Return to Holliday Creek (3)

Three men on a Mission

Sergeant Skillman yelled to Private Skimmer, “Get Spencer and meet me at the back of the hotel.” Then he disappeared into the building, pushed his way through the anxious crowd, and broke out into the alley. He turned east. At the alley entrance onto Boundary Road, he stood tight against the building corner, and sneaked a look up the street. The gun fire came from the roof top of a building on the far side of East Boundary Road.

The moment the two men reached his position the three rushed out of the alley, scrambled across East Boundary, circled around behind a row of buildings, ducked between two of them, and then dashed over Broadway, out of sight from the rooftop shooters. They pulled into a narrow walkway between buildings.

Skillman issued orders around deep breaths. Getting...too old for this stuff.

Spencer and Skimmer were breathing heavy, too. “Skimmer, you stay here and count slowly to a hundred, then catch up to us; unless you hear firing. In that case, go around this building and join us from the east. Spencer, you come with me.” He disappeared into the blackness down the path way.

The sound of pistol fire was close, but it boomed without the staccato crack, which told them they were behind the shooter. Skillman stopped when he emerged from walkway into an open area. Muzzle flashes to their left stabbed the darkness. The moment Skimmer closed, Skillman lead them in single file across a back yard of knee-high weeds. They cozied up to the side of the structure that served as the bandit’s shooting platform. Skillman crept along the wall, and discovered a ladder fixed to the building. That explained how the shooters got up there.

He grabbed the first man behind him, “Spencer,” he whispered. “From the stink of things that dark patch about twenty feet from the store is probably an outhouse. Climb on top of it; not a sound. Standing, you should be able to see the muzzle flashes of the shooters. If you can’t, and you hear shooting, join us on the double. But, if you can see their gun fire, be ready to open up. Any questions?”

All Skillman saw was Spencer’s white teeth behind the grin as the kid slipped into the dark.