Dudley and the Damsel

Dudley and the Damsel

by Damon Nomad

          Dudley stared at the woman. He wondered if he was seeing things; nobody swam in the small cove. Dangerous riptides made it a risky proposition. He watched as she swam to shore and then waded to the beach. There she stood with her hand on the back of her head, like she was squeezing water out of her hair. A beautiful woman in a bikini.
          Then he realized there was no blanket, or clothes on the beach. Maybe she's lost or something. She wouldn't be able to see him back in the shadow of this rocky passage. Just as Dudley was ready to shout to her, she bolted toward the tree line. The bicycle rental place was back that way, but it wasn't open yet.
          Moments later, a small boat zoomed into the cove and up onto the beach. Two men in street clothes jumped out and tossed out an anchor. It looked like they may have spotted him and were jogging his direction. They look like bad news.
          He backed away and headed for the footpath. He could circle around and see if she was hiding near the bike rental shop. Those two characters must be after her.
          He figured she needed help and he was gonna try. People in the small island village called him Dudley-Do-Right to poke fun at him. Always trying to do a good deed and often getting embarrassed or taken advantage of. But he was sure, seeing if this woman needed help was the right thing as he headed down the narrow trail.
          It only took about five minutes to get to the rental shop. Dudley spoke loudly, but not quite yelling. "You hiding back here? Those men after you?" He paused, "Maybe, I can help."
          She crept out from behind a storage shed. Her voice trembled, "Their boss wants to kill me. I jumped off his yacht when it got close enough." She crept a few steps closer, her arms clenched around her torso. "Please, help me."
          Dudley waved toward the small hotel near the rocky passage way. "I'm the maintenance man at the White Sands Hotel."
          It was an economy hotel on the west side of the island. The mainland was only about a mile to the west. There were three upscale resorts on the east side of Paradise Island. The small town, population 2300, pretty much survived on tourism.
          He continued, "My house is on the edge of town through the woods here. A ten minute walk. My sister's old room still has some of her clothes. I think they will fit okay. You can stay there, kitchen's stocked, and after work you can tell me what's going on."
          He lived in the house he had grown up in with his parents and older sister. His parents died in a car accident the year after he graduated from high school. His sister was in college on the mainland and came back two days for the funeral and never returned to Paradise. That was fifteen years ago.
          Her voice broke with emotion and she brushed away tears. "Why would you do that? You don't know me. Maybe I'll steal from you."
          Dudley shrugged, "I got a sense about people and I got nothin' worth stealing."
          "Thank you, my name is Phyllis."
          "I'm Dudley, let's get moving."
          ***
          Dudley headed for the hotel after dropping Phyllis off at the house and giving her a quick tour. He saw the two men from the beach at the front desk in the lobby. He panicked for a moment thinking they might recognize him. He could see from their reaction; they hadn't gotten a look at him.
          The hotel owner/manager, Felix, was working the front counter. Dudley waved, "Sorry, I'm a little late, Felix. I'm gonna get my tools and get to work on the porch railing."
          The two men walked past Dudley and went out the front door. He stopped at the counter. "You know those two? I thought I heard one of them call you Felix." Felix had been on the island about ten years and had a lot of acquaintances on the mainland right across the channel.
          Felix shrugged, "Never laid eyes on them. Name's right here." He tapped on his name tag on his chest.
          "They checking in? Not exactly dressed for vacation."
          Felix sighed, "Yeah, they aren't sure for how long. Said they are looking for a friend of theirs. A young lady, they showed me a picture. Not someone I remember seeing, I think I would remember. Quite a beauty."
          Felix pointed a finger at Dudley, " You should stay clear of them. I'd say criminal ruffians. I saw the type before in the hotel I owned on the mainland."
          "Shouldn't we tell Sheriff Spalding?"
          "You kidding, he's crooked as a dog's hind leg. Makes more money looking the other way than doing his job."
          "Really? I never knew that."
          "You need to learn who to trust, Dudley."
          ***
          Late in the day, Dudley came through the front door and found Phyllis in the den. He put the tool box on the cupboard and gestured towards the kitchen. "You cooking dinner?"
          "I thought it was the least that I could do."
          "Okay, I'm gonna go upstairs and get changed. We can eat and talk."
          Dudley listened to Phyllis' harrowing tale through dinner and for another hour in the den. He took a sip of coffee. "My God, you are lucky to be alive. You can't blame yourself for not suspecting your boyfriend being involved in the criminal world."
          He shook his head, "I'm always giving people too much benefit of the doubt. We can find you a boat to take you to the mainland in a few days. I'm sure."
          Someone on the porch forcefully knocked at the front door. Phyllis headed for the kitchen as Dudley went to see who was calling. He quietly gasped when he saw the Mutt and Jeff pair of thugs from the beach. A tall lanky man and a short stocky guy.
          The chunky man spoke as he pushed past Dudley, "Mind if we come in? I'm Lou and this is my associate, Clyde."
          Dudley backed away from the front door, "What do you want?"
          Clyde closed the door and stood on the spot like a posted guard.
          Lou continued, "We are looking for someone, a lady of sorts. We talked to the woman who runs the bicycle rental shop on the beach. She saw you with a woman in a bikini this morning as she was pedaling into work. Told us where we could find you."
          Lou sat on the easy chair near the front door. "Said the woman looked like the picture we showed her."
          He pointed toward the stairs, "She upstairs? In the attic? Just tell us where she is. We aren't interested in searching the whole place."
          Dudley kept his cool, "That was Annie from the library."
          "Don't lie to us." The man ran his hand over his balding head. "What did she tell you? She was some kind of victim? That we were sent here to kill her?"
          He gestured at Clyde. "We gonna kill Rita?"
          The tall man stood quietly with no emotion.
          Lou jumped out of the chair. "Yeah, we're gonna take her out to the ship and the boss is going to feed her to the fishes."
          He slowly circled around the den and stopped near the kitchen door. "She's not an innocent victim. She stole two million dollars from the boss and hid it somewhere. Set it up like Vinny had done it and she killed him. Vinny was our friend, the boss's right hand man."
          Clyde spoke for the first time, "She's a stone cold killer."
          The kitchen door flew open and Phyllis-Rita put a gun to Lou's head. It was the old revolver from upstairs. It had been Dudley's father's gun, and they used to target shoot with it when he was growing up.
          She cocked the hammer back, "Put your gun on the floor, Clyde." She smirked, "No way you can shoot me from that angle." She pulled Lou's pistol from his belt with her left hand and laid it on the side table.
          Clyde took his pistol off of his hip and laid it on the floor.
          She pushed Lou and stepped away from him. "All three of you sit on the floor. Sorry, Dudley, I can't afford any witnesses."
          "Everything they said is true? You gonna kill me and them?"
          "Afraid so. Stole the money, set up that grease ball Vinny and then popped him in the back of the head."
          Clyde and Lou sat down on the floor. Dudley shook his head. "I ain't sitting down."
          She moved a few steps closer. "I'll shoot you in the face."
          Dudley smiled, "Not with that gun. Ain't got a firing pin anymore. Just a memento of my papa. Never bothered to get rid of the bullets."
          He shrugged, "I may not be the smartest person in the world. I ain't gonna leave a stranger in my house with a loaded gun. I checked the drawer and saw it was gone when I went upstairs."
          She aimed at the floor and pulled the trigger two times. "Crap."
          Rita tossed the revolver to the floor and waved a hand at Dudley, "What kind of game you playing?" She glanced back at the table where she had put Lou's pistol.
          "You get all that, sheriff," Dudley shouted.
          The door to the basement swung open and the sheriff came out. "Loud and clear and recorded." He pointed his pistol at Rita. "Don't go for that gun on the table."
          The sheriff glanced at Lou and Clyde, "Don't either of you make a move."
          Then he shouted, "Come in deputy."
          The sheriff waved as the deputy came through the front door. "Restraints on those two and get their weapons."
          Dudley pointed at the toolbox he had laid on the cupboard. "Camera and microphone, amazing." He paused, "The sheriff came in the back entrance for the basement when I came home."
          Rita smirked as she shook her head, "You played me. Like you totally bought into the damsel in distress act. When did you figure it out?"
          "Well, I got suspicious when I dropped you off here. I could understand why you would want to get somewhere safe and get some clothes on. But I wondered why you didn't ask about calling or going to the police once it was clear you were safe."
          He continued, "Then some pieces kind of fell into place. I found these two talking to the manager at the hotel, Felix. I've heard lots of stories about Felix when he was on the mainland, running in shady circles. I'm guessing he knew these two or their boss and they gave him some money if he helped find you. He told me to stay away from them and said Sheriff Spalding was crooked. My parents were good friends with the sheriff. I knew that was a lie."
          He pointed at Rita, "I was pretty sure these two were crooks and they were after you. But I didn't know why."
          He continued, "I figured you weren't what you were pretending to be when I saw you had taken the gun from the drawer upstairs and didn't tell me about it."
          He nodded at Lou and Clyde, "Carla runs the bicycle rental place. She called me on my mobile and told me what those two were after and what she told them. She wanted to make sure she hadn't caused me any problems."
          He gestured at the sheriff, "I knew they would be hunting you down here. So, I went to see the sheriff before heading home."
          Dudley sighed with a shrug, "I wanted to do the right thing. But it didn't turn out the way I expected."


Word Count: 1990
Prompt: Write a story based on a picture