April 24th, 1921. Chicago
Dirk stood outside the State Bank of Illinois waiting for Catherine Sinclair. It had been a couple of days since their escape from Eddie’s rottweilers. Given Catherine’s family connections she was safe from the two-bit gangster, but Dirk was not so lucky. He had been laying low. Dirk had not been home because he knew by now it had been trashed and was being watched by one of Eddie’s goons.
Dirk had kept himself busy tracking down the location of the safety deposit box that went with the key the professor had. Dirk had to call in a favor with a safe cracker he knew, but he traced it to this downtown bank branch. Dirk had promised he would let Catherine know when he knew something, and so now he was waiting rather impatiently for her arrival.
Dirk thought back to a couple of days ago when he first met Catherine Sinclair. She had come through his office door all business. She introduced herself and began explaining that she was a graduate student at the university. Honestly, Dirk did not pay to much attention to what she was saying, because he was to busy paying attention to her long legs. Dirk got the gist of it anyway. In his understanding, Catherine was from a family with old money and she had leveraged that money to pursue higher education. Apparently, if someone gives enough money to have a hall named after them then they can get accepted into the program of their choosing, no matter what their gender is. Catherine’s professor, George Daulton, had gone missing. A police report was filed, but Catherine wanted more attention on the case which is where Dirk came in. Dirk was good at getting stuff done, finding things that did not want to be found, and uncovering the most hidden of secrets. At the time, Dirk figured this was going to be a nice easy job. After the recent events in Romania, Dirk was looking for a softball and he was hoping this was it. From what Catherine had said, he knew the professor had disappeared in Eddie’s turf. Dirk’s best guess is that George had a boozing problem, a gambling problem, or both. He was in over his head and was either hiding or dead. Dirk did not think the truth would be that hard to find, the biggest surprise is that Catherine demanded to go with him.
It turned out that Dirk was right, George Daulton was in over his head. It turns out that, Eddie Torrio was also into something over his head. Dirk had just show up at one of his gin joints and asked a few questions. Eddie was crazy, but not crazy enough to feed someone to his dogs with almost no provocation. That kind of response meant that Eddie was scared about something or scared of someone. Dirk had probably been wrong about George. He was not into cards or booze . . .well he might of been, but that is not what got him killed. The professor either knew something about someone’s business or knew enough of something to ask the wrong people the wrong questions. Dirk really hoped this safety deposit box contained some answers. Especially since finding this bank had cost a favor. In this town favors were not cheap, and Dirk was glad that Catherine’s money was good. When people tried to kill him his fees went up, and his fees also went up when he had to spend favors.
With Dirk’s thoughts on Catherine Sinclair, it was as if she arrived on cue. A taxi pulled up to the curb to let her out.
“Good day, Ms. Sinclair.” Dirk said with a nod.
“Good Morning. Mr. Sullivan, “ said Catherine returning the greeting, “Are you sure this isthe right place.”
“I have a friend who has intimate knowledge of this building. It is the right place. So we are on the same page, in case they ask inside we are happily married.”
Catherine surprised stood with her mouth open, and blond hair blowing in the wind, unsure how to respond.
Dirk Continued, “It will be a more believable story for the bank clerks. So Mrs. Sullivan are you ready to go view your precious jewels?”
Dirk offered his arm to Catherine. She paused for a second before taking it and responding, “Why of course, dear.”
No comments:
Post a Comment