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Big Al 12
Contributed by
ramfire
on
Tuesday, 19th June 2007 @ 11:33:04 PM in AEST
Topic:
Lifepoems
|
Chapter 6
I gave Miss Dupery a call at the Colony Club Friday morning after Jean had given me the information I needed. Jean had completed calls to the different antique companies and had neatly typed a separate list of each company’s pieces available and their prices. All the items that Miss Dupery and I had agreed on as desirable were on the separate lists.
A man’s voice came online. “ Colony Club.”
“ Miss Dupery, please.”
“ Whom may I say is calling?”
“ Alfred Berger”
“ One moment, please.”
After several minutes she came to the phone. “ Good morning, Mister Berger. I’ve just finished playing tennis with Roger and his wife and that’s why it took so long for me to get to the phone. Good to hear from you. I take it you’ve had good luck in finding what we talked about.”
Visualizing Roger Forsyth playing tennis seemed out of character for him. In my office he was in spats and carried a gold cane. I passed over that. “ Yes. You wanted me to call you at the Colony Club when I had availabilities and prices for you.”
“Excellent. I’ve a sudden idea. Have you had your lunch yet?”
“ I was holding off on that.”
“ Why don’t you come over to the club and we’ll talk over lunch. You can show me the bottom line then.”
“ I can do that.”
“ Let’s say in an hour.”
“ I’ll be there.”
“ The gate guard will be expecting you. Come to the clubhouse dining room.”
“ I can find it.”
“ See you then. Goodby.” She hung up.
I’d been to the Colony Club a few time in the past. It was all colonial architecture for Chicago’s upper crust. Membership was by invitation only. The place was located a few miles out of town in the Harwood Heights area. I’d have to brush up on my etiquette or be thrown out. I went alone without Jean. Following Lake Shore Drive to Lawrence Avenue, I arrived at the Colony Club at the appointed time. I was let in and directed to park in a visitors slot near the clubhouse. I found Miss Dupery at a dining table in a cute tennis outfit having something to drink in a tall frosted glass. She smiled motioning for me to sit.
“ Any problems getting in?”
“ No, your word seems to be gold there.”
I took a chair opposite her resting my briefcase and hat by chair’s side out of the way.
“ Peter is a dear, but sometimes he can be hard on strangers.”
The dining room of the Colony Club was elaborate allowing members only to wear informal attire for breakfast and lunch. Table cloths were immaculate white cotton with center pieces of fresh cut flowers. Red roses and white carnations rested in a tall neck crystal vase on out table.
She spoke to a near waiter. “ We’re ready now.”
Apparently he’d been waiting for her direction and quickly came to put separate menus on the table before us. The menus were bound in rich leather with gold corner crowns. I opened mine. The waiter left giving us time to make our selection.
“ What do you recommend,” I asked.
She thought for a moment than answered. “ The shrimp cocktail with sauce is good. After that I think you’d like the Salmon Florentine over Creamed spinach, and by the way, call me Gloria from now on. Miss Dupery is much too formal.”
“ I like that better too,” I said smiling.
“ I’m drinking ice tea. Do you want some?”
“ Ice tea is fine.”
She motioned again for the waiter. He took our order and left.
“ When the house is furnished,” she continued having something on her mind that she wanted to tell, “ I’m having a party there. I want you to come.”
“ Sounds like fun.”
“ I haven’t looked at your cost breakdowns of course, but I’m sure they’re reasonable and if you leave them, I promise to get back to you on Monday.”
“ That’s soon enough.”
We ate and talked for a time seeming a little odd that she never mentioned the antiques again considering they seemed so important to her last Wednesday. When it was time to leave, I took the cost sheets out of my briefcase and laid them on the table for her to do whatever she wanted with them.
“ This is the information I’ve brought with me. It includes everything we talked about.”
She was smiling at me not even glancing at the sheets of paper. “ I promise to look at them, Alfred.”
I was pleasantly taken back by her calling me Alfred. Hesitantly, I softly corrected her.
“ Friends call me Al, or Big Al. Whatever you like. I’ll answer to both.”
“ I like Big Al. It seems to fit you.”
“ I’ve always had good luck with that name.”
“ Well, that settles that. I’ll call you Big Al.”
“ Please do.”
I got up leaving her still smiling. I walked out of the dining room going directly to my Buick parked in the visitor’s parking space where I’d left it. I drove to the Regent not stopping at the office.
When I got to my flat, I made a call to a gumshoe I knew who had his office in Cicero but had been doing more grifting that sleuthing of late. I was lucky, he was in his office.
“ Dooling investigation. Dooling speaking.”
“ Danny Boy, it’s Bergen.”
“ Blow me down. Will wonders never cease?”
“ Got a job for you if you not too busy.”
“ You know me, Big Al. Never too busy , can always use the bucks. What’s up?”
“ There’s this guy who’s been trailing and asking questions about me. I need you to check him out and get back to me.”
“ That doesn’t sound too hard. What’s he look like?”
“ Always wears a brown suit and sports a porkpie hat with a brown band. He’s about six feet tall and dark complected. Can’t seem to turn around without him being there. He’s been noising around the Jergin’s building asking a lot of questions.”
“ Sounds serious. I’ll see what I can do. When I have something for you, I’ll get back. You know my regular fee.”
“ Twenty a day and expenses, right?”
“ Yah, that’ll cover it.”
“ Okay, you’re hired. Come by the office and I’ll give you a Jackson to start you off.”
“ I’ll be there tomorrow. Soon enough?”
“The guy gives me the creeps.”
“ You sound a little worried, Big Al.”
. “ I’m in the dark and need your help.”
“ Tomorrow then.”
“ Good.” I hung up.
I also wanted to find out more about Gloria Dupery. I wanted to know about her father who had left her a house and apparently a large inheritance. You don’t buy expensive antique furniture unless you’ve got the dough. I called the Chicago Tribune and asked to speak to Jerry Nueland, managing editor of the paper’s society page.
“ Nueland here.”
“ Been dancing the light fantastic lately?”
“ Who is this? This some kind of joke?”
“ This is Berger. You owe me, Jerry. It’s payback time. Remember that little incident with Lupota at Benny’s blind pig?”
“Yah, I remember. What do you want, Berger?”
“ Information on a certain Gloria Dupery. She stays at the Sheldon Arms and is a member of the Colony Club. I want to know who her father was and how he got his money.”
“ I can tell you right now she isn’t part of Chicago’s high society set. Never heard of her, but I’ll check her out and get back to you. This makes us even, Berger.”
“ Even it is, Nueland.”
He hung up. I dialed my office. There hadn’t been calls or clients. Jean got catty on the other end of the line making with the smart talk. “ So, did you have a good time at the Colony Club with Miss Gloria Dupery?”
“ She has a cute tennis outfit.”
“ You don’t say. I hope the lunch gives you indigestion.”
“ I’m still breathing. I want you to close the office, get in your Ford and tool it over here to the Regent. We’re going places. I need to talk to some men in Toronto and it can’t be over the telephone. I want you with me. We’ll be gone all weekend. As soon as you get here, we’ll take off in my Buick.”
“ Oh, Mister Berger, how you do move. Never a dull moment with you.”
“ You love it and you know it.”
“I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“ Get you hat and start moving.”
I hung up. I needed to go to Toronto and make sure the booze I was buying would continue to flow across the Detroit River without any problems. Casino wouldn’t like it if I couldn’t deliver.
Copyright ©
ramfire
... [
2007-06-19 23:33:04]
(Date/Time posted on
site)
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