The Bum's Rush Read Online Free PDF Page A

want some like your little friend here? I wobbled the sap up
and down. "Come and get it, fuckface."
I couldn't see his eyes, but his body language said he wanted no part
of anybody who was going to fight. I grabbed Ralph's collar again,
making sure I had a hold on everything he was wearing, and began to
drag him toward the next flight of stairs.
    Hooker started down the stairs toward me. I let go
of Ralph and stepped around to face him again. He stopped on the first
step. Uncertain. His scar seemed to glow in the dark.
    "Where's he goin' with Ralph?"
    The voice took us both by surprise. It was a moment
before I realized that the thin voice had come from behind Hooker. From
the fourth-floor hall. Hooker wasn't so dim. In one swift motion, he
turned, grabbed the kid by the hair, and hauled him down onto the
stairs. The kid squealed, whooping in and out like a siren as he fought
for breath. I could hear movement within the hotel. We were beginning
to wake the two-legged rodents.
    Hooker had the kid by the hair, pulling his head
back at an ungodly angle. From below, I was looking directly up the
kid's widely distended nostrils. His high-pitched wail filled the
stairwell. I grabbed Ralph again.
    Hooker reached all the way across and put the tip
of the blade at the corner of the kid's eye. "You toss that headknocker
up here or I'll take his eye."
    "Take it," I said. "Ralph and I are leaving."
    I told myself not to look back, but as usual myself
was a poor listener. When Hooker dug the tip of the blade into the far
corner of the kid's eye, the screaming went up three octaves. A single
stream of blood flowed down the side of the kid's face.
    "Stop. Stop," I screamed.
    Hooker sneered at me through widely spaced teeth. 
    "Toss it up here."
    I unwound the sap from my arm and underhanded it
past him down the hall. Before it ever hit the floor Hooker had tossed
the kid aside and launched himself toward me like Superman taking off.
    I saw a small red poppy bloom in his armpit before
I ever heard the flat crack of the little revolver. The bullet took him
just under the left arm. He landed face first on Ralph, then, groaning,
rolled on his back to the floor. I stepped forward and pinned his wrist
with my foot. He was still strong enough to resist a bit as I pried the
knife from his spasming fingers.
    Selena stood at the bottom of the flight of stairs in the combat position, feet spread, the gun held in both hands before her.
    "Where's the nigger?" she asked. "Upstairs. I think I busted his head." "One apiece," she noted.
    "I thought you were watching the old lady," I said.
"You didn't sound like you was doing too good." She had a point. "We
better get the hell out of here," she said.
    "There's no running on this one. They'll have us both in the county lockup by noon."
    She set the gun on the carpet and turned to leave. "Not me. I ain't talkin' to no cops."
    "We'll not only walk," I said, "we might get a medal."
    She eyed me suspiciously. "A medal?"
    "All you got to do is two things."
    "Like what?"
    "First, you have to clam up when the cops get here.
Tell them I'm arranging an attorney for you and that you want to speak
to your attorney before speaking to them. Can youdo that? They're going
to try to scare the shit out of you, but you can't let them."
    "Like what are they gonna scare me with, man?" she
said. "What are they gonna do, put a roof over my head? Give me three
meals a day? What's the other thing I need to do?"
    "Go call nine-one-one. Tell 'em we need multiple ambulances and the cops."
    "You want me to call the cops?"
    "It's what good citizens--innocent citizens," I added, "do at a time like this."
    She favored me with a second of that lopsided grin and then backed down the stairs.
4
    Detective Sergeant Gogolac and I got off on the wrong foot.
    They left me cuffed to a bolted-down chair in a
fifth-floor interrogation room, hoping I'd soak up some of the fear
embedded in the pale green walls. About a half hour later, he showed
up.