by S G Read
‘Well at least Clo hasn’t got her yet.’ The lieutenant said, looking on the bright side. ‘The old man’s in hospital, we won’t get anything more from him for a while. I want a watch kept on the Dolphin, and that’s a twenty four hour watch, not when they feel like it!’
‘Yes lieutenant. What should they do if they see the girl taken in there?’
‘Call in and we’ll go in armed for bear. I see this as a chink in their armour and I want to make it bigger! Big enough, for us to pull the whole shebang down!’
‘Where can we reach you?’ Pruitt asked.
‘In the next half an hour, the diner on 64th and 12th street. After that call the precinct and they’ll let you know where, I am if I’m not there!’
Marco made it back to the road and found Baptiste there waiting for him.
‘How did you beat me back?’ He asked.
‘You took the long way, no?’ Baptiste replied. ‘I chose the shorter route.’
‘Any sign of them?’
‘I have seen nothing but the two hounds say the two small people went into the storm drain.’ Baptiste answered. ‘They could come out anywhere but the boy is Drummond, Caleb, the blind professor’s eyes. So maybe we should go and wait at the shack.’
‘She went there earlier and we questioned Caleb.’
‘This questioned, did it leave Caleb alive?’
‘Yes, just, why?’
‘If they find him before we do and he is dead now they will run and with no base I will have to use all my talents to find them again! It is better to leave them somewhere to go; they are easier to find then, when you lose them!’
‘If Harry had his way he would have finished him off but Clo said let him live, although he was in a bad way when we left him though.’
‘Come we must phone Mr. Clo and get a lift, it would not be wise to return to our cars at the moment.’
They walked to the same store owned by the storekeeper who had told him where Cally might be. Marco phoned Clo.
‘How can she sleep at a time like this?’ Drummond complained but put the rags back down, he needed to think. What would Caleb do? Not the police that’s for sure! Find somewhere to hide until the heat cooled off but where? He was still thinking when he heard a car stop in the street. He did not look at the car but it was too close to the shack and he was taking no chances. He pulled Cally from under the pile of rags and dragged her out the back way, a sheet of wood with a bolt holding it in place so that they could open it for just such an occasion.
‘What’s going on?’ Cally asked when they stopped running and she was thrown behind a trash can.
‘Company, I think.’
‘You think!’ Cally remonstrated. ‘I was enjoying that sleep!’
‘They killed Caleb!’ Drummond declared.
For once in her short life, Cally was speechless. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was but the words would just not come out. Instead, they just watched what happened. Four men, including Luigi Clo, walked up the alley and Larry kicked the door off its hinges.
‘Search the place.’ Clo ordered.
He waited outside until Larry came back out.
‘No one there boss, just a candle burning.’ He said almost apologetically.
‘But look at this mon ami!’ Baptiste shouted from the street.
He was pointing to wet footprints, which led away from the drain and right up to the shack.
‘Maybe they have a back door. No?’
‘Run Cally that’s Baptiste. I know him he’s like a bloodhound with two feet!’ Drummond whispered urgently and they hurried away.
The did not run at first but walked quietly and stooped to be less visible until they thought they were far enough away for the four men to hear them, then they ran.
‘Harry you go to the warehouse with Larry and get rid of our two guests. Make sure you take them out a long way. I don’t want Dill found, ever!’ Clo ordered.
‘Yes boss.’
‘Barney you get the men together and meet us at the diner. And I mean all the men, savvy?’ Clo continued.
‘Got it.’ Barney answered and walked off.
‘I’m relying on you Baptiste, find this little jinx before Shultz gets tired of waiting or there is going to be a war!’
Baptiste was already round the back of the shack using the torch Lefty had stolen for Barney earlier.
‘They had a back door as you can see by the footprints but their little feet are drying very quickly, come we will follow.’
CHAPTER 10
Cally and Drummond ran, not in any particular direction, just wanting to get away from the men who were after Cally. When they could run no further they stopped and rested. As she got her breath back, Cally looked around, she knew where she was now they were back on her patch.
‘Come on, I know where we can hide!’ She whispered.
This time, when they moved, they walked. Cally led them down alleys through convenient holes in fences, until she squirmed into a little hole and disappeared. Drummond followed her in but it was a tight fit. The hole led to a little den, with candles and a little table. Before she lit one of the candles, she pulled a cloth over the opening they had crawled in through, to make sure no one outside saw the light.
‘We should be safe here.’ Cally declared and relaxed on a mattress.
Some days earlier her gang had found the mattress and dragged it all the way to their den. In had not been easy to get it inside but it had proved very useful since then. A few seconds later she was asleep again. Drummond looked about the place and then as he was tired as well, settled down on the mattress beside her and slept.
Harry Drew drove to the warehouse. He found Toby where Larry had left him but there was no sign of Dill.
‘Let me go Harry I aint done nothing!’ Toby pleaded.
‘No, you are quite right, you haven't done anything, you were just not in the right place at the right time.’ Harry replied.
He gagged him to stop any more whining and kicked the tin bath until it came free from the concrete round Toby’s feet, then he dragged Toby over to the boat. He walked back in looking for Bertram Dill.
‘Come on Bertram, you’re only wasting my time,' Harry called, 'and you know how much I hate that!’
He looked about the warehouse. There were not many places where a man with concrete round his feet could go to hide. Harry grew angrier and angrier but he never found Dill. In the end he just took Toby out in the boat. He took the boat out farther than he normally did and donned his diving outfit.
'Let’s see just how well you die!’ He said with an evil smile and removed Toby’s gag.
‘Don’t do it Harry! I got money you can have it all!’
‘It wouldn't be a lot of good if I was dead and if I don’t do what Clo wants, I happen to know that there are several men who’d like to do me; a few women as well. Know what I mean? At this very moment you would rather be killing me than me killing you!’ He added with a wink and tipped Toby overboard.
He followed him down in his diving suit and watched as Toby struggled to hold his breath and to stop himself from falling at the same time but he died just as Harry knew he would. Harry watched the last bubbles as they came out of Toby's nose then returned to the boat. He took of his diving suit, dried himself off and took the boat back to the warehouse. He looked about for signs of Dill and sniffed the air trying to find him but all he could smell was Toby. He went outside and slammed the door, then walked back to the car. Under the slatted flooring where Toby had been Dill uttered a sigh of relief, all he had to do now was to get back up and escape somehow!
Drummond woke to find that he was alone. At first he thought of going out to see where Cally was but he did not know this area very well and he had no idea where she had gone or why. He settled back down to wait and his thoughts turned to Caleb and his teachings. The stories he had told when they sat round the old stove in the shack that Caleb had built, after he had gone blind. A noise at the little opening broug
ht him back to the present and he watched as Cally squirmed in through the opening. She had a bundle with her and some scissors.
‘So you’re awake then.’ Cally said as she sat where she could see herself in the broken mirror.
‘I wondered where you’d gone.’ Drummond replied.
‘Just visiting one of my friends, he didn’t want to help me at first but I soon persuaded him.’ She declared and held up her fist.
When she put her arm down, she started to cut her hair.
‘I know it’s a mess but can’t your hair wait until we’re out of trouble?’ Drummond asked.
‘This will get us out of trouble! They’re looking for a girl or a boy and girl. Well I’m going to look like a boy when I’ve finished!’
She cut her hair as short as boys had theirs, scrutinizing after every cut. She saw Drummond was watching intently.
‘I don’t want to look stupid now do I?’ She explained.
She continued until she was happy with her hair, even letting Drummond trim the back so that it was level, then she started to undress with Drummond watching.
‘A gentleman would look the other way!’ She declared.
‘Sorry.’ Drummond replied.
He turned round to face the other way, then waited until she told him it was okay to turn back. He turned and found her dressed as a boy, with a cap on her head.
‘Well?’ She asked.
‘You look like a boy and to think I kissed you earlier.’ Drummond exclaimed.
‘It’s still me aint it?’ Cally complained.
‘I was joking!’ Drummond replied.
‘Oh. Okay. Do you think it’ll work?’
‘As long as we keep away from anywhere they might be.’
‘I’m going to the hospital to see if it is my pa in there!’
‘You’re kidding!’
‘No! I’m not!’
‘Then you’re mad!’ Drummond replied. ‘The place will be crawling with police and Clo’s men. Some of the police work for Clo, so you won’t know which one to trust! Clo even has judges on his payroll, according to Caleb.’
‘I won’t trust any of them, only you.’ Cally declared. ‘You I trust.’
‘Me? I’m not going in there to get killed!’
‘Fine I’ll go alone.’
Drummond remembered Caleb telling him to follow Cally and make sure she made it to the hospital.
‘I’ll come if I have to!’ Drummond declared.
‘That was quick.’
‘I made a promise to a friend, alright?’
‘I can’t really pull it of without you Drummond.’ Cally admitted.
‘But I’m a boy and boys are useless.’
‘Rub it in why don't you, I’m not used to getting help from anyone, apart from my pa.’
‘You must’ve had help to make this place.’
‘That’s different, I grew up with these boys and I know their weaknesses and faults.’
‘What about your faults.’
‘Such as?’ Cally asked.
‘Being a bighead for a start.’
‘Come on let’s go, this is getting us nowhere!’ Cally complained.
Cally wrapped the red dress up in some of the brown paper that was in the den and tied it with a string.
‘I thought you didn’t like it?’
‘A friend does like it though and I am going to make sure he gets it back!’ Cally replied.
She squirmed out of the entrance followed by Drummond.
Bertram Dill crawled, dragging the lump of concrete past where Toby had been. The smell was bad; it was that smell which had saved Bertram from being found. By hiding directly under Toby, Harry Drew had not been able to smell him. Bertram knew he smelt, it had started on the day he had been earmarked for a swim and it had not got any better as time passed.
By now, his fingers were raw and bleeding but he had one thing on his mind, survival. His survival meant contacting Shultz and letting him know what had been going on. The door to the warehouse was locked but he had seen a metal bar, which he might be able to use to open the door with. He struggled to pull himself upright but he could not reach the bar and there was no way he could climb up. He stood and thought; he usually only looked at books and wrote figures all day, this was different. For the first time in his life, he started to look at things around him logically. He could not reach the bar and that was all he could see that might help him. He could not climb up so the bar had to come down; but how? He took his tie off and used it as a lasso. It seemed to take ages to get it to hook on to the bar and then it only moved a little way. But it moved! He tried and tried again until he moved the bar enough, the bar fell to the floor nearly hitting him as it fell. He dragged himself over to it and picked it up, now that the bar was in his hands he felt that he had a chance. First he had to get the door open or to get the concrete off his feet! Somehow he needed to let Emil Schultz know what was going on.
Clo addressed his assembled men, he was glad to find out that Emil Shultz had returned to his own headquarters, while Clo had been out. It was a meeting he would not have wanted Schultz to been privy to.
‘We need the girl, alive but winged if you have to. I want two men at the hospital in case Doyle wakes up. Marco you’re good at finding things out, I want to know where the brat’s ma hangs out and I want that staked out too. The rest of you get out there and look for her. Barney you watch the blind man’s shack just in case they go back there. Harry did you get rid of our unwanted guests?’
‘Yes boss but he didn’t seem, none too pleased.’
‘He? There were two!’
‘I thought you’d changed your mind about Dill as he weren’t there with Toby when I went back!’
Clo’s face turned crimson.
‘Get back there and finish the job! I want Dill feeding the fish before you come back here or don’t bother coming back Harry!’
‘Yes boss.’
Harry walked out of the hotel and he was angry. Dill had made him look foolish and he was about to pay! He drove to the warehouse. The door was still locked and there was no sign of a forced exit. He unlocked the padlock on the door and stepped inside.
‘Come on Bertram I know you’re in here don’t waste anymore of my ti…’ He did not get to finish the sentence.
Bertram hit Harry over the head with the bar and Harry collapsed in a heap. There were chips off the concrete round Bertram’s feet where Bertram had tried to get it off but it was still heavy. He took Harry’s pistol, not that he knew how to use it but he took it to make sure Harry did not shoot him with it. As he was trying to escape with concrete round his feet, he could hardly run away. He dragged himself outside and then locked the warehouse door with Harry still inside it. He lowered himself to the ground and dragged himself carefully down the deserted drive. The warehouse was next to the water’s edge and the last thing he wanted to do was to fall into the water and do Drew’s job for him.
When he turned the first corner, he started to relax a little bit, now he was out of sight. At least out here he had a fighting chance. If he started firing, it would bring the police but then, they would want him to testify against Shultz, and although that was not a good idea, it was better than being dead in the lake.
Cally and Drummond stopped in an alley near the hospital.
‘Remember they’re looking for a girl and a boy. Now we’re two boys we should be able to get into the hospital with out any trouble. Getting into see Pa, if it is Pa, is going to be a bit trickier.’
‘A bit trickier,’ Drummond repeated, ‘the police are bound to be guarding him; Clo’s men are over there in that car,’ he nodded in the direction of the car he meant. It was parked across the street with its engine running, ‘and I expect they got someone inside the hospital as well!’
‘Come on we’ll walk in and see what happens but be ready to run!’ Cally whispered.
‘You don’t have to tell me to be ready to run; I don’t want to go in there in the first place!’
Drummond retorted.
‘Stop being a baby Drummond.’
They walked to the front doors of the hospital, opened them and walked inside unchallenged.
‘Now what,’ Drummond asked, ‘we can’t very well walk up to information and asked them which room Your Pa’s in, can we!’
Cally walked up to the information desk.
‘I’m looking for my grandm-‘ she started but Drummond kicked her where the nurse could not see him doing it. ‘Grandfather; I think he might have been brought in here.’ She announced.
‘Does this grandfather have a name?’ The nurse on duty asked.
‘Mr Craigrose.’ Cally answered, she had no idea if Dan was in here but hoped to see her fathers name on the list as the nurse checked it.
The nurse checked her list in front of her, with Cally watching but Cally saw nothing that helped her.
‘Yes he’s in room 111. He’s very poorly but as you are family it should be okay to see him but not for too long now.’
‘It’s on the next floor, near the elevator.’
Cally and Drummond walked to the elevator.
‘Who’s Mr Craigrose?’ Drummond asked.
‘Dan.’
Drummond was still no wiser and it showed.
‘You know, on the boat!’
‘Oh, the drunk.’
‘Don’t say that! He saved my life and I bet after this, he won’t be a drunk anymore.’
‘Once a drunk, always a drunk!’ Drummond replied. ‘I should know my dad’s one and he won’t change, that’s why I ran away, I was fed up with him beating me when he got drunk.’
Instead of getting out on the first floor they chose to roam the corridors of the hospital looking for signs of Cally’s father. When they walked down a corridor and saw a policeman sitting outside the door to one of the rooms, Cally knew it was the right room, it had to be. They walked past and round the next corner.
‘So how do we get rid of that policeman?’ Drummond asked.
