Chapter 11

My stomach now feeling better than it had since I was arrested. I decided to check on the 'office'. I grabbed $200 from my stash and caught the subway. I didn't want to accidentally run into that conductor I had glaumed Mabel from. That gink might bear a grudge and try to knock me off!

The 'office' hadn't changed in a month, the area was so run-down that the dust wouldn't even get together. I turned the radio on for company and I tried to sort out the last two months. The G-men were keeping track of me, that was no bunk. They must have been, otherwise they wouldn't have been wise to the fact that I was in stir in Yaphank and wouldn't have sent that skirt with a buzzer to warn me off, that brunette skirt with a buzzer. I didn't know why it was, but I was dizzy for Miss Goldman; that is if she was still alive.

What about good old Mr. Marks? I already knew he had an interest in American Fascists. Why did he keep going to the Onyx club? Did he have a snitch in Tin Pan Alley? Or maybe a butter and egg man? These were the things I had to get the low down on. They would allow me to put the squeeze on Marks. I owed him bad. I was no longer on the nut, I decided that I would bring the fight to Marks and his gang.

France withdrew restrictions on gold deliveries. A French government official is quoted as saying, "The lengthy economic crisis has caused a certain amount of demoralization. France is living in a state of closed economy, almost autarchy." The same official also said, "To attain normal prices we must balance supply and demand, wages and prices. Everything will be useless if the national economy receives fresh shocks. Therefore, we pause."

Even the French were saying that they were in trouble. Now is not the time and Europe is not the place to be crying poor. I grew worried about the state of Europe and Mrs. O'Grady's son Tom. I shook my conk, telling myself not to cause myself any more problems than what I already had. I had lost my roscoe in the fire, so I went to my backup. I was in the middle of cleaning my rod, when there was a knock on the door. I always had people want to come in when I was busy. I was past coming across as a right gee, so I would let them see what it was really like being a PI. I shouted, "Come in, it's open."

I was wiping the grease out of the barrel, so I didn't see her enter. I heard her sit down and then my yap dropped open as I heard those melodious tones. "I see you lost your .45, in a fire?" My head popped up and I gazed into those beautiful brown peepers that I thought I would never see again. There Miss Goldman was sitting in front of me and looking cute as a bug's ear. She had a mischievous grin on her puss, waiting for me to say something.