“Big Ed” Margolo is free, having been acquitted of the murder charge against him. Dolliver Street detail must guard against resumption of gang war between Margolo and “Red” McGuirk.
As the announcer was about to go on talking his alert ears caught the buzzing of the muffled telephone bell in the adjoining room.
“Please stand by for one moment,” he said, and stepped into the phone room.
“What is it, Henry?” he inquired. “More dope from headquarters?”
The telephone operator grinned. “Headquarters—my neck!” he grunted. “Just another dame callin’ up to rave about that voice of yours. Wants to know if you’ll send her an autographed picture of yourself.”
Dave Cates shrugged. It almost seemed that nature atoned for her lavishness in giving him a golden voice by crediting him with a bulldog jaw, a wide mouth, and a pug nose that sported five freckles. His eyes, level and blue, were his only redeeming feature.
It had been his eyes as well as his voice that had induced Captain Henessey to recommend that he be put on the pay roll as the first radio officer the department ever had.
But there it ended. Cates longed for the life of the cop on the beat, but his physical qualifications were below standard. In his heart he kept locked away an ideal of romance, but it hardly seemed likely that the ideal would ever materialize. They all liked his voice, but they turned away from his face.
“Tell ’em to go jump a fence,” said Officer Cates. “This is no picture gallery we’re running here, nor is it a lonely hearts department. If those babies think they’re kidding me, they’re tuning in on the wrong station.”
He turned on his heel to go back to the broadcasting room, but paused as the phone rang again. Henry plugged in and took the message, then spun around in his chair and jerked off his “ear muffs.”