Letters From the Grave

try anythin’ your wife is dead. Do you understand?” Jake agreed. “Do you understand!” Ryan was trying the old military reinforcement trick.

  Five minutes later, Ryan crossed Jake’s lawn and walked around back. Jake’s first inclination was to throw Ryan on the ground and press his thumbs into his throat and feel the life leave the man.

  Ryan spoke first seeing Jake standing by his truck. “Now, don’ you go tryin’ nothin’. I got me you forty-five and I ain’t afraid to use it. Done it before,”

  “Get in the truck, Ryan, I’m not gonna try to outdo you. You’ve got me scared.”

  “You better be scart, Jake. I got me the gun, and I got your girl. She’s real fine by the way.”

  “Stop the macho bullshit, Ryan. This is business. You don’t have to prove to me how tough you are. I know exactly how you work. But, that’s not important. We have only one agenda, and that’s to get you together with my gold coins. Right?”

  Ryan didn’t like being usurped. “I guess so, Ramsey. Le’s go.”

  Both got into Jake’s truck, and he drove to CHI Operations. Jake instructed Ryan, “You stay here and try to stay invisible. I’m going to negotiate a helicopter.

  Inside, Jake talked to Ross about what he was trying to do. Ross was initially reluctant, but agreed when Jake said his wife’s life depended on it.

  Ross just said, “Just bring it back in one piece.”

  Jake grabbed the keys to 067N and sprinted to the helipad, signaling Ryan to join him. Ryan jumped out of the truck, trying to hide the gun under his shirt as he ran to the Bell Long Ranger Jake was prepped to fly.

  Ryan opened the door and sat in the right seat while Jake finished inspecting it, then opened the left front door, sitting uncomfortably close. Ryan laid the forty-five in his lap, pointed in Jake’s direction. “Put that thing away.”

  Ryan answered. “You ain’t in charge here. I like it just fine.”

  “Look, Ryan. I gotta fly this thing. It takes two hands. What do you think I’m gonna do? Just keep it pointed in another direction so that I’m not nervous about being shot accidentally.”

  Ryan slowly put the gun on his right thigh pointing forward. “All right, Mr. ace pilot, I don’t want you nervous. Never figured you for a coward.”

  “It’s not cowardice, fool. It’s plain old-fashioned gun safety. You’re holding that thing with your finger on the trigger, which is wrong and extremely dangerous. If you knew anything about guns, you’d know what I’m telling you.

  “I know plenty ‘bout guns.” He was waggling the gun up and down while speaking. “Where we goin’ anyways?”

  The engine had come up to full power during this conversation. Jake pulled up hard on the sticks. “Up!”

  Ryan nearly vomited with the rapid climb and turn toward the south. “Ah, easy, man, easy. I ain’t use’t this shit. I ain’t never flew before, and I’m gonna be sick.” He already looked pale.

  At a hundred feet, Jake pushed forward on the cyclic and the helicopter accelerated. The combination of pointing downward and compression in the seat caused Ryan to vomit onto his door and back onto himself. “I don’t like this!”

  “Get used to it, shit bird. We gotta long way to go.”

  Ryan pointed the gun toward Jake again, trying to speak and Jake swatted it away. “I told you to keep that thing away. Your day’s gonna get a lot worse if I get shot.”

  Ryan leaned to the right, trying to recover as the helicopter leveled off at one thousand feet. The g-loads on his body neutralized, and he started feeling more normal.

  “I hate flyin’! I ain’t never flyin’ again.”

  Let’s hope!

  Jake looked at him. “Where’s my wife!”

  “You get her when I get my gold.”

  “It’s not your gold.”

  “You jes’ don’ get it do you, Ramsey? You don’t got any choice in the matter now. Where’r we goin’ anyhows?”

  “That way.” Jake pointed straight ahead out to sea.”

  Ryan sat more upright. “I don’ like it, not one bit. I never learn’t to swim. I don’t want to go over no ocean.”

  “You want the coins, right? Then we’re going way out. Pretty soon, all you’ll see is water.”

  “I wanna go back!”

  Jake snapped at him, “I want my wife!” He remained on course while Ryan was silent for a while.

  Then Ryan said, “I ain’t sker’t o’ you, ya’ know. I kilt people you know. You ever kilt, Ramsey?”

  “What’s that got to do with anything, Ryan?”

  “Oh, jus’ curious. I like to know how much of a advantage I got over you.”

  “Killing isn’t an advantage, Ryan. It’s a weakness in your case.”

  Ryan pointed the gun again. “I ain’t got no weakness!”

  Jake pushed forward, nearly causing Ryan to fall out of his seat. They were aimed straight at the water. “Stop this, stop this!” Ryan sounded like he would cry when Jake pulled back hard, leveling a few feet above the deck, causing Ryan to puke again. “Shit, man, you tryin’ ta kill us!”

  “I’ll tell you once again, Ryan. You point that gun at me up here again, and it’ll be the last of the stupid things you’ll do.”

  “Okay. Okay, I’m putting it in my pocket, is that all right with you?”

  “Why don’t you shoot yourself in the process?”

  Ryan snickered. “Okay, Jake. You ever kilt anyone?”

  Jake was exasperated with him. “Look, Ryan. I was in the Army for twenty years. I was a Ranger and a pilot. I’ve been in firefights. People get killed. I never shot anyone in cold blood, if that’s what you mean? Not like you, murdering innocent people.”

  Ryan shot back, “I ain’t kilt no innocents. They all had it coming. Take those girls. They was whores, they wasn’t real people. They’s breakin’ the law, and I was just doin’ my civic duty. It’s part’a my parole you know, community service.” He giggled to himself.

  “You’re sick, Ryan. Someone should have held your head under water when you were a kid.”

  “Well, some did nearly that bad. It didn’t work as you can plainly see. I’m a survivor, Jake. Not like some people I know.”

  Ryan finally shut up and looked away. Within a few minutes the platform was in sight. Jake adjusted altitude a few feet higher than the drilling tower. Ryan saw the big structure filling the windscreen as Jake did a tight circle around “Old Glory” before pointing into the wind and descending slowly onto the helipad.

  Ryan had fastened his seatbelt and was gripping the sides. “That sho’ looks small, don’t you miss it!”

  Jake ignored him and settled into the middle of the painted circle, flipping switches off. The noise of the turbine reduced immediately, and the rotor began slowing overhead. Jake didn’t say anything, as he exited the helicopter. Ryan opened his seatbelt and followed, catching up with Jake as he walked toward the stairway down to the main platform.

  Ryan was waving the gun and trying to shed the mess on his shirt. “Hey, hol’ up there, hol’ up.” He pointed the gun at Jake again.

  “What are you gonna do, Ryan? You going to shoot me – out here?” Jake held up his arms, gesturing at the expansive ocean in all directions, the only thing in sight.

  Ryan said. “I don’ like the ocean, an’ this is scary. What we doin’ here anyway?”

  “You want my coins?”

  “Yeah, ‘a course.”

  “Where’s my wife, asshole?”

  Ryan pointed the gun with a shaky hand. Jake was mostly concerned about an accidental discharge. “You get the gold, then we can talk. You hurry up now, she ain’t got much time.”

  Jake approached Ryan as he continued waving the gun in his direction. He slapped Ryan’s gun hand and grabbed his shirt tightly around his neck. “Where is she, asshole? You’re not getting off this platform until I know where she is!”

  Ryan struck Jake o
n the head with the gun, sending him to the deck. “You don’ get nothin’ till I see’s the gold. You got that, Jake? If’n I gotta kill you, I will. I got nothin’ to lose without it.”

  Jake felt his head and pulled his hand away, showing faint traces of blood. “Okay, jerkoff, you want the gold first, it’s here. Let’s get it.”

  “You kep’ it here?”

  “You know a safer place?”

  “I don’ even know’s what this place is?”

  “It’s a retired oil derrick. No one comes here. This is where BJ hid his share. It’s also where he blew his brains out, so feel free to follow the family tradition.”

  Ryan waved the gun toward the platform. “You show me if’n you want your lady alive. You don’t have much time, Ramsey.”

  Jake stepped down the ladder to the main platform and walked away as Ryan struggled to come down holding the gun while gripping the rungs of the ladder. “Where you goin’?”

  Jake didn’t answer but kept walking toward the generator shed. Ryan finally stepped down and ran after Jake. “Slow down so’s I can keep you in sight.”

  Jake shouted over his shoulder. “Where am I gonna go, Ryan? You’ve got my wife, remember?”

  They got to the generator shed about the same time and Jake stopped at the door. Ryan asked, “Is it in there?”

  “Yeah. It’s in there.”

  “Well, open it, le’s see!” Ryan was visibly excited, but he was still waving the gun like a toy.

  Jake opened the hasp lock with his key and threw back the door. “There it is.”

  “Where? I don’ see nothin’ but that big-ass engine an a buncha batteries.”

  “I stacked the boxes behind the engine, go see for