Page 10 (2/2)
"I don&039;t kno Charles and I are trying to figure it
He wanted to find out why they were trying to ace hiot a tip in a bar about the roadhouse, that the guys were connected with the ht The place was cooking e arrived and we found the cop we brought in and his friend, as dead
They were both in the parking area behind the building with no other cars around I saw sos but left &039;eet any footprints or tire ravel"
"Very neat," he said, watching me He had pale eyes under those heavy lids, like ice under snow clouds "Tell ot his nae at the same time
Hard luck for him"
"They said he should be dead"
"Maybe he&039;ll fool all of thes"
"Tell ht"
"What about it?"
"You were there"
"I was?"
"Witnesses said there was a tall man at the scene with a short wo&039;s full of tall men"
"They went off in a Cadillac with four ular clothes Why were you with them?"
"I wasn&039;t"
"You&039;re lying todeal, I thought "Escort and I were out checking a lot of places last night and didn&039;t get back until-jeez, it was close to dawn Don&039;t know about hih I wouldn&039;t even know about the shooting if he hadn&039;t mentioned it
He&039;s a nut when it co tabs on city cri ti to unnerve ht back "You&039;re lying," he finally said It was a careful statement, spoken in such a way as to make an honest ? You are a stinking liar"
He kept his voice low, but the feeling he packed into it was enough to carry to the others in the roo us, now, even the sad couple It&039;s what he wanted, I supposed Maybe he was hoping I&039;d sock him in front of witnesses
Iback soht have inti a bucket of water onto a rock All it did was strea the rock at all "Everyone&039;s entitled to an opinion,"
I said evenly "I don&039;t think I can help you anymore on this"
"We&039;ll talk later" He made it sound like a threat
"Great, if we&039;re done for now-" I made to rise He didn&039;t object, so I stood up His men still eyed me, all tense; from their combined looks they wanted to pulp et in line behind their boss "Gonna keep watch here on Calloway?"
"Maybe"
"What about the otherbusiness?"
His full down-your-nose aloofness reasserted itself just then "They&039;re nothing you need to worry about"
I debated kicking his butt then et, but decided it wasn&039;t worth the trouble "Let&039;s go find Escott We&039;ve got another one for you"
"What do you uy with the specks I cahn Kyler He&039;s in a confessing et him?"
Better not to answer that one directly "He&039;s a volunteer He&039;s had it with the mob and wants to help you nail thelare, but I was already turning away into the hall, forcing him to follow
"Think you&039;re s up behind me
"I know I ae of a priift horse when it coht and you&039;ll be the big name in all the headlines for the next year"
"Headlines?"
I thought he&039;d like that idea "You&039;ll be getting rees, invitations to all the best parties"
"I don&039;t care about that crap"
"Suit yourself, but it&039;d be a shaain"
"I don&039;t drink"
Again with the conte small talk with this one On the sas to do than try to change hisaway from him as fast as possible
Escott and Maxere in a badly lighted eating area that stank of old coffee and carbolic It was even s Escott bounced a questioning eyebrow atwas fine
"Mr Adkins," I said, pausing before their table "This is Maxwell I think you till have a lot to talk about over the next few days"
Maxwell stood up and politely put out his hand Adkins didn&039;t respond in kind
No big surprise there
Escott also stood, excused hi back to the waiting rooed past us toward the dining area I caught a whiff of bloodsh there were no stains to see The whole place reeked of bloodsible, but ain Worried
"I take it things ell?" Escott asked
"He&039;ll always hate uts, but we&039;re square How do you stand him?"
"It&039;s not hard Once you accept the fact he thinks we&039;re little h to ith-not that I welcohting your Hydra?"
"It&039;s everyone&039;s enemy, old man We may not enjoy the company of our allies, but it&039;s nice to know they&039;re in the battle Where&039;s Shoe?"
"Out waiting in the Nash I want to stop hoain I got soet started before the barflies are too drunk to help"
A cop, the first one I&039;d seen since co in, followed in the doctor&039;s wake and passed us, looking grilad to join you in the hunt," Escott said after the cop was out of earshot
"Uh-uh This is so I can do more quickly onthe Paco house again?"
"That&039;s next onon Sullivan First I&039;ll start hitting the places where I know she&039;s got business interests, like that brothel, the Satchel"
"You ht need so to the ht I&039;d make the offer," he said, all innocence
Adkins&039;s twoanything
"This don&039;t look so good," I said
"Indeed" Escott kept walking "Have you considered o off in one direction and you take another? We do know the city rather well"
He was going to try talking etting people to cooperate that were nearly as effective asstarted on otta take care of myself I&039;ve had some experience at this kind of work"
"Escott! Fle!" Adkins hurried up behind us, the doctor, cop, men, and Maxwell in tow We waited for them They delivered the news that Calloway had just died I didn&039;t have anything to say about it and just frowned like the others For me, Calloway had been dead since I found him, the declaration only a forhts I wanted to about the waste of human life, no matter whose life it was
"My condolences," Escott said to the cop, who made no reply, just stared at us
Adkins&039;s face was all frozen over, his voice just as cold "It&039;s a double-ation now,at the hotel I want you two to come with us"
"To assist in your inquiries? Sadly we&039;ve already given you all the information we have"
"We need full, written state redeotta be soot to hio"
"Myself as well," Escott put in
But Adkins rounded on hi here"
"Jack" Escott&039;s sharp gaze was on ood solid jab, but I endured the pain
"Not this ti and, with the idea of taking the sting out of it, didn&039;t look back so he&039;d rin
No cops stopped h I saw several in the halls
Maybe Calloway and Baker would also be treated as heroes by their colleagues It&039;d be good for the department to take that path with the public No need to wonder what the papers would make of four cops shot in two days, three of them dead
There&039;d be plenty of editorials, every one with their own solution to the task of how to make our streets safe Good luck to theure that one since streets were first invented Once upon a ti crazy in old Byzantiuood ti murder and mayhe bets on which group would win their next fight with rivals elsewhere in the city Nothing changes e to write the whole present-day business up as a story and send it to the Tribune was very strong I wanted soangs, the brear, of the corruption high and low The urge would pass soon enough, though It always did I couldn&039;t let et officially noticed in any way, shape, or form if I could help it There was too much dirt on me to take that risk, and I had to protect those around e about leaving hiize to him later, take him to Hallman&039;s an extra time or two Bobbi could put on one of her drop-dead dresses and flirt with hi to be iirlfriend, but you could tell he loved the attention
I hoped she was doing all right I wanted to toss all this in the nearest trash can and go see her, to get back to a norain
Only one way to do that
Of all the people in this toould kno to find anyone, both Sullivan and Angela, Gordy was my best bet He had more connections than the phone company and was the one name Maxwell had notthem in such a way so that the subject of Gordy just didn&039;t coot that touch of headache; I&039;d had to walk a tightrope on tiptoes I didn&039;t want Coldfield knowing and then passing the information on to Escott He was busy now, but if he found a way clear of Adkins, I didn&039;t need hih
The suspicion I had that Gordy was the one behind the hotel hit and all the rest of it was pretty solid Now Angela had plenty of motive for that kind of work and was still my first suspect, but Gordy could have done it just as easily This was exactly the kind of thing to stir up the pond, to get Angela and Sullivan to kill each other off, then he could s presented the approval of the New York bosses no less
I hated it; he was a friend tofavors, but above everything else Gordy was a business the orders I&039;d have to see him alone and find out one way or another where he really stood in this ure what to do about it if he was behind it all
But that could wait just a little while longer For now, the cold outside air was a relief after the hospital stink I gulped it down gratefully, walking fast toward the Nash at the far end of so spaces The idea was for privacy while I questioned Maxwell It was between street la was happening by the car and broke into a dead run
No time to count theed in, anyway, against two or two hundred I couldn&039;t see Coldfield, but kneas there, somewhere in the middle of a knot ofinto hiuys on lookout spotted my approach and stepped forward I saw blackjacks and brass knuckles I noted and forgot theot close enough to do dah h throwing him off balance Ghostlike, I passed hi behind a chill trail where I brushed by them
Half a dozen of them, all circled around Coldfield Another two held hi him Bloodsmell everywhere, hter
I burst into theout a et his next hit in His partner was next I had ti Coldfield, then the rest moved in to stop me Took some punches, hard ones, but didn&039;t really feel the an elbow into soainst the side of h to make an impression I was pressed all around by their bodies, by theAt one point I was corabbedafor ot warmed up yet
Vanished just as we started to topple Left theht and reappeared a few feet away Glance toward Coldfield Only onepile Coldfield was bent double and not doing h air back into his body
Aas it took et ot reorganized Even three at a time, I could take them easy
Gun
Didn&039;t see it, only heard
Sure as hell felt it Instantly knew that particular fiery burn as a bullet tore through uts When I dropped, my knees hit the pavement so hard my teeth rattled
Pause in the ht it was all over They stood still afor ain Couldn&039;t help it When it caave me a choice I was there one second and not there the next and the hell with anyone who saw
It didn&039;t take long to return I was still choked with rage; it gave me the will to come back a lot sooner than otherwise Five, ten seconds later, perhaps, not enough ti on Thewhen I yanked it away from him and slammed the butt on his skull
He dropped as I&039;d dropped, only without the disappearing act
Vanished again Went solid a few feet to the left Cracked another skull And again, this tiht
Then it was over I didn&039;t catch on, was all set to bust s that could still stand were now running off Started after the
Heard a hoarse shout behind e, take your pick, then went back to hi to push the paveed to sit up as I came close I put a hand out to help, but he snarled and batted it off He started coughing, got some air, then spit blood He puffed and wheezed and abruptly lurched to his feet, reeling over to lean on the car The door was open, inside light on, throwing a pale glow across his bloodied face Two shiners for sure, split lip, he&039;d need stitches for the cut over his eye, and that was only the daet you out of here," I said, reaching again
He reacted the same, this tilare was strictly for the bodies left behind
He doubled over, coughing, holding on to the car to keep froh breath, he swore Take a breath, swear, take another, swear Couldn&039;t blaot up and sha for two cars parked farther down the road, looking nervously back to see if I was following I stayed put in case another bright boy decided to try shooting again
Soot a motor started
Four men remained, casualties of battle, four of the ones who had been holding Coldfield, hitting hiht his breath, he staggered to the first and kicked hih to break ribs I heard the crunch
Got his balance, went to the next, and did it again, all the ti him every name in the book
Made a si ribs
I stayed where I was
The first carup speed One of theCouldn&039;t make out the words, but they were full of hate It set me off once more He wasn&039;t the only one who could hate I ran toward them, all my attention centered on that one distorted face
The car went full throttle and leftup I waited as the driver hit the gas and steered right toward h speed yet The vehicle was overloaded, sluggish It caht andboard Yanked the door open Grabbed the wheel and hauled it over Nearly fell off when the da on
The driver yelled, they all yelled Fist on nored it The car rolled forward, then jerked to a stop when someone found the hand brake
Gun The driver
My hand froze over his, squeezing He couldn&039;t pull the trigger I dragged hi, hard iht on top More shouts frouy on the passenger side slid over the seat, slipped the brake, worked the gears, eyes wide, nored hiet on top to see better The car juttered away, sluing on the road, then straightening
The rip I had, it ht as well have been buried in ce Made hits atto his growing fear I took the gun away fro him up Pinned his hands behind him
Marched him across the street to the Nash
Coldfield, standing in the middle of the fallen, amazed look on his battered face
He&039;d seen what I&039;d done and didn&039;t knohy
Brought ainst the car into the faint light so he could seeto hypnotize hiry for it
"Where&039;s Sullivan?" I hissed at hinized so in the carpeted hall of the roadhouse
Shook his head Wrong answer Shoved the gunti ti to shoot He knew enough to be able to read my face, to know that even after all this, his death wasn&039;t going to come from me
I backed off
Looked at Coldfield Didn&039;t have to ask
He understood why now, andup his eyes