Peter Jenkins - Drugged into sin

The men began to scatter throughout the house and took positions at all the windows and a rain of shells began to burst in the air as they started to fire at the cars outside.

Suddenly a loud crash sounded in the hallway of the house and the whole place was being filled with tear gas. After a few minutes, the police began to move in on the gang as they were coughing and trying to fight back the fumes.

Finally, they broke through the front door and in a matter of minutes the gang was being rounded up on the sidewalk, everyone but Price. The policemen ran through the many rooms of the house opening doors when a shot rang out and one of the policemen was shot in the leg. As he fell he fired a shot and he heard a loud thump as a body hit the floor.

He called out, "I've been hit, someone get me out of here." Two other police ran to his aid.

As they carried the wounded man to the car, they heard a muffled cry coming from the back of the house and one man ran back and threw up a door and ran up the stairs from where the voice came. When he opened the door he saw Christine lying helplessly on the bed, her eyes glazed from the drug and babbling something about "I didn't do it… honest I didn't."

He picked her up in his arms and carried her out to an ambulance that was waiting. They rounded up the rest of the gang and piled them into the paddy wagon for the short trip downtown.

"Well," the lieutenant said, "it looks as if that young fellow was right after all. I owe that young man an apology. Make sure his girlfriend is taken good care of. We'll need her for a witness too. Okay, let's get rolling."

As the wagon sped through the streets of New York, Jimmy lay back in his cell and wondered if they had found Christine and if everything would be all right. He didn't have long to wait before a guard came to get him and take him to another conference room in the jail.

"Son," the policeman said, "this is a public defender. He has heard your statement and he wants to defend you and your girlfriend. Besides, he happens to be one of the best criminal lawyers in the state and we know him very well. I'm sure that he will be able to work something out for you two. You were a big help in breaking up one of the largest narcotic rings in the country and that will, weigh heavily with the jury." The guard walked out and left the two men alone to talk.

Several days later, Christine was released from the hospital and was allowed to see Jimmy. The police had to book her because she had been involved with the gang, but when she saw Jimmy standing there through the bars with the lawyer next to him, her eyes glistened through her tears and she said, "I know that everything will be all right. I just know it."

She looked closer to the fresh young schoolgirl that he had known several months before. The weight of the albatross had been lifted from around her neck and even though she was older and quite a bit wiser, she was still the same Christine. He reached through the bars and clasped her hand and whispered, "I love you and I'll always love you."

She walked down that same long yellow hallway that Jimmy had walked the day before for her booking, but she had a smile on her face even though the tears would not stop flowing and she looked at the guard and matron and said, "Thank God it's over! Thank God!" And she broke into uncontrollable sobs, a wiser and older girl than she had been a few short months ago.