Read Online Buddy Boys by Mike McAlary - Free Book Online

black man entered the store. The man walked to the back of the shop and then returned to the front counter.
    â€œWhere’s the bathroom, man?” he asked.
    â€œOut of order,” Gus replied.
    The man then left, but Henry, wearing a small revolver in an ankle holster, felt the hair on his arms stand up.
    â€œGus, we’re going to be robbed.”
    â€œHenry, won’t you ever stop being a cop?”
    â€œI’m telling you, Gus, it’s going down.”
    Two minutes later, the man returned to the parlor with a friend.
    â€œTwo slices,” he said.
    As Gus put the slices on the counter, the man pulled a nine-millimeter automatic from his waistband and pointed it at the owner’s head. The other man grabbed Jan, holding her in a choke hold.
    â€œOpen the register,” they shouted at Henry. “Move!”
    Henry hit the ‘No sale’ button and the register drawer popped open. One of the men dug his hand in, stuffing dollar bills into his pocket.
    The gunmen then pushed all three workers into a back room and closed the door. For a split second, Henry thought about pulling his gun. Then he thought again. Jan was still in his line of fire. He heard the men run back to the front of the parlor, a bell jingling as they opened the door to the street.
    â€œDon’t follow or else.”
    As the door closed, Henry ran out of the shop and into the street. He caught a glimpse of the license plate on the red Oldsmobile getaway car as it pulled away from the curb. He raced fifty feet to the corner, where his brother-in-law, Douglas Caufield, a Hempstead cop, was waiting in his car to drive Henry home from work.
    Douglas and Henry took off after the robbers, chasing them at high speed across the city line. They lost track of the car in Queens, but stopped to give a description of its occupants and the license plate number to a patrolling team of city cops. They put out a radio call, alerting Nassau County officers, who later caught up with the fleeing robbers near the Nassau Expressway in North Lawrence. The cops recovered an automatic and fifty dollars, arresting two robbers and a driver.
    Two days later, Newsday and the New York Daily News carried reports on Henry Winter, the cop without a police department. The News was really impressed this time, headlining the article, “Laid-off City Cop Helps Nab 3 in Store Robbery.”
    The lead to the story read: “Stickup men who ply their trade in Valley Stream are on notice to watch out for Henry Winter. The 23-year-old laid-off New York City cop played a hero’s role for the second time yesterday in the arrest of three Far Rockaway, Queens men who allegedly held up a store where Winter has a part-time job.”
    Henry recalled, “I was gonna drop the guy with the gun. I wanted to shoot him dead. But I couldn’t take a chance. The other guy was holding Jan. He could have been armed. Gus was still very happy, though. I was the best delivery boy he ever had. After that, I could eat anything I wanted in the store. Veal cutlets. Meatballs. Shrimp. Finally, I even said to Gus, ‘Hey, did you ever think of putting lobster on the menu? I really like lobster.’ Gus just shook his head. He figured if I didn’t get a job with a police department soon, I was going to eat him out of business.”
    Henry Winter’s big decision:
    â€œI sent résumés out to various police departments in different parts of the country. The union told us that other police departments were looking to hire laid-off New York City cops. So I sent a résumé out to Arapahoe County, Colorado, about twelve miles east of Denver. They called and asked me to come out and take a lie detector test. I flew out at the end of June in 1976, just about a year after I got laid off. I met this sergeant in personnel, Reynolds. He gave me the lie detector test.
    â€œIt consisted of three questions: Did I ever steal anything? Did I ever cover up a