That was the Sinners, a gang of teen-age hoods that terrorized the neighborhood, and got their kicks in too many different ways to count. They got their kicks from stomping a man to death, or rumbling with a gang that was also out looking for trouble. They got their kicks from stealing and liquor and from the soft, sweet bodies of their girl friends-The Debs. They had public contests of depraved passion, with one of the guys keeping time, and the couple that lasted the longest won a prize-more depravity. They got their kicks from watching the girls perform, and they got even bigger kicks waylaying strange girls at night, gagging them, unclothing them, and violating them in the most brutal manner possible. The world was just one big kick to these animals in human guise, and like all animals they were readying themselves for a slaughter....
CHAPTER ONE
Outside it was raining, raining hard. Big heavy drops kept on coming, bashing down out of the gray sky and splashing like bombs onto the sidewalk. It was a hot sticky day and the rain didn't do anything to cool it off. You could feel the heat holding onto you, wrapping around you like some sort of clammy fist. Jesus, we were bored.
It had been like this all summer. The whole damn summer it was raining and raining, every day. A guy stepped out of the clubhouse, he got half drowned by the rain. It got so our jeans were getting moldy.
So we sat around in the clubhouse. We drank some beer. We screwed around a lot. We had fights with each other. Some summer.
I got up off the couch, letting go of my chick Lorraine. She looked up at me and said, "Where you going, Eddie? You taking a walk or something?"
"Sure," I said. "All the way over to the refrigerator and back. Big walk."
"Get me a beer too," she said.
I grinned at her. Lorraine was my chick, all mine, and I was proud of her. Proud enough to cut the guts out of any other guy who looked at her the wrong way. She was just sixteen, and she had blonde hair that was pulled tight back from her forehead and dangled in a pony tail that almost reached her behind. The blonde hair was real, too. None of your damn peroxide jobs. I knew.
I looked her over from head to toe, taking in the way her breasts jammed forward against her sweater, taking in the way her hips and thighs filled up her tight blue jeans. I could see the little curve of her belly under the jeans. All I had to do was close my eyes and I could see her naked, sitting there with her lips moist and her eyes like cat's eyes and her breasts going up-down: up-down, up-down, jiggling and joggling, the nipples standing out stiff and tall like a couple of watchtowers on her bosom.
I walked over to the icebox. I looked in. "Crap," I said.
A couple of apples and a can of tomato juice were looking back at me. No more.
"We're outa beer," I announced. "Crap," Lorraine said.
"Double crap," said Blazer from his corner of the room. Blazer's a big beer man. He'll belt away ten, eleven cans on a day like this. Not that it shows on him. He's a six-footer and he weighs maybe one-forty tops.
Lorraine said, "Who's gonna go out and get some more beer?"
"It's Eddie's turn," Blazer said.
I walked to the window and looked out through the dirt. "It's raining."
"That's no news, man," Blazer said quietly.
"I ain't looking forward to gettin' myself soakin' wet in all that stuff," I told him.
"I ain't looking forward to going without no beer for the rest of the day, either, man," Blazer said.
"You want it so much, you get it, Blazer."
He was up out of his corner in a flash, his hand going into his jeans to sit on the butt of his switchblade. Just in case it was needed. I could see his face going pale and his upper lip starting to stick out over his lower one. On Blazer, that was the sign that he was just on the edge of getting killing mad.
"It's your turn to get beer," he said to me.
"I don't feel like getting wet."
"You stinking scut, you damn well will get wet, or I'll fix you so you can't ever-"
"Watch it, Blazer," I warned. My hand wasn't far from my switch, either. Another second and there'd be a stand going on, and somebody would get cut up pretty bad. Maybe both of us.
Suddenly Shiv got off the floor, where he was sitting with his deb, and pushed his way between us.
"You guys gone batty?" he asked.
Blazer stepped back. "It's his turn to get the beer," he muttered.
"It's pouring out," I said, "Is it your turn, man?" Shiv asked me.
I shrugged. "I thought it was Hawk's turn. Where's Hawk, anyway?"
"Inside," Shiv said. "He's busy."
"With Kathy?"
"Yeah. With Kathy," Shiv said. "You want to go in there and pull him off and tell him to get some beer? Or you want maybe to take his turn, and let him take yours, without any fuss?"
I thought of Hawk in the other room, on top of his chick. I decided I wouldn't make a fuss. I wouldn't want to get interrupted if it had happened to me like that.
I shrugged. "Okay," I said. "I'll go for the beer."
Shiv nodded. "You shouldn't have made all the fuss about it, Eddie."
"It's the weather," I said. "Driving everybody batty, that's what it's doing. Let's have some bread, man."
Little Billy is our treasurer. He dug into his pocket and came up with a dollar bill. "That enough?" he asked. "It'll do," I told him.
"It better. We're running low," Little Billy said. "Time for some action, then," Shiv said. Blazer put in, "But what about the goddamn social worker?"
"Screw him," Shiv said. "What's' he going to do for us when all the dough's gone? Put us on relief, maybe?"
I didn't stop to hear the end of the argument. It was one that had been going on inside the gang for weeks. I walked over to Lorraine and said, "Come on. We're going for beer."
"It's wet out, Eddie."
I wasn't taking any nonsense from her. "Come on" I said, and didn't leave her any room for saying no.
We went outside. Rain bucketed down. I put my arm around her shoulder, putting it all the way around so my hand came down right over the ripe swell of one breast. Lorraine didn't fool around with bras or stuff like that. I could feel the warm firmness of her, lying right underneath the thin sweater.
I told myself that the minute Hawk was finished with his chick, I was going into the other room for some of the same he'd been getting.
But first the beer.
We walked down the street through the rain. I squeezed Lorraine's breast and she rubbed up against me, and she was purring like a big cat. Lorraine had been my chick for six months, now. Around the gang, that was a long time for a girl to make it with one guy. But we weren't tired of each other yet. Not by a long shot.
"Where we going for the beer?" she said. "Pulazi's," I said. "Will he sell it?"
"He better," I said.
We crossed the street and went into Pulazi's. On account of the lousy weather, there was nobody in the store, nobody but old man Pulazi himself. He stood behind the counter, wearing his stained old apron, and running his hands nervously through what was left of his thin gray hair as he watched me come toward him.
"Yes?" he said, with a quiver in his voice.
"Two sixpacks of Bud," I said.
"You know I'm not supposed to-"
"Two sixpacks of Bud, and make it fast, Pulazi," I snapped. I stuck my thumbs in my belt and waited. A long moment went by and then he began to move toward the refrigerator section in back.
I held my breath. I wanted him to make trouble I was spoiling for a fight. I wanted to have to push him around a little. Especially in front of Lorraine. I wanted Lorraine to see it as I jabbed my finger into his soft belly and grabbed the end of his big nose and made him sell two sixpacks to an under-age kid.
But he knew better than to make a fuss or ask for an ID card or anything like that. He knew damn well that I wasn't old enough to buy beer legally, and he knew just as well that he could get into big trouble if he sold me the beer and a cop walked in, and even so he got me the beer.
Because he'd get into bigger trouble if he didn't.
He slung the two sixpacks on the counter. I could see he was shaking.
"Anything else?" he asked.
"Not right now."
"That'll be one-sixty."
I reached into my jeans and came out with the crumpled dollar bill Little Billy had given me. "Guess that's all I'm carrying." I said.
He started to take one of the sixpacks away. I reached out and caught his hand.
"Sell 'em two for a buck," I said.
"You crazy? The beer costs me more than that."
"Sell 'em."
"Listen, I give you kids a special price as it is." My fingers tightened on his wrist. My nails dug into the skin, dug deep. "Sell 'em." I could feel him quivering. "This is robbery," he said.
"It's just a little bargaining," I told him. "If I wanted to rob you I'd crack your skull open and hit up the cash register. This is bargaining, man."
"Okay," he said. His voice was a croak. "Take your beer and get out."
I tossed him the dollar. I was disappointed that he had given up so easy.
I had wanted to lean on him a little.
We went back into the rain. My hand snaked around Lorraine's waist and went into the back pocket of her jeans. I could feel the round slope of her buttocks under the material, and it made me want to hurry all the faster back to the clubhouse. We made it in record time.
"Beer," I announced, as we came in.
Hands reached for it. I grabbed off a can for me and one for Lorraine before it was all gone, and we settled down. Hawk and his chick were still using the other room. I felt like having some privacy so I decided to wait till he was through. I opened the beer can and tipped it back.
The minutes ticked by.
So we sat there with the stinking rain coming down and the muggy fog wrapped around the streets. We put the beer into us like medicine, medicine to numb our minds, and went through a couple of packs of cigarettes in no time at all.
We were waiting.
Hell, I don't know what we were waiting for. We were bored cockeyed. There hadn't been any action in the streets in two weeks or more. All this lousy rain that never stopped, and the cops crawling around the city like a swarm of busy beetles. Ever since that last rumble with the Counts we had millions of cops all over the place. Wherever you looked, there was a snoopy guy with a blue coat standing around with his eyes wide open.
And the way those guys look at you. Like we just crawled out from under a rock, or something. They really hate us. They despise the gang kids. All because of the fuzz who got himself turned off in the rumble. A cop gets killed, and it's like the end of the world. All of a sudden everything tightens up real tight.
Little Billy stubbed out his cigarette and reached for another can of beer. As he jabbed the opener into the can he said, "That creep Tommy's late today. He's gonna miss all the beer."
"Maybe he'll bring some," Redeye Mike said.
Tommy's the social worker they stuck on us. He really pals it out with us. Tries to make out he's a regular guy, that he's just the same as us except being a little older and a little more civilized.
Shiv glared around at us, took out his switch, gave it a click so that the blade would get a little fresh air.
He plunked the knife down into the floor.
He said, "One of these days I gonna put the blade right into old Tommy's gizzard, you all hear that? I don't like that guy."
"He's okay," Redeye Mike said. "Why you keep knocking him, Shiv?"
"He's a creep," Shiv said, pulling the knife out of the floor again. "I don't like him. One of these days I gonna open him up."
"You're itching to go to the chair, that's what your story is," Blazer told him. "Go around opening up social workers, you see what's gonna happen to you. They'll fry you, man."
Shiv shook his head. He looked mean. "Two weeks ago at the rumble somebody opened up a cop. I ain't seen anyone frying for that one yet."
"Not yet," Little Billy said. "You just wait, though. The fuzz are working on it pretty damn hard. They'll finger somebody."
"Sure tbey will," Shiv growled. "That's why this guy Tommy's hanging around us, I bet. He ain't trying to help us become useful citizens, or any of that jazz. He's just looking for the guy who opened up Officer Guinness."
"He ain't gonna find him here," I said. "Don't matter how hard they look. It was a Count who stuck the knife into Guinness."
"How do you know so damned much, Eddie?" Little Billy said, swinging around to face me. "It was dark. Maybe one of us cut the cop up, for all anybody knows. You didn't see the knife going in."
"It wasn't one of us," Shiv said in a threatening voice. "It was a Count. So shaddup!"
I kept quiet. I wasn't sure myself. The whole thing had all happened in such a hurry We were rumbling with the Counts in the park, and there was a lot of bashing and stomping going on, but nobody was getting hurt real bad, like. Just a little sport, you might say. And then this fat cop Guinness comes along and tries to break things up, and we're all milling around trying to get in one last lick before it's over, and sudden like Guinness is stretched out on the ground holding his belly with his hands to keep the blood from coming out, and the Counts let out a yell and go fading off one way and our gang-The Sinners-go the other way.
I didn't really see who put the knife into the cop. Shiv says it was Fat Dan of the Counts who did it. But what Shiv says ain't always gospel. Me, I keep my mouth shut when I don't know. Little Billy, yes. Redeye Mike, yes. But not Shiv. That cat handles a blade too good for me or for anybody else this end of the city, and no percentage trying to prove otherwise.
One thing I didn't like. Shiv talking about how the social worker was really spying on us, trying to find out who killed Guiness.
I didn't like that kind of talk at all.
I didn't want Shiv to do something dumb.
I finished my beer. The door of the other room opened and Hawk came out with his chick Kathy. They both had that red-faced happy look. Kathy was grinning like she'd really enjoyed it, and I guess she had. What a hot dish she was! I was hungry for her. She was a little brunette with narrow hips and a big ba-zoom and she'd been shaking it for Hawk for a long time now. Someday maybe he'd get tired of her, and if I wasn't making it with Lorraine I'd move over, I told myself.
I grabbed Lorraine and pulled her up off the couch.
"Come on," I said. "The room's empty."
She didn't need a second asking. We went right in and bolted the door.
Our clubhouse's kinda small. We got two rooms, a big one and one that isn't so big. The big one is for gang parties and the small one is for couples who want to be alone. When we're all tanked up, we do it right out in the open, but these days nobody could get into that kind of a mood. So the little room was getting a lot of use.
Lorraine and me, we didn't waste any time. I started to unbutton my shirt and she pulled her sweater up over her head and tossed it on a chair. Her breasts stood out like two big grapefruits sprouting from her chest. I walked over to her and put my hands on them. They were warm, and soft as velvet, and they filled up my whole hand. And the nipples were hard against my palm.
She came close to me and her lips opened as our mouths touched. She started to gasp, and her hands went around me, fingernails digging into the bare flesh of my back. I worked at the belt of her jeans, got it open, pulled the zipper.
The jeans were tight. It was hard work to get them off her. But finally I did, and the panties too, and there she was, naked, everything she had showing.
And plenty.
She got my clothes off me in a hurry.
We stood there looking at each other. We didn't say much. Lorraine and I didn't like to make conversation before we did it. We just looked. I knew she liked what she saw, and I knew that I liked what I saw.
She was up against me, and my hands went down her back, grabbing the heavy rounds of her buttocks, and she nibbled my shoulder a little, and her breasts were double points of fire against my chest. It was hot and sticky in the room, and sweat ran down both our bodies in rivers, but we hardly gave a damn. The time when it gets so hot I'm not in the mood for loving is the time I quit for good.
Lorraine broke loose from me and flopped down on the bed, lying on her back. She held her arms out to me.
I went to her.
She reeled me in like a fisherman reels in a big one. I felt her warmth underneath me. I saw her eyes wide open, her mouth open too.
I got my hands underneath her, then I lifted her a little, and our bodies came together, and she started to shake and to move, and I nodded, because this was it, the feeling I loved so much, and it was happening, and it always felt like the first time, the only time, the best time ever.
I didn't rush it. Some cats rush it because they can't wait for their kicks. They don't care about the girl. Not me. I know that the kicks are always a tot better if you give the deb her kicks too. Otherwise you can't keep a deb loyal for long Sooner or later she cheats you, if you don't give her the kicks.
I eased back and forth, and pretty soon Lorraine's eyes were closed, and I knew things were happening to her. Slow, slow, careful, careful, and up and up we went, up the mountain together, and my fingers tightened on the big globes of her breasts, and my lips touched hers, and all the time our bodies kept moving, moving, and it was getting closer, and I could hear her gasping, and when I pressed myself tight against her I could practically feel her heart pounding like crazy.
Then it was happening, first to her and then to both of us. It was like she had caught hold of an electric wire. She began to leap and jump, and I hung tight onto her, and then I had the fever and I plunged, stirring her hard, and she made crazy moaning sounds and started to dribble at the mouth, and then she arched her back, pushing me up in the air with that wiry strength of hers, and my hands tightened on her until it must have hurt her, and it was oh and ah and oo and the balloon getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and then it was exploding, not all at once but in a kind of cockeyed slow motion, and I closed my eyes and felt Lorraine twist beneath me, and I dug my fingers into her and held her and clung and let it happen.
It was good, man.
It was real good, the only thing in life that's really good and doesn't cost a thing.
And this was one of the best times. For both of us. For a long time we just lay there on the sack, not doing anything.
Then I remembered how long I had waited for Hawk to get it finished. Maybe somebody else wanted the room.
"Let's get dressed," I said.
Her eyes were shining. "I want to do It again, Eddie. Don't you?"
"Later. We can't hog the room."
She pouted. But she saw the sense of what I was saying. We got dressed and came out of the room, holding hands, and I felt good all over, drained of my tension and irritation.
Bongo and his chick went into the other room so fast it was like rabbits in heat. I looked around.
"The social worker ain't here yet?" I asked.
"Not yet," Shiv said. "We got some more beer, meanwhile."
"Good," I said. "Just what I wanted."
I grinned at Lorraine.
I took a beer.
CHAPTER TWO
We sat around using up the beer, and about half an hour later there was a knock on the outside door of the clubhouse. Shiv cocked an eye at Little Billy and Little Billy went up and walked across to the door. "Yeah?"
A voice came through. "It's me, fellows. Tommy."
Shiv stuck out his tongue as far as he would go and made a dirty gesture with his fingers. But Little Billy opened the door and the social worker came in. He was wearing a gray trenchcoat and a hat with a turned-down brim, and he was drenched He stood there dripping a puddle onto the floor. There was a paper bag under his arm. I wondered what he had inside it.
He put down the paper bag. "Lousy weather," he said. "The rain drives you outa your mind."
"You can say that again," Redeye Mike put in.
Tommy shrugged out of his wet coat and hat. This Tommy, this social worker, he was a big guy, a six-footer. A clean-cut guy with red hair and white teeth. He was twenty-four, said he went to college and worked with the gangs to pay his way.
He nodded hellos to all of us, just like we were the best pals he had ever had. Then he saw the empty beer cans sitting all over the place, and he broke into big hearty chuckles of laughter.
"What's so funny?" Shiv wanted to know, screwing up his face in his annoyed way of not getting a joke.
Tommy said, "I figured you guys would be too lazy to go out in the rain, so I brought you some beer. But I guess you were thirsty enough to go out for yourselves. You never can tell."
"I went out," I said. "Old man Pulazi was glad to take my dough."
"I got some too," Hawk said.
Tommy shrugged. He didn't waste any time handing out the usual sermons about why it was wrong to buy beer when we weren't old enough to do it legally. He didn't even stop to ask if we had been rough with Pulazi. He knew he'd just be wasting his breath.
He ripped open the paper bag. There were two more sixpacks inside. That worked out pretty well, one beer for everybody in the clubhouse. A good thing there weren't any more of us or there'd be trouble, with everyone's nerves on edge the way they were.
"Dig in, guys," Tommy said.
Shiv looked at him. "I got a question for you, man. You mind?"
"Shoot."
"Ain't you impairin' the morals of minors?" Shiv grunted. "I mean, bringin' us beer and stuff. We get a lotta crap about not drinking, and then you bring us beer. It don't add up, man."
Tommy shrugged. "If the beer keeps you off pot and away from whiskey," he said, "then I'm doing something smart. Yes? Anyway, you guys look to me like you can handle your beer. I'm not worried."
He picked up the opener, punctured his can, and started to drink without waiting for the rest of us. I liked the idea of his bringing us beer, all right. It made me feel a little more like a human being to know that there was at least one guy in the Other world who was willing to trust us enough to actually let us have a drink.
But I also knew what Shiv had on his mind, too. Shiv was no fool. Shiv was thinking that the creep of a social worker was trying to bribe us with beer to loosen us up, so we'd think he was okay. And then when we were loose, maybe we'd say something about the cop who got killed.
Tommy looked around as if he was counting noses in the clubhouse.
"Where's Dirty Joey and Clicker?" he asked.
"Ain't been around all day," Redeye Mike said.
"Just as well," Tommy decided. "This way there's just enough beer to go around." Tommy took a long pull out of his beer can. I saw him looking at Donna, then at Lorraine. He had a kind of horny look. He was married, I knew that, but maybe he wanted to tear off one with the gang girls. Sometimes I got that idea. That he was itching to take a roll with one of them, only he didn't have the guts to come right out and admit it.
He said, "Well, I haven't seen you guys for two-three days. What's been going on, huh?"
"Beans," Shiv said. "Cops crawling around everywhere. Every place you look, there's fuzz. You'd think we was crooks."
"It's all on account because that cop who got killed," Little Billy said. "They want to find out something awful bad who did it."
"You blame them?" Tommy asked.
"They're makin' it awful tight for us," Little Billy answered.
Tommy said, "Suppose a Sinner got knifed somewhere out on the street. Wouldn't you go looking around to find out who did it? The cops have loyalty to each other, just the same as you guys."
Nobody said anything. We found it pretty hard to think of the cops as human beings. Just like they figured us for some kind of monsters, I guess.
Tommy took another pull of his beer, and after a long moment of silence he said, "I know one way you could get the cops to take the heat off you."
"How?" Shiv asked.
"Tell them who killed Guinness," Tommy said. I saw Shiv's eyes go cold and mean, and when he answered his voice came out thin and hard. "We told
'em all we knew last week, man. It was one of the Counts who opened up that cop, period. We don't know which one."
Tommy grinned. "Yeah. And the Counts said the same thing about the Sinners. Somebody's holding out a snow job, and I'd like to know who."
"Maybe the cops just better forget the whole thing," Shiv said. "No use wasting all that good energy when they could be out protecting the people."
"Cops don't forget anything," said Blazer.
"No," Tommy said. "Cops don't forget."
The conversation sort of petered out there. Tommy saw he wasn't going to get anywhere with us on the subject of the dead cop, and pretty soon he just quit pushing the point. He was smart that way. He knew he'd lose us in a hurry if he acted too much like somebody from the other side.
I keep thinking about the other side, the Others. Maybe I ought to tell you who they are. They're you. They're the squares. They're the guys who say wear a necktie, don't drink, don't make out.
There's a war between us and the Others. They want to keep us down. Us, we don't want to make no trouble. We just want to live our way. Without you Others sitting on top of our chests and keeping us down.
A guy like Tommy, he was halfway between us and the Others. We didn't trust him, but we didn't keep him away from the clubhouse, either.
He hung around with us for a couple of hours more, till it started to get dark and the rain began to let up a little. He told us a lot of stuff about a picnic he was setting up for us for the weekend. Down in the park, with refreshments and all. Maybe even some beer, though he didn't know about that yet. And he was trying to organize a baseball game for the week after that. We'd play one of the uptown gangs that we had friendly relations with.
He was a real organizer, that guy Tommy. Always full of plans and projects.-We'd do this, we'd do that, we'd do the other thing. But somehow none of us trusted that pretty smile of his. Shiv trusted him least of all, really thought the guy was shifty.
When it got dark, Tommy finally stood up and said, "Well, time to get home to the wife, I guess."
Blazer said, "When you gonna bring your wife around to the clubhouse, Tommy?"
"Yeah," Hawk said. "Bring her down here, man. We'll elect her a Sinners deb."
There was a worried look on Tommy's face for half a second. That was all the time it took for him to hide the worry back of his usual relaxed expression.
He said, "I don't think she'd like it much down here, guys. To be frank."
"We won't eat her," Shiv muttered.
"Yeah, we'll all be on good behavior," I said.
He shook his head. "No go."
"Show us her picture, man," Redeye Mike prodded him. "At least let us see what she's like."
Again that worried look. What was he afraid of? Did he want to keep his wife far, far out of the gang picture? I guess so. I guessed I couldn't blame him much for wanting it that way.
But he came up with that quick grin again and said, "Sure, guys. I'll show you the picture. Here, hold on a sec and I'll find it."
He took out his wallet and went riffling through it. He came up with a snapshot that he slid carefully out of the celluloid pocket. He handed it to me, because I was standing next to him.
Mrs. Tommy was easy on the eyes. What I saw was a girl around twenty, twenty-two, wearing a polo shirt and shorts. She had nice legs and nicer breasts and a sweet smile. She was pretty. Not exactly my kind of girl, but pretty, the way the girls in the toothpaste ads are pretty. I prefer them a little rougher-looking, but that's just a matter of the way I like it. Mrs. Tommy was okay.
"She's all right," I said, and handed the picture to Redeye Mike.
"I took that picture last summer," Tommy said. "She's even prettier this year."
The snapshot went the rounds of the clubhouse. Everybody told Tommy how pretty his wife was. He seemed pleased at all the compliments. Blazer even asked him if she was a television actress or something.
"No," Tommy said. "She teaches school."
"Jeez," Hawk said. "If I had a chance of getting into her class, maybe I wouldn't of quit school, you know something?"
"She teaches kindergarten," Tommy said.
Blazer guffawed. "Heck, that's where Hawk belongs anyway. Why don't you sign up, Hawk? Maybe Mrs. Tommy will be your teacher!"
"Shut our mouth, you cockeyed slob," Hawk shot back at him. "At least I can read without moving my lips."
"Sure. Comic books," Blazer said.
For half a second it looked like the gag would turn into a real hot argument and maybe a knife stand. But it cooled off fast.
Shiv said, "You oughta bring her around here, Tommy. We'll be good."
Tommy said, "Tell you what. I'll bring her to the picnic next week. How's that?"
"Great, man," Blazer said.
So that was that. Tommy said goodnight and cleared out of the clubhouse.
After Tommy was gone, Shiv said, "Take a tip from me, you guys. That cat's oily like a snake. All the time he was sitting there, he was looking for how he could get something outa us that we didn't want to tell. Why the hell don't he go away somewhere and leave us be?"
"He brings us beer and smokes," Little Billy pointed out. "He don't treat us bad."
"Bribes, that's all he brings us," Shiv snorted. "He buys our friendship."
"He don't ask for anything in return," Little Billy said. "He don't make us go to church or wash behind our ears or jazz like that. Just that he wants us to keep cool about things and stay away from Counts turf."
Shiv glared at Little Billy as though he was seeing him for the first time. "You like the dirty bastard, do you?" Shiv asked.
"He's okay," Little Billy said.
For a second or two it looked like there was going to be trouble in the clubhouse. With this rain, and with all the fuzz roaming around outside, we were all tight as drums, and every five minutes or so we were jumping off at each other.
Shiv and Little Billy were about three feet apart, and they looked each other right in the eye. I wondered what the hell would happen. Of all the Sinners, Shiv is the fastest man with a blade. But Little Billy is the biggest. The slob is six feet five and weighs over two hundred, and all muscle. I wondered how they'd make out if they started to tangle. Neither of those guys liked to give half an inch without being made to give it.
But it blew over, like the other arguments all day. Blazer broke it up by saying, "Hey, you know, the rain stopped!"
"Hallelujah!" Hawk yelled.
"Let's get something to eat," I suggested.
"Yeah," said Redeye Mike. "Something solid after all that beer."
The girls cleaned up the place a little before we left. We like a neat clubhouse. When you live at the dirt end of town, like we do, and you come out of a house run by a slob, like we do, and you get a place all your own like a clubhouse, you keep it neat It's the one place in the world for us that isn't all littered and sloppy.
We pitched all the empty beer cans out the back window into the courtyard. We weren't worried about how it looked out there in Slobsville The beer cans made a nice clinking sound as they landed.
Then we left.
It was dark out, and down our end of town the city government hasn't thought too much about putting in street lights. They'd rather work on the streets where the nice people live first. We stayed pretty close together as we walked. The rain was over, but there was still that miserable muggy dampness in the air, the kind that rots you through and through.
I was thinking about the way things were starting to shape up with Tommy and Shiv. Shiv was getting meaner and meaner. He was the big boss of our outfit, sure, the Prez, the top man. And he didn't like Tommy moving in one little bit. Tommy was sort of a bigger boss in the gang, even if he didn't try to boss us. Just having him around like that teed Shiv off.
Tommy had been with us two months. The way it worked, if a gang let a social worker pal around with it, the cops kept away. That was a good deal for us. We didn't have to worry too much about the nightsticks banging down on our skulls as long as we let Tommy stick with us, you see. He was sort of a charm against the cops. The idea the Others had was to let social workers mix with the gangs and get to know the gang kids closely and to try to turn us into useful citizens, or some such jazz like that.
We weren't buying what they were selling. But it was handy sometimes to have Tommy around. For protection, sort of.
Only Shiv didn't like it, I could see. He would rather take his chances with the cops, and not have any social workers hanging around the Sinners. And one of these days things were going to blow up, we could all see it coming. Shiv was going to tell Tommy to get the hell out and stay out, and Tommy would try to calm him down when he blew up, and there would be a stand.
But Tommy didn't carry a knife. And Shiv never went without one.
I wondered if Shiv would be dumb enough to try to cut Tommy up. That was all we needed, cutting up a social worker. That would be the end of the Sinners for real, if Shiv pulled a goofball trick like that.
We walked into Filthy Eddie's Diner and sat down at the big booth in the back. Filthy Eddie was cooking for a couple of customers at the counter. His fat waitress Bertha the Pig, came out and walked over to our booth with her order pad out.
"So it's you creeps again," she said.
"Hi, Bertha," Redeye Mike called out. "Wanta go in the back room with me?"
"Shut your mouth," she snapped. "No crap outa you. Just give us the orders."
Bertha always gives us lip, but we don't get insulted. She's a pig, all right. She's what you call a nympho. She's around thirty, I guess, and she weighs maybe two hundred. She's worked for Eddie a long time. She's ugly, ugly as sin, with jowly cheeks and a mustache you can ,see across the room, and a big chin and a wide-open nose with nostrils you can look up clear into her brain. But even if she's a pig, she's an easy make, and she likes her fun. She's got a pair of boobs that make Mansfield look flat. Maybe a fifty-inch bazoom, you know? Big and jiggly, but nice. She's soft to hold, soft to lie on. And she'll let you do it.
I remember the first time I had Bertha. I was kind of crocked, and I came into Filthy Eddie's alone, nobody there but Eddie and Bertha. She came over to take my order and I stuck my hand under her uniform, stuck it right up, and what do you know but she isn't wearing anything? She stands there with her back to Eddie and her front to me, and I've got my hand on her and she's breathing hard and all the time I'm giving her the order like nothing special's going on. Then she leans over me and says, "You got fifteen minutes before he cooks your hamburger. Go into the washroom in back."
So I went in. I leaned against the wall and didn't lock the door. Half a minute later Bertha comes in. She points to the John, and pulls the cover over it and tells me to sit there.
Next thing I know she's got her uniform hauled up around her middle, and she's sitting with me, and her weight almost kills me, but my hands are grabbing her and her body is surrounding me, and we're doing it right there. It only took a couple of minutes. She started to grunt, just like a pig, and I began to breathe hard, and she let out a loud belching kind of sound and it was all over.
So that was how I had Bertha the Pig. I found out later that she'll do it with anybody who'll ask her. The whole gang's had her. She even came to the clubhouse once after she finished working. And that's why she can talk to us like nobody else does.
We gave her the order and she winked at us and went over to give it to Eddie. Filthy Eddie himself didn't ever give us any lip, or tell us we weren't welcome, or stuff like that. He was too smart. He didn't want his windows broken and his refrigerator dumped over, so he let us come in and eat. He didn't like it, but what could he do?
Bertha came over with our silverware. "Haven't seen you guys much around here," she said. "Been busy," Shiv said .
"Fuzz bothering you because of that cop who got killed?" she asked.
"We don't know nothing about no cops," Shiv said. "Dead or otherwise." He reached out and put his hand over her buttocks, and tickled her through her uniform. Her nostrils went wide and she started to breathe hard.
"You re a good kid, Bertha," Shiv said. "Maybe you and me'll have some fun tonight."
Shiv's deb was sitting right there at the booth. But that's how Shiv is.
"Sure," Bertha said. "Anytime."
She turned and walked away, waddling her rear, to see how our burgers were coming along. I wondered if Shiv really would take her tonight. Donna wouldn't speak out against it. Donna was scared stiff of Shiv. Like most of us, I guess.
I held Lorraine's hand tight. I ripped up my napkin nervously, and wondered about things in general.
CHAPTER THREE
Fifteen or twenty minutes after we came into the diner, the door opened and Clicker and Dirty Joey came in. They had a funny kind of look on their faces, both of them. They looked like there was pretty big trouble blowing up someplace.
There was room in our booth for them to sit down. We pushed a little closer together and they came over and joined us. Like always, Clicker had a wad of bubble-gum in his mouth, and he was doing his usual thing-blowing little tiny bubbles and breaking them in his mouth, going click-click, click-click, click-click, just like that all the goddamn time.
Shiv looked at them close and said, "Where you guys coming from?"
Dirty Joey rubbed his chin and cracked his knuckles like he was nervous. "We was just at the clubhouse," he said. "Nobody there so we figured you come here."
"And where were you all day?" Shiv wanted to know.
Clicker stopped clicking the gum for a second. He said, "Sammy came home from camp today."
I saw Shiv's eyes go narrow and squinty. His thin face turned ugly with hatred and the urge to kill. "Did you see him?" he asked.
"Sure we saw him, Shiv."
"Talk to him?"
"Uh-uh," Dirty Joey said. "We didn't say a word to him. We couldn't. He was busy talking to someone else when we saw him."
"Who?"
"He was talking to Tommy," said Clicker.
There was a long quiet silence at the table, while we let Clicker's words sink in. It became so quiet in the diner that even Filthy Eddie looked around from behind the counter to see what was going on.
Up till two weeks ago Sammy had been a Sinner like the rest of us. He paid his dues, he went out on rumbles with us, he killed time around the clubhouse. He was a member in good standing right up to the night of the rumble with the Counts two weeks back. The rumble when Officer Guinness got killed by somebody.
Sammy got very cold feet that night. He must have decided it was time to pull out of the organization, like in a hurry. Because the next morning he wasn't around the clubhouse at all to hash over the rumble, and that was pretty peculiar, considering. So we went around to his place to find out what gave, what the story was, and his old lady told us that he was quitting the gang and going away to summer camp in the country.
You just don't quit a gang like that, overnight, not even an outfit like the Sinners, and it ain't easy to get out once you're in. Especially when you happen to chicken out the way Sammy did. That's worse.
So we wanted very much to talk to Sammy and spell things out for him. And what was this bit about talking to the social worker, anyway?
Shiv leaned forward across the table at Clicker and Dirty Joey and said in a soft, fuzzy voice, "Talk to me. Tell me more."
"We were on our way over to the club this afternoon," Clicker said, breaking up his words with little clicks of the bubblegum. "On the way we saw this bus pull up, and who is it we see getting out but our old pal Sammy. So we followed him along and watched him going into his house. He had this suitcase with him. So we went into the candy store across the street in the front booth. We figured that when Sammy came out of his house again we could go have a little talk with him."
"Only Sammy just never came out of the house," Dirty Joey said. "We sat in that candy store for three goddamn hours and we didn't see him come out. And then half an hour ago we saw Tommy get off the bus and go into the house where Sammy lives."
"He see you?" Blazer asked.
"Uh-uh. He came right up the street and went into the house. Stayed there a while. Came out five minutes ago and got on the bus to go home."
"He must have gone over there to Sammy's place right after he left the clubhouse," Little Billy said.
"I thought he was in such a friggin' hurry to get home to his wife," said Hawk.
"He didn't tell us he was making no stops on the way home," Shiv muttered.
We were all quiet for a second or two again. And we were all thinking the same thing:
Sammy was back in town, and the social worker had gone to visit him.
Suppose Sammy had seen one of us open the cop, and told Tommy about it? You could get burned for killing a cop. They didn't go easy on cop-killers. They threw the book at them.
Shiv nodded his head. "Okay, guys. Let's go over and pay Sammy a visit. Let's give him a welcome home surprise party."
I grinned. "Yeah, Shiv. That's what he needs. A little visit from his old buddies."
I could feel the blood starting to pound again in my veins. Action, that's what I needed! We'd been sitting around too long. Action-and then some fireworks with the debs afterward. That was what would perk me up. Yeah, man! Action!
We finished our hamburgers and called Bertha over to the table.
"Let's have the check," Shiv said.
"Don't you guys want coffee?"
"We're in a hurry," Blazer told her.
She leaned over the table. A couple of the buttons on her uniform were open and I could see the big heavy globes of her breasts hanging down inside. She never bothered to wear a bra.
"Ah, stick around," she said. "It's gonna be a dull night here. Don't walk out on me."
"We gotta," Shiv said. "Make out without us, Bertha. You can get other guys."
"None like you," she said with a grin.
She was okay, that Bertha I almost wished Lorraine wasn't around just then. I would have reached out and grabbed a handful of those knockers bouncing around, or stuck my hand up under her dress. She looked like a pig, but she put out, and what the hell, it wasn't her fault she looked like she did, was it?
But we couldn't stick. We got the check and paid up and got the hell out of the diner.
It was dark, now. The rain was starting to fall again, naturally. Two hours of dry weather was all the sky could manage in a row. Now the rain was just a little fine drizzle, nothing much more than a wet mist hanging in the air and making everybody uncomfortable. But I knew that pretty soon it would be coming down in buckets all over again like this afternoon.
We went quietly through the streets for the five blocks to Sammy's house. It was a rundown old tenement building. Sammy and his family lived in it on the second floor. He lived there with his mother and with his kid sister.
I had hot drawers for the kid sister, and so did everybody else in the gang. The kid sister was a girl of fourteen, name of Debbie. She had big boobs for her age-hell, big boobs for any age-but she didn't hang around on the streets. Once back when Sammy was still in the gang he beat the stuffing out of Clicker for making a dirty remark about his sister. That was a year ago, and Clicker hadn't forgotten about it. He was itching to even the score with Sammy.
We didn't make any fuss as we walked to Sammy's place. No laughing, no singing, no jokes, no noise at all. The neighborhood was thick with cops and we weren't keen on attracting an audience.
We got there and had a look. The light was on upstairs in Sammy's apartment. The street was dark, with just one street lamp all the way down at the other end of the block. On account of the rain there wasn't hardly anybody around in the street.
Shiv said, "We gotta get him to come down, that's the first thing."
"How we going to do that?" I asked.
"Here's how," Shiv said. There was an old crumpled-up tin can lying in the street right in front of where Shiv was standing. He picked it up, looked at it for half a second like he was making up his mind what to do with it, and then lobbed it on a nice rise through the open window into Sammy's apartment.
"Jeez, Shiv-" someone began.
"Shut up," Shiv said. He made a signal to us and we melted away into the shadows under the window, where Sammy wouldn't be able to see us from above.
For a minute or so nothing happened. We just stood there holding our breaths.
Then Sammy's voice was heard yelling out from upstairs, "Who's the wise guy?"
Shiv put his finger to his lips. Nobody said anything. There was another few seconds of silence, and then the tin can came bouncing down from above and landed in the gutter, maybe ten feet from Shiv.
Shiv went out, looked up, picked up the can, and tossed it right back through the window.
"Cut that crap out!" Sammy yelled from above.
Back came the can down to the street. Shiv got it and tossed it up there a third time.
This time nobody threw the can back. A couple of minutes went by.
Then the front door of Sammy's place opened and we saw Sammy come out. He looked around pretty carefully without going very far from the door of his house. The street was deserted and dark. I didn't blame him for playing it safe. I was a little surprised he had enough guts to come out of the house in the first place.
He said, "Who the hell's throwing stuff into my house?"
Shiv chuckled nastily. "Hi there, Sammy-boy. You remember me?"
Shiv stepped out of the shadows. With a quick wave of his hand he signalled for the six of us to come out too. We all left our hiding places and formed ourselves into a little circle around Sammy, with Hawk cutting around behind him to get between him and the door of his building. It all happened so fast Sammy couldn't get back in.
I looked upstairs just to make sure nobody was watching from his window. Nobody was.
Sammy was a sawed-off little guy, but he had muscles. I remember the time when he whaled the tar out of Clicker, who was half a foot bigger than him.
But it was just the two of them then. Right now Sammy looked awfully small in the middle of all of us.
He looked scared, too.
Scared green.
He stood there licking his lips and cracking his knuckles nervously. His eyes flicked back and forth from one face to the next. His tongue darted out like a snake's tongue, wetting his lips, darting back in.
"Let's take a little stroll, huh, Sammy?" Shiv suggested.
"I ain't going anywhere," Sammy said. He was trying hard not to let us see how scared he was, and he kept his voice flat and tight. "I just want to know who the wise guy is throwing garbage through my window, is all. I want to know who."
"I was the wise guy," Shiv said. "That tell you what you want to know? Suppose you keep you goddamn mouth shut and take a little stroll. Huh, Sammy "
I could see Sammy wanted to yell for help, but he was afraid to. He knew how fast Shiv could put a blade into him and run, if he opened his mouth for the fuzz. So Sammy kept quiet. Shiv tock hold of his arm and started to walk him down the block and into the dark alleyway between Sammy's building and the one next to it.
There wasn't any light in there, only a bunch of garbage cans. We all followed Shiv and Sammy in, standing at the mouth of the alley to block it in case Sammy did something silly like trying to make a break for it. Hawk stayed outside as our lookout man, just in case.
Sammy glared at us and said in a low voice, "What the hell you guys want? Didn't they tell you I was out of the Sinners? I quit. I'm out of the gang for good, for keeps, period."
"You can't quit, chick-chick," Shiv said. "Who ever gave you the idea you can quit the Sinners just as easy as that?"
Sammy's eyes flashed in the dark. Another time, calling Sammy chicken was like asking to have your head handed to you. But right now he was outnumbered eight to one. and he most likely didn't have a blade on him. He was trying hard not to pick a fight. Not with those odds.
Blazer said, "Tell us, you have a nice time away at camp, Sammy?"
"You got yourself a pretty suntan, huh?" Clicker asked him with a laugh.
"What the hell you guys want with me?" Sammy said. There was an edge of panic in his voice that I had never heard out of him when Sammy was one of the Sinners and carrying a switchblade. I'll bet that right then he was wishing he had never came out of his house.
Shiv said, pushing his face close to Sammy's "How come you all of a sudden decided, to quit us, Sammy-boy? How come, tell us that."
"I got tired of all this street jazz." Sammy said. By the dim light we could see the sweat rolling down his face. "I figured it's time to get out of it, is all. What's the matter? Don't a guy have the right?"
"Yeah." Shiv said with a mocking sneer. "Jeez, that's nice. Real pretty. Hearing you talk that way. You ought to know better. Sammy. You ought to know you can't quit the Sinners just as easy as that."
Sammy said in a level voice, "I'm through with the Sinners."
"You think so."
"I am, Shiv."
Shiv shrugged the answer off. "What were you talking about with Tommy today?"
A muscle started to pop up and down in Sammy's cheek. "How do you know who I was talking to today?" he asked.
'I saw you," Clicker spoke up. "Maybe an hour ago, I saw it. I saw the social worker going into your house, and he stayed there a long time."
"Yeah," Shiv said. "What did you two have so much to talk about, anyway?"
Sammy ran his tongue around the outside of his mouth again. "He wanted to see me, is all. He knew I was coming back today and he wanted to find out how I was. He's going to get me a job."
"Damn nice of him," Shiv snorted. "A real sweet guy. He takes good care of you."
"He knows I'm through with the Sinners, is all. He wants to help me."
"And what else did you tell him?"
"Not a damned thing," Sammy insisted.
"I'll bet," Clicker said.
The rain was starting to come down a little harder now. Sammy had come out of the house without any raincoat and he was getting wet right to the skin.
He said, "You guys give me a pain. Get out of my way. I'm going back upstairs."
"The hell you are," Shiv said, standing squarely in his way. "You still ain't told me why you quit the Sinners, chickie-boy."
The muscle was snapping a whole lot harder in Sammy's cheek. I wondered how he was holding his temper back. That was the second time Shiv had called him chicken. In the old days blood would have been spouting by this time for sure, but now Sammy just kept his jaws tight and didn't go for the blade he probably wasn't carrying.
Sammy said, "I quit the gang because I don't want to get myself mixed up with a bunch of cop-killers. That's the whole reason."
Shiv glared at him. "Who the hell you calling a cop-killer, chickie?"
"Don't hand me that crap," Sammy said. "Don't play innocent, Shiv. It's a lousy act, believe me. I saw the whole thing."
Now we all crowded close and listened sharp. I honestly didn't know who had cut open Guinness. I didn't even know if it had been a Count or a Sinner that put the knife into him. And if Sammy had seen-
"You didn't see anything!" Shiv said.
"Like hell I didn't! But I didn't say anything to Tommy about what I saw."
"Sure you did, you lousy squealer."
"I swear I didn't," Sammy said, and he seemed kind of panicky now. "I know how Guinness got cut open but I won't say anything to anyone. I'll clam up like I never saw a thing. I just want out, is all. No more gang stuff. I want all the way out."
His face was wet, half with sweat and half with rain. In the faint light coming through the clouds from the moon, he looked almost green.
Clicker said, "You know how Guinness got cut, do you, man?"
"Sure," Sammy said. "I was over in the corner and I saw Shiv come up behind him and-" Wham!
Shiv lashed out and let Sammy have it across the mouth with his balled fist, backhand and good and hard, the way the Nazis did. I heard the sharp sound of a cracking tooth. A ribbon of blood sprouted on Sammy's face, trailing down his chin and losing itself. His eyes went wide and he leaped forward, clawing wildly for Shiv's eyes, trying to break past Shiv and get through the rest of us and make it back to his house where nobody could hurt him.
"Get him!" Shiv hissed.
He stepped to one side, letting Sammy get past him. Then he reached out and collared Sammy from behind. Clicker slid in next to Shiv.
Sammy tried to break loose. But Clicker had a score to settle. Clicker's hand went up and came down quick and sharp, rabbit-punching Sammy. I saw Sammy start to bend as his knees went wobbly.
Shiv let go of him. Sammy took a kind of staggering step, swinging around, and Dirty Joey bashed him in the ribs. Sammy made a gagging sound like he wanted to vomit. But he didn't have time to vomit.
We closed in.
All eight of us.
With Sammy in the middle.
There wasn't hardly even room to punch. We had to take short, chopping litle shots at him. And we kept our blades in our pockets because we didn't want to cut each other by mistake in the dark.
We hammered away. Sammy was somewhere in the middle, taking it from all sides at once. Then all of a sudden Sammy slipped on the wet concrete and went down.
Shiv kicked. I heard bones break.
Sammy whimpered, "Leave me alone, will you? Leave me alone." His voice was weak and faint and thick, like he was talking with all his teeth down his throat. He kept saying it like a stuck record. "Leave me alone, leave me alone, leave me alone-"
Shiv kept kicking. Clicker started to kick too and the excitement spread right through us. One after another we jostled around, pushing each other aside to stomp him. I got my licks in and felt the contact between my toe and his body. I felt something yield inside him as I kicked him.
We stomped him good, all right.
Finally Shiv hissed sharply, "Okay! Enough! Enough, you guys!"
We cleared back to have a look.
Sammy lay stretched on the ground all twisted up, and the puddle he was lying in was half rainwater and half blood. He didn't look pretty, even in the dark. He looked all smashed to pieces.
"Poor Sammy," Clicker said. "He was gonna get a job, wasn't he?"
"Guess he ain't gonna get it now," Blazer said.
"Too bad," said Dirty Joey.
"Come on," Shiv snapped. "Let's get the hell outa here. No sense standin' around."
"Yeah," Little Billy said. "Let's go celebrate. We'll get us a bottle and celebrate."
"A celebration!" I yelled. "Yeah!"
We got the hell out of the alley without even taking another backward look at the stomped body that was lying in the reddening puddle.
CHAPTER FOUR
We were all of us keyed up high, way up high.
There's nothing like a stomping to get you excited. There's nothing like stomping a squealer like Sammy, a dirty chicken, a quitter. We were alive again. Man, that was a good feeling. That was the best feeling! So we had to celebrate.
We walked back toward the clubhouse. The girls hadn't come with us to see Sammy; they had gone straight to the clubhouse to wait for us. It was still pretty early in the evening, maybe around nine o'clock or so. We had lots of time ahead of us.
First we needed a bottle. Beer wouldn't be enough for a real celebration. We needed something stronger to give it the right touch.
Little Billy went through the treasury, which he was carrying, and came up with six bucks.
"That'll be enough," he said. "Two gallons of I-Bird and a fifth of bourbon. Okay?"
"Okay," I said. "Sure."
Everybody else agreed. Little Billy and I went into the liquor store on the corner to buy the stuff. Little Billy doesn't have any trouble passing for eighteen, on account of he's to tall and husky. Me, I have a heavy stubble all the time, so they don't give me any trouble in the stores unless it's a new place.
They didn't give us any trouble here. We picked up the stuff and went right outside.
Then back to the clubhouse.
The debs had everything fixed up nice. They were sitting around playing records and reading funny-books. Nobody asked us about Sammy. Debs in the Sinners know better to ask questions about stuff that doesn't concern them. We've got them well trained, let me tell you.
"Mix the drinks, Blazer," Shiv said.
Blazer didn't need a second invitation. He got out a big jug that we kept for times like this. He measured off a quart of wine and spiked it with six ounces of bourbon, and stirred everything around. Just like professional bartender, that guy Blazer.
The wine was sweet and strong, and the bourbon made it whole lot sweeter and stronger. I settled down on the couch with my chick Lorraine and concentrated on some serious drinking for a little while. I was feeling great. I felt Lorraine up and stuck my hand into her jeans.
I was in the mood, man.
So was everybody else. All eight of us had our chicks. Hawk with Kathy, Shiv with Donna, Little Billy with Seena, Blazer with Lois, and right on around the room. And before the first drink was down, things were starting to liven up.
Shiv said, "Who's gonna dance for us?"
"What kinda dance, Shiv? Clicker asked.
"A strip act. I want a strip act." He pounded the back of his chair. "Somebody get up and peel. Come on, one of you debs!"
The girls looked at each other. They looked at their studs. Nobody seemed to want to make the first move. Shiv took another long pull at his glass. His eyes were kind of wild already. Liquor always went to Shiv's head in a hurry. That was the only weakness he had.
"Well?" he yelled. "Nobody's getting up?"
I wanted to suggest that Shiv make Donna strip, if he was in such a hurry to see a naked broad. Why not start with his own deb? But I knew I'd get into a fight if I spoke up like that to Shiv. So I sat quiet.
Shiv got up and walked across the room to where Little Billy and Seena were sitting.
"You," he said to Seena. "Come on, you be the first one. Do a strippo for us."
There was a moment of silence. Seena looked at Little Billy, and I saw Little Billy bite his lip. I remembered the near-stand between Shiv and Little Billy earlier in the day. So this was Shiv's way of getting even. I wondered if Little Billy was going to put up a beef.
He didn't.
He said, "Yeah, Seena. Go ahead. You be the first, and then Donna next."
Shiv didn't say anything to that, either for or against. He went back to his seat and stuck his arm around Donna and waited.
Seena got up.
She looked around, a little doubtfully. Then she walked into the middle of the room. A record was playing, a jazz record, and she started to move in the rhythm of the music. She looked nervous. Seena was one of the newest debs in the gang, and she wasn't altogether used to gang ways yet.
I watched her. She was one of the chicks I was most interested in. I'm interested in all chicks, but Seena was a special one because she was new. She was a tall blonde, maybe five feet eight or so, with long legs and a good face, spoiled only by a little acne around the chin. Tonight she was wearing a striped polo shirt and a pair of tight blue jeans, like all the other debs in the clubhouse.
My throat was dry. I had seen all the other girls in the gang naked. I had even seen a couple of them balling it right out in the open. But not Seena.
She was moving like a stripper, now.
There was a nervous little smile on her face. She kept her eyes on Little Billy and didn't look at anyone else. Her hands went to the bottom of her polo shirt, caught the hem, started to lift it up. She pulled it toward her head.
"Give it the bumps," Shiv called. "Pep it up a little, Seena."
She nodded. She got the polo shirt up over her head and tossed it toward Little Billy. She had a pink bra on underneath. A lot of the debs don't bother with a bra, but like I said Seena was pretty new. She hadn't been in the gang more than a couple of weeks. Little Billy's old deb got herself knocked up and her parents put her in a home, that was how he brought Seena in.
She kept on wiggling, and got the zipper of her jeans pulled down, and stepped out of her jeans. She wore pink panties. I could see her belly-button underneath them. She looked pretty uncomfortable now, but she didn't stop. Still in rhythm, she reached around in back and unsnapped the hooks of her bra.
The cups came away.
Her breasts hung free, big and round and hard-looking, with the nipples that were a very dark reddish-brown. A blush ran right through her whole face and chest and down to her breasts.
"Swing it, baby!" Shiv called. His eyes were bright and beady.
I saw Little Billy's mouth set, tight and hard. He wasn't too keen on the idea of his new deb being forced to peel in front of the whole gang. But there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. Women weren't kept hidden around the Sinners.
Seena was swinging it. She bumped and she ground, and her big breasts jumped and swayed every time she wiggled her body. She was getting into the mood of it now. really moving it.
"Take it off. take it off!" Shiv yelled, and it became a chorus, Blazer and Hawk and Clicker and all the rest joining in. "Take it off, take it off I" we all called.
All Seena had on was her pair of panties, now. But I could see she was really getting into the mood. She didn't look scared any more. She rolled the panties down, down over her hips, over her crotch, over her thighs. She pulled them off and tossed them onto the heap where the rest of her clothes had gone.
She was naked.
She looked good, and she knew she looked good, and all her shyness was gone. She wiggled her hips and waggled her bosom, and then she did some high kicks, and then she turned around and flipped her backside from side to side. She had pretty dimples on her buttocks.
Then the record came to an end. Seena stood in the middle of the room naked, sweat rolling down between her breasts, rolling down over the curve of her belly into her crotch, and she didn't seem to mind.
"Gimme a drink, she said. "That's hard work."
"It's Donna's turn now," Little Billy said in a cold voice.
"Yeah, Shiv," I heard my own voice say. "Donna's turn. Then after her Lorraine and all the rest."
"Okay," Shiv said. "Get up there, Donna, and show us what you've got."
Seena took her seat again. She didn't bother to put her clothes back on. Little Billy had been drinking heavily all during the strip act, and now he was pretty well stoned. He put one big hand over her breasts and pulled her to him and started feeling her all over.
Donna was stripping now.
Shiv's chick was short and dark-haired. She had small pointy breasts and slim hips, and about the best face in the gang. She didn't waste any time. She got her shirt off, and there wasn't any bra underneath, and she went right on to get rid of the rest of her clothes.
Then it was Lorraine's turn.
And after her, Kathy.
And then Lois.
And then Esther, and then Booboo, and finally the last one, Grace.
Then all the girls were peeled. We hadn't ever done that before. All eight girls sitting around stripped down to the skin. By this time we were on the second gallon of Thunderbird, and we were all getting squiffed to the eyeballs, and there was a lot of stuff going on everywhere in the room.
Then Blazer said, "I got an idea. Let's have a contest."
"What kinda contest?" Clicker called out.
"A ballin' contest," Blazer said. "We'll each do it right out here. Eddie, you got a watch, you keep time. The one who lasts longest is the winner."
"What's his prize?" Shiv asked.
Blazer frowned for a second. Then he said, "The winner gets-uh-he gets the pick of any other chick in the gang for the rest of the night."
I wondered how that would go down. A couple of the guys-Shiv particularly, and Little Billy, and Hawk-are real jealous about their debs. They don't like the idea of any other guy in the gang fooling around with them. How would they go for the idea of letting the contest winner maybe pick their deb to lay?
I might have known. Nobody objected. The guys who were most jealous also figured they had the best chance of winning the contest. And all of them had their eyes on at least one other chick in the gang.
So everybody said okay. I was a little uneasy about it myself. After all, Lorraine and me had done it that afternoon. Now here we'd do it again, and if I happened to be the winner I'd be balling still some more before the night was out. I'm pretty good in the sack, if I've gotta say it myself, but was I that good? Would I be able to stand the pace? What a fiasco it would be, I figured, if I won a night in the sack with some girl I really ached for, and then couldn't do anything with her.
Well, I'd take my chances.
The contest started.
I was the official timekeeper, with Shiv and Little Billy to check my figures. I sat down with a piece of paper and a pencil and looked at the time.
"Go," I said.
The first couple was Clicker and Booboo. Clicker got all his clothes off and got down on the floor with Booboo. It wasn't the first time we'd ever done any public banging around the clubhouse, but it didn't happen often, so it was kind of an event. I watched closely, and I was really interested in what was going on.
We had a few rules to start with. One rule said that the guy and his chick had to get right with it, they couldn't fool around first. We didn't want to waste a lot of time. The other rule was that you had to keep moving all the while. You couldn't just lie there and stall for time. You had to keep on balling, and the minute you made it over the top you had to let us know. Not that we wouldn't be able to tell.
Clicker started right in on Booboo. I watched them moving together, naked on the floor. He was on top of her, going up and down, in and out, and her legs were sticking up in the air alongside him, and her face was flushed, part from booze and part from sex excitement and part maybe from embarrassment, I don't know.
I watched them moving together, and I thought of a couple of interesting angles. Every girl would want her man to win the contest, because that would prove he was the best lover in the gang. But every girl would also want her man to lose, because if he won he'd spend the night with some other chick. So what would they do? Move fast, and try to make him lose? Or take it nice and slow, so he'd last long?
Booboo seemed to want Clicker to lose. She moved like she was in a hurry. Pretty soon she started to pant, and she hung onto Clicker and gasped out, and then I saw Clicker's body go stiff and I heard him grunt and knew it was finished.
He rolled off her, red in the face. I looked at my watch.
"Five minutes and sixteen seconds," I said. Shiv and Little Billy nodded at my figures. Clicker looked kind of abashed. He got up, started to dress. The next couple moved out onto the floor.
They were Lois and Blazer. They got down together, and started to move. We leaned forward to watch. Lois seemed to want Blazer to win. Her movements were slow, steady. I got a good look at the whole thing. It made me itch to get my own turn. There isn't anything better than watching another couple balling. It's like a stag movie right in three dimensions, and I really dig it.
Blazer lasted eight minutes thirty seconds.
Then it was Dirty Joey's turn with Grace. Nine minutes eleven seconds.
Most of the guys, I knew, could keep it going longer than that when they were alone But here they were out in public, and all eyes on them, and a contest at stake. It made them nervous. Some guys couldn't have done it at all, under those conditions. We all could, but we weren't in our best shape.
Redeye Mike and Esther. Six minutes forty seconds for Redeye Mike.
Hawk and Kathy came next. Hawk managed to hold out ten minutes twelve seconds. That topped Dirty Joey's time for the best so far.
Then came Little Billy and Seena. Little Billy must have been too drunk to know what he was doing. He only lasted four and a half minutes.
When Shiv stepped out on the floor, everybody held their breaths. Shiv was the boss, the Prez. Shiv was the toughest guy in the gang. Shiv was a big man.
We were all a little bit afraid of Shiv. We all wondered if he'd mess up.
He didn't.
He started balling with Donna, and there was a grin on his face, the old confidence grin of Shiv that we all knew so well, and he lay there, his body moving slowly, and every now and then Donna would make a kind of gasping noise, as though she was getting the real kicks, and Shiv just kept going on and on, like he meant to ball her forever and ever and ever.
Eleven minutes went by. That beat Hawk's time and made Shiv the top man so far. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen minutes went by. I got tired just watching them. Shiv was moving faster and faster, and he still didn't seem excited or anything, but then something happened to Donna and she went wild and began to gasp and kick, like the excitement of so much balling was too much for her, and she got so wound up that in the middle of it I saw Shiv clench his fists and try to hold back, but he couldn't, and it was all over.
He stood up, looking sore with himself and sorer at Donna for having gotten too eager.
"Fourteen minutes and twenty seconds," I said.
"Okay," Shiv said. "Not good, not bad. Your turn, Eddie. You're the last one."
I nodded and handed my watch to Little Billy I took Lorraine out into the middle of the floor and knelt down alongside her.
I was ready and willing. I felt her body warm against mine, and we began to move.
Now. get this. Every man has his own talent. I can't use a knife as well as Shiv. and I'm not as big and brawny as Little Billy, and I can't run as fast as Hawk. I can't hit a baseball as far as Redeye Mike, I can't pick a pocket the way Clicker can. I can't wrestle beans compared with Dirty Joey. And Blazer can beat me hollow every time at blackjack or any other card game. Each of them has the one thing that they're better than anybody else in.
Me, I've got a knack too. It's a knack for sex. I started balling around when I was eleven, and I haven't stopped yet. I'm good. I know how to give a woman thrills, and I know how to keep from ending it too fast.
I'm kind of an expert on the subject.
So I was on the spot here. The guy I was competing against was Shiv. He had done the best of all the guys ahead of me. If I won, I won the right to sleep with Shiv's girl Donna-or with anybody else in the gang. If I lost, well, I'd be letting myself get beaten at the thing I was best at.
I didn't want to make Shiv sore at me.
But I wasn't going to dump the contest, either.
I lay there with Lorraine under me, and I moved nice and easy, letting the minutes tick past. I kissed her and I held her breasts and I ran fingertips down her sides, just to make her feel good. Lorraine didn't rush me any. She just kept moving in the same slow rhythms I was using.
The room was very quiet. I could hear the clock ticking loud as can be.
One of the other rules was that we couldn't ask how much time had gone by. We just had to do it, and keep on going till we were through. I tried to count the minutes in my head. You know, calling off the seconds "A thousand and one, a thousand and two," so on. But I lost count. I got up to seven minutes, and then I got scrambled up.
How long? Ten minutes, twelve, thirteen?
I was pretty sure I hadn't beaten Shiv's time yet. I could quit now, make it in a hurry, take an honorable second and call it okay.
No. Who was I to lick Shiv's rear? Just because he was the toughest guy in the gang, that didn't mean I had to dump it and let him win. I wasn't any chicken. I didn't mind getting Shiv P.O.'d at me.
I kept going.
Nice and easy. Lorraine was getting her kicks, and I felt good, and I hardly worried about the contest or the crowd of watchers or anything else. It was just me and Lorraine, body against body, in the nicest feeling in the world, the only thing that counts.
Then a voice behind me said, "You can stop now, Eddie. Sixteen minutes."
"You won," someone else said.
I grinned. I knew I could keep on going. Another ten minutes, fifteen, half an hour-it didn't matter. I felt ten feet tall. This was it! This was living! To get down on the floor with a girl and show a bunch of guys you run with that you're better than they are, that you're tremendous, great in the hay. There's no better kick. You've got to show you're a man, or else you're just slime.
And I was a man. I'd just proved it to everybody's satisfaction.
I hung tight to Lorraine and kissed her and jammed my body down hard against hers, and her body quivered and I felt my skin growing hot and I sucked in my breath and it was all over. A quick pounding pulsing sensation of pleasure and finish. I got up. The kick of winning was even better than the kick I'd had with Lorraine.
I looked at Shiv. His face was black with anger. He didn't like losing, and he didn't like the idea of my beating him so easily.
Well, Shiv would just have to get over it. A gang's a gang. You can't back off. Only chickie-craps do that, and I wasn't that sort.
Just to make it clear to everybody that I wasn't worrying about Shiv and his resentments, I took a long look around at the available chicks.
I decided to pick Shiv's chick. Just to show him I wasn't chicken. I wouldn't have minded balling Kathy, or Seena, or a lot of the others. But I had to demonstrate to Shiv that I could hold my own. He had no beef coming. He knew what the terms of the contest were before he started, only he figured he was going to win, and now it hadn't worked out that way. Picking some other chick was the easy way out for me. But in a gang you can't take the easy way.
"You won, Eddie," Shiv said. "Who do you pick?"
"I pick Donna," I said. "I pick your deb, Shiv."
CHAPTER FIVE
It was pretty quiet in the room. Everybody had been wondering what I'd do, who I'd pick, and now they had found out. A lot of them were looking at me in a funny way. What I had just done, it was practically like challenging Shiv for the top spot in the gang.
But that wasn't on my mind at all. Shiv could stay Prez as long as he liked, for all I cared. I wasn't hungry to be the boss. I just wanted my kicks, was all, and to hell with running the show.
Maybe Shiv wouldn't see it that way, though. Maybe he would start to see me as a challenger.
Well, nuts to him. I wasn't looking for any fights.
That isn't my game at all. But if he started trouble, I wouldn't run away from it.
I put my clothes on and walked over and got me a drink. I didn't feel tired at all. I could have gone with Donna right away. But no use rushing things, I figured. The night was still young. It was only around eleven o'clock, and nobody would be sitting up late at my place wondering when I was going to come home. They gave up that jazz a long, long time ago.
Donna walked over to me. "You want me now?" she asked in a funny voice.
"Later," I said. "I'll tell you when. I'm not in any hurry."
Shiv came over too. He had a kind of uneasy grin on his face. I knew he was sore as hell inside, but he was trying to hide it, trying to look like a good loser. Which he wasn't.
He said, still grinning, "Looks like I get Lorraine foi tonight, huh, Eddie?"
I frowned at him. "What gives you that idea, Shiv?"
"Well, you're gonna have Donna-"
"So?"
"So I get Lorraine," he said slowly.
I looked at him for a long couple of seconds without answering. Then I said, "The contest said that the winner took his choice of all the chicks, Shiv But it didn't say nothing about any of the losers getting to go with the winner's chick."
His face went tight and mean and hard. "Lorraine won't be with anybody, and neither will I. Why shouldn't I stay with her, Eddie?"
"Because that isn't the way we set up the contest," I told him.
"You going to stop me, Eddie?"
His hand was crawling toward his blade. That Shiv, always looking for a fight. He was trying to put me down, trying to show everybody that even if I had won the contest, he was still boss of the Sinners.
But I couldn't let him push me around. This wasn't a swap, wasn't supposed to be. If I let him have Lorraine, it wiped out my victory. I would be eating crow. So I said, "You got to keep to the rules, Shiv."
"What rules?"
"You know Ain't nothing we said about the winner's chick going to somebody else. Otherwise what's the point of winning? Where's the glory, Shiv?"
He came very close to me. "I get Lorraine," he whispered.
"Uh-uh, Shiv."
"You got your rules, I got mine. And mine says that the guy whose chick gets picked, he gets the other guy's chick for the time being."
"Uh-uh, Shiv."
"I warn you, Eddie-"
I braced myself and put my hand in my pocket, ready to go for my blade. Shiv might cut me to ribbons, but I couldn't back down That's the way it works in the Sinners. If you let another guy make you eat crow, you're no good. You've got to stand up there and tight for what you think your rights are.
And my right included keeping Lorraine away from Shiv tonight.
Shiv's blade was already coming out when Little Billy said, "Hold it, Shiv."
"Yeah?"
"Eddie's right. You don't get Lorraine."
Shiv whirled. His face went meaner and uglier than ever. "You too, big boy?"
"It's the rules."
Another long moment of silence.
Then Shiv said, "Okay, we vote. How many you guys think Eddie's right? That he gets Donna and I don't get Lorraine? Come on, let's see those hands! This is a goddamn democratic organization we got here."
My hand went up. So did Little Billy's. After another moment, Redeye Mike put his hand up.
Shiv's scrowl got deeper and deeper.
"Okay," he said. "That's three outa eight. I guess I win, Eddie."
"Take the rest of the vote," I said. "Maybe some guys haven't made up their minds."
"Yeah," Shiv muttered. "Let's see hands. Who thinks I'm right? That I get Lorraine?"
Blazer's hand went up. And Shiv's, of course. And Hawk.
Three against three.
Everybody looked at Clicker and Dirty Joey. They hadn't voted. Now they were sweating. "Well?" Shiv said.
Dirty Joey spoke up first. "I'm with Eddie," he said.
Four-three, my favor.
Clicker could have tied it. Instead he said, "I think Eddie's right, too." Five-three.
Clinched.
Shiv's face was white with anger. His lips tightened into a little thin line. He said to me, "Looks like you win the vote, Eddie."
"Looks like."
"Maybe you want to be Prez too?" he said.
"I never said anything about that, Shiv. You're the boss here. Nobody denies that."
"A boss oughta be able to have a majority in his own gang," Shiv said. "Looks like I'm outvoted. Looks like you can get your four stooges to vote you in as Prez too, Eddie. Only one thing, remember. A vote ain't enough. You got to fight it out with the man you're pushing aside. Any time you want to fight it, I'm ready, man."
I looked at him steadily. "That was a vote about a contest, Shiv. Not for Prez. I couldn't get two votes if I was running for Prez. I couldn't even get my own vote. You're still the Prez, Shiv."
But he was sore, sore through and through, and nothing I said could change that. In his eyes I was already starting to set myself up as a rival for him. Only right now I was refusing to accept the challenge he was throwing me. I wasn't exactly chickening out. you understand. I was just sidestepping a little. And there was nothing he could do about that. At least not yet.
"I guess you win, Eddie," he said. He gave me a hard look and gulped down the rest of his drink. Then he turned and walked out of the clubhouse, banging the door hard behind him as he went.
I picked up my drink. I didn't like crossing Shiv, but I figured I had come out of this one pretty good.
The next time I might not do so well.
Things settled back to peaceful around the clubhouse after Shiv walked out. I waited a little while, and then I said to Lorraine, "You might as well go home too. That'll even things up."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Eddie?"
"Why, sure, baby. This is just a special deal. Just for tonight."
Lorraine didn't beef. Like all the Sinner debs, Lorraine knew her place. When a chick starts acting up, she goes out of the organization. Chicks aren't supposed to have minds of their own. They do what they're told, if they want to stay around.
So Lorraine left.
When she was gone, I said to Donna, "Come on. Let's go inside."
"Sure, Eddie," she said.
I took her by the hand and led her into the next room and bolted the door. From outside came the sound of the noisy party. I felt a little nervous. I wanted to put up a good show for her. This was Shiv's chick I was having, and I wanted her to remember me.
Even with all the balling I'd done already today, it still made me feel ready just to look at Donna She was so delicate, so small-and so sexy. She wasn't much more than five feet tall. She looked like she'd break in half in a strong wind. She was different from most of the other girls I had known. She had class.
And now she was mine for the night.
I came over to her and started to take her clothes off. I tugged the polo shirt out of her waist, and she grinned and lifted her arms, and I pulled it off. No bra underneath, and there were her breasts, small and high and pointed. Breasts don't have to be big to be beautiful. I'd rather have a girl built like Donna any day, than some big cow.
You couldn't say that about Donna. I put my hands over her breasts, and she smiled and ran her fingers over me in a way that I liked.
I unzipped her jeans, and we kept on going that way until we were both naked We stood by the bed and I put my arms around her. She flattened up against me.
My mouth went to hers. Her tongue met mine. She moved hard against me as we kissed. I ran my hands down her body. It was like silk.
Then I did something I've always wanted to do.
I lifted her off the ground. She was light. I bet she didn't weigh more than a hundred pounds. I braced my legs and lifted her. and she saw what I was doing and clasped her hands behind my head to help me.
I stood there, holding her like she was a feather, and she rocked back and forth. Our faces were opposite each other, and I could look right into her eyes and see the tears of pleasure starting to build there. I saw her face get flushed and even the color of her eyes seemed to change from gray to green.
We kept on going.
The excitement rose and rose. It got to her first.
Her eyes closed, tight shut. Her fingernails clawed deep into the skin of my shoulder blades. She began to move like crazy, like she was riding a bronco. I braced myself again and held on tight, standing in the middle of the room and holding her.
She threw herself around wildly, as the excitement took hold of her. I kept my eyes open as long as I could, watching the things that were happening to her face. Her muscles were tightening, her jaws were clenched, her mouth was twisted all out of shape. I could see each wave of kicks go shivering through her.
Then it got to me.
It was more of a thrill than anything I could remember. I could feel my blood pressure rising. My fingers dug hard into her, then dug even harder as the real frenzy got to me.
This is it, Eddie, I thought.
This is the greatest one ever.
And it was. When it hit me, it was like a volcano. Donna was still off in her own little private world, tingling and quivering, and then all of a suclen the explosion happened, and suddenly she was twice as wild as ever, and the roof seemed to lift.
It was the greatest. The greatest ever.
The finale seemed to go on maybe half an hour, though I know it couldn't have been more than a few seconds. When it was over, I felt like I never wanted any more loving in my life, that this couldn't be topped, that I might as well quit and live on the memories.
I took a step backward and dropped down like a limp dishrag on the bed. Donna was still clinging to me. I opened my eyes and smiled at her. She smiled back. We looked like we were inside a Turkish bath.
I said, "Jeez, I didn't know it was going to be like that."
"Me neither."
"I never made it that way before-standing up.
I wanted to, but I never did."
"I did," she said. "Once, with Shiv. And once with a guy before him. But it never worked like that."
I didn't say anything Somehow I was annoyed to hear that she'd made it before that way. I guess it was kind of square of me to give a damn, but I did. I get funny that way sometimes when I'm not expecting it.
We slipped apart and stretched out on the bed. It must have been ninety-eight degrees there in that room. It didn't have a window or anything. We just relaxed for a while, listening to the sounds of the gang outside.
Donna said, "Shiv's awful mad at you, Eddie."
"I know."
"He hates anybody to touch me. Or even look at me."
"What the hell, he don't own you," I said. "You had guys before him."
"He don't care about them. It's right now that counts for him."
"I'm not taking you over," I said. "Lorraine's my chick. You're Shiv's."
She looked at me in a peculiar way. "Maybe if Shiv was out of the way things might get changed around."
"Like how?"
"I wouldn't mind being your chick. Eddie."
I shook my head. "Don't talk like that. Shiv's the Prez and you're his chick, and what happened tonight don't change any of that."
Her fingertips ran down my body excitingly. "You're sure. Eddie? Youre sure you don't want to push Shiv outa the way?"
"Sure I'm sure," I said stubbornly. What the hell was she trying to talk me into, a little case of suicide or something?
She nibbled my ear. I could feel her breath on me. Her voice was like a cat's purr as she said, "You got five guys with you. Like in the vote tonight. You could shove Shiv out tomorrow."
"Just in the vote. But I've got to have a stand with him afterward."
"I'll fix that," Donna said. "My old lady's got sleeping pills. I'll give some to Shiv. He'll be so groggy he won't know what's happening. You'll cut him to pieces, Eddie. And then you'll be the Prez of the Sinners, and I'll be your chick."
I watched her face. She seemed to be playing it straight. She was offering to sell Shiv out.
But I didn't like it.
I didn't like the idea of double-crossing Shiv, for one thing. He's the Prez, and like I said I didn't want to get him out of the way.
The second thing was that when I do something, I like to do it all myself. I don't want help, especially from a chick. You can't trust them.
The third thing was that if Donna would sell Shiv out to me, the time might come when she'd sell me out to somebody else she liked even better.
The fourth thing was that I figured this whole thing was a trap Shiv had cooked up to test me.
So I said, "No. No deal. Shiv's the boss. We had our fun, but it's a one-time deal."
She did things to me with her lips. Interesting things. Then she said, "You're passing up a big chance, Eddie."
"Get off it, kiddo. Talk about something else."
"You're sure?"
"Sure as I can get."
She grinned. "Okay," she said. "That's what I wanted to hear. Shiv asked me to find out. He wants to know if he can trust you."
"Now he knows."
"Yeah," she said. "You're straight, Eddie. A lot of guys woulda jumped at the chance."
I was damned glad I hadn't. I said, "I'm not the type. I'm no double-crosser."
"I'll tell him, Eddie."
That Shiv, he's a smart one. He never misses a bet. Well, I'd played it pretty cool myself. Even if I did want to knock Shiv down, which I didn't, I wouldn't have let Donna in on it. You can't trust broads.
I reached for her.
She was still mine, for now.
Her breasts were hot under my hands. Her legs were satiny smooth.
My weight was on her, and our bodies were together. And we were moving, slowly at first, then faster, warming up all over again, and my body was still ready for action, and on we went, up and up, higher and higher, till she started to gasp and her teeth bit lightly into my shoulder and I pressed her against me and let out my breath in long low sighs as it happened.
Then we dozed for a while. We'd both been through a long busy day, and we were bushed. When I woke up. my watch said it was two in the morning, and I wasn't in the mood for any more balling around. Neither was Donna. I woke her up and we got dressed and went out of the room.
The party was just about over. Only Blazer and Clicker and their chicks were still around. The booze was gone and the ashtrays were full. Both couples seemed to have been doing some balling, but now they were half asleep. Donna and I walked past them and out into the night.
The rain had stopped again. The streets were wet, but at least there was no rain. We walked along together. We didn't hold hands. I half expected Shiv to come jumping out of the shadows to let me have it.
I was ready for him. You never can tell. But he didn't show. I walked back to Donna's place with her.
"Goodnight," I said.
"Goodnight, Eddie. It was swell."
"Yeah," I said. "I'll remember it."
She went in. I turned and went up the block to my own building. We live on the top floor of a six-story walkup that was built God knows when. Three of us in two and half rooms-my old lady, my brother, and me. My brother's a square. He's two and a half years older than me-that makes him a little past nineteen-and he's got a job. He's a mechanic. He brings home his paycheck and we all live off it, that and the money my old lady gets from my father's pension.
My father was a cop. Yeah, he was fuzz. Not that I ever knew him much. He got killed when I was nine. A couple kids, juvies, stole a car, and my old man chased after them in a squad car, and they fired a shot at him and it bit a tire and blew it and he smashed into a lamppost. The way I figure, it served him right for chasing around that way Every time a car gets stolen the fuzz go shooting up the place, driving like speed demons the whole cockeyed bit. I got an idea the cops would be just like us if they had the guts.
I walked up the six flights of stairs and let myself into the apartment. I tiptoed past my old lady's bedroom and pushed open the door of my own. My brother was fast asleep. He goes to sleep early, gets up early. What a creep! But at least he makes a living. Next year he's getting married, moving out. I'll have the room to myself. Maybe my old lady will go live with him. I wouldn't mind that. Living by myself. I could shake down grocery stores to pay my rent.
I took my clothes off and got into bed. It was stinking hot in the room.
I thought about Donna for a little while. That was good. Something to remember for keeps.
Then I closed my eyes. I was dead tired.
I was asleep last.
CHAPTER SIX
It was late when i got up the next morning The watch said quarter after eleven. My head was a little puffed up from all the wine I had consumed, and I was still tired when I got out of bed.
The house was empty. Ma leaves for work at eight-she's got some kind of a job as a clerk somewhere-and my brother Sid clears out half an hour later. I rustled up some coffee and toast for myself, got dressed, and cleared the hell out of the house. It's such a slopped-up place anyway that I don't like to stick around.
I got over to the club around noon. About half the guys were there already. The day was just like all the rest had been all summer, hot and stinking. It was just starting to rain again, for a change, but the rain didn't do a thing to cool it off.
Shiv was there. He was making out with Donna like nothing had happened last night. I didn't say anything much to them. Lorraine was there, too.
"Another lousy day of rain," Clicker said.
"Yeah," I said. "Damn weather never changes. We'll go batty pretty soon."
Somebody said how about going to the movies. It was as good an idea as anybody had, so we went. There was some crazy western playing at the Orpheum four blocks away, and we went there. Not that we gave a damn about the movie, but at least it was air-conditioned inside, and you could sit up there in the balcony and fool around with the girls and have a pretty good time.
So we went. We saw two movies and some cartoons, and made out in the balcony.
When we got back to the clubhouse, late in the afternoon, Tommy was sitting there waiting for us. He had let himself in with the key we had given him, and he got up to nod to us as we walked in.
I could see right away, just from looking at his face, that he hadn't come over here for fun and games and kidding around. He looked tired and hungry and almost a little bit sick. His collar was rumpled and there were creases under his eyes.
We gave him the big hello. Even Shiv loosened up. He grinned and said, "Hey there, Tommy-boy!"
Dirty Joe clapped Tommy on the back in a you're-my-pal-man kind of way. "Hey, Tommy, you oughta hear about the flicks we saw today. We-"
"Skip it," Tommy said. "I'm not interested in hearing."
"But-"
"Skip it." he repeated.
Dirty Joey looked a little puzzled at the way Tommy had shut him up. It wasn't like Tommy to shut anybody up. He encouraged us to talk, most of the time. To talk about anything we wanted to. And now he was stepping in and telling Dirty Joey he wasn't interested in hearing him. Dirty Joey shrugged and started to whittle a piece of wood with his blade.
Tommy said. "Your old pal Sammy ran into some trouble last night after dark. He ran into real big trouble You might have heard."
"Jeez," Clicker said. "We didn't hear nothing."
"Something happen to him, huh?" Shiv said, looking very serious and concerned.
Tommy nodded. "Last night when it was dark Sammy went out of the house, went downstairs. His mother said that somebody from the street called out for him to come down and he went down."
"So what happened to him already?" Blazer said.
"Yeah, get to it. man," I put in.
"He got stomped." Tommy said His voice was flat and didn't have much tone to it. "A cop found him in an alleyway around three in the morning."
"Was he dead?"
"Somebody got hold of him and kicked his head in and broke his neck. Broke every bone in his body, just about He didn't look pretty."
"Sammy got killed, huh?" Shiv said.
"Jeez," Clicker said. "They really wasted old Sammy, man?"
Tommy looked awful grim. There wasn't even the ghost of the smile he always wore. He said, "He was dead when they found him. Been dead for a couple of hours at least. It was too bad about Sammy, really too bad. He had quit the gangs. I guess you knew that. I was going to get him a job. Only now he doesn't need the job any more."
Shiv looked up at him suspiciously, his face cold. "So why you telling us all this sob-stuff, huh, man? Sammy don't mean anything to us. He stopped meaning anything when he pulled outa the gang."
"I know he didn't," Tommy said quietly. "I just thought I'd tell you. Thought I'd let you know that the cops are out hunting for the guys who did it."
"They got any clues?" Shiv asked.
Tommy shrugged. "Not very many. They're still just sniffing around. But I have a couple of ideas of my own about who did the job."
"Let's hear these ideas of yours, man," Shiv said in a tight voice.
"I sort of think it was kind of a getting-even job," said Tommy. "Look at it like this. There were a bunch of guys who didn't like somebody because he had quit their outfit. They wanted to show him a thing or two about what big shots they were. So they went out after this certain somebody and banged him around. Just to show him a thing or two. They weren't planning to turn him off, just to rough him up. But they got too rough, and he happened to die."
There was a long silence. Tommy looked up, looked around When he looked at me I stared right back at him, right into his eyes, but it wasn't easy It was like looking into the sun His eyes were like blazing. But I knew I had to look, that I couldn't glance away, and so I had to keep my head steady. After a second or two he looked on, at Blazer, at Clicker, at Redeye Mike.
Then Shiv said, "So you think we're the guys that used Sammy up?"
Tommy spread his hands and looked at the fingernails as though they were the most interesting things in the world "I'm not naming any names," he said. "I just say it looks a hell of a lot like that's the way it is." His face was sad. He looked like his best friend was dead, or something. "But I don't want to believe it," He went on. "I keep trying to tell myself that you guys are different from all the others, that you're just a bunch of guys who like a good time, but that you don't go around stomping guys and knifing cops. But it sure looks like one of you guys is the guy that turned off Sammy."
"We don't know anything about Sammy," Blazer insisted. "You got the wrong idea. We ain't seen him since he quit the Sinners. Honest, Tommy."
"You know what I think?" Redeye Mike said. "I think it was one of the Counts who got Sammy. Sure. Maybe they were afraid Sammy saw the guy that knifed that cop Guinness, and they decided to go after him. To shut him up before he could sing."
Tommy wore a sour smile now. "So you think it was the Counts, huh?" he said. "And it was one of the Counts that got Guinness? The Counts do all the killing around here You guys are just innocent bystanders."
"That's how it is, man," Shiv said.
"Well, for your sakes I hope that's how it reallv is," Tommy said. "I mean it. I wouldn't want any of you guys to get into trouble."
"Damn nice of you," Shiv said.
"So nobody here can tell me about Sammy?"
"Not a thing, man," Blazer said.
"We never saw him," said Hawk.
Tommy stood up. "Okay. I'll drop it there. I've got to get going, now. Can't spend all my time with you, even if I wanted to-my wife's got to get a little time too, you know." He grinned, back to the old nice-nice grin. "Don't forget about that picnic in the park this weekend, huh?"
"What about all the goddamn rain?" I asked. "Gonna have the picnic in a submarine?"
Tommy grinned, confident-like. "Don't worry about the rain, guys. I'm making special arrangements upstairs for the weekend. There isn't going to be any rain, you can bet on that."
"Yeah, yeah."
"You'll see," he said. He walked to the door, looked back at us, and left.
After he was gone, the grumbling started. Like always, it was Shiv who started it off.
"That guy. He's playing with us like a cat plays with a mouse."
"You think he knows who stomped Sammy, huh?" asked Redeye Mike.
"Sure as hell he knows!" Shiv shot back. "He's just fooling around with us. Waiting for somebody to crack up and spill it." Shiv looked all around the room, at everybody in turn, the way Tommy had done. He said, "Well. I'll open up the first guy who spills anything to him."
"You don't have to worry about us, Shiv," said Little Billy. "Anyway, I still think Tommy's okay."
"You do, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I don't. I think he's gonna sell us out to the cops. And what's more, I think he's been seeing the Counts on the side."
We were all kind of surprised at what Shiv said. I looked up. "You mean he's playing us both off against each other?"
"Something like that."
"You got any proof, Shiv?" Little Billy asked.
"I got a hunch," Shiv said. "He's double-crossing us and he's double-crossing the Counts. And in a game like that the only outfit that wins is the fuzz."
We griped around a little bit, and then settled down for the rest of the afternoon. It was getting dark fast. We didn't have much to do.
In a gang, you spend a hell of a lot of your time just goofing around using up the hours. Making out, standing on streetcorners, sitting in candy stores. In the summer it's too hot for much action. Especially when it rains all the time.
So we goofed around.
We wondered what we were going to do for the rest of the evening.
Christ, were we bored.
We didn't have any more dough for drinks There was only so much in the treasury, and Little Billy doled it out. When that was gone, we'd have to go lean on some grocery store clerk They don't mind handing out ten or fifteen bucks now and then if we tell them that otherwise the store will get chewed up. They take it out of the cash register and write it off to protection.
So we sat around. Maybe half past six or so, we got hungry and drifted down to Filthy Eddie's for some hamburgers. We figured we'd kid around with Bertha the Pig for a while, and get some eats, and maybe even scare Filthy Eddie into letting us have a meal on the house.
Man, were we in for a surprise.
Bertha the Pig wasn't there.
There was a new waitress instead. And she was something, believe you me. She was a blonde, maybe twenty or so. She was tall and had real gold hair, and blue eyes, and the kind of face you see in the movies. She wore that green uniform of hers like she was wearing an evening gown. And she was stacked. Not big and sloppy, like Bertha. Just medium size, and high and nice. I was drooling for her the minute I walked into the store.
We took a table. There were six of us, Hawk and Blazer. The debs weren't with us. Redeye Mike and Dirty Joey weren't there either.
This zilchy new waitress came over. She showed us the nicest set of choppers you want to imagine and said, "Good evening, can I help you?"
"You sure can, baby," I said, and gave her a look.
Her smile was turned off like that. I got a no-nonsense glare from her, the kind of glare that says, Norte oj your wiseguy remarks, kiddo, I'm not to be tooled around with.
"Where's Bertha?" Shiv asked.
"She quit this morning;. I'm Alice."
"Hello, Alice," Clicker said. "We eat here all the time. You'll get to know us."
"Would you care to order?"
"Why don't you sit around here for a little while first? Dirty Eddie don't mind." Shiv patted the seat next to him. "Here. Sit down."
"Please, if you'll just order-"
"Come on, baby, sit down," Shiv insisted.
She shook her head. She seemed real annoyed, like she wasn't in the mood for being flirted with. She started to move away, and Shiv reached out and caught the back of her uniform. His fingers closed on a nice meaty chunk of her rear end. I was crazy jealous that he was squeezing her like that.
She let out a little scream and slapped at his hand. Shiv let go, but a moment later he was up out of the booth, grabbing hold of her.
He got his arms around her. He flattened her up against him and put his mouth to hers. She pounded him with her fists.
Then she slapped him.
She slapped him hard, on the ear, and Shiv let go of her. He stared at her with his mouth wide open, he was so surprised. There was a big angry red mark starting to grow on the side of his head. He was rubbing it. It must have hurt plenty.
Nobody slaps Shiv.
Not and gets away with it too.
He stood there, and the girl backed up. Filthy Eddie came over from behind the counter, looking afraid and uncertain. His watery eyes were blinking, and his lips moved a couple of times without any words coming out.
"Fellas-" he finally said.
"Speech! Speech!" Blazer jeered.
"Listen, fellas," Filthy Eddie said weakly, "don't make trouble, will you? We got a new girl here, she's just starting in, don't give her a hard time."
"What happened to Bertha?" Clicker said.
"I had to fire her," Filthy Eddie said. "She was disgusting. You know what she was doing in the John with the customers?"
"Do we know!" Little Billy laughed.
"I caught her, so I fired her. But now we got Alice. Don't make it hard for her."
"She's making it hard for us!" Blazer said.
Filthy Eddie ignored it. He just begged us a couple more times not to make trouble for Alice. He told us how new she was, how young, how pretty. We didn't want to scare her away, did we? We were nice boys, he said. We wouldn't make any trouble.
So we promised. We said we'd be good.
Alice came back to the table. Her uniform, which had gotten pretty messed up while Shiv was wrestling with her, was adjusted again. She looked angry at us, though. I got the idea she was different from Bertha the Pig as it's possible to get. This was a good girl, a clean girl. Christ only knew why she had taken a job working in a cheap slum hash house like this.
She took our orders. No fooling around, no nonsense. She frowned all the way through it.
Shiv didn't make a move for her. She was watching him, but he stayed under control.
She handed the order in She didn't come near us again till it was time to bring the hamburgers over I could see we disgusted her We were .just a bunch of rowdy kids, and she loathed us.
Shiv didn't say a word all during the meal. He was still burning over that slap. Shiv was sure having a rough week First Donna balling with me, now getting publicly slapped. Shiv wasn't used to putting up with that kind of treatment. Pretty soon, I knew, he was going to explode from all the different things pressing in on him from every side. I didn't want to be around when that explosion happened, believe you me.
We finished eating. We were sitting around wondering what we were going to do for the rest of the night when Shiv finally broke his long silence.
He said, "We're gonna have some action tonight."
"What kinda action, Shiv?" Clicker said.
"You'll see. Anybody know what time this place closes up at night?"
"Midnight," I said.
"Okay," Shiv said "We're coming back here at midnight for some action."
"You mean we're gonna bust the joint up?" Clicker asked, with a grin on his face.
Shiv shook his bead. "Not that kind of action."
"Like what, then?"
Shiv smiled. He glanced across the diner at the new waitress, that Alice. She was taking an order from some people who had just come in.
Shiv said, "We're gonna have some action with the Alice number."
Little Billy laughed. "You kidding, Shiv? She won't even give you the time of day. You think she's like Bertha the Pig?"
"Who said anything about giving?" Shiv said in a low voice. "I'm planning on taking."
Suddenly we all caught the message. Eyes lit up all around the table.
We hadn't had any action like that in a long time. We were overdue for some.
Shiv said, "Waitress, let us have the check."
"You gonna pay for it?" Blazer asked. "I thought we were gonna lean on Filthy Eddie some."
"Some other time," Shiv said. "I don't want him to get any wrong ideas about us. Tonight we pay for our meals like the good law-abiding young citizens that we are."
The girl brought the check over. She put it down and walked away from us. She wasn't having anything, to do with us, that was for sure. One encounter with Shiv and she was giving us a wide berth for keeps.
"The little snot," Shiv whispered. "Slap me, will she? Treat me like dirt?"
We tossed money onto the plate to cover the check. Shiv kept eyeing the waitress hungrily.
I said, "Tell me something, man?"
"Yeah?"
"This going to be strictly a getting-even job for you by yourself, or do we all get a piece of the action?" Shiv smiled. "You all get."
"A gang-bang, huh?"
He nodded. "Yeah. A gang-bang. Only I get firsties." He looked straight at me, because I seemed to him to be the challenger for all his power "That okay with you, Eddie? You mind if I get firsties?"
"It's your idea, Shiv. I ain't trying to take a thing away from you."
"Okay," Shiv said. "Pay the check and let's get the hell out of here. We'll be back at midnight. For the waitress."
My pulse sounded loud in my own ears. The Sinners were on the move again! No snotty waitress was going to slap our Prez around!
No, sir!
A gang-bang. That was the ticket. I couldn't wait till midnight. I just couldn't wait.
CHAPTER SEVEN
I held my nerves somehow as the hours went past. We hung around the clubhouse, fooled around with the debs a little bit, drank some beer. And watched the clock.
Mostly watched the clock.
Finally it was quarter after eleven, and Shiv started getting impatient. He couldn't hold out any more, and neither could any of us.
"Come on," he said "It's a rainy night, and Filthy Eddie might decide to close the place up early."
"Or send the waitress home," I pointed out.
"Yeah. Come on."
We told the chicks they could scram. We didn't need them or want them along on this caper. We closed the clubhouse up and headed out into the night. A light drizzle was still coming down. We were starting to think it would rain forever and never stop.
On a caper like this you've got to play it very cool. Else you end up in big trouble. If the cops hate anything we do, it's when we get hold of some girl who isn't a gang girl and let her have it. They hate that almost as bad as they hate us roughing up a cop.
So we had to do it right. Or else we'd get identified and we'd all get put away for twenty years. That wouldn't be so good, man.
The way to work it was to get outside your own turf. If we did the job on our turf, the cops wouldn't hardly have to work at all to find out who did it. They could just start with the idea that a girl had been raped by a gang of boys in this neighborhood There was only one gang here. Us. So they'd come to us. They'd grill us and they'd rough us up and pretty soon they'd have us locked up.
So we had to get away from here. And we couldn't just go a couple of blocks, either, because that would put us on some other gang's turf. We had to go a long way away-outside gang territory completely. Then let the fuzz figure out who had done the job.
Shiv said, "Blazer, Hawk, get us a car. Meet us in front of the diner."
Blazer nodded. "Sure, Shiv."
They faded off. Blazer and Hawk are our car experts. They know everything there is to know about grabbing a car. Around here nobody leaves a parked car unlocked, of course, but that don't stop them. They know how to get the wing windows off. how to reach inside to open the door Then how to cross the wires and get the car going. Any time we need a car, they go get it. They don't ever miss.
While they were out scouting for a car, the rest of us crept up to the diner to wait. The place was still open. We stood across the street, out of the light of the lamppost, and looked in. A couple of customers were sitting around. The girl was still on duty. I could see the high pushes of her breasts making the front of her uniform stick out, and my throat went dry when I thought about what it would be like to do it to her. This wasn't any pimply-faced tenement girl. This one had class.
We stayed out of sight. There wasn't much of a moon, and what there was was hidden behind the rain-clouds anyway, so you couldn't see much. Especially if you were a girl and scared stiff. She wouldn't be able to identify us. We were sure of that.
Around ten minutes went by, and then Blazer and Hawk drove up in this car. It was pretty much of a heap, a battered old '51 Merc. It was the kind of a car that the owner probably didn't give a damn about having it stolen.
It was close to midnight now. If we got the car back before morning, maybe the owner wouldn't even know it had been gone. That was the way we wanted it. Otherwise there'd be a clue that could lead the fuzz straight at us.
It was ten minutes to midnight, now. We waited.
The customers were gone, now. The place was empty. Filthy Eddie was mopping up. There wasn't any sign of the waitress. She was most likely in the back room, changing out of her uniform into her street clothes.
We watched her through the plate glass window from across the street. She came out from in back, said goodnight to Eddie, and walked toward the door of the diner. She was a knockout, let me tell you. She was wearing a light blue blouse and a tight plaid skirt, and she really had plenty, that was for sure.
Shiv whispered, "One at a time, start circling across the street through the shadows. Eddie, you gag her. Billy, you get the arms. I'll get the legs. One two three and into the car. Keep the engine running, Blazer."
We all nodded. This was a routine that we'd been through before. We were organized. I had a handkerchief all ready. A clean one, yeah. What do you think I am, a slob or something?
We started to fade across the street. The rain was just a fine misty drizzle now. Blazer was back of the wheel, ready to move. Hawk was waiting in the back seat. The rest of us crossed the street.
It was important that we didn't get seen. We came up behind her.
It happened one-two-three.
First I came up to her. I slipped my hand around in front of her and gave her breasts a good squeeze. She half-turned and opened her mouth to holler for help, like I knew she would, and the second her mouth opened I rammed the handkerchief inside and clamped my hand over her lips. While I was doing that. Little Billy wrapped his big arms clear around her, fastening her arms down under his. And Shiv bent down and scooped her off her feet, stowing both her ankles under his right arm.
Just like that, and she was gagged and held and off the ground heading back across the street. Clicker. Dirty Joey and Redeye Mike were like a convoy. They surrounded us to screen what was happening. In case she got loose from one of us, they'd be able to back us up and keep her from getting away altogether.
Hawk held the back door of the Merc open. We shoved her in head first. I lifted my hand and Hawk put his down over her mouth in the same second. She didn't have a chance to spit the handkerchief out and scream. Then we were all inside-Shiv, Little Billy, me, and Hawk, in that order, sitting on the back seat with the girl strung out across our knees. We had her face down so she couldn't see us. Hawk was still holding her mouth. I had her shoulders pushed down, Little Billy was keeping her hands under control, and Shiv was holding her feet. The other four guys were sitting up front. It was crowded in the car, but what the hell, we couldn't exactly take a bus.
Blazer hit the accelerator hard as we pulled out. The whole operation had taken maybe ten seconds, from the time the waitress stepped out of the diner to the time we hustled her into the car.
She probably didn't even know what had happened to her yet. All she knew was that she'd been grabbed.
"Away we go," Blazer said.
Shiv shushed him. He didn't want anybody talking or doing anything that could identify us.
So we sat there. The girl was writhing and kicking, and trying to get loose, but she couldn't budge. Four guys were holding her down, and she didn't stand a chance of shaking us off.
After a couple of minutes she began to get that idea. I could feel her body starting to shake. She was scared, scared sick. That always happens on one of these operations. First the girl tries to fight back, and then she realizes she can't get loose, and she gets scared. One time a year ago a girl started to puke with a gag in her mouth. Good thing we caught on to what was happening or she'd have choked to death. A messy business, anyhow.
We reached the bridge and headed across into Brooklyn. It isn't safe to pull stuff like this in Manhattan, but Brooklyn is full of parks and empty lots where you can do whatever you damn please after midnight. We never went to the same place twice, but we always found new ones. Blazer, he was born in Brooklyn and knew it pretty good. He knew where to go when you had a little action cooking and wanted privacy.
The girl was still shaking. I didn't feel sorry for her, though. Who told her to be so damn snotty in the restaurant? Who told her to slap Shiv? Who did she think she was, the Queen of England? A waitress in a slum neighborhood has got to put up with all kinds of jazz. It's part of the job. She hadn't any call giving us the high hat the way she did.
So we were going to teach her a lesson.
Blazer was going through sleepy Brooklyn streets, now. I never saw a place get so dark and sleepy after midnight like Brooklyn. You can walk around anywhere in Manhattan after midnight and still see lights on, people up, guys prowling around. But not Brooklyn. Must be something in the air over there, turns all the people to deadheads.
Blazer was driving nice and careful, too. You'd think he was going for his driver's license, the way he was driving. It was the smart way to do it. A speeding car attracts attention. And all we needed was to get stopped by the fuzz. Yeah All they had to do was see that we were driving nine in a car, a stolen car and none of us with a driver's license, and a kidnapped girl in the back All we needed. They'd throw the book at us.
So along he went at thirty miles an hour, nice and careful, stop at every stop sign, signal at every turn. The car was so old it didn't have automatics, and Blazer had to stick his hand out every time he turned.
Meanwhile in the back we were finishing the job of gagging the waitress. We had another handkerchief strapped around her mouth now, tied good and hard in back. She could make little grunting noises but she couldn't talk or cry out loud Just about the time we got the job finished, Blazer slowed the car and turned it into a parking lot.
We got out.
I don't know how long we'd been driving, but we must have gone a hell of a long way. There was a big empty lot with weeds growing in it, that ran a whole block deep and three or four blocks long. Little low two-family houses bordered the lot, but the lights were out in all of them This was one of the parts of Brooklyn that hadn't been built up yet There was one single streetlight in front of the low houses, but that was a long way from us.
The rain was coming down pretty hard now But we didn't mind Not when there was action coming.
We got the girl out of the car. She wasn't kicking now. She was limp, like she had fainted.
Shiv pointed to Clicker and told him to stand lookout. He nodded and walked away. We put the girl down on the wet grass. She was out cold, scared right out of her wits.
She looked so goddamn pretty. Her face was delicate and her body well made. "Peel her," Shiv said. "Everything?" I asked. "Every stitch."
That wasn't so smart, for my money. But we don't argue with Shiv on deals like this. We started to strip her. Little Billy lifted her up while I unzipped her plaid dress, unbuttoned it at the waist, and pulled it off. He opened her blouse and dragged her arms through it. Then came the bra. The cups fell away.
She had a nice pair. Medium size, high, close together. And they looked so soft, so silky.
Then came the panties. Now she was naked except for her garter-belt and stockings. She looked very young, now. Slim, lean. Like somebody's pretty kid sister. There was a lump in my throat as I looked at her. She was the prettiest girl I ever saw naked.
Shiv didn't bother having us take the garter-belt off. She was naked enough. He stepped forward.
The rain falling on her naked body must have awakened her.
Her eyes opened and they rolled around, like she didn't remember what was going on. She must have realized all of a sudden that she was naked. And she could see a lot of strange guys standing around her And that she was lying on her bare backside in a muddy lot with the rain coming down. I thought her eyes would bug right out of her head. She was trying to scream, trying to cry out.
Then Shiv unzipped his jeans.
I thought she would flip.
I remember the look on the face of an old man we stomped a couple years back He was in the park, and we needed a few bucks, and we were all pretty crocked. He didn't want to give us his wallet, and Shiv slapped him a couple of times, and then we got sore and knocked him down. There was a look in his eyes when he realized we were going to stomp him and that he might die. It was the same look this girl was wearing now, a look of surprise, of complete terror.
The old man didn't die. He was tougher than we though And this girl wouldn't die, either.
But she wasn't going to be the same ever again.
I envied Shiv for having firsties. He got down on his knees next to her She was trying to curl up into a little ball so he couldn't get at her. Her knees were drawn up right into her knockers and she was twisted half over so her backside was showing. It was plump, sweet backside. There were splotches of mud on it.
Shiv signalled, and a couple of us went to work. I grabbed one hand, Little Billy grabbed the other. We pulled. She turned over onto her back again. She was kicking like crazy, but Redeye Mike caught hold of one leg, Dirty Joey the other.
We all pulled. She couldn't fight us. We won.
We straightened her out. Shiv got with her and she shook her head, very fast, a million shakes a minute. She was making little horrible sounds. She was trying to beg Shiv not to do it, not to rape her, not to ruin her.
Shiv laughed.
Then he leaned forward on her. Her eyes went even wider, and I knew he was getting to her. I could see the frozen look on her face that told me her mind was blanking out. That's the thing that protects guys in a gang-bang You get a chick and jam her into a car and take her twenty miles, and strip her and toss her on her rear in a field, and seven or eight guys take her right after each other, and her mind just washes the whole thing out because it's too horrible to live with. So the next day she can't identify anybody. She can't describe any of us. She hardly even remembers what happened to her, and she doesn't want to try. You'd be surprised how many rapes never get reported to the fuzz at all. The girl doesn't want to even think about it.
Shiv was covering her completely with his body, all except the legs sticking out on each side of Shiv's blue jeans, and the arms that were being held. He was really having a great time. In a deal like this, you don't take your time about it, though. You get it over with. So in a couple of minutes he grunted and stood up.
The girl didn't move. She was just lying there. I saw blood on her and there was blood on Shiv's jeans. He took out a handkerchief and wet it and started to clean himself off.
"Damn if she wasn't cherry," Shiv said. "How about that, huh?"
"She had it coming to her. Damn snotty bitch."
"Who's next Shiv?" Little Billy said.
Shiv went around the circle, one-potato two-potato, and it came out Hawk. He got down with her and let her have it. She was making little moaning sounds. She wasn't more than half conscious.
Hawk finished up fast, and then it was my turn.
She was covered with mud and blood, and her eyes were like a lunatic's eyes. I didn't give a damn about that. I put my hands on her and gave her a squeeze. Man she felt good, mud and all. So soft, so smooth.
I didn't want to hurt her. I'm not sadistic, like. Shiv had already hurt her, and by the time all the guys got through with her she'd be in a real mess, so I decided to take it easy with her.
She was half awake, half out of her head, and I made it with her nice and gentle, all the way to the finish.
The rule was you had to go be lookout after your turn. So I went out to the front of the lot and relieved Hawk while Redeye Mike nestled down with her. We needed a lookout bad. like we was on the moon. Nobody came within miles of us while I stood there.
Then Redeye Mike was finished, and came out to stand lookout. I walked back and saw Little Billy stepping forward. Nobody was holding the girl, now. She was out cold, it seemed, just stretched out like a rag doll.
But she had a surprise for us. Just as Little Billy got ready, she got to her feet, staggered around for a second, and started to run.
It was the damndest thing. She was like a drunk, running with her legs halt going out from under her. She was lurching and jumping barefoot through the mud. And yet she moved fast. I would have sworn she couldn't run at all, not after what we'd been doing to her, but there she went. Like a racehorse. And Little Billy after her.
Of course, she couldn't get far. She was slipping in the mud, sliding around. She circled past me and I got a look at her I won't ever forget, eyes wild like a crazy person's, breasts going up and down a hundred times a minute, arms pinwheeling, sweat and mud all over her. Then she slipped, and the next minute Little Billy caught up with her and put one big hand on her buttocks and pushed her down to the ground, and then he was with her a second later, her legs pounding the mud as she kicked in pain and anger.
Blazer, Dirty Joey, Clicker, and then it was all done. This time the girl had really had it. She was lying there in the mud, very pale. She was out cold. The rain kept coming down, washing the mud away from her.
"Come on," Shiv said.
"You gonna leave her?" Little Billy asked.
"What then? Drive her home, maybe?"
So we left her. She looked kind of pathetic, lying there unconscious in the rain. For half a second I felt sorry for her. A pretty girl, maybe a boyfriend somewhere, and until tonight she was a virgin. Then raped by eight guys and left in the mud somewhere in Brooklyn. Maybe she'd catch pneumonia and die before anyone found her. Naked in the mud, bleeding, battered-
Then I wondered why the hell I was getting so soft. She was a snotty bitch, wasn't she? She had insulted the Prez of the Sinners! She had slapped him! She deserved what she got.
I hadn't been sorry for Sammy. Or for the old man we stomped that time. Or for anybody else we leaned on, ever. So why all of a sudden for her?
Maybe on account of she was so pretty, I figured. I don't know. All I know was as I walked back to the car, I was in a funny kind of mood. I wondered what Tommy would have said if he knew what we'd just done. He'd have been disgusted with us. This was worse than killing Sammy. Sammy might have been a stoolie. Nobody likes a stoolie. But this was a girl we didn't even know, a girl who just started work today, a girl who made the mistake of treating Shiv the wrong way. And her life was ruined. Maybe she wouldn't even be sane again. Maybe she'd spend the rest of her life in the loony-bin.
You're getting soft, Eddie, I told myself.
What the hell. I had my kicks, didn't I? So why all the mushy stuff?
We got into the car and Blazer started it. I looked out the window. You couldn't see the girl from the street, she was so far back in the tall grass. But I knew she was there, either out cold or else moaning in agony. Naked, just wearing a garter belt and torn stockings. And bloody.
I felt in a funny mood.
I didn't like it, at all. That damn Tommy, he must be getting to me, with all his talk of being a decent citizen. Decent citizens don't grab girls and haul them out to Brooklyn for gang-bangs. Decent citizens don't-
Nuts to Tommy, I thought.
I sat back against the seat and watched the scenery go by. It took maybe an hour to cross into Manhattan again. Blazer took the car right back where he found it. The spot was still there and everything. It was a little past three in the morning. He parked it and we got out. No need to worry about fingerprints. Nobody would know the car had been used. The only question was, would the waitress be able to describe us to the cops?
I didn't think so. We'd find out.
I went back to my apartment and let myself in. I was covered with mud and soaked through from the rain. I cleaned up and got into bed.
I thought about the girl.
I remembered how nice her breasts had felt under my hands. How firm her behind had been.
I wished I had been the first.
But Shiv was the Prez. He had earned the right. I envied him, but I wasn't going to fight him for it. Not me. I play it strictly cool.
I thought about the girl some more. The prettiest girl I ever had, even if she didn't look so pretty after Shiv had wrestled her around in the mud. I closed my eyes. I frowned when I remembered how sorry I felt for the girl. Something was happening to me. I was getting soft. I was going to have to watch my step or I'd do something dumb.
Sleep came rolling in fast.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Morning.
Just like a million other mornings. I woke up all alone in the house. A hot, sticky day. It was past noon already. I put breakfast together, took a shower, got dressed, cleared the hell out of the house.
I headed over to the club house. I was still thinking about the girl, wondering if anybody had found her during the night, if she was still alive, if she had gone out of her mind from the rape. It wasn't like me to be worried this way I still didn't like it. I meant I was turning square. A lot of gang guys do that as they get older. They get to be twenty twenty-one. and they change. Grabbing kicks don't matter to them any more.
They start thinking of getting married, settling down, getting a job, having kids. A lot of jazz like that.
I didn't want that jazz.
I didn't want to turn square.
But I could see it happening. Little by little, around the edges. I was changing. Like, you know, I was starting to think of other people, wondering how they were taking it. Wondering how Sammy's mother liked it to have her son stomped to death. Wondering how that waitress liked it to have eight guys ramming away at her.
Which is bull. Because nobody cares about you, so why should you care about anybody? Take your kicks now, that's the only thing that makes sense.
Take 'em while you can. Grab 'em. And don't worry about other people.
That's the gang code. It was my code. What the hell was happening to me? I didn't want it to happen. I didn't want to get square. But how could I stop it?
On the way over to the clubhouse, I stopped, off in Schultz' Candy Store. We used to hang out there a lot before we rented the clubhouse. I walked in just like it was the old days, when we practically owned the place.
Mrs. Schultz was behind the soda counter. She was a little old woman, fat and mean. She always hated to have us hang around her store. She looked at me now like I was some kind of insect that had crawled into the store.
I didn't say anything to her. I just walked over to the newspaper rack and picked up a copy of the Daily News.
No headline about a rape. I opened the paper, leafed through the first few pages. Nothing about a girl being found in the Flatbush flats, or anything like that.
"Hey, what you think this is here?" Mrs. Schultz asked me "A library, maybe?"
I didn't answer. I put down the News and picked up the Mirror. I started to look through it.
She came scurrying over to me like a fat little gnome. "You think we get the papers for free here, weisenheimer? You want to read the Mirror, you buy it, you hear me?"
"I'm just lookin' for something, lady," I told her without stopping to turn the pages. "Just a second, huh?"
She poked me in the ribs. Old dame wasn't afraid of anybody. "No free reads here, tough guy. Put the paper down, I'm telling you. Else I call a cop. I mean it, I call a cop. Who you think you are, anyhow?"
I nodded and put the paper back where I got it.
"Thanks," I said. "Glad to know I'm welcome here, Mrs. Schultz. I'll bring my friends around again, maybe. It's such a nice friendly place."
I walked out.
The story hadn't made the News or the Mirror. That meant none of the papers had it, because it just didn't figure that the Times or the Tribune would pick up a rape story that the tabloids hadn't heard about. Well, it figured, I guess. We had left the girl around three. The morning papers probably get printed around seven. That didn't leave much time for the girl to be found and for a reporter to write the story up for his paper.
Maybe the afternoon papers would carry the story.
The Post would be out around three o'clock. And they went in big for rape stuff. I made up my mind to take a look at the newsstand a little later on.
I went past Filthy Eddie's diner. It was open for business as usual, and Gladys, the morning waitress was on duty. Gladys is a dried-up old prune. We don't fool around with her any, because there's no kicks in it. She works there from eight in the morning, which is when it opens, to four in the afternoon. At four the night waitress comes on. It used to be Bertha the Pig, but not any more. I wondered what Filthy Eddie was going to do when his waitress didn't show up for work at four o'clock.
I went on to the clubhouse. About half the gang was there already. There was beer. Lorraine was there, waiting for me.
Shiv said, "Anybody here seen a paper?"
"I have," I said.
"Anything in it?"
"No."
"I wonder if she lived," Hawk said.
"She'll live," Shiv said. "I wouldn't want her to die. I want her to stay alive. And every time she gets snotty with a customer I Want her to remember what happened to her the last time she was."
We used up the beer pretty fast. Around half past three, I went out to get some more, and I stopped off at the newsstand.
The Post had come in.
And there was the headline, in big black letters splashed all over the front page. FIND RAPE VICTIM IN BKLYN, it said. Story on Page Three.
Mrs. Schultz came clicking over to tell me all about how this wasn't a library At the risk of giving her a heart attack I fished a nickel out of my pocket.
"Here. I'm buying the goddamn paper. That makes me a customer, so be nice to me."
"I don't need to be nice to scum like you," she shot back at me. "Look at you! Like a slob, you look. Is that what your mother raised you to look like? What do you want with a paper? Can you read, even?"
Lucky thing I wasn't Shiv. She talked like that to Shiv, he'd have slammed her in the teeth, even though she was a woman of seventy. But it was just me. and I was in this goddamn square softhearted mood. So I just shrugged and walked outside.
I went down to the corner and turned it, and sat down on a stoop to read the article about the rape.
There wasn't much.
What it said was the nude, unconscious body of a girl had been found in a vacant lot in Brooklyn at about six o'clock this morning. From clothing nearby she was identified as Alice Watson, 21, of 159 Avenue C, Manhattan She had been sexually assaulted, probably by a number of attackers. She was in Kings County Hospital, suffering from exposure and shock, and her only relative, sister Joyce, 24, had gone to her bedside. She hadn't regained consciousness at press time.
Well, she was alive, at least. That was something. And it looked like they weren't going to be able to track it to us. By the time she woke up, she wouldn't be able to remember a damn thing except that she'd been raped by a lot of guys. The rest would be confused.
I brought the paper and the beer back to the clubhouse. I gave the paper to Shiv. "Here. Take a look."
He read the article out loud, going slow, because he isn't the greatest in the world when it comes to reading. Then he laughed and said, "She won't bother us. She won't know a thing when she comes to."
"That's what I figure," I said.
He ripped the article out. Shiv keeps a scrapbook of all his newspaper stuff. He'd fry for sure if the fuzz ever found the scrapbook, because a lot of the things in it were never traced back to the Sinners. But he keeps it hidden away somewhere.
Tommy came over to the clubhouse for his regular afternoon visit. He didn't say anything about anybody in the neighborhood being abducted and raped. Maybe he hadn't heard the news, yet. Anyway, he didn't bring the subject up. Which was okay.
He hung around for an hour or so, talking about his plans for the weekend. Then he left. We sat around for a while after he was gone, talking about him and about things in general.
When you come right down to it, in the long run, nobody in the gang really trusted Tommy. There were some guys, like Little Billy and Redeye Mike, who were ready to play along with him. And others, mostly Shiv, who hated his guts. But we had to figure on one important thing. As long as the social worker was keeping an eye on us, the cops wouldn't bother us too much.
And at least Tommy bought us beer. That was a hell of a lot more than any cop would ever do for us, for sure.
But even though it was good in some ways to let Tommy hang around with us and wander in and out of the clubhouse when he liked, in other ways we weren't so sure we wanted to have him And of course Shiv was dead set against him, even if he didn't put up much fuss.
Tommy said he was on our side, with us all the way, trying to help us get along. But he only said that. Maybe he was really scouting around to find out for sure who had killed Officer Guinness and Sammy. And we couldn't trust him when it came to the Counts, either For all we knew, he went straight over to them every day after he left our clubhouse.
So that night when the gang started to break up and go home, Shiv called me aside.
"Hey-Eddie!"
I looked at him cautiously. "Yeah, man? What's on your mind?"
"Come on over here," Shiv said softly. "I want to talk to you a minute."
I didn't like the sound of that. There was nobody in the clubhouse with us now. Just me and Shiv there. And me and Shiv had been having our little disagreements over the last couple of days.
I wondered if he was going to make trouble for me now. It was more like Shiv to do it in front of the whole gang, but you never could tell.
Me, I like running with the Sinners, but I ain't too much of a fighter. I'm sort of a quiet guy who just tags along with the rest. I like to think I'm a little smarter than most of the guys. Shiv included and I want to live longer. Not that I'm chicken. But I don't like sticking my neck out when I can help it. I don't go in for one-man stands or crap like that. I get my kicks when I'm fighting as part of the whole gang, all of us together, the way we were the time when we stomped Sammy. I'm not the lone-wolf kind of operator.
Shiv, he was different. He liked nothing better than to stand up against a guy all alone. He'd take them on with a knife, or he'd do it with his fists, or with anything else handy.
Funny thing was, Shiv always came out on top. That was why he was our Prez. He got to be Prez when he was only fourteen, and he cut up the old Prez so much that the guy never ran with the gangs again.
I hoped to hell Shiv hadn't decided to put on a stand with me, right now, for some cockeyed reason. I wouldn't run away. I'd stand and fight, because that's the only thing a cat can do. But. I wouldn't last two seconds in a stand with Shiv, and both of us knew it. He was just too damn good with that blade of his. He had eyeballs in his elbows, like.
There was a catch in my voice when I said, "What's the scoop, Shiv?"
He winked. "Got a little job I want to do tonight, and I need some help."
"You want me to help you?"
"You catch on fast, Eddie."
I took a long look at him and ran my tongue around the outside of my mouth.
"Why me?" I said.
He smiled. I knew that smile. He said, "It's the kind of deal where I can't go alone. And I didn't want them other guys messing into it until I did what I wanted to do. But I need somebody else. So I want you to come along with me."
"Come along where. Shiv?"
He showed his teeth. "Into Count turf."
I was quiet for a couple of seconds Then I said, "What the hell you want to go there for?"
"I don't trust that creep Tommy, that's what for. I want to go and catch a Count and sweat the truth out of him. We gotta find out. We gotta find out if Tommy's been going behind our backs, telling stuff to the Counts."
I was sweating and my legs were starting to shake. I was tired, and I'd been having a hard time with all this rain and stink, and funny things were going on inside my mind lately. There were a lot of things I didn't particularly want to do just at this time, and going into Count turf was one of them.
So I said, "Well, Shiv, I kinda figured I'd go home tonight, take it easy, you know-"
"What's a matter? Chickie-chick?"
My face tightened up and my voice come out deeper when I answered. "I ain't chicken, Shiv!"
"Okay, then. You ain't chicken. I'm your Prez, ain't I, Eddie?"
"Sure."
"I'm asking you to accompany me on a dangerous mission, is what I want."
"Yeah, Shiv."
"So quit handing me the bull, man, and let's get going. Got your blade?"
"Sure."
"Okay. We wasted enough time already. Let's get the show on the road."
I wasn't keen in the least about the whole project. Not at all. I don't mind risking trouble with the fuzz-they can be fooled, and anyway they usually aren't on their toes. So I didn't mind stomping Sammy, or getting mixed up in the gang-bang, or anything like that.
But to go into an enemy gang's turf is asking for trouble. At any time. In any number. And to go in with just one other guy, at night, is the next thing to jumping off a skyscraper. It's pure suicide.
But I didn't have any choice.
Shiv had laid it right on the line in words of one syllable. He didn't even need to put it into words. I knew the score. If I chickened out, I was finished from that minute on as a member of the Sinners. Shiv would ride me right out of the gang. Maybe he would stomp me around a little first.
So we set out, just Shiv and me, heading for the turf of the enemy. It was a little bit past eight o'clock at night when we left the clubhouse. It was dark out. The rain had stopped once again, but the streets were still wet, and a kind of damp fog hung over everything, blurring the streetlights and making it seem like the rain was just about to get started again any second.
Shiv strolled along as calm as could be, with his head up and his shoulders back. I was nervous and it showed up in the way I was walking. I kept one hand in my pocket, clutching the hard handle of my switchblade just in case we ran into sudden trouble.
The borderline between our turf, the turf of the Sinners, and their turf, Counts turf, is called Halsey Avenue. Halsey is a wide street with a lot of stores and movie theaters on it. One side of Halsey Avenue is our side of the line, the other is Counts turf. It's like there's invisible barbed wire running down the middle of the street. The borderline is never supposed to be crossed. Anybody who goes into enemy turf, he's asking to have his head handed to him if he gets caught.
Well, we crossed it, cool as you please. Shiv just started across the street and I went with him.
Even though it was a lousy night, full of rain and fog, there were plenty of people out walking on Halsey Avenue, since this was the night all the stores stayed open late.
There were people walking up and down all over the place, looking at the windows and going on into the store. There were even a couple of cops. They weren't the regular cops, though. They were relief men on account of summer vacations. The regulars know all of us, from both gangs. Whenever they see a couple of Sinners crossing into Counts turf, or the other way around, they stop us and send us back, so there won't be any rumble.
I was praying we'd get caught by the fuzz and sent back to our own turf. That would have avoided a whole lot of trouble. But nobody noticed us.
We got to the other side of the street.
"So now we're in enemy turf," Shiv said.
I felt a funny tingling feeling as I put my foot down on Counts turf. It was the first time I had ever been here with less than the full gang around me.
And now it was just Shiv and me all by ourselves out here.
I felt very alone.
"Let's not get too deep into their turf, man," I said cautiously to Shiv. "We get too deep in, they'll cut us off and we won't be able to get back."
"You sound like a chickie-crap, you know that, Eddie?" Shiv snapped at me.
"I ain't lookin for suicide just yet," I said. "Still a few kicks I want to get."
"Don't worry, man. We ain't going too far in. You'll get out with your skin."
The way Shiv said it, it didn't leave much doubt about the way he felt about me. He was as much as calling me chicken, and you don't call another stud chicken unless you thing he's down with the worms. But Shiv could get away with it on me, because he knew I wouldn't dare call him on it.
Well, let him put me down. I could take it. I'd laid his deb, hadn't I? I beat him in the contest fair and square. Now he was trying to even things up. Trying to grind my face in crap.
Better to eat crap than get cut up, I thought. Then I stopped and thought over what I had just been thinking. That wasn't gang talk at all. That was square talk. In a gang, you never eat crap. Not from anyone. Better to get cut to ribbons than to let someone put you down.
I was changing, man. Day by day I was turning into something different from what I'd been. I was worried, let me tell you. I didn't want to change.
We turned off Halsey and started down one of the side streets. The Counts clubhouse was about four blocks on the other side of Halsey, but I was hoping we'd pick up a stray Count somewhere before we had to get that close to the clubhouse.
The closer we got, the bigger our chances of trouble, the smaller our chances of ever seeing the other side of Halsey Avenue. If half a dozen Counts found two Sinner spies wandering around in their turf, we wouldn't get away cheap. No, sir.
Only we were lucky this time.
Real lucky.
We hadn't gotten more than a block and a half into Counts turf-still safe to clear out if we had to-when we saw this guy along the street, walking all by himself.
I nudged Shiv. ' "You see?"
"I saw him two minutes ago."
It was Gimpy Milty of the Counts. We spotted him by the limp in his left foot. Gimpy Milty got that way when somebody slashed a tendon on him during a rumble a few years back. He limped in a very special way that was easy to spot.
We were going to give Gimpy Milty a little surprise, right now.
CHAPTER NINE
Shiv took out his knife and I heard the blade click into place. I took out my own. "Don't rush it, man," Shiv said. "I'm keeping plenty cool," I told him. "Stay that way."
"Sure, Shiv."
We kept the blades behind our backs so the light of the single streetlamp up the block wouldn't give things away. We didn't want Gimpy Milty catching sight of any reflections all of a sudden, Shiv crossed the street and started to walk fast, hugging the sides of the building.
We had this bit down to a I. It's a pretty good gimmick provided the other guy doesn't catch wise. I kept going until Gimpy Milty was right in front of me, maybe a dozen yards away. He still didn't know what was going on. I guess he didn't figure to find a couple of Sinners coming along right there in his own turf. And it was dark and foggy anyway.
I walked up to him.
My hand was shaking a little, not much. I was starting to get my nerve back, finally. I pulled the knife out from behind my back, moving it around in a smooth motion so it pointed right at his gut.
I said, "Better not yell for help, Milty."
He blinked at me like he didn't understand what was going on. Then the idea got across to him that there was a blade pointed at him.
"What the-" He recognized me. "Eddie?"
"Yeah."
"You crazy or something, coming over here like this?" he asked.
"Just a little crazy," I said. "We figured we'd pay a little visit to Counts turf tonight."
Milty frowned and looked off to the side, like he expected a couple of other Counts to come up and chop me to pieces while I stood there. But just then Shiv crossed the street again, and came around behind Gimpy Milty, and put his blade up against Gimpy Milty's back.
"Hello, man," Shiv said softly. "This is me back here. Shiv. Just play it cool and you won't get cut up, you hear me?"
Now Milty was covered front and back. One funny move and he'd be skewered two ways at once.
Nobody in that kind of a set-up is going to try anything funny. He just stood there, chewing on the corner of his lip and looking down at my blade against his belly.
"What the hell you guys up to?" Milty wanted to know. "There ain't no rumble on for tonight! Not unless nobody told me."
"This isn't any rumble," Shiv said in a voice as light as a feather. "We just want to ask you some questions. Let's get moving."
"Where to?"
"Across Halsey to the other side. You think we're gonna stand here and jaw you in Counts turf, man? Get a move on."
I poked him a little with my blade, and he made a face and started to move. We marched him up the block, down to the corner, and across Halsey. Naturally, we put the blades away when crossing the Avenue. We couldn't just trot out in front of all that fuzz with a couple blades showing. If it had been anybody else, he might have tried to make a break for It. But on account of his bum leg Gimpy Milty couldn't move fast enough to leg it back to Counts turf in one piece. We'd cut him up some before he got ten feet.
We got to the other side. Now we were back in home turf I didn't let Shiv see how relieved I was. But believe me, I was plenty relieved. We'd gone into Counts territory, we'd got our man, and we'd come back without a scratch and without touching off a rumble. That was all pretty good going, I figured.
Crossing Halsey, we went down one of the side streets that didn't have much in the way of streetlights.
It was even darker than usual now. Milty was sweating hard, and not only from the muggy heat. He was scared plenty. If two Counts ever came across into Sinners turf and kidnapped me, I'd be turning green. So would any of us, except maybe Shiv. I couldn't help feeling sorry for Milty.
But I kept my feeling to myself. I didn't want Shiv finding out how fast I was softening up.
We pushed Gimpy Milty into the darkest part of the street, a little shallow alleyway between two brown-stone houses. He stood there looking at us. His eyes, shiny in the dark, kept flicking back from Shiv to me, from me to Shiv. His tongue licked out over his lips. He was really crapping in his jeans, Milty was.
Shiv took out his blade again. I did the same. There were two little clicks as we pushed the buttons. Milty's eyes bugged a little as he looked at the sharp blades. I thought of how a naked girl's eyes had bugged the same way as she lay there with her ass in the mud, waiting for Shiv to get on top of her and rip into her.
"I ain't done nothing against you guys," Gimpy Milty said. He was sweating harder than ever.
Shiv tapped the flat of his blade against the palm of his left hand. He said in that slow, cold voice of his, "We ain't gonna cut you, Milty. Not unless we have to. We just wanta talk."
"Talk about what?"
"You know a guy name of Tommy Sheehan?" Shiv asked.
Gimpy Milty was silent just a fraction of a second too long for it to be kosher. Finally he said, "I ain't never heard of him."
Shiv took his blade and pushed open Gimpy Milty's shirt a little bit, between two of the buttons. Some hairy fat flesh showed. Milty had gotten fat since hurting his leg. Shiv pushed the point of his blade against the fat, and leaned a little bit, not hard enough to break the skin but hard enough so Milty could feel it. So Milty would know that if Shiv leaned a little harder, that knife would go slicing through his guts.
Shiv said, "Tommy Sheehan's a social worker. Now maybe you know?"
"Yeah," Milty said. He couldn't take his eyes off the blade. "He's that creep who hangs out with the Sinners all the time, ain't he?"
"Yeah," Shiv said. "You got the right guy now."
"What about him?" Milty asked. "What you want to know, Shiv?"
"Just tell me. He visits the Counts too, don't he? Huh, Milty?"
"Like hell he does!"
Shiv scowled. He leaned a little harder. He said, "We know he's seeing you guys. He's double-timing us, that's what he's doing. He's been running around behind our backs and soaking up stuff from the Counts. He's fooling us both, making us spill secret stuff. If we ever called a rumble he'd know about it so fast he'd have the whole police force down our necks."
"You're nuts, Shiv," Gimpy Milty said. "We ain't ever had anything to do with the guy."
The slow, sleepy look left Shiv's eyes. He started to look angry. "Don't gimme that kinda crap, Miltyl I know he's been seeing the Counts!"
"You know, huh, man? Then you're smarter than we are, Shiv."
I had to hand it to Gimpy Milty for standing up to Shiv the way he was doing. Even with a blade in his belly, he wasn't panicking. But I could see Shiv was getting sore fast. Gimpy Milty wasn't giving Shiv the answers he wanted to get.
Shiv said, "Listen, man, you want us to slice up your good leg for you? Cut it up the way the other one got cut up?"
Sweat rolled down Milty's face now. He chewed his lip again. "What's eating you, Shiv? You want me to tell you something that ain't so, that what you want? You want me to say we've been palling around with your social worker when we haven't?"
"I want the truth."
"Just tell me what you want me to say. I don't want to make you unhappy, Shiv."
"The guy's a spy. He must have told you not to say a word."
"You're nuts!"
You can push Shiv only so far. For a second I thought he was going to ram the knife into Milty. Instead he pulled back his left hand and slammed his fist hard against Gimpy Milty's mouth.
The fat lower lip got snagged on a tooth. A trickle of blood came out, running down Milty's chin. Milty started to look scared again.
"Maybe he's really telling us the truth, Shiv," I said quietly.
Shiv gave me a sour look and snapped out, "He's crapping us! He's got to be."
He belted Gimpy Milty in the pit of the somach.
I heard air come whooshing out of Milty's gut. The Gimp started to fold up Shiv grabbed him under the chin and propped him up against the wall. He hit him again, ramming him just under the heart.
Then Shiv leaned over and said in a low whisper, "Next thing I'm gonna cut up your leg, Milty."
Milty looked up. His pudgy face was a pasty white color now. He was breathing hard, and there were red blotches in his cheeks. His lip was still bleeding. He said, "You're off your rocker, man We ain't dumb enough to shoot the breeze with a social worker."
"Damn you, Milty, ain't you got no brains?" Shiv said.
Shiv put his knife away and started to work Gimpy Milty over with his fists. He kept hammering away at Milty's chest and stomach. But he didn't get anywhere. Milty stuck to his story The Gimp had guts for sure.
"You gonna tell me the truth?" Shiv demanded.
"I told you."
Shiv hit him again Hard. Milty spun around, and for a second his weight was in his game leg. He yelped as the leg started to fold up under him. He went sprawling to the pavement, landing with a thump.
Shiv stood over him Shiv was sweating. He looked down like he was deciding whether or not to kick him in the belly.
I wondered if the party would get rougher soon-if Shiv would start going for the eyes, maybe, or really cut up the tendons in Milty's good leg. But I guess Shiv must have got tired of banging him around. Shiv stood there, looking down, his eyes cold, his arms dangling loosely at his sides.
"Get up," Shiv ordered. Milty climbed to his feet. Shiv said, "Okay, Milty. Get the hell back to your own turf."
"You found out all you want to know?" Milty asked. He looked a little surprised at being allowed to get off so easy. Frankly, I was pretty amazed myself that Shiv was letting him go.
Shiv said, "I'm tired of slammin' you around. Now scram. Fast!"
"You're gonna get the score evened for this, Shiv," Milty told him.
Then he scuttled away like a lame crab, hotfooting it for the safety of Counts turf before Shiv changed his mind and decided to go after him again.
Half a minute and Gimpy was out of sight. I turned to Shiv and said to him, "Well, I guess that shoots your theory. Tommy isn't visiting the Counts after all, then."
"He is."
"But Milty said-"
Shiv's eyes flared with rage. "Shut up! You heard Milty admit that the Counts were seeing Tommy."
I laughed. "Good joke, Shiv. But-"
He belted me suddenly in the chops. I stood there, rubbing my mouth and blinking at him. My hand was groping for my knife. You don't let a guy slam you in the face without a challenge.
I said, "What the hell was that for?"
"To teach you to listen to me, Eddie."
"You got no call belting me, Shiv."
He touched the stud on his switchblade again. The knife flicked out. "You don't like it, Eddie?"
"Big man."
"I am a big man. You don't like it, get your blade out and show me otherwise."
"I ain't lookin' for no fights, Shiv."
"Because you're chickie-crap, Eddie."
That was worse than belting me in the face. I felt all the blood drain out of my cheeks. A year ago-six months, even-I would have been jumping at Shiv with my blade out. And he would have killed me quick and easy.
Only now I wasn't even jumping. Now I was eating crap.
I just stood there, wondering what the hell was happening inside me.
I said, "I ain't gonna fight you, Shiv. No matter what."
"I didn't figure you would, man."
"What's this stuff about Tommy and the Counts, then?" I asked.
He looked dead serious. "You listen to me, Eddie, and you remember. Forget anything Gimp Milty just really said. If anybody asks you. he said that Tommy and the Counts were buddies. That Tommy went over there practically every night. That's what Milty said. You got that? You say anything else, I gonna cut you up."
I was shaking. Shiv had just turned me into dirt, and I was disgusted at myself. I wondered what the hell Shiv was trying to drive at by setting up a link between the social worker and the Counts. But I wasn't going to ask.
"Yeah, Shiv. I get the idea. Tommy sees the Counts. Sure thing, Shiv."
"Okay. Just make sure it sticks."
We walked out of the alley. I felt dead and empty inside. Shiv had called me a chicken, and I had let him. That meant I was a chicken.
Shiv had the right to throw me out of the gang, now. But he didn't seem to want to. Maybe he was just going to hold this over me, or something. I didn't know, and I didn't like the setup. Not one bit
"You going anywhere now?" Shiv asked.
"Home, I guess."
"Let's stop off at Filthy Eddie's, first."
I shrugged. "Anything you say, Shiv."
We walked across to the diner. I felt a little jumpy. I didn't want to hang around Shiv any more tonight. Shiv was like a guy out of his mind, almost. Even his eyes had a funny glassy look.
The diner was open, but we didn't see anybody inside from across the street. No customers, no waitresses, no Filthy Eddie, no nobody.
All of a sudden, Filthy Eddie came charging out of the back room. He didn't have a shirt on, just an undershirt and his baggy, stained white pants.
"Out of here," he yelled. "Both of you! Out! Out! And don't come back! Not ever again!"
His eyes were wild. Wilder than Shiv's. Was the whole world nuts tonight?
Shiv said, "Cool it, man. We just want a couple of burgers."
"I don't serve raptists here!"
"What's that you're saying, man?"
"You heard it!" Eddie repeated I wasn't especially proud of my namesake just then. He looked grubbier than ever, all sweaty and wild-eyed. He started to push the door closed, but Shiv caught it and pushed it back.
We came in.
"What's the idea calling us names?" Shiv said. "You know why."
"I'm mystified, man." He looked around. Then he said, casual-like, "No waitress tonight, chief?"
"She's in the hospital," Filthy Eddie said.
"She got the measles?" Shiv asked.
Filthy Eddie made a face. "You know why. Because last night, she leaves this restaurant, a gang of hoodlums grab her. Take her out to Brooklyn, pull her clothes off, rape her. This is news to you? What hoodlums around here are there?"
"You mean they got to her?" Shiv asked. He had a funny smile on his face.
"You know! You are the ones! A nice girl, a lovely girl. Found naked in the mud. She is out of her mind Her sister goes to see her, says she only talks in deliriousness. You! You are the ones!"
"A little raping can do some girls a lot of good,"
"You can talk like that? You are monsters! Criminals! Nazis, that's what you are! Filthy stinking Nazis, and worse than Nazis!"
Shiv stepped forward. He said in an ugly voice, "Get this. Pop We didn't touch that girl. We don't know a thing about what happened."
"Yeah Sure"
"And you won't get anywhere trying to tell the cops we did it, either," Shiv said. "Because we didn't, and you can't prove anything. So the cops will have to let us go. Only they'll make lots of trouble for us, and we'll have to get even with you. You want that nice stove of yours blown up? Those fixtures ripped out? The tables smashed? The windows broken? We'll do it, man. Just put the cops on us, and we'll take care of the job for you."
"Nazis," Filthy Eddie muttered.
"Just clean-cut American teen-agers," Shiv said in a bitter voice. "Ain't we, Eddie?"
"Sure, man," I chimed in.
"So go ahead," Shiv said to Filthy Eddie. "Tell the cops we raped your waitress. We'll take care of you good for ".hat, man."
"Out!"
"You ain't gonna serve us?"
"Out!" Filthy Eddie screamed. He was practically foaming at the mouth. It was the first time I ever saw him display any spunk at all. "Out, or I call the cops right now, you Nazis!"
"Remember, we'll bust your place up so bad you can't put it back together again," Shiv said. He looked over at me and said, "Let's get out. The gentleman don't seem to like our company."
We left.
In the street outside, I said, "You think he'll make trouble?"
"Nah. Not a chance."
"He knows we got the waitress last night."
"He's only guessing. He don't have any proof. And he's smart enough to know the fuzz can't hold us on his say-so. They'll let us go, and we'll come back here and rough him up and smash his place-nah, he won't talk."
"I hope you're right, Shiv."
"I know I'm right."
We walked along. It was pretty near ten o'clock at night. Too early to go home, too late to start anything new. I was thinking about a lot of things I hadn't thought too much about in the past.
Shiv said, "How about some action?"
"I figured I'd go home," I said.
"Screw that. Let's go tear one off somewhere. You always were a big love man, Eddie."
"Where do we go?"
"Leave that to me," Shiv said.
I shrugged. It looked like I was going to have to spend the whole rest of the night tagging along with Shiv. He gets these moods, when he wants company, and you just can't get loose from him.
I didn't like it. He was spoiling for trouble. I wondered what he was working up to now.
He didn't say anything much for a couple of blocks. He just walked along, his hands in his pockets, his head down. I wondered what was going on in his mind. A guy like Shiv, you can never figure him out. He's a peculiar one. He just lives for his kicks, and to hell with anybody who gets in his way.
Maybe twenty minutes went by. We had almost completely circled Sinner turf. We were standing in front of the subway exit near Halsey.
Rain was coming down again.
Shiv said. "We'll wait here. The next decent-looking chick who comes outa the subway, we'll grab. We'll haul her away and have ourselves a ball."
CHAPTER TEN
I didn't like the idea. Shiv was on a rampage, and nothing was going to stop him. But another rape wasn't a smart idea, I figured. One rape was bad enough. Two made it a wave, and the fuzz would crack down even tighter than before. Besides, this was a busy neighborhood. Even this late on a rainy night. What if we were seen? What if the girl screamed? What if we got caught-or shot by the fuzz? Shiv didn't care.
Shiv wasn't in any mood to listen to reason. Shiv was restless, and Shiv wanted action. And, whether I liked it or not, I was being dragged along to keep him company.
We waited, there in the shadows, lounging against a wall. After a little while we could hear the rumble of a train pulling into the station. A minute or two went by, and then a couple of people started to come up the staircase from below. The first one was a man. Then a fat woman with packages. Then nobody, for almost a minute.
Then a girl.
Shiv put his hand on mine and nodded his head the moment she came into sight. "There's the one," he said.
I looked at her. Then I looked closer, and my eyes went wide. This wasn't just any girl.
This was Debbie. Sammy's sister. The sister of the guy we had stomped to death a couple of nights ago.
I don't know where she was coming from. A funeral home, maybe. She was dressed all in black, of course. But it was a tight dress, a dress that told you what she had underneath the dress. And it was plenty. It was hard to believe she was only fourteen. She had a woman's body, and she walked like a woman. Bib high breasts, and long legs, and wide hips.
We were hungry for her, had been for the last year and a half, ever since we saw her develop. There wasn't a guy in the neighborhood who didn't want to lay her. Sure. But not a rape. That was going too far.
Shiv said, "We'll follow her a little ways. Then we'll grab her on a dark street and haul her into the alley and give it to her."
"No, Shiv."
He looked at me in surprise. "What do you mean, man? What's this stuff?"
"Let's not do it."
"You're really turning into a chicken fast, huh, man?" he said.
I shrugged the word off. It wasn't easy, but I ignored it and said, "It don't make any sense, Shiv. She'll recognize us sure as anything. When she recovers she'll tell the fuzz, and they'll throw the book at us. They'll hit us for the gang-bang, and maybe pin Sammy's stomping on us, and anything else they can think of. All on you and me. We'll fry, Shiv. They'll roast us."
But I wasn't really worried about Debbie's being able to identify us. If we worked it right, in the dark, maybe she wouldn't see our faces. A girl gets panicky when she's attacked; she doesn't think straight. Only that wasn't what was on my mind. I was thinking of a mother whose only son gets stomped to death one day, and whose fourteen-year-old daughter gets raped a couple of days later.
See?
Thinking about mothers, yet!
Soft. Soft in the head. I couldn't help it. That's what was happening to me.
Shiv gave me a dirty look and said, "She won't identify us, man."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'll tell her. I'll tell her that if she breathes a word, the rest of the gang will come around and cut her old lady's heart out. She'll keep quiet. She'll go home and try to forget all about it."
"Don't do it, Shiv!" I said again.
He was silent for maybe half a minute. I could see a muscle popping in his jaw. He was angry at me, real angry. Boiling over.
After a long quiet stretch he said, "I thought you had guts, man."
I didn't answer.
He said, "You been acting awful funny lately That social worker is getting to you, ain't he? Filling you up with all kinds of ideas. Next thing I know you'll be trying to sign me up for Sunday School. Huh, Eddie? That the next thing?"
"Look, Shiv-"
"Don't gimme any jazz. I'm gonna grab that girl, and you're gonna help me."
"Shiv-"
"Or else," he said. "Or else what?"
"Or else you're outa the Sinners," he said. "And everybody gets to know you're chickie-crap, that you crapped outa the gang. And we'll fix you if you try to start trouble. What we did to Sammy, we can do you."
The way he put it, I knew I didn't have any choice. Shiv had me over a barrel, as usual. I could pick up my marbles and walk out of the gang right here and now-he d let me. But that would mean I'd be through in the neighborhood for good. That I didn't rate a deb. That I had damn well better stay off the streets after dark or I'd get my head handed to me. The gangs are rough on guys who crap out. Sammy found that out. I didn't want to end up where Sammy did.
I didn't want to rape any fourteen-year-old girls, either. But Shiv was putting me right on the thin edge. I had to speak up.
"You with me, man?" he said. "Or do you want to crap out?"
"I'm with you," I said.
"Let's move it, then. We've wasted enough time as it is."
Debbie was almost a block ahead of us by now. I knew the route she would take. Up Halsey to the first corner, then left for two blocks, and finally across and right to the street where she lived. It took her past some pretty dark parts of town. I wondered why a girl so young would be out by herself this late. Of course, she didn't have any brother to walk with her and protect her.
Not any more.
Shiv nudged me and we followed her.
We caught up with her pretty fast, and stayed maybe twenty yards behind her, ready to jump out of sight if she happened to turn around. I felt lousy about this whole deal. I was almost sour enough to tell Shiv the hell with it and crap out-only I knew the consequences.
Shiv said. "When she turns the corner, we'll get closer. If the street is empty, we'll take her in the middle of the block. If anyone's around, we'll wait for the next block. Just stroll along casual-like."
We strolled along. I hoped like hell that the next block would be crawling with people. And that all the blocks from here to her house would be full of people too. And police, maybe.
No luck.
The block was empty. Everybody was indoors on account of the drizzle.
"Okay," Shiv whispered. "We'll take her."
"How?"
"Let's me do it."
We cruised a little faster. We got up till we weren't more than ten feet behind her. Shiv was poised like a big cat, ready to spring. He looked around, in all directions, to make sure we still had the street to ourselves.
Then he moved forward without a sound. His knife was in his hand.
She started to turn, half a second before he caught up with her. He clamped one hand over her mouth and touched the point of the knife to the front of her dress right between her breasts.
"Don't make any noise," he said. "You yell and I'll kill you right here."
She was white as a ghost. And her eyes were wide, like the old man's eyes, like the waitress' eyes. Eyes of fear, eyes of horror.
Shiv began to push her toward the alleyway. It was the same deal as the night we stomped Sammy, the same kind of alleyway. Only we weren't out for a stomping now.
She didn't make a sound. She recognized Shiv and me, and she knew damn well that Shiv wouldn't stop to jam that knife into her chest if she cried out.
It was pitch-black in the alleyway. Nobody could see into it from the street. Our eyes gradually got used to the darkness. Shiv stood the girl up against the wall. She looked so scared I thought she was going to wet her pants right in front of us.
I longed to ram a knife into Shiv and let her go. But I didn't. Shiv could turn and put the blade into me before I got half launched. That was how fast Shiv was in a stand. Like a cat.
He said in a low voice, "We're gonna have some fun with you, Debbie. Been meaning to for a long time. And you're gonna keep quiet while it's going on."
"No, please-I'm a virg-"
"Shut up!" Shiv whispered harshly. "You make another sound and I'll cut your boobs off, you hear me?"
She seemed to shrink back against the wall.
Shiv said, "You won't get hurt if you keep quiet. And I mean keep quiet after tonight, too. Don't get any ideas about telling the cops. Because if you do, we'll fix you. The gang will get you. We'll come into your place and cut your old lady's guts out. You want us to do that, Debbie? And we'll take care of you, too. We won't kill you. Uh-uh. We'll just carve you up a little bit. Maybe we'll cut one of your eyes out, and one of your lips. And make some nice initials on your behind. And slit your nose. But you'll live. You'll live to learn what happens to squealers. So you won't talk about tonight, will you, Debbie?"
She shook her head.
She was paralyzed with fear.
Shiv looked at me. "It's safe, I bet. She's a smart girl. She saw what happened to Sammy She'll go home tonight and not say a word to anybody. A girl of fourteen, time she lost her cherry anyway."
Shiv was practically drooling. I don't think it was the sex that interested him so much as just making other people suffer. Showing the world who was boss. A two-bit Hitler, that man Shiv.
I didn't say anything. I couldn't. I was in this up to my neck already.
Shiv folded his arms and said, "Go ahead, man. She's yours. You've got firsties."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You. You wanted them the other night, didn't you? You said how lucky I was to be getting them. Well, it's your turn now. I'm letting you have firsties. Go ahead, man. Don't stand around with your mouth hanging open."
Now I could see how really rotten Shiv was, how much he enjoyed pushing people around. He knew that I was against this rape deal, so he was giving me the job. He was giving up one kind of kick for an even greater one, the kick of making me eat crow. Because I had objected to raping the girl, he was forcing me to be the one who actually raped her.
I hesitated.
"Go ahead, man," Shiv said in that soft voice of his. He was fingering his switch. "You're a big man in this department, they say. That's how you won the contest the other night. So go have your fun. I'll wait."
The lousy devilish bastard had me where I couldn't even wiggle. I stepped forward.
I felt as much like taking that girl as I did like going to bed with a rubber doll. But I had to do it. My whole reputation depended on it.
I touched her arms. She was cold, cold as ice. She was shivering with fright. I looked at her for a second and tried to tell her I was sorry for having to do this. But she was too far gone to understand the language of eyes.
I took her and pulled her down on the pavement. I pushed her dress back up over her hips. She had little frilly panties on underneath. My eyes were used to the darkness, now. I could see.
I pulled the panties down. She didn't fight me. She just lay there and shivered. I got the panties over her hips, over her knees, over her ankles. I reached up and put my hands on her thighs. Cold like ice. Silky cold.
I turned and looked back over my shoulder at Shiv. He still had his arms folded, and there was a peculiar smile on his face.
I slid my fingers along Debbie's thighs. I touched her belly. And a funny thing happened. I couldn't do anything. For the first time in my life I had a woman with me, and I wasn't able to take her. My body was rebelling.
Shiv was waiting.
I had to do something.
I reached up and put my hands on Debbie's breasts. I could feel them, firm and big, inside her bra. I squeezed hard, and she gave a little moan. My fingers dug into the front of her dress.
But even that didn't help things. I still couldn't swing it. And she wasn't moving. She was just stretched out, with her eyes closed, waiting to get it over with.
"Make it fast, man," Shiv said.
I touched her with my fingers and she tried to close her legs. I pulled them open. I could feel her resisting, and it was the resistance that finally did the trick.
And she started to fight back. The moment I touched her, really touched her, and she knew I was going to get her, she fought.
It was too damn bad. I wanted to be gentle with her, but she never gave me a chance.
That was it. Now she had had it, and there was no turning back.
I felt sorry as hell. I never felt that way when screwing anybody before. Not even the waitress, because she was just a snotty broad.
I didn't like it. She had lost all her fight again, and it was like taking a corpse. I like to feel a' girl responding. I like to know I'm warming her up. I like to see her face get flushed, her eyes close tight, her breasts start to heave. I like her to throw her body around, to buck and thrash when it really starts getting to her.
None of that was happening here.
It was like having a dead girl.
I kept on. I hated it, but I kept on, and pretty soon I could feel the tickling, the warmth, and my breath came in little chunks, and I moved faster, and then there was the hammer blow.
Then I stood up.
She didn't move. She was just lying there on the pavement, her eyes closed.
"Go on," I said to Shiv. My voice was hollow. "It's your turn."
I didn't even watch as he made it with her. I leaned against the wall and listened to the grunts and groans of Shiv's pleasure.
Then he got up. Debbie, looking dazed, sprawled at his feet. Shiv kneeled down and lifted her, propping her against the alley wall.
"Debbie?" he said.
She opened her eyes and stared at him. Not eyes of fear any more. Eyes of hatred. "You hear me, Debbie?"
"Leave me alone."
"I just want to tell you. Don't call the cops. Don't breathe a word of this to anyone. Not if you want your mother to stay alive. Not if you don't want to get cut up by the gang."
Glassy-eyed, she looked at him. "Leave me alone," she muttered. "Please-leave me alone-"
"Just remember. Keep your mouth shut, Debbie. If you want to play it smart."
She nodded. She pulled her dress down to cover her nakedness. The black dress, the mourning dress. It had been a rough week for Sammy's family, all right.
Shiv punched me lightly in the arm. He was grinning. He had had his kicks, and he was in a good mood.
"Let's clear out of here, man."
"Yeah," I said.
We left the scene. I looked back at Debbie. She was still lying on the floor.
"We going to leave here there?" I asked.
"What else? Escort her home?"
"We leave her. someone might find her." I said. "If we help her up, maybe she'll just go home and not tell anybody else."
Shiv thought that over.
We went back into the alley. Debbie was trying to get to her feet. When she saw us, she shrank back, holding up one hand to keep us away.
I said, "We're going to help you, Debbie."
"Leave me alone."
I shook my head and helped her stand up. She was wobbly on her pins. She was standing in a funny way, with her legs apart, like her crotch hurt bad. That figured.
Her panties were lying in the mud. I picked them up, handed them to her. She grabbed them away and wadded them into her pocketbook. She put her shoes back on; they had been knocked off when I was on top of her.
"I'll help you walk," I said.
"Can't you just go away?" she said. She was crying, quietly. Not making a fuss about it, because she knew Shiv well enough to know he'd slash her if she called out loud. I held out my hand, steadied her. We led her out of the alley.
"That's enough," Shiv said. "Come on, man."
"Okay," I said. I looked at her, trying to tell her with my eyes that it hadn't been my fault. But how could I tell her? I was the guy who busted her open. She didn't want apologies from me. She would hate me for the rest of her life, and no explanation was going to help.
We left her. We walked away, fast. I looked back once and saw her moving along slowly, walking pigeon-toed, like an old lady. The shock of being raped was just getting through to her now. I guess.
Funny. I'd been mixed up in a lot of rapes. A gang-bang was my idea of fun. And some of the girls were younger. Eleven, even. They grow up fast, around here. But I had never felt this way before.
Shiv said, "I wanted her for two years, Eddie. And now I got her."
"You could have waited, Shiv. Not two days after her brother died."
"This'll take her mind off Sammy," he said. "Give her something else to worry about. Maybe we knocked her up, huh?"
"Maybe." That was all she needed.
"Or maybe now she'll join the gang," Shiv suggested. "Now that she's got nothing to lose. A lot of girls, first they have to lose it, after that they don't give a damn. How'd you like her for your deb, man."
"Yeah," I said. I didn't feel like discussing it.
We came to Shiv's house. He went inside. I was glad to be rid of him. I continued on, to my place.
I felt lousy.
I felt sick to my stomach.
I thought, I wish somebody would knife you, Shiv. That's what you deserve.
He had sure given me a rough time tonight. Me and the rest of the neighborhood. Gimpy Milty, Filthy Eddie, now Debbie. Shiv had been on a rampage. He had showed me up as a chicken, he had made me do lousy things.
I hated him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I didn't sleep much that night. I rolled around in bed, grabbing at the covers. The air was hot and sticky, and smelled like glue. The bedsheets felt rough against my skin. I was like sleeping on sandpaper.
I don't know how many hours I rolled around half awake. Most of the night, I guess. I got so fed up with tossing and turning that I got out of bed and walked around the room, and went to the window Outside everything was gray and foggy. There was a policeman walking the streets down below. I could tell by the rain-mantle he was wearing. My watch said quarter to five.
I looked out the window for a while and then I got back into bed. I guess I must have finally dozed off after that. I had a dream. A hot dream. I dreamed I was in the Sinners clubhouse, that I was the only cat there. And the door opened and all the Sinners chicks came in, one at a time.
It was like I was a sultan, and this was my harem. They were all naked, not a stitch. And I took them. A different ball for each one. First it was Lorraine. Then Donna. Then Seena, and Lois, and Esther, and Booboo, and Kathy, and Grace. Each one a different way. Some were real crazy. Like I mean, we would have had to be acrobats. But this was a dream. Anything can happen in a dream.
So there I was loving my way through all the chicks. I got done with Grace, she was the eighth one, and all the chicks were lying around exhausted on the floor, only me, I was still ready for more. So in the dream I made up my mind to start over again. I walked over to Lorraine and got down next to her and took her knockers in my hand. I started to rub them, to squeeze them.
She was too tired to do it again, she told me. I had exhausted her the first time. I wouldn't take no for an answer.
Then all of a sudden the clubhouse door opened in my dream.
Debbie walked in.
She was naked, and she was absolutely the most gorgeous thing I had ever seen. She came into the clubhouse like she was the queen there.
The second she came in, all the other chicks vanished. Just poofed out like they were soap bubbles that somebody had stuck pins into. I was all alone with Debbie. Just the two of us.
She sort of glided into my arms. She was smiling, and her eyes were gleaming. There wasn't any trace of anger or bitterness or sadness about her. She was all aglow. I put my arms around her and she was soft and smooth and clean and warm and sweet-smelling.
"I love you, Eddie," she whispered into my ear. "I want you. I love you."
I nibbled her ear and then her shoulder.
I did interesting things to her. "You like that, Debbie?" I asked her.
Her voice was a sigh. "Yes, Eddie! Yes! Please-do it again-"
So I did it again.
Then she was in my arms, and her eyes were smiling into mine, and I kissed her.
She said, "I love you, Eddie."
And I said, "I love you, Debbie." Real mushy stuff, you know. I said, "Tomorrow we'll get married. We'll move to another neighborhood where the gang can't find us. We'll get a little apartment somewhere I'll go to auto school and learn how to be a mechanic. My brother's a mechanic and he makes all kinds of dough. And then-"
"Don't talk about tomorrow, Eddie. It's still today, you know."
"Yeah," I said. "I know."
Then we were together, our bodies joined. We seemed to be floating in the air, up near the ceiling. We were moving, slowly, in rhythm, perfect rhythm.
We were both breathing hard and getting near the finish. I could feel her quivering. Her breath was hot against my shoulder. It was going to happen for us any minute, and when it happened it would be a lulu, I knew. Like a volcano at full blast.
Only it never happened.
Because all of a sudden the clubhouse door opened again and this time Shiv came in. He was naked, and he looked about twice as big as he really was. He reached up toward the ceiling and grabbed us and hauled us down.
Then he pried us apart. He grabbed me and tossed me into the corner of the room. I couldn't get up. I had to lie there and watch.
He got hold of Debbie. He threw her down and fell on her. She was screaming and kicking. I could see blood dripping on the floor. It was like he was ripping her in half.
I got up and tried to stop it, but Shiv just pushed me aside. He kept on with Debbie. It was horrible. It went on for hours and hours. Finally he stopped and got off her. She was dead.
Then he turned to me.
"Come here, big man," he said. "I'm going to fix you next."
All of a sudden there was a knife in his hand. He was coming toward me. I couldn't move. He was like nine feet tall and ugly as sin. I saw the knife go up, come down. I felt pain like a white-hot flame. I screamed and screamed and screamed-
I woke up.
I sat up in bed. I was dripping with sweat and making little whimpering sounds. I was stiff and sore.
I felt sick, too. I thought about Debbie somewhere a few blocks from here. Maybe she was lying in bed having nightmares too. Only she wasn't dreaming she loved me, that was for sure.
I put my head in my hands. Across the room, my brother was sound asleep. I got up, went to the bathroom, got a glass of water.
I ached.
It was only six in the morning. I hadn't been asleep very long. The dream had seemed to go on for hours, but it must have been just a few minutes. And it seemed so real. Debbie in my arms, me talking about marrying her-
What kind of crazy stuff was that? Square talk! I didn't love Debbie. I didn't even know the kid. I felt sorry for her, but that was all. She was a looker, sure, but marriage is a big step. And I wasn't ever going to marry anybody Shiv had laid. If I ever married anyone at all.
The mixed-up dream left me in a lousy mood. I just rolled around and rolled around some more.
It was Saturday, too. Which meant my mother and my brother would be sleeping late. I stayed in bed till around eight o'clock, wide awake. Then I decided it didn't make sense just to lay there. I got up. Everybody was still sound asleep. I got dressed and had a cup of coffee and got the hell out of the house.
Today was the day of the picnic Tommy had arranged. Sure enough, it was a bright sunny day, just the way Tommy had promised it would be. The streets were still wet from last night's rain, but they were drying fast.
It wasn't even nine in the morning. None of the gang would be up yet. I felt all alone. And there was this ache between my legs from the crazy mixed-up dream. I got the feeling I was going out of my head. You know how it is? Nothing makes any sense to you, all of a sudden. The things you used to get your kicks from now seem all empty and foolish. Some of them even disgust you. Like what we did to that girl Debbie last night.
Or the waitress the night before.
Or Sammy the night before that.
I walked over to a newsstand and bought a copy of the News. I looked through it.
Nothing about Sammy. That was old news by now. A gangland stomping gets forgotten pretty fast, if it's just another teen-ager who gets stomped.
There was a little story about the waitress. Maybe eight or ten lines. It said that she was still in the hospital but had regained consciousness, and that she was unable to give any information about her attackers. A gang of boys, she said. Nothing more.
There wasn't any story about Debbie at all. Which meant either that it hadn't gotten into the morning papers, or else that she had gone and not told her mother about being raped. That was what I figured she'd do. She was afraid of Shiv, for one thing. And for another, a lot of girls like to hide the fact that they'd been raped. It embarrasses them, like, to tell anyone about it. They feel they'll be marked for life if the word gets around. You'd be amazed how many rapes happen in New York every year that nobody ever gets arrested for.
I looked at the baseball scores, then threw the paper away Maybe Shiv wanted the waitress article for his scrapbook, but to hell with that. Shove Shiv and his scrapbook, I thought.
I walked over to the clubhouse.
I was the first one there. There was an almost empty bottle of Thunderbird sitting on the table, and I put it to my mouth and knocked it off. I felt a little better after that. But I didn't like being alone. I had the feeling I was the only guy alive in the whole city.
And I ached. I never felt so lousy in my life. I had a bad taste in my mouth, like a cat had nested in it, and my eyes hurt, and my head felt like it had been through a drill press. A lousy morning.
Finally I couldn't stand being alone any more. I needed company. I needed Lorraine.
I got up and went out and crossed the street to the candy store. I fished a dime out of my jeans and dialed her number. The phone rang half a dozen times before a sleepy voice said, "Yeah?"
Lorraine's mother. She hated my guts. If I told her who I was, she'd hang up on me and I'd lose my dime.
I disguised my voice and said, "Is Lorraine there, please?"
"Who's this?"
"My name is Charlie. I'm in her class in school."
I hoped there was a guy named Charlie. Well it seemed to work anyway. She said, "Just a minute," and put the phone down with a bang.
A second later Lorraine said, very puzzled-sounding, "Yes?"
'It's me. Eddie."
"Oh. I couldn't imagine-"
"Come over to the clubhouse, Lorraine."
"Sure. I'll be over around eleven. We gonna have the picnic?"
"I don't give a damn about the picnic. Come over right now."
"Now? But I just got up."
"Make it as fast as you can."
"Something the matter?" she asked.
"I feel lonely, is all."
"Oh. Okay. I'll hurry it up."
I put the phone back on the hook. Then I walked slowly back to the clubhouse and sat down to wait for her.
A good broad, I thought. That was the medicine I needed. Not a rape, not a contest in front of a lot of other guys, just Lorraine and me in the other room with, the door locked. That would get me back on my feet. I was all fouled up in my mind, and I needed to clear the cobwebs out of my brain.
But Lorraine took her time coming over. It was almost ten o'clock when she finally showed up.
She looked at me and said, "You feeling okay, Eddie?"
"Why?"
"You look all keyed up."
"I am." I reached out for her. "You've got the cure, baby."
She grinned. "Any time, Eddie."
"Right now."
"Sure, Eddie. Right now."
I had to hand it to Lorraine. She didn't fool around When I wanted her, I got her. It's the way a chick has to be, around this gang, and she knew it.
We went into the back room I pushed the bolt shut. She was already getting undressed.
Inside of halt a minute, she was naked, her clothes heaped up on the floor.
I closed my eyes and shivered a little while she did things to me. I ran my hands down her back.
I need this so damn bad, I thought.
We rolled around and around on the mattress. I saw her eyes, half-open, smoky and excited.
She imprisoned me, started to move her body. My breath made hoarse, ragged sounds. I looked at her face. Her nostrils were wide, her eyes tight shut, her mouth twisted in a funny way.
Looking at her was a mistake, though. Because a funny thing happened. All of a sudden it was like I was dreaming again. Like it was me really balling this girl. Like I was somewhere else, dreaming it all. and the people on the bed weren't anything real or true.
I tried to get back with it. But I couldn't. It was like I was separated from my body.
My body went on moving. But there was no contact with my mind. I didn't feel any kicks. I was just sort of vaguely aware that Lorraine was there, that I was balling her, that something was going on.
She didn't seem to notice. She kept on moving, and her breathing got rougher, and her face tighter with excitement But I didn't feel much of anything. I was, like, disconnected.
I'm crocking up, I thought. I got to do something about this.
There was no kick. One two three and it was all over, and I hadn't felt a thing. No kick.
Lorraine was lying back, limp, relaxed now. Her face was flushed and she was still breathing hard. She didn't understand what had happened to me.
"That was good, huh, Eddie?" she said with a grin. "That what you wanted, huh?"
I didn't want to tell her the truth. I didn't want to admit all the things going on inside my head.
So I said, "Yeah. Yeah, that was good, kid."
"You feel better now, I bet."
"Lots better."
It was a lie. I felt worse, because I had something new to worry about. I couldn't understand what had hit me, this past week. All of a sudden I had a conscience, all of a sudden I was afraid to fight even when a guy in my own gang called me chicken, and now all of a sudden I didn't even get a kick out of balling.
I couldn't figure it.
I got up from the mattress. Lorraine was curled up there like a naked doll. She was grinning. She had enjoyed it. She got her kicks out of it.
But not me.
I picked my clothes up off the floor and got into them.
Suddenly Lorraine got up off the bed. She came over to me, naked, and put her arms around me. The tips of her breasts just grazed the front of my shirt.
"What's the matter, Eddie?" she asked.
"Nothing's the matter."
"There is. You're in a funny mood today, man."
"Maybe I am."
"Maybe I can help you, Eddie."
"You just did help me."
She shook her head. "No. You're still frowning. I don't like to see you frown, lover-man. What's bugging you, huh?"
I shrugged. "Nothing."
"There's something."
"Not a goddamn thing!" I snapped. "Leave me alone, will you? You're bugging mel"
"I just want you to be happy."
"Get off my back!" I shouted at her. "Just let me be, you hear?"
She looked scared. She must have figured I was going to hit her. She backed up a couple of steps.
"Sure, Eddie," she said. "Anything you say, man. I don't want to bug you none."
She started to get dressed. I watched her. She wasn't bothering with a bra, in this kind of weather. She just put a polo shirt on over her breasts, and panties, and jeans with my initials painted on them. I looked at her breasts bouncing up and down in the striped polo shirt. Big solid squeezable breasts. The kind you like to hold in your hand or put in your mouth or rub your face in.
I went over and put my hands on them. They were good to the touch. She smiled at me.
But it was no good. I felt lousy, and she couldn't cheer me up. It was all this rain, I thought. That was what did it. My nerves were all fouled up i was jumpy, on edge And the way Shiv was acting, it only made things worse. Last night had been too much.
She said, "You feeling better now?"
"A little." I patted her on the head. "I'll make out okay."
I gave her a kiss. Not much of a kiss, I guess. Then we went outside into the other room.
It was around half past ten in the morning. Some of the other guys had showed up already. Clicker was there, and Little Billy, and Blazer. And also a couple of the chicks. The picnic was supposed to start at half past twelve, down in the park.
Shiv wasn't there yet.
I sat down and dosed my eyes. I just wanted to go to sleep, to sleep for half a million years. The other guys were talking, but I didn't pay any attention. I hardly listened. They were just jabbering away about nothing that was of any importance.
I started to go asleep.
It felt good, so good.
Then somebody was shaking me. I opened one eye and looked up. It was Shiv.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Shiv said, "Come on, man, wake up, you hear?" I yawned. "Hello, Shiv."
The clubhouse was full. The whole gang was there. Shiv bent over me and said, in a voice nobody else could hear, "You tell them about last night?"
"You mean Debbie?"
He looked puzzled for a second. "No, I meant Gimpy Milty. But what about Debbie? You say anything to them, man?"
"Not a word."
"Okay. Keep it that way. Just between the two of us. Some private fun we had."
"Sure, Shiv."
"You see anything in the papers this morning about anything?" he asked.
"Not a thing," I said.
"Okay," he said. "No news is good news." He swung around to face the gang and held his hand up for silence. "Shut up, all of you," he yelled. "Shut up and let me tell you guys a few things I found out last night."
When Shiv says shut up, the gang shuts up. Everybody stopped talking. Everybody waited to hear what Shiv had to say.
He looked around. Then he said, "Last night Eddie and me took a little stroll. We went across Halsey Avenue into Counts turf."
Little Billy frowned. "Just the two of you?" he said, like he didn't really believe it. "You and Eddie and nobody else?"
"I said shut up and let me talk!" Shiv blazed at him.
Little Billy looked mad. But he didn't speak out in return.
Shiv went on, "There was just the two of us. Eddie and me went over into Counts turf to do a little reconnaissance job. And we got hold of Gimpy Milty. Grabbed him right out in the open, and we brought him back across the line and we did some talking to him." Shiv grinned. "Milty told us some real interesting stuff. You oughta hear it. He said our boy Tommy goes over to visit the Counts once a week. He brings them beer and tries to find out what they're up to. And then if he gets anything juicy he tells the cops. How do you guys like that?"
Little Billy half stood up. Veins were showing on his forehead.
"He was crapping you!" Little Billy shouted. "Tommy wouldn't go to the Counts."
"Yeah," Blazer said. "He's a right guy. He wouldn't screw us like that."
"I tell you he does it!" Shiv shot back. "He's been double-crossing us six ways from Sunday, right from the start. He keeps tabs on us and he keeps tabs on the Counts too, so he knows just what's happening down here all the time. And he tips the fuzz off when he can. That's why there hasn't been any action around here. Last week, when we tried to cross over, the fuzz were all around Halsey to head us off. You know why? Because Tommy tipped them off."
"You sure of that?" Little Billy asked.
"Sure I'm sure," Shiv said. "That's what Gimpy Milty told us last night, and he didn't have no reason for crapping us. Ain't it the truth, Eddie? Tell them what Gimpy Milty told us."
Everybody swivelled around to take a gander at me.
I started to sweat. Should I speak up and tell them that Shiv was full of bull? And get a knife in my throat for doing it? Or-
I said in a slow voice, "Yeah. Yeah." I took a deep breath. "Yeah. Shiv ain't snowing you. That's just what Gimpy Milty told us. Tommy's been hanging out with the Counts too. All along."
I felt dirty for saying it. The way I felt when Shiv made me rape Sammy's sister. I felt like I'd been eating crap again.
Everybody started talking at once. Some of the guys said Gimpy Milty was lying to us, and the others said it was probably true, that Tommy was a double-crosser.
Shiv banged on the table for quiet again. "Shut up, all of youl" he yelled. They shut up.
"Now, listen to me," Shiv said. "There's gonna be a picnic today. What do you wanna bet Tommy told the Counts about our picnic? Just to stir up a little trouble. So the Counts are gonna show up, too, looking to start a fight. And there'll be a rumble. Only Tommy's working a double frameup. He wants us all to get nailed by the fuzz. So the minute any trouble starts, the cops are gonna come outa the bushes and grab anyone who's fighting. Tommy figures we'll all get arrested that way. Us and the Counts. And he'll get paid off by the fuzz. We all know the fuzz are just itching to have an excuse to pull us all in and work us over. And this picnic will give them the excuse they're looking for."
I frowned. The whole 'thing seemed crazy to me. Shiv was probably making it all up. Tommy was trying to help us, not frame us. And I believed Gimpy Milty when he said that Tommy hadn't been visiting the Counts.
"Okay," Shiv said. "The Counts are gonna show up at the picnic and try to throw their weight around. And there's gonna be a rumble. But before the fuzz can do anything, there's gonna be an accident. Right in the middle of the rumble somebody's gonna put a knife into our old buddy Tommy."
"Yeah! The louse!" Redeye Mike yelled.
"Turn him off!" Blazer said.
"Before he can double-cross us some more," Hawk chimed in.
Everybody seemed to agree. Even guys like Little Billy and Blazer, who's been pretty much on Tommy's side all along, had switched over. Shiv had stirred them up. They all agreed that somebody ought to cut Tommy up to punish him for selling us out.
I didn't dare open my mouth. I felt like speaking up, like saying it wasn't so, that Shiv was just framing Tommy because he was jealous of the position Tommy had come to hold in the eyes of some of the gang. Shiv didn't want anybody more important than him hanging around the Sinners, and this was his way of getting rid of Tommy.
But I didn't talk out. Shiv was in a killing mood today. I knew he'd cut me open on the spot if I said a word against him.
So I kept quiet and let him have his way. Better Tommy should wind up at the undertaker than me, I figured. Only I wondered what made Shiv sound so sure the Counts were going to try to break up the picnic. If what Gimpy Milty said was true, and I figured it was. then the Counts didn't know anything at all about the picnic.
But I kept my mouth shut. That's the only way to stay out of trouble when there's a character like Shiv in the outfit.
We sat around the clubhouse for a while, planning the strategy. From time to time Shiv looked at me in a special way, like he wanted to remind me to keep quiet or else. I didn't need any reminders. It was getting close to noon, now. Tommy wanted us in the park by half past twelve or around then.
I went into the John for a minute. When I came out Little Billy was standing there waiting for me. He looked big.
He said, "Lemme talk to you, Eddie."
"Sure man."
"What's the real pitch about you and Shiv and Gimpy Milty last night?"
"What do you mean, the real pitch?" I said.
"Was Shiv levelling with us?"
I was quiet for a second. I didn't know what to say. Could I trust Little Billy?
I decided you can't trust anybody. I said, "Sure, Shiv was levelling with you."
"Milty really told you that Tommy was selling us out to the Counts?"
"Sure," I said, looking him straight in the eye.
Little Billy said, "It's a big thing, killing a social worker. We might all fry for it."
"They can't fry a whole gang. Or two whole gangs."
"They can try."
I shrugged. "Somebody turned off Officer Guinness a couple weeks back. It's a hell of a lot worse to turn off a cop than just a social worker. You seen anybody get arrested for that one?"
"Yeah, you're right," Little Billy said. He tugged at his lip. "Okay. I'll play along with Shiv this time. I don't like the idea of killing the guy-but if he's been double-crossing us-"
"If he has, we got to," I said.
We went back inside. Everybody else was talking about the bit, too. And there was Shiv in the corner, making out with Donna like he didn't give a damn about anything. Ice in his veins, that guy.
I was the guy with the wrist watch. Around quarter after twelve I announced the time.
"We better start going down to the park," I said. "Tommy'll be expecting us."
"Yeah," Shiv said "But we'll have a little surprise for Tommy. Won't we, guys?"
We locked up the clubhouse and trooped out. The park was at the south edge of our turf, and off to the west a little along the river. It was known all around the neighborhood as our turf, and nobody went into it after dark because they were always afraid they'd get bopped or raped or something. Not that we were really there very much, especially since they put the new bright streetlamps in, back around April. But everyone in the neighborhood thought we hung out in the park, and so they never went there. It was like our private park once the sun went in.
We all went together, in a bunch, chicks and guys. We were a block from the clubhouse when we ran into our first cop. We all went a little stiff when we saw the fuzz. The cops don't like us to move in a group. Every time they see more than two or three of us together, they come over and want to know what's up.
We were all ready for this cop. When he came over and tried to muscle us, we'd explain that we were on our way to the park for a picnic with our social worker. A nice clean picnic. We'd give him the big laugh.
Only he didn't come over.
He just stood on the corner and watched all sixteen of us go marching by.
"How do you like that?" Dirty Joey said. "He didn't even give a damn."
"That's because Tommy tipped him off," Blazer said. "He must know where we're going."
"Yeah," Shiv said. "He knows. And so do a lot of other fuzz too. And we're gonna see plenty of them before the day is over."
We kept on going. We saw three or four more cops on the next few blocks. The neighborhood was crawling with fuzz today. I wondered, maybe Shiv was right. Maybe Tommy had tipped the cops off to look out for trouble between the Sinners and the Counts in the park.
Anyway, it was a novelty to walk through the streets as a gang without having the fuzz give us dirty looks. We crossed the big avenue and came to the park entrance, and went on in.
Tommy had said to meet him down at the east end of the park, near the water-fountain. We headed that way, and there he was, all ready for us.
He gave us the big grin. "Hi, fellows. Right on time, huh? And it's a swell day, just like I said it was going to be."
We said hello. I felt nervous inside. He looked so cheerful, so glad to see us. And there was hardly anybody but us at this end of the park, and lots of big trees to hide any trouble that might start.
Tommy pointed at the stuff he had brought over. "I got a couple of bats and soft balls in case you guys want to play a scrub game Get yourselves in shape for that game with the Golden Dragons week after next."
"Yeah," Shiv said, "We wanta beat the tar outa them guys." He picked up a bat and swung it through the air. He took a real mean cut. He looked like he wanted to use somebody's head instead of a softball. Most likely Tommy's head he wanted.
Tommy said, "I've got a couple of crates of Pepsi-Cola here for you guys to drink."
"No beer?" Hawk said, with a laugh.
Tommy laughed too. "Not here," he said. "That deal's strictly for inside the clubhouse. I'd lose my job if some old dame saw me giving you guys beer down here in the park, so no soap."
"I was looking forward to some beer," Hawk said, pretending to be real disappointed.
"Sorry," Tommy said. "Not today."
I picked up one of the softballs. I hefted it, tossing it from hand to hand.
"What's to eat?" Clicker said. It never took him long to start thinking about food.
"Hot dogs," Tommy said. "We'll build a fire and roast 'em. I've got permission from the police to make a campfire in the park."
"Where's the stuff?"
"It'll be here soon," he told us. "My wife's driving over here with the stuff for lunch."
"So you're bringing her after all," Shiv said.
"I told you I would."
"People tell us lotsa things," Shiv said.
I looked at Shiv in a puzzled way. If Tommy was expecting action down here, another gang and a rumble and the fuzz moving in, did it make sense that he'd have his wife coming along too? No, it didn't make sense.
Shiv must have been figuring the same thing. He shot me a tough look to tell me to keep my figuring to myself and not to spread it around any.
Tommy said, "My wife's to be here in a little while, and I want you guys to be on your best behavior. I've told her so much about you, and I don't want her to think I was snowing her."
"Sure, Tommy," Shiv said.
"I mean, no cursing, no dirty language, no horseplay. And keep the necking under control. You feel like laying your chick, go back to the clubhouse to do it." Tommy grinned in the sheepish way he always did when he tried to talk our language.
We were all on pins and needles. I wondered if the Counts were really going to show up or not. I didn't believe at all that Tommy sold us out to them. No matter how you looked at it, it didn't stack up.
Lorraine said to me, "Get me a Pepsi."
"Yeah, kid," I told her. "Coming right up."
I went over to the crate and pulled two Pepsi's out. Tommy took an opener from his pocket and tossed it to me. I was so nervous I fumbled the catch. I picked the opener up, snapped the tops off the bottles.
I gave one bottle to Lorraine, who started to guzzle it right away. I put mine to my lips, but I guess I wasn't really thirsty. I couldn't get much of it down. I took little sips, like I was drinking straight whiskey or something. My throat felt like it was clamped shut.
Still no sign of the Counts.
What was going to happen? What would Shiv use for his excuse for jumping Tommy, if no rumble developed? What the hell, was he going to cut Tommy up with his wife around? I didn't understand any of it.
"Here she is now," Tommy said. He pointed to the road that ran through the park. A car was coming along toward us. It stopped in the parking lot and a woman got out. No, a girl, really.
Tommy's wife.
"Come on, guys," Tommy said. "Let's go help her bring the refreshments over."
We left the chicks to watch the stuff, and headed over to the car. Mrs. Tommy was already unloading it. She was good to look at, even prettier than in the picture of her that Tommy had shown us. She was wearing a green polo shirt and a pair of striped slacks that stuck pretty tight to the outline of her behind. Her hair was blonde and cut pretty short She had this nice clean-cut look about her, like the girls you see in the advertisements.
"Guys, this is Ellie. My wife. I finally decided you deserved a chance to meet her."
"I'm glad to meet you all," she said. Her voice was soft and kind of shy-sounding, but she was smiling. She looked just a little bit afraid of us. "I've heard so much about all of you from Tommy that I think I know you already, without ever having met you."
Tommy started to introduce us. "This is Shiv," he said. "He's the President of the gang."
Ellie stuck out her hand like she was meeting the President of the United States of America. "How are you, Shiv? Isn't this a great day for a picnic?"
For the first time since I had known him, I saw Shiv looked confused. Here he was, being introduced to the wife of the guy he had sworn to kill, and he was getting the big hello from her and the glad hand.
He shifted his weight back and forth a couple of times, uncomfortable-like, like a hayseed who don't know how to say anything but "Shucks." Then he woke up, stuck out his hand, shook hers.
"Hi," he said simply.
Tommy went right down the line after that. He introduced each guy and his chick. Ellie said she'd never remember all the names, but Tommy told her that was all right, she ought at least to be introduced.
When all the introductions were over, we took the cartons of food out of the car and carried them back to the place where the picnic was going to be. Ellie carried a carton just like the rest of us. There was plenty of stuff, too. A real spread. Hot dogs and rolls and cole slaw and potato salad and baked beans. The works. And all the soda a guy would ever want to drink.
I wondered who was footing the bill for this spread. Tommy hadn't said a word about collecting out of the gang treasury. And I knew social workers didn't make a hell of a lot of money. Were the police paying for it? Or did he have an expense account? Or was all this stuff paid for out of his own pocket?
We put everything down near the soda crates. I watched Ellie bend, and I liked the way the tight slacks showed off the curves of her buttocks. She was really built. Not too tall, but good legs and a neat behind, and a pretty pair of knockers filling up her polo shirt. I figured Tommy was pretty lucky, climbing into bed with something like that every night.
Shiv came over to me. In a low voice, out of the corner of his mouth, he said, "Listen, when the rumble starts I'm gonna go and put the knife into Mr. Tommy, I got a job for you. You get in front of his wife and make sure she don't see who's doin' it."
"How come you're so sure there's gonna be a rumble Shiv?"
He looked angry. "Don't worry, man. There'll be plenty of excitement around here. Just you wait. I'll stick it into Tommy. You make sure you've got his wife screened off so she can't see."
"Okay, Shiv."
"It's important," he said. "So don't foul up. The one guy she's going tcj be looking at when the fighting starts is Tommy. And if she sees me knifing him, it ain't gonna be so good."
"Why not turn her off tco?" I suggested, just kidding around.
Shiv took it seriously. "I may have to. But I'd rather not. I got other plans for her. Afterward."
He walked away. I scratched my head.
He seemed so damned sure there was going to be a rumble. But I was just as sure that the things he said about Tommy were all made up.
What the hell was going on?
Was Shiv going batty, and starting to believe things he made up?
Or was there more to it than that?
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Things went along pretty smoothly. It was a hot day, hot and sunny, and you never would have known how much rain there'd been the past couple weeks. The grass was still pretty soggy, but it was drying off fast.
We got a ball game going. We played Catch-a-Fly-Is-Up, because there were only eight guys and Tommy. None of us had baseball gloves, but we got along pretty good without them. Tommy pitched and Shiv batted first. The rest of us fanned out in the different positions. I was at third base. The chicks sat down on the side to watch us play.
That Shiv, he sure looked nervous up there. Maybe restless is a better word. He kept staring off into the woods like he expected a bunch of Counts to come racing outa there any minute. He really believed there was gonna be a rumble, then. He wasn't just putting on an act.
Or was he? Who the hell could understand what went on inside Shiv's head?
Up at bat he played it pretty mean. He batted like he wanted to stay up there forever. Tommy served up the first pitch and that Shiv, he slammed it right back to Tommy on a line around knee-high. Tommy just got his leg out of the way fast enough. The ball kept on going right through Clicker's legs. Dirty Joey finally grabbed it in the outfield and threw it back in.
The next pitch, Shiv hit a shot down to third. It hit the grass right in front of me and took a big bounce. I reached out for it, but I didn't come close. Damn good thing, too. If I'd have touched it, it would of taken a couple fingers off.
Shiv just stood up there, moving the bat around and staring off into the woods like he couldn't understand where the Counts were. Tommy served up another one, throwing it harder this time, and Shiv whaled it on a line over short into the outfield. The next pitch sent like a shot right over my head. And the next went back through the middle. Shiv wasn't bothering to hit anything but line drives.
Usually when something like this happened Shiv would be grinning and looking over at the chicks and cadging applause. But today be didn't seem to care about anyone who was watching. He stood up there, tight and tense, and banged at that ball like it was a personal enemy of his.
It kind of looked like Shiv would stay up there forever. He must have hit twenty line shots where nobody could touch them. Then Tommy served him up something fancy, and Shiv uppercutted it and hit a big popup just back of short. Little Billy came running in from left field and got hold of it half a second before it hit the ground.
Shiv tossed the bat down and went to the outfield. He still kept turning to look into the trees.
Little Billy got up. He was such a big son of a bitch that the infield moved back till it was like a second outfield, and the outfield moved way back. Tommy threw in a fat one and Little Billy whammed it way over Shiv's head in left field. The ball rolled all the way to the trees, and Shiv ran after it. When he picked it up, I saw him stop and look into the trees for a second before he turned and threw it back in. Something was bugging him, all right.
Little Billy belted half a dozen big ones. He slammed them to all fields. One was just a fly ball, but Dirty Joey dropped it. The rest were big smashes that nobody could get near.
Finally he hit a pop-up to third base. I stood under it for what looked like half an hour or so. The sun was in my eyes and I lost the ball for a second and went staggering around like a blind man. Then all of a sudden the ball came dropping out of nowhere right in front of me, and I stuck out my hands and caught it.
All the girls applauded. I looked at the ball like I was surprised to see it. Then I tossed it to Tommy and ran in to take my licks.
"Come on, Eddie," Lorraine yelled. "Hit a home run! Hit a homer, Eddie!"
I grinned at her. You can't hit such a thing as a home run in Catch-a-Fly-Is-Up, but she didn't know that. You don't keep score or anything. You just stay up there swinging till somebody puts you out.
Tommy served up the ball and I hit it on the ground to Little Billy at third. He fielded it. I grabbed the bat tighter. I was nervous. I hit the next couple of balls on the ground too. Some of the guys yelled to me to get hold of one.
I got hold of the next one pretty good. It went into the outfield on the line, bounced just to Dirty Joey's right, and skittered away. If it was a game I could have made a triple on it easy.
Then I hit a couple more grounders, and a big fly ball to right that Hawk messed up, and then some good hard socks right over the infield. I was loosening up and getting my eye on the ball good. The last two or three I belted really moved, way out in the outfield.
Then Tommy got cute and gave me some tricky stuff. I fouled a couple off, then missed two in a row and was struck out. Tommy came in to bat and I went out to the mound to throw them.
Tommy hit the ball pretty good. He didn't bit much for distance, but he really could place them, lust to show us he knew how to handle a bat, he sprayed them right around the outfield, moving his feet to dump one into right, then lining them into center and left. He took maybe twenty swings altogether before he popped one up to Hawk in right.
And so it went. We batted all around. We were all sweated up and tired when we finally called it quits A couple of the girls were starting to set up the spread for lunch.
"Who knows how to build a fire?" Tommy asked.
We all put our hands up. He sent Clicker and Redeye Mike over to get the fire started.
I sat down in the grass next to Hawk and Dirty Joey. Shiv was off by himself, prowling restlessly.
Dirty Joey said, "This Tommy's okay. I don't believe he's screwing us the way Shiv says."
"Who knows?" Hawk said. "All I know is I feel a little like a boy scout. Building fires and playing softball and all the rest."
"It's fun," I said. "Who wants to sit around the stinking clubhouse all the time?"
"I could use a beer," Hawk grumbled.
But I could see that everybody was having a pretty good time. Except Shiv, of course. He was hating every minute of it. Nobody went near him much, except his chick Donna, and even she kept her distance.
The fire was going, now. The hotdogs were getting put on. I sat down next to Lorraine and put my head in her lap. She ran her fingers through my hair. A pretty good chick, Lorraine was. Not too bright, but what the hell, she was loyal and a good lay, and you can't ask a devil of a lot more than that outa any chick.
I was still pretty sleepy from having been up most of the night before, so I closed my eyes. I had myself a sort of daydream about me and Lorraine in the park.
It wasn't the park, any more. It was kind of my private estate, and nobody else was around. Just the two of us on a sunny Saturday morning We were lying on the grass and I turned to her and put my hands over her breasts. She was wearing just a kind of gauzy gown, and I could feel the big round hills of her breasts, nice and firm and tight, with the nipples getting stiff.
And she smiled and said, "Let's do it, Eddie. Let's do it all day."
"Sure, kid," I told her.
I leaned over and kissed her. She pulled her legs up in the air and started to shake. I touched her knees, then her thighs, then went a little higher. She was trembling. And then all of a sudden she wasn't Lorraine any more. She was some kind of movie star A super-movie-star. She was the most beautiful girl in the world. She was Brigitte Bardot and Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor all rolled into one, and she was right here next to me on the grass of my private estate, and she was saying, "Do it to me, Eddie, I want it, you're the greatest there is and I want you to do it to me."
So I stood up and took all my clothes off. Then I pulled the gauzy thing over her head and we were both naked. She got halfway up, sitting on her knees, and started to kiss me. It was tremendous.
Then she said, "Chase me a little."
She ran. She ran like the wind, and her buttocks were smooth and pale and round, and I kept my eyes fastened on them as I ran. We ran around trees and shrubbery, and through a little shallow pond, and across a stream, and just the other side of the stream I caught her. We went spinning to the ground, but the grass was like a soft fleecy cushion, and we lay there with our feet trailing in the cool water.
I put my hands on her breasts. She sighed, and I kissed her all over her body She was smooth as the finest satin, and she smelled like the best perfume. Her hair was long and silky, and it fell over my face when we kissed.
We just petted for a long time, maybe an hour. Then she said, "Do it, Eddiel Please do itl I'm on fire!"
So I did it.
We held on to each other and it went on for hours and hours. It was absolutely the most. Man, what a daydream!
We were balling for what must have been the millionth time that dream when somebody began to shake me.
The dream girl vanished.
I opened my eyes.
"Huh? What-?"
"It's the Counts!" somebody yelled. I think it was Dirty Joey who yelled it. "Jeez, the Counts are raiding us!"
I looked around, wide-eyed now.
Dirty Joey was right. The Counts were here.
They came out from behind the trees, the same trees Shiv had been looking for them in. They came swooping down toward the picnic area. Nobody was ready for them. We were all sitting around on the grass, except for a couple of chicks who were roasting the wieners.
There were ten of them. Ten, to our eight plus the chicks.
And they were armed with blades and chains and billyclubs besides their blades. All we had was blades, plus the baseball bats Tommy had brought along. We didn't have any of the stuff a gang usually brings to a rumble, the brass knucks and the car antennas and the rest. That was all back in the clubhouse locked up.
So this was it I The rumble with the Counts, just like Shiv had said!
I looked at the guys coming toward us. I knew a lot of the Counts by sight. I recognized Fat Dan and Bloater and Snake and most of the others. Gimpy Milty was there, too. The rough time Shiv gave him last night hadn't kept him away from the rumble.
I looked over at Shiv. His face was wild. His eyes seemed to be gleaming. Like he was out of his head, or something.
He was pointing at Tommy and yelling. "Yah see?" he screamed. "All you guys? He sold us out I He set us up for an ambush!"
Then the next second the Counts came crashing down into us.
Tommy wasn't paying any attention to what Shiv was saying. He ran out to face the Counts and bellowed at them, "Clear off, you guys. Get the devil away from here, you hear me?"
"Yah, yah!" the Counts jeered at him.
"You're only asking for trouble!" Tommy cried. He was red in the face and looked sore. "Scram, will you? We aren't looking for any rumbles."
They only laughed at him. Words wouldn't help now. The Counts were here, and there was going to be a rumble whether anybody liked it or not.
The chicks were screaming and milling around. I looked over at Tommy's wife and saw her standing all alone, wondering what this was all about.
I fished my blade out of my pocket, but then I decided I was better off not using it. If I could get to one of those baseball bats first, I'd be a damned sight better off. I wasn't looking for any knife fights. And with a bat I could keep myself clear.
Tommy had brought three bats. I saw them laying on the ground where we'd dropped them after the ball game. I made a break for them.
The Counts were right in with us now, mixing hard. I saw Fat Dan go after Little Billy and almost take off his head with a tire chain. He swung hard, but Dirty Joey pushed Dan just in time, and the swing was off. Little Billy jumped back and jabbed at Fat Dan with his blade, going for the arms.
We piled into each other. I saw Blazer grab up one of the baseball bats and start hammering a Count named Raunchy Dave. Then a streak of fire ran down the middle of my back. I was cut, but not cut deep.
I turned around.
It was Gimpy Milty. He was holding a potato that had razor blades sticking out of it. He had sliced down the middle of my shirt in back. I could see blood on the blades, so I knew he had scored, but he hadn't cut into me real deep.
Not yet.
He said, "I got some getting even to do with you, Eddie."
"Screw you. I didn't rough you any, Milty."
He just laughed. He went for my face with the razor blade contraption, but I ducked out of the way. On account of his game leg, he didn't move too fast. I sidestepped and brought my arm down hard on his wrist. He dropped the potato. It rolled in front of me and I kicked it as hard as I could, far away toward the edge of the trees. Milty cursed at me.
He started to go for his blade. But just then a couple of guys came between us, and I lost sight of Milty. I turned and kept on going toward the baseball bats. My back hurt like hell where Milty had laid me open, but I figured it could have been a lot worse.
One of the bats was still lying there. I saw a Count-I think his name was Smoke-reach for it. I jumped and came down hard on his hand with my foot. I could feel the bones crunching around my sole. I rolled my foot a couple of times to make sure he was good and finished for the day. He screamed like a girl.
I pulled my foot back. His hand was bloody and the fingernails looked ripped off. He stood there whimpering like a kid. I pushed him to one side and grabbed up the baseball bat.
Now I felt better. So long as I kept my back in the clear, I could defend myself and nobody would get within close enough range to cut me open.
I looked around.
The scene was pretty wild. The Counts were mixing with us all over the field. Some of our chicks were screaming and running around like they didn't have any heads, but I saw two or three mixing in. They had soda bottles in their hands and they were banging the Counts on the head. Donna. Shiv's chick, she had broken a pepsi bottle in half and she was using the jagged stump. I saw Lorraine in the fight too, and that pleased me.
A lot of our guys were having a hard time. Clicker was sprawled out on the ground with two Counts on top of him, and they were really giving him a rough time. Hawk was down on one knee, trying to keep a Count from cutting him up. Some of the other guys were in trouble too. It was a wild little spree. The Counts were really getting even for the way Shiv had roughed up Gimpy Milty the night before, I guessed.
Then all of a sudden Shiv came drifting by and caught hold of my arm.
His face was wild. There was a smear of blood on his arm, another on his cheek.
"I'm going to kill Tommy," he hissed. "This is his fault."
"Shiv-"
"You got a job to do. Do it. Go screen off his wife. I'm gonna cut him open."
"Don't do it, Shiv."
"You gonna obey me? Or do I got to cut you open too, Eddie?"
He didn't stick around for an answer. He spun away from me and. headed back into the melee. Headed straight for Tommy.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
I felt kind of sick. I didn't want to be in any rumbles right now. I just wanted to be back in my daydream, lying on top of that chick and feeling her lips against mine and burying myself in her body. That was the only kick that I wanted.
Especially what I didn't want to do was help Shiv kill the social worker. I didn't want any part of that deal, no sirree.
But Shiv hadn't left me any choice. I looked around for Tommy's wife. At first I couldn't see her anywhere, and I wondered if maybe she'd been dragged under and stomped during the rumble. She wasn't anywhere around. Then I saw her.
She was running across the field, toward the station wagon she had come in. Smart girl. She was going to get the police. Most likely Tommy sent her to get help. He wouldn't want her hanging around, anyway.
I felt a little better. At least she wouldn't see what Shiv was going to do to her husband. And I wouldn't have to be an accomplice by screening her.
I looked around to see what Shiv was up to. I could see him, right in the thick of the fight.
He was coming up to Tommy, now. Shiv had his blade out. Tommy turned to say something to him. I saw the whole thing.
Shiv grinned.
He said, "I got something for you, man."
Tommy said something I couldn't hear. Then Shiv put his blade into Tommy, just like that. He jabbed it into Tommy's belly and twisted upward, hard, the way Shiv knows just how to do, the way that cuts through the guts and the liver and all the rest.
The look on the social worker's face at the moment Shiv cut into him was something I ain't ever gonna forget, if I live for the next two and a half zillion years. Tommy looked shocked and surprised and in pain all at once. But the real expression was something else.
Something like disappointment. He looked sad that he had failed, that one of his own boys was giving him a blade in the guts.
Tommy tried to say something, but the only thing that came out of his mouth was blood. It gushed in a big purple pool. He put both his hands to his belly, like he was trying to hold himself together.
Then his legs went out from under him and he fell forward.
"Lousy double-crosser," Shiv said.
He kicked Tommy after he fell Then he turned around and went back after one of the Counts with his blade drawn and bloody.
Bloody with Tommy's blood.
Man, I felt lousy just then.
The rumble had been going on for maybe five minutes or so, and it had been plenty rough. I saw Clicker lying on the ground looking like he was pretty badly banged around, and two of the Counts whose names I didn't know weren't in such good shape either. And then there was Tommy sprawled out over the cases of Pepsi-Cola with blood spurting out of him and turning into a lake all around him. Shiv had really finished him off, all right.
The Counts were even working over the chicks. I caught one of them with Lorraine. He had the front of her polo shirt in his hand. He ripped it down, and it came loose. He got his hands on her breasts, which were bare under the polo shirt. He started to drag her off to the woods to let her have it.
I ran up to her.
"Eddie!" she yelled.
She was clawing at the guy with her nails, going for his eyes, but he was too big for her to reach. I hefted the bat and swung hard. I caught him just on the back of the neck and he went down like a poleaxed cow. He was still twitching a little, so I hadn't killed him, but I figured he wouldn't be getting up again soon.
I looked at Lorraine. She was okay, except that she was holding her shirt together. I could see the big bobbing mounds of her bare breasts inside.
"You okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, Eddie. I wish I had a knife! I'd show these guys."
"Any of them bother you, let me know," I said. "Give a yell."
I turned back toward the mob scene. I figured the odds in the rumble were getting pretty even now. All our guys except Clicker were on their feet, and three of the Counts were out cold or dead. That made it seven against seven, and we had the extra forces of our chicks to make up for the weapons the Counts had an advantage in.
I looked around.
There was someone special I had to talk to.
I shaded my eyes from the sun. Then I saw him-Gimpy Milty.
He was practically in front of me, turned the other way. His blade was out in his hand, now that he didn't have the razor-studded potato any more.
I came up behind him. He didn't see me. I gave him a kick just behind the knee of his good leg. He started to lose his balance and I poked him in the knee with the baseball bat.
He dropped to the ground. I jumped down on top of him, getting my knee into the joint of his right arm so he couldn't use the knife on me. I got my hand around his throat and hung on, squeezing a little. His eyes started to bug as I tightened up on him.
"I wanta ask you something, Milty."
"Screw you, man," he said, just barely able to get the words out.
"You talk to me or I'll cut you off," I said. I looked over my shoulder to make sure nobody was coming up on me. But the other Counts were all plenty busy.
I tightened up and he gurgled a little.
Then he moved his lips. I loosened my grip so he could talk.
He said, "What do you want?"
"How did you guys know we were picnicking here today?" I asked.
"We just guessed, man."
I tightened up again. I tightened up real hard. He was turning purple.
"Give it to me straight, Milty! I can't stop to fool around now."
"We-we-"
I loosened again.
"We were told-"
"Who told you?" I asked. "Did Tommy tell you? The social worker?"
Milty looked surprised for a second. Then the Gimp laughed right in my face.
"Tommy?" he said. "Hell, I told you last night we didn't have anything to do with that guy. Didn't you believe me. man?"
"Then who was it told you about our picnic?"
"It was Shiv who told us."
Now it was my turn to be surprised. I damn near fell off him.
"Shiv!"
Milty grinned. "Yeah, it was Shiv! He phoned us late last night. Called a truce and came over to the clubhouse maybe midnight or so. After you two guys let me go. He said there was gonna be a picnic in the park, and he challenged us to a rumble. That's all there is to it. Tommy didn't have a thing to do with it. Not a thing."
"Shiv-told you-"
"Yeah, man!"
I backed off and let go of him. Gimpy Milty sat up and massaged his throat. The fight had gone out of him for the moment.
I grabbed up my bat and walked away to a quiet part of the field.
Just at that moment I finally understood the whole filthy thing, the whole lousy deal. And a bunch of brand new thoughts went circling through my head at a million miles an hour.
Shiv had invited the Counts to come ambush us!
Shiv!
Not Tommy!
Now I saw the picture. It was kind of hard to believe Shiv would pull a stunt like that, but it added up. Shiv had wanted to get rid of Tommy in the worst way. He figured Tommy was just a spy from the fuzz, scheming to get him put in jail.
The gang liked Tommy. For once, Shiv wasn't boss. He couldn't get Tommy thrown out.
So he put the frame on Tommy instead. He got the guys to think that Tommy was double-crossing us, and then he arranged for the Counts to come have a rumble with us at the picnic.
Shiv figured that during the confusion of the rumble he could quietly put the knife into Tommy, the way he had knifed Policeman Guinness a couple of weeks back. Nobody would ever know who had really knifed Guinness, and the same way nobody could be sure who turned off Tommy But Tommy wouldn't be around any more, and it would be a long time before the gang let another social worker come snooping around that way again.
Shiv, he figured he was more important than anybody in the world. Didn't matter to him if the Counts killed half our gang in the rumble. Shiv knew he'd make out okay no matter what. And he'd be rid of Tommy.
I felt all sick inside. Now I knew exactly how Sammy felt the time when he saw Shiv in the act of knifing old Guinness. Guinness was just a fat old cop who didn't mean any harm. Maybe he had a wife and kids and grandchildren. But he had been keeping an eye on Shiv, and Shiv hadn't liked him, so Shiv had killed him.
And now here we had this fake rumble because he didn't like Tommy. Maybe Clicker was dead too and a couple of the Counts, and who knew who else would get it before the action ended? And all because of Shiv.
Suddenly I didn't want to be any part of the Sinners any more. I didn't see any kicks in killing just for the hell of it. I didn't want to hang around guys like Shiv for the rest of my life.
But I knew I couldn't quit like a snap of my fingers. I remembered what had happened to Sammy when he said he was quitting.
You couldn't just quit the Sinners easy. Not so long as Shiv ran it.
Uh-uh. You couldn't quit the gang while Shiv was still alive.
Right then and there on the spot I made up my mind what I was going to have to do. All around me the fighting and brawling was going on, Count against Sinner, Sinner against Count, and guys were getting cut up and stomped and for all I knew they were getting killed.
But I was going to get Shiv.
I had to cut him off. I couldn't leave him loose to go around killing any more.
I started to make my way through the crowd toward me. Two Counts came at me, Fat Dan and some guy I didn't know, but I ducked past them. They looked at me in a funny way, like I was chicken or something to run away like that. Screw them and what they thought.
I kept on going.
There was Shiv. He was busy in a stand with Bloater of the Counts now They were circling around each other, edging back and forth. All I had to do was walk up to Shiv and put the knife in his back. But I didn't want to jap him. I wanted to do it the right way, or else not do it at all.
I came up and stood behind him and said, "Hey, Shiv. It's me, Eddie. I gotta talk to you. Important."
Bloater looked at me, puzzled, not knowing what the hell this was all about. I signalled to him to break up the stand. He dropped back.
Shiv looked around at me. He was sweaty and bloody and crazy-looking.
"What's on your mind, chickie-crap?" he said.
I came up real close to him, like I was going to whisper something. Then I put the point of my blade against Shiv's belly and pushed hard.
The knife slid between the solid muscles into the soft flesh and organs underneath. Shiv looked so surprised he almost laughed. The pain hadn't hit him yet, and he didn't really dig what had happened.
Then I turned the knife and twisted upward, dragging it right through him like he dragged it through Tommy. I kept going until I hit his ribs. Then I pulled it out. There was a diagonal cut right across his middle. Blood was pouring out of him like he was a stuck pig. He was swaying back and forth.
"Eddie," he said. His voice was so soft it was like a feather. "You bastard, you cut me-"
Then a burble of blood came to his lips. He lifted his knife, tried to strike at me, but he couldn't get his arm high without pulling the hole in his belly wider open. He swayed and started to fall.
"You lousy murderer," I said. "That was for Sammy and for Officer Guinness. For Tommy and for that waitress and for Sammy's sister. And for me, a little bit."
Bloater was staring at me like I was crazy. For a Sinner to come up and open his own Prez, that didn't make any sense at all. I walked away from him.
I stood by myself with the blood dripping off my knife. It was the first time I bad ever killed anyone all by myself, not in a gang job And the last.
Lorraine came up to me. Her face was pale.
"I saw you," she said. "I saw you cut up Shiv."
"I had to, baby. It was the only thing. He woulda screwed us all."
Her shirt fell open. I saw her breasts in there, and they gleamed like candles. And all of a sudden I felt sad, sadder than ever, because I knew that daydream of mine wasn't ever going to come true.
Then suddenly I heard the wail of police sirens. The Counts heard them too.
"It's the fuzz!" yelled Fat Dan, the Prez of the Counts. "Clear out! Scram!"
The Counts hotfooted it off into the trees. A car came along the park driveway and pulled up. A station wagon, it was-Tommy's car. With Tommy's wife driving it. She had come back, bringing the cops with her.
She got out. A nice, pretty girl, with a good pair and a sweet backside. I could have gone for her. She stood there, looking around for Tommy.
I looked at her. At Tommy's wife.
Tommy's widow, now.
She got out of the car and the first thing she saw was Tommy's body sprawled out on the grass in a puddle of blood. She ran to him, threw her arms around him, and started to scream, long sickening wails.
Then the cop cars pulled up. There were two of them, and four cops came out and started running toward us on the double.
I took a long look around. Most of the guys had beat it. Three of the Counts were stretched out on the grass, dead or maybe just unconscious. I saw Dirty Joey and Clicker out cold too. Dirty Joey looked dead. And then there was Tommy dead, with his wife holding onto him and screaming. And Lorraine still stood there, her mouth open. She didn't understand any of this. Her blouse was hanging open and her breasts were showing.
And there was Shiv.
Except for Lorraine, I was the only one standing up. There was a bloody knife in my hand. The cops had their guns out. It was too late to run. They'd blow me to bits if I tried.
I let the knife fall to the ground.
I didn't care what happened to me now. Nobody could call me chicken, ever again.
"So long, Shiv," I said as they put the handcuffs around me and led me toward the squad car. "I'm glad I killed you, man. Yeah, glad!"
