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Ninety Days Inside The Empire: A Novel by William Appleman Williams

The Dream and The Reality of Violence

Page 99

"I'd be happy."

"Well, maybe."

That night at supper she told Caroline and Mitch about it.

"You did right, Nancy. Don't you ever get in a car with any stranger, no matter how nice they seem."

"Well, he is nice."

After she had gone to bed, her parents went into the kitchen and talked about it for more than an hour, finally and reluctantly decided it was serious.

"Mitch, you can't take her at all, and I'll try to do it every day but there's bound to be times she's on her own."

"I trust her, and anyway I'd like to catch the bastard. I'll go talk to Security first thing in the morning."

"You can't use her as bait! That's disgusting, Mitch. I'm ashamed for you."

"She's already bait. The thing is to nail the son-of-a-bitch. Otherwise he'll just pick on another kid who may not even tell her parents. So how you going to feel then, Mrs. High-and-Mighty Self-Righteous?"

She turned pages in a Raymond Chandler. He scratched some old shellac records of Basie and Shaw.

On his way to the Base Security Officer the next morning Mitch found and talked with Mr. Hank. He explained the problem and asked if the man might be the one who went after Maggie.

"Sure, Maggie made him in church. But I told you that. Now he's after you folks for working with us. I'll nail it down by tomorrow."

Mitch hardly knew the Security Officer. Once a year the base invited civilians to watch the best pilots do slow rolls at fifteen hundred feet and other harmless but thrilling maneuvers, and Security kept the curious away from the propellers. They did respect each other and used first names.

"Well, Mitch, it's a tricky one. It's ours and it isn't ours. We're charged to protect our personnel only if they are on official business; otherwise we're supposed to call the sheriff or the police."

"Damn it, school is official business because we don't run our own system."

"Yes and no. She's our business till she gets on that bus, then she's city and county business."

"Oh, for Christ's sake, Ralph! You know what'll happen if I go down town on this...."

"Yes." He hesitated, "Well, Mitch, your other activities would make them inclined to lose you in a file. Especially the Sheriff's boys - I hear they're mostly Klan."

"Oh, piss up-wind. My politics don't get into this. You know I can't watch her much at all, and her mother can't do it every day. Anyway the point is to catch the miserable jerk."

"No offense, Mitch. I'm just talking reality...."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. But can't you do anything?"

"Tell you what: you give me the location and the times and I'll put a quiet car on it for a week and we'll see what we get."

"Thanks, Ralph. Sorry about the steam."

"I'd be blowin' it, too, Mitch. I'll call you."

The security men were very good; an old chief who had done intelligence work in Hawaii and Manila before the war (nobody read his reports), and his sidekick who had worked undercover in Chicago during the gang wars. They were candid about how easy Richie made it for them.

"This must be new for him. He acts like he's in a dream world bein' a big brother to the girl."