The Black Widow by John J. McLaglen Page B

so much?
    ‘ I’ll tell you! Please. Why don’t you just
ask me some questions, and I’ll tell you?’
    An d he’d talked. Betrayed every one of
his friends and the people who paid his hire. Herne shook his head
in silent contempt at the lack of guts. Within a couple of hours
they knew most everything they wanted to know.
    Just how many men there were left? Seven.
How many other servants? Just the butler, Jackson, and the
housekeeper, Mrs. Bellamy. Where were the guns kept? Where did the
guards sleep? Where were the rooms of the Stanwycks? When did they
eat?
    But there was one question that Mel shook
his head on and refused to answer. Coburn didn’t press it,
preferring to slide around it, and try other questions. Finally,
though, there wasn’t anything else left.
    ‘ Apart from that main
gate, there has to be another way into the place. Where is it, and
are you going to take us there? That’s the last one, Mel. You done
real good so far, and we’ve not had to hurt you scarcely at all, so
come on with this one.’
    The boy shook his head. The time had
given him some time to regain his composure. ‘I can’t I told you
everything else. But if I tell you about the other way in, and they
find out... Then they’ll give me either to that creepy one Luke,
with his white clothes and his fuckin’ needles, or to his
brother.’
    Despite the sweat that ran down his
naked chest, the boy shuddered.
    ‘ What’s wrong with Mark
Stanwyck?’ asked Herne.

    Glancing across at Becky who was trying to
sew up a tear in a skirt, the boy whispered: ‘He’s a pervert... you
know? He likes doin’ it up your... Only he hurts you while he does
it. And in your mouth. When he...’
    ‘ All right. We get the
picture.’
    Yes, we see,’ said Coburn, shaking his
head in distaste. ‘But you got to realize, Mel, that if you don’t
tell us, then they won’t be able to harm you. ’Cos we’ll kill you.
Course, we’ll hurt you horrible first.’
    ‘ If you tell us, then maybe
we’ll let you go after all this is over. And if you tell us right,
then we’ll get in there and kill them and you needn’t worry no
more. Now how about it Mel?’
    The boy’s eyes flicked from man to man,
the firelight bouncing off their faces, hardening them. And he
shook his head.
    ‘ I can’t. Truly. Please let me
go.’
    ‘ Jed?’
    All three men turned to look at the girl,
speaking for almost the first time since they’d arrived with their
prisoner.
    ‘ What is it, honey?’
    ‘ Can’t you let him go,
Jed? He’s answered all your questions. Hasn’t he?’
    Whitey turned to her, the red of the fire
reflected deep in the hollow caves of his eyes, making it seem as
if flames glowed within his skull. ‘Becky. Young Mel here’s told us
a lot that helps. But none of that’s worth a flying … flying damn,
less he tells us how to actually get in the house. And for that we
figure we need him to take us in. So you just hush up and leave us
be. It won’t be long, and if you don’t like it, then go take a
breath or two of that fresh air.’
    Her lips went thin with anger and hurt,
and Herne saw, half in the shadows, how much like his dead wife the
girl was.
    ‘ Becky. Remember what the boy
told us. These two are the last. And in some ways they’re the
worst. I recall what Louise told me about these twins before she …
before she died. The one who wears white, he couldn’t do it, and he
threatened to cut her eyes out if she told. And this other. Mark.
He was one of them to do it the... to do awful, blasphemous things,
to her. She was your friend and my wife, Becky. We got to do what’s
needful to avenge her.’ After that, she said nothing.
    It hadn’t taken long. But it had been
messy, and noisy, despite the knotted rope gag jammed in the boy’s
open mouth.
    Because the needle-point of Jed’s bayonet
was a little sharper than his own knife, Coburn borrowed it to help
‘persuade’ Tarrant that it would be better if he helped
them.
    There