No Orchids for Miss Blandish (12 page)

"What did this Borg girl do for a living when she was going around with Riley?" he asked.

"She did a strip act at the Cosmos Club, strictly for peanuts, but her main meal ticket was Riley."

"The Cosmos Club?" Fenner suddenly looked thoughtful. He glanced at his watch. "Well, I'm wasting your time, Captain. If I turn up anything, I'll let you know."

"You won't," Brennan said, grinning. "There's nothing to turn up."

In a thoughtful mood, Fenner drove back to his office. He found Paula waiting for him although it was after six o'clock.

"You still here?" he said as he entered the office. "Haven't you a home to go to?"

"I'm scared to leave in case another millionaire walks in," Paula said, her blue eyes wide. "Oh, Dave! I've been planning how we'll spend all that beautiful money when we get it"

"The operative word in that pipe dream of a sentence of yours is
when."
Fenner walked into his office. Paula trailed after him. "Since you are still working, baby, make yourself useful. Check the dirty file and see if we have anything on Pete Cosmos."

During the years Fenner had been a newspaperman, he had systematically collected every scrap of information concerning the activities of the big and little gangsters in town. He had collected an enormous library of facts that often came in handy when he was trying to persuade some hood to give him information.

In five minutes, Paula came into the office with a pile of newspaper clippings.

"I don't know what you're looking for, Dave," she said, "but here's everything we have on Cosmos."

"Thanks, sweetheart, now you trot off home. I've got work to do. How would you like to have dinner with me tonight to celebrate our riches?"

Paula's face lit up with delighted surprise.

"I'd love it! I'll wear my new dress! Let's go to the Champagne Room! I've never been there. I hear it's a knockout."

"The only knockout about that joint is the check," Fenner said. "Maybe we might go there when we have got our hooks into the thirty thousand, but not before."

"Then how about the Astor? For the money, they say it's the best in town."

"Don't be simple, baby. They didn't say for how much money, did they?" Fenner put his arm around her coaxingly. "I'll tell you where we'll go, the Cosmos Club. We'll combine business with pleasure."

Paula made a grimace as if she had bitten into a lemon.

"The Cosmos Club? That joint's not even a dive and the food's poisonous."

"Run along, baby, I've work to do. I'll pick you up at eight-thirty at your place," and turning her, Fenner gave her a slap on her behind, launching her fast to the door.

He sat down at his desk and began to read through the mass of clippings Paula had given him. After some thirty minutes, he made a telephone call, then he put the clippings back into the filing cabinet, turned off the lights in the office, locked up and went down to his car. He drove to his two room apartment where he took a shower and changed into a dark suit. He checked his .38 police special and put it in his shoulder holster.

He found Paula anxiously waiting for him. One of the important facts of life that Paula had learned the hard way was not to keep any man waiting. She was looking cute in a black dress, relieved by a red carnation. The cut of the dress accentuated her figure so that Fenner took a second look.

"What kills me," Paula said as she got into the car with a generous show of nylon-clad legs, "is I always have to buy my own corsage. The day you think of buying me one, I'll faint."

"Put your smelling salts away, baby," Fenner said, grinning. "I would never think of it. You haven't a worry in the world." He edged the car into the traffic. "I've got something on Pete. Boy! Won't his fat face turn red when I start talking to him."

Paula looked at him.

"I hope we'll eat sometime," she said. "I foresee you and that fat Italian sitting glaring at each other and grinding your teeth while I starve to death."

"We'll eat first, baby," Fenner said and patted her knee.

She firmly removed his hand.

"That knee is reserved for my future husband," she said. "You can have an option on it if you want it, but it'll have to be in writing."

Fenner laughed. He liked going out with Paula. They always seemed to have fun together.

The Cosmos Club was full when they arrived, but the
maitre d'hotel,
a seedy, narrow-eyed Italian, found them a table.

Fenner looked around and decided it was a pretty crummy joint. He hadn't been in the club for six months. He could see it had changed for the worse.

"Charming little morgue," Paula said, looking around. "I can't imagine anyone coming here unless they were too mean to go somewhere else."

Fenner let that one ride. He was studying the menu. He was hungry. A grubby looking waiter hovered at his side.

After a long discussion they decided on the iced melon, and duck cooked with olives to follow.

"At least we can eat the olives," Paula said. "Even the cook at the Cosmos Club can't spoil olives."

Fenner laughed.

"You wait and see. I bet you they'll be as tender as golf balls."

But when the meal was served, neither of them could complain. It wasn't good, but at least they could eat it.

Between courses, they danced. Paula attempted to get romantic, but Fenner deliberately trod on her toes. The dancing wasn't a success.

While she was choosing dessert, Fenner pushed back his chair and stood up.

"Business now, baby," he said. "I'm going to talk to Pete. You go ahead and stuff yourself. I won't be long."

Paula smiled at him, her eyes furious.

"Go ahead, Dave darling, don't worry about me. I have lots and lots to talk to myself about. I'll expect you when I don't see you."

"If we weren't in a public place," Fenner said, stung, "I would put you over my knee and slap you humpbacked."

"A charming thought," Paula said, waving him away. "Run along and talk to your friend. I hope he spits in your right eye."

Grinning, Fenner made his way to Pete's office. He didn't bother to knock. He walked right in and kicked the door shut behind him.

Pete was adding up figures in a ledger. He looked up, startled. When he saw who it was, he scowled.

"Who told you to bust in here?" he demanded. "What do you want?"

"Hello, fatty," Fenner said coming over and sitting on the desk. "Long time no see."

"What do you want?" Pete asked again, glaring at Fenner.

"Have you seen Harry Levane recently?"

Pete stiffened.

"No, and I don't want to. Why?"

"I've just been talking to him. Pete, you are in bad trouble." Fenner shook his head sadly. "Harry was telling me about the girl you took to Miami last summer. She was a minor. Pete! I'm surprised at you! You stand to get a two-year stretch for that little indiscretion."

Pete looked as if someone had driven a needle into his behind.

"It's a lie!" he shouted, his face white. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Fenner smiled pityingly at him.

"Don't be a chump, Pete. Harry saw you with her. He hasn't forgotten you got him three years for the Clifford jewel steal. He's aching to put you away."

Pete's face broke out in a sweat.

"I'll kill the punk! He can't prove it!"

"He can. He knows who the girl is and he's talked to her. She's ready to sign a complaint."

Pete slumped back in his chair.

"Where is she?" he said, his voice husky. "I'll talk to her. I'll fix it. Where is she?"

"I know where she is. I know where Harry is. It'll cost you, Pete, but what's money," Fenner said. "But I'm not telling you if we can't do a deal. I want information. I'll trade what you want for what I want."

Pete glared at him.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing to it, Pete; just a little information. Do you remember Anna Borg?"

Pete looked surprised.

"Yes--what about her?'

"She worked here?"

"That's right."

"Did she ever hint that she knew where Riley was hiding out?"

"She didn't know. I'll swear to that."

"She did mention Riley?"

"I'll say! She was swearing and cursing about him all the time."

"How did she meet Schultz?"

Pete hesitated.

"This is a trade? You tell me where I contact that little bitch and Harry?"

"It's a trade."

"Schultz came here a few days after the snatch," Pete said. "He wanted to know how he could contact Anna. He said Ma Grisson wanted to talk to the girl. When I told him the Feds were watching Anna, he told me to call her and get her down here in this office. I wasn't here when they met, but a couple of days later, Anna quit working for me. She said she had been offered a better job. When the Grissons took over the Paradise Club, she started working there. Eddie and she are living together."

"Why was Ma Grisson interested in the girl?" Fenner asked.

Pete shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know."

Fenner got to his feet. He bent over the desk and scribbled two addresses on a scratch pad.

"There you are," he said. "I'd contact those two fast. Harry is aching to see you in jail. It'll cost you plenty to keep his mouth shut."

As Pete reached for the telephone, Fenner made his way back to the restaurant.

He found Paula talking animatedly to a slim, handsome gigolo who was leaning over her, looking with interest down the front of her dress.

Fenner gave him a heavy nudge.

"Okay, buster, set sail and fade away."

The gigolo looked quickly at Fenner's massive shoulders and his pugnacious jaw and he hurriedly backed away.

"Don't let this ape worry you," Paula said. "Brush him off. One good smack in the jaw will fix him."

But the gigolo was already in retreat halfway across the room.

"Hi, baby, I'm surprised at the company you keep," Fenner said, smiling at her.

Paula leaned back in her chair and smiled at him.

"Did your Italian friend spit in your eye?"

"No, but that doesn't mean he didn't want to. Come on, baby. I want to go to bed."

She looked interested.

"Alone?"

"Yeah, alone," Fenner said, piloting her out of the restaurant. "I want all my strength for tomorrow. I'm calling on Anna Borg and from what I hear, she's more than a handful."

Paula got into the car and straightened her skirt.

"Isn't she a stripper?"

"Yeah," Fenner said and grinned. "Don't look so prim; just because she is, I don't have to be one of that fan dancer's fans."

Chief of Police Brennan had been right when he had told Fenner that the Grisson gang had taken over the Paradise Club, but he had been wrong when he had said the gang had bought out the owner, Toni Rocco.

Rocco had been ruthlessly squeezed out.

Ma Grisson with Eddie and Flynn had called on Rocco and had explained just why it would be more healthy for him to hand the club over to her and accept her generous offer of one percent of the profits.

At one time Rocco had been a successful jockey. He was a tiny man and Ma's vast, menacing presence frightened him. Although he didn't make much money out of his club, bought from his horse racing savings, he was proud of it. To give it up was to give up his dearest possession, but he was smart enough to know if he didn't give it up, he wouldn't last long and Rocco wasn't ready to die just yet.

Ma saw no reason why she should spend good money for the club when she knew she could get it for nothing. Although she had now a half a million dollars to play with, the structural alterations she had in mind, the furnishings, the kitchen equipment, the mirrors and the lighting would cost plenty. She told Rocco a one-percent cut on the profits was fair and generous and she waved aside his muttered protest that a five-percent cut would be more acceptable.

"Use your head, my friend," she said, smiling her wolfish smile. "One percent of anything is better than nothing. There's a bunch of tough boys who have had their eyes on this club for some time. Before long they will shake you down for protection. Once they start on you, they'll bleed you white. If you don't pay, one of them will plant a bomb in here. If we take over the club, they'll fade away. They know it wouldn't be safe to threaten us."

Rocco knew very well there were no tough boys, but he was also sure if he didn't surrender the club, one of the Grisson gang would plant a bomb on him.

So he signed away his rights to the club with deceptive humility. The partnership agreement that Ma's attorney drew up was a complicated document that said a lot and meant nothing. Rocco hadn't even the right to check the books. Whatever came to him came as a favor. He had a shrewd idea that his cut of the profits wouldn't be worth the trouble to collect.

Ma Grisson was very satisfied with the transaction, but she might not have been so satisfied had she known that Rocco had promised himself that he would settle his account with the Grisson gang. Sooner or later, he told himself, an opportunity must arise, and when it did, the old bitch would regret having done what she had done to him.

Because of his apparent mildness and his size, no one, least of all Ma Grisson, realized what a dangerous enemy Rocco could be. Behind the dark, thin Italian features, there dwelt a cunning, ruthless and vicious mentality.

Rocco got himself a job as a collector for the local numbers racket. He didn't like the job, but he had to earn a living now that he had lost the club. As he walked the streets, entering shabby apartments, climbing stairs until his legs ached, he brooded about the Grisson gang. Sooner or later, he kept promising himself he would fix them and when he did fix them, they would stay fixed.

Ma Grisson had selected the Paradise Club not only because she could get it for nothing but also because of its convenient position.

The two-storied building stood in a small courtyard off one of the main avenues. It was sandwiched between a warehouse and a clock factory: both these buildings were deserted between six p.m. and eight a.m.

The club building was so situated that in the event of a police raid, the doorman would have ample time to sound the warning bell. The building was impossible to surround.