The Men From the Boys

by Ed Lacy

  “Nothing.”

  “I've been calling you at your hotel but...”

  “Thanks for being interested. Art, but I'm not going to that specialist.”

  “You're not? What do you mean by that?”

  “I've become a Christian Scientist—I'm not going to let any doc monkey with my belly.”

  “You must be crocked. Listen to me, Marty, this isn't anything to clown about. I advise you to...”

  I tried to laugh. “Why not clown about it, Art? Told me yourself it was nothing to worry about. Tumor-shumor. Look, kid, don't worry about me. I'm taking care of it another way.”

  “Have you been to another doctor?”

  “No, you're my doctor. I'm trying an old-fashioned remedy. Thanks for everything, Art. And don't worry about me.”

  “Marty, stop acting like a thick-headed ...”

  I hung up, bought a paper and took a cab uptown. It gave me a queer feeling to realize I wouldn't need the sixty-odd bucks I had in my wallet, could throw them out the window if I wanted.

  There wasn't much in the paper. They had already started the life story of Cocky Anderson, and some broad had come forward and said she was his wife and they had a baby boy. There was a picture of a plain-faced woman named Pollard who had backed her husband against a wall—with a Chewy. Somehow her face looked familiar and I read the whole piece. They'd had a spat and he'd run to her mother's—he was one guy who was on the best of terms with his mother-in-law. Mrs. Pollard was driving by when she saw him leaving and he tried to duck into the driveway, so she wouldn't see him. She swung the Chewy into the driveway and chased him down to the dead-end wall of the garage door. She said she didn't know “why I did it. But I feel relieved now.”

  Her face still looked like somebody I knew, but I couldn't place it. I looked through the paper to see if they'd caught Mr. Mudd, the amateur stick-up artist, but he'd faded from the news.

  There was a column about past baseball greats who hadn't made the Hall of Fame and an editorial about crime followed by another hash about New York City gangsters lolling around Miami. Bochio's alibi was perfect. Not only did he claim he'd been in his hotel room for two weeks, but the Miami police had a two-man guard on his room twenty-four hours a day during those weeks.

  Several minor hoods had been picked up and questioned. There was the usual statement from Homicide about “waiting for a break in the case... any hour now...”

  I turned back and looked at the snap of Mrs. Pollard. She had nice eyes. Had they looked so nice when she was bearing down on hubby with the Chewy?

  We reached the hotel and I gave the cabbie a dime tip, wondered why I didn't hand him all my dough, or at least a buck.

  Up in my room I undressed to my shorts, lit a cigarette, and decided there wasn't any point in horsing around. I dropped all the pills but two into a glass of water, hoped they wouldn't have a bad taste.

  I never found out.

  For an hour I sweated as I tried to lift that little glass to my mouth, but it was like a great weight—I couldn't get it off the table. It was exactly like with the gun, when I didn't have the strength to squeeze the trigger. I moved my arms, my hands, but not when they were holding the glass. I strained and I sweated and cried with shame, yet nothing helped—I didn't have the guts to take my life.

  I couldn't understand it; I'd never lacked the old moxie before. Even in the ring, when I started going against some of the real pros, the dancing masters, who cut and hacked at me for ten rounds while I kept moving in, waiting for one shot—even then when I knew I was outclassed and being stupid-brave, still I had the guts to keep going.

  I tried and tried lifting the glass, then I finally knocked it over trying to lift it with my teeth, and my muscles loosened up. I sat down, staring at the wet spot on the rug for a long time, thinking of nothing, of everything. I could practically see my arms bone thin as a doc hunted for a spot to stick the intravenous-feeding needle.

  I stared at the rug so long I got a bit slappy; I suddenly saw Mrs. DeCosta screaming at me, heard the shrill “You thug with a badge!” I saw the blood streaming from her nose, a tiny pink trickle.

  Closing my eyes made her go away, and then I had the runs and forgot about everything. I was sweating pretty badly and was very weak as I sat on the side of the bed and smoked a butt—for three puffs. As a kind of experiment I took a single pill and was able to swallow that. However when I started reaching for the second one, the last one, my arm wouldn't move. It was so damn uncanny I nearly started praying.

  The one pill didn't do a thing but put me in a sort of daze—and I had a head start on that. I stretched out on the bed and wasn't asleep, at least I don't think I was. I stared up at the darkness and for no reason lazily ran through my life.

  Right from Mom's funeral, and her looking so cold and different in the cheap casket, so different from the way she was gay and full of jokes in our room. Then moving in with Aunt May, and all the times I ran away from that silly old bitch with her big house and a million rules about “Don't do that!” She meant well, I guess, but an old-maid bitch is the worst kind. And the three years in the “home.” Some home! I was more muscular than the average ten-year-old and I learned two things in the home. Many times a day I found out I was a bastard—till I teed off on a big kid—and also learned I could punch.

  On the TV screen that was my mind I saw the semi-pro sand-lot football games, how I lived all week on the ten or fifteen bucks I made as a tackle—if we won. The bootleg boxing bouts when a carload of us “amateurs” would tour in a battered heap from New York to Albany, Utica, Buffalo, Toronto, Montreal, Binghamton—fighting each night under a phony name, returning to New York with a hundred bucks or more in our pockets, sure we owned the world.

  Suddenly the girls passed on the screen of my brain—the first one I went with, up in Syracuse, and I was older than I should have been. Then all the other babes—blurred faces and figures. If I had left the gals alone I might have got someplace in the ring. I was a lot like Tony Galento in build and style. But that's slop, I was always an alley fighter—ring rules bothered my style, slowed me to a walk.

  The crazy thing was, the next thing I knew I was sitting up in bed, as if an alarm clock had gone off. I felt rested and full of pep. The room gave me the spooks. I showered and cleaned out my mouth. It was only 4:30 a.m. when I tossed my key at the sleepy desk clerk he asked, “Leaving so early?” as he dived for the registration card.

  “Don't worry, I'm paid—for two days. I'm done with the room. Use it for a crap game if you like.”

  I walked down to Ninety-sixth Street and took the subway. The hot, stale air of the train took away my good mood. There was a creepy-looking case sitting opposite me—looked like a junkie. I sat down and pretended I was sleeping. I'd read where these punks often knifed a drunk as they rolled him.

  I sat there waiting, watching, wondering if I'd try to stop the knife, like I did the pills and the gun. Then I was full of this cold fear that I wouldn't be able to die soon enough, would end up a lingering corpse in a hospital.

  We were alone most of the time, but my creep didn't move. At my station I got off, feeling kind of childish, and walked over to the Grover. It was a little after five.

  When Dewey saw me he asked in a whisper, “Where the hell you been?” He didn't sound like he'd been sleeping much, looked more red-eyed than usual.

  “On the town, having a gay old time.”

  “Jeez, whole damn town's been looking for you. That Doc Dupre has been calling all night. Then the cops been calling you, a Lieutenant Ash. And she's been waiting for you most of the evening.”

  I followed his skinny, shaking finger, saw Dot curled up in one of the leather chairs. She wasn't asleep; her eyes were big and tired. She looked about the same, small and plump. And her clothes were still the kind of rags she had to wear because it was against the law to go nude. Style and sharp dressing were things Dot never bothered with.

  As I walked toward her I saw the eyes wer
e puffed from crying. Curled up, she looked smaller than ever. I pulled a chair over, sat down. “What's wrong, Dot?”

  “Lawrence was beaten up, badly. He may die.”

  “What? the kid...? When?”'

  “Late this—yesterday afternoon.” Her voice was almost lifeless, and she seemed in a state of shock. “He'd volunteered for duty and he was beaten up on his way to the station house.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Emergency ward, St. Vincent's. Marty, you must help us.”

  “All right. What does the kid need, blood?” Would they take mine when I told them about the cancer?

  “They're taking care of him. That isn't it. Marty, they killed Mac. I couldn't stand it if I lost my Lawrence!” Her voice quickened and she took my hand, clung to it so hard her nails cut me.

  “I know how you feel. I'm sure the cops will...”

  “No, Marty! I want you to do it.”

  I stroked her hand. “Do what?”

  “Marty, I don't know if I'm crazy or what. I know revenge is stupid and wrong, but all I've been able to think about since this happened is—I want you to get whoever did this. Marty, at times you're good and kind, and at other times you're mean and cruel, vicious—I'm appealing to the mean streak in you, your nasty side—get whoever did this so he'll never be able to hurt another Lawrence again!”

  “All right. How bad is the kid?”

  “Still on the critical list, but they say he has a chance. He's calling for you.” She dug her nails into my palm again. “Marty, you'll do this for me, for Lawrence?”

  “Yes. I told you I would.”

  She dropped my hand, stood up, said simply, “Thank you, Marty,” and headed toward the door.

  I ran after her. “Where are you going?”

  “Home. I'm very tired.” Her voice was dead, listless.”

  “I'll get you a cab.”

  “Don't bother. Marty, turn your strength, your cruelty, your toughness to some good—find out who did this.”

  “All right, all right, but let me get you a cab.”

  We stopped a cruising taxi over on Winter Street and she gave him an address way uptown and I slipped him five bucks, told him to take her directly there.

  As the taxi drove off, I had a mouthful of bile, or something that tasted bitter as hell. I had my own troubles, and now this.

  I spat the bitter stuff out and walked toward St. Vincent's Hospital.

  Three

  At the hospital a doctor told me, “It's good you've come, Mr. Bond, he keeps asking for you. Perhaps if you spoke to him for a few seconds, he'll relax and go to sleep. Sleep is so important for him.”

  “How bad is he?”

  “Off the critical list, temporarily. He's been beaten up by a professional, if you know what I mean. In the space of seconds he received a concussion and a nasty scalp cut— from a gun butt no doubt—a broken nose, broken eardrum, and internal injuries. I imagine after he was knocked down he was stomped upon—he has what appears to be a small rupture of the left kidney plus several broken ribs. That's all we've been able to find, so far. He's passing blood in his urine which could mean other injuries beside the kidney.”

  “Can he talk?”

  “Oh, yes. He's under a sedative, but continues to fight sleep, has been asking for you all night. Let him talk himself out and say nothing that will excite him.”

  “All right.”

  He took me into the kid's room, and Lawrence was just another body in a white bed, his head and face wrapped in bandages like a mummy. The doc left and when I said, “Hello, Lawrence,” the bandages moved and a small voice asked, “Marty? Marty?”

  “Yes, kid.”

  “Dad! I've been waiting for you such a long long time.” The voice sounded terribly tired.

  “I just heard. Now take it...”

  “Marty, it doesn't matter. But this has to be tied up with the butcher. You see that?” There was more strength in his voice now.

  “Looks like it, Lawrence.”

  “See, we auxiliary cops... there're fewer of us.... The fellows think the police department isn't... They think we're a joke. Point is, I happened to call in. There was a cop without a partner scheduled to do patrol duty, so I volunteered to come in. I was walking through a side street; I'd come down by the Fifth Avenue bus. I passed a hallway and a voice called out, 'Officer! Officer!' When I stepped inside I was hit over the head.”

  “See anything of who did it?”

  “No. I caught just a glimpse of a man who looked—don't laugh—he looked like Dick Tracy. When he was kicking me I must have come to for a moment. I remember him saying 'Bastid! Bastid!' with a sort of growl... a hiss.”

  “How about the voice that called you, man or woman?”

  “A... a false voice.” The words dragged out.

  “Lawrence, you're sure he said bastid, not bastard?”

  “Bas... tid.”

  He was either sleeping or had passed out. I pressed the buzzer on the bed table and the doc came in. After looking over the kid, the doc tugged at my arm. I nodded but didn't move. I had a feeling, a hunch, about who'd worked the kid over—although it was a crazy hunch. As I stood there a sense of relief came over me. If I was right—about the hunch—he was the roughest monkey in the business. And he'd be my boy too, for if I went after him I wouldn't have to worry much about living—especially if I was a little careless.

  The doc said, “Might as well go now, Mr. Bond. He'll sleep for ten hours or more, I hope.”

  I nodded and when we stepped outside his room there was a cop—a real cop—on a chair tilted against the wall, smoking a cigarette. He was a tall, lean cop, a youngster. I asked, “You guarding this room?” He nodded.

  “Where the hell were you when I went in?” “Stretching my legs, but I had my eye on the room.” “Your eye isn't what's wanted—we want you and your gun on the door!”

  “I saw you come in with the doc so I knew...” The doctor said, “This is the father of Lawrence Bond.” “Well, Pop, don't you worry about a thing. I'll...” I grabbed his shoulder and jerked him to his feet. “My name is Marty Bond and if I catch you dogging this job I'll break your back! Marty Bond—name mean anything to you?”

  “Yes... sir,” he said weakly. “I know all about you.” I let go of him. “All right. Sorry I blew my cap, buddy. But it's not impossible they may try to finish him off.” “No one gets by this door, Mr. Bond.” “All right. Keep awake.”

  Outside the sky was red, and it was the start of one more muggy day. I had a dry, rotten taste in my mouth, but I felt at peace with the world, almost happy. If my hunch was cooking, my work was cut out for me and it was more than even money I'd end up with a bullet fired by a joker who couldn't care less if he killed me. No paralyzed hands for him, no fear. Old Marty, the gutless wonder, finally found his out.

  I had a cup of Java and a roll. It was a few minutes after six. Bill Ash wouldn't be on yet, but the wholesale markets were already working a half a day. I headed for the Lande Meat Company, Inc.

  It wasn't much to look at. The door was locked and the windows were painted black halfway up, with the name Lande Meat Company, Inc. lettered in with gold. The door was locked but Mr. Lande didn't even bother with a burglar-alarm system.

  Looking over the top of the painted windows, I saw a couple of meat blocks, a partitioned office, and two big icebox rooms made of unpainted pine boards. There were a few other tables and some empty wooden crates piled at one end of the store.

  There was a garage down the street and I dropped in there, asked one of the mechanics, “You know the guy who used to be the driver for the meat company on the corner?”

  “Lou? Yeah, I know Lou. He in a jam?”

  “No. Understand he ain't working for the meat outfit now. You know where he lives?”

  “Lou's working—helping out at the Bay Meat.” He measured me with his eyes, “Lou in trouble?”

  “Lou ain't in anything. What's your Lou's last name?”

>   “Lou Franconi, what you think?”

  He told me where the Bay Meat was and I walked along Front Street, watching the gangs of longshoremen waiting around the docks for the shape-up. I turned off and the Bay Meat Company was like Lande's—a large store—only there was a lot of action going on. Two small delivery trucks were backed up and men in white butcher coats and caps or paper hats were loading one truck and unloading the other. I went in.

  Two men were cutting meat on chopping blocks, while crates of dead chickens were stacked high and dripping with melting ice. Legs of lamb were hanging from wall hooks. There was a bloody hunk of some kind of meat on a scale that hung from the ceiling, and through a window in a room-size icebox I saw another butcher making mountains of chopped meat at a grinder. A hatchet-faced joker left one of the blocks, a big knife still in his mitt, and asked in a Swedish accent, “Yeah, mister?”