Carol's Image (34 page)

Shane led his team, along with Jake and Tom, through the front of the Pussy Club, with others surrounding all of the exits. Waving the search warrant, they fanned out through the front lobby and into the bar area. Several strippers stopped dancing and stood numbly on stage, not knowing what was expected. The few patrons left jumped up and attempted to leave, but were quickly stopped. The bartender, a huge man with a shaved and tattooed head, glared out at the police. “Ain’t doin’ nuthin’ wrong. Got a legit license.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Shane growled. “Cal Penski here? He bring a woman here earlier?”

“Don’t know no Cal,” the bartender answered. His eyes shifted slightly, before landing back onto Shane’s eyes.

If Shane hadn’t been watching closely, he would have missed the movement.
Fucker’s lyin’.

Before Shane could react, Tom reached over the bar grabbing the bartender by the front of his shirt, jerking him halfway across the bar. Wrapping his other hand around the bartendar’s throat, he began slowly squeezing. “Not fuckin’ around, asshole. Cal’s here and he brought someone with him. Cough him up or you’re gonna be suckin’ your food through a straw for the rest of your life,” Tom said with deadly calm.

The bartender tried to grab Tom’s arms, but found them pinned down by Jake. His eyes shot over to Shane, and he choked out, “You gonna…let…’em do…this?”

Shane, looking bored, just glanced at the bartender. “Do what, man? I don’t see nuthin’.”

The bartendar’s face turned red, then purple, and he began gasping. “Up…stairs. Her…up…st.” Tom let go suddenly, and the bartender’s face landed heavily on the bar as he tried to breathe. Jake handed him off to one of the other officers and rounded the bar.

Shane looked up on stage at the girl closest to him. Thin with fake tits, she had the hollow-eyed look of a user. Speaking softly, he said, “Can you show us where Cal took the girl? Which room?”

Confusion then fear showed in her face, as she shook her head. “He won’t like it.” Her eyes wide, she looked around desperately, as though to find someone to tell her what to do.

“Girl, he’s not here to help you now. You know somethin’ about this girl he brought in, and you don’t help us, that makes you a party to a kidnappin’. You want that?”

The dancer chewed her lip, still looking around. Her eyes finally fell back onto Shane’s. Speaking softly, she mumbled, “She’s on the third floor, back room.”

Shane’s eyes gentled momentarily. “Thanks doll. You did good.”

Tom was already pounding up the stairs with Jake right on his heels. Rounding the last landing to the third floor, he could feel his heart in his throat at what he might find. Several girls had come out of rooms to see what was going one. As more police followed Tom and Jake, they screamed and ran back into their rooms, pushing their clients in as they went.

Bursting through the stairwell door to the third floor, Tom plowed into Sylvie, knocking her to the floor. Jake grabbed her quickly, assisting her up as he scanned her bloody face. “Where’s the girl?” he asked her gently, seeing the signs of drug use on her arms.

Sylvie stared emptily at the men gathering around. “She was in there,” she said pointing to the room at the end of the hall. As Tom sprinted off towards the room, she continued, “She ain’t there anymore. She went out the bathroom window.” Sylvie pointed to the door behind her and would have been knocked down again by Tom, if Jake hadn’t pulled her out of the way. Jake handed her off to one of the other policemen as he and Shane followed Tom into the bathroom.

By the sinks was a small, open window. The men saw blood in the sinks and Carol’s tennis shoe on the floor. Tom’s heart sank.
Oh Jesus, help her.

Running to the window, he leaned out, looking quickly to the left and to the right. Seeing blood on the window, he noticed the ladder. “She went out here,” he shouted back, looking down toward the ground. “But I don’t see her on the ladder.”

Looking up, his heart nearly stopped. Carol was clinging to the rickety ladder trying to move upwards towards the roof. “The roof,” he shouted. “She’s going up.” Turning, he and Jake ran out of the room towards the staircase.

Shane looked at Sylvie. “Where is he? Is he still after her?”

Sylvie barely nodded as her eyes raised upwards.

Shane nodded, and headed after Tom and Jake, shouting for the rest of his men to follow. Radioing down to the men on the outside, he told them that Cal was up on the roof, and he wanted his men in place.

As the three men got to the top of the stairs leading to the roof, Shane grabbed Tom’s arm, swinging him around. Tom reacted by advancing on Shane, anger and fear pouring off of him.

“What the fuck, man?” Tom roared.

Jake, understanding both sides, stepped in between of the two men. “Tom,” Jake spoke quietly.

Tom’s eyes quickly shot over to his partner, friend, brother. Taking a shaky breath, he let it out slowly. “I got it.” His eyes landed back on Shane’s. “I got this.”

Shane stared for just a second in Tom’s eyes, then nodded his head toward the roof door. “Let’s get your girl,” he stated. “And that asshole.”

*

Carol, sweating and shaking, managed to move up one slow rung of the ladder at a time. Afraid of heights, she refused to look down, but she didn’t have to look to know she was almost five floors above the hard concrete street.

Clinging to the ladder for fear of slipping, she was so weary she could only manage to hang on. The effects of the drugs had not worn off and with her leg bleeding, she realized that the effort of trying to move up the ladder was depleting what little energy she had left.

Looking up toward the roof, she knew she didn’t have much farther to go.
Come on. You can do this. You are strong. You can do anything. You can do this.
Chanting this mantra over and over in her mind, she climbed up one more rung.

“Hey Blondie. How’s it going?”

Hearing that dreaded voice above her, Carol halted in her progress.
Fuck. Cal went up and not down to the ground.
Glancing down, she realized she would never manage to get down before him. She was trapped. Trapped on a ladder clinging to the side of a building five floors above the ground. With a killer just a few feet away.

Shaking, she wrapped her arms around the rusty metal as tight as she could, giving way to the tears threatening to fall.

“I was gonna give you everything, you stupid cunt. You were gonna be my woman. My number one. Do you have any idea how many woman woulda wanted that, bitch?” Cal mocked. “So guess what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna sit right down and just wait. You’ll either make it up here where you’ll go in my stable – I’ll make a killin’ off of you, blondie – or, you’ll get tired and fall way, way, way down.”

Carol couldn’t stop the tears from falling. She wasn’t going to make it. She couldn’t hold on much longer, and she couldn’t move up the ladder either.

Shaking, bleeding, clinging to the ladder. Holding on for her life.
Tom.
His face filled her memory.
I love him. I wish he were here. Will he ever even know what happened to me? He loved me for me. He loved me just as I am. Not some image in his mind of who I should be. But he just loved ME. He saved me from the image in the mirror. If only I could tell him one last time.
Her arms began to shake as she felt her muscles weakening.

*

Tom, Jake, Shane and the other members of the police force quickly and silently crept onto the roof, revolvers drawn, ready for battle and rescue. Fanning out, shielding themselves with the large air conditioning units, they positioned themselves.

Hearing shouting and cursing to the left, Tom and Shane peered around the barrier. Cal. Alone.
Where’s Carol? Jesus, is she still on the ladder?

Shane signaled for his men to surround Cal, but warned them not to shoot. Creeping, they made their way closer to Cal without alerting him to their presence. They could now see that he is leaning over the ladder, waving a gun and shouting obscenities at Carol, still trapped on the ladder.

“Cal Penski. Drop your weapon,” Shane’s low growl rang out along the rooftop.

Cal whirled around, eyes narrowing as Shane walked out from behind a barrier with his revolver pointed directly at Cal’s chest. Cal’s eyes darted quickly around as Jake and Shane’s men approached as well.

“You fuckers. You think you’ve won. This joint ain’t nothin’. You want the man. You need me to get him. You shoot me now, you ain’t never gonna get ’im.” Looking Shane directly in the eyes, he grinned. “And I know you want the big man, you prick. I’m worth a lot more to you alive.”

Tom rounded the corner of the barrier, holding his revolver at Cal’s head. Cal’s eyes widened at the sight of him and he licked his lips nervously.

“You ain’t gonna shoot me over some piece of ass, are you man? Nawh. You need me. You need me too much.” Eyes darting back and forth between the guns trained on him, his mind raced.

Shane spoke up. “You think we need you to get to the top of this shithole chain? You think you’re that goddamn important? You’re no more than a shit stain on the bottom of their shoes. I’ll get them, asshole, and don’t need you to do it.”

Cal, sweating profusely, shook his head. “I know my rights, fucker. You can’t just shoot me.”

Shane jerked his head toward Tom. “Maybe I can’t, but this here is just a man looking to get revenge on whoever’s been fuckin’ with his woman. And you happen to be that fucker, so I don’t suppose there’s anything stoppin’ him.”

Cal, still standing on the edge of the roof, lowered his gun down hoping it would look like he was surrendering, while aiming it toward Carol.

Having heard shouting but unable to make out what was said, Carol continued to cling to the ladder. She spared a glance down just to look at her leg to see if she was still bleeding but was unable to do so without also seeing the ground five stories below.

Jerking her head back up, she clung to the ladder even tighter.
How long can I hold on?
Her muscles began to shake with the exertion and adrenaline.
Please God. Save me.

Glancing up, she saw Cal standing on the edge of the roof…with the gun pointing down…directly at her.

*

Tom’s hands were shaking as he held his revolver pointing directly toward Cal.
Focus. Hold it together for Carol’s sake.
Impatient, knowing that Carol was clinging to the ladder, he knew that they had no more time to spare. “Shane,” he said on a low growl.

“Got it, man,” was the response.

Shane advanced a couple of steps toward Cal. “Step off the side Cal and drop the gun. We’re through fuckin’ around. Already told you, you’re not needed. We’ll shut down the drugs comin’ in with or without you. You got five seconds, or I give the order to shoot.”

Cal knew his life wouldn’t be worth living once he hit prison. Hell, if he even lived that long.
That goddamn girl. If she had just come along willingly, he wouldn’t be stuck up here on this fuckin’ roof.
Sweat pouring, he made up his mind. Better to go out quick than be stuck in jail after rolling over on the bosses.
But I ain’t goin’ alone.
A shit-eating grin split his face as he whirled around firing off a round down at Carol before the bullets slammed into his body from all directions.