Walking a Fine Line: Day 16

Word Count: 96,066

Summary of Events:

Joseph decided to make another round of the pawnshops looking for the stolen jewellery and, when visiting a shop he'd not yet visited, ended up hearing a customer who'd come in after him use the same story as Mr. Sowards had told him the man who'd beat him up had used. Upon recognising the piece the man — who matched the description Mr. Sowards had given him — was wanting to pawn as one of the stolen ones, Joseph decided to take action and approached the customer, asking if he could look at the piece as if he were interested in buying it, which the customer agreed to, even allowing him to handle it…

Excerpt of the Day;

Since he wasn’t sure that the broker believed that it was stolen, Joseph felt like this called for action. He didn’t have any money that would come even close to the piece’s value to buy it from the man — nor was he inclined to give a crook his money — so there was only one other thing to do.

Quickly Joseph shoved the necklace in his pocket. The customer gave a shout of protest, but Joseph used a deft move of his foot to trip the man while also shoving him toward the counter before making a break for the door and sprinting up the street.

A crack split the air, and for a moment the undamaged streets of Chicago became the shelled-out streets of any one of the French or Belgian towns in which Joseph and his unit had seen action as they’d fought throughout the war.

With the sound of a second crack, Joseph returned to the present, instinctively ducking in a store entryway and reaching under his right arm for his own sidearm. He looked back toward the pawnshop and saw the customer had a pistol in his hand. He levelled it at Joseph and fired again, but just as with his first two shots, it missed Joseph so wildly he had no idea where it went.

Drawing his gun, Joseph aimed carefully and fired back, aiming to graze the man, which his bullet did before he advanced up the street just as he’d done in the war, ducking from safe spot to safe spot.

Suddenly a window by where Joseph was sheltering exploded into glass shards, and from the wrong angle to have been broken by a bullet from the gun of the customer.

Turning his head, Joseph saw a man whose face was shaded by a hat ducking behind a car across the road and up the street from him.

The man fired a second time and in an instant Joseph felt a searing, burning pain across his left cheek. He returned fire before continuing his way up the street. Both men continued firing at him, while he returned with a couple shots of his own, hoping to get a better look at the second man.

As the man straightened to move, Joseph saw that he had a reasonably lean figure and was wearing an iron-grey suit with a silver-coloured tie. The man ended up knocking his fedora off his head as he ducked behind a car to avoid a shot Joseph fired his way, and when he popped his head up to return fire himself, he revealed a headful of auburn hair, but his face looked nothing like Mr. McElligott’s, being longer and narrower, with more prominent ears and a crooked nose.

Satisfied with that better look, Joseph darted down an alley and holstered his gun, quickly taking a twisting, turning route, as he was certain the two men he had exchanged fire with were as much Philadelphians as Mr. McElligott was, thus they wouldn’t be able to outpace him or outflank him here on the streets of Chicago.