Laurel Blvd.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Clive Carew: Fire in Winter.. Act One.

December 2nd , 1940.

The promise of good fortune always brought out the high class play and drew the big wheels of finance to the neon lit strip of Bay City called Laurel Blvd. Where the liquor flowed freely, and the high class dames draped over the arms of two bit glad rag wearing wise guys would come in droves tappin their toes to those cool big band sounds. Life was good inside the neon play pin, where everything was up for grabs, and open to discussion, but only if you had the cabbage. It wasn’t until you traveled to the outer fringes of Bay City, that’s where you felt the eyes upon you, casting suspicious stares upon anything shiny and new. A day in the life of Rush St, was much different than the business as usual perfect image of Laurel Blvd. On Rush St, you had the pro skirts strutting the sidewalks, and every cheap dime store hood and grifter of every size, shape, sex and color within a ten mile radius would roll in to work the angles here, here people didn’t live, people survived. Welcome to the warehouse district, the riverfront, Rush St, The dregs of Fat City.

When rumors would roll in here, they stood out like a cool breeze on a hot summer day, and everybody working the street knew about it long before any plain clothes flatfoot trying to blend in would. But this breeze that they were feeling on Rush St now, this was different. Word was out that some big money muscle from back east, was prowling the district sizing up the local real estate market. Lots of flashy cars, lots of new faces- hoods mostly, popping up here and there, asking questions, trying to look all innocent. Even though they mostly rolled out at night, the locals, they knew better, something was hinky on Rush St. And on the night of December 2nd it would all take a turn for the worse. It was just after 6:00 PM, when the 36’ Desoto slipped in behind the vacated waterfront warehouse called: 332. Four large men got out, one had a chopper, one broke into the warehouse while a third opened the trunk and pulled out the gas can. The forth though, tall, dark and gruesome, you could just tell that this guy was the one pulling the strings.

He lit his cigarette and stood there calmly looking up and down the alley behind warehouse 332. Nothing moved and as soon as the first billows of smoke came out from under the door, the firebug cleared the threshold and stopped to look at him. He flashed him a big smile.

“Hey Derek.. You wanna watch it burn?” He giggled.

Derek Motley turned to face him. The disgust was growing in his eye’s.

“Do I look like I wanna fucking watch Chappy? Get in the fucking car you stupid mutt before I whack you myself.” He growled.

Derek Motley tossed the cigarette on the ground and all four men got back into the Desoto. The driver waited until they were well clear of the alley before he turned the headlights back on. He looked in the rear view mirror and watched the night sky light up as the warehouse went up in flames.

He pulled back onto Rush St, and headed east until he hit Bankhead Avenue, then drove west.

“Where to now Derek?” The driver inquired.

“Head back to the dive on Driscol. Now we wait to hear from that boob Brender. Now hit the gas and shut your yap.”

Ernest Lively had been away on business, and he didn’t find out about his warehouse until four days after it burnt down. And as soon as he hit the city limits he made a beeline right for it. When he pulled up in front of the burnt remains he almost wanted to cry. All of the plans he had for it, now up in smoke.

He was walking the remains of the concrete floor when the black Lincoln Zephyr stopped across the street. The tall, thin, balding man in the gray suit stumbled toward him. He stood at the edge of the property line and waited for Ernest Lively to come closer. He called out to him.

“Ernest Lively! If you would- a moment of your time sir.”

He approached him cautiously, his hand was fully extended, between his thumb and forefinger he presented a business card that read: “Theodore Brender and Associates: Real Estate Brokerage.”

“It’s a terrible shame what happened to your property here Mr. Lively. I have been fully authorized by my clients to offer you a fair price if your ready to sell. But it’s a limited time offer, I will wait for you answer- I can be reached at that number on the back of the card.”

Ernest Lively looked at the card and then up at Theodore Brender. He looked slowly around at the other buildings and businesses on Rush St before handing the card back to him.

“Oh. So. You gonna stand there you wet suit mutt and try to sell me on the story that this was an accident? You people came around here trying to scam me out this property a month ago, the answer was no then and the answer is no now.” he threw the card at Theodore Brender and stormed past him.

“I’m very sorry we couldn’t do business Mr. Lively. I’m certain my client will be very disappointed.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned and walked back up to Brender. The anger in his eyes became even more apparent than before.

“You can tell your client from me to him he can go spit.” Lively said.

He turned and walked to the side walk raising his arm to hail a cab. When the yellow taxi pulled up to the curb he gave one more quick glance back at Brender.

“Bum.” He said under his breath.

“Most. Unfortunate indeed.” Brender walked back to the Zephyr.

It wasn’t until two days later when Ernest Lively began to suspect that he was being followed, even though he quit the force years ago, he had been a cop long enough to know when he was being tailed.

He walked up the stone staircase leading to the front door of his residence on Canal St when he saw the 36’ Desoto stop just down the block.

The same Desoto that he saw behind him on Spring St. the same Desoto that he saw behind him on Bankhead Avenue. But it wasn’t until he stepped through the door that he realized that someone was already in the house, and when the large mug came out from behind the door and whacked him on the back of the head, everything went black. When he came to- he saw that he was directly across from his younger brother Max who was tied and gagged to a chair. Ernest Lively’s own hands were tied behind him as well. Pacing back and forth in front of them was Derek Motley.

“You know Lively- You’re a hard ass mutt to convince. So I tell you what I’m gonna do. See we did a little digging around and we found out that if anything should happen to you this piece of property of yours automatically goes to your little brother here. Now, I believe you remember MR. Brender, well.. Mr. Brender has some nice and legal papers for you to sign, and when you do- and you WILL sign them, the property will belong to our client, and you will both live. Got it?”

He motioned to Chappy and nodded towards Maxwell Lively, Chappy put on the leather gloves and stepped in front of him and belted him a good one right in the teeth. Derek Motley for the first time smiled. He leaned forward and looked up behind him.

“By the way.. Have you met my pal Terrence?”

Ernest Lively could hear the gun cocking behind his head. He drew a deep breath and looked at Max who was once again unconscious.

“A.A.Alright. Don’t hit him anymore. I. I’ll sign your papers.”

Derek Motley leaned towards him once again.

“We untie your hands. You sign. Make one false move and Terrence here will redecorate this desk with your brains. Got it?”

Brender appeared in front of the desk and lay the papers out in front of him, Terrence cocked the gun and Chappy untied his hands. Carefully Lively picked up the pen and signed his name to the documents. Brender returned them to his briefcase. Chappy retied his hands.

“Nice doing business with you Mr. Lively.”

Terrence moved and Derek Motley fired one round from his .38 right into Ernest Lively’s skull.

“Untie his hands and put them on the desk.” He looked over at Max.” And pull the car around back

And throw that mutt in the trunk. We’ll deal with him later.”

He looked down at Ernest Lively’s corpse.

“Merry Fucking Christmas Lively.”

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Fat City... Act Eight.. Finale.

Being a cop for four years in the very same precinct as Chet Belleville taught Clive Carew a few things about detective work too. How to maneuver through someone’s lies to get at the truth. How to spot the shysters and the hustlers and keep them away from honest decent folks. He would also learn the most important lesson of all, never take anything in life at face value, there would always be something there below the surface where people were concerned that you would overlook or simply forgot to check. Nothing was as it seemed in this merry go round called life. Which kept bringing him back to the final piece of this latest puzzle. The mysterious whereabouts of one Annabelle Stanton. He sat on the front steps of his office trying to retrace every step he took, every lead that he followed everything that happened over in his mind. What was it that he was missing here? Sammy Smalls appeared at his side and sat down on the office steps next to him. Clive turned his head to face him.

“So you settled in Sammy boy?” He asked.

Yeah Clive I’m gonna be okay. Thanks for the room, I’ll pay my way I swear I will.”

“You already have Sammy.”

Sammy stood and moved to the bottom of the stairs towards the sidewalk, looked down the empty street and then back up at Clive Carew.

“So what are you doing out here so late? Still wonderin about that Stanton dame?”

Clive Carew nodded.

“Yeah sometimes I just have a real problem with letting things go. I hate to give up Sammy.”

“Yeah I know how it is. Say you don’t suppose that its like that Bonner mutt said do ya? About the smoke and mirrors thing?”

People don’t disappear into thin air but if they are good they could certainly make it seem that way.

He kept chewing on it, rolling the words around in his head, smoke and mirrors, mirrors and smoke, make something look like one thing when its really something else. Or someone. He stood up slowly and walked to the edge of the curb. And stared out at the city lights. Now it was making sense. From the first scene to the last. All of the odd little bits and pieces that he was too busy to pay attention to. In Annabelle Stanton’s apartment. Outside of her apartment. In the car. All of the convenient little coincidences. Now it all made sense. Sammy walked up to the curb beside of him.

“Do you get it now Clivey?”

“Good question Sammy.. Well Clivey? Do you get it now?”

He rose early the next morning and again found himself sifting through all of his thoughts. He told Sammy Smalls that he would return soon that he needed to go see someone. He got in the Champion and headed down Center Street. Smoke and mirrors. Could it really be that easy? All this time it was staring him right in the face. “Damn” he thought, “Why didn't I spot that?” he turned onto Chestnut Dr and slowly moved the Studebaker up the hill and stopped just shy of the red Hudson. He got out and walked calmly up the driveway to the door of the white bungalow style home of Shelly Dolls. He knocked on the door. He heard her bare feet patting across the hardwoods again only this time she didn’t answer the door right away. Finally the front door creaked open and Shelly Dolls seemed strangely hesitant to let Clive Carew into her home.

“Morning Shell’s Got a minute to talk to me?” He asked.

“I. I ain’t dressed yet Clivey. Could ya give me a second?”

He gently pushed the door open and walked past her.

“Clivey. Please don’t.”

"It’s ok Shell. They are both in jail now. They can’t hurt her anymore. Where is she?”

“Clivey it ain’t what you think baby. She’s-”

“I know that you’re hiding her Shelly. And its okay. I get it. You’re the only person that she could trust. The strands of black hair in the hairbrush. The black wigs on your vanity. You were just protecting her.”

Shelly Doll's eyes began to tear up.

“Clivey I didn’t want to lie to you-”

“That was her in the Hudson the first time? Wearing a black wig and that scarf over her head, made up to look like you? She saw me at her apartment, and she thought that maybe I was mixed up with them two mongrels Bonner and Odom? So she followed me from her apartment to my house. And when I pulled over she got scared and went around me. But you Shell- you knew exactly who I was from those times that I went into the Palace, so you two put your noggins together and figured out that Monty hired me to find his investment. Then you show up at my house. Just to find out what’s going on? You were keeping tabs on the case to make sure no one was getting too close? Odom and Bonner are in jail now. But she has to come forward. Baby doll, She has to tell us what she knows about the night they murdered Jimmy Royals and Eddie Valentine. Those would be the only murders that we’d have a witness to. They are going to try an say it was too dark out at Plank rd for Sammy to have really seen who was doing what to who. But that’s ok too, because Bonner flipped on Odom and they’re both going down for this. But Jimmy and Eddie? They need justice too Shells. No matter what they did, they deserve justice too, and Annie has to finger them. For Jimmy and Eddie.”

The form of Annabelle Stanton appeared in the doorway behind him. And when he turned and looked at her and then back at Shelly he felt like a total heel. He finally saw it, but only when they were together. Then he understood. He turned back to face the tearful eyes of Shelly Dolls.

“Clivey it ain’t what your thinking.. She didn’t want anybody to know. You know I’ve always been here, singing from day one. My name up in lights. All of the records that I made. I’m a pretty famous dame ya know Clivey? and she came to the city, with her own dream. She wanted to make it all by herself. I understood that. Clivey I protected her because she’s my baby sister.”

He walked over to Shelly Dolls and put both arms around her held her close.

“And I wouldn’t expect nothing less from my satin doll.” He whispered to her.

Annabelle Stanton put one hand on Clive Carew’s shoulder and the other on Shelly Dolls.

“Mr. Carew is right Shelly, I gotta do this. I gotta go down to that station and tell the police what I saw. I gotta do it for all of the right reasons. But most of all I gotta do this for my Jimmy.” She Shrugged her shoulders. “Shells, Jimmy wasn’t much. This I know. But he was a good man. And I loved him. When I was with Jimmy I felt like I owned the world. When I was with him. I felt first class.”

He escorted them both back out to the Champion, and opened the door and Annabelle Stanton got in the passenger seat. He closed the door and turned to face Shelly.

“I’ll follow behind you in the Hudson Clivey.” She winked at him. “Hey what can I say? I’m a ragtop kinda girl!”

They drove down to 814 Chapel St and Shelly Dolls followed behind knowing full well that her baby sister was in very capable hands. They arrived at the eighth precinct some twenty minutes later. Captain Chet Belleville was standing out in front of the building when he saw them pull up. He smiled when he saw Annabelle Stanton getting out of the Champion and moments later Shelly Dolls out of the Hudson. They all went into his office together. The two women nervously sat close to each other as though they were waiting for a scolding from their high school principal. Chet Belleville leaned with his back up against his desk looking down at them, his arms folded in front of him. Clive Carew sat in a chair by the door.

“Miss Stanton. Welcome to the eighth precinct. I’m Captain Chester Belleville. it is good to see you.. I trust that you are well?” he asked.

She nodded her head.

“You had a lot of people worried about you young lady. We thought that you were dead.”

She looked up at him her eyes swelling with tears. She began fidgeting uncomfortably her hand tightly grasping Shelly Dolls. Shelly put her arm around her shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. She looked over at Clive Carew and then back at Captain Chet Belleville. He took out his hanky and handed it to her.

“Captain I’m sorry. I really am. But. I. I got scared. Ya know? I was there the night that those two mutts showed up at Jimmy’s- at Jimmy’s place.” she began sobbing softly.

Chet Belleville knelt down in front of her and held her hand gently. He looked up at Clive Carew and then back at Annabelle Stanton.

“Annabelle. They can’t hurt you. Let it out. Tell us what happened.”

She looked up at him and then at Clive Carew.

“A couple of weeks ago. Some guy at the front desk of the Harbor View hotel. I was paying him to keep an eye out for Jimmy for me. You know. In case he got weak again and decided to go there and get juiced up on dope. So one night this guy. that I was paying. He calls me and he says that Jimmy had just shown up and he looked like a wreck. So me, I high tailed it over there to get to Jimmy before the juice did. So. I get there. And I go up to Jimmy’s room, and by then he was already juiced, not too bad but still he was pretty juiced. He didn’t even realize that I was there. So I started crying."

Chet Belleville moved a box of tissues in front of her.

"I was so mad at Jimmy. I went out on the fire escape through the window and I sat there and smoked a cigarette. Trying to calm my nerves. The window was still open a little bit and I could hear the door open. It was Eddie Valentine. He told Jimmy that he’d overheard him spilling his guts to me about Jimmy’s part in what happened out on Plank Road. So Eddie decided he was gonna use it to blackmail those two coppers. Only when he tried to shake them down they tried to kill him. So he came running right back to Jimmy to warn him. And them two cops they must have followed him because a couple of minutes later they kick in the door and I hear voices, they’re screaming at Jimmy and Eddie.. And the next thing I know I hear two or maybe three gunshots. So I inched my way over to the window real careful like… And there was my Jimmy. Oh God. He was lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood. They killed my Jimmy.”

The tears were streaming down her face her voice seemed meek and broken then.

“I stayed real still out on that fire escape. It was pretty dark out by then so I knew they didn’t see me. But if they looked out the window I would’ve been dead too. So I could still hear them talking. About me then. They said they had to find out where I was so they could close my yap for good like they did Jimmy and Eddie. So I called Shelly and she drove up to Beacon Hill and met up with me at some dive on Tenth St. she agreed to hide me until I could figure out what to do. Captain. What they did to Jimmy. He was a good man. The guilt it was tearing him up inside.”

They helped her up and Chet Belleville said that perhaps it would be better for Annie if she could come back later to give an official statement when she felt more up to it. And every body agreed that it would be best. Clive Carew and Chet Belleville walked them back to the Hudson and as Shelly Dolls helped her little sister into the passenger seat she looked back and saw a uniformed officer come out and whispered something to Clive Carew and Captain Belleville who shook his head and slowly walked back inside. Clive Carew was staring straight ahead.

“Clivey?”

He looked down at her.

“This morning out in the State Penitentiary at Churchill, They found Bradley Odom dead in his cell. Somebody shanked him. An hour later Chance Bonner hung himself with a bed sheet. They’ll never hurt anybody ever again.” He told her.

“Annie’s a tough cookie, she’s gonna be okay I think. But what about you and me Clivey?” Tears were forming in her own eyes then.

He put his arms around his satin doll and kissed her forehead gently.

“You and me kid? We’re gonna be just fine.”

~Fin~

Fat City.. Act Seven.. In Focus.

They pulled up in front of the Harbor View hotel just before five pm. And Clive Carew along with Sammy Smalls walked by the desk clerk without so much as a second glance. Same guy as before too. They went up to the fifth floor and proceeded to room eighty five. They turned down the long corridor and almost at the end Clive Carew heard sounds of a struggle, he quickened his pace and told Sammy Smalls to hang back. When he reached room eighty three he kicked the door open and there on the bed he saw a man smothering someone with a pillow, he ran for the bed and tackled him knocking him to the floor, when they landed he saw that it was Chance Bonner. Sammy came into the room and snatched the pillow up and there on the bed dead was Vinnie Spicoli. Clive was leaning into Chance Bonner who was yelling at the top of his lungs “I’m A Cop! I’m a Cop!” Clive Carew popped him with one last uppercut that landed him back first on the floor. He stood over him both fists were clenched loaded for bear.

“Yeah Bonner.. I know you’re a cop. A filthy dirty Cop. And a murderer to boot.”

“You back up Carew! You’re in big trouble.” Bonner wailed.”

He picked him up off of the floor and landed a hard right into his gut, so hard his bladder let go and he peed himself.

“No Bonner.. You’re the one that’s in trouble.” he turned to Sammy Smalls.

He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Sammy along with a dime.

“That’s the number of the eighth precinct, you take that dime to the payphone downstairs and dial it up and ask for Captain Chet Belleville, if he answers, you tell him where we are and what room we’re in, tell him to get down here alone. If he don’t answer, hang up the phone and you high tail it back up here. You got that Sammy?”

Sammy Smalls left the room and closed the door behind him leaving Chance Bonner alone with his biggest nightmare. Bonner was quivering in the corner when Clive Carew knelt down in front of him.

“You see Bonner, I know you think that I’m the one who’s screwed here, but see.. Chet Belleville and me, we’ve been working together on this little caper of yours and Odom’s. And this morning out at the lake? I did a little diving and I found Jimmy Royals and Eddie Valentine’s bodies. Right along with them choppers that you tossed right after you and Odom killed Bobby Wheeling and them boys out on Plank Rd.”

He drew closer to Bonners face.

“You’re gonna get the chair Bonner.. Eight counts of first degree murder? Nine counting Spicoli here. Hell yeah.. You’re gonna fry. Captain Belleville’s coming down here to arrest you and then you’re gonna fry!”

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door and then a slight pause and then Chet Belleville stepped through the door with Sammy Smalls. He closed the door behind him and shot a quick glance over at the bed. He looked back at Sammy Smalls and nodded towards the bed.

“Who’s the stiff?” He asked.

“Vinnie Spicoli, officer Bonner there suffocated him with that pillow as we came walking in.” Sammy Said.

“Captain no!” Bonner Squealed. “It wasn’t like that he was already dead when I got here and this mug here attacked me while I was trying to save him!”

Chet Belleville pulled up a chair six feet from Bonner and Clive Carew. He looked back at Sammy Smalls and then the other two.

“Lock the door there Sammy will you please?”

Sammy smiled and locked the door. Chet Belleville sat down in the chair and folded his hands in front of him all of the while staring down coldly at Chance Bonner.

“Well, officer Bonner. Seems we have ourselves a predicament here. You see my good friend Clive here and I came across a very curious sight this morning. We found the bodies of our fellow officer Jimmy Royals and that crooner Eddie Valentine swimming at the bottom of the lake with cement loafers on, along with the three choppers that were used in the six murders out on Plank Rd. We’d really like you to tell us how they got there, because we think you really know.” Chet Belleville told him.

Bonner was now almost to the point of panic.

“Cappy! I swear I didn’t have nothing to do with that!” He whimpered.

Chet Belleville looked up at Clive Carew who was still hovering over Bonner like a hungry lion waiting to pounce.

“Well now that’s unfortunate for you m’boy. You see two hours ago we arrested Bradley Odom on corruption charges. Now we got him in a cell tonight. And he’s thinking about it. And in the morning we’re going to take him in a room and we’re going to interrogate him. And he’s going to tell us the truth even if we have to beat it out of him. So now I ask you Chance Bonner, is he going to tell us that you weren’t mixed up in this? Or is he going to say that this was all you’re doing and he was just there doing whatever you told him to?”

His eyes nervously darted back and forth between Clive Carew and Chet Belleville slowly he raised his hands, noticeably shaken he was considering his options.

“No Captain! It wasn’t like that at all, if Odom tells you that he’s a dirty rat liar I tell ya!”

Clive Carew knelt down in front of him.

“Then why don’t you tell us what really happened Chance. If you don’t we gotta take Odom’s word for it. Just start at the beginning and give it to us strait or we go with Odom’s story.”

He stared at the floor for what seemed like hours. His eye’s roaming back and forth, tearing up, lost with no way out, he slowly began to unravel the whole story. After the night out on Plank Rd, Bradley Odom, Chance Bonner and Jimmy Royals, made a pact to never tell anyone how they set up and murdered six men and stole the dope and the money, and how Jimmy and Bonner tossed the guns while Bradley Odom emptied out both trunks and cleaned up the scene before they called the rest of the cops in. They had stashed the dope and the money in Bradley Odom’s cellar for two and a half months until things cooled down. Then the plan was to shakedown Vinnie Spicoli and force him to buy his own dope back for double the price. The only problem was Vinnie told them to go spit, he wasn’t going to pay double for his own dope, in the meantime Jimmy Royals had started hanging around the clubs, nightlife, booze and dames, and soon he hooked up with Annabelle Stanton, a young and beautiful starlet on the rise with a heart the size of Montana.

Annabelle got caught up in the nightlife too and soon her and Jimmy Royals became lovers. All of which was discovered by Bradley Odom and Chance Bonner after the fact. The booze as it turned out, wasn’t strong enough to kill Jimmy’s demons and the guilt from his part in the Plank Rd incident was eating him alive so he turned to using heroin to kill the nightmares. Annabelle Stanton vowed to help him get off of it. One night after he got juiced up, Jimmy went to Annabelle and told her that he couldn’t take it anymore and he told her the whole story about the Plank Rd incident. Unknown to either of them Eddie Valentine was nearby and overheard Jimmy spilling his guts to Annabelle and Eddie decided that he wanted a piece of Bonner and Odom’s action and he tracked them down and tried to blackmail them. Thinking that he had them over a barrel he told them everything that he heard Jimmy telling Annabelle, and now Eddie Valentine wanted ten thousand dollars or he would tell the police everything.

Odom and Bonner tried to kill Eddie but he escaped and made a beeline right back to Jimmy to warn him, Odom and Bonner followed him to Jimmy’s snow bin and ended up killing both of them. From there they took Eddie and Jimmy’s bodies back to Bradley Odom’s cellar where they encased both of their feet in cement and left them set up over night. The next morning they rented a row boat to take them out into the middle of the lake, but the row boat flipped on them before they got far enough out from the shore so they had to leave it and both bodies where they laid in twenty feet of water and hope that they would never be discovered. In the meantime they had spent the rest of the following two weeks looking for their last loose end to get rid of, namely Annabelle Stanton. Meanwhile Vinnie Spicoli finally agreed to buy back what was left of the dope, only when Bonner came calling to set up the deal Vinnie decided to back out again and he and Chance Bonner got into a fight where Bonner knocked him unconscious and in a fit of rage finally suffocated him.

Clive Carew had begun to pace back and forth playing out the entire caper as Bonner recalled it to he and Chet Belleville. Jimmy and Annabelle, Eddie Valentine, the Guns The Money and the dope. And everything else. So far everything was adding up with one exception. Annabelle Stanton was still missing. And Bonner wasn’t moving from his story that he and Odom couldn’t find her. So where was she? Was she alive? Was she dead? And what could she possibly tell them to seal the fate of Bonner and Odom. He turned and sat back down directly in front of Chance Bonner.

“So what you’re saying is that you and that mongrel Odom never found that Stanton dame? Two hardboiled coppers such as yourselves couldn’t catch up to one dame? is that right?” Clive asked.

“We searched high and low for that dish, and its like she disappeared right into the scenery, thin air or something. Looked high and low, everywhere. It’s just like Odom said. Them movie people they trained her real good with that smoke and mirrors stuff.. And yeah.. She’s really good. We couldn't find her. In our own city.” Bonner answered.

Clive Carew raised an eyebrow.

“What do you mean.. smoke and mirrors stuff?” he asked.

“Well you know, they can make a person think that something is one thing when its really something else.. Like in the movies.” Bonner replied.

Captain Chet Belleville stood up Chance Bonner and instructed him to place both hands behind his Back. Clive Carew watched intently.

“C’mon, its over Chance. Time to put on the bracelets and go face the music.” Belleville Said.

“So where is the dope and what’s left of the money now?”

He hung his head knowing that it was really over.

“They’re still in Bradley Odom’s cellar.”

Clive Carew walked him down to the car along with Belleville and Sammy, once there they called the coroner’s office to come and get Vinnie Spicoli’s body. Clive Carew leaned up against the building with Belleville as they took Bonner away.

“So when do you plan on really arresting Odom Chet?” He asked.

We’re stopping by his house on the way to the station. And we may as well snag the money and the dope while we’re there. Don’t ya think?”

Clive Carew chuckled.

“That was a great bluff.. Now I know how you made it to Captain.”

They loaded Vinnie Spicoli’s body into the ambulance and Clive Carew watched them slowly disappear into the night time traffic. He still had one problem. Where was Annabelle Stanton?

Fat City.. Act Six... Down At the Grove..

August 14th 1940

They drove the six miles out to Plank road mostly in silence, after the incident at the Union hotel off of Center St, Sammy Smalls had decided to give the police his full cooperation, contingent upon the involvement of Clive Carew. They reached the turn at Plank Rd, and he pulled the Studebaker over to the shoulder and waited for Chet to arrive. The 39’ Chevy pulled up behind them and Chet Belleville got out and approached the side of the Studebaker, Clive Carew rolled down the window.

“Sammy says its about a half a mile past the point where the shootings took place, and we will have to walk about fifty yards in from the dirt road on foot to the edge of the lake.”

Chet Belleville nodded and walked back to his car, and they both drove to the point that Sammy Smalls described to them. Then fifty yards to the edge of the lake and then Clive Carew would be striping down to his swimming trunks. He entered the water at 10:30 AM and searched the entire area where Sammy Smalls swore that he’d seen the three cops toss the guns. After three hours of searching the range of shoreline he was coming up empty, he came up for air and to tell them he was going into the deeper water, the sun was high enough in the sky now he could almost see the sandy bottom of the lake. He stayed above the surface until he got past the one hundred and fifty five foot mark out from the shoreline. Chet Belleville and Sammy Smalls watched as he went under, his head popped up two minutes later and then he went back under. He did this five more times until he came up for the last time and swam for land. He walked back in and sat down on a tree stump. Chet Belleville and Sammy Smalls watched him curiously.

“About one hundred and fifty five maybe one hundred and sixty feet, directly in line with this stump. About twenty feet below the surface. Get your people out here Chet.” He started walking back to the car.

“You find the guns Clive?”

He stopped walking and looked at the ground and then turned back to Chet Belleville and Sammy Smalls.

“No. but I did find Jimmy Royals and Eddie Valentine. They‘re hanging around the bottom with cement around their feet. They’re just off to the right of a capsized row boat that sank to the bottom. The guns are here somewhere. Go on Chet, go back to town and get some of your boys, Sammy and me will hang around here until you come back. I‘m going to rest a few minutes and then I’m gonna try again, maybe out that way.”

He pointed to the right of where he made his last dive.

“They may have been in this area here but tossed the guns in three different directions, they are here somewhere. I‘m going to keep looking.”

Chet Belleville walked back to the Chevy and drove back to town. After fifteen minutes Clive Carew went back in the water. An hour and a half after that, Chet Belleville returned to the lake with other members of the Bay City Police department. When he rolled up he saw Clive Carew and Sammy Smalls leaning up against the Studebaker. Carew was now fully dressed, he told the members of the dive team where the bodies were and they went in the water to retrieve them if they could. Belleville was just about to walk down to the lake when Clive and Sammy called him back to the Studebaker. He Winked at Belleville.

“We’ve got both Jimmy Royals and Eddie Valentines bodies. And those two mutts?”

He opened the trunk of the Studebaker.

“Now we have their Choppers.”

Inside the trunk were three wet machine guns. Then it was Belleville’s turn to smile. Two more pieces of the puzzle fell into place, but it still didn’t tell him anything about where Annabelle Stanton was. Now he wasn’t even sure if she was dead. He took Sammy with him back to his place, driving the whole way in complete silence, a thousand thoughts going through his head at once. Then a thought occurred to him, he pulled over to the side of the road and stared straight ahead, Sammy Smalls gave him a curious look.

“So why do you think those two dirty coppers swiped Vinnies dope? The money? Yeah, that I get, but them two mongrels, they’re not peddlers. So why the dope?” He asked.

Sammy shrugged.

“I dunno Clive, didn’t hear nuthin about no plan on the street.” He said.

“If they were going to try and move the stuff they’d be needing a couple of patsy’s for the street. Too many loose ends to have to keep an eye on, they wouldn’t go that route, this mutt Odom, he’d take the shortcut.” Clive said.

“Vinnie?” Sammy asked.

Clive Carew turned to look at him.

“Yeah Vinnie. Shakedown Vinnie, make him buy his own dope back.”

He reached down and restarted the Studebaker and slowly put it into gear and pulled back onto Plank Road.

“Where we goin Clive?”

“The Coconut Grove.”

He made a beeline for Lakeside Drive, hung a left, and hit the gas. They were close to wrapping this up now, and Clive Carew had an idea. They were going to be needing to talk to Vinnie Spicoli, and rather than chase down him and his activities all over town, they were going to go right to the source. They were going to go chat up Vito Mancini. Six miles back to the city limits and they turned onto Pratt St and headed right for Laurel Blvd. Five minutes later they were pulling up into the back alley behind the Coconut Grove Nightclub, Vito‘ Mancini’s pearl white Cadillac was parked up the alley so he knew that Vito was there. The back door was seldom locked so he and Sammy entered through the kitchen and proceeded to Vito’s private office. There were two massive thugs standing in front of the door when they walked up.

“Could you please respectfully tell Vito that Clive Carew is here and would like to speak with him?”

A long cold stare ensued before the larger of the two nodded to the other one and he disappeared into Vito’s office. Two minutes later Vito Mancini appeared at the door, he was a little bit older looking than Clive Carew remembered. He was still a large man with broad shoulders, he was still fit, his hair was still slicked back and black as coal with a few gray streaks running through it. And he still had those dark penetrating eyes and that broad pearly white smile that gave a person a false sense of ease.

Vito had always tried to give people the impression that he was completely harmless, but Clive Carew had known him long enough to know that nothing could have been further from the truth.

The two old friends shook hands and Vito ushered he and Sammy Smalls inside of his office.

“Well how about this now? Clive Carew come to pay me a visit. It has been too long since you’ve stopped by.” he leaned forward opening a cigar box and inching it towards him, and he humbly accepted the offering.

“So. Mr. Carew. What can I possibly do for you?”

Both men lit their cigars, Vito exhaled and studied Clive through the smoke.

“Vito. I wish that I could say that this was a pleasure visit, But it isn’t. I would like to respectfully ask for your permission to speak about a professional matter with one of your employee’s.” Clive Said.

“Clive. My friend. For this you need my permission? And just who is this employee of mine that you wish to speak to?”

“Vinnie Spicoli.”

A look of concern fell over Vito Mancini’s face as he slowly leaned back in his chair. He carefully studied him and Sammy Smalls, his thick fingers slowly rapping on the top of the large walnut desk. His eyes slowly rose to meet Clive Carew’s.

“Again with Vinnie Spicoli. First the police come here this morning, through the front door no less, and now you come asking about Vinnie Spicoli.”

“The police?” Clive asked.

“This morning, I get here around eight I think, and already somebody has let the cops in, right through the front door no less, getting loud and abrasive, asking where’s Vinnie this, yadda, yadda, where’s Vinnie that. So everybody keeps their yaps shut and they leave. Now? you show up. Asking ‘where’s Vinnie?’ tell me Clive Carew, as a businessman, as a man period, what am supposed to think about this?”

“Vito, Vinnie, he’s in a really bad jam, we’re talkin a dead cop here, and seven other stiffs are on the hook too. I need to talk to him, find out what he knows about all of this.” he told him.

“Clive Carew.. You and me? we go back a long ways. There’s a lot of years between now and then. And I have always, and I do mean always, known you to be a honest honorable man. This much I know absolutely. So because of this, I know that if I ask you a question, that you of all people, will tell me the absolute truth. Clive? What has this bum been doing in my club?”

Clive Carew bent down to one knee looking Vito Mancini right in the eye, his hand slowly patting Vito’s own.

“Vito. My friend. Vinnie has been dealing heroin from out of YOUR club, those two mutt cops that came shaking your place down this morning? I think they stole some of his dope and so far they‘ve killed eight people over it that we know of, I talk to Vinnie he’s gonna tell me what I need to know to get these two mutts, Vinnie himself? I’ll leave that up to your discretion. But I need to know where he is first.”

Vito reached over the top of the desk and pulled a piece of paper over to him and leaned forward and began to write, not one, not two, but three different addresses down before folding and passing the paper to Clive Carew. He opened it and looked at Vito.

“Vinnie has a place up on Beacon Hill?” He asked.

“Yeah. Some dive called the Harbor View hotel, room eighty five.”

Now it was Sammy Smalls turn to interject into the conversation, he gave a anxious look to Vito who nodded his approval. He looked up at Clive Carew.

“Beacon Hill?”

They both nodded.

“That dive your talking about, a lot bums go there to get snowed, Beacon Hill is only six blocks from Chinatown.”

“Yeah?”

He now had both of their complete attention.

“So Vinnie has a place there? that’s a coincidence? I’ll bet ya two bits anytime of day that that’s where Vinny is bringing the dope in, right through that dive The Harbor View Hotel.”

“Yeah. Jimmy Royals had himself a snow bin up there too. Popular place.”

He extended his hand to Vito Mancini as he and Sammy Smalls both rose to leave. Vito warmly grabbed his hand and gave it a stern shake. Clive Carew turned for the door. Vito stopped him one last time.

“Hey Carew?”

He looked back at him.

“You know. When you are getting your information from this bum Vinnie? If he don’t flap his gums right away? If you gotta rough him up a bit so he’ll squeal? From me to you.. This?” he shrugged. “ I don’t mind.”

Clive Carew smiled. He and Sammy Smalls left the Coconut Grove nightclub and headed for Beacon Hill.

Fat City... Act Five... Bones, Thugs and Mugs.

August 13th 1940.

He tried to arrange for Sammy Smalls to meet up with Captain Chet Belleville but he was just too nervous about being around cops at all right then. So Clive Carew found him a safe place to lay low for awhile. When he got home he called Belleville on the phone and told him to get his ass over there right away. There were still a few unknown details to figure in, the biggest was the whereabouts of three people who were all more than likely dead and buried someplace under six feet of concrete. Still though, all things considered the clues were starting to add up, and each one was beginning to make more and more sense. Belleville showed up at Clive Carew’s place one hour later and listened intently as he related Sammy Smalls entire story to him. He sat there silently in slight shock. Finally he turned to face Clive Carew.

“So how do we prove this if the boy won’t come in and talk to me?” Chet Belleville asked.

“We corroborate his story without dragging him into it.”

“And how do we do that?”

He leaned back in his seat.

“Sammy said they dumped the guns that were used to kill Bobby Wheeling and the others in the lake, now the water on that shoreline is only four maybe five feet deep, and you have to go out another ninety maybe ninety five feet from the shoreline before it gets any deeper, which means they would have had to throw the guns out at least one hundred feet to get them in deep enough water so nobody would ever find them. And to top that off they would have had to do it in the dark. Now if we can go out to the lake and figure out where they tossed those guns from, we may be able to recover them.”

Chet Belleville was leaning forward listening with growing interest.

“And how does that help me get Bradley Odom and Chance Bonner? “ He asked.

“Well Captain.” Clive said. “If we can find those guns it may be enough to shake at least one of them off of their original story, it may cause one of them just enough concern to flip on the other one to save his own skin.”

“And you still have no leads on Jimmy Royals and the girl or that crooner?”

“I can only speculate at this point, but its looking like all three may be dead.” Carew told him.

He nodded his head in agreement.

“So what do we do Clive?” Chet Belleville asked.

I say we dig up a couple of diving masks head out there to the lake in the morning and we go fishing for them gats. We get the guns, we get your boys.”

They agreed to meet up at Clive Carew’s the next morning and from there they would go out to the lake on Plank Road together. Chet Belleville left for the station and Clive Carew decided to go pay a surprise visit to his satin doll at home. He wanted to see if she’d thought of anything concerning Annabelle Stanton that he hadn’t. When he pulled up the hill and edged the Champion to the curb on Chestnut Dr. he saw the red Hudson parked in Shelly Dolls driveway. it somehow looked cleaner than before, he’d supposed that more than likely Shelly had probably used her feminine wiles to con Riley Hinkley in to washing and waxing it for her. He smiled to himself. That dame had more than her fair share of feminine wiles. He walked up the steps leading to the front door of her white bungalow style house. He opened the screen door and knocked. Inside he could hear the faint sounds of bare feet patting across the hardwood flooring. When he heard Shelly’s muffled voice from deep inside of the house yelling;

“Just a Minute!”

She unlocked the door and swung it part ways open to see who it was. When she saw Clive Carew her eyes lit up.

“Clivey!” She swung open the door and let him in.

“You caught me just getting ready for the tub, I gotta sing tonight, c’mon in and talk to me while I have my bath sweetie!”

He sat in a chair by the opened bathroom door and watched in amazement as she slowly dropped the robe to the floor exposing her perfect naked body, she stepped into the tub and lowered herself into the hot bubble filled water. He listened patiently as she talked about the goings on down at Frankie Finch’s Palace. He rose from the chair and wandered around her bedroom while she went on about the waitresses and the kitchen staff and how the lead bartender was carrying on with the hostess at the door of the main showroom. He politely listened as he wandered over to her vanity on which she had various colored wigs, hairpins, ointments and lotions and bottles upon bottles of the most fragrant of perfumes. He thought to himself that the life of a performer must be tough at times always having to look the part on stage.

“Clivey?” She called. “What are ya doin in my bedroom sweetie? I hope your not discovering all of my womanly secrets!”

He slowly moved back into the opened doorway, both hands were in his trouser pockets and he was looking down at her smiling.

“I don’t think that I could ever hope to understand all of the mysteries and complexities of womanhood, and I don‘t believe that I should ever want to. I love it that you’re a mystery Shelly, a beautiful breathtaking mystery that I hope never to solve.”

He walked over to the bath tub where she was staring up at him. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead.

“I have to go check on Sammy Smalls, he’s very scared that those two hood cops are going to do him in.”

She smiled up at him.

“You got yourself a big heart there Clivey. I know that I really don’t know you that well but you really care about people and it shows. I suppose that’s what I’m loving about you. Your big wonderful heart.”

She returned his kiss and he turned to the door.

“Hey.”

He stopped and turned back to face her.

“You comin to the club tonight to listen to me sing? I got a special song all picked out just for you.”

He walked back over to the tub and bent down to kiss her again.

“I wouldn’t miss it for all of the world.”

The sun was slowly making its way down behind the Bay City skyline as he rolled down Jefferson St,

There was a place just off of Center that he had stashed Sammy Smalls. He carefully checked the rear view to make sure he wasn’t being followed, as he pulled into the alley behind the Union hotel he saw the long black Buick sitting by the back door and it filled him with a sense of urgency. He slammed on the brakes and jumped from the Champion and almost immediately he saw that the back door was ajar. He pushed it free of the threshold and stepped through pulling the snub nosed .38 into full view. from the dark hallway ahead of him he could hear muffled grunts, like someone was being punched and punched hard. He moved with haste to the first opened door on the left, when out from behind the door a hand reached out and swatted away the .38. The dark figure tried to swing at him but Carew ducked and landed a hard right hand into their ribcage followed by a hard uppercut that sent them reeling.

The other figure that was standing over Sammy Smalls dropped Sammy and came after him, but Clive Carew saw it coming and was ready, he stepped forward putting all of his weight on his lead foot and swung the other upwards and landed his shin bone right between the second persons legs. Which made them wail. The first man was already out the door and the second was wobbly but was hot on his heels. Clive Carew tended to a beaten but very much alive Sammy Smalls. He sat him up at first and checked him over, seeing that he wasn’t seriously injured he slowly raised him to his feet.

“C’mon Sammy, you’ll be staying with me tonight, the Champ is waiting outside in the alley.”

He slowly walked him to the Studebaker and eased him into the passenger seat, stopping only to retrieve the .38. He walked around got in and started the Champion, slammed it into gear and drove back towards Center St. something was just telling him to make a left back onto Jefferson St and he was glad that he did, three blocks down he saw the Buick from the alley parked in front of Scully Richardson’s bar and he slammed on the brakes and got out. He leaned back in to look at Sammy.

“Wait here. This should only take a minute.”

An very angry Clive Carew walked into the bar looking for trouble, and it wasn’t hard to find. Scully was behind the bar and nodded to Clive when he entered, there were two guys sitting at the end of the bar and the rest of the joint was empty. Scully came down to his end of the bar smiling.

“Should’ve known it would be you walkin through the door Clivey. They just came waltzin in about five minutes ago, the little guy was walkin kinda.. Well.. You know.. Funny. They both seem upset.” he was still smiling up at Clive Carew. “You want me to lock the front door?”

He walked down to their end of the bar and stopped in front of the biggest of the two. Scully locked the front door and raised the closed sign.

“How’s the jaw?”

He didn’t answer.

“Don’t feel too bad, you ain’t the first mug I knocked on his ass with that uppercut.”

He kicked the stools out from under them, the little guy hit his face on the bar, and dropped to the floor, the other Clive Carew was all over, pounding on him until he relented. He drug him to the bathroom to the toilet plunging his face in the water.

“Alright tough guy. I’m only gonna ask this once so I wants you to pay close attention. Who hired you to bump that kid?”

“Whaaaat? Go spit Carew! I ain’t tellin you nuthin ya bum!”

“Wrong answer bubbles. But ya know what? I don’t know what it is.. Maybe being in love has made a patient man out of me. So I’m going to give you one more chance.” he leaned down towards him.

“Who.. Hired.. You?”

“Go Spit!”

He plunged his head back into the murky waters of the toilet and held him there awhile longer the second time before he pulled his head out gasping for air.

“I ain’t gonna squeal Carew!”

“Well then how long can you hold your breath? Cause I got all night.”

Back into the toilet he went, longer this time. He pulled him again he was gasping for breath only more panic stricken this time.

“Alright! Alright! I’ll Squeal! They didn’t want us to bump him they just hired us to get some information, somebody said he was yappin about Plank Road,they knew that you wuz all over the kid watchin out for him so they hired us. they just wanted to find out who all he told, they said when they wanted him dead they’d do it themselves. we weren’t gonna kill him.”

“Who hired you?”

“I dunno some Copper and his sidekick!”

Clive Carew pulled him out of the door, Scully Richardson was smiling from ear to ear trying not to burst out into laughter. He drug him to the sidewalk and slammed him shoulder first into the side of the Buick, he stood over him.

“I’m getting something out of my car, try to run and I’ll chase you down and beat all of the ugly right out of you!”

He asked Sammy to pass him Jimmy Royals little black book which he did. He took out the picture of Jimmy, Odom and Bonner. He walked over to the thug and shoved it in his face.

“The guy on the left in this picture.. Is he the one that hired you?”

He quickly nodded his head, looking away. He grabbed a handful of hair and jerked his head backwards and stared down at him.

“When you see this copper friend of yours again, your going to deliver a message to him for me got it?

You are going to tell him that I Clive Carew am officially pissed off now, and if I ever get my hands on him or Bonner, I’m going to make them wish that they had never put on that badge. You got that?”

He looked up at Carew nodding his head.

“Y.Y.Yeah.. Yeah.. I got it.”

“C’mon Sammy. Lets go get something to eat down at the Palace. I’m kinda hungry.”

He walked by Scully Richardson and gave him a knowing wink.

“Night Scull.”

“Night Clivey.”

Fat City.. Act Four.. To Protect and Serve..

This time when he’d pulled up across the street from the Night Owl diner, he didn’t see Captain Chet Belleville inside yet. So he carefully gathered up all of the photo’s and both of the little black notebooks before heading inside. He entered the front door and motioned to the hostess for the same booth as he and Chet had shared the night before and she nodded her approval. He walked over and slid into the booth and waited for the good captain to arrive. Minutes later Chet Belleville’s 1939 Chevy stopped right outside the front window and he quickly got out and hurried into the Night Owl. He sat directly across from Clive Carew and the waitress wasted no time in pouring two hot cups of fresh coffee before leaving two menus on their table. Chet Belleville cast him a curious look.

“So did you find out something Clive?”

He pulled out some photographs. First of Jimmy Royals with Annabelle Stanton and Eddie Valentine.

“Do you recognize any of these people Chet?”

He picked up the photo, his eyes slowly rose to meet Clive Carew’s.

“That’s Jimmy Royals. So you did find something out at the Palace didn’t you?” he smiled.

Clive Carew’s stern expression didn’t change.

“Chet. I never made it to the Palace today, these are photo’s I got from Annabelle Stanton’s apartment this afternoon, she’s an actress that went missing two weeks ago. Montgomery Spalding hired me to find her. Jimmy Royals and her are lovers. Now I need to know how you know Jimmy.”

Chet Belleville leaned forward.

“Jimmy Royals was one of the first cops on the scene at the Plank Road incident that I told you about last night. He was there when the rest of us arrived along with two other officers.”

Now Clive Carew placed a second photograph on the table in front of him, this time of Jimmy and his other pals that he took from Jimmy‘s apartment.

“How about these two here? Do you know them?”

Chet Belleville leaned forward. He tapped on the photo.

“Yeah that’s the other two officers from Plank Road. that’s Bradley Odom and the other fellow is Chance Bonner, Jimmy was riding alone that night, the other two were in a car together.”

“This Jimmy Royals Chet, a straight shooter was he?”

His eyes widened a bit.

“Yeah.. Jimmy was a good cop, straight as an arrow, strictly by the book.”

“Yeah? And what about them two mutts that he was swingin gates with?”

Chet Belleville shook his head sadly.

“Bonner usually kept his yap shut most of the time, only said what he needed to.. But Odom, he could be nasty. Always took the lead, always looking for a angle on everything. Never trusted him.”

“Chet I need to speak to Jimmy, do you know where he is?’

He shook his head no.

“No he up and quit the force last month, told me that he was going into business for himself. Haven’t seen him since.”

“Chet I think that I may know what was in the trunks of those two cars, but I don’t have all of the pieces of the puzzle yet.” Clive told him.

“Yeah? What are you thinking Clive?”

“I think in one trunk there was a whole lot of money, and in the other, I think that there was a whole lot of heroin. I went to a dive up on Spring St that Jimmy would hole up in sometimes, I found syringes, Sterno, some rubber tie offs and traces of a white powder in the bottom of a bureau drawer, I think that Jimmy Royals and these two cops are into this mess up to their necks. And I think our two problems are related.”

They finished with their dinner all of the while each offered possible ideas as to what was involved with the whole caper. And what they were both left with at the end of the evening was a great deal of uncertainty as to what the whole picture was going to eventually turn out to be. Clive Carew would definitely be hitting up all of his street stoolies to try to piece the rest of the mystery together. When he and Chet Belleville parted ways he knew that he still had some time to kill before he had to go pick up Shelly Dolls at the Palace. He decided that he would drop in early to hear her sing, he turned the key in the ignition of the Champion and the engine roared to life, he pushed in the clutch and moved the stick shift into gear slowly. he pulled onto Baker street and turned towards Laurel Blvd. he became lost in thought as the flickering neon lights of one of Bay City’s major boulevards slowly rolled by him.

At one end of Laurel there was Vito Mancini’s Coconut Grove night club, and at the other end lie Frankie Finch’s Palace. The Palace by comparison was the larger of the two clubs and boasted two full size restaurants, a huge dance floor, an orchestra pit and stage where the featured performers would croon until the wee hours of the morning. The Palace was lavish and glamorous and was definitely the place that most people seemed to want to be. While the Coconut Grove was much smaller and more intimate. But certainly had its share of popularity. He pulled up to the Palace just past nine thirty pm and walked across the street and entered the main showroom just in time to hear Shelly Dolls sexy voice reverberating throughout the club.

He moved closer to the stage she was wearing a bright red satin dress that clung to her perfect form, her eyes were closed, and her fingers seemed to caress the microphone. The horn section softly moaned a cool sound behind her deep rich vocals, and he could almost feel it sweep across his body like a warm summer breeze. When he raised his head to take her image in, their eyes locked, and for a brief moment in time it felt like she was singing to him and only him. She was absolutely the most incredible woman that he had ever met. She finished her set and came down from the stage to a host of cheers, but Shelly ’Satin’ Dolls couldn’t hear a thing. She moved through the crowd like a stalking lioness stopping only after she reached the place where Clive Carew was seated. They sat close together exchanging small talk until she had to return to the stage for her final set.

She performed flawlessly. Eleven thirty rolled around and he retrieved her wrap for her and they left the Palace together, and drove back to Carew’s place. Once safely inside, They felt free to talk about the strange set of circumstances surrounding the disappearances of Annabelle Stanton, Jimmy Royals and Eddie Valentine, but the subject quickly changed when Clive emerged from the bathroom to find a very naked Shelly Dolls lying on his bed. His eyes traveled up and down her perfect body as he lye down next to her. She reached up and kissed him full on the lips. And his hand expertly moved between her silk thighs.

“So.. I guess I made a pretty good impression on you huh?” He smiled.

Shelly Satin Dolls let out a loud giggle as Clive Carew reached over her breasts and turned off the lamp on the nightstand. It was going to a long night. Very long and very enjoyable. The next morning he was already up shaving and had breakfast on the stove cooking when she first opened her eyes and began to look around. He leaned in and gave her a long good morning kiss, just before she rose from the bed and walked to the shower. He went into the kitchen to check on breakfast, the potatoes were cooked, the bacon was crispy and all that there was left to do was sacrifice four egg’s to the gods of breakfast. She emerged from the bathroom moments later wearing one of Clive Carew’s own shirts.

“Well, I’ll never wash THAT shirt again.” he thought to himself.

She walked over to the front door and bent down to pick up a piece of paper off of the floor.

“Clivey hun, I think someone dropped you a message.”

She walked into the kitchen and handed him the slip of paper. He opened it, it was from Sammy Smalls, a street hood that he used for buying information. It read; “ Pier 13, today at noon, drop off the dish at the club, I need to see you alone. Sammy.”

“So now I’m a dish?” she giggled.

They ate breakfast and exchanged small talk when the mechanic called and told him that the Hudson was ready, the engine was over heating because it needed a new water pump which he replaced. They both got dressed and he drove her back to her place to change clothes so they could go pick up her car.

They parted ways at Riley Hinkley’s service station agreeing to meet up again later in the afternoon before she had to sing again that night. He had to go to pier 13 Sammy Smalls wouldn’t contact him unless it was important. He returned to the Champion and headed for the harbor. He drove along Lakeside Drive and took the Harbor lane turn off and headed for Pier 13. He saw him standing there, not real tall, kinda thin, wiry build, short cropped red hair, thin gaunt facial features lots of freckles, yeah that’s him. Just as promised there was Sammy Smalls standing on the Pier waiting for him, he carefully looked around to make sure that he was alone. He looked nervous but he was indeed alone. They exchanged greetings as Sammy moved into the passenger seat beside of Clive Carew. He stared straight ahead.

“Tell me a story Sammy, what are we doing here?”

“You gotta Protect me Clive. If I tell you this you gotta protect me from them.”

“From who Sammy?” now Clive Carew turned in his seat to face Sammy Smalls fully.

“Those two cops. If they find out what I know, I’m a goner.”

“Calm down Sammy what do you know that would cause them to hurt you?”

“I know what happened out on Plank Road five months ago.”

He listened carefully being mindful not to make Sammy Smalls any more nervous than he already was. He leaned back in the seat and listened calmly to everything he had come here to say. There was a brief silence while he collected himself.

“Start at the beginning Sammy, It’ll be ok.”

“It all started with Vinnie Spicoli.”

“One of Vito Mancini’s boys?”

“Yeah, about eleven months ago, word got out that Vinnie decided that he wanted to run a little action on the side, ya know?. Make a little extra money. Vinnie decides that he wants to get in on the local drug trade so he starts bringing in heroin that he got through his connections in Chinatown, and he starts selling it in the club in small quantities, well its slow going at first, he’s gotta start out small so Vito don’t find out. But he gets greedy, about four or five months rolls by and Vinnie decides that it ain’t enough, so he tries to expand, and he sets up this deal with some of Frankie Finch’s boys, he hooked up with Bobby Wheeling to make the deal behind Frankie Finch’s back. he was gonna give Bobby a shipment of the stuff to sell out of the Palace for fifty grand, he set up the deal to go down out on Plank Road, Vinnies crew brought the drugs and Bobby Wheeling was supposed to bring the cash in the other car with his crew. Now me? I hear about this deal goin down from one of the guys at the Palace, So I figure I could use this, maybe sell this information Ya know? make a little money for myself too. and I remembered this copper that had been coming around shakin people down, so I tell him about Vinnies deal goin down out on Plank Rd."

Clive Carew had to calm him down on more than one occasion telling Sammy Smalls to take a deep breath.

"And so anyways - this copper and his two friends see? They go out to the spot next to the field and they lay low waiting for Vinnies boy’s and Bobby Wheeling and his crew to show up. Well I’m thinking that the cops are gonna shake em down or maybe take them in. ya know? Arrest them. the Plymouth shows up and then the Packard shows up. And them three coppers they don’t arrest nobody, they pull out these gats and open up on both cars. They kill everybody and then dump them gats in the lake and clean out both trunks, the fifty thou.. The dope.. Everything.. So a little while later more coppers show up, but by now the first three had made everything look legit. They’d stashed the money, the drugs, and cleaned up everything real tidy like. So they tow the cars back into town and everybody with them. Well about a week ago that same cop pinched the guy at the palace that gave me the information, he tells the cop that I’m opening my yap all over town about what really went down out on Plank road that night. So now this copper that did in Vinnies boys and Bobby Wheeling and his crew is after me now.”

Clive Carew sat back in his seat.

“Sammy how do you know all of this is true.”

“Because I was there camping out on the lake the night that it happened, I saw the whole thing go down just like I said. I know its true because I was there.”

“ So this cop. Does he have a name?”

“Officer Bradley Odom.”

Fat City. Act Three. Damage Control

The Hudson was more than just a clunker on the outside, it had its fair share of engine trouble as well. He had tried for several minutes to get it started for her, but to no avail. The battery was dead, and the engine itself was terribly over heated. How could a car that was only four years old be in such bad shape? Someone had driven it very hard. Being between a rock and a hard place was nothing new for Clive Carew, so yeah, he’d been there before. He reluctantly agreed to let Shelly Dolls tag along with him when he went to Jimmy Royals place uptown, but only after she had agreed to wait in the car if he smelled any signs of trouble once they got there. He arranged for a mechanic to come fetch the Hudson, and they drove to Haney St. It took twenty five minutes because it was clear across town, four miles down Laurel Blvd, then right on Pratt St, and then go another two miles and take a left on Lakeside and follow it for another five miles until you reached Bankhead avenue. Then it was a left on Ardmore and onto Pershing St and then to Haney. It was another five story complex that looked more than a little rough around the edges. A stones throw away from becoming a full blown flea bag to be certain, but it looked safe enough so he let Shelly Dolls come with him to the apartment. He stopped outside the door of Apt 6 B and faced her.

“The first sign of trouble and you scram. Got it doll?” he told her.

She slowly rolled her eyes and smiled sweetly at him nodding her head. The door wasn’t locked so he let himself in, standing on the threshold he turned to Shelly Dolls and whispered to her.

“Wait here until I clear the joint.” He said.

Seeing the seriousness of the situation, she drew in a deep breath and agreed. Moments later he reappeared in the door way and ushered her inside away from any possible prying eyes. Once inside a distasteful look spread across her face. It was a small studio apartment, with one large room acting as the kitchen, living room and dining room, there was a hide a bed, and a small closet. Just before you entered the cramped bathroom, and there wasn’t much else to it.

“Ugh! What a dump!” She exclaimed. “And who paints their walls brown anyway?"

He smiled to himself at her obvious disgust of her surroundings.

“They aren’t brown. They’re white. they’re just stained from all of the nicotine from all the people that have smoked cigarettes in here.” he told her.

Her nosed wrinkled.

“So. Clivey. What are we looking for in this dump?”

“Anything that will tell us something about Jimmy Royals that we don’t already know. Which precinct did he work for? What were some of his habits? who did he hang around with? Those types of things.” He told her.

She rummaged through the closet, in his clothes, his trouser pockets, through everything while Carew went through Jimmy’s desk drawers. Finally she turned to face him.

“Nothing in his pockets Clivey, other than his clean suit’s the closet is empty.” She said.

Clive Carew was having a little more success with his search of the desk, one drawer was kept locked but with a little coaxing he was able to get it open. Inside Jimmy was hiding his own little black book.

Clive stood up to examine it. he looked over at Shelly Dolls.

“This should give us something to go on there are a lot of names, numbers and photo's in here.”

Most of the names and numbers didn’t ring any bells to him, he had similar photos to those of Annabelle Stanton’s mostly they were of him though, posing with other cops. He thought little more of it until he turned to the last page where the very last photo almost jumped out at him. He stared at it for a moment before turning to Shelly Dolls.

‘We have to get to a pay phone, I’ve got to make a call.” He told her.

They made their way back to the parking lot where the Champion was sitting, they got in and he drove three blocks to where there was a pay phone. He dropped the coin in and dialed the number. The receptionist answered the phone and he requested Captain Chet Belleville.

“Chet? It’s Clive. Yeah. Can you meet me later? Maybe back at the Night Owl? No Chet, not on the phone, we gotta talk, in person.” a brief silence. “Yeah ok. Six thirty tonight then, yeah, I’ll buy you dinner.”

He drove Shelly Dolls downtown to the Palace where she had to work that night.

“Do you have to go home first or do you have everything that you need at the club?”

She told him that she had everything that she needed in her dressing room and that he could just drop her off at the back door. He pulled into the alley and stopped at the rear entrance to the night club called The Palace, he reminded her not to speak to anyone about anything that they had talked about or done for that entire afternoon, for her own safety the less that she knew the safer she’d be.

“I called a mechanic friend of mine, he’ll fix the Hudson for you, what time do you get off tonight? I’ll come by and pick you up.”

She told him that the last show was at eleven pm, and she would meet him at the front entrance of the club to which he agreed. He watched her perfect backside sway back and forth as she walked up the stairs to the rear entrance of the Palace. He still had time before his six thirty meeting with Captain Belleville tonight, there was one more thing that he’d found in the desk drawer at Jimmy Royals that he wanted to check out, he’d found a room key for the Harbor View hotel on Spring St. He would have to drive almost the entire length of Laurel Blvd to get to Spring St. a hilly winding stretch of road that lead to a seedier section of town called Beacon Hill, The Harbor View hotel as it turned out was aptly named because of its panoramic views of the shipyards on the shores of Bay City’s main harbor. It was all of ten stories tall and boasted over one hundred and fifty first class rooms. Yeah, maybe it was first class in 1910, but in 1940 it was just another dive where the dregs of society would come to congregate and mingle. He entered the lobby and asked the desk clerk how far up room one thirteen was, he told him that it was up on the seventh floor, but he would have to take the stairs because the elevator had been out of commission for the past month or so, and was still waiting to be fixed.

”Has anybody been up there recently?”

He shook his head no.

“Naw. The guy paid two months rent for it, but he ain’t been back in like two weeks or so.”

Clive Carew produced a picture of Jimmy Royals.

“Is this the cat that you rented it to?” He asked.

The balding, short, plump desk clerk, slowly reached for his spectacles, and leaned forward to inspect the photograph.

“Yeah that’s the mutt.”

“Have you ever seen anyone go up there with him?”

“Yeah, some hot little blond dish, quite the looker that one. She came looking for him on the last day he showed up here, she came in about fifteen minutes later asking what room he was in, so I told her and she went up after him.”

He showed him a picture of Annabelle Stanton. The desk clerk nodded.

“Yeah that’s the dish.”

“She ever come in with him before that?”

“Naw, he seemed like the kinda guy that liked to be left alone. I only saw her that one time.”

“And your sure it was her?”

“Yeah that’s the dish, who could forget a dame that looked like that?”

“How long ago was this?”

“Like I said, that was about two weeks ago ain't seen either one of them since.”

“Mind if I go up a have a look around for myself?”

The desk clerk raised his hand.

“Naw. Go on ahead it ain’t MY room.”

He took the stairs to the seventh floor and immediately located room one thirteen, he stopped to look both ways up and down the hallway before opening the door. He turned the key and cracked the door open slightly and was immediately struck by a strange odor. The room was musky smelling, like the windows had all been kept closed all summer long and some sort of condensation had built up on the walls. it had a dark, damp feeling to it. A lone fan sat on the nightstand by the closed window, the blade slowly turning as the fresh air from the opened door had hit it. He turned on the lamp on the other night stand beside of the bed. One room, one double bed and a bathroom. There was a bureau of drawers against the far wall, above it suspended from a wire hung a broken mirror. In a half open drawer he found four used syringe’s along with a rubber tie off. And two small copper spoons, with remnants of an almost delicate white powder in the bottom of the drawer itself. On the floor beneath the bathroom sink he found two cans of Sterno one empty, one as of yet to be used. All of the evidence was now telling him that something very bad had happened in this room, and someone somewhere had a serious heroin addiction. He ripped a piece of sheet off of the bed and with it carefully collected all of the syringes along with the two copper spoons and the Sterno. He put them in an empty brown paper sack that he retrieved from the waste basket next to the bureau.

Still somewhat disturbed by what he’d found, he began to slowly walk around in the room trying to piece together the images that were dancing around in his head. Every picture that he had seen of her, every single still, she was wearing the long silk gloves all of the way up her arms, was she covering up the needle marks, could that be it? Did she get mixed up with Jimmy Royals and he got her hooked on heroin? Or maybe Jimmy was the addict and she was trying to help him kick it. And how did Eddie Valentine fit into this? There were a lot more questions at this point than answers. He walked back out into the hallway and closed the door behind him. He needed to get back to the Champion to take another look at all of the photos. He took out the pocket watch, it was closing in on five o’clock, just enough time to give the evidence one more going over, just enough time to give closer inspection to all of those photo’s. He put the brown paper sack in the trunk and returned to the drivers seat and started the Champion. Soon it would be time to go meet up with Chet Belleville they would have some very uncomfortable subjects to discuss over dinner that evening.