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Gordy and Bobbi were long gone; I sat in the darkness behind the theater screen feeling worried about myself at a time when I didn&039;t want to feel worried abouta fresh batch by looking into aI couldn&039;t see in , one of Bobbi&039;s et straight to the bone; she was right about Gordy, and ht about avearound in the sh

For distraction I checked on the Stooges, but they were all quiet, if probably cold and uncomfortable on the bare concrete floor, but too bad for the; I wanted to be shed of this pit and away froiven out with a possibly hot lead that could takebefore tomorrow arrived

The movie kept my impatience at bay for a time, but the voices were unfaht I&039;d seen and knew &039;ees were tied up safe, I used a narrow passage that Deleo out front and followed it, eventually finding a peephole in the thin plyall that looked into the auditoriuht me up short

I expected the audience to be black, but not the actors on the screen I&039;d heard of such pictures, but never actually seen one with an all-black cast Now and then you&039;d spot a perfor a specialty number in a film, like Bill Robinson or the Nicholas Brothers, but not a whole movie like this I was fascinated Except for the Cotton Club in New York and the Shoe Box here in the city, there wasn&039;t a lot ofon between the races, and people on both sides of the fence often actively discouraged it

The plot was about a guy accused ofhad done the dirty work It was no worse than others I&039;d seen along the saly, worked musical nued to a totally different ht and a deathbed confession; the guilty irl As she and the hero had a final closing clinch, the music soared, faded, and was replaced by the authoritative tones of a newsreel The neas all about white people The audience began pulling on their coats and hats and filing out, except for a few staying on to see the show again

When the fil fanfare, Dele absorbed in the story

"What the hell you doin&039;?" he de "You want the the show"

"But that&039;s an all colored movie"

"I had noticed"

"What is it? Some kind of curiosity for you like Believe it or Not!"

"Huh? I was just trying to see how they did the fraainst Johnny"

"What the hell for?"

Then soed and went back along the passage to the backstage area, Deleht behind me

"Why you watchin&039; a colored ot a better look at hiray hair at the tee anywhere between forty and sixty He had a set-in, grim expression that may have been the result of the hard times or just the natural bent of his personality

"Why not? I likenuts waiting back here in the dark You got so the show? I&039;ll pay for it if you want"

"I don&039;t need your money"

"So what&039;s the problem?"

"Just ain&039;t natural, I&039;uy to watch a black runted and it could havefrom contempt to an affirmative orto me Where&039;d it come from?"

"Hollywood, where else?"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah This is what gets shot when the white crust is put away for the night"

"And there&039;s no white people in any of &039;em?"

"You see many black people in the white filnorant about each other"

"Oh, jeez, you&039;re not gonna start about how them actors are a credit to their race and all that crap, are you? If there&039;s one thing I can&039;t belly it&039;s sooodin&039; social soldier-"

"Whoa there, I&039;m not-"

"-out to raise ot the wrong-"

"You co-eyed-"

"Now just a frigging ments about what you don&039;t know-"

Then several people on the other side of the screen told us to shut the hell up or take it outside Delelared at each other for a esture and walked off, though he didn&039;t get far Soht up his flashlight, and opened the door a crack It was Escott Delely admitted him to the inner sanctuards," he said to Delemare, as unimpressed

"You tell that snot-nosed kid he&039;s gettin&039; too big for his britches, an&039; I&039;m only doin&039;

this for his sister, for her being such a lady"

"I&039;ll be sure to pass that along to hiet this trash outta my theater"

"Immediately, sir"

Delemare shot him an annoyed look, but Escott was all sincere respect, then ain

Fro illuh froht before He wasn&039;t , and his expression, though still bruised, was sharp with interest rather than dulled out with pain Trudence Coldfield must have worked a s fellow," he observed when Delemare was out of earshot

"If you like rabid wolverines You got here just before another Great War broke out"

"Indeed? He must have liked you"

" Liked me?"

"Oh, yes, Shoe ht es in one if he likes a person"

"Jeez, I stay here er and he&039;ll put me in his will"

"Then we shall delay no more I didn&039;t see your car outside, how did-"

"Gordy caoods, offered me a lift"

"That was most kind of him"

"I don&039;t think kindness hat he had in uys in the next WPA project, but I told him you had first dibs"

"Thank you, I think"

"And there&039;s some more stuff: now that Kyler&039;s out of the way New York is sending in a heavyweight called Sullivan to take his place"

That caught his attention "Sean Sullivan?"

"According to sleeping beauty over there" I motioned at Deiter

"I&039;ve certainly heard of the man, a rotter by all accounts What else have you learned?"

I quickly filled hiotten froht head shake "Fro at all, simply sit back and see what develops"

"I don&039;t have to see, I know Angela&039;s going to put up a fight and et killed"

"If the Hydra we&039;re facing wants to chop off a few of its own heads I think it is in our own best interests to et on with the business"

Well, I already knew about his streak of darkness, but what Bobbi had said about hi at his battered face, trying to see as behind his eyes For right here and now it looked like a wall made of ice-cold iron bricks

"I&039;ll try my way first, if you don&039;t , then, our transportation is waiting"

"What is it exactly?" Needing so else to think about, I poked ht of a dark panel-sided truck that had soes wouldn&039;t lack for room in it

"I contacted a federal friend of eh for us, as you can see"

The name tripped a breaker in my brain "Adkins? As in Merrill Adkins?"

"The very one My, but his fa"

"Well, yeah, when you e into a distillery withit doesProhibition Merrill Adkins created a na up ether When Repeal caitives Last I&039;d heard he&039;d taken part in the gangster hunt and shoot-out disaster that had enabled Baby Face Nelson to escape capture sometime back It had been an all-round embarrassht

"He hardly ever does that sort of thing anymore," said Escott "Much too noisy"

"What&039;s his connection to you?"

"We share a co the Hydras I met him a year or so back on another case"

"So you&039;re bringing hiet noticed by the feds?"

"By this particular one, at any rate"

"On what kind of charges? Even if Deiter and his pals intended to co&039;s not exactly headline stuff these days" Adkins had always been there for the newsreel ca closemouthed and modest

"Not to worry, Adkins is s in hand at this point"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, he shan&039;t interfere with anything you have planned, particularly since he doesn&039;t know that you have plans, but he will relieve us of the responsibility of these three burdens"

"And do ith them?"

Before Escott could answer Adkins hih the door It&039;s a bit of a jolt to be face-to-face with someone you&039;ve seen in the newsreels and all the papers

This guy had even gotten into The New York Times, which is some trick since his line of as s He was in thes to deserve the fame, if you could believe the reports

I tried to match the black-and-white shadows I&039;d seen in the reels to the reality

You know exactly what celebrities look like, what they&039;re doing that made them famous, even adh to touch

You want to but you don&039;t because of the coet when they have a brush with a big shot They don&039;t know you froht, but because they&039;re famous, you want them to know you, you want to matter to them in so your minute, your little piece of them to take away Nutty stuff, but that&039;s human nature, and I was no different from anyone else on it, and even with all this inmy tie

Adkins was less for jacket, a striped scarf wrapped around his neck, and a sweat-stained newsboy&039;s hat He seee, had a thin hard face, s black eyes, a deter expression, just like in the reels Not handsome, but he didn&039;t have to be Escott introduced us and we shook hands I said it was a real pleasure Adkins gave a nonco his work gloves

"This it?" he asked, gesturing at the Stooges

Escott nodded "Three less heads for this Hydra to turn upon us"

"We&039;ll take care of &039;e outside "You want a stateave ht now"

That didn&039;t sound kosher Governuys were sticklers for paperwork "When, then?"

"Later, we&039;ll let you know"

"Where you taking the into a stare "Out of the way"

"Out of the city? Out of the state?"

"You don&039;t need to worry about it, kid, they won&039;t be sneaking up on you anytime soon" There was more than a hint of condescension in his tone

So ainst me, that or he was a career asshole I shoved whatever hero worship I ht have had in a deep pocket and put on an expression of earnest relief "Well, golly gee, I sure alad to hear it I wouldn&039;t want to have to hurt &039;eot smaller, and I wondered for aet the one atteaze flicked aroundso way beneath your notice, and he told Escott he&039;d be back with help, then went out

"He always like that?" I asked

Brows high, Escott went innocent "Like what, old o find Deleain so we can have a nice cozy race riot"

He had time for half a chuckle then held the door open as Adkins returned with two nored es out to the truck I didn&039;t offer to help; I&039;d done ht

"You&039;re going to look for Miss Paco?" asked Escott, only just loud enough so I could hear him over the sound froave ht want to consider holding off a bit until Sean Sullivan gets settled in"

"Uh-uh, I&039; to be so busy with hiht was to spare you undue disquietude You gave me to understand that you&039;re not quite co ladies By holding off and waiting, you need not distress yourself at all"

A few nights back I&039;d told hi a woet some information While she was underher blood, way too much of it That loss of self-control had scared the hell out of me I was still scared, of myself, of my questionable ability to keep my own dark side in check in the future I hoped I was scared enough

"Can&039;t get out of it, Charles I&039;ll be careful"

He looked at me like he wasn&039;t all that convinced of my assurance His cautious attitude didn&039;t offend; it just ether by waiting a day or so"

I cocked a sharp eye at hi I don&039;t?"

"Only a bit e to get Kyler&039;s account books the otherto want to deal with a woman If they don&039;t already know, they will soon find out about the pretense of her using her father as the front man and won&039;t stand for it She will soon be brushed aside"

"Translated, that ela Paco is only one of them The world has thousands more When a war breaks out they only kill each other, so I say why not let theain, and it made a kind of crazy sense up to a point

"I&039;et hit in the cross fire And if you get scragged who&039;s going to pick up my laundry?"

No answer for that one

Adkins and his boys got the last Stooge tucked away in the truck He caive you a ride back," he stated No apology in his tone No emotion whatsoever I didn&039;t have to wonder what Bobbi would have made of him

"I&039;ll find other means of travel Should there be any new developments will I be able to contact you at the saet through to ar enthusiasm could sweep us off our feet Maybe Escott found hi as a dead one Adkins ju trundled out of the alley, gears grinding, exhaust billowing and stinking the place up before the wind got to it

"You going back to the Shoe Box?" I asked Escott, shutting the theater door on the parade

"Not right away I thought I&039;d take in the show, then see if Mr Deleive ood trick, but then Escott was a genius at talking people into things

I fished out his requested pipe, tobacco, and the fifty bucks and gave them over

"Excellent," he said, pleasure evident on his face "Cigarettes are a quick convenience, but there&039;s nothing quite like a pipe for a real smoke"

"And here&039;s a bonus" I hauled his Webley-Fosbury auto the expression on his face

"My dear fellow, you are a miracle worker Wherever did you find it?"

"Deiter must have taken it as a war prize Sure you want it back? The last two guys who had it weren&039;t exactly lucky"

"My delving into the realm of myth and superstition is strictly limited to the theatrical profession, not cases like this" He checked the cylinder andapproval for the ammunition it held

"What about me? Ain&039;t I a myth?" I vanished and reappeared a foot to his left to illustrate the point

"You," he said, not looking at all impressed, "are merely a scientific puzzle that wants a bit more research"

"Thanks a heap"

He put the Webley away in his overcoat pocket, wincing at the movement

"Shouldn&039;t you be so?"

He esture as his taped ribs allowed "Who would look for me here?"

"You&039;re kind of noticeable, pale face"

"Not to worry, I&039;ll sit way in the back and not make any trouble Hopefully, Mr

Deleood behavior should anyone take offense"

I got out my little notebook and wrote a number, ripped the sheet free, and handed it over "This is where you can reach Bobbi if you need to She&039;d probably like to hear froht?"

"Worried, wants all this finished and done" Another reason for me not to delay

"Oh, and if you need to talk to Gordy, it can&039;t be to his club, there&039;s a tap on the line"

"Does he knohat you&039;re going to do?"

"He didn&039;t exactly ask and I didn&039;t exactly say Maybe he talked soivesto see what happens and then will go from there His New York bosses told hiive Sullivan some elbow room"

"Or to provide reinforcements should they be required I&039;d advise you to be cautious with him, not rely on him if you can at all help it Gordy may be helpful now, but if push comes to shove"