“I don’t know.” Morgan caught the look in Karras’s eye. “I’m tellin’ you the truth, buddy — I don’t know.”
Karras turned.
“Wait a second,” growled Morgan. “I wanna know who did this to me.”
Karras shifted his shoulders beneath his topcoat. “Pete Karras. Remember it.”
Morgan said, “I will.”
Karras felt the throb of a vein on his neck. He headed out the door.
33
Karras drove Mike and Lola Florek back to Florek’s building on 14th. He let them off out front, then took the Ford up to S and swung it into the alley, parked it behind the grill. He moved along the alley, negotiating his way around the cats who sniffed and circled his feet, went in the back door to Nick’s, and walked through the warehouse, which smelled heavily of detergent and pine disinfectant and perfume. Costa had scrubbed down every inch of the floor and walls Saturday night, leaving no trace of Bender or his men when he had finished close to Sunday dawn. Not a hair or a shard of clothing remained, and not a spot of blood.
Karras found Stefanos drinking a bottle of ale on a stool in the kitchen, a string of worry beads wrapped tightly in one hand. He handed him the keys to the Ford.
“Efcharisto, Niko.”
“Tipota. You put any dents in it?”
“I didn’t beat it up too bad. Costa around?”
“He’s at the Hellenic Club, playin’ cards.”
“Toula?”
“She’s up there. Why?”
“Just want a word with her, that’s all.”
“Uh.”
Stefanos seemed listless or in thought, so Karras did not engage him further. He opened the kitchen door and took the stairs up to Costa’s apartment. Toula was not busy and more than eager to listen to Karras and do as he asked. She especially liked the idea of keeping the matter hidden from Costa and Nick, the promise of conspiracy seemed to delight her.
Karras delivered Toula to Florek’s room. She went in with a small satchel filled with home remedies and herbs. Karras stayed out in the hall and smoked a cigarette. When he was done with it he crushed the butt beneath his shoe. A thin, middle-aged tenant emerged from another room wearing only a towel around his bony waist; the Big War vet nodded at Karras as he tiptoed toward the common shower. Karras listened to the pipes wail and then a tapping sound as the tenant turned on the hot spigot. Mike Florek came from the room, closed the door softly behind him. He stood next to Karras, leaned his back against the wall.
“Thanks, Pete. Thanks for everything.”
“Forget it. Here, have a smoke.”
“I don’t use em.”
“Have one anyway.”
Karras shook the deck in front of Florek. Florek took one and Karras took one for himself. He lighted his own, lighted Florek’s.
“Toula got to work on her right away,” said Florek. “She practically pushed me out of the room.”
“She’ll fix her up.”
“She put an empty water glass lip-down on Lola’s back, and lit a candle near the glass. I could see Lola’s skin getting sucked up into that glass. I had to look away—”
“Vendouzas,” said Karras.
“What the heck is that?”
“The cure. Some kind of Greek voodoo. Don’t ask me to explain it, ’cause I can’t.”
“Does it work?”
“Hell if I know. My mother use to give ’em to me when I got sick. It can’t hurt. And it doesn’t matter whether it works or not, because Toula’s gonna go ahead and use it on her either way. She’ll do some other stuff, too, on the more legitimate side. Look, from what I saw, the damage is cosmetic. And anyway, you got bigger things to worry about than that bruise on her face and couple of missing teeth.”
“Like?”
“Like getting her off that junk. Like turning her back into the girl she was. Making her forget about what she’s become.”
Florek took a short drag off his cigarette. “How am I supposed to do that?”
“Get her somewhere so she can’t move around too much. Put her in a room and tie her down if you have to. It’s gonna be hell for her, but it’s the only way I ever heard of that works.”
“Where do I do that?”
“Home. With you and your mother, back in that steel town of yours, wherever you come from. She doesn’t belong in this city, Mike. Neither do you.”
Florek looked at Karras. “Tonight?”
“No, not tonight. Tonight she needs her rest.” Karras put his cigarette to his lips, inhaled deeply. He glanced at the skinned knuckles of Florek’s right hand. “You gave it to Morgan pretty good.”
“I guess I did. I never hit nobody before, Pete.”
“A lot of firsts for you down here, huh? You even look different than when I first met you. With all that work, you put a few pounds on, too.”
“You think?”
“Sure. How’d it feel, hittin’ that guy?”
“It felt all right, I guess. There’s no magic to it, if that’s what you mean.”
“Remember it, chum. It doesn’t take any brains to slug a guy or to hang out with hoods or to get yourself off track. No brains and no magic.”
“Maybe not. But I’d like to run into the guy who did that damage to my sister.”
“You better put it behind you. You can’t change it, so you might as well go on and do what’s right for her now.”
Florek dropped his cigarette to the wood floor, stamped it out. “She talked about it, you know. While you were getting Toula. She talked about what happened.”
“Yeah?”
“Fever gab, Pete. She was rambling on about a whole lot of things. Even claimed she was with the hooker that got sliced the other night. Claimed the hooker was a friend of hers. That the killer opened up her friend, then kicked Lola in the face before he walked.”
“She claim she saw this killer?”
“She saw nothing. Only a pair of shoes like rich guys wear on the golf course. You know, two-tones. Brown-and-whites, only without the spikes. I don’t believe a word of it. I gotta think that every working girl in this town is seeing killers, on account of they’re so scared. You don’t think there’s anything to it, do you?”
“No. Hop talk, I’d say.”
“Yeah. But I’d still like a minute in the same room with the guy—”
“Forget about it, Florek.”
“Right. That’s what I gotta do. Just forget.”
Karras butted his cigarette against the door frame. “Let me get outta here.”
“Where you headed?”
“Home. For a change, I’m gonna beat the stroke of midnight. See if I can’t catch up with my wife before she hits the sack.”
Florek tugged on the sleeve of Karras’s topcoat. “Pete, I—”
“You told me already.” Karras smiled. “Go on inside and see how she’s doin’.”
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?”
“Yeah. Tomorrow we’re gonna work everything out.”
Karras headed for the stairs. Florek watched his shadow on the wall as he descended. Then there was the creak of the building’s front door and the solid sound of it being shut.
Florek rubbed his swollen knuckles, thinking of the man who had just limped away. A man taller than his own shadow — that’s who Pete Karras was. And the guy didn’t even know it. Florek smiled to himself, seeing for the first time how maybe Lola could be all right. He pushed off from the wall, opened the door to his room, stood there for a moment in the frame. He went inside.
34
The next morning, a Monday, before Dimitri woke in his crib, Peter Karras made love to Eleni to the sound of car horns on H and Eleni’s own gasps and sobs. They had joined violently at first, caught a rhythm soon thereafter, and taken it slow to the end. Karras came first, quietly and for what seemed to be a long while; Eleni broke with a spasm, her one leg kicking at the air, as it always did. Afterwards they laughed about that, Karras giving her the treatment about the leg and not letting up about it, causing her to blush. She forgot about her anger over not having seen or heard from him, except for that one hour of church, for the last few days.