Underbelly (29 page)

“
Crime must be out of control in Detroit now then,” Del said through Grey.

“
Not on my watch. You’d have been good at this job too, Del.”

“
What, handling weapons and trying to stop the bad guys? I’ve got no experience of that,” he joked.

“
It’s worlds apart, Del. This is easier by far – decent grub, decent bed, wife to come home to – there was anyway, she died three years back.”

“
I’m sorry to hear that, pal. She must have been proud of you – being a police captain must be a hard and worthy job.”

“
Seriously, Del, it’s easier than the trenches. After that anything’s easy.”

“
How long had you been married?”

“
We got hitched in 1920. A lot of the boys were there. Baska was best man.”

“
Yes! He survived the war.” Grey copied Del’s exhilarated response, trying to make the conversation as fluid as possible, copying the way George spoke when relaying his words back to Del.

“
Yeah, but…The Depression dragged a lot of people under.”

“
When did he die?”

“
He hung himself in ’31,” George said with a lump in his throat. “He was on form on the wedding day, mind. Your name cropped up a lot – I wouldn’t have known who to pick for best man if you’d been around too, Del.”

“
It’s a good problem to have, George, a glut of good friends.”

George nodded in agreement, Grey telling Del what he was doing. “I’ve got good friends on the force but it’ll never be like we were over there.”

“
I’ve only got the one friend now and you’re looking at him. He’s a good guy, just needs to unwind a bit.” Grey broke from the script, embarrassed at being talked about (if he was being criticised it would have been easier, praise more likely to make him cringe) and he said, “This is Del, Mr Sullivan, it’s just his overly generous opinion of me.”

“
I understand that, son, but I value Del’s opinion. Can you act as go-between again?”

“
Of course. Here we go. I saw this coming,” Grey said and he went back to Del’s words, “Take him out for a drinking bout, show him how we do it in Detroit.”

“
Done. It’s too late tonight, Del, but I’ll round the boys up tomorrow.”

“
Go easy on him.”

“
I’ll watch out for him, don’t worry. Hey, you’re lucky, Del, ‘cause you missed Prohibition coming into force nation-wide.”

“
Yeah, Jimmy told me about that. Mad bitches.”

“
Fucking pain, man, enforcing something you know is bullshit.”

“
You should have been a racketeer. That’s what I’d have done.”

“
I’d have turned a blind eye.”

“
Any children knocking about?”

“
Two daughters. The eldest is married to one of the policemen at my precinct and lives just a couple of blocks away with two young sons.”

“
I’ll bet you make his life hell.”

“
Until he proved himself of course I did. He’s a good man; I don’t give him that much stick nowadays, only a little to keep him on his toes. I treat my grandsons well, mind; I spoil them more than I ever did my own kids. The youngest girl is a worry to me. She wants to be an actress – beautiful girl, but that’s not going to be enough and I don’t want her doing that anyhow. She’s in New York in the chorus for a play – I have sat through it for her, but I don’t want her there. She’s not that type of girl. I can’t get through to her nowadays. It was different when her mother was alive and her twin brother – she listened to him especially. The Japs killed him two years back,” George said, his face breaking down for a split second before he instantly hardened.

“
I don’t know what to say. You’re a good man and you don’t deserve that, George,” Del said through Grey, feeling winded by the hardships of his friend.

“
Your parents didn’t deserve it either. Derek did me proud.”

Del knew where he’d got that name from and he said, “I don’t care that I’m dead – I’d die again if it meant that you didn’t lose your boy.”

“
Dying once is enough for anyone, Del. So if I give this boy here some alcohol will you be able to taste it?”

“
I wish. Give him some anyway though. What happened to all the rest of the old guard?”

“
How long have you got?”

“
Forever, but he has to get back to his wife at some stage – I’ll back off and let you two sort that out,” Del said, letting Grey have autonomy again.

“
It’s half past nine now, Jimmy. Do you have a curfew?” he joked.

“
No, I’m not that henpecked. She’s by herself in a strange town though so I might go in a minute but I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“
Where is she? This can be a dangerous town,” he warned seriously.

“
She’s in the motel room, she’s all right.”

“
Which one? Some of them are more dangerous than the streets. There’s just me in this big house so you’re welcome to stay here,” he said generously.

“
We couldn’t impose on you like that.”

“
I’m offering, aren’t I? Gives me a chance to catch up some more with that old rogue.”

“
Thanks, but we’ve booked a room for the week.”

“
I’ll get you your money back. I know that when I came back I was scrimping and saving every dollar – you two should save your money and you can stay here for free provided you let me talk to Del some more.”

“
We’d have to pay board.”

“
You’ll be offending me soon. That’s how you pay me, Jimmy, you let me talk to my friend. Do we have a deal?” he said, extending his oversized hand.

“
Okay,” Grey said, shaking his hand. “We will pay for our own food.”

“
Whatever,” George said, humouring him. “Let’s go and pick up your wife then. Can I talk freely in front of her? Does she know what you are?”

“
Yeah, she knows. Even that didn’t put her off marrying me so that gives you an idea of how special she is.”

“
It’s an unconventional pastime, certainly,” he said, talking as he walked away to put on his coat and gesturing for Grey to follow him as they went out to the car. “So were you married before or after the war – sorry, son, you’re not that old, I meant during.”

“
After. She looked after me when the war was still being fought so we knew each other and spent all of our time together for a year before we wed.”

George shook his hand again, more vigorously this time, the handshake an acknowledgement of respect as he learned that Grey had been a soldier too and he said, “A lot of my friends married nurses.”

“
She wasn’t my official nurse, but she did more for me than a registered nurse would.”

“
What does that mean?” he said with a sly wink.

“
No, no,” Grey said shaking his head, smiling at the mild ribbing.

“
I married after the war too. Sorry, I’m forgetting that I’ve told you this already when I told Del. The marriages after the war lasted – they didn’t know you any different. It was the marriages that were separated by the war that split up – the men couldn’t settle back into it and the women couldn’t recognise them…”

Now that George trusted Grey he was friendliness personified, extremely loquacious and helpful, telling Grey to go and fetch his wife and their bags while he talked to the desk clerk, managing to get them a full refund.

“
We’ll pay for a day.” Grey offered, but the desk clerk wouldn’t hear of it and Grey knew the extra money would come in handy. George had practically chewed Grey’s ear off on the drive to the hotel and on the way back he was more restrained, sharing fewer stories and keeping his language polite, still behaving very friendly and drawing conversation out of Germaine. France held a nostalgic interest to him and he asked her about where she came from and what it was like before he told them of the French towns he visited, his account more colourful and poetic than Germaine and James’ portrayal of Maramont. The guestroom was always prepared for visitors, a spacious room in a house that was only a little smaller than Laura’s manor house in Ravensbeck and both Grey and Germaine felt that they would enjoy their week here.

George had worked late the previous night, having only just arrived home before Grey called around, and he did not have to go to work until midday so Grey let him conduct an extended conversation with Del in the morning (where George apologised to both Del and Grey for reneging on his promise to take Grey out drinking that evening, having getting carried away the previous night and forgetting about his shift). George’s eldest daughter, Maddy Croft, ran the house for her father and she called around to cook him his dinner before he left and was surprised to see that he had two strange visitors. She made her displeasure clear, staring at both of them before George explained that Grey was the son of one of his army buddies (he didn’t like lying but found it easier) and that he was putting them up for a while. Maddy could not object to this and made out that she was pleased to meet them, making Germaine hope that her sister was a better actress than Maddy else she would never make it in theatre. Maddy lived two minutes walking distance from her father’s house and usually cooked one meal for him (lunch or dinner, depending on his shift) and would spend a few hours cleaning or washing (earning her two lots of housekeeping money, though she would have looked after him for free) but she left the house when her father did. Grey and Germaine looked after the house for him in the week that they stayed there, having to do something to repay him as he wouldn’t even let them pay for groceries. George did take Grey drinking on his next free night, and while they didn’t go to as many pubs as Del wanted, flitting between two, one owned by a friend of George’s and the other largely patronised by police, they did drink enough to sate him, Del satisfied when Grey began to make absolutely no sense. By the end of the week George had spent more than 24 hours talking to Del, and it wasn’t enough and he asked Grey to consider staying longer.

Grey was flattered that he wanted them to stay and said, “We appreciate the offer and all of the generosity you’ve shown us and we will definitely return here to see you again if you’ll let us pay.”

“
What if I let you pay now? Would you stay? If you did decide to stay I wouldn’t ask to talk to him as much as I have been. Even if I only get to talk to him for 20 minutes a day that’s fine because you two are fine company too.”

“
Don’t worry about that. I don’t begrudge you any of the time you’ve spent talking to Del. The thing is I’ve told you about the messages, the tour for Germaine, and there’s something else. I’m going to put on a show soon, showing what I can do, and I won’t do that in Detroit because it’s not fair to you. People know that you know me.”

“
That makes no difference. I might not admit that I believe in it but I don’t care if people know that I have a friend who’s a medium.”

“
You’re in a respected position. I won’t even perform in Michigan just to make…”

“
You have a gift. I’m not going to tell you not to share it with others. If you hadn’t put yourself out on a limb I would never have had this time with Del, and that took balls, coming to see me and tell me that. I won’t be there at your shows, but I support the idea,” he said encouragingly.

“
We’ll probably be back in about six months time. I’ll have the trial run in a different state and let you know how it went.”

“
It’s Del’s birthday in…six weeks, it’ll be. Stay until then. Give me that day with him.”

Grey grimaced at this as he weighed up the offer. “Are you sure that wouldn’t be outstaying the welcome?”