Ed Lacy - The Big Fix

“Forget him. I'll let you buy me some orange juice,” Tommy said, combing his thin red hair. Shaking the water off the comb, he asked, “How about a fight, Bobby?”

“Well... Okay, I should have my head examined. You got the stand-by fight next week.” Becker pulled a contract from his pocket. “Sign. Usual—twenty-five if you don't go on, sixty bucks if you do. And look, don't sell no blood or get stinko on me.”

Tommy took a pen from Becker's breast pocket, signed the contract. “You'll see, I'm on my way back to the top.”

“All I can see is I'm nuts.”

“Bobby, I'm rested. I been eating fine, put on two pounds. Why last night I flattened a heavyweight.”

“Wasn't any bouts on last night.”

Tommy told him about May and Big Burt and Bobby's fat face went pale. Tommy finished, ”... so I put the fear of God smack into him. He'll leave May alone. You should of seen how I pasted...”

“You fool, you put your foot in it!” Becker said in a hoarse whisper. “Now this Big... guy... has to settle with you or May!”

“It'll be a lot of hours before he'll have to do anything. You don't understand, I scared him off us.”

“Oh, you dope! You beat him up in a public place, before plenty of people. If you'd done it in an alley, he could forget about it. Now it's all over the market!”

“That's what I wanted—everybody to know I'd squared the bet. After I tell him things are okay, then I couldn't let him call May names and...”

“Tommy, you got a head thick as the Blarney Stone!” Bobby said, throwing his sandwich into a trash can. “Already, you've rained my appetite. You'd better get May out of town, way out. And you go too!”

“But all I did was get this cruel clown off her back?”

“Tommy, Tommy, you know why cops go all out when another cop is beaten up, or killed? It isn't that they give a damn so much about the particular cop—they can't risk the prestige of the whole force. They can't let anyone get the idea it's okay to take a poke at a cop. With the numbers syndicate it's the same. The reason this Big...”

“Burt.”

“... Big Burt had to whip May was to stop anybody else from thinking they could hold out on the syndicate—to reassure the players the mob don't stand for no crap. It's the same reason they're always careful to pay off promptly: it's the life blood of their business. They got to keep the customers in awe of the syndicate. Okay, so now you've slopped up one of their runners, or bankers, or whatever this Big Burt is. If nothing is done about it, other people will get the idea the syndicate isn't strong, ain't much. A guy that doubts ain't going to play with them. Listen, I know these racket punks. I was... I know!”

“You saying the big-shot goons are out to get me?”

“They have to get somebody. They may not know where to find you, but they'll kill or cripple May. Tommy, listen to me carefully: if I know anything about punks, this Big Burt will be too proud to make it a syndicate matter—yet. He'll try to make a showing for his bosses by settling things himself, first. So what you've done by shellacking him is to put him square on May's back!”

“I only meant to... What can I do now?”

“Get May out of the market district fast. Then you have to even yourself with this joker. Maybe stand still for a beating.”

“They say he's a knife joker, Bobby. I can't stand still for a slicing job.”

“You and May should get out of town fast! Once it becomes a gang matter, they'll know where to find you. I'll lend you trainfare to... where?”

“I can't do that either now.”

Becker took out the contract. “Ill tear this up and...”

“Leave it lay,” Tommy said, slapping Becker's fat shoulder. Walking toward the stairs and the street, Tommy called back, “If I'm dead or cut up by next week, you can always get another boy around here.”

It was the middle of the afternoon as he headed for the markets. Tommy thought, Damn, just when I finally get a break in the ring, something like this has to come up. Bobby was right, I lost my head last night. Like letting a fighter drive you crazy by making cracks about your mother... and you leave yourself open as you come slugging in. I could have let Burt run his fat mouth, in one ear and out... Okay, I didn't. That's over, now I got to make my play and make it fast. God, let my luck still go for me.

Nearing the market district, Tommy walked carefully—he didn't want to meet Big Burt now. He wondered if it would be safe to go to the bar on West Street, or would... “Hey, Cork.”

Tommy jumped as he spun around to see Butch Morris coming out of a wholesale butcher shop, lugging a large cane basket covered with brown paper. Butch crossed the street and held out a thick hand. “Had you pegged wrong, Mr. Cork. I heard what you did last night. I hope it don't start no killings around here, but at least you acted like a ruddy man!”

Tommy shook his head. “I hope not like a dead man. Tell me, have you heard anything about what Big Burt plans to do?”

“I hear after the ambulance doc fixed him up, he yelled he was going to kill you—or May. Of course that could be so much belch-talk. I don't know how the big numbers boys take to all this. I imagine they don't want too much publicity and trouble. Killing is both.”

“Right now I have to worry about Burt, not the big boys. Burt around now?”

“You crazy-brave? You looking for trouble?”

“I don't want to see him. Fact is, I want to know when he generally comes around, so I can avoid him.”

“The markets don't start coming alive 'til night. You won't see Burt about until maybe eight o'clock.”

“Thanks,” Tommy started walking on.

“What you going to do? He's a shiv man.”

“I don't know what I'm going to do, but I got to do it,” Tommy called back.

He trembled a little as he walked into the West Street bar. The place was empty, chairs even stacked on top of tables, except for an old man in a dirty shirt busy washing glasses behind the bar. Tommy asked, “Big Burt around?”

“Nope, far too early for likes of him. He's probably still in the sack. Or at the doc's. You hear what happened to him?” Noticing Tommy's face the old man's shrill voice sank. Then he asked, “You the one?”

“Aha. You going to see Burt today, for sure? Or can you get a message to him?”

“Yes sir.”

“You tell Burt I'll be here at eight tonight. I hear he's still full of fight, still running his blubber lips. Just tell Burt if he wants to talk to me, I'll be here at eight. But I'm busy, so I'll only wait a few minutes for him. And gimme a fast gin. Take one yourself.” Tommy threw a half a buck on the bar.

As he glanced around for a phone, he could feel the cold sweat racing down his sides. Then he thought, No, be silly to phone from here. Well, I've thrown the damn dice, see what my luck turns up when they hit the wall.

WALT STEINER

Walt and his partner, an older and rather fat man named Jim, were investigating a burglary. It was a routine affair— except to the victim. An apartment had been entered by breaking the kitchen window on the fire escape, sometime during the morning, while the woman of the house was out shopping. It was obviously the work of a punk. The house was an ancient walk-up to start with, and a couple of suits, a piggy bank, a worn fur jacket, a table radio, and an old table lighter had been taken. If the thief was very lucky he might get ten dollars for everything, and a few bucks from the piggy bank.

Despite the rundown appearance of the place, the woman carried theft insurance, so Jim had made a list of the missing items while Walt had been arguing with, and gently kidding, the angry housewife who thought they should be busy taking footprints and fingerprints off the busted window. The flat was on the top floor and they had already walked the six flights twice—once to see the super—and explored the roof. Walt was telling her, “Lady, prints only work in the movies. We'll make the rounds of the pawn shops, that's the best way. The department has a special detail on the lookout for stolen things. I'd also advise you to have an iron gate put on the inside of the window. Since you're in the rear and... Well, yes, I suppose having bars on the window might make the kitchen look a little like a jail, but then, people in jail don't get robbed. What? No, lady, I'm really not being facetious, merely practical. Or get a dog. Now we'll let you know if any of your items turn up in the hock shops. If you find anything else missing, please call me at this number. You have our names and badge numbers, be sure you give them to your insurance agent. They may have somebody up here today. That's all.”

Walking down the six flights of the old apartment house, Jim said, “They all act the same. Think we got time to make a case out of every two-bit forced entry. Bet we have a couple more squeals before our tour is over. I'm surprised she didn't ante up the amount of her loss. Some women are dumb. Even if the insurance won't pay it all, she can put it down as a loss on her old man's income tax.”

“Still, we should have had time to look into it thoroughly. Might have found prints and collared this punk before he pulls a dozen more jobs,” Walt said half aloud, his mind really not in it.

Jim glanced at him and shook his head. Walt said the same thing at every robbery. They had been partners for several years. Neither particularly liked the other. Walt thought Jim was too sloppy in his job while Jim considered Walt far too serious. As Jim would say, and often did, “We can only do so much as police officers. We put in our crazy eight hours, get indigestion from changing tours and eating habits so often, and that's it for us. So we can't reform the whole world; it ain't our job and the hell with it.”

Walt didn't approve of Jim's drinking and running around, or his loud clothes, while Jim privately considered Walt a humorless “drag.” But they each respected and fairly understood the other, and both were capable when they had to be.

As they sat in the squad car, Jim lit a cigarette and Walt yawned. Jim asked, “What's come over you today, Walt? Tie one on last night? First time I've ever seen you look like you been up all night. And you were almost jovial, or what passes for humor with you, with that crying mama up there.”

“I didn't get hardly any sleep last night. I was helping a friend... eh... move,” Walt said, yawning again.

Actually his brain was far from sleepy; it was working like mad. Walt didn't understand exactly what had happened last night. First he had been surprised when Ruth had readily agreed to help find May. When he and Tommy had been standing in the cold outside the crummy rooming-house for so long, Walt had wondered what Ruth could possibly be doing up there all the time. Tommy kept muttering he wanted to go up and see his wife, and suddenly Walt knew what Ruth was up to and he wanted to laugh. It was crazy how one simple thing could reflect so many different angles to different people. Tommy worried about a wife he'd rarely seen; May Cork beaten and frightened because she turned greedy; Walt himself annoyed at working on his own time, standing in the cold like a fool; and Ruth working an entirely different tack, figuring how all this could add up to a story for her.

When she'd come down and Tommy had gone for food, Walt had wanted to impress upon her this wasn't a game of charades, that a woman had nearly been beaten to death. But he hadn't and when Ruth took the food up and there was another long wait in the raw cold, Walt had really become angry. A silly waitress gets involved with the numbers syndicate over a lousy buck, and he, Walt Steiner, suddenly found himself way out on a limb. There were certain things a cop had to shut his eyes to. Just as you never gave a ticket to a politician, so a cop didn't fool with the numbers boys. It was plain common sense—all that was taken care of by “downtown.” Whether “downtown” was holding out a fat palm or not wasn't his business.