Underbelly

When fellow mystery writer Nathan Walpow asked me to try my hand at an online serialized mystery on
www.fourstory.org
, a site he edits and I now contribute to regularly, I didn't expect that I could complete one in that form—let alone
The Underbelly
would see second life as a printed novella. Imagine… print as second life. In just the short span of years since I undertook
The Underbelly
, the traditional publishing world is in something of a freefall. Not to mention the careers of those of us who still love the tactile feel of the printed book in our hands—the hard evidence of our labors at the keyboard.

Kindles, iPads, downloading e-books off the net, reading chapters on your iPhone, social media marketing, it's all in a whirl as ways in which facts and news and entertainment are delivered to readers and viewers. Yet what remains is the human need for order in a chaotic universe, and so our love of stories doesn't cease. Indeed all these, and so many other forms of stimulating certain portions of our brains and hearts, seem to demand more stories, more ways in which narratives tell us of the rise and fall of heroes, scheming dentists and sacrificing single mothers.

Maybe, finally, it'll be a mash-up of you twittering your fifteen minutes of fame via live video streaming and your actions deconstructed by online and cable pundits as part of the never-ending 24/7 news cycle.

Meanwhile, I hope to still have avenues to tell my tales, so much thanks to Nathan, PM Press, and particularly my comrade, the erudite editor Andrea Gibbons, for shepherding
The Underbelly
to print. While I'm down for the aforementioned forms of delivering content, the printed word will always hold the mystery and awe that first gripped me those decades ago as a kid negotiating the aisles of the library at 61st Street Elementary School.

“W
HO YOU SUPPOSED TO BE
, old school?” Savoirfaire taunted, flexing his shoulders and shifting his weight onto his back foot.“Captain America don't live here no more.”

“I'm telling you it's through,” Magrady repeated calmly, eyes moving from the man's hands to his face, locking onto the faux-designer shades the discount desperado wore. “You and Floyd are done.”

“You his father, older brother, somethin' like that?”

“You're missing the point, Flavor Flav,” Magrady said. “My message is what you should be focusing on. Floyd Chambers is no longer on your loan list. No more vig off his SSI checks.”

The two men stood on Wall, smack in the womb of L.A.'s Skid Row. Unlike the street's more notorious incarnation in Manhattan, the West Coast version didn't boast of edifices as testament to giddy capitalism. The bailout around here was of the cheap whiskey and crack rock variety, the meltdown a daily occurrence.

“Oh, uh-huh.” The bottom-feeder nodded his head. “You lookin' to take over some of my territory, that it? Don't seem to me like you got enough weight between your legs to be doin' that, nephew. Don't appear to me you got enough left to run this block.”

Several homeless people had stopped to watch the show. Both men were about the same height, roughly the same build. But where Magrady's face was lined and his whiskers grey,
Savoirfaire's decades-younger features were untroubled and unblemished—the mask of the uncaring sociopath.

“We're done,” Magrady said, beginning to step back and away from where the other man stood outside the open door of his Cadillac Escalade. A vehicle with twenty-two-inch gold spinners for rims. Incongruously, Sam Cooke played softly on the vehicle's sound system.

The thug was butter-smooth in whipping out his pruning knife. The blade was vectoring toward Magrady's neck by the time the Vietnam vet reacted, forearm up. The sharp crescent sunk into his sleeved arm.

“What you got to say now, negro?” Savoirfaire gritted his teeth, expecting to easily pull his weapon free while ripping flesh and sinew. But, having been forewarned by Chambers, Magrady had wrapped several layers of cardboard around his arms under his oversized flannel shirt. The knife was stuck.

As Savoirfaire tugged the blade loose, Magrady drove the heel of his work boot into the hoodlum's knee, eliciting a decisive crack. The asshole teetered and Magrady landed a straight left to his jaw. He plopped down heavily on the contoured seat of his ostentatious 'Lade, his sunglasses askew. Magrady swiftly slammed the door three times on Savoirfaire's shins, causing him to drop his knife.

Over the yelping, Magrady repeated, “It's done.” He then sliced the hook knife into one of the Escalade's expensive sport tires. Magrady walked quickly away as it hissed flat and Savoirfaire screamed profanities but didn't come after the older man. There seemed to be a collective disappointment that eddied through the small crowd. The dustup over, the aimless now had to return to the crushing dreariness of surviving.

Making sure to move through the back routes, Magrady eventually made his way west on 6th Street. He hadn't been stupid enough to expect a rational discussion with the punk, yet had hoped it wouldn't come to violence. But really, why else had Chambers come to him seeking his help? He passed one of the specialty lunch trucks that were the fad these days in trendy areas. This one was called Goro-Ga and featured Korean-style bar-be-que beef tacos and chili dogs made from smoked andouille
sausages, and those of other meats including rattlesnake. The truck would twitter when it was coming to a specific location. The aroma surrounding the mobile eatery was intoxicating but the line was too long, so Magrady pushed past. His friend was in the offices of Urban Advocacy near Union at 8th as had been arranged.

“How'd it go?” Floyd Chambers asked cheerily. His strong arms propelled him forward in his ergonomically designed wheelchair with its slanted-in wheels. A residual smell of some pungent marijuana was evident on the disabled man's clothes. Mr. Chambers did enjoy his weed.

“Just peachy.”

“Great,” Chambers bubbled.

“Cut it out,” Janis Bonilla chided. Urban Advocacy's lead community organizer was twenty-eight, medium height, and honey-skinned, with several tats and piercings.

Magrady put his hands up. “It went like it went. You just stay off the Nickel for a few days and that chump's radar and everything's gravy, dig?”

“Don't worry about that,” Chambers said. “If things work out like it's lining up, I'm on the ones and twos, homey.” He popped a wheelie and spun in a tight circle on the coffee-stained carpet.

Magrady and Bonilla exchanged wan smiles. A month didn't go by when Chambers didn't hint at this or that scheme that was going to earn dividends.

Bonilla's cell chimed “Sambita” by the band Kinky. She answered. “Gotta bounce,” she said after a quick back and forth
over the phone. “We've got a big turnout happening in City Hall over the Emerald Shoals bullshit. Goddamn gala is in less than two weeks.”

“The war goes on,” Magrady said dryly.

“The offer's still good, champ,” Bonilla said, packing files into her messenger bag. She'd asked him recently to consider being an organizer with UA. He'd been sober this time for eight months going.

“I'll sleep on it.”

“Sure you will.” To Chambers she added, “See you, Floyd.”

“You tellin' it,” Chambers replied enthusiastically. The three went their separate ways.