Jerry thought about simply going out the door as heads turned toward him but then Catalina asked loudly, “What are ya, a faggot or somethin’?”
Well, it wasn’t that he got insulted or anything, but he noticed that Ravisi and Davis were among the men looking at him, grinning all the while, and if he just walked out the door after she called him a faggot it wouldn’t look right. It would look suspicious.
So what did he do? He walked across the room, put his big hand right up against Catalina’s face and shoved her. She went flying, arms pinwheeling, legs going faster and faster as they tried to catch up with her momentum, but to no avail. She slammed into an empty table and both she and the table went to the floor.
“Yeah, big man!” Buzzy Ravisi shouted. “She had it comin’.”
Jerry turned and walked out of the club ….
“So they saw me,” he finished.
“So what?” I asked. “They don’t know you were lookin’ for them.”
“It was just an edge we had that we don’t have no more,” he said.
“That shouldn’t be a problem,” I said, hoping I was right.
“No,” he said, but he didn’t sound like he was in total agreement with me.
About an hour later Ravisi and Davis came out with the blonde, Iris, between them. Even from where we were I could see she was wearing a short skirt and a low-cut top that she was almost falling out of. They walked to a car, an old Chrysler that belched exhaust when they started it.
“They’re not gonna be hard to tail,” Jerry said, starting the engine. “Hang on.”
He waited for them to pull out before putting the Caddy in drive.
“These two are small-timers,” he said, as we followed them, “but that don’t mean they’ll be easy to handle. You sure you don’t wanna gun?”
“I’m positive.”
“Okay,” he said, “but this is what I do, okay? You gotta do what I say when I say it.”
“I understand. Just remember, all I want from them is information.”
“You’ll get it.”
“I don’t want them killed.”
I didn’t like the pregnant pause before he said, “I don’t kill nobody who ain’t got it comin’.”
We drove along in silence for a while, following their exhaust cloud, and then Jerry mumbled, “If I was Italian I’d be a made guy, by now.”
I didn’t know what to say to that.
Thirty-four
“Maybe we should call the cops.”
We were sitting in the car in front of a fleabag residential hotel in a rundown section of downtown. Ravisi and Davis had just gone inside with the girl.
Jerry sat as still as a statue at the steering wheel, no expression on his face.
“It’s your call,” he said, “but you’ll have to explain why you didn’t call when you first found the body.”
“No,” I said, “I meant call about these guys, not the body.”
“You’re convinced they’re not connected?”
“I’m positive,” I said. “This stuff with the dead bodies, I just walked into that by accident. These guys are involved with whoever is threatening Dino. This is the job I’m supposed to be working on.”
“Then you’d have to explain to the cops why you didn’t report when they broke into your house and worked you over.”
“Shit!” I said. “And I did that to keep both Frank and Dean’s name out of the papers.”
“Frank don’t mind that so much,” Jerry said, “but Mr. Martin, that’s different.”
“Okay, then,” I said, “I guess we better go in and get it over with.”
Jerry took his.45 out, inspected it, and slid the clip out and in. He worked the slide and looked at me.
“No gun for me.”
He raised his eyebrows, shrugged, and slid the.45 into his shoulder holster.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Of course, I didn’t know at the time that Buzz Ravisi had finally decided to share Iris with his partner, Lenny Davis. At that moment they were all getting naked in their hotel room, and Davis’s eyes must have been bugging out of his head as he got a look at the naked Iris close up, rather than up on a stage.
Jerry and I entered the hotel lobby and found it empty except for a dozing sixtyish clerk. Jerry walked to the desk and slammed his.45 down on it. The man jumped, saw the gun and gasped. Jerry put a ten-dollar bill next to the gun.
“One of these is gonna get us Buzz Ravisi’s room number,” he told the man. “It’s up to you which one.”
“R-room fourteen,” the man said. “Second floor.”
Jerry glared at the man, then pushed the ten-dollar bill towards him. He picked up his gun, but didn’t put it away.
“If you call ahead, me and my friend will be back.” Jerry made it clear that he was talking about his gun, and not me.
“Y-yessir.”
“Go back to sleep.”
The clerk immediately put his head down on the desk. Jerry kept his gun in his hand and headed for the stairs. I followed, my heart pounding because I had no idea what was going to happen when we got into the room.
On the second floor we counted off the rooms and stopped in front of fourteen.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Now we knock,” he said, but before I could say a word he lifted his foot and slammed it into the door just above the knob. There was the sound of splintering wood and the door slammed open.
Jerry stepped smoothly into the room, his gun held out in front of him. He blocked my view until he stepped to one side, and then I saw the three naked people on the bed. Ravisi was behind Iris, while Davis was in front of her. Both were at full mast.
Iris, in between them, was on her hands and knees, her breasts dangling down. The tip of Davis’ penis was inches from her nose as she turned her head toward the door, her eyes wide with surprise. They were blue, I noticed, because she was staring right at me. I also noticed that I could smell her perfume, along with the mingled odors of sweat and whiskey.
“What the fuck-” Ravisi said.
“Aw, no,” Davis said. He’d been just inches from heaven.
“Nobody move,” Jerry said.
They didn’t move but Ravisi’s eyes immediately went to a chair, where both men’s shoulder holsters were hanging. It was a good six feet from the bed. There was a small kitchenette off to one side, a sofa and a stuffed chair to the other side.
“Go ahead,” Jerry said to Ravisi, “try it.”
“W-what’s goin’ on, Buzz?” Iris stammered.
“Shut up,” Ravisi snapped. He looked at Jerry because he had the gun. I didn’t even think he’d looked at me once, yet. “What’s goin’ on?”
“My friend and I have some questions for you and your friend,” Jerry said. “Maybe you remember my friend?”
This time he was talking about me, and not his gun. Ravisi looked at me. Davis was still looking down at Iris. Ravisi had slumped to about half mast by now, while Davis’s erection was totally gone. Ravisi still had his hands on Iris’ ample hips.
Ravisi finally looked at me.
“Aw, shit.”
“That’s right,” I said, “aw shit.”
“Look,” Ravisi said, “can we move-”
“Naw,” Jerry said, “I like you in that position. Just stay that way.
“Mister,” Iris said, “can I get dressed and get outta here? I got nothin’ to do with this.”
“Just stay put, sister,” Jerry said. “Don’t make me shoot yer tits off.”
She bit her lips and a tear started to roll down her cheek. She buried her face on the pillow that was right beneath her head. The move hiked her ass up a little higher. That didn’t affect Ravisi but damned if I didn’t start to get an erection.
“Look, pal,” Ravisi said to me, “no hard feelin’s, huh? We was just doin’ a job.”
“We know that,” Jerry said. “What we wanna know is who you did the job for?”
Ravisi licked his lips before he said, “Uh, I can’t tell ya that.”
“Yeah,” Jerry said, “you can. Instead of shootin’ off her tits I can start with your balls.”
“Hey,” Ravisi said, looking at me. Maybe since I wasn’t holding a gun he thought he could reason with me.