The Captured House-a short story by Austin Mitchell

                                                    The Captured House

                                                                     by
                                                         Austin Mitchell

   The house had been there, locked up for years. Harris Pattison was down in St. Elizabeth being cared for by his daughters who had migrated to that part of the country some years earlier. It followed a tradition of old folks either dying off or migrating to some other part of the country and leaving nobody to take care of their property. In most cases their children were either abroad or as in Harris’ case in another part of the island. In some cases the properties fell to ruin and sometimes they were overrun by stray animals and praedial thieves. Harris’s property was lying there for about four years during which time his wife died, before Villie turned up one day to say he was the new caretaker. He had a woman with him, Carline, but they had no children. Villie did tailoring while his woman operated a dress shop in Constant Spring, uptown, Kingston.

                It wasn’t long before Winston turned up. Nobody knew either Villie, his woman or Winston. We understood that Villie had migrated to Kingston as a youngster because we all knew his mother, brothers and sisters. Winston, was from a nearby community, but he too had migrated to another part of the island as a youngster. Winston soon started selling drop-hand, a numbers game for a Chinese man.

            I was sitting on a wall near the house one day when I heard them talking.

           “So how’s the game going on, Winston?” Villie asked.

           “People aren’t buying as much as I expected?” Winston replied.

            Winston had found a woman in the nearby district of Goffe Springs and he would spend nights with her. He had a room in the four bedroom house, but we didn’t know if he paid rent to Villie.

        Brenton Village where we lived was a large fruitful district with several large farms.  There were several churches, a couple of basic schools, a primary and a high school. Villie sold produce from Harris’ property to nearby higglers who would take it to market in Linstead, Spanish Town and Kinston. He seemed to be prospering with the money he made on the property plus his tailoring business.

          Winston also seemed to be prospering as most nights there were hardly any winners in his game. He was soon able to buy out the Chinese man and began operating the game on his own.

        Goffe Springs was a lively place as most weekends huge dances were held with sound clashes. Villie and Carline would dress to impress when they attended these dances.             Winston and his woman, Danette, were also dance fans. A lot of food and liquor flowed at these dances and both Villie and Winston spent freely.

            Six months later Bravo turned up. He was younger and shorter than both Winston and Villie. We understood that he was a dry cleaning expert. He was also their cook as Carline came home too late at nights to do any cooking and Winston’s woman, Danette didn’t live with him. Bravo was a likeable fellow. He came into the area when the game of cricket was quite a popular sport and played a bit of it himself. He soon became the official cook at most cricket matches. Bravo was such a good cook that he soon started cooking and selling at dances thus making some money for himself.    

                 On the home front things weren’t sailing that smoothly as Villie was getting exasperated with Carline staying out very late at nights and there was a lot of quarrelling. Winston and Carline were also quarrelling after Winston complained of hiding some money on at least two occasions and not finding it.

                  I was in their yard when I heard them quarrelling.

           “This is the second time I’ve hidden some money and can’t find it, Danette.”

           “Are you accusing me of stealing your money, Winston?”

        “I’m not accusing you of anything. All I’m saying is that this is the second time I’ve hidden some money here and returned to find that it’s gone.”  

           “Well, I can assure you that it was neither I nor any of my children who stole your money.”

            Sometimes Dannette would bring her two children along with her when she came to look for Winston.

              The next week Wednesday, George Palmer had his shop broken into and he and his wife, two sons and one daughter beaten up. All of them had to be hospitalized.  Goffe Springs was in shock. We all knew George and his wife, Phyllis and their three children. That somebody could have broken in on them and injured them after robbing George of nearly fifty thousand dollars came as a shock.  Scores of police personnel came into the area. Naturally suspicions fell on the latest arrivals. They however all had alibis and the police searched their house, but nothing was found.

            “It’s those guys from Nelson, who did it. When they come to dances in Goffe Springs they are always hanging around George’s place.” I heard Ville saying one day. I don’t know if I believed him since I knew the men from Nelson and they’d been coming to Goffe Springs for years and never committed any crimes.

          In March two masked men went into the principal of Goffe Springs High School and robbed him and his wife of twenty five thousand dollars.  The people of Goffe Springs were up in arms and Bravo was taken into custody. Everybody believed that they were the thieves.  Bravo was released the next day when both Winston and Ville provided  an alibi for him. People were now arming themselves with all sorts of implements. Without their knowledge a nightly watch was put on the house where Villie and Bravo were. Men were taking turns in watching it.

           Then something happened that threw the village upside down. Winston lost all his money. Winston had in a drunken stupor revealed to Danette the number, that he was planning to play and Danette had informed several of her associates. As the bank had no limit Winston had to pay out thousands of dollars resulting in him leaving the district almost penniless. Then Bravo got into a fix after he had fixed up a heavy meal and went to take some exercises and returned to find his meal eaten.  Winston was arrested two weeks later when he and two men tried to rob a bar in a community five miles away. They were held and beaten by citizens. He confessed to the robberies in Goffe Springs thus implicating Villie and Bravo. We were later to learn that behind his friendly demeanor Bravo was a serial killer. We were also later to learn that Villie had actually captured Harris’ house and hadn’t paid a cent of the rent he claimed he was paying, The End.