Free Harvey Porter Does Dallas by James Bennett

Rebeldes , but I don’t. The cops don’t believe me. I’ve even been pulled out of school a dozen times for police questioning.”
    â€œWhat do you know about Los Rebeldes ?” asked Harvey.
    â€œNothing. I make it a point to know nothing. Anything I know about the gang could get me in trouble. I keep my ears shut every time I’m around Carlos, just for my own protection.”
    â€œI can’t blame you. Is Carlos in jail now, or out?”
    â€œDo you know him?” Carmelita asked with a frown.
    â€œOh yeah, I know him.”
    â€œHow?”
    Harvey thought better of it. “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you another time. But do me a favor, okay?”
    â€œWhat favor?”
    â€œDon’t ask me about my scar.”
    â€œOkay, but why?”
    â€œI’ve got my reasons. One reason is everybody always asks me about it and I have to tell the story all over again. I’m not gonna tell it any more except to real special people. The reason it looks so bad, it wasn’t sewed up by a real doctor in a real hospital.”
    â€œHow was it sewed up?”
    â€œBy this old fart who used to be a doctor, then he turned into an alcoholic with shaky hands, so he lost his medical license. He operated secret medical activities—abortions mostly—out of his garage. He was a friend of my dodger; he’s the one who took me to the garage.”
    â€œWhat was the doctor’s name?”
    â€œFor all I know his name was Dr. Dickwad. His hands really had the shakes; it looked like he had Parkinson’s on top of his booze problem. It was a real bad job and he sewed it up real bad. It hurt like hell, and he kept stopping to take a swig or two of whiskey. He did that about four times. He kept sticking his needle into this clear liquid which I guess was alcohol. Not the drinking kind.”
    â€œWow. You went through a real nasty surgery.”
    â€œSurgery? I guess you could call it that. It was more like a drunk mechanic tryin’ to fix a timin’ chain.”
    Now Carmelita was looking straight at him and seemed interested in all he had to say. “Sometime will you tell me how you know Carlos?”
    â€œYeah. sure. Sometime.” Harvey could see that this made for another chance to spend time with her.
    That chance came about three days later, but it had nothing to do with Carlos. It was about two in the afternoon. He found Carmelita in the lobby floor lounge again. She held up the Richard Simmons book about life inside of street gangs and said, “That’s it. I’m not readin’ any more of this. The book is bogus; the guy doesn’t know what he’s talkin’ about. I guess I’ll check out the Liddy book now.”
    â€œSounds like a plan,” said Harvey. His voice was so low it was barely more than a whisper. “How’d you like to take a little adventure.?”
    â€œWhat adventure?” her dark eyes widened.
    â€œNothin’ serious, just a little snoopin’ around.”
    â€œCould it get us into trouble?”
    â€œYou bet. But not serious trouble. And if we’re careful, I don’t think anybody will ever know where we went.”
    â€œI can’t imagine what you’re talking about. But my curiosity has the best of me. Let’s do it!”
    Another reason to like this girl , Harvey thought. She’s not just beautiful, she likes adventure . “Okay, follow me but be sure to walk quiet. We don’t want to look funky, like we’re slinkin’ around like a fox at the chicken house, we just walk naturally and be cheerful to anyone we might. Just walk quiet.”
    â€œCan do.”
    Harvey headed straight up all the way to the fifth floor hallway. It was good luck; they were alone. The classrooms were not in session so there wouldn’t be any teachers to deal with. Very quietly, he led her down to the end of the hall to the old locked door with the No