August 13th 1940.
He tried to arrange for Sammy Smalls to meet up with Captain Chet Belleville but he was just too nervous about being around cops at all right then. So Clive Carew found him a safe place to lay low for awhile. When he got home he called Belleville on the phone and told him to get his ass over there right away. There were still a few unknown details to figure in, the biggest was the whereabouts of three people who were all more than likely dead and buried someplace under six feet of concrete. Still though, all things considered the clues were starting to add up, and each one was beginning to make more and more sense. Belleville showed up at Clive Carew’s place one hour later and listened intently as he related Sammy Smalls entire story to him. He sat there silently in slight shock. Finally he turned to face Clive Carew.
“So how do we prove this if the boy won’t come in and talk to me?” Chet Belleville asked.
“We corroborate his story without dragging him into it.”
“And how do we do that?”
He leaned back in his seat.
“Sammy said they dumped the guns that were used to kill Bobby Wheeling and the others in the lake, now the water on that shoreline is only four maybe five feet deep, and you have to go out another ninety maybe ninety five feet from the shoreline before it gets any deeper, which means they would have had to throw the guns out at least one hundred feet to get them in deep enough water so nobody would ever find them. And to top that off they would have had to do it in the dark. Now if we can go out to the lake and figure out where they tossed those guns from, we may be able to recover them.”
Chet Belleville was leaning forward listening with growing interest.
“And how does that help me get Bradley Odom and Chance Bonner? “ He asked.
“Well Captain.” Clive said. “If we can find those guns it may be enough to shake at least one of them off of their original story, it may cause one of them just enough concern to flip on the other one to save his own skin.”
“And you still have no leads on Jimmy Royals and the girl or that crooner?”
“I can only speculate at this point, but its looking like all three may be dead.” Carew told him.
He nodded his head in agreement.
“So what do we do Clive?” Chet Belleville asked.
I say we dig up a couple of diving masks head out there to the lake in the morning and we go fishing for them gats. We get the guns, we get your boys.”
They agreed to meet up at Clive Carew’s the next morning and from there they would go out to the lake on Plank Road together. Chet Belleville left for the station and Clive Carew decided to go pay a surprise visit to his satin doll at home. He wanted to see if she’d thought of anything concerning Annabelle Stanton that he hadn’t. When he pulled up the hill and edged the Champion to the curb on Chestnut Dr. he saw the red Hudson parked in Shelly Dolls driveway. it somehow looked cleaner than before, he’d supposed that more than likely Shelly had probably used her feminine wiles to con Riley Hinkley in to washing and waxing it for her. He smiled to himself. That dame had more than her fair share of feminine wiles. He walked up the steps leading to the front door of her white bungalow style house. He opened the screen door and knocked. Inside he could hear the faint sounds of bare feet patting across the hardwood flooring. When he heard Shelly’s muffled voice from deep inside of the house yelling;
“Just a Minute!”
She unlocked the door and swung it part ways open to see who it was. When she saw Clive Carew her eyes lit up.
“Clivey!” She swung open the door and let him in.
“You caught me just getting ready for the tub, I gotta sing tonight, c’mon in and talk to me while I have my bath sweetie!”
He sat in a chair by the opened bathroom door and watched in amazement as she slowly dropped the robe to the floor exposing her perfect naked body, she stepped into the tub and lowered herself into the hot bubble filled water. He listened patiently as she talked about the goings on down at Frankie Finch’s Palace. He rose from the chair and wandered around her bedroom while she went on about the waitresses and the kitchen staff and how the lead bartender was carrying on with the hostess at the door of the main showroom. He politely listened as he wandered over to her vanity on which she had various colored wigs, hairpins, ointments and lotions and bottles upon bottles of the most fragrant of perfumes. He thought to himself that the life of a performer must be tough at times always having to look the part on stage.
“Clivey?” She called. “What are ya doin in my bedroom sweetie? I hope your not discovering all of my womanly secrets!”
He slowly moved back into the opened doorway, both hands were in his trouser pockets and he was looking down at her smiling.
“I don’t think that I could ever hope to understand all of the mysteries and complexities of womanhood, and I don‘t believe that I should ever want to. I love it that you’re a mystery Shelly, a beautiful breathtaking mystery that I hope never to solve.”
He walked over to the bath tub where she was staring up at him. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead.
“I have to go check on Sammy Smalls, he’s very scared that those two hood cops are going to do him in.”
She smiled up at him.
“You got yourself a big heart there Clivey. I know that I really don’t know you that well but you really care about people and it shows. I suppose that’s what I’m loving about you. Your big wonderful heart.”
She returned his kiss and he turned to the door.
“Hey.”
He stopped and turned back to face her.
“You comin to the club tonight to listen to me sing? I got a special song all picked out just for you.”
He walked back over to the tub and bent down to kiss her again.
“I wouldn’t miss it for all of the world.”
The sun was slowly making its way down behind the Bay City skyline as he rolled down Jefferson St,
There was a place just off of Center that he had stashed Sammy Smalls. He carefully checked the rear view to make sure he wasn’t being followed, as he pulled into the alley behind the Union hotel he saw the long black Buick sitting by the back door and it filled him with a sense of urgency. He slammed on the brakes and jumped from the Champion and almost immediately he saw that the back door was ajar. He pushed it free of the threshold and stepped through pulling the snub nosed .38 into full view. from the dark hallway ahead of him he could hear muffled grunts, like someone was being punched and punched hard. He moved with haste to the first opened door on the left, when out from behind the door a hand reached out and swatted away the .38. The dark figure tried to swing at him but Carew ducked and landed a hard right hand into their ribcage followed by a hard uppercut that sent them reeling.
The other figure that was standing over Sammy Smalls dropped Sammy and came after him, but Clive Carew saw it coming and was ready, he stepped forward putting all of his weight on his lead foot and swung the other upwards and landed his shin bone right between the second persons legs. Which made them wail. The first man was already out the door and the second was wobbly but was hot on his heels. Clive Carew tended to a beaten but very much alive Sammy Smalls. He sat him up at first and checked him over, seeing that he wasn’t seriously injured he slowly raised him to his feet.
“C’mon Sammy, you’ll be staying with me tonight, the Champ is waiting outside in the alley.”
He slowly walked him to the Studebaker and eased him into the passenger seat, stopping only to retrieve the .38. He walked around got in and started the Champion, slammed it into gear and drove back towards Center St. something was just telling him to make a left back onto Jefferson St and he was glad that he did, three blocks down he saw the Buick from the alley parked in front of Scully Richardson’s bar and he slammed on the brakes and got out. He leaned back in to look at Sammy.
“Wait here. This should only take a minute.”
An very angry Clive Carew walked into the bar looking for trouble, and it wasn’t hard to find. Scully was behind the bar and nodded to Clive when he entered, there were two guys sitting at the end of the bar and the rest of the joint was empty. Scully came down to his end of the bar smiling.
“Should’ve known it would be you walkin through the door Clivey. They just came waltzin in about five minutes ago, the little guy was walkin kinda.. Well.. You know.. Funny. They both seem upset.” he was still smiling up at Clive Carew. “You want me to lock the front door?”
He walked down to their end of the bar and stopped in front of the biggest of the two. Scully locked the front door and raised the closed sign.
“How’s the jaw?”
He didn’t answer.
“Don’t feel too bad, you ain’t the first mug I knocked on his ass with that uppercut.”
He kicked the stools out from under them, the little guy hit his face on the bar, and dropped to the floor, the other Clive Carew was all over, pounding on him until he relented. He drug him to the bathroom to the toilet plunging his face in the water.
“Alright tough guy. I’m only gonna ask this once so I wants you to pay close attention. Who hired you to bump that kid?”
“Whaaaat? Go spit Carew! I ain’t tellin you nuthin ya bum!”
“Wrong answer bubbles. But ya know what? I don’t know what it is.. Maybe being in love has made a patient man out of me. So I’m going to give you one more chance.” he leaned down towards him.
“Who.. Hired.. You?”
“Go Spit!”
He plunged his head back into the murky waters of the toilet and held him there awhile longer the second time before he pulled his head out gasping for air.
“I ain’t gonna squeal Carew!”
“Well then how long can you hold your breath? Cause I got all night.”
Back into the toilet he went, longer this time. He pulled him again he was gasping for breath only more panic stricken this time.
“Alright! Alright! I’ll Squeal! They didn’t want us to bump him they just hired us to get some information, somebody said he was yappin about Plank Road,they knew that you wuz all over the kid watchin out for him so they hired us. they just wanted to find out who all he told, they said when they wanted him dead they’d do it themselves. we weren’t gonna kill him.”
“Who hired you?”
“I dunno some Copper and his sidekick!”
Clive Carew pulled him out of the door, Scully Richardson was smiling from ear to ear trying not to burst out into laughter. He drug him to the sidewalk and slammed him shoulder first into the side of the Buick, he stood over him.
“I’m getting something out of my car, try to run and I’ll chase you down and beat all of the ugly right out of you!”
He asked Sammy to pass him Jimmy Royals little black book which he did. He took out the picture of Jimmy, Odom and Bonner. He walked over to the thug and shoved it in his face.
“The guy on the left in this picture.. Is he the one that hired you?”
He quickly nodded his head, looking away. He grabbed a handful of hair and jerked his head backwards and stared down at him.
“When you see this copper friend of yours again, your going to deliver a message to him for me got it?
You are going to tell him that I Clive Carew am officially pissed off now, and if I ever get my hands on him or Bonner, I’m going to make them wish that they had never put on that badge. You got that?”
He looked up at Carew nodding his head.
“Y.Y.Yeah.. Yeah.. I got it.”
“C’mon Sammy. Lets go get something to eat down at the Palace. I’m kinda hungry.”
He walked by Scully Richardson and gave him a knowing wink.
“Night Scull.”
“Night Clivey.”
~Scratch A.B.T. copyright © 2009~
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