

"Jesus, we searched this place twice and didn't find a thing."

"Let's search it again."

I didn't have any better ideas so' we searched it again. And we still didn't find anything. I even went through the elaborate procedure of measuring the bungalow inside and out. I remembered reading somewhere-a detective story, I guess-about a guy who did that, and by comparing the inside and outside measurements of a building, he discovered a fake wall at one end with a hidden compartment behind it. Maybe that works out well in a detective story, but it didn't help us. There were no fake walls in the bungalow and no hidden compartments that we could find.

By afternoon I'd had it.

"Let's get out of here," I said. "We're not going to find a damn thing."

Judy shook her head. "There's something here that Uncle Russ left for me-I know it-and I'm going to find it."

"There's no other place to look! What do you want to do-take the bungalow down board by "Well-let's stay overnight anyway. Maybe we'll think of something by tomorrow."

"I thought of something already-I'm not spending another night in that bed!"

"It's not that bad with one person in it, but I'll grant you it's not very comfortable with two. I guess it's pretty old. Uncle Russ said it was a real expensive bed."

"Expensive? Somebody must have hauled that swayback thing in on a covered wagon and-" I stared at her. "He said it was expensive?"

"Yes."

"When did he say that?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe a couple of years ago."

"Exactly what did he say?"

"That it was worth a lot of money. Something like that."

"Jesus Christ!"

I went into the other room and frowned at the goddamn bed. It didn't make sense. A junk dealer I probably would have charged you just to haul it | away. I toyed with the idea of getting a razor and dissecting the mattress, but I couldn't possibly find I anything in there big enough to have a lock on it. Maybe I'd misread the clues and we weren't really looking for something with a lock on it. But then ; what was the meaning of those three tattoos?

A sudden thought came to me. Could the bed be hiding some kind of secret panel in the wall?

I hauled the bed into the center of the room and went over every inch of the wall that had been hidden by the headboard.

Nothing.

"What about under the bed?" asked Judy.

I rolled the rug back and for a moment we stared at each other and at the floor. A small rectangular section of the boards had been cut and hinged on one side so the cut-out section could be lifted like a trap door.

Judy almost danced with excitement. "Well, open it!"

I lifted the trap door and stared again.

The small bungalow had no basement. It was built on blocks and at this point the floor beams practically touched the ground. But under the trap door Russ had dug down into the ground and apparently had scooped out a pretty good hole. Then he had cemented the four walls and the bottom of the hole to form a kind of a little vault.

And in the vault was a small safe.

"Jesus!" I breathed.

"Can you lift it?" asked Judy.

It wasn't easy, but I finally got the safe out of the hole and up on the floor. I eyed the lock on the front and thought of the tattoos I'd found on three girls' thighs up next to their cunts. I bent down and turned the lock. Right 49, left 6, right 28.

I swung the handle on the safe and the door creaked open.

Judy caught her breath in a gasp. "God! Look at that!"

I was looking. Inside the safe were several bundles of money.

"How much do you suppose there is?" Judy finally asked.

"I don't know. But it looks like your Uncle Russ left you quite a pile.

"Thoughtful of him, wasn't it?" said a strange voice from behind us.

Lounging in the doorway was a crummy looking character. Some clean clothes would have done a lot for him and a shave would have improved his appearance even more, but probably neither the clothes nor the shave would have gotten rid of the mean look in his eyes. His looks wouldn't have bothered me too much, however, if it hadn't been for the gun in his hand. That bothered me.

"Who the hell are you?" I growled. "And what do you want here?"

"Ernie!" gasped Judy, as if she were answering my question.

He smirked. "I didn't know you'd remember me after all this time. I remember you too, beautiful." His eyes crawled up and down her body. "Although you've changed a lot. You used to be a scrawny little kid, but you sure as hell aren't scrawny any more. Jesus, what a shape you've got!"

"What do you want here?" I asked him again.

He didn't even seem to hear my question. He was still staring at Judy and his tongue crawled over his lips.

"Tell me something," he said. "Are your tits really that big or do you wear a padded bra? It doesn't seem possible a scrawny little kid could sprout a pair of boobs like you have."

"Listen, you bastard-"

I took a step toward him and he was suddenly more interested in me than in Judy. He swung the gun so it pointed at the lower part of my stomach and his eyes looked meaner than ever.

"Hold it right there," he said. "I'd hate to deprive Judy of her fun."

"What?"

"With the two of you shacking up together, I figure you're screwing hell out of her these days. And if I have to shoot you, I'm going to put the bullet right through your balls. I guess that would make Judy very unhappy-not to mention what it would do to you."

Why did everybody have a thing about my balls? Back in Central City, I was worried about Tony cutting them off. And now Ernie wanted to put a bullet through them. Things like that can kind of get to you after while.

So I tried to reassure him. "Take it easy-we're not looking for trouble. Just tell us what it is you want here."

His eyes swung briefly to the safe. "I thought you would have figured that out by now. It took you long enough to find it for me."

"You knew about the money?" asked Judy.

"Not exactly. I just had a feeling that Uncle Russ had a bundle stashed away somewhere and that I wasn't getting everything he had. When I found out about that special letter he left for you, that made me more suspicious. So I started watching you-you and this meathead you shacked up with. And the way he moved around, I figured he was on the trail of something."

"You followed me?" I asked.

"Everywhere. The Pink Elephant-that photographer-the whorehouse in Central City."

Judy's eyebrows went up. "Whorehouse?"

"You were in there long enough," said Ernie.

"What'd you do-screw every girl in the place?"

I changed the subject. "Look, how do you think you're going to get away with stealing this money? If you kill us they'll get you for murder. And if you don't kill us, we'll have the cops after you. So how do you figure it's worth it?"

His face twisted with hate. "I'll tell you how I figure it. I'm entitled to the money-see? I'm a blood relative to Uncle Russ, and Judy isn't. So this money the stupid old fart left for her really belongs to me and I'm going to take it. And as for killing you or having you send the cops after me, I don't particularly care one way or the other. Either way, I've got it all arranged for me to leave the country."

The guy was dangerous. I didn't have any doubt about that. So I tried a different approach with him.

"Maybe we can make a deal," I suggested. "It looks like there's enough money there for both of you."

"Forget it." Then he waved the gun at me. "Turn around."

I didn't relish the idea of getting shot in the back, but the way he was waving the gun I didn't think it would feel much better getting shot in the front. Or in the balls. So I turned around.

Apparently he only wanted to find out if I had a gun of my own and he ran a hand up and down on my body. I tried to remember how the smart private detectives on TV can turn and grab the guy behind them while he's searching them, but it seemed like a hell of a tricky thing with his gun boring into my back the way it was.

Then suddenly I didn't have to worry about it. Something hard smashed against the back of my head and the world went black.

I probably wasn't out more than a few minutes. It seemed like I was swimming back up out of a deep dark hole and when I finally reached the top and forced my eyes open a little I discovered two things. I had one hell of a headache. And I was lying on the floor with my hands tied behind my back.

I tried to focus my eyes and only partially succeeded. Judy was sitting dejectedly on the bed. And Ernie was just stuffing the last of the money into a bag. He glanced at me and seemed surprised to find me watching him.

"You're awake already, huh? Guess I didn't hit you hard enough. Not that it makes much difference. I brought that rope along with me and Judy tied you up and that'll keep you out of the way until I'm gone."

"I'm sorry, Marty," said Judy. "He made me tie you up."

Ernie rose to his feet and hefted the bag of money. Then he put it down again and looked at Judy.

"Before I go," he said, "I'd better tie you up too."

He picked up a piece of rope from the floor and walked over to the bed. But instead of making any move to tie Judy's hands he looked at her for a long moment and then ran his fingertip over her breast. Angrily she knocked his hand away.

He chuckled. "I could go for you beautiful. I like a girl with some fight in her. Especially when she's built like you are."

"Keep your hands off me."

"You never did tell me whether your tits are really that big or whether you wear a padded bra."

"That's none of your business."

"Maybe. But I'm kind of curious. If there's no padding in your bra, then your boobs must really be something to see. So you just take off your blouse and let me have a look."

"Go to hell!"

All in one motion, he dropped the gun and the rope and grabbed her. She didn't waste any breath in screaming, but threw herself backward and rolled across the bed. There was a ripping sound as she rolled and suddenly she was on one side of the bed and Ernie was on the other, holding her torn blouse in his hands.

For a long moment he stared at the ripe flesh of her breasts spilling over the top of her bra. Then he lunged for her. She was quick as a cat and scampered away from him, but there was really no place she could go. They darted back and forth across the room, yet he managed to stay between her and the door and she was trapped in the room.

Finally he had her backed into a comer and slowly closed in on her. And just as he reached out for her, her foot came up in a hard kick at- his crotch. Unfortunately her aim was slightly off and he caught most of it. on his thigh. But it was enough to make him wince and grab his balls and she seized the opportunity to dash out of her trap in the corner.

Then the chase was on again.

Soon he had her backed into another corner and again she tried to kick him in the balls. But this time he was ready for her. As her foot flashed out at him he grabbed it and yanked, and she fell hard. Instantly he was on top of her.

They rolled and tumbled together and there were more ripping sounds. Once or twice I heard a grunt of pain from Judy. But she was inflicting some damage too, slashing with her nails, and Ernie's face was lined with bloody furrows. When he stopped to finger a particularly deep gash in his neck, she managed to slip out from under him. But her tattered skirt stayed behind and now she was wearing only her bra and panties.

I'd been straining and yanking at the ropes around my wrists, but they didn't budge. Now I yanked even harder and I think I yelled at Ernie. But he didn't even hear me. Inflamed by Judy's near nudity, he was close on her heels as she raced frantically around the room.

Now she was beginning to tire and she was a little too slow one time in dodging his outstretched hand. He hooked a finger in her bra strap and jerked hard.

Her bra tore free.

He paused for a moment, staring at her. Her full lush breasts heaved with her harsh breathing and her delicate pink nipples seemed to wave up and down.

"Jesus!" he croaked. "What a pair of tits! Now let's get your panties off and see the rest."

"Leave her alone!" I screamed. "I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch!"

He didn't pay any more attention to me than he had before and I lunged even harder against the ropes. Suddenly I paused. Was it my imagination, or had the ropes loosened a little? I couldn't be sure. If they had loosened, it sure as hell wasn't much.

Now Judy's breath was coming in gasping sobs as she tried to stay out of Ernie's reach. Her breasts bounced wildly as she ran and I could see the sweat running down her chest and her back.

Suddenly she stopped dead and turned in a different direction and I couldn't imagine what she had in mind. Then as she lunged forward in a sliding dive across the rug, I understood. She'd spotted the gun lying on the floor. She slid up to it, grabbed it and started to whirl. But she was too late and Ernie was on top of her. It only took him a moment to wrestle the gun out of her hand and toss it across the room. Now there wasn't any question about the outcome and I didn't need to hear her panties ripping to tell me how it was going to end. When she slipped out of his grasp this time, she was completely naked.

He slobbered a little as his eyes crawled up and down her body and devoured her nudity. Her proud thrusting breasts. The ripe swell of her hips. Her golden thatch of cunthair and her long trim legs.

"Christ!" he panted. "What a piece!"

Again I yelled at him and tugged at the ropes, and this time it wasn't my imagination. The knot had slipped. Not much, but a little. Maybe Judy hadn't tied it too tight or maybe Ernie hadn't I checked it carefully. I yanked at the rope in a frenzy and could feel it wearing my wrists bloody.

But even if I could get free of the goddamn rope, it probably wasn't going to be in time.

Because Ernie had gotten to his feet and, staring at Judy the whole time, was slowly taking off his | clothes. He got rid of his shirt-his undershirt-his I pants. Then he slid down his undershorts and stepped out of them.

He was naked. His prick, hard and stiff, waved in front of him as if it was reaching for Judy's naked I body.

He leered at her. "Do you want to cooperate or do you still want to fight? Either way, I'm going to get into that hairy pussy of yours and fuck hell out of you."

She slowly backed away and he followed. I tore wildly at the rope, yet it wouldn't give any further. He caught her and the rope still wouldn't give. He dragged her, struggling and kicking, to the bed and threw her on it and .the rope suddenly gave. First a little, then a little more. Painfully I pulled one hand free and whipped the rope off the other hand.

He lay on top of her, pinning her to the bed, and she fought like a maniac as he tried to get his cock into her cunt. I bounded across the room, clamped a hand on his shoulder and spun him around. And as he turned I crashed my fist into his jaw.

He was tough, though. The blow knocked him across the bed but he shook it off, then leaped at me with a roar of frustration and rage. He sailed into me and we fell to the floor. Back and forth we rolled, first one on top and then the other. I landed a few good punches oh his scratched face and I took some jarring ones from him too.

Then suddenly we rolled further and my head crashed against the leg of the bed. Stunned, I felt my hands lose their grip on him and through a haze I saw him scramble to his feet and dive across the room. I knew immediately he was after the gun. And this time, with the mood he was in, there wasn't any doubt about the fact that he was going to shoot me and then rape Judy.

And I didn't have a chance of getting across the room in time to stop him. I tried, but that blow on the head had unplugged some circuits in there and the message wasn't getting through to my arms and my legs. I tried again, got one foot under me. Then the other foot. I staggered upward and lurched toward him.

But he already had the gun and was whirling to face me.

And as he turned, Judy stuck a foot between his legs and tripped him.

He teetered for a second, trying to regain his balance. Then he went down, crashing in a heap on the floor. And as he landed there was a muffled crack from the gun that he still held in his hand and which now lay beneath him. His body seemed to jump at the sound of the shot and then he went limp and lay still.