“Because. Because Leon knows a man who’ll pay a lotta money for just one bond. He thinks that if he can follow down one, then all the rest’a the money that the old Jew stole will be easy to find.”
“I don’t get it,” I said.
“Sol took money from somebody he worked for.”
“Who?” I asked, just to see what she would say.
“I don’t know. Leon says that there’s this guy wanna get that bond ’cause he thinks that the serial numbers will lead them to a lot more money.”
“When does this guy pay off?” I wanted to know.
“Leon’s the only one who knows him. We have to wait for Leon to make the deal.” Elana didn’t sound satisfied with Leon having control.
“You know Leon might remember how you tricked him and tried to cheat him after he gets his hands on all that money,” I suggested.
Elana thought over the possibility.
“But he’s the only one could get the money,” she said.
“No,” I said. “Your friend Grove knows how too. He’d be a lot easier to deal with.”
I was sure that Elana was thinking of how to get the bond and go to her old lover. If Fearless and I had walked out right then, Leon would have been bondless and dead by sunset.
“You wanna throw in with me and Fearless?” I asked.
Elana was wondering about the offer when I heard a familiar-sounding motor drive up almost to the front door. A car door slammed. Four seconds later the front door flew open. Leon Douglas, gaudy as a butterfly and ugly as a stump, filled the doorway with an instantaneous murderous rage.
22
ELANA LOVE MOVED to a neutral corner where she could wait to see which side would win. I could hardly blame her.
Leon scanned the room quickly. He registered Elana, now in a dress, passed over me without a pause, and then looked at Fearless. He may have recognized his former cell-block neighbor, or maybe not.
The fireplug gangster moved even faster than the first time I saw him. He went straight at Fearless and clocked him on the jaw with a blow that sounded like a twenty-pound hammer on stone. Fearless almost flew backward, hit the wall, and slid to the ground. Douglas turned toward me then.
“I remember you,” he said.
I reached for Sol’s pistol, then remembered that I’d left it under the front seat of Layla’s car.
Leon Douglas saw my futile gesture and smiled a smile as cruel as Elana Love’s laugh.
Elana gasped. I looked at her, and so did Douglas.
She was looking toward the wall where Fearless had regained his feet.
The grunt of amazement that issued from Douglas’s deep chest was probably the closest thing to a compliment that he ever gave. He closed on Fearless again and connected with a left hook that even Rocky Marciano would have feared. Fearless went down halfway, but this time he was up before Douglas regained his balance.
Again Douglas lunged, but this time it was with the intention of catching Fearless in a bear hug. Before the thug could get his arms into position Fearless connected with a one-two to the head. The gangster leapt again. This time he got his arms around Fearless and squeezed. He would have certainly broken Fearless’s back except that my friend had his left hand free. With that mighty mace he landed body blows to Douglas’s right side. One, two, three — and there was no effect — four, five, six — Leon went down on one knee. By seven and eight Douglas let go and fell back with his fists up but his speed greatly diminished.
Fearless smiled.
That was the exact moment of the greatest elation that I had ever experienced. Leon Douglas had already beaten me. He had defeated my heart and my spirit. I couldn’t imagine anyone standing up to his murderous brutality.
And then Fearless smiled.
Leon came at Fearless again. But Fearless was connecting with his own hands of steel. He hit Douglas again
