Dive Bartender: Sibling Rivalry

By T.K. O'Neill

Frank Ford is a survivor of 10 long years at the Metropole Bar, where he's babysitter and alcohol dealer to Zenith City's derelict class: the misfits, the losers, the crazies, the old fading lushes, and, of course, the budding young alcoholics unaware or indifferent to what lies ahead.

We first see Frank in the aftermath of his little brother's funeral. Ray was an addict and a constant irritant. Forgotten, is how Frank wanted to remember Ray. The police, who also lost no love for Ray Ford, are leaning towards a verdict of suicide for the swollen, pulpy body that washed ashore near the port terminal. Frank thinks it was murder, but he's willing to let it ride.

His grieving mother has other ideas.

Set in 1977, Dive Bartender: Sibling Rivalry combines elements of David Goodis and Raymond Chandler with the popular culture of the era to form a pulp novel of sex, drugs, violence and smelt fishing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBookIt.com
• Release date: Oct 6, 2017
• ISBN: 9780967200682

T.K. O'Neill

Thomas Keith (T.K.) O’Neill has been writing since his college years, having been inspired by his creative writing professor, Harry “Doc” Davis. He grew up in Duluth, Minnesota, the son of school teachers, and attended both Arizona State University and the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD). In his early professional writing years, Thomas was a sports reporter and founder and editor of a regional arts and entertainment monthly, which was seed for some of his early fictional characters. He is the author of several crime noir and hardboiled novels and short stories, including Fly in the Milk, Dead Low Winter, South Texas Tangle, Jackpine Savages, Dive Bartender: Sibling Rivalry and Northwoods Pulp Reloaded. An ardent outdoorsman and angler, O’Neill and his family live in Minnesota.

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Schweiger

Part One

Chapter One

This way and that way—go this way and that.

That bit of an old German children’s song cycling in Frank Ford’s head seemed to be a comment on the flow of his thoughts. In the aftermath of his brother’s funeral, he was bouncing between sad, happy and relieved—and then back again. And to top it off, he had mud on his pants.

Goddamnit, he said, brushing impatiently at the dark clumps ringing the cuff of his only pair of dress pants. Most guys would have relegated these sharply creased grays to painter’s pants long ago, but not Frank Ford. To him these trou seemed more than suitable for his brother’s goddamn funeral.

Frank’s temper was not improving as the remaining splotches resisted his vigorous rubbing. Thinking about the funeral service wasn’t helping his head either.

Frank gave up his grooming efforts with a grunt, lifted his legs into the front seat of his rusty blue Pontiac station wagon and slammed the simulated wood-paneled door. He normally had Fridays off at the bar but today was the second time this month Betty called him in because Douglas Sack Sackberger pulled one of his infamous disappearing acts. If you could call holing up inside a bottle at his lowlife-welfare-cheater-girlfriend’s dump, disappearing. Frank wondered why Betty didn’t fire the sorry bastard. Maybe they were related, Sack and Betty. He’d heard that.

Goddamn families, Frank said as he turned the key, the angry profanity fading into the empty street like a warning. The starter responded with a tired whine.

It’s not like Ray was a brother anyone should mourn.

The whining and buzzing, ground to a halt.

Frank cranked down the window and yelled, Fuck, into the damp, gray air. Christ, the way it went down was so typical of Ray, his body lying there with ID in the pocket of his jeans so we could all know who it was. Know what happened to him, what somebody did to him. Make his big brother feel morally obligated to do the right thing. Whatever the hell that was.

Why couldn’t the dirt bag have just gone away?

You know how at funerals people always say they’re going to miss the dead person? This ceremony was no different. But Frank knew they were all liars. Except Mom, of course, she always loved Ray no matter what he pulled. Ray-Ray’s had a hard time of it, she’d say, explaining why she gave her younger son money or forgiveness. Money Frank always knew would be spent at a bar or a drug house— and forgiveness surely to be taken advantage of by the receiver. Mom babied Ray and took his side most of the time, which never failed to piss Frank off, but now it was left to him to comfort her.

Forgotten, that’s how he wanted to remember Ray. But the lasting image of his grief stricken mother bent over in the church pew and the rising bile in Frank’s craw, foretold a different future. He didn’t know how to answer when she asked why. Why Frankie? Why did little Ray-Ray have to die like this?

Frank gazed out at the cloudy sky and the small, well-kept houses in the blue-collar neighborhood surrounding his mother’s apartment building and felt the sourness growing. Maybe he should tell her about that time last fall. The time he saved her little darling from an ass kicking. Tell her about driving downtown one night and seeing this gray-haired guy in a dark suit pounding his fists on some turd in a worn-out fatigue shirt. Tell her he got a look at the smaller guy and realized it was Ray. Then maybe he should tell her that his first thought was—Good, he’s probably getting what he deserves. But Ray was Frank’s little brother and Frank had to stand up for him for that goddamn reason and that reason alone, so Frank jerked the car to a halt right there on the main drag—double parking on goddamn Superior Street for Christ sake—honked the horn and waved to his wacko brother. And when the gray-haired guy glanced over, Ray took the opportunity to scramble away and jump in the front seat of Frank’s big station wagon. Then Mom’s sweet little boy Ray-Ray gave the natty dresser the finger and hocked a gob of spit at him as Frank drove off. When Frank asked him what it was all about, Ray said he was fucking the guy’s wife, which Frank thought was a crock because any woman married to the dapper dude was not going to play around with snotty, greasy, Ray Ford. More likely Ray was sniffing around the guy’s teenage daughter, trying to get her high or something.

Frank twisted the key in the ignition again and this time the Pontiac V-8 fired up, sending clouds of oily exhaust into the air. He pulled away from the curb and pointed the wagon in the direction of Jimmy Carl’s Gentlemen’s Club. Nikki was out there doing her waitress thing, the master’s degree candidate working in a strip club for her sociology thesis. Girl was the only joy Frank had left in life. Kept him from thinking about his ex-wife and her asshole new husband or the way the country was going lately, everything costing so much these days. Sweet little Nikki made him feel alive, feel something good inside again. Her company and a couple stiff bumps would get him through the afternoon, but tonight at the Metropole was another thing altogether.

It was four-thirty on the clock behind the bar when Frank pushed open the gold-painted door and entered the hazy but strangely sweet smelling environment of Jimmy Carl’s Gentlemen’s Club. Today the stale alcohol, tobacco, hairspray and cheap perfume were an aromatic bouquet, a pleasant antidote for the tightness in the chest Frank always got inside a church. Especially at a funeral.

Frank saw Jimmy Carl at the far end of the room sitting in a booth, the man wearing a white pinstriped shirt and suspenders, smoking a big cigar and pouring over what looked to be his bills, likely deciding who got stiffed this month. Nikki in her uniform of black skirt and white blouse was standing close to Jimmy, her back to Frank and her arm cocked on her hip. Looked like she was waiting for something and seemed like Jimmy wasn’t in any hurry to have her leave his side. Frank knew Jimmy liked to bang his waitresses as a preferred side dish to his main course of strippers and prostitutes, and a cute and innocent girl like Nikki would be an A-1 conquest. Seeing the two of them within spitting distance was giving Frank another reason to be pissed. And worried. He felt a nervous smile coming on as he approached the booth. Hey there, young waitress, he said. Can a person get a drink in this bar?

Nikki turned around and threw up her nose. Not for the likes of Irish trash like yourself, Ford. Then she broke into a smile that warmed his heart and got him thinking good thoughts about the world again. He smiled back as best he could.

Sorry about your brother, Ford, Jimmy Carl said, tapping cigar ashes into a gold plastic ashtray. He was in here a lot.

Yeah, sure, Jimmy. Thanks. I know Ray was a tough guy to get along with at times.

Get Frank a drink on me, Nikki honey, Jimmy said, getting back to his bills.

The usual, Frank? Nikki said, giving him a quick hug as she went by.

Make it a double. Frank watched with admiration as his girlfriend stepped gracefully behind the bar. Five-foot-six of blonde-haired beauty. He loved looking in her eyes. Ass wasn’t bad either. He always told her if she got implants and lost a few IQ points she could be a stripper and make the real money. She always grinned and blushed in response. Working as a waitress in a strip bar had to give girls ideas, didn’t it?

Frank nodded thanks to Jimmy Carl and stepped across the floor to a barstool.

Nikki said, Funeral pretty bad, Frank? I would have come along if you’d asked me.

Nah, better you didn’t come. Then I would have had to introduce you to everybody. Go through all that shit. I mean would you like the first time you met my mother to be at the funeral of her beloved baby boy?

I guess not, Frank. I really wouldn’t know about those things, though. I haven’t been to very many funerals. You off tonight?

Betty needs me to cover for Sack again. Wants me there at six. I’d like to put a sack over Sack’s head and beat it with a stick, that’s what I’d like to do. I think I’m going to call in and tell her I’m too grief stricken to work—especially for Sack. The Metro will just have to tough it out without me tonight. I need to hang out with my good friend the waitress and do some drinking, watch girls take off their clothes for money.

Nikki crinkled up her face into a comedic grimace. I’m sure Betty will go for that one, she said. You know how she gets when she has to work the bar.

Too damn bad. She can’t fire me for not coming in on the day of my little brother’s funeral. I’ll get the union after her.

I didn’t know you were in the union.

I’m not. But I’ll sure as hell join in a hurry if she fires me. He grinned a little. I see you’re working both sides of the bar today.

Only until five when the girls come on, then Jimmy puts in his two hours before Billy gets here. I might actually have some time to talk to you, if it stays slow.

No problem. You know me, easily amused.

Especially when there’s tits on stage, Nikki said, the corners of her eyes and mouth turning up in that delightful way of hers. She took a bottle of Canadian Club from a shelf behind the bar and grabbed a lowball glass from a row.

What? Tits? Me? Frank stretched his hands out, palms up, his eyes getting wide. Not me. I’m a Christian. Family values and all that. Then he stared down at the stage at the back end of the room and got thoughtful. You get along well with your people, Nikki?

Pretty good, most of the time. But they’re hundreds of miles away. I don’t hate being with them—but I don’t mind being away, either.

Frank shook the ice cubes in his glass and took a long slow pull of the fine Canadian whiskey. My family was a pain in the ass from the beginning, he said. My older sister and my mother were from another planet, and the old man was never around long enough to have a positive effect. I remember thinking when Ray was born that I might finally have an ally. But then he turns out to be the craziest of them all, nothing but a torment all the goddamn time. But I still miss him, Nikki. Strange, I know. But I just can’t stand the thought of someone beating Ray to a pulp like that. Throwing him off the fuckin’ Arrowhead Bridge for Christ sake—even though I wanted to do it myself more than once. It hurts to think of anyone beating on little Ray-Ray like that and it pisses me off because he’s not worth the suffering. Frank leaned his elbows on the bar and felt some tears leaking out. He rubbed his eyes with the side of his hands.

Nikki put her warm hand on his neck and stroked gently. He was your brother, Frank, she said. Your flesh and blood. There had to be times when you loved him. I know you, remember?

You just think you know me, Frank said, leaning over the bar feeling like a fool and an asshole at the same time,

Then Shake Your Booty exploded out of the sound system and the stage lights burst on down front. Frank wiped his eyes with a cocktail nap and tried to smile as a chesty peroxide blonde in a shiny platinum-colored cowgirl outfit high-stepped out from behind the dark red curtain on the small stage at the far end of the long narrow barroom. Frank pulled himself together, took another swig of CC and shifted his gaze to the dancer. Nikki gave him a funny look and walked off to wait on two guys who’d just arrived at a table near the stage.

Frank watched the blond dancer click the heels of her silver cowboy boots together, turn around, bend over at the waist and touch her toes, showing the crowd her rear end. He was thinking he should go into work. At least for a little while. But maybe first he should call in and see if it was crowded. Frustrated now, he picked his drink off the bar and walked to the antique wooden phone booth up by the front door, the booth one of Jimmy Carl’s prized possessions. Frank sat down inside it and slid the door closed, sipped the whiskey and stared through the cloudy glass at a fading poster on the opposite wall of a beautiful blond standing alongside a stack of Miller Lite cases, the girl all dressed in green for St. Patrick’s Day. Frank was digging in his pocket for change when two of Ray-Ray’s old druggie associates shuffled by the phone booth without noticing him.

Maynard Loy and Artie Autry.

Not too long ago, maybe a couple years now, Ray-Ray and those two, along with one other guy, Martie Span, had a drugstore cowboy thing going. Ray was small so he did any climbing or crawling or shinnying needed to be done to get inside the stores. And more than likely he never got his fair share of the spoils, either, with those guys. Autry was a real beauty, had done some hard time a few years back for killing a guy in a fight over a girl and stash of heroin. And Loy was just a dangerously unstable bag of shit whatever way you looked at him. But neither Autry nor Loy was what he used to be, Frank was thinking, both of them just burned trash now.

Frank would have a nice chat with those two after he called the Metro and let old Betty know what was up. Betty was always a trip, man. Some days she could have you believing whatever she wanted to, serve you dog shit on a platter and you’d gladly pay double for the privilege of slurping it up. Then on other days you couldn’t help but see her as the lonely, pathetic, money-grubbing old woman she mostly was.

After a fifteen-minute conversation that only occasionally became an argument, Frank’s resolve dissipated and he agreed to come in at nine-thirty so Betty could go home and have a nice hot bath, soak her aching old bones. She told Frank that maybe then she could forget how much of herself she gave to guys like Sack. How much she gave and how much they always took before they let her down. She might even have a brandy with her bath; she was in such pain. And what a dear boy Frank was for coming in on the day of his poor brother’s services. Truly a dear, he was, and she’d remember his kindness next Christmas, Frank could bet his brown eyes on that.

Stepping out of the phone booth, Frank figured Betty would forget about it before Thanksgiving rolled around. Glancing at the bar, he saw Maynard Loy looking at him. One of Loy’s eyes skewed off to the left and the other aimed slightly to the right. Frank wasn’t sure which eye was focusing on him but knew it was one or the other. Doughboy Loy was a career criminal and usually had his guard up. Upon closer inspection, though, it seemed that neither of his eyes was focused at all. There was gray in his close-cropped hair and his skin was pale and unhealthy looking. Smiling, Frank stepped in close to Loy’s pudgy, sweaty carcass. What you up to, Doughboy? he said.

Loy blinked his puffy eyes and rubbed a fat finger across his blotchy red nose. Oh, ah, nothing, Frank. His voice was scratchy and high-pitched. Didn’t notice who it was at first—the funny light in here and all. He swallowed and made a face Frank thought was meant to be sympathetic. Um, sorry about Ray, man. That’s a real bummer. I always thought Ray would outlive us all.

Art Autry, on the other side of Loy leaning over a mug of beer, was wiry and sharp-featured, his skin wrinkled and tough like old saddle leather, the furrows and folds seemingly locked in a permanent scowl. He turned his head to Frank and nodded, grunting something mostly inaudible.

Then out of the corner of his eye Frank saw Nikki go behind the bar. He watched Autry turn his head and blow her a kiss. Frank shot the alligator-skinned prick a sideways glance then moved around Doughboy’s bulk to wedge in between the two lowlifes. Must be something big going on if you two guys are out of bed this early, Artie, Frank said. It’s still light out, He made a fist with his right hand and set it on top of the bar close to Autry’s left hand.

Autry narrowed his eyes. Your brother’s funeral, Ford, he said. Ain’t that reason enough for two old friends of his to have a drink together—in his memory?

Don’t remember seeing either of you two at the service, Artie.

Nah, Doughboy Loy said. We didn’t think it was a good idea to show up, given our past enterprises with Ray, and all. He was talking slow and getting slower. His eyes were red, but not like he’d shed tears.

Frank said, Look, you guys, I appreciate your sympathy, if that’s what it is—but what I’m really interested in is some answers. Like how and why did Ray end up floating in the bay all beaten to shit? And who the fuck, did it, man? You know, just simple questions.

Man, Frank, I don’t know, Doughboy said. You know how Ray got when he was fucked up. Must of been a dozen guys around town wanted to kick his ass. Somebody could’ve caught up to him, you know? Don’t necessarily mean it had anything to do with Ray jumping—but he could have been depressed or something. You take a beating and you might start hating yourself afterwards, right? You seen those billboards they got around town about untreated depression, how it’s a time bomb and all that?

You and I both know Ray didn’t commit suicide, Maynard, Frank said. He was too chicken shit, too much of a survivor for that. Thought too highly of himself in some twisted way. So maybe it was you guys did it to him, eh? Say for example you wanted him to pull some tunnel-rat job for you so you could get something to put in your arm and Ray-Ray said no and you two were jonesing so bad you wouldn’t take no for an answer. Frank turned to the wiry, wasted Autry. Maybe Artie here flipped out and started beating on the little dick. Knocked him unconscious and he wouldn’t wake up right away so you guys freaked and threw him off the Arrowhead Bridge.

Frank looked at Doughboy, wanted to squeeze those puffy cheeks until they bled, see what came out of his saggy mouth after that. Instead he turned back to Autry. Maybe I should pound your scrawny buzzard beak into the bar a few times, Artie, see what your story is then. I really think I might enjoy that. Frank put his right hand on his lowball glass, turned it slowly and stared at Autry.

Aw, come on, Frank, this is bullshit, Doughboy said. We didn’t do anything to Ray. At least I didn’t. He glanced at Autry. And Artie liked Ray. And we like you too, Frank.

Ford glowered and leaned his elbows on the bar, stared down into his empty glass. After a moment he glanced up at Nikki across the bar and her eyes were on him. Another, please, Nik, he said, holding up his glass. She came and took it, flashing a look of concern, woman always finding a way to comment, it seemed. Frank straightened up and looked Autry in the eyes. If you didn’t do it, Artie, who in hell did? I have this funny feeling that you know more than Doughboy says you do.

Autry said, I know Ray was getting squirrelier by the minute, Frank, that’s what I know.

Doughboy piped in, I was his brother I’d have a long talk with that nurse chick Ray was banging. She was mixing him up some really weird cocktails—if you catch my drift.

Frank said, Who in hell you talking about, Maynard? Not Judy Bruton, his ex-wife?

Loy got a smirk on his puffy lips. It is, Frank, I swear to God. I forgot they were married back in the good old days. Three months, wasn’t it?

So he was hanging with that bitch again, Frank said, watching Nikki pour his whiskey. That chick is evil, man. Used to steal from old people at the nursing home she worked at, to support her habit. Just your kind of babe, guys. But I heard she got busted, so how in hell can she still be a nurse?

She was never arrested. Just fired a couple times. They could never prove anything, I guess. Doughboy said. Now they say she’s gonna marry a pharmacist. Guy with his own drugstore chain. Imagine that, would you? How lucky can you get?

Shut the fuck up, Autry snarled. They’re not married yet, so let’s not jinx it.

Frank’s interest perked up. So where is sweet Judy sleeping these days, boys? Her former brother-in-law might like to reminisce with her about old times.

She works out at a big white house on London Road,’ Doughboy said, drawing an angry stare from Autry. She’s nursing her boyfriend’s mother. Old bag’s got this big mansion on the lake. She lives on the second floor and Mr. Pills is on the third floor. Quite a pad, they say. I think Judy’s been doing a lot of nursing on the pharmacy dude’s dick as kind of a side project."

Frank said, Mr. Pills? That’s the guy’s name? Really?

Actually it’s Pillsbury, Doughboy said, a stupid grin wrinkling his fat red lips. Me and Artie just call him Mr. Pills ‘cause that’s what he is, really, you think about it.

Frank said, How can a guy like that—with all that money—how can he not know she’s going to steal him blind?

He probably doesn’t care, Autry said. "Man’s a fuckin’ geek. Judy’s got him so strung out on her pussy he’d do anything for her. She’s probably got him spiking Demerol by now. Wouldn’t be surprised. But I ain’t saying any more. That would be gossip. And I was never one for gossip. Doughboy is also going to change the subject if he’s as smart as he thinks he is."

Y’know, Artie, Frank said. I think maybe we should go outside and introduce your balls to the toe of my boot. Frank leaned his muscular, six-foot-two frame in close to Autry. Your lack of concern is pissing me off, man. I need to get a line on Judy for personal reasons and you think you’re going to cut me off? What kind of shit is that? Be real nice if one time in your life you weren’t an asshole, y’know.

Fuck you, Ford. What more do you want? Big white house on London Road… guy name of Pillsbury… figure it out for yourself for fuck sake.

Frank clenched his jaw and was just about to grab Autry when he heard Nikki’s soothing voice coming from what seemed a very long way off. Jimmy bought you another drink, Frank. He said he doesn’t want any trouble in the bar. He’ll fire me, Frank, if you start anything.

Frank wanted to tell her not to worry; her parents would pay her bills if it came down to that—and for that matter, it was about time she got out of this sleazy environment—but he kept his mouth shut.

Then Afternoon Delight burst from the sound system and a brunette with extra large eyes hit the stage down front jiggling inside a frilly red bustier.

With his bloodshot eyes trained on the new dancer, Doughboy Loy said, Your buddy Danny Moran is remodeling the first floor of that same house, Frank. Maybe he needs some extra guys.

Which got Doughboy another eye dart from Autry, Artie’s face getting redder and tighter as he glowered at Loy.

Frank took the free drink and nodded thanks to Jimmy Carl, Jimmy behind the bar now. Then Frank gave each of the two pill heads a hard stare and stepped around to the waitress station. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Autry give the Doughboy a backhand slap to his flabby midsection. Autry growled something at the fat man and Frank watched Doughboy gulp once and stare down at the stage, Loy’s face freezing in a weird forced smile he must have worked years to perfect.