AMBUSHED IN THE NIGHT

Ambushed in the Night a short story by Austin Mitchell Laddie Wright was my friend. We came from the Keswick Mountains. We attended the same high school. At thirty three, I was only a few months older than him. Laddie was a mechanic while I had found work as a security guard. I was an armed security guard. People said of me that I was blood thirsty. As a rule, we never tell about the number of shootings we’ve been involved in. Jamaica is a violent place and once you’re carrying a gun you’re likely to be challenged by some hoodlum wanting to take away your gun. Maybe he wants to rob the place you’re guarding so he figures that if he shoots you there’s nobody to stop him from robbing the place. Well, quite a few of them have come up against me and I’m still alive. I’ve been in some sticky situations before, saw my colleagues killed or gravely wounded and I’ve had to shoot my way out of it. I remembered calling for backup, but none came. Anyway the saddest part of it all was about Laddie. When an older cousin of his died, we decided to go to the setup. Laddie had a motorcycle so he offered me a ride on it. I had a car, but it was in the garage undergoing repairs. We reached the set up around ten o’clock that night. I met several old school friends there and had a drink with some of them. Anyway, we left the set up at around two o’clock that morning. Several persons had warned us about travelling at that time on those roads. Anyway, Laddie said that he had to get home as he had to take his wife and two children to church later on that morning. So we set off for Kingston, a twenty five mile journey. Five miles out of Keswick we were on a lonely road when Laddie shouted. “They’ve blocked the road, Bidey!” “What the hell!” I shouted as Laddie stopped the bike. A huge tree was blocking the road. “Let us lift up the bike, Laddie.” Then we heard shouts from up in the bushes. “Don’t move, I have my gun on both of you!” “Go to hell!” I shouted and whipped out my gun and fired at a man rising out of the bushes. “Let us hide behind that tree there, Laddie!” I shouted and sprinted for the tree. Then I heard a scream and saw Laddie fall. “Laddie, Laddie!” But no answer came from him. Bullets were plowing into the tree behind which I was hiding. I knew that there were three men attacking us. I didn’t know if they were all armed. I was afraid that one of them could get behind me. I didn’t know if Laddie was dead or not, but he wasn’t moving. I knew that sooner or later, my attackers would rush me and probably wipe me out. I couldn’t try to drag Laddie from where he had fallen. I always travelled with two etra clips. I knew I had enemies and had to be prepared should I be confronted anytime by any of them. Then the shooting started again. I didn’t want to waste my bullets so I fired sparingly at them. Then I heard a man shout. “He shot me, Tanny! The bitch shoot me!” “Where you get shot, Bissy?” “In my right foot, it’s hurting me and it’s bleeding. I am going to bleed to death if we stay here.” “Take it easy, Bissy. It’s only one man we are dealing with. It looks like the other one is dead,” another voice put in. That confirmed my suspicion that there were three of them in the bushes. But the voice of the third man was familiar to me. He was Castel Whyte and he was from Keswick. So Castel was now a robber. I fired some more shots at them, then there was silence. I was beginning to think that they had run out of bullets. Then I heard them moving through the bushes and I fired several shots at them. They didn’t reply which confirmed my suspicions that they had either run out of bullets, or wanted to get Bissy to the hospital. I crawled along to where Laddie had fallen. There was a big hole in the left side of his chest. His shirt was full of blood. I needed nobody to tell me that he was dead! I wondered what to do. The nearest police station would be about three miles away. I dragged Laddie’s body to the side of the road. I took up his bag and put everything I found on him in the bag. I got on the bike, it’s a good thing I had learned to ride before I learned to drive. I wondered about leaving Laddie by the roadside like that. I didn’t see any stray dogs around to molest his body. I rode off on the motorcycle, hoping that I didn’t meet up in any more roadblocks. I reached the station in about half an hour, but it was in total darkness. What the hell, I thought. The bike was running low on petrol. There wasn’t enough petrol in the bike to get me to the other police station which was four miles away. I was in doubt as what to do next. Then I remembered Mr. Saddler or Benjie as we called him, the local Justice of the Peace. I knew he drove a pick-up. He was in his late fifties. I decided to try my luck, maybe he would help me take Laddie’s body to the hospital. “Where did you leave the body?” Benjie asked me. He had reluctantly woken up out of his when I relayed a message by way of his youngest son, Billy. I found him at the setup talking up a young lady. “By the roadside.” We got into his vehicle. Billy was the driver. He was around twenty five years of age. While we were on our way, Benjie filled me in as to what was happening in the village and surrounding communities. We reached where I had left Laddie but there was no sign of his body! The roadblocks had also been removed! “Are you sure that it’s here so you left the dead man?” Benjie asked me. Billy had taken out a flashlight from the vehicle and shone it on the ground. We could see clods of earth scattered on the ground. I used a piece of stick and probed the dirt and sure enough, there was blood beneath the earth, thick blood, Laddie’s blood. “Maybe some motorist took the body to the hospital,”Billy suggested. “But why would anybody try to hide the bloodstains?” I asked. Benjie took the flashlight and shone it on the river, but we saw nothing. It had rained earlier in the day and the river was still flooded. Laddie was a pretty heavy man, maybe weighing about two hundred pounds. “You think those guys might have taken away his body and dumped it somewhere?” I asked. “I don’t know what to think. Let us search the bushes, some more,” Benjie told us. Our search of the bushes revealed nothing. I slept the rest of the morning at my family’s house in Keswick. In the morning I rode up to the station to report Laddie’s murder. The policemen didn’t seem to believe me and asked why I hadn’t reported it from last night. I told him that the station was locked up. They didn’t believe me and called the district constable. He said that the station was open as far as he knew. Anyway, I told them what I knew. I told them that I couldn’t find Laddie’s body. I told them the name of two of the assailants as Bissy and Tanny. I also told them about Castel. But the policemen said that it was the first time they were hearing those names. Both the corporal and the district constable openly accused me of robbing Laddie, killing him and then hiding his body. Benjie came to the station along with Billy. “This guy killed the man after robbing him of his bike,” the corporal opined. “That’s nonsense, if he had killed Laddie why would he be still around?” Benjie asked. We left the station and went to where Laddie had been killed. Another search for his body was made, but with no luck. The policemen were still suspicious that I had killed Laddie although I had given a statement about what had transpired. They took my gun from me. I told them where I lived in Kingston and where I worked. They also seized the bike. I returned to Kingston later that day and immediately went to Laddie’s house. I had Laddie’s phone and his wallet plus the bike keys and papers plus his bag. Laddy’s wife, Elaine, was in the kitchen, cooking. “Bidey, what’s going on? Where is Laddie? I’ve been trying to get him from last night.” I sat her down in a chair on the verandah. I gave her Laddie’s possessions, then I gave her the bad news. She uttered a cry and began bawling very loudly. Several neighbors rushed to the scene. Some of them demanded to know what I knew about Laddie’s death. I told them everything. His two children Alaine and Andy were also crying. Laddie’s two sisters, Jheanel and Carmeta came on the scene and wanted to go to Keswick immediately. They had a car which Jheanel drove. The stupid policemen told them that they suspected me of killing their brother. Neither sister believed them and I was glad. They told the policemen that they knew me too long to believe that I would do something like that. A month later we held a memorial service for Laddie. Several persons complained bitterly about the absence of his body and blamed the police. It seemed that both Tanny and Bissy had left Keswick from the night Laddie was killed. Tanny never showed up at any hospital so nobody knew how badly he was wounded. As luck would have it a plain clothes policeman noticed a man acting suspiciously around an Automatic Teller Machine in Linstead. He accosted the man and took him down to the station. The man confessed that he had found a bank card and was trying to get some money with it. When the card was checked by personnel at the bank it revealed that it belonged to Laddie! The man still maintained that he had found the card. The man said that he was called Tanny! Two weeks later Bissy was picked up in Spanish Town. He accused Castel of firing the fatal bullet that killed Laddie. Bissy took the police to the place where they had buried Laddie’s body. The body was exhumed and an autopsy was performed. My gun was returned to me when none of the bullets in Laddie’s body matched those fired from my gun. Elaine was able to claim a substantial amount of money from Laddie’s two insurance policies to help with her two children. Bissy and Tenny are in jail awaiting trial on several charges, including accessory to murder. The police are still looking for Castell. The End. From my collection of short stories: The Worst is Over Now If you have any querries about this book please email me at: glengoffe1@cwjamaicama.com My books are available on Amazon, payhip and book fusion