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Chicago, January 1938
I slouched in the backseat of Gordy&039;s Cadillac, the one that had just slightly less ar clear of the rearview mirror out of habit, not because I cared one way or the other The driver, a stone-faced guy na about my lack of reflection even if he&039;d noticed He als on his ated to kill ot the idea that he&039;d begun to like o Stroly kind of dead, then had to contend with ave no explanations to him or any of the others ere aware of my experience, and soon he&039;d accepted that I&039;d so froe, yet able to walk around and carry on hat passed for norhest SOB in Chicago Stroe; anything to do with vampires ell outside his view of the world, which was fine with me Like others of his ilk, even if specifics about the Undead escaped hierously different He knehich questions not to ask, and that made him a valuable asset to the mob And uards to their gangland boss and my friend, Gordy Weeo, leaving Gordy with a couple of bullets in him He&039;d survived, too, barely
While he&039;d been out for the count, his lieutenants decided that so of theirthe crisis and elected ularly bad idea, but took on the burden for Gordy&039;s sake I wouldn&039;t have been any kind of a stand-up guy to have ducked out when he needed the help I&039;d been too cocky assue, I&039;d coht I could handle anything
Circuht ly dead I&039;d killed hiive payback to soetbusiness, the resolution of which would take place in his soundproofed upstairs office at his nightclub
Or the base end
"Turn on the radio," I told Strorille "You want this or so else?" he asked
"That&039;s fine" Music helped to distract oing deep down into blackness full of sharp, cutting horrors along the way If I focused on the radio noise, then I didn&039;t have to think about certain things, like what Bristow had done tome upside down from a hook in a meat locker
That&039;s what this ride was about: the repercussion over what I&039;d done to hiotten free
It wasn&039;t fair that I was being called on the carpet for that bastard&039;s death, but the s Bristow had powerful friends back in New York; they&039;d give led that much for me-then I&039;d die
Strome drove to the back-alley entrance of Gordy&039;s club, the Nightcrawler, which was the norress for bosses The front was for the swells co in a strictly private section of the club
The gahtclub and this one If the stage shoere a bust, then Gordy was still guaranteed to ht I was nuts not having some as well as a backup, but I chose early on not to take that road Sure, I had an accountant who could cook the books to a turn and, with Gordy&039;s influence, could e bribes and all the rest, but I wouldn&039;t risk it even for that kind of ht court appearance with me not there, and that would be the end of it
Maybe I did so when profits were thin or nonexistent, but that was better than losing the whole works
Not that any of it matteredacross the seat to get out on the driver&039;s side, sla the door harder than was necessary It drew attention Despite the cold there were a nuhtcrawler&039;s back door Two of the ar too hard to tell apart, they went interchangeably by the one nahts back, in order to assert my authority as temporary boss, I&039;d had to punch theh to force me to notice them Both looked like they&039;d shared the same bad lemon
Ruzzo the Elder had a split lip; his brother had a black eye Tays to tell theht et me alone for some payback of their own before the boolare It effectively distracted me from his brother
Who threw a punch toward my ribs as I walked past
Bad move
I took it solid, but didn&039;t collapse the way I was supposed to; instead, I sliced out sideith my forearm and sla like it on a tennis court, only you&039;re supposed to use a racket
The Elder staggered backward halfway across the alley, folding with an oof noise onto the cold paveun
Which I plucked away froht
He stared at his empty hand
Strome finished up He had a blackjack ready and swiped it viciously behind the un out to Stroh for the others to hear "These dopes shoulda kept in school They could have found out how rough the big boys in first grade played Maybe learned soood one"
I pretended to shift uncoo"
We cli-dock stairs to the club&039;s kitchen, but instead of turning toward the stairs up to Gordy&039;s office, Strome led the way to the h the place was still an hour or so fro star seeesturing at a ringside table It was the one usually reserved for special guests of the boss It was also the farthest frolance around confirmed I was expected to stay put All the doors were covered by at least twohis hat and coat on I did likewise
"How long?" I asked
He gave a s "Donno"
No need to inquire whether word had been sent up about my arrival That would have happened the instant we parked I was supposed to sit there and stew aboutelse to do As with the radio, the s see star was Alan Caine I&039;d heard him on the radio, and he was a popular name in Broadway revues He&039;d done speciality numbers in short-subject fil voice and was presently using it to ha for soive ht damn cue!" Caine wore his tuxedo pants and suspenders, an undershirt and dress shoes He was so handsome that even one conclusion they&039;d faint if he gave theirls behind confir put off by his tone, they all looked to be in a giggly, flirty ap between two of thee, absolutely sincere s
The band, for the fourth tiotten it right Caine and his leggy troupe stepped and strutted sirls retreated, leaving hi I didn&039;t like hiht, but he had a hell of a voice
"Wanna drink?" Stro requests from the condemned man? Or was he in need of fuel for as to come? So far as I kneould be the executioner He was like Bristow, a killer Unlike Bristow, Stro of it, and if he enjoyed the work, kept it to hined to soot a draft beer, the glass opaque with frost They kne to serve things up right at the Nightcrawler: song, dance, drinks, girls, ga, and death
Alan Caine broke off in midnote The dancers continued their routine for a few steps; the band continued as well until the leader caught on that he&039;d co and hadn&039;t heard anything wrong Caine heard different and laid into hi money to hear me, not you," he stated, his sincere smile on the shelf for theto drown me out? That&039;s my naet another job"
I waited for the leader to lay into hiain, starting a few bars before the interruption This tiht to the corners of the rooot here"
"Why does Derner put up with it?" Derner was another of Gordy&039;s lieutenants and also the general uy packs in the crowds"
"No one&039;s worth that kind of crap"
"This one is He gets every seat filled and has a standing-rooe a two-fifty cover, and they come in herds"
"Two-fifty?" That was unheard of; so so o You only did that on weekends and only when it was a real Ziegfeld-style spectacular Nothing so elaborate was going on here with just Caine, the band, and eight dancers There was no stage decoration, either, just the usual long curtains backing the hts and keep the spot on the star "He&039;s worth it?"
"Depends who you talk to The bookkeepers say yes, the perfor soain, this time his attention squarely on our table He broke away fro with sculpted cheekbones, graceful jaw, and a perfect nose Anger on hi Maybe a little with his baby blues stea a too-perfectly shaped eyebrow "I&039; to work here If you two can&039;t put a lid on it, take your roht have reacted to hiht I had no reaction at all, just stared I chanced to take a breath and caught a powerful whiff of booze froled with it "Just do your song and dance, Caine,"
I said, hardly raising my voice above a whisper
"Do I know you, punk?"
He was in his late thirties; I looked to be in my twenties I ell used to the penalty of perpetual youth "Be glad you don&039;t"
"A tough guy, eh?" He could belt a song, but delivering dialogue didn&039;t quite work for hi kind of films He should have stuck to showbiz stories and not tried iht Go back to work"
"Where&039;s Derner?" he de focus to Stroet hi, too"
Caine saw the beer at his elbow "Nice job" He swung around, eyes searching "You there! Go find Derner and bring hi ordered around by the stage talent
Strome craned his head "Never ? We&039;ll see who&039;s laughing before the night&039;s out"
Caine didn&039;t appear to be drunk, but my instant-hypnosis act likely wouldn&039;t work on him; besides, he wasn&039;t worth the headache I looked past hier, but no such luck However, a fierce-faced woreen dress and black fur-tri toward us from the front entrance It was still too early to open I wondered how she&039;d gotten in
So, it seemed, did Caine Genuine surprise flashed over hi here?"
Her lip color was so dark a red that it looked black,her mouth cut themselves into a deep, hard frown of contempt Her eyes ild, the pupils down to pinpoints She braked to an unsteady stop "The alimony is three weeks overdue, why do you think I&039; to pure smarm "You&039;ll just have to wait till I&039;m paid"
She went scarlet, her whole body seee "That&039;s what you said three paychecks ago, you bastard!" She hit hiot an arm up to block any blows to his face and unexpectedly started laughing like a lunatic, which just led Funny on a movie screen, not sodae, each in their oay
It went downhill from there
Not inclined to interfere, I watched the domestic drauys rush in to bust things up Several of the bouncers who&039;d been on the exits moved remarkably fast for their size That would have been the ideal time for me to make an escape, just dart to the front lobby, duck around the corner phone booth, and vanish It was one of my specialties Instead, I kept my seat and wished I could still drink beer A cold one would have gone down good about now
It took three bouncers to remove Jewel Caine: two on her left side for her shoulders and feet, one on her right for herand cursing the whole way as they carried her bodily froreen purse and all So far Lady Cryhtclub, had suffered no drunken rows on this level, only comparatively mild, easily dealt with skir wide, called after her: "Why don&039;t you get a job?"
She heard "I&039;ll kill you, you son of a bitch! I&039;ll cut your throat if you don&039;t pay what you owe me!" The rest was incoherent and, fro doors spared us from more opinions and threats
One of the chorus dancers trotted up "Alan, that ful Are you okay?"
"Yeah-yeah, Evie" He waved her off "Back on your et this over with"
She see more of a fuss over the disruption and visibly sed back the load of comfort and sympathy she must have had ready to pour out Evie was just about the cutest little doll I&039;d seen in ht she could do much better than Caine "Well if you&039;re sure"
"I&039;ave her a light swat on her nicely rounded ru back to her envious and/or aain Caine called a cue to the band, and they began in erated bow to them
"Finally!"
"About da much in the way of comments His beer, which he&039;d drained off, must have loosened him up
"How&039;s that?" I asked
"He&039;s been at it all day If he was a dame, he&039;d be one of those primer dons He better pray he don&039;t ever lose his voice That&039;s all that&039;s keeping hi off people fro him one"
"Yet he packs the club?"
"He keeps that mean side away froel People in the business know he&039;s a jerk-off but they put up with it He&039;s got enough push froet them fired"
"Or tossed out"
Stro to myself, not Caine&039;s ex-wife "Derner woulda talked him out of it Caine don&039;t knoho&039;s who in this town yet"
"In my case it doesn&039;t matter"
His stony face had almost become animated, but shut down at the reminder of ere here "It&039;s just the business," Stro an apology to uy like Strome could come up to me, his former temporary boss, and tender an invitation to take a ride that I had to accept He&039;d been so sure of the end result that he&039;d left thein the car when he walked into Lady Crymsyn to deliver the suh either of us had options He had to bring un he carried under his arlanced around at , oblivious of any threat Stro me know they weren&039;t on his list
He wouldn&039;t use theotof Cry things off This way I had souys insisted on killingBristow, it would be at a safe distance froet in the cross fire
The men who took away the acri their posts, the third pausing to glare at the eetting ready for the night&039;s perforlare toward ot a blank look in return I was getting good at those
His name was Hoyle, and like the brothers Ruzzo, I was not anyone he liked He&039;d resented ht he should have been the one to pinch-hit, but his name never once cropped up If I&039;d turned down the job, then Derner would have taken in the slack Hoyle didn&039;t see it that way, and I heard he&039;d started bla the Depression itself
Soh to do
After ato intiers for a drink
Stroed fron on it and came down to us He was shorter and wider, with a cast to one eye and few enemies Live ones, that is
"Boss wants to see you, Mr Fle," he said
I was surprised "Gordy&039;s here?" He was supposed to be anyplace else, resting, healing frounshot wounds
"In the casino" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder
The two of thehtcrawler&039;s illegal but extrelooely quiet, like an empty church I spotted Gordy at the far end by the back exit, seated in one of the semiprivate alcoves favored by the cardplayers He was fully dressed, and his girlfriend-nurse for the ti back as I went forward and slipped into a chair on the other side of his table and nearly echoed Alan Caine&039;s question "What the hell are you doing here?" I keptdidn&039;t work on Gordy
His skin was sallow, sagging, but his eyes were clear I didn&039;t like that His doctor had hi about hi "It&039;s business," he said
"You can deal with things on the phone, and Derner and I do the rest You&039;re still supposed to be in bed Where&039;s Adelle?" She&039;d been looking after Gordy since the shooting
"She went to the stores to get soive her the slip for a couple hours Makesnursee, screen, and radio, and so at my club and his, would throw a fit when she found out I said as s He was a big man and didn&039;t have to move much to ht down here Loaded for bear"