hovered a few feet above the roof. There were a lot of red and blue lights flashing, by now standard
procedure every time the SOB? s showed up anyplace.
A small fire was burning in one of the rooms and I could hear the throaty blast from a fire
extinguisher. There was a lot of smoke and broken glass around the place. As I passed the kitchen
window I got a brief look at the inside of the house. I could see down the length of the five-room
cottage. I didn?t stop to count bodies, I knew the score already.
The chopper swung away from the house and dropped down into a corner of the parking lot, throwing
shards of glass and dirt in little waves below it. Cowboy Lewis jumped out and dashed from under the
whirring blades.
I found Doe in the back, standing with Dutch. Her eyes were as round as quarters and she was
trembling. I?m sure she was as confused as she was stunned by the sudden explosion of activity and
by the destruction. I walked straight over to her and an instant later she was huddled against me,
burrowing into my chest with her nose, like a puppy.
“What in hell happened?” Dutch asked as the rest of the group began to gather around us. He sounded
like he was in shock. I realized it was the first time I had seen all of the hooligans together at one
time. All but one.
“Nance lifted Mrs. Raines and me off the street in front of her townhouse,” I answered. “Stick hit the
place and got us out. Just that simple.”
I looked back down the hill.
“We need to get somebody down there,” I said. You could hardly hear my voice. “Stick?s lying t the
bottom of the hill.”
“Is he dead?” Salvatore asked.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
“Aw, shit,” Cowboy Lewis said. “Aw, shit!”
He started down the hill and Dutch tried to stop him. “We got an ambulance on the way, Cowboy,” he
said gently.
“I?m gonna get him. Fuck the ambulance.”
“I?ll go along,” Charlie One Ear said, and followed him through the smoke.
Callahan strolled out of the wreckage looking startled, with Kite Lange behind him carrying the
extinguisher. “All dead in there,” he said incredulously. “Every last one of „em. I count ten. Biggest
total yet.”
“Why in hell would they kidnap you?” Salvatore said.
“Costello wanted to make a deal. He was willing to turn up Nance and Chevos and dump Sam
