CHAPTER TWO
Chicago
"C'mon, Joey, ya gotta help me here! Collette's people are gonna be lookin' for me! I witnessed one of their hits! That makes me as good as dead if they find me!" Artie was lucky that the first bus out of Eastbridge was headed to Chicago; at least he had a few contacts there who could help hide him, if they could be persuaded to. Right now he was trying to persuade one Joey Cook, a small-time grifter who had moved on to greener pastures when it got a little too hot in Eastbridge.
"Yeah, and if they find you with me, where does that leave me? Dead too! I ain't eager to be worm food yet!"
"C'mon, just a few days! I think I got out of there clean; I hid in the can for half an hour until the bus left and I didn't see no one followin' me."
"What're ya gonna do then, huh? You gonna stay here in Chicago forever? What happens if you get busted here? When the cops run your prints, your record from Eastbridge is gonna come up and they're gonna call! Then they'll ship your ass right back there pronto!"
"Nah, I got nothin' outstandin' back there. I'm clean. "
Joey thought about it for a minute, then said "OK, you can stay - but just for a few days. I don't want Collette's heat on me either! Clear?"
Two weeks later Artie was pretty sure the heat was off of him. He had found a job, at least for now, and was trying to settle in to a life of normal. He'd gotten a room in a boarding house and moved out of Joey's, which also made Joey happy. But soon Artie found that life on the straight and narrow was not for him and before long he was back to his old tricks - consequently, before long he also met up with representatives of the Chicago PD.