Run Cally Run

by S G Read

  Drummond reached the shack but after a short look around, he walked on. The thought of running in to Baptiste, chilled him to the bone. He walked past the alley again, then ducked into it and hurried to the shack. There was a drunk asleep in the shack and their money was gone. He searched the drunk’s pockets and found three dollars, then looked about the shack and found another fifty cents. He felt like hitting the drunk over the head with something but then he thought of Dan and just walked out. Maybe he had a reason for being drunk! He headed for the camp, looking behind him now and again to make sure he was not being followed. He never saw anyone who looked interested in him but then with Baptiste that was all you got. Then a knife where you did not really want it! He crossed from his side of the city to Cally’s side and walked on. He saw the street which led to the small park the camp was in and after a little hesitation turned into it.

  Cally waited, looking out now and again until she saw the car drive away. She waited until it had gone then slipped out of the window and across the roof. The other car was still there but two different men sat in that one and she assumed that they were police officers. She climbed down the creeper and headed for the camp. When she came to the road she peered out to make sure the car had actually gone and not only come this far to wait for her. There was no sign of the car so she crossed the road and walked into the alley. She followed the alley until she came to the loose plank. She pushed it to one side and slid through. As she stood up she saw Drummond walking from the other direction. She went to wave then a man stepped out of the bushes and walk toward Drummond. When Drummond saw him he froze to the spot, unable to run, unable to do anything. Cally assumed that this was the dangerous Baptiste and hid in the bushes trying to think of something to do to help Drummond, which would not get them both killed.

  CHAPTER 13

  Baptiste settled to wait. He was comfortable enough and had to make sure he did not fall asleep. It was some time before a boy started down the path. He recognized the boy as the boy who had lived with the blind man. He flexed his muscles and stretched before he showed himself, in case he had to run after the boy but as soon as the boy saw him he stood transfixed. Baptiste’s reputation did that to some people. When he was half way to the boy a woman walked from the building Baptiste had been hiding near. She had two policemen with her.

  ‘That’s the one.’ She cried pointing at Baptiste. ‘He’s been here some time! Drunk I reckon, ought to be thrown in jail!’

  The two police officers walked forward, heading for Baptiste. He saw them and changed direction.

  ‘Stop in the name of the law!’ One of the police officers shouted, when he realised that Baptiste was trying to avoid them.

  Baptiste had two choices, stop and kill them or run. He ran for the loose plank that led into the alley and fled from the scene with the two police officers in hot pursuit.

  When they had gone, Cally stepped out of the bushes next to the loose plank and walked over to where Drummond stood.

  ‘Why didn’t you run?’ She scolded.

  ‘Sorry. I froze.’

  ‘Well don’t freeze next time, okay?’

  ‘These drunks ought to be locked up!’ The woman complained, then turned and walked back into the building.

  Cally and Drummond both laughed.

  ‘Come on.’ Drummond said urgently. ‘Baptiste will soon lose those two police officers, let’s get out of here, we can’t use the camp now!’

  They ran back the way Drummond had come, which was opposite to the direction Baptiste had been heading. The last thing they wanted was to run into him but at least Cally, knew what he looked like now.

  Clo sat in his office, he was mad. The men at the hospital had let the girl slip through their fingers, there was no word from Baptiste and Harry Drew had been blown up with their boat!

  ‘Where would you go if you were a kid on the run?’ He asked Larry who sat opposite him in his more normal role as Clo’s protection.

  ‘To me Ma, if me Pa was in hospital and by now she is sure to know just how bad he is!’ Larry replied. ‘She can’t get help from her pa, so she’ll turn to her ma.’

  Clo smiled.

  ‘You just hit it on the head! She’ll run home to mummy and we’ll be waiting! Get the men together except Baptiste; he may still come up with the goods.’

  ‘Yes boss.’

  Clo leant back in the chair. Shultz had gone, after sending men out to look for Dill and Toby and if Harry had done his job before he got blown up, then they would not be found at all. It all fitted. Harry must have been returning after dropping Bertram Dill in where Toby was feeding the fish and the police saw him. They must have fired on him, causing the boat blow up! Any evidence went up with the boat. All he wanted now was to find the little brat and recover the money but now, instead of passing it on to Shultz, he had other plans for it. The men assembled in the rest room and for the second time in a week, Clo walked out there to talk to them. He looked over the bunch of cut throats and murderers, with three less his wage bill was going down but he would need a few to stake out the girl’s mother’s place.

  ‘Anyone know where this little bitch’s ma lives?’ He asked.

  ‘We all do boss. It’s a home for retired police officers.’ Barney replied. ‘The good thing is if we have to go in there, we get to shoot coppers and most of them can’t even stand up!’

  ‘Where is this place?’

  ‘A little place called Wilmington.’ Barney replied.

  ‘Get me a map.’

  Marco left and returned with a map, which he spread out before Clo and pointed Wilmington out to him.

  ‘Right, we leave one man at the hospital and one watching the house just to make them think we’re still about. One man finds Baptiste and sees what he has to say and let him know what we’re going to do. The rest find this place and lay siege to it but without letting anyone know you’re there. Larry and I will go to the bus station to see if she turns up there with her little friend.’

  ‘How do we keep in touch boss?’ Marco asked.

  ‘Find a nice quiet house, somewhere with a phone and leave someone there to take messages.’

  Barney’s face lit up.

  ‘What about the family in there boss?’ He asked.

  ‘Kill them. Just make sure they don’t make any noise!’

  ‘No, no noise boss I’ll choose a house, in just the right place.’ Barney answered quickly.

  ‘Why should you choose?’ Luke challenged.

  ‘Why shouldn't I choose? I might as well have something to do while I’m there!’ Barney retorted.

  ‘I hope you like them with an extra mouth then!’

  ‘Any way I can Luke. You have your pleasure then I’ll have mine!’

  ‘Get on with it and keep me informed!’ Clo ordered in disgust and walked away.

  Lieutenant Stone sat at his desk talking, when news of Baptiste’s sighting came in. The officers were investigating a reported drunk when he made a run for it; it was only then that one of the officers realized who it might be. Baptiste ran out of the park and they never saw him again. They described the boy and the lieutenant recognized him as Drummond. When the two officers returned to the park, Drummond was long gone and the lieutenant did not see the point of going out there, to look at nothing but he repeated the 'find Baptiste and arrest him on sight' request.

  ‘Where does this mother live, Grogan?’ He asked.

  ‘I’ll find out sir. Constable Toms is about, he’s old so he should know.’

  Grogan went looking and found Toms drinking coffee in the changing room.

  ‘Doyle’s wife, where does she live now?’ He asked.

  ‘What Clo’s bookkeeper, he married Archie Scott’s girl Barbara. She left him some time ago, when she found out what he did for a living. She runs a place for us old flatfoots out of town somewhere. I was thinking of heading there when my time’s up. Now that Mattie isn’t with me anymore life’s a bit of a drag. At least there I’d have someone to talk
to, not just the wall.’

  ‘How do we find out where it is?’

  ‘My daughter will know. She thought it was a good idea, well her husband did, I think he thought I might end up there with them. I’d rather go to a retired policeman’s home than live with that pain in the ass. I don’t know what she saw in him.’

  ‘Find out where it is and make it priority!’

  ‘On my way sarge.’

  ‘Use the phone in my office.’

  ‘That's no good sarge, the pain in the ass I previously mentioned, won’t have a phone in the house. Say’s it’s ‘A waste of money! I’ll have to walk round there.’

  ‘I’ll take you in the car.’

  ‘You’ll have to stop down the street then, he doesn’t even like me there in my uniform!’

  ‘Tell him it’s official police business,’ Grogan ordered, 'and arrest him if he gives you any lip.

  Cally and Drummond found themselves in unfamiliar territory. They stopped, both panting for breath.

  ‘Now what?’ Cally asked after she had caught her breath.

  ‘We could find out how much a ticket to your ma’s place is.’

  ‘I’ve only got a dollar fifty. That won’t get us far.’

  ‘It don’t have to get us anywhere, it’s only got to get you to your ma’s.’

  ‘Don’t be silly. With Baptiste on our trail he’s sure to find you if I leave you here.’

  ‘So? I’m only a boy!’

  Cally kissed him.

  ‘What was that for?’

  ‘Because you’re a boy and I like you!’

  Cally started walking.

  ‘It doesn’t make any difference. You still got to go and leave me here or it doesn’t work. If we both wait round here long enough Baptiste will find us and then they’ll find out what they want to know. You’ll be glad to tell them after a while, so that they’ll kill you and get it over with!’

  ‘With one dollar fifty I won’t be going anywhere!’

  ‘I got three dollars fifty, add that to your one dollar fifty you have five dollars, that ought to get you most of the way.’

  ‘I need a drink. Dan’s boat isn’t far, if we can get on it without being spotted we can hide there for the night, I’m too tired to think straight!’

  ‘What if someone comes?’

  ‘We swim for it, like we did it before!’

  ‘I wonder if Baptiste can swim.’ Drummond said thoughtfully as they changed direction towards Dan's boat.

  Instead of heading for the bridge they headed for the lock. If they could get across without the lock keeper seeing them they would be okay for a while and now that a track had been cut through the undergrowth, they could use it to get upstream to the boat. At least they could have a rest on the boat. They stooped close to the river and lay on their bellies, where they could see the lock keeper in the front window of his house. There was no way they could get across without his seeing them, all the time he was there. There were no boats moving at all and he just sat there, half reading and half watching out the window.

  ‘What do we do?’ Cally asked.

  ‘Wait until he takes a piss then we go over quickly.’

  It was a sound idea but they seemed to wait for ages.

  ‘I don’t know about him but I got to go!’ Cally announced and slid down the slope backwards, to find a bit of privacy. When she returned Drummond slid down the bank and hurried off.

  He returned looking much relieved. They waited for another hour and the man still sat there, then a boat tooted as it approached. The lock keeper did nothing and the boat had to moor on the river bank to go and get him. The man walked in, then hurried back out. He closed the lock gates himself and as soon as the water was low enough he opened the lower gates and the boat roared off.

  ‘What do you make of that?’ Cally asked. ‘Let’s go and have a look!’

  ‘No lets not! If the lock keeper is not doing his job then he’s got to have a good reason! They went in to see him and then did it themselves and they did it in a hurry.’

  ‘What sort of reason?’

  ‘The, he’s dead and propped up to fool us, sort of reason and that means Baptiste is about here somewhere, waiting for us to cross.’

  ‘What do we do now then? If the boat’s a no go area.’ Cally asked.

  ‘There’s a place I know, we didn’t go there because Caleb couldn’t climb very well, being blind and all but if it’s only you and me we could go there and hide.’

  ‘Good! Let’s get as far away from here as we can!’

  Drummond led the way along the bank and into the trees.

  Baptiste watched the two children hurry away through the small area of glass he had cleaned on one of the boat’s windows.

  ‘So close but yet so far away but beware little ones Baptiste is following. For you boy it is the end of the line! Anyone who knows what I look like has to die unless they’re paying me and a boy who becomes frozen to the spot when he sees me must have recognized me. I should have known the blind man would know me.’

  He jumped off the boat and walked to the lock, nodded politely to the dead lock keeper and crossed over the lock gates. He had seen which way they were headed and followed. He walked with his nose twitching and his eyes looking for little clues on the ground, to tell him where they had walked. Things that the average man would not even notice. If Cally walked by a hedge she liked to pull off a few leaves and drop them on the ground sometimes one by one and sometimes together, Drummond chewed grass stems and dropped them. To Baptiste the ground was like a large map with information there for the seeing.

  ‘Yes what is it Grogan?’ Lieutenant Stone asked.

  ‘We have a report of a dead lock keeper, we’re just going to look into it lieutenant.’

  The lieutenant stood up.

  ‘And I bet it’s the lock just down river from Craigrose’s boat.’ He declared.

  ‘You got it in one lieutenant.’

  ‘Baptiste is on the boat waiting for them! Get some men down there and head them off! I’m coming too; I just about had enough of sitting round here waiting!’

  They drove to the houseboat but it was deserted and the only thing they saw that had changed from their earlier visit was the little area of window that Baptiste had cleaned. The lieutenant looked through the glass.

  ‘He lay here watching, he expected them to sneak past the lock keeper and he’d have them. So where are they now? Did he get them or did they wise up to his scheme and run? Carter, go over there and have a look.’

  Carter walked down to the lock and crossed to the other side, had a look round and then walked back to the boat.

  ‘No sign of anything over the other side, just some flowers.’

  ‘What do you mean flowers?’ Grogan asked.

  ‘There were some daisies, sarge, made into a sort of necklace lying on the grass.’

  ‘That’s got to be them,’ Grogan exclaimed, ‘but I don’t see that Cally, making daisy chains!’

  ‘You think the boy did it?’ The lieutenant asked.

  ‘I suppose I must.’

  By now they had started walking and were soon where the daisy chain lay.

  ‘So they lay here watching for a chance to cross the lock without being seen but the lock keeper’s dead so why didn’t they just go straight across?’

  ‘I can answer that one lieutenant.’ Pruitt answered. ‘The lock keeper was wedged up so that it looked like he was reading his paper, and watching the lock. Anyone waiting to cross had to wait until he moved or try to sneak past. This is the first time I’ve known Baptiste not to slit his victim’s throat, it would have shown and ruined his plan!’

  ‘What does this Baptiste look like?’ Carter asked.

  ‘No one has seen him up close and lived, unless they were the ones paying him, it’s all money with him. He’s French and I hear he has a wild lifestyle which needs lots of dough, to keep it going.’ Pruitt answered.

  ‘So we’re looking for someone but we do
n’t know what he looks like and we are trying to stop him from killing this girl!’ Carter asked.

  ‘Not killing, I wouldn’t think. They obviously need her for something, probably to do with the location of the money but the boy is as good as dead if he gets in the way, or sees Baptiste’s face!’ Lieutenant Stone replied. ‘Now why do you suppose they want her? Her father was their book keeper and now he’s in hospital doing an impression of a vegetable. What if he had the books with him when he was hit by the bus that would cause them a headache?’

  ‘We thought of that lieutenant.’ Grogan replied. ‘We searched everything when he was brought in.’

  ‘What if he’d put them somewhere for safekeeping.’ Pruitt added.

  ‘Or helped him self to some of their money!’ Carter asked.

  ‘That would do it,’ Pruitt replied, ‘but we eliminated all the keys on his set and the house has been well searched.’

  ‘Then we know where the key is, if there is one. The girl must have it with her or at least Clo must think she has it or that she knows where the stuff is!’