Butt Out, Chicken Liver
Chicago: September 15, 1936
$1 = $22.36
“Beat it, Avery.” Cassian Avery straightened out the lapels of his eggshell white suit, scoffing as the phone girl pushed him away before even answering the line.
The numbers racket was busy today, full of people anxious to make a bid in the hopes that one of them might get that lucky 600 to 1 payoff. Idiots. What did they think they were going to do, win?
Avery pushed through the door of the office, smiling smugly as he got a curt nod from Narcissa Black, the head of the numbers racket down on the west side. She didn’t give him more than that, as the person on the other end of the phone she was holding up to her ear spoke again—just loud enough for Avery to hear.
“Narcissa, this is Alphard Black,” Avery recognized the name of the numbers racket down in Chicago. “Why haven’t we heard from you? Everyone else sent their money in earlier today.” Narcissa sighed, she leaned back into her chair and shot Avery a dirty look.
“We got into a little trouble with the law. Nothing major, just a few cops searching through the place…and then my runner was late.” Avery swallowed as she twirled the cord of the phone in her fingers, moving with the slow poise of a snake. Or an iguana.
“Alright. Well, finish counting it up and get it over here, I don’t wanna be here all night.” Alphard sounded annoyed. Narcissa began to rifle through her desk drawers, stretching the chord of the earpiece to its longest as she did and speaking into the mouthpiece still on the desk.
“The Man’s gonna be happy, Alphard. We cleared almost ten grand this week.” Alphard’s unimpressed voice replied a moment later.
“Oh yeah? We cleared 22.”
Narcissa found the envelope she was looking for, a thick white paper sealed with a dot of red wax. She tossed it down onto the table and shot a glare into the phone, which would have been more impressive if Alphard on the other end could see her.
“That’s because you’ve got the whole east side! What do you expect me to do with my lousy eight spots?” There was a rustling of paper on the other end before Alphard spoke again.
“They did 14 grand in Evanston, 16 in Gary, and 20 in Cicero. Looks to me like you’re bringing up the rear, Narcissa.”
Avery winced. Alphard was giving her a hard time. Narcissa flicked her finger at Avery, gesturing him over and handing him the envelope. It was heavy with cash. “Whatever. I’m sending the cash on the 4:15 to Joliet.” She didn’t wait for an answer before hanging up the phone and snapping at Avery.
“Take this to Joliet on the 4:15 train,” like Avery hadn’t just heard her. “And no stopping for any of your ‘fun.’ You can get a cab down the street.” With that, Narcissa swiveled her chair around and began looking through the numbers files, signaling that the conversation was over.
Avery tipped his hat to her and slipped the envelope into the breast pocket of his suit. He gave the phone girl one last wink before leaving the office. From how he dressed and acted, no one would be able to guess that he was simply an overdressed messenger boy.
Avery walked down the sunny street before turning down a large connecting alleyway, where most cabs go. It was deserted save for one other man.
He was slovenly dressed, his suit worn out from use. His black hair was messy and untamed, unlike a true gentleman. He carried a briefcase in one hand and was using the other to wipe at a stain on his glasses. A five o’clock shadow on his jaw signaled to Avery that he clearly didn’t care about how he appeared.
Avery paid him no mind and continued down the alleyway. All he had to do was get this money down to Joliet.
Before he could even finish his thought, Avery heard a commotion behind him. Both he and the man stopped, turning to see the fuss. Around the corner they could hear a few loud curses before a small man ran out into the alley.
He had wiry blond hair and a stained suit. Kinda looked like a rat.
He was barrelling down the alley straight towards Avery. In his hand, he was holding a bright red purse. The strap flew behind him as he sprinted away from the commotion. He was soon followed by an older woman. Her gray hair flew similarly to the strap behind her as she pointed to the thief.
“Stop him! Stop that man, he has my purse!” She waved her hands at Avery and the other man, her green dress flowing behind her as she limped after the man with the purse. She gave a yell and fell, crashing hard to the ground. Avery could see a dark patch of red on the side of her dress.
Avery stepped back, not particularly inclined to play hero right now. The other man, not so much.
The stranger waited until the thief was near them before he threw his briefcase at the purse snatcher’s legs, sending him sprawling down the pavement and the purse flying out of his hand. Before the thief could recover, The man with glasses kicked the purse away. Almost out of instinct, Avery snatched the purse off of the ground where it landed next to him. It was heavy.
The thief scrambled to his feet, baring his rat-like teeth in an ugly snarl. He pulled out a short pocket knife and brandished it at the man with glasses, hissing hoarsely.
“Damned fruitcake! I’ll get you for this!” He took a menacing step towards the man with glasses, whose whole body seemed to stiffen as if he was bracing himself. Avery stepped forward next to the man, curling his hands into fists. He was a part of this now. And, besides, it would look bad if he didn’t step in.
The thief’s eyes widened, now realizing it would be two people versus one (and noticing Avery’s very handsome and immense physical advantage over him), backed off a few steps before turning tail and sprinting off down the street. Avery watched the man go for a minute before the older woman called after them.
“Go after him! Please, he has all my money!” The man with glasses ran the opposite way she clearly wanted, to her. Avery followed him reluctantly.
He really shouldn’t be doing this. He should be getting to the train station and to be honest he didn’t really care about this old bat or her stupid purse. He wouldn't lower himself to do as much. But he sighed and did so anyway, out of the pure goodness of his heart. He mentally kicked himself for doing it.
The man with glasses knelt next to her and spoke softly. “It’s alright, ma’am. We’ve got the purse. What happened, did he hurt you? Did he get you with that knife?”
He motioned for Avery to hand her the purse, which he did reluctantly. The woman snatched it out of his hand, ripping open the top and completely disregarding her wounded leg, which was continuing to stain her bright green dress and turning it into a dark red.
The other man stepped forward. “Don’t move too much, please. I’ll get help, call the cops.” The woman stopped fumbling with her purse, her eyes wide in fear as she shook her head adamantly.
“No! No cops! It’s alright.”
She opened the top of her purse, and Avery’s eyes widened as she pulled out a huge wad of money, tied together with a rubber band. It might have even been more than the envelope he had in his pocket!
Avery felt his fingers twitch and a hot spike of irritation flare up his neck. He had just been holding that. If he had made a run for it…He could’ve had that. He could’ve had that!
Glasses let out a disbelieving breath. He’d obviously never seen this much money before in his life. “You wanted by the law or something?” His eyes narrowed in apprehension and he took a step backwards to stand side by side with Avery.
The woman shook her head, trying to pull herself up and using the wall of the alley as leverage. “No, not at all. I’m much obliged to you, but I really have to get going–” She cried in pain as her leg gave out from under her. The guy rushed forward again to balance her.
“You’re not going anywhere on that leg. You must be crazy, carrying a wad around like that, no wonder you got hit.” The woman shook her head again, still trying to get up.
“I have to. I run some slots down in West Bend for a mob here. I got a little behind on my payoffs so they thought I was holding out on them. They gave me until 4:00 to come up with the money. If I don't get it there, I'm dead.”
Avery frowned and looked at his watch. “Well, it doesn’t look too good, grandma, it’s 3:50 right now.”
The woman turned to him, fumbling for her wallet and pulling out a bill, holding it out to him in her wrinkled hand. “I have 100 dollars for you and your friend to go drop it off for me. Please, I’ll give you the whole hundred!”
Avery raised his eyebrows. A hundred bucks? With that money..well, it would be worth the trip. Narcissa wouldn’t even know. The man stood up apprehensively, looking back at the mouth of the alleyway.
“I don’t know…that thief’s already mad at me enough. What if he’s waiting behind that wall with a couple of friends?”
The woman waved the bill at him frantically, all but pushing it into his chest. “They won’t know you’re carrying it!” she cried.
He shook his head, grimacing and handing the money back to her. “Sorry, ma’am. I’ll help you out, get you to a doctor, but I’m not about to walk into some knives for you.”
The woman turned to Avery. It was already 3:55. “What about you? I’ll give you the whole hundred!”
The man piped up, waving his glasses at Avery. “Hey! What makes you think you can trust him? He didn’t do shit.”
Avery elbowed him out of the way and snatched the bill out of the lady’s hand. He shot a dirty look over at the stranger.
“Butt out, chicken liver. I returned the purse, didn’t I?” He turned back to the woman, who was taking out the bills and putting them into a wallet for him. “Where is this place?”
“4 Privet Drive. Put it in box 3. And hurry, will you? There’s $5,000 in there, plus the hundred for you.” Avery put it in his suit pocket next to the envelope and patted her shoulder.
“Don’t worry ma’am. You can trust me.” He could barely contain his smirk as he stood up, walking briskly to the exit of the alley.
He had almost got out when the man called him back. “Hey! If those goons out there search you, you’ll never get away with hiding it there.” He gestured to the inside pocket of his suit.
Avery turned back to him, a small prickle of fear tracing up his spine. He was right, that thief could have gotten some friends by now. Worse, he might lose the money he needed to get to the train…
“What do you expect me to do?” Avery crossed his arms over his chest. The man thought for a moment before springing up and walking over to Avery.
“Do you have a bag or something? A handkerchief?” The woman reached into her pocket and pulled out a lacy handkerchief, which the man took, flattening it out and holding out his hand for Avery.
“Put the money in here. All of it, your wallet too, if you want to keep it.” Avery nodded as the woman urged them to go faster. He took out both the wallet and the envelope and placed it in the handkerchief.
The man folded it up into a neat bundle. “Stick it here, in your pants.” The man demonstrated sticking the bundle down the front of his pants. Avery nodded as the man took it out again and handed it to him. Avery felt the light bundle for a moment before putting it down the front of his pants as well.
The man nodded in approval. “Ain’t a tough guy in the world who’d frisk you there.” Avery tipped his hat to the man, and then to the woman. “Thanks.” He didn’t stick around to chat, trotting out the alleyway, and looking around carefully before stepping out onto the street.
After a moment, he caught sight of the thief from before. He swallowed nervously and walked quicker as the thief began to follow him. Seeing the glint of a knife, Avery broke into a sprint, running to the cab zone and throwing open the door of the first cab he saw before hopping in. The cabbie turned back to him.
“Where to?”
Avery leaned forward, tossing him a few coins. “Which way is Privet Drive?” Avery asked, looking around. The thief was nowhere in sight.
Ha, sucker.
“North.”
“Alright, go south. Joliet Station, and step on it!”
Avery felt a laugh bubble from him as the cabbie shot out of the street. He leaned back in the seat and rubbed his hands together. Those idiots! They really thought he was going to just let go of all that money?!
Avery muttered to himself in delight. “The world’s easiest five grand…” He reached into the front of his pants, eager to get his hands on the extra money. He wouldn’t dare steal from the number’s racket, but that old crone? No question.
He pulled out the handkerchief and unwrapped it. And kept unwrapping it. And unwrapping it. Avery’s heart dropped as in his hand, he held an empty wad of cloth.