I
The motorboat swept inshore, its prow clear of the water. A long white wash from the churning screws marked its passage from the Willow Point. Tux sat in the bucket seat while Solly had charge of the wheel. For the first time in years, Tux was scared. He had fallen down on an order, and he knew what was ahead of him. O’Brien would pass the word around. Tux would be shut out, and to be shut out of O’Brien’s world meant going back to small-time heists, not having police protection and scratching for a living. It wouldn’t be long before he would get himself involved in a gun battle with a cop. It wouldn’t be long, either, before he was on a slab in the police mortuary.
Tux ran his tongue along his dry lips at the thought. There was still a chance to rectify his mistake. If he could find Johnny, wipe him out and get rid of his body there would be no need for O’Brien ever to know Johnny had escaped from the cruiser.
But where was he to find Johnny? Would Johnny go to his sister’s apartment or would he leave town? The chances were he’d leave town. Johnny was no fool. He would know Tux wouldn’t rest until he found him.
The lighted waterfront was now well in view, and Tux suddenly leaned forward. “What’s going on over there?” he shouted above the noise of the engine.
Sooly turned his great pear-shaped head and stared.
“Looks like cops,” he said. “That’s a cop car.”
“Better take her to Sam’s jetty,” Tux said. “We don’t want to get snarled up with those boys.”
Solly altered course, and in a few minutes he brought the motorboat alongside the jetty.
Both men scrambled up the ladder, and then hurried down the jetty to
the waterfront.
Police whistles were blowing and they could hear the sound of distant sirens.
“This ain’t healthy,” Tux said. “Come on; let’s get the hell out of here.”
“Think they’re after Johnny?” Solly asked, looking along the waterfront at the distant police car and the four cops who were standing in a group, their backs turned to them.
“How do I know?” Tux snarled. “Goddamn it! He could get away in this shindig.” He had a sudden idea. “Maybe Seth knows what it’s all about.”
He set off down an alley, followed by Solly.
Tux knew all the short cuts and the back alleys of the waterfront as well as he knew the geography of his cruiser. But he was surprised to find a number of the alleys were already guarded by cops.
It was only the darkness and his knowledge that prevented them from being seen. By climbing over walls and passing through back yards, they managed to reach the rear entrance of the Washington Hotel.
“Stick around,” Tux said to Solly and, leaving him to wait in the basement passage, he went on up the stairs to the main hall.
Cutler had returned to the reception desk. He was smoking and staring out of the window that overlooked the waterfront.
He started when he saw Tux.
“What the hell’s going on?” Tux demanded.
“You’d better get out of here,” Cutler said. “Right now, it’s hotter than a red-hot stove.”
“What’s going on?” Tux snarled.
“Johnny Dorman’s just shot a cop.”
Tux recoiled.
“What?” His voice shot up.
“Yeah. I saw him do it.”
“Did he kill him?”
“Can you imagine Johnny making a good job of anything?” Cutler sneered. “Naw, the cop’s okay, unless, of course, he dies of fright.”
“How do you know it was Johnny?”
“I saw the lug. Adams was here after Yarde. We were up on the top platform of the escape when I spotted Johnny with another guy down on the waterfront. A cop spotted this other guy. Johnny threw an iron on him and shot him.”
“Have they got him?” Tux asked anxiously.
“Not yet, but they will. You know what Adams is like. He pulled a gun on Johnny and knicked him. I jogged his arm or he would have had him with his second.”
“I want Johnny,” Tux said. “Where did he go?”
Cutler grinned.
“You ain’t the only one. The place is swarming with cops. I didn’t know they had so many.”
“Where did he go?” Tux snarled.
“He’s holed up with Rose Little.”
“Who’s the hell’s she?”
“Oh, just a twist. She works in the amusement arcade next door during the day and flashes a leg along the waterfront at night. You remember her. Her brother’s Ted Little, the guy who knocked off a couple of cops last year.”
“How do you know he’s with her?”
“I saw her take them in. If Adams hadn’t been in such a hurry to get down the stairs, he would have seen them too.”
“Can I get in there?”
Cutler shook his head.
“Not a hope. The whole district’s sewn up tight by now.”
“I’ll be right back,” Tux said grimly, and ran across the hall to the stairs. He whistled for Solly, who came up quickly and silently. “I know where he is,” Tux said. “Now we’ve got to get at him.”
Solly’s great black eyes blinked and he nodded. Together they returned to the desk.
“We’ll go up and take a look,” Tux said to Cutler. “Come on. Show us.”
Cutler shrugged.
“Suit yourself. It won’t get you anywhere. The cops have really got this organized.”
The three entered the elevator which took them slowly and creakingly to the top floor.
“About time you got a new elevator,” Tux said as they all stepped out, “That thing doesn’t feel safe.”
“It isn’t,” Cutler said cheerfully, “but I’d rather the than walk up all those damn stairs twice in a night.”
He turned off the passage light, then opened the door that led on to the outside escape.
“Watch yourself. These cops may be trigger happy.”
Tux went down on hands and knees and crawled out on to the platform. He flattened out and Cutler, also crawling, came and lay by his side.
“That’s the joint; down there,” he said, pointing to a dark building across the alley and to their right.
“Okay,” Tux said. “You take care of the desk. Me and Solly can handle this.”
Cutler retreated and Solly crawled up to take his place.
“That’s it,” Tux said, keeping his voice down. He pointed. “We’ve got to get in there somehow.”
They lay looking down into the dark alley. Every now and then they saw a movement as a cop walked slowly along the alley, turn and retrace his steps, passing the door of the building they were watching.
“Maybe I could get down there and knock that lug on the head,” Solly said hopefully. “Then you could get in.”
“No.” Tux said. “That’s not the way to play it. If we are going to get in, we’ll get in by the roof.”
He studied the lay-out of the district as far as he could see it.
“We’ll have to get to the other side of the alley first,” he said finally. “We’ll have to go down the way we came up, cut around the back and get to Dave’s place. We can use his roof. It’ll take time, but it’ll be safe.”
Solly edged backwards. He was essentially a man of action. Show him what to do and he did it.
Tux followed him, and together they went down the stairs, two at a time.