The Million-Dollar Wound (24 page)

I could only smell scorched flesh. My lunch was acting up again.
Be a cop,
a voice said.

“Somebody was looking for something,” I said, making myself get back into this on that level. “What?”

Shrug. “Jewels, maybe. Estelle was known to have ’em. That doesn’t rule out this being a hit; why shouldn’t an assassin pick up a little extra something in the bargain? At the same time confusing the police as to the motive.”

That made sense, but then, on cue, Sergeant Donahoe, a heavyset middle-aged detective with a basset-hound mug, came in from the other room with his hands full of obviously expensive jewelry, including a diamond ring and a glittering diamond bracelet.

“We found this in a baseboard hiding place,” Donahoe said, “in the living room.” His hound-dog expression made the news sound unintentionally woeful.

“So much for jewels,” I said.

“That just means the killers didn’t find the goddamn things,” Drury said, shrugging it off.

“Also,” Donahoe said, piling the jewels in one hand, reaching in his pocket with the other, “this was tucked away in there.” A little silver .25 automatic with a pearl handle.

Drury took the gun. “Didn’t do her much good hid away, did it?” Dropped it in his pocket.

“And there’s a sable coat in the front closet,” Donahoe said glumly, and went out.

“So much for fur robbery as a motive,” I said. “If they weren’t looking for furs or jewels, what’s left?”

“Money,” Drury said.

“A popular item,” I admitted. “But Estelle was known for socking her dough away, in banks, in safe deposit boxes. She was notorious for sponging off people; she rarely had a cent on her, or in her place.”

“There is a rumor,” Drury said carefully, and I had the feeling he had waited till we were alone to say this, “that a fund Nicky Dean was in charge of—something to do with ‘taxing’ the Stagehands Union members—was emptied just before he was sent up. Dean refuses to discuss it, but the estimate is somewhere in the million-dollar area.”

The infamous 2 percent income tax Montgomery had once told me about.

“Jesus.” I finished the scenario myself: “And, I suppose, rumor further has it that Estelle was entrusted with this dough? By and for Nicky, till he got out of stir?”

Drury nodded.

“Then this could have been
anybody,
Bill. Anybody who knew Estelle and knew about the million. They tortured her and she didn’t talk. She held on to her dough till the last. Which is like her, the greedy little bitch. Damn her!”

“Nate, I’m sorry I brought you in on this…”

“Shut up. Quit saying that.”

“Let me ask you something.”

“Ask.”

“Suppose I can prove Nitti was behind this. Not necessarily in court, ’cause God only knows if that’s even possible. You know the department’s record where solving gangland murders is concerned. But suppose I can prove to
your satisfaction
that Nitti did this. Would you tell what you know on the witness stand when the grand jury calls you?”

Estelle’s death in my nostrils, I said, “Yes.”

He grinned and shook my hand; his enthusiasm was not matched by anything of the kind from me. I was feeling weak.
Be a cop,
the voice said.

“What about those letters?” I heard myself say. Working by rote, now.

He went over and bent down at the dresser where the bundled letters lay. One of the bundles was already undone; he read a sample. Skimmed another, saying, “From some serviceman. Love letters. This one’s in answer to a letter of hers, so she was exchanging ’em with him. Pretty hot stuff. ‘If only I could see and fold you in my arms,’ ha. Hey, he’s pissed in this one—‘Damn your cruel heart.’ Jeez, you don’t think she was seeing some other guy besides him, do you? Heaven forbid. There’s no name on any of these that I can see, just signs his initials—A. D. Year of our Lord? Ha. Anyway, there’s a San Diego address for referral overseas. Well, we’ll track him down soon enough. Huh, and there’s a photo, too.” He held it up for me to see, a portrait of a young Marine in dress blues.

“Nate—what’s wrong? You’re white as a ghost.”

“Nothing. I think it’s time I got out of here, is all.”

I didn’t tell him it was a face I’d seen before. The last time had been in a shell hole on Guadalcanal.

D’Angelo.

She floated across the dance floor, which was her stage, which was hers alone, graceful as a ballet dancer, naked as the human id but considerably more controlled, a huge ostrich feather fan in either hand, first this fan and then that one, one or the other, strategically placed at all times, granting flashes of flesh at her whim, feathers swooping, fluttering, moving on the toes of her high-heeled pumps, blond hair stacked in curls upon an angelic countenance, no hint of the devil in her smile as her fleeting glimpses of nakedness turned the men in the house into peeping toms and the women into jealous janes.

The music, as usual, was classical—“Moonlight Sonata,” her theme song—filtered through the big-band sound of Pichel and Blank’s Orchestra, men in white jackets sitting on risers behind her, enjoying the uncensored rear view. The lighting was soft and blue, and from where I sat with Eliot, ringside at Rinella’s Brown Derby, at Monroe and Wabash, in “the heart of the Loop!,” she didn’t look a day older than she had when I’d seen her at the World’s Fair almost ten years ago, cavorting with a “bubble,” a big balloon she’d temporarily traded in for her ostrich feathers. It had been the second year of the fair and a new gimmick was called for. Even beautiful naked blonde women had to keep up with the changing times. Only time wasn’t keeping up with Sally, apparently. She was eternally beautiful. Unlike Estelle Carey, fate had been kind. Fate and soft lighting.

And now she was reaching the climax of her act, the moment all had been waiting for, when she unashamedly threw up the feather fans and they loomed over her as she stood like the statue of Winged Victory, smiling, proud, one leg lifted gently, knee up, keeping one small region a secret, a secret she’d shared with me, but long ago. Her smile was regal, her head back, proud of her beauty, her body, her talent. The house went wild with applause.

The lights grew dim and the applause continued but when the lights came back up Sally was gone, and no amount of clapping could bring her back. Once she raised her fans and showed her all, there was no encore possible. For those eager enough for another glimpse of the goddess in the full-figured flesh, there were two more shows tonight. This had been the finale of the eight-thirty dinner show, and as the orchestra began playing schmaltzy dance music, “Serenade in Blue,” Eliot and I were working on our third after-dinner drink. Which was beer, as that and wine were the only options; distillers had been banned from producing drinking liquor since last October.

For an ex-prohibition agent—an understated way of describing him indeed—Eliot Ness could really put the beer away. He would have preferred scotch, just as I would have preferred rum. But there was a war on.

“She really brought the house down,” Eliot said, latest beer in hand.

“She always does.”

“How long’s it been since she played Chicago?”

“Last time I know of was in ’41. She may have played here while I was away, though.”

“Probably not,” he said, taking a sip. “The billing said, ‘Triumphant Return’—that sounds like it’s been a while. You’d think she could play Chicago any time she wanted.”

“She could,” I said, “if she was willing to play the burlesque houses. But she only plays nightclubs and other classy…what is the word she uses? Venues.”

“Ha. Uh, how well do you know her, anyway?”

“Not well, anymore. I haven’t talked to her in years.”

“You knew her well once?”

“I knew a lot of women once. Damn few twice.”

He smiled. “You always feel sorry for yourself when you drink.”

I smiled. “Fuck you.”

A young lady at the table next to us spilled her wine; her older beau glared at me. Both were in evening dress. Both should have been less easily shocked for people who’d bribed a maitre d’ for the front-row seat at a strip show.

Eliot said, “You’re going to have to watch that mouth.”

“Out with soap?” I drank my beer. “Yeah, I know. I’m not fit for the real world, yet. Could you do me a favor?”

“Try to.”

“I’d like to track down a service buddy of mine.”

He shrugged. “Shouldn’t be any problem. In my capacity, I work hand in hand with the military brass, every day.”

“You mean, as the guy safeguarding the health and morals of the armed forces.”

“That’s morale, but yes. I’m well connected.”

“You should’ve shown some of your movies to Capone.”

Eliot smirked. “Al and I are fighting syphilis each in his own way.”

The young lady spilled her wine again; I waved and smiled as her beau glared.

“Of course,” he said, “if your friend is still overseas, it could take a while to track him.”

“He should be stateside by now. He was pretty badly wounded. He was one of the guys in that shell hole with Barney and me.”

His eyes narrowed. “Oh. You figure he was hospitalized over here.”

“Yeah. He might even be out by now. The kind of wound I had, they keep you inside longer.”

“What’s his name?”

“D’Angelo. B Company, 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment, 2nd Marine Division.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute.” He dug inside his suitcoat and came back with a little notebook and a pen. He had me repeat the information.

“What’s his first name?”

“Anthony, I think.”

“You think?”

“We weren’t much on first names.”

He put the notebook and pen away, smiled tightly. “Get right on it, first thing tomorrow.”

“Thanks. I’ll be in the office.”

“This sounds pressing.”

“It is. Somebody else will be looking for him, and I want to get there first.”

Eliot thought about that for a moment, then smiled again and said, “It’s your business. You asked a favor, and it’s yours, no questions asked. I don’t expect an explanation.”

“I know you don’t. And I’m not going to give you one, either.”

He laughed and finished the beer. Waved at a waitress, cute as candy in her skimpy black and white lacy outfit, who came over and brought him a new bottle. Manhattan brand; the Capone mob’s label, forced upon the local niteries by union pressure. I was still working on my previous bottle of Nitti nectar.

“This afternoon sounds like it was pretty rough,” he said, pouring the bottle’s contents into his glass, meaning Estelle.

“Rough enough. That’s something else you could do for me.”

“Oh?”

“Keep me posted, Eliot. Now that Estelle’s been murdered, the shit’s gonna hit the federal fan.”

The young lady got up and threw her napkin down and the beau went rushing after her.

“You mean, specifically,” he said, “you’re interested in how this event affects Nicky Dean and his willingness to testify.”

“Precisely, my dear Watson. And my prediction is he zips his lip.”

“Do you agree with Drury that it’s a mob hit, or not?”

“Why, did Drury fill you in on his views?”

Eliot nodded.

I said, “It could well be. But it sure isn’t Nitti’s style.”

He nodded again. “I tend to agree. On the other hand, a million dollars is a lot of money.”

“So you know about that? The Stagehands ‘income-tax’ fund.”

“Yes. And that’s a conservative estimate. I’ve heard as high as two million, and the most frequent figure is one point five mil.”

“Your point being?”

He lifted his eyebrows and set them back down. “A torture killing is hardly Nitti’s style, granted. Estelle Carey was enough of a celebrity in this town to guarantee her murder attracting headlines. Knowing that, Nitti would seem more likely either to have arranged an ‘accident’ or at the very least brought in out-of-town torpedoes to neatly do the deed. Estelle was running with Eddie McGrath, you know.”

“No, I didn’t. And who the hell is Eddie McGrath?”

“A New York crumb. Very high ranking in the Joe Adonis/Frank Costello circle. She’d been seeing him down in Miami Beach.”

“In other words, if Nitti wanted her dead, he could bring in out-of-town talent and the blame easily be placed on New York.”

“Right. He’s done it before.”

“E. J. O’Hare,” I said. “Tommy Maloy.”

“Certainly. And others. So I agree that using what appears to be local talent on a torture killing doesn’t fit Nitti’s pattern. But there are rumors, Nate, that Nitti’s slipping.”

“Nitti slipping? How?”

He shrugged. “Mentally. Physically. Some say Ricca’s more powerful than Nitti, now. Or anyway coming up fast. You yourself mentioned Accardo and Giancana, so you had to have noticed it starting even before you left town, last year.”

I shook my head no. “I don’t buy it. Nitti slipping? No way. Never.”

“He’s not a god, Nate. Or some kind of satan, either. He’s a crafty, intelligent, amoral human being. But he is a human being. His wife Anna died a year and a half ago, you know.”

“I did see that in the papers…”

He gestured with two open hands. “He was devoted to her. His family is all to him, they say.”

I remembered him showing me the photo of his little boy.

“He’s had some financial setbacks,” Eliot went on. “He’s got this federal grand jury breathing down his neck, and the income-tax boys are after him again. He’s been in and out of the hospital for his ulcers and back pain. It’s closing in on him.”

“And this, you think, might lead to him condoning what happened to Estelle Carey today?”

“Possibly. That money she supposedly had hidden away for Dean was something Nitti might well have instructed his killers to find out the whereabouts of, by whatever means necessary, before finishing the job. A million bucks, Nate! Or possibly even two. Sure it’s possible.”

“I don’t think so.”

“You don’t want to think so.”

“Don’t be stupid.”

“I’m not stupid. But I think you, well… Nate, you look up to the guy, somehow. Admire him.”

“Bullshit.”

“You just can’t remember when this wasn’t his town. You just can’t accept change.”

“I didn’t know I had a choice. I tried to buy a pair of shoes, late this afternoon, they told me I needed a goddamn ration ticket. I told ’em I was at Guadalcanal fighting to preserve their way of life, and they suggested I go
back
there and ask for a ration book.”

He laughed. “I bet you took that well.”

“Funny thing is, I did. I started out bad, and was shouting, the guy was shouting back, and then I just sort of faded away. Wandered back out on the street.”

“Well, you’d just come back from that ghastly scene at the Carey apartment…”

“That was part of it. But I can’t handle this place.”

He narrowed his eyes. “What place?”

“
This
place. The real world. You know, I thought when I got back here it would be the same.”

“And it changed on you.”

“Not really, not in any important way. That’s the trouble. I came back, and it was the same trivial everyday life waiting for me, my job, credit checks and insurance adjusting and divorce surveillance, and is that what we’re the fuck fighting for?”

“Maybe. Maybe it’s enough.”

“And then there’s the killing. The Outfit or whoever, they’re still at it, I mean here we are fighting for democracy over there and over here people are pouring whiskey on people and setting them on fire, and cutting them up and…”

He grabbed my arm, squeezed. Apparently it had been shaking, my arm.

“Nate.”

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Here,” he said. He handed me a handkerchief.

Apparently I’d been crying. I wiped my face with it.

“Goddamnit, I’m sorry, Eliot.”

Then the head waiter was standing next to me, and I figured I was finally getting thrown out of the joint.

I was wrong.

“Miss Rand would like to see you backstage, sir,” he said. Politely. Only the faintest trace of distaste.

I asked him how to get there and he pointed to a door to the right of where the orchestra was playing.

“Eliot, come with me,” I said.

“No. This should be a private reunion.”

“I’m not up to it. You come along.”

Reluctantly, he rose, and we moved along the edge of the crowded dance floor where couples, old men and young women mostly, were clutching each other to “Be Careful, It’s My Heart.” We went up some stairs and in a hallway we found a door with a gold star; not a service flag, either. I knocked.

She opened the door and smiled at me, looking just a little older, but not much; her blue eyes, the bluest light blue eyes in the world, stood out startlingly, partly due to the long theatrical lashes, partly due to God. She had on a silk robe, not unlike Estelle’s but blue, yawning open a little to reveal creamy talcumed breasts; no doubt she was naked underneath it, like Estelle, albeit in better condition.

Then she saw Eliot, and her eyes just barely revealed her disappointment that I wasn’t alone, but her smile stayed, and stayed sincere, and she was shaking Eliot’s hand without my having introduced her, saying, “Eliot Ness—this is a real treat. I knew you and Nate were friends, but somehow it never seemed real to me till this very moment.”

She cinched the belt ’round her robe tighter, and gestured for us to step in. It was a small, neat dressing room with a large lightbulb-framed makeup mirror, a few chairs and a hinged dressing screen.

“Where do you keep your feathers?” Eliot asked, with a cute wry little smile. He always did well with the ladies, by the way. Except in marriage.

“That’s the prop man’s department,” she said, with her own cute little wry smile. “Union rules, you know.”

“Nate knows all about the Stagehands Union.”

Sally didn’t get the joke. “Really?” she said, looking at me, a bit confused.

“Inside joke,” I said. “You were wonderful tonight.”

“Thank you,” she said. Her smile tried to stay polite but I could sense the ice forming. “You might’ve told a girl you were coming.”

I shrugged. “Last minute. Eliot showed up and invited me out for supper…”

“And,” Eliot said, saving me, “I’d noticed you were appearing in town, and knew you two were old pals, so I hauled him down here. He, uh…he only got back just this morning.”

She stood near me, looked at me carefully. Touched my face. “I can see that. You dear. You poor, poor dear.”