Rafferty looked at the storage lot and frowned. A fence kept out the casual intruder,

while a guard checked everyone going in and out. He turned and walked away. He

needed to make an entry close to night to check if the car was there.

If the car was there, he could sit on it until the driver came to pick it up. Then they

could have a talk about shooting someone on the street. If the car wasn’t there, he

could wait and talk to the man when he arrived.

Everything hinged on the car being there. Once he knew that, he knew which path to

take.

He certainly wasn’t going to ask Hawley to watch the thing on a hunch.

The police had other leads to chase down on their own. Anything he told them that

pointed back to him would destroy whatever case they could build. It had been sheer

luck that he had taken Bones while wearing Fletcher’s masked persona.

As long as he could keep the vigilante side of things out of most of the limelight, he

could use it to figure things out and fix problems. As soon as anyone knew about it,

he was done.

No one would be able to take his help because a vigilante was not welcome in Her

Majesty’s service. Fletcher would have to cut him loose to avoid embarrassment.

But he might as well use the mask while he could to solve Corklin’s murder and put

the screws to Brown as long as he could before something happened to him.

Rafferty went to his car. The easiest thing to do would be to drive up and see if he

could store his car in the lot. That would give him temporary access, but he would

still have to break in to check on Litner’s vehicle.

He decided the best thing to do was to drive around and see if there was a back to the

lot he could pierce. Then he could move in and check on his target.

Once he had decided on a plan upon confirmation of the car’s presence, he could

execute the plan and capture the driver.

Once he had the guy, it would be up to Hawley to figure out how to take the case

before the Crown. It would be rough since the only witness was someone who was

dead.

That part wasn’t Rafferty’s problem since he wasn’t a detective any more.

He started the engine of his car and drove around the block, watching the buildings

crouching over the street. The man he wanted could be in any of those places he could

see from the street.

He wondered if the killer knew he was closing in on him. Did that matter in the long

run? The man wanted to kill him. Rafferty showing up on his doorstep would be an

excuse for a gun battle.

Rafferty pulled to the curb at a point where he judged the car lot should be. He pulled

on the great coat, mask, and cap for a partial disguise. He buttoned the coat to hide

his suit. He got out of the car.

No one seemed interested in him. He smiled under the mask. That was a good thing.

He knocked on the door of the row house he wanted to enter. He wanted to go

through and out the back to get to the car lot. He didn’t want to deal with a resident

if he didn’t have to do that.

He listened at the door. He didn’t hear anyone moving around. He pulled out a set of

keys and tried each one in the lock until he got one that opened the door. He stepped

inside and closed the door behind him.

He moved to the back of the place, looking out the back window. The fence from the

storage lot stood across a narrow path that fed the back of the row from either end.

It wasn’t big enough for a car, but a man could run to either end quickly if he could

get over from the other side.

Rafferty cursed that he hadn’t thought to bring something to cut through a fence with

him.

Rafferty stepped outside into the small yard behind the building. It was cut off from

the yards on either side by low brick walls. He closed the back door behind him

before he walked over to the fence.

At least there wasn’t any barbed wire on the top of the fence. That would have added

more risk for him as he climbed over the fence.

He pulled himself to the top of the fence and swung over the cross post. He climbed

down as silently as he could. He turned and looked around the lot. Where was the car

he wanted?

Rafferty started walking the lot. He didn’t have a lot of time before someone called

to have his car towed away from the front of the house row. He had to find the Litner

car as quickly as possible. Then he could decide what he wanted to do with the

information.

He found the car parked out of the way in a fence corner. Nothing else was close. He

noted the storage people would have to walk out of their way to notice the car amidst

some of the rest in the lot.

He checked to make sure he had the right car. He looked around for a place to watch

the car from inside the fence. Once the driver showed up, they could talk about the

rights of the individual for personal justice while they waited for Hawley to take the

guy away.

He checked to see if he had a view from the street before retreating from the car. He

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had to do something about his own car before it was noticed.

He climbed back over the fence and went to end of the brick block. He headed to his

car. He got behind the wheel and drove down until he found an empty spot to park.

He got out and and went to the alley. He walked down to a spot closer to the car and

climbed the fence again. He found a place to wait and used a car for cover to watch

Litner’s car.

Hopefully, no one would need their cars from the back row before the other masked

man got his car.

Rafferty leaned against his adopted car and kept watch for anyone passing on the

street, or entering the lot on foot. He checked his watch as he waited. If this didn’t

pan out, he would call Fletcher and have one of his men watch the lot.

If they could catch the killer, that would move things away from him and his new job.

Rafferty saw a figure in a coat approaching the corner. He ducked down as he

watched the figure walk down to the corner and head toward the gate. The figure

entered the lot with a wave at the guard.

Rafferty pulled his Webley. If he approached the car, bullets were going to fly.

The figure went to another car and pulled out of the slot. The car drove slowly out of

the lot.

Rafferty relaxed and put the pistol away. At least he hadn’t shot the fellow by

accident. That would have spoiled the whole trap.

He shook his head. He had to be a little more patient. He couldn’t shoot a stranger

without evidence of a crime.

He hoped the killer would show up before he lost patience and started looking around

for something to do.

Rafferty wondered if he could hide in the car. Maybe he could get a nap while he

waited.

In any case, he could call Fletcher when he got bored. Then he could hand the car off

to a watchman.

Rafferty opened the trunk and fell inside. He closed the trunk lid. He pushed the back

seat so he could get out of the trunk and into the body of the car.

He settled in the dark and waited. He should have thought some more about this plan

before he decided on it.

Did he really even have a plan?

He decided that waiting for a murderer in his car was a plan. It was a mad plan, but

a plan. It was simple, and didn’t require much effort.

He also decided that he should have asked someone else to do it since he didn’t like

waiting around.

Impatience had always been a weak point for him. He had tried to train it so it didn’t

interfere with his cases. You couldn’t beat a confession out of all your arrests. That

was statistically unlikely to net you the right man.

He heard someone walking outside the car. He pulled the Webley and waited. If the

driver opened the trunk, he had to make sure the lid couldn’t come down and block

him from making his arrest.

And he didn’t want to have to shoot through the lid if he didn’t have a target.

The door opened and shut. The engine turned over. The car started rolling.

Rafferty pushed on the back seat. He pulled himself out of the trunk space. He pulled

the Webley and waited.

He sat up. The driver slammed the brakes. He slammed into the front seat and

dropped the pistol.

The driver pushed open the door, and jumped out. The car started rolling on its own.

Bullets struck the door as Rafferty fell in the floorboard. His hand wrapped around

the Webley as glass fell on top of him.

Rafferty winced as the car hit another car in the lot. That stopped the car at least. He

pushed up enough to look out the windows. His target was fleeing toward the fence.

He had six shots in the Webley. He didn’t want to waste them, or hit anyone in the

houses behind the lot.

The killer ran to a car next to the fence and used that as a stepladder. He turned and

fired at the car. Rafferty ducked down as the bullets blasted at the back window.

The masked man fired back to keep his target from jumping over the fence and

getting away. He broke the Webley open and dumped the bullets into his hand. He put

the empty casings in his coat pocket.

He loaded the pistol before he pushed the door open so he could get out of the car. He

didn’t see the killer at first. Then he saw the man running down the alley.

Rafferty took aim over the hood of a car. He fired through the fence at his target. He

saw the killer go down in the alley floor.

“That was a lucky shot, idiot,” Rafferty told himself.

He did the same thing that the killer had done and used a car to get to the top of the

fence and drop down to the other side. He ducked behind the low wall. The killer

blasted the brick with the rounds left in his pistol.

Rafferty waited. He still had five out of the six reloads. He ducked out to take a look.

The killer was gone.

“I can’t believe this,” muttered Rafferty. “Now I have to hunt this spalleen down.”

He slid over the low wall. He didn’t see a target. He walked across the small yard.

The next yard had plants on their divider wall. He pushed the pots out of the way and

hopped over to the next yard.

He wondered what the killer planned to do now. A bullet hole put a crimp in your

plans.

Rafferty hopped the next wall. He spotted a blood trail heading into the house

attached to the yard.

He walked to the back door. He pushed it open with his empty hand. Nothing came

at him.

He peeked into the kitchen. He spotted the blood trail heading to the front of the

house.

He walked along the blood trail. He wondered if his victim would bleed out before

he got help. He opened the front door of the house. He noted there was no blood on

the steps heading down to the sidewalk.

He turned and brought up the Webley. He saw a knife coming down and shot. The

killer staggered back. He shot again, taking time to go for the other leg so his victim

couldn’t run away.

Rafferty kicked the man in the head. He put the Webley away. He needed to do

something about this mess.

He needed to call Hawley and Fletcher. Once he had told them the news, he could

clear out and let the machine do the rest.

He didn’t know if he could explain any of this to either of them.

Rafferty looked around. He found a phone on a table in the parlor. He went over and

called the Operator. Once Fletcher knew what was going on, he could move his whole

organization to do whatever he needed.

“Operator,” said the Operator. “State your name.”

“Rafferty,” whispered Rafferty. “I think I have Corklin’s killer. Can you alert the

authorities?”

“Yes,” said Operator. “Anything else?”

“You might want to hurry,” said Rafferty. “I had to shoot him.”

“We will move fast,” said the Operator.

“I’ll call you later,” said Rafferty. He hung up the phone. He walked back to where

his victim moaned on the floor. “Hurts, doesn’t it?”

Rafferty pulled the mask off the killer. He frowned at the sweaty face glaring back at

him. He used the mask to cover the wound in the leg and tied it off with the woman’s

belt.

“The police are coming for you,” said Rafferty. “They’ll talk to you about killing

Corklin. Now that you’re out of the way, I can go back to doing what I need to do.”

“I’ll kill you, Rafferty,” said the woman. “You let Brown get away with killing my

father.”

“I didn’t let him get away with anything,” said Rafferty. “If you hadn’t killed Corklin,

I would have been able to squeeze him until he admitted what he had done. Now, I

can’t. Good going.”

“You wouldn’t have done anything,” said the woman.

“I stopped you,” said Rafferty. “I’ll take that as doing something. Goodbye.”

Rafferty walked out of the house. He looked around to see if anyone was checking

on what happened. He walked down the street, pulling off his mask. He put the mask

away in his coat as he headed for his car.

He needed to think about what the next step should be.