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Feb-11-2009 11:40

November 5, 1934 - New York - The Tricky Mister - close to midnight

“You want me to rob a bank?!?” said Joey in surprise, suddenly realizing his voice was a little louder than he would’ve wanted to. He quickly scouted the room and was relieved to see no one seemed to have heard him. The Tricky Mister wasn’t really crowded on that late week night.

His interlocutor though didn’t seem to bother much about this situation. He was a middle age slim man in a dark pin striped suit, sitting relaxed across the table with both hands crossed in front of him. His tie was straight, his jacket fully buttoned up, his hair posed a clean arrangement on a side. A short and perfectly cut mustache was framing a slightly prankish smile, as his eyes were thoroughly scouting Bane’s reactions. Although his attitude was loose, he seemed to be the kind of man who always likes to keep himself sharp.

After a short moment of silence he slowly lowered his look, shaking his head in an almost imperceptible move, miming a disappointment gesture. “Mr. Bane” he continued in a low voice “that is…’come si dice’…” snaps his fingers “ILLEGAL!” He rose back up his eyes. “We are not asking you to do anything against the law, but only to acquire the possession of some documents that actually regard US. It just happens that these papers are currently stored in a safe deposit box inside the National Bank and since we have already attained this piece of information, we believed it would be helpful to pass it on to you, in order to make your work easier. However you will decide to retrieve these documents, it is entirely up to you.” He stopped, straightened up his back and took a sip out of the wine glass he had ordered. “Exquisite flavor, Mr. Bane, you should give it a try.”

“Ya, well…I’m more the whiskey type of man. Now…Mr…”

Feb-17-2009 09:32

Even without a higher bidder, what La Cosa Nostra was offering would be more than sufficient to cover the cost of the operation. ‘Too bad, that now I couldn’t get a bit extra on the side.’ JC thought greedily, as his new ‘watch dog’ breathed down his neck. Not many people could stand eye to eye with JC given his tall figure. Whisper didn’t only stood above him, he was more than double his size.

This was annoying. JC liked to plan alone. He knew he always need a team in the end, but he preferred to be the mastermind, with everyone else knowing only a piece of the jigsaw. With Mr. Hunk hovering over every step of the way, JC felt leashed, as if he himself was the dog.

JC walked into a back alley and pull opened a restaurant backdoor. Whisper followed closely. JC wondered when this chunk of a man would finally blow their cover. A dark and skinny Asian man saw JC and pointed upwards. Passing the sour onion and yesterday’s fish, JC climbed up a narrow staircase onto the mezzanine floor. Whisper tread carefully on the thin wooden steps. JC hoped he might break a few boards and fall. His wish was not fulfilled.

A tiny Thai girl was doing a perfect split on the floor, while arching backwards. Her head was touching her hind leg, and she was reading. Both men had to duck while walking on the mezzanine floor. The girl placed her book on the floor and put her palms together as a sign of greeting.

Feb-17-2009 09:32

“I see that you never let yourself rest, Miss Anastasia.” JC said causally.

“I resting now. You should see me while I was touring.” Anastasia eyed Whisper suspiciously.

JC waved Whisper off like a fly. “Don’t mind him�"“ Whisper coughed. It sounded more like a sneeze. “Urh, this is Whisper. He’s part of the team.”

Anastasia grimaced, “What he do?”

“Look out. More or less.” JC glanced sideways. “So, Ani, have you got the cases?”

The girl slid up without using her hands, walked over to a corner and came back with a small leather suitcase. She opened it, and there was another suitcase inside it. She opened that one as well. It was empty and can only be unlocked from the inside.

“And you made sure you poked holes in all the right places?” JC asked.

The girl nodded. “I can hold breath underwater for 15 minutes.” she said proudly.

“But you will be inside for hours!” JC faked a tone of concern. The girl would be of no use suffocated. “Okay, test run.”
Anastasia slipped into the smaller suitcase and folded herself. Whisper’s eyes widen as JC closed the suitcase and put it in the bigger case. “Bang on the case if you think you cannot breath, alright?” No response. “Bang on it once right now if you can hear me.” One faint thud was heard. JC would need to listen carefully during the test run. He wouldn’t have time to look for a replacement. He took up the suitcase and headed for the stairs.

“I can hold that for you.” Whisper thought to make himself useful while he was at it.

“No, I have to practice too.” JC had to look normal; she was heavier than he thought.

The two men strolled out of the filthy kitchen. There was several chicken heads on the floor. As they got back on the alley, JC turned to Whisper and winked, “Trade secret, okay?”

“I keep nothing from Joey.” Whisper whispered. JC sighed and continued down the street.

Feb-18-2009 15:42

Half hour after midnight, in Joey Bane’s apartment…


Joey was woken up by a strong bashing on the door. He instinctively reached for his revolver. A sharp pain made him fall back on the couch as he was trying to get up. He looked around. The whole room was dark. “Who’s there?” shouted him through the shut door.

The answer came back in a gutted voice: “It’s Whispers. Let me in!”

“Damn!” mumbled Bane. “It’s open, come!” He covered his eyes with his hand as Whispers hit the light switch. “Didn’t I tell you to stick with J.C.? What the hell are you doing here?”

Whispers took off his hat, holding it in his hands in front of him, rubbing its brim. “I’m sorry, Bane…I lost him.” He was acting as if he was a child being lectured. It was a funny posture for this man. “You see…we went inside…”

“Enough!” cut him off Joey. “I don’t wanna know. It ain’t good, but I was expecting this to happen, knowing J.C.” He threw a searching look around the room. He had a funny feeling that something was missing. “Rose!” he exclaimed lifting his eyes towards the wall clock. “It’s past midnight. She should’ve been already back by now. Help me up, Whispers! And go start the car. Since you’re obviously no good on following someone, you might as well act as my driver for tonight. Hurry up now!”

Bane took a quick shower and renewed his bandage, threw on a clean suit and went down. “Let’s hit the pool hall, for starters. Step on it!” In the meantime he filled in Whispers on the details.

…

Unfortunately they were not in luck. It turned out Rose had not come back that way. “Let’s think a bit now…” mumbled Joey “…I told her to start at the docks. I had a hunch they might be holding Mona there…a lot of places to hide and also a lot of crates.”

“Let’s roll then” answered Whispers, forging the engine hard as he went off.

Feb-18-2009 15:44

…

“Ok now…kill the lights” said Bane as they were passing through a side gate of the docks. “Pull over near those crates. And keep your distance from the lamps.” Joey pointed his attention towards a building in the back. “All windows dark…no movement” mumbled him. “Maybe it’s a dead end, let’s…WAIT! What’s that?” He noticed somewhere on the side there was car parked in the shadows. Taking a better look he recognized Franco Barresi’s Lincoln. “I think we hit the jackpot, mate. It’s good this guy likes flashy cars.” He smiled. “Let’s stick around here for a bit…maybe something will happen.”

They didn’t have to wait long. After a few minutes the door creaked open and a man in a fancy suit stepped out. He was accompanied by a woman. They remained in front of the building talking, as if they were waiting for something. The woman murmured a few words, then put her arms around his neck and kissed him on the lips. It was no doubt a lover’s kiss.

“Ain’t that Barresi? Who’s the broad?”

“Sure looks like him…and…no idea” answered Whispers.

A moon ray glanced onto the woman’s face. “MONA!”…Joey exclaimed in a complete surprise. “Now what the hell…?”

“The only danger she seems to be in is getting knocked up, if you ask me” grinned Whispers with an evil look.

“I ain’t amused, mate” eyed him Bane.

“I’m sorry Joey. I remember you have a history together.”

“It seems she had a change of taste though” answered him in a bitter voice. “Let’s…HOLD! We have company!”

Feb-18-2009 15:44

A second car rolled in and stopped right in front of the building. It was a black four door sedan, the kind low rank mob goons usually use for dirty jobs. Two men got out of it and exchanged a few words with Barresi. They stepped inside then and came out after a few moments, one of them carrying on his shoulder what seemed to be a body. They threw it on the back seat.

“Is that a stiff?” asked Bane shrinking his eyes.

“I don’t know…it ain’t moving…maybe. I’d use the trunk though for a stiff. Hmm…I can though tell you it’s a woman with a long brown hair.”

“Rose!” exclaimed Joey. “Damn! I shouldn’t have sent her here.”

Upon exchanging a couple of words with the goons, Mona and Franco got into his ride and the two men in theirs. Then both cars left, each into a different direction.

“What now, Joey? Who do we follow?”

“The girl. She may still be alive. We’ll handle our love birds later. Get moving. Also, keep your distance. Let’s hope they will not notice us.”

Feb-19-2009 01:41

JC promised himself that this would be his last drink before hitting home. He’d need all the concentration and energy he could muster for tomorrow.

Djordji was cleaning and greasing all his tools. He had to make sure everything would work properly tomorrow. When he was almost finished, JC said, “Do it one more time. I don’t want this to fail because the picks are too clean or too greasy.”

“Va.” Djordji agreed in Romani. He respected people who were even more thorough than he was. Djordji blindfolded himself, and with the hand of a musician he directed the picks into the keyholes of the mock safe. He bought his ear close to the safe, as if he was tuning a guitar. After a few seconds the thin Gypsy smiled. ‘Click’. The mock safe was opened.

JC patted Djordi on the back, and poured him a drink. “Pachave tut.” Djordi said, thanking him. JC liked to work with minorities. They appreciate every little gesture you do for them, and they don’t talk much, not that they had many people to talk to, to begin with.

“Naj pala soste!” JC replied. He only knew three words in the Gypsy language: yes, no and you’re welcome, but Djordji knew enough English to understand him. JC poured himself another drink; he promised that this would be his last before hitting home.

Feb-19-2009 08:48

Whispers and Bane followed the goons up to an old boat house. It wasn’t far from where they’ve left, but it was placed in secluded bay. ‘The perfect place to ditch a corpse’ Bane thought, watching them carrying Rose’s body inside. “Hey, Whispers…looks like we don’t have much time. If she’s alive now, she won’t be for long. These guys must be setting her for a swim.”

“No worry, partner, I’ll take care of this.” Whispers got out heading towards the back entrance. Bane stayed behind in the car, lighting a cigarette to make the time pass faster, thinking…’If Mona and Barresi are together, it may mean all his threats were just dust in my eyes. You never know though with these guys…Anyway, Rose must’ve heard something…I hope. I wonder…”

Three shots were heard then, coming from inside the house. “Damn!” Joey jumped out of the car and ducked behind it as he pulled out his revolver. He waited there a few moments, hidden. No sound. He leaned a little on a side to see if there was any movement. A silhouette came out through the door. It seemed to be a man carrying something on his shoulder. He felt relieved upon recognizing Whispers. “Is she alive?” asked him while rising up.

“Yeah, she’s ok. Just passed out, but she’s still breathing.”

“The goons?”

“Dead.”

“Both of them?”

“Yeah.”

“Damn!”

“What did you want?” said Whispers eyeing him annoyed as he was carefully placing Rose in the back. “I tried asking them nicely…didn’t work!”

“I just don’t want to leave a trace of bodies” replied Bane. “Well…anyway, you sure they’re dead?”

Whispers’s hand reached upon his lower back and pulled out a…machete. “You wanna make sure? Be my guest. Bring me a souvenir while you’re at it…I was in hurry and forgot.” Hi posed again his usual sadistic grin.

“Damn, mate! You’re giving me the chills. Remind me from time to time not to get on your bad side. Now put that thing away and hump in. Time is short.”

Feb-19-2009 08:49

...

“Ok, where to now?” Whispers asked climbing behind the wheel.

“Maria’s. She’ll look after Rose and in the meanwhile we can figure out what our next step’s gonna be.”

With this the car went off again, leaving behind a thick cloud of dust.

Feb-20-2009 03:03

*earlier that day (sorry, I would've posted this before but I got sidetracked and didn't have time to write... sorry)*

Rose skipped along, arriving at the docks in no time flat. Once there she stopped skipping, she would have to be very serious now, she had to prove to Joey that she could work in situations like this. She saw a couple of warehouses with beefy looking guys standing outside. That looked like somewhere she needed to be heading. She calmly walked along; looking like it was perfectly natural for a young girl to be walking along a dock surrounded by men in dark suits.

Arriving at one of the warehouses, she peered into one of the windows that weren’t completely covered in mesh wiring. She squinted, attempting to make out the dark shapes in the room. She could just see a lady, wearing some sort of robe. She was sitting on a stool talking to a man who had is back to the window. Rose noticed something familiar about the woman’s face, but she didn’t know what it was. Reaching into her pocket, she grabbed out the picture of the woman she was meant to be finding. Looking up, she saw an exact replica of the face in the photo. ‘Mona’ she realised. But what was Mona doing in their, casually talking to that man? Wasn’t she meant to be a prisoner?

Feb-20-2009 03:03

Part of their conversation came floating out of the window, Rose could distinguish the mans voice,
“…So the police are on standby, JC, Bane, whichever of them is ready will bust into the bank, where the police are waiting. They’ll caught and, hey presto, face a hefty time behind bars. Getting rid of them will leave the city free to us!”
Rose couldn’t make out the woman’s reply, for at that moment a pair of beefy hands came slamming down on her shoulders.
“Doing a bit of sleuthing” came a rough voice from above her. “Now, usual procedure would be to present you to the boss, but he’s a little preoccupied at the moment, so I guess I’ll have to deal with you myself”
Next thing she knew, there was a loud thud and she felt her head hit the ground, then it all went black.