Murder Me for Nickels by Peter Rabe Read Free Book Online Page A

says….”
    “I know. I know.”
    “And Benotti’s got all non-union labor. I checked this out through Folsom between the time at the club and now. He’s got six men, it looks like, and they all do moonlighting on the side. So we tighten up on the closed shop arrangements. They either get fired right off, or Folsom pulls a strike or a slowdown on the shop and they get fired then. Unless, we explain to them, they quit Benotti’s shop. And that takes care of the servicing he’s planning to do on our busted machines.”
    I lit a cigarette and waited for the other two arrangements he had in mind. Because one of them worried me.
    “Second, the goons. We got our machines all over, but Benotti’s been concentrating on the West Side. The operators are closer together, they’re little guys, maybe scare easier. What we do, Jack, we get a gang in that bar at Liberty and Alder Road, another bunch in Morry’s bowling alley, and a third in that place with the malteds and ice cream concoctions, Third and Liberty, isn’t it?”
    “Yes.”
    “And we got the area triangled off. An operator has troubles with Benotti’s bums anywhere, he calls one of the three places, and a flying squad of our very own bums comes barreling down for a free-for-all. Nice?”
    “Ak—”
    “Whadda ya mean, ak? ”
    But he was in no mood to listen, because he had one point to go.
    “Third, we maul their supply.”
    “Their what?”
    He was starting to sound like a general and I was getting more nervous.
    “Hough and Daly,” he said. “Suppliers of electric and electronic equipment.”
    I knew damn well who Hough and Daly were.
    “Didn’t you know Benotti’s got space rented there? His five trucks use the same ramp; his equipment shop is right next to Hough’s storage rooms, not to speak of the fact that he buys his supplies from them.”
    “So do we, Walter. In case you’re thinking of messing up Hough and Daly.”
    Lippit folded his hands in his lap, which looks weird and dainty because of his size, and then he cocked his head at me and talked very patiently.
    “Jacky,” he said, “sometimes you talk like an idiot, you know that, Jacky?” and then just with a little bit of a change in his voice, “Or like a stockholder in Hough and Daly, perhaps, do you know that?”
    I wasn’t a stockholder in Hough and Daly, and it was nothing that simple.
    “No workers,” said Lippit, “no equipment, no more operators all scared by his goons. Good?”
    “I thought for a minute you were going to say, no more operators.”
    He slapped his thighs, got up, and let out a big sigh.
    “St. Louis,” he said, “something is bugging you, St. Louis.” He went to the liquor cabinet and brought back the bottle. He sat down with it and kept it in his hands. “What, Jack? What is it?”
    For a fact, Walter Lippit wasn’t running a democracy or anything like that, but he and I, some of the time, split the jobs, talked this and that over, gave each other a hand. I liked Walter Lippit Rolling his girl on the couch had nothing to do with that. I liked Pat, too.
    “Something’s no good, Jack?”
    “Yes,” I said. “All of it.”
    He looked at me and then down at the bottle. “Just a minute,” he said, and poured himself some. I held out my glass and he gave me some too.
    Then I said, “Your beating up Benotti isn’t….”
    “I didn’t beat up Benotti, Jack.”
    “All right, all right.” I took a swallow and started over. “Your pushing his men around and he pushing ours around sounds too much like a brawl to me.”
    “You don’t like brawls?”
    “Lay off for a minute, will you please, Walter? I’m talking about business and you’re talking like a delinquent. Which is no good, just as a matter of principle.”
    “What kind of business, just as a matter of principle, do you think I’m running? What they do polite-like in the cosmetics business, let’s say, we do the same, except not so polite. Now, you got more sudden