CHAPTER 4
“Everybody freeze!” a deep voice boomed from the direction of the joint’s front door. Well, back door since the front door looked like a lovely shop window with no indication of what might really be going on behind those curtained off displays.
Like always, I did as I was told and froze. But I was the only one. Every other person in the room ran wildly. Women screamed as people ran into each other left and right, chaos erupting.
I remained frozen, though my insides were churning like a hurricane, and my heart was uncontrollable. This was it, we were caught, or worse, we might die. I’d never see Frankie again.
What a ridiculous thought in the middle of a life and death situation, that I might lose something I never had to begin with. And I was sure I’d never be allowed to see Annie again either, even if we both made it out without being hurt. No doubt my parents would blame her for ‘corrupting me’ even though I was fully aware of my actions when I’d snuck out my window.
Another shot hit the ceiling, wrenching me out of my daze and I looked around to see if I could spot her, but the scene was chaos. Dozens of police officers snatching as many people as they could get their hands on, glass breaking as people toppled tables, ducking behind them, knowing it was futile. In the corner, one of the cigarette girls had ducked down, showing the back of her knickers, and they were like none I’d ever seen, black and ruffled, and I blushed, wondering what kind of a girl would wear something like that. Then I saw her smoky rimmed eyes staring right at me and suddenly all I could hear was the happy jazz tune about ‘sweethearts and beaus all dressed up on Broadway,’ completely conflicting with the scene that was unfolding. She kept looking at me for who knows how long, probably only a second, and finally mouthed one word.
Run.
I blinked and then an officer was on her, grabbing her so violently by the wrist that she screamed. I took a step toward her, wanting to help, to somehow erase the offense of thinking badly of her.
But a moment later, there was a tug on my arm and I, prepared myself for arrest. But when I looked up, it wasn’t a cop at all, it was Frankie. I was so sure he had already run, left me, saved himself. But he came back. I’d never been so paralyzed in my life, but one look into his eyes and my whole body seemed to calm.
“Come on,” he yelled.
I did what I was told, although I didn’t have much choice since Frankie was practically dragging me. The room exploded with breaking glass as people figured they would try to escape out the windows. More gunfire followed, the police apparently willing to do anything to bring the joint down.
I ran, closing my eyes, afraid that I might see someone actually get shot and the image would haunt my dreams forever. Never once did I think there was a possibility of me being shot. I was too consumed with the idea of getting caught and the consequences of my parents finding out where I’d been.
A moment later we slowed down and I dared to open my eyes a crack, but instantly wished I had just kept them closed. Frankie had run us into a dead end. I’d put every ounce of trust I had into this stranger and now we were trapped behind the very bar where Sam the bartender didn’t ‘serve anything without at least a little booze hidden inside.’
I ducked down behind the counter, squeezing against the shelves as hard as I could, hugging my knees to my chest and willing myself to become invisible. I marveled at the rows of pristine glasses, all lined up under the counter, completely at odds to the sounds of glass still shattering all around us and for a moment, I wondered if maybe this would be a safe cocoon. But it would never last. I closed my eyes, waiting for the inevitable, trying to keep my tears in.
“Sadie, come on!” Frankie whisper-yelled to me.
I opened my eyes, realizing he was down at my level near the floor. The odd thing was that the bottom half of his body was missing. It took me a moment to understand—probably longer because of the liquor—but I finally realized that he was halfway down a neat, rectangular hole in the floor.
I scurried to my knees, careful not to let too much leg show as he led me into the hidden passage, moving out of the way so I could squeeze ahead of him, a protective hand on my back the whole time.
“Be careful,” Frankie whispered as he kept a hand secured on my elbow.
The stairs were steep and I wanted to climb down faster than I should, cursing my new shoes, trying to get as far away from the mess above as possible. Finally, I hit ground and could move much quicker, the noises from the club becoming muted and muffled.
The passage was tight and musty. Blackness enveloped us when Frankie closed the hatch and locked from inside the tunnel.
“What’s going on?” I whispered.
“The cops are raiding the joint,” he said.
“I know that, but why? I thought no one really cared about the drinking as long as there was no trouble.”
“I guess they’re getting pressure to start cracking down. Same thing happened back home.”
Back home. I was just about to ask him where back home was when it hit me. The three-piece suit, the secret passage, and those two ridiculous ladies that Annie and I had overheard. I gasped. “You’re one of the gangsters from Chicago!”
How could I not have figured it out sooner? If only Annie were here, she’d have smacked me upside the head ages ago.
“Oh,” he said, his voice hardening. “You heard about that?”
“Yeah, I heard about that. Let me out of here right now!”
“Shh…” he said and picked me up, actually picked me up and carried me further down the tunnel.
I could only imagine what a real life gangster could do to me. Before tonight, the worst thing I had ever done was pretend to be sick that one Sunday so my mother wouldn’t make me go to church. Now I was trapped in a God forsaken underground passage with an actual gangster!
I tried to free myself, flailing and screaming with all that I had, but he was too strong. I was too weak. As we clamored over the rough ground, his steps jarred me, my head flopping painfully, my stomach heaving with every footfall.
I kept screaming for him to let me go, pounding him with my fists, but he was too strong. Why hadn’t I listened to my instincts telling me he was dangerous?
A few minutes and much deeper into the tunnel, he stopped abruptly and set me down, keeping one hand around my wrist. I stayed silent, beginning to panic. I had let myself get trapped, alone with a strange man. And as it turned out, he was a gangster on top of it all. A lying, cheating, thieving, maybe even murderous gangster.
Frankie was breathing close to my ear and suddenly the terror became too much to bear. I did the only thing I could do. I bit the hand holding on to me and ran.
But the darkness, my dizziness, and the tears that had decided to show did little to help me. I bounced from one side of the tunnel to the next, my feet tripping over each other, my arms banging hard against the stone walls. Tears streamed down my face as I stumbled over the uneven ground.
Frankie stalked behind me, calling my name, telling me to stop, but thankfully, he wasn’t really running after me, just following a fair distance back.
“Sadie, come on, you don’t know where you’re going,” he called.
But I kept going, faster, obsessed with getting out of there. The narrow walls and low ceiling were closing in on me and the floor was getting rougher and rougher, my feet picking up speed until finally they tangled and I went flying into the darkness, landing hard on my elbow.
“Sadie! Sadie! Are you okay?” Frankie yelled. Now he did start running.
I was laying on the dirt floor, sobbing uncontrollably, my elbow throbbing.
“My God, Sadie, talk to me! Are you all right?” He slowed as he got near, obviously listening for my sobs to figure out exactly where I was. I tried to silence them but only succeeded in holding my breath for a moment.
“Sadie, don’t be scared, I just want to help you.” He approached me as if I were a baby animal and was careful not to touch me.
/> “Sadie, please calm down. I’m just trying to help you,” Frankie said, soothing.
“Help me?” I sobbed. “You’ve kidnapped me and trapped me underground in your crazy gangster maze?”
“It’s not like that, Sadie, I promise. I was only trying to save you from getting arrested.”
“At least if I were arrested, I’d come out of it alive.”
He let out a sigh. “You’ve got it all wrong Sadie.” He buried his head in his hands, crouching so close I could smell him.
And the thing was, sitting there like that, like he didn’t seem to have any more of an idea what to do about the situation than I did, he looked almost… vulnerable. I couldn’t help just looking at the man in front of me, who was just barely a man really, maybe twenty.
When my crying stopped, he looked up. “I don’t know what kind of stories you’ve heard, but we’re just here to make a few bucks, that’s it.”
He sat down close to me, still careful not to touch me and leaned his head against the wall. “I really was just trying to help.”
I tried to remember a time when I’d felt so completely overwhelmed with exhaustion, but couldn’t. Several minutes passed, a million thoughts invading my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about Annie, wondering what had become of her. I was coming around to the idea that I would probably be okay, but I couldn’t stop my mind from wandering to a dark place every so often, a place where I would die in this claustrophobic tunnel and never be found. But mostly I just dreaded the long walk home I still had ahead of me.
The absolute silence finally got the better of me. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
For a moment he didn’t say anything. In the darkness he somehow found my hand and squeezed it gently, reassuringly.
In an instant I realized there was nothing predatory at all about his touch.
I was an idiot.
When I’d been running I wasn’t able to turn off my parents warnings about ‘the wrong sort of people’ and ‘dangerous hooligans and what they’re capable of.’ And even after I’d snuck out, disobeying their rules and knowing they were silly, I was still following them like the good little girl I was bred to be.
I decided right then and there to actually listen to myself and for once, trust my instincts. Frankie was obviously concerned if I was okay or not.
His voice wavered when he talked, a hint of fear in it. “Sadie?”
I was the one who was sitting here with Frankie, not my parents. I was the only one who could really judge who he was.
We sat like that for a while, not saying anything. Holding his hand was like the most normal thing in the world. I’d always thought I’d be a horrible ball of nerves around a boy, but it was nothing like that. It was weird. It was nice.
“Sadie,” Frankie finally said. “I didn’t mean to upset you like this. I could just kick myself for being so stupid. I really was trying to protect you from getting in trouble, you know, so you could sneak back home and no one had to be the wiser.”
“I know.”
“Look Sadie, once we get out of here you don’t ever have to see me again. But see, the thing is… I really like you. I know we don’t know each other very well or anything, but there was just something when I looked at you. I… I can’t explain it.”
I knew exactly what he meant. He offered his arm and I leaned into him.
“But you’re a gangster,” I said, wishing he was absolutely anything but.
He sighed. “It’s not as bad as you think.”
“I may be a little behind the times,” I said, “but even I know what a gangster’s life is like. All underhanded money and parties, and… killing.” I don’t know why I bothered whispering the last part, there was certainly no one around to hear it, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud.
Frankie snorted. “That’s what the papers would have you believe, but the truth is Sadie, it’s not like that. Yeah, okay, we don’t do everything according to the law, but really, we’re just trying to make a buck in this world like anybody else. Five years ago, none of this was even illegal. The boys were just going about their business and one day, poof! Their livelihood disintegrated right in front of their faces.”
I didn’t know what to think about that. Five years ago didn’t really seem like that long of a time, I supposed. And what if someone had told my father he couldn’t be in politics anymore, that it was outlawed, then what would he do?
“But, you’re young. You couldn’t have been involved with these guys for very long. How come you got tied up in all of it?”
I could just make out his silhouette, taking off his hat and running his fingers through his hair. “You sure do have a lotta questions,” he said. “Look, I know it’s wrong. But there’s nothin’ else I know how to do.”
“What about your parents? Surely they would help you get on the right side of the law.”
“I don’t have any parents,” he said. “Haven’t for a long time.”
“Oh,” I said, suddenly feeling like a sap again.
No parents, no money, what else is a kid with no hope for the future supposed to do? Those gangsters probably went out and recruited him from the orphanage for goodness sake. And I’d gone and chastised him for it. He was doing the only thing he could do to survive.
We sat there for a while longer. Eventually, Frankie helped me up and we stumbled through the darkness in silence. He kept his arm around me the whole time.
“We’re here,” he said as we came to a dead end with a tiny, dim light barely penetrating the darkness of the tunnel.
But I couldn’t understand where we were, there were no stairs to climb to get through another hatch.
“Excuse me,” Frankie said, moving me gently out of the way.
He scratched on the wall like he was going loony. Eventually I noticed a sliver of light near the floor where there had to be another secret opening.
“Frankie, before we go in I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I was just scared is all.”
He shrugged. “It’s nothin’.”
“No, I really am sorry. Sometimes I think the way I was raised has turned me into nothing but a scaredy-cat. At least that’s what my friend Annie is always saying.”
“I already said it’s nothing.” He sounded like he wanted it to be the end of the conversation, so I didn’t say anything else.
He just kept scratching away at the door.
“Um, maybe if you knocked?”
He sighed, sounding more tired than annoyed. “I can’t just knock,” he said, in a gentle voice. “If there’s cops in there, it might be a little obvious that there’s a fake door if someone were to just go ahead and knock.”
“Oh. Right.”
He nodded once. “This way, if anyone asks, they can blame it on rats or something.”
“Oh, sure,” I said, though I had to admit, the mention of rats did very little to comfort me, being trapped in an underground tunnel and all.
It felt like a lifetime of silence passed between us. I didn’t have a clue in the world what to say. It’s not like we could ever be together anyway. No matter what his reasons were, he was still tied in with gangsters.
I figured I should still apologize one more time—it was only good manners after all—but I didn’t even get a chance since the secret door started to open.