Manhattan …1954…the office of Mickey Hart, Private Detective
“There’s a dame here to see you,” Gladys called from the outer office; if you could call a desk and a phone and chair an outer office.
“Just a sec, Sweets… I gotta fix the war paint.” I called as I pulled my compact out. A girl has to look smart, you know. A moment later she was sitting in front of me. The scent from her eau de cologne nearly knocked me over and her clothes were loud enough to wake the dead. She wore this tiger stripe dress; real tight up top and bottom, with a fur thing that looked like a coyote wrapped over her shoulders. Funny thing…she looked just like Noel Neill, but then again I looked just like Phyllis Coates.
“Well, Miss Hart, you’ve come highly recommended. I hope you can help me. I’m rather put out.” She shrugged and huffed.
“That depends…I’m rather put out myself at the moment. Newberry’s ran out of my favorite hose, and I hate to wear nothing, so I’m stuck with these.” I motioned to my waist, showing off my slacks. She stood up and leaned over and displayed her charm.
“Well, I suppose that’s not much fun; after all, what’s a girl to do when she’s got to start acting and dressing like a man? Still, you wear them well.” She threw away the line like an old shoe.
“What’s a boy to do when he wants to dress like a dame and all he can find is a pair of gaberdine slacks just like Dad still wears,” I thought to myself. Yeah…that’s right. A boy…A gentleman who isn’t all that manly but sure as hell is gentle! She didn’t seem to notice, which was fine with me.
“Well,” I said, putting my head down and doing my best imitation of Lauren Bacall. “I prefer skirts and dresses, but that’s not what you’re here for, is it, Miss Capaldi?
“How…what???” She looked shocked, which she was. I pulled the coffee pot off the burner on the filing cabinet and poured a cup and offered it to her. She took a long draught without breathing.
“Cohan over at the Biltmore called me an hour ago and said you were coming over. Something about missing something…or someone?” Cohan being the house dick over at the Biltmore Hotel. He made it his business to know everyone’s business.
“Why…” She hrumphed once again and looked away; like there was an eyechart on the wall with all the answers to the questions she knew I’d ask.
“Listen…I can play it your way, but this will take all day, and I don’t mind wasting your time, but I sure as hell don’t want to waste mine, so come clean, sister!”
At the word, “sister,” she started bawling. She pulled a hankie out of her bag and started dabbing her eyes, when anyone could see she was crying hard enough to need a towel.
“Okay, Okay,” I said to her, and I handed a wad of tissue from the box of Marcal I had lying on my desk, “just in case.”
“And you can stop the act, while you’re at it. I know who you are and why you’re here.” She stopped just long enough to pull a long sheet off the roll and wipe her face. And then the waterworks started all over again.
“Gabriella Capaldi, right? Your father owns half the bakeries here in Gotham and you need me to help you find your sister…or should I say…baby brother?” She looked at me like I was crazy…but only for a few seconds. Still crying, but not as hard, she sat back and hrumphs once again, but I don’t think she was pissed at me.
“He’s been…” She paused as if she was going to reveal some dark secret. I helped her out.
“Sal Capaldi…big embarrassment to Poppa, right? Like, ‘Dad…I’m gonna take a trip…you know? See the world?’ Only instead of going to Palermo to visit the old homestead, he hopped a boat and headed for Denmark instead? How am I doing so far?” She looked away, still crying her eyes out.
“And everything should be hunky-dory when he gets back because he’s still Sal Capaldi…or at least that’s what you would have thought, but instead of Salvatore Capaldi, it’s Salvatricia Capaldi…and the number one son and heir to the Capaldi Empire is now an heiress and the number two daugther.”
“How did you….who told you all this?” She shook her head and frowned like she’d just eaten some bad tuna.
“It’s my job to know…that’s why you’re here, right? Well…I read a lot…like Scientific American…about sex-changes. I don’t think baby sister ever thought she’d end up in print, and besides, my cousin runs one of the warehouses for your Dad and word gets around.” I leaned back and smiled at her. She tried to smile back, but the tears just wouldn’t cooperate.
“I’m scared…she’s been gone over a week, and it’s not like her to not call. Miss Hart? Can you help me?” She batted her eyelashes and I swear her teardrops sparkled. Now me…I’m a pushover for a dame…even if I want to be one myself. If I had the cash and a ticket…well? I am, as my sainted Uncle Paddy McDermott would say, really fucked up.
“Daddy is such a bastard. He slapped her so hard her lip bled. She ran away that night, and I don’t know what to do. I’m afraid for her, you know. I’ve been all over town and all of the dicks in this town are just that. Being a woman, I thought you might understand, but you seem to think this is funny.”
Little did she know; I knew she was dead serious, because I was dead serious myself, but like I said…no cash and ticket equals no snip and a lousy life time. I surprised the hell out of her and myself and started crying which makes her cry even louder. Gladys came running in, all hyped up.
“Are you okay?” Gladys is like a sister to me…maybe a bit more. Sorta like that Toklas dame, you know, but she keeps it quiet and who am I to talk anyway? Besidea, she knows where the jewels are buried, if you know what I mean, and she’s okay with it.
“Relax, Gladys…just a couple of girls talking about Sonny Tufts and Forrest Tucker.” My tastes were sorta exotic in that regard. I don’t know how much Miss Capaldi cared for Forest Tucker, but my preference tended toward Yvonne DeCarlo or Betty Hutton. Or like I said, Noel Neill. Boy, what a mess I was. My doctor had been giving me some shots of some stuff…said it was ‘just in case.’
Gladys hurried back to her ‘office,’ keeping guard over the only phone in the building while Miss Capaldi and I got back to business.
“So, Sally Capaldi is missing, and you think I know how to find her. Well, I can give it a shot, but the Big Apple is way big, and I don’t come cheap. Fifty a day plus expenses. I give you a receipt for everything I spend and we’ll work it out later. Two Hundred up front.
She pulled out a check book but thought better of it and replaced it in her purse. Pulling out a wallet instead, she produced a thick roll of cash wrapped nicely in a rubber band.
“Will this do?” I counted it out…$480, $490, $500. She smiled.
“Yes, but like I said, a receipt for everything.” I pulled a pad out of my desk drawer and wrote her a receipt for the half-G and put the bankroll in my purse.
“That’s not necessary, Miss Hart. I trust you.” She smiled again and tilted her head slightly. I leaned across the desk slightly and smiled back.
“It is necessary, Miss Capaldi because that’s how I do business. I’ll keep a tab of the costs and give you a total at the end of each week. If I don’t make any headway, I’ll tell you. I don’t need to be wasting my time or yours, and I’m sure you’ll want to have a total to explain to your father. He may not like your sister, but he still loves your baby brother, from what everyone says down at the warehouse. Let’s just see if we can get both of them back together, so to speak, and maybe your father will end up reading off the same page as you and her, okay?”
I knew how Sally Capaldi felt. I still can feel the slap of my Dad’s hand if I close my eyes and try hard enough, which sadly is not hard at all.
“Well, I’m glad I’ve found someone who can appreciate what I’m talking about. You don’t know what hell my Dad put Sally through.” I half-smiled and nodded, thinking about the irony of what she’d just said. The only difference between Sally Capaldi and Mikey Hart is that she went to Scandinavia on Daddy’s dime and came back a model. I went to the academy and came back a cop; all on my dime, since my Dad runs the entire Hart Empire out of a pawn shop on Lexington.
“Please call this number if you get any leads. It’s the modeling agency Sally works for. They’ll forward all messages to me.” She looked away.
“You don’t have to worry, Miss Capaldi. They say discretion is the better part of valor, and I don’t mean to risk either of us to your father’s wrath if he finds out what you’re up to. Raid the piggy bank, did we?” She didn’t shake her head, but her expression said no. She fumbled as she placed a cigarette in her mouth, looking for her lighter. I struck a match and she grabbed my hand, pulling it close for the light. Her hand lingered as she pulled back.
“I heard those things can kill you, Miss Capaldi.” Like I said, I read Scientific American.
“I know it’s a nasty habit. I just can’t seem to stop. Since Sally disappeared, I’ve been a nervous wreck, and I don’t know what to do.” She put the cigarette out in the candy dish I had on the desk, just missing a crumpled Baby Ruth wrapper.
“Well, here’s what we’ll do, Miss Capaldi. I’ll concentrate on finding Sally, and you settle up accounts with your Dad on the QC.” I handed her back the roll of cash.
“We don’t want to get on Vito Capaldi’s bad side, and I bet if you get the money back in the account before the end of the day, you might just find you don’t have to smoke as much. I heard that looking over your shoulder is the leading cause of tobacco consumption in New York.” She smiled at me again.
“Oh…thank you, Miss Hart. You know…you’re a strange one…I mean that in the nicest sense.” She laughed softly while I mulled over how being strange could be nice.
“You…please don’t take this the wrong way? You remind me of Sally. You have this odd sense of humor and again…I’m sorry, but you’re almost…handsome.” At the word handsome her face began to turn red. I hoped that I didn’t show the heat that was growing in my cheeks.
“Well, I suppose there are worse things in the world to be called? Strange and handsome. I’ll have to tell Betty, my hairdresser, about that.” I lied only a little. I went to a parlor downtown and my hairdresser’s name was Phillip, but then again we all have our secrets.
“She does a very nice job, Miss Hart. You’ll have to get me their card. I’m thinking of changing mine.” I looked at her with envy and just a wee bit of lust. The shots I had been getting from my doctor may have dulled any physical sensation, but the heart knows what the heart knows, and after only seventeen minutes I was starting to fall in love. I smiled and handed her my own business card instead.
“There’s a private number if you need to reach me after hours. Like I said, I’ll give you receipts each week and I’ll give you a typed report of anything significant. Other than that, I believe you’ve got a bank errand to run, so we’ll just end this little con-fab now.”
I stood up and waited for her to extend her hand before shaking it. I may be mostly woman now, but old habits are hard to break, and a ‘gentleman’ always waits for a lady to offer her hand. From where I stood in my two inch pumps, she was a very nice lady. She shook her head slightly and half-frowned, almost as if she was disappointed.
“Why the hurry, Miss Hart?” She stepped away from the desk. I walked around the desk and gently grabbed her hand and led her to the door.
“Because it’s nearly two in the afternoon already, and the bank closes at three, right? And besides, I’ve got to get going for a previous appointment.” I smiled as we walked to the hallway.
“And what might that be, Miss Hart?”
“I’m got to see a man about a kidnapped heiress, now don’t I?” As I went to close the door she shook her head, confused only a moment before a look of fear crossed her face.
“Kidnapped?”
“Yes, Miss Capaldi, kidnapped. But don’t worry. I’ve got friends in high places, and I think we’ll get Sally back safe and sound. Okay.” She half-smiled and pursed her lips in frustration before concluding,
“Friends in high places, Miss Hart?” I smiled back and shot a glance upward. Since we were on the top floor of the building she took my meaning immediately and smiled, almost in confusion before saying,
“I sure hope someone up there is listening, Miss Hart.”
“Me, too, Miss Capaldi. And the name’s Mickey, but all my friends call me Michelle.”
“Okay, Michelle.” She walked down the hallway and headed down the stairs. I stepped back in the office and closed the door. I turnd to see Gladys sitting on the front of her desk, with arms foled and smiling broadly, trying to stifle a laugh. Did I say she was like a sister?
“Got it bad already, huh, kiddo?” She stood up and walked over, kissing me lightly on the cheek.
“You always can tell, can’t you?” I said as she hugged me like the sister she actually was.
“Mikey…I can read you like a book. Now are you still getting those shots? I wouldn’t want to see you relapse?” She laughed, as if I could go back to being Michael, her baby brother.
“Yes, Gladys. And yes.”
I shook my head reluctantly to the first question. I already had it bad after twenty-three minutes of knowing Miss Gabriella Capaldi. I had already determined that I had to succeed. Because if I was actually lucky enough to find her sister Sally alive, it might mean a big payday and maybe even a trip to Copenhagen or Stockholm. But even more so, if I didn’t find Sally Capaldi, my chances with Gabriella? In New York City, even in this modern age of enlightenment, the 1950’s still aren’t too welcoming for two women, if you follow me. If Sally Capaldi was dead, then so were my chances with her big sister as well.
Next: Something’s Rotten in the State of Connecticut
Previously...
I already had it bad after twenty-three minutes of knowing Miss Gabriella Capaldi. I had already determined that I had to succeed. Because if I was actually lucky enough to find her sister Sally alive, it might mean a big payday and maybe even a trip to Copenhagen or Stockholm. But even more so, if I didn’t find Sally Capaldi, my chances with Gabriella? In New York City, even in this modern age of enlightenment, the 1950’s still aren’t too welcoming for two women, if you follow me. If Sally Capaldi was dead, then so were my chances with her big sister as well.
The office of Mickey Hart, Private Detective...two days later...
Sally Capaldi left nothing behind to help me figure out who jacked her! Poppa Capaldi either hadn’t gotten any ransom demands or he wasn’t letting on. Jackie Noonan down at the Bureau talked to me on the QT, seeing how I had bailed his ass out of more than one stupid jam after another when we were both beat cops out of the academy. Nothing to show that this kid had even existed, which wasn’t a surprise, since she wasn’t even Sally before last year.
“Any news?” Gladys waved at me as I walked in the door.
“No, and I’m wondering what the hell is going on. Poppa San hasn’t breathed a word to anybody but Gabriella and possibly every goon in the family on the east coast. If they try to handle this, it could all go south in a hurry.
“She’s in your office!” Gladys pointed over her shoulder with her thumb. I nodded and walked through my door, marveling how in six months we still hadn’t gotten the idiot who painted ‘privete’ on the glass to fix his mistake. I stepped inside and noticed she’d toned down her outfit. A very prim maroon suit with a cream colored blouse. Her heels had to be at least three inches, and her silk clad legs peeked out through a slit in her skirt.
“I see you’ve been busy,” she said as she crossed her legs, pointing to the pile of receipts on my desk.
“Yeah, it’s mounting up; pretty soon you’ll owe us both a steak dinner!” I joked.
“Listen, Miss Hart! I don’t swing that way. Boys only, and then only when they’re grown up and into their long pants!” She stubbed out her cigarette in the candy dish on the desk, nearly setting the Tootsie Roll wrapper on fire.
“Just a thought,” I said. How the hell did I let that slip out?
“Daddy is majorly upset with me,” she mewled as she leaned forward, begging a light on another smoke.
“You should really think about cutting back on these; they could end up killing you.”
“Well, that’s really none of your business, Miss Hart.” She exhaled a cloud and shook her head.
“Sally is nowhere to be found, and it may be getting to the point where some folks are gonna end up dead!”
“Tell him to at least lay off for a bit; he starts shooting and we may never find your baby sister.” She gasped at the word.
“You’re the only one to allow her that….she’s still Sonny Boy to Daddy Dearest….” Her voice trailed off as it turned from bitter and angry to hopeless.
“Like I told you….I read Scientific American….” I turned away, wondering if my face turned red.
“I’ve never really understood why she did it until Daddy turned her away. Maybe she looked like a dame, but I never thought of her that way until she cried her eyes out on my shoulder. It hurts to think that all those years of having to live up to what Daddy wanted…..and how he….” She turned away, and there was no mistaking the crimson crossing her face.
“He didn’t treat you well, did he?” I was shoving off into uncharted waters, but the stars above told me that she had a lot more to tell me about Daddy and Junior and Daddy's Little Girl.
“No….and that’s all I’m gonna say!” She snapped at me, but something in her face said she wanted me to sail on!
“He hurt you….and little….sister?”
“Stop! Stop it….shut up…for god’s sake shut up!”
“You and she….” I didn’t have to finish. Nobody would ever talk about stuff like this….everybody was aching to get out of the way of A-Bombs and men from other planets…and nobody knew what happened or cared to know what happened to little kids behind closed doors. I knew and she did…she did, indeed. I wanted to gather her in my big weak arms and hold her; a girl with a girl, but nobody did stuff like that either. She made that plain to me, alright.
“What we have to do is get to Sally before your Old Man; if she….”
“Don’t say, it…Please…Miss Hart….don’t say it.” The bravado had vanished, and she pled with me.
“I was going to say, if she surfaces, I have a feeling she’s going to be talking, and plenty. And someone isn’t gonna like that one bit.”
“You….you think she had it coming? You think she….?” Gabriella paused and looked down, almost as if she was inspecting herself.
“No….You….she didn’t have it coming at all.” I know; that’s what I was told. When I was seven and they caught me in my Ma’s closet. And that’s what the doctor said….that’s what they all said back then. It's all your fault! I bit my lip, tasting my Hazel Bishop Cherry Red mixed with a bit of blood.
“But that’s what she thinks…I’d bet the farm on that. So she’s laying low because…” And this is where it got dicey. Too much damn guilt!
“She doesn’t want you to get any more in Dutch with Poppa Capaldi than you already are.”
“Are you saying…..Oh god…fuck!” The word came out of her mouth too easily and just as quickly brought her to tears.
“I’m….I’m sorry….I don’t….” She put her head down.
“Listen, Miss Capaldi. If anyone has reason to say that, it’s you, and I bet you heard it more than anything else from your Old Man growing up. It’s not your fault that Sally is missing. I think she’s laying low while she tries to figure out what to do. If your father knew where she was, he’d have done something and kept quiet. Since he’s turning over every rock in Gotham, I bet he’s just as lost as everyone else. The trick is to find her before he does, or we’ve got a problem.”
“We?” She looked up at me, and her hard edge was gone completely. I wouldn’t say she had puppy-dog eyes, but she looked as sad.
“I’m in this for the long haul, capiche?”
“I….can’t….”
“I know….you can’t pay me. Let’s just get your sister home….let’s get your sister back safe and sound, and we’ll worry about the dough later, okay? I figure your Old Man has to be good for my fee before he figures it all out, and by then we should have this wrapped up.
“You’re telling me you can find Sally?” She batted her eyelashes and my heart skipped a beat. What I wouldn’t give for lashes like that…. And maybe waking up to that face every morning. I nodded.
“I don’t get it…how do you suppose you’re going to find her?”
“Listen, sister, I’m not promising anything….”
“But?”
“But, Miss Capaldi, I think I already know where your sister is!” She relaxed only a bit.
“You have a favorite place where you and she used to hang out?”
“I…we used to play house at my grandma’s in Norwalk….my Mom’s mom…she knew about Sally.”
“I bet that that Poppa never paid attention when you were off visiting, huh?” The look and the shake of her head gave me a lot of reasons to be relieved.
“We’ve got to get up there; he may not have paid attention before, but I’d be willing to bet that he’s sitting up and taking notice right now.” I walked over and opened the door.
“Hey, hon? You got your Nash today?” Gladys nodded and stood up, grabbing her purse.
“No, sweets, I need you to wait an hour and a half after we’re gone and call the precinct.” I turned back and Gabriella had stood up. She read my mind, and handed Gladys a piece of paper with an address written on it.
“The precinct? I don’t understand, Mick….why not call Norwalk?” Gladys put her purse down and walked over to the safe.
“If what I think is going on is going on, calling the precinct will set things up just right.” Gladys opened the safe and reached in, pulling out some insurance….my 45 from when Jeannie came marching home in ’46.
“So the precinct in ninety and the Norwalk cops when?” She smiled and walked over to the closet, opening the door.
“Fifteen after you talk to the precinct.” I stepped out of my heels as Gladys handed me a pair of flats.
“Just in case you have to run, okay, honey?” My sister was always thinking, and it served me well in the past. Hopefully we’d all think on our feet and this would work out just like I planned it. If it didn’t, the whole mess would go to hell in a handcart really fast. Little sister Sally would end up dead, and if Daddy didn’t kill me, nothing would matter anyway, ‘cause Gabriella would blame me and I might as well be dead.
“You, too, Miss Capaldi,” I said, handing her a pair of flats. Lucky for her…or maybe me, I had the smallest feet in my family, my mother included.
“We can’t take any chances, okay. You being a Capaldi, I don’t suppose you don’t know how to use one of these, do you?” I handed her the Colt and she pulled back the action and aimed at the door.
“Daddy always taught me never to aim a gun at anyone unless you intend to use it.” She said sarcastically. Gladys nodded and reached into the safe, pulling out a snub-nose 38.
“Here,” she said, handing the revolver to me. You need a ‘girl’s’ gun, sister!” She laughed and I put the gun in my purse. She handed me the keys to the Nash and pointed out the window.
“Around the corner, hon. Easy does it…the clutch is going!”
“Hopefully we’ll all be back here safe and sound in a few hours.” I grabbed Gabriella’s arm to escort her out, and she flinched once.
“I told you…I don’t swing that way.”
“Yeah…no harm in trying.” I frowned as we stepped into the hallway, but she smiled.
“No, I guess there’s no harm in trying.”
Next: A Good Old Fashioned Family Reunion
Daddy's Little Girl
words and music by
Boby Burke and Horace Gerlach
as performed by
the Incomparable
Miss Connie Francis
Previously...
“Daddy always taught me never to aim a gun at anyone unless you intend to use it.” She said sarcastically. Gladys nodded and reached into the safe, pulling out a snub-nose 38.
“Here,” she said, handing the revolver to me. You need a ‘girl’s’ gun, sister!” She laughed and I put the gun in my purse. She handed me the keys to the Nash and pointed out the window.
“Around the corner, hon. Easy does it…the clutch is going!”
“Hopefully we’ll all be back here safe and sound in a few hours.” I grabbed Gabriella’s arm to escort her out, and she flinched once.
“I told you…I don’t swing that way.”
“Yeah…no harm in trying.” I frowned as we stepped into the hallway, but she smiled.
“No, I guess there’s no harm in trying.”
On the Connecticut Turnpike some time later...
“So when were you going to tell me, Miss Hart?” Gabriella looked out the window as the scenery rushed by. They had been on the road for a while, and tempers seemed to more than just a little on edge.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said even as I hoped she was wrong. She wasn’t.
“I remember when my brother first started taking those awful shots. It was horrible; he was so moody.” I cringed.
“Don’t get me wrong, either. I guess a lot of men in your position are just like Sally, but you seem so distracted, like you’re someplace else. But you do make a nice girl, even if you didn’t start out that way. I wish I had known you before you decided to change; you must have driven the girls crazy.”
“I was a weak boy, Miss Capaldi…No…scratch that,” I pulled the old Nash over to the side of the highway and turned toward Gabriella.
“I’m a strong woman…I was weak in being a boy; like I didn’t have the strength to continue, you know? I was strong enough as a person to do my part over in France in the War, but to stay that way? I just couldn’t go on.”
“You ever think about finding a nice man to settle down with? You’re not all that unattractive…” She shook her head just like I had only moments before.
“Okay…strike that…you’re actually quite attractive; I can see why you said what you said about being a boy. It must have been rough growing up.”
“Tell me about it; if Gladys hadn’t been in my corner, half the neighborhood AND my dad would have kicked my ass or worse.” I didn’t mean to get emotional, but between the memories and the shots, it was a losing battle. I started to cry and she noticed. She turned away once again; I think she was trying to spare my feelings, but in a way, I almost hoped she was sparing her own.
“I won a Bronze Star in Ardennes and they still fucked with me when things calmed down.” Fuck wasn’t just a word because of the teasing and riding. It was from something far worse than the battle fatigue had been even if it had been almost the same thing; they didn’t even have a name for it, but it was horrible. I never told anyone about my uncle from when I was a kid, and I didn’t tell anyone about Sergeant Connolly because nobody would have believe me…Corporal Michael D. Hart returned home as damaged goods.
“I’m sorry,” Gabriella put her hand on my arm and yanked it away; I guess I was as afraid as not about falling in love, but I also still had trouble with being touched…you know, real honest affection. What happened to me had hurt me bad. Gabriella looked at me and shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Miss Hart,” she repeated; she touched her chest with her palm like she meant it.
“I know you have been through a lot; I do my homework well just like you do. I didn’t know the specifics, but I heard from others that have worked with you that you’re guarded, and I only know one reason why women like you…” she paused and breathed out.
“Women who have been hurt like us…why we’re careful. And you know exactly what Sally has and is going through. That I figured out for myself. You’re her only hope. Let’s get going, okay. You don’t have to convince me of anything. I trust you…really.” She touched my hand but pulled it away quickly and gestured toward the dash board and the road beyond.
“Drive on!” A moment later and we were driving down the road again toward what I kind of hoped would be the resolution to all the problems in the Capaldi family. And I hoped it wouldn’t come to it, but it was feeling an awful lot like someone was going to get killed before the night was over.
A farm just outside Norwalk...
It was pitch dark other than the headlights of the Nash as we pulled up the long lane to the barn. She had told me that the farm had been almost a secret kingdom for Sal and her growing up; the refuge that welcomed the kids for a few weeks every summer as they spent time with their dead mom’s parents. And in that magical place there were hidden places; secret hiding places throughout the property that made their summers times of safety. Gabriella closed the door to the car and turned on the cowl covered flashlight; a souvenir of the past that lit up like a beacon in a way. She turned it on and off in a quick sequence.
“Morse?” I tilted her head and grinned; it sort of reminded me of my time in combat, I remembered enough of it to spell out the message that she had sent.
“Dih dih dih….di dash….dih dash dih dih…Sal…okay. She watched in the direction of the barn as a light flashed in the darkness from the open barn door.
“Dash dih dih…dih dash…dash dih dih dih…dash dih dash dash….Gaby.” She repeated along with the woman next to her. Gabriella turned around and nodded. We walked toward the open door and suddenly the flashlight went on once again, this time revealing a very angry looking man with a gun.
“That’s far enough, baby girl!” Vito Capaldi laughed with a laugh that was both charming and utterly evil at the same time. The gun was pointed to a slight figure at his side. She wore slacks and a loose blouse, and a handkerchief was jammed unceremoniously in her mouth.
“Sally’s sorry he can’t talk, but I figure what I gotta say will be an answer enough for any questions. Mickey Hart? I heard about you, you fucking perv! It’s creeps like you that are what’s wrong with this country. You a fucking commie as well? I’ll bet. No mind; put your purse on the ground and step back and maybe nobody will get shot.” I wasn’t about to put Vito to a test; his reputation left no doubt that he wasn’t unwilling to kill given any chance at all. I placed my purse down and stepped back like the good soldier I used to be. Vito lowered the gun slightly and in an instant he was looking down the barrel of the gun in Gabriella’s hand.
“I should kill you right now for what you did to us. Let her go!” She waved the 45 in her father’s direction, but he didn’t budge. She raised the Colt once again, and heard a click on her right side.
“You little bitch…I’ll give you this…you were always a fighter….even in the fucking bedroom.” At his words the girl in his arms cringed, remembering her own painful childhood with her father.
“Put the Colt down, Miss Capaldi,” the voice squawked.
“I’d prefer not to shoot my employer’s daughter.” The man attached to the voice stepped out of the shadows. Captain Henry MacDonald smiled and nodded at Vito Capaldi before kicking the discarded 45 aside.
“Captain MacDonald, how nice to see you get out once and a while,” I laughed, but it wasn’t funny at all. MacDonald was the Big Apple's next police commissioner from everybody’s guess, and him being there wasn’t good.
“You’re not only a pervert, Hart, but a fucking pain in the ass as well.” MacDonald said. He walked up to me and smacked me in the mouth with the back of his hand, knocking me to the ground. I put a brave face on it and laughed.
“So you’re on his payroll? Just pimping or do you get a cut of his drug and gambling as well?” I raised my hand and wiped my bleeding lip as I got to my feet.
“Nah…pimping and prosties work just fine for me; can’t look too rich, you know? Carson over at the fifth has gambling covered and Nelson at the seventh protects the drug stuff traffic.” MacDonald laughed, but Vito snarled.
“Are you a fucking idiot? You just told them who does what!”
“Geez, Mr. Capaldi, I’m sorry. I guess we’ll have to kill them after all.” He laughed and pointed his gun at Gabriella’s head.
“Sorry, Vito. But you know, what with the second Mrs. Capaldi blessing you with your other boys, you’re set for life. What’s a little death between family, anyway?”
“And you call me sick? MacDonald…you should have been in the movies. You remind me of Burt Lancaster at the end of Brute Force!” I laughed again, but he didn’t get the joke
“That don’t make no sense at all, Hart. He gets killed in the end.” MacDonald said.
“Exactly,” I said as I pulled my backup 38 out from under my bra; MacDonald was fast and got off a shot that drilled my right shoulder even as my shot traveled the twelve feet between us and exploded directly behind MacDonald’s right eye, dropping him like a stone.
“You forget I’ve still got Sally boy here,” Vito said. He went to raise his pistol but felt the muzzle of a 38 jam into his left ear and the words,
“Put your fucking gun down, Mr. Vito Fucking Capaldi, or I will blow your fucking head right off your fucking neck.” He gazed slightly to his left to see a tall man in a blue uniform with a Norwalk City Police badge on his right breast pocket.
“You’re under arrest for the kidnapping of Salvatricia Capaldi and whatever else we can charge you with, you fucking prick.” The man spat at him before hitting him in the ear with the barrel of the gun, saying finally,
“Oh…and welcome to Connecticut, you fucking bastard!”
“So you knew that the Norwalk police would get here way before Daddy and that MacDonald man.”
“Yes,” I nodded.
“Ow!!!” I shouted; wincing as one of the Norwalk cops wiped my shoulder with a gauze pad soaked in Witch Hazel; even a graze hurts like hell, you know? She looked at me with big brown eyes like I had something important to tell her. And I did.
“I’m just glad the bastard didn’t know when to shut up. With what he said, the Norwalk Police will be contacting New York’s Finest to get the rats out of their house. And your father will end up dying in jail; not as satisfying as the electric chair, but you go with the cards you get dealt, you know?”
“Yes…I guess we all end up doing that, don’t we?” She looked over at the open door of the Norwalk Police car where her sister sat, wrapped in a blanket as she spoke with a cop with a notebook. Vito sat by himself in the back of another police car looking very put out. Gabriella turned back to me just as I put my jacket on.
“Miss Hart?” I turned and walked back to her and spoke.
“No need to worry about my fee. I trust you for the expenses, and I know that you’ll be good for the rest once you get the whole bank account thing straightened out.”
I extended my hand to Gabriella with a smile. At one time in the not so distant past, I might have waited for her to offer her own hand first; a gentleman always waits for a lady, you know. But I was a lady as well; no longer a man...never a man actually, I had finally gotten to that place where I accepted who and what I was. Maybe not as pretty, and maybe stuck with the same wrong equipment I got at birth, but I was a lady.
“Goodbye, Miss Capaldi and good luck.” I shook her hand and walked back to the Nash. She and her sister would be staying in Norwalk at her cousin’s house to recover.
“You got any gum, sis?” I said as I dropped my purse on the desk. Gladys walked into the office and handed me a pack of Wrigley’s Spearmint.
“I’m sorry, Mick, sweetie, but Goldman’s was outta Juicy Fruit. Oh…and your ten o’clock client is here, hon!” Gladys said with a wink.
“I don’t recall making a ten o’clock appointment.” I said and she laughed at me.
“Well, sweets, she’s here.” She pointed with her thumb over her shoulder at the familiar figure in the open office doorway.
“Good morning, Miss Hart. It’s good to see you again.” She smiled as she walked past Gladys, who smiled back and winked before walking out.
“I think you two will want to talk alone, okay?” She said, closing the door behind her. I stared at Gabriella Capaldi. In the weeks since they had seen each other last, Gabriella seemed to have changed…. If only a little. She walked over and sat down on the edge of my desk; her calf-length skirt parting at a strategically placed slit in the side, revealing more than a little bit of leg decorate with a dark stocking top. I sighed. Things might have gotten back to ‘normal’ in the office, but as far as I was concerned, things would never be the same.
“I wanted to thank you once again, Miss Hart. If it wasn’t for you, I might have lost my sister and maybe even gotten myself killed.”
“All in a day’s work, Miss Capaldi. I’m glad I could help.” I lied. I hated that I had gotten dragged into her life; she was more beautiful than I had remembered, even if I had no way other than my nice prose of showing it.
“You’re looking well.” I said with a stupid grin; she was more than beautiful and it was killing me. Thankfully it was only my heart that stirred. I might never lose what I was born with, but it would never again work the way things used to. She smiled at me. I turned my head and tried not to cry, and no, it wasn’t the shots at all.
“You, too, Miss Hart.” She smiled oddly before continuing.
“When I came to you for help, it was strictly business. My sister means too much to me, and couldn’t afford to get involved. But now…it’s time, like they say in the movies, to come clean.” She eased slowly off the desk and walked to the window. It was just like the movies; like she had turned her back on me for dramatic effect. She leaned against the window frame and looked out before turning back to me.
“I have a confession to make…. Confession is good for the soul, don’t you think, Miss Hart?” She laughed, but when she finally faced me, I noticed her eyes had filled with tears.
“You own me no explanation for anything, Miss Capaldi.” I insisted, but I was convinced after seeing her tears that she had something to say that we both needed to hear.
“I’m not what I seem, Miss Hart. I’m a poser… A lying bitch, my father might say.” She breathed out a sigh.
“You don’t have to say another word. I understand.” I didn’t understand at all, but a moment later it became as clear as day. Well, maybe an overcast day that was going to clear up shortly.
“My father has four children. He and my mom had two kids and he has two boys with his second wife; Rocco and Lorenzo. Thank god he….well, he’s never going to hurt them!” She choked back a sob.
“He hurt his daughter and his other son, though, didn’t he?” Of course he did; we’d gone over this almost from the beginning. She shook her head.
“NO! He didn’t!” That they were both hurt wasn’t what she meant. She made it plain a second later when she started to cry.
“My father has four children. Rocco and Lorenzo….Salvatore is now Salvatricia; you saved her. And me…Gabriella….Gabriel Vincent Capaldi.” She put her hand to her face and sobbed. I walked quickly to her and went to hold her, but she pulled away.
“I was so angry with you. I wanted to find someone who wouldn’t find out…someone I could trust to save Sally but instead I found you. And you know what Sally’s been through. You know what I’ve been through… in so many ways. I didn’t want to get involved because I was afraid that…. Something might happen!”
“And what happened, Miss Capaldi?” I tried not to be angry, but it came out that way anyway!
“I fell in love with you…. You of all people?” It was as if she hated through me what she hated about herself.
“Like I’m not good enough for you?” I shook my head; bitter angry tears filled my eyes, but I wasn’t about to fall apart and weep.
“NO! You don’t understand. I didn’t want to fall in love because I’m not real. I wanted life to be so much better. I thought that once Sally was safe and Daddy couldn’t hurt the boys, you know…that I’d feel different; maybe because you accepted who Sally was. But that means you have to accept me, and I don’t deserve you.”
“I don’t understand!” And I didn’t. I was afraid I never would.
“I didn’t protect Sally and she got hurt like me. It’s my fault she got hurt and I don’t deserve to even live, but I’m too scared. If I thought I could, I’d jump out that window, but I can’t even get the courage to end it all.”
“It takes courage to live, Miss Capaldi. I could have ended it when my uncle hurt me. I almost ended it after I came back from France after the war. But here I am…for the first time feeling good about myself, because your sister showed me I’m not alone. And you showed me that I’m not some freak that everybody gets to hurt or ignore. I deserve to be happy, Miss Capaldi, and so do you, no matter how fucked up we were and no matter how we started.” I stepped closer and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the window. I still didn’t know her well enough that I felt safe with her so near such a temptation.
“You’re wrong, Miss Hart.” She shook her head, but I wouldn’t have any of that.
“You’ll find that I’ve grown tired of being wrong all the time, Miss Capaldi, and as far as I’m concerned, right now, I’m as right as rain, like they say!” I pulled her in and kissed her. Our lipstick smeared as we pressed together. She went to pull back at first, but I put my hand behind her neck and held her gently. She managed to get off a ‘no’ before she started to shake, gently at first, but harder until she was shaking hard in my arms. I pulled her close and stroked her hair. She looked up at me with tear-filled eyes as her sobbing subsided, blinking a few times with wet eyelashes.
“You’re …wrong, Miss Hart,” she tried to protest even as she pulled me closer for another kiss, this time with no urgency at all, her lips caressing mine softly and tenderly.
“I’m…I’m right, Miss Capaldi,” I said softly and kissed her back.
After a while, we pulled back. She looked at me and smiled through her tears before saying,
“I guess you are right, Miss Hart, except maybe for one thing?”
“And what would that be, Miss Capaldi?” I tilted my head and she said at last,
“Please….call me Gaby!”
Speak Low
Words and music by
Ogden Nash and
Kurt Weill
from the musical comedy,
One Touch of Venus
as performed by the
Incomparable Miss Peggy Lee
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKPPb9TsvMs