Return To LA

Chapter Part 8

                  James and Walt hit the streets. With list of known associates and Other information in hand They started asking questions. They were in no mood to be polite. The first stop was Wanda's old hang out, a run down bar in the center of town.

The bar was an old storefront that had been converted into a bar. The store had closed up during the war. Then sold. The new owners turned the streetfront into a bar. Even as a third rate bar, the place was a dive. A large portion of the plate glass windows were either broken and gone, and covered with plywood, or painted over. What little good glass that was left was on either side of the door. The neon sign hung over the door and several beer signs also hung in the few open spaces of glass.

James pulled up in the ford. stopping in front of the door. There were a small crowd gathered around the door. They didn't immediately get out. Instead they rolled the window down, and sat and listened to what was going on for a minute. After a minute it became clear that crowd was mostly drunks waiting to get in, and get drunker. The doorman, if you could him that, was trying to get them to to leave. So James and Walt got out of the Ford. They pushed their way through the remains of the drunks trying to get in. Inside the bar was dark. Except for lights over and behind the bar. The bar ran along the side of the building. The door at the far end lead to the back rooms. The tables scattered around were a combination of square and round tables. The mugs and pitchers holding beer, were also mismatched. Very few things around the room seemed to go together. James and Walt kept their eyes open as the made their up to the center of the bar. Both noted the door in the far right corner, It was barely visible in the darkness. As they approached the bar, they positioned themselves so they had sight of all of the doors. James spoke first when the bartender came up to them.

"We're looking for Wanda's Boyfriend, Louie, Seen him around lately."

"Hell no, ain't seen Wanda around for a couple of weeks. Louie usually comes in every night. He's been looking for her too. He gets real mad, when people don't have the answers he wants. " The bartender volunteered.

"So do we. Where can we find Louie?"

"I don't know, He just shows up every night. "

"Yeah right. Here you ever seen theses guys?" James pulled out the pictures of the four men they shot. Laying them on the bar. Carefull to show the mouge pictures.

"Their dead?" came the response.

"Yeah so, You ever seen them in here, before they got dead?" With that James slightly moved his trenchcoat, allowing the butt of his Colt to show slightly. Not saying anything. Letting the promise of sudden and terrible violence work its magic. While James was imitating the bartender, Walt was watching the rest of the room.

Walt nudged James. He finger pointed towards the far back door. Indicating that he'd seen something of interest. Walt leaned over and whispered to James. James stood up gathered up the pictures. Carefully putting them in his trenchcoat pocket. He scanned the room. By now their eyes were used to the darkness. The two men slowly headed to the back door. Guns in hand, the approached the door. It was locked. James didn't hesitate; He raised the Colt 1911 and fired a round into the door just in front of the knob. Blowing a hole in the door, and sending parts of the lockset flying into the room. Before the echo of the gun black could die. James kicked the door in. It swung in. pieces of door, and lock works scattered around the floor. In the floor was a hole where the bullet and buried itself. The room was a hall. barely lit with a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. Before entering the short hall they waited on either side of the now open door, for a second. No one fired at them, so they carefully entered the short hall. At the far end were two doors. They heard noises, like someone going up stairs behind the left door. James tried the door. it swung open easily. Inside was another hall and a set of stairs leading from the far end up to the second floor. They hated stairs. But there was nothing they could do. They had to follow the noise and try to catch whoever had ducked out of the bar. Slowly and carefully they made their way up the stairs. At the top of the stair they were conforted with a short lobby type room with several doors. Agin the whole area was dimly lit, There was a small desk in one corner, and a phone on it. James and Walt examined the desk. Neither saying anything. James wrote down the number on the phone. adding it to the pictures in his pocket. They they looked over the doors. All but one was a cheap door. One door stood out. It was a large panel door. While the other doors looked like they were just pushed into the frames, and would barely work. The panel door, was neatly hung, and locked with several locks. Opening in so the hinges aren't visible. It screamed" Open Me, " James and Walt debated what to do. They didn't want to use the gun to blow open the locks. Then Walt had a idea. He went to the door next to the big door. It was locked, but it was not secured to the frame well. With a couple of good kicks, he was able to punch a hole in the middle of the door. Once he had a hole in the door it didn't take much to work it up to where he could reach in and unlock the door. Once unlocked the, the door swung in. The room was a small office, with desk, and a couple chairs, In the far right corner, There was another door. The door was another panel door. This time not as well secured. Taking his knife James was able to pry the door lock open. The door sung into their room. Inside the room, was a much nicer office. A big oak desk stood in the center facing the front door. along with several nice leather chairs, and a bank of filling cabinets along the back wall. Other than that the room was empty. It was obvious that whoever had slipped out the back door in the bar, had managed to get out of here before they caught them. So they made do with what they had. They quickly started going through the filing cabinets, Flipping through the files looking to see if they could find a connection to Wanda or Drossel, or Steve. Or even one of the men they had killed. All of the time they kept their ears open for and noise indicating someone was coming. They knew they were boxed in if were cornered. Their experience in the war, had taught them, this was not the way to be. So as quickly as they could, they gathered some files, stuck them in their coats and made their way out the way they came in. At this point they didn't care if they were careful, they just wanted information and to be out of there. back in the lobby they found the door leading to back fire escape and out of the building. Obviously how their quarry had escaped.

Once down on the street, behind the old store, they took their time, deciding what the best course of action would be. Carefully making their way to the front of the building. They watched a few minutes. Just as they were about to head for James's car another car pulled up barely missing them in the dark. It was Philp Drossel's Cadillac. They watched from the shadows, as The driver got out and opened the back door of the car. Drossel got out. He was wearing a long tan overcoat, A brown fedora, and carrying a briefcase. The entourage went around to the front of the bar. Walking right in, he failed to notice James's Ford sitting right in front of the bar on the street. James and Walt watched them go in. Then quickly hurried to his car. Jumping in, they got out of there fast.

Once several blocks away fromt the bar. they slowed down, Both knew Drossel would after them as soon as he found out they were there. James figured the bartender would sing like a bird, and tell him about their questions, and then about their going into the back rooms. Once they saw the offices upstairs and realized they had been in it, and taken files, Drossel would have his army out looking for them. By now it was getting late, and Brenda would be worrying about them. So they found a pay phone and called her at the bar. When they were done talking to Brenda, a call to Robert was in order. They agreed to meet Robert in a dinner in a half hour. Staying on the back streets, James and Walt were careful to avoid picking up a tail. They were late getting to the dinner. Robert was already drinking coffee. Food was ordered, along with refills of coffee. They sat in a booth so they could see out the front windows,and the parking lot. Both Roberts and James cars had been backed into their spaces in case of a quick exit.

Inside the three sat and discussed the situation. They knew Philip Drossel was responsible for Wanda, and sending the hit team after them at the bar. James had noticed Philips hat when they went into the bar.Again the hat seemed to be playing tricks on his mind. Why he keyed in on the hats he didn't know .

After the meal, they went over the papers they found in his office. Robert told them they couldn't use them in court, but he thought they may lead them to other things. Most of the papers were bills of lading, ie deliveries from the warehouse. and bills for the bar downstair of the office. which made sense. Papers from the bar would be up there, if he managed the bar from there. But why would papers from the import business be there? Did he conduct import and export business from the bar too? That brought up a number of possibilities. He must have a base of operations to run all of his operations from. Somehow the rundown bar didn't seem to be a likely choice. All of theses and more questions were discussed over a lengthy meal, that included dessert, and more coffee. They finally broke up the meeting. each taking turns heading to the restroom, while the other kept watch on the front of the diner. As they were heading out to their cars, James and Walt to his Ford, and Robert to his car, All hell broke loose.