BOILER

Chapter 33

Snow was falling when he left the apartment — not in any persistent way, it was just coming and going with the wind. Toland found a payphone and stood by it. He didn't even know who he should call. Somebody was getting information back to Barnes or whoever the hell Barnes really was. He didn't call in.

He'd been driving for ten minutes with a headache the Valium was doing nothing for. He had the radio up. He didn't know where he was driving to when he stopped at a red light. He turned the radio down and heard sirens. A patrol car came around a corner at highspeed, sideways and leaning — damn near rolling over. It almost stopped but quickly got going again. The light cycled green. Toland didn't move. The traffic behind got busy with the horns. The light cycled red. Now there was shouting. Another patrol car came screaming by them. He looked out ahead for some sign to what had everybody in a rush, and in the grey of the day, he saw a pillar of smoke. He followed it.

The patrol cars all came to a stop and got themselves arranged in a barricade. He stopped further back and got out. Two more unmarked cars were coming quickly down the street. Their speed didn't let up. Toland got concerned. One of them lost control and headed into the parked cars, hitting on the one side, and then bouncing and listing heavily and rolling. It came to rest, propped up on two wheels and straddling a Caddy. The second car lost control trying to avoid all this and the back end was starting to slide out. Toland dived out of its way, landing awkwardly. The car came to a more composed stop.

Toland was winded. He scraped himself off the floor and propped himself against a parked car. Men had run into the street and were peppering his position. He kicked a wing mirror off and used it to see where they were firing from. Patrol came up and gave them all something else to think about. Toland stepped out and fired. The bullet clipped a man's skull and left a gap there.

The firing popped away intermittently, like someone was grabbing handfuls of bubble wrap out there, and then it was very persistent as the numbers from patrol grew. Toland had caught a limb not properly hidden, and for another man he wasn't sure in the moment, but it looked a lot like the bullet had gone through the bridge of his nose. Another had been shot through the back of the head and pitched forward on the run. His head hit the ground first and cracked.

The trouble went away and then a single shot rang out from the car straddling the Caddy. Patrol rained deafening fire down on it as they went about securing the area. Toland watched the smoke drift away on the wind and walked to where it came from.

There were cars on fire and patrolmen huddled behind makeshift barricades as windows shattered above them. One got up and fired and got thrown back like he'd been kicked in the chest. He was dragged out of sight.

Toland skulked to an alley. There were bullets zipping down that alley. He poked his head out and saw patrolmen down there. He got down and hurried to a shot-up patrol car. A patrolman watched him come.

'What's this all about?' Toland asked.

'We got the Dead by Dawn running around out here' — he thumbed over his shoulder — 'A few of our boys ran up on them as they were getting ready to bomb Hinkley's bar. We got a call to reinforce. More and more of them kept showing up. I don't understand it, man. You gotta be crazy to pull this stuff.'

A bang blew out any window on that building that wasn't already falling apart. The patrolman tucked himself closer into cover and looked at Toland, shaking his head.

'How are you guys handling it?' Toland asked.

'Well, we're setting up barricades all over this area. We've got control of the perimeter, but there's guys further in that are catching hot hell.'

There were men moving around in that burning building and some of them were falling out the windows. Some were hitting the floor too hard to move while others were getting a short distance before being cut down.

'All right,' Toland said. 'I'm gonna see how close in I can get. You all right here?'

'We're fine.'

He came out of the alley the way he came in and went by the barricade to a street further down.

It was all of a sudden quiet, like he'd walked into a vacuum. Patrol cars were parked across an access road that led up to the back of the club. The amount of dead men in that alley had him misplace a breath. A handful of patrol men were going up the road to the burning club. Toland leaned into a patrol car, took the radio and read out the location before asking for every spare medical hand to present itself. He dropped the radio and followed patrol up.

They had all stopped at the top of the road and stood about like they were lost. One man crossed himself over and over.

There were dead and dying, squirming, souls strewn across the floor. Black smoke poured out of every hole in the club. A man sat cross-legged with a shotgun across his lap. He saw Toland and gave a rueful grin. 'Am I alive?' he asked.

An ambulance parked at the bottom of the access road as the block became a wash of blue lights. Toland didn't answer him. He spent some time inspecting the mess in the street. Men were being handcuffed and sat here and there along a curb. He lit a cigarette and approached the youngest looking one. The man's head was black with dust. Toland looked about at how patrol had dispersed themselves. He looked down at the man.

'What's it all about then?' he asked.

'You mean life?'

'Just the last hour of yours.'

'You must be out of your mind if you think I'll talk to you.'

Toland sat next to the man and looked at the handcuffs he'd been fitted with. He took keys out of his pocket and said, 'You tell me why you're here, and I'll let you loose.'

The man hacked out a laugh.

'I'll let you loose. Whether you get away or not, I don't know. How fast can you run?'

'You're lying.'

Toland held the key out. The man looked at him and then he looked at the key and then he looked up and down the street. Fire crews were jetting water in through the windows.

'Sid got paid fifty grand to burn Hinkley's place.'

'Who's Sid?'

'He's over there,' the man said, motioning to a prone body in a bloodstain.

'Who paid him?'

'Jack Moses.'

Toland showed him a file photo of Jack.

'Who's that?' the man asked.

Toland put the photo away. 'Did you see who your boy over there made this deal with?'

'Yeah.'

'Big blonde guy?'

'No. He had dark hair.'

'Yeah,' Toland said. He released the man, and he took off like a hare. Patrol got after him.

Toland settled on the curb and watched the fire and the fire crew have it out.