Without Mercy

by Len Levinson

  The whores did suggestive things with their lips, fluttered their eyelashes, wiggled their shoulders, and shook their asses. Rackman wouldn’t pay five cents for the lot of them. He thought of his girl friend Francie. If he didn’t call her soon, she was going to get awfully mad.

  The black kid wiped his nose, got up and walked to the youngest blondest hooker on the sofa, handing her the ticket. She took it, smiled, tucked it into her bosom, and led him to the corridor. Rackman puffed his cigarette and winked at Genrizi. “Ain’t love grand?” he asked.

  Genrizi snorted and looked the other way. After a while one of the business faces came out of a corridor, a little pale. “My friend still in there?” he asked Genrizi.

  “Yeah.”

  The embarrassed and guilty-looking business face sat next to Rackman, who noticed a wedding ring on his finger. His wife probably was sitting on some guy’s face in the No-Tell Motel in Queens. Five minutes later the other business face came out, looked at his buddy, and grinned. They left together, murmuring as they descended the stairs. Carmella came down the corridor, looking kind of perky. She wore red tights, had a big ass and big boobs, and was a little knock-kneed. She sat on the sofa and crossed her legs. Rackman stood up, catching her eye. He walked toward her and she smiled as he drew closer. Her smile evaporated when he took out his shield.

  “I’d like to have a few words with you if you don’t mind,” Rackman said.

  “What if I mind?”

  “It won’t matter.”

  “Are we gonna talk right here?”

  “In back.”

  He led the way to the back room and offered her a Lucky, which she accepted. Her sweet, flowery perfume wafted over him, and she wore the customary long eyelashes but not much other makeup. He lit her cigarette and she inhaled, leaning against the refrigerator and looking him up and down.

  “You’re not bad-looking, for a cop,” she said.

  “I bet you say that to all the cops.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “Where were you at three-thirty this morning?”

  “Three-thirty this morning?’’ She thought for a few moments. “I was here.”

  “Alone?”

  “No.”

  “Who else was here?”

  “Genrizi and a couple of the other goons. Also Mary Gomes, Barbara Leeds, and I think Demaris Garcia.”

  “What were you doing here?”

  “I was waiting for my boyfriend to pick me up.”

  “I understand you didn’t like Cynthia Doyle very much.”

  “I didn’t, but I didn’t kill her, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “You’re not sorry that she was killed, though.”

  “No. We didn’t get along. None of us up here liked her.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because she was always playing silly fucking games.”

  “Like what?”

  “Oh, she always used to act like she was better than the rest of us. But no John ever went back to her twice. That’s the kind of whore she was.”

  “Did she ever have any trouble with her Johns?”

  “Once in a while one of them would complain about her, but Genrizi would just tell them to pick somebody else next time. They’d never fire her because a lot of black Johns and P.R.s like young blonde girls.”

  “Did she have any trouble with any of her Johns recently?”

  “I don’t think so, but I didn’t exactly keep track of her.”

  “How about last night?”

  “I can’t think of anything last night.”

  “How about the night before?”

  “I don’t remember. All the nights seem to blend in together here. Oh yeah, something happened last night—I remember now. There was some john of hers who couldn’t get it up, and she made a few remarks when he was leaving. He looked pretty mad.”

  “Did you get a good look at him?”

  “I don’t know how good it was, but I saw him. He was a fat guy.”

  “How tall was he?”

  “About six foot tall I’d say.”

  Rackman wrote on his notepad. “What color hair did he have?”

  “Dark hair.”

  “Like mine?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What was he wearing?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Could it have been a suit?”

  “No, he was more like a working guy.”

  “Was he wearing a topcoat?”

  “It was some kind of jacket.”

  “What color?”

  “I don’t remember.”

  “Was he wearing glasses?”

  “I don’t remember. It happened very fast.”

  “What did his face look like?”

  “He was ugly, but I didn’t get that close a look at him.”

  Rackman puffed his cigarette and looked over her shoulder. Sylvia Suarez and Reynaldo Pifla had seen a fat guy run out of the alley where Cynthia Doyle was killed. That might not be the same fat guy, and in fact it probably wasn’t, but it was a lead.

  He took out one of his cards. “If you think of something else, give me a call.”

  Chapter Three

  On Sunday, Rackman had the day off. No new information had developed in the murder case, and he felt he should go to Queens and see Rebecca, his daughter. He took a quick shower and shave, threw on jeans and a tweed jacket, and left his apartment before the phone could ring.

  At the McDonald’s on West Fifty-sixth Street he had eggs and sausages for breakfast while looking out the front window at a black man fishing with a string and magnet through the subway grating for stray coins. After breakfast Rackman strolled to the public telephone on the corner and called his first ex-wife to tell her he was on his way. She told him he should have given her more notice, and that it was about time.

  He rode to Forest Hills on the E train, the only detective in Midtown North who didn’t own a car. He didn’t need one, because he lived around the corner from the station, whereas most other detectives lived on Long Island and commuted. He’d owned a car when he was married to his first wife, but she got that in the divorce settlement along with everything else. It had been a 1965 Chevrolet Corvette, the model with the split window in back, very rare. If he could have kept it, it would be worth more now than he paid for it, but his first wife traded it in right after the divorce on a Buick sedan.

  He’d met Sheila when he was a rookie patrolman in Brooklyn. Her father owned a big drug store on Flatbush Avenue and she worked there after classes at Brooklyn College. The store had been on his beat, and he often stopped in to buy cigarettes. When they started going together, her parents became unhappy because they wanted her to associate with doctors, lawyers, and CPAs. The marriage lasted four years and produced one good thing, little Rebecca. Sheila now was married to a garment center character who manufactured ladies’ dresses.

  Rackman got off the subway at the Jewel Avenue stop and walked down Queens Boulevard past the Chinese restaurants, bagel shops, clothing boutiques, and kosher delicatessens. Forest Hills was the last Jewish gold coast in New York City, and he felt as if he had blipped into another world. The children were clean and well dressed, the adults appeared to be on vacation in Miami Beach, and there were no pimps, whores, or junkies skulking in doorways.

  He turned left on 72nd Avenue, a narrow street lined with tall luxury apartment buildings. Late model cars were parked along the curb, and no one had torn off their aerials. Young mothers pushed baby carriages, teenagers flirted with each other, children played Frisbee on lawns, and Rackman thought he must be getting jaded by Times Square, because this looked so strange. He entered the lobby of a building and took the elevator to the twentieth floor, where he pressed the button on a door.

  Sheila opened it up. ‘‘Hello Danny,’’ she said with exaggerated friendliness. Her jet-black hair was coiffed so that it made her look taller than her five feet two inches, and her figure still wasn’t bad. She wore too much eye makeup a
nd lipstick, but so did most Forest Hills women.

  “Hi Sheila.”

  Rebecca came dashing out of nowhere and clasped her skinny arms around Rackman’s waist. “Daddy!”

  Rackman bent over and kissed her forehead. “Hi baby.”

  Rebecca was almost five feet tall, lanky as a boy, with breasts like tangerines. Her curly black hair was done in pseudo-afro style and her slanted brown eyes were a reminder that Jews are an oriental people. Suddenly she stepped back, wrung her hands, and became shy.

  Sheila’s present husband bounded forward, his hand outstretched and a big smile on his face. “Hello Danny,” he said cordially.

  “Hiya Sam.”

  “How’s it going?”

  “Not bad. You?”

  “Can’t complain. Come in and have a drink.”

  This was the part Rackman hated most, but he couldn’t refuse to sit with his ex-wife, whom he didn’t like, and her husband, whom he pitied, because it might cause bad vibes in the home where his daughter lived. Furthermore, he was afraid of provoking Sheila into getting together with her lawyer and contriving a new horror for him.

  So he sat on a stuffed chair and Rebecca plunked herself on his lap although she was nearly full-grown. Sheila went to the kitchen to get food, and Sam stood in the middle of the living room, grinning like a baboon. He wore blue and white checkered slacks, a yellow shirt, and white loafers with tassels.

  “What’ll you have?” Sam asked.

  “A straight shot of bourbon with a water chaser.”

  Sam walked to the bar, which was an elaborate piece of furniture in a corner of the living room. Sheila returned, carrying a platter covered with cold cuts. “Go light with the whiskey, Sam.”

  “Oh stop it, Sheila.”

  “Don’t tell me to stop it. You stop it. He might look like a grown man but he’s got the mind of a child and I don’t want him walking around drunk with my daughter. I know him better than you. I lived with him for four years.”

  She held the platter before Rackman and he put a few slices of white turkey meat between slices of pumpernickel bread. Rebecca took a black olive, put it in her mouth, and made a face.

  “She eats like a bird,” Sheila complained, taking the tray to the coffee table and sitting on the sofa.

  Sam brought Rackman a big shot of bourbon and a tall glass of water, setting it on a little table next to the chair.

  “That’s too much, Sam!” Sheila said.

  “Calm down, Sheila,” Sam replied.

  “Don’t tell me to calm down! You calm down! You don’t know what he’s like when he’s drunk!”

  Rackman lifted the glass of whiskey. “This isn’t enough to get me drunk.”

  “I certainly hope not!”

  “What would you like, dear?” Sam asked.

  “A little sherry, if you don’t mind.”

  Sam returned to the bar. Sheila looked disapprovingly at Rackman as he sipped his bourbon. “I hope you’ll remember that you have your daughter with you this afternoon,” she said.

  “I won’t forget.”

  “I know what you’re like when you’re drunk, you know.”

  She was referring to the time he got mad and slapped her twice, after she’d thrown an ashtray at him. ‘‘Let’s not have an argument, Sheila.”

  “I’m not arguing. I’m just telling the truth.”

  “Anything you say.” He chomped his chicken sandwich and turned to Rebecca, who looked at him worshipfully. “How’re you doing, sugarplum?”

  “Okay,” she said shyly, looking down. Her voice was high-pitched and soft, reminding him of a faint breeze.

  “How’s school?”

  “Okay.”

  “Doing better in math?”

  “A little.”

  “Not very talkative today, huh?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Sheila wagged her finger at him. “She’s shy in front of you because you’re like a stranger to her. You hardly ever come out here to see her. Put yourself in her shoes. How would you feel?”

  “Come on, Sheila. This is the first day off I’ve taken in almost a month.”

  “That’s no excuse and you know it. The police department won’t fall into the Hudson River if you take your regular days off. You like to think you’re indispensable—that makes you feel good. But you’re only kidding yourself, as usual. They’d get along fine without you, maybe better, who knows? My Sam runs a big dress company all by himself, and if he can take weekends off, so can you.”

  “It’s not the same thing. Sam’s factory closes down on weekends, but the city doesn’t. Crimes happen all the time. In fact, people murder each other more on weekends.”

  Sam handed Sheila a glass of sherry and sat beside her with his scotch on the rocks in hand. Rackman looked at Sheila as she sipped her sherry and tried to remember when she was a young college girl who shivered whenever he put his hand up her dress. He wondered why so many pretty Jewish girls grew up to be nagging bitchy wives. He looked at Rebecca and hoped she wouldn’t turn out that way. “Did you get a report card since I saw you last?”

  She shook her head.

  “Stop trying to change the subject,” Sheila said, setting down her sherry glass.

  “What subject?”

  “There’s no excuse for you not seeing your daughter more often—that subject.”

  “Give me a break, Sheila.”

  “Why don’t you give your daughter a break? How can you be so selfish. Can’t you see how much she loves you?”

  Rackman looked at Rebecca, who looked at the floor.

  “It’s okay, Daddy,” she said. “I understand.”

  “She does not understand,” Sheila said, raising her voice. “You should be on your knees begging your forgiveness of her.”

  Sam put his hand on his wife’s arm. “The doctor warned you about getting excited—”

  “Take your hands off me!” she shouted, moving away. “You always stick up for him because you’re afraid of him!”

  “Why do you always argue with him whenever he comes here?”

  “I wouldn’t argue with him if he came to see Rebecca more often. I’m not arguing for myself, but for her. He’s a completely irresponsible human being and I know him very well, don’t think I don’t.”

  “Maybe you’d better take a Valium,” Sam said.

  “Get me one.”

  Sam arose and walked to the kitchen. Sheila glowered at Rackman who looked at Rebecca who looked at her hands. Rackman took the final bite of his sandwich and washed it down with bourbon. Sam returned with a yellow pill and a glass of water. Sheila popped the pill into her mouth and drank some water, then glanced sideways at Rackman. “You see the trouble you make for me when you come here?”

  “I was just leaving.” He tapped Rebecca’s leg. “Let’s go, kid.”

  She got up and he stood beside her, adjusting the collar of his shirt. “I think I’m going to take her for a little walk. It’s been very nice seeing the both of you again.” He held out his hand to Sam.

  “Don’t keep her out too late,” Sheila said, getting up. “And don’t forget to feed her. Growing girls need food. It might be a good idea if you bought her some clothes. And don’t take her to any of those bars that you go to.”

  “I’ll look out for her—don’t worry.” Rackman took Rebecca’s hand and led her to the door.

  In the corridor next to the elevator, Rackman wiped his hand across his forehead. “Wow,” he said.

  “Mommy is very mad at you,” Rebecca replied.

  “I know.”

  “I think she’s still in love with you.”

  “I think you’ve been watching too much crap on television.”

  They rode down the elevator, crossed the lobby, and walked toward Queens Boulevard. Rebecca chattered about school, girlfriends, boyfriends, and various interesting experiences she’d had since seeing her father last. She spoke quickly, chattering about nonsensical things that were more an outpouring of lov
e than verbal communication.

  “Didn’t your mother say you needed some clothes?” he asked in front of a dry cleaning establishment on Queens Boulevard.

  “Well, there are a few things I could use.”

  “Like what?”

  “Jeans and tops, stuff like that. Everything’s getting too small for me.”

  “The Abraham and Strauss on Queens Boulevard is open on Sundays, isn’t it?”

  “All the stores out here are open on Sunday.”

  “Let’s take a cab down, and if we can’t find what we want at Abraham and Strauss, we’ll go to Macy’s. You know your size?”

  “Of course I know my size. Size twelve.”

  Sunday afternoon traffic was congested but Rackman was able to hail an empty cab returning from Kennedy Airport. He and Rebecca got in while Rebecca confessed her latest career goal.

  “I want to be an actress when I grow up,” she said proudly. “Like Cheryl Ladd and Farrah Fawcett-Majors.”

  “Maybe I should enroll you in some kind of acting school.”

  “Mommy said I’m too young, but Kristy McNichol is only sixteen and she’s already famous.”

  “I’ll talk to your mother about it.”

  “You’ll have another argument.”

  “I don’t give a damn. How’re you getting along with Sam?”

  “He’s okay.”

  “He ever hit you or anything like that?”

  “He wouldn’t dare, but Mommy does.”

  “Why don’t you hit her back?”

  Rebecca smiled. “Do you really think I should?”

  “On second thought, I think you’d better not.”

  They got out of the cab at the new Abraham and Strauss on Queens Boulevard and took the escalator up to the second floor children’s department. Rebecca was as concentrated as a fighter pilot on a strafing run as she went through a rack of silk party dresses. Rackman looked at her and thought of the whores and peepshow girls of Times Square, reflecting that they were once twelve years old too, guileless and romantic, dreaming of princes on white horses, party dresses, and lollipops. He wondered what terrible things had happened to them, and hoped Rebecca wouldn’t take a wrong turn someplace and go in that direction.