Can't Do Nuttin For Ya Man

Without an explanation, Chris and I got in his car and left Josie's... About an hour later...We met up with Walter "Kool Kat " Jones at the Aqua Bar...A new after hours spot that everybody was starting to hang out at after they left Josies.

"What's Up Chris, Chess?  I figure this must be big if you're texting me and not bringin Smooth along on this." said Kool Kat.

"Yeah...Next to Chess here..Smooth is my main man, been ridin with me for a long time...but I figured I'd give him and young Owen a break..." said Chris.

"So let me guess...You guys are tryin to find that chick...Knowing Frankie, like we all know him...To be a lyin, connivin backstabbin weasel..You guys figure that Theresa is in more danger than she deserves to be." said Kool Kat.

"At least Chess does." laughed Chris....

"Ahhh Chess.. My man...you remind me so much of Kev.....Both of you guys are tough as nails...but you let your heart guide you through so much.." said Kool Kat.

I thought he  and Chris was about to clown me...

"Good Trait...One I want to be able to have one day." said the big man.

"Indeed." said Chris Thompson... "I guess I'm just a gangster I suppose..." said Chris.

"Nah man...you're better than that..both of you guys are...you both walked away from what you used to do..You're better...We better..We not like Frankie." I said.

"Speaking of which...We gotta find him...This is a big city and it's late...He could be anywhere or he could be gone." said Chris.

"He aint gone..Not yet." said Kool Kat.

"What makes you so sure?" I asked.

"Think about it...By now...Mikey Snow has his henchmen all over the airport...at the train station and at the Bus Station...He's bottled in...He 's not sure if Fathead has got people lookin for him or not....He don't..but Frankie don't know that....He's got to be somewhere that nobody...and I mean NOBODy would dare look for him." said Kool Kat.

"From the very beginning, he's been spreading around false clues... A hotel where he registered in his own name...Crazy right?  Theresa shows up on time and blows up in there!  If her body is identified...it's safe to say that Mikey would think that Frankie was dead too..Only Theresa doesn't get there....Then he appears to be crashing at Nate Athen's joint....A person everybody knows is his best friend here....Poor Nathan is tortured and murdered and only gives up his spot...Because he doesn't know where Frankie is really holed up." I said.

''Right....and Frankie is holed up somewhere where even they can't find him...It's not a hotel...It's not relatives..It's somewhere else..."said Chris.

"What about the money?" asked Kool Kat..

"He had to stash it somewhere...A Pawn shop maybe!" I said.

"Nah...A pawn shop is an obvious place they'd look...And nobody in their right mind would hide anything holding money of that magnitude at no pawn shop.No Frankie hid that money...Somewhere he knew nobody else would think to look.." said Chris..

"Besides...The Pawn Shops are closed...and by morning...it'll be too late. It might be  a safe deposit box....but where would we even begin to look?" said Chris...

"Let's call this one baby....I'm sorry Chess...We don't have enough time...This is a big city..they could be anywhere...Besides..I don't get this babe..Frankie cracks her at will, Lies to her , gets her mixed up in this mess, sets her up to be killed at least twice and yet she stays with him..Why?? I don't get it." said Chris...

And then...it hit me!!!!!!

"Chris..Kool Kat...Why do people stay together ? I mean why do couples stay together long after it should be over for both of them?" I asked.

"I don't know. She's crazy I guess" Chris answered. His voice was beginning to betray the hurt he felt at being rejected by Theresa for Frankie, a guy he loathed.
"Because of memories...memories man...They remember what was good in the past." I said.

"Okay...So what?" said Chris...
"Theresa told me about the place she met Frankie....The old Royal Theatre." I said.

"That dump? It's been closed for years....Wait a minute!...Yeahhhhh...Who would look for anybody there?" said Chris....

"Let's ride boys." said Kool Kat.

II-

We parked three blocks from the Royal and walked quietly towards it... Chris had his .45, Kool Kat had his .44 Mag and I had my .45...Enough firepower to match anything that Mikey was sending.

The back door was open...Chris and I slipped in..We instructed Kool Kat to act as a look out for us... It was eerily quiet..I was beginning to think that this was all a mistake until I heard the click of a gun behind us!!

The lights suddenly came on...and standing behind us, with a gun trained on us was Frankie Fontaine!!!

''Wow..Imagine that..Chess, the electricity in this place is still workin...after all these years." mused Chris.

"Yeah ,how about that? Wonder who foots the bill?" I mused.

"You shouldn't have come here....Where is my gotdamn money and where is Theresa?" Frankie screamed...
"She's not here? " I asked.
"No..you guys got her..You talked her into stealing my money!!!" he said.
"We came here to get her." I said.
"And you mean Mikey's money don't you?" The money you stole from Mikey Snow." said Chris.

"Whatever Man.Where's my dough Chris?" he snarled.

"I don't know what you're talking about....We came for the girl..she aint here..We out!" he said.

"Awww no...You aint goin nowhere....Nobody knows about this place....and nobody still aint gonna know..I hate that you mixed up in this Chess...I  always liked you....but you ride with your boy, you die with your boy..." said Frankie...

"So you gonna shoot me Frankie?  You gonna shoot me and Chris right? Reason you're alive now is because ,against our better judgement we been runnin point for you." I said.

"What? You guys? hmmmm ....So you aint seen Theresa huh?" asked Frankie.

"No...and we really don't want to see you... You aint the safest person to be seen with, from what I hear." sneered Chris.

We then heard another click from a gun!!!!  It wasn't Kool Kat!!

"Hello Frankie..Long time no see." said the gunman...

"Nick..What are you doin here?" said Frankie, who now had pure fear in his eyes...

"Mikey Snow sends his regards.." said Nick..

"Listen...I can explain...It was all a misunderstanding...We can work somethin out...I can return the dough..Call it even." said Frankie.

"I'm afraid not Frankie....He wants you dead.....It aint me babe...I got nothin personal against you, You know that..We always been square...This is business babe... Man say he want you dead... I gots to make sure you dead." said Nick.

"Well...You boys settle this amongst yourselves..We are out ." said Chris , as he and I turned to walk out..
"Heyyy wait a minute...Aint you part of Frankie's crew?" asked Nick.

"Frankie's Crew???Hell no.....He was gettin ready to shoot us." said Chris.

"Chris, Chess...Heyyyyyy guys look...Let's forget all our differences...All that other stuff...That's ancient history babe!!, We from Philly.. Me, You, Chess,WE FROM PHILLY man!!!... We come up together...Don't let this...This New Yorker kill me...Come on mannnn...Come onnnnn...Help me out." said Frankie.. Looking desperate and frightened...For a second...I felt pity for him...but Chris didn't...

"I can't do nothin for ya man." said Chris....He motioned for me to follow him out and I did..

"Uh Uh..Where do you two think you're goin?" said Nick.

"Oh we are leaving...That's usually what you do when a conversation is over." said Chris Thompson.
Nick laughed and cocked his gun...a .44 mag....

"I don't think so.....I don't leave no witnesses...You cats just in the wrong place at the wrong time." he sneered.

Chris looked at me...I looked at him...We both drew our .45's and began to shoot... Kool Kat heard the gunfire and he entered from the back..His .44 magnum blazing...and of course Frankie unloaded his .45 into Nick, who's body jerked something feirce! He spun around like a top from the gunfire and fell up against the wall...A wall that was so weak his hand went through it... He slumped down and his arm pulled the rest of the plaster off of the wall... He tried to keep himself upright....He stumbled like a drunk man...
He dropped his gun...He looked at the stream of blood running out of his body and then looked at us...
"Oh My God...Oh My God.. Ohhhh Boy! I...I...I don't believe it...I've been shot!" he said....."Ohhhhhhhh sweet lord....I've been ...ohhh ,I've been shot...I'm bleedin....ouuuuuu...it's gettin dark...ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...My feet!!!...My feet feel hot!!!...ouuuuuuuuu...my feet feel hot...ohhhhhhhhhhhh... It's gettin dark...ouuuuuu.." he said and then fell to the ground..dead as a doorknob!

Kool Kat Looked at Me...I Looked at Chris.....Frankie looked at both of us...

"Sure took that cat a long time to die." said Kool Kat...Frankie looked at him and smiled.

"He was a talkative one wasn't he?" said Chris...For the first time in life..He and Frankie shared a laugh...

"Thank you guys...Thank you soo much.....Chris...I can't believe you saved my life. I owe you man. I take back every bad thing I ever said or thought about you." he said.

Chris frowned...."Don't mention it Frankie...Believe me...I don't want to think about it." he said.

Kool Kat and I looked at each other and smiled....Chris looked like he was about to be sick.  That made me and Kool Kat smile even broader.
"Look man...I gotta sky up....If you see Theresa..Tell her I'm sorry and that one day I'll make it up to her." he said and then he walked out of the abandoned theatre, visibly shaken....and into the night!!!!

Chris looked at me and smirked-

"Ya Happy Now Chess?"

Kool Kat patted me on the back and laughed...Chris laughed too! We all left and went home.

III-

It took Police two weeks before they discovered the dead body in the Royal...He was identified as Nick Belton...from New York , described as Mikey Snow's chief enforcer and number two man...A cold blooded killer who had bragged that he had personally executed 30 men...He'd kill no more.

Chris, Donald Smooth and I were sitting in our office when Theresa Fontaine walked in with a huge suitcase..The kind the old folks used to call a grip... It had close to six million in it..She opened it and put it on the table..Chris and I looked at her...

"I don't want the money." she said.

"Wow Theresa..I figured you'd be in Hawaii by now." said Chris.  She ignored his comment...

"I guess you know that it was me who called Fathead and told him where to find Frankie." she said.

"Yeah, we figured." I said.

"While Frankie was asleep ,I looked in his travel bag...There was a ticket...One ticket!! A one way ticket to the Bahamas...He never planned to take me with him..He was just stringing me along...So while he slept..I took the money and the ticket..." she said.

Chris laughed...Slapped his hand on his thigh and had a hearty laugh....

"So you called Fathead and he called Mikey and Mikey sent his main man to get Frankie.." I said.

"Yeah, that's probably what happened..I don't know...Frankie must have got the drop on him...I read in the papers that they found Nicky Belton dead in the Royal Theatre..Multiple gunshot wounds." said Theresa..

"Wow." I said..Looking at Chris..Who just laughed some more.

"You were right about him Chess...He never loved me." she said...

"So what do I do now...Look over my shoulder the rest of my life?" she asked.

Chris closed up the suitcase..He looked at her..

"No...They don't want you..They want your husband.....They know you don't know anything...Take this money,Take this plane ticket and go start a new life for yourself." he said.

"For real Chris?" she said.

"Yeah...Smooth...Drive her to the airport." he said.

"Damn Chris..Chess..The only decent guys I ever knew and now both of you are hooked up." she said.

"Sometimes it just works out like that." I said.

EPILOUGE:

Mikey Snow was furious that Fathead had offered little or no help in getting Frankie Fontaine...He had lost three good men and Frankie had still managed to slip away...To add insult to injury...He was out ,six million dollars...He left his hotel vowing to have Fathead hit...Just as soon as he could get back to New York and find a good hitman...

Thing is...He never got back to New York...The rental car he was driving exploded before he got to the airport to return it...Mikey Snow's body was scattered all over the highway, along with the car....It was a mess!!!

My guess was....That was Fathead!!! He got tired of being called names, He got tired of Mikey's tirades and he didn't like all of the heat that the hunt for Frankie Fontaine was causing in his city...He probably figured that Mikey was volatile enough to try and hit him once he was safely in New York, so he struck first and efficiently!

Nobody in New York was the slightest bit upset about Mikey Snow's sudden demise!