Prohibition is the law of the land, but Nellie needs cash - after socking a gangster in the face, she's got ten days to make it right. Frightened and caught empty-handed, Nellie turns bootlegger.
She accepts a job from her sly friend Lola to pick up...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
THURSDAY, MAY 14 1925
I'm still restless after I'm done talking with that strange girl Nellie Sypek. I'd spent a good amount of my time studying that photograph from the newspaper, it has to have given me a headache. There's something hidden there, that I can't see. Hidden in plain sight like my father's liquor; like my pamphlets and books on my bookshelf. If anybody just cared to look, it's all out in the open, for somebody to see—
I rub my eyes. Joey Collins. Lola Collins. Nellie Sypek. Nellie Sypek, and her big friend—the nameless friend, from Lola's party. Yes, I think, it's time see how far the Collins' web reaches.
I'm still not sure exactly what to make of her. Anybody who pals along with Lola Collins can't be up to anything good.
I navigate my way back to the Collins' warehouse. It's no big affair. This one looks to be an old workshop of some sort. There are several shops claiming they're open just around the corner from it, though I'm not sure they're actually selling produce and the services of a seamstress.
I'm not really sure what I'm doing when I hurriedly shove my bike beneath an awning on the sidewalk and jog around the corner to where she's smoking, hanging around the back door out of the rain. She sees me and laughs.
"Hey, copper," she says, "Come to spy on me?"
She's wearing a shawl lined with fur that brushes the bottom of her chin. I move up from there to her lips and catch myself. Stupid.
"I've just got a question for you," I say.
"Well, I've got one for you. You first." She holds out her cigarette. I fumble for my book of my matches, strike one, and light it for her.
"Shoot," she says.
"At your party," I say, "That big guy tailing your friend Nellie."
She smirks. "Oh? Felix? You afraid of some competition?"
I swallow back my retort. She's just provoking me. The beaded tassel on her neck swings as she looks over her shoulder, then back at me.
"Felix who?"
"Müller," Lola says, "Family owns a garage on the North Side. It's in the phonebook, sweetheart."
"So it's like that between them, is it?"
Lola takes a drag on her cigarette. "That question's a little too simple. I wouldn't know. Why don't you go ask him?"
She eyes me from beneath her thick lashes. It takes me too long to look away.
"Your turn," I say. The rain's still falling lightly. It's soaking the right side of my jacket through, but I'll be getting soaked on my way home, anyhow.
"You going out tonight, Mr. Howard?"
"Maybe another time," I say. But I've said it too quickly. She smiles like she's in on the secret. "Sure you won't join me? I'm usually at the Lynx," she says, and then because I don't stop her though I see it in the tilt of her porcelain shoulder she's leaning up to kiss me on the cheek. "Ask for Mary, Queen of Scots."
