The rodent grin flashed between five-o’clock-shadowed cheeks. “Nate! Here we are at the scene of the crime-like old times.”
“I hope not, Mickey.”
“You look good. You look swell.”
“That’s a nice suit, Mickey.”
“Stop by Michael’s-I’ll fix you up…on the house. Still owe you a favor for whispering in my ear about…you know.”
“Forget it.”
He leaned in, sotto voce. “New girl?”
“Pretty new.”
“You hear who Didi Davis is dating these days?”
“No.”
“That State’s Attorney cop-Cooper!”
I smiled. “Hadn’t heard that.”
“Yeah, he finally got the bullet removed outa his liver, the other day. My doc came up with some new treatment, makes liver cells reple themselves or somethin’…. All on my tab, of course.”
My date tightened her grip on my arm; maybe she recognized Cohen and was nervous about the company I was keeping.
So I said, “Well, Mick, better let you and your boys go on in for your coffee and pastries…before somebody starts shooting at us again.”
He laughed heartily and even shook hands with me-which meant he would have to go right in and wash up-but first, leaning in close enough for me to whiff his expensive cologne, he said, “Be sure to say hello to Frankie, since you’re in the neighborhood.”
“What do you mean?”
Actually, I knew he meant Frankie Niccoli, but wasn’t getting the rest of his drift….
Cohen nodded down the Strip. “Remember that road construction they was doin’, the night we got hit? There’s a nice new stretch of concrete there, now. You oughta try it out.”
And Mickey and his boys went inside.
As for me, my latest starlet at my side, I had the parking lot attendant fetch my wheels, and soon I was driving right over that fresh patch of pavement, with pleasure.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Most of the characters in this fact-based story appear under their real names; several-notably, Fred Rubinski, Didi Davis, Delbert Potts and Rudy Johnson-are fictional but have real-life counterparts. Research sources included numerous true-crime magazine articles and the following books: Death in Paradise (1998), Tony Blanche and Brad Schreiber; Headline Happy (1950), Florabel Muir; Hoodlums-Los Angeles (1959), Ted Prager and Larry Craft; The Last Mafioso (1981), Ovid DeMaris; Mickey Cohen: In My Own Words (1975), as told to John Peer Nugent; Mickey Cohen: Mobster (1973); Sins of the City (1999), Jim Heimann; Thicker’n Thieves (1951), Charles Stoker; and Why I Quit Syndicated Crime (1951), Jim Vaus as told to D.C. Haskin.