Outside, Jerry Page was clearly upset as the couple walked away.
“I can’t believe Mr. Cordelli didn’t want to say anything,” he said.“I mean, really,
we were only asking so that we could try and help.”
“Jerry,” Crystal said, “perhaps he was worried something more would happen to him if he did say something.”
“Perhaps.”
“Besides,” the young woman continued, “I think we have a few things to go on already.
Number one: he said something about paying four crooks.”
“When did…?” The young man paused and thought. He remembered the languages
Crystal spoke and the light bulb went off in his head. “Ah ha. So it was some kind of protection racket hit. You’re good.”
She smiled. “I know. Number two: what do you make of this?”
Crystal produced the sandwich wrapper that she palmed off the shop floor before they
had departed.
Jerry took the stained white paper and examined it. “Looks like a fresh made sandwich was wrapped in this.” He put his finger to the orange-tinted grease
marks and then put the finger to his mouth to get a taste. “Hmmm, kind of spicy sauce… not
just Italian but something more…”
Crystal nodded. “I thought that’s what my nose picked up,” she said.
“And a cute little nose it is,” he said as he reached up and gave her face a little tweak.
“Easy, tiger, focus,” she said. “So, you know of any place in the nearby
neighborhood that does meatball sandwiches like that?”
A grin crossed Jerry’s face.“Yeah, yeah, I do.” He took her hand and hurried down the
street.“We’ve got to make a stop first. Change into more appropriate attire.”
***
Night fell on the city and with it came the dark shadows - all the easier for some to move about unnoticed.
A black man with a grease-stained white apron over his clothes stepped out into the alleyway behind his shop with a bag of trash. As
he hoisted it into the already overflowing dumpster, two pairs of feet touched
down on the pavement behind him. In surprise, he spun about. “Who’s there?”
“Easy, Cookie, it’s me,” a voice said. From the shadows
stepped a young black man in a green costume and mask. Behind him was a masked woman all in white who kept to the shadows and the silence.
“User!” Cookie Johnson exclaimed. “You done near scared the crap out of me.”
“Sorry about that,” the hero said. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Just wanted
to ask you somethin ’ is all.”
“Sure enough,” the man said, taking a pack of cigarettes from his sleeve and extracting one of the contents to place between his lips. He lit a match and then the cigarette in his mouth. “Could use a break anyhow.”
“Been a busy day?”
“Always busy when I’m short staffed.”
“Sold any of your special meatball subs, the hot ones?”
“A few, a few.”
“What can you tell me ‘bout the guys who came in mid-afternoon, about five thiry
or so and ordered one?”
Cookie hesitated.“Lots of folks get that,” he said, diverting his eyes.“How’s I
supposed to ‘member every customer?”
User smiled. “Come on, Cookie,” he said. “Don’t play me like that.
You’ve got a mind like a steel trap.”
“Maybe so,” he said, “but that don’t mean I ‘member those four any.”
Night Owl spoke up.“User never said it was four guys,” she pointed out.
Cookie nearly dropped his smoke.“Yeah he did! He said that number clear as day!”
“No,” she pointed out rather calmly.“He said the time of
five thirty, but you were the one who confirmed it was four guys.”
Cookie’s mouth hung open.
“Easy, friend,” User said as he put a reassuring hand on the older man’s shoulder.
“She’s good like that. Nothing gets past her.” He looked the man straight in the eye.
“We’re just trying to investigate somethin ’ that those guys got into later in the day.
Come on and tell us what you remember about those four guys.”
“Okay,” Cookie said, realizing he had been found out.“You’ve
been good to me, helped me out a time or two. I guess I can tell you what I know.”
“That’s the spirit,” User said.
“They were young, in their twenties or so,” Cookie explained. “Still wet behind
the ears. And they was wearing some of those new jackets.
You know the ones - they’re popular with the younger folk.”
“Leather?” Night Owl asked.
“No, no, looks like that parachute type stuff,” Cookie said.
“I gotcha – Members Only,” User interjected.
“Yeah, that’s them,” Cookie said.“But they were special, see. Had a little
silver somethin ’ over the chest pocket. Something extra I ain’t
seen on those that others wear.”
“What’d it look like?” User asked.
“Kind of like…I don’t know…like a hand but all pointy.”
“A talon?” Night Owl asked.
User frowned. “Nope, more like a claw. Right, Cookie?”
The cook nodded. “Yeah, could’a been a claw all right.”
“Steel Claw,” the User said, nearly spitting. “I bet those punks work for him.”
Cookie just shook his head. “I dunno nothin ’ about that.”
He took the last drag on his cigarette, dropped it and stubbed it out with his boot heel.
“Look, User, I gotta get back inside before the evening rush comes.
Sorry I can’t tell you more.” He started to move past the hero towards the door to the back of his shop.
“Thanks, friend,” the hero said as he clapped the man gently on the back as he passed.
“You’ve done enough.” After Cookie went inside and shut the door behind him, User cursed.“Damn! I should have known it was Steel Claw!”
Night Owl stepped closer.“Do you know who this Claw is?”
“Oh yeah!” User said.“He’s scum, the worst kind!”
“And do you know how to find him?”
User’s eyes seethed. “Yeah, yeah I do!”
***
The phone on the desk rang; the receptionist with brown hair teased out answered it with a heavy Jersey accent. “Mr. Dunbar’s office,” she said.
As the person on the other end made an inquiry, she glanced at her long,
painted nails. “Uh huh, uh huh. I see, but Mr. Dunbar’s in an important meeting right now.
Can I…?”
Before she could get out the rest of her question the door to the office flung open hard. In marched a green costumed black man. “I’m looking for Jake Dunbar!” he announced
in a not so friendly tone.Behind the User came Night Owl, a little less anxious but still firm in her resolve to back her colleague up.
The young woman glanced first at the closed door to her right and then bolted up in her chair. “You can’t go in there,” she responded. “He’s meeting with associates.”
User noticed her glance and made a bee-line for that particular door.
“Ask me if I care, cupcake.” And with that, he reached for the knob, gave
it a firm jerk and burst into the conference room.
Seated about the table were a number of men, most dressed in suits and a couple in stylized Members Only jackets. Possibly some of the punks that hit Cordelli’s
shop, the hero thought.
Most of the men, startled by the sudden intrusion, bolted from their seats.
At the end of the table, a black haired man with a mustache sat unfazed.
He was well-dressed, in a blue shirt with an open collar and a tailored vest that matched his pants. “Well now,” he said as he placed his hands on the edge of the table and rose in a calm, collected manner, “what do we have here?” His right hand was a
metal-facsimile of one had lost years ago. “A little early for Halloween, isn’t it?”
The guys positioned about the table laughed at this. They were a
bit more at ease now that their leader was showing a cool demeanor.
Night Owl stood at the left of her friend’s side.“User?” she queried, wanting to know where he planned to take this.
“We ain’t here for no fun and games!” the dark-skinned hero said in best ‘street’ mannerisms. “You’re messin’ in ‘hoods
you shouldn’t be, and I’m here to tell you to clear out, Claw! Right now!”
Jake Dunbar chuckled. “Hear that, boys! The guy in tights is givin’ me orders.”
The others followed his lead and chuckled too.
Dunbar cracked the knuckles on his left hand for emphasis. Then, he gestured with his metallic hand.“And look, he’s got a girl to back him up too. How cute.”
Night Owl was unimpressed. “I’m hardly someone’s decoration,” she said flatly.
“I guess you two fail to understand who’s in charge around here,” Dunbar
said. “I didn’t earn all that I’ve got today by backin ’ down or lettin ’
others walk all over me.” He gave a slight nod, and his men about the room pulled out handguns from within their jackets or from their waistbands. In a few seconds, every weapon in the room was aimed at the pair of heroes.
User and Night Owl made no reaction to this.
“Now, why don’t you two just go back into the night and disappear,”
Dunbar suggested, “otherwise, things just might get ugly!”
One of the thugs moved forward and pressed the barrel of his pistol against the side of Night Owl’s head. “Yeah,” he said as he licked
his lower lip, “it’d be a shame to mess up someone as pretty as you, baby.”
The blind heroine smiled.With lightning fast reflexes,
her left hand shot up and grabbed the gunman’s wrist. A quick application of pressure, and the gun fell to the floor.The man went down after it, his wrist and arm wrenched behind his back. “I’m not your baby, buddy,” she said coldly.
This put some of the other gunmen on edge. Fingers started to
inch for the triggers.
User grabbed the end of the table with both hands, lifted the whole thing a foot or so into the air and then tilted it onto its side as he shoved it to the right.
The guns went off, but the heavy piece of furniture took the shots and pinned the weapon wielders against one of the walls.
The hero in green, meanwhile, had reached out and touched one of the metal footings of the table leg. As he did so, he concentrated and took on the metallic appearance and properties of it. “Okay, Steel Claw,” User said with a
determined look, “its time for you and me to go mano-a-mano !”
“I don’t think so,” Dunbar said calmly.
With his foot, he pressed a button on the intercom box that had fallen
to the floor when the table was shoved over. Normally a little light would come on.
When it didn’t, he proceeded anyway. “Stephanie, please phone the police immediately.”
He glanced up at the heroes and smiled. “Tell them we have some trespassers in the
office.”
User fumed. “Coward!”
Dunbar smiled even more so. “Sorry, hero, but you’ve got nothin ’ to pin on me,” he said. “That makes me the winner of this round without having to lift a finger.”
“I’ll finger you…!” User started to lunge forward.
Night Owl placed a hand firmly on his shoulder and held him back.
She leaned in and whispered in her friend’s ear, “He’s right.
We can’t do anything now. We should go, quickly.”
User considered and swallowed his pride. “You’re right,” he
said.He then turned to Dunbar.“Don’t think this over, buddy!” He moved
towards the large plate-glass window. “I promise you that your empire’s gonna come
crashin’ down, even if I have to do it one brick at a time!” And with that, his steel fist
smashed through it.
He stepped out on the ledge and Night Owl moved to follow him.
Some of the thugs were about to take aim. Dunbar saw this, gave them a stare down and shook his head no. They lowered their weapons.
Dunbar moved over to the window and glanced out.
He could see the woman carrying the man off into the distant sky.
One of the men approached him. “Boss, what’ll we tell the cops when they show?”
“Not a thing, Louie,” he said. Seeing the perplexed
look on his lackey’s face, Dunbar laughed. “I bluffed ‘em!
The intercom was busted in the fall.”
Louie smiled after a moment, the whole thing registering.
“Heh , good one, boss. But what about those two stickin’ their nose in your affairs?”
“Not to worry,” the criminal leader replied.
“They can’t do nothin ’ if they can’t pin it on me. Most likely, they’ll
get so caught up in other things that they’ll forget all about me.”
The lackey nodded silently.
Across the city sky, Night Owl strained to carry her friend.
“User, uh,” she puffed, “think you can, ugh, ditch the man of steel look?”
“Oh, sorry,” the dark skinned hero who hung from her arms apologized.
He concentrated and reverted back to flesh. “Better?”
The heroine in white felt the weight more manageable. “Much, thanks,” she said.
Night Owl focused on flying them in the general direction towards
home. Then, after a few moments, she broke the silence.“You know, that
wasn’t the smartest move back there.”
“I suppose,” User admitted. “Building to the right.”
“I made that large shape out, thanks,” she said, having altered her flight path slightly. “Don’t change the subject. Why confront Dunbar tonight? I know you were upset.”
“I was. It’s just that I don’t like creeps like him
coming in and threatening the people in my neighborhood, you know?
People like Mr. Cordelli can’t or won’t defend themselves. They
take the abuse or pay the protection money. That’s not right!These are good
people, honest people. And when scum like Steel Claw come in and bully their way into getting everything they’ve work so hard to get, it just sickens me.”
“I know it’s not right.But my years as a cop, prior to
my losing my conventional sight, taught me that you can’t put creeps like
Dunbar behind bars for good unless you’ve got something solid to pin on
them. Circumstantial evidence won’t cut it.And he’s the type that’ll be
cautious enough to cover his tracks so that nothing can be traced back to
him. You’ve either got to catch him in the act or find someone that’ll turn evidence against him.”
“Or,” User said, “I could force his hand.”
“Force his hand? How?”
The dark skinned hero smiled. “Just watch. Over the coming weeks, I’m
gonna be on him like flies on garbage. If I can’t get to him directly, I’ll undercut
his operations.He’ll have to make a move, and when he does I’ll be there to haul him into jail.”
Night Owl couldn’t help but smile at her friend’s determination. It reminded her alot about how she herself was. I’m thinking this move to the East Coast just might be good after all, she mused to herself.
