The Fugitive Pigeon

Chapter 27

Riding toward New York in the back seat of the police car, sitting next to Tough Tony Touhy, I got the rest of the story.

“We’ve been on to that Rockaway Grill for months,” he told me. “For instance, Patrolman Ziccatta isn’t really a patrolman at all. He’s a detective third grade, working out of the Mob & Rackets Squad, on special detached duty to the 69th Precinct in Canarsie so he can keep an eye on the Rockaway Grill. There’s nothing like disguising a cop as a cop to allay suspicion.” He laughed, a big healthy hearty sort of a laugh, and slapped his own knee.

I said, “You mean, all this time he’s been watching me?”

“Not you so much,” Tough Tony said. “The bar, the customers, that’s what he’s been watching. The other night, when he saw Trask and Slade in there, he figured they were just coming by to make another drop or pick up another package. But a little later, when he saw part of the sign knocked down, and saw the back door broken in, and saw you nowhere around the place, he began to think there was something up, and he called me right away.”

I said, “So you’ve been hanging around me the whole time.”

“Well, not exactly,” he said. “To tell you the truth, we didn’t know where you were or what the hell was going on till last night, when you showed up in Canarsie again, asking about a policeman named Patrick Mahoney. Ziccatta called me and then tried to stall you until we could get a tail on you. Up till then none of us could figure out what was going on, but when you asked about Mahoney dawn began to break. I remembered telling him you were the source of the dope we’d been getting, and I could see how he’d get the idea I meant you were the one talking to us, and slowly the pieces began to fit into place.”

“So,” I said. “You’ve had people watching me ever since last night.”

“No, not precisely,” he said. “Ziccatta didn’t manage to stall you long enough, so you were gone before our man could get there from Queens. But we knew you were going to try to reach Mahoney, so we surrounded him with men and waited for you to show up. That was easy, surrounding him with men, since there he was right in Police Headquarters anyway.” He laughed again and slapped his knee some more.

“Well,” I said. “So you had me in view from the time I got to Police Headquarters.”

“I wouldn’t entirely say that,” he said. “To tell you the truth, we didn’t expect such a direct approach from you, and none of our special-detail men even knew you were in the building. If Mahoney hadn’t called me to come into his office, where I could get a look at you, I don’t know what would have happened. Still, all’s well that ends well. And when saw you there, I knew exactly what was going on, and I knew Mahoney wanted to see if I’d recognize you or not, so naturally I said what I did, in order to keep Mahoney from getting suspicious. I figured then we’d watch you, see where you were taken and what happened next.”

“Ah,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. “So you were on hand the whole time out at Orient Point and I really wasn’t in danger at all.”

“Well, no,” he said. “The fact of the matter is, they moved you on out of Headquarters faster than we expected. We lost you again practically as soon as we’d found you.”

I said, “Then how did you show up at Mr. Gross’s house?”

“We followed Mahoney.”

“Oh.” I looked out the window and we were in Queens. “You can let me off at the subway,” I said. “Any subway.” I looked at him. “You can find the subway, can’t you?”

He gave me a tough look. “Is that supposed to be funny?” he said. “We saved your life.”

“Oh, yeah,” I said. “I forgot.”