CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
Back at the apartment, Arlene heard the siren of an approaching ambulance and hoped it was one to pick up Mike to take him to a hospital. The siren slowly stopped and she heard the screech of car brakes outside.
Two white-clothed men carried Mike out on a stretcher. But before they hardly got out the apartment door, Big Joe Thompson burst into the room, shoving everything aside.
"Oh, Daddy, daddy!" Arlene sobbed.
Then Big Joe noticed the battered Mike for the first time, lying still on the stretcher, his face white as chalk. "Who did this?" Big Joe demanded angrily.
"Jim O'Flanagan."
"I'll get him for this!" Big Joe said. "I'll get him. The dirty bastard! Where did he go?"
Arlene's lips trembled and she nearly passed out as she looked at the towering man. "He an
