Payne attacked his meal with zeal, smiling the entire time. Bennie Blount, the dreadlocked servant from the bayou, had saved his life-if only for the time being. Technically, Blount had only provided Payne with food, juice, and a much-needed shower, but in reality he had given Payne something even more important than sustenance. He had given him hope. “Bennie, I can’t thank you enough. I can’t even begin to explain how much I needed that.”
Blount grinned as he tidied the area around the box. He needed to make sure that there was no sign of his visit, or he’d get in serious trouble. “Well, I be feelin’ bad about the trick that we played on you and Mr. Jones. I figure it be the least I can do.”
“Speaking of D.J., how’s he doing?”
Blount took a deep breath, pausing ever so slightly. “I don’t mean to scare ya none, but I heard that Master Greene roughed him up somethin’ fierce.”
“What?”
“Before ya get too worried, I didn’t get a chance to find out if that be true or not, but I just thought it be best if I done told ya what I had heard.”
Payne considered the information. If it was true, it would make things doubly difficult.
“Where’s he being held? Is he in the main house?”
“No, sir. He be in a utility cabin near the slaves. It kinda stands out from the others, though, since it has plumbing and be much larger than the rest.”
“Is there any way you can visit him? You know, to bring him food and first aid?”
Blount shook his head. “Not without them knowing. The cabin is guarded, and it be locked from the outside. Since I ain’t got no key, I can’t get in with no permission. And I don’t think I be gettin’ any.”
“Is there any chance of him getting out? A window? A trapdoor? Anything?”
“You be watchin’ too much TV! There ain’t no such thing as trapdoors in the real world.”
Payne immediately thought of Levon Greene’s escape from the tattoo parlor, but he didn’t have time to explain it to Blount. “So, there’s no way in or out without the key, right? How about Ariane? Is she still in the same place as before?”
Blount wrinkled his face in discomfort. When he originally briefed Payne and Jones about the Plantation, he had given them bogus information. It was all a part of Greene’s master plan of deception. “I been wantin’ to talk to ya about that. You see, the stuff that I done told you before was a little off.”
Payne leaned his head against the Devil’s Box and groaned. “How off?”
“Kinda completely off.”
“Bennie,” he said.
“I be sorry, but Master Greene wasn’t about to let me tell ya the real stuff. He’s one of the bosses of this place, so I didn’t have no choice.”
“Yeah, but . . .” Payne stopped his complaint in midsen tence. He suddenly remembered that Blount had just saved his life, so there was no way he was going to make him feel worse about his earlier actions. “Okay, Bennie, you’re probably right. You didn’t have a choice. But I’d certainly appreciate it if you filled me in now.”
Blount nodded. “We gotta be quick, though. I don’t want to be gone too long from the kitchen. I might be missed.”
“Fair enough.”
“So, what do ya need to know?”
Payne grimaced. There were tons of things that he wanted to learn about the island, but before the opportunity passed, he needed Blount’s assistance on something else. “Bennie, I know you’ve done a lot of nice things for me, and I really appreciate them all. But there’s something I need that’s even more important than information.”
Blount brushed the braided hair from his face, gazing into the box. “Like what?”
“Well, I was wondering if you could scratch me.”
“Huh?”
“I was hoping you could scratch me. I’ve been in here for a pretty long time, and I got a number of itches all over my body that I can’t reach, so . . .”
“You’s being serious, ain’t ya?”
Payne nodded, trying to look as pathetic as possible.
“You’s crazy! I want to help ya and all, but I ain’t touchin’ no man. Besides, there ain’t no way my arms can fit in that thing. The holes on the top be too skinny.”
Payne sighed, making sure that Blount could hear his disappointment. “Come on, Bennie, there has to be something you can do. These itches are driving me crazy! Every time I move, it feels like something is crawling on me-especially down there. It’s horrible!”
Blount examined the grate of the box, but his suspicions were correct. There was no way for him to get his arm inside. “Why don’t ya do it yourself?”
“If I could, I would. But as you can see, my hands are bound to the floor. I can’t even crack my knuckles, let alone scratch myself.”
Blount peered closer, shining the light inside. “Yeah, your hands is bound good. Unless . . .”
“Unless what?”
“Unless I can do somethin’ with your hands.”
Payne tried not to smile, but it was tough. Blount had just suggested the one thing that Payne was hoping for. In fact, it was the only reason that Payne had bitched to begin with. “Jeez, Bennie, what do you think you can do?”
Blount examined the shackles from several angles. Then he peered at the outside of the box. “You be in handcuffs, right? And the handcuffs is bolted to the floor?”
“That’s right.”
“And if I release the bolt from the floor, you’ll still gonna be in cuffs, won’t ya?”
Payne pretended to contemplate things. “Yeah. That sounds about right.”
“And you can scratch yourself with cuffs, can’t ya?”
“Definitely! And it wouldn’t be like you were freeing me. I’d still be locked in this thing.”
Blount mulled over the situation. He didn’t want to do anything that would give away his role in this. “All right. I think I can unscrew the bolt from the outside. Once you pull your cuffs from the hook, I be putting the bolt right back. That way it looks like you did it on your own.”
Payne lowered his head and smiled. The servant didn’t realize it, but he had given Payne much more than an opportunity to scratch.
He had given him a way to escape.
CHAPTER 41
DAVID