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"Maybe you should try I bet you&039;d be good at it, it&039;s all nuirlfriend could find you a teacher to get you started In a few "

She shook her head "That&039;s not for me"

"How do you know until you&039;ve tried?"

I could tell from the way she scowled at the floor she was about to coing on the door interrupted her

She went all alert and scrabbled for her gun

"Who is it?" I bawled out It was too early yet for Angela&039;s goons to have turned up I put my hand in my coat pocket to assure er," a nized his reedy voice

"What&039;s the proble too lanced at Opal, as equally puzzled "This is fishy," I whispered "Go back to the bedroom for a minute"

"I can take care of myself"

"Yes, you can, but I need you to cover ela doesn&039;t want either of us turning up dead if we can help it Is there a fire escape at the ? Good Get it open nice and quiet and be ready to run"

"To where?"

"You know the all-night theater across froet separated I&039;ll ela?"

"Call her later Now get behind that bedrooet the hell out and don&039;t look back Proer knocked again "Open up or I&039;ll use ht, keep your shirt on" I took ive Opal a chance to take care of theShe came back and nodded from her shelter behind the bedroom door I slipped the bolt, pulled the entry door two inches towardto put on a disgruntled face It wasn&039;t hard "What&039;s the problem?"

In the slice of hallithin view I could see theThe se, but I didn&039;t let any of it show Behind him stood several men in blue uniforms What the hell? Another raid? Or had soo police force tracked us all the way here from the studio?

"Let us in, Mack," said one of the cops

There were three of theuy in plainclothes "What&039;s this about, Officer?"

"You&039;ll see," answered the plainclothes ot a look at his face, knew him: Lieutenant Calloway, one of the cops who had been square in the late Vaughn Kyler&039;s pocket

"What&039;s going on here?" I said loudly, drawing inside a bit and putting a hand up as if to rub ot a warrant to coot a warrant"

"I&039;ll give you kosher," the first cop said, and started to shove his way past the door

"Son of a bitch," said Calloway, grabbing his friend&039;s shoulder and staring at me

"It&039;s you!"

He and I had had a run-in the other night at Gordy&039;s club when he&039;d still been working for Kyler I&039;d won When he woke up out of the sleep I&039;d put hiht now he looked like he wanted to pay me back for the humiliation With interest

He pushed the uniforer out of the way and started to bull in I let hi hiainst the door to stop the others I shot the bolt, which ht buy h I heard thuun out, but I wasfast now, lots faster than he could follow I slapped it froot his skull between my two hands and made him look at me

" Take a nap," I whispered with as ht up in his head and he fell like a brick As his friends started banging their shoulders in earnest on the door and the hinges began to rattle loose, I took an instant to roll the ainst it Maybe it would buy a few h to the bedrooirl Now I grabbed the iron-framed bed and hauled it around to block this door More ti in the strong cold breeze I clambered out and shut it behind me, then looked for Opal She&039;dtoward the Caddie

Daotten I still had the keys

I went invisible and slipped down the stairs without a sound, going solid again as soon as I reached the sidewalk and began running toward her She heard lanced back in panic

"It&039;s ot to the car and tried the door, but I&039;d locked it earlier

I got the key out, opened it up, and all but bodily shoved her in No squawks of objection this tinition, hit the starter and nothing happened I cursed and tried again, checking that the gears were right Nothing

"Theyto it," I said "Get out and keepHurry!"

She did just that on her side, and I did the saun in your purse," I told her "We don&039;t want to attract attention"

She shoved it out of sight "What&039;s going on?" she de the walk

I looked back at the hotel and saw cop cars blocking the street, their lights flashing in circles, bright red patches s "I think some of Sullivan&039;s boys are wise to this place and decided to check on it My guess is that he&039;s the one behind the raid on the dance studio They had no real reason to bother otherwise, there&039;s no election co up just now"

"Sullivan? But those were cops at the raid"

"Kyler had some on his payroll, didn&039;t he?"

"Yes"

"So Sullivan just moved in and picked up the reins Jeez, he ela"

"But those were cops" She looked like someone had just told her the truth about Santa Claus

"Bad apples in the barrel The ones on the take soht you knew that"

"I just know nuht ahead, a stubborn set to her ht Another subject she didn&039;t want to talk about

"We have to call Angela," she said "Have to tell her what&039;s happened"

"I&039;m all fork, kid"

"Don&039;t call et clear of all this and-"

Two cops stepped around the corner and stood right in our path They were s, not at us both, but specifically at Opal She wasn&039;t hard to miss, and for all I knew the whole Sullivan lasses They&039;d probably been beating the bushes for her since she disappeared with the books

"Hold it right there," one of theun

"No need for that," I said "Calloway told et her back to the studio"

"That&039;s not what he told us"

He was too far away forhied his un out

"Why don&039;t you ask hiet her-"

"I don&039;t think so, wise-ass," said the first one "Turn around and start walking back We&039;ll all ask hi happened We weren&039;t close and the light wasn&039;t good enough for hian to slip her hand into her purse, but I put an aret this worked out" She shot me a worried look I winked back, but like the cops she seemed not to see in the darkness

"C&039;irlfriend head back to the hotel"

"I&039;hed, which rip and muttered to her to calm down and do what they wanted As our little parade proceeded along the street, Opal shrugged hard to shake o

"What&039;ll we do? " she whispered out of the side of her " That seemed to settle her for the moment; as forood it would do them-but I wasn&039;t sure of their intentions toward Opal To anyone with brains she was more valuable to Sullivan alive since she had infors had brains? Maybe Sullivan was looking to make an example of her on what double-crossers could expect from him

Sullivan

What the hell, since I couldn&039;t talk to Angela, then Sullivan was ht he could be a whole new cat to skin and nail to the wall My date with Miss Paco would just have to wait

The cops urged us toward the hotel until we reached its street entry with the cracked glass on the doors Calloas outside now, fully awake again, standing next to one of the squad cars, hands on his hips, looking both worried and disgusted until he caught sight of us Then he looked delighted On his face it was not a pleasant expression

"Caught &039;em at the end of the block, Lieutenant," said one of the cops

Calloas all but licking his lips over Opal, then he focused on ht hatred the man could put into one word That the one asto ease ht be a lot harder than I&039;d anticipated

"You know this bird, Lieutenant?"

"I know hi or two You keep your heaters on hih, plug hiun in my face the cop slapped me down and found Tinny&039;s 38 inthey&039;d made me safe to be around They didn&039;t even bother to search Opal or her purse "He ith the girl Tried to pass hi with us Thinks he&039;s s &039;em inside"

The lobby had two cops in it, neither of theer was off to one side, still looking scared I didn&039;t see any signs of the hotel&039;s custo use of the fire escapes the across the lobby to solass panels tosad, gaping openings into darkness One of the cops pushed ahead and hit the light switch It looked better in the dark

Opal and I were herded into the hotel&039;s radio room, but the radio wasn&039;t on and probably hadn&039;t worked in two decades or so, it was that old a model The chairs and sofas meant for the comfort of its listeners were as worn and dusty as the rest of the place, and the ancient rug was so thin, patches of drab flooring showed through in spots I wanted to take a bulldozer to the joint and put it out of its misery, preferably with crooked cops like Calloway and his friends still inside

Calloas a stocky ely thin face, and one ear stuck out farther froarette-yellowed teeth and he was anything but leading-ave Opal another lip-s whatever reward Sullivan had offered for her return "You the bookkeeper?" he asked her

"Yes Who are you?"

"Never mind" He looked at me "And what are you to little Miss Opal the bookkeeper, Fle out for her"

"Uh-huh Well, you ain&039;t doing such a good job, are you, kid?"

In here the light was just fine I focused on hi wise "What are you going to do with us?"

His face went a little slack, but it couldn&039;t be helped "Take you to see Sullivan"

"And where is he?"

Then one of his very helpful friends in unifore had toughened h hit for asped and grabbed at my arm I didn&039;t quiteShe keptThat son of a bitch had bruised ood

"The lieutenant asks the questions here, Bo," the cop belatedly inforhts back, Calloway&039;s partner, Baker

Any reply I ht have had wouldn&039;t have endeared me to him, so I kept my mouth shut and rubbed my bruise

"You&039;re not with Paco," said Calloway He&039;d snapped right out of it, but I could put him back under as soon as it suited me "I know most of Frank Paco&039;s people, and you&039;re not one of the? And just why did Kyler think you were so dangerous?"

I threw a sideways look at the cop who&039;d hit , indication that it would be his positive pleasure to pop ain He wore brass knuckles Jeez, no wonder he&039;d hurtFrankie, but nuts all the sa way is all"

"You rubbed him out is what I heard"

"Notthings He planned to work soela Paco, but she didn&039;t want any of it"

"And how do you know that?"

"I heard things Last night I was in the roos into his boss"

"You were, huh?"

"Yeah Followed you and Baker frohtcrawler Club after you missed your chance to take out Gordy"

He&039;d been drawing a long pull on his cigarette and suddenly choked Smoke came out of his nose and mouth One of the cops started to thump him on the back, but Calloaved him off "You-"

"Yeah, me" I pretended to look around at the others "Oops, did I let any cats out of the bag?"

The guy behind ht the start of a movement from the corner of my eye, whirled, and sidestepped out of the way of his fist at just the right moment He missed me and it threw off his balance He recovered fast and looked ready to , but Calloway nixed him

"Can it! Let him talk!"

Baker subsided, eyes full of hate, all aimed in my direction He resu

"So you heard things at Kyler&039;s?" Calloway prompted

"This and that Not too much because Chaven was in a hurry He corked Kyler, but before he could plug h aand ran like hell" Not exactly, but the truth wouldn&039;t do ela Paco&039;s plans?"

"I was also at as left of her daddy&039;s ht"

"Busy boy"

"I asn&039;t I, Opal?"

She nodded, looking serious

"I had ela took a shine tolike that" I hoped Opal would stay quiet until I played things out

"Well, I&039;ood idea, Calloway"

"Whyzat?"

I spread onna want to knohat I know about Angela and what she&039;s got planned for hiht about it, then shook his head "And I think you&039;re just gassing on to keep yourself alive"

Ti the truth and you know it"

His face went blank again, just for a few seconds It was enough Then his brow furrowed "Listen to you?"

"Yes The best thing you can do is leave Opal where you found her, clear your men out, and take me to see Sullivan"

It must have been the complete opposite of what he really wanted to do, because he didn&039;t fall all over higled against it

"Lieutenant, listen to me" I put on a little more pressure, but it must have spooked Baker; the bastard popped me in the same place This time I did hit the floor Just to ile link I&039;d made

"Like hell I will," Calloway said somewhere above me

Opal had dropped back this ti before and knew that she couldn&039;t helpat a tiet rid of his one full force on him Live and learn

"Nohat&039;s the real story, punk?"

"It&039;s what he just told you," said Opal

We both looked at her in surprise Calloway because she&039;d not been much of a participant until now and ela wanted hih"

"Stop, ," he said

"I don&039;t like you either You&039;d better let us go or-"

"Or what?"

She bit her lower lip "You&039;d just better, that&039;s all, or there&039;ll be big trouble"

"The only big trouble is the kind coain, but froer "Don&039;t talk like that to me!"

I lurched to my feet Baker braced himself for an attack, but I hobbled over to Opal instead "Take it easy," Iher ar

"He&039;s only trying to provoke you, don&039;t give him the satisfaction Just keep quiet and-"

"And what?" asked Calloway

I turned back to his worked out with your boss You are planning to get us to him sometime in the next month or so, aren&039;t you? So how about you leave off taking cheap shots at the lady and start things ?"

He looked ready to beltall hard Then that unpleasant sonna be a positive pleasure I can&039;t wait to see what Sullivan does to you"

No reply from me, I knehen not to push my luck

"Where&039;s the phone in this dump?" he demanded

"One at the desk," soet back" He stalked out I could see hi his charot the phone he wanted and uess it was to report in to Sullivan

Opal tugged hard atmy attention She didn&039;t voice any obvious questions, but her face was eloquent She was scared andI patted her hand

"Don&039;t worry," I whispered "They&039;re not going to hurt you"

Baker polished his brass knucks on his shirt and laughed once I wanted to pay his, but it&039;d have to wait The other three who&039;d followed us in all had their guns out I wasn&039;t about to tackle the whole team with Opal still in the roo and was full of orders when he got back He sent one of his eneral exit from the premises I hoped the next joint would have better ath the lobby, he ain and ordered another ether

"Hey-no need for this," I protested as he latched ave out with a similar set of coet

"This stinks," said Opal

"Goes double for ainstabout it was as far as it went

There&039;s a time and place for stuff like that, and it wasn&039;t here and now The right moment would come, preferably when I ith Sullivan, and then I wouldn&039;t need a gun If he wasn&039;t loony like Kyler, I&039;d be able to deal with him, then Opal and I could both climb out of the jam pot

Two cops held the front doors wide for us, and out ent into the cold wind

Opal shrugged down in her coat

Cars in the street: noise, exhaust, bright headlights A big Packard that hborhood byaround the corner and prevented us fro the sa her down She yelped, the only huun fire blotted everything out