the Hot Kid (2005) (17 page)

"If they're too cheap to hire an armored truck," Jack said, "they're not gonna spend money on a bank guard. Even if they do, it'll be some hayseed they pay no more'n a buck and a half a day." Jack brought
a
.38 revolver from his coat pocket, handed it to Heidi and told her to put it in her purse.

Heidi said, "You want to rob the bank right now?"

Jack said, "It's as good a time as any."

He had told her during the 360-mile trip from the roadhouse, they'd have to rob a bank if they planned to stay in Kansas City awhile. Heidi asked him, didn't he know he might have to leave in a hurry? Didn't he have cash ready, just in case? Jack said sure, he did, there was a thousand bucks in the Packard, hid in where the spare tires were. He said any time he planned something ahead, like kidnapping his dad's girlfriend? It never worked out. He said but he was lucky, so don't worry about it.

Now, sitting in that same Ford Roadster on Swift Avenue in North Kansas City talking about robbing a bank, Heidi said, "Do we have to?" Jack said, "I've told you why."

"But I'm making money now."

"Enough to get by on isn't what I call making money."

"I never robbed a bank before."

"But you shot a man and laid him across the railroad tracks, didn't you?"

"That was different, they came to kill me and Norm."

"Different," Jack said, " 'cause it took way more nerve. Honey, there's nothing to robbing a bank. Come on, let's go do 'er."

They walked around the corner, came to the bank and entered to leave a dismal sky, rain threatening, for bright chandeliers shining down on marble: four cashier windows but only one occupied by a teller, a blonde girl; a bank official at his desk toward the rear, behind the low fence, busy with papers; and a guard on the floor, a skinny old coot in a gray uniform too big for him. Jack had called that one. The guard stood with his hands behind his back, the grip of a pistol showing in the holster on his hip. Jack, an unlit cigaret in his mouth, his hands in the pocket of his coat, was ready for him. He walked up to the guard and asked if he had a light. The old guy patted his pockets and shook his head. Jack was still ready. He said, "I only have one hand that's any good," and brought his left hand out of his coat pocket with a book of matches. He said, "Would you mind lighting me up?" The guard took the book of matches and Jack looked around at Heidi.

"Why don't you make the withdrawal?"

Heidi walked over to the blonde girl, who smiled at her and said
,
"Can I help you?"

Heidi set her purse on the counter in front of the window and saw the blonde girl look past her and then stare in that direction. Heidi wanted to look around but was afraid of what she might see. She brought the .38 out of her purse and pointed it at the blonde girl still looking past her and said, "You gonna wait on me or not?"

The blonde girl, seeing the gun pointing at her, said, "Oh my God--"

Heidi told her to take the cash out of the drawer and put it in the purse. Watching her do it, Heidi said, "Are you Dortha Jolly?"

The blonde girl paused, holding bills in her hands. "Somebody from school called and she went home. I think one of her kids took sick. You know Dortha?"

Heidi said no, shaking her head, and said, "Don't stop what you're doing." When she did stop Heidi said, "Is that all you have?" The blonde girl said yes, it was, and Heidi told her to move to the next window and empty the drawer there. Now she looked around to see the bank guard lying on the floor on his stomach, his head raised to watch Jack coming this way, to the window where the blonde girl was now, Jack saying to Heidi, "How we doing?"

She said, "Okay, I guess," handing him the purse. He was holding an old .44 Colt she thought of as a horse pistol he must've taken off the guard. He set both the pistol and the purse on the counter and said to the blonde girl, "Are you by any chance Dortha Jolly?"

"No, I'm not," the blonde girl said. "She sure is popular since she got her name in the paper."

"Well, you're doing fine," Jack said. "Keep up the good work," and shoved the purse toward her.

Heidi was looking at the bank official at his desk, the man staring right at them now. She said, "Jack--" and he turned from the counter and started toward the bank official, drawing his .38 from his coat.

"You press an alarm button?" He stopped within ten feet of the man shaking his head, swearing now, he never touched it.

All Heidi wanted to do was run. She grabbed the purse from the blonde girl stuffing bills in it and started for the door yelling, "Jack, he did, I saw his hand go under the desk." Heidi scared to death while Jack stood there pointing his .38 at the official swearing honest to God he never touched the button.

Jack said, "You sure about that?"

Taking his time now to show off. It drove Heidi crazy and she said to him again, "Jack, I'm leaving," and watched him turn and come toward her in kind of a slow strut, pausing to say something to the old coot still on the floor, and finally, finally, they were out of the bank. Jack picked up the pace now, grinning at her, saying, "I told you there's nothing to it. What can they do? We're holding guns on 'em."

As he said it she thought of the guard's gun, the big horse pistol still on the counter.

"What did you say to him?"

"The manager?"

"The old coot."

"I said, 'Papa, you ought to find some other work.' "

"You know what you did?" Heidi said. "You left his gun in there, by the teller's window."

It caused Jack to stop and look back toward the bank, then at Heidi before they started walking again. "I thought you picked it up." They were coming past Kroger's now. "I was busy with the manager."

"Showing him what a cool customer you are."

"You're saying it's my fault?"

"You took it off the old coot, didn't you?"

"You picked up your purse, it was right there."

"Nothing's ever your fault, is it?"

Jack stopped to look around again, kept staring to make sure and said, "Jesus Christ."

Heidi looked around and saw the old guy coming toward them on the sidewalk, trying to hurry, almost to Kroger's when he started shooting, holding that big .44 straight out in front of him as he came cocking and firing the revolver, an old Peacemaker. Heidi turned and ran. Jack stepped behind a parked car, got out his .38 and shot the coot, stopped him inside of thirty feet.

By the time they reached the car Heidi had decided she was through with Jack Belmont, leave him or become a nervous wreck. Something Heidi was curious about, if Teddy Ritz wasn't Italian, what was he? She asked Johnny, who ran the club, and he said, "I'm Italian, Lou Tessa's Italian, Teddy's Jewish." She told Jack and he said, "You didn't know he was a Hebe? Look at the honker on him." Jack had to let you know, if just by his tone of voice, he was smarter than you were. He'd insult you and think it was funny. Show off and scare the hell out of you. She was thinking seriously of leaving him, but wasn't sure how to do it. Tell him they were through or not tell him. He'd kept the money from the bank, close to seventeen hundred, and made her give him most of what she earned at Teddy's. If she left Kansas City she could clean him out, take all the cash he kept in the Quaker Oats box in the kitchen. But she liked her job and the way rich guys tipped and knew if she offered a little commercial screwing now and then, being selective, she could buy anything she wanted, clothes, even her own car. But if she stayed at the club she'd have to forget about taking the money; Jack would know where to find her. Even walking out on him without the money she'd be taking a chance. Sh
e
was thinking that if she ever got something going with Lou Tessa, it would be a lot easier to break it off with Jack. Four days after the bank job the La Salle pulled up in front and Teddy Ritz walked in, with Lou, to solve her problem. It started out like a social call, Jack offering to take Teddy's hat and coat, Teddy saying no, they weren't staying long. He sat down in the morris chair, a newspaper folded in the pocket of his Chesterfield. Tessa, his bodyguard, stood by the front door wearing his long black coat, hands folded in front of him, reminding Heidi of a funeral director she saw one time. Jack offered Teddy a drink, coffee, whatever he wanted. Teddy said he wouldn't mind a cup of hot tea on a cold day. Heidi gave Lou Tessa a careful look and went out to the kitchen to turn the gas on under the kettle. She came back to the living room, Teddy was telling Jack what a bang-up job she was doing with their customers. "From the first night, Jackie, she's one of our most popular girls." Jackie? She had never heard him called that before.

"I believe it," Jack said, "she's a little sweetie."

Teddy took out a cigar and bit off the tip.

"So what've you been up to?"

"Not much, this'n that."

Teddy lit the cigar and blew a smoke ring, not a perfect one but it was okay. Watching the ring he said, "Which was the bank in North K
. C
.?"

Jack was watching the smoke ring, too, dissolving now, and took a moment to say, "Excuse me?"

"The one you knocked over the other day. Was the bank this or was it that?" Teddy looked at Heidi. "Pretending he don't know what I'm talking about."

Heidi nodded saying, "Mmmmm." She quit glancing at Tessa to pay closer attention.

Teddy leaned to one side to bring the newspaper from his pocket folded to an inside page, and dropped it on the coffee table. Heidi saw a headline that said BANK & TRUST ROBBED OF $5000!

Jack said, "Wait a minute. You think I robbed that bank?"

Teddy said, "You and little sweetie."

The teakettle started to whistle.

Heidi rose from her chair.

Teddy held up his hand to hold her there. "Twice in the bank she called you by name. When she told you the manager pressed the alarm button, and when she said she was leaving." He looked at Heidi. "The manager said you couldn't wait to get out of there. Go on, make the tea. I won't tell Jack any more till you get back."

She started for the kitchen hearing Jack say, "That's why you think it's me? A woman calling to some guy named Jack?" And Teddy saying
,
"You hear what I told her? We wait till she comes back." Now she stopped in the kitchen doorway hearing, "Sweetheart, what kind of tea is it? Where's it from?"

"It's Lipton's," Heidi said. "I don't think it's from anywhere."

Teddy winked at her and she went in the kitchen telling herself she'd be okay. Jack was the one in the fire.

Jack finally came clean: all right, he and Heidi had robbed the bank, but he thought it was okay since it was out of the city limits. Teddy said, "You think Tom's influence ends at the river?" Jack said he should've known better--sounding like a kid who got caught stealing a candy bar from the dime store. Heidi loved it that he couldn't get smar
t
and put on that tone with Teddy Ritz, sitting there puffing on his cigar. He'd dip the tip into his tea and slide his lips around it before taking a puff, his shadowy cheeks drawing in before blowing out a cloud. He said, "Jackie, I'm gonna forget about the bank job, you're new here. But you created a problem we have to take care of." Jack squinted at him. "What problem?"

"The first thing you do is put the five in a bank."

"I didn't get five."

"And cut a check for half of it, twenty-five hundred."

Jack had to hold on to the arms of his chair. "I'm telling you we never got any five grand. They always do that, give the papers a higher figure than was taken."

Teddy held up his hand.

"You cut a check for twenty-five hundred made out to the Democratic Club--no cash that can be traced. That's what it'll cost to keep the police and the sheriff's department over there looking the other way. You killed a seventy-eight-year-old bank guard who spent fifty years in law enforcement and was loved and respected by the community. His people get a remembrance."

"That's a shame," Heidi said. "Jack even told the old guy he should find a different job."

Teddy looked at Jack. "Day after tomorrow around noon? I come by for the check made out to the Democratic Club of Jackson County. After that I watch you get in your car and leave Kansas City and I never see your face again. Sweetie stays here."

Heidi wanted to ask him, Keep my job? Hoping to God that's what he meant.

But Jack said, "Or what?"

Teddy frowned at him. "What're you talking about, 'Or what?' "

"I don't give you the check, you shoot my sweetie?"

Teddy started to smile. He leaned forward in the chair and looked around at Tessa standing by the door. "You hear what he said?"

Tessa nodded showing a faint smile. "I heard him."

Teddy said to Jack, "Shoot her--Lou shoots you, you dummy."

Chapter
14

Carl, carrying his grip, walked in the Reno Club on Twelfth as the band was leaving the stand: colored guys looking sharp in their gray, double-breasted suits, the piano player, a woman wearing a red silk headband, closing the cover over the keys. Carl said to the bartender, "I'll try that Ten High with a touch of water," and asked if the band was through for the night. It was only half past twelve.

" 'Nother band's coming on." The man placed Carl's drink on the bar. "The Count, Lester, Buck Clayton, whoever wants to sit in."

Carl said, "They any good?"

The bartender had turned away and a colored guy sitting at the bar, a scar under his left eye, a space between his front teeth, was looking at Carl holding his grip. He said, "Just come to town, huh? You one of those crazy Shriners?"

Carl said, "No, I'm a crazy U
. S
. marshal. I'm looking for somebody I know ain't here. Everybody in this joint's darker than she is."

Carl sat down wearing the hat he was breaking in and his raincoat. This tough-looking guy next to him had turned and placed his elbows on the bar in front of his bottle of Falstaff. Carl drank the top part of his highball and got out his Luckies. The guy next to him already had a cigaret going.

"I came in to the Union Station," Carl said. "That's the biggest place I've ever been in, like a cathedral only bigger. They got a Harvey's, a bookshop, a waiting room just for women . . . What I don't understand, the ceiling in the lobby must be a hundred feet high. What good's all that space?"

The guy next to him, leaning on his arms, said, "You never heard of Count Basie?"

Carl paused before saying no, he hadn't. "But I think I've seen you someplace."

The guy shook his head looking tired. He said, "Man, don't pull that shit on me. I never been arrested in my life."

"You ever been to Tulsa?"

"A few times."

"You play piano," Carl said. "Where'd I see you, at Cain's Ballroom?"

A painful look passed over the guy's face. "Man, I don't do that hillbilly shit. I played at La Joann's with the Gray Brothers."

"That's where I saw you," Carl said, "yeah, La Joann's. You were playing piano . . . Your name's McShane?"

"Jay McShann. You saw me play, huh? But you never heard of Count Basie?"

"I might've, I don't recall the name," Carl said. "I got interested in the music and bought some records. Andy Kirk--"

"And his Clouds of Joy."

"Chauncey Downs and his Rinky Dinks."

"Has a tuba in his band."

"George Lee and his sister."

"Julia. They the ones just left the stand."

"Yeah? I didn't know it was them."

"You want to meet 'em? I'll introduce you."

"Yeah, I wouldn't mind."

"Shake the Count's hand too. He's coming when he gets here." "You play with him?"

"No, uh-unh, the man owns the piano, any piano he sits down at. I'm on later at a club with cats from around town. We piss on the stage, man, sit down and wail till the sun comes out. You never heard anything like this at La Joann's."

"I heard Louis Armstrong in Oklahoma City when I was there and bought one of his records. I took it home, my dad only listened to it once. He said that was enough."

"You live with your daddy?"

"I'm in Tulsa, he's in Okmulgee. I go down there sometimes for the weekend."

"Man, I was born in Muskogee, left there as soon as I had a pair of long pants." This piano player named McShann stared at Carl before saying, "You know, there's something about you looks familiar. Like you had your picture in the paper?"

"A few times."

"You shot somebody famous, didn't you? I'm thinking it was a bank robber."