“Take his five thousand dollars,” Tommy ordered. “Take his watch. Take his ring. Take his gold-headed cane and his coat and his fur hat and his suit and his boots, and throw the son of a bitch in the river.”
They moved as one, surprisingly fast for big men.
The swell’s coat and tailored suit concealed a powerful frame. The stillness of his stance masked blinding speed. In the space of a heartbeat, one bouncer was sprawled on the floor, stunned and bloodied. The other was pleading for mercy in a high-pitched squeal. The swell had clamped his head under one arm, while he pressed his thumb to the bouncer’s eye.
Commodore Tommy gaped in astonished recognition.
Fitted over the swell’s thumbnail gleamed a razor-sharp gouge. The tip pressed the corner of the bouncer’s eye, and it was clear to the pleading gangster-and to Commodore Tommy-that with a flick of his thumb the swell could scoop the man’s eye out of his head like a grape.
“Jaysus, Jaysus, Jaysus,” breathed Tommy. “You’re Brian O’Shay.”
At the sound of that name the bouncer, whose eye was a fraction of an inch from being extracted from its socket, began to weep. The other, still struggling for breath on the floor, gasped, “Can’t be. Eyes O’Shay is dead.”
“If he was,” said Commodore Tommy, “he’s back from it.”
The Gopher Gang leader stared in wonder.
Brian “Eyes” O’Shay had vanished fifteen years ago. No wonder he knew goofer. If Eyes hadn’t vanished, they’d still be battling each other to boss Hell’s Kitchen. Barely out of childhood, O’Shay had mastered the gang weapons-slingshot, lead pipe, brass knuckles, and axheads in his boots-and even gotten his mitts on a police revolver. But O’Shay had been most feared for gouging out rivals’ eyes with a specially fitted copper thumbnail.
“You’ve moved up in the world,” said Tommy, getting over his shock. “That gouge looks like it’s pure silver.”
“Stainless steel,” said O’Shay. “Holds an edge and don’t corrode.”
“So you’re back. And rich enough to pay people to do your killing for you.”
“I won’t offer twice.”
“I’ll take the job.”
Eyes O’Shay moved quickly, raking the bouncer’s cheek even as he released him. The man screamed. His hands flew to his face. He blinked, removed his hands, and stared at the blood. Then he blinked again and smiled with gratitude. Blood was streaming from a slice that traversed cheekbone to jaw, but his eyes were intact.
“Get up!” Commodore Tommy ordered. “Both of ya. Go get the Iceman. Tell him to bring Kelly and Butler.”
They hurried out, leaving Tommy Thompson alone with O’Shay. Tommy said, “This ought to put an end to the rumors that I killed you.”
“You could not on your best day, Tommy.”
The Gopher Gang boss protested the insult and the contempt behind it. “Why you talking like that? We was partners.”
“Sometimes.”
They stood in silence, old rivals taking each other’s measure. “Back,” Tommy muttered. “Jaysus Christ, from where?”
O’Shay did not answer.
Five minutes passed. Ten.
Kelly and Butler sidled into the Commodore’s office, trailed by Iceman Weeks.
Brian O’Shay looked them over.
Typical new-breed Gopher, he thought, smaller, compact men. And wasn’t Progress a wonderful thing? Tommy was a throwback to the old days when bulk and muscle ruled. Now clubs and lead pipe were giving way to firearms. Kelly, Butler, and Weeks were built more like himself but dandified in the latest gangster fashion-tightfitting suits, bright vests, florid ties. Kelly and Butler wore polished yellow shoes with lavender socks. Weeks, the Iceman, stood out in hose of sky blue. He was the cool one who would hang back, let the hotheads take the chances, and then swoop in for the prize. In his dreams, the Commodore would die of something quick, and Iceman Weeks would own the Gophers.
O’Shay took three butterfly knives from his coat and handed one to each. They were German made, exquisitely balanced, quick to open, and sharp as razors. Kelly, Butler, and Weeks hefted them admiringly.
“Leave them in the man when you do the job,” O’Shay ordered with a glance at the Commodore, who seconded the order with a blunt threat. “If I ever sees youse with them again, I’ll break your necks.”
O’Shay opened a bulging wallet and removed three return tickets to Camden, New Jersey. “MacDonald,” he said, “will be hanging out in Del Rossi’s Dance Hall soon after dark. You’ll find it in the Gloucester district.”
“What does he look like?” asked Weeks.
“Like an avalanche,” said O’Shay. “You can’t miss him.”
“Get going!” Commodore Tommy ordered. “Don’t come back ’til he’s dead.”
“When do we get paid?” asked Weeks.
“When he’s dead.”
The killers headed for the railroad ferry.
O’Shay pulled a thick envelope from his overcoat and counted out fifty hundred-dollar bills on Tommy Thompson’s wooden desk. Thompson counted it again and stuffed the money in his trousers.
“Pleasure doing business.”
O’Shay said, “I’ll have use for those tong hatchet men, too.”
Commodore Tommy stared hard. “What tong hatchet men would you be wondering about, Brian O’Shay?”
“Those two highbinders from the Hip Sing.”
“How in Christ’s name did you know about them?”
“Don’t let the fancy duds confuse you, Tommy. I’m still ahead of you and always will be.”
O’Shay turned on his heel and stalked out of the saloon.
Tommy Thompson snapped his fingers. A boy named Paddy the Rat appeared at a side door. He was thin and gray. On the street, he was almost as invisible as the vermin he was named for. “Follow O’Shay. Find out where he hangs and what moniker he goes by.”
Paddy the Rat followed O’Shay east across 39th. The man’s fine coat and fur hat seemed to glow as he cut a path through the shabbily dressed poor who thronged the greasy cobblestones. He crossed Tenth Avenue, crossed Ninth, where he neatly sidestepped a drunk who lurched at him from the shadow of the elevated train tracks. Just past Seventh he stopped in front of an auto-rental garage and peered in the plate-glass window.
Paddy crept close to a team of dray horses. Shielded by their bulk, stroking their bulging chests to keep them calm, he racked his brain. How could he follow O’Shay if he rented an automobile?