Blind Tiger

They carried cups of coffee into the dining room and gathered around the table. She served the twins slices of cherry pie. “None for you?” Davy asked.

“I was up all night last night. I’ve been baking since I returned from the still.” While there, she’d made the trek over the hill twice, but she didn’t tell them that. “My feet are tired, my back is aching, and the last thing I want to see is a piece of pie.”

They looked at her with sympathy but dug into theirs.

As she watched them shovel in bites, humming enjoyment, she pushed her fingers into her hair and held her head. “It’s just occurred to me that I should be putting up jars of pie filling while fresh fruit is in season.” It was an exhausting thought, but their moonshining business was reliant on her pie trade as a cover. “But that’s a worry for another day.”

Lowering her hands, she met the twins’ expectant gazes. “You don’t have to tell me how you know her, but are you acquainted with a girl named Corrine who worked at Lefty’s?”

“The whore?” Mike said.

Davy kicked his brother beneath the table. Mike drew back his fist.

Laurel held up her hands. “Stop it! We don’t have time for that, but don’t ever refer to Corrine that way again. Within or outside of my hearing.”

Davy said, “We know she’s the poor girl Wally Johnson beat up.”

“That’s right, and she’s still suffering the effects. By a set of bizarre circumstances, she’s now a member of our group.”

The twins gaped at her with identical expressions of incredulity.

“Never mind how it came about. She arrived here last night with Irv. She proved herself helpful in any number of ways, and that gave Irv an idea.” She went on to tell them about the present arrangement at the stills. “Ernie will teach her how to do the simpler tasks, and I trust her to work hard so that our shortfall will be made up for soon. And—”

“Jesus,” Mike said. “There’s an and?”

Laurel gave him a look. “And, I went to Lefty’s today to renegotiate terms.”

“You went to Lefty’s?”

“Alone? Are you daft, Laurel?”

“Irv had laid the groundwork of a new deal with him, and I couldn’t let that opportunity pass, especially in light of the theft. I got Lefty to triple his usual order.”

“Bloody lot of good it’ll do us, though,” Davy said. “We’ve got no whiskey to sell, and Lefty’s is shut down.”

“Only until dark tonight.” She glanced out the window at the darkened sky. “By now, they should be back in full swing.”

“He greased somebody’s palm,” Mike said. “Somebody high up.”

“I’m sure he did,” Laurel said.

The twins cut glances at each other, but neither said anything.

“What?” she asked.

Davy shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. “Have you ever considered…uh…”

Mike cut in. “What numb-nuts is trying to ask is, have you ever thought of approaching someone who has influence to persuade him to be a tad less influential?”

“You mean pay him not to be? Absolutely not.”

“It’s the way business is done, darlin’,” Davy said softly.

Mike added, “In order to stay in business, the owner of the pool hall had to give graft to damn near everybody.”

“Look how far it got him,” she snapped. “I won’t stoop to bribery. And, anyway, we can’t afford it.” She pushed back her chair and stood up.

“This new order of Lefty’s is a good one, and, as long as he continues to bribe officials, it’ll be a standing order.