I am sitting in the kitchen with Tom eating eggs and Canadian bacon. The cook has a look of the cook at the fish fry. The same round face and knotted head scarf. Just like the woman in the Tom & Gerry cartoons. Although in the cartoons you never see her face just the legs and her broom. But what I imagine her to look like. I ask Tom how long he has been with the Van de Bilt’s.
‘Since I was a boy, my old man worked for them too. It’s a family tradition. My son is a Harvard graduate. He works in their New York office.’
He gets up and hovers over the cook who is making cookies. He sticks a finger in the mixture and tastes it.
The cook digs him in the ribs with her elbow.
Git Tom Brown, you finger aint clean.’
So he is called Brown like the leader of the Brothers.
‘What’s the name of your son?’ I ask innocently.
‘Saul.’
This is too much of a coincidence.
‘I think I met him in a cat house on 116th.’
Tom is horrified. ‘Can’t be my boy he won’t be seen in no cat house.’
‘Head of the Black Brothers, name of Saul Brown.’
‘Brown’s a common name amongst us Blacks. Them Black Brothers is no good too. He may be President one day, he won’t have nuttin to do wid dem trouble makers’
I let it drop, but I am not convinced. I’ll ask Saul himself when I get back. Which I hope is soon, I’ve had enough of the country air. There is no sign of Mrs Van de Bilt nor her daughter, she disappeared soon after her song.
I would have liked to have had a conversation with either of them. I am a jobbing piano player not a detective, but I smell a conspiracy. And it is definitely the IGBI who is ringmaster. I test my wrist controller just for the hell of it. Zilch.
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As I step off the train I am grabbed by two heavies in trilby’s and overcoats. They bundle me into a black limo and stuff a gag in my mouth. I can feel the business end of a gun in my side. When we reach the Stork Club I am pushed down into a chair at The Man’s table. He is immaculate in an English worsted suit, pink cotton shirt and paisley cravat. His right ear is bandaged. To his left sits a lieutenant and on his other side, the nearly Veronica, who is called Babs.
‘Where’s your minder?’ He is obviously referring to Big Sal.
He waves over to the barman and tells him to pour a large Bourbon.
The barman places it front of me on a fancy coaster.
‘Drink up Fats it may be your last. Any last requests?’ He laughs showing large teeth and his lieutenant loyally laughs with him. Babs keeps a straight face. She looks more like the real Veronica today. It may be the lack of light, but her nose has lost the bend and her eyes are green.
‘She nearly took my fucking ear off. I believe in an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear. You get my drift?’
I down the whiskey. The question was rhetorical, so I keep stum.
‘Not only am I going to have your ear Fatso, but every fucking whores ear in the fucking joint. The Johns will have an extra couple of holes to use.’
The man is a maniac, if you are Veronica get me out of this. As if on cue she places a hand on The Mans arm and says.
‘If we are to take over, it would be better that the girls were in one piece, and Fats here is only the messenger. Let him go and tell them that we mean business. It would be better if you broke his fingers seeing as he is a piano player.’
What the fuck! Veronica it’s me Joe Coolz you can’t break my fingers.
‘And I will be pleased to do it.’
This is getting out of hand. I need my fingers. They are my living. Think of something quick. I give Babs a look and she eyeballs me back. Does she have a plan?
‘Fats, you look faint’, she says and kicks me on the shin. It does fucking hurt but I take the hint and fall to the floor.
‘You can’t break his fingers when he is unconscious where is the fun in that.’ She turns to the lieutenant. ‘Help me drag him to the rest room’.
‘Nah I’ve a better idea.’
He picks up a pitcher of water and makes to throw it over me. Babs stays his arm and the water goes over The Man. Over his English worsted suit, over his pink shirt. I am forgotten for a moment as Babs and the lieutenant dry him off with napkins. I use the exit I used last time with Big Sal closely followed by gun shots. One bullet grazes my thigh, but I still make the 11 uptown bus.
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