CHAPTER TWO

The next morning Peter was tightening the bandage on his arm as he came down the stairs. He was surprised to see Becky standing in the doorway between her office space and his.

“What are you doing here so early?”

She did not answer, but walked straight over to him and started to undo his bandage.

“What are you…”

“I know you too well boss. I figured that you would have Sparky dig that slug out of your arm, so he could analyze it. He may be a great ballistics expert, but he is a lousy surgeon.” She stated as she got the bandage off.

“I don’t recall seeing any medical experience on your resume.” Peter commented.

“That was because you never asked for one. As I recall you asked if I could type, answer the phone, and most importantly be willing to except you lousy wages.”

“Lousy? Hey, take it easy on the arm there sweetheart.” Peter said as he clenched his teeth.

“Sit still, you big baby. Yep, just as I thought, infection is just beginning to set in. Boss, next time you refuse to see a doctor, I am going to club you over the head and take you to one myself. Your pay maybe lousy, but it is all I got right now to pay the bills, and if you die, I am out on the street,”

After another twenty minutes of bickering while Becky did the best, she could clean and dress the wound, she rebandaged his arm.

“Mostly because I know you would not pay me anyway, but I won’t add this hour that I came in early.” Becky said in a flippant tone as she turned to go into her office space.

“Well, even though your kindness, was mainly ‘job security’ I guess I owe you a thanks,” Peter said in a tone you could tell that the words did not come easy.

“Be glad you got that Miss Fletcher, it is more than I get,” Sparky said as he came down the stairs.”

“Can it Sparky!”

“See what I mean? By the way, I agree with Miss Fletcher on having her take over any surgical duties. I hate having to deal with all the Hydraulic fluid you people seem to leak so easily.”

“Look you two, If I want advise, I will ask for it.” Peter said in a huff, then looked at Sparky directly.

“Come on Sparky, we need to pay a visit to our Lieutenant friend.”

Peter grabbed his coat and hat. As he passed through the front office, he looked at Becky.

“We will check in with you in an hour or two, if Mrs. Ford calls again…”

“I know the routine.” Becky said as she rolled her eyes.

The two of them headed down town.

“What do you expect to get out of Lieutenant Brown, besides a bunch of smart remarks?” Sparky asked.

“For one, I expect him to be a little more cooperative, seeing that he shot up the Harris building and came up empty handed. Second, I want to see if there are any file records of that dame that shot me, in other word is Willard known to have accomplices.”

“Would you like to hear the odds of either one of those happening?” Sparky asked.

Peter did not reply as he continued to drive to police headquarters. Sparky was right on Lieutenant Brown’s cooperative spirit, but due to a few favors he was owed, Peter did get a lead on a female that had been known to associate with Willard in the past.

They left the station and headed to the location where they had lost Willards car the day before.

“Is this not a waste of time? We checked all these buildings.” Sparky remarked.

“As you well know, cars do not disappear into thin air, we had to have missed something. Calculate, the time difference from when Willards car made this turn, and we did not.”

Sparky rolled his eyes but complied with the request.

“No more than twenty seconds”

“Okay, based on speeds of forty to sixty M.P.H. map out the distance they could have traveled.”

“Peter, we did this the last time,” Sparky argued.

“No, we did not do those calculations, we simply estimated the time they might have had to duck into one of these buildings!”

Sparky let out a hum of disapproval and pulled up a map.

“There is nothing here that we didn’t check before except…”

“Except what?” Peter asked.

“It is not possible,” Sparky stated.

“Sparky!”

“Pull over, I will show you,” Sparky told him.

Peter parked the car, and the two of them proceed to an abandon entrance to an old subway terminal. At the top of the stairs the two of them made a thorough investigation.

“Sparky, look at these marks here and here.” Peter stated.

As they slowly made there down the stairs, they found further scrape marks, however, only a few more feet down they found that the entrance all bricked up.

“Something is odd about this,” Sparky stated.

“It is standard city procedure, there are a number of these closed down lines that have been sealed up.” Peter pointed out.

“Yes, but there is something different about the composition of these bricks.”

Sparky started looking around and found a rock. He threw it at the wall. It bounced off.

“Okay, what did that prove?” Peter asked.

“Nothing yet.”

Sparky adjusted his eye lens.

“It needs to be something bigger and a faster velocity.”

Sparky looked around again and found an old busted concrete pillar that would have been used as part of the support structure. He picked it up.

“What are you doing?”

“I believe I am about to show where Willards car went.”

Sparky turned up his arm strength and flung the three-hundred-pound support at the wall. Much to Peter’s surprise, it passed right through the wall.

“A projection?”

“A projection plus” Sparky stated as he readjusted his arm strength.

“Whoa!” Peter stated.

“I believe I can find a way to shut it down.”

“No, not yet anyway. We need to further investigate this, without them knowing that we have discovered their secret.”

“We discovered?” Sparky asked.

“Can it Sparky, it was a team effort.”

“Okay then, how do we investigate something that we cannot penetrate?”

Peter smiled at Sparky.

“Quite simply, we do the same thing they did”

“Are you nuts? We have no idea what is on the other side of that wall.” Sparky stated.

“Oh yes we do, all these abandoned terminals and lines are a matter of public record. I have a suspicion that we are going to find a whole network of escape routes that has contributed to Willard Rudd, gaining the reputation as the vanishing thief.”

Peter started heading back up the stairs.

“You are not going to try to penetrate that wall in your car, are you?” Sparky asked as he followed Peter.

“Don’t be ridiculous, we have way to much valuable equipment in that car…”

Peter paused and smiled.

“That is why we will need to ‘borrow’ a squad car from our good friend Lieutenant Brown.”