In the last episode of The Adventures of Rocky Stone, Rocky discovered Jesse Weller, wife of Los Diablos financier Frank Weller, was in part responsible for the missing package. After thwarting her advances, Rocky left with Dave the delivery driver and advised him to law low for a week. The following continues the notebook entry of April 25, 1949:
I let Dave off at a secluded spot near a bus stop. He had the beleaguered look on his face of a cat without a (ed. Note: several words crossed out here, including canary, calculator, and can opener, before the author apparently gave up)
I stopped at the first service station I could find and dropped myself into the call box to check in with Wanda. Her tone had the edge in it I was looking for, and even though all she said was “Rocky Stone's office,” there was still the barely distinguishable lilt that only comes from someone with something on her mind.
“Any developments at the front?”
“Rocky! Yes, I was hoping you would call. About ten minutes ago I happened to see someone checking around that truck. He was Oriental, wore dark glasses, a Panama hat and a tailored suit, both beige. Pearl cufflinks. Quite the fashion plate. He poked around the truck for a while and then took off.”
There was only one man in town who met that description and as it so happened I knew him. His name was James Wong and he had a private license just like me. He started out in Chinatown but word got around that he was a man who could deliver the goods, so he branched out of the old neighborhood. I respected him but it was going to take a lot for him to become my favorite guy.
I asked Wanda: “Did anybody take off after him?”
“I was about to say that,” she replied. “A couple more Oriental men got into a Ford a few seconds after him. What do you suppose they have to do with it, Rocky?”
“Too soon to tell, but if I know Wong, he's trying to get somebody's attention. The question is why. I think I'll go ask him.”
Despite his growing reputation, James Wong's office was still in the same place, in Chinatown above a notorious noodle parlor and betting house. I made it over to his place in good time and parked across the road and waited for the fireworks to begin. A couple minutes passed and a trickle of rain started to fall. An old man in an apron came out of the grocery next door and started to sweep at the wet sidewalk. He continued to do so even though the rain started to get heavy. Wong had paid him to give a signal whenever a stranger ambled in to the neighborhood and I just triggered the alarm.
An impressive Alfa Romeo sports car eased off the road in front of the restaurant and Wong stepped out of it, still wearing his sunglasses despite the rain. The old man was still diligently pawing at the ground and when Wong saw him, he tilted his head at my car. In a second he saw me, and ripped his sunglasses off. In the next second, the boys in the Ford screeched into view. A grin curled on Wong's lip and he turned and disappeared into the alley as his pursuers emptied out of their car and gave chase.
I reacted. Before I had time to think about it I was outside in the rain, running after two men who had no idea I was even there. They made a left turn at the back of the building and I could see the guns in their hands. I reached for mine. The rain was coming down in buckets now and it was hard to see straight. I splashed through a puddle and soaked my trousers and continued the chase until I could see what they saw: a dead end. They were just doing an about-face when I roared into their view. The guns raised as they stood side by side. I had no option. I plowed forward and smacked into them with all I had. They fell back like bowling pins. A shot fired harmlessly into the air and one of their guns rattled loose and crashed into a brick wall. I landed on one of them and he was out cold. The other, though stunned, made it as far as his feet until he spotted someone blocking his way at the front of the alley.
“Much obliged,” James Wong remarked to me. “Perhaps you gentlemen should be introduced. Rocky Stone, these are two men who represent the Communist faction in China. Communists, Rocky. Rocky, Communists.”
Will James Wong help Rocky recover the package? Find out next week in The Adventures of Rocky Stone!
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