The Deep (21 page)

He raised his eyebrows. “The way you're perched on the seat. Thought maybe your ass hurt,” I said.

Tony snickered again.

Lenny said, “You're going to be fun, Deep.”

“Think about it a little bit.”

He didn't catch my meaning and his smile came off.

I said, “You're too old for the rough stuff, man.”

“Not with you. I've been looking forward to this for a long time.”

“Then you should know better.”

Flatly, Tony cut in with, “You think he's got an angle? He ain't the kind not to cover hisself.”

“I think our boy forgot himself this time,” Lenny answered.

“You better be sure.”

Lenny nodded. “I'm sure. I've known him a long, long time.”

“He's been away a long time too.”

“They never change, Tony. You should know that as well as I do. Isn't that right, Deep?”

I shrugged.

Tony's head swiveled on his shoulders like that of a praying mantis. He regarded me silently for a long time, then turned and said to Lenny, “If I was you I'd knock this guy off right now.”

“You're not me, Tony.”

“So you'll be wishin' you did. Something tells me.”

“I'm telling you to shut up.”

Tony grunted something and was still. The one on the other side had taken it all in without batting an eyelash.

We turned off the West Side Highway at the bridge and angled back across town. In ten minutes we stopped in front of a closed restaurant a block away from Yankee Stadium and Tony nudged me with the gun. “Out,” he said.

The other one went first, his gun out of sight, but ready. Tony came behind me, the muzzle of his gun steering me toward the door beside the restaurant.

Lenny opened the door and said, “After you.”

There weren't going to be many more chances after this one.

But Tony anticipated me by a full half second and the sound of his rod slamming against the side of my head was like that of a board being broken in half.

 

I could see my feet and they seemed miles away. They were together primly, the toes matching. The feet swam up closer and I saw why they were so neatly arranged. They had been tied like that. I had the sensation I was going to fall forward on my face and slowly I knew why I didn't. My hands were tied behind the chair I sat on with just enough slack to let me hang away from it.

Lenny's voice, sounding very fuzzy, said, “He's coming out of it.”

Somebody else said, “Good. Hold that ammonia under his nose again.”

Harsh, acrid fumes caught in my throat and I choked, my eyes flooding with tears. I pulled back away from the smell and shook my head. The little gray man sitting in front of me smiled. “Welcome,” he said.

I blinked, trying to see him, and when my eyes cleared recognized his face. They called him Mr. Holiday and spoke softly in front of him. He represented the syndicate interest in New York but unless you knew it for sure you'd think he was simply somebody's father. The others sitting comfortably around the room had equal, but different interests. Some of them had been at the meeting the night I walked in the K.O. Club. Now they were watching me in a detached, yet curious way. I was part of the obstacles of their business and had to be handled just so.

“You are all right?” Mr. Holiday asked me.

My head pounded and rather than talk I nodded once.

“Good. You know why you are here?”

This time I said no.

He made a face. “It really doesn't matter. However, you know what we want.”

There wasn't any sense playing games. “Bennett's stuff.”

“Exactly.”

I raised my head and forced a grin. “You can't get it from me. I haven't got it.”

Holiday made a quick gesture with his pudgy hands. “That we shall be sure of.” He waved a finger over his shoulder. “Maxie ... please.”

Maxie was a big fat guy with forearms like barrels. He walked up thoroughly enjoying what he had to do, looked at me clinically a moment, then whipped the back of his hand across my face. It came too fast to duck and before I could set myself the other one came at me from the other side. With open hands he almost tore my head off and when he stopped my mouth was full of blood from where my teeth were driven into my cheeks and my eyes began to puff out around the cheekbones.

Mr. Holiday said, “You can hear me, Deep?”

I bobbed my head.

“They tell me all about you. They tell me you are very tough. Too, they tell me how you used to make people talk, you and your friend Bennett. You know, naturally what will come next. You will talk or die very, very slowly.

Somehow I grated out, “I know the routine. It won't do you any good.”

Lenny Sobel said, “He's lying.”

“So? How do you know?”

“Because I remember how the two of them were. I know how they thought. Bennett left everything to this guy.”

“Wouldn't he have produced it by now if he had?”

“Listen,” Sobel insisted, “you can't tell what angle this one'll play. With Bennett it was cut and dried, but you can't tell with him. They're both nuts. He knows where it is all right! Squeeze it out of him ... he'll talk.”

“Perhaps you have something to say, Deep?” Holiday said in such a kindly way it was hard to believe what he actually was.

“Hell, if you're going to scratch me off, then do it.”

“We aren't in a hurry. We have time, but you haven't. It might be easier if you talked to us.”

Big Maxie said, “More, Mr. Holiday?”

Holiday held his hand up. “In a minute, perhaps. Maxie here is overly anxious. You should see what he can do with a cigar. Or old-fashioned stick matches. There are certain variations of the hotfoot ... ah, well, that will come later.”

“It won't ... do any good,” I said. I managed to rock back and suck air deep into my lungs. I couldn't feel my hands any more; the rope had bitten in too far and cut off the circulation.

“Obstinacy can be painful, Deep. It will be easier to talk.”

I shook my head to clear it but it only pounded harder. “Clue me,” I said.

Holiday smiled. “So, we begin. We shall start with the death of your friend. Who killed him?”

Gradually I brought my head up. “You did?”

“Certainly not us. That would be an unnecessary risk to run. Although Bennett was a nuisance factor to the organization over-all, he was better to pay off than aggravate. No, Deep, it was none of us. But maybe you have an idea.”

“I had Hugh Peddle in mind.”

Holiday nodded and smiled again. “Now there is a good thought. Friend Peddle has been growing in stature. He has been making large demands on the organization. He too was in Bennett's hand. Had he been able to operate freely he could have been even more important, but Bennett held him back. Besides, Peddle is unscrupulous. I'm quite aware of what he would do if Bennett's information were available to him. In fact, do you know what he tried to do to you?”

“Morrie Reeves and Lew James. He hired them to knock me off.”

“Right again. Luckily, he contracted for two men we could exert influence over and were able to hold them off a short while. We couldn't take a chance on having that treasure of Bennett's lie dormant somewhere to fall into the wrong hands. We had to know where it was. You know, we even warned Hugh, but he wouldn't take our advice.

“The organization can't afford to lose face. It held still for the bluff and bluster of Benny Mattick because there was a certain possibility that Benny, in his sneaky way, had managed to kill Bennett and uncover that information. In a way Hugh Peddle's action was a challenge to the organization's authority. We wanted you alive until something definite had been established. Did you or did you not have what we wanted.”

“Now you know,” I got out.

“Not yet. Not for sure.”

“So that's why you were after Peddle?” I wanted to keep him talking.

Holiday knew what I was doing but didn't seem to mind. “Hugh must be taught a lesson, one that he'll remember. We had to erase a good man because of him. You shot Morrie and Lew just couldn't be left around while he was wounded. Lew was a junkie and we couldn't take a chance.”

“You know what happened to the guy you sent out?”

The smile disappeared. “We heard. Everything they ever said about you seems to be true.”

From the depths of a chair Lenny Sobel said, “You're wasting time.”

“It's less messy and a lot more quiet if we talk it out.”

“I don't mind hearing him scream.”

Holiday's tone was soft, but there was an edge there that ended the argument. “I mind,” he told Lenny. “Now,” he said with a change of expression, “back to you.”

I felt all hollow inside, dragged out. I could barely hold my head up. “Too many guys died. Augie ... Cat ... it's not over yet.”

“You could stop it right now.”

“No ... sorry. Nothing I can ... say.”

“Mr. Holiday?” Lenny's voice had a new note.

“What is it, Lenny?”

He got up, walked to me, grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. “We've been going about this all wrong. We've been going at it from the wrong end.” He slammed my head to one side and let an ugly smile etch his mouth.

“Explain yourself, Lenny.”

“The dame ... Helen.”

“So?” Holiday's eyes went from Lenny to me. My stomach turned queasy and my heart started hammering again.

Lenny said, “It's so damn simple ... so damn simple. She screwed all of us.” Lenny was getting a charge out of this now. He watched my face and saw the knife sink in a twist. He could read my mind and started to tear it apart piece by piece.

“Think about something ... about Helen and Bennett. For two years she's been playing that creep like a harp and that was all he ever talked about. He was so gone over that fluff he couldn't see straight and don't think she didn't know what she was doing. Hell, she did it with me ... finagled me into more crazy things than I could think of. So okay, I was a sucker too, but not that bad.”

“Get to the point,” Holiday said.

“Sure. The point is Bennett played up to her, played the big shot so big he had to prove it and gave her the lowdown on why he was what he was. You know how Bennett got on top. He was like a Hitler the way he worked it. Once he was there everybody thought he was good, but we know better. A dame could see through him too, so what would he do to show a dame how big he was?” Lenny nodded, intrigued by his own thought. “He'd show her the business. She was going to be part of it, be the Mrs., why the hell shouldn't she know?”

“You're crazy!” I shouted. “She wouldn't go near that bum! Damn you, just try touching her and I'll kill you, Sobel, so help me I'll kill you!”

“Look who's talking,” he said softly.

Mr. Holiday said, “It makes sense. Is there more?”

“Sure, and it ties in very nicely. You know the party Bennett was going to throw at the clubhouse? It was supposed to be a secret, but the word got around. That big mouth couldn't keep still about anything.
He was going to announce his engagement to Helen.”

Words came out of me that I couldn't stop. I called him everything I could think of then slumped back, exhausted.

Holiday shook his head in sympathy. “Quite a violent reaction.”

“Sure,” Lenny said directly to me. “He was played for a sucker too. Bennett got knocked off before she could actually lay her hands on the stuff and she had to play along with Deep to see if he came up with it.”

Holiday stood up slowly, his face resigned. “And did you, Deep?”

Lenny answered for me. “Of course he did. He gave it to the girl to hold for him until he got all his contacts made and take care of the ones who could cause him trouble. That's why he was looking for Hugh Peddle tonight.” He laughed deep in his chest. “Hugh owes us a favor. We saved him from getting knocked off.” He took my .38 out of his pocket and looked at me meaningfully.

Mr. Holiday walked across the room and picked up the phone. He dialed a number and without bothering to give his name, he said, “I want you to bring Helen Tate to me. Yes, that's where we are. Just a moment. Lenny?”

Lenny called out her address and Holiday repeated it.

He put the phone down and made a motion toward another room. One by one they all filed out behind him and I heard them mixing drinks and laughing. Lenny Sobel was by far the loudest.

When the phone rang again Maxie answered it, took the message and when Mr. Holiday came back out he said, “The broad is gone, chief.”

“He say where?”

“No, but there's a newsie outside the building who saw her leave and knew the guy she was with. It was Hugh Peddle.”

There was no feeling in me any more. Nothing.

“Does he know where they went?”

Maxie repeated the question, waited and a minute later said, “The newsie saw him flag a hack. The guy wasn't cruising but was coming into the stand, and the newsie knows him. Says he'll be back pretty soon to pick up some regular trade.”

“Tell him to find out where friend Peddle went to with the woman and to call back at once.”

Maxie passed it on and hung up.

“It seems as if the Councilman has followed your line of reasoning, Lenny. Things are beginning to look up.”

“That bastard!”

“But a smart one. He has ideas about taking over on both ends.”