Karras smiled and Eleni smiled back. He went to the door, opened it, walked out into the common hall. Eleni listened to his irregular footsteps as he made his way across the hall to the stairs. She waited for a minute or so, walked over to the window that gave to a view of H. She looked through the window.
Eleni could see him down there, standing beneath a streetlamp, his head cocked to one side, his hands cupped around a match as he put fire to a cigarette. A funnel of smoke swirled around his head as the match took. She watched him as he tossed the match to the pavement. She watched him walk east.
38
Joe Recevo leaned against the rear quarter panel of his Olds, watched Karras move from the darkness and into the light of the street-lamp at the corner of 8th and K. He thought he saw a smile on Karras’s face as he approached, but as Karras drew nearer he realized that he had been mistaken. It was a wince that had made Karras’s mouth twist up like that. Recevo wondered how bad the leg still hurt.
“Joe.”
“Pete.”
They did not shake hands. Recevo dragged hard on his cigarette, flicked it to the ground. The butt sparked as it glanced off the concrete.
Karras chin-nodded the Olds. “Nice sled.”
“Yeah, it’s all right.”
“What’s the model?”
“It’s an eighty-eight. The lines sold me. The fastback really gives it somethin’, don’t you think?”
“Hell, Joe, you know I don’t know cars.”
“You don’t have to know about ’em to know they take you places quick. I mean, you could of caught a cab over here, couldn’t you?”
“Been waitin’ long?”
“You said a half-hour. It’s been over an hour.”
“It wasn’t so cold out. I thought I’d walk. I can’t get around so fast anymore, but I can still walk.”
“You always loved it.”
“Yeah. Anyway, you didn’t have to stand around out here. You could’ve gone inside and had a seat at the bar.”
Recevo’s eyes moved to the Kavakos sign that hung on the building. “I thought it’d be better if I waited for you. It’s not like anybody’s gonna run over and give me a kiss in that place.”
Karras said, “Come on.”
They walked together down the sidewalk, cut in at the head of the line, went through the side door. No one objected. Jerry Tsondilis let them in, greeted Karras, did not greet Recevo.
Inside, they took a couple of stools at the bar. The nightclub action was thin, but the house band played as if the club were full. They were hitting the intro to Glen Miller’s signature, “Moonlight Serenade,” and couples were making their way slowly to the floor.
“I always liked this one,” said Recevo. “Listenin’ to Miller sometimes, it’s so pretty it makes you wanna cry.”
“It’s pretty all right. But Miller took everything he knew from a guy by the name of Fletcher Henderson.”
“Fletcher Henderson? Who the hell is that?”
“Hell, I don’t know.”
“Then what are you talkin’ about?”
“Never mind.”
A Kavakos brother stepped up, cocked his chin as he wiped his big hands dry on a yellowed bar rag. His eyes moved from Recevo to Karras.
“What’s it gonna be, Pete?”
“A bottle of Senate and a shot of Pete Hagen’s.”
Recevo said, “The same way.”
Recevo put his cigarettes on the bar. He removed his topcoat, removed his fedora, brushed his hand back through his hair, rested the fedora on the topcoat which he had draped over the stool to his right. Karras did not remove his coat.
The drinks were served. Karras and Recevo tapped their glasses, drank their shots at once. They followed the rye with swigs of beer.
Karras reached into his jacket, withdrew a cigarette. Recevo blew into his deck of Raleighs, pulled free a smoke. He lighted his, lighted Karras’s off the same match. Karras let a stream go and watched it drop over the bar.
“How’s Lois doin’?” said Karras.
“Good.”
“That’s nice. I always liked Lois.”
“Yeah, she’s a good girl. How about Eleni?”
“Fine.”
“And the boy?”
“He’s fine.”
Recevo grinned, gave Karras a soft elbow. “I heard you finally made time with that Lizabeth Scott lookalike you were after.”
Karras did not answer.
“You two still shacked up?”
“No.”
“There’ll be others.”
“It ain’t like I’m proud of it.”
“But you can’t help it, can you. Gash-hound like you.” Recevo smiled. “Hey, Pete. You remember that girl—”
“Can it, Joey. I didn’t come here for all that.”
Recevo said, “All right.”
Karras exhaled slowly. “On the phone you made me a proposal.”
“Yeah.”
“So Burke wants me back in the fold.”
Recevo nodded. “I talked him into givin’ you a chance to come back in.”
“And all I gotta do is give up the girl.”
“That’s right.”
“What’re they gonna do to her?”
“Listen to her tell what she knows about Gearhart. What she knows about the business.”
“And what if they don’t like what she tells them?”
“We didn’t get that far with it, Pete.”
Karras dragged on his cigarette.
“There’s somethin’ else,” said Recevo.
“Tell it.”
“That thing with Bender. Burke knows Stefanos buried him and his boys. He’s obligated to make things right there, too.”
“So, what, he wants me to deliver Nick Stefanos to his door as well?”
“Don’t be cute. He just wants you to step aside, is all.”
Karras drank off some of his beer. He put the bottle down on the bar. “It’s easy for that to come out of your mouth, isn’t it, Joey.”
“What do you mean?”
“Step aside and let Burke take down a friend.”
Recevo looked down at the acned wood of the bar. “Cut it out.”
“Because it ain’t so easy for me. Nick Stefanos was the one who propped me up when I thought I’d lost everything—”
“Pete...”
“You don’t get it.”
“It’s you that doesn’t get it. What happens to Nick is going to happen to him whether you stand by him or not. I’m tellin’ you, Reed and the rest of them, they’re gonna burn that place to the ground.”
“I’d like to see ’em try.”
“Sure you would. You and your boilin’ Greek blood. You just don’t give a good goddamn, right? I mean, what is it with you, Pete? You wanna die, or somethin’? Is that it?”
“No. But you’ve got to stand for something sometime. At least you gotta try.” Karras snapped ash off his cigarette. “Like I say, Joey, you just don’t get it.”
Recevo signaled Kavakos for another round. Kavakos brought the bottle, placed the beers in front of them, free-poured rye into their glasses. Recevo knocked his back. Karras sipped at his own.
Recevo said, “How’s Jimmy?”
“He’s gonna come out of it all right. They gave him some fresh blood, flushed that junk he’s been takin’ out of his system. Hell, the truth of it is, he looked better in that hospital than he has in weeks.”
Karras saw Recevo’s mouth turn up in a kind of smile. The smile passed as quickly as it had come.
“I screwed up, Pete. I was concentrating on getting Jimmy in and out of there before Reed showed up. I didn’t even think that Gearhart would double back to his place. He slipped out of Burke’s office, is all it was.”
“I should’ve been there with him,” said Karras.
“Maybe I shoulda been there, too.”
“You did okay, Joey. You did plenty. When he gets out of that hospital, Jimmy’s gonna get his shield out of all this. You went way out on a limb, tippin’ him off like you did. Thanks.”