The Starlight Club 6: Double Seven

by Joe Corso

  “How often has he done this to you?” he said softly with feeling.

  JoAnne took a deep breath and then said softly, “Often, very often.”

  Joey thought for a moment. “Is he involved with dealing drugs?”

  She nodded again. “Not at the beginning, but when he got laid off from the brewery, he needed to make money and about that time a drug dealer approached him and made him an offer. Now he not only sells it, he uses it too.”

  Joey’s eyes darkened. “You’re not using drugs, are you?”

  “No. I remembered what you used to always tell me and even though he wanted me to join him when he snorted and shot up, I always refused, and that always angered him.”

  Joey nodded understandingly. “And that’s when he started to abuse you, right?”

  A tear from her right eye rolled down her cheek. “Yes. And it’s gotten worse, much worse.”

  Joey Bones never showed any emotion, but he was so angry that he was trying hard to control it. If he lost it, he’d go into the other room and shoot the bastard in the head.

  “Look, I’m gonna straighten a few things out around here and then you’re gonna pack your things and you’re coming with us. I have to be leaving soon and I don’t want you staying here by yourself with no one to watch out for you.”

  Chapter Four

  Joey returned to the living room with his sister trailing a few steps behind him and he walked over to her boyfriend or husband — he wasn’t quite sure which, but he’d find out soon enough. He turned to his sister.

  “What is this guy to you?” he said, pointing to the man seated in a chair in front of him. She shook her head before speaking. “Are you two married?”

  “We’re not married. He was my boyfriend . . . until tonight.”

  Joey didn’t smile much, but he smiled now that he heard she wasn’t married to this bum. “What’s dumdum’s name?” he asked.

  “Brian. Brian O’Rourke.”

  Joey turned and looked at Brian with a half-smile on his face. “So you deal drugs, eh?”

  Brian lowered his head and, in a quiet, quavering voice, said, “Yes. A little.”

  “How much is a little, Brian?”

  “I do all right,” he said evasively.

  “How often do you turn in the money you collect?”

  “Once a week,” he said sheepishly. “In fact, I’m expecting a visit from them in a little while to pick up the money I got from selling their drugs.”

  Joey wanted to hurt these guys badly, so he asked Brian where he kept the money, figuring he’d deprive these dope dealers from getting it.

  “I keep it in a sack in the kitchen above the sink.”

  Richie Fingers stood. “I’ll get it.”

  A few minutes later, he walked in with a bag filled with greenbacks, which he dumped on the living room table.

  “Christ, but that’s a lot of dough. Count it,” Bull said.

  Richie quickly thumbed through the money, counting it expertly. “There’s almost sixty G’s here.”

  Richie and Joey looked at each other and then at Bull.

  “Do we keep the money? Or do we hand it over to the guys coming to pick it up?” Bull rubbed his chin and thought about it for a moment.

  “Look, we don’t deal in drugs – it’s against our family’s rules, which Red lives by. I don’t think he’d like it if we handed them the money. They’ll only use the money to buy more junk to sell to kids.”

  Joey turned to his sister. “JoAnne, go in the bedroom for a few minutes while I talk to my friends about this.”

  He didn’t want her to hear the decision they’d have to make about her friend Brian. She started to say something but thought better of it before turning to go to the bedroom.

  “What do we do with this guy?” Joey asked.

  “I say we kill him.”

  Brian began to panic when he heard what Joey said. He realized then that the man he took lightly earlier wasn’t just his girlfriend’s brother. He could add, so he put two and two together and concluded that this was a man who had killed before. He began to plead for his life until Bull put up his hand to stop him.

  “Don’t worry; we’re not gonna kill you. We’re not murderers, but it’s up to Joey what we do with you besides killing you.” Bull looked to Joey. “Well, what do you want to do with him?”

  Joey looked at Bull but pointed at Brian. “I can’t let him get away with using my sister as his punching bag. I have to mess him up a little.” With that said, Joey spun around so quickly that he surprised all the guys, including Brian, who took the full brunt of Joey’s punch square on his nose, splattering it down the center and breaking the bone so it laid flat on the right side of his face with the bone protruding from the skin on the left side of his nose. Just as Joey was about to hit him again, there was a knock on the door.

  Frankie pulled out his gun and stood calmly on the side of the door. With a tilt of his head, he motioned to Richie Fingers to open it. Richie, Frankie, and Joey were street guys who could handle themselves, but they were just as likely to lose a fistfight, as they were to win one in a street brawl. They were not men used to using their fists; they used guns and knives and bats and whatever else it took to put a man down. Bull was the brawler in the group. He could fight as well as Fred Astaire could dance and, if he had to, he would. But it was easier for him to use weapons these days instead of his fists. It was much simpler using a gun, if one was handy – and one was handy now.

  Richie opened the door and looked into the faces of two very surprised men.

  “Come on in,” he told the two men cheerfully. When they stepped through the door and into the room, they saw Brian sitting in a chair, his face busted apart, and the two men stiffened.

  “What’s going on here?” one of the men asked, trying not to look nervous. Bull stood and stepped in front of the men.

  “What’s your name, partner?”

  “Julio.”

  “And yours?” Bull asked the other man.

  “Max.”

  “Good. I’m Bull and now that we know each other, I’m gonna tell you what this is all about. This,” he said, pointing to Brian slumped over the chair, “is what happens when you hurt my friend’s sister. Besides, we don’t much like drug dealers, so we decided we’re gonna keep the money you came here to pick up as compensation for Joey’s sister being hurt.”

  Julio became agitated. “You don’t want to do this. You are all going to die if you do.”

  Bull looked Julio square in the eyes. “Do we look worried to you?”

  “But you don’t understand whose money you’re taking.”

  Joey Bones stood and got in the two men’s faces. “You fuck with us and we’ll kill the lot of you. It’s you who don’t know who you’re fucking with.”

  He said this threateningly. He patted them down and found they each had a gun.

  Bull, with the gun still in his hand, motioned toward the couch for the two men to sit down. Once they were seated, he told Frankie to keep an eye on them. He looked for the phone and spotted it on the end table beside the couch.

  “I have to make a call to Red… Red, this is Bull. Well, you said to call you if we got in any trouble. I guess you can call what happened to us tonight trouble.”

  “Don’t say another word. Give me your number and I’ll call you right back.”

  Bull gave Red the number. Red immediately left his office and walked out the door and across the street, straight to the mechanic’s garage, which was closed until tomorrow. Red opened the door with the key Ray, the mechanic, had given him for just such an emergency. He called the number he had written on the slip of paper he held in his hand. When Bull picked up the phone, he explained all that happened.

  “Keep those men there. I have to make a call to Nick Civella and tell him what happened. He runs the Kansas City mob and we have to get his approval to take on these boys. For all I know, this may be one of his crews working the drug racket in Bonner Springs.”


  Chapter Five

  “Boss, there’s a guy on the phone from Queens, New York. Says his name is Big Red and he wants to talk to you.”

  “Big Red, eh? Yeah, he runs the rackets in Queens. Wonder what he wants. Okay, I’ll talk to him.” Civella picked up the phone. “Nick here.”

  “Nick, this is Big Red from Queens. I need to talk to you. Do you have a few minutes? And is this a secure phone?”

  Civella was curious why a mob boss from Queens would be on the phone asking if he had a few minutes to talk to him. Instinct kicked in and he was getting a bad feeling about this call. “Sure, I have all the time in the world, but this is not a secure phone.”

  “Thanks for letting me know.” Red explained why he had called; couching his words in mob speak, so if anyone were listening, they wouldn’t grasp the significance of the conversation. “A few of my associates attended a party in Bonner Springs where they met a couple of guys who I thought may be friends of yours. They said their names were Julio and Max.”

  Civella cut in. “No, they’re not friends of mine, but I know of them. They work for a competitor of mine and I was going to visit them to discuss the business the company they work for had set up recently in my territory, which I have exclusive rights to. I don’t have to tell you about how harmful to your business it could be to have a competitor who sets up shop so close that it’s siphoning business away that should be mine alone. It’s not appreciated and I was going to have a meeting with them to discuss our business arrangement.”

  Red nodded silently to himself. “So then there would be no problem if my men negotiated your business arrangement for you, since they are already sitting down and discussing matters with them?”

  Civella was curious how some men belonging to a mob in Queens got themselves involved in a situation in Bonner Springs, so before he gave his approval, he wanted some questions answered. “I appreciate the offer, Red, but I’m curious how your salesmen happened to be in my Bonner Springs territory. That territory is usually handled by my sales team.”

  “My salesmen were heading to a convention in Nevada and one of the men decided to visit his sister who lives in Bonner Springs and was having a party there. The party was being held at her house and that’s where her brother met your two competitors. Well, you know how protective salesmen are of their territory. Those two men thought my sales staff were competitors and they became rather confrontational, but everything is under control now. After my sales team explained their business plans concerning your respective territories, they’ve seen reason and are very co-operative now. But my salesmen see an opportunity to obtain control of your competitor’s business and they want to talk to the president of their corporation. If you have no objection, then I’ll give them the go-ahead based on your approval. My director of sales will negotiate with your competitor and he’ll call me when the arrangements have been finalized. Sit tight and I’ll be giving you a call back as soon as I hear from my sales team.”

  Civella got the message that Red was telling him and, truth be told, it took a load off of his mind. But he wondered if Red’s men could pull this off.

  “Do you have enough salesmen there to handle the territory and do you have faith that your director of sales is capable enough to negotiate the deal by himself?”

  “I have complete confidence in this transaction being concluded to your satisfaction. As for my salesmen, I have enough salesmen in my organization and if I need more, then I’ll send as many salespeople as I have to in order to handle the sales in that territory. But I want to assure you that once we negotiate for your competitor’s business, we’ll have to leave because we have important business to attend to in Nevada. Is what I’ve just told you agreeable to you, because if it’s not – and I mean no disrespect to you – if it’s not then my sales crew will deal with the matter themselves. You see, since there’s a woman involved, it’s now a matter of honor.”

  Civella knew that something happened to one of Red’s men’s sister and that was why he called. He knew that Red’s men would not leave until they took care of the people who caused this to happen to her.

  “Look, Red. I appreciate the fact that you are representing me in negotiating this deal with my competitors, so instead of you sending more salesmen all the way from Queens to Bonner Springs, how about I send some of my sales force out there to help you?”

  “Thanks, Nick. If the job is too big for my sales force to handle, then I have your number and I will definitely give you a call, but for now, let’s see how my team does. My concern was I didn’t want any misunderstanding with you about why we were in your sales territory. That’s why the man I placed in charge of my sales team called and asked me to contact you and explain why they were there. They just wanted your approval to proceed. Now that I know that there is no misunderstanding between us and as soon as they have concluded their negotiations, I will give you a call and tell you that we have either negotiated this business deal to a satisfactory conclusion or we have failed, and a stricter resolution to the problem concerning your competitor must be put in place.”

  “I understand completely and you have my fullest cooperation to act in my name until you get this misunderstanding resolved.”

  Both men were smiling when they hung up the phone. If anyone had been listening to what they were saying, it would have appeared to have been two businessmen trying to find a resolution to a business problem concerning unwanted or unneeded competition.

  Red called Bull back and gave him the go-ahead.

  “Handle the situation with the men you have and if you need more help, my associate said he’d be happy to send some of his salesmen to help you, so be sure to call me if you run into any unforeseen difficulties, and I mean any difficulties. I want to be kept advised on everything that’s going on. Understand?”

  As he hung up the phone, Red asked himself, why is it that every time I try to leave Queens for a few days, destiny steps in and prevents that from happening?

  After hanging up the phone, Bull decided that he wanted to meet Mr. Big, so he asked Max to call his boss and set up a meeting. Frankie pulled Bull aside.

  “What do you want the meeting for? Let’s just take the money and leave.”

  “Can’t do that, Frankie. I changed my mind about the money. Now I want to meet the boss of the outfit and give him his money and leave on good terms. Nick Civella runs the Kansas City mob and Bonner Springs is his territory. If we had problems with the guy running things here, it would call for a sit-down with Red and Civella, and I’d prefer that that didn’t happen. However, it seems that the two guys sitting in the living room are part of another mob and Civella would like nothing better than for us to kill the lot of them.”

  “If that’s the case, then why do you want to have the meeting? I thought we were keeping the money?”

  “Look, Frankie. What happens in Bonner Springs is none of our business. I don’t want any trouble with these guys, I just want to give them their money back, get in our car, and drive to Vegas.”

  Max made the phone call and the meeting was set. It would take place in one hour at a warehouse.

  Chapter Six

  With Brian O’Rourke stuffed uncomfortably between them in the back seat, Bull and Joey were a little crowded. The boys didn’t mind being crowded because, this way, they didn’t have to worry about Brian opening the door and making a run for it. Max sat behind the wheel of his car and Julio sat beside him in the passenger seat, while Frankie the Nose and Richie Fingers were in the Caddy, waiting to follow. Max pulled away from JoAnne’s home on Grove Avenue and hooked a right onto N. Nettleton, then another right onto W. Kump Avenue and stayed on it until they reached S 138th Street, where they made a right and a quick left onto Leavenworth St. They drove slowly down Leavenworth, which at the time was nothing more than a warehouse district, and pulled into the parking slot in front of the second warehouse on the left. Frankie pulled alongside in the Caddy.

  “Follow me,” Julio s
aid as he walked to a side door to the left of the large, closed, rusted bay door. Bull told Joey Bones and Richie Fingers to remain by the car in case something went wrong. Then he ordered Brian to walk ahead of him while he and Frankie the Nose and Brian walked along a dark corridor in the unfamiliar warehouse. Bull held the bag with the money in his left hand while the palm of his right hand was in his jacket pocket, caressing the handle of his gun, his finger resting on the trigger. The mobsters from Queens were professionals and they didn’t have to be told to have their guns at the ready. Max gave the signal by knocking on the door twice and then again once. A slot on the door at eye level opened and a pair of suspicious eyes studied the men before opening the door.

  Bull and Frankie, with Brian in front, followed Max, Julio, and the man who opened the door down a long corridor with offices on the left and a large empty warehouse area on their right. A brand new shiny red Ford Mustang was parked by the bay door. Frankie whispered to Bull, “What the hell are we doing here? We should have kept the money, got in our car, and just drove away.”

  Before Frankie could say another word, about halfway down the long corridor, Max stopped knocked on a door.

  “Carlos, it’s Max.”

  “Come in; the door is not locked,” a gruff voice answered.

  A stocky little man wearing an ill-fitting suit and smoking a cigar looked up, studying Bull and then Frankie the Nose like a man at a slaughterhouse deciding which hog to slaughter first. The little man turned to Max. “Are these the men who took our money and did this to Brian?”

  Max nodded. “Yes. These are two of the men; the other two are outside, waiting by the car.”

  The little man brushed an ash from his jacket. “Did they hurt you?”

  Both Julio and Max shook their heads.

  “No. They treated us with respect.” That answer seemed to mollify the little man a little.