Free Save the Children by Don Pendleton Page B

Griff."
    "You can visit Senator Dutton, too, if you've a mind to," said Kurtzman. "There's a fund-raising dinner tonight at the Sheraton. Hey, wait a mo. That fund-raiser... it's for a new bunch of day-care centers. Kids, again. You think..."
    "I'll damn well find out," Bolan assured him, "but the senator can wait. He's a politico hobnobbing with his constituents. He won't leave that dinner for a while. Dutton is more notable than Griff, but if Griff is on the Org Crime unit, he'll be closer to the dirt and that puts him closer to Parelli in one way. I'll dig there first."
    "I hope he's a clean cop," said Kurtzman uneasily.
    "I'll damn well find that out, too," Bolan promised grimly.

6
    Sergeant Lester Griff was bone weary and irritable.
    As if there wasn't enough on his plate already, that bastard Bolan had to come crashing back onto the scene.
    He was off duty now, though, and he was going to do his best to put Mack the Bastard Bolan, the so-called Man from Blood, out of his mind. He would spend some time tomorrow with Kathleen, have some lunch together at a restaurant, maybe a trip to the zoo would be nice.
    Who the hell was he trying to kid?
    There was no way Lester Griff could stop himself from thinking about Bolan.
    Not when the guy was likely to get him killed.
    Kathleen came out of the kitchen.
    Griff came into the house and shrugged out of his overcoat.
    Kathleen's face lit up with a smile of greeting; as usual, she came into his arms. When they held each other for their customary brief hug, he wished more than ever that his life was different, that he could be like other men, come home and leave his job behind, because no matter how often they hugged, he always felt real love for this woman.
    She was the girl next door grown up into a forty-plus beauty who still moved him, yes.
    She pulled back, remaining in his arms, to look long and deep into her husband's eyes.
    "Something's wrong," she said.
    He shook his head, forcing a smile.
    "Nothing's wrong."
    He let a hand stray down affectionately to the curve of her hip.
    The lie came out uneasily.
    He did not want her worrying about him.
    If she had asked him about Bolan, he would have shrugged and said, "The guy's got nothing to do with me."
    And that would have been a lie, too.
    The Executioner's interest in an up-and-coming Mafia don named David Parelli made that a certainty. When the blowout came, there might be blood spilled. With Bolan, blood spilling was a sure thing. And some of that blood might belong to Griff. If anything happened to him, where would that leave Kathleen?
    He had to stay alive.
    Not for his own sake, but for hers.
    Griff was third-generation Chicago Irish cop. Now he was a detective. He had the kind of civil service job most of the Irish and Polish ethnics in his neighborhood envied.
    These days he had something else, too.
    Trouble.
    Big trouble.
    In her quiet way, Kathleen had been pleading with him lately to share his problems, whatever they were.
    With both kids raised and out of the house, she had little to do but concern herself with her husband.
    So she was extra sensitive to his moods, to any changes he might be going through.
    Griff had to smile bitterly to himself.
    It was just like her to worry her pretty Irish head about him, when she herself should be the focus of her concern.
    The rheumatic fever of her girlhood, when she'd been the best-looking girl at St. Michael's, still took its toll even today.
    Her cardiovascular system needed yet another operation to function properly. She was due to enter the hospital next week for the fourth such operation in the past three years, and this was not only dangerous but expensive as well.
    He appreciated the fact now that she accepted his refusal to talk about what was troubling him. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and eased out of his arms, moving toward the kitchen of their small home, saying, "I'll get you something to eat, Les."
    After she was gone, Griff moved to the window set into