“Well, it was good enough to get us here.”
We watched as the mayor went back to the house and shut the front door. We were back to nothing happening again. “So as I was saying. Where was I?”
“You were on a stakeout at the girl’s house. I hope it wasn’t as boring as this one.”
“Oh yeah. So I was sitting outside this dame’s pad, drinking coffee and eating donuts. You know typical stakeout stuff. Hell I hadn’t been sitting there more than a few mintes when the door opens and out comes the one and only Vinnie “the pick.” I recognized him from some old mug shots. Just the sight of him sent chills down my spine. He jumped in a cherry red coupe and screeched out of his driveway and headed down the street like he was shot out of cannon. I remembered thinking, “I wonder who he’s going to kill tonight?”
“And just like on cue, thirty minutes later, the guest of honor, Maria Demucci, a.k.a. Angela Divine, came out and got in a canary yellow Coupe Deville. She roared out of the driveway and took off like she was shot of a cannon herself. I spilled coffee all over myself trying to get my old Chevy in gear so I could follow her. It took me a couple of blocks, but I finally caught up to her.”
“I followed her."
“Dirk, Dirk,” Bone said with a tone of considerable urgency. “I got to pee, man.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“No, I’m not kidding. I gots to go, fo’ sho’.
I pointed at some bushes a few feet away from where we were parked. “Go behind them bushes over there, Bone. Make sure nobody sees you and be quick about it. I know you can’t wait to hear the rest of the story.”
“Oh, God. I’ll be back.”
I sat there watching the house while Bone took care of his business. A minute or so later he was back in the car with a look of relief on his face.
“Now where was I?”
“You were tailing the girl in the yellow Caddy.”
“Right, right. So I followed this dame for what seemed like almost an hour. I kept wondering, where the hell is this broad going? Finally she pulls up in the parking lot of this super swanky, expensive, and I had no doubt, exclusive night spot. She gets out of her car and disappeared inside. I could see her through the front window as she was led through the restaurant to a table where an attractive young gentleman in a tuxs was waiting. It wasn’t Vinnie, needless to say.”
“Oh, hell,” Bone said just then starting to get interested in my little tale.
“Oh hell was right. But surely this guy wasn’t the Lance character she had me looking for. I pondered on that thought for a while. I watched the two lovebirds sitting at their table, holding hands and smooching it up. I had a bad feeling this whole thing was going to end up badly. But I had no idea how badly."
Just then a station wagon pulled into the driveway of the mansion. The car pulled up to the house and an attractive middle aged woman and two little blond girls piled out of the car and went in the front door. Must be his wife and kids, I thought. I wonder if she knows and her the kids know how big a rat the man they live with is?
We watched for a while longer, but they never came back out. Back to boredom and my story again.
“So I was watching these two thinking, this ain’t good, this is not good.”
“They stayed in this joint ’til way after two in the morning dancing and carrying-on. I was almost about to doze off to sleep, I’ll have to admit, when finally they decided it was time for them to go. They got in Maria’s yellow Caddy and zoomed out of the parking lot with me in my old Chevy close behind.
“I tailed them to a super rich neighborhood in Beverly Hills of all places. In case you don’t know that’s where a lot of the big Hollywood stars live. They pulled in the driveway of this huge mansion, got out and arm and arms strolled up to the front door and went inside.
“Pulling across the street so I could see the house I set up shop again. The curtains were open and I could see the whole show and what a show it was. They started going at each other like a couple of hungry lions, clothes flying everywhere, when out of nowhere a red coupe, I recognized as Vinnie’s car came flying by and pulled into the driveway and stopped with a screech.”
“Four men, one of them of course Vinnie, came shooting out of the coupe like they were on fire. They kicked the door down and interrupted the happy couple just when it was getting interesting. “This is not good, not good.” I said to myself again as I watched Vinnie grab the man and throw him across the room like a rag doll. Maria tried to slap her husband, but he punched her in the face knocking her out cold on the floor.
“Vinnie snatched the gentleman off the floor who was by this time scared out of his mind and begging for his life. Then I saw for real why they called him “the pick.” He pulled a huge ice pick out of his coat pocket and plunged it deep in the man’s chest, like it was nothing. Blood squirted out of the gaping wound and the man fell to the floor like a stone.
“They rolled the poor fellow up in a carpet and headed for the car. Vinnie snatched Maria, who was still out cold off the floor by her hair and proceeded to drag her to the car and tossed her in the back seat. What happened next you ain’t gonna believe. I was so engrossed in the action, I forgot to duck. Can you believe it? Right on cue the whole bunch of them suddenly looked across the street and saw me. I was busted. It was time for me to get the hell out of there and I mean quick.
“I cranked up the old Chevy, threw her in gear and peeled out of there. Well I took off as fast as my old Chevy would go at any rate. They took off after me as I took a hard right then a hard left and headed down a straightaway with a car load of hoods in hot pursuit. Bullets flew by, some hitting my old car, a couple hit the back window and glass flew everywhere. They was gaining on me so I made a hard right hoping to lose them. The street I turned down was a dead end, so I had to throw it in reverse and make a quick u-turn. Just as I did the hoods were coming down the street, I flew by them. They turned and began their pursuit again.
Back on the straightaway they were gaining on me again. I made hard left but I couldn’t make the turn, rolling my Chevy and ending up in a mass of smoking metal in the middle of the street. I tried to crawl out but my door was stuck. I reached for the other door, it was stuck as well. I knew they would be coming for me and I was stuck like a rat. It was going to be like shooting fish in a barrel. I looked to my left, I could see Vinnie and his boys getting out of their car and were heading my way. I’ll have to admit, even though I’ve never been a religious man, I said a little prayer that night.
"Just at that very moment I heard it Bone. It was the sweetest sound I had ever heard or so it seemed at the time. It was a police siren. The LAPD had showed up like a miracle, an answer to my prayer to save yours truly. They arrested Vinnie and his mugs. I ended up testifying against Vinnie, he got life in prison and I got put in witness protection. So that’s how I ended up in Memphis and sitting here in the car talking to you and staking out the mayor’s house."
Bone just looked at me for a minute and finally said, “Damn, that’s quite a story.
We both laughed.
Chapter Twelve
Looking at my old trusty Timex, I decided we’d had enough for one day. T-Bone and I both needed to get some rest before our shift at the Blue Note. He dropped me off at my dump with an empty feeling. We still had nothing. Something had to give, but what? I knew that the mayor was mixed up in the whole affair but I couldn’t just knock on his door and ask him, “where’s the girl, mayor?”
Opening my door and entering my dump, I remembered the note I had made to myself earlier, “ Do your laundry.” I groaned as I looked at the big pile of dirty clothes in the corner. “I picked a hell of a day to give the maid the day off.” I laughed to myself while hanging up the clothes I had on in anticipation of wearing them again that evening. “Tomorrow, tomorrow,” I said as I climbed in my bed for a much needed date with the sandman. I was soon fast asleep.
I never have been one to believe in
superstitious nonsense but what happened that afternoon convinced me otherwise. Some people believe that dreams have meaning, I’ve never been one of those people. I had the craziest dream, in fact one that scared the hell out of me. Dreams to me are just a continuation of what you were doing or thinking when you were awake. I had been thinking about Michele, so it was natural for me to dream about her. But what I dreamed wasn’t natural at all.
Michele appeared to me like an apparition, as real as if she was sitting on the bed next to me. She spoke softly but clearly, and her words cut through me like a knife. “I’ve been taken prisoner, you must come and save me Dirk. The mayor is a bad man, just as you said. I’m afraid they are going to kill me, you must come quick. Only you can save me Dirk. I am in a warehouse. I do not know where, but you must find it.”
“Michele,” I said, waking up with a start hoping to see her sitting on the bed next to me. But she was not there, but her words stayed with me. “I knew it!” I said loudly. “I knew the mayor had something to do with it.” I rolled over to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t, I kept hearing Michele’s plea for me to help her.
I finally got up to take a shower, by then it was almost time to go to work.
Back at my post at the Blue Note by eight once again, I couldn’t stop thinking about the dream. As I said I never believed in dreams before but this one was so real, it just had to mean something. Michele had been taken prisoner, that’s what she said. The mayor had her locked up in some warehouse. Could be, but what warehouse? There were hundreds of warehouses in the city. It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
T-Bone and his band were on stage knocking the crowd dead as usual. It was just another night at the Blue Note, but it was empty with Michele gone. The band had hired another female singer, but it wasn’t the same. A few minutes later I could hear the applause and the music stopped. Shortly Bone pushed through the front door with a terrible frown on his face and a saddness in his eyes. “Got a smoke,” he inquired trying to force a smile.
I pulled a pack out of my pocket, shook out a square and handed it to him. “Light?”
“Thanks, Dirk.” He took a long pull and blew out the smoke. “Damn I needed that. You know it just ain’t the same around here with Michele gone, you know what I mean Dirk?”
“Yeah, I do.”
“We got to find her,” he said, finishing up his cigarette and dropping the butt on the pavement.
I told him about my dream. I figured if anybody could make sense of it it was Bone. “She said she’d been kidnapped? Lord, I’m really worried now. How we gonna find her, some warehouse.”
"That’s all she said Bone, a warehouse.”
Then the strangest thing happened. You know how it is said, “talk abut the devil and he’ll shown up?” Out of nowhere the mayor and of all people, Pauli, came strolling up to the door. Bone and I didn’t know what to say, we just stood there with our mouths wide open.
“Good evening,” the mayor said and strolled on in like he owned the joint. Pauli just walked on by without saying a word, but looking at Bone and I strangely.
"Well I’ll be damn,” I said.
“You right about that Dirk.”
“Speak of the devil and he’ll show up every time. Least we can keep an eye on them while they’re here.”
“I got to get ready for my next set. I’ll holler at you later Dirk.”
I started thinking after T-Bone left. Maybe we’re following the wrong guy. Maybe Pauli and his goons got Michele stashed someplace. It could be. But that guy scared me. He reminded me too much of the individuals in L.A. that I was hiding out from. The kind of individuals who when you get in their business, you get dead. It didn’t figure that an upstanding family man like the mayor would have a kidnapped girl tied up at is mansion, right there in front of his wife and little ones. But Pauli on the other hand… I bet he has some warehouses too.
Another thing that puzzled me was why did he kidnap Michele in the frst place? Just to keep her away from yours truly, I don’t know. The more I thought about that, the more that story didn’t hold water. I had some detective work to do. Maybe there was something in Michele’s past that was behind this whole thing. Maybe she wasn’t being held prisoner. After all, I had only a dream as proof that she had been taken against her will. Maybe she staged the whole Voodoo thing at her place so she could disappear. Damn, I needed a drink.
As I entered the club the first thing I saw was the mayor and Pauli huddled up in a corner table, drinking a highball, and having a private conversation. I sure wished I could hear what they were saying. I should have just went up to them and demanded they turn over the girl. Then after they had stopped laughing, Pauli would probably have gotten up and punched my lights out.
Bone was just finishing up his set so I motioned for him to join me at the bar. “Drink?” I said, pulling a five spot out of my pocket.
“Sure, if you’re buying.”
“Beer okay?”
“What ever you’re having.”
We took our drinks over to a table at the back of the place, so we could talk and also keep an eye on Pauli and the mayor. “You know Bone, I’ve been thinking.”
“Shouldn’t be doing something you ain’t used to,” Bone said laughing, taking a sip of cold beer.
“Very funny, as I was saying. I was thinking, The mayor wouldn’t have Michele over at his house, not around his wife and kids.”
“I sure wished you’d did this thinking a little earlier before we sat outside the mayor’s house for half a day.”
“Do you want to hear the rest?”
“Sorry, Dirk, go ahead.”
“I think we’re barking up the wrong tree.”
“And what tree is that?”
“I think Pauli and his goons have Michele. She said she was in a warehouse. I bet Pauli has some warehouses. That’s if she’s been kidnapped at all. I was thinking about that too,” I said stopping to take a large gulp of my brew.
“Hold on! Hold on! Now You think that maybe she’s hasn’t been kidnapped?”
“Yeah. After all the only proof we have that she was kidnapped is a dream. And the only reason we have is to keep her away from me, so the mayor could have her all to himself. Now that doesn‘t seem like much of a reason to me anymore, I don‘t know.”
“What about all the blood at her apartment, Dirk? What about that?” Bone was starting to get upset.
“She could have staged the whole Voodoo thing, just to disappear.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Maybe there’s something in her past. Something she’s running way from.”
“I need another beer,” Bone said.
“Maybe more than one.”
Chapter Thirteen
Michele strained against her restraints. The room she was locked in was empty except for an old
bed with a metal frame she was tied to and an old broken chair sitting in the corner. On the wall was a picture of a Civil War general hanging crooked and dusty from years of neglect. The floor was knotted wood covered with muddy footprints and blood.
Outside Rudy Marconi and another one of Pauli’s goons, Pete, “the snake” Rubio stood guard.
“So what are we supposed to do with this dame?” Pete asked.
“The boss said keep her on ice for a while and then whack her.”
“Whack her?”
“Yeah. And he said make sure they never find the body.”
“Just like that?”
“Yeah.
“I don’t know Rudy, I ain’t really into whacking ladies. Can we at least have a little fun with her first?”
“The boss said she is not to be touched like that. If he finds out we did, then it’s curtains for us, if you know what I mean?”
“Well it was just a thought. Seems like a waste, that’s all.”
“Yeah, a waste. She is quite a looker.”
Michele lay on the dirty bed, a strange calm came
over her beautiful face, like she knew that no one could kill her. She was magic and her powers would defeat the evil that was out to end her young life, of this she was certain. Her restraints had somehow began to loosen and she slipped out of the ropes that had bound her. She smiled an evil but beautiful smile as she sat on the bed and slipped into a deep trance.
She began to tremble and moan and suddenly letting out a blood curdling cry, followed by ritualistic chanting.
"What the hell was that Rudy?”
“It must be that dame. Damn she gives me the creeps.”
“Let’s just whack her. That’ll shut her up.”
The phone rang suddenly, scaring the hell out of them.
Chapter Fourteen
My night’s work done I hot footed it back to my place with one thing in mind, try and get some sleep. I was so tired, my whole body ached, even my hair hurt. I still needed to do laundry, but that would have to wait. Maybe I would just buy a new outfit, what the heck, but first I needed sleep.
As soon as my head hit the pillow I was in the land of the sandman. I was in dreamland as well and a bizarre one began to play in my head like a horror movie shortly thereafter. I was walking down a long dark corridor, there was a thin beam of light streaming out of the cracks of a door to my right as I made my way down. I tried the doorknob but the door was locked .
I proceeded down the passageway when to my left was another door glowing red like it was on fire, but when I touched it, it was cold as ice. I tried the knob and the door opened with a strange creaking sound.
My heart was pounding as I pushed the door all the way open and entered the room which was glowing with a blue hue and in the room was a bed with a big iron head board. At first the room was empty except for the bed. I turned to leave but stopped when I heard the voice of an angel; a voice I knew all so well.
On the bed was Michele, a white light encompassing her, hair gold and flowing, blue eyes glowing. She spoke simply. “Dirk, you must come and save me.”