Читать книгу Bum Rap - Donald E. Morrow - Страница 13

It turned out to be a quiet night. I nursed two beers through the whole night. There were no fights. Del, Lenny, and Mark all found time during the evening to stop by my table for a minute, but no one else bothered me, and my mind found its way over to the section that was concerned with Abe Roster.

Since it was practically certain that I would meet up with him, I got to wondering if he could fight. See how things had gone down in the bar. He had no real chance to display his ability. He hadn’t expected me to do what I did, so he didn’t have time to actually fight me. Maybe, just like me, he was looking forward to it.

Just before closing time, I noticed the four girls I had seen in the booth go out the front door. They’d be back, I thought.

After we’d buttoned the place up for the night, I got on my scooter and headed for the lake. I’d looked at some roadmaps during the day, so the trip was only fourteen miles. It was three o’clock in the morning when I arrived at my campsite, and a quick glance around the site told me everything was as it should be, so stripping off my clothes, I waded out in the lake to deep water and took a bath. Daylight might have been better because the sun would have warmed the surface of the water, but if someone spotted a guy swimming next to woods, with no boat around it might cause some talk. That night, for the first time in weeks, I dreamed of girls.

The next day was practically a ditto of my first day on the job. Del and Mark had gotten there early, so I showed them a couple moves that might be helpful in a fight. The rest of the time, while we waited for Phil to come and open up, we just shot the bull, and laughed at a couple jokes.

We all were eager for someone to start some trouble, but it never happened all week, and then came Saturday night. All hell broke loose. Fight. No. We’d waited all night for it to happen. All of us on edge. I didn’t know about the other guys, but this would be my first night to see some action as a bouncer. It never happened. The night went by without incident, except that is, until closing time.

The guys had just made their rounds, making sure that the building was empty of customers, and that no drunk was passed out under a table when two guys came through the front door with shotguns.

We all froze. Everybody in the building. Hands went up. The bandits didn’t have to say a word. We all knew the routine. Raise your hands as quick as you can so you don’t get shot! Stay alive. Don’t risk your butt for another man’s money. Stay out of it! That included me. I was hired to fight. Nothing had been said about holdups.

A shotgun makes a hole that damn few people can recover from. Those that don’t die instantly die later while sweating surgeons try to recover all the pellets from the blast. I was still sitting at my table when Phil came out of his cave door.

“Awful quiet out he...” and then he saw the guns, and his employees with their hands in the air.

He was quiet for just a second, and then he spoke.

“Okay, guys. You got a winner. You get all the money, and no one gets hurt. Jody, honey, these boys want you to go behind the bar, and get that big old bag right by the cash register. Now you boys with the guns, I want you to look at Jody.

“See how she’s dressed. Skimpy, huh? No place to hide a weapon, so you need not worry about her. Only weapon she’s got is those pretty teats, and that bouncy butt. Jody, do it, right now.”

And I watched him and Jody but mostly the guys with the guns. They still didn’t speak. Hell, they didn’t have to. The guns did all the talking, and Phil did the rest.

Jody was fast. She ran behind the bar, and ran back, and then right out to the robbers where she threw the money bag at their feet, then dropped right down to the floor to sit on her butt with her pretty legs sticking out in front of her. One gunman reached for the bag, and then they both backed out the door.

“Nobody moves,” Phil yelled. “Stay right where you are. No heroes tonight.” Well, that’s what we did. But then came the shots.

“Don’t move. Keep your seat.”

Even Jody sitting in that uncomfortable position didn’t move a muscle. Then, after maybe four minutes, he walked over to the door, opened it, and went outside. Less than a minute later, he came back inside with the money bag in his hand. Slowly, he locked the door. “I got a brand new rule,” he said. “When the last customer leaves, we lock the door.”

What in the bloody hell had I just seen? A hold-up. Two men with shotguns! They took the money. A couple minutes later we heard shooting, then the boss goes out and gets his money bag. Unbelievable. It was a set-up. They never had a chance. They’d been murdered.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened. Me, and my helpers, were not the only employees.

Phil had snipers posted outside the club. There was some kind of hearing system hooked up so that the snipers could hear what was going on inside the club. They’d waited for the hold-up men to step outside the club and then killed them. Phil had not only created the design for his club. He had created a way to protect his money. Somewhere down in my gut, I felt a shudder. Phil was not a man to mess with.

It was during the following week when he sat down at my table and started talking.

“You’re wondering why I don’t use my shooters to take care of Abe Roster. Right?”

“Well, it crossed my mind. You’re paying me a hundred dollars a day to set around on my big fat. So far, I haven’t broken up a single fight. I have put nobody out for misbehaving or done one damn thing to earn that hundred bucks. I could settle the Abe Roster thing with one cheap bullet, so from where I’m sitting, it looks like you’re not a good businessman, and yet. I know that’s not true. I’m confused. Unconfuse me.”

“He laughed.” A deep melodious sort of thing from way down in his belly.

“It’s simple. I can’t logically kill a man for property damage. It’s just not right. If he steals my money, well now he’s fucking with my livelihood. I got to eat. To do it, I have this club. I’m the same as the caveman. If you steal my food, I got to kill you. You dig it?”

“Yes, sir,” I said, and I don’t know if it all came out, but there was a lot of feeling behind my words. “I sure as hell do.”

Somehow thereafter, I felt a kinship of sorts with my boss. His outlook so closely paralleled mine, as to be almost the same, and yet, the man will have been raised up in a different environment than mine.