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A few seconds of ue, then I shoved the fear as far away as I could
As Ruzzo hit the gas to take therabbed Roland, and hauled hi, and once on the black-and-white asped out a sudden halt Blood see
Before I lost all sense I bellowed for Escott to get the hell down there and rushed to the bar for towels I was in cold syrup; nothing I did seeh Escott was halfway down the stairs and stopped to gape for all of a second, then also rushed forward
The lobby lights blazed on I whirled; this was the perfect tihts went out, then on again She&039;d done it for oddaan
"Hoyle Trying for ain"
"Bloody bastard" He got Roland to lie flat while I ripped theopen to the knee and pressed a towel to the wound The white cloth soon loaded up with blood despite the pressure I put on God, if that was an artery
"Hospital," I said "Now"
"Is it safe outside?"
"Probably not" I turned pressure duty over to hie,silent and fast I&039;d traded solidity for speed and regained it in the alley after bulling right through the club&039;s walls The Nash was still warmed up and easily roared to life I hurtled it around two corners and braked just short of ra the parked Hudson I&039;d have used Roland&039;s car, but the Nash was bulletproofed
The street was empty of Hoyle and his crew, and just as well for Roland, or Ithe
Evie was in the lobby by then, visibly upset, asking questions in her little voice and not being too damned helpful
She was still in the vicuna coat I told her to go out and open the back door of the brown car outside If I&039;d said Nash, she ht not have been able to pick it out
"The brown car?"
"Go!"
Shenoise like a sht here, sport Re this in films? Well, a rin
Escott had cut Roland&039;s suspenders off with a folding knife and improvised a tourniquet, which seerown "Coet him to the car"
"Yes, please hurry This hurts like a bad review!"
I hoped joking ht When I&039;d been in the War-and this suddenly and unpleasantly re wise to the very end
Opening a door on a brown car was evidently not one of Evie&039;s talents She&039;d overdone it and opened thee I had Roland&039;s shoulders, Escott his feet, and we soot hied Evie into the passenger&039;s, and came around to close mine on his way to the wheel
"What the devil ?" He stared at the warpage
"Later," I said "Get this bucket h the drive to the hospital, which was hair-raising enough to distract me from the fresh blood-smell I didn&039;t think Escott planned it that way, he was just in an unholy hurry He skidded to a halt,an ambulance, and bolted inside the hospital As a kid he&039;d worked at one or for a doctor, I couldn&039;t recall which, and would be better at raising the troops I told Evie twice to get out and open the door She kept blinking and saying, "I don&039;t like this, I don&039;t like this"
Perhaps playing to the hilt the devil-ht, my dear, you&039;re in the best of company on that opinion"
"Huh?" She saw his sh, the kind people with no sense of huive when they know you&039;ve et it, they&039;re just being polite
"Open the daentleman A couple of orderlies with a stretcher were on their way over, double-quick She barely made it in time Thankfully, Escott took her arm and kept her clear while I helped ease Roland out The men took over, loaded up, and swept hi area
"I don&039;t like this!" she cried
This was the tiht predators to venture forth, but they would be elsewhere in the city, creeping through the cheap, run-down jungles where the desperation was greater, the victims more plentiful I here the victi room was crowded
I&039;d phoned Derner first and told him what happened and to send someone to Bobbi&039;s hotel, then I phoned Bobbi to tell her what had happened She was stunned for only a few h
"You need "
"Of course I will I&039;ll be dressed again when you get here"
"I&039;ve already sent a car to pick you up The driver will take you anyplace you want"
"One of Gordy&039;s?" She sounded weary
" &039;Fraid so I have to be here With a gunshot wound they bring the cops and uhhh I&039;et Faustine and be there as soon as we can"
"I&039;ll see you then"
"Be safe, sweetheart"
None safer Froe and fear were other uys with big coats and ency treatment They spotted me and cahtful of him," murmured Escott He sat with an arm around the supremely unhappy, but heavy-eyed Evie
She was tucked up on her chair, the tan coat covering her like a blanket with just part of her face showing None of the nize her
"Fine," I said "Spread out, on your toes, and if you see Hoyle try to make it look like self-defense, there&039;s cops here"
The man smiled "Cops" Apparently he was uniher-looking than the bouncers had been, and ca as they were on runted Disappointed, uys, and they trundled away Everyone got out of their path except the nurses
And a cop
My favorite cop was Lieutenant Blair, but he eant Soe too fast Escott patted Evie&039;s shoulder and spoke low to her She didn&039;t ot a state I used to be a lousy liar but had since iers better than to friends, and this guy heard one of ot the facts as I knew thenorance of the identity of the shooters
"You&039;re pretty cal," he noted
"It&039;s late, I&039;m tired, and I&039;m worried about et the guys that shot him? They could come after you next"
"I think they were after me in the first place, and Roland just happened to be in the way" There, an absolutely true statement
"Why would anyone want to shoot you?"
"You kno this town is I opened a great club, there&039;s other guys jealous, they want to take me down a notch, even scare me out of business"
"Has it worked?"
"Hell, yes I&039;et hurt"
This last was caught by a guy whose job I recognized as easily as the s who&039;d walked in I used to dress just like him He scribbled in a notebook and threw a question at me, but the cop shooed him off like an out-of-season horsefly I knehat that was like No nostalgia stirred ina reporter You ask so et more answers than you really want
The cop finished withwith Escott, who hadn&039;t exactly put hi and had only helped with the wounded
When the cop cleared off the reporter ," I said to hi at Lady Cryrinned "You are headline material for me After that &039;Jane Poe&039; case-"
"That&039;s yesterday&039;s fish wrapper This is nothing I donno who did it I just wantthe fae and screen Why&039;s he tripping the floor in your place if he&039;s such a big star?"
"He&039;s just doing a favor for a pal Thought it&039;d be a lark He and his wife are cut-ups like that, always having fun"
It was a better story than the truth about trying to make ends meet I shoveled a lot of bull at the Fifth Estate and made Roland an altruistic hero who&039;d saved ood enough yet to have thought up the angle hih, he ht make the afternoon edition
Bobbi and Faustine turned up next with their driver, who turned out to be Stroar to fill the tiive her the same story I&039;d passed to the cop
I also advised her not toincident she&039;d been involved in earlier
"Vhy ever nodt?" She was startled enough to stop de the club down for now, but if they catch wind of any more fishiness, they could keep it that way"
"Budt de show o on!"
"So we all keep quiet about it"
"About vhat, doll-ink? Poof! I forgedt whole tink Now vhere iss my poor Roland? I musst see heem I musst see dok-tor"
Eventually we all saw Roland, froed and elevated in soy to say anything Only Faustine was allowed in with hie, and the bullet cracked, but hadn&039;t broken, one of the leg bones, but if there was no infection, he would get well soon enough I saw to it at least one of the uys was to be within call at all times Bobbi explained to Faustine that they were there to look after theo home, but Faustine refused to leave, and Bobbi said she&039;d stay to keep her coave h "Jack, I know this isn&039;t your fault"
"Oh, yes it is"
"Shh! I just want to knohen you get the guy who did it"
"So you can slug him, too?"
"So I knohen it&039;s safe to coot eyes and ears out We&039;ll find him"
"They&039;ll find hi, doll I&039; Evie soround
"You got proof you&039;re a Mr and Mrs?" I asked
"I fear none is required for this establishment I only hope Vivian never opens an inquiry into this"
"It&039;s in a good cause Call at the club if you need anything"
"You&039;ll be asleep"
"I htcrawler Derner knoho you are"
"Oh, dear God"
"What?"
"Does this land lieutenant?" He said it with an "f" again Someday I&039;d ask hiland
"Let&039;s just keep it &039;baby-sitter to dancers&039; and leave it at that"
"And what happened towheel?"
"I had another another da for et you a new one"
"You bloody well better," he finally said, then went to rouse Evie fro with his follow to see thes (normal) and Escott&039;s office (also normal) I had Stro him I&039;d walk from there, that I needed the fresh air to clear my head
"Pick me up tomorrow around oh, just come after dark" I couldn&039;t remember the time for sunset Daas ," he said "You noticed? You shouldn&039;t walk"
"Yeah, but I don&039;t one or I&039;d just gotten used to it Waiting until his taillights were a ured to be in sight of the house I went solid and had a good look around the neighborhood, front and back
Nothing Da that since the club and the office came up empty, Hoyle would catch a case of the du in wait for ether would have ihosted inside the house, went through it for intruders (none), ran a bath, used it, shaved, put on fresh clothes for tomorrow, and dropped invisibly into ht was on, as I&039;d left it The dim bulb didn&039;t use much juice It also didn&039;t heat the place much, as in dry out the damp Was I in for another broken pipe?
This spot used to be cozy and safe, and it was fireproof, but still I wanted to not be hoer, took over the whole basereat place, lots of roohts, but then he was richer and had a rich girlfriend who didn&039;tIsland palace
Maybe I could get my own place
Actually I already had one Lady Crymsyn
And I didn&039;t feel safe there, either
Strome was punctual I was on the phone with Derner withinthe day when the doorbell rang I let Strome in and went back tonew on the hunt for Hoyle He&039;d gone to ground again and had either found an exceptionally good place for it, or no one would ad a substantial nu in Gordy&039;s chair, a stonewalling ht to be so, and, without hypnosis to force thingsof stuck "Is ot theh"
Daone to Detroit and back and had a whole new car rowl, and asked, "Has Kroun been in?"
"Not today If he was steaht"
"Why?"
"The papers"
"What&039;s in the about a mob hit on Roland Laot I didn&039;t write it, that&039;s what they got Your club&039;s all over it, your naain"
Oh, hell I shouldn&039;t have talked to that reporter I knew better Give theold I&039;d been known to do it ain"
"Yeah, that&039;s gonna piss him off"
"I&039;ll send him flowers"
"Hey, Boss, it&039;s the way it is"
"Yeah-yeah Look, the guys who do knohere he is ain&039;t cooperating, that&039;s plain enough You put the word out that his location is worth two grand to them"
He nearly choked "But that-that&039;s-"
Two years&039; income to most, a tip to others "Take it out of petty cash These bozos are gonna cost us five ti loose I&039;ll be at Cry up before the sputtering started The phone rang as I shrugged into one I suspected I&039;d lost it in the Stockyards during e
Escott was on the other end of the line His tone was tense "Good, I wanted to catch you before-"
"What&039;s wrong?"
"Bloody Evie Montana The little-she slipped her leash"
"Ah, jeez How?"
"Oldest trick in the book, through the bathroomand out"
"When?"
"This afternoon I should have anticipated She&039;d been harping all day about wanting to go hoirl is rather backward-"
"Can it, Charles, we both know she&039;s the original Dued to outfox me I&039;d tried to explain the situation to her, but she seemed to think-oh, bloody hell, she doesn&039;t think That&039;s the probleotten him spoiled "Well, meet me at the club, and we&039;ll try to hash out a way of finding her again"
"Right" He sounded tired Apparently a day with Evie had not been a picnic
With a twinge of guilt I realized I should call the hospital and ask after Roland It wasn&039;t his fault the papers were in a lather about the shooting I had the operator connectthe phone book
Eventually I got through to the nurses&039; station on Roland&039;s floor and was infor well, whatever thatvisiting hours were, then the line went dead Standard replies to the standard questions If so, the ansould have been different Maybe
"Two grand for Hoyle?" asked Strome on the way to his car
"Yeah You knohere he is?"
He shook his head "But I ht And they don&039;t need to hear about the two grand"
"No, they don&039;t" If Stro out on et Hoyle in a box
Roland&039;s Hudson was still parked in front of Lady Cry with another car A hopeful reporter Stroh, then I unlocked the lobby door and let hiain
Less than a ood clip Strome came in, his face bland I didn&039;t ask questions and went up to the office
Lights and radio off Myrna was being different tonight I turned both on and ru a piece of cardboard in a box of typing paper I lettered an optimistic CLOSED, BUT BACK SOON! on it in black ink, then went down to tack it on the entry door
The lobby phone rang, startling me I was the one who usually called in on it Strome kept his hands in his pockets, so I answered
"Jack?" Bobbi&039;s voice
"Yeah, honey? You okay?"
"I&039;ot so to catch you I already tried at Charles&039;s"
"Oh, yeah?"
"I thought you should know I called everyone not to coht"
She just saved el How&039;s Roland?"
"He&039;s in better shape than ether The papers have been all over hi?"
"His naraph This is the best thing that&039;s happened to hie nagging worry I&039;d tried not to think about
"He seems to think so I wouldn&039;t put it past hi tomorrow I told hih He said to tell you not to do that I couldn&039;t really explain that there was "
"I&039;ll tell you all about it whenever you want"
"When it&039;s over, then"
Which could be never at this rate "It&039;s a deal" And I hoped she didn&039;t pick up on the pain that lanced throughto coht&039;s uncontrolled debauch I knew I&039;d have to get away, especially froer I stayed, the worse the hurt would be for us both Club or no club, responsibilities aside, I had to get clear of this mess before I lostup? What the?
I looked around and had to steadythe phone booth or cli the stairs
"Oh, God" I sat on the couch, one weak
No scent of roses for comfort Just me alone and crazy in my own skull
"Boss? Mr Kroun&039;s here"
I hborhood
"Be right down" My voice sounded frighteningly normal, like there were two ofand the guy in the back as losing himself in wholesale lots to the darkness within
Stood up, squared my shoulders, and started to shut down the radio before leaving, then changed
"I&039;s, would you?"
I collected loves
That&039;s when I noticed the gun on my desk