Johnny Black, Soul Chaser: The Complete Series (Johnny Black, Soul Chaser Series)

by JJ Zep

  I was still thinking about it as I stepped out of the alleyway onto the street. A car suddenly came skidding to a halt in front of me and two hoods got out holding Thompson machine guns. “Get in,” one of them said, “Fingers wants to see you.”

  fourteen

  “So you’re Black,” Fingers Finnegan said. “Word on the street is you got the dope on me and are ready to spill the beans to the bulls.”

  It took me a while to decipher the mangled metaphors. “Oh, you think I’ve got information on you and I’m going to talk to the cops.”

  “That’s what I said. What are you, a ventriloquist?”

  I took in my surroundings. I was in some kind of cellar, dark except for a single shaded bulb. I was tied to a chair and there were three men facing me, their features hidden in the darkness. The small guy sitting in the chair at the center doing the talking was obviously Fingers. The guys standing to either side of him were probably the goons that had picked me up downtown.

  “So what have you got to say for yourself?” Fingers said. “Tell me why we shouldn’t carve you up like a thanksgiving turkey and drop you in the lake.”

  “Because I can help you.”

  “What have you got that can help me?”

  “I can tell you when and where Capone’s bringing in his hooch, and I can feed Moran a line so that he ends up chasing his tail.”

  “Will you get a load of this guy?” Fingers said to his goons. “It’s true what the say about you, Black.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That you’re a dirty, two-timing, double-crossing rat. I like that in a man. Now what’s this dope you got on me that you gonna give to the bulls.”

  “I don’t got no dope on you.”

  “You take me for a sap? Word out on the street is…”

  “I put the word out on the street myself.”

  “You what? Mister, are you some kind of Joe Polooka or somethin’. Why would you do a thing like that?”

  “To meet you.” That took the wind out of Finnegan’s sails. He sat not saying anything for a while and then he leaned forward into the light. He had the sharp features of a weasel, with darting black eyes. His face was pockmarked and he had teeth that were crooked and too large for his mouth.

  “Now why would one of Capone’s boys want to meet me?”

  “I ain’t one of Capone’s boys no more. In case you haven’t heard, they tried to kill me.”

  “I heard. Your famous escape from the concrete shoes. How’d you manage that exactly?”

  “I don’t know. They were in a hurry to get it done, couldn’t wait for the concrete to set, I guess.”

  “And you swam a mile back to the shore? You must be some swimmer, Black.”

  “High school backstroke champion,” I said. I had no idea where this line of banter was coming from. I’d never been the world’s most agile debater, but maybe Johnny Black was helping me out. I’ll bet he could spin a pretty good line when he wanted to.

  “So why are you here, Black?”

  “Figured maybe you were hiring.”

  “You want to be part of my outfit? Why?”

  “Heard you was going to be the next big shot of Chicago.”

  “Oh you did, did you?” Fingers said, and I could hear that he was pleased. “Okay, cut him loose.”

  “Boss?”

  “I said cut him loose, you moron!”

  One of the goons stumbled towards me and cut my bonds. I rubbed my hands together vigorously, getting the circulation going.

  “Now you listen good Black, I’m going to give you a chance. We got a caper coming up and I could use someone that knows his onions. But you try it on with me and you’re going to wish you hadn’t, understand?”

  “Sure, boss.”

  “There’s stuff about me you don’t want to know, Black. I been some places that will turn your hair grey. Play ball and everything will be just jake. Now I want you to meet the boys. The baby grand over there is Buster. And this here’s Shep, good man with a chopper.”

  “When do I get to meet the rest of the outfit?”

  “What rest of the outfit? This is it.”

  “Just the three of you?

  “Four, including you,” Fingers said.

  fifteen

  It turns out there was a fifth member to the Finnegan gang. After my little session with Fingers and his goons in the basement they led me upstairs to a drab, sparsely furnished house.

  Fingers sat down at the kitchen table and produced a bottle and four glasses. “Pour us a drink!” he said to Buster, “Oh, and pour one for Mae too.”

  “Hey, Mae!” Fingers shouted, “Come on in here, there’s a feller I want you to meet.”

  “Ah, Freddie,” Mae said, “You know I ain’t fit for company!”

  “Don’t cast a kitten. Get in here!”

  Buster passed me a drink and I accepted it and absent-mindedly took a sip. I’ve never been much of a drinker, but whatever was in that glass was easily the vilest thing I’d ever tasted. If you can imagine what embalming fluid might taste like, this was worse. I felt like I’d just swallowed a hot coal and a spasm ran through my entire body. I started coughing and continued doing so while Buster slapped me on the back with his big meaty hands. When I looked up my hair was hanging in my eyes and there was drool on my chin and the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, was standing in front of me.

  Mae had blond hair cut in a bob and big green eyes and pixie-like features. Actually, I’ve seen pixies, and take my word for it, Mae was way cuter. She was wearing a silk dressing gown with an elaborate Chinese pattern on it. She wore no make-up, nor did she need any.

  “This here is, Johnny Black, formerly of Al Capone’s outfit, now the newest member of the Freddie Finnegan crew,” Fingers said proudly. “This is Mae Berry, ain’t she a doll!”

  He put his arms around Mae’s waist and tried to kiss her neck, “Cut that out!” she said. “Bank’s closed!”

  Mae stretched out a hand and I took it and I knew right away that I was in love, “Charmed,” she said in a girly voice, and all I could do was clear my throat and grin like an imbecile.

  Buster was trying to pass a glass to Mae, “I ain’t drinking that coffin varnish,” she said, “You promised me French champagne, Freddie!”

  “Sweetheart, once I’m through, you’ll be bathing in champagne. Ain’t you heard? I’m going to be the next big shot of Chicago.”

  “Yeah, yeah and I’m going to be the next Clara Bow.”

  Mae left us and the room suddenly felt very drab again. “Let’s talk business, fellers, “Fingers said, gathering us into a huddle over the kitchen table. “The way I figure is, we gotta start slow, not cause too many waves, then when we’re ready, pow, we hit hard and we hit fast. What do you think?”

  “That sounds like a plan boss,” Buster said.

  “Copacetic, boss,” Shep said.

  “So what did you have in mind?” I asked.

  “Oh you know, bit of this, bit of that,” Fingers said.

  “Like what exactly?”

  “I was thinking maybe we snatch a couple of bags, just to get the ball rolling.”

  “Brilliant,” Buster said.

  “Genius,” Shep said.

  “So let see if I have this straight, your master plan to take over the Chicago underworld is to mug a few old ladies?”

  “For a start,” Fingers said. “Just to get the ball rolling.”

  “Okay, so the ball is rolling. Now what?”

  Freddie called us closer and paused breathlessly, as though he was about to impart a great secret. “Didn’t want to tell you fellers this until you were ready to hear it, but what the hell. I been staking out the drugstore down on the corner.”

  Shep exhaled sharply, “Mosconi’s?” he said.

  “Bellini’s,” Freddie said.

  “Oh,” Shep said, sounding disappointed.

  “Now, the way I figure. Their take on a Friday must be at least eighty to a hundred clams.
”

  “A hundred dollars,” Buster said in an awestruck tone.

  “So what about high-jacking Capone’s next shipment?” I asked.

  “That comes later,” Freddie said. “Once I’m the big cheese in Chicago. Then, we hit ‘em. Pow!” He slammed his fist into the palm of his hand for effect.

  “Yeah!” Buster said.

  I left the Finnegan gang to fine-tune the details their crime spree. Fingers had made me promise to return tomorrow and not to breathe a word of their plans to anyone.

  When I arrived back at the Paladin, Sergio called me over. “The man, she’s waiting in-a your room. Very angry, very angry,” he said earnestly.

  I didn’t bother asking him why exactly he’d let an angry man into my room, but I went up there anyway. The door was slightly ajar and I pushed it open, “Hello?” I said, “Is anyone here?”

  “You dirty rat, Black!” the man stepped out from behind the door and threw a punch. At the last moment I pulled away, and it just about grazed my jaw.

  “Ow!” I said.

  “There’s more where that came from you, you, dandy you!” He charged into me and wrestled me to the floor.

  “Can’t we just talk about this?”

  “I’m done talking,” he said and his hat fell from his head and I recognized him.”

  “Frank?”

  “Yes, Frank.”

  “What’s this about?”

  “Don’t pretend you don’t know,” he said, getting me in a headlock.

  “I don’t,” I protested.

  “You’ve broken that little girl’s heart for the last time.”

  “Who Velma?”

  “No, Greta Garbo. Of course, Velma.”

  “Okay, if you can get off me for a minute, maybe we can talk this out.”

  Frank stopped fighting, got to his feet, picked up his hat and dusted it off. “You don’t deserve her Johnny, and if you’re not careful I’m going to take her away from you.” He offered his hand and I took it and he hoisted me up.

  “Wait a minute? You and Velma?”

  “She doesn’t know I exist,” he said sorrowfully.

  “Well, have you told her how you feel?”

  “I’ve tried, but all she knows is Johnny Black this, Johnny Black that. How can I compete Johnny, you’re the real McCoy. Maybe if I was a mobster or a G-man instead of a boring accountant.”

  “I’d bet if she saw your performance here today, she’d feel differently.”

  “What performance? I hardly messed up your hair.”

  “No, that was some punch.” I rubbed my jaw tentatively, “Ouch, that hurts!”

  “Thanks, for trying Johnny, but I’m just a big goofball. No wonder Velma doesn’t care for me.”

  “Of course, she does,” I assured him. “She just doesn’t know it yet. You’ve got to win her heart, that’s all.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. You’ve got a way with the ladies.”

  “Believe me, Frank, it wasn’t always like that. I almost didn’t have a date for my high school prom.”

  “Really? I find that hard to believe.”

  “It’s true I tell you.”

  “So you really think Velma cares for me?”

  “Absolutely, you just have to let her know.”

  “But how, Johnny?

  He looked so pitiful that he reminded me a bit of my former self, which is probably why I said what I said next, without really thinking it through. “Leave it to me,” I told him.

  “Seriously?” Frank said.

  “Seriously. Leave it to me.”

  “Oh thank you Johnny, thank you, thank you.” Frank said shaking my hand so hard I thought it was going to come off.

  “Don’t mention it,” I said wondering how I was going to carry through on my promise.

  “I don’t care what they say about you, Johnny. I think you’re a swell guy.”

  He headed for the door, “Hey, Frank,” I called after him, “Did you smoke a cigar in here?”

  “No, I don’t smoke.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll be in touch.”

  sixteen

  “Okay Jitterbug, you can come out now.”

  “Rats,” Jitterbug said, stepping away from the wall, “foiled by a Montecristo.”

  “I thought I told you to go back to hell?”

  “And I thought I told you to move to a better class of establishment,” he said lighting up the stubby remains of his cigar.

  “So?”

  “So what?”

  “What are you still doing here?”

  “I told you I was sent to observe,” he said, puffing away now.

  “By who?”

  “Can’t say,” he said looking out of the window.

  “Okay.” I said after a while.

  “Okay what?”

  “Okay, you can stay.”

  “I can?” Jitterbug said, with what passed for a smile on his face.

  “You can, but you’re going to have to pull your weight around here.”

  “Doing what?” he said skeptically.

  “Helping me out.”

  “I’m not sure that’s in the rule book.”

  “Neither is leaving Hades without the proper paperwork. What would happen if Mr. Abaddon found out?”

  “You wouldn’t.”

  “Wouldn’t I?

  Jitterbug though about it for less than a second, “Oh, okay. You have less morals than an ogre.”

  “Good. Now that we understand each other, your first job is to stay out of sight until I need you.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said. “Stay out of sight, Jitterbug, stay in the wall, Jitterbug, put out that cigar, Jitterbug. I should have listened to my mother and joined the circus.” He stepped backward and instantly faded into the floral pattern of the wallpaper.

  With Jitterbug out of sight I started thinking about my next move. Capone had a shipment of whiskey coming in from Canada and I had to get Fingers down to the docks to meet that shipment. If not I had to try to get him to some other body of water (don’t worry, it will all make sense in good time). For now, I had to report back to Al Capone about my meeting with Fingers, which meant I had to get down to the Lexington Hotel, where Capone had his headquarters.

  I made my way down to the foyer and was just heading for the door, when a voice spoke from the darkness. “I see you’ve made contact with our friend,” the man in the Panama hat said hobbling towards me on his cane.

  “Which friend would that be?”

  “The friend I paid you to find.”

  “Oh, you mean Fingers?”

  “Of course, I mean Fingers, who did you think I was talking about, Charles Lindbergh?

  “Yes, I found Fingers, so I guess we’re done then. It’s been a pleasure…”

  “Not even close,” Panama Hat said, “Our agreement was you get him down to the lake.”

  “The lake?”

  “The lake, the river, the Atlantic Ocean if you like. Just get him down to the water, then let me know when and where, like we agreed.”

  “But why?”

  “You mind your business and I’ll mind mine. Just do what I paid you for or you’ll be in trouble that will make your current mess look like a date with Gloria Swanson.” He hobbled off and I suddenly knew who he was. Barnes and Noble had said they were in town tracking a soul chaser who was trying to hustle up business and this was obviously him. His insistence on getting Fingers down to the water gave him away.

  “How’ll I contact you? I called after him.

  “Sergio,” he said.

  I made my way over to the Lexington Hotel in the South Loop and found Capone in a foul mood. “Well if it ain’t the dead man,” he sneered. “What do you want? I’m busy.”

  “You asked me to track down Finnegan, infiltrate his gang?”

  “Who?”

  “Fingers Finnegan, you know from the north side.”

  “That two-bit hood. What interest I got in that low-life? That’s Moran’s probl
em.”

  “Well, I think you should take him seriously.”

  “Oh you do, do you? Listen, you don’t know from nothing. You’re just a back-stabbing, snitching rat and I can barely stand to be in the same room as you. Now get out, before I change my mind and get my boys to take you for a drive.”

  “Just though you oughta know, looks like Finnegan’s bringing in torpedoes from New York and Kansas City. Looks like he’s planning on taking over the entire Chicago hooch business.”

  “What!”

  “Just thought you oughta know.”

  “So that bag snatcher wants a war does he? I’ll give him a war. Get me McGurn!” he shouted to one of his men.

  As the man ran off I said, “Wouldn’t a war between you and Finnegan benefit Moran?”

  “You trying to tell me how to run my business now, tough guy.”

  “Just saying that if you and Finnegan end up shooting each other up, all Moran has to do is sit back and mop up the pieces.”

  Capone though about that for a moment and actually seemed to calm down. “And I suppose you have a better idea, big timer?”

  “As a matter of fact I do. An idea that will take care of Finnegan and Moran at the same time.”

  seventeen

  Now I should stress at this point that the scheme I was hatching was not of my own making. Well, not entirely anyway. Whoever Johnny Black had been, he was a devious so-and-so, and I’m pretty sure at least some of the plan came from him. Don’t ask me how, but it just did.

  “So,” Capone said, “Let’s hear this hair-brained scheme of yours.”

  “Okay, when’s your next hooch shipment coming across the water from Canada?”

  “Why am I going to share that information with a Rube like you?”

  “Cause I’m going to give that same information to Bugs Moran.”

  “What! You been on the giggle water, Black? Did you forget where snitching me out to Moran got you the last time around?”

  “It got me a pair of concrete shoes and a first class ticket to the bottom of Lake Michigan.”