Read Online Elsinore by Jerome Charyn - Free Book Online Page A

thousand-dollar bill he’d swiped from Phipps.
    â€œHolden, are you collecting antiques? This bill is older than you.”
    â€œBut is it for real?” Holden said.
    â€œOf course it’s for real. Only an imbecile would queer a thousand-dollar bill. You can’t pass off that kind of denomination. You’d have the whole Treasury department after your ass.”
    â€œI figured as much. But check it for me. There’s always that odd chance …”
    They moved to the back of Toshie’s bookshop. Tosh laid the bill inside a machine that looked like a pants presser with a window on top. He locked that pants presser and Grover Cleveland’s face appeared in the window, big as Tosh. The image startled Holden. He could see all the dots and dashes around Grover Cleveland’s neck, all the flurry of lines, the simple cross-hatching of any thousand-dollar bill. But that old fat president still haunted Holden.
    â€œWatch the eyes, Holden. Watch the eyes.”
    â€œI’m watching.”
    â€œNo counterfeiter could imitate that look. The eyes stare right out at you.”
    â€œToshie, I’m getting the creeps. The face is fucking alive.”
    Tosh laughed and unlocked the pants presser. “Who told you the bill was bad? That cantor, Phipps?”
    â€œYeah. He says he wasn’t a cantor.”
    â€œHe’s full of crap.”
    â€œWhat about his daughter, Tosh? Mrs. Vanderwelle.”
    â€œThere is no Mrs. Vanderwelle.”
    â€œIf her name isn’t Vanderwelle, what is it?”
    â€œChurch.”
    â€œThat’s the name of Phipps’ old sweetheart. I remember. Judith Church.”
    â€œThis one is also Judith.”
    â€œA pair of Judiths? So why does little Judith call herself Gloria Vanderwelle?”
    â€œBeats the shit out of me,” Tosh said.
    â€œWhat does big Judith do for a living?”
    â€œShe doesn’t have to do much. Phipps supports her. But she’s a drama coach on the side. And she has her own little theater company, the Manhattan Mimes. They do a lot of pantomime and straight stuff.”
    â€œHow’d you learn so much about the lady?”
    â€œI told you. I was an actor once. I even studied with Judith for a while.”
    â€œDid you ever meet little Judith?”
    â€œI don’t think so,” Toshie said.
    â€œWhat’s you theory? Mine is that mother and daughter might be bleeding the old man. So he has to come up with cash to stuff all the leaks.”
    â€œI don’t speculate, Holden. I’m your facts man. But I wouldn’t mess with those two girls. If they have the cantor on a string, imagine what they could do to you.”
    â€œI’ll be careful, Tosh.”
    Holden had Phipps and the two Judiths on his agenda, but he stopped off at the Algonquin to find Paul Abruzzi. The district attorney liked to hold court in the lounge. It had become his throne room. He was sitting with several Democratic precinct captains when Holden arrived, men with black teeth who gathered votes for Paul in the outlands of Edgemere and Hollis. Paul was always conspiring with political captains. He ran the borough of Queens from his table at the Algonquin. Paul dismissed the captains when he saw Sidney Holden.
    â€œHow are you, son?”
    â€œI’m in love with Fay.”
    â€œThat’s your misfortune,” the district attorney said. “Did you come out of your latest rathole to tell me that? I don’t want trouble, Sidney. I hear you’ve been running with Howard Phipps.”
    â€œDoes that scare you, Paul?”
    â€œYes it does. The man can do me a lot of harm.”
    â€œWho kidnapped Fay from Elsinore?”
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    â€œElsinore. You put her in that nursing home in College Point.”
    â€œShe never went near College Point. You don’t have all your marbles, Sidney. I could get you a