Broadway Bounty

Chapter Thirty-two

Largo was impressed with Decker. He didn’t want to be, but he was.

He had been sitting in the back of the room when Decker entered the Bucket of Blood. He knew there’d be no danger of Decker seeing him. He just sat back and watched Decker go to work.

After Decker left the place, Largo sat back, shaking his head. He’d never seen anyone talk to Mosca like that. Mosca was small time—a large fish in a small pond—but the Bucket of Blood was his place, filled with his people, and he had allowed Decker to walk out. That was a tribute to Decker’s ability to intimidate.

Largo left the Bucket of Blood shortly after Decker. Armand Coles was not there, but word would get back to the Frenchman that Decker had called him a coward. Coles would feel that he had to retaliate because of this insult to his pride.

Largo was different from Coles. He had pride, but he tempered it with a cool head. Decker, he knew, was trying to force Armand Coles into going after him before he was ready.

And he would succeed, too.

The question was, would Decker survive?

The two men sat across from each other in a small café, drinking coffee.

“Why did we meet here?” Coles asked.

“I like it here,” Oakley Ready said.

Coles eyed the firm calves of the waitress who had just served them.

“Uh-huh, I see.”

“Now you tell me why we had to meet at all,” Ready asked.

“It’s about your friend Decker.”

“He’s not my friend,” Ready said. “I’ve never even met him. What about Decker?”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Well, hell, that’s what I’m paying you for.”

“I need an edge.”

“I thought you were good.”

“I’m alive,” Coles said. “In my business, that means I’m good. It also means I sometimes keep an edge.”

“What makes you need an edge this time?”

“Decker challenged me.”

“You spoke to him?”

“Uh, no. He sent me a message.”

“Where?”

“At a saloon where I drink.”

“He knew your name.”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you want to do now?” Ready said.

“I’m going to accept his challenge.”

“But you need an edge.”

Coles nodded.

“All right,” Ready said, “I think I have an idea…”

“Where are we going tomorrow?” Rosewood asked.

“I haven’t the faintest idea.”

They were in Decker’s room at the hotel.

“You just gonna wait for Coles to come after you?”

“I don’t think I have long to wait, do you?” Decker said. “I just have to make myself visible.”

“So you want to ride around tomorrow?”

“Maybe walk around.”

“That wouldn’t be smart, would it?” Rosewood asked. “I mean, he could pick you off from a rooftop with a rifle, couldn’t he?”

“He could,” Decker said, “but he won’t.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because I challenged him, in the Bucket of Blood,” Decker said. “I called him a coward. He’s going to have to come right at me, Billy. Right straight at me, just to prove he’s better than I am.”

“And is he?”

“Well, we don’t know that, do we?”

“What if he is?”

“If he is better,” Decker said, “then I’ll have to hope I’m luckier.”

“That’s a helluva attitude.”

A knock on the door stopped Decker’s reply. He rose and opened the door and Lieutenant Tally walked in.

“Get lost, Billy,” Tally said.

“Nice to see you, too, Lieutenant,” Billy said, getting up and walking toward the door. “Tomorrow morning, Decker?”

“See you then, Billy.”

Rosewood left and closed the door behind him.

“You lost my men today.”

“Did I? I’ll help you find them.”

“You know what I mean!”

“Tally, I can’t be responsible if your men weren’t able to keep up with me.”

“Oh, that’s all right,” Tally said, waving a hand. “We managed to pick you up again later.”

“You did?”

“What were you doing at the Bucket of Blood?”

“Having a drink with some friends?”

“Sure,” Tally said. “Those are the kind of friends you make when you’ve only been in New York for a few days, right?”

“How did you know I was there?”

“I have a couple of men watching the place. They saw you.”

“Why did you have someone watching the place?” Decker asked. He wondered how Tally had found out about Armand Coles.

“I always have a couple of men watching that place, Decker.”

From everything Rosewood had told Decker about the Bucket of Blood, that made sense.

“What were you looking for there?” Tally asked. “Or should I ask who?”

“Billy told me about the place. I was curious.”

“Mmm-hmm,” Tally said, walking around the room. He reached for the straight-backed chair where Decker had hung his coat. He picked up the coat.

“My men were right.”

“About what?”

“About your jacket hanging pretty heavy,” Tally said, hefting the coat in his left hand. With his right he held it open. “Very heavy, I see.”

“I felt I needed to carry around a little more firepower.”

“Yes, well, if you’re going to visit places like the Bucket of Blood, I agree.” Tally replaced the coat.

“Decker, I can’t protect you if you’re going to run away from me.”

“If I have your men around me, Tally, no one’s ever going to make a move,” Decker said. “I don’t intend to spend the rest of my life in New York.”

Tally walked toward the door and said, “If you keep playing it your own way, you just might end up doing that—spending the rest of your very short life here.”

When Linda Hamilton left the hospital to go home, she didn’t notice the man who was following her. She was thinking about Decker and whether he would ask her to leave New York with him.

The man followed her all the way home. Then, as she was fitting her key into the lock of the front door of her building, he closed the distance between them and stepped into the doorway behind her.

“Wha—?” she said, alarmed.

“Take it easy,” the man said. “Go ahead, open the door.”

“Who are you?”

“Quiet,” he said. After she opened the door, he said, “Let’s go upstairs.”

They went up, and she opened the door to her apartment.

“Inside,” he said, pushing her. “Light a lamp.”

She did as she was told.

“Oh, I can see what Decker sees in you, Miss Hamilton,” the man said. “You’ve very beautiful.”

“What now?” she asked, standing awkwardly in the center of the room.

“Now,” he said, “we wait.”