Chapter 4

Here is this week's installments of my current Benny Baloney PI story. Next week will be the finale.

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Rule #1 for Goon Psychology 101: When the lights go out, goons get spooked and start firing. Me, Betty and Trixie immediately hit the floor as the gun battle begins. With bullets whizzing over us, we crawl to the one door that has light shining at the bottom of it. We hear one goon fall, then another as Red yells, "QUIT SHOOTING, YOU IDIOTS!' as she swats at them.

We all manage to scamper outside into the alley, just in time to hear the police sirens in the distance. "Sounds like the boys are almost here," I whisper to Trixie and Betty. I hand Betty the gun I nabbed off one of the mooks while crawling past him. "Here. Take this, go meet the cops, and lead them down to Red's hideout. I'm going back in to nab Red." Betty nods her head and darts off, followed by Trixie.

Sneaking back into Red's hideout turned out to be a piece o' cake, 'cause Red is busy yelling at her goons. "We lost our ticket outta here, you morons! Now the cops are about to be crawling all over the place! Upstairs - NOW!" I then hear the scamperings of little goon feet charging up the stairs, so I tiptoe my way back to the room where I was before. Then I see stars, and I ain't talkin' Hollywood.

I manage to keep myself from going completely out despite being pistol-whipped by Red. I still have trouble keeping up as she darts down the alleyway and towards the river. However, she runs into a dead-end, and she knows it,'cause she wheels around to face me and pulls out her gun. "Not another step, detective!"

"You have no bullets, Red. Otherwise you would have shot me back there when you had the chance." Red grunts "Ngh! You and your deductive reasoning!" She then hurls her gun at me, which I easily sidestep, but it was meant to be a distraction anyway for her to slip away to a set of stairs that I didn't see from my angle. Given that she is wearing high heels, she makes good time as she clanks up the metal steps.

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