Chapter Two: Kiss Me, Deadly
Grossmann's Delicatessen, Friday
I: Sally
"So, I guess I'm thinking about hanging up my tights, too, when I retire from the force. Moe's is still there; I was thinking about buying it. It's funny, Sally. I used to think that when you were in your forties, well, that was as old as old could get. Now I feel like I've got a whole other life ahead of me. You know what I mean?"
"I sure do, Hollis. I mean, you work, and you make your mark, and you sacrifice, and then you come to a point where ya gotta say, hey, what about what I want? What about my life?"
Sally suddenly realised that even though she and Hollis were talking about completely different things, he thought they were talking about the same thing.
She suddenly felt extremely guilty, sitting there with Hollis Mason.
Guilty that she was having lunch with Hollis and that he was probably trying to think of a way to ask her to marry him, and she was sitting there thinking about Eddie Blake's cock.
That was literally what she was thinking about.
Ever since that quickie in the car, she couldn't think about much else.
And Hollis was a good, decent, handsome man. He wanted to offer her a chance at a good, decent, normal life. He would make a wonderful stepfather for Laurie and he would be a good husband to any woman.
Yeah.
Any woman but her.
Hollis wasn't exactly Errol Flynn when he was a young man, and now that he was in his forties, he was the type who probably didn't put too high a premium on fucking.
Sally knew that she could live without a lot of things, but sex wasn't one of them, and Hollis probably didn't know what an open relationship was, and if he had, she was pretty sure the very concept would horrify him.
Not that Sally was guilty about it; she was just guilty that Eddie was the one she was thinking about in connection with it.
"So, where's Laurie, today? I was looking forward to seeing her."
"Well, you heard about what happened to Liv Napier, didn't you?"
Hollis frowned.
"Horrible! What's the world coming to, when kids can't even play in a park without being attacked by crazies and drug peddlers! Still, that's the Comedian's old neighbourhood. I'm sure he'll clean it up."
"Not alone, Hollis."
"But Sally, are you sure you're up to it?"
"You bet your ass I am! My daughter spends a lot of time in that park. She's probably there right now, or at Edie and Aggie Blake's house."
Hollis frowned.
"I don't know, Sally. I've got nothing against the Blake sisters, and I've met Mickey Blake, he's an honest cop, but don't you think that's a little too close for comfort?"
"Hollis, they're Laurie's family. Even if she doesn't know it, now, if she finds out someday, at least she'll have her family. It'll soften the blow. They're good people. They can't help it Eddie's their brother."
"How is your little trainee?" Hollis asked, changing the subject.
"Liv? She went over the wall at Wayne Manor, made her way all the way to my place from out on Long Island and showed up for training, two days after she got stabbed. I drove her home. She came back the next day. One thing about Liv, she's smart and she's determined."
"Determined not to follow in her father's footsteps, either. That's good."
"Speaking of determined, I have to go pick Laurie up. It was nice seeing you, Hollis. If you come over on Monday for lunch, both of the girls will be there."
"And I can talk to Liv about engines. You know, I don't think she's going to outgrow her passion for all things mechanical. That girl was born with a screwdriver in her hand. She'll probably become some kind of genius engineer by the time she's 19. Another little Tony Stark."
"Probably."
Actually, Laurie was going to be at the Blake house overnight, because Sally was going out to dinner with her father.
When she thought of it that way, it didn't seem so bad.
Eddie said something about the movies, so Sally didn't get too dressed up.
She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that even though she had no shortage of boyfriends in the past 11 years, she had never stopped thinking about him.
She and Eddie went to the movies and someplace for dinner and he wasn't too happy when she thanked him for a lovely evening and sent him on his way, but he left.
It was a small victory, but a victory, nonetheless.
She had proved to herself that Eddie could be just Paulie's uncle.
Just her old friend.
***
Two nights later, Sally was sitting in her living room, watching TV, when the phone rang.
It was late, around eleven, so she wasn't surprised when it turned out to be business.
She had been expecting it when Edie said that she wanted to have Laurie overnight, something about taking the kids to the big drive-in on the other side of the tunnel in Jersey.
"Hiya Sal. You remember that project we were talkin' about, that day Laurie got hurt in the park?"
"Yeah. I do. Are we startin'?"
"Tonight. The back door to the house is open. Come in quietly, they're all out at the drive-in. They went to Jersey. I'm in the basement."
He hung up.
Sally went upstairs, put her costume on, hid a .9mm auto in one half of her bustier and a knife in the other, then went downstairs, put on her overcoat and left the house.
Sally got in her car, and drove to Bensonhurst.
***
Eddie was sitting in front of a card table.
There was a map on it, a bottle of Irish whiskey, and an ashtray.
Sally sat down opposite him, lit up, had a drink, and looked at the map.
"So, what's their game?"
"They ain't got much. Jack told me these assholes ain't connected to shit, and I checked it out. They're a bunch of punks the wiseguys didn't want. The kid Jack got rid of, he was the gang leader's little brother. There's another brother, and they got ten guys. They sell reefers and skag, an' they run a few girls. Jailbait. Get 'em hooked on the needle and turn 'em out. They ain't neighbourhood girls, at least. They work from here, to my block, and the next block over, an' the park. At night, they run the drugs out of the park, and the girls outa this pizza shop, right here. It's pretty small time, shouldn't take much to stop 'em."
"So, what's your plan, Eddie?"
"Well, I was thinkin' we start by lettin' 'em know we're around. You ready for a little action, Sal?"
The way he said it, Sally could tell he wasn't just talking about work.
"Business before pleasure, Eddie."
***
Sally wasn't nervous, walking down the dark street with Eddie at one in the morning, even though she hadn't seen action in a little over a decade.
In fact, she was excited.
It always made her a little sad, thinking of how she was preparing Laurie and Liv to go out there and fight with the best of the big boys, like she used to.
But now, here she was, doing her job, again.
"Is this the place?"
"Yeah."
"May I?"
"Hey, ladies first." Eddie told her.
WHAM!
Sally kicked the door in.
Damn, that felt good.
It was just like the old days.
A smoky room fully of greasy punks, drunk, high on their own supply, huddled around a card table piled up with paltry amounts of money and broken-down pawnshop guns.
"What the fuck is this?" one of them demanded.
"Just a visit from your friendly neighbourhood masks. I'm gonna ask you punks, nicely, to pack up your shit and get the fuck out and never come back. It'd be real good for your health if you agreed." Sally announced.
One of them swaggered up to her, trying to look real tough with his greasy DA and his cigarettes rolled up in the sleeve of his undershirt.
He flicked a switchblade.
"You think we're gonna listen to some old bag like you? Whatta you gonna do? Shove me between your tits and suffocate me?"
Sally sized him up while he was flapping his jaws, and when he was done, she grabbed him by the arm with the knife in it, twisted it, and threw a left to his unprotected jaw.
He dropped the knife, she kicked it away and followed up with a right to the solar plexus.
The punk went down, and Sally kicked him over onto his back, and put her boot on his neck.
"Show some respect for your elders, sonny." She told him.
Eddie was just standing by, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, and one foot on the wall behind him.
"Are you busy?" she asked.
"Like I said, ladies first."
"Who else wants some? Ah, ah, ah, don't touch those guns, kids."
Sally pulled the gun out of the holster in her bustier.
"This ain't no pea shooter like you got there, and it's loaded. Now, are you gonna listen to me or are you really gonna get hurt?"
The only one of them who wasn't wearing jeans and an undershirt slammed his fist on the table, got up, straightened his jacket, and started to make a lot of noise.
Bad idea.
"What the fuck is the matter with you assholes? You afraid of a couple of old bastards in Halloween costumes? Pick up those guns and shoot! Shoot!"
Eddie casually moved away from the wall.
"Hey, kid, shut your trap, sit back down, an' put your hands on the table. That's the Comedian. The genuine article. You pick up one of those pieces, you're dead. And that goes double for all of you." Sally told them,
"Shoot!" the leader insisted.
"Shut the fuck up, punk! I'm in charge here." Eddie barked.
Sally had tried to warm them.
"Any of you other punks wanna live to see daybreak, get up against that wall, an' put your hands behind your heads. I'll give you until five. One…Two…T'ree…"
His men looked at their leader, and then at Eddie, and they all moved their asses before Eddie could get to four.
"Okay, okay. We don't want no trouble, see?" said one of the punks.
"That's good. Smart little punks. Except for you, huh, Mr. Big Man? You got some ideas?"
The ringleader gave the Comedian a cocky look.
"Hey, this is my operation, old man. You ain't gonna come in here and bust it up. I got girls, I got money, I got product, and I got customers. And they know well enough to be afraid of me. That's a lesson you're gonna learn. See, you punks? He's just an old man, jerkin' off! All you gotta do is pick up and gun and…"
BLAM!
Sally assumed he was going to say "shoot", but before he could say it, Eddie did it.
The ringleader's hand with his gun still in it, and a good bit of his arm to boot, plopped onto the table in a gaudy spray of blood.
Eddie stepped forward, his shotgun smoking in his hand.
"Punks like you, you can't ever do anything the easy way, can you?"
"Fuck you, old man! Fuck you!"
The punk was fairly game; he, put his stump under his arm and had a knife in his remaining hand, which Eddie, with a carefree laugh, relieved him of.
"Tough guy, huh? That asshole kid who stabbed Jack Napier's daughter? The one she nearly killed with a brick? Who was that little punk to you, big man?"
"He was my brother, you son of a bitch."
"Nice family. Reminds me of mine. Bet your brother's in hell with my Old Man. He was a tough guy, just like you. Tell the old bastard I said hello, when youse sees him. Tell him I sent ya. He'll make the fire all that much more hot for ya."
Eddie stabbed the switchblade into the ringleader's neck with all his might, broke it the blade off, and punched the young man in the neck, driving the blade deeper into his body.
The ringleader was no longer game, he was reeling and screaming and bleeding.
All of his boys had turned their faces away from the wall, and were watching, in horror.
Sally was a little bit horrified too, but Eddie wasn't half as violent as he had been.
In the old days, they'd all be dead by now.
Eddie got hold of him again, put both his hands on either side of the screaming man's face, and with a twist of his wrists, broke the dying man's neck.
"You little fuckers see that? That's me being merciful. I'm gonna be even more merciful, and repeat the lady's offer to get the fuck outa my neighbourhood and not come back. Then I'm gonna count to ten. Anybody still in the fuckin' building dies. And I ain't gonna be merciful with youse."
There was a stampede towards the door.
"Lemme go, lady, please."
"Letcha go, huh? What about those little girls ya made into junkies and turned out? When they begged you to let 'em go, didja do it?" Sally asked the punk under her boot.
"Please, please, lady, I don't wanna die. Please."
"Shut up." Sally told him.
Meanwhile, Sally heard police sirens outside, almost immediately.
Eddie had probably had Mickey and the local cops waiting, and radioed them while she was busting in.
She took her foot off the punk's neck, and hauled him to his feet.
"Come on, pretty boy. Time for you to go to the Tombs for a taste of your own medicine."
She shoved the punk out in front of her, and one of the policemen on the scene cuffed him and loaded him into the waiting paddy wagon with the rest of his friends.
Eddie came out after her; there was blood on his face, his bare arms, and his hands, but if it bothered him, he didn't look it.
"There's a dead one in there, for ya, Mickey. Pulled a gun on us. And a knife."
"Just one? That's an improvement. I figured it was a good idea, bringin' the meat wagon. You and Sal better get outa here, the press is coming. Unless you feel like having your picture taken, tonight."
"Not tonight, Mickey. Too close to home. C'mon, Sal. Let's go."
***
"Whaddya mean, you can't go to your apartment like that? Why not? Whaddya usually do?"
"You want me to walk in the front door in my fuckin' costume, covered in blood? I usually stop an' change at the house in Bensonhurst, but alla the kids are prob'ly just getting' home from the movies. They prob'ly invited Liv over, maybe Mac's kid, Joe, an' them and Paulie and Pat, they'll be up all night. C'mon, Sal. I'll take a fuckin' shower and leave."
"You do that, Eddie. Then you get back in your car and go home! And don't get blood all over my floors! I just had new carpets put in! Come on. There's a door around the back of the building, it goes in through the kitchen."
While Eddie was in the shower, Sally changed out of her costume and into the ugliest housedress and rattiest robe she owned and went back into the kitchen and poured herself a drink.
Her heart was still racing in her chest.
I can still do my job, even after all these years I still got it.
She could hear the pipes moaning, goddamn Eddie was using all of her hot water.
He probably thought she was going to get all bent out of shape, thinking about him all wet and naked, and go upstairs and blow him in the shower and then spread herself out all over the bed like some dumb floozie in a cheap fuckbook.
Like the way they made her out in those Tijuana bibles.
She had seen one, once, about her and Eddie; it was pretty dirty and pretty close to the truth, and Sally put it out of her mind.
Put the whole idea out of her mind.
Until that cocky son of a bitch came strutting into the kitchen with a towel.
The towel wasn't on him, either, he was using it to dry his hair.
"Eddie!"
"What? You seen it all before. I hadda leave my clothes down here, I woulda got blood all over 'em."
He saw the laundry basket sitting by the door to the basement and threw the towel into it.
"Don't look at me like that unless you mean it, Sal."
"I ain't lookin' at you. Don't be so fuckin' conceited! You think you're the only man in the world? Put your pants on and take a fuckin' powder."
Eddie sat down, took her empty glass, and poured himself a drink.
"Maybe I will, an' maybe I won't. And don't think you're safe because you got those gramma rags on. I know what you got under 'em."
"Okay Eddie. Cut the comedy. Time for you to go home."
"Home? Ta who? For what?"
"C'mon, Eddie. What the hell would you want with an old broad like me?"
"Aww, shit, Sal, I feel the same way about youse that I did the day I metcha."
"Sure. You still keep a poster of me on your bedroom wall."
"Fuck yeah, I do."
He got this look on his face; that look of lust that still reminded her of the trophy room and frightened her on one hand, but also reminded her of that one day, and made her feel…
Molten.
"Eddie, Jesus Christ, give it a rest. Go home."
Sally's heart was beating very fast.
She was talking out of both sides of her mouth, and she knew it.
"Do ya really want me to go home, Sal?"
She was about to tell him yes, but then she heard a car horn honking and she could hear Laurie yelling, "G'bye! Thanks Mister Wayne!"
"Fuck! Get your shit and go upstairs! Now! Last bedroom on the left and shut the fuckin' door!" Sally insisted.
Eddie made tracks.
Laurie unlocked the door.
"Hi Ma. I was gonna go stay at Liv's but I saw your car. Paulie's got the chicken pox so me and Liv couldn't stay. I'm hungry. Can I have some cookies and milk?"
She sat down at the kitchen table.
"It's a little late for cookies and milk, don't you think?"
"Please, Ma?"
"Okay. But only two Oreos and a half a glass. I don't want you waking up havin' a bellyache. How was the movie?"
"Okay I guess. We went in Ivan's truck. Ivan and Edie an' Aggie an' Pat and Paulie and Bridget. And me an Liv'. We drove alla way out to New Jersey to the drive-in. Bridget never cried the whole way. She just looks at everybody like she knows exactly what's goin' on. She's a real strange goddam kid for a two-year old…"
"Don't swear, Laurie."
"Well, she is! There were three movies and we only went to one because the boys were complainin' they was itchy an' they didn't feel good. An' when we got back, Edie said it looked like the chicken pox, and she made me and Liv take baths in really hot water with this really stinky soap, and washed our clothes and Liv's stepdad came and got us. Can I have another cookie?"
"No, honey. It's way past your bedtime. Mommy's, too. Come on, let's go to bed."
"Ma, you don't hafta hide him. What do I care if Paulie's Uncle Eddie is your boyfriend?"
"What do I have to do with Paulie's Uncle Eddie?"
"C'mon, Mom. I know who he is. Just because a guy has a mask on, if you know him, it's not like you don't see who he is. Well, Paulie don't. But that's his uncle, so it figures. But I do. I know you guys used to work together. And I saw his car, outside."
"I trained you too well, didn't I? Laurie, Eddie's not my boyfriend. We had to do some work, together, like we did before you were born, and he came here to change out of his costume."
"Oh. Well, I don't care either way. At least I know him. You sure I can't have one more cookie?"
"Yes. Come on, let's go to bed."
Sally put Laurie to bed, and then, she went to her bedroom.
Eddie had not gotten dressed, he was lying in bed, waiting for her, with that fucking smirk plastered all over his face.
"Eddie!"
"What? I hadda try. C'mon, baby, don't kick me outa your bed."
Why should I?
Larry's gone for good.
Laurie doesn't know who he is.
Just Paulie's uncle.
Just some guy I was a mask with, a long, long time ago.
She's in bed, she won't even see him, anyway.
Who even remembers what happened in 1938?
Who even cares?
"Don't gimme that look, Eddie. Not this time. We don't need any more kids, and we got one two doors down, sleeping. I'm gonna go in the can an' take care of a few things. You make sure you keep the door shut. An' get goin' early, tomorrow. I don't want Laurie to know you spent the night."
"Gee, Sal, you got this down to a science. You must do it a lot." Eddie quipped.
"You wanna talk your way out into the street, smart-ass?"
***
Sally closed her bathrobe, as she quietly shut the bathroom door.
She had put on her regular nightie and robe; she supposed Eddie was probably going to take them off of her, but hell, she wanted him to take them off of her, didn't she?'
She looked into Laurie's bedroom as she passed it, at the far end of the hall from her own bedroom.
Laurie was sound asleep.
Sally always felt guilty, just a little, when she looked in on Laurie on her way to her room where a man was waiting for her.
Tonight, she didn't feel guilty.
After all, it wasn't some stranger, it was Eddie.
He was Laurie's father.
This is the way it was supposed to be.
Sally continued on down the hallway, and went into her bedroom.
"Still there, huh?"
"Where was I gonna go?"
Sally took off her robe.
"Out the window and down the fucking drainpipe, if you were smart. Now you listen to me, Eddie, and you listen, good. I'm tired of tellin' mysef you're no good, and I don't wantcha. You are no damn good, but I don't care. I coulda had a whole buncha guys better than you, Eddie, but I didn't, and if this is all I'm gonna get, I better get it. When I get done with you, you're gonna crawl out that door in the morning, because you won't be able to walk."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
Eddie just laughed.
"And Mason thought he was gonna marry you. C'mere, baby. I got what you need."
It was like they had just been waiting eleven years for each other and that quickie in the car had only bean a teaser for the main event.
They really made a mess of the bedroom, and Sally didn't so much fall asleep as pass out.
When she woke up in the morning, all the blankets and pillows were on the floor, and she and and Eddie were on the floor with them, tangled up in the blankets and each other, asleep.
The lamp was on the floor, too, and so was the end table with it.
Sally only woke up when she heard Laurie knocking on the door.
"Come on, Mom! Mom! Liv's gonna be here, soon! I'm hungry."
"Oh shit! You stay here, Eddie, and be fuckin' quiet!"
Sally got out of bed, put her robe on, and slipped out the door.
"Okay, alright, Laurie, don't shout. It's too early in the morning to shout. Go on downstairs and set the table for us."
II: Laurie
While Sally was in the bathroom, a curious Laurie pushed the bedroom door open.
On the rare occasion she caught one of her Mom's boyfriends still at the house in the morning she wanted to see who they were and what they looked like.
Sure enough, Paulie's uncle was sitting on the end of his bed with his pants on and no shirt, with his back to her, putting on his boots.
The lamp was on the floor, and so was a pillow, and he threw the pillow back on the bed and put the lamp back on the end-table.
"Maybe I can't seeya, Laurie, but I know you're there, sneakin' around behind the door."
"Hey, Eddie."
"Hiya, kid."
"Are you the guy who keeps coming here?"
"Me? Not yet."
Laurie stood in the doorway.
"You gonna come down and eat breakfast with us? Nobody else does."
"Nope. I gotta go to work."
He stood up and put an undershirt on.
"But you don't have a regular job."
"No, I don't. But ya gotta go to work, sometime, dontcha?"
He walked out the door, past Laurie, patted her on the head and went down the stairs.
She followed him.
"Dontcha have a shirt?"
"Naaa. It's gettin' warm, again. Don't need one."
Laurie made a face.
"That's what Ivan says. He only wears shirts in the winter, too. Larry always wore a shirt, though. Alla time."
"That's because me an' Ivan are men, and Larry was a lousy rotten queer."
"Yeah. I never liked him. He was a real asshole."
"Don't swear so much, kid."
"Why not? Hey, are you coming back?"
She always asked them that, and they always looked hopeful and told her that was up to her Mom, or something.
Eddie was different.
Standing in the doorway, he smiled a real cocky, smart-ass grin.
"Yeah, honey. I am."
"Then why dontcha stay an' eat breakfast?"
He closed the door.
"Okay, ya talked me into it."
Eddie ignored the dirty look Sally was giving him and sat down at the kitchen table.
"What am I supposed ta say? No?"
"Well, I guess it's just breakfast."
Laurie set a place for him, and he was waiting for somebody to go over to the stove, but Laurie had a box of frosted Flakes and Sally was putting butter on a bagel.
"This is breakfast? Where's the fuckin' food?"
"You know I can't cook. She doesn't like that stuff, anyway."
"Bullshit! Gimme that box. Don't eat this shit, Laurie. It's all sugar and cardboard. You like bacon and eggs? How about pancakes?"
Laurie nodded, vigorously.
"Yeah. Your sister makes 'em for me, whem I'm over at Paulie's house."
"See? Ya can't feed this stuff to a kid, Sal. You'll stunt their fuckin' growth. C'mon kid. Lemme show ya somethin'. Somebody hasta teach youse how to cook."
"Eddie!" Sally protested.
"What? What's she gonna do when she moves outa here and she's on her own and she can't even boil water? Now, whatcha do is, you put the burner on medium, and you roll the butter around in the pan till it melts. And y'wanna put milk in the eggs before ya scramble 'em, it makes 'em get real big an' fluffy…"