Page 7 (2/2)
Sonny&039;s mouth worked, and he spat It hit Kroun&039;s chin, then dripped to his coat
Kroun still didn&039;t h that Sonny&039;s gears shifted once more He pressed back in the chair and showed teeth "You stay away froonna let you touch et out"
When Kroun stood and turned my way, I understood the old one blank, all pupil and no iris Hell pits When they leveled in , but he blinked and was hiuy, but this itman that I no jerked his head toward the hall Tiot out Sonny&039;s curses and threats poisoned the air until the orderly closed and locked the door It did a lot to ate the noise
"You okay?" he asked Kroun "He nick you?"
Kroun felt his cheek, checking for blood "I&039;ot his handkerchief and wiped spittle fro it on He wasn&039;t shaking as badly as before but was still ghost white "The nurse wanted to see me" His voice was calm, soft
We followed the orderly downstairs Kroun had to deal with sos I stood by the exit next to the orderly, ready to leave as soon as possible
"Crazy old guy," I ars helped Got hiood mood He&039;s usually a lot worse with visitors Not that he gets any"
"No one else couys that I know of Haven&039;t seen the other for a long tiht shift"
"What&039;s he look like?"
"Like a doctor The bills get paid"
"Know anything about this fishing cabin?"
"If I listened to their baloney, I&039;d be locked in one of those rooht out of his head onna be up-front You point at a horse, he&039;ll call it a dog"
Kroun put the chare it see he&039;d heard my questions and the orderly&039;s replies The so on a clipboard, and Kroun signed it
When the time came, the orderly let us out of the booby hatch The clean, cold winter air eet Kroun and I breathed deeply, then headed for the electric gate Someone must have been on the lookout; it opened as we approached
Kroun paused on the sidewalk, watching the gate roll shut as though to make sure it locked properly Only then did some of the tension leach froot those directions clear?" he asked
"Yeah"
"I remember most of it, but put &039;em on paper for me, would ya?"
"No proble cabin? I had an idea and it wasn&039;t pleasant
"Leave it with Derner I&039;ll be by the Nightcrawler tonight"
"Where you going?"
"Gotta take a walk, clear my head I&039;ll cab over later"
"Gabe, I&039;uy was the old bastard that Michael-"
"Yes Yes, he was You heard so why I heard it You didn&039;t have me in there just to take down directions"
"Actually, I did But I figured if I had you wait in the car, you&039;d go invisible and sneak in anyway to listen"
"You figured right What was he talking about?"
Kroun closed his eyes briefly and shoved his hands in his overcoat pockets "Nothing I want to discuss He&039;s nuts Didn&039;t know me, my name Lot of stuff comes from him that doesn&039;t make sense"
"Made sense to you"
He turned away "I&039;et soet the godda for a couple hours! If Michael calls you on it, say I gave you the slip He&039;ll believe it"
"Okay, but-"
"What?"
"Who&039;s the crazy guy?"
That got lare "Mike will tell you"
"Uh-uh You"
More glaring, then his anger suddenly faded His shoulders didn&039;t ease down so much as shrink He seemed older He took the handkerchief fro off the spit Kroun studied the cruht the white square, swept it a few yards, then it nose-dived into a snow-clogged gutter,with the trash already there
"Gabe?"
"Yeah, sure Why not?" He lifted his fedora, rubbed a palain "The son of a bitch is my father Now ain&039;t that a kick in the head?"
He walked away,to do, and so did I, but s on my oouldn&039;t do the job this ti over what I&039;d seen and learned, I drove straight to the Bronze Belt, not quite crossing into the territory, and parked a couple blocks away It didn&039;t take long to leg the re distance to the residence hotel where Shoe Coldfield had obligingly given safe shelter to Gordy and just about everyone else I knew
I took it for granted that one of the countless lookouts in the area had spotted ht not knowin view, I vanished and floated the last hundred yards-not easy with the wind-and sieved through an upstairs
Daht the first time I partially materialized on the third floor, or so the door nuh to see The place was pretty active; I went invisible again and bumbled down the hall, careful not to brush close to anyone Coldfield knew that an inexplicable chillaround
I passed rooms where people talked and radios played Gordy was somewhere halfway down on the left, so I drifted fro to hear his voice No such luck, but I did catch one that surprised me I slipped under the threshold crack and hovered out of the way in a ceiling corner
Michael, and presuh friend Broder, were there
"I don&039;t like this guy you picked," Michael said "He doesn&039;t have what it takes"
It was Gordy&039;s room, and his response sounded confident "He does when it&039;s needed The boys are used to hih"
If I&039;d had ears, they&039;d have been burning
"There shouldn&039;t have been trouble in the first place Your kid put his foot right into it with Bristow"
"That was me I&039;m the one who took Bristow to the kid&039;s club It wasn&039;t his fault Hog didn&039;t like his face and decided to go buckwheats on hiun He put me here And that&039;s your fault You&039;re the one who sent hi out of Michael&039;s ears
Gordy continued, "But the trouble&039;s over The kid&039;s got things running save hiain, it&039;s on you both You got that?"
"Yeah No problem"
"We&039;ll see Next is Whitey I want him on a train back to New York"
"He&039;s yoursilence It was Michael&039;s night to paint himself into a corner "You know he could be more trouble"
"It&039;s part of the business You said you got Fle to happen"
"You sound very certain about that, why?"
"The kid has a ith people"
"Like he did with Bristow?"
"Bristoas nuts If you&039;re saying that Whitey would-"
"No, not the sahed "Still your probleht?"
Michael made no reply
"If he won&039;t listen to you, what chance have I got? I&039;ood and ready You want him out faster, offer to help hi silence Then, "C&039;mon, Broder"
Footsteps passed close below me, then the door shut I waited If anyone else was in the roo, but it continued quiet Drifting down, I slowly took on form
Gordy was propped up in bed, and his eyes ide He ise to my peculiar talents, but it didn&039;tto witness "That&039;s so"
"It&039;s handy How are you?"
"Better A lot better"
He looked it His color had ione One of the as open an inch He&039;d apparently convinced someone of the benefits of fresh air
"Was Michael here for long? I just caught the tail end of things"
"Couple minutes He ain&039;t one to socialize with the help You heard he don&039;t like you ht I don&039;t have what it takes, but I&039;ll keep swinging at the ball until you say different"
"Good enough Have a seat"
I pulled up a chair and took offsupper They&039;ll be a while Da after &039;eood Lookin&039; after us all I owe him"
"Is he here?"
"Went off with Escott Donno where Heard your pal had a close one"
"Yeah He did"
"Bobbi toldi Charles"
"Bobbi told
Mylike you?" he asked
Oh, crap "Gordy, you&039;re not supposed to know that"
He waved a large hand "I&039;s, but I do anyway If Kroun&039;s got a probleet, can&039;t he?"
"He&039;ll have a probleht Bobbi shouldn&039;t have told you"
"It wasn&039;t only her Coldfield put in a feords"
"Jeez, at this rate the whole city&039;ll have the headlines in the onna blame me"
"Nah It stops here"
"What about Adelle?"
"I won&039;t tell her if you won&039;t"
"Deal" I sat back in the chair but didn&039;t relax Some part ofworked It was enough warning; I instantly vanished
Hinges creaked "You okay, Gordy?" It was one of the guards belonging to Coldfield&039;s hotel fortress
After a pause Gordy said he was fine My disappearancesound as the one Didn&039;t say where"
"No big deal I&039;hts out?"
"Leave that one in the corner on"
"Sure"
A click, steps, then the door was closed
I went solid The room was much diood trick, kid," he said, his voice low "You don&039;t want no one knowin&039; you&039;re here?"
"Coldfield&039;s that sore with me It&039;s better I keep my head down for a while You serious about that nap?"
"Nah Siddown"
I gently returned the chair to the bedside "I won&039;t be long, just a couple questions On Kroun"
He nodded as though he&039;d expected as much "You didn&039;t answer-does Michael know about hi like you?"
"Kroun said no, and he wants to keep it that way Take that how you like Whether he&039;s wise or not, Michael&039;s got a hell of a worry going about him"
"Must have a reason"
"Yeah I may have the why behind that"
I told about the visit to the nuthouse and Kroun&039;s talk with Sonny I told about the newspapers and how Sonny tore out pictures of women from them I told about the hospital bed and its heavy cuff restraints I told about the things Sonny said and Kroun&039;s reaction to the while I&039;d given hi
"Is that crazy old man really his father?" I asked, to break the silence
"I can check into it and find out"
"Without anyone else catching wind?"
"No If I was on my feet, maybe Not now"
"Hold off then I don&039;t want Kroun to know I&039;ve talked to you"
"He&039;ll figure you will"
"Yeah, and he won&039;t like it Why did he let h?"
"Donno" Gordy&039;s face was always hard to read, but I could tell this had thrown hiht Michael pitched a fit when Kroun said hethat hat the old ood, no Sounds like he takes girls up there, gives &039;eed
"You never heard anything?"
"If there was anything to hear, I&039;d have gotten it Whitey comes over fro, has hi any oldon that cabin"
"What do you know about Kroun&039;s past? Where&039;s he from?"
"He caot to be a big noise in the last few years Lotta boys are like that Nothing on thes Happened to me"
That happened because Gordy&039;s boss had been killed Promotion in the mob was often the result of inheritance "He knock off his boss tooff the top, then- for a guy who didn&039;t hunt-he went on a hunting trip and never caht place at the right tiued with him"
They probably didn&039;t dare "What about Michael?"
"He&039;s the one who figured out the skiht He looks after the books, squares the deals, does the thinking He runs stuff, keeps the , but Whitey sometimes has the last word For soot everything Gordy had stored in his file cabinet of a brain Such history was not easy to hear
Kroun had ordered at least a dozen executions over the last few years; those did not count however many he&039;d personally carried out himself on the side Gordy had been present at three, twice as a witness, once as a participant
About two years ago, when Slick Morelli had been the big boss, Gordy had helped get a htcrawler&039;s baseun muzzle in the man&039;s mouth and took the top of his head off just that quick The thick walls and the club band playing upstairs covered the noise The whole process had taken less than half a minute Kroun hadn&039;t cracked a sweat, hadn&039;t even blinked Right afterward, he&039;d gone up to the club and danced with the chorus girls as though nothing had happened
No, not good to hear at all
I considered Gordy a friend, but that dark side of hie When it was necessary, he could kill and not think anything of it He didn&039;t like the killing, but he&039;d still do it
I found otten that waywould that last if I stayed on this road?
"What had the ave the orders, and we did e did He&039;s good at that kind of job Those s never knew from Adam when their number was up He pals with &039;eoes back and pals with their friends a few uys are able to pull that off"
Michael had warned me He&039;d said Kroun had no conscience I&039;d met a few si wrong with them even if you don&039;t know exactly what it is It&039;s enough toable to hide it so well erous
Gordy added, "When he caured he&039;d do the same as always Instead, he has you up to the office to hear you out That never happened before"
"He always been called Whitey?"
"Yeah Used to wear a white hat, winter and suot skull-creased by a jealous husband as a bad shot"
"Where&039;d that happen?"
He shook his head "I heard it was in New York But maybe that cabin?"
"And what happened to the husband? To the wife?"
A shrug "You&039;d have to ask Kroun"
"I doubt he&039;d say"
"To you he ot plenty in common He didn&039;t try to keep you out when he talked with the crazy guy If Kroun didn&039;t want you to know this stuff, you wouldn&039;t"
"Carelessness in his old age?"
"Don&039;t count on it He&039;ll have a reason And don&039;t trust hiet to be like me? You&039;d think he&039;d tell me of all people"
But Gordy had no answer to that, either Instead, "Derner phoned today Said you did a good job dousing the fire on Alan Caine and the rest of it"
I shrugged I&039;d done as needed but wasn&039;t proud of it "That fire won&039;t be out until they find Mitchell, only they never will Soet burned"
"It&039;s the best you can expect, kid The heat&039;s off our bunch, that&039;s what matters Derner told ed a short grin "It&039;s okay If I&039;ht as well have an ared, not swapped for solid rubber"
"Rough ride?"
"My eyeballs bounce so much I can&039;t see the road"
That amused hione hoetting away froain? That hadn&039;t worked too well for him
"Any idea where Coldfield ith Charles?" I asked
"Said so his mail"
"Then they&039;ll be at Charles&039;s office I&039;ll drive over and see Maybe if Charles plays referee, he can calm Shoe down"
"Don&039;t count on it," Gordy repeated