The Damp Fedora by Kate Pilarcik

Author:Kate Pilarcik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Down & Out Books

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Overheard at sea, aboard the ANGEL COURAGEOUS, somewhere between Beaver Tail Lighthouse on Conanicut Island, rounding the Point Judith lighthouse.

Moe: “So, you got to the Commish?”

Nelle: “Yep. How’s Eddie now?”

Moe: “Crazy-happy. Whatcha think? So how’d you pull it off? I mean, with Happy Chandler? Did you need to use our boss man?”

Nelle: “Wild Bill Donovan?”

Moe: “The OSS’s one and only.”

Nelle: “Not quite.”

Moe: “What d’ya mean, kid?”

Nelle: “Illusions aren’t always what you think they are.”

Moe: “Espionage Etiquette 101. That’s on the beam, Nelle. But you’re tryin’ to tell me a man’s name is not a man’s name when he’s the most powerful undercover chief of the Operation of Strategic Services in the U.S. of A.?

Nelle: “Nope. Means sometimes there’s two names that make the same difference.”

Moe: “Never thought I’d say this, Nelle, since you’re supposed to be learning the finer points of this spy business from my seasoned expertise, but back in my baseball career, I know when something’s coming in from leftfield. You? I don’t catch your drift. I’m losing ya, kid.”

Nelle, punching her partner’s arm; snicker-inclusive: “Big league catcher like you, Moe Berg? Hah! You’re hardly worth your secret identity cover for the safety and protection of our country, are ya then? And, Moe, you big lug, you’ll never lose me. You’ve got vision where the rest of the world wears bifocals.”

Moe, rubbing his arm; eye-rolling inclusive: “That’s a swell line, Nelle.”

Nelle: “Think I should write it down?”

Moe: “Nah. Your whipper-snapper of a photographic mind will remember it. Probably pawn it off on some up-and-comer author. Then the guy’ll make screen gems millions with it.”

Nelle: “As long as he doesn’t use too much dynamite with it, he can sundance his way to it, butch.”

Moe: “C’mon there, banter queen. Tell me how Wild Bill Donovan’s name twisted the arm of Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler’s decision to get Eddie Waitkus reinstated faster than a seventh-inning stretch.”

Nelle: “Easy peasy, chucklehead. Took no floy floy. I done some diggin’ plus it’s what I always tell you.”

Moe: “So you’re tellin’ me now, it took no nonsense to get the job done, huh. But what? You tell me a lot of things. Boy oh boy, man oh man, every day we’re on a case, Nelle, all you do is talk, talk, talk—tell, tell, tell—”

Nelle punches his arm again. Harder; without the snicker this time.

Moe: “Sorry, partner. G’head.”

Nelle: “Well you see, it just so turns out Happy Chandler had a best buddy back in Detroit.”

Moe: “Lot of people have best buddies.”

Nelle: “This one had a nickname.”

Moe: “Lotta best buddies come with nicknames attached. Makes them handy. Distinctive.”

Nelle: “His sure was. Wild Bill Donovan.”

Moe: “No shit. No way. A baseball player? And no relation to our Wild Bill?”

Nelle: “No shit, Dick Tracy. Tigers. No relation. He’s a much older chap now. So I told Happy Chandler—”

Moe: “That he’d be happy to hear—”

Nelle, grinning: “That there’s no such thing as a coincidence.”

Moe: “Sheesh, you’re a pistol, Nelle.”

Nelle patted her pocket, showing her partner she was serious about the business of their business.

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