Jimmy and Fay Read Online Free PDF

I’m two-timing you? Is that’s what’s been bothering you?”
    Her eyebrows popped up and she raised her hands like she was asking for guidance in dealing with such an ignoramus. I’d seen Marie Therese do exactly the same thing with Frenchy a hundred times.
    On her way out, she said, “I’m sure I don’t care who you spend your time with.”
    I checked my money roll and my knucks and slipped the picture book back into my breast pocket with my notebook. I didn’t even think about getting the .38 out of the safe.
    Frenchy and Arch Malloy were working behind the bar. I told them I’d be back in a couple of hours.

Chapter Four
    I caught a cab and told him to take me to the Majestic Towers on West Seventy-Fifth Street. It was around 9:00. I thought this was going to be one of those two-bird situations. Polly Adler had a huge apartment at the Majestic Towers. That time on a Thursday night, there was a fair chance you’d find Charlie there. If anybody local was peddling the pictures, Charlie probably knew who he was. Or Polly. Like I said, the book wasn’t anything like the cheap junk they sold out of the back rooms of the peep shows and burlesque joints. It was meant for the carriage trade, and that was Polly’s clientele.
    The cabbie let me out at the corner on Broadway near the apartment building and the awning over the sidewalk. The doorman was a guy name of Orlendorfer. He wore a gray topper and a bright red coat with gold buttons. Considering the getups that a lot of doormen had to wear, his wasn’t bad and it looked warm.
    â€œHello, Jimmy,” he said as I approached. “I’ll bet you’re here to see Polly. Guess you hadn’t heard.”
    â€œShe moved again,” I said.
    â€œAbout three months ago to the East Side. I got her cards. Just a second,” he said and went inside.
    I buttoned my topcoat against the cold, and by the time Olly got back, I wished that I’d thought to bring gloves. He gave me a card with a phone number and a picture of a red parrot.
    â€œShe’s at Madison and Fifty-Fifth,” he said. “Dropped by a couple of weeks ago and gave me some cards to give to the guys and girls who hadn’t got the word. Said she was just about ready to open up again.”
    He sidled a half step closer and lowered his voice. “If you’re heading her way, you might want something to give you a boost,” he said and produced a little glassine envelope of cocaine from his coat pocket.
    I said no thanks and slipped him a buck. He asked if I wanted him to hail a cab and I said no again. I had another stop to make before I saw Polly and headed east toward the park.
    Meyer Lansky lived a few blocks away on West Seventy-Second and Central Park West. His place was called the Majestic. Yeah, I was walking from the Majestic Towers to the Majestic. It could be confusing. Lansky lived in the Majestic when he was in town. His son Buddy was three years old, and he had cerebral palsy. Getting the right medical help for the kid had pretty much taken over Lansky’s life. Since the business with Masseria and Maranzano, he and his wife had been going from one specialist to another. The best man they found was in Boston, and Lansky bought an apartment there close to the hospital. But if he was in the city, I wanted to ask him about the dirty pictures. Now, don’t get me wrong. I never heard of him being involved with any business like that. Booze and gambling took up all of his time, and lately the gambling was more important. Still, he liked to know what was going on. He didn’t move to the Upper West Side by being ignorant.
    The guy working the desk in the lobby of the Majestic called Lansky’s apartment and told me to go on up to the third floor. The place was classy and really big with lots of rooms. I’d been there before and knew that in the sitting room in the daylight, you looked right down into the