CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE BLUE SUIT
Danny Marino was beginning to understand that the shortest messages took the longest to deliver.
He came back from Fourteenth Street a little after four. Tony Spada was sitting behind the desk in the back room of the Downtown Athletic & Bridge Club, reading the racing form.
Nicky Bellomo was at the card table eating something wrapped in wax paper. Tony looked up. “Well?”
“Mr. Caruso says the blue suit won’t be ready Thursday after all.”
Tony put down the racing form.
“What did he say?”
“He changed his mind. It turns out that the blue suit won’t be ready Thursday.”
“Is that exactly the words he used?”
Danny thought about it.
“He said, ‘Tell Mr. Spada the blue suit won’t be ready Thursday.’”
Tony stared at him.
“That was all?”
“No.”
Tony waited.
Danny took off his coat.
“He said the gray one was finished, but you weren’t going to like the buttons.”
Nicky stopped chewing.
Tony looked at Danny.
“The gray one.”
“That’s what he said.”
“What about the buttons?”
“You weren’t going to like them.”
Nicky swallowed, and hazarded, “I thought they switched it to Friday.”
Nobody said anything. Nicky looked from Tony to Danny. “What?”
Tony leaned back in his chair.
“What did you say?”
“I said I thought they moved it to Friday.”
“Moved what?”
Nicky looked down at his sandwich.
“I don’t know.”
“Then why did you say it?”
Nicky considered this.
“I must’ve heard somebody.”
“Who?”
“I don’t remember.”
Tony stood up.
Nicky suddenly became very interested in the sandwich.
Tony walked over to the card table.
“Nicky.”
“Yeah?”
“Who told you about Friday?”
“Nobody told me.”
“You just said somebody told you.”
“I said I must’ve heard somebody.”
“Who?”
Nicky shrugged.
Tony waited.
Danny had noticed that Tony could wait longer than most people could lie.
Finally Nicky said, “Frankie.”
Tony’s expression didn’t change.
“Frankie who?”
“The driver.”
Danny knew Frankie. Frankie had driven the Pontiac the night they had talked about sending the problem to another town.
Tony knew Frankie too.
That was what made the room quiet.
“When did he say that?” Tony asked.
“Couple days ago.”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“Outside where?”
“Outside here.”
Tony glanced toward the door.
“What exactly did Frankie say?”
Nicky frowned.
“He said Friday was better.”
“For what?”
“He didn’t say.”
“Then how did you know what he was talking about?”
“I didn’t.”
Tony looked at him.
Nicky spread his hands.
“What do you want from me? The guy said Friday was better. Now Danny says Thursday. I remembered Friday.”
Tony continued looking at him.
Danny decided this was a good time to remain a nobody. He shrugged and said nothing. After a while Tony returned to the desk. “Anything else?”
Danny almost said no. Then he remembered. “Oh, yeah.”
Tony looked up.
“Caruso said if you asked about the other thing, tell you he never saw me. No idea what that means.” Tony didn’t move. Nicky stopped chewing again. Danny looked from one to the other. “I figured you’d know what that meant.”
“I didn’t ask about the other thing.”
“That’s what he said.”
Tony picked up the telephone. He held the receiver for a moment, then put it back down without dialing. Danny watched him. “You can’t call him?”
“No.”
“Violating Parole?”
Tony looked at him.
“Among other things.”
He walked to the window and looked down at Second Avenue.
Danny waited.
Tony said, “Did Caruso seem nervous?”
“He’s a tailor. How do I know what a nervous tailor looks like?”
“Was anybody else in the shop?”
“One customer. A woman.”
“Anybody in back?”
“I heard somebody.”
“Man or woman?”
“Man, I think.”
“You see him?”
“No.”
Tony turned around.
“Did Caruso look toward the back before he gave you the message?”
Danny thought about it.
“Yes.”
Tony nodded slowly.
That seemed to settle something, although Danny had no idea what.
“What color was the suit?” Tony asked.
“The blue one?”
“No. The gray one.”
“Gray.”
Tony stared at him.
Danny waited.
Then Tony smiled slightly.
“What?”
“There is no gray suit.”
Danny looked at Nicky.
Nicky looked at Tony.
Tony looked at neither of them.
He picked up his coat.
“Where are we going?” Danny asked.
“We aren’t going anywhere.”
Tony pointed at Nicky.
“You stay here.”
Nicky nodded.
Tony pointed at Danny.
“You too.”
“Where are you going?”
Tony put on his hat.
“To find out who changed Thursday to Friday.”
He reached the door.
Danny remembered something.
“Tony.”
Tony stopped.
“Caruso gave me one more thing.”
Tony turned.
Danny reached into his coat pocket. He had forgotten about it because it looked like nothing. He put it on the desk.
It was a button.
Small. Black. Ordinary.
Tony stared at it.
Nicky stared at it.
Danny said, “What’s wrong?”
Tony didn’t answer.
He picked up the button and turned it over.
There was a tiny scratch across the back.
Not a scratch.
A number.
Four.
Tony closed his hand around it.
“Danny.”
“Yeah?”
“You never went to Fourteenth Street.”
Danny looked at him.
“I didn’t?”
“No.”
Tony opened the door.
“And you never met Mr. Caruso.”
The door closed behind him.
Nicky waited several seconds.
Then he took another bite of his sandwich.
Danny looked at him.
“Nicky.”
“Yeah?”
“What happens Friday?”
Nicky chewed thoughtfully.
Then he shrugged.
“Ask me on Saturday.”
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CHAPTER NINETEEN BREAKDOWN
THE BLUE SUIT
Chapter Nineteen demonstrates one of the most useful principles in mystery writing: ordinary things become mysterious when people react to them as though they aren’t ordinary.
Nothing obviously dangerous happens in this chapter. There is no gunfight, murder or chase. Danny simply returns from a tailor shop with a message.
“The blue suit won’t be ready Thursday.”
By itself, the sentence means almost nothing. Tony’s reaction tells us that it means a great deal.
THE READER DOESN’T NEED THE CODE
We don’t explain what Thursday means, what Friday means, or whether there is actually a blue suit.
Danny doesn’t know, so the reader doesn’t know.
This keeps the reader in Danny’s position. We learn the underworld gradually, through his eyes.
NICKY MAKES A MISTAKE
Nicky’s line—
“I thought they moved it to Friday.”
—changes the scene.
Until that moment, Tony is concerned about Caruso’s message. Now he has another problem: Nicky knows something he apparently shouldn’t know.
The comedy of Nicky Bellomo works because he isn’t trying to be funny. He’s simply Nicky. He says the wrong thing because he doesn’t realize it is the wrong thing until everybody stops talking.
SILENCE BECOMES ACTION
Tony doesn’t threaten Nicky. He doesn’t shout.
He waits.
That makes the interrogation stronger. Tony’s ability to remain silent forces Nicky to fill the silence himself.
Eventually we get a name:
Frankie.
Now a casual remark connects the tailor shop, the club and a driver who has already appeared in the story.
The world is beginning to tighten.
THE SECOND MESSAGE
Caruso’s strangest message is:
“If you asked about the other thing, tell you he never saw me.”
Tony didn’t ask about the other thing.
That tells us Caruso is frightened, warning Tony, or both.
Something has changed.
THERE IS NO GRAY SUIT
This is the chapter’s confirmation that we are dealing with coded communication.
Caruso says the gray suit is finished.
Tony tells Danny:
“There is no gray suit.”
The reader now knows for certain that the tailor’s message contains information, but still doesn’t know what the information means.
That’s exactly where we want the reader.
THE BUTTON
Finally Danny remembers the apparently insignificant object Caruso gave him.
A button.
On the back is a tiny number:
Four.
We don’t explain it.
Because four cases are already somewhere in the background of the story, the reader may make the connection. But a connection is not proof.
That distinction is important in a mystery.
DANNY IS BECOMING USEFUL
Danny began this story as a nobody.
Now that is precisely what makes him valuable.
He can walk into places Tony can’t. He can carry messages without understanding them. People overlook him because they don’t consider him important.
But every errand teaches him something.
Eventually a nobody who has seen enough pieces may become the one person who can see the whole picture.
THE FINAL JOKE
Danny asks the obvious question:
“What happens Friday?”
Nicky’s answer:
“Ask me Thursday.”
It’s funny, but it also summarizes the structure of the mystery.
Everybody knows a little.
Nobody knows enough.
And nobody wants to be the first person to explain it.
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See You At The Top!!!
gorby