Chapter Six

A small brick house in a quiet neighborhood was the destination of the Black Beauty. The streets in this older section of town had no driveways from the street; rather, alleys behind the houses allowed access to garages behind the homes. Kato took full advantage of the alleyway and stopped the car directly behind the address that Mitchell Blake had written on a piece of paper in his den earlier that morning. The clock in the dash of the Black Beauty read 7:20.

The Hornet looked at the back of the house. The house was single story, a rear door near the left hand side of the house from the Hornet's vantage point. He could see a couple of lights on inside the home. "Let's go," he said to Kato. The two men left the car in unison and walked side by side to the back door. The Hornet tried the door and found it locked. Kato kicked the door open. The Hornet went in but Kato stayed outside.

Paula Davis heard the noise as she was preparing for work. She was a pretty brunette dressed in a nurse's uniform. She had finished dressing when she heard the noise. Her first reaction was to turn the light off in the bedroom where she was dressing then peek out the window from behind the curtain to see if she saw anyone outside. After she saw nothing she went down the hall to the living room. She stopped near the front door. A vase sat on a table in the foyer. She picked the vase up with both hands in anticipation of someone coming through the door.

"No need to break that," the Hornet said from behind the woman, taking the vase quickly out of her hands. He sat the vase back on the table before clasping his gloved left hand over the woman's mouth, muffling her scream. He put his right index finger to his lips. "Relax," he said gently, "I am not going to hurt you. Are you Paula Davis?" The woman nodded, terror in her eyes as she stared at the man in the green mask.

Kato ran in from outside. "The car just pulled up on the street," he announced.

"Miss Davis," the Hornet said, "do you have a closet or a room we can hide in?" She nodded as tears began welling in her eyes. "Where?" She pointed down the hall. The Hornet moved behind her and guided her in the direction she had pointed, his hand still over her mouth. She stopped in front of a door. "Where's your bedroom?" he asked. She gestured to the room directly across the hall.

Kato took off his cap and extended it toward the Hornet. He took the hat with his right hand. Kato went into the bedroom, closing the door behind him. The Hornet released the woman's mouth and opened the door to the utility closet. He gestured for her to go inside first then followed her in. He pushed the door almost completely shut behind him, allowing a small crack between the door and the jam to peer into the hall. After a moment the crash of a window was heard, followed by footsteps on the hardwood floor echoing through the hall.

The door directly across from the utility room was opened and the light turned on in a single move. "The Green Hornet is here to see you!" The form in bed did not move, so the man again called, "The Green Hornet is here to see you!"

"The Green Hornet?" came a muffled voice from the bed. Kato rolled over to face the man identifying himself as the Green Hornet. "I have a boss by that name!" Before the man could react Kato came out of the bed with a flying kick to his head, knocking the green hat to the floor. The man raised his left hand with the blade of the knife extending in Kato's direction. Kato had his speed and the additional factor of having surprised the man to stop any attack with the knife. He chopped the man's left hand with his own, the knife dropping harmlessly to the floor as the force of Kato's blow caused the grip on the knife to fail. Kato put the full force of his body and the pent-up anger he felt on his partner's behalf behind his foot and applied a blow to the man's chest. He backpedaled, slamming against the wall. Kato relentlessly punched and kicked until the man fell motionless onto the floor. After the man fell to the floor Kato stood over his fallen form and angrily shouted, "Move! I dare you!" After a moment of no movement, Kato called toward the door on the other side of the hall, "Okay."

The Hornet stepped back from the door and opened it. He motioned for Paula to leave the utility room first. The two went into the bedroom where Kato stood ready to attack over the fallen man dressed as the Green Hornet. The Hornet extended the chauffeur's cap in Kato's direction. Kato dropped his attack pose, accepted the hat, and placed it back on his head. He leaned down and rolled the man onto his back. He was dressed exactly like the man who stood next to the hyperventilating nurse.

"Miss Davis," the Hornet said, leaning down and pulling the green mask off the man's face, "do you know him?" Paula was too shocked to answer. She appeared near the point of fainting, so the Hornet dropped the mask onto the man's chest and put his arm around Paula's shoulder to support her. "Are you alright?" he asked. Paula exhaled, putting her hand to her head before nodding affirmatively. The Hornet gestured toward the floor. "Do you recognize that man?"

Paula studied the man's face. At first she shook her head, but the face registered. "I don't know his name," she said, the terror in her voice obvious, "but I think I went out with him once."

"Mitch Blake," Kato offered.

Paula nodded. "That's the name. I did go out with him once. He was…"

"A creep?" the Hornet finished. He released the woman's shoulder. "If you'll excuse us, Miss Davis, we'll get him out of here and take care of him."

The whirlwind of events happened so quickly Paula scarcely had time to digest everything that had occurred. As things gelled in her mind, she took a long look at the Hornet. "You're the real Green Hornet," she said, "and that story in the paper was true."

"Yes," the Hornet replied. "Whatever you think of the Green Hornet, Miss Davis, I do not attack women. Not now, not ever." The Hornet pulled his Hornet Gun out of his pocket and shot a quick puff of Hornet Gas under Blake's nose. "We're going to make sure this man never attacks another woman, too."

"How can I thank you?" she said with sudden admiration for the Hornet. "You probably saved my life."

"We need a little time with him," the Hornet said. "If you would, please, don't call the cops until after 11 p.m. tonight."

Paula nodded. "You got it," she assured enthusiastically. She offered her hand to the Hornet, who shook it with a nod of his head. "And, if you would do me a favor?"

"Yes?"

"I'm a nurse at Municipal Hospital. One of his victims from this week is on my ward. Hurt him once for me, and once for her."

"My pleasure, Miss Davis."

Mitchell Blake's senses began returning to him as the effects of the Hornet Gas dissipated. The first thing he felt was cool concrete hard against his back. All he could remember upon first waking was the after-effects of the fight. His chest, stomach, right jaw, and left wrist throbbed varying degrees of pain. He opened his eyes as he tried to organize the events of the evening in his mind. A 100-watt light bulb, situated over his face, insulted his eyes, causing him to slam his eyelids shut. An attempt to rub the pain from his eyes revealed the fact that Blake's arms were immobilized. Blake turned his head to the right to minimize the trauma from the light to his eyes. He opened his eyes, allowing a moment of adjustment before trying to investigate his surroundings. A rope attached to his wrist held his right arm straight out perpendicular to his body. He tried to move, discovering that ropes also secured his feet. The ropes were anchored to trunks weighed down with cinder blocks.

One floor above where Blake lay, Britt Reid sat behind the desk in his den, the phone in his gloved hand. The green fedora and mask lay on the blotter in front of him as he waited for an answer on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Miss Case? How soon can you be at my house?"

"Five minutes. Why?"

"I need your help."

"I'm on my way."

"Use the elevator," Britt advised. "We're dressed."

Casey understood Britt's warning. "Yes, sir."

After Casey hung up the phone, Britt dialed another number. "Scanlon."

"Frank?"

"Yes, Britt?"

"We caught the Green Hornet. It's Blake, all right."

"Great! Where is he?"

"In the storage room in my basement. Tied up."

Frank felt a twinge of concern shoot through him. He always knew Britt as an even-tempered man; however, the attacks on women had produced a level of anger in Britt that Frank had never previously seen in his friend, especially after Casey suffered the knife wound. "Britt," he said solemnly, "a word of advice, as an attorney and a pal. Be careful what you do to him. I know you're mad, but an eye for an eye…"

"I'm not going to do anything to him, Frank," Britt interrupted. "I'm going to let that threat in Mike's article yesterday and Blake's own imagination do most of the work for me. I'll have him at the fountain in Hogan Park by 10:30 tonight. That's where you come in. Make sure no one does shoot to kill."

"That's not going to be easy, Britt. Not with a lot of cops anxious to win a pot of money." The alarm went off in the den. Frank heard the tone over the phone and asked. "Who's that?"

"Casey," Britt replied. "She's going to help us put the screws to Blake."

"I'll be waiting to hear from you," Frank said before they hung up.

Kato, also devoid of his mask and hat, appeared at the entrance to the den from the living room. "He's awake," he announced.

Britt spun around in his chair and tilted the three books to activate the hidden entrance. "Good," he said, "and just in time."

Kato went to the elevator and offered his hand to assist Casey out of the cage. She took his hand with a smile of gratitude. Once Casey cleared the elevator Britt moved the books back to their original position. Casey wore a dark skirt and short sleeve white blouse. Only two bandages covered the deeper wounds to her arm. Other areas of the trail the knife had drawn were scarcely visible.

Britt picked up his hat and mask and joined Casey and Kato in front of the fireplace. He gently took her left arm to inspect the improvement. "How's it feeling?" he asked.

"Not bad," Casey replied. "What do you need me for?"

"We're going to engage in a little psychological torture of your attacker," Britt explained.

Kato showed the mask identical to Britt's. "The eyes are sealed up," he said. Putty filled the eyes of the mask in Kato's hand.

"Good." He slid his own mask on before putting the hat on his head. "Let's go."

Blake's head faced away from the door when the Hornet opened it. Blake's head, the only part of his body he could move, turned at the sound of the door. His heart leapt into his throat when he saw the Green Hornet through the bright fog courtesy of the light over his head.

The Hornet adjusted the lamp. A long gooseneck desk lamp sat on a table approximately four feet behind Blake, the light aimed directly on Blake's face. The Hornet pointed the light toward the wall. Blake instinctively reached for his eyes but was prohibited by the ropes on his wrists. He resorted to blinking his eyes hard a few times to alleviate the discomfort. A tape recorder and microphone also sat on the table, as was the weapon used in the attacks that had been retrieved when Blake was caught at Paula Davis's home.

"Well, well," the Hornet said, walking back and forth directly above where Blake's head lay on the floor. He deliberately aimed his steps to come as close to Blake's head as possible without actually making contact. With each echo of the Hornet's shoes in Blake's ears the man flinched. "Who would have guessed that the 'Green Hornet' is actually a city councilman?"

"Let me out of here," Blake said in a whispered gasp, "and I'll…"

"You'll do nothing," the Hornet interrupted. "Perhaps you don't read the paper. I told Mike Axford that you'd be better off if the cops got you." The Hornet leaned over, his face upside down over Blake's. "And I meant it."

"Listen, I can pay you anything…"

The Hornet pulled one of the counterfeit bills he had lifted at Blake's house out of his pocket. He dropped it onto Blake's chest. "In these phony hundreds? You think I don't know about you and Harold Morrison?"

A look of shock crossed Blake's face. "How did you find out?"

"I make it my business to find a lot of things out. Especially when a supposed 'partner' is conspiring with a crooked councilman to put my neck in a noose." The Hornet walked the length of Blake's secured body, maintaining the careful placement of his steps near Blake. A couple of times his foot came down on the green overcoat Blake wore but missed flesh. The Hornet turned around and stopped with a foot on either side of Blake's outstretched right arm. He knelt down to look Blake in the eye. "I'll deal with Morrison tonight. The question is, what to do with you."

"Please, don't. I'll give you anything…"

"Shut up!" the Hornet snapped. A smile crossed the Hornet's face, which sent fear reverberating through Blake. "I know exactly what to do with you. I'm going to allow one of your victims to have first shot at you. That way, there won't be much for me to do except sweep up the pieces."

Blake managed a smirk that was obviously tinged with fear rather that defiance. "You wouldn't do that."

The Hornet stuck his index and middle fingers under Blake's tie and collar and jerked his head off the concrete. "For someone who's spent this week impersonating the Green Hornet, you certainly don't know much about what he'd do." He released Blake's collar, causing Blake's head to drop to the concrete floor with a thud. Shivers went down Blake's back, the result of the Hornet's words and tone rather than the bump to the back of his head. The Hornet stood and looked toward the door. "Kato!"

Kato appeared from behind the door where he had been waiting for the Hornet's call. "Yes?"

"Would you escort Miss Case in, please?" Kato nodded and left the room, returning almost immediately with Casey. A blindfold was over her eyes. Kato guided her to a stop near Blake's feet and removed the blindfold.

"Miss Case," the Hornet said, "I want to offer my apologies for bringing you here in this manner. However, when I explain why I brought you, I don't think you'll object."

Casey feigned the fear that had really permeated her the night before. She appeared confused as her gaze shifted between the two men dressed identically save for the mask missing from Blake's face. "Two Green Hornets?" she said.

The Hornet gestured to the man on the floor. "This is the man who put that 'beauty mark' on your arm last night with that knife." He gestured to the knife on the table. "I invited you here, as it were, to give you the opportunity to reciprocate."

Casey's face lit up. "With pleasure!" she seethed, starting toward the table. Kato stopped her by lightly securing her right arm in his grasp.

Blake was frantic. He had only one option to attempt to save himself from Casey's fury, and that was to create doubt. "He's the one who attacked you!" Blake protested. "I mean, how can you tell? It's my word against his, and I am a city councilman."

"Fair question," the Hornet admitted. He leaned against the trunks that secured the ropes holding Blake's right arm taut. "Miss Case, thanks to that crusading newspaper you work for, you have had a number of encounters in the past with the Green Hornet."

"Several," Casey confirmed.

"So, ask a question about any of those previous encounters. Whoever can correctly answer your question is obviously the real Green Hornet, and the one you can believe." The Hornet looked down at Blake. "Do you have any objection to that test?"

Blake sighed, realizing he was in a no-win situation. Kato handed the mask Blake had worn during his spree to the Hornet. He then stepped into Blake's field of vision. The black-clad chauffeur dangled a pair of nunchucks noisily in his right hand, a smile on his face.

The Hornet roughly shoved the mask onto Blake's face. "Hey," Blake said once the mask was in place, "I can't see."

"That's right, Blake," the Hornet said. "If you don't see who does what to you, you can't very well testify against them, can you? Now, you've got one minute to tell me everything," the Hornet said. "Or else."

"About what?"

Kato let out a shout and cracked the nunchucks on the floor just above Blake's head. "You're just digging yourself a deeper hole with me by playing stupid," the Hornet said while Blake hyperventilated in response to Kato's actions. "Kato, let Miss Case use those nunchucks."

"But they can be very dangerous in the hands of someone who doesn't know how to properly use them," Kato observed with a smile.

The Hornet snorted a laugh. "I don't see your point."

"You're right." Kato clanked the nunchucks again.

"No, please!" Blake shouted. "I'll tell you everything!"

The Hornet turned the tape recorder on and dangled the microphone by its cord over the side of the table so it hung over Blake's head. "I'm the phony Green Hornet," Blake confessed. "Keith Patrick is moving his counterfeit operation here from St. Louis, and he offered us a million dollars…"

"Who's 'us'?" the Hornet interrupted.

"Harold Morrison and me," Blake clarified, moving his head in the direction of the sound of the voice even though he could not see through the filled eyes in the mask. "We are to collect a million dollars for getting the real Green Hornet out of the way."

"Why?" Casey asked.

"Keith Patrick knows how the Green Hornet works. So does Morrison. He tries to muscle in on established jobs, and Patrick and Morrison didn't want him moving in on the counterfeiting operation. We devised a plan to make the Hornet so hated that the police would stop at nothing to hunt him down. I volunteered to go out as the Green Hornet and attack some women." Even in his hapless position Blake managed a cocky smile. "I had some women that had turned me down on dates, so I had a list of people to get even with. Then, I'd use my position on the city council to authorize the police to shoot to kill the Green Hornet. We have a rendezvous set up for tonight. Bang! Everyone's happy."

"When's Patrick arriving? And where?"

"Tonight," Blake replied. "I don't know where. I'm supposed to be at Morrison's at 11 to go pick him up."

"Is that all?" the Hornet asked.

Blake managed to nod his head. "Please, don't hurt me. I've told you everything, I swear."

The Hornet turned the tape recorder off. He leaned over and pulled the mask off Blake's face. "You have to make one more appearance as the Green Hornet, Blake. Tonight, at 11 p.m. at the fountain in Hogan Park."

"No!" Blake shouted. His protest was short-lived, as the Hornet pulled out the Hornet Gun and rendered Blake unconscious with a burst of Hornet Gas just beneath his nose. After Blake's head fell to the right the Hornet smiled. "Good job, Casey," he said. "Kato, get that tape upstairs and make a copy for the police. Make sure to edit our voices off." The Hornet removed the knife from the table and put it in the pocket of Blake's green overcoat.