Read Online Make Believe by Ed Ifkovic - Free Book Online Page A

distance from one another, the two hostile factions content to drink in corners and eye the others over the rims of their whiskey glasses. No one was happy, but maybe Tony/Tiny.
    Lorena told me, “As you can tell from our opening skit, Ethan used to be a scriptwriter.”
    From across the room Ethan shook his head. “For God’s sake, Lorena. Not really. One measly script doesn’t count. I’m a numbers guy.”
    “You mean a racketeer,” Frank joked. He was pouring himself a drink.
    “Yeah, sure thing.” Ethan didn’t look happy.
    Ethan, I noted, drank spring water, refusing liquor. And he eyed Tony who got drunker and drunker, at one point spilling his drink on his sleeve. Now and then Ethan put out his hand, protectively, admonishingly, warning in his eye. When Tony turned away, Ethan slid Tony’s glass to the side, the older brother as desperate protector. He saw me looking. “I am my brother’s keeper, Miss Ferber. A lot of good it does me.”
    Tony looked at his brother, squinted. “You won’t let me have fun.”
    “That’s because one of us goes to work in the morning, the one who pays your bills.”
    Tony narrowed his eyes, a trace of resentment there. “I make money at the club.”
    “Which you toss away.”
    “Now, boys,” Frank began, “remember your old mama in Hoboken.”
    Ava spoke up. “Francis is loyal to old friends to the point of downright suffocation. Get him talking about playing kick ball with Lenny in the street and he’ll get weepy on you.”
    Frank ignored her. He raised his glass. “To the memory of Lenny, my old boyhood friend.”
    I toasted someone I didn’t know, but I noted that neither Max nor Alice raised their glasses. At the mention of her dead husband—I flashed to that clipping of Alice in a police station—Alice looked down into her lap. Lorena was shaking her head, unhappy. Ava sat with her arms folded, her lips drawn into a straight line.
    Tony leaned into me. “Frank takes care of us. Got me the job in the valley. He knows people.”
    Ava spoke over his words. “Max used to be Tony’s agent, but Tony deserted Max when…” She stopped, flustered.
    Downing his drink and swaying back and forth, Tony bellowed, “When Alice murdered my brother.”
    The words sailed across the room. Time stopped.
    Lorena had been lighting a cigarette but froze, the match burning.
    Looking up, Alice gasped.
    “Cool it, Tony.” Frank spoke through clenched teeth.
    “Don’t be an idiot, Tony.” Ava punched his sleeve. “Not here tonight.”
    Ethan was frowning. “Tony, shut up.”
    But Tony couldn’t be stopped. “I gotta say it again. She pushed him off that balcony. She got all the money. His money. Our money. Lenny promised us, remember? She married that…that fool Max. Him .” He pointed at the ashen man. “He was just…waiting.”
    Ava spoke to me sarcastically. “The legendary Lenny Pannis had lots of money, pots of it at the end of the Hollywood rainbow, at least his brothers believe he did. He ran shadowy businesses and played with the big boys. He was a big shot in this town. Supposedly he made a fortune.”
    “He did,” Tony went on, his words biting. “He did . Alice killed him. He was gonna divorce her. The money…” He glared at Alice, who was staring down into her lap again. Max was making rumbling noises, fidgeting in his seat.
    I stared at them all, stupefied by this raw and public scene.
    “Stop it now,” Ethan whispered.
    Ava was trying to end the conversation and looked at me. Perhaps she saw disgust on my face, tempered by a little wonder. “The neighbors heard them arguing on the balcony. Lenny, agitated, toppled over. Alice was inside…”
    Tony yelled, “That’s the phony story the police bought.”
    Ethan stood abruptly and looked shame-faced. “We shouldn’t have come. Tony, get up.”
    But there was no stopping the drunk man. “I fired Max. He was an accomplice to murder.”
    Ava sneered. “And look at the jobs you’ve been