The Men From the Boys

by Ed Lacy

  I walked over to Eighth Street and had a good sea-food supper. It was a big meal and didn't seem to bother my gut, although when I reached the Grover I had to dash for the John. I came back to the lobby, shut off the radio in the office. Dewey came in from the desk. “Hey, I'm listening to a story.”

  “Take the radio out to the desk, I have some typing to do. I told you to lay off the back room last night—a guy came in while you were getting your wine chilled.”

  “That's a lot of nonsense. I never left... How did you know?”

  “Forget it and get out of here.”

  It took me an hour to peck out a letter, with a carbon, telling Bill how Bochio had knocked off Cocky Anderson. I played up Lawrence big in my report. I even suggested sweating Willie for the exact details. After I sealed it, I wrote my name over the back of the envelope so Dewey's curiosity wouldn't get the best of him, put Bill's name on the front, along with the phone number of the station house.

  I went to my room and shaved and showered like a bridegroom. Dropping some weight made me look in shape—on the outside I looked healthier than I had since I was a teenage punk. I made sure my gun was in working order before I slipped it and some extra shells into my pocket. I dragged an old suitcase from the closet, took out my army .45 which I'd smuggled into civilian, life, checked it, strapped it above my right ankle.

  It was eight-twenty and starting to get dark. One thing worried me—Lande might not be home when I phoned him. He could easily be at a movie, or something. But he'd have to come home sooner or later.

  Out in the lobby I motioned for Kenny to take over the desk and walked Dewey to my room. He took a swig of the pint of sherry in his hip pocket as he sat down, asked, “Now, what's cooking?”

  “We're cooking without wine. Dewey, when you finish that pint, that's going to be all for the night.”

  “You a reformer now, too?”

  I pulled out all the bills I had in my pocket: three tens, a five, and four bucks. Tearing them in half I gave him one part, said, “After tonight you get the rest, go on a week's drunk if you want. But for the next couple of hours you're working for me, and don't forget it.”

  Dewey fingered the torn money. “Marty, why the green salad?”

  “A reminder that if you make a mistake I won't be around to give you the rest of the lettuce,” I said, pocketing the torn bills. “Your job is simple: I don't want you to leave the desk —not for a second, even if the Grover is on fire. You're being paid to stay by your phone. And to take good care of this.” I placed the letter addressed to Bill in Dewey's lap. “Don't let anybody get ahold of that letter, even see it—till later. Understand?”

  Dewey nodded.

  I gave him a slip of paper with Lande's store phone on it. “And keep this handy, too. All right, here's the deal. Starting at ten o'clock you call this number every fifteen minutes. No matter if the desk is busy or not, every fifteen minutes you call. I'll answer and say, 'Lawson is a fag.' That's all. You don't answer anything except one word, 'Okay, Marty.' But if ...”

  “That's two words.”

  “All right! Goddamnit, Dewey, you just answer, 'Okay, Marty.' Not another sound. Now, when you ring and there isn't any answer, or if somebody else answers, says, 'Hello?' says anything but 'Lawson is a fag,' you hang up—and call Bill Ash fast at the number on the envelope. That's the police station. Tell him—or whoever answers at the precinct—that you want a cop damn fast. If Ash answers tell him you have something important and he must come and get it—at once. You only give this letter to Ash, and ask to see his badge, or to a uniformed cop. Got it?”

  Dewey swallowed, his eyes watered, and he touched the envelope like it was hot. “Marty, you in something... something... real bad?”

  “This is all the way for me, Dewey. That's why I want you to stay off the wine and on the ball. Remember, if anybody answers with anything but our passwords, don't you say a single word, just slam the receiver down and call the police. And for Christ's sake, be sure you're dialing the right number, the one on the slip. Now, tell me what I told you.”

  Dewey stuttered through it and we went over it again. Then I told him, “Good. Finish the pint—you'll need that. Stay at the desk, and remember—start calling at ten sharp. Even if you have to go to the John—stay at the desk!”

  Dewey stood up, put Bill's letter in his back pocket, Lande's phone number in his shirt pocket. He asked, “Marty, what are you in? Will I ...?”

  “You'll be a lousy hero. One more thing, don't blab about this to Kenny, Barbara—nobody.”

  “Listen, Many, you know hew I am—maybe I won't be able to ...”

  He was shaking a little and I slapped him on the back. “Just do what I told you and everything will be okay. Hell, we're pals, you're the only one I can trust. Get going. Remember, you start phoning at ten sharp—about an hour and a half from now. 'Lawson is a fag.' If anybody says anything else, even if you think it's me, hang up and call the cops. Get going.”

  When he left I put the carbon of the letter in an envelope, addressed it to the kid in the hospital, then put the rest of the torn money in another envelope addressed to Dewey. I dug up a couple of stamps, locked my door, and dropped the letters in the mail chute off the lobby. I took the self-service elevator to the eighth floor, opened the linen-closet window, stepped out on the adjoining fire escape—the weight of the .45 at my ankle making me clumsy.

  I went up and over the roof, down into the alley, moving carefully. After last night they'd be wondering how I got out of the Grover. Dropping into the alley as softly as my two-hundred-odd pounds would allow, I stood very still in the darkness.

  I had company—somebody in front of me was breathing heavily.

  I stood there for a long moment, fingering the gun in my pocket, retasting the sea food, trying not to belch.

  Whoever was sharing the alley with me was making a lot of noise with his breathing. I waited, but my buddy was playing it cool. I got my flash out, knelt and placed it on the cement alleyway, pointing it in the general direction of the breathing.

  I got my gun out and leaning way over to the right, I reached out with my left foot, pressed the button. I spotlighted an old bum huddled in one corner. I grinned as he blinked his bleary eyes to get me in focus.

  I pocketed the gun and picking up my flash I started toward him. He said, “Put that light out, you big sonofabitch.”

  “They making you winos braver these days?” I asked.

  I was on top of him and he sort of grinned and his teeth were too good for a wino and his eyes were too bright—he wasn't drunk—he was on junk. He was sitting with both hands on the cement and he raised himself off the floor a few inches as his legs struck out, scissored around mine.

  I fell on top of him, kicking, swinging with my flash... and thought I heard the swish of a sap behind me before my head exploded in a burning white flame.

  Six

  I came to on my side, part of my head and neck feeling big as a ton—a numb ton. There was light near me and after blinking a few times, I managed to sit up and look around. The wino decoy was lying a couple of feet from me, blood streaming from his head: I must have followed through with my swing before I conked out.

  Turning made my head spin, but I finally faced the light. The face above the small flashlight was Hilly Smith's, all the sharp, overneat features. His eyes were as cold and impersonal as dry ice. For a moment I couldn't see any hands, then I realized he was wearing dark gloves. He must have been holding my Police Special in his right hand—it seemed suspended in the dim light—the business end pointing at me.

  I belched and my head hurt. But I moved my legs a little. Bob wasn't any ball of fire; he hadn't found the .45.

  We stared at each other for a while. I'd seen him once or twice over the years, but never this close. He was a handsome punk, tall and lean, with wide sloping shoulders. His face was hard and without an ounce of fat, or maybe it was the shadows that made him look so hard.

  I put my elbows
on the cement ground and relaxed, wondering what the next move was. I'd walked into a trap, but it didn't make any difference to me. Dewey would call Bill at ten when I didn't answer. Even if the wine got to Dewey, Lawrence would have the carbon copy of the letter in the morning and then they'd pick up Bochio, maybe Smith. All I had to do was see to it I didn't leave the alley alive. And if Bob made a mistake, I'd like to knock him off. Sort of a going-away present to somebody... maybe myself. A kind of...

  He said, “What's ya story, ya bastid?” There was something wrong with his lips, like they were too big for his mouth— they didn't stop at his face, went inside his mouth. Or maybe that was the shadows too.

  “I was going to tell it to you—in Willie's shop. But this is just as good a spot.” My voice sounded strong in the stillness.

  “Figured that. But didn't want to knock ya off in the store, too much explaining.”

  “What explaining?” I said, mocking him. “You could do me like you did Cocky, knock me off in the freezer, then dump the body any time you felt like it. Bochio must have thought he was real clever; shoots him, then goes down to Miami and establishes his alibi. Couple of weeks later you dump the body in the Bronx, it lays in the heat all day and no medical examiner can say it was frozen, that Anderson wasn't shot the night before. That's old stuff—he wasn't so smart.”

  “A knife in the back is old—but it still works.”

  The “bum” near me groaned and then was silent again.

  Bob stared at him for a moment, then turned to me, asked, “What was ya doing, giving a public lecture?” He moved fast, jumped to my side and kicked me before I knew what was happening. As I doubled up he split the side of my face with my own gun.

  I didn't black out, but for a long time I couldn't move, could hardly breathe. Blood was flowing into my shirt collar, down my side like syrupy sweat. I began to doubt Bob was going to make a mistake.... Then I had a frightening thought: Maybe he wasn't going to kill me, only work me over to scare me off?

  I waited till I could sit up again, sure I could move my legs. My only play was a corny one; the decoy had used it on me.

  Smith said, “I know all about ya, big hero copper now a two-bit lush, a lousy hotel dick. Who ya working for on this?”

  When I opened my mouth, blood ran in and damn near choked me.

  “What ya trying to do, make a name for yourself, get back on the force?”

  “I want in,” I said, and it sounded like I was talking through a mouthful of mud.

  “In—a shakedown?” He laughed, but no sound came out.

  I tried to nod and my head seemed to be coming off. “Killing me won't do no good,” I said, and my voice came back strong and clear the more I talked. “I sent a letter to myself care of general delivery, with a cop as the return address. If I don't call for it... tomorrow... it goes back, will be opened.... You and Bochio will fry.” It wasn't much of a story, but it would do.

  “Ya think ya're playing with kids, ya bastid!”

  “No, I think it's time to separate the men from the boys, Bob.”

  He didn't say anything for a moment, those ice-eyes watching me. I was in a sudden panic he might walk away, leave me. I said, “I never would have got onto this if you had learned to talk straight. You talk like a backward...”

  He kicked me in the ear. For a second my head seemed to balloon up, then everything became clear again. “Every kick only jacks up the price. You and Bochio made a lot of mistakes by shooting Cocky in the freezer—don't make no more. Why did Bochio have to become a hood again after all these years? Start messing around with a perfect crime, no less?”

  The “decoy” groaned again and Bob clouted him with the gun, knocking him into silence.

  He said to me, “I told ya, no lectures!”

  I was getting weaker, my whole shirt wet with blood. I lowered my voice as if I was passing out, said, “Everything is in... the... letter. Bochio probably never even knew Lande... was... a... relative. Or maybe Willie never knew. Then... old Bochio gets this... this... yen to kill Cocky. Maybe saw this freeze deal in a movie... or something. Looks around for a butcher, a freezer, and there's... one right in the family. All in the... the... letter.”

  “Ya lousy chiseling bastid, whatcha want?”

  “Ten grand,” I whispered.

  Bob bent over me a little. “Whatcha say?”

  “Ten grand.” I wanted to smile. Bob Smith the syndicate cop—a dumb punk.

  He was almost stepping over my legs as he repeated, “Tea grand?”

  I muttered, “If... I... die, you're done.”

  “Ya think we're dumb enough to pay off, so ya'll keep shaking us down!”

  I waved my hand. “Sure I will... but small stuff. I... I know when not to... overplay my hand.” I ended this in a mumble of double talk.

  “What? Talk louder.”

  I gasped out something neither of us could hear and inched my right leg out. Even if I didn't make it he'd shoot me dead.

  “Ya're a muscleman—ya know I can do things that will make ya talk, beg for the finisher!”

  “The letter... remember that,” I said loud enough for him to hear. “Get me to a doc before... I die.”

  He hesitated and I mumbled, “I'm... dying!” and stiffened like a ham actor—getting my right leg way out.

  Bob bent lower. “Hey! Ya get the dough! Hey!” he repeated like an idiot. Blood was forming in my mouth and I gargled with a little of it, sounded like a death rattle.

  He stood up and I thought I'd overdone it. But he pulled out a fistful of money, bent down and waved it in my face. “Here, ya get the dough! Ya hear? Ya get...”

  I put everything I had into swinging my right leg—with the .45 strapped against it—into a long arc as Bob tried to straighten up. There was the blast of my own gun—in his hand—that seemed to go off in my eyes as my leg clouted him on the side of his face.

  Smith fell over sideways as I tried to sit up in the blast that blinded me. After the flash of gunpowder, the darkness was awful dark and it took me a long time to see. But it didn't take any time to feel the pain in my shoulder where he'd shot me. I could move my left arm so it wasn't too bad, but it took me a lot of years before I was able to stand. On my feet I felt much better.

  I picked up Hilly's flash and looked at the “bum.” His head and face were all blood, but he was alive—the blood was bubbling at his lips. I straightened up. Bending down hadn't done me any good. I was dripping blood so badly it was really sloshing around in my shoes.

  Blood never worried me and I had things to do. I took a deep breath, like a weightlifter, and dragged Bob over to a corner of the alley, set him up where he would be a dead duck in my private shooting gallery. The effort about kayoed me and I had to lean against the wall myself for a bunch of seconds. It was funny, the way I could move now, wasn't scared when I wasn't doing my own killing.

  Bob started to move and I kicked his head against the wall, careful not to kill him... ruin my angle in this mess. I put the flash down so it covered us and frisked him. He had a gun on his hip and another up his sleeve. The sleeve job would be a lousy small-caliber deal, meaning only a lucky shot or a brace of slugs would do me in. I didn't touch the sleeve rod—that had to be it. The money he'd offered me was laying in his lap and for some stupid reason I picked up a few of the hundred-dollar bills, then picked up the flash with my left hand. My left was too bloody and the flash slipped out, and broke on the cement.

  I stood up in the darkness, trying to steady myself, cursing my stupidity. Both Bob and I would need light. I bent over Bob, ripped off part of his coat, stumbled over to the bum and ripped off his coat and pants. I made a pile of the clothing, dropped the money on top of it. Then I made a small pile of a few crumpled bills twisted together, lit them with my lighter. I put Bob's gun and my Police Special near him where he could see them, but out of his reach. I wiped my hands and put the .45 in my pocket. The burning bills died out and I leaned against the wall, shut my eyes till my head c
leared... and waited.

  After what seemed hours and had to be seconds, I heard Bob moan, then sit up. I got my lighter out and lit the bills atop the clothing.

  Bob stared at me through bloody eyes, one side of his face puffed and out of shape. He rubbed his wrist against his thigh and probably smiled behind the blood, thinking I'd overlooked the gun there. I don't know why but suddenly, for the first time in my life, die sight of blood, beaten skin, made me a little sick.

  Swaying in front of him, right hand on the .45 straining my pocket, the stinking fire throwing crazy shadows all around us, I said, “At last I got me a real big hood. The top syndicate cop. You thought you were outside the law, outside of me, had your own law. Even took care of the punks who robbed Willie. Were you scared they might have seen Cocky's corpse in the freezer? But for once I...”