The policemen stood over Jimmy, a light was shining in his face and they were throwing questions at him so fast that he found it difficult to answer even one. His mind was not clear as to what had happened. He remembered being hit on the head and thrown behind the wheel of the getaway car and he knew that they were driving him somewhere and then they left him. The next thing he remembered was that he was being handcuffed and taken to the 17th precinct on the east side on 53rd Street. He didn't know that it was Christine who had tipped them off, nor did he realize that Price had anticipated this and had already arranged for him to be set up.
The police had checked for any previous record on him and found none. They did find out that he was just nineteen, had been a good student and that the whole thing didn't figure.
Finally, when they realized that he would not be able to answer their questions that night they led him to a cell and said, "Maybe you'll feel more like talking in the morning."
The sun was shining through the cell bars when he was awakened by a burly looking guard and led once more into the interrogation room. He was trying to fit all the pieces together so that he could answer the thousands of questions. Finally he decided that maybe they would let him make a statement and he wouldn't have to answer so many questions.
"Sir," he said to the lieutenant who was closest to him. "I'd like to tell you the whole story, at least what I know of the raid and who was involved. It is going to sound bizarre, but I swear it's true and I'd be willing to take a lie detector test, but first, promise me that you will check on my girlfriend, I know that she's in danger and she needs help badly!"
"What's her name, son," the policeman asked, his voice softening somewhat when he heard the sincerity in the young man's voice.
"Christine… Christine Jackson and you can probably find her at this address and he gave them the address of Price's 'house'."
"Why, that's the girl who reported the raid to us. It was a little late, because we were already there and she hung up before we could get much more information from her. Sure, we'll check into it right now." He turned to a patrolman and told him to dispatch two squad cars to that address and pick up the girl if she were there.
Feeling a little better, Jimmy began the long involved story about how he had run into Christine after looking for her at the camp and how he had been introduced to Price through her. He wasn't sure how she had become involved, but he was sure that she, too, had been forced into this racket by someone who had taken advantage of her youth and naivete. The police listened intently while a steno took down every word he said.
"This is all very interesting, son," the policeman said, "but, you realize that, of course we will have to check out a few things. You've given us the names of the people who were involved. We've been after this Price for sometime, and if you'll testify, it may be our chance to get him. With your testimony and cooperation, maybe we can get you off with a light sentence, maybe even a suspended sentence, but you realize that when you do this, if you are released, we cannot offer you round the clock protection and I'm sure that there will be some pretty big men in the rackets wanting to see you out of the way."
"I understand," he answered falteringly. "All I want is to get out of this mess, even if it means that I have to go to jail, but I want to make sure that Christine is all right. She isn't strong enough to take this sort of thing."
"Can you tell us exactly how your girlfriend is involved with this. What does she have to do with the gang," they queried.
"I-I-I don't know," he said, and the police knew that he was lying, but he just couldn't tell them that she was the gang whore, that she was a prostitute. It was even hard for him to admit this to himself and he couldn't bear the thought of telling these strange men when they would be picking her up. He didn't want them to treat her like a common streetwalker. She wasn't like that, she was still his girl and he wanted to protect.
"Listen," the police added, "if you can tell us, we will be in a better position to help her and get her out, but if you won't go into detail, it will just make our job more difficult and we'll find out anyway."
Jimmy just shook his head dejectedly and so the one man who had been questioning him said, "Okay, boys, take him upstairs for a formal booking and printing and then return him to his cell."
They led him down the long corridor and it seemed like the longest walk he had ever taken. The walls of the jail were painted a sickening yellow and the doors and bars were a somber grey. Not a very cheery place, he thought. But then, I guess the people who are in here are used to a very ugly and somber world so it doesn't really matter.
Price had just gone up to Christine's room and was screaming at her.
"You called the cops, didn't you. You called them from the house!" his voice was hard and menacing as he stood above her with a syringe held gingerly in his hand.
"No, no, no, I didn't," she lied, screaming back at him while her eyes watched him jiggling the needle in his hand. "If you so much as come near me, I'll scream my head off."
"What did you do to get Robert out of the way," he demanded.
"He started to get fresh with me and I hit him with a pewter ornament. I couldn't stand that beast's filthy hands on me and I had to get out. You wouldn't have wanted him to hurt me, would you? He was like an animal and I had to protect myself. He isn't dead, is he?"
"No, thank Christ," Price snarled, "but he isn't going to take too kindly towards you in the future. You had better watch your step with him."
His hand was now at her throat and he spit at her, "Why did you call the cops, that wasn't very nice of you to do."
Her eyes were filled with fear and she was unable to answer.
"I didn't do it," she finally stammered. "Honest."
"Well, boys," he said, directing this command to the others in the room. "Hold her still, maybe after she gets a dose of this she'll change her mind." He lowered the needle to her arm and injected just enough heroin in her to make her delirious and she began to make babbling noises.
The group had just left the room when they heard the sirens of the police cars screaming down the street and screech to a halt in front of the house. A voice came out over a bull horn, "All right, everyone inside come out with your hands up, this is a raid!"
The men began to scatter throughout the house and took positions at all the windows and a rain of shells began to burst in the air as they started to fire at the cars outside.
Suddenly a loud crash sounded in the hallway of the house and the whole place was being filled with tear gas. After a few minutes, the police began to move in on the gang as they were coughing and trying to fight back the fumes.
Finally, they broke through the front door and in a matter of minutes the gang was being rounded up on the sidewalk, everyone but Price. The policemen ran through the many rooms of the house opening doors when a shot rang out and one of the policemen was shot in the leg. As he fell he fired a shot and he heard a loud thump as a body hit the floor.
He called out, "I've been hit, someone get me out of here." Two other police ran to his aid.
As they carried the wounded man to the car, they heard a muffled cry coming from the back of the house and one man ran back and threw up a door and ran up the stairs from where the voice came. When he opened the door he saw Christine lying helplessly on the bed, her eyes glazed from the drug and babbling something about "I didn't do it… honest I didn't."
He picked her up in his arms and carried her out to an ambulance that was waiting. They rounded up the rest of the gang and piled them into the paddy wagon for the short trip downtown.
"Well," the lieutenant said, "it looks as if that young fellow was right after all. I owe that young man an apology. Make sure his girlfriend is taken good care of. We'll need her for a witness too. Okay, let's get rolling."
As the wagon sped through the streets of New York, Jimmy lay back in his cell and wondered if they had found Christine and if everything would be all right. He didn't have long to wait before a guard came to get him and take him to another conference room in the jail.
"Son," the policeman said, "this is a public defender. He has heard your statement and he wants to defend you and your girlfriend. Besides, he happens to be one of the best criminal lawyers in the state and we know him very well. I'm sure that he will be able to work something out for you two. You were a big help in breaking up one of the largest narcotic rings in the country and that will, weigh heavily with the jury." The guard walked out and left the two men alone to talk.
Several days later, Christine was released from the hospital and was allowed to see Jimmy. The police had to book her because she had been involved with the gang, but when she saw Jimmy standing there through the bars with the lawyer next to him, her eyes glistened through her tears and she said, "I know that everything will be all right. I just know it."
She looked closer to the fresh young schoolgirl that he had known several months before. The weight of the albatross had been lifted from around her neck and even though she was older and quite a bit wiser, she was still the same Christine. He reached through the bars and clasped her hand and whispered, "I love you and I'll always love you."
She walked down that same long yellow hallway that Jimmy had walked the day before for her booking, but she had a smile on her face even though the tears would not stop flowing and she looked at the guard and matron and said, "Thank God it's over! Thank God!" And she broke into uncontrollable sobs, a wiser and older girl than she had been a few short months ago.