Chapter One

The first thought anyone had when they were told his name was “How appropriate”. The fact that he habitually wore a well-fitting pin-stripe suit over a silk shirt and tie, and that his built-up shoes were always polished to a point you could see your face in them were clues that no-one could miss.

He may have been short and slim with long black hair in a pony-tail and dressed like a gay man but Phillip ‘Nancy Boy’ McGill was no queer. ‘Nancy Boy’ was a cold-hearted and successful killer with more kills than you could count, even if you used your toes; even if you added someone else’s as well. There were a lot of ladies who could attest to his manliness, most of them waitresses or dancers in the local clubs. He always made it a rule not to mix with ‘normal’ people as he had found them to be too unpredictable for his safety. You never knew when you needed to pull a gun or a knife in public and an ordinary woman would be likely to swoon at the wrong time. One never wanted to give an enemy a better than even chance.

Phil McGill worked for ‘Cravat’ Chitticello, the godfather of the Southside Slayers. The gang was strong in all sorts of illicit things, including the distribution of drugs, illicit hormones, and nubile women with no English, no paperwork and no future. Anyone who got in their way was ‘discouraged’ in no uncertain terms and some, so they say, were never seen again. They did run a tight ship and the whole gang was very well looked after by their godfather so it was shock to Phil the day that he was ordered to dispose of a small crew on the edge of their patch who, he was told, were skimming the take.

Phil never took things on face value, even if he was a good member of the inner circle. He called his wing-man, Daniel Draper, and met him to go and see these miscreants before he carried out his orders. Even though Daniel was no bigger than he was, the two of them had such a reputation that they were told the truth immediately. It was a rival gang that had invaded that section of their turf and the guys in trouble had been too scared to admit that they could not protect their business.

Daniel and Phil followed through with their orders and then went hunting for the invaders. They discovered that the new gang liked to hang out at a café that became a folk music venue in the evenings. A few days later two very short, long-haired beatniks turned up in the late afternoon to set up their gig. The gang members took no interest in them as they set their guitar cases on the counter and then took out Mac-10s and totally eliminated the gang in less than twenty seconds of sustained fire. One beatnik turned to the other and said “I think the audience here has lost interest in music, shall we go?”

Some days passed before the other shoe dropped. The invading gang had been under orders from a bigger gang in another city and their elimination was considered an affront. The out-of-town gang had no concept of reputation or honour, for them it was slash and burn. The Southside Slayers took some big hits before they started to fight back and then the gang war was big enough to pull in other gangs and then the police; who didn’t care who they shot. After three weeks of bloody warfare Phil got a call from ‘Cravat’ to get out of town – just before the sound of machine gun-fire was heard over the line and the call went dead.

Phil and Dan had a car and cash stored away in a lock-up so headed there to make their escape. They were just about to back the car out of the garage when a gang member called Ricky Rivera called out to them to take him along, having followed them to the lock-up. Neither of them trusted Ricky so they got him to sit in front while Dan drove. Nancy sat in the back with his ‘close-quarters’ gun at the ready. Ricky wanted them to take him to his own lock-up and gave Dan the directions.

Ricky had always seemed flaky as far as they were concerned and it was no surprise when they cleared the main part of the city that he went to pull his gun out. Phil simply put a twenty-two sub-sonic round into his temple and he slumped in the seat. At the end of the road they found what he was stopping them for as a line-up of guys stood there with their guns at their sides, expecting the car to stop.

Dan floored the accelerator and they went through the line, knocking guys to the left and right. Of course, as they sped away, the chatter of gunfire was joined by the sound of bullets hitting the back of the car. When preparing the car they had added a layer of steel behind the back seat but the window shattered. Both kept their heads down and Dan did a magnificent job driving for a few seconds without seeing where he was going. They only glanced off a couple of parked cars before getting to a corner where they could speed up.

Phil said “Well, that stuffs up that plan” and Dan told him not to worry as he had a plan B. Some of the bullets had hit important bits and the car was getting towards the end of its tether as they got to a small group of houses and Dan pulled into a driveway and stopped the car among a grove of small trees, out of sight of the road. They took the bags of money and Dan pulled a package out of his satchel, fiddled with it and then left it beside the body of Ricky. He then led Phil back to the roadway and along the road for twenty minutes before going into a small gateway and a path that led to a building that looked like an old service station, mostly overgrown with weeds.

The place looked ready to fall down and Dan said “It is better than it looks. You are the first person to see my other side. I have a couple of cars I have been working on here and there is a small apartment where I can relax. I suppose that it is time to reveal it to you as we will have to burn it down when we leave.” He opened up a side door and they went inside the old garage. Phil had to laugh when he looked at the two cars inside. One was an old Thunderbird but was just a shell at the moment, the motor on a stand next to the workbench. The other was complete, or so it looked. Dan said “This has been a labour of love. It was a 1958 Impala two-door and I have reworked the engine with a 427 Ford motor. I have driven it around a while and it will allow us to hide in full sight.”

Phil looked at the bright red car with the chrome and the trunk that looked like the deck of an aircraft carrier and said “How on earth will a couple of short guys hide in that thing?” Dan said “All will be revealed, just wait a while and please don’t shoot me when I tell you what my plan is.” He led Phil into the apartment and Phil stopped dead when he saw it. There was a distinct feminine look to the place and it was spick and span. Dan put his bags down, turned to his companion, took a deep breath and said “Welcome to my other side. In here I am no longer Daniel but become Danielle. Now you know why I have kept my hair long but haven’t gone with the mo like you. I have cross-dressed since I was a teenager but here is where I have perfected it. I take that car out and cruise as Dani and there are several places I go where Dani will always be given a drink and a chance to dance. There I am just another girl having fun and the killer stays behind here, in the wardrobe.”

He waited for Phil to say something and was relieved when he just started laughing. “You expect the two of us to leave here as a couple of bitches on the lam, you have to be joking. There is no way I would fool anyone, even if I agreed to it. You want to be my girl, well good for you; but it sounds crazy to me at the moment. Let’s have a rest, a drink and let me think about it for a while. In the meantime, you go and tizzy yourself up so I can have a chuckle or two. I promise I won’t shoot you because I have known you too long to let something so crazy get between us.”

Dan got him a beer from the kitchenette and then went into the bedroom and closed the door. Phil sat in the only armchair and slowly drank from the can, all the while trying to think of some other way they could get clear. They were both so easily recognised in this city so it was only by getting a long way away that they could relax. They knew that the police would have a cordon around the whole city, roadblocks on every main road, and patrols looking for the remnants of the gangs. The radio interviews had the police chief saying that it had been a wonderful chance to clean the city up with so many gang members getting killed. There was no room for them here.

After an hour he was starting to doze when the bedroom door opened and a very good looking woman stepped out. He took one look and said “No way!” She said “Yes, Nancy, there is a way. We just have to spend a few hours on you and I am sure you could look as good as me.” Phil was staggered by the look of her, her smell and her voice that sent shivers up and down his spine. He knew, at that moment, that he wanted her in bed. He had never been gay, merely acted it, but he was prepared to be gay for Dani.

They were both very tired and Dani said “We will need to stay here for a couple of days; there is plenty of food in the larder and I’m not a bad cook when I am dressed for it. There is a small office next to the bathroom which has a camp bed; you can use that tonight but first, there is something you really need to do and that is lose that moustache, it makes you so easy to spot. I am sure that without it you will be much easier to look like a woman. Think about it overnight and we can try to give you a whole new look tomorrow. I will not force you if you then think you would be spotted but I am certain that your Latino mother passed her genes on to you with that dark hair and wonderful complexion. Phil snorted and said “All I got from my father was the Irish love of a fight.”

They had a quick meal, during which there was a muffled explosion from a little way away. Phil asked what it was and Dani simply said “A kilo of C4 with a timer that I left in Rickys’ lap. It is far enough away the cops wouldn’t even think of coming here. If they do I will be able to send them on their way. Their chief is one of the guys I have danced with in a bar he would not want too many people to know he goes in to.” That night Phil shaved his top lip and looked in the mirror at the effeminate face that it had been hiding. The more he looked the more he thought that tomorrow may be more than interesting.

Marianne G 2021