Chapter Sixteen: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
"She said she needed my help." Don Jose fought gallantly to rise to his feet, even though he was badly beaten and bruised all over. "Ow!" His swollen ankle gave way and he nearly fell down.
"It's all right, it's all right!" Catherine threw her skinny body right at him, looping one of Don Jose's flabby arms over her shoulders. He was shorter than she was, but he was also very fat. It took all her strength just to hold him upright. "Can you walk a little, dearest? That's it, just take little tiny baby steps. Use your good foot if you can. Put all the rest of your weight on me!"
The two of them struggled up the narrow jungle trail, barely dragging themselves along. The sun would be going down in an hour or so, but the air was still sticky and moist and very hot. Catherine felt herself beginning to perspire quite heavily. "Come on, we've got to keep going," she panted, as Don Jose's feeble steps began to falter. "Stay with me, dearest. You can do it! We parked at the top of the hill. Antonio's car is quite near, very near!"
"Antonio," Don Jose groaned. The fat man sagged a little, as though under a heavy burden. "I was wrong about my nephew, Catherine. It seems I was all wrong from the very beginning!"
"We couldn't have known," Catherine blurted, the words all coming out in a rush. She was feeling very sweaty by now and totally out of breath. It wasn't easy to admit, but she had been just as mixed up as Don Jose about what Antonio was really after. Instead of trying to push his fat and lazy uncle out of the family business, strong, sensible Antonio had been trying to save his life!
"I must see him," Don Jose muttered, in a weak and shaky voice. "I must see Antonio! I've got to tell him . . . got to tell him . . ."
"Yes, we'll both tell him! Don't talk now, dearest. We must get up that hill!" Catherine kept hearing an old pop song in her head. "He ain't heavy, he's my brother." That was how she felt about Don Jose. But the trail was far steeper than she remembered. By now she was really starting to wonder if they could even find the car. Why couldn't she have listened to Antonio in the first place?
The morning had been very frustrating, because after breakfast Antonio had dragged her all over San Marcos. They'd done plenty of walking, and Don Jose's gorgeous nephew had even pointed out a few historic sites in the old part of the city. Catherine didn't mind playing tourist or holding hands while they strolled about. But tall, dark-eyed Antonio spent much more time talking to shop girls and open-air peddlers and street people than he did talking to Catherine. All of them had something bad to say about Carmela, the hot-blooded local girl who'd stolen from Antonio and betrayed his uncle. But nobody seemed to know where she was!
Finally Catherine had put her foot down and told him that Carmela was obviously looking for revenge, and would surely have gone to la hermandad secreta, the secret brotherhood who controlled the beachfront drug trade and the seedy little entertainment clubs. True to form, Antonio had taken her advice, driving at top speed to a well-guarded private club on the very edge of the jungle. And then he'd ordered her to wait in the car while he went right inside!
"I can't make it," Done Jose gasped, clearly in agony from his sprained ankle. "Please, my dearest love. Let's sit down and rest!"
"We can't rest!" Catherine hissed. "We're almost at the top of the hill." Her lungs were burning with every breath she took. Her heart was ready to burst. "Just keep going, and don't quit. We mustn't quit!" The skinny, long-legged girl was every bit as exhausted as her flabby male companion. But tired, panting Catherine had her own reasons to push herself beyond the limits of her endurance.
If only she had listened to Antonio! Waiting inside the parked car, she had turned up the air conditioner just as high as it would go. At first she tried to relax, tilting her seat back all the way and kicking off her high heels. But sleep was not what she wanted. After a very short nap, Catherine decided to explore the jungle on her own. She found Don Jose slumped beneath a banyan tree.
"At last!" Catherine gave a cry of joy as she saw the flashing chrome and bright red paint of Antonio's expensive sports car. But then the car door opened and a long-legged woman stepped out, her lithe body seeming to uncoil itself like a poisonous serpent.
"You must be Catherine," the beautiful woman said, her smile as cold and deadly as the tiny black pistol in her hand. "Thank you for bringing Don Jose back to me. He got away last night, thanks to those fools in the secret brotherhood. But he won't escape a second time."