"Yes, you! Stay out of that street. Go on down that way."
"The subway's this way," objected the kid in the red mask.
"Who cares? You go around the other way."
* * * * *
"Listen, lady," said the kid in the red mask, aggrieved, "we got a long
way to go to get home."
"Yeah," said another kid, in a black mask, "and we're late as it is."
"I couldn't care less," Judy told them callously. "You can't go down
that street."
"Why not?" demanded yet another kid. This one was in the most complete
and elaborate costume of them all, black leotards and a yellow shirt
and a flowing: black cape. He wore a black and gold mask and had a
black knit cap jammed down tight onto his head. "Why can't we go down
there?" this apparition demanded.
"Because I said so," Judy told him. "Now, you kids get away from here.
Take off."
"Hey!" cried the kid in the black-and-yellow costume. "Hey, they're
fighting down there!"
"It's a rumble," said Judy proudly. "You twerps don't want to be
involved."
"Hey!" cried the kid in the black-and-yellow costume again. And he went
running around Judy and dashing off down the street.
"Hey, Eddie!" shouted one of the other kids. "Eddie, come back!"
Judy wasn't sure what to do next. If she abandoned her post to chase
the one kid who'd gotten through, then maybe all the rest of them would
come running along after her. She didn't know what to do.
A sudden siren and a distant flashing red light solved her problems.
"Cheez," said one of the kids. "The cops!"
"Fuzz!" screamed Judy. She turned and raced down the block toward the
schoolyard, shouting, "Fuzz! Fuzz! Clear out, it's the fuzz!"
But then she stopped, wide-eyed, when she saw what was going on in the
schoolyard.
The guys from both gangs were dancing. They were jumping around, waving
their arms, throwing their weapons away. Then they all started pulling
off their gang jackets and throwing them away, whooping and hollering.
They were making such a racket themselves that they never heard Judy's
warning. They didn't even hear the police sirens. And all at once both
schoolyard entrances were full of cops, a cop had tight hold of Judy
and the rumble was over.
Judy was so baffled and terrified that everything was just one great
big blur. But in the middle of it all, she did see the little kid in
the yellow-and-black costume go scooting away down the street.
And she had the craziest idea that it was all his fault.
* * * * *
Captain Hanks was still in his realistic cycle this morning, and he was
impatient as well. "All right, Stevenson," he said. "Make it fast, I've
got a lot to do this morning. And I hope it isn't this comic-book thing
of yours again."
"I'm afraid it is, Captain," said Stevenson. "Did you see the morning
paper?"
"So what?"
"Did you see that thing about the gang fight up in Manhattan?"
Captain Hanks sighed. "Stevenson," he said wearily, "are you going to
try to connect every single time the word 'scorpion' comes up? What's
the problem with this one? These kid gangs have names, so what?"
"Neither one of them was called 'The Scorpions,'" Stevenson told
him. "One of them was the Scarlet Raiders and the other gang was the
Challengers."
"So they changed their name," said Hanks.
"Both gangs? Simultaneously? To the same name?"
"Why not? Maybe that's what they were fighting over."
"It was a territorial war," Stevenson reminded him. "They've admitted
that much. It says so in the paper. And it also says they all deny ever
seeing that word on their jackets until after the fight."
"A bunch of juvenile delinquents," said Hanks in disgust. "You take
their word?"
"Captain, did you read the article in the paper?"
"I glanced through it."
"All right. Here's what they say happened: They say they started
fighting at eleven o'clock. And they just got going when all at once
all the metal they were carrying--knives and tire chains and coins and
belt buckles and everything else--got freezing cold, too cold to touch.
And then their leather jackets got freezing cold, so cold they had to
pull them off and throw them away. And when the jackets were later
collected, across the name of the gang on the back of each one had been
branded 'The Scorpion.'"
"Now, let _me_ tell _you_ something," said Hanks severely. "They heard
the police sirens, and they threw all their weapons away. Then they
threw their jackets away, to try to make believe they hadn't been
part of the gang that had been fighting. But they were caught before
they could get out of the schoolyard. If the squad cars had showed
up a minute later, the schoolyard wouldn't have had anything in it
but weapons and jackets, and the kids would have been all over the
neighborhood, nice as you please, minding their own business and not
bothering anybody. _That's_ what happened. And all this talk about
freezing cold and branding names into jackets is just some smart-alec
punk's idea of a way to razz the police. Now, you just go back to
worrying about what's happening in this precinct and forget about kid
gangs up in Manhattan and comic book things like the Scorpion, or
you're going to wind up like Wilcox, with that refrigerator business.
Now, I don't want to hear any more about this nonsense, Stevenson."
"Yes, sir," said Stevenson.
* * * * *
The reporter showed up two days later. He was ushered into the squad
room, where he showed his press card to Stevenson, smiled amiably and
said, "My editor sent me out on a wild-goose chase. Would you mind
chatting with me a couple minutes?"
"Not at all," said Stevenson.
The reporter, whose press card gave his name as Tom Roberts, settled
himself comfortably in the chair beside Stevenson's desk. "You were the
one handled that bank job down the street back in June, weren't you?"
Stevenson nodded.
Roberts gave an embarrassed chuckle and said, "Okay, I've got just
one question. You answer no, and then we can talk about football or
something. I mean, this is just a silly wild-goose chase, frankly. I'm
a little embarrassed about it."
"Go ahead and ask," Stevenson told him.
"Okay, I will. Was there the word 'scorpion' connected with that bank
job at all? In any way at all."
Stevenson looked at the reporter and smiled. He said, "As a matter of
fact, Mr. Roberts, there was."