Chapter 5 More Questions than Answers
Alaskan Airspace, April 7, 1929
At 2000 feet in the air, the outside chill was staved off by the heater in the plane, and the hot tempers on board.
"Where the heck is Jimmy, and who was that guy back there?" Rico bellowed at Tony, which made his already high voice jump up an octave.
"Jimmy got pinched and as for the other guy, who gives a rat's pittute. All care about was he was shooting at me, I didn't exactly stop to have a chit-chat." Tony retorted.
"What do you mean Jimmy got himself pinched?" Rico was amazed, not in a decade had Jimmy seen the inside of a jail, now he was in one over a bunch of dogs.
"He and I ended up in the wrong back yard and got attacked by a friggin' Rottweiler. The blasted thing bit him on the leg and he couldn't run. Then some other dog went after him later, it chewed him up pretty good. Last I saw of him was his fat-ass falling on the ground."
"Well that is just great, I told you Andre, we should have packed more tranquilizers but no, "They aren't necessary Rico. We're just going after a couple of dumb dogs Rico", well they would have bloody well come in handy!" he shouted at Andre, who stood a full head taller than the spunky Italian.
"Shut it Rico, how much does Jimmy know?" Andre asked.
"He knows enough." Tony answered.
"Terrific, just wonderful, now what are we supposed to do?" Rico asked. Andre sat with his chin resting on his hands, after quickly thinking through a plethora of possible outcomes, he decided.
"We make our delivery, and then we tell the boss what happened and let him sort things out."
"Works for me." Tony finally said.
"Poor Jim." Rico said under his breath as he sat down on the hard metal seat of the cargo plane.
Back in Nome
Sheriff O'Neal half-walked, half-dragged Jimmy into the office and sat him down in a room.
"Buster, I'm not sure how many laws you broke tonight, but I do know it is enough to lock you away for a very, very long time."
"Lawyer." was all Jimmy had to say to the sheriff.
"Alright, but you will have to wait until morning."O'Neal put his hands up in frustration.
"Lawyer." he repeated. O'Neal leaned in and looked the crook strait in the eye
"Suit yourself." O'Neal left the room before he exploded in rage. He walked back out to see Duke in the main office, tapping his feet like the tick-tock of a clock while staring at the actual clock on the wall. The hands met at the top and the twelve following soft chimes indicated that it was the witching hour. He shifted his gaze outside just long enough to see a figure stumbling in the street.
"Is that Jake?" Duke asked. He stood up and saw his friend two stepping in the street. At first Duke thought he was drunk but then saw that he was holding a hand to the side of his head. Duke ran outside and caught Jake as he was falling down. O'Neal followed with a drawn weapon, fearing more attackers.
"Jake! Jake what happened?" Duke could now see a large knot on Jake's forehead with a gash on his face.
"They took them." Jake whimpered, "They took Steele, and Loki, they're gone." Jake began to break down and Duke hoisted him up by his shoulder. Satisfied that there was no one else with them, O'Neal returned his gun to its holster and put an arm around Jake as well. They brought Jake in and sat him down in a chair; O'Neal poured a glass of water while Duke took out a first aid kit and went to work on Jake's head. O'Neal returned and gave the water to Jake who accepted it with a shaking hand.
"Ok buddy," Duke began. "Start from the beginning, what happened to Steele and Loki?"
"Alright, alright, I was getting ready to go to bed-"
One hour earlier
Jake laid in his bed and put his book on the table next to him. He flipped off the light and closed his eyes, just as he did, he heard something break downstairs. He rolled his eyes and got out of his bed.
"Next time, I'll take the vacation and Daisy's folks can watch the wrecking crew." He opened the door to his bedroom; Steele and Rowdy shot out between his legs.
"What is with you two?" Jake asked.
"Ya, good question Steele, why are we running like it's a race?" Rowdy disliked having his beauty sleep interrupted.
"I donno, I just have this feeling." Steele answered him. It seemed as if Steele's gut was wrong as they came around the corner to the living room that housed the pups, but then they heard the voices.
"Hey Rico, hurry it up, let's grab these little money bags then grab that big payday upstairs." Andre said impatiently. He put the crow bar he used to break in on the counter.
"I'm working as fast as I can, these fuzz-ballls just don't seem to like me." Said a frustrated Rico as he picked up one whimpering pup and stuffed them into a burlap sack. Steele had seen enough, without thinking twice; he blindly ran at the two men and tackled the one taking his pups. The short man lifted the sack up as a shield. Steel bit into it and tore open a hole; then one of the pups came tumbling out. Andre went to grab it and Rowdy bit the back of the man's black leather jacket. The jacket came off and sent Rowdy stumbling over. It was just enough time for Andre to come around and kick him into a closet. He shut the door and Rowdy began to bark wildly on the other side. Jake was now running down the stairs.
"What are you doing in my house!?" Jake saw Rico wrestling with Steele on the floor and decided to help out, but Andre came in between him and threw a punch. Jake caught it and came back with a jab to the man's face; he followed up with a shot to the abdomen. Andre was tired of playing human punching bag and reached for his gun. Jake saw it coming and slapped it out of his hand. Jake spun and his heel then kicked Andre in the torso, sending him into the counter. Andre picked up his crow bar he had put there earlier and swung it at Jake, hitting him in the head, and summarily knocking him out. Meanwhile, Rico was doing the best he could not to be eaten by Steele; Andre reached into his pocket and took out a needle: he stabbed it into Steele's back; afterwards the powerful dog fell limp.
"You're pathetic." Andre said to Rico. Andre reached down and picked up the gun off of the floor and concealed it once again.
"Fine, next time, I'll lead with the barbital." Rico sent back. He shoved Steele off of him and picked up the sack of puppies. Except all but one of the pups had escaped.
"Aww crap, that mutt tore a hole in this thing!" Rico was not very happy to see a bonus disappear, he was livid to see three slip out of his fingers.
"Then we have one pup, we don't have the time to find the others, let's go." They both walked put the rear door and made for the airstrip.
"That's it." Jake finished. "I had to fill in a couple of points after that guy kissed me with a crow bar, but after I came to, I got Rowdy out of the closet and took him and the rest of the pups up to my room and locked the door." Duke finished wrapping Jake's head with a bandage and put everything away. His demeanor shifted as he thought about Steele and Loki.
"What's up with you?" Jake asked, not knowing about Balto and Suki.
"Jake, I've got some bad news, whoever took them left in a plane, I tried to stop them but they had me out gunned." He held up his empty .45 in reference.
"Son of a-" Jake began to say but decided not to waste the energy. O'Neal tried to give him a bone.
"The good news is, we caught one of 'em, but the fat slob keeps on asking for a lawyer."
"You caught one?" Jake asked.
"Ya he's over in the next room-" That was all Jake needed to hear. He leapt up and practically broke down the door to get at Jimmy. Jake grabbed him by his jacket lapels and shoved him up against the wall.
"Where are they? Tell me!" Jake shouted. Duke ran in and grabbed Jake's arms.
"He can't talk with a broken jaw, get in the other room and cool down." Duke took Jake away and left Jimmy up to O'Neal.
"That man is crazy, I'll press charges and-" Jimmy began to rant
"Shut up and sit down!" O'Neal yelled in a flat baritone. Jimmy complied quickly.
"Keep something in mind, that dog you shot tonight, that is my Kodi. So if you don't tell me what I want to know right now. Duke and myself will go for a long coffee break and give you two some quality alone time." He gave his words a second to sink in and Jimmy's eyes widened. "I knew we could come to an understanding. So let's start at the top." After a few minutes, O'Neal came out of the room and addressed the two men in front of him.
"Well, he didn't say much, but boys, this is bigger than we thought."
"How big?" Duke asked.
"Have you ever heard of the Chicago Outfit?"
"Ya biggest mob in America, why? Oh you gotta be kidding!" Jake's jaw dropped and he sat down on a desk to avoid falling down. "So are you trying to tell me; that a bunch of Italian mobsters broke into my house, hit me with a crow bar, just make off with my dog?" Duke looked like his gears were turning, things began to make sense.
"Think about it, both Balto and Steele are champion race dogs, so are Kodi and Dusty." The pieces of a sinister puzzle were now falling into place.
"I'm going to call in the state troopers and the FBI on this." O'Neal said as he picked up the phone and began to dial.
"Hey sheriff, if fatty back there didn't tell you what we needed to hear, would you have really let Jake go after him?" Duke asked.
"I do what is necessary to keep this place safe." he said back, he finished dialing and put the phone to his ear.