“Helen got a lot out of Lynch.”
“She’d given Lynch a description of Leone shopping on Printer’s Row, so I guess Lynch figured he owed her.”
“Did Lynch happen to tell Helen what the prisoners admit to?”
“That smitten he ain’t. Helen asked. He sent her packing.”
“Permanently?”
“’Fraid so. I don’t think we’ll get any more out of the Secret Service.”
The long-legged Bell set a fast pace across town to the office. Harry Warren trotted to keep up.
“You ever hear of this Ferri teaming with Salata?” Bell asked.
“Nope.”
Bell said, “I never heard of an outfit of all-rounders. Birds of a feather is more the rule, but these guys are combining extortion, bombing, counterfeiting, smuggling, kidnapping. Crimes of brute force and crimes of quick wit. Is it an alliance of gangs—a ‘cartel’ of criminals? Or is a single mastermind forcing a variety of gangsters to do his bidding?”
“Damned-near impossible to whip any bunch of crooks into line,” said Warren. “Not to mention different kinds.”
“Cartel or mastermind, they’d be bigger, tougher, and better organized than the small-timers who call themselves Black Hand to scare folks. Makes me wonder what they’ll turn their hands to next.”
“Anything that pays,” said Harry Warren.
Bell said, “Or what they’ll stop at.”
12
You are hereby invited to Pink Tea
With Captain Michael Coligney
19th Precinct Station House
West 30th Street
3 p.m.
Sharp
A New York Police Department officer wearing a blue coat with shiny brass buttons and a tall helmet strolled the Tenderloin, twirling a nightstick and knocking on brothel doors with printed invitations for the proprietors.
Nick Sayers, proud owner of the Cherry Grove bordello, showed up early at the station house, ahead of his competitors. They trooped in soon after, looking anxious. Sayers waited with a small smile on his face. Captain Coligney’s Pink Teas routinely culminated in orders to “resort keepers” to shut down their “disorderly houses” within twenty-four hours. But unlike his competitors, Nick Sayers had an ace in the hole, information to sell that even “Honest Mike” would buy.
Someone had tipped off the newspapers, of course, and police reporters crammed into Coligney’s office, which was already packed with his invited guests, who were dressed to the nines.
“Will this change anything, Captain Coligney?” demanded the man from the Sun. “Won’t new owners switch names and open up again?”
The broad-shouldered, handsome Coligney was resplendent in dress uniform and amply prepared to deal with the press. “Shutting down the resorts is better and fairer than hauling poor, unfortunate women into the station house, holding them for the night in jail, and dragging them into court before they’re turned loose.”
Having quelled the press, he turned to his guests.
“Gentlemen, and ladies”—he nodded gallantly to several wealthy proprietresses—“we have tea, sandwiches, and cakes, but before we partake, please be aware that you are hereby enjoined to shut down your disorderly houses in twenty-four hours. I don’t want to see an open door or a light in the window after three o’clock tomorrow afternoon.”
Tea was downed, splashed liberally from flasks, sandwiches and sweets consumed, and soon everyone left except the owner of the Cherry Grove.
“Nick,” said Captain Coligney. “Shouldn’t you be off packing your bags?”
“Well, Captain, you would think so, wouldn’t you?”
A note of supreme confidence in Nick’s voice brought the captain up short. “Apparently, you don’t agree, Nick. Care to tell me about it?”
“I would prefer to keep my house open.”
“I would prefer to spend my summers in Newport, but I don’t see it in the cards.”
“I see it in my cards,” said Nick. “And I’m going to play them right.”
“An ace in the hole?” Coligney asked with a dangerous glint in his eye. The bejeweled and cologned Nick was a former “fancy man” who had developed a flair for business that turned a string of streetwalkers into the Ritz of the Tenderloin, and Mike Coligney had heard just about enough.
But Nick stood his ground. “Four aces.”
Coligney formed a fist. “I’m warning you, boy-o, you’re about to run into a straight flush.”
“Captain Coligney, I’m offering you priceless information in return for being allowed to stay open.”
“Priceless?”
“And vital.”
Coligney pointed at the clock on the wall. “Thirty seconds.”
“A secret club meets in my house. Wall Street men. So secret that even you didn’t know about it.”
“What do they do?”
“Drink, talk, carouse.”
“Sounds like all your patrons. Minus the talking.”
“It’s the talking that you will let me stay open for.”
Coligney saw that Nick was in deadly earnest. The brothel owner truly believed that the cops would make an exception for his house. “O.K., spill it. You’ve got thirty seconds.”
“Their secret club. It’s kind of like a joke, but it’s not a joke. These gentlemen run Wall Street.”
“This club have a name?”
“The Cherry Grove Gentlemen’s Society.”
“Original.”
“But, like I say, it’s a joke. Sort of.”
“Your thirty seconds is running out.”
“I listen in on ’em,” said Nick.
“How?”
“There’s a vent shaft for air. I can hear upstairs what they say in the library.”
“A vent which just happened to be there?” asked Coligney. “Or you had built so you could eavesdrop?”
“The latter,” Nick admitted with a grin.
“Why?”
“I listen for stock market tips. I mean, these men know everything before it happens. Twice I made a killing. Once with U.S. Steel, once with Pennsylvania Rail—”
Coligney exploded to his feet, both fists balled. “Are you trying to bribe me with stock tips?”
“No, no, no, no, no! No, Captain. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m just telling you how I happened to hear it.”
“Hear what?”
Nick took a deep breath and blurted, “They’re going to kill President Roosevelt.”
The police captain rocked back on his heels. Nick looked triumphant that he had captured his attention. Coligney sat back down heavily and planted his elbows on his desk. “What exactly did you hear?”
Nick reported in detail.
“Give me their names.”
“I don’t know their names.”
“They’re your regular customers.”
“I can tell you who was there. But I can’t tell which ones were talking.”
