Chapter 84

The night was uneventful apart from the sex. It's early afternoon and me and Big Sal and a few of the girls have breakfasted well, and are lounging about. The girls, waiting for the early Johns, me just waiting. Saul Brown arrives team handed. Four of the biggest meanest looking coloureds I have ever seen fill the room. Saul hands me a colt .38 police special in a shoulder holster. “Just in case!”

Back on game world I"ve played Cowboys and Indians, usually an Indian, Native American to you, as they have the best outfits. All those feathers and buckskin duds, so I"ve handled a Colt before, but this is something else. This is not a game. I could get hurt, or dead even. I hand the gun back.

"Can I just stay out of this, it's not my fight. I"m just the piano player."

"Unfortunately you are already on side. You were here when The Man tried it on, so you are marked. Better take it."

Bloody Jupiter, as they say on Jupiter, as Fats I am the messenger, as me I am a marked man. Double Indemnity. Double trouble. Double danger. Does Doil know about this? I hope so as I need rescuing.

Big Sal helps me buckle the thing on. It feels awkward under my armpit. But as they say you can get used to anything. She gives me kiss on the cheek.

"Now you are truly a New Yorker."

Saul talks through his cigar.

"It's not loaded yet, I don"t want you to shoot yourself in the foot. Try drawing it a few times." I do as he says getting smoother with every action. It is beginning to feel a part of me. Dead eye Joe the Scouse gunslinger. I sit at the piano and play some appropriate saloon music. Saul grins and throws a box of shells at me.

"Load up."

*****************

With my new peacemaker I leave for The Hotel Victoria. It's still early afternoon and the Hotel is quiet. I take the cage up to my floor and open the door to my rooms. Behind the door is a goon and sitting on the chair by the bed is The Man. The goon relieves me of my Colt, easy come easy go, and prods me backwards with it until my legs hit the bed and I am forced to sit. Bang goes my quiet evening. I am reassured by the weight of my wrist controller, a press of the return button and I will be back on the black spot. It will come as a shock to The Man as I disappear, but his feelings don"t come into it. However I will hear him out first.

"They breed em cool in Limeyland," He says picking imaginary fluff from his trousers.

I stay schtum.

"This is the point where you ask what I want."

'shall I break his fingers Boss?" I had forgotten about the goon.

"Later, maybe."

"I"ll tell you, save you the wait. I need an inside man. Someone to tell me what the fuck is going on and when. That Saul Brown is one slippery fuck, and I need to be one step ahead of him. If you do it, I will pay handsomely, if you don"t, you are dead sure as I am The Man."

" I only play piano in the Cat House when I have no gig, I may not be privey to any plans."

"You hear that he uses a word like privey, how am I gonna understand the prick when he tells me. His fucking accent is bad enough."

"Let me break his fingers Boss."

"You know why I am The boss and you are a lowly slime ball, it's because I have brains. How's he gonna play the piano with broken fingers. I want him to play the piano, his piano playing is why he is in the joint." He stands up." Enough already, you want in."

"Better than being dead." I say.