19

THE ENVELOPE FELT like a lump of lead in Kelly’s pocket. Normally he’d be pleased to feel that thickness and weight there in his jacket. But this was no normal wad and there was no comfort in it. If anything it was a reminder of how easily he’d been trumped. Worse still there didn’t seem to be a damn thing he could do about it. Kelly ground his teeth as he stomped down Pell Street. McManus, Spanish, and Kid Dropper followed with glum resignation, walking fast to keep up. When the boss was like this it was best not to follow too closely.

They climbed the stairs to the station of the Second Avenue El a few blocks away with Kelly still in a brooding silence. Jack mused on them taking the El like common citizens. The boss could afford a chauffeured barouche if he wanted, or one of the new automobiles, but those things meant nothing to him. Despite his sophistication, the boss still had the common touch.

“Jack,” Kelly said with a twist of his head to indicate he’d like to talk to him alone, “I have a job for you.” He trusted McManus about as much as he trusted any man alive. He was a reliable, if somewhat unimaginative, lieutenant, not a bad combination to Kelly’s way of thinking.

“Yeah, Paul. What youse want?” Jack said as he followed Kelly to a deserted portion of the platform. “Youse want me ta pay dat mug Saturn a visit?”

Kelly let a smile creep across his lips. “You see, Jack, that’s why you and me get along so well.”

Jack nodded as if that were true. “Youse want ’im hurt but not dead, right? Teach ’im a lesson in how t’ings is?”

Kelly hesitated a moment before answering, considering again the implications of what he was about to order. Kelly had to assume that Big Tim did, in fact, have designs on Saturn’s Knickerbocker Steamship Company. The Tammany boss was not a man to make a ten-thousand-dollar investment for the sake of goodwill and a few votes. Sending a message to Saturn was therefore a dangerous business. If Saturn wound up dead, he could lose Big Tim’s protection. At the very least, the cops would be all over his operations. It would be open season on the Five Pointers and everything he had built.

“This has to be handled neat, Jack. Nobody pointing fingers back at me. Recruit somebody through one of your guys, a low-level guy, but somebody smart, who can do what he’s told. Got it?”

“Sure, Paul, sure. I’ll fix it so’s nobody’ll know ’cept Saturn. He’s gonna know, I guarantee!”

Kelly shook his head and stared hard at Jack, his eyes as black as a grave in a cellar. “No! Not even that! I don’t want him to know. Just make it look like a regular mugging or something. Maybe get it done on the street near the Bottler’s if that damn fool is still gambling. But remember, he’s gotta live.”

“Sure sure. Livin’ an’ breathin’. I got it.”

“And Jack, once that job’s done, I want to see the Bottler.”

“Sure, boss, but youse could just go an’—”

“No! Bring him to me! You got that? I want him where I can…” Kelly hesitated. The El train rumbled toward them, vibrating the steel beneath their feet. There really wasn’t a need to say more. “Just get him.”