Hellbound by Campbell Chester

Author:Campbell, Chester [Campbell, Chester]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Night Shadows Press
Published: 2015-04-15T04:00:00+00:00

The small front section of the restaurant was all that remained open. A thin waitress with ebony skin and a Jamaican accent brought strawberry-covered cheesecake for Betty Lou and Bryce, chess pie for Fred and a large chocolate sundae for Troy. There was a round of coffee for everyone. Black, no sugar.

Troy looked around as he dug into the mound of ice cream. “What has Tillie got planned for us in the morning?”

Betty Lou pulled out her schedule and looked at Wednesday. “A bus tour of the city in the morning. Then we go to the French Quarter for free time in the afternoon. We have dinner at Le Dauphin–that’s got to be a French restaurant–then go to Preservation Hall for a jazz concert. Sounds like a busy day.”

“We’d better rest up tonight then,” Fred said.

Troy grimaced. “Rest up from what? You’ve been sitting on your can all day.”

Bryce had checked out the place for Mafia minions and, finding none, turned his attention to the television set mounted on the wall near their table. “Take a look at the tube over there,” he said. “Must be a hurricane bulletin coming.”

As they lapsed into silence, the Hurricane Alert logo was replaced by a long-faced announcer at an anchor desk. A slowly twisting white radar image covered half of the screen. The sound was just loud enough for them to hear the newsman’s voice.

“The National Hurricane Center in Miami issued a hurricane watch tonight for the Brownsville area along the Texas coast. Hurricane Nora smashed homes and businesses and downed power lines as it unmercifully pounded Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula today.” The video image changed to scenes of destruction, roofs torn from buildings, trees uprooted or bowed like weary old men in the driving wind and rain. “Winds have diminished to just over a hundred miles an hour, reducing Nora to a Category Two hurricane, but they are expected to gain in strength as the storm moves back over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Weather forecasters also reported her track across the Mexican peninsula had slowed the northwestward movement to twelve miles per hour. If the storm continues on its present path, Nora should strike land again between Tampico and Brownsville. There appears to be no present threat to the Louisiana coast.”

“Thank God for that,” said Fred, turning back to what was left of his pie.

“He said if the storm continues on its present path,” Betty Lou reminded him. “What if it doesn’t?”

Bryce lifted his napkin and brushed a morsel of cheesecake from his lip. “In that case, I’d say things could get pretty exciting around here.”

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