The Hoods (52 page)

A week later, when Willie, the Ape, was able to move around, we invited him to make himself at home at the Eden, providing he behaved himself.

Maxie assured him, “We have no hard feelings against you or Salvy. We're businessmen; we let bygones be bygones.”

At first Willie was a little skeptical. He kept away. Then he came in for an occasional free meal or drink. Finally he overcame his caution and became an all day frequenter.

The district “Fix” came in one night and looked us over suspiciously. He asked for Mike and the Fairy. Maxie told him we had taken the place over legit. I showed him the piece of paper Big Mike had signed. He didn't like the looks of it.

“This ain't legal,” he said.

“But this is,” Max said. He slipped him five hundred and added, “Once a month, O.K.?”

The “Fix” grinned. “Yep, this makes it legal,” he chuckled. “Thanks, I'll see you next month.”

It was that simple. The landlord was less of a problem.

For weeks there was no sign of Salvy. We knew Willie was in contact with him, but we didn't follow or question him for fear of arousing suspicion.

The thought of unfinished business annoyed me, not that our new headquarters was unpleasant or unprofitable. Our net profit was better than three thousand a week. Besides, I should have been relaxed what with the convenient bar and everything else there was for my personal enjoyment. But I was on edge, I guess because we had a “job” to do and we wanted to get it over with. I wanted it over with. I wanted Eve back.

After all these years I was getting jumpy and nervous. The idea of quitting entered my mind. Why not? I had plenty of dough salted away, more than 100 grand in the vaults.

Yeh, I was thinking of quitting soon. Maybe it was nerves, or maybe it was Eve. Something was bothering me. Maybe it was this cat-and-mouse game with Salvy. Who the hell knows? I watched Max, Pat and Cockeye. Goddamn, now that I thought of it, they seemed to be on edge, too. Patsy and Cockeye had a little argument over that singer, Rose, the other night. How could they go for a tomato like that? Nobody is like Eve. I wonder what she's doing with herself down there?

Another week went by, then one night the Ape sat down at our table.

“You on the level, Max, with Salvy?” he asked.

“What do you mean on the level?” Max asked. “If you mean, we have no hard feelings against the Snake, sure. Why?”

“Salvy contacted me last night. He's broke.”

“He can come down here; he can have the run of the joint. The same as you if he wants to.”

“I don't know what to do,” the Ape said.

“Why?” I asked. “What now?”

“Because he's hitting the needle again, and when he takes a shot in the arm, the sonofabitch likes to use his goddamn ice pick.”

I said, “Well, that's up to him. If he behaves himself, he can come around for a meal, a drink, and a few bucks.”

Max smiled wryly. “You're his friend, aren't you?” The dumb Ape nodded. “So you got to overlook his little faults with the ice pick.”

“So the proposition still stands, Max?”

The Ape was cautious. There was still a glimmer of suspicion in his eye.

“It's okay by me one way or the other.” Maxie acted unconcerned. “We have a little business out of town for the next week or so. We're going to put a man in complete charge to run the place.” Max smiled. “If you want the job, it's up to you. Take it or leave it. We would rather have you run it. You know the joint, the customers, everything about this place.”

The Ape was hesitant, but there was a gleam of delight in his eyes. He considered it for quite a while. Finally, he fell for it. We left him in charge. He was in his glory when we said, “So long, see you in two or three weeks.”

We went downtown to Jake's place. We had a talk with Jake, Pipy and Goo-Goo. We told them to watch the Eden day and night. We gave them the phone number of Solly's place in Jersey, to call us every night and keep us informed when Salvy appeared.

We spent four miserable days on the other side of the river, until one morning Jake over the phone said excitedly, “He came around, but stay there. I got to talk to you guys.”

We met Jake at four o'clock that morning in the back room of Longy's speakeasy in Newark.

He was agitated. He said, “No good, don't do it. Salvy's around, but he smells something. He isn't as dumb as the Ape. He planted two or three letters with different people saying if anything happens to him or Willie, to give those letters to the D. A. and the cops.”

Max and I exchanged disgusted glances.

“You guys better lay off. That Snake is hotter than a firecracker.”

Jake said.

“Now we really got to do something, but fast,” I said.

“Why?” Max looked at me puzzled.

“Did you happen to think how many people Salvy has had a run-in with through the years?”

“So?” Max said.

“So, if one of them takes it in his head to give him the 'business,' where will we be?”

“Yep, you're right, Noodles,” Maxie said.

“Sure. If one of his enemies was smart, he wouldn't hesitate, he would give him the business and be in the clear. Those letters would fix us up fine,” I snorted.

Max frowned. “Yep, yep, you're absolutely right. What a lousy fix.”

“Well, let's sleep on it, Jake,” I said.

“Keep watching the joint. Keep us posted.”

“You guys watch yourselves.”

Jake was really worried.

I gave an uneasy laugh. “Don't worry, Jake. We'll think of something.”

“Pipy was watching the joint when I left,” Jake said.

“Okay, Jake, you and Pip keep tailing him,” Max said.

We played klabiash very uneasily the next day in the back room of Longy's waiting to hear from Jake. Finally Jake and Pip came in with their report.

Pipy said, “Salvy has got himself a second-hand Chrysler.”

“And?” Maxie said impatiently as Pipy and Jake helped themselves from the bottle.

Pipy gulped his drink down and continued: “Nothing much more. He came into the Eden the other night about nine. He went into a huddle with Willie the Ape. I saw him pat the Ape on the back and laugh. Then he walked around the Eden like he owned the joint.”

Maxie smiled ruefully. “Okay,” he said, “what else, Pip?”

“Nothing much more. He bossed the entertainers and the help around quite a lot for one thing.” Pipy scratched his head in thought. “Yeh, then after a while he had an argument with that broad Rose on account of she began acting sweet to one of the customers.” Pipy smiled to himself at the thought. “You know that sister tap-dancing team you got down there, Maxie?” Max nodded. “It must be nice laying up with twins,” Pipy observed incidentally.

“To hell with that,” Max said impatiently. “What else?”

“Well, anyway, after the Snake and the Ape closed the joint at the usual time, four-thirty, they rode down to the hotel on Fifty-Sixth Street. They got rooms on the eighth floor. That's the same floor the twins are on.” Pipy had an envious look on his face.

“How did you get the dope about them and the twins being on the eighth floor?” I asked admiringly.

“I gave the elevator kid a pound note. He told me.” Pipy smiled modestly. “It wasn't so hard.”

“Okay, Pipy, thanks, this'll cover the expense you had.”

Maxie tossed him a C note.

“Thanks, Max. Shall we tail him again tonight?”

Maxie frowned. He looked at me.

I said, “Yeh, keep tailing him.”

We had a round of drinks. Jake and Pipy left.

Max said to me, “What do you think?”

“Well, for one thing we can't turn the contract back to the office and say give it to somebody else because we can't handle it, can we?”

“Nah, of course we can't do that,” Max corrected himself. “I don't mean we can't if we wanted to. But we don't want to. We got to go through with it.”

“Sure we got to go through with it,” Patsy said.

“Jesus, we got to,” Cockeye said.

I leaned over the table.

“There's no question. We got to get it over with, and the sooner the better. So far we maneuvered them two on the 'spot' and we can 'take' them easy enough when we want to.”

“Yep, like rabbits in a barrel,” Max grunted.

“Yeh, that we did, we got them in a barrel. Now the thing is, them goddamn letters of Salvy's,” I said.

“That bastard Salvy; he's just like a Snake,” Patsy said.

“Can't we find out who he gave those letters to and clip them?” Cockeye suggested.

“No good,” Maxie said, “it would take too long.”

“Yeh, no good,” I said, “we got to get it over with fast. But first we got to establish an ironclad alibi.”

“Jesus Christ, with those letters floating around, it's got to be goddamn ironclad,” Patsy said.

We sat around the table in the back room of Longy's for hours discussing it. We finished two quart bottles of Mt. Vernon. The bartender brought a third, all with Longy's compliments. I opened the barred window for a breath of fresh air. Day was breaking.

For some unaccountable reason my mind centered on the bars. Yeh, that's it, I said to myself. If we were behind bars, that would be a perfect alibi. Yeh, Solly can fix it. He runs the police department and just about everything in his town. I walked back to the table. We got into a huddle. I whispered my plan.

“Yep, that's it, Noodles,” Max agreed.

Pat and Cockeye nodded.

“I'll call Solly at his house,” I said.

I put a coin in the wall phone and called, “Hasbrouck Heights.”

Solly's sleepy voice answered.

“This is Noodles, Solly,” I said. “Sorry to wake you up.”

“That's okay, Noodles,” Solly said. “What's cookin?”

“We want to cut some business up; we're coming right over.”

“Okay,” Solly said.

Over cups of black coffee and anisette, I explained to Solly what I wanted him to do.

“Don't forget the silencers and Jersey plates for the car.”

He nodded all through the conversation. “Sure, sure, yeh, I'll take care of everything,” he said. It'll take me three—four hours. Meet me in town at my place, three in the afternoon.”

I called Jake. In guarded language I told him what we intended to do and told him to meet us.

We went back to Newark and had a few hours sleep.

At three o'clock we walked into Solly's place. We left all our hardware and money in his safe.

Solly brought us to a small loft building in the middle of town.

“Okay, fellas, here's the keys. The joint's on the first floor.” He grinned. “You're in business now.” Solly drove away in our Caddy.

We walked up one flight. Maxie unlocked the door. We looked around. It was a nice set-up, cheap but fully equipped. There was the big blackboard covering an entire wall. The telephones, the birdcages, the dice table and a few slot machines around the sides.

“No wheel?” Cockeye asked.

“This ain't a casino,” I said. “This is just a horse room.”

We wandered around the room playing the slots for about twenty minutes.

Suddenly we heard a terrific bang. The door crashed in. Five big men came in.

“Who's the boss of this joint?” one of the big guys inquired. He was a good actor.

“We're all bosses,” Maxie smiled easily. He included all of us with a sweep of his arm.

“Okay, you guys are pinched for operating a horseroom.” He motioned to one of his men. “Ronnie, stay here until the wagon comes to pick up this equipment as evidence. You guys come along,” he motioned to us.

“What the hell do you guys think, you can just walk into town and open a horseroom? We don't tolerate gambling or vice in Jersey.”

Meekly we followed him downstairs into a police car.

At the police station, they searched and booked us. The Sergeant asked, “You guys want a bondsman?”

Maxie said, “No, sergeant.”

The sergeant looked curiously at us. “It's all right with me, but you guys will be locked up over night until the Magistrate's Court opens tomorrow morning. We have no night court in this town.”

Maxie shrugged his shoulders, unconcernedly.

They led us downstairs to a cell in the basement. It was a little cramped but we made the best of it. We took turns lying on two cots.

We smoked and talked in the pitch dark. Every so often Maxie would strike a match and look at his watch. It was a tedious night. At about three-thirty a.m. we heard footsteps in the hall. We listened tensely.

The footsteps paused at our cell. A key turned in the lock.

A voice whispered through the door, “Down the hall to your left.”

The steps hurried away.

We waited a moment, then quietly we walked to the left, down the hall to an iron door with a key in it. Maxie turned it. The creaking door opened slowly. We walked down a dark alley. It led us into a side street.