Run Cally Run

by S G Read

The shop Lefty went into had a reinforced back door to stop robbers getting in and it resisted the two bullets Lefty fired at the lock. He emptied the pistol at it then hit the door with his shoulder twice. The second time it gave way and Lefty sprawled into the street, right in front of Dermot.

  Before Lefty regained his feet, Dermot jumped over him and ran for his life. Lefty climbed shakily to his feet and started to follow. At the corner Dermot cut across the road, that was when his luck ran out. A bus hit him and threw him into the air, then with a squealing of brakes slithered to a stop over the top of him.

  Lefty stopped at the corner to watch, he was joined by Larry, both were out of breath. They stood there panting watching what was going on.

  ‘What now Lefty?’ Larry asked when he regained enough breath to speak.

  ‘Let’s see how bad he is.’ Lefty answered. ‘We can always stop the ambulance when it’s on its way to hospital and take him off it, if he can speak. A broken bone is a good lever to use to get someone to talk but I usually have to break it myself!’

  A police officer appeared from a nearby restaurant where he had been eating breakfast and took charge. The bus reversed slowly from over Dermot and a woman hurried forward with a blanket. She laid it over him and examined him, looking for any signs of life.

  ‘He’s still alive,’ she announced, ‘quick get an ambulance.’

  A crowd gathered with the constable trying to move them on. He had no luck as they all wanted to see what was going on. Then help arrived in the form of a police car. In the distance, they could hear the ambulance coming, its siren blaring.

  ‘Get over there and see what’s going on!’ Lefty ordered.

  ‘Why me?’ Larry asked.

  ‘They know me!’ Lefty declared.

  ‘They know me and I am a lot easier to spot than you!’ Larry argued.

  Lefty was adamant that he was not going over the road to where Dermot lay and Larry walked across to where the crowd had gathered. He worked his way into the crowd to be able to see what was going on. It was easy for him, no one argued with a man his size and if they did they regretted it. Some took exception until they saw how big he was, then they soon moved out of his way. When he reached the front, he spoke to one of the men who stood watching.

  'Is he going to be okay?’ He asked.

  ‘I doubt it,’ the man replied, ‘he was hit by a bus! They think he’s got a broken head. He hasn’t woke up yet and the woman, she’s a nurse who was just going on duty at the hospital, thinks he may never wake up!’

  The ambulance arrived. Larry watched while they carefully put Dermot on a stretcher, picked him up and loaded him into the ambulance. Larry pushed his way back to where Lefty had been standing but Lefty was no longer there. Suddenly Dermot’s car pulled up alongside him with Lefty driving it.

  ‘What’s the news?’ Lefty asked through the open window.

  ‘He’s got a broken head, they don’t know if he’ll make it!’ Larry answered.

  ‘Come on we’ll go back to the hotel and search his car. We might be lucky and find the money hidden in it!’ Lefty answered.

  He knew they were in trouble. They watched the ambulance drive away with its siren blaring.

  ‘Are we going to take him back with us?’ Larry asked.

  ‘We should I reckon.’ Lefty declared.

  They followed the ambulance until they found a good place to stop it. Lefty swerved in front of it to make it stop. The driver and his mate were incensed until they saw Lefty’s pistol, they decided to stop arguing then. Instead of putting Dermot in his car they threw the two people in the ambulance out onto the side walk. Larry drove the ambulance away while Lefty followed in Dermot’s car.

  They parked the ambulance out of sight in the hotel car park and carried Dermot up the stairs to Clo’s office. They tried to use the lift but there was no way they could fit the stretcher in it without tilting it and when they did tilt it, Dermot slid off the stretcher and out of the lift. Clo hit the roof when they walked in with Dermot on the stretcher.

  ‘We had some trouble boss.’ Larry declared.

  ‘A bit of an understatement I'd say.' the accountant declared.

  ‘What good is he like this?’ Clo asked, ignoring the remark. ‘Do you know where the money is? We can’t ask him now can we! Take him to the hospital and remember if he dies, we will still be mixing concrete! Did you search his car?’

  ‘No boss.’ Lefty replied.

  ‘Did you search his house?’ Clo asked.

  ‘No boss.’ Larry replied.

  ‘Take him back to the ambulance and park it outside the front door of the

  hospital, then go and search his house.’ Clo ordered. ‘I’ll get Marco to search the car.’

  ‘Yes boss.’ Lefty replied.

  They carried Dermot back down stairs and put him back in the ambulance ready to take him to hospital. Lefty followed in another car so that they could dump the ambulance and drive away. They pulled up in front of the hospital and Larry opened the back doors. He pointed to Dermot as a nurse walked by.

  'He looks in a bad way.'

  When she looked at Dermot, Larry walked away. Seconds later, he was in the car with Lefty and they drove off.

  ‘At least we aint dead yet!’ Larry said as they drove to Dermot’s house.

  ‘Let’s hope the money’s at his house.’ Lefty answered. ‘Grey is one color that doesn’t suit me.’

  ‘What if the money’s in the car? Marco might have found it already, do you trust Marco?’ Larry asked.

  Lefty thought for a few seconds.

  ‘No I don't trust him but I don’t think he’d take it and run.’ Lefty answered.

  ‘Are we going back to find out?’ Larry asked.

  Lefty thought about it some more.

  ‘No. Orders are orders.’ He eventually replied. ‘If we crossed Clo again we’d be swimming in the lake by morning!’

  Lefty stopped the car up the street from Dermot’s house and they walked up to the house. With no one about to see them, they walked up to the front door.

  ‘It’s locked!’ Larry declared after trying the door.

  ‘You don’t say!’ Lefty replied sarcastically.

  ‘Do we shoot the lock off?’ Larry asked.

  ‘No we don’t want any nosy neighbours calling the law.’ Lefty answered. ‘I’ll kick it in!’

  Lefty tried but the first three attempts failed to shift the safety lock.

  ‘Get out of the way!’ Larry ordered.

  He kicked the door off its hinges.

  He stood back out of the way.

  ‘It aint locked now, Lefty, after you.’

  CHAPTER2

  Cally was not an early riser, when she did not have to be; she was still snuggled up in bed when she heard a noise, it took sometime for her to realise what the noise was, it was the front door splintering downstairs. Not a sound you would ever really get to know. Someone wanted in. In fact, it sounded like they just got in!

  She had her own escape route in the case of trouble, usually when her mother wanted to tell her off and she used it now. She jumped out of bed, climbed through the open window in her bedroom and on to the roof. The flash of white thighs proved she was still wearing her nightdress.

  She climbed on to the sloping tiled roof beside the open window, crept up the side of the window and hid. She often sat up there at night to look at the stars when she could not sleep because it was too hot. Now she sat on the roof, hunched up, holding her knees to her body to make herself small, while shaking with fear. She hoped her father had forgotten something again and would come home to stop whoever it was. Downstairs Lefty walked through open door followed by Larry.

  ‘Search everywhere,’ Lefty ordered, ‘If the loot’s here I don’t want someone else to come in after us and find it!’

  Their idea of searching was to pull out drawers, tip out the contents then smash the drawer. If they thought the remaining shell could hide anything they smashed that as well. They sma
shed vases, not that there could be half a million dollars in a vase but they smashed them anyway. They smashed Mirrors just for the fun of it; after all, Dermot would never care about it!

  When they found the safe, they could not open it so they ripped it out of the wall, if the money was in there, they would find out when they opened it back at Clo's headquarters.

  Cally heard the noise below from her lofty position and waited, without her clothes it was all she could do but she was shivering violently by now, whether it was fear or cold she did not know, she badly wanted her clothes on. After a while, she decided to creep back down and get her clothes, which still lay in a pile where she had taken them off, when she went to bed the previous night. She was not usually a tidy girl.

  She climbed down to the window, not stopping to think what might happen if the intruders caught her while she was back in her room. She did hesitate at the window, before she dropped on to the floor as silently as she could, she snatched her clothes and made it back to the windowsill in time to hear the searchers coming up the stairs. Now panic set in, she managed to scramble back out on to the roof and out of sight just as Larry kicked her door open.

  ‘Did you hear something?’ Larry asked, looking about.

  ‘Only you kicking the God damned door open,’ Lefty snarled, ‘haven’t you heard of handles?’

  ‘I thought I heard something!’ Larry retorted.

  Cally stayed still just out of sight of the window, holding her breath just in case they heard her breathing.

  ‘It aint a big room, is it?’ Lefty answered. ‘So where are they under the bed?’

  Larry dropped to his knees and looked under the bed but there was no one there. He stood up again.

  ‘Maybe they went out of the window!’ He suggested, to prove the point he walked over to the window and looked about.

  ‘What and flew? I don’t think I want to meet them if they can fly!’ Lefty said with a laugh. ‘Now search for the money, that’s what we’re supposed to be here for aint it!’

  'It's probably in the safe.' Larry argued.

  'It probably is but if it isn't and we didn't do a thorough search Clo will not be happy, will he?' Lefty asked.

  'I suppose not.'

  'We'll search the house so that we can tell Clo it isn't in here and take the safe back with us,' Lefty explained, 'that way we cover all bases.'

  They searched Cally’s room in the same manner as they had searched the rest of the house, then moved on to the rest of the upstairs rooms, including ripping out the bath, just in case the money was hidden under it.

  When they were satisfied that the money was not anywhere in the house they left, leaving the door wide open and the house trashed. Cally waited until the house was quiet with constant looks over the roof hoping to see where the two men went. Eventually she saw the two men walking down the road carrying the safe, they put in the trunk of their car and drove away.

  When they were gone, she climbed back indoors and dressed. As she dressed she looked about the room and tears welled in her eyes, she moved from room to room seeing the damage. The only thing she did, which might be different from a normal girl, was to turn off the water that was spaying from the pipes in the bathroom, then she forced the front door back into the doorframe. She fitted the metal pole back in place to keep the door propped up so that it looked almost normal. All she could do now was to wait for her father to come home, he would sort them out whoever they were and she knew she would not forget their faces!

  When Lefty returned to The Dolphin, the hotel Clo used as his head quarters, Clo was waiting for him.

  ‘Did you find my money?’ He asked.

  ‘I think you mean Mr. Schultz’s money.’ The accountant added from his chair.

  ‘I can make wellingtons to fit you as well!’ Lefty warned. ‘We got enough problems without you jumping in all the time! No sign of the money or anything like it at his house.’

  ‘It could be in stocks or bonds.’ The accountant added unperturbed.

  ‘One more word-.’ Lefty hissed.

  ‘Just trying to help!’ The accountant replied feeling safe from any repercussions, as he was Schultz’s man.

  ‘Will you two shut up?’ Clo cried.

  'We searched the house and didn't find the money but we couldn't open the safe so we brought it back with us.' Lefty explained.

  'I'll get the key.' Clo declared.

  He did think it would be inside.

  'No need Clo, I have one here.' The accountant retorted.

  'It's Mr. Clo to you, pen pusher.' Larry said curtly.

  'Open the safe Larry,' Clo ordered, 'so that Mr. Dill can go back to Emil with it.'

  'Shall I bring it up?' Larry asked.

  'Where is it then?' Clo asked.

  'In the trunk boss.' Larry answered.

  'What! If someone takes the car, they get all the money and we won't know who the hell has it! Yes go and get it and open it here in front of Mr. Dill.' Clo cried.

  They waited in the office while Larry struggled with the safe on his own, Lefty did not offer to help. Larry managed to get it into the elevator then dragged it along the corridor and into the office. He stood back so that Dill could open the safe and sort through the papers inside.

  'Nothing in here worth half a million Mr. Clo.' He declared.

  ‘Lefty get down to the hospital, go with Marco, go in and get anything Doyle had with him and bring it back here for the accountant to look at, just in case Doyle was being clever!’

  ‘Yes boss.’ He walked to the door. ‘Marco!’ Lefty called but failed to get any response.

  In the end, he went to find him. Marco was standing by the pile of car parts that used to be Dermot’s car.

  ‘We gotta go to the hospital and bring back Dermot’s duds and such.’ Lefty announced.

  ‘What if they don’t want us to?’ Marco asked.

  ‘We take it anyway but I think Clo wants you to use your charms.’ Lefty added with a smile.

  ‘At least I have some,’ Marco retorted, ‘you’d shoot your way in and then shoot your way back out again.’

  They drove to the hospital, parked in the car park and walked to the desk.

  ‘Mr. Dermot Doyle’s room please?’ Marco asked politely.

  ‘Next floor up, room 231.’ The nurse replied after checking the register.

  ‘Thank you.’ Marco replied politely.

  They walked to the lift and took it up to the first floor. They met a hitch outside the room in the shape of a police constable. Someone had recognised Dermot for who he was. The fact that the ambulance he was in had been taken with him in it made the police think that it might be worth talking to him and to be sure he stayed alive, they posted a guard outside his room. The two men walked past the room and round the corner.

  ‘Now what?’ Marco asked.

  ‘We have to get rid of him!’ Lefty whispered.

  ‘How?’ Marco asked.

  ‘You’re the clever one, you think of something!’ Lefty Declared. ‘Me I’d as soon shoot him, as he’s a cop!’

  ‘That must be why the boss sent me.’ Marco said and walked away, leaving Lefty where he stood.

  Marco walked round the corner and spoke to the constable.

  ‘Is this Dermot Doyle’s room constable?’ He asked politely.

  ‘Who wants to know?’ The constable retorted suspiciously.

  Marco moved to the other side of him and turned to face him. The constable turned to face Marco allowing Lefty to come round the corner unseen. For the constable it was a bad move. Lefty hit him with his gun butt and the constable crumpled in a heap. Marco caught the constable and dragged him into Dermot’s room. The nurse in there looked up.

  ‘What’s going on?’ She asked.

  Lefty followed Marco and the constable in and pointed his pistol at her.

  ‘Shut up and sit down!’ He ordered.

  She did exactly that without another word, she recognised danger when she saw it.

  �
��Where are his things?’ Lefty asked.

  The nurse pointed to a wardrobe. Lefty opened it, took everything out and threw it on the bed.

  ‘Is that all?’ Marco asked.

  The nurse pointed to a drawer in the bedside cabinet. Lefty pulled it out and tipped the contents on the bed then used the top sheet of the bed to wrap it up.

  ‘Pass me that pillow.’ Lefty ordered and the nurse obeyed.

  Lefty wrapped the pillow round his pistol to quieten the noise and shot her in the head. The constable was next, even though he was still unconscious. Lefty walked round and shot him using the same method.

  ‘Come on, that should give us time to get away.’ Lefty exclaimed scooping up the bundle.

  They left the two bodies, the nurse leaking blood all over the bed and over Dermot, with the constable in a pool of blood of blood on the floor. The two men walked calmly out of the hospital, leaving Dermot still breathing shallowly but still breathing. Whether he had witnessed what went on he, did not show it, he just lay there breathing but without assistance.

  Back at the Dolphin, Dill looked through everything they brought.

  ‘Nothing here of any value,’ he reported, ‘but he was the one taking the money, look, three rail tickets. One was for him but who were the other two for?’

  Harry Drew walked in as he spoke.

  ‘One would be for his kid wouldn't it; didn’t he have a girl living with him?’ Harry asked.

  Clo turned on Lefty.

  ‘Where’s this kid then?’ He asked. ‘Why didn’t you bring her to see me? We could have had a nice little chat.’

  ‘She weren’t at the house boss or we would have.’ Lefty answered.

  ‘I said I heard something!’ Larry threw in. ‘It must have been her going out that window!’

  ‘Why am I surrounded by imbeciles?’ Clo shouted. ‘Go and get her and invite her back here for a chat!’

  Lefty and Larry headed back to the Doyle house, this time to get Cally.

  When sergeant Grogan stepped out of the lift, the first thing he saw was the empty chair where constable Beeson should have been sitting.

  ‘Beeson where are you? Didn’t I tell you to keep watch at all times?’ He called. ‘This is Clo’s book keeper and they’ll want him dead!’