Murkey's: A Rabbit Noir, #1

By Lou Cook

This fast-paced tale of Rabbit Noir tells of Bunz, the rabbit, and Webbs, his spider pal, as they rally to protect Murkey's: the best place in town for pie and coffee. In a town being sold out to the highest bidder, it looks like Murkey's is next on the auction block. Who are the two moose seen around the waterfront, asking too many questions? Could they be smarmy real estate developers? Or is there something even more nefarious going on? The Guys mobilize to find the answers and run into more than they bargained for. It's Bunz and Marilyn the Librarian to the rescue when Webbs is trapped in the maze of tunnels under the city as the moose are closing in.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lou Cook
• Release date: May 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733542807

Book preview

MURKEY’S

A RABBIT NOIR

By LOU COOK

E.A. SAWABINI, ILLUSTRATIONS

LOU COOK, PHOTOGRAPHS

Copyright © 2017

By

Lou Cook

ISBN 978-1-7335428-0-7

This eBook is a work of fiction. All characters, their names, any businesses, the story plot, the incidents, and the locations are from the author’s imagination, or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to reality, to locations, to persons living or dead, is completely unintended and coincidental.

The hours it took to write this book and ready it for publication added up to years. Please respect the energy and hard work by the author, the illustrator and all of us who worked long and hard on this project. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy.

We thank you. Bunzini and Webster thank you!

This eBook is copyrighted and licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be resold. It may not be shared with others. If you would like to share this eBook, please purchase additional copies. It’s not that expensive!

All rights are reserved. This includes the right to reproduce this eBook or any portions thereof in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the author.

Email us at: [e-mail] loucook.com

For more about Bunzini, Webster and the Guys: bunzini.com

BRAP! Productions, Publisher

Dedication

Dedicated to the Rabbit.

Of course.

And in fond Memory of:

Chuck

Jim N.

Short Pants

Craiggers

and especially Rocky

The Players

In Order of Appearance:

Bunz, the Rabbit: former Pie Inspector for the city, loves Murkey’s, especially the pies

Ida, hard-working rabbit: late-night waitress at Murkey’s, afternoon barkeep at The Anchor

Webbs, the Spider: Bunz’s special pal, loves Murkey’s, especially the donuts

Hamms, the hamster: head baker at Murkey’s

Bongo, the dog: an affable dog

Captain G.G.: a dog down on her luck, captain of the fishboat Sea Dog

Moose M’Boy: ex-sugar smuggler, recently released from 10 years in the Moosegow

Smilin’ Moose: sidekick of Moose M’Boy, also recently released from the Moosegow

Doc, the tiger: late-night cook at Murkey’s, resident of Sipp’s Creek

Joe Martuuni and his Pops: two pelicans, owners of the fishboat Fishy Lady

Nosey Parker: a seagull, always on the lookout for intel and food

Bill the Bum, another moose: owns a houseboat on Sipp’s Creek, resident on the wrong side of the law

Juke and Jake: two guard gulls for the Sipp’s Creek residents

Marilyn the Librarian, another spider: loves books and a good adventure

1. Looking for the Spider

See that cuppa coffee and donut? That little drawing was sketched on a napkin in Murkey’s Diner one night, and it’s got me thinking of a story. Does that ever happen to you? It could be a doodle on a napkin, a postcard from that cold beach weekend in December, or the little plastic tray with the photo of San Remo that holds memories of the summer you traveled Italy by yourself. Now and then, you take a look and remember.

Now this story, it’s about Murkey’s Diner. Open 24 Hours. It’s been on Pier 13 forever. From the outside, maybe it’s no beauty. The inside secret is this: Murkey’s has the best coffee and pastry in town. It’s been a friendly harbor for travel-weary seamen, local stevedores and long-haul truckers passing through town. It has the terrific coffee that every cabbie and night watchman counts on. And if you’re in the know, you go there too.

Yet and still, here’s a curious fact: nobody knows for sure how the place got started. History has blurred, but here’s what I’ve heard: the original place was a lunch counter, owned by Murkey and Sprinkhels.

But those two couldn’t get along. They would fight and argue all up and down The Embarcadero waterfront. They put on quite a show, and everybody swarming the waterfront back then, scuffling to make a buck, would take a break and watch them brawl.

A certain day came and Murkey didn’t turn up. No one saw or heard from him again. The waterfront could be hazardous, and Guys wondered: had Murkey left town? Been killed? Shanghaied? Did Sprinkhels care? No. He took over the lunch counter, never said a word, and never changed the name.

Here’s another story though: there was this dubious jockey and local tout, name of Turf Murkey. Some say he started up the lunch counter after he was banned permanent from horseracing. Maybe behind the lunch counter was a little room where he ran a certain private gambling den. At least he ran it until he lost it all in poker to Old Man Sprinkhels.

One way or another, Sprinkhels ended up with the place, and the Sprinkhels family has owned Murkey’s continuous for three generations. When alcohol was banned, a lunch counter on the wharf was the perfect spot for boats to sneak in illegal Canadian whiskey. Sprinkhels grasped the opportunity. During that first Prohibition, he made so much money, he invested in a sugar plantation.

By the time Prohibition was repealed, he had a sugar empire. He got so rich, he became respectable. He made lots of friends at City Hall. He built a museum and rebuilt his little lunch counter into a real diner.

So now, to our story. About ten years ago our fine state inflicted another prohibition on society by outlawing sugar—at least they tried to. A whole new category of government inspector was formed. They were a tough bunch that got named the Pie Inspector Team—the P.I.T.s.

During this Sugar Ban, smuggling sugar got huge! Piles of money changed hands. Sprinkhels Junior, grandson of the sugar baron, moved sugar around the way his grandfather had moved booze. Wouldn’t you figure that, once again, the diner was the perfect location for smuggling?

Of course, I’m not saying this is true. Junior never got caught. But spend time in the right places and you will hear all kinds of stories. Some are bound to be true.

Through all these years, Murkey’s remains the best diner in town. But the city? It keeps changing. A new scuffling crowd has flooded in, fighting for their chunk of change. These days the big money is in real estate. Real estate prices have levitated out of sight. The good ol’ places—Crab’s Corner, Sam’s Whoopie, The Old Spike—all closed down. They plain couldn’t afford to do business any more.

And a new rumor about Murkey’s is going around. It’s said that Murkey’s little spot on the waterfront caught someone’s mercenary eye. Late one night, a rabbit named Bunz heard that rumor.

The stocky, long-eared rabbit sat on his usual stool in the diner, sipping coffee and waiting for his spider pal, Webbs. Webbs was late. The clock ticked. Bunz spun around on his stool while Ida cleared the tables. Where could that spider be?

Abruptly, Bunz stood up. Hey, Ida. If that crazy spider shows up, tell him I’ll be back.

Will do, Bunz.

The glass door swung shut behind him. Bunz looked up and down the empty Embarcadero. No traffic. No spider. A thick fog. The shadows cast by the streetlights snaked across his memories of the crooks and sorry deviants who used to prowl the docks at night. He was on the docks with them, his Pie Inspector Team on the chase. The full-time sugar smugglers doing the big business, and the little chiselers who sold half-cup baggies for forty-fifty bucks, intent on their illegal errands.

But not tonight. Not anymore. The Sugar Ban was over, the Pie Inspectors decommissioned. The waterfront was dead. The fog pressed against the streetlights and dripped from the roofs of old pier sheds. It was so wet, it was almost rain.

Bunz hunched into his trench coat and wondered, What are all those jokers up to now? The thought passed and he considered the present question. Where was Webbs? He was not at Murkey’s as he was supposed to be. If a cruise ship was in port, he might be at Pier 27, talking to longshore Guys. Webbs loved to collect waterfront stories, and those longshore Guys told amazing stories from the days when the waterfront was booming and the city was the center of West Coast shipping.

Might as well check there.

The rabbit turned north along The Embarcadero. The streetcar tracks ran down the middle of the roadway on his left, and the dark, veiled bay was to his right. As he walked along, he rattled doorknobs and poked his head into a pier shed or two. No night watchmen had seen the spider that night.

Ahead he saw Pier 27. No fancy cruise ship loomed above the pier shed, although a longshore Guy told Bunz that a ship was due to dock before dawn. But no, he had not seen Webbs. Bunz walked further north, past the darkened souvenir shops to the commercial fish docks. He could hear the foghorn sounding at the Golden Gate, warning ship traffic of the narrow passage through the headlands. Still, there was no spider.

The rabbit turned and retraced his route. At Murkey’s, he glanced inside the misted window. Empty. Might as well keep going south, he decided. Don’t feel like sitting around.

As Bunz neared the Ferry Building, a hazy light beam caught his eye from across The Embarcadero. He stopped and looked. A narrow shred of light illuminated the stoop of an unkempt Victorian house. That building had been abandoned for years. Why was the light on?

He stepped across the empty lanes of The Embarcadero and the streetcar tracks, his eye focused on the stoop. From the open front door, dim light shone on a vague but familiar silhouette.

He climbed the chipped terrazzo steps. The fur on the back of his neck prickled. The shape highlighted on the stoop looked familiar because it was Webbs’ straw hat! Bunz leaned down and picked it up. It was damp with fog, so it had been there awhile. He looked up at the empty old pile. Despite light shining through the open door, the place appeared empty and its windows were dark. Unwelcome possibilities ran through his mind.

Get a grip, B, he thought. This isn’t the old waterfront. There’s a light on, the door is open. Webbs’ hat is on the stoop. You don’t know why. Go in. Check it out.

He nudged the front door further open and peered in. A dank smell reeking of unrepaired roofs and bad plumbing wafted out. One low-watt lightbulb in a three-armed wall sconce barely lit the entry hall. Loose wires poked through a hole in the clammy plaster. A stairwell squeezed into the narrow hall, stopping a few stingy feet short of the threshold. At the far end of the hall, a door frame barely held a door sagging on one hinge. In the shadowy silence, Bunz heard a voice, too faint to understand, coming from the rear doorway.

He stepped through the street door and eased down the hall. A floorboard creaked. He winced and slowed his pace. At the sagging door, he stopped, cocked a long ear, and waited to hear the voice again.

I’m out, the voice said. Bunz tipped his head. It sounded familiar. He couldn’t quite place it.

A second voice said, Hamms?

Hah! A voice he knew as well as his own. Webbs’ voice! He relaxed. That crazy spider, he thought. Playing cards? Here?

Hit me, said a third voice.

Bunz slid carefully onto the wooden step leading one flight down. He set his weight gently, but the worn steps creaked. Three steps from the bottom, he paused to watch. Nobody looked over. The three Guys were focused on their card game.

Bunz sees the card game.

Bunz waved the damp straw hat in the air. Somebody lose a hat?

Webbs turned from his cards, his round orange nose quivering with surprise.

Bunz! My hat!

Hamms glanced briefly in Bunz’s direction and then scowled at his cards.

Oh, this old thing? Bunz said, twirling it above his head as he headed toward the card table. I picked up this hat on the street. He put it on his own head. Abandoned, don’t you know. What do you think? he asked, setting it at a jaunty angle. Is it me?

No, Bunz. The spider returned to his cards. I forgot it on the stoop, didn’t I? Webbs shook his head and laid his cards face down. When Bongo didn’t answer the door, I climbed up to a second-story window.

Hamms checked his watch. Oops. Gotta fold, Guys. I’m due at Murkey’s.

Somebody else was due at Murkey’s, said Bunz, giving his pal a penetrating look.

Webbs ignored this and concentrated on gathering the cards. Hamms and I came over to keep Bongo company here at his new job.

Bunz turned to Bongo. What? You’re watchdog at this dump? What’s here to watch?

It’s a job. The dog pushed his cards toward Webbs. The place has finally been sold. They’re gonna fix it up.

Well, I found the front door open, watchdog.

Bongo looked across at the hamster. Left it open for you, Hamms. You were late.

Yeah. It sticks maybe, and doesn’t close all the way. Hamms stood up. But tell me, who’s going to break in here?

Bunz frowned at Hamms, Squatters.

Hamms moved toward the stairs. What squatters, he said, and looked around. Did I miss squatters somewhere?

Looks like we played longer than I realized, said Webbs as he set the cards in the middle of the table.

You think? said Bunz.

Webbs smiled to himself and changed the subject. B., you’ll never guess what Hamms told me.

What?

Word is, someone’s been asking around about Murkey’s.

WHAT! Bunz said. Asking what?

Don’t know. We’re wondering, too. Maybe it’s going to get bought out. Like everything else these days, said Webbs.

You can’t mess with Murkey’s! Best coffee and pie in town! Bunz said. The others nodded. Who is it, asking around?

That’s the thing. Nobody knows. Strangers. Hamms heard about it at the diner. Tell him, Hamms.

Yeah, yeah, but on the way. Let’s get going.

Webbs followed the hamster up the creaky stairs. A few steps up, he reached over the stair rail, lifted his hat off Bunz’s head and settled it on his own. Behind him, Bongo turned off the light and carefully felt his way up the stairs.

They trooped out into the fog. Bongo heaved the door shut and turned an old iron key to lock the empty building.

No relief guard? You’re leaving all this to fate? asked Bunz, gesturing at the dark pile.

The relief Guy—he’s always late.

Bongo stepped past Bunz and peered down the street. He’ll be here soon enough. The little dog propped the door key in a corner shadow.

Bunz said nothing and hustled after the hamster’s speedy little legs. So, Hamms. What’s this about Murkey’s?

All I know is this. Ida was working her other job at the Old Anchor. Two moose come in to the bar. Asked stuff about Murkey’s. Ida said their questions sounded like they were fishing for real estate information. You know how crazy real estate is these days.

They knew what he meant. These days everything was up for sale.

Two moose? Anyone know them? Seen them? Bunz asked.

They shook their heads no.

So.

Nobody knows. Mystery moose asking questions about their favorite diner? Did someone have plans to take it over? What was going on?

You might rightly say our story started not this foggy night, but ten years back. And just yesterday the second chapter began.

2. 12 Hours Earlier: Hiring the Sea Dog

G.G., a big white dog with floppy ears, stood on the deck of the Sea Dog and directed her hose at the bird poop splattered all over her boat. Splattered every day. She aimed the hose at the hull of her little skiff, the Pup, stowed upside-down on the roof of the wheelhouse. More