01 The Big Blowdown

by George Pelecanos

  “All right. Reed, get on with it. So you went to the Hi-Hat and spoke to the tender—”

  “Right. And I got the name of the pimp.”

  “You didn’t hurt the tender, did you?”

  “Naw, he was John Wayne’s sister. He gave the pimp right up. I went over there to the cathouse, had a talk with the guy, little fellow by the name of Morgan. Him I hadda rough up, but not much. I could see right away that someone else had already landed a good one on his beak. I gave him a short right in the same place, made his eyes tear up—”

  “Get on with it, I said.”

  “All right. So I give this guy the business and find out about the girl. I get her name and her description and a few other things, too. Only, the girl, she ain’t around no more.”

  “So where is she?”

  “Well,” said Reed with a tight giggle, “you’re really gonna like this next part. Turns out an old friend of ours pulled her out of that cathouse.”

  Burke said, “Who’s that?”

  Reed smiled in the direction of Recevo. “Pete Karras.”

  Burke put his glass down on the desk. Recevo stared straight ahead.

  “Yeah,” said Reed, “it was Karras, and he hasn’t learned a goddamn thing. Seems he couldn’t help from bein’ his usual tough-nut self. Before he walked out of the cathouse, he even gave Morgan his name. Don’t that take all? Told Morgan to make sure and remember it. Well, he remembered it, all right.”

  “But why? What connects Karras to the girl?” Burke rubbed his temple. “Joe, you have any idea?”

  Recevo said nothing.

  Burke looked at him oddly. “Gearhart. Gearhart connects them. Isn’t that right, Joe?”

  “Yes,” said Recevo, not bothering to lie, knowing then that it was all coming toward him too fast.

  “It was Karras who tipped you to Gearhart, isn’t that right?”

  “Yes, Mr. Burke, that’s right.”

  Reed clapped his hands together, laughed loudly.

  “Why didn’t you tell me, Joe?”

  “Karras did us a favor fingering Gearhart. That’s the way I read it, anyway. But I didn’t know how you were gonna take it, so I kept it to myself.”

  “You feed me information,” said Burke in a grim and even way, “and I decide how to take it.”

  “Yes, Mr. Burke.”

  “You hear me, Joe?” Burke stood, stumbled a bit, leaned forward. He brought his fist down on the desk. “I decide!”

  “Yessir.”

  Burke fell back in his chair, narrowed his eyes to focus. He lowered his voice. “All right, let me think. Just give me a minute here so I can think.”

  Go on. Go on and think, you sloppy bastard. Have another shot of wisdom and think. Recevo dragged on his cigarette.

  So they all stayed where they were while Burke let the whiskey form a plan in his head.

  Burke cleared his throat. Then he said, “This is what I want, Joe: I want you to bring Karras in.”

  “Like I said, Mr. Burke, he did us a favor.”

  “Then I’m gonna do him one, too.”

  “How’s that?”

  Burke smiled thinly. “I called Philly this morning, Joe. Bender and his boys never arrived. It’s a lead-pipe cinch that Stefanos and the rest of them buried Bender. So now we’ve got to save face and bury the Greeks.”

  “Now you’re talkin’,” said Reed.

  Recevo had to think quickly. “Mr. Burke—the reason Pete Karras tipped me…well, I didn’t want to bring it up before, on account of you had so much on your mind. But the reason he tipped me is, he’s tryin’ to be a hero here. What I mean to say is, he wants to come back in. He wants another chance here with us.”

  “After what we did to him?”

  “Bullshit,” said Reed.

  “Forget about what we did to him. He’s seen his future. It’s in the back room of a hash-house, with an apron tied around his waist. He’s got a kid now—”

  “All right, I believe you.” Burke eyed Recevo. “I don’t know why, but I do. Which is all the more reason to bring him in. But first he’s gonna have to prove himself to me.”

  “By doing what?”

  “He’s gonna have to deliver the whore. I want to talk to her, see what Gearhart told her about us. I don’t want her chirping about our business to the cops. I wanna make sure she’s not going to trip us up.”

  “What the hell,” said Reed. “So he brings her in—so what? Like we got use for a cripple around here. What are we gonna do next, bring Harold Russell on board?”

  “Shut up. Reed,” said Burke. And then to Recevo: “Whad’ya think, Joe?”

  “I’ll talk to him, Mr. Burke.”

  “Talk to him. Yes. And if he has any ideas about doing something noble with the Greeks or the whore, give it to him like this: He stays with the Greeks, he dies. He tries to protect the girl, he dies. Get it?”

  “Yes, Mr. Burke.”

  “And Joe. You ever think of crossing me…you ever hold back on me in any way again…well, Joe, you’re going to die, too. Believe it.”

  “Y-y-yes, Mr. Burke.”

  Recevo put a twitch in his lip. He put it there, just like he had put the stammer in his reply. He had made it happen, like an actor would in a picture. Because it hadn’t come naturally. It hadn’t come naturally because it wasn’t there. The fear was not there anymore.

  “Tonight, Joe. Bring Karras and the girl in tonight.”

  “Okay, Mr. Burke. We’ll settle this tonight.”

  * * *

  “Okay,” said Karras. “I’ll see you then.”

  Karras hung the phone in its cradle. He stood in the middle of the living area of the apartment, touched the mole on his face. Eleni walked from Dimitri’s bedroom and through the hall.

  “I got him down,” she said.

  “Good. Listen, sweetheart, I gotta go out for a little while.”

  She studied his face. “Who was that on the phone just now, Pete?”

  “Joe Recevo.”

  “You’re goin’ out with Joe? Why?”

  “He wants to see me.”

  “So he calls and you jump.”

  “I’m goin’ out.”

  Karras walked to the bathroom, washed his face, ran some tonic through his gray hair. In the bedroom, he opened the top drawer of his dresser, withdrew a fifty-dollar bill that he had slipped in a rolled pair of socks back in 1946. He tucked the bill into his wallet. He went to the closet, found the rest of what he needed on the top shelf, attached what he had found onto his body and put his suit jacket on over that. He dropped a fresh deck of Luckies into the jacket. He shook himself into his topcoat, stood in front of Eleni’s full-length mirror, smoothed the topcoat out.

  John Hodiak. He winked at his reflection in the glass.

  Karras walked out of the bedroom and down the hall and opened the door to where his son slept in his crib. He leaned into the crib, kissed the boy on his sweaty scalp. He breathed in deeply; Dimitri’s black hair had the scent of Johnson’s shampoo. He ran a finger down Dimitri’s cheek.

  “My good boy,” whispered Karras.

  He limped from the room, leaving the door ajar so the child would not be hot.

  Eleni waited for Karras at the entrance to the hall. She put her arms around him, kissed him on the mouth. She looked in his eyes.

  “What is it, Pete?”

  “It’s nothin’.”

  “Yiati eise stenichorimenos?”

  “I’m tellin’ you, it’s nothin’. I’m not worried about a thing.”

  “Don’t be late, okay? I made a pot of dolmathes.”

  Karras kissed her. His thumb brushed a fallen eyelash off her cheek.

  “I love you, baby.”

  “Come home early, Pete.”

  “Sure. And keep Dimitri’s door open, will ya? Christ, the kid’s gonna roast in there.”

  Karras smiled and Eleni smiled back. He went to the door, opened it, walked out into the common hall. Eleni listened to his irregul
ar footsteps as he made his way across the hall to the stairs. She waited for a minute or so, walked over to the window that gave to a view of H. She looked through the window.

  Eleni could see him down there, standing beneath a streetlamp, his head cocked to one side, his hands cupped around a match as he put fire to a cigarette. A funnel of smoke swirled around his head as the match took. She watched him as he tossed the match to the pavement. She watched him walk east.

  Chapter 38

  Joe Recevo leaned against the rear quarter panel of his Olds, watched Karras move from the darkness and into the light of the street-lamp at the corner of 8th and K. He thought he saw a smile on Karras’s face as he approached, but as Karras drew nearer he realized that he had been mistaken. It was a wince that had made Karras’s mouth twist up like that. Recevo wondered how bad the leg still hurt.

  “Joe.”

  “Pete.”

  They did not shake hands. Recevo dragged hard on his cigarette, flicked it to the ground. The butt sparked as it glanced off the concrete.

  Karras chin-nodded the Olds. “Nice sled.”

  “Yeah, it’s all right.”

  “What’s the model?”

  “It’s an eighty-eight. The lines sold me. The fastback really gives it somethin’, don’t you think?”

  “Hell, Joe, you know I don’t know cars.”

  “You don’t have to know about ‘em to know they take you places quick. I mean, you could of caught a cab over here, couldn’t you?”

  “Been waitin’ long?”

  “You said a half-hour. It’s been over an hour.”

  “It wasn’t so cold out. I thought I’d walk. I can’t get around so fast anymore, but I can still walk.”

  “You always loved it.”

  “Yeah. Anyway, you didn’t have to stand around out here. You could’ve gone inside and had a seat at the bar.”

  Recevo’s eyes moved to the Kavakos sign that hung on the building. “I thought it’d be better if I waited for you. It’s not like anybody’s gonna run over and give me a kiss in that place.”

  Karras said, “Come on.”

  They walked together down the sidewalk, cut in at the head of the line, went through the side door. No one objected. Jerry Tsondilis let them in, greeted Karras, did not greet Recevo.

  Inside, they took a couple of stools at the bar. The nightclub action was thin, but the house band played as if the club were full. They were hitting the intro to Glen Miller’s signature, “Moonlight Serenade,” and couples were making their way slowly to the floor.

  “I always liked this one,” said Recevo. “Listenin’ to Miller sometimes, it’s so pretty it makes you wanna cry.”

  “It’s pretty all right. But Miller took everything he knew from a guy by the name of Fletcher Henderson.”

  “Fletcher Henderson? Who the hell is that?”

  “Hell, I don’t know.”

  “Then what are you talkin’ about?”

  “Never mind.”

  A Kavakos brother stepped up, cocked his chin as he wiped his big hands dry on a yellowed bar rag. His eyes moved from Recevo to Karras.

  “What’s it gonna be, Pete?”

  “A bottle of Senate and a shot of Pete Hagen’s.”

  Recevo said, “The same way.”

  Recevo put his cigarettes on the bar. He removed his topcoat, removed his fedora, brushed his hand back through his hair, rested the fedora on the topcoat which he had draped over the stool to his right. Karras did not remove his coat.

  The drinks were served. Karras and Recevo tapped their glasses, drank their shots at once. They followed the rye with swigs of beer.

  Karras reached into his jacket, withdrew a cigarette. Recevo blew into his deck of Raleighs, pulled free a smoke. He lighted his, lighted Karras’s off the same match. Karras let a stream go and watched it drop over the bar.

  “How’s Lois doin’?” said Karras.

  “Good.”

  “That’s nice. I always liked Lois.”

  “Yeah, she’s a good girl. How about Eleni?”

  “Fine.”

  “And the boy?”

  “He’s fine.”

  Recevo grinned, gave Karras a soft elbow. “I heard you finally made time with that Lizabeth Scott lookalike you were after.”

  Karras did not answer.

  “You two still shacked up?”

  “No.”

  “There’ll be others.”

  “It ain’t like I’m proud of it.”

  “But you can’t help it, can you. Gash-hound like you.” Recevo smiled. “Hey, Pete. You remember that girl—”

  “Can it, Joey. I didn’t come here for all that.”

  Recevo said, “All right.”

  Karras exhaled slowly. “On the phone you made me a proposal.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So Burke wants me back in the fold.”

  Recevo nodded. “I talked him into givin’ you a chance to come back in.”

  “And all I gotta do is give up the girl.”

  “That’s right.”

  “What’re they gonna do to her?”

  “Listen to her tell what she knows about Gearhart. What she knows about the business.”

  “And what if they don’t like what she tells them?”

  “We didn’t get that far with it, Pete.”

  Karras dragged on his cigarette.

  “There’s somethin’ else,” said Recevo.

  “Tell it.”

  “That thing with Bender. Burke knows Stefanos buried him and his boys. He’s obligated to make things right there, too.”

  “So, what, he wants me to deliver Nick Stefanos to his door as well?”

  “Don’t be cute. He just wants you to step aside, is all.”

  Karras drank off some of his beer. He put the bottle down on the bar. “It’s easy for that to come out of your mouth, isn’t it, Joey.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Step aside and let Burke take down a friend.”

  Recevo looked down at the acned wood of the bar. “Cut it out.”

  “Because it ain’t so easy for me. Nick Stefanos was the one who propped me up when I thought I’d lost everything—”

  “Pete…”

  “You don’t get it.”

  “It’s you that doesn’t get it. What happens to Nick is going to happen to him whether you stand by him or not. I’m tellin’ you, Reed and the rest of them, they’re gonna burn that place to the ground.”

  “I’d like to see ‘em try.”

  “Sure you would. You and your boilin’ Greek blood. You just don’t give a good goddamn, right? I mean, what is it with you, Pete? You wanna die, or somethin’? Is that it?”

  “No. But you’ve got to stand for something sometime. At least you gotta try.” Karras snapped ash off his cigarette. “Like I say, Joey, you just don’t get It.

  Recevo signaled Kavakos for another round. Kavakos brought the bottle, placed the beers in front of them, free-poured rye into their glasses. Recevo knocked his back. Karras sipped at his own.

  Recevo said, “How’s Jimmy?”

  “He’s gonna come out of it all right. They gave him some fresh blood, flushed that junk he’s been takin’ out of his system. Hell, the truth of it is, he looked better in that hospital than he has in weeks.”

  Karras saw Recevo’s mouth turn up in a kind of smile. The smile passed as quickly as it had come.

  “I screwed up, Pete. I was concentrating on getting Jimmy in and out of there before Reed showed up. I didn’t even think that Gearhart would double back to his place. He slipped out of Burke’s office, is all it was.”

  “I should’ve been there with him,” said Karras.

  “Maybe I shoulda been there, too.”

  “You did okay, Joey. You did plenty. When he gets out of that hospital, Jimmy’s gonna get his shield out of all this. You went way out on a limb, tippin’ him off like you did. Thanks.”

  “Just trying to help. You know, it ain’t
always like you think it is with me.” Recevo found Karras’s eyes. “Listen, Pete…”

  “Stop it.”

  “I know you hate my guts—”

  “I don’t.”

  “But I want you to know what happened that night.”

  “I already know. I ran into Face one night at Casino Royal, and he told me how it was. I know and I don’t care. Because you should’ve stood next to me that night, Joey. You shouldn’t have driven off and left me in that alley. There’s nothin’ I wouldn’t have done for you, man, and you tore it right in half. I can’t get past that now, because in the end that’s all that matters. You might want to change it with your explanations. But you can’t change it, Joey. So forget it.”

  “What I did to you I did because we were friends.”

  “You did it because you were plain scared.”

  “There was that. But there was the other thing, too. I was tryin’ to help you out, Pete. Back then, you couldn’t even see enough to get out of your own way. I was tryin’ to save your life.”

  “That what you’re tryin’ to do for me now?”

  Recevo looked away. “Yes.”

  “So now I come back in and go to work for Burke. Shakin’ down immigrants and their sons for loan and protection money. Like these three years never went by. Like I’m not the cripple that I am. I just go on and forget about it, right?”

  “1 didn’t ask you to forget about it. But what other options have you got? What else you gonna do, Pete?”

  Karras nodded slowly. “I guess you got a point.”

  “Sure I do. You gonna flip hamburgers the rest of your life? Wear a goddamn apron? Is that what you wanna do? Come on, man, that ain’t you. You and me, we weren’t cut out for that.”

  “That’s right, Joe. You and me have always been on the same bus.”

  “That’s what I’m sayin’! Listen, you can leave that nine-to-five bullshit to your buddy Pericles and all those other altar boys we knew back when. I’m tellin’ you, Pete, the way you’re goin’ now, you got no future.”

  Karras dragged deeply on his cigarette. “You know somethin’, Joey? I do believe you’re right.”