A Week In Hel (10 page)

“
Sounds nice,” she said as
we walked up the three steps and into the building. I noticed she’d
left her bag in the car. I didn’t mention it.

We walked through the
marbled lobby. We passed the mailroom, the wall of mailboxes, and
old Mr. Weeks who threw up a hand as soon as he saw us
coming.

“
Now missy if that boy don’t
treat you nice, you come right on down here and I’ll treat you
right and proper.”

There wasn’t a woman in
Champion City that Dick Weeks hadn’t tried to charm at one time or
another.

“
I don’t think he’ll
mistreat me Sir, he’s been nothing but nice to me. He seems like a
very kind man, took me out on the town, and even got me a steak
dinner,” she said in that rich, buttery, mesmerizing tone that
makes you dumber than a sack of spent shells. Mr. Weeks was eating
it up.

“
He’s a fairly good boy,
missy. You two have a good night,” he settled back in his
chair.

We went to the elevator and
went up to my place on the fifth floor. As we walked to the door I
said, “My place is more of a barefoot and comfortable place, it’s
clean, warm in the winter, and hot in the summer. There’s cold beer
in the fridge, and the john is in the bedroom.”

I unlocked the door, and
held it wide for her. She walked in and I closed the door behind
us. I gave the deadbolt a twist and flipped on the light. I dropped
my keys in my jacket pocket and hung it on the tree. I opened a
window, and Candi just sort of stood there, taking it all in. I
think it was the nervous anticipation of being in a new and
unexpected space.

“
Sit down. You want a beer?”
I asked a bit more nervous than I intended.

“
I would, doesn’t matter
what kind,” she said as she settled onto the far end of the
couch.

I went to the icebox and
pulled out two bottles of Champion City Brewery’s Bohemia Style
Beer. I carried them back to the front room, where I opened one and
handed it to her. I opened mine, as I sat down a comfortable
distance from her and waited. She took a long draw on the beer and
then looked at the label.

C.C.B’s Bohemia is world
class and I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like it. Dad and Granddad
drank it. Billy and Hazel went through it by the keg, and it seemed
like every festival and fish fry had at least one tap.

“
Angelo Delapina,” she said
slowly as she lowered the bottle.

“
What about him?”

“
He owns the brewery, and he
and Joey Catanza run all the rackets on the hill.” She was
deadpan.

“
Joey Catanza; nothing worse
than a small time crook coming down with a case of hereditary
ambition.”

“
I doubt you can get
anything on them, Their beefs are all handled by the roughnecks
from the union hall.”

This was, of course, all
stuff we (the cops) suspected, but couldn’t do anything about
because those cats covered their scat pretty good.

“
Yeah, we know that much. In
order to get those guys I need a smoking gun, a cooling stiff, and
either bulletproof evidence that either one of them gave the nod,
or proof that one of them was at the scene.”

She shook her head. “Good
luck with that.”

I took a long pull on my
beer and gave her a look. “Good luck, huh? I thought you were gonna
dish on who was in the back room at White Walls.”

She demurred by shaking her
hair over her shoulder and giving me a seductive smile. “Is that
the only reason you brought me here?”

“
Lookit, mostly gals like
you don’t want a bear like me, so I ain’t coming on. Since I know
how you operate, I’m about getting the bad guy because it’s
generally what I do.”

That babe had me steamed. I
was considering giving her the business. That minx bit was driving
nails in my nerves. Just then, the phone rang.

I gave her a look that was
to be considered a down payment on a future ass chewing and went to
address the phone’s impatient ringing.

What happened next, all I
can say is—damn.

I palmed the handset and
pulled it off the hook. “Yeah, Thurman Dicke.”

As soon as I answered, the
graveled voice of Dick Weeks, came over the line, “Hey Thurman,
there’s an officer Rosales down here poking around; wanted to know
your ‘partment number. Kinda shady lookin’ if you ask
me.”

Damn! I shoulda figured.
This broad was hot like a Saturday night special.

“
Where’s he now? Are you
okay?

“
Yeah I’m okay. I think he’s
on his way up. I don’t know.”

“
All Right Dick. He ain’t a
cop, he works for the racket.”

“
What should I do?” he
asked, alarmed.

“
Be yourself. I’m on my way
down.”

I dropped the handset on the
cradle and turned on Candi. “Well, your officer Rosales is here and
is on his way up. By the time we get downstairs you’re going to
have come clean or…”

“
Yeah, I got it. Let’s get
out of here.” She was on her feet.

“
So Rosales is what you’re
afraid of?”

I drew my gun and went to
the door. I opened it and turned the lock as we left. The hall was
empty, so we went to the elevator quick. I hit the button and
glanced at either end of the hall where the stairwell exits were
located.

The Shawnee was an old
building. The elevator doubled as a freight elevator, so with the
flip of a switch it could be operated manually. So the door had to
be opened and closed via the panel buttons, but the car would wait
with the door opened at any floor the operator chose, and not
return to regular service until the switch was returned to the Auto
or Run position.

When we got in, I opened the
phone box and turned the switch to manual. I punched the close
button and the door slid home. I hit the B for basement, and the
car started its steady descent. My plan was to go to the basement
and leave the building from the service entrance.

“
Y’know he’ll kill both of
us?” Candi said nervously.

“
Don’t even worry about it.
Mostly these punks fall apart when I get a hold of ‘em.” I was
trying to reassure her, and me. I didn’t want it to come to that,
mostly because I didn’t want to explain my temper about two
different incidents in the same day, but you gotta do what you
gotta do.

“
Why are you so afraid of
him?” I asked, just trying to make stupid conversation.

“
He’s the one who comes
around for Catanza. It was them in the back room today.
They…”

“
So it would be real bad for
you if he found us together.”

“
He ain’t as bad as the one
who works for Angelo, but he’s a piece of work for sure.” Sometimes
when he comes to collect and I don’t have the money he takes me in
trade, the sonofabitch.”

Fire started to burn in my
gut. The thought of some mook putting his hands on her body to pay
for protection. “Remind me to unscrew his head for
that.”

When the elevator doors
opened in the basement, I stepped out behind my piece, checking one
direction, and then the other.

The basement was dark beyond
the small semicircle of light from the elevator. In the inky dark,
the red exit sign buzzed off to the left.

We headed directly for it. I
had Candi by the arm, and I was walking her a bit faster than she
liked. Her heels were clicking loudly on the concrete.

“
Hey, don’t pull on me so
hard, you’re hurting me.” She resisted, and we stopped. I raised a
finger to my lips.

“
Take your shoes off, you’re
making too much racket,” I whispered.

Candi nodded and slipped out
of one heel and then put a hand on my chest to steady herself as
she slipped off the other. She settled onto her feet and was a good
three inches shorter.

“
Okay,” she
whispered.

Just then, something moved
across the darkness ahead of us and rattled one of the storage
cages. I holstered my piece and took Candi by the arm again. This
time she didn’t need an invitation.

We shuffled through the dark
quietly. As we got closer to the storage cages, I felt the hairs on
the side of my head stand up.

I pulled up short and shoved
Candi backward. I felt the whoosh of air—as what must have been a
two by four—sailed by my ear missing by mere inches. With Candi
safely away, I moved in on the bastard as he shuffled his feet, no
doubt compensating for the weight of that lumber. He exhaled hard
as he swung that board again.

Whoosh!

I sidestepped him, and
rushed. I knew I’d slipped up when I heard him breathing hard
behind me. That board grazed my shoulder as it went by this time.
There wasn’t much on it, but it stung enough to get me going. I
shot a hand out and caught hold of a shirtsleeve.

It felt like a left arm, so
I slammed my fist at where I figured his face ought to be. He must
have turned his head because my fist raked along the side of his
head and smashed his ear.

I grabbed the scruff of his
collar as he tried to raise the board. Too bad for him I was so
close, the lumber was harmless. I punched him right in the
mouth.

“
Drop it asshole.” He didn’t
so I punched him in the nose—hard. The cartilage crunched under my
fist.

“
If I have to take it away,
you’re gonna wish you’d dropped it.” I pumped my fist into both his
eyes.

You wanna sympathize—Imagine
a great big guy slamming a ham into your kisser. Sooner or later,
it’s gonna smart.

I cocked my fist and trip
hammered another one right in the mouth. He had a knuckle shaped
spot where his front teeth should have been. His legs rubberized
and he started to go down. The board clattered to the floor soon
followed by the jerk-ass himself.

“
Come on Candi,” I
growled.

“
I’m right here,” she said,
from just behind me.

I hadn’t realized she was
there. She took my hand and squeezed it, and we headed toward the
glowing exit sign.

I felt for the crash bar and
gave it a stout shove. The mechanism released and the door opened.
We rushed to the car, not twenty feet away. I pulled up on the
driver door handle just as the basement door slammed shut behind
us.

Locked.

Keys.

“
Damn!” I looked up in the
general direction of the fifth floor. “I don’t believe this.” I was
fuming.

“
What? Oh don’t tell me,”
Candi said, deflated.

“
C’mon we don’t have much
time.” I took her arm and headed her toward the fire escape on the
east side of the building.

The east fire escape went up
all ten floors, and at the top, had both a window and a door to the
maintenance office.

Carl Wells, the maintenance
man rarely, if ever, closed the window and never locked a door. The
manager of the Shawnee had talked to him about it. The head of
security (namely me) had talked to him about it also. Any resident
who’d ever required his services had complained about it. So I was
hedging my bet on the lifelong bad habit of the best fixer in the
business.

I jumped several times for
the ladder, but as I’ve said, I’m a big guy. I just couldn’t jump
that high.

“
Here, lift me up.” Candi
held out her arms.

“
Right.” I knelt under the
ladder and made a step with my knee. Candi stepped up on it and put
her arms around my neck, pushing her chest right into my face. I
tried turning my head, but she held on tight.

“
If we get out of this, I’m
yours,” she whispered seductively in my ear.

I braced her foot and put a
hand behind her calf as I stood up.

“
Whoops,” she exclaimed, at
the sudden boost.

“
Can you grab the ladder?” I
huffed.

“
Nope, higher.”

I heaved her upward, and she
grabbed at the ladder, but missed. Candi started to lose her
balance, but I caught her.

We tried again. This time I
heaved her up and gave her a final boost with a hand under her
backside. Candi caught the bottom rung of the ladder and held on
tight. The whole fire escape set up one hell of a racket as the
ladder rolled down.

“
Hurry up,” I said, and
shoved her up the ladder.

“
Hey, I’m going,” she
groused. I gotta admit she was moving faster than I
thought.

“
Lookit, somebody’s gonna
hear this rattletrap. It’s like a beacon for scumbags, and it ain’t
gonna be a good guy who comes to check out the noise.”

She nodded her head and
hoisted herself onto the first landing. Okay, first
floor.

The ladder began its noisy
ascent the second I pulled myself onto the landing. Candi had made
it nearly to the third floor by then and I was hot on her
tail.

I heard hard-soled shoes on
the pavement below about the time I made the fifth
floor.