Hard News (Rune 3)

Just like my life, she thought. For rent net lease.

They walked to Washington Square Park and bought hot dogs then kept walking south through SoHo and into Chinatown.

"Hey," Rune said suddenly, "want to see something neat?"

"Yeah, neat."

"Let's go look at some octopuses."

"Yeah!"

Rune led her across the street to a huge outdoor fish market on Canal Street. "It's like the zoo, only the thing is the animals don't move so much."

Courtney didn't buy it, though. "Pukey," she said about the octopus then got yelled at by the owner of the stand when she poked a grouper.

Rune looked around and said, "Oh, hey, I know where we are. Come on--I'll show you something totally excellent. I'll teach you some history and when you start school you can blow everybody away with how much you already know."

"Yeah. I like history."

They walked down Centre Street past the black Family Court Building. (Rune, glancing across the square at the Criminal Courts Building and thinking of Randy Boggs. She felt the anger sear her and looked away quickly.) In a few minutes they were in front of the New York Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street.

"This is it," Rune announced.

"Yeah." Courtney looked around.

"This used to be called Five Points. A hundred years ago it was the worst area in all of Manhattan. This is where the Whyos hung out."

"What's a Whyo?"

"A gang, the worst gang that ever was. I'll read you a bedtime story about them some night."

"Yeah!"

Rune remembered, though, that her present copy of New York Gangs was now just a cinder and wondered where she could get a new one. She said, "The Whyos were really tough. You couldn't join them unless you were a murderer. They even printed up a price list--you know, like a menu, for how much it cost to stab somebody or shoot him in the leg or kill him."

"Yuck," said Courtney.

"You hear all about Al Capone and Dutch Schultz, right?"

Courtney said agreeably, "Uh-huh."

"But they weren't anything compared with the Whyos. Danny Driscoll was the leader. There's this great story about him. He was in love with a girl named Beezy Garrity--isn't that a great name? I'd like to be named Beezy."

"Beezy."

"And this rival gang dude, Johnny somebody or another, fell in love with her too. Danny and him had this duel in a dance hall up the street. They pulled out guns and blasted away." Rune fired a couple shots with her finger. "Blam, blam! And guess who got shot?"

"Beezy."

Rune was impressed. "You got it." Then she frowned. "Danny was pretty bummed by that, I'd guess, but it got worse because they hanged him for killing his girlfriend. Right over there," Rune pointed. "That's where the Tombs were. The old criminal building. Hanged him right up."

Well, now she'd have plenty of time to do her documentary about old-time gangs. She wished she'd done that story in the first place. They wouldn't have lied to her. Nope, Slops Connolly would no way have betrayed her. They were creeps and scum but, she bet, back then thugs were honorable.

"Come on, honey," Rune said, starting toward Mulberry Street. "I'll show you where English Charley started the last big fight the Whyos were ever in. You want to see?"

"Oh, yeah."

Rune stopped suddenly and bent down and hugged the girl. Courtney hugged back, squeezing with just the right amount of strength that Rune needed just then. The little girl broke away and ran to the corner. A woman in a business suit, maybe a lawyer on break from court, crouched down and said to Courtney, "Aren't you a cute one?" Rune joined them and the woman looked up and said, "She's yours?"