Case of the Wandering Star - chapter 4

Twenty minutes later I was out that door and headed for the trains and the stockyards… I had to do some fast work and a fast reconnaissance. Louie the Leech was the man who’d know where the bodies were buried in the ‘yards.. I could feel the walls closin’ in on Miz Alexia, and it wasn’t a good feelin’…

 

No point trackin’ down that phone line now…. it wasn’t there any more, I’d reckon… but I had a coupla names from Jimmy.. and I wanted a little help from that weasel, too, for the idea starting to form in my head on how to handle this….once I found the joint where they’d stashed Miz Alexia, that is….

 

Armand had told me that I could expect some back-up - and I’d recognize ‘em when I saw ‘em, and I’d told him how to find Louie’s place…..

 

I parked my Packard outside Louie’s joint, and the lights were on, so he was in partying mood alone, like always unless he had the fix in with some railway guard’s wife while the man was away…..…… I wasn’t here to party, though… not like that….

 

The pieces were all beginning to come together, but I needed just a little bit more to put it safely in its grave, and that little piece had to come from Louie The Leech.

I knocked once on the door, under the sign that said L. Lechevsky, Import/Export Meat.  Yeah - I knew what kinda meat Louie liked to import and export, and it ain’t the kind Mrs Barker wanted on the dinner table!  Well, maybe it was, just not cooked or served like her husband liked it…. an’ not while he was home, either….

But Louie was still one of my better sources of information, and I knew I’d get it outta him for a finn or two…

Louie was just into his first bottle of booze, so I knew he could still talk straight…

“Hi, Pete!  Grab a rock an’ lemme pour you a drink!”

“No thanks, Louie - I got work to do - and I kinda need a little gen right now, if it’s all right with you and Mr Daniels there?”

“Sure thing, Pete - watcha bringin’ t’ the table now?”

I quickly laid out a roll o’ tens, and Louie’s eyebrows rose an inch or two.

“Look like you’re mighty serious there, Pete?  Who I gotta kill?”

“I’ll be straight shootin’ with ya, Louie - I ain’t got much time.  I’m just lookin’ ta kill a guy’s character - about yesterday, if ya know what I mean! Waddya know about a guy named Parker Dansby?”

Louie’s eyes focused real fast, and he said a lot.. a hell of a lot.  Yeah, Louie sure knew about this guy….

Seems Mr Dansby was a drifter in life, not your average railroad drifter, but one with the cash to travel around a bit.. in style.  And he had a girl in every town…and a different story to match, as well as a wife or two stashed at home and a family or two.

One story was that he had a young kid, a boy, about 4 years old, and a wife who knew about his secrets but was OK with it as long as the moolah rolled in.  Another was that he was a divorcee with a daughter of 22.  The list of stories was a long as Benny the Rat’s record, and just as smelly.

Yeah - pretty good going for a guy of around 45 or so - and the girls went for it like the leeches after the warm blood that Louie was named after… crazy sometimes what a girl will swallow when she’s all alone in the big world…. but that’s how they are.. sorry ‘bout that….

Louie also gave me an address where he said this Dansby guy had his bolt hole in Chicago, and wouldn’t ya know it… it was right outside the ‘yards and on a freight line to the West….. well, well…

I had a feeling I was closin’ in on Mr Dansby… right about ten minutes time….. now all I needed was to get a plan into action…

I left Louie with an extra twenty as a gift, and he was a happy man.  I hadda get back to Miz Alexia  Ringwald as quick as I could - and get an answer to her situation fast - if she was still around, that is……

I could feel the rats closing in as I walked fast through the dark night to my Packard Double Six…… and they were gnawing at my insides...

Two guys were standing there and I instinctively put my hand on my .45, ready to pull if they showed signs of trouble…. one came forward with his hands out, so I relaxed a little, but didn’t take my eyes off of either of ‘em…

“You are Mr Pete?”

Now that just had to be Armand’s boys, so I let up a little, but still kept my hand close… you never know for sure….

“We are friends, Mr Pete, asked by Armand to offer you what help we could give.”

Well, unless someone had tortured it outta Armand, these guys were the real thing, so I went across and shook ‘em by the hand…. an’ they started to introduce ‘emselves.  I stopped ‘em right there…

“Boys… if anything goes wrong here, an’ I end up in the slammer.. it’s better if I don’t know who ye are, OK?  I’m not tryin’ to offend ya, and I’m grateful for yer help, but it’s safer for ya that way.  OK?”

They nodded, and I got ‘em in my car and found a quiet spot near a bar that I knew had a telephone…. an’ laid it all out for ‘em,…..  they knew enough already from Armand, but I filled ‘em in on the address and what I had in mind ta get ‘em both inside Dansby’s door….. with me right behind….

They were both carrying, so I knew they were up for some rough stuff if it was needed….. I headed for that bar and that telephone… and Jimmy boy….who was gonna help us out….

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Jimmy near went into shock when I laid out my plan… an’ he tried hard to crawfish outta the whole deal.. at least until I assured him he’d be no way implicated, so his mama would be safe…. an’ him, too….. an’ besides, I’d return the goods soon as we finished up Dansby and his cronies…..

An’ after Dansby I had bigger fish to fry… an’ one of ‘em went by the name o’ Feely….. an’ maybe a little trip or two to make to sort out Dansby’s dame net organisation…but I’d figure that one after right now and here was settled for Miz Alexia…..

I told Jimmy boy where to meet us.. and to make it snappy as an alligator down the Everglades way….an’ me an’ the boys headed out to Dansby’s joint down by the tracks…….

We found a quiet spot nearby, coasting to a stop with the lights out, and settled in for a look at what was going on…. I figured we had maybe an hour until Jimmy arrived with his goods, so we’d put it to good use….

 I didn’t wanna alert the goons in that joint to the fact that we were outside an’ waitin’ for ‘em, so I figured the best way was ta just wait an see who came in and who went out…  the back o’ that joint lead right to the tracks over a high fence, so I figured nobody’d be gettin’ out that way in a hurry….. just the front.. and we were gonna front up to it as bold as brass,  just as soon as Jimmy got here….

There was a little action, an’ a guy  in a suit showed up in a car an’ walked up  a coupla bags o’ food.. about enough for four, I reckoned.. another guy let him in.. an’ a light went on in one o’ the upstairs rooms… I figured that might be where Miz Alexia was being held, an’ took a note o’ which room… I pointed it out an’ the two guys with me looked like a pair o’ hungry wolves as we sat and watched…. but I wanted ‘em to be calm and steady when they went up to that door later… as soon as Jimmy.. ah… here he was, just coasting to a stop behind us.

I got out an’ my two boys followed, but Jimmy just sat in his car, too f****n’ scared to move… until I came up to his door….  He wound down the window…

“OK, Jimmy - ya got the goods?”

“Yeah, Pete”, still with the Pete, “I got ‘em, but I need ta get ‘em back, ya know.  Someone might miss ‘em!”

“Ah, don’t worry Jimmy, we’ll get ‘em back to ya without any holes in ‘em…now bring ‘em out!”

“They’re in the back!”

I signaled to the two guys, an’ they reached in, with Jimmy watchin’ ‘em nervous as a cat, and took out two police uniforms, straight outta the locker room at the 12^th Precinct.

“Yeah, these’ll do just fine, Jimmy.  Thanks fer yer help.”

“Just make sure ya get ‘em back ta me, Grappler!”

“Sure, Jimmy, sure.”

The two guys were nearly in them uniforms, an’ when they were fully dressed, we headed fer that door….I reckon Jimmy was near dead  of fright back there, but hey….. who was I ta take the thrill o’ life away from a man like Jimmy?

On the front porch, I slid over to one side away from the door, an’ one o’ the guys rapped on the door with his night stick….an’ it took a while fer it ta open, lemme tell ya… well, waddya know .. Slimey himself.. Slimey Blanschek.

He looked my boys up an’ down, an’ said,

“Waddya youse guys want.. it ain’t payroll time yet!”

The boys were good,

“Sorry, sir, just a routine investigation”, said one o’ ‘em, “we’re looking for a cat burglar reported in this area, and wondered if maybe you’d seen something?”

“I ain’t seen nuttin’, and so good night!”

“Sorry, Sir, but we got to check, is there anyone else in the house who might have seen something?”

Slimey made the mistake o’ looking back over his shoulder, and it was lights out, with one o’ the boys conching him good with that night stick an’ the other catchin’ him as he fell…quiet like lowerin’ him t’ the floor….. I stepped over him and checked him out.. yeah it was lights out for Slimey for a while….I nodded to the boys an’ we headed in an’ for the stairs, with one o’ the boys waitin’ downstairs in case there was someone down there…

I figured they’d figure it was Slimey comin’ upstairs, so I just walked on up calm as a summer’s day, an’ Armand’s guy came creepin’ up quiet behind me like he knew what he was doin’.. yeah.. Armand could sure pick guys that knew their work…., and there was only one light on, so I figured it was pretty safe ta bet that was Miz Alexia’s room.. and the other two guys that I reckoned were here’d both be there, too…. I didn’t bother to knock, just opened that door and walked in bracin’ the guys with my.45, while the other guy waited on the landing outside to watch my back…..

The Dutchman an’ some guy I didn’t know, an’ as gorgeous a Georgia peach as ya could find.. this hadda be the right place…right here… and right on time with a train comin’ down them tracks just like on the phone…….

“Hello, boys, ma’am.  Pete Grappler at your service.  Now.. you guys just open out yer hands an’ lemme see what ya got.  Easy now!  This thing’s got a mind o’ its own sometimes and jus’ goes off without bein’ told, know what I mean?  Reach an’ make it high!  Ma’am, you jest come over here.. don’t get in my way there… an’ get in behind me….there’s a cop on the landing outside’ll take care o’ ya.”…..

It was lookin’ good, and that train was sure a-coming… o’ course, it was too good…

Miz Alexia tripped on somethin’ o the floor and the Dutchman, quick as a flash, grabbed her an’ pulled a gun putting it to her head, the other guy grabbing fer his….an’ hitting the ground fast with two .45s in his chest… he kicked and went still as death…I held my rod on the Dutchman.. but no way could I shoot him past Miz Alexia, an’ he had that heater held to her head mighty tight…..he shouted over the train noise outside...

“Jah, Grapplah, I yam thinkink dut we might be valking out off here, so ztep azide or I vill kill zis lovffly lady vor you?  Maybe iss gut thinkink!”

All I could see of him was his face, a pretty small target for anyone, let alone a guy with a .45 that had a kick like an Arkansas mule, an’ I mighta blown Miz Alexia’s head off ‘stead that creep’s, so I was kinda stuck….

I guess the Dutchman could see it in my face.. never was a great poker player.. or any kinda player for that matter… so he figured he had me on tha ropes there… but he somehow didn’t figure on the third eye that suddenly opened up in his forehead, before he let go o’ a now screamin’ Miz Alexia and fell over on the bed, dead as a door nail.

Damn.. I looked at my .45 and it hadn’t fired, I was sure…  an’ Armand’s guy jus’ walked past me an’ took Alexia by the arms an’ walked her over to me…. didn’t even look at the Dutchman who was slowly spreading a pool o’ blood all over that bed an’ not givin’ her the chance to see, too….….

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