Part XII
"Experience is what you get when....."
David Lee was never very successful at his trade. While he always professed to be a hit man of sorts, he constantly leaned on his friend Robert Graham and lived in the shadow of his brother, the late Bruce Lee. For those who knew David, he was a hired bully who probably never killed anyone in his life, knew very little karate, but talked as if he had killed a dozen or more marks. His friend Graham would try to teach him the ropes and give him practical advice, like, don't wear a trench coat in the middle of summer. But Lee wanted to look the part of a hit man and in his mind it was a hat, dark glasses and trench coat.
Lee had never married. He had more relationships than Graham because women either felt pitty for him, or they believed his exciting tales of mystery and excitement. Lee would often tell Graham, "I need the trench coat to hide all my guns that I carry". Lee liked guns but never used them on anything that could shoot back - except when he shot himself in the hand cleaning one of his automatics. Lee told girlfriends that he either got shot in a gunfight or shot himself on purpose just to see what it was like to get shot.
Lee and Denice enter the R.E.B. cafeteria at the same time. Denice made a bee-line towards Nougie and Naber and took a seat at their table. Lee takes a seat at an empty table about 10 feet away from Denice. Graham glances around over the top of his menu and begins to take pictures with a small camera......"Say, that Denice is pretty nice looking, small boobs though, I'd do her in a minute", Graham says under is breath while he takes pictures.
"click"........"zip"
"click"........"zip"
"click"........"zip"
"click"........"zip"
The camera shutter and autowinder do their work and alert no one to what is going on.
"What the hell?", Graham whispers to himself. "Is that David Lee over there? What in the world is he doing here at the R.E.B. cafeteria?"
As the cafeteria begins to fill up with customers, the smell of bacon, sausage and coffee fill the air. Large columns of smoke occasionally rise from behind the metal divider where the cooks prepare orders in earnest. Few empty tables remain at the R.E.B. cafeteria by this time.
"Denice, this is Naber. Naber, this is Denice", Nougie says as he makes the introduction.
"I like that blouse Denice. It looks good on you.", Naber says. "Green is your color".
"Can-it Dangerfield. I'm not here for small talk. I'm here to talk about opening up some brokerage accounts with Nougie. I hear you can help us."
"Can do my lady friend. Any friend of Nougie's is a friend of mine. How do you want the accounts styled?"
"I think you should use my name Naber. After all, Denice is not Denice's real name and so far she has not disclosed her real name to us", Nougie says with confidence.
"I say we use Kirk's name", Denice chimes in with authority.
Nougie almost spits his coffee out as he chokes at the mention of his friend's name.
"As you know Nougie, Kirk is "no longer around" what's the harm of using his name", Denice says as she smiles smartly.
Nougie says nothing and ponders the thought obviously wrestling with the irony of the situation. Nougie's forehead wrinkles in thought and he begins to rub his chin and stare off into space as he thinks.
End of Part XII |
