The cabbie pointed mutely at a small, well-kept office building.
Bell ran to it, shouted to the doorman, “Big fellow, red hair and beard?”
“Blew past me like a maddened grizzly.”
Bell ran into the lobby and grabbed the elevator runner. “Big man. Red beard. What floor?”
The runner hesitated and looked away.
Bell seized his tunic in his fist. “That man is valuable to me. What floor?”
“Tenth.”
“Take me.”
“Mister, I don’t think you ought to go up there.”
Bell shoved him out of the car, slammed the gate shut, and rammed the control to rise at full speed. He overshot the tenth, brought it back down, threw the door open, and leaped out into the shambles of a business office. Chairs and desks were tumbled everywhere, glass was shattered, and five men in colorful gangster garb lay still on the carpet.
Five more were gripping Joseph Van Dorn by his arms and legs. A sixth was swinging wildly at his face. The man’s fists had already blackened his eye and split his lip, but Van Dorn had not seemed to notice as he battled to free his arms.
Bell pulled his Army and fired two shots into the ceiling.
“Next are in your bellies,” he roared. “Let that man go.”
The gangsters were not easily intimidated. None moved, except the man who had been punching Van Dorn. He reached into his pocket. Bell fired instantly. The heavy .45 slug threw the gangster into a wall.
“Let him loose.”
“Mister, if we let him loose, he’ll start up again.”
“Count on it,” Van Dorn bellowed.
Bell fired, dropping a man who pulled a revolver from his belt. The others let go. Van Dorn slugged two, as he barreled across the wrecked office, and kicked a fallen man who was starting to rise with a knife. Shoulder to shoulder with Isaac Bell, Van Dorn drew a heavy automatic pistol from his coat.
“Louses started swinging the second I came in the door.”
“Where’s our man?”
“Not with these street scum. All right, boyos. You were waiting for me, weren’t you?”
No one answered.
“Where is he?” Van Dorn shouted. “Where is that son of a bitch?”
A weaselly little man with a swollen eye and no teeth whined, “Mister, we’re just doing a job. We didn’t mean no harm.”
“Eleven men ganging one?” Isaac Bell asked incredulously. “No harm?”
“We was just supposed to beat him up.”
“Shut up, Marvyn.”
A gangster, a little older than the rest and clearly the boss, stepped forward and said, “If you know what’s good for you, you two, you’ll just turn around and leave like nothing happened.”
“Cover them.” Van Dorn passed Bell his automatic. Bell leveled both guns at the gangsters, Van Dorn picked up a telephone off the floor.
“Central? Get me the police.”