Legs Read Free Page B

Herman to move the table as Joe Vignola
finally brought drinks to the Reagans.
    "You call this gin'?" Billy said to
Vignola, holding up a glass of whiskey. "Are you tryna be a
funny guy? Are you lookin' for a fight?"
    "Gin's gone," Vignola said.
    "I think you're lookin' for a fight," Billy
said.
    "No, I was looking for the gin," Vignola
said, laughing, moving away.
    "This is some dump you got here, Jack,"
Billy called out.
    Herman and a waiter moved Jack's table next to the
Reagans, but Jack did not sit down.
    "Let me tell you something, Billy," Jack
said, looking down at him. "I think your mouth is too big. I
said it before. Do I make myself clear?"
    "I told you to shut your goddamn trap," Tim
told Billy, and when Billy nodded and drank his whiskey, Jack let
everybody sit down and be introduced. Charlie Filetti sat in a quiet
pout. Elaine had swallowed enough whiskey so that it made no
difference where she sat, as long as it was next to Jack. Jack talked
about Philadelphia to Teddy Carson,  but then he saw nobody was
talking to Benny.
    "Listen," Jack said, "I want to raise
a toast to Benny here, a man who just won a battle, man headed for
the welterweight crown."
    "Benny?" said Billy Reagan. "Benny
who?"
    "Benny Shapiro, you lug," Tim Reagan said.
"Right here. The fighter. Jack just introduced you."
    "Benny Shapiro," Billy said. He pondered
it. "'That's a yid name." He pondered it further. "What
I think is yids make lousy fighters. "
    Everybody looked at Billy, then at Benny.
    "The yid runs, is how I see it," Billy
said. "Now take Benny there and the way he runs out on Corrigan.
Wouldn't meet an Irishman."
    "Are you gonna shut up, Billy?" Tim Reagan
said.
    " What do you call Murphy?" Benny said to
Billy. "'Last  time I saw him tonight he's got rosin all
over his back. "
    "I seen you box, yid. You stink."
    "You dumb fucking donkey," Jack said. "Shut
your stupid mouth. "
    "You wanna shut my mouth, Jack? Where I come
from, the middle name is fight. That's how you shut the mouth."
    Billy pushed his chair away from the table,
straddling it, ready to move. As he did, Jack tossed his drink at
Billy and lunged at his face with the empty glass. But Billy only
blinked and grabbed Jack's hand in flight, held it like a toy. Saul
Baker snatched a gun from his coat at Jack's curse and looked for a
clear shot at Billy. Then Tim Reagan grabbed Saul's arm and wrestled
for the gun. Women shrieked and ran at the sight of pistols, and men
turned over tables to hide. Herman Zuckman yelled for the band to
play louder, and customers scrambled for cover to the insanely loud
strains of the "Jazz Me Blues." Elaine Walsh backed into a
checkroom, Benny Shapiro, Joe Vignola, and four others there ahead of
her. The bartenders ducked below bar level as Billy knocked Jack
backward over chairs.
    "Yes, sir," Billy said, "the middle
name is fight."
    Tim Reagan twisted the pistol out of Saul Baker's
grip as Teddy Carson fired the first shot. It hit Saul just above the
right eye as he was reaching for his second pistol, on his hip.
    The second shot was Charlie Filetti's. It grazed
Billy's skull, knocking him down. Filetti fired again, hitting
Carson, who fell and slithered behind a table.
    Jack Diamond, rising slowly with his pistol in his
hand, looked at the only standing enemy, Tim Reagan, who was holding
Saul's pistol. Jack shot Tim in the stomach. As Tim fell, he shot a
hole in the ceiling. Standing then, Jack fired into Tim's forehead.
The head gave a sudden twist and Jack fired two more bullets into it.
He fired his last two shots into Tim's groin, pulling the trigger
three times on empty chambers. Then he stood looking down at Tim
Reagan.
    Billy opened his eyes to see his bleeding brother
beside him on the Floor. Billy shook Tim's arm and grunted "Timbo,"
but his brother stayed limp. Jack cracked Billy on the head with the
butt of his empty pistol and Billy went flat.
    "Let's go, Jack, let's move," Charlie
Filetti said.
    Jack looked up and saw Elaine's