After the Fall

Chapter 5

Danny ached in places he did not know he even had places. Shu tried to support him, but
Danny’s massive frame was even too much for Shu. Danny leaned on the side of the car
and tried to catch his breath.

“So,” Shu took a breath, “who is the guy on the ground and who was the crazy with the
shotgun.”

“The crazy with the shotgun is Grace; her husband was a cop, while our recently
deceased companion is one Daniel Parish Bishop. Around about town, he is just known
as Bishop,” replied Danny, trying to work the kink out of his back.

“He was some kind of pissed at you. What, are you sleeping with his wife or his sister?”
Shu asked.

“Nah, he wasn’t pissed at me, just doing his job. Contract killer; someone must have
wanted me dead pretty bad. Fat Sam is dead in my living room too. Bishop said he
didn’t do it and I believe him.” Danny was shaking his head and starting to walk to the
front steps.

“Whoa partner,” Shu grabbed his arm. “Where are you headed? You need to sit down
and wait for the medical corps.”

“We need to get upstairs and look around the apartment before the suits and the press gets
here. Once the forensic guys get here, they’ll screw up the evidence before I get a good
look at it.” Danny opened the lobby door while Shu stood on the bottom step.

“What if there’s another contract guy in there? Last I heard Mrs. Shu wanted her old man
to come home tonight.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Danny replied. “Bishop worked alone, he was a professional. I
need to see if I can figure out who killed Fat Sam and why.”

Danny was already through the door and headed down the hall, when Shu made the
foyer. Grace was standing at the door of her apartment with a cat in her hands and blood
dripping from the bottom of her robe.

“Cat ok?” questioned Danny

“Sure, just a little scared, but he’ll be fine,” replied Grace.

“You need to get the EMTs to take a look at that,” pointing at the blood on Grace’s side.

1
“Not to worry Danny, just grazed me. I’ve had worse scratches from this damn cat.” She
stroked the cat’s head and lowered him to the floor of the apartment. He ran to the couch.

“Just the same, you could get an infection, so let them look at it for me,” Danny insisted.

“Ok, for you.”

“Thanks for saving my ass up there,” Danny smiled.

“Don’t thank me, thank Sonny here,” Grace picked up the shotgun just as Shu reached
her door.

“Hang on there Grace,” Shu put his hands up. “I’m one of the good guys here, tell her
Danny.”

“He’s ok Grace, my partner,” Danny pressed down the front of Grace’s cannon.

“He’s either got a lot of guts to be your partner or he is just plain stupid,” Grace laughed.

“Well I can tell you,” Danny put his arm on Shu’s shoulder, “he ain’t much in the guts
department, so you can figure the rest. By the way, did you hear anything before the
shooting? It seems I have another guest in the apartment with his throat cut ear to ear.”

“No, not really. I heard something about an hour before the shooting started,” Grace
said. “It was kind of weird.”

“Weird how?” asked Shu.

“At first I thought there was a storm coming ‘cause there was kind of a wind outside the
window. But when I looked, the sky was clear,” Grace explained.

“Anything else?” asked Danny.

“Yeah, I heard some thumping around upstairs but I figured you had tied one on, ya
know?” Shu looked at Danny and he struggled as if to say ‘oh well’. “But then there was
this kind of humming sound, then it stopped.” Grace tried to make the sound.

“What do you think it was?” Shu was trying to identify the sound. “Did it sound
electrical, like a motor?”

“No. Actually, you know what it sounded like. It sounded like the sound you get when
you swing a jump rope over your head like this.” Grace made a swirling motion over her
head like a cowboy about to rope a wayward steer.

“Musta been a hell of a game of jump rope,” Danny replied.

2
Danny and Shu proceeded on up the two short flights of stair to Danny’s apartment. As
they reached the landing, they could see the door lying askew on the floor, knocked off
its hinges by Bishop’s gunfire. Danny reached inside the door for the light switch, but
nothing happened. He figured Bishop had flipped the breakers so he would have the
advantage. Danny made his way down the hall to the electrical panel and tripped the
main back to the on position.

The glare of the overhead light in the living room revealed the gruesome scene. Grace’s
shotgun blasts had torn away most of the plaster and the wood that framed the entrance to
the hall. Bishop’s blasts from the Desert Eagle had destroyed Danny’s dining room table,
fatally wounded the refrigerator and demolished the kitchen cabinets. The front window
was nothing but a few shards of glass in its frame with Sam’s body lying to the left and
the remainder of Bishops right arm and hand, lying to the right.

“Shit,” Danny exclaimed.

“I know Danny, it’s pretty bad. But, they can fix the wall, the window and the door. A
little paint, some fresh trash and it will be good as new,” Shu consoled.

“That’s not it. Look at this,” Danny was nearly in tears his hand on his chair and Lori’s
picture on the floor.

“Sorry Danny, but only the glass is cracked the picture is fine,” Shu pointed out.

“That’s not it you Asian ass, look at my chair,” Danny stuck his hand through the gaping
hole in the back center of the chair. “I loved this chair. Now what am I going to do?”

“I got bad news for you Danny,” Shu replied looking at the hole. “From the size of the
hole and the exit direction, it looks like you are the one that shot it.”

“Great, just great.” Danny walked over to examine Fat Sam’s body.

From the looks of it Sam had been sitting in one of the dining room chairs, tied and drug
to the corner of the living room. Whoever had tied up Sam had apparently moved him to
a spot where he could still watch the door and out the window, presumably in case Danny
came home in the middle of the question and answer event.

“Looks like Sam was sitting here,” Danny pointed to the corner. “The way the blood
sprays up the wall here looks like someone stood there and beat the crap out of him for
some time before cutting his throat.”

“Yeah, I don’t think they found out what they wanted to know,” said Shu kneeling down
and looking at Sam’s right hand.

“Why do you say that?” Danny questioned.

3
“Well,” Shu held up Sam’s hand which had the index finger pulled back and the middle
finger sticking out. “I think the last thing he did was to give this guy or guys the finger.”

Danny stood by and looked at Sam for sometime. “Nah, I don’t think that’s it. See, Sam
got his index finger broken in High School so he couldn’t straiten it out. Because of that,
he always pointed with his middle finger. My guess is he was trying to tell me
something.”

“You think he is pointing at something?” questioned Shu.

“Yeah, I do,” replied Danny. “Put his hand back the way you found it.

Shu did as Danny said and both of them looked to see what he might be pointing at. The
problem was, there was nothing there but blood stained carpet and the corner where the
front wall adjoined the sidewall.

Danny got down on the floor and traced a line with his finger toward the wall. Just as he
was nearly to the wall, his finger ran over a heat register in the floor. Danny looked
down to see what might be inside. Sure enough, when he pulled the register cover off, he
found a linen handkerchief with something wrapped inside. Once unwrapped, Danny and
Shu stared like two dogs looking at a new water dish.

“What do you think it means?” asked Shu

“I don’t know, but I know what it looks like,” replied Danny.

Just then, the sound of sirens could be heard along with the screeching of tires in front of
the building. Red lights were now reflecting off the wall where they both stood.

“Take this,” Danny said, shoving the object into Shu’s pocket. “Show it to your cousin
when he gets here tomorrow and see what he makes of it.”

“Today,” replied Shu.

“What,” asked Danny

“Today is when he arrives. It’s nearly four thirty, so Jack will be here in about five
hours.” Shu pulled out his notebook just at the captain arrived so it would look like he
was investigating the scene instead of concealing evidence.

Sergeant Cawalwski was the first to enter the apartment followed by Captain Joleson.

“I like what you’ve done with the place Marks,” Cawalwski said sarcastically, holding a
piece of plaster in his hand. “What, did you see this on this old house?”

4
“Thanks Cawalwski,” Danny replied. “It’s just so difficult to find the perfect color
combination that compliments blood and assholes without being too presumptuous.”

“Marks,” shouted Joleson, “what the hell happened here?”

“Just a few friends over for drink, and well you know how a party can get out of hand,”
Danny replied.

“Don’t be a smartass with me Marks. I got a stiff on the street missing an arm, a woman
downstairs that’s been shot in the ass, and an unmarked that looked like Godzilla stepped
on it.” The Captain was turning beet red, always exciting for Danny when he did. Then
he finally noticed Fat Sam. “And what the hell is this? You got a dead summo wrestler
in the floor of your apartment on top of it all.”

“Actually,” interjected Shu, “there are no white summo wrestlers. They are all Asian or
Hawaiian.”

“Shut up Shu,” snarled the Captain. “Danny you’d better have a damn good explanation
for this.”

“Well, to tell you the truth, cap” Danny replied, “I don’t. I mean, Fat Sam was supposed
to get me some information related to the Whitehall thing, but when I got here, he was
dead on the floor and this guy,” Danny held up the severed hand, “was shooting at me.”

“Were you banging his wife Marks,” grinned Cawalski, carefully putting his hands over
his privates.

“Nah, I spend all my free time banging your old lady, but we’ve been all over that one.
This guy, or rather that guy down on the street is named Bishop and is a contract killer,
freelance type,” replied Danny.

“Well you pissed somebody off, that’s for sure,” replied the Captain surveying the
damage. “It’s a sure thing you won’t be staying here for a while. We’ll get you a room
at a hotel in town for the next couple of weeks. You need to take anything with you from
here?”

“Just some clothes,” replied Danny, “and this.” Danny picked up the wooden box that
had sat in front of the window, over his secret repelling rope.

“What’s that?” asked the Captain.

“It’s some kind of old jewelry box that Lori found when we went antique shopping in San
Francisco. When she left she said I should keep it because she didn’t really have a place
for it in her ‘tiny’ apartment.” Danny slipped the box under his arm.

5
“Say Danny,” Cawalski pointed at the box. “That box looks like it is Japanese or Chinese
or something and pretty old.”

“Yeah,” replied Danny. “That’s what Lori thought too.” Danny held the box out in his
arms. “She liked this carving on the top. She said it looked like some kind of tree.”

Danny and Shu walked into the hall just as the forensic team reached the top of the stairs,
lugging several boxes of equipment with them.

“Ok, now what?” asked Shu.

“Well, for sure, somebody wants me dead. And it’s a sure thing that somebody thought
the information Fat Sam had was worth killing for. The problem we have is the two
events may or may not be connected.” Danny reached into his pocket to make sure he
still had his wallet and some cash. “Tell you what, you go on home, get some sleep and
pick up your geek cousin. In the meantime, I’m going over to get some breakfast and see
if Tony has heard anything. I’ll meet you later at Whitehall.”

“That works for me, but are you sure you’ll be alright?” Shu honestly looked concerned.

“Yeah, not to worry. Old detectives never die, they just cop out.” Danny laughed and
slapped Shu on the back. “Meet you later.”

As expected, Shirley’s was open when Danny arrived a little before five. Normally,
Tony and Lucy did not open till seven, but a ‘certain friend’ knew a guy who had heard
there was some trouble and, well to say the least, Tony was ready. Lucy met Danny at
the door, giving him a big hug and checking his arms and chest for gunshot or stab
wounds.

Lucy stepped back put her hands on her hips and then with her right hand in a fist, she
punched Danny in the right arm. “Damn you Danny, you scared the hell out of me. You
could have been killed. Why didn’t you just turn around? Why did you go into the
apartment?”

Now the tears were starting, Lucy could not hold them back any longer. Danny reached
out and pulled her close to his chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you, but it’s ok
now. I’m just fine.” Danny consoled her for a few more minutes before Tony called
from the kitchen.

“Mama, let the man go. He needs to sit down and get something to eat. For the love of
god,” Tony waived his hand out the pass through window, “he fell of a building tonight.”

“Fine,” Lucy said as she wiped her eyes and blew her nose on a kerchief she kept in her
apron. “I’ll get the coffee; you sit down where I can keep an eye on you. Tony, you
make sure that back door stays locked. I think maybe we gonna be closed today.”

6
“Yes momma,” Tony replied as he threw the dead bolt on the back door and also dropped
a steel crossbar into brackets each side of the door. While Lucy poured Danny’s coffee,
Tony checked the Colt Python revolver he kept under his apron to make sure it was ready
to go, just in case.

Danny placed the Lori’s wooden box on the table as he slowly sipped his coffee and
considered the events of the night. The questions for now were; who wanted to kill him
and why; who killed Fat Sam and why and last but not least, were the two connected? As
Danny pondered these questions, as well as the ever-bothersome pancakes or waffles
with eggs question, Tony slid in opposite him in the booth.

“Danny, why do you think someone would want you dead?” Tony asked.

“I was gonna ask how you knew about all this, but I know better. So, you tell me Tony,
what do you think is goin’ on?” Danny took another long sip of coffee and glanced out
the window to the empty street while he waited for Tony’s analysis.

“Ok, here’s what I think,” Tony began. “I think somebody wanted you dead because you
already know too much about something, and they killed Sam to find out how much of
that something you knew ‘cause they knew you wouldn’t tell.”

“Damn, Tony! As convoluted, which is a fancy word for screwy, as that sounded, I think
you are right.” Danny poured syrup on the pancakes, Lucy set before him. “And that all
leads back to what happened at Whitehall.”

“Right,” said Tony in anticipation of Danny’s next revelation. “So how does it all fit
together?”

“I don’t have a freak’n clue Tony,” Danny was shaking his head. “Not one freak’n clue.
But I’ll tell you this, from the looks of Fat Sam, I don’t think he told anyone either.”

“You got any idea about what he knew?” Tony was getting out of the seat to go to the
kitchen. It was getting near time to open the diner and he had to warm the ovens for
today’s baking.

“Nah, but I have a hunch that Sam had found something that linked the killings in the
subway to the killer or killers.” Danny pushed his plate back and again looked out the
window. This time the street was not empty as before. Instead, a brown sedan was
parked at the curb, engine running and windows blacked out.

“Tony, get Lucy and go back into the kitchen. NOW!” Danny pulled his 9mm from the
holster and checked the clip.

Tony grabbed Lucy by the arm and pulled her back into the kitchen. “Get under here,”
Tony motioned Lucy to a spot under the stainless steel tables in the center of the room.
“Stay there, no matter what.”

7
“Tony,” Lucy looked up to her husband.

“Yes, dear?” Tony held out his hand to hers for a loving touch.

Instead of the loving exchange he expected, Lucy handed him a speed loader for the Colt
Python. “I love you darling; now kill any son of a bitch that tries to hurt you.”

Tony smiled and tucked the speed loader in his apron pocket. Then he went to the
register, depressed the sales key and removed a box of shells. Tony could see Danny’s
reflection in the stainless steel panels behind the counter as he put the shells in his pocket.
Now one more thing, Tony reached under the counter and removed a small black box.

“Tony, I told you to get into the kitchen with Lucy,” Danny was scolding him like a
child, shaking his finger in Tony’s face.

“Hey, you don’t talk to me like that.” Then Tony did his exaggerated Italian accent,
“I’ma gonna slappa you face ifa you do dat again.”

Danny could not help laughing, but the laughter was short lived as two men, all in black
stepped out of the sedan and headed for the dinner.

“Tony, you wait for me before you shoot,” Danny said. “You got that?”

“Yeah, but how about you wait for me, I have a plan already,” answered Tony

“What plan? What are you talking about?” Danny was crouched low below the window.

The two would be killers were now roughly ten feet from the front of the dinner. Danny
positioned himself so he could shoot either the door or the window, whichever became
the point of entry.

“Wait, Danny,” Tony said. “Just a few more steps”

Now the two assassins were less than eight feet from the window, and a quick dive from
reaching the front door. One pulled out what appeared to be a Mac-10 automatic pistol
from inside his coat, the other drew an AK47 from under his trench coat.

“Shit. Tony, look, our pop guns are not going to put up much of a fight, here, we need to
get outa here,” Danny was pulling Tony back toward the kitchen. One of the gunmen
seemed to notice the movement.

“Hang on Danny, just one more…”

Tony withdrew the small black box from his pocket, flipped a switch and a red l.e.d.
glowed with anticipation.

8
“What the hell is tha…?”

The gunman with the AK47 lifted his gun, pointing directly at Tony’s head at the same
instant that Tony pressed the button in the center of the black box.

“FWOOOMMM.” A fireball exploded outward engulfing the two men, the concussion
of which blew out the windows of the dinner and the glass in the front door. The force of
the explosion sent Danny and Tony both sliding backwards and crashing into the lunch
counter.

The echo of the explosion seemed to go on forever, but Danny realized it was echoing
inside his head, rather than outside. He looked around and saw that Tony was already to
his feet, Python drawn and ready.

“What the hell happened?” Danny was yelling, shaking his head and fingering his ears,
but could barely hear his own voice, temporarily deaf after the explosion.

Tony was now standing on the tabletop of the booth directly in the center of the window.
Outside on the pavement were the charred remains of the two gunmen, now merged in a
macabre red and black mush.

“Claymores,” shouted Tony, apparently as deaf as Danny. “Installed them in ’92 after the
Rodney King thing in LA.”

“What happened to wounding them? How the hell can you ask anyone questions if you
turn them to a puddle of burnt tomato soup,” Danny was yelling but Tony could barely
hear.

“Sorry Danny,” replied Tony, putting his gun back under his apron. “Next time, I
promise you can shoot one of them, ok?”

“Ok,” replied Danny putting his arm around Tony’s shoulder. “Next time I get to shoot
one and you can blow the other one up. Deal?”

“Deal,” replied Tony with a smile.

Car alarms were sounding up and down the street, windows were shattered in
surrounding buildings and if Danny or Tony could hear, they would have heard the
sounds of fire trucks and police cars headed their way.

“Danny,” Lucy called from under the kitchen counter. Fortunately, Danny was looking
in that direction or he would never have heard her. “You need to get out of here. I think
you have had enough troubles for one day.”

Lucy was right. Danny gave Tony another hug, then went back through the kitchen
stopping long enough to help Lucy out from under the counter, giving her a kiss and hug

9
that lifted her off of her feet. Lucy lifted the bar off the back door and waved Danny out
the back, into the alley. As he was leaving, Lucy noticed the wooden box lying under the
remains of the booth.

“Danny, you forgot your jewelry box,” she called.

“Keep it for me,” he called back. “I’ll be round to get it in a couple of days.”

Much to his surprise when he stepped into the alley, a black suburban was waiting with
an open door. Next to, it stood Eddie the Snake, Fat Sam’s number two guy. The name
came from a physical attribute, not his attitude.

“Look Eddie,” Danny was raising his hands over his head as he walked toward the
Suburban, “I didn’t have…”

“Put your hands down Danny,” Eddie was smiling…kind of. “We know most of the
scoop about Sam and know you didn’t have anything to do with it. Get in, we need to
talk, and this is the only safe place I know.”

Danny climbed in and Eddie offered him a bottle of water along with a couple of white
tablets.

“Thanks for the water, but what are these?” Danny asked.

“They’re a mild pain killer, nothing to worry about…really.” Eddie’s tone was
reassuring; Danny took one and palmed the other, just in case it was some kind of knock
out drop.

“So, what do you know?” Danny asked trying to get right to the meat of the matter.

“Ok, so this is the thing,” Eddie began. “This stuff about these people getting whacked in
the subway has been really bad for business. I mean even the junkies and pimps don’t
want to be going anywhere downtown on the subway, ya know.”

“Yeah, but that’s a little obvious to everyone, even the police,” replied Danny.

“I know, so Sam he says these psycho’s must me moving in the tunnels, ya know,” Eddie
continued. “So, Sam says for us to work our contacts in transit and find out if there is
anything ‘hinky’ goin on down there.”

“So what ‘hinky’ things did you find out?” Danny was now starting to feel the effect of
the pain killers, and it felt good. Or, at least it no longer felt bad.

“Well, the tunnel rats said that someone has been in and out of the old service tunnels,
plus, they found one that the rats didn’t even know existed that opened up just south of
Roosevelt Island.” Eddie motioned for the driver to turn left.

10
“You think it was opened so someone could get to and from the river without being
detected?” Danny was beginning to wonder where they were going.

“Yep, but this is the ‘hinky’ part, these guys say there is a secret entrance to the tunnels
under one of the main buildings downtown. According to my guy, it was put there in the
1920’s when this big money guy built one of the hot skyscrapers downtown. It seems he
had lots of enemies in those days ‘cause he wouldn’t pay off the mob.” Eddie smiled at
the thought of it.

“Does your guy know where it is?” Danny could see Rockefeller Center and the Chrysler
just ahead.

“Nah, like I said it is a secret entrance, and no one has ever found it. Not that they
haven’t looked for years,” Eddie replied.

The suburban pulled to the curb and stopped.

“That’s all I know Danny. Just so ya know me and a couple other guys will be going to
Vegas to vacation for a few months. Things are too hot right now, if you know what I
mean.”

“Gotcha,” replied Danny. “So why are we stopping here?”

“This is the building,” Eddie replied.

Danny looked out the window. “You mean the Chrysler Building?”

“Nah, across the street. Right there, the Chanin Building,” Eddie pointed out the
window. “Somewhere in there is supposed to be a secret elevator that takes you from one
of the upper floor swanky offices, down to the hidden exit.”

“Thanks Eddie,” Danny shook Eddie’s hand as he exited the Suburban to the street.
“One more thing.”

“Yeah?” Eddie turned to look at Danny”

“Got any more of those pills?”

11