Comfort to the Enemy (2010) by Elmore - Carl Webster 03 Leonard Page B

"That could be it." He looked toward the two standing at the cigar counter and said, "Hey," and they both turned. Carl said, "Come here, I want to ask you something." They looked at Teddy.
    Teddy motioned to them. "It's okay, this guy's a friend of mine. He just wants to ask you a question."
    Carl waited as they approached and stopped a few strides away. He took a step toward them saying, "Frank, why they call you Frankie Bones? You get the name when you were a skinny kid?"
    The guy didn't answer but kept staring at him.
    Gary watched Carl turn to the other one, Carl's hat and the guy's hat even, the two facing each other.
    "And they call you Tutti, huh? What's Tutti short for Tutti Fruitty?"
    Gary had an urge to get into this, move to the side and have an angle on the two concentrating on Carl, except Carl, what was he doing? Asking them where they got their nicknames. Yeah, but eye to eye, waiting to see if they wanted to make something out of it. Now he said, "Teddy won't need you two inside the camp. There isn't anyone in there ever heard of him. So what you could do," Carl said, "walk down the street to Deering's drugstore and get yourselves a Tutti Fruitty ice cream cone." He waited while they stared at him, Carl giving them time to say something if they wanted to. After a moment he said, "My favorite's peach." Cool, not once raising his voice, or taking his eyes off them. Gary had never seen anything like it.
    Carl was saying to them now, "So I won't see you two anymore, wil I?" He waited for them to stare at him again, taking their time, before they turned and went out of the hotel.
    "Fellas tried that hard eye on you," Gary said.
    "You're known as a tough guy, Carl said, "you have to act like one. We're gonna use Teddy's car, so you'll have the Chevy. I was thinking you keep an eye on the two mutts.
    "Tutti and Frankie," Gary said, glancing at Teddy who seemed patient listening to them.
    Carl saying, "But I don't want you to mix it up with them, okay? Or shoot them?"
    Gary held back his grin and said with no expression, "'Less I have to," starting to pick up on Carl's style.
    No, forget Tutti and Frankie. What I want yo u t o do, Carl said, is drive back to Tulsa and get Louly. Gary said, But I don't know your wife , sounding alarmed.
    She won't hurt you, Carl said. She slept in this morning but wants to see the camp.
    *
    Larry Davidson was waiting by the door to the camp commander's office. As soon as he saw the marshal and Teddy Ritz coming along the hallway he opened the door to the office and held it for them, expecting Teddy Ritz to make some remark about last night.
    No, what Teddy did was walk past him into the office and stick out his hand to Colonel Sellers standing behind his desk. He was looking at Carl as he said, "I'm not about to shake his hand so he can put it away. I don't have your knack for acknowledging people I have no respect for. I've seen enough of Mr. Ritz in newspapers and reading your book." He said, PFC Larry Davidson," looking at him standing by the door, "will show you around if you want and take you to see Jurgen.
    That was it.
    Larry said, "If you all want to come this way," led them outside and through the double main gates of th e c amp, each one in turn unlocked and opened to let them walk in, and closed and locked behind them. He heard Carl say to Teddy, "I guess Wesley isn't in favor of treating a Kansas City gangster like a guest. He was in law enforcement twenty years before they gave him this camp to run." Larry heard Teddy Ritz say, "He thinks I'm a bum--tell him I'm a good citizen, I helped get a haberdasher elected to the bench who's about to become the next Vice President of the United States.
    Harry S. Truman.
    They walked into the street where the POWs lived, only a few outside watching them, Larry saying the first rows of barracks were for enlisted men, the next ones for noncoms, and the ones at the far end were for officers. Larry said, "You see the three gun towers down