Cowboy Girl Annie (9 page)

Annie joined Jake and handed him his
sack. They stood a few minutes at the window as if they were just
watching people that passed by the store.

Jake squeezed her arm and nodded
down the street. Big Ed's car slowly cruising on the
street.

Annie turned to the clerk as he put
another row of glazed doughnuts in the showcase. “Hey,
Mister.”

The clerk straightened up. “Yeah,
what do you want?”

Annie pointed out the window. “You
mind calling the cops. I see some tough guys coming this way. Word
on the street is there is going to be a showdown as bad as the one
that happened in the O K Corral. I have a feeling the gun fight is
happening quick like in your alley again.”

“
Not if I can help it,” the man said,
already dialing the number.

Jake opened the door for Annie. They
stepped out in full view of Big Ed's car as if they had nothing to
fear.

Jake and Annie causally walked
around the side of the building as Big Ed and his goons drove by.
For all to see, it looked like two homeless people out for a
leisurely stroll. No way could Big Ed miss seeing the two thorns in
his side he and his men had been searching for.

“
So far so good, Jake. Everything is
going as I planned,” Annie whispered as she looked back at the gray
sedan following slowly behind them.

“
I just wished I knew what this plan
was and how it was going to end especially for me and you. I have a
bad feeling it's not going to be in our favor,” complained
Jake.

“
You sure don't have much faith in me
or my plans,” Annie groused.

“
I can tell you they tend to be
dangerous, and that makes me nervous,” Skinny Jake quipped as Annie
grabbed his arm and steered him down the alley behind the
bakery.

Big Ed's car pulled over to the curb
and parked across from the alley opening. Jake flinched while he
listened to all four car doors bang shut.

With their feet sticking out in full
view of the car, Annie and Jake sat down with their backs against
the far side of the dumpster.

“
You sure you want us to have our
feet out in the open where Big Ed can do target practice on them?”
Jake complained.

“
He's got to be able to see exactly
where we are. I don't know about you, but as long as I have a
choice, my feet is about all I want him to see of me,” Annie
explained.

“
If I had a choice' I'd be back in
our hiding spot, but you didn't give me a choice,” Jake
groused.

Big Ed and his goons walked across
the street. As soon as they were in the alley, they edged toward
the dumpster with their guns drawn. Annie figured Big Ed was
worried about an ambush now that he knew she carried a
gun.

Sirens rang out. A parade of squad
cars screeched to a halt behind Big Ed's car. The cops were in a
hurry to end the fire fights of the last few days by not letting
another one get started.

Jake groaned as he peeked around the
dumpster. “Oh no, here the cops come already with their guns drawn.
Big Ed and his men have their guns aimed right at this dumpster.
We're bound to be full of bullet holes by the time this all goes
down.”

“
What's a few more holes to me. I
already have one in me. Actually, two if you count the front and
the back of me,” Annie joked.

“
This is no time to joke. I don't
have a hole in me yet, and I don't want one,” Jake complained with
a white knuckle grip on his doughnut sack.

“
Now just trust me, Skinny Jake. This
plan of mine is going to work out all right. Just go along with
everything I say,” Annie whispered to him. “Here, you hold my
doughnut sack.” Annie saw the death grip Jake had on his sack and
pulled her sack back from his out stretched hand. “Don't you mash
my doughnut because you're all nervous.”

“
Oh Annie, I won't,” Jake replied
reaching for the sack with shaky hands.

Annie gave him her sack. “Fine, but
I paid good money for that doughnut. Whatever you do don't drop it.
Not in less you really want to see me mad.”

“
Yes, ma'am,” Jake
snapped.

Annie scooted until she was half
exposed at the end of the dumpster so Big Ed could see her. She
waved at him friendly like just to make sure she had his attention,
and to tick him off just a little. It felt sort of like waving a
red hanky at a mean bull. Now she had to make sure she dodged this
mad bull when he charged her.

“
Oh mercy!” Jake cried softly.
“You're just asking to get shot again, Annie.”

“
Hush,” she hissed.

Chapter 17

The remaining two henchmen, with Big
Ed in the lead, had their guns out and were just waiting to get
close enough so they wouldn't miss when they shot. Evidently, they
hoped to shoot Annie and Jake and be long gone before the cops got
close enough to stop them.

Annie stuck her arm around the side
of the dumpster and fired into the side of it. She chuckled when
she saw the thugs duck and freeze. They thought she was shooting at
them, and it tickled her.

They had good reason to feel that
way. Any other time, she might have shot as many of them as she
could before the gun went empty. Today killing Big Ed and his
galoots wasn't in her plan.

Jake was hissing in her ear again.
“Cowboy Girl Annie, you have a way of completely bamboozling me.
What did you do that for? If we don't have enough trouble, now
you're wasting bullets. Cain't be too many more left in that gun,
and us headed for a shootout with four armed men.”

Annie chuckled. “Last count of heads
I took behind this dumpster we only have one gun and I'm holding it
so there ain't a we to this shootout.”

“
I'm trying to tell you that gun
doesn't have enough shells left in it to kill all four of those
men,” Jake reminded her.

“
Now why would I want to harm any of
those men with cops coming here to witness me do it?” Annie
asked.

“
I'm glad to hear you thought of
that. The other thing, I'm saying is somebody isn't going to like
that dumpster shot full of holes, and we ain't got any money to pay
for fixing it. I'm just saying,” Jake griped.

“
That won't be our problem. I didn't
shoot the dumpster,” Annie said in a hushed voice over her
shoulder.

Jake's face went blank. “You
didn't?”

Annie gave him a hard look. “Jake,
read my lips. That's exactly what you say if you're asked by the
cops.”

Annie used her blouse tail to give
the pistol a fast wipe down. She threw it into the alley just out
of reach of Big Ed.

Jake gasped. “Oh, have mercy on us.
Now you're giving Big Ed that gun which was our only
protection.”

“
I didn't give that man anything, and
I don't intend to,” Annie said stubbornly.

“
Yeah, right! Need I remind you that
is what started this whole battle in the first place. That's why
we're sitting here like rats, waiting to be picked off by Big Ed,”
Jake told her.

Right on cue, four policemen came
into sight at the end of the alley and scattered out. They had
their guns drawn.

“
Throw the guns down. Do it now, and
put your hands in the air!” screamed the closest cop behind Big Ed
and his gang.

As soon as Annie heard the soft
plunk of guns hit the ground in the vicinity of her gun, she said
softly, “We're home free now, Jake. Let me do all the
talking.”

“
I don't have a choice now that you
have me in this mess. I don't have a clue what I should say. I sure
hope you know what you're doing since I sure don't,” he
griped.

Annie stood up with her hands high.
Jake stood up behind her and raised his hands with a doughnut sack
in each hand.

Annie called to the cops, “We're
coming out. Don't shoot us.”

“
Come ahead,” the spokesman for the
cops ordered. He most likely was in his thirties and acted like a
cop with a decade of experience behind him.

Annie and Jake edged slowly away
from the protection of the dumpster. Standing in plain sight of Big
Ed, his goons and the cops, Annie said, “I'm Annie. Me and my
friend, Skinny Jake, don't have a gun. We were the ones being shot
at by these roughnecks.”

The cop came around Big Ed and his
men to stand in front of Annie and Jake. “What’s going on here? We
had reports by the bakery shop owner of shots fired in the alley.
Throw your sacks over there.” The officer demanded at Jake,
pointing toward the building foundation.

“
Officer, it's just our doughnuts in
them sacks,” Annie explained.

“
Could be a weapon in there. I'm not
trusting any of you until I hear what this fight is all about. I
don't trust a one of you any farther than I could throw you,” the
officer snapped, stepping sideways to bend over and pick up the
revolvers.

The other three cops aimed their
guns at Big Ed and his guys as well as Jake and Annie.

It wouldn't be a good idea to move
sudden like, Annie decided.

She held her tongue as another
policeman’s shiny, black shoe came within an inch of flattening
their doughnut sacks when he circled around her and Jake. As he
turned to cover their backs with his gun, his toe connected with
the sacks, and a doughnut rolled out of one of them.

Feelings of anger toward the cop
made Annie want to give him a tongue lashing as she eyed her
delicious doughnut laying in the dirt. The only reason she
hesitated was the fact if she made the cop mad, the head cop might
not listen to her.

The officer in charge cradled the
guns in his arms, straightened up and moved toward them. “One of
you men pat these two down to make sure they don't have a gun
hidden out in all that garb they have on. You other two check Big
Ed and his men for hidden guns or knives.”

A cop patted Annie and Jake down
their sides and back. “Sarge, they're unarmed.”

Better start talking,” Sarge
snapped, trying to hold on to his arms full of guns.

“
That big guy was fixing to shoot us.
I distracted him by talking to him, just praying you policemen
would show up before he and his men killed us,” Annie declared as
she pointed innocently at Big Ed.

“
That’s a lie. One of those guns you
got there is hers, Man. She shot at us first,” screamed Big Ed,
shaking a finger at Annie.

“
Jake, what do you say happened
here?” The sergeant asked.

“
What Annie says,” Jake said, looking
at the ground.

Chapter 18

Annie eyed this man she had become
so fond of. Great! No wonder Jake has been complaining so much
about me lying to him. He couldn't tell a lie and be convincing
even when his life depended on it. And here I thought it was only
George Washington who couldn't tell a lie.

Annie figured she better take over
before the cop asked Jake anything else. Jake would be sure to get
the cop suspicious of them. “See for yourselves, Sir. Does it look
like we have the money to even own a gun?

Honest, we were hiding behind the
dumpster for protection from those guys. You could see that when
you got here.

The only hole in that dumpster is on
the front side where one of them fired at us and missed. I'm here
to tell you we were scared to death, weren't we, Jake?”

Jake shook his head up and down
fast. “Oh, yeah! We sure were.”

Annie had to fight grinning at Jake.
She figured her question wouldn't give him any reason to
lie.

She continued her story. “I don't
know much about this, but if the bullet is in the dumpster, you'll
find it matches one of Big Ed's guns you're carrying around,” Annie
explained, pointing at the cop's armload of guns.

“
This is a set up,” Big Ed squalled.
“That woman is lying through her teeth.”

Sarge turned to Big Ed. “Shut up
until I talk to you.” He turned back to Annie and Jake. “We'll find
that out, won't we? You two will have to come down to the Police
Station to file a complaint so we can hold these men for attempted
murder.

In the mean time, we'll check the
guns for finger prints. We'll take your prints when you come in. If
either of your prints are on one of these guns, you're in as much
trouble as Big Ed. We'll hunt you down.” He turned to Big Ed.
“Looks like you’re going to jail again. This time for attempted
murder.”