Chapter 19

The next morning Sarah and I were due to start our watch of Marks' hide-out. Unfortunately from what I remembered, the road did not go right past the house it had a long dirt driveway that was reached by a secluded country road. There was just no way to watch from a car without being fingered.

Sarah and I hopped into my tin can to get the low down on the area around Marks' joint. We couldn't get too close, but Sarah thought it was aces that there was a bunch of trees. I did not see why she was so happy and I asked her about it. "Don't you see, we can sneak through the woods and spy on him from there." Now I'm an apple gee. I know from nothing about country life. I know how to stretch a cup of coffee in an all night hash house, but I have no clue as to which side of a tree moss grows on.

We came ready to watch Marks' joint for a couple of days, so I drove the car as close to the back of the woods as I could and looked for a place to hide it. Once I covered the tin can with bushes I had pulled out of the ground. Sarah told me they would last for two days until they turned brown. I told her that I thought they would turn brown in the fall. She just shook her head and started walking into the woods.

Sarah had us both positioned at the edge of the woods to watch Marks' house. I was very bored and thought that I was done with bugs when I had given up life as a tramp. Sarah and I were taking turns watching every four hours, or so. I thought that I would let her sleep as much as I could. Once again I was wrong, she always took her watch when it was time. I guess chivalry had been rubbed out.

The first night and the next day we saw squat. The next night; however, we found a Chinese angle. I almost blew my wig when I saw who was visiting Mr. Marks. It was the deputy Chief of Coppers, an aide to his Honor the Mayor and the assistant District Attorney. Sarah was snapping pics of all the grease balls being met, in person, by Marks. Those pics were gonna torpedo more than one political career.

We watched all night. Those plugs left after an hour, and no one else arrived. The hoods did make several trips during the day, but Marks stayed in the house. I was getting very tired of this 'stake-out' in the woods. Just past 6 PM the Airstream and the hoods were back. Everybody, and I do mean everybody, poured out of the joint. There were Marks, Laurel, and even that old broad that had socked me with the fry pan. Marks and the old broad looked happy, but Laurel just looked lit. She was very disheveled and frumpy looking. She had obviously hitched her wagon to a wrong-gee when she chose Marks.

The Airstream drove away and headed south. Sarah and I sneaked up to the house and 'broke in'. We didn't want anybody to put the finger on us. We just wanted to get the low-down on what Marks was doing, but we didn't want him to get wise to us having been there. The lock on the front door was easy to get around with the 'tools of the trade' that I had brought with me. True, if the coppers found the tools on me, I would be invited to the club house and spend some time in the hoosegow.

Sarah and I went over the joint with a fine toothed comb. The only thing we found that was important was a new lock box tight in the middle of the floor. This wasn't a cheap safe that a can-opener could handle; we needed a peterman or somebody like that.

We left the place just the way we found it and locked the front door back up. I had just made it back to the tree line when something caught my eye. It was a spark in the sky to the South. I watched it as the spark blossomed into a flame then fell to the earth. Sarah grabbed my arm and told me to keep up. I pointed out the fire and asked her what she thought it was, but she had no idea. That looked like it was miles away, yet we still saw it. I was sure that it was big enough for something to come over the ether on it.

The branches were turning brown as we cleared them off the tin can and set off for Mrs. O'Grady's house. We turned the car radio on, but didn't hear anything about a fire. Tonight was Noah's boy with Murphy carrying a wreath, and I was looking forward to dinner. If only the world could be as simple and satisfying as Mama O'Grady's cooking.