Smiling Joe and the Twins

Smiling Joe and the Twins

By Florence V. Mayberry, excerpt

The Old Man’s fancy for Joe increased at that first meeting. He told Dion afterwards he hadn’t laughed that much in years, said Joe’s down-home humor and way of looking at things relaxed him. He’d slept that night straight through, first time in ages.

At the time, this admiring comment slipped right past Dion on account of he’d laughed a lot too. It was only later, after five or six similar comments, that he started thinking about it.

Joe started out as kind of a flunky, translate that bodyguard, driving the Old Man all over Nevada to inspect his multiple investments, some of them in areas where the king was not real popular. But all that riding around can be pretty hard on an old man, and in a couple of years it was Joe showing up to check the clubs and bars while his boss stayed home. Dion allso stayed home, in a fine new administrative office above the main club. “I knew you wouldn’t want to be doing all that driving around, being away from your family,” the Old Man had pointed out to Dion. “Besides, I need you to keep the store here in Reno. Those back-East mobs are itching to take over Nevada and they’ll hit Reno first. Joe can watch the outskirts. If they try to sneak in the back door, he already knows some of their boys.”

Dion felt a light sweat pop out on his forehead. “Yeah, I know, but remember, Joe’s a newcomer himself. Maybe I oughta go with him some of the time, keep an eye-”

Smiling lady. Photo by Elena.

“Joe’s got great eyes,” the Old Man broke in. “The kind sees backwards and forwards at the same time. So have you, Dion, so why put two four-eyed guys on the same job? If Joe blows it, the Imll take a hand and I’ve still got you. Besides, you got your family here , you don’t need to be running around.”

About then whispers started up and down Commercial Row and around Lake and Center streets that there was a runner-up for crown prince.

Dion didn’t catch the whispers right away, it took him awhile. Which was a good thing for Joe’s social life. Because by that time he had become real popular with the Galway females. Both Jerry and Pat were into a teenage crush on big, handsome, fun-fun “Uncle” Joe, who was keeping them supplied with expensive chocolates and wall-to-wall stuffed animals. Inga, therir mother, considered Joe a dariling lonely man who kept smiling to cover secret sorrow that he did not have his own wonderful children like her daughters. To fill this vacancy in his life she made a point of inviting him to all her lavish parties, determined that some lovely, also lonely, rich divorcee would latch onto him and eventually fill his need. She was cheered to discover that a number of almost-unattached ladies were quite ready to do this.

Joe was at the Galway home so regularly, always loaded with flowers for Inga and teddy bears and chocolates for the kids, dancing with pretty ladies including Inga and the twins in the big recreation room, that Dion began to brood about it. To aggravate this brooding, he kept remembering how relaxed and good-natured the Old Man always became when Joe showed up.

(Ellery Queen, Mystery Magazine, September 1993)