Chapter 86
Catherine protested that she would be fine, but it did no good. When Jeff found out that she was going to stop by the dry cleaners on her way home to pick up her mother's dress he insisted on accompanying her. Joe was no help at all when he heard Jeff's plan, telling them both that he thought it was a good idea.
Because the cleaners was only a block away from the office Catherine suggested they walk there and then get a cab to her apartment after they got the dress. Jeff agreed, he was unaware that she planned to ditch him at that point because she didn't want him following her home.
They walked along discussing his date with Jenny the night before. As they crossed in front of an alley four men jumped out of the shadows, and drug them back into the dark alley. Jeff recognized the two men Cathy had identified on Friday. She knew that one of the other two was the third involved in her attack. What she wasn't aware of was that the jolt of fear that she felt when the men jumped out at them was also felt by Vincent.
A look of alarm crossed his features, but Father didn't notice because he was intently planning his next chess move. The first Father was aware that something was amiss was when Vincent abruptly rose to his feet, knocking his chair over backwards in the process.
Vincent had felt Catherine's fear as if it were his own and in an instant was on his way to her. Father had been about to protest at his son's lack of care for the furniture, but when he saw the look on Vincent's face was instead going to ask what was wrong. However, before anything more than, "Vincent!" could leave his mouth Vincent was racing from the room.
"Well!" Father huffed, and then with the thought that Vincent's flight from the room must have something to do with Catherine, he went back to the chess problem in front of him.
He paused only long enough to scoop up his cloak as he raced through the tunnels as if the bats of hell were after him. Word rang out on the pipes to clear the way if anyone saw Vincent. He was in a huge hurry, but no one knew why. Vincent himself wasn't even aware of the concern and worry that he was leaving behind in his wake. His only thought was getting to Catherine with all possible speed.
Even as a boy, Jeff Radler, had never been one to back down from a fight, although he had been known by a different name all those years ago. In fact, he had had many different names over the years, but none of those personas had been ones to back down either. Now, even faced with an overwhelming force there was a pregnant woman to protect. He was not about to let these guys hurt Cathy if he could help it. He remembered the photos of the girl Carol that they had beaten to death. That fueled his fists to fight even harder.
Catherine was struggling with the two men that held her, one of which had his hand over her mouth, as Jeff was all out fighting with the other two. After exchanging many blows one of them had managed to get behind Jeff and grab hold of his arms. He was pretty well pinned from inflicting much damage to the other man now and could only try kicking out at him by way of defense.
The fight was not going at all well when the sounds of the fight in the alleyway were rent by a fearsome roar. For just a moment everything stopped. No one moved for a blink of an eye, and then the struggles started again. That was until the roar was repeated and what looked like a caped figure jumped from the roof of the two story building on one side of the alley.
To be continued….