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KROUN
GABRIEL blundered his way clear of the alley before the nightclub&039;s muscle turned up to deal with the noise He ducked behind a parked car for cover and kept going until his legs decided they&039;d had enough He ended up sitting on a curb, holding his head, in too roan
It was al The main improvement was that he wasn&039;t covered with earth, blood, and Ramsey&039;s body
Broder must have used a blackjack, not that his fist would have caused less dae He&039;d hit the perfect spot on the left-hand side
Gabe found a patch of mostly clean snow, balled some up, and pressed it to his skull That helped, but he felt sick throughout his body, not just his head He wanted to hole up soony undisturbed until he healed
After the snowballtoo ht owls prowling about, but no cabs in sight He dug out another ten-dollar bill, stood under a streetlight and held it up at passing cars As it represented over a week&039;s wage for the lucky ones with jobs, it didn&039;t take long for so was being found by ato take the rest of the aht?"
Perceptive of hiet me out of here? My wife&039;s on the warpath and-"
"Hop in!"
The driver was cheerfully drunk, in a let&039;s be pals mood, and happy to commiserate about matrimonial tribulations Gabe turned down an offer to share booze fro clear of the Loop, all the way to Fle&039;s house
"Sure about this?" asked the ot there "Won&039;t she be waitin&039; for you?"
"Home&039;s the last place she&039;ll look," he assured his bleary Saht that to be extre, ten bucks richer
Gabe had trouble with the picklocks He couldn&039;t get his fingers to work together It took nearly a minute to break in He ell aware that he wasn&039;t thinking too clearly, but willing to risk that Mike wouldn&039;t co to recover froht still think his assault had been fatal
As for Escott, well, he was supposed to be sood at his job, but his choice to follow theoddaed upstairs in the dark
Hein around thecurtains It was brighter than before, too early for dawn, he thought, until checking his neatch Da on that curb? It had seemed only minutes Maybe he&039;d blacked out He&039;d lost time after the car crash Wouldn&039;t that just be the pip if Fle his earth-crusted clothes frorabbed blankets fro for the attic
Behind a hall door he found a narrow stairs that ended in a ceiling trap, which at first seeh there was no ave a hard push and the door lifted when so heavy fell away on the other side
Somehow a trunk had been left on top of the trap How the hell?
Oh Fle trick He&039;d pushed the trunk on the door, then slipped down past it He probably used the attic for refuge, and this was how he locked himself in
Gabe shoved the trunk back and cast around for a place to flop There was a dustyat one end; he found a spot far fro himself coave out He couldn&039;t move another inch Even fresh blood wouldn&039;t have helped He needed absolute rest to heal, and the earth would give hi his teeth until the rising sun brought oblivion
No drea today, but this time he didn&039;t mind
He was only aware that he&039;d slept by the fact his pain vanished between one blink and the next
Da One second it&039;s dawn and the next full night He didn&039;t like that Unpleasant or not, the drea tih those hours had been stolen froet himself out of town to-where? He had friends in Havana but why should he leave if he thought Broder had-
Take it slow and in order Mike tried to kill ed to miss On purpose?
Probably not That he&039;d botched it said so for his ultimate reluctance, but he had been serious The look on his face that was real He&039;d attempted the murder of his brother
He&039;d have felt bad afterward, though
Mike then lost the fistfight, Broder stepped in with his cosh, then gunfire froood that lunatic Escott was behind the noisy interruption Who asked hi was back by now He sure picked a rotten tiirlfriend-or else was showing sense by keeping hi
Gabe pushed upright in stages, cautious about sparking another fireball behind his eyes He was rumpled and stiff, but otherwise felt fine He checked his head and so far so good
So around below Gabe froze The sounds, muffled by the floors between, were too indistinct to follow Perhaps the burglar who&039;d broken thehad returned
Hell, it&039;s probably Fle careful Gabe left his ed his way downstairs
His gun was still in his overcoat pocket He pulled it out on the second-floor landing The other person was in the front roo with the radio Static andquips Trusting that the program would cover the sound of his footsteps, Gabe round floor and looked in
Strome was comfortably ensconced in a chair that faced the hall His feet were up on the low table before the sofa, and he was just raising a beer bottle to his lips He noticed Gabe right away, nodded a greeting, and drank deep
Thankfully it was real beer
"What&039;s up?" Gabe asked, not putting his gun away
Unconcerned, Stro Charlie McCarthy off in mid wisecrack "I was told to wait here in case you showed"
"Why?"
"That English guy asked Derner, Derner told &039;s club"
"You sure it was Escott?"
Strooin&039; by what Derner said"
"Is Fleone"
"What do you know?"
"Nothing, Mr Kroun Not one thing"
"Good way to get along"
"Yessir" He drank more beer
As Strome didn&039;t seee his shirt and shave and felt better for it He was out of suits; the one he earing would have to do, though it was creased, and the knees werewouldn&039;thim another The one left folded over a chair in the kitchen was still there; Gabe pulled it on, and the fit was pretty good He thought he could ignore the bloods to say on the trip to Lady Cry useful, so it was pointless to ask hiain, Gabe pushed away the urge to plan against the unknown He ht have done that in the past, but at the moment it seemed a waste of time Actuality was always different from one&039;s expectations Better to see what&039;s there, then figure out how to deal with it
If Escott had arranged this trip over, it meant he&039;d have news
If Michael was behind it, then Gabe wouldn&039;t have to spend the night hunting hireen Hudson was the only car in the Cry lot Gabe had Stron of the Studebaker Stro Gabe got out and looked things over, ready to duck, if need be
Escott opened the front door Lights were on in the lobby behind hiood Thank you, Mr Strome"
Stroear, and rolled away
Escott frowned "That&039;s my coat"
"Mine needs a clean Why&039;d you want me here?"
"In the event that Jack turns up When he does, it will be here, htcrawler, or with Miss Sood for hiy ready for her"
"What if he turns up at the house?"
"Mr Strome left a note where it would be found" He stepped back inside, and Gabe followed, checking the room They seemed to be alone
Escott went to the lobby phone booth, thual&039;s returned, all&039;s well Mr Strome is on the way back Thank you soup "Excellent fellow Very well organized"
"I noticed that, too You answered why you&039;re here, not why I&039;ht you&039;d want to knohat&039;s happened since we parted coht&039;s e fellow had split your skull open for sure"
"Me, too" Gabe re one hand over the white patch "When did you get to the party?"
"Just in time, apparently"
"What did you hear?"
"I was too distant to follow your conversation When things went against you, I decided to make a nuisance ofinjury to your attacker was not needed Do sit down" He nodded toward the bar, which was clear of host had cleared them away Myrna What kind of a naht was on behind the bar It went out while he was looking at it There was no popping noise from an expired filament; it dimmed and went dark just like the ones in theaters
Escott was nowhere near a wall switch He saw it, too "Myrna? Perhaps you would rather wait in the office with the radio on If Jack returns, he will go there first" Again, he spoke with a coh someone was there to hear him
Wary, Gabe put his hat down and eased onto one of the stools, angling so he had the lobby door in sight He decided to ignore Escott&039;s digression "What the hell were you thinking taking off after them like that?"
"I wanted to see where they went"
"Could have told you"
"They ed their locale As it was, I enjoyed a drive to an unremarkable hotel in Cicero"
"Broder didn&039;t spot you?"
"Right away, as it happened-traffic was very light at that hour I let hi at a er here, whereas I know the streets quite well"
"Good for you"
"They seeht I returned to find you long gone and the staff at the Nightcrawler considerably mystified about the contretemps in the alley"
"You always talk like that?"
"Like what?"
"Never o on"
"I drove around and found you only a block away sitting on a curb like a vagrant I tried to get you in the car, but you took a swing at ain"
Impossible
Escott searched his face "You don&039;t remember Not any of it"
"Because it didn&039;t happen"
"Of course it did One can hardly bla it to not be so It&039;s terribly disturbing to have a lapse like that"
Much too disturbing, Gabe didn&039;t want to accept it "What did Fle tell you?"
"I&039;ve not heard froe What would he add, were he present?"
"He-" Gabe bit it off No need to get started about the car wreck He couldn&039;t deny that he&039;d lost soht "You left me there?"
"You were in no teun, threatened to shoot my nose off, made a crude observation about its size, daain to hold a snowball to your head" He paused as though waiting for a reaction, then went on "You did not recognize y?
"You have a serious problem, Mr Kroun It is most certainly to do with the bullet in your brain"
"Ya think?" Gabe thought hypnotizing Escott into a lapse of his own ht be worth the headache But theand had a car
On the other hand he doesn&039;t need to know about my business to play chauffeur
Escott went behind the bar and built hiin and tonic, heavy on the tonic "Let&039;s put that aside for now You&039;ve recovered and seeain Perhaps if you siet by without threatening bodily har people in the woods Onethe road, the next I&039; crazy Gabe&039;s face felt warard to your visit to the sanitariuain, but Gabe re? You s you would prefer to keep private"
"It just happened I&039;m not happy about it"
"Please, Mr Kroun, I respect your intelligence If you needed to exclude hi so You wanted someone to hear your father Certain details about your previous visit-"
"The old man is nuts It doesn&039;t matter what he says or who hears hio?"
Good question "I hired a girl to keepplace at the wrong ti to find out if she&039;s okay"
"Then let h"
"How do you know? Where is she?"
"I spent a portion of the day finding out things"
"Such as?"
"The reason why Michael wants you dead" Escott drank half the gin and tonic, then hauled his cannon of a revolver froree with hiaze and whatever expectations he ainst would never have included this "Why is it you keep pulling a gun on me?"
"The first time was a mistake on my part"
"So&039;s the second"
"Be so kind as to remove my overcoat"
"Don&039;t want bullet holes in it?"
"Certainly not, but I&039;d rather the weapon you have in the right-hand pocket remained in place If I asked you to surrender it, you&039;d be fast enough to risk a shot at me Neither of us would be pleased with the outcome It&039;s best if you just put the coat on the bar"
Gabe undid the buttons and shed the coat He thought about throwing it as a distraction, but Escott would be wise to that one and shoot first "What&039;s your game?"
"Justice, whenever possible In this instance, justice for a young woman named Nelly Cabot"
There was only one way he could know that naed"
Gabe snorted "What&039;d he tell you?"