Page 6 (2/2)

But I probably could do soot to Sullivan I could have an ambulance, doctors, andin like the marines They&039;d find the whole nest of roaches asleep and ready to cart away

I left Doc and his guard and was guided out of the kitchen and through a darkened dining area where all the chairs were stacked on the tables Deserted stage for the band, empty dance floor, the kind of o&039;pulent decor that only vice hts, host of a past custolad e left it behind

Upstairs was bird would have sunk in up to its beak Soated in the hall, s both when I came into view Everyone watched as alked between them toward a door paneled with fancy wood inlay at the far end There was a brass sign stuck to it with the wordscript letters My escort opened the door and motioned me in first, then kept close behind, an ar out of line

It was the rooned to is, but not enough to take the bloodstains out of the pricey carpet Dried out and gone dark, they were still where he&039;d dropped

Maxwell stood attentively next to the vast desk at the far end, hands loose at his sides, looking on everyone with apparently benign interest Calloway, Baker, and the two other uniforms were in front and turned as I caet up

"That&039;s close enough," he said when I was still a good thirty feet froiven him an earful about me while I was busy downstairs "Satisfied?"

Calloway licked his lips, staring at e he&039;d shown before at the shooting lurked in his face, and he was ai it in my direction "Blindfold him Put a sack over his head"

"Later I like to see a man&039;s face when I talk Helpsto lie"

"You Sullivan?" I asked, already knowing the answer this time

"That I am" His accent was more of Boston than of Ireland, but that didn&039;t s had had a firm hold all over the East Coast for years, ith their ru Prohibition Hell, so to put on respectable airs and sending their kids off to places like Yale and Harvard to learn polo Sullivan looked to be one such exaer than I expected, early thirties His conservative and costly suit draped a stocky but solid frame, topped by brown hair with a red cast to it The stockiness extended to a square face with a cheerfully pleasant expression, and he was probably handsoirls except for those hard eyes They were flat as paint I couldn&039;t read a thing froaveto make me unco either intimidated or iust Just when you think all the roaches are gone, another one turns up

"Fle the answer, if I could tell anything by his tone and self-assured ht of hi beetle This was going to be interesting

I nodded once Calloway kept watching, da me one Didn&039;t matter I was too far away fro fancy Just have to wait for the right moment when it came

Sullivan indicated his pet cop "The lieutenant here says you&039;re working for the Pacos"

"I was just looking after Opal" There, not exactly a clear answer, but not really lying, he could take it any way he liked

"Didn&039;t do too well at it, did you?"

"Out of my control"

"Why were you two at the hotel in the first place?"

"Everyone scattered after the raid We were to wait there for Angela to call us so we could hook up with her someplace else"

"And did she?"

"Yeah Told us to lay low until she could send soot there first"

"And who do you think is behind the hit?"

I had a very good idea and hated it, but wasn&039;t about to say anything The situation was dangerous enough Shook my head "The Pacos have a lot of enemies

Maybe some smaller bunch wants a cut of their pie Maybe the hit was meant for Calloway, and Opal and I were just unlucky to be there Anyone at the hotel ise to the situation had plenty of tianized Calloway and his boys weren&039;t exactly subtle"

"Calloway see a hit on their most valuable asset? Oh, sure, that makes lots of sense

They need Opal to decode the account books for &039;em Without her, they&039;re useless"

"Maybe they didn&039;t want her coain"

"Could be Of course, you could have done it yourself to cripple the Paco operation"

He went frozen-faced for a moment, then chuckled "Maybe I did But she&039;s back with us now, so it&039;s all under the bridge"

I threw a quick glance at Calloas looking at Sullivan and trying to keep froestion Apparently there wasn&039;t a whole lot of trust built up between either of theame Let him wonder if his new boss set hied his face to display the smile of a reasonable man "What I need now are the books Opal took away to little Angela Oh, and don&039;t think any of us are fooled by her sca Frankie&039;s not the erous More so"

"That&039;s ant her out She&039;s too flashy She draws attention into areas ould rather have go unnoticed"

That was for dae for"

"I don&039;t buy backto return Doc to her, if she chooses to be sensible"

"WhatFrankie for years, practically another father to Angela I&039;ainst her"

Gave him a nod This wasn&039;t the ti trail with that ploy

"Doc&039;s other value is that he knohere all the bodies are, so to speak I&039;lad to tell us all of the Pacos&039; hiding places, then I send my boys in to smoke &039;em out one by one The books are bound to be soood idea, Mr Sullivan"

Brows high "Oh?"

"It&039;d take too long and you&039;d lose a lot of soldiers Operations like that are expensive and make noise It draws the kind of attention you say you don&039;t like This ain&039;t the sah of a stink and the refor on the pressure to the politicians You may have a lot of the Then there&039;s the federal side of things Nasty bunch of Boy Scouts is what I hear about &039;eh and dirty as anyone And don&039;t forget the tax people You won&039;t want the up on your income records any more than Capone did, and all that andthe bosses who sent you here would prefer you to go completely unnoticed by any of that crowd"

Elbows on the desk, he clasped his hands together and rested his chin on theured, have you?"

"It&039;s pretty obvious"

"Then hoould you reco all this disaster and grief down on et theh except Calloway

Sullivan recovered first "And how do you plan to do that?"

"I talk with Angela, feed her a line about you setting up a hit onthat anyway because of you being behind the dance-studio raid-

then tell her she needs to scrauts She&039;s stubborn, but not

stupid, she&039;ll find so She&039;ll have the books with her, so-"

"You know a lot for so for her," said Calloway

"It only makes sense Without theonna keep &039;eht as her own skin"

"And you think she&039;ll just hand them over to you?" asked Sullivan

"She&039;ll raise a royal ruckus-unless I can promise her some additional compensation besides Doc&039;s safe return I can talk her into it, but she&039;ll want money"

"I don&039;t buy back my own-"

"I heard you the first tionna have to bend a bit on that point You gotta give her so so she thinks she&039;s saved face and come out ahead on the deal"

"Bend how far?"

"Give Angela enough so she can take Big Frankie off to soet his head shrunk I heard Switzerland has good doctors for that kind of thing"

He gave a snort and derisive shake of his head

"Her father is what all this is about," I said "What she wants froain-which probably ain&039;t gonna happen, so you won&039;t have to worry about hi back One or two days at the most and they&039;re both out of the country, out of your hair, no one gets killed, and the papers and refor to kick about because nothing&039;s happened"

"Except forout of a ton of cash"

"A week&039;s receipts for the territory at most Compare that to a full-bloar-

and she&039;s ready to fight it-and you&039;ve got yourself a bargain Think of the expenses saved on funerals alone"

Calloway sneered, but Sullivan slapped the desk and burst into laughter again

"You got balls cos, kid"

"I&039;estion or two for everyone&039;s benefit, Mr Sullivan"

"And don&039;t be pulling that &039;aw, shucks&039; routine on me We both know you&039;re a s in the business"

I gave a nonco is you&039;re trying to go into business for yourself Maybe you&039;ve figured a cute way of arranging for ela, and then it disappears and so do you"

Shook my head "How you ela, use your own people Just give ame I want no part of it"

"I almost believe you What makes you so special that she&039;ll listen to you?"

Gave a laugh this ti if you knohat I ed a look with Maxwell "First I&039;ve heard of it How

&039;bout you, Calloway? You know about this?"

"No" He atching me like a rattlesnake

"Maybe we should ask Doc what he knows"

"Go ahead," I told his and play along He was a drunk, but an instinctive survivor "But let hi him up here to play twenty questions Oh, and if you want to make sure she stays around so she can decode the books once you get theet someone better than Doc to look after her You o for proper treatment and no questions asked, otherwise" I raised one hand andmore would have been too much for this crowd

Maxwell looked at his boss There was a very, very slight change in his manner, an indication of my earlier influence on hi for it "Shall I see to that task?"

Sullivan cocked a brow at hi lady was in a bad way, I assure you Doc can patch her up for now, but I doubt that he can keep her alive given the li moment I mentally held my breath

Sullivan watched me the whole tiiven it to him He finally quirked a corner of his mouth and nodded "Okay"

Let out the ot the feeling that Sullivan noticed

Maxent pastoff his hair Put hi and he could have been any of the lonely hearts cooling heels at the dance studio He spoke with thequiet orders He didn&039;t raise his voice beyond a murmur, but he initiated a lot of movement in response Either he had hidden depths to inspire such swift obedience or it was enough that he spoke for Sullivan

No ot help to Opal that " I turned back to Sullivan He&039;d gotten up froh the various bottles, but couldn&039;t see to his taste "It&039;s time you told et out of it with a whole skin"

He shook his head "We all want that, but what else is there?"

"I just said"

"Uh-uh Everyone has an angle, especially smart operators, and that&039;s you"

I&039;d have to throw hiht What I want is after this is all settled for you to forget I was ever here I got et clear, completely clear of all this You and yours pretend that you never heard of me and I promise to return the favor"

He put his back to the bar, leaning on it to regard me The crease on his pants was fresh, his shoes were new and well polished And he was still too far away forconstructive "That&039;s all?"

"I&039;h operator to knohen it&039;s tiame when you&039;re ahead"

"I&039;m ahead if I leave this one alive I&039;m way ahead if I&039;o on without me"

That raised another chuckle Maxwell took his spot by the desk again and continued with the benign expression I wondered if he&039;d look so harlasses and bay rum in his slicked-down hair Easy subject for hypnosis or not, there was so to irlfriend, are you?"

"Don&039;t worry, I&039;ll let her down easy"

More laughs as Sullivan returned to the desk, too, and roup to move off They came to stand near me, but not too near Callowayon with his boss Maxwell leaned forward, head cocked in a listening pose Sullivan murmured very quietly so no one else could catch any of it, but I had no trouble at all hearing the conversation, only with keeping my face composed while they talked

"Can&039;t trust him," said Sullivan "Not the whole way"

Maxas probably good at poker His lips barely moved "No, but if he could do the job, it would save you a lot of effort"

"He&039;s too confident He should be scared"

"Indeed he should be"

"Hasn&039;t even broken a sweat He&039;s worried about the girl, but that&039;s all He&039;s got another ga You think?"

"Maybe"

"He talks to Angela, sure, but then does a double cross and turns on us Leads her right back here for a hit"

"Endangering Doc?"

"That&039;s what I&039;d do to get rid of a threat like me Position she&039;s in, she can&039;t afford to have friends in this business"

"It would endanger Opal, too"

"I don&039;t think she&039;s that i me out of the way So what if the books are coded, we just find soure them out for us

She could do the saet them back first," Maxwell pointed out

"So I should use this punk?"

"As long as he&039;s on a leash Opal can be the leash Let him run and see what he does"

"You think she matters that much to him?"

"I saas downstairs with her Since you can&039;t trust him, your best bet is to trust the soft spot he has for her"

"God knohy"

"Soet quite silly about the has happened here; that, or he thinks he&039;s so to save the damsel"

"Yeah, he looks the type," he said, tossing a sidelong glance my way Apparently Sullivan wasn&039;t too impressed by common human decency He didn&039;t look the type

"Okay, watch my dust" He turned to face me, smiled like a carnival barker, and waved an open hand at the phone on his desk "Okay, Fleet things started Call Angela"

First check and a bad one, but I had an answer ready "I don&039;t have the number

It was Opal&039;s departarnered a snort fro his head off He doesn&039;t have anything going with her or he&039;d knohere to call"

I looked at Sullivan "Hey, I can&039;t help it if the boss lady plays her cards close

She&039;s cute, but careful Do you give your private nuirlfriends knohere to find you everythe hotel and leave a e with your number for her to call, but that would let her knohere you are Besides, it&039;s the long way around things"

"And the short?" asked Sullivan

"Have someone drive me back to the hotel She&039;ll have the place under watch-"

"It&039;ll still be crawling with cops investigating the shooting"

"I can get around theot a phony press pass" Actually, it was real, left over frohts I&039;d have to clean outyou&039;ll want to slip away for good instead"

"Why should you think that?"

"Because that&039;s what I&039;d do"

I hate it when guys like Sullivan ainst their own personal standards It&039;s never complimentary "You ive ela?"

He smiled "Exactly"

"But I&039;ve asked for anonymity with that freedo to stop you fro after me Take it as the other half of the deal that will keep me in line"

"There&039;s a better way"

"Yeah?"

"You do exactly what you&039;ve promised and I won&039;t dump Opal in a field somewhere"

I pretended to choke "What? You can&039;t, you need her to-"

"No one&039;s that i I&039;ve other accountants to take her place

Losing her would be inconvenient, but not a disaster"

Struggled to pull the anger in Though I&039;d knohat bluff to expect, it wasn&039;t hard to believe in it, so my reaction wasn&039;t all pretend In fact, for Opal&039;s own good, I&039;d better believe his threat whether he was bluffing or not "You lay one finger on her"

He kept up the s him exactly what he wanted to hear "She&039;ll be safe, so long as you behave"

"You&039;ve gotthis deal for you"

"Good, because if you don&039;t, if Angela turns up here and tries acting cute, Opal is crow food"

"I get you I still have to see Angela to make this work"

"That I can believe," lance "Have Calloway and his men take ht"

"Daht I wouldn&039;t But we cuff and blindfold hiave a half snort "He&039;s really got you spooked, hasn&039;t he?"

"I&039; you on this, Mr Sullivan There&039;s soet people to do things, all he has to do is look at &039;eet Angela to play ball with us Do whatever you want, then Max, give the kid our nu the in the marines didn&039;t happen I knew my limits If it had just been me alone, I&039;d have taken the chance, but there were too many of them, and she was too vulnerable Doc as well

Maxwell drew out an oversized fountain pen and wrote so on a slip of paper, blew on the ink, then walked over to hand it to ed, call You&039;ll have until ht to make an initial report To us After that and on&039;t answer to Opal&039;s safety"

I automatically checked my watch, but founda broken timepiece, so I&039;d left it ontill then?"

"A couple hours"

"It s"

"Nonetheless, you will call in"

Focused on hiive any clue of it to Calloway

"Take care of Opal, would you? Like she&039;s your own kid sister"

Maxwell blinked behind the glasses Wasn&039;t sure if I got to him or not, but I didn&039;t dare do more He stepped out of Calloway&039;s path; he and his cops closed on h the kitchen again The bloods alcohol and the sour smell of cheap booze Opal lay small and forlorn on the table, covered to the chin hite tablecloths, her skin nearly the saht reue

Doc sat on a steel stool next to her, drink in hand and a mournful look on his face

"How is she?" I demanded If she was dead, then all bets were off, and Sullivan and his creere just soon I&039;ve done as ot She could use a transfusion Might help her chances"

"Talk to Maxwell He&039;s supposed to be arranging things to get her to a better place"

He sipped frolass, winced and hissed in reaction, then looked at me "Youon up there?"

"Never you mind," said Calloway He found a spare tablecloth and used his pocketknife to cut a wide strip from it While Baker pulled my arht aroundoff lih Insofar as hypnotizing anyone went at the

"Take care of her," I called as they pushed me toward the exit "I&039;ll be back"

Calloway laughed once