William Kennedy - Chango's Beads and Two-Tone Shoes

“I don’t bring them in,” Alfie said. He lowered the tailgate of the pickup revealing three wooden boxes with toys, pots, rugs. He lifted off a pot and a rug and guns were visible. “Open your truck’s back doors, I’ll load them in.”

“You want to load guns on the street?” Pedrito said.

“Load guns on the street?” Alfie said. “Who would do such a thing? We are moving pots and toys.”

“You are very smart or very stupid,” Javier said.

“Yes. I never know which.”

“He is crazy, but smart,” Pedrito said. “Do it.”

Pedrito counted out four thousand dollars for Alfie as Javier climbed into Alfie’s truck. He picked up an automatic rifle, removed the magazine. “Thompson,” he said, “nice,” and he snapped the magazine back in place, removed it.

“If you want to check every weapon,” Alfie said, “we can go down to the beach, fire them all to see if they work.”

Javier smiled at the maniac, then picked up a.45 caliber Spanish machine pistol and snapped in a loaded clip and put it in his belt under his coat.

“Open your truck,” Alfie said and he lifted the box with dolls from his pickup and carried it to the panel truck. He slid it into the back and came in and said to Quinn, “I need a hand with the big one.”

Quinn lifted one end of the box that was topped with a large model airplane and carried it out with Alfie. Javier monitored the loading while Pedrito talked quietly to Renata. Alfie loaded the third box alone and closed the truck doors. A car pulled up to a gas pump and the driver spoke to the blonde, who pumped gas for him while Pedrito and Javier pulled away in their truck. The blonde came into the garage and put money in the register. Quinn saw a triangle and five numbers tattooed on her left forearm.

“That Pedrito,” she said to Alfie. “He is Aurelio from the Directorio. He was with Holtz when Gustavo and I met them on the dock.”

“Did he recognize you?”

“I doubt it. Gustavo and Holtz did the talking. I sat in the car.”

Alfie looked at Renata. “You’re with the Directorio,” he said.

“I have nothing to do with it,” she said.

“Your friend Pedrito-Aurelio doesn’t know he just bought the guns I brought in for him. He and his friend Holtz made the deal with my partner but they never came to get them. You don’t know Holtz either.”

“I know nobody named Holtz. I know Pedrito from the university. I did this as a personal favor to him.”

“Aurelio paid too much,” Alfie said. “Our price to Holtz was thirty-five hundred, not four thousand.” He took out his cash and held out five hundred to Renata. “Give this to Aurelio.”

“Why should I take this?”

“Aurelio will be angry they overpaid. You can do him another favor.”

Renata put the money in her brassiere. “I will see if Pedrito takes this. If he doesn’t, I’ll return it. He will be grateful if it is as you say.”

“The Directorio people are mostly dead,” the blonde said. “That Aurelio now has more guns than people to use them.”

“I don’t know anything about the Directorio,” Renata said.

“You should listen to the radio,” said the blonde. “They are mostly dead.”

“We should go,” Renata said to Quinn.

“I want to take you both to dinner,” Alfie said. “This was a good day for business.”

“I’m sorry,” Renata said. “I have to go.” She got into the Buick.

“Dinner is a fine idea,” Quinn said to Alfie. “Where do you want to go?”

“The Montmartre. The owner is a friend of mine. Their steaks are as good as the floor show.”

“I’ll talk to her,” Quinn said, and in the Buick he said to Renata, “We have to let him thank us, and I want to know more about him. He’s unusual.”

“He is a gangster.”

“Some gangsters are unusual. It’s the Montmartre. They have good steaks. I told you not to lie to him. He knows who Pedrito is and you even took the money. I thought you were a good liar. You’re a terrible liar.”

“He knows I’m lying. He also knows I did not betray the Directorio. Are you so stupid?”

Quinn considered this. “It’s possible I’m stupid,” he said.

“I think Inez is a whore,” Renata said. “She has the whore’s manner, the coldness.”

“You can’t know that about her.”

“I don’t like what she said about the Directorio.”

“She may be conditioned to be cold. Did you see that tattoo on her arm?”

“Yes.”

“The Nazis did that to Jews.”

“I never saw one before.”

He backed the car out. Alfie carried the tires inside and locked the garage and Inez padlocked the gas pumps. Then they got into the backseat.

“So we’re on for the Montmartre, you’re both my guests. And we’ll take Inez, who works in the casino there.”

“That’s fine,” Quinn said. “Isn’t that fine, Renata?”

“Yes, it’s fine.”

“Inez used to be a dancer,” Alfie said. “She danced all over Spain and France in the war years.”

“And in Havana,” Inez said.

“Where in Havana?” Renata asked.

“Many places. The Sevilla-Biltmore, the Savoy, the Sans Souci. I was very young.”

“The Sans Souci — I went often when my sister sang there,” Renata said. “The dancers in those places always became whores. Customers offered them so much money.”

“Is that what happened to you?” Inez asked.

“I was not a dancer,” Renata said, “I would never take money for that.”

“You only do it for love,” Inez said.

“Exactly. Do you know the owner, Trafficante?”

“I do.”

“My sister is a good friend of his.”

“He is a generous man.”

“We’re going to the Montmartre, not the Sans Souci,” Alfie said. “Lansky owns the Montmartre casino.”

“I cannot like him,” Renata said. “I dislike his eyes.”

“He’s a sweetheart,” Alfie said.

“Who do you think that Javier is?” Quinn asked. “I think he’s with Fidel.”

“You may be right,” Alfie said.

“I would love to work with Fidel,” Renata said.

“I’m going to try for an interview with him,” Quinn said.

“ The New York Times just did that,” Alfie said.

“Fidel can’t have too many interviews. Batista’s army kills him every day in the papers. He has to keep proving he’s still alive.”

“Everybody wants Fidel,” Inez said.

“He’s got momentum,” Quinn said.

“He’s the only game in town,” Alfie said.

“Maybe you should move your store to Santiago,” Quinn said to Alfie.

“Why didn’t I think of that?”

“I am going to Santiago,” Renata said. “Definitely. I’ve said it before but now I’m going to do it. I am.”

“I’ll do the driving,” Quinn said. “Can we keep this car?”

The Montmartre was at O and Twenty-fifth and they dropped Inez at the door on Twenty-fifth that led directly up to the second-floor casino. After she was out of the car Quinn said, “She has a Nazi tattoo.”

“She was in a camp,” Alfie said. “Worked with her father in French nightclubs until someone betrayed them as Jews. She weighed seventy pounds when I met her in Europe after the liberation. She wanted to go to New York but they wouldn’t let her in — Commie Jew. Then Trafficante gave her a job down here.”

“Why did he do that?”

“I asked him to,” Alfie said.

“I owe her an apology,” Renata said. “I thought she was a whore.”

“She was a whore. Her father pimped for her. Then they used her that way in the camp. She was gorgeous. Her father died in the camp and when she got well she survived as a whore. She couldn’t dance anymore. They ruined her knees.”