McConnell House

1939 Part 4

I headed straight back to the bar. Deane could say whatever he wanted, I was gone the next train out of town, nothing was going to stop me. Karl was just getting out of bed as I barged in.

“Whoa, Ty. Enough with the racket okay? Slow down.” He said, holding his head in his standard hangover phase.

 “Sorry, Karl. But I got to pack. I’m not welcome in Calgary anymore.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on just a minute, friend. What do you mean you’re not welcome in Calgary anymore? It’s not about our little incident last year is it?”

 “No, not at all. But that Irish prick has gotten a bigwig in the police force after me, and if I don’t move now I’ll probably end in in jail for a crime I didn’t commit.”

Karl grabbed me and pulled me around to face him, causing me to drop my clothes I was packing in my bag, “You can’t just up and leave Ty. If you do they are gonna think you are guiltier than ever. If they start looking into your activities they might find out about our little adventure.”

“You should leave with me. Why stay here? There’s nothing for us, only everything to lose.”

Karl took a moment to think about leaving with me. I couldn’t tell what was going through his mind, but it looked like there was a lot. “I wish I could leave Ty, I really do. But I can’t, and you can’t either. Just trust me on this.”

What the hell was Karl talking about? Ever since the bridge explosion, he had been acting strange, but this was something else. If anyone had a reason to get out of town as soon as possible besides me, it was him. By the stories he use to tell, he was a wanderer. Of course, his tall tales couldn’t be believed, but I always thought there had to be a little truth to them.

Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to stop me, “Sorry old pal, but I’m out of here. If you ever decide to leave, look me up back east.” Before Karl could say another word, I grabbed my bag and walked out the door.

 By that time I would usually be opening the bar. I could see outside that our usual bar fly’s were already waiting to get in. There were more the usual. I had no intention of going out the front door, and good thing to, as I turned around to head out he back I caught a glimpse of blue behind the crown. A policeman. Was I already too late? I sprinted for the back door, which was past the kitchen into the alley. The cook wouldn’t show up until tonight, so the lights were off and no one was there. I opened the back door and looked down the alley. There was no one there, and more importantly no cops to be seen. I didn’t know if the police were there to arrest me, which seemed unlikely since Inspector Deane could have had me arrested while I was at the station, or if they were just there to keep an eye on me. Either way, I didn’t want any police seeing me leave.

The alley was clear. I ran down it to the street. I slid along the wall at the end, and peeked around the corner to see if anyone was looking my way. The front door was open, and two police officers were standing by it. Beside them was Karl, who seemed agitated while speaking to them. I couldn’t tell if he was saying where I was going or covering for me. A moment later the two police officer’s followed Karl into the bar. I turned the opposite way and walked off. One of the bar fly’s behind me called out my name, but I ignored him and kept walking. He either gave up or thought I was someone else because he didn’t call out to me again. I now had to get to the train yard while avoiding the police, as well as the rail cops there. It might have been the safest way out of Calgary, but it was the quickest. I took my time to the train yard, not wanting to arouse suspicion. It felt like hidden eyes tracked my every movement, and anyone I met in the street were really spies for the Calgary Police, reporting my location to Inspector Deane. I’m a tad paranoid right now.

It felt like ages before I finally arrived there, but must not have been more than twenty minutes since I ran out the back door of the Iron Lady. The yard looked empty from the outside. On a normal day, I wouldn’t think twice about it, but today was a different matter entirely.

I pulled myself over the fence, landing in a crouch. I stayed down and looked around to see if anyone saw me enter, but didn’t see anyone. Of course, there were so many places a person could hide that it would be impossible for me to know if someone was watching me.

I finally spotted someone as I made my way to the tracks to see if I could hop on a train. I hid behind an abandoned train car. There were three people by the train tracks, talking to each other. One was a Canadian Pacific Rail cop, which wasn’t unusual, as they were stationed at the rail yards. The other two wore the red uniform of the RCMP. That was strange, as they were out of their jurisdiction by a long shot. They only had a small attachment in Calgary, and they did not use their manpower to walk around the train yard. I couldn’t figure out why they were here. Inspector Deane would send CPS officers if he was looking for me. He had no power at all over Mounties. Now that I saw the three, I noticed more RCMP officers further down the track, as well as by the front gate, where they were searching anyone coming in or out of the yard. I turned around to go back from where I came from only to see more officers patrolling by where I hopped the fence. There were RCMP all around me; how I didn’t spot them when I first came in, I don’t know.

There were here in force, preparing the yard for something.  As influential as Foley and Deane was, I knew this didn’t have to do anything with me.  Something Deane had said earlier came to mind.  He thought I wanted to discredit his department by embarrassing them when the King and Queen of England were here.  The RCMP had the yard on lockdown preparing the way for them.

I waited until the spot I had jumped in was clear of RCMP, then ran back, hopped the fence and got out of there as fast as I could.  Where I was going next, I didn’t know.