Atkinson dropped the shot in a lump, shook his head, wheezed, and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his lumberjack.
‘If that’s twenty years old, it’s been dead for nineteen. Lemme talk to the Ghee with the brass nuts.’
‘Dom?’
‘I don’t mean Lindy, sweetheart.’
Atkinson sipped his second Scotch and started the slow cremation of another cigar. He figured he wouldn’t have to wait long for Pronzini.
‘So who’s asking?’ demanded a voice at his elbow.
Pronzini was a heavy, darkly handsome man with thick black hair, heavy black brows, and heavy sideburns to the bottoms of his ears. He wore a tight chalk-striped double-breasted suit tailored for a Pronzini twenty pounds younger.
Atkinson jerked a head at the front door.
‘Last time I saw one of those was in a cathouse on the south side of Cicero, out near the Hawthorne racetrack. Button-operated. You get your man between doors, then lock all three electrically. The man on this side pumps a few rounds into the door, maybe, chest-high.’
There was a sneer in Pronzini’s voice. ‘You John Law?’
‘Two weeks after the place opened up, the inside door looked like Swiss cheese. Between doors looked like a slaughterhouse. Hymie Weiss and his boys burned it to the ground for a thousand bucks from a committee of reform. Now Hymie Weiss is dead.’ He added tonelessly, ‘No, I ain’t John Law.’
Pronzini gave a meaningless grunt and jerked his head.
‘Let’s barber.’
They took the end booth, next to a split in the drapes behind which Atkinson assumed would be a rear exit. Three tables away a very young man with a shock of blond wavy hair was talking with a petite girl in a bright red satin cocktail dress. The young man looked drunk and intense, the girl sober and bored.
Pronzini snapped his fingers at the bartender. To Atkinson, he said, ‘What’s your grift? The eastern mobs don’t send nobody around ever since a couple of their boys went home in the baggage car.’
Atkinson relit his stogie.
‘How about one man with money to spend, and willing to play by the house rules?’
‘He might find some action,’ Pronzini admitted.
The bartender appeared at the table. Pronzini looked at Atkinson.
‘It was supposed to be Antiquary.’
‘Yeah. Tony, bring my friend here some of the real stuff. The real stuff, you got that?’ The bartender went away. Atkinson flicked ash on the floor. The darkly handsome bootlegger leaned forward confidingly.
‘Wait till you taste this Scotch. Smooth as a baby’s butt.’
‘Word I pick up around the speakies is that you gotta juice the cops in this town if you want to make connections.’
Pronzini chuckled complacently. ‘I ain’t saying you’re wrong.’
‘Anyone special who-’
Tony set down Pronzini’s beer and Atkinson’s Scotch. Prewar, right enough, rich smoky taste with an edge of bitterness that woke up the throat and nose. Pronzini was watching with delighted eyes.
‘Didn’t I tell you?’
‘I wouldn’t mind a couple of bottles to take-’
The golden-haired youth was on his feet, shouting at the girl in the red dress. As he shouted, he jerked greenbacks from his wallet and threw them on the floor.
‘Go ahead, take it, take the money!’ he cried, tears running down his face. ‘That’s all you’re after, isn’t it? Isn’t it? That’s all you’re after.’
‘Jesus Christ,’ grumbled Pronzini. The bartender and the bouncer were already converging on the table. ‘Ya gotta let him in, his daddy’s on the Board of Supes, but I tell ya, he gives the place a bad name. Can’t hold his liquor and can’t hold his dames.’
The girl was down on both knees like a washerwoman, scrabbling after the money. The boy threw the empty wallet at her head. The bouncer grabbed his arm from behind. The boy spun gracefully, yelling, and threw a right- hand lead at the blued jaws. The bouncer kneed him in the crotch. He fell on the floor. The girl was on her feet, backing away, her face composed and sullen.
Pronzini stood up, shaking his head sourly. ‘C’mon, we can’t talk in all this racket.’
Atkinson, carrying the bottle casually by the neck, followed him through the break in the drapes. He was glad to get out of the suddenly stuffy barroom.
Beyond the door was a long narrow room stacked floor to ceiling with wooden crates of liquor. Over his shoulder, Pronzini said, ‘We got a private room back here we won’t be disturbed.’
The door at the far end led to another room, this one small and square with a bed and table and dresser and chairs. Three other doors: bathroom, closet, and one probably opening on stairs down to the dark narrow alley he could see from the window. Pronzini sat down at the table and gestured Atkinson to a seat across from him.
‘Okay, bo, you tell me what sort of financing you’ve got, I’ll tell you whether there’s any chance we can deal.’
‘Maybe you could lay out your setup for me a little first.’
He treated himself to Scotch as Pronzini talked about payoffs and which cops had to be juiced on a regular basis. Atkinson drank and listened and reminded himself to go easy on the hootch; he had a long night ahead, and a lot of details to remember, and he was already getting a heat on.
Only it wasn’t a heat. He started clumsily to his feet as he realized what was happening to him. The bitter edge to the Scotch! He cursed the heavy, grinning, distorted face. He reached across the table for it. Tear it off its fat neck. But the floor moved sideways under his feet to spill him over so his chin struck the edge of the table.
Through waves of nausea, Vic Atkinson could hear a voice that sounded vaguely familiar. Then he placed it. Dominic Pronzini. It came back to him. Like a rube from the sticks. The real stuff, Tony. The real stuff.
‘… he used to hang around North Beach in the old days when I was a kid… Huh?’
Atkinson realized Pronzini was on the phone. ‘Naw, I don’t know his grift, nothing in his poke but a few bucks… Yeah. No. Sure. He ain’t going nowhere…’
Atkinson tried to move his head, but the waves of nausea swept over him again. Chloral hydrate. Probably would have knocked him out for hours if he’d been a smaller man. As it was, hitting his chin had knocked him out. The Mickey Finn had him drifting… paralyzed..
He came back again, maybe a little stronger. Pronzini was back on the phone with the same guy and a different conversation.
‘Who you sending to — no, check that, I don’t want to know. The alley door’ll be open for him. But what difference does it make who this guy is? My boys can make sure he gets the message. He wakes up in an alley somewhere with his teeth in his pocket…’
Away again, drifting. Try to move the head, so he’d know if he was
… gently. Gently, goddamn you! Ohh-h-h…
Sound of door opening. Footsteps approaching. He realized he didn’t even know if he was lying on his back or his face. No feeling. But better now, even so. Not going away and coming back.
Above him, a grunt of surprise. On his back then. The newcomer seeing his face and recognizng him. Had to get eyes open, see who it was had come in from the downstairs alley door Pronzini had left open. Had to. It could be the man. The man. Crack his case before he even got started on it.
Now!
With a supreme effort, Vic Atkinson forced his eyelids open. He was flat on his back, staring straight up. Up, high as the moon, at the elongated, distorted image his eyes gave his foggy brain.
The man, all right. But opening his eyes had been a mistake.
‘Yes, well, that’s it, isn’t it?’ said the man looking down at him. Turned away, regret in his eyes, Atkinson could see him go to the door, open it six inches, call Pronzini and shut it again.
He was standing at the window, overcoat collar turned up, hat pulled low on his head, when Pronzini came in.
‘Yeah?’
