12
WHEN I GOT HOME PA was sitting at the kitchen table with a glass of whiskey. “Where you been? I thought you was supposed to be through at seven o’clock.”
“I usually am. But sometimes we have to work over if there’s a lot of trips backed up.”
“Humph,” he said.
“Where’s Ma and Lulu?”
“I gave your ma some money and told her to take Lulu out for a movie and an ice cream soda. I want to talk to you.”
I wondered what I would do if he hit me, for I didn’t think I’d put up with that anymore. “What about?”
“Sit down.”
I sat. He shoved the whiskey bottle towards me. “Have a drink.”
“No thanks.”
“Suit yourself.” He took a swallow. “All right. Don’t you give me no lies. You’re in on something with Russell Qualey and I want to know what it is.”
“Pa, I hardly ever spoke to Russell Qualey. Just that time when I brought him your letter.”
He stared at me, trying to scare me with a hard look. “Who’s Penrose?”
I held my face still. “I don’t know anybody named Penrose.”
“The hell you don’t.” He went on watching me. “I was over to see your dispatcher today. He told me Penrose fixed up that job for you.”
I couldn’t help blinking. “Oh. That fella. They call him Circus. I didn’t know his name was Penrose.”
“Who is he?”
“Just some fella from around the neighborhood. Charley O’Neill knows him.”
“I don’t believe it. I think he’s hooked in with Russell Qualey. How come he fixed you up with a job?”
“Charley asked him to do it. He’s a pal of Charley’s.”
“I figured you’d say that. I already checked with Charley. Charley says he never heard of no Penrose.”
I figured Pa was lying. He wouldn’t have had a chance to check with Charley, for Charley didn’t get off work until late. “I don’t know why Charley would have said that. I’ve seen Charley talking to Circus plenty of times.”
Pa didn’t say anything. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of scrap paper. “I figure it has to be one of these four places, because you been making a lot of trips to them.” He looked up from the paper to watch my face. “Merchants’ Bank and Trust.”
I resolved to hold my face still. “Pa, I don’t know what you’re talking about. All I ever do there is pick up stacks of canceled checks and take them to the clearinghouse.”
“Wheeler Avenue National Bank.”
“It’s the same thing there. These banks send bundles of checks to the clearinghouse every day.”
He looked down at the scrap of paper and then back at my face. I felt like he was stalking me, the way a cat stalks a pigeon. “South African Diamond Sales,” he said.
“I wasn’t there more than once or twice. They wouldn’t send diamonds anywhere by an ordinary messenger.”
He stared at me hard. “That leaves Moss and Lloyd. Bond merchants.”
I held my face still. “Pa, I wouldn’t know what a bond looked like if I fell over it.”
Without taking his eyes off my face he picked up the whiskey glass and had a swallow. “You know, Roger, I believe that’s the one. I believe it’s Moss and Lloyd. Yes I do. I thought all along it was. You been going over there two, three, four times a week. That’d be Russell’s style all right. Bearer bonds. Easy to get rid of, hard to trace. What you say, Roger? I’m right, aren’t I?”
Oh, Pa was smart all right. I had to give him credit. He’d got the whole thing figured out. The one thing he didn’t know was when we were going to do it. Nor exactly how, either. But he’d got the rest figured out. “Pa, this is crazy. I’m not in on anything with Russell. I’m just a messenger boy.”
“Ha, ha. Don’t make me laugh, Roger. All right. Now I want to know the rest of it. Who’s in on it? This Penrose, that’s for sure. Tell me about him. What’s he look like?”
“Who, Circus? Oh, he’s a short, fat fella, kind of bald. But Pa, he doesn’t have anything to do with Russell either.”
“Short, fat fella? Am I supposed to believe that?”
I sat there looking at him, and said nothing.
He looked at me for a while, thinking. Then he said, “I tell you what I’m going to do, Roger. I’m going to make a deal with you. I know you’re in on it, and there isn’t no point in denying it. So we’ll deal. You spell it out for me, and I’ll cut you in on it. Whatever Qualey promised you, I’ll double it. I’ll work it out so’s Qualey doesn’t have no idea you peached on him.”
That was a smart one, too. But the chances were too good that Russell would figure it was me who peached and after that my life wouldn’t be worth very much. They’d killed that poor fella who hadn’t done anyone any harm on the last job, and they’d tried to kill Pa. “Pa, there isn’t anything to spell out. You’ve got the whole thing all wrong.”
He looked at me a little longer. I wondered how soon Ma and Lulu would get back. “I’ll give you one more chance, Roger. After that I’ll beat it out of you.”
I hoped I could keep him talking until Ma and Lulu got back. “Pa, this is all crazy. Why do you think I’m in on something with Russell in the first place?”
He took a swallow of whiskey. “Last chance, Roger.”
“Pa, Charley O’Neill can tell you about Circus. He doesn’t have anything—” Pa moved faster than I figured on, and caught me on the side of the face with the flat of his hand. My head snapped sideways and I jumped up so fast the chair went over backwards. “Don’t do it, Pa.”
“Oh, I’m going to do it, Roger. You can bet on that. I’m going to beat it out of you. I’m not going to have my own son in on something rich and won’t tell his pa about it. I’m never going to have that.” He was standing around the other side of the table from me. I put my hand up to ward him off, but he was stronger than me and a half a foot taller and there wasn’t any way I could beat him.
I began to move slowly backwards out of the kitchen into the living room, hoping I could make a run for it. He followed along after me, closing in. Then suddenly his left hand darted out and grabbed hold of my shirt. He swung his right hand again, this time really hard. There was a kind of a clang and flashing lights and for a couple of seconds I blacked out. My ears rang and I felt dizzy. “Pa, I don’t know anything about it,” I shouted.
“Yes you do, Roger. Yes you do.” He was still holding my shirt front and now he began to shake me back and forth as hard as he could. His teeth were gritted and his eyes were wide and I knew he was losing control of himself.
“Pa,” I shouted. He stopped jerking me back and forth and raised his hand to slam me again. I kicked as hard as I could. I caught him in the calf muscle.
“Blast you,” he shouted. He raised his hand to slam me again. I hit him in the stomach, where the bullet wound was, as hard as I could. He screamed, jumped back, and pulled up his shirt to look at the wound, but I didn’t wait to see what I’d done. I jerked open the door and raced down the stairs of the building as fast as I could. And I knew even as I was running down those stairs that I would never go home again.
Sooner or later he’d come looking for me. He’d tell Ma I’d gotten uppity with him and he’d had to hit me and I’d run off. Ma would want him to find me and bring me home. One of them was bound to come to school to see if I was there, which meant that I was finished with school too. I was kind of sorry about that, for it meant I could never get an office job, but I was glad, too, for I wouldn’t have to try to keep the Assyrians and the Etruscans straight in my head anymore. They could keep themselves straight from now on.
I was sorry about Lulu. She was going to be mighty sad not to have me around anymore. She was going to miss me a lot. To tell the truth, I was going to miss her, too. We’d stuck together all along, and it wouldn’t be the same without her. I resolved that I’d buy her a ring with a stone in it the first chance I got.
I
slept the night in the railroad station sitting up on a bench. I kept waking up from the sound of the trains.
In the morning I went into the men’s room and splashed some water on my face. The first thing I thought about was the rest of my fifty dollars that was still hidden under the slates in the basement of our building. I didn’t dare go after it yet—not until the Moss and Lloyd job was over with, anyway. But I still had a fair amount of tips in my pocket. I went to a lunch counter and had three doughnuts and a mug of coffee for breakfast. While I ate I thought about my plans for the day.
The main thing was, I had to get that messenger’s uniform out of Rapid, for I’d need it to get into the Moss and Lloyd offices. But Pa was certain to be prowling around looking for me, which meant that he’d visit my school, the O’Neills’, Rapid Messenger, and any other place he thought I was likely to be. It was going to be mighty chancy going to Rapid. What if he just plunked himself down out the door there and waited until I turned up?
I figured I’d better go there early—I could tell the dispatcher they’d let us out of school early or something. I’d go off on my first trip, and about a half hour later I’d call up and say I was sick and was going home—I kept throwing up, or I twisted my ankle, or something.
Once I got it all worked out about getting the uniform, I didn’t have anything to do until it was time to go to Rapid. To be free like that was a mighty strange feeling. All my life, as far back as I could remember, there was always something in front of me I was supposed to do—school, or a job, or looking after Lulu. Now there was nothing in front of me for hours. I could wander around and just enjoy myself. I wasn’t used to the idea of being able to do what I wanted. It made me feel uncomfortable and alone, like I was out there by myself where anybody could get a shot at me. I knew that wasn’t true, but that’s the way I felt.
I almost wished I was back in school. I’d always kicked against school, kicked against having to sit quiet all day, writing and reading and memorizing. But now I kept wondering what was going on there—was Miss LeFevre writing on the blackboard, wiggling her fanny and making the chalk squeak, was Frankie Derwent picking his nose, were Harriet Santini and Mary Rich passing notes and giggling?
I decided not to think about it. Anyway, I knew I’d better get out of the District, where I might run into Pa, so I took the streetcar up to Lakeside Park. I bought a hot dog and a soda and sat there on a bench eating them the way I did with Grandpa when I was a kid all those years ago. Would I ever see Grandpa and Grandma again? Not if I went wrong, that was for sure. They were bound to think I’d picked up wrong ways from Pa. They’d say the whole family was crooked. They wouldn’t want to see me unless I was cured of being crooked.
But what if they didn’t know I’d gone wrong? What if I told them I had a fight with Pa and left home and was working at a regular job? If the money was rolling in the way Russell and Penrose said, I’d have lots of nice clothes and a watch and it would look like I had a regular job and was doing right. What if I really was doing right? What if I never did another job for Russell but got into some respectable line of work, like being a clerk at a department store? Then I could dress up nice and they’d be proud of me and glad to see me. They’d ask me to dinner the way we used to. Maybe I’d even go there for Christmas again. Maybe Lulu would be there, and I’d bring her a present.
Thinking all this cheered me up. Maybe I wouldn’t go wrong in the end. Maybe this would be the last job I’d ever do for Russell. Maybe I’d take the money I got out of it to get myself started in some kind of respectable job.
I killed the next few hours at Lakeside Park, walking around, reading the newspaper, buying hot dogs. It didn’t much matter how much money I spent, for by the next day I’d either have a pile of dough or I’d be in jail. Or dead, even, if some cop got suspicious and took a shot at me.
At two o’clock I took the streetcar back to the District. I sat in the car with my elbow propped up on a window, so my hand covered my face, keeping a sharp lookout for Pa. I got off a couple of stops before where Rapid was, and cut over a couple of streets so as to come up to Rapid from behind. An alley ran through the block to the back of the building. I slipped down it. A flight of old stone steps led down into the cellar. I went down the old stone steps and gave the cellar door a heave. It creaked open. I went on in and shut it. It was pretty dark, but a little light came in through small windows. It smelled pretty musty. I skirted around the furnace and the coal bin, until I found the stairs and went on up them. At the top I stopped and listened. I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary. I pushed open the cellar door, and looked out into the hall. Still nothing. I went into the hall, shut the cellar door, and tiptoed softly up the cellar stairs to the second floor, where Rapid Messenger was.
There was a frosted window cut into the door to the Rapid office. Keeping low, so my shadow wouldn’t fall on it, I crept up to the door and put my ear against it. The phone rang, and I could hear the dispatcher talking. I waited until he was finished and listened a little more. There were no sounds of Pa, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there. I pushed the door open a crack and peeked in. No Pa. I skipped inside and shut the door.
“What’s the matter with you?” the dispatcher said.
“I had a fight with Pa,” I said. “I’m scared he might be coming after me.”
“Your ma want you to give up the job?”
“No, it isn’t that. When Pa came here and saw how many trips I was making, he calculated up and saw that I was holding out a lot of my tip money on him. He whacked me and I ran off. I know he’ll be after me.”
“Well, that’s between you and your pa.”
“The only thing is, if he comes up, please tell him I wasn’t feeling too good and didn’t come in today.”
“Oh?”
I began putting on my uniform as quick as I could, so as to get out of there. “When you get down to it, I don’t feel so good. He hit me in the guts and I think maybe something broke. I got an awful gut ache.”
“That’s all I need,” the dispatcher said. “We got a busy afternoon ahead.”
“I figured we would,” I said. “That’s why I came in at all. I didn’t want to let you down.”
“I hope so,” he said. By now I’d got my uniform on. He gave me my first trip slip. I got out of there as quick as I could, going out through the cellar the way I’d come in. It was the last time I’d be in that building for a while. I made the delivery he’d given me. Then I found a public phone and called him up. “I’ve been throwing up,” I told him. “I’m going home.” He didn’t like it, but there wasn’t anything he could do.
I holed up in a movie house until five o’clock, and then I went over to the Peacock, taking a roundabout route and slipping along the streets as quick as I could. I went down the stone steps into the Peacock, pushed open the door, and took a quick look just to make sure Pa hadn’t found out about it.
He wasn’t there. The young black guy was banging away at the piano, and Circus was standing at the bar by himself. I went over to him. “No problems, Rog?” he said in a low voice. He looked kind of nervous and white.
“Pa’s got the wind up.” I looked around the bar to see if anyone was paying any attention to us. “Maybe you ought to tell Russell. Pa’s got it worked out that it’s Moss and—where we’re going tonight.”
Circus stared at me, mighty worried. “You didn’t tell him nothing, did you, Rog?”
“Of course not. He looked over the dispatch lists and saw I was going there a lot. He doesn’t know anything for sure, but he’s mighty suspicious.” Half of me was hoping they’d call the whole thing off.
Circus nodded. “Watch my beer,” he said. “Have one yourself if you want.” Then he walked quickly through the dive to the back and disappeared through a curtain behind the piano player. In a minute he stuck his head out and gestured to me. I went on back there and through the curtain. I was in a furnace room, which they’d divided off from the rest of the bar—big old
furnace, heap of coal, two or three big ash cans. A kerosene lantern hung from a rusty piece of wire nailed to the ceiling: it flickered and threw shadows around the stone walls.
Russell was sitting on an old wooden chair between the furnace and the coal heap, wearing his homburg and a dark blue suit. I knew he was dressed up like that so as not to seem suspicious going in and out of the Moss and Lloyd building. It was mighty strange to see somebody dressed like that sitting next to a coal heap and ash cans. “What happened, Roger?”
“He went over the dispatch lists. He saw how often I was going to Moss and Lloyd and put two and two together.”
“How did he figure something was up? How did he know you’re in on this with us?”
“He’s been suspicious for a while, ever since I started working at Rapid. He’s a suspicious type of fella. He said bearer bonds were just your type of operation.”
“He did? He said that?”
“Yes.”
Russell sat there on the old wooden chair, thinking. “I should have known better than to get involved with Bill Hardy in the first place. He’s too much of a lone wolf. He’s always got to go his own way and never mind what the plan was. You can’t control him.” Russell looked at me. “You know he was in with us on something a couple of months ago?”
“You told me once that he was in with you but he wasn’t anymore.”
“It was a jewelry shop. A cop came by and looked in with his lantern. We ducked and the next thing I knew your pa had his gun out and was about to plug the cop. A couple of us wrestled him to the ground and got the gun away from him, but it ruined the job. We had to get out of there fast.”
I could believe it, for it was just like Pa to do something like that. “Why did you ask him in on it to begin with?”
“Oh, your pa’s been around the District for a while. Everybody knows him. There’s people around here who remember when he was in vaudeville. So people knew him, but nobody ever knew much about him because of him being such a loner. A touchy kind of a fella. You didn’t want to hurt his feelings none.”
My Crooked Family Page 13