take. I'm staying at the Drake because I know babies. This is supposed to be a vacation and I like my shuteye.'
You couldn't get a better hotel than the Drake. Not in this city. Expensive, though.'
Nimmo laughed. I've got a pretty good fucking pension myself. Come on, George. What's with the dollars and cents? You know all that stuff. Being an assistant super in Miami is just a golfing scholarship.'
I haven't played golf in a long while. Your life sounds pretty good to me, Jimmy. You're in here with these broads. Playing golf. Staying at the Drake. What more do you want?'
Nimmo pulled a face, cavilling. It's not New York,' he sighed.
You really miss New York?'
Don't you?'
Sometimes, I guess. But Chicago's okay.'
Let me tell you something, George. I never liked Chicago. It's a bullshit town. The place stinks. I looked up the name and apparently Chicago's an Indian name for swamp gas. What else do you need to know?' Nimmo chuckled, enjoying himself, almost hoping that one of the club's other patrons might overhear, and object, so that he could tell them to fuck off.
It doesn't smell bad any more,' offered White.
How can you like a city with a National League club that hasn't won a World Series since nineteen oh-eight? Another thing I hate about it? The way these swamp-living bastards have managed to shirk their responsibility for making the atom bomb.'
How'd you work that out, for Christ's sake?'
The world's first nuclear reactor was built right here in Chicago, in forty-two, by Enrico Fermi. But when they go off to Los Alamos, to build the damn bomb, they don't call it the Chicago Project. They don't even call it the Los Alamos Project. They call it the Manhattan Project, like it's the fault of New York that the world's a button's push away from blowing itself to pieces. I tell you, these people are the goddamnedest liars I ever saw. You don't believe me? I'll prove it to you. Everywhere you go in this town you see a quotation by Rudyard Kipling. I have struck a city - a real city - and they call it Chicago. Those other places don't count. You see it on matchbooks, on pencils, on tea-towels, and, for all I know, you see it on a woman's girdle, only so far this trip hasn't worked out so well on that score. It's everywhere, I tell you. Now, because Kipling is a writer I really admire - Gunga Din has always been my favourite movie of all time-'
In a way, you remind me of Victor McLaglen.'
Thanks a lot. I'm nothing like that big ape. Anyway, I decided to look up that quotation.'
Thorough, you always were. Best Special Agent in Charge the New York Bureau ever had.'
And what Kipling actually went on to say was this: Having seen it, I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages. Well George, seventy years on, and nothing's changed. The place is still inhabited by savages. Present company excepted, of course. But however much I hate it, and I do hate it, it's still a sight better than Miami. Miami's a cold sore, George. I'm going mad down there.' He raised his glass. So here's to New York.'
White clinked glasses and sipped some of his Bourbon. I'm never sure if it's really New York I miss,' he admitted, or what we did there during the war. Things were more exciting then. Things were more straightforward. Winning the war seemed to be all that mattered and we were not looking over our shoulders to see if anyone didn't like the way we were doing it.'
You don't think the communists matter?'
Of course they do. Only now we have to be accountable to a Senate Investigation Committee telling us who is a proper person to use in waging that war. Good results don't seem to matter any more, as much as how these results are achieved. The politicians don't understand how it works. How things have to work. I guess that's what I miss most, Jimmy.'
Nimmo nodded and raised his own glass to the old days when he and White had helped to create a deal between US Intelligence and the mob, in the person of Meyer Lansky, whereby Lucky Luciano was released from prison to pave the way for the invasion of Italy. Luciano's subsequent deportation had left the diminutive Jewish gangster the most powerful organised crime figure in America.
How is the little man?' asked Nimmo.
What makes you think I know? He lives in Miami. So do you. And you're the one he fixed a job for.'
Call that a job? Like I say, Miami AS isn't much more than a golf scholarship. I guess it's fortunate I like golf. Oh, there's the odd nickel-and-dime favour I do for the local teamsters. But it's not much more than that. You're the one who's still fighting the war in earnest, George. And I haven't spoken to Meyer in a long while. UnlessaEU|' He put aside the pipe he had been filling with tobacco and took out a packet of Lucky Strike. I can't get used to this damned pipe,' he confessed, lighting a cigarette.
Unless what?'
Nimmo exhaled smoke with loud satisfaction. Oh, I was just thinking that maybe I'm speaking to Meyer now, and I just don't know it yet.'
That's what you think, is it?'
No offence intended, George. But you did follow me in here. And we are talking about old times and what a great SAC I used to be. Don't ever get sentimental, old buddy. It doesn't suit you.'
White tapped out a Newport and lit it quickly.
You're wasted playing golf,' he said. Clearly.'
What else do you do when your wife leaves home with the fucking television?'
And it so happens that's not just my opinion.'
Safety in numbers, eh George?'
You're right about Meyer,' admitted White. He heard you were in Chicago and asked me to speak to you.'
And he and I practically neighbours, too. I'm hurt. What does he want?'
A favour for an old friend.'
Who does he want me to kill?'
He wants you to take a sit down, with Sam Giancana. You remember Sam, don't you?'
Mooney? He's a hard man to forget.' Nimmo grinned for a moment.
What's funny?'
I dunno. Meyer asks you to come and meet me, to ask if I wouldn't mind meeting Giancana. Seems to me like all Mooney had to do was pick up the telephone and ask me over for a drink.'
You know as well as I do, Jimmy, that's not the way things are done. This is Sam's town.'
It is? I thought Tony Accardo was the big cheese on the Chicago pizza.'
Not any more. Not for a while. It so happens that tomorrow Tony Accardo is going to walk into a courtroom here in Chicago, and be sent to prison. For income tax evasion.'
The same rap as Capone. It's not the feds these guys have to worry about, it's the IRS.'
Anyway, the point is this: you live in Miami, and you're a friend of Meyer's.'
That's nice to know.'
Which means that Sam has to go through the proper channels.'
You know, I haven't got a thing to wear,' said Nimmo.
Out of respect for Meyer.'
Can't think what I can do for Mooney.' Nimmo swallowed a mouthful of Bourbon and grimaced.
I wouldn't call him that, if I were you.'
Maybe it's something to do with Teamsters Local three-twenty. Barney Baker, Lennie Patrick, and the Yaras brothers. They've all got Chicago connections. Dave Yaras used to be Giancana's button. Now he's a juice man with the pension fund. Gotten themselves into some heat I don't know about yet. That must be it.'
So maybe you can help fix it. Or maybe Sam wants some advice. It's a sit down, that's all. Not the mob Apalachin meeting. A favour for an old friend. Meyer would have asked you himself, only he's a little busy right now. We've both got this thing going in the Bahamas.'
Meyer still trying to get that free port idea off the ground, huh?'
Gotta have something to replace Havana, hasn't he?'
Replace Havana?' Nimmo sounded incredulous. They'll never replace Havana.' He shook his head. Certainly not with the Bahamas. Havana was more than just a few lousy casinos. Havana was an attitude of mind.'
