Steele Drivin' Man 23/?
Date: January 30, 1985
Mileage: 32,806
Maintenance: Air filter, AC and fan belts
You know how there are some people who you could see or talk to everyday and you would be happy forever, like your family or somebody, and then are other people that if you never saw them again, it would be OK? Yesterday was like that.
Last evening I was taking Mr. Steele
and Miss Holt to the Mission Civic
Auditorium, and was Mr. Steele dragging his feet! All day long
he'd been in a bad mood, but we'd been busy and I never found
out why. Then I heard what he said on the way and I understood
- they were going to a concert by that
biker chick who had been followed around by the Halloween parade,
the one
with the singing (if you could call it that) voice like a band
saw.
I felt this sudden upset in my stomach
thinking that we were going to be in
a rerun of that horror story, like a bad sequel to Plan Nine From
Outer
Space.
I could understand why Mr. Steele
would rather do anything else than go to
this concert - I'd also gotten an earful of biker chick, and that
was enough for me. And I finally heard a name - Rocky somebody.
Miss Holt was trying to convince Mr. Steele that it was only fair
that he go with her, since she'd
gone along to who knows how many movies, and he finally agreed
if she'd have dinner with him. I stopped paying attention until
I heard him making
reservations in San Francisco! I'm surprised Miss Holt didn't
lose it
thinking about how much an operator-assisted call like that costs!
When Mr. Steele hung up he was pretty
pleased with himself, and I was
dreading the idea that he might ask me to drive them to San Francisco!
Fine, if they planned to eat at 4:00 in the morning. Obviously
he had another
plan, but unfortunately things would turn out different - as usual.
There were a lot of people walking
in when we pulled up and they were as
confused as I was at the crowd. The parking at the Coliseum is
the worst,
so I followed them around to the stage door entrance back with
the tour
buses and the employee cars. They went in and I waited.
Someone must have been late for work
because a white Ford pulled up a few
minutes later and a guy in a suit put on his ID, then got something
out of
the trunk. Wish the light had been better because it wasn't until
later
that I realized he had a gun.
The crowd thinned out and the show
must have started. I sat back and dug
into my latest Green Lantern. But I didn't stop thinking about
that gun.
Even though it seemed a little soon
for the show to be over, I saw a guy
come out the stage door heading for the bus, when a big silver
limo pulled
up. The passenger hollered at him, and then his chauffeur grabbed
him, and
they were driving off before I could even get out. Five minutes
later, the
guy with the white Ford came out, and went into the tour bus.
I saw people leaving the hall and
heading for their cars. That seemed like
too short a time for a concert, but considering what they had
been listening to, maybe they were counting their lucky stars.
Even if they did have to
buy tickets.
I was about to go inside and see what
was keeping Mr. Steele and Miss Holt
when I saw her leave the building and go into the bus. I put away
my comic
book and paid attention because she probably didn't know that
guy was inside first. While she was in there, a gray Cadillac
pulled up and a short guy in a cowboy hat got out and went in
the bus too. I didn't like the way this
was going so I got out and moved closer, especially since I didn't
see Mr.
Steele anywhere around yet. It was much too quiet in there.
I jumped a
mile when a gun went off, then White Ford was out of the bus and
running. I got a piece of his jacket, but he tore out of my grip
and ran. Mr. Steele
couldn't catch him either.
I ran in to check on Miss Holt, who
was fine, but Cowboy Hat was bleeding
pretty good from his arm. We helped him out and I called an ambulance
on
the car phone. After everybody was put back together I took Rocky,
Mr.
Steele and Miss Holt to the loft. Mr. Steele said he'd get himself
home and I called it a night.
The next day I took Mr. Steele and
Miss Holt to an office in Hollywood that
had seen better days. About ten minutes later that silver limo
pulled up,
and that same shady character and his goon went into the building.
Just
about the time they were going in, I saw a young guy climbing
down the fire
escape, then taking off in his car.
We were headed back to the loft when
Mr. Steele got a call from Miss Krebs,
who I could hear was pretty upset. Mr. Steele was trying to calm
her down,
but when he said something about the theater, I could hear the
panic in his
voice, too, and they both told me to burn rubber. I made a hard
left to
turn around, and almost hit the traffic island and the car next
to me.
Yahoo!
I came screaming into the parking
lot, and there was that silver limo again, with rent-a-thug leaning
on it. He told me to move our "pile of spare
parts". Now, I don't particularly love the beast, and I
complain about it
plenty, but them's fightin' words. Lucky for him a gun went off
and
everyone ran in. White Ford showed up, and Mr. Steele nailed
him and held
him down with a foot in the back - ouch. Miss Holt ran in (I
sure wish she
wouldn't do that) and a minute later the guy from the limo came
around from
the front. When they saw Mr. Steele holding down White Ford,
they took off
in two directions. Mr. Steele picked up White Ford and they went
inside.
Man, I really wanted to chase down that goon! He'd be needing
spare parts
when I got through with him.
Rocky came out by herself, and told
me that Miss Holt wanted me to take her
back to the loft. Usually biker chick's mouth is going a mile
a minute, but
she was so quiet the whole way there, I knew something was very
wrong. I
let her in, then went back to the office.
That evening I took them to the Coliseum
for Rocky Part Two. I thought it
was going to be a short stop to wish her good luck, but they were
in there
an awfully long time. Finally they came out the back door, almost
at a run!
And then we were off to the airport to the charter flight hangar.
It looked
like Mr. Steele and Miss Holt's trip to the City by the Bay was
finally
going to lift off.
I know they were glad to leave the Coliseum. I hope Rocky's back-up band has a lot of insurance coverage. Where that woman goes, trouble follows!