“Whoa, hold on there!” Patsy cried out as he jerked the wheel compensating for the sideways wind at the speed they were traveling.
Righting the cruiser, Patsy continued on the straightaway fighting the buffeting winds for the entire stretch. Looking to his right at the direction of the gusts, Joe was shocked at the scene waiting for him. The hillside that made up the ending cul-de-sac of the Scar that ran parallel to the Trumbull Memorial Bridge was no longer there. What had been a seemingly impenetrable wall of earth had simply vanished and was replaced with an unobstructed view of the ocean miles beyond.
“Holy Cow, you seeing that?” Patsy cried out next to Joe quickly peeking at the Scar’s destruction from the driver’s seat.
“How can I miss it?” Joe replied never taking his eyes from the carnage and rubble before him.
Quickly piecing together what must be happening to the bridge’s infamous Curtain, Joe could only assume that the straight-line winds were originating from the new bite in the Scar’s hillside. The intensity of the wind surprised him though. He would have never guessed any wind could ever be strong enough to blow away the ever-prevalent smoggy landmark flowing up from the mills below.
“I wonder if it’s worse the farther down you go. I bet Dad’s getting a face full of this,” Joe thought to himself looking over the edge of the bridge at the passing rows of Ole Barnes Steel Mills below them in the Scar’s valley.
“I don’t know partner. The whole city is falling apart today,” Patsy grumbled as he exited the bridge turning down Shields Avenue driving along the side of the Scar before turning down the neighborhood streets heading to Franklin Street.
“Patsy cut the siren and pull over!” Joe called out at his partner.
Muting the wail and cutting to the side curb, Patsy quickly put the car in park and looked over at his friend.
“What’s the idea?” he started before Joe put a hand up to cut him off.
“Take a peek over there,” Joe cut in pointing to his left past Patsy.
Turning to look where Joe was pointing, Patsy squinted to see what he was referring to down the street. Nothing immediately seemed out of the ordinary to Patsy. Scanning the neighborhood a few seconds longer he finally asked Joe, “OK, so what am I missing here?”
“The green house over there belongs to old man Yanetee and the next one down has been vacant ever since the Anderson’s moved away six months ago according to my mom,” Joe replied pointing across the street. “Trust me old man Yanetee hasn’t driven anywhere since before we were both born so what is out of place here?”
Looking through the yards of two neighboring houses, Patsy could make out a dark blue sedan parked on the side of the road one street over, right in front of where Joe had been pointing.
“So either someone’s moved into the Anderson house and your mom didn’t mention it…” Patsy started.
“Fat chance of that…” Joe interjected.
“Or…old man Yanetee had decided 80 was a good time to learn how to drive…pop out those glasses for me will you,” Patsy requested pointing to the glove box.
Reaching down in front of him Joe retrieved the pair of binoculars from the glove box and passed them over to his partner. Leveling them at the car, Patsy started to delicately twist the adjustment ring, trying to focus in on the occupants of the blue sedan.
“OK Joe we have two mooks taking in the sights, neither of them Bishop and…one is bird watching with a pair of glasses just like these…want to bet where they are pointing?” Patsy reported.
“Let me see that,” Joe requested reaching over for the binoculars.
“Unless there is some rare pigeon on my front porch we definitely have a problem here,” Joe said after looking at the two men in the car. Joe could feel his blood slowly start to boil at the thought of the two thugs in his neighborhood sitting there watching his house. Joe had to stop himself from accidently cracking the case of the binoculars once he noticed how hard he was squeezing them.
“So what’s our move bud?” Patsy asked seeing the steely gaze Joe was now shooting toward the blue sedan.
“Well Patsy old boy, my mom would be really disappointed in us if we didn’t greet our guests politely,” Joe responded to his partner his face twisted in an angered scowl.
“OK you want me to head around to the side…”
“No, no, buddy they are here to visit my house,” Joe said reaching down for his watch, spinning the top dial to match “N” with the small “22”.
“I’ll welcome them...”
K.C. glared at the Bevine’s front door through the binoculars, mumbling to himself that this was just taking way too long. Oblivious to K.C.’s mumblings, Rigs leaning back in the passenger seat continued to lightly tap a methodic tune he had picked up somewhere on his knee. The sound long ago had started to grate on K.C.’s nerves making the waiting worse, but he had kept quiet about it so far. The last thing he needed was a problem with the larger Rigs, especially when he had no idea how long this stupid job would last.
Vega had sent them hours ago to pick up some dame at the university and bring her back to his place. It was supposed to be a simple snatch job for the two. One dame, crowded place like that school, a quick and easy job; but of course it couldn’t go down like that for the two, never seemed to anymore. Once they got to the school, they find out the brainy dame wasn’t even there, girl literally lives at that school the boss tells them, but of course, she picks that day to be sick. So there they were left holding the bag they had planned on stuffing the dame in without a clue as to where she could be. Fortunate for them, the Chatty Kathy at the information desk fell hard for K.C.’s smooth tongue and the redhead ended up letting it slip where the brainy dame’s been laying her head lately.
Finding the name and address of this Bevine character in the phonebook had been the easy part, however, as soon they had pulled up to the neighborhood both of them quickly understood any idea of this being an easy job had just fallen out the back window. This wasn’t a busy place where they could walk around unnoticed like the university. This was one of those everyone knows each other streets. No matter where they went here, the two of them would just stick out like a sore thumb. So snatching the girl without being noticed, especially if they had to force their way into the house, was going to be almost impossible. Deciding to wait for an opportunity to present itself, the two had parked a street over in view of the house to see if they got lucky. That was over an hour ago and K.C. was starting to get restless. Eventually they were going to get noticed just sitting there waiting on the dame to leave the house, if she ever decided to, and the last thing they needed was some Nosey Nancy remembering their faces after the fact.
“We’re just going to have to hit the place hard and get out with the girl, quick like OK?” K.C. informed Rigs interrupting his tapping.
“You ever make out who’s in there yet K.C.?” Rigs replied straightening up in his seat.
“All I ever saw was the dame and an old lady so this shouldn’t be too big of a problem,” K.C. answered.
“What are we supposed to do with the old lady,” Rigs sneered.
“Depends on what she sees. I don’t like roughing up grandmas but we can’t have any song birds singing about us after, you got me?” K.C. said reaching inside of his coat pocket to retrieve the keys of the parked car.
Smiling a devilish grin back at his partner, Rigs’ wicked glee was interrupted as he looked out in front of the car crying out, “Hey, who’s this clown?”
Looking up from his pocket K.C. was surprised as well to see a tall man standing directly in front of their sedan.
“Where’d he come from?” K.C. thought to himself not understanding how a man of that size had sneaked up on them.
Looking at the man, K.C. could see the human roadblock glaring at them was broad shouldered and sporting some muscle under his long coat, which could pose a problem for them if he wanted to act like a hero. However, K.C. was again caught off guard when the man sim
ply smiled at them, tapped the bowler on his head, and cupped his mouth to yell a few words at them. Not understanding a word being thrown their way K.C. leaned over rolling down his driver side window.
“Hey pal, what’s your problem?” K.C. called out to the man.
With the window down, both K.C. and Rigs were finally able make out what their visitor was yelling to them.
“Sorry boys, but this is really going to hurt!”
Confused by the enigmatic man’s warning, K.C. looked again at his partner when suddenly he was grasped tightly by the front collar of his shirt. Eyes bulging in surprise, K.C. looked down to see a black gloved hand reaching through the steering wheel! Barely registering that Rigs was also wrestling with a steel-like grip around his collar, K.C. was violently pulled forward smashing his face into the steering column. Dazed by the impact, K.C. tried to reach into his vest pocket for the concealed pistol he carried only to be slammed again and again into the front dash.
Left barely conscious, K.C. yelled in horror as in between him and Rigs whose head rolled to the side from his own repeated bashing, a dark hat covering a helmeted face suddenly appeared through the front dashboard. Clawing at the vice-like grip holding him, K.C. fueled by shear panic finally pushed himself away from his horrifying attacker. Without thinking, K.C. threw open the driver’s side door falling out in a jarred heap on the hard pavement. Scampering away from the car, K.C. couldn’t believe his own eyes as the supernatural form of the Grey Ghost stalked him, passing completely through the car he had just attacked them in like it wasn’t even there.
“You dare come here!” the Grey Ghost menaced slowly walking toward the terrified thug.
“What’da wa..wa..want? How’d ya find us here?” K.C. stammered still pushing away on his back.
“Didn’t you know? I can always find you K.C.” the Grey Ghost darkly laughed while stalking toward the panicking criminal.
“How’d you know my name?” K.C. cried out.
Hearing his name spoken by the ghostly avenger had finally unhinged whatever sense was left in the terrified thug. He pulled his pistol and began firing directly at the Grey Ghost. As if made of air, the slugs effortlessly passed through the center of the approaching hero clinging off the front of the thug’s car, shattering one of the headlamps. Before he could even reason the amazing sight before him, the vice-like grip of the Grey Ghost clamped down on the thugs hand holding the pistol and with one sharp twist pulled it free, sending it scattering down the street.
Now livid, the Grey Ghost once again grabbed K.C. by the collar this time raising him up from the hot pavement until the small thug’s feet were dangling off the ground. Starring at the quivering shooter with unseen eyes, a fact not lost on K.C. as he now shrieked in horror, the Grey Ghost blasted the words directly in the thug’s face.
“There are children playing in their yards…good people in their homes here… anyone of them could’ve been hurt by that you fool!”
Reaching back the grey guardian let loose a savage upper cut connecting squarely with K.C.’s jaw, sending the thug flying backward until he finally crumpled in an unconscious heap.
Looking down at the defeated man, the Grey Ghost was surprised to hear Patsy suddenly call out from behind him,
“Hey, lead at your six!”
Understanding the meaning of the warning from his long-time partner, the Grey Ghost spun on his heel unleashing a salvo of what Patsy’s had termed his “Ghost Gun.” The bolt of ghost energy originating from the hero’s two-aimed fingers slammed into the chest of Rigs who had been aiming his own pistol at the grey guardian’s back from the side of the car.
Staggering from the shot the large man somehow stayed upright leaning against the car hood for support trying again to raise the pistol at the hero. Another round of the Ghost Gun found him first finally laying him out on the sidewalk.
Walking up to the second thug, the Grey Ghost kicked away the useless pistol still clutched in his hand. Appearing next to the hero, Patsy joined him dropping the now cuffed K.C. next to his partner in crime.
“Nice shooting Tex,” Patsy chuckled as he bent down to cuff Rigs.
“Thanks for the warning,” the Grey Ghost said to his partner.
Giving his partner a quick wink Patsy leaned the restrained Rigs against the car next to his buddy. Taking a look at the now red and bruised faces of the thugs, Patsy grinned, tipping his bowler up as he whistled at the two,
“I told you boys…this was really going to hurt.”
.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Captain…Captain where can we put these two mooks?” Patsy called out to the seated officer trying to be heard over the buzz of racket swirling the large tent now serving as the command center of the Capstone City police department.
Entering the tent, both Patsy and Joe were surprised to find the rest of the department sitting on folding chairs and the curb outside the office building. Thinking the Captain would’ve moved everyone inside the vacant old courthouse by now, Joe worried that Robinson’s injury was more severe than initially realized. His fears were immediately calmed as they found the entire department running in and out of that tent, swarming around the Captain as the man barked orders at every passerby. It reminded Joe of a bees nest, the Captain no worse for wear than usual as their precinct’s preverbal queen bee.
“What? Oh Thomas…good… take them into the courthouse. I’ve set up a few offices as holding rooms. Give them to one of the Lape twins here,” Captain Robinson said seeing Patsy leading in the cuffed K.C. and Rigs. “What in the name of Pete happened to those two?”
Patsy initially wasn’t sure whether Robinson was referring to the large welts now forming on the faces of K.C. and Rigs or to the terrified looks stapled on each of the criminals’ faces. Staggering in front of Patsy both men looked as white as death mumbling out loud in shock.
“Someone got to them before we did,” Joe answered as he and Kate entered the tent.
“He…he...put...put his finger straight through my hand…” Rigs incoherently said repeatedly as he stumbled along by Patsy’s guidance, the fight completely beat out of him. It was as if every time he heard himself say those words he couldn’t believe it and had to hear it again.
“Yeah sure he did big guy,” one of the Lape twins scoffed at the beaten crook taking him away from Patsy. “And then he gave you a drink and tucked you in for a long winter’s nap…son you must have hit your head pretty good.”
“OK everyone please CLEAR THE ROOM! Thomas, Bevine I need a minute. Everyone out now!” Robinson yelled startling the mass of patrolmen and officers in the tent. Patsy took a seat on a large stack of papers as Joe wheeled closer to Robinson with Kate standing behind him.
“So Captain what’s the story here? Why is the entire department roughing it out here with an entirely empty building sitting right outside this tent,” Patsy asked, breaking the silence.
“Mother of Mercy, the next person that asks that… We can’t use the old courthouse like I expected, especially not the main hall,” the Captain replied rubbing his eyes in exasperation. “The whole place is stacked to the ceiling with files and documents from the city’s record’s department. Apparently, the place was blown sky high on that last big blast when those nuts attacked the mayor’s press conference a while back.”
“The last blast… the department of records at City Hall…” Joe asked confused by the Captain’s explanation.
“That’s where we usually keep it,” Robinson rebuked. “So this courthouse is full until they can find somewhere else to take the files and apparently there are some papers in there that are not for prying eyes, even ours.”
“What could be so important?” Patsy asked confused.
“I can only guess that it’s something with the military from the chewing out I got when I tried to push our way in there,” Robinson replied rubbing his chin aggravated. “They started ranting about some files missing already and our guys not having the right clearance
, blah, blah, so let’s just say until they get all of that secret junk out of there we are going to be roughing it out here.”
“So what happened to you two after you tore out of here?” Robinson continued after readjusting his sling when he didn’t receive a reaction from either of the three. “I’m glad to see Miss Stone here is OK, but who were Humpty and Dumpy that you handed off to Lape?”
“Names are K.C. Higgins and Terrance Rigs, two petty thugs mainly muscle for hire. Both have rap sheets as long as my arm for destruction of public property, assault, and armed robbery. They were also implicated in the Rogers murder case six months ago,” Joe started reading from a manila folder he pulled from the side of his chair seat.
“Where did you get all of that?” Patsy asked looking at the file. “The whole precinct just burned down next door.”
Looking up at his partner, Joe replied, “This is all from the files we keep in the cruiser’s trunk Patsy. I’ve been updating it lately on my downtime, just trying to get familiar with what’s going on out there since I got back.”
“Well it’s a good thing you did Bevine,” Robinson cut in. “Those files in your trunk might be all we have left depending on what we can salvage from the ashes. Make sure you pass those along to Judy before you guys head anywhere. So now that we know who they are, why are they camped out bleeding in one of my few holding rooms?”
“We found them lying on the street next to their car about a block away from my house,” Joe reported. “After learning their identities, we placed them into custody. As soon as we did, both of them started rambling what they had been doing there before we found them.”
“You should’ve seen them Captain. Those two were so shook up by whatever hit them they were almost climbing over each other to tell us their life story,” Patsy chuckled.
“So you just found them like that… and they just wanted to confess what they were doing there to you…” Robinson asked eyeing both of his officers, especially Patsy.
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