by S G Read
After a quick look round the corner, the sergeant looked into Dermot’s room.
‘Oh Mother of God.’ He said when he saw the two bodies.
One look told him that the nurse and constable Beeson were dead but what surprised him was the rise and fall of Doyle’s chest. No gunshot wound, no extra mouth, in fact there was no change in his condition at all, save for the blood on him. There was also blood on one of his pillows and on the bed. He picked up the first phone he came to and called the precinct.
‘Grogan here get me lieutenant stone.’ He ordered.
There was a pause then another voice answered.
‘Stone here is he awake?’
‘No there’s no change in him but the nurse looking after him and constable Beeson are dead!’
The lieutenant drew in a deep breath.
‘They must have wanted something and it obviously wasn’t to kill him! Find out what it was.’ He slammed the phone down. ‘What do we know about this Doyle?’ He asked the men who were there with him.
'Married, got a daughter of twelve. Wife left him when she found out who he worked for but the kid stayed with him.’ The desk sergeant replied.
‘Do we know where he lives?’ The lieutenant asked.
‘We sure do lieutenant.’ The desk sergeant replied.
They had reason to go and see young Cally a few times because of her exploit’s with the local kids.
‘Then go and get her, she probably don’t know he’s had an accident yet so break it to her gently!’ The lieutenant warned.
‘Carter take Pruitt and get the girl, I’ll write the address down for you.’ The desk sergeant ordered.
‘No need, we know it sarge.’ Constable Pruitt replied.
They drove to the house and walked up to the damaged front door. Cally saw them coming and ran upstairs. While the two officers were knocking the door she unscrewed the knob on top of her bed head, this was her money box. She took the bundle of dollars out and tucked them into the top of her knickers, she had no pockets in her dress and this was usually where she carried her money. With the money hidden, she climbed out of the window to hide on the roof again.
When no one answered, the two officers hesitated.
‘I’d say we weren’t the first visitors here.’ Pruitt concluded.
‘You don’t say!’ Carter replied in amazement. ‘The main question is did they get the girl? Maybe she’s still inside but too frightened to answer the door.’
Do we go in?’ Pruitt asked.
‘It won’t take much will it?’ Carter declared and kicked the door. ‘Besides, they might still be in here.'
The door flew open then fell on the floor.
‘It was open when we got here okay?’ Carter said pointedly and drew his gun.
‘Sure was and we thought there was a robbery in progress so we had to go in to make sure!’ Pruitt assured him.
They walked in to search the place but not in the same manner, Lefty and Larry had searched it.
Larry stopped the car short of the Doyle house when he saw the squad car parked in front of it and turned to Lefty.
‘What now?’ He asked.
‘We wait and watch. You can watch that window you think she flew out of.’ Lefty said sarcastically.
They settled back to watch. Not long after they arrived, they saw Cally climb out of the window and crawl up the roof.
'So she flew away did she?’ Larry declared.
‘Well I’ll be.’ Lefty retorted.
As Cally settled to wait on the roof again, she saw their car and recognized it as the same one that the men who had kicked in the door and trashed the house, were driving. She also recognized the two men in it. She climbed up the roof and disappeared over the top. Lefty and Larry drove round to intercept her ploughing into the picket fence as they stopped but she had already climbed down the ivy and was running away as fast as she could.
‘Get after her!’ Lefty cried.
'I’m getting, I’m getting.’ Larry shouted, crunched the gears and the car lurched back until it was clear of the fence so they could roar forward in pursuit.
Cally knew how fast a car could go and chose to nip down an alley where she knew it couldn’t go, she had used this alley to evade the local police before. Lefty jumped out and ran after her. Half way down the narrow alley Cally turned a corner and immediately pushed through a loose board on the left hand side. The board dropped back into place just before Lefty turned the corner. Cally heard him run past and walked away. This was her territory and she new all the short cuts and hidey holes. The police had chased her gang before, as none of them were angels, but this was different!
Lefty ran into the car Larry was driving as it reached the end of the
alley and bounced off it. In despair, he looked back up the alley.
‘Did she come out?’ He asked a confused Larry.
‘No way, you must have passed her.’ He answered.
‘I would have seen her if I did, wouldn’t I?’ Lefty asked testily.
‘Well she can’t have vanished into thin air!’ Larry retorted.
Lefty got in the car.
‘What do we tell Clo?’ Larry asked.
‘Tell him the cops were there and we’ll go and get her later.’ Lefty replied.
‘But Clo’ll think the cops have got her!’
‘We’ll tell him we watched and they went away empty handed.’ Lefty explained patiently. ‘Then he’ll know they didn’t get her.’
‘He’ll expect us to go in after they have gone!’
‘Not if they left someone on guard he won’t!’ Lefty declared daring Larry to say anything else.
Carter walked into Cally’s bedroom and saw the same wanton destruction there. Pruitt glanced into the bathroom before going into the master bedroom. He looked about at the damage before stooping to pick up a picture frame. It showed Dermot, Barbara and Cally.
‘She’s a pretty girl Ralph.’ He called to Carter.
He had no idea how hard Barbara and Dermot had fought to make her dress up so that they could take the picture he was looking at.
‘Well she aint to home that’s for sure! What do we do now?’ Carter asked.
‘They’ve got a phone downstairs; we’ll phone in and see what the sarge says.’ Pruitt answered.
Satisfied that she wasn’t home they phoned the precinct.
‘Well if she’s not there she will be sometime.’ The desk sergeant replied. ‘Wait for her. What’s the number there? If I want you I’ll phone you!’
Pruitt read the number off the phone then the two police officers settled down to wait.
Clo was still fuming. They’d come back empty handed again! This was getting monotonous.
‘Did you get a picture of the girl?’ He asked.
‘No boss, the cops were there.’ Lefty answered.
‘And why were they there? Because you iced a cop and a nurse at the hospital that’s why, I just heard about it! Go and get a picture of her so we know who we are looking for!’
‘I saw one in Doyle’s wallet.’ Marco declared, taking the wallet out of Spotty’s accountant’s hands.
He pulled out a photograph of Cally.
‘Ugly little bitch aint she.’ Lefty commented.
‘Take this.’ Clo handed Lefty the photograph. ‘Get it copied and go round all our runners and collectors and let them know, that I want to know as soon as they see her or they will be sorry. Understand?’
‘Yes boss.’ Lefty replied.
‘Marco you take Harry and do downtown. Luke and Toby can do the valley and up to the heights.’ Clo continued. ‘When you’ve let everyone know we want her Lefty, cruise the town keeping your eyes open for her.’
The room emptied leaving Clo with Spotty’s accountant.
‘I’ll go back and let Mr. Shultz know what’s going on.’ The accountant said standing up.
‘Walk out the door and you’ll be swimming in the lake in the morning!’ Clo warned, the accountant realised
he meant what he said and sat back down. ‘I clean my own back yard and when it is clean you can go back and tell Schultz.’
Clo walked to the door. ‘Barney.’
A plumpish balding man appeared.
‘Get the car we’re going out to find this little bitch,’ Clo ordered, ‘and if we get the right result you can have her to play with afterwards!’
‘Yes boss.’ Barney answered.
He left to bring the car to the front door, he like young girls. Clo turned to the accountant.
‘You’re coming with us! That way I can keep my eye on you!’ He ordered, he was on sticky ground and he knew it. His usual way out was to kill anyone who knew anything, whoever it was!
‘Anything to help.’ The accountant replied and stood up again, he had the feeling that he might well be in a jam as well. The day was not going well with him.
Cally walked to her favourite hidey-hole and squeezed into it, it was not far into the park from the loose plank in the fence but it was well hidden. She needed to rest. She also needed to think! Their house was trashed and there were police about and the men who trashed it, what was she supposed to do? She sat thinking and the answer came to her. She knew where her dad worked; it was called the Dolphin Hotel! She knew where it was so she decided to go there and let him know what was going on!
With her mind made up she left the safety of her hidey hole and after checking that the car with the two men who trashed the house was nowhere in sight, she started walking. She stopped at an intersection for a car to pass not knowing that it was just there that her father had been hit by the bus. She paid little heed to the traffic when she crossed and as usual cars honked at her when they had to stop.
Chapter 3
Barney drove around for a while looking at any girl he saw, just in case it was her. He passed the station and saw Cally waiting to cross on the other side of the road but going in the same direction as they were.
‘Is that her boss?’ He asked, hoping it was, as he liked what he saw.
Clo leant across to the side window pushing past the accountant to get a better view.
‘I think you’re right Barney and she looks like she’s coming this way.’ Clo replied. ‘Do a right turn and park by the side walk in front of her. When she gets here we’ll grab her and everybody will be happy!’
Barney drove carefully so that he did not draw attention to their car, did a ‘u’ turn some way ahead of Cally and parked with the front of the car facing the way she was walking. He kept the engine running while the two men in the back readied themselves to snatch her. Barney sprayed his mouth with breath freshener in anticipation. Cally reached the next intersection and for once waited until in was safe to cross before she walked on, not realising she was walking right into trouble in a big way. Three pairs of eyes watched her get closer and closer.
Lefty had been searching for the girl for some time in between letting all their contacts know to look out for her and let them know if they saw her. Most of them knew Cally as she was often in trouble or causing them grief with the friends she hung out with. He did not see her walking on the other side of the road but spotted Clo’s car parked further along. He did a ‘u’ turn as well and pulled up in front of Clo’s car. Cally was just passing the end of the block she had been walking along when she saw Lefty’s car go by and recognised it immediately. She saw it turn and stop, that was like a red flag to her. She turned off at the intersection and decided to use the same alley her father had used. She had been up it with her father when he had taken her in the back door of the restaurant up there.
At the time, he told her that he used it as a short cut when he needed to and she turned up it knowing that it was a dead end alley. She was planning to go through the same back door, into the restaurant and come back out on the street she had been walking down. She ran as fast as she could, as soon as she was in the alley.
Clo jumped out of his car and hurried forward to where Lefty sat next to Larry.
‘She was coming straight to us you morons! Why did you have to spoil the trap?’ He shouted. ‘Get after her and don’t come back without her!’
Lefty and Larry jumped out of the car and ran to the end of the alley.
‘Aint this the same alley that Doyle used to pull a fast one on us?’ Larry asked.
‘It sure is!’ Lefty answered with great satisfaction.
‘Well it doesn’t go anywhere!’ Larry declared.
‘Except out through that restaurant he used last time.’ Lefty replied. ‘You go in and get her while I go round and make sure she doesn’t get out through the restaurant! When Doyle used it last time I told the owner to make sure he kept it locked and bolted all the time or he would find out how hard it is to swim with concrete wellingtons on!’
Clo saw them stop and hurried over to them.
‘She’s getting away you morons!’ He complained.
‘Far from it boss.’ Lefty explained. ‘We know that alley, it’s a dead end alley and the only way out is through a restaurant but the back door should be locked. I’ll go round and make sure it is, just in case though!’
‘You do that Lefty.’ Clo replied. ‘Larry, you and Barney go in there after her but go slow and don’t miss where she is hiding. Make sure you don’t walk past her and remember I want her alive, for now!’
‘So do I, boss!’ Barney replied with a lecherous smile.
‘You can have her when we’ve got the money but not before!’ Clo assured him.
He watched the two men go into the alley.
‘And you,’ he turned to Spotty’s accountant. ‘If she comes out this way and you let her get away I’ll be letting Shultz know it was your fault she got away.’
‘Shultz isn’t going to like this!’ The accountant replied.
‘He isn’t here to complain!’
Lieutenant Stone sat browsing through the reports on his desk. He was sure there was a lot more that remained unreported but he had to work with what he had. There was a mob bookkeeper in a coma in hospital. The mob had paid him a visit but not to kill him, they had however killed a nurse and a constable. Why, was the question? Why go there and not kill him? They had taken all his effects, the bookkeepers house had been totally trashed, probably by the same men. He mulled it over and came to a conclusion.
‘Sergeant, I’d say they were looking for something he had and as he was their bookkeeper I’d hazard a guess that it was money. He’s ripped them off and they want it back, so it must be a lot and that is why he is still alive!’ He looked up at the sergeant who stood in front of him. ‘Sergeant Grogan, what did we find at Doyle’s house?’
‘Nothing sir, it was trashed!’
‘And there was no sign of the girl?’
‘No sir, none at all!’
‘Are we sure she lives with her father?’ Lieutenant Stone asked.
‘Very sure sir. We’ve had to go and see her pa a few times; the girl’s no angel that’s for sure!’
‘Are we looking for her?’
‘Yes Lieutenant we have men out looking for her and I have two men waiting at the Doyle house in case she goes back there.’
‘Do we know what she looks like?’
Grogan smiled.
‘Oh yes, we know what she looks like! She’s a pretty girl but acts more like a boy than most of the boys she hangs out with.’
‘Well it looks like the mob want her, and if the mob want her then I want her first. Put all the men you can spare on to finding her, I have a gut feeling we might be able to hurt Clo’s lot, maybe even shut them down!’
‘Yes sir!’ Grogan left at a brisk walk, he wanted to get Clo and his mob as much as the next man!
Cally ran right up to the end of the alley and hit the restaurant door at speed, expecting it to swing open as it had done before. This time she bounced of it and landed on her back. Luckily a discarded mattress cushioned her fall, and she jumped back up. Ignoring the pain in her right shoulder where she hit the door, she tried again to open it, thi
s time using her left hand but it would not budge, it was locked tight. She knew she was in trouble, as the alley was a blind alley and banged on the door but there was no sound from inside and no one opened the door to let her in.
She walked back up the alley until she could see the start of it. She saw a small, dapper looking man who looked part Chinese talking to the two men who had trashed her house and another slimy looking, plump balding man. In her mind this made the small man the enemy. One of the men who had trashed Cally’s house walked back toward the road they had just come from. Two other men joined the small man and the one remaining man of the two who had trashed her house and one of the newcomers started toward her.
She dodged back out of sight and started to figure out a way past them so that she could get back out of the alley. It had seemed a good idea at first but now things did not look so good. A quick look showed that the two other men were waiting at the top in case she tried that and she ruled it out but that did not leave many other options. She moved back to the door and tried it again but it was still locked. She pictured the man going back to the main street, if he knew about this restaurant he could come out through this door at any minute. That made her panic.
Two of the men who were after her were coming down the alley; another man might come out of the restaurant door at any time! An old chair stood by the restaurant door and by that were a pile of cigarette butts. Someone came out here for a cigarette when the restaurant was open and they came out quite often by the look of it! If her luck was going to be in, he would have been out there smoking when she tried to get through it the first time.
Beneath her foot, she heard a clank, she looked down to see a storm grating which led down to the storm drain. She often played in the storm drain even though it was dangerous. She had been warned about several times but she still went down there. If she could get it open she could hide in there or even get to the main storm drain and away. She tried to lift it but her fingers were too small and weak. She looked about in all the trash, which had been dumped in the alley, for something which might help her lift the grate.
