Falcon and wolf 19

 

Chapter 19

 

There were further detonations in the back yard.

“No problem so great it cannot be cured with a stick of dynamite,” said Luke, happily.

“It’s made a mess of the shop,” said Wolf.

“I covered all the candy,” said Luke. “Once I take the covers off, we’ll be open as usual. Well, maybe a bit more open than usual, but I thought I’d offer free candy; and take a heap to the orphan asylum too. What? I didn’t purchase the shop to make a profit, but to ruin and kill Freddy. Now, as he won’t know for a while that his attack has gone pear shaped, I shall put on respectable evening clothes and go pay his establishment a visit. I’ve a mind to break his bank.”

“He’ll send heavies after you,” warned Wolf.

“Yes, and I’ll be taking my arapniki,” said Luke. “A pair of good whips should cool the ardour of any SueEllen, Rosalee, or Amybeth he sends after me.”

Perceiving Luke to be in a whimsical mood, Wolf decided not to interfere. His friend was overcome by such moods when he was about to pull off some outrageous coup.

 

Luke’s moustache had not grown to much more than a polite, eastern-style adornment of his upper lip, since having been using depilatories. His hair was still short from having been the student with geology samples; and if he carried an air of danger with him, nine people out of ten would miss it in the rakish good looks of a respectable young man about town such as he presented in impeccable evening clothes, and a silk top hat, of the folding variety. It had a metal brim, and at need could be thrown as a weapon.  Luke did not believe in being without weapons whatever the occasion. He had knives in sheaths on his forearms, and one down his elastic-sided city boots. His long plaited leather whips hung from his belt, concealed by his coat tails. He did not even take his guns, which would have to be checked at the door; just in case he needed a smart exit, he did not want to risk losing them.

Without apparent weaponry, Luke looked as innocent as if he had recently dropped his harp from on high, and was in a high-class illegal casino and brothel entirely by accident, looking for it. His gaze was so mild and innocent that the bouncer who tenderly saw him in was in awe of fate for providing such an obvious gull for the plucking, and Freddy himself, a florid blond man shy of forty by a few years, personally greeted such a delightful mark. Luke drifted from game to game, taking the sucker-bait and then moving on, to the annoyance of the croupiers, who could do nothing about it. It was small potatoes, but then, Freddy owed Luke for a shop front, and he managed to pick up enough to cover most of the repairs. This was not an establishment which worked with chips, but was purely cash on the nail.

Then he settled to a game of draw poker, a game Luke knew well. He could cheat as well as any sharp, and it was soon apparent, he was playing a sharp. Luke delicately lost the ground-bait win to let the sharp think he was being drawn in, and then began winning. The methods he used would not have been approved by any man of strict morals, but Luke was not there to play poker, he was there to make a point.

Freddy drifted up as the sharp, in irritation, doubled the stakes.

“Sir, can you cover any losses?”

“Oh, yes,” said Luke, with confidence. “Are you joining us?”

“Shift,” said Freddy to his sharp. Freddy knew a thing or two about sharping. Luke smiled at him beatifically.

“Are you as entertaining a player as your employee?” he asked.

“I believe so,” said Freddy.

Three hands later, and Freddy was wondering what was going wrong.

On the fourth hand, dealt by Luke, he jumped nervously after checking the two draw cards.

Luke had dealt him three aces, and two black eights.

“Fold,” said Freddy.

“The only wise move you’ve made in your career,” said Luke, gathering his winnings. He had moved out of his chair and drifted out of the casino before Freddy had hardly managed to assimilate that he was moving. Freddy was down, heavily.

“Go get it back,” he hissed to two of his heavies.

 

Luke had moved into a doorway when he left, watching for the heavies to come after him. Judging by the explosions out back, and the three men at the front, the count was down from thirty to nineteen. Two more would help no end.

The big, bulky men came out onto the street, and looked around.  They seemed confused.

“Were you looking for me, boys?” said Luke.

They goggled.

“Yeah,” said one. “You disrespected our boss. We don’t take that kindly.”

“Oh?” said Luke. He stood relaxed, loose, his hands by his sides. What wasn’t apparent was that each hand held a rawhide whip, a Cossack arapnik, akin to the blacksnake whip. “What did you plan to do about it? Ask me nicely to play nice with Freddy?”

“We’re gonna pound you an’ take the money you stole,” said the other.

“Oh, is playing to the same rules as the other guy suddenly stealing?” asked Luke.

“You think you’re a wiseguy, don’tcha?” said the first.

“Certainly wiser than Freddy, but that isn’t hard,” said Luke.

He wanted them to come a little closer. Luke was playing for keeps here; and each whip had a pound weight of lead attached to its far end. There was no point hurting Freddy’s men enough to get them jailed, not when Freddy seemed to bail them out within a day, and back hurting people again. They moved in, drawing pistols, in case Luke was armed.

Luke was armed, but not the way they anticipated.

A jerk got the whips up to speed, and as the bandits wondered what the ‘Whop! Whop!’ noise was, the whips had reached speed, and the ends flew out to strike. One of the heavies was taken in the throat, and with a crushed trachea died in short order; the other, Luke’s left hand, was a slight miscalculation and the lead weight went through his eye.

“Oops,” said Luke.

He coiled his whips, shaking off blood, chorea, and brain matter, and made his way round to the back of the casino. Nobody was on watch; the spare bouncers had been sent after Luke. Luke put on some silk gloves.

He moseyed up the back stairs, which served as a quick escape route for Freddy, in case of a raid, and into his office, which had a discreet window looking down on the casino.

He tried the safe.

It was not locked.

Well, that was careless of Freddy. Perhaps he had run down in a hurry to deal with Luke. Luke sniggered, and  opened the safe.

At this point, his object was purely curiosity. And the idea of leaving the safe open to panic Freddy. However, seeing the deeds to the Abbott’s Hotel on top of a number of other properties made Luke absolutely furious. There was a letter from the insurance company asking for the deeds and a bill of sale of the hotel before payment could be forthcoming.

Luke removed all the documents, and as there was no confirmation of payment, planned instead to visit Mr. Chartovsky.  A notebook proved to be full of blackmail material on prominent citizens. Luke pocketed that, too.

He pulled out every document and every paper bill, and set fire to them. The idea of burning all of Freddy’s wealth was sweet. He suspected that Freddy trusted himself and his thugs more than a bank.

Then he left.

 

oOoOo

 

Joseph Chartovsky woke with a start at the sound of something rattling on his window. He went to open the window.

“I’m sorry to be so late but this won’t wait,” said Luke.

“Have you any idea what time it is?” asked Chartovsky.

“About two am,” said Luke. “I’m sorry, but I need you – Tommy’s been robbed.”

“I’ll be down,” said Chartovsky.

He let Luke into the back of his office, which he lived over.

“I was going to let you know in the morning the reply I got from the insurance office,” he said.

“I can guess; ‘understand the hotel was sold to a Mr. Frederick Muller, who assures us he has the deeds,” said Luke.

“How did you guess?” gasped Chartovsky.

“Is it burglary when someone leaves a safe open, and stolen property in full view in it, to retrieve?” asked Luke.

“I don’t want to know,” said Chartovsky, in a hurry. “What, you found the deed in Muller’s safe? What made you fix on him?”

“Big Freddy; running the protection racket,” said Luke. “He’s sent thugs three times now to rough me up.”

“Dear me!  But if they stay quiet, you cannot prefer charges against him, only them,” said Chartovsky.

“After the first time, I decided not to bother. I have a notice about the second amendment up; if they choose to discount that, I call it suicide.  Or, when they call after dark and with house breaking tools, aggravated suicide.”

“Mr. Sokolov! The term is ‘aggravated burglary.’”

“Oh, I don’t know; I was fairly aggravated when they committed suicide by dynamite charge,” said Luke.

“Mr. Sokolov!”

“I am going to break this gang of bandits and as violence is all they understand, then violence they will have. I am not a pussycat, I am a predator, and when someone I respect is murdered, and the kids I like are orphaned, traumatised, and robbed, I am a predator in the sort of mood as is a tiger in a menagerie poked with a stick,” said Luke. “Tommy’s a lovely kid, and though I don’t know Annie-Beth as well, she seems a decent child as well. And Mr. Abbott was a good man who never did anyone any harm.”

“Well, that’s true enough,” said Chartovsky. “And he tried to stand up for what was right, in refusing to pay protection, and lodging a complaint with that helpless no-wit sheriff. I’m behind you, Mr. Sokolov.”

“Good. I’ve been with you all evening,” said Luke.

 

oOoOo

 

The bangs and the screaming woke Tommy, who took up his gun, loaded it, helped himself to Luke’s Winchester, and crept downstairs.

Here he heard Wolf’s voice.

“You say you’re a deputy, but I don’t know your voice, and my boss’s property has been attacked front and rear.  And I’m not letting anyone in without Luke Sokolov to say ‘aye’, for I’m protecting his ward.”

“Well, where is Luke Sokolov?”

“Out.”

“Out? Where, out?”

“Out, out,” said Wolf. “I don’t pry into his business.”

He felt a small hand slip into his, and squeezed it comfortingly.

“Luke is okay, is he?” whispered Tommy.

“I’m pretty sure he is,” said Wolf. “He went out after the fun here finished.”

“I heard screaming,” said Tommy.

“It’s only those who planned to make us scream,” said Wolf. “But Luke’s very good at booby traps.”

“Who’s that in there with you?” the voice outside asked sharply.

“The boy; I told you,” said Wolf. “Now stop acting as if we’re the villains in the piece and take away the fools. That’s from Shakespeare, that is; well known Cherokee brave and playwright.”

There was a long silence.

“Shakespeare is English.”

“They gave him English citizenship when he introduced Sir Walter Raleigh to tobacco,” said Wolf.

Tommy pulled on his sleeve.

“I don’t think that’s true,” he said.

“Of course it isn’t,” said Wolf. “But isn’t it fun, confusing those who are limited?”

“Oh!” said Tommy. “You’re teasing him.”

“Yup,” said Wolf, popping the p.

“And I never knew Indians had a sense of humour,” said Tommy.

“We need one, to survive some of the white men we meet,” said Wolf. He raised his voice. “If you’re really deputies, you’ll take away the trash and put any live parts in jail.”

“What the hell did you do?” asked the deputy.

“I didn’t do anything,” said Wolf. “The intruders, however, broke the glass in the door, and reached in to turn the handle, which moved a weight which drove a .45 bullet into a stick of dynamite, which set light to a fuse which reached the other sticks of dynamite outside the door. Not wanting to damage the structural integrity of the house frame, you understand. Don’t worry, all the candy was covered, it isn’t contaminated by flying glass, splinters, or bits of burglar.”

“Consarn it! That’s takin’ protectin’ your property damn catawampusly!”

“There’s the boy here to protect; a kid’s life is more important than any property, and he’s a murder witness,” said Wolf.

“Why hasn’t he come forward?”

“We didn’t know for sure until half the bloody Confederate army rolled up, to stop him talking,” said Wolf.  “Now we got pictures of who killed his daddy. And your sheriff hustled him off into an orphanage; are you on the take from Big Freddy? Is he? We’re waiting for Marshal Sam Douglas.”

“We ain’t on the take.”

“So you say, but we’re still waiting on the Marshal.”

There were various noises of bodies being taken away, and the odd aside about there being nothing left of one below the waist.

Tommy shuddered.

“Part way to avenging your mommy and daddy,” said Wolf.

Tommy frowned; and then nodded.

“It isn’t very nice, but it is just,” said Tommy.

“And don’t you go looking out back,” said Wolf. “It might be a little messy with them setting off dynamite by standing on it.”

“I think I’ll go do some schoolwork,” said Tommy. “I guess I need to know about chemistry.”

“It won’t go amiss,” said Wolf.