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Big Al 16
Contributed by
ramfire
on
Sunday, 1st July 2007 @ 11:50:13 PM in AEST
Topic:
Lifepoems
|
The next morning when I entered the office there was mail on the floor. The key from Eddie was there. Joan arrived wanting to know about last night’s dinner at the Yacht Club with Gloria DuPrey. “ Have yourself a big time with bee’s knees?”
“ Can’t say I had a big time. That woman is an out and out liar. She told me her chauffeur had previously driven for her father in New York city. Not so. I recognized the guy but didn’t tell her that. He’s a torpedo working with an eastern Sicilian mob. His name is Thomas Madsen, and why he’s driving for her, I don’t know. She kept pumping me for information I wouldn’t give. Any way you cut it, I don’t like how this is all shaping up. The bit about antiques seems to be on the up and up, but why the torpedo and the lies? What have I got she wants?”
“ She likes your gray temples and thinks you’re exiting.”
That little bit of nonsense gave me a laugh. “ Angel Face, if that were all that’s to it, I’d relax and go along for the ride. But something’s happening here I don’t like. No, she wants more than gray temples and an exciting time.”
“ So, what are you going to do about it?”
“ We’re invited to her open house next week after the antiques have arrived. She’s giving a party for friends. I told her we’d go. Let’s see what happens then.”
Before she could say anything to that invitation the phone rang. It was Tiffanys telling me that my check had cleared. After a few polite words, I put the phone back in its cradle. I gave Jean my best toothy grin. “ Want to go pick up that bit of ice I bought you.”
Her smile was from ear to ear. She reached out catching my lapels in her exited hands.
“Daddy, does it ever snow in Minneapolis in the winter time? Yes, yes, yes. Let’s go now.”
What could I do. I locked the office and we left. On the way to Tiffanys, I told her I had to make a couple of stops before getting her bracelet. She didn’t like the idea, but went along with it because she had no choice. I drove to the bus station taking the briefcase from its locker. A stop later at the First National bank, I deposited the forty-four thousand dollars from the briefcase into an alternate account under the name of William Smith. We then went to Tiffanys.
I let her wear the bracelet back to the office then put it in the safe. Danny Boy called that afternoon.
“ Your shadow’s name is Harry Brooks. He’s a private dick working out of the Belmont Building. He’s snooping for a bird by the name of Forsyth. Why? I don’t know yet. I’ll have to get back to you on that. I need another Jackson.”
“ Thanks for the info, but don’t come up here. I’ll drop the twenty by your place tomorrow around noon. You okay with that?”
“ I’ll be here.” He hung up.
The fact that the peeper was working for Forsyth wasn’t too unexpected. I’d seen them talking together out on the curb the other morning when Forsyth came for his Chinese chair. Why would Forsyth want to have me shadowed? Things were getting complicated. First there was Gloria DuPrey and her prying questions, now Forsyth with his peeper. I’d have to wait for Danny Boy to fill me in on the skinny of it all. Tonight though, I was going to take Jean to Benny’s blind pig for a good time. I washed Gloria DuPrey and Forsyth out of my mind.
Benny’s blind pg was located in the cellar of a tenement house on the west side. We stepped down stairs from sidewalk level to its lower dark door, Jean in the short red dress and I in my best blue serge. She held my hand tightly, the hand with the diamond tennis bracelet around the wrist.
I knocked three time on the door’s upper slider and waited for it to open. It slid across showing a face. I spoke, lighting a match in the dark. “ Joe sent us.”
The door opened giving a show of soft light and castanet sounds. The face was now attached to a body. “ Big Al, it’s always good to see you. And who is this gorgeous dame on your arm?”
“ My soul. She’s right out of heaven.”
“ Where did you find her? I want one.”
“ Tommy, you should be so lucky.”
“ Never am. We’ve got a lot of high class people here tonight, Big Al, judges, the mayor and such. Not too many places left for twiddling your thumbs. Would a booth at the back be okay?”
“ Perfect.”
He put us in a booth away from the flamingo dancer with her castanets. Even so, the rhythmic clack of her high heels resounded back. I knew she had a guitar player somewhere, but couldn’t see him or hear his sorrowful Cants Condo. ‘Right away I picked up room’s ambience of pure garget.
Our booth had purple drapes that slid across on a brass rail. The drapes were held bak by matching ties. An oval table was covered in white Damask, it accompanying skirt was purple like the drapes. Center piece was a long stem lit candle in a crystal base reflecting sheen off silver settings. There were white napkins with silver rings. Crystal goblets stood waiting. All in all, it was a snazzy setup, much classier than the dinge we were in the other night with its dirty wooden tables, shot glasses and overflowing ashtrays. I spoke across to Jean. “ I don’t think we’ll be able to dance the Charleston tonight.”
Her eyes were shining and their sight gave me a warm feeling that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I reached across the table taking her hands in mine. Our eyes met and in a low voice I scarcely recognized, told her, “ If God ever made two people for each other, it’s us.”
She didn’t say a word to that, simply pressing my hands tenderly in hers. A tuxedo waiter came with a bottle of wine, setting it on the table. He walked away. I continued talking softly where I’d left off. “ I’ve never had such good luck before. Your coming to my drab little office asking for a job was the best thing that could have happened to me. You know, I won forty-five thousand G’s on the hockey game the other night. That was luck. The odds were three to one against me. Don’t tell me it was your crossed fingers. It was something much than that. It was you by my side. We’re a winning combination that knocks the world dead.”
I poured wine into her glass.
“ I came to your office because I needed a job. Kansas and the farm can be such a dull place at times. Chicago is the big city and I thought I could find what I was looking for here. I was out of money when I came to you. Chicago can be hard on a small town girl.”
“ What were you looking for?”
“ I don’t really know, but it sure wasn’t to be found on the farm. What about you?”
“ Not much to tell. Remember when we went to Detroit and I had to see a guy by the name of Dizzy on business? We grew up on the same street in Detroit. He stayed, I ran away, catching a freight out of the stock yards, beating it to Chicago. I took a job with a local gang as a punk
wiseguy running errands. I went on from there.”
“What about all this antique business? How’d you get into that?”
“ I’ve always liked antiques. Read a couple of books and here I am.”
“ Here we are. You and your rackets, and me with a diamond tennis bracelet.”
“ Here we are and life couldn’t be sweeter.”
We stayed at Benny’s for a couple of hours, meeting and talking with bootlegger friend. Lupota and Madaly were there as were others from the Casino mob.
Copyright ©
ramfire
... [
2007-07-01 23:50:13]
(Date/Time posted on
site)
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