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Bloodsmell in the car
Some of it on e clothes, but it&039;d have to wait
My turn to drive Needed to, needed a si froe Held a heavy foot to the gas, wanting lots of distance between us and the battlefield casualties
Coldfield sat partially curled around in the seat, knees drawn up, resting his back against the passenger door He wasn&039;tif he could help it Since he&039;d had a chance to cool down, the knocks he&039;d taken werethemselves felt, and I&039;d hear him catch his breath every time we hit a bump I tried to take it easy on the turns I also tried to talk hi to the hospital, but he nixed that
"Trudence&039;ll do better bytoward her sanctuary in the Bronze Belt and didn&039;t argue him out of it
I drove for tenat ht as we passed under street laht?" he asked
"I&039;m fine"
"But they shot you I saw"
"I&039;m indestructible, remember?"
"Saw you fall"
"Well, it hurt"
"You went away"
"I do that when it hurts too ht It takes tier like that I shifted s down inside "Don&039;t worry about it How&039;re you doing?"
"I feel like how Charles looked the other night"
"You et better" He held an already well-stained handkerchief to the cut over his eye His knuckles were scraped, but unlike the rest of hi I&039;d grabbed proved to be very infor to gang up on a solitary man, and quite another for hiht, to make you the special object of his attention
The thug hadn&039;t liked it one bit and started talking after a very short time Coldfield never asked why I&039;d not used the hypnosis; I doubt it even occurred to hi
The news of the fire, ht to the hospital had been passed to Sullivan via one of his other pet cops on the force Sullivan, who had indeed , harbored no doubts that she was behind the shootings and the fire, once he heard about thees to check the whole business out, soela&039;s goons turned up to finish the job on Calloway
His ency-room entrance, and that there was a black man at the wheel They learned about et near either of us in the hospital, so they opted to find and question the driver They&039;d just located hia Escott in the hands of Merrill Adkins
Their question was the saela? Coldfield sure as hell couldn&039;t tell them, but even if he&039;d been able to, they&039;d have kept at it with hione of the news about Sullivan had only been the second thing on rab I&039;d done it for Coldfield
Kicking unconscious ive you the sa out so that man to Coldfield, I&039;d also returned his self-respect to hi about it directly, but after he was finished with the fists and questions and theon the ground, Coldfield looked up and nodded his thanks to me Only then was he ready to let himself be helped into the car and driven away
I found the right street, the right alley, and pulled in easy does it Lights showed in the kitchen s, and as I set the brake the back door opened up The big man named Sal came out
I waved at him "Miss Coldfield&039;s brother is hurt and needs help Go find her, would you?"
He leaned down to peer in He shot a look at me I couldn&039;t read, then nodded and went inside I went around to help Coldfield and we staggered toward the door like a couple of drunks
Trudence hurried into the kitchen and paused just as I eased Coldfield onto a chair Her face went all pinched like she wanted to yell at hi orders People juot ainst the wall to look on It gave me the chance to checkwas leaking out now and h h, but they weren&039;t too noticeable if I buttoned the jacket My clothes were a lot less than clean and sported souy who had done what I&039;d done
It was bad enough for Trudence She caught clear sight of e?" she demanded
"I&039;ot the brunt of it Worry about him"
"I do Too er than their brains They won&039;t be co back"
Her dark eyes were hard The look in them could make a stone wince "You kill any of &039;em?"
"Not that I know of" The laste&039;d left, so he had a better than even chance of crawling his way to the eency entrance if he wanted
The others I wasn&039;t quite as sure about, butthem in for treatment before dawn The street wasn&039;t all that isolated "You won&039;t be getting any trouble from this, I promise"
"I appreciate your promise, but there&039;s always trouble Always"
"This wasn&039;t his fault," I said "He was just trying to help ot stuck in the middle"
She whisked away to see to her brother
They&039;d eased so him up From the practiced way they went about it, I wondered how often this sort of thing happened here, of hurt people turning up at the back door and being taken in without question Probably far too often
I lefthard at the stubborn dried blood clinging to my fists I didn&039;t kno h, I put my whole head under the faucet flow and hoped for the best Sal threwthanks at hiave it to Coldfield to hold on his swelling shiners and got hot water to wash away the gore fro herself She must have been mad as hell from her set-in-stone expression, but her hands were steady as she worked He wouldn&039;t have s slowed down he thanked her and said he&039;d go off to the Shoe Box to get out of her way
She glared down, a look of disdain mixed with triumph on her face "I don&039;t think so, brother of mine You have a bill to pay"
"Well, sure, how much?" He made to reach for his wallet
"Oh, it won&039;t be in money"
"Come on, Tru-"
"The price is you stay here for the night"
That surprised hiht you didn&039;t-"
"I don&039;t, but I&039;et the chance to say &039;I told you so&039; to you a few hundred ti you to sleep with it"
He choked and looked at ?"
I gave an openhanded shrug "It was your idea to come here instead of the hospital Sounds to otta take rateful? Besides, this strikesa family matter, and I try to stay clear of those"
"You son of a-"
"Clarence!" she snapped "You owe me"
He started to bristle back, but it must have hurt too much, for he subsided pretty quick "Okay But will you at least hear ht "Maybe But only if you drink all your hot roaned
With Sal to steady hiot the cleaning up started and turned to ain "Your turn"
"I&039;e"
"You look like you&039;ve been through a rinder"
"It&039;s all fro too fast for theot a couple of bruises, don&039;t even need an aspirin"
"This is on top of what you had the other night"
"I was just cold then I&039; study fro, but you do seeize for leaving so fast then I had sos to do that couldn&039;t wait"
"Must have been i"
"Yeah, pretty iot my manners I want to thank you for what you did Could I make a contribution? Shoe said you-"
"I don&039;t take mob money"
"This ain&039;t mob I worked for and earned every penny" And I had, too, helping Escott out on past cases Before we left the house I&039;d grabbed some bills out of my half of the basement safe and stuffed them in my wallet They weren&039;t part of the stash I&039;d taken fro her the absolute truth I counted all of them, a hundred and ten dollars, into her hand It didn&039;t seem like a lot I could send more later
Her eyes popped "This is too onna say that the next tiry kid?"
Now her eyes flashed on ht dirty, don&039;t you?"
"On sos Don&039;t be too hard on Shoe, okay? He really was trying to fight on the side of the angels tonight, but there were just too ainst him"
"What was it about?"
"It had to do with ot stuck in the middle I should have been the one there, not him"
"Where&039;s Charles?"
"He&039;s safe" Probably pretty annoyed with me, but safe out of the way
"It&039;s not over for you, is it?"
"No, but it will be soon"
"More beatings?"
"I don&039;t think so A little talk with a ht"
A skeptical look, but she let it go "You need a ride away from here?"
"I can find a cab"
"Not in this neighborhood and not without money you won&039;t I&039;ll have Sal take you in Clarence&039;s car"
"Thanks That&039;s kind of you"
"Uh-uh Kind is you bringing Clarence here, giving ets hi what he does"
I wished her a silent good luck for that one
Sal dropped me off at the corner nearest the house, and I quickly covered the rest of the way on et my Buick on the road before Sullivan took it into his head to ain His boys would have turned up by noith their tails between their legs and no doubt a weird story about fighting a ghost et nervous and decide to take another hike to safer pastures And if he had a pet cop on watch at the hospital, he&039;d be wondering what the hell was going on now that Maxith Adkins That would make him more than nervous
But I knehere he was for thethat moment lasted No need to call Gordy for help, either
Sullivan ith hiured it earlier Gordy said he did what New York told him, and if one of their top boys turned up on the door for a room, like it or not, he&039;d have to take hi behind the hotel hit, he&039;d have plenty of time to talk to him about it
And then there was Opal She&039;d be there with the knew thaton my head Before another hour passed I hoped to shake another one loose by straightening things with Sullivan and then getting her out of there
Trotted up hts left on in the house, the place looked haunted-house gloomy Escott wanted it to seem like no one was home yet I was tempted to just vanish and sieve inside, but spotted a couple of roceries in their ared nods and said hello, and I used my keys like anyone else
Just as well, for about five seconds later it eased a lot of potential complications
I are of thehts were out, but I saw all of theuns All pointed at me
Slowly raisedthe place was eela and her friends h, they seemed a lot more surprised to see me than the other way around If I&039;d wanted to I could have shot out of there while they were still flat-footed with their jaws dragging on the floor, but this looked to be very interesting, so I stayed
Doc was the first to speak "Well, good night and little fishes, if you don&039;t have more lives than a cat"
"You toldaccusatory She was button cute in a red-and-blue striped hat that perched sideways on her head like a bird about to fly away She really didn&039;t need that 45 in her hand to stop traffic
"He was dead! I know dead, and he was it!" Doc tried to look at both of us at once and it made him a little wall-eyed
"That&039;s what you said before they rolled ive you"
That gotnot right about you, boy"
"I know, but no matter what, my ela "Newton, frisk him"
Newton stepped forward He&039;d been one of thewith the intention of duan He liked azine As he cautiously slapped et the latest issue or if they&039;d all been too busy running
He picked a gun out of
That was okay, I&039;d taken it froroup had invaded the house, so it was no big loss Ibetter locks put in Maybe it would slon the next arh
Newton pronounced ela had him back away
"He was dead," Doc muttered
"Well, he doesn&039;t lookyou backward through a dog kennel?"
Doc continued, sparingup an answer for her "That little weasel friend of Sullivan&039;s jabbed him with poison and I watched him die It wasn&039;t pretty, and he was dead"
Angela frowned at hi," I said, finally deciding to let him off the hook
"Knocked me colder than mackerel but I&039;m much better now"
He sneered conte his head
Couldn&039;t blame him, it was a lousy story
Before he could ela stepped in "At least we knohy Escott didn&039;t call the cops when he came and found them, why he&039;d ure it, but you being alive explains all that So where is he?"
"Someplace else Why do you want him?" I kept the worry froestion about her calling off the hit on Escott to have faded yet
"We don&039;t want him, it&039;s Sullivan&039;s secretary He&039;ll knohere Sullivan ith Opal"
"You&039;re too late, for Maxwell at least," I said, spreading my hands
"What? Did you kill hih Sullivan ish I had"
"What do youup a storm with Merrill Adkins about now Maybe you&039;ve heard of hiot me a truckload of shocked disbelief fro up with the news-reels
"You&039;re lying" said Angela
I shrugged "Suit yourself"
"How is it you know someone like Merrill Adkins?"
"Doesn&039;t h It&039;ll be in the papers for sure" Adkins would probably see to that detail hi up all the hidden businesses in this town, not just Sullivan&039;s, but the ones he was going to take over"
Her businesses "Wh-what are you saying?"
"That it&039;s all over any way you look at it, sweetheart Armistice has been declared
Once Maxwell is finished giving his life story to Adkins and his friends, Sullivan won&039;t have anything in this town to run, and neither will you What&039;s left won&039;t be worth having So you won&039;t need the books anymore" Or a bookkeeper
I half expected her to put the 45 in er, but she just stood and stared, lips parted, eyes stricken She&039;d get no apologies frorief she and her pop had du out damned well on the deal, especially if she still had that earful of money
Of course, I planned to talk her into sharing some of it with me
"Where&039;s Opal?" she demanded after a moment; her voice sounded thin, shaken
"Still with Sullivan the last I heard She&039;s alive, no thanks to the hit on the hotel-
"
"I didn&039;t do that!"
" &039;S okay, I believe you, lady" Thousands wouldn&039;t, butin the kitchen No one moved, they all seemed to hold their breath I followed their lead and kept shut, figuring they wouldn&039;t let , then they relaxed
"Who&039;d be calling you?" asked Newton
"Could be anyone" Escott, Coldfield, Bobbi, even Gordy, or maybe someone else entirely
"Theythat every ten ot here"
Which meant there was soht be found If there was an eency with Bobbi, Gordy would send people out to look for et it next time and I&039;ll let you know"
That ela! You should have had someone catch the phone"
Frank Paco&039;s voice From the front parlor
"Another time, Daddy," she called in reply "It wasn&039;t for us"
"You don&039;t know till you answer"
He sounded pretty lucid My reactionlook
"Those head doctors had it wrong keeping hiht up after the raid Almost like he was before"
I didn&039;t care for the sound of that The last thing I needed was Angela thinking Frank was on his way to a full recovery It&039;d give her a reason to stay in town "May I?" I asked, gesturing toward the parlor She stood out of the way and I walked in slow, uns centered onto the radio, his hollowed-out face looking only slightly more animated than the last time I&039;d seen him He&039;d been cleaned up, combed, shaved, and was in a decent suit, one cut to reflect the weight he&039;d lost since last August when I&039;d shattered his world As I walked in I wondered if he&039;d know lanced up once, eyes as empty as ever, and I felt a fa dead than I&039;d ever be
One glance, then he ignored hted dial on the set as if trying to recall hoork it Static cah the speaker
My apprehension eased He was in no shape to take over the running of a windup train set, anization I took ela, still holding her gun on me, sat next to her father, who didn&039;t seem aware of her at all
" &039;Almost&039; doesn&039;t cut it in his business," I said to her "Look at hi what he was and you know it"
Big brown eyes, snapping fire "You son of a bitch"
Paco kept looking at the radio "Hey, talk nice like a lady," he admonished her fondly He sounded nore He reached across and played with the volu levels Without a word, Newton stepped forward and turned it down
"You want me to find a station for you, Mr Paco?"
"Alith the questions Make up your own daht shoulder I looked behindwas there but the drawn curtains of the
"I rest an focusing on her, hardly thinking twice about it It was safe enough even with all the chaperons watching "Noe need to talk, Angela"
She was falling into it Not in a big way, but her grip on the gun eased and her expression softened