Read Online A Song In The Dark by P. N. Elrod - Free Book Online Page B

How’d you know where to go?”
    â€œOne of ’em clobbered me from behind, only he didn’t make a good job of it. Knocked me down but not out. I saw them toss you in the back of the truck, then some piled into a car with Hoyle and took off. Good thing it was Ruzzo driving the truck, too.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œThey got into a fight over who’d drive. By the time they figured it out I was able to get up and into Gordy’s car. Then I just followed.”
    â€œYou did good, Strome. Thanks.”
    â€œNo problem.”
    â€œYour head bad?”
    â€œI’ll live. How’d you get outta the truck?”
    I stole the idea from him. “With Ruzzo driving? I just let myself out when we stopped. I kept low. They didn’t see a thing.”
    Thankfully, he accepted it. He nodded. “Before all that, I was gonna say something to ya about Mitchell. That you should look out for him.”
    â€œOh, yeah?”
    â€œHe didn’t like what Kroun did. Letting you off.”
    Mitchell had been poker-faced and then some through the whole session. The only time he showed anything was when I refused to display my war wounds. Such as they weren’t. “How could you tell?”
    â€œUsed to see him around. Here. Back when Slick Morelli ran the business.”
    I did my damnedest not to react. Morelli had been one of the bastards who helped murder me. “How far back was that?”
    â€œCouple years. When Gordy took over, Mitchell left for New York. He didn’t mind being third fiddle when Slickwas in charge, but he wouldn’t stand for being second fiddle to Gordy.”
    Strome was revealing new depths. I never thought the man was so musically inclined. “He was that high up? Third in line?”
    â€œHe was in there, but mostly in his own head.”
    â€œWas Mitchell ever up for Slick’s job?”
    â€œNot that I heard. There was a hell of a mess with Slick and Lebredo suddenly both gone, but Gordy stepped in and kept things smooth, and that’s what the big bosses wanted. No waves. Mitch didn’t like how it turned out, so he moved to greener pastures.”
    So there was a very good possibility that Mitchell remembered me from then, which might better explain his initial reaction. It wasn’t my looking young, but that I was the same Fleming who’d been around when Slick Morelli and Lucky Lebredo killed each other.
    That’s how we made it look , anyway.
    I didn’t specifically remember Mitchell from my encounter with Morelli’s gang. Aside from Gordy, who was too big to ignore, I hadn’t paid much attention to the muscle. The most I could say now was that Mitchell probably hadn’t been one of the guys who actually crowded me at the time, though he might have been on the fringes looking on.
    â€œGordy can tell you plenty on him,” said Strome. “More than me. He knows the real dirt.”
    Gordy could have mentioned something when we’d been talking in the casino. On the other hand he hadn’t been feeling so well. He couldn’t think of everything, and when Mitchell arrived it’d been too late to give me a heads up. Then again, Gordy might have held back so my attentionwould be on Kroun, not his lieutenant and bad memories about my own murder.
    â€œSo I should keep an eye on Mitchell?”
    â€œI was just sayin’ he didn’t like what happened up there. Don’t see what diff it should make to him. It’s just something to know.”
    â€œYou talk like Gordy.”
    He took it as a big compliment, nodding. “Thanks. You worked it okay with Kroun. I didn’t think you’d get out alive.”
    â€œNeither did I.”
    â€œSure you did. You knew before going in you’d walk clear. I could tell. I thought you was wrong, but you knew.”
    â€œThe power of positive thinking.”
    â€œMaybe. But you got Kroun on your side pretty fast.