Death on Location by A Read online

  Mammoth Mysteries, January, 1946

  Death on Location

  by A. Boyd Correll

  It seemed to be a very good location for filming a horror movie. In fact it was so good the most horrible of all creatures kept everybody’s nerves on edge and finally ran off with the heroine HEN my boss, Lon Manville, said,

  her on the Sunset Limited for the east coast,

  “Look, Tom, I gotta have a location

  she said, “If you’re ever in New York, look up W that looks like a South Sea island,” my old man. He’ll know where I am. And if I immediately thought of Jane Morgan. Last

  you want a location for one of your sultry

  year I’d met Jane in Hollywood and we’d

  pictures of South Sea wenches, use the family made the joints together. She was a swell sport estate back of Miami.”

  and we struck up a nice friendship. When I put Lon’s picture was about a marine flyer

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  that landed on a Pacific isle after his plane bed. It was through those windows that the

  conked out. I went to New York and saw Mr.

  gibbering came.

  Morgan. He said it was O. K. to use the place, I thought for a moment I was

  so here I was in Florida.

  dreaming. I lay still, with my eyes fixed on the The location was made to order. Palm

  big patch of pinkish blue that was the

  trees, Spanish moss, palmettos, lush swamp

  changing of moonlight into dawn.

  grass and a tropical lake—everything the boss It came again. A low, throaty, insane

  had ordered.

  noise that grew in volume.

  However, instead of finding a deserted

  I slipped from the bed and flattened

  house and grounds, inhabited only by a lone

  against the wall as a shadow swayed across

  caretaker, I found a lot of activity. Interesting the fluttering curtains. The shadow suddenly activity, I’ll admit. Unknown to her old man, came into silhouette and developed into

  who thought she was in Aiken for the horse

  something out of a horror picture. It seemed shows, Jane had taken a breezer with three

  tall, incredibly tall, though it stooped

  friends and a chaperone to the Florida estate grotesquely, and its body was covered with

  and set up housekeeping in the mansion for a coarse hair. But the head was what started me long week-end. An ideal spot, located in a

  talking to myself. It was flat and long, covered remote section off the Tamiami Trail near the with scales, and swung from side to side as

  Everglades.

  though set on a pivot. The snout protruded and The three friends were Bill Drake, a

  the jaws opened and closed with rhythmic

  handsome fellow, just out of Leyte and the

  regularity. An odor of rotting flesh swept in army, with a Jap bullet in his leg; Betty through the windows.

  Williams, his fiancée, a blonde with a figure As it came into complete view I dived

  and looks that would stop traffic at Hollywood for my suitcase, where I had a .32. The thing and Vine, and a guy named Harrison, whom I

  was carrying a woman in its arms.

  did not get to see. Harrison had dived into the As I got to the window, I heard a thud.

  lake the first day they got there and cracked It had dropped from the balcony with its

  his head on the bottom. He had gone back to

  burden, and I could see it scurrying, crab-like, Miami to get it fixed.

  across the lawn. I didn’t dare aim at it from The chaperone was a sweet old lady

  that distance for fear of hitting the girl, but I named Mrs. Smythe. She had a middle-age

  blazed away over its head and saw it drop her spread and grey hair frizzled into ringlets and streak for the heavily wooded banks of the about her head, and she would go around

  lake which bordered the far end of the sloping punching pillows to make people comfortable

  terrace.

  when she wasn’t in the kitchen cooking.

  The first day was perfect. I subbed for

  I WHIPPED into a bathrobe, pounded down

  Harrison with the cracked head. We danced

  the stairs and out across the lawn. Then I

  and had a few drinks and looked at the moon

  stopped dead a moment. A figure, glistening

  and took a canoe ride on the lake.

  in the moonlight, had risen from the beach of That night, what with the lake breezes,

  the lake and was running towards me. I

  I popped off to sleep like a baby. My room

  dodged behind a bush and waited until the

  was on the second story, and it faced the lake.

  figure was opposite, then I dived for its legs. It A long balcony ran the length of the house. A was Bill Drake. He grunted and started to

  cool breeze blew across the lawn and filtered fight, then recognized me.

  through the big windows at the foot of my

  “What’s all the shooting?” he

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  demanded.

  mouth. Something had torn away her throat.

  “You swimming this time of Blood still welled softly from the ghastly morning—before daybreak?” I asked.

  wound into an ever-widening circle on the

  He nodded. “Yeah. I couldn’t sleep. I

  worn carpet.

  was on the beach and thought I heard shots.”

  I glanced around the ill-lighted room

  I said “Some refugee from and yanked at the .32 when I spotted a figure Frankenstein dragged a girl by my window. I

  crouched in a corner. Then I relaxed. It was a took a pot shot at it, and it dropped her near girl of about eighteen. A rough gingham dress, the lake.” I had pulled him back towards the faded and torn, clung to her body. She was

  pond. “There she is now,” I added as a form

  barefoot, and her face—beautiful in a savage on the grass became visible in the moonlight.

  way—spoke of stark terror. I walked towards

  Drake struck a match. “God! It’s her.

  Betty!” he said.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked.

  On the grass, her clothes half torn from

  “Me and Maw come over to see Jake?”

  her body, Betty Williams lay whimpering. I

  the girl stammered.

  dropped down beside her and laid my hand

  “At five o’clock in the morning?”

  against her throat. A fast pulse pounded.

  “No, sir. We come over last night. We

  “She’s O.K. Just out from fright.”

  live a ways down the creek. When we started

  Drake lifted her and she moaned. home, Maw got skeered and we come back.

  “Everything’s all right,” he said. “This is Jake let us sleep here and said he’d take the Bill.”

  tool house out back.”

  “Take her back to the house and give

  I nodded towards the corpse on the

  her a shot of brandy,” I said. “I’m going to floor. “Was she your mother?”

  look around for that small edition of King

  The girl kept her eyes on mine. “Yes,

  Kong.”

  sir. Likewise, that is, she ain’t my real maw, I slipped fresh cartridges into the .32

  but I been livin’ with her since I can

  and pushed into the heavy underbrush where I remember.”

  had seen the monster disappear. A few broken I studied the gir
l. A product of the

  bushes showed where it had fled; but the trail swampland, beautiful, half-savage, with a

  was soon lost in the darkness. I went on mass of black hair framing her oval, olive toward the lake, but, after half an hour of

  face, she was shivering like a high-strung,

  wandering, the ground became so marshy that

  sleeping dog.

  it was almost impossible to go further.

  “Where’s Jake Middings now?” I

  I turned back, cut sharply to the right,

  asked.

  and came to the cottage of Middings, the

  She lifted well-rounded shoulders. “I

  caretaker. When I knocked, there was no reckon he went up to the big house. I woke up response. However a light showed through a

  when somebody was shooting. I thought it

  shaded window and I tried the door. It was

  was Miss Morgan’s friends hunting ’possums.

  unlocked. As I entered I sucked in my breath.

  I must of gone off to sleep again. Next thing I On the floor, with lips tightly curled in

  knowed, there was that lamp lit and something a hideous grin of death, lay an old woman.

  awful was a-hanging over Maw. It had a

  Her eyes, almost protruding from her head,

  ’gator head. I got so skeered I musta fainted, seemed to be fixed straight on my face. I half because the next thing I knowed you was here expected to hear a scream of insane laughter and Maw was on the floor—”

  come tearing out of that horribly grinning

  She started shaking as though on the

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  verge of hysterics. I pulled her to her feet.

  my shack.”

  “Come on, we’re going to the house. I’ll call I thought of the pitiful body lying on

  the sheriff and get a posse here. What was

  the caretaker’s cabin floor. “I’m driving to your mother’s name?”

  Ferndale to get the sheriff,” I told them. I The girl huddled close to me as we

  headed for my room where I changed my

  went through the doorway. “Folks just called pajamas for a rough jacket and slacks.

  her Maw Tober. I’m Lissa.”

  It was light as I entered the barn which

  served as a garage. Inside were three cars—

  AT THE house, Betty Williams was lying on a

  my coupe, Jane’s Mercedes roadster and a

  couch. Bill Drake sat beside her, an empty

  station wagon.

  glass in his hand. Mrs. Smythe stood by with a I swung into the coupe and pushed the

  bottle of smelling salts. The brandy and salts starter. The motor whirred but nothing

  had partly restored the girl’s nerves.

  happened. I tried again and still no response. I Jane Morgan ran to me as I entered.

  got out, lifted the hood, and found every spark She had a touch of her old man’s square,

  plug smashed off at the base.

  stubborn jaw, but her face would have made a I checked the Mercedes next, then the

  movie scout turn handsprings. “Betty told me station wagon. Each had been sabotaged.

  what happened,” she said. “Did you find Things were shaping.

  anything?”

  I had a tingling down my spine as I

  Middings, the caretaker, came in and

  turned to go out of the barn. At the door I ran interrupted my reply.

  head-on into a man. He grunted and dropped

  “Miss Jane,” he said. “The phone’s

  his pipe. I backed off, fingering my gun.

  dead. I can’t get the operator.” He turned to me. “Mister, did you really see it?”

  HE WAS a seedy-looking character. Pig-eyes

  Middings was a typical son of the soil.

  that were bloodshot, a worn coat of loud

  A large man, stooped from a lifetime of hard plaids, and a denim shirt opened at the throat.

  work, and a face lined from squinting in the He reached down and picked up his pipe.

  Florida sun. He rubbed his hands together and

  “Morning. Just taking an early stroll through I could hear a whispering rasp from his old man Morgan’s grounds,” he said.

  calloused palm. His voice was a soft-spoken

  I looked down at his shoes—and saw

  Southern drawl.

  one pants-cuff covered with blood.

  I nodded to his question. “Yes. I saw

  The stranger followed my gaze.

  it.”

  “Horse of mine got a wire cut,” he explained.

  The caretaker backed away and I saw

  “I was fixing his leg this morning.”

  fear in his eyes. “Oh, Lawd!” he moaned. “I

  “You live nearby?” I asked.

  never believed it till now.”

  He nodded. “Yep. Next estate. Name’s

  “Believed what?” I asked sharply.

  Sterling. John Sterling. Maw Tober, who does

  “Ever since the last big wind,” he said,

  my cleaning, said some folks were here. I was

  “folks been talking about something prowling coming over later and pay my respects.”

  the swamps nights. Dogs been bit and tore on

  “Come on up to the house,” I said.

  dry land where no ’gator ever was, yet the

  “My name’s Ferguson.” We walked a hundred

  way they was chewed up was just like a ’gator yards in silence. The name Sterling rang a

  does. Maw Tober heard something last night

  bell. I had seen the names Sterling and

  when she left my place. She and Lissa was so Morgan on the financial sheets of the Los

  scared they come back and spent the night at Angeles papers. The two were big competitors

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  5

  in Wall Street.

  this alligator’s trail now that it’s light.”

  Sterling whipped at the grass with a

  I called Middings, and he left with

  crop he carried, then chuckled. “You been

  Sterling for the latter’s place to ride for the here long enough to see the phantom ’gator?”

  sheriff. I crossed the wide lawn and splashed I looked at him sharply, saw him into the marshy ground that bordered the lake.

  grinning, but he avoided my gaze, still

  Dank underbrush slashed my legs and,

  whipping at the grass.

  as I went further into the swamp, the thick

  “Yes,” I said. “It tried to kidnap one of

  growth covered my head. Brush slapped at my

  Miss Morgan’s guests—”

  face and tore my hands. For a moment I had

  Sterling’s grin vanished. He stood still

  an eerie feeling that those twigs and branches and gaped at me. “You kidding?” he shrilled.

  swayed as though alive. Palm trees rattled

  I told him no, and explained what had

  their fronds with a noise like that of giant happened that morning. We walked on lizards slithering over a wall.

  towards the house. He kept shaking his head.

  A raindrop hit my forehead. Glancing

  “You know, there’s been tales going around

  up, I saw that clouds were gathering fast and the natives about an alligator that walks on its obscuring the sun. I hurried towards the

  hind legs, and has eyes that flash fire and that woods at the far end of the lake, reaching

  sort of rot—You sure you saw this thing?” He them just as the storm broke.

  was staring at me now.

  The rain came down in crashing sheets

  We had reached the steps of the house.

  as I halted by a huge fallen palm at the edge of

  “Yes,” I sai
d, “and I’m going to notify the

  the lake. It had left a small cave where its sheriff. Do you have a car I can borrow? The roots had been, and into this I crept. The

  ones in the barn have been put out of waters of the lake lapped into the front of the commission.”

  hole, but further back it was drier. I crouched Sterling shook his head. “No. Mine’s

  there, watching the storm for almost an hour.

  in Miami getting new rings. But I can give

  In spite of my uncomfortable position, the

  you a horse. You could make Ferndale in a

  steady pounding of the rain made me drowsy.

  couple of hours.” Suddenly what I had said

  My eyes had become fixed on a little pool of dawned on him. “Good God Almighty! What

  water in the cave. The rain made the surface do you mean, ‘put out of comm—’”

  shimmer like silver.

  Jane Morgan came out of the front

  As suddenly as it came, the tropical

  door and interrupted his shout. I introduced storm stopped. The water of the lake shivered her neighbor and he smiled with crooked, and became placid. The little pool I had been tobacco-stained teeth. I could see she didn’t watching became mirror-clear. As I crawled

  like him as she turned to me. I pulled her

  from under the bank, a bright object on the

  aside.

  bottom of the pool caught my eye. I rolled up

  “Listen,” I said. “Someone smashed

  my sleeve, thrust my arm down, and picked up the plugs in the three cars. This fellow Sterling a coin. Kneeling in the water, I examined it has offered us a horse, so, if it’s all right with and found it to be an old Spanish gold

  you, I’ll send Middings to Ferndale to get the doubloon.

  sheriff. Things are getting too thick for me to And then it came again—that insane