Chapter 15
It was now Tuesday morning, and the sun had already risen for the start of another day.
Back in his Holiday Inn room, Danny was still asleep. He had a dream…
In Danny’s dream, he sat on his bed and watched the Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea TV show.
Then he heard Cindy moaning from the room next to his room.
She moaned in ecstasy.
Danny heard Cindy’s moans of ecstasy while they got louder and louder from the room next door.
Then there was a banging on the wall by his bed.
The banging got louder, and his wall vibrated and caused his bed to shake.
“Yes, Sig, yes, yes, yes,” Cindy moaned out from the other room, and the banging on the wall was the headboard of her bed banging against the wall.
Danny looked like he wanted to cry.
Then the knocking continued.
Back to reality…
Danny woke up from his dream in a panic. He looked upset and then he heard the knocking on his room door.
He got up and headed over to the knocking door in his tee-shirt and boxer shorts.
He cracked open the door and poked his head outside. He saw Cindy standing outside, all dressed. “You’re going to be late,” she said and looked concerned.
It dawned on Danny what she meant. “Give me a few minutes,” he said then he closed the door and ran over quickly got dressed.
A few minutes later, Danny and Cindy walked into the entrance of the dining room that was closed.
“I’m sorry, we’re closed for a little while for some special guests,” the middle-aged bald tall and lanky hotel employee said while he stood guarding the entrance to the diner.
“We’re guests of The Rocking Tones,” Cindy told the employee.
“I’m sure you are,” the employee said and moved to make sure they did not slip past him.
“Let them in,” Jackie said while he walked up behind the employee.
The employee turned and saw Jackie behind him. He turned back around and looked back at Danny and Cindy. He motioned that it was okay for them to enter the dining room.
“I’m glad you showed up,” Jackie said while he placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder while they walked into the dining room.
Danny and Cindy saw the rest of The Rocking Tones, Roger, Gus, Tom and Kenny sitting at a large table.
Roger rolled his eyes the second he saw Danny and Cindy walk up to the table with Jackie.
Jackie stood up, “This is Chris Moore and Sally Duke,” he told Tom and Kenny. “Those two guys are our roadies Tom Westham and Kenny Whitestone. Without them, we would not have instruments to play for our concerts,” he said then paused for a second. “Chris and Sally are writing an article for the Cambridge Chronicle about the band,” he added.
Tom and Kenny gave Danny and Cindy a little wave and could care less.
Sig stood up and pulled out a chair next to him. “Here you go Sally,” he said with a warm smile.
Danny sat in a chair next to Jackie then he gave Sig the evil eyes wishing he would stop flirting with Sally.
“All of your meals are on us,” Jackie told Danny and Cindy.
Roger looked like he wanted to blow a gasket after hearing that, but he knew he would lose this battle. So he kept his mouth shut.
The waiter walked up to their table and took down their breakfast orders.
While they waited, they drank some coffee and had an idle chat about last night’s concert.
“Oh, I’m not riding the bus to Cambridge,” Roger said.
“How are you going to get there?” asked Jackie.
“I’m going into Albany to buy a car. I figured that the manager should drive separately,” said Roger then he took a drink of coffee.
All of The Rocking Tones looked at each other with looks of concern with Roger.
“So Sally, did you get some notes about last night’s concert for your article?” asked Jackie.
“I did and thanks for allowing us to tag along,” she replied.
“You’re welcomed, darling,” Sig replied and winked at Sally.
Danny rolled his eyes.
Then their breakfast arrived, and they ate with more idle chat about last night’s concert.
Breakfast was over, and everybody headed out of the dining room.
They walked out to the front lobby and stood near the front desk.
From the front doors, the bus was visible parked outside.
“How are you going to get to Albany without a car?” Jackie asked and was a little suspicious.
“I have a friend that’s going to give me a ride,” Roger replied.
“Oh, well, I guess we’ll see you in Cambridge later tonight,” said Jackie.
“Yeah,” Roger replied, then he turned around and rushed back to the front doors.
“Good, well, let’s get on the road,” Jackie told everybody.
They all headed over to the door of the bus.
While they boarded the bus, they did not notice Roger while he sat in the passenger seat of a 1963 black with white interior shiny Cadillac.
The Cadillac pulled out onto the street and drove away down Mohawk Avenue.
Gus closed the bus doors and drove through the lot and headed to the street.
He pulled out onto Mohawk Avenue and drove off in the opposite direction from where the Cadillac was headed.
The Rocking Tones all relaxed in their seats while Gus drove down the street.
Danny started to get a little suspicious of Roger.
A little while later, The Rocking Tones were all sound asleep while Gus drove over a bridge that went over the Hudson River.
Danny leaned around the seat in front of him and got close to Cindy’s ear while she relaxed in her seat. “There’s something about Roger that warrants checking into,” he whispered in her left ear.
“I know,” she whispered back.
Danny sat back in his seat and watched while Gus drove down a two-lane country road east of Cohoes.
Cindy glanced over at Sig while he slept in his seat. She liked him but had this strange feeling there was something odd about Sig. She could not place a finger on it at the moment.
Danny and Cindy closed their eyes and figured they might as well get some rest.
It was later that day.
Gus drove the bus down the two-lane country road in Massachusetts. He drove the bus south on Cambridge Road and was about twenty miles north of Cambridge.
Jackie looked at Cindy, sitting her seat. “Sally, when do you want to start gathering up information for your article?” he called out.
It did not dawn on Cindy that Jackie was talking to her as she forgot her undercover name for a few minutes. Then it dawned on her. “Oh yeah, that article. We could start now,” she said then opened up her purse and removed her note pad and pen.
Danny, Cindy Jackie, Delmar, Sig, Carter, and Burt got up and walked to the front of the bus.
They all sat in the bench seat around the table.
“We ready when you are,” Jackie said.
Cindy had her paper and pen ready. I’m ready,” she told the guys.
“I remembered that it all started on Sunday night on September ninth in fifty-six. We all gathered at Burt’s house to watch Elvis Presley performed for the first time on the Ed Sullivan Show,” said Jackie.
“Burt was the only one that had a television at that time,” added Sig.
Cindy jotted down some notes on her note pad, playing up the part of being a reporter.
“We were about fourteen years old at the time,” added Carter.
“We watched in awe while Elvis performed ‘Love me Tender,’ ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ ‘Hound Dog’ and “Ready Teddy,” said Burt.
“You ain’t nothing but a hound dog,” sang out, Jackie.
“Crying all the time,” Carter sang out.
“I recalled that what impressed me the most was how all those girls in the audience screamed while Elvis performed,” said Delmar.
“I think we all realized at that second that that’s the type of life we wanted,” said Carter.
“Yep, the type of life where all the girls wanted you,” Sig said while he looked at Cindy and winked at her and gave her a smile.
Cindy smiled back at Sig while she jotted down the information on her pad of paper.
Danny saw his wink and got a tad jealous.
“So in fifty-seven, we worked on our parents to buy us some musical instruments,” said Jackie.
“We really wanted to start our own band in the worst way, so we also got part-time jobs mowing grass and other mindless tasks,” said Delmar.
“We soon had up enough money to buy three used Silvertone acoustic guitars and a drum set,” said Burt.
“I removed the high E and B strings on my guitar to pretend it was a bass guitar,” Carter said then he chuckled when he remembered doing that.
“I bought this used five-piece Sears blue sparkle drum set from this guy that just graduated from high school and was going in the Army,” said Sig.
“I got this brown Magnus Jewel electric organ. My mom made me take piano lessons when I was able to reach the keys. She taught piano to most of the neighbor kids back then,” said Delmar.
“So, we started our first official rehearsal in October of fifty-seven,” said Jackie.
“And we sounded like shit when tried to play Elvis’ Hound Dog song,” added Burt.
“That poor hound dog would have been howling if he was in Burt’s garage that day,” added Delmar
Jackie, Carter, Sig, and Burt all chuckled.
They guys on the bus did not notice a brand new red 1964 Corvette Stingray Coupe that raced by them in the other lane of the road.
“We used my dad’s garage for our practice room,” Burt added.
“We did sound like shit at first, but that didn’t deter us. We had the fire in our bellies to become a band,” said Jackie.
“We practiced. Got blisters on our fingers and we practiced our hearts out,” said Delmar.
“Then by the winter of fifty-nine, we finally started to sound like an excellent rock and roll band,” said Carter.
“So in February fifty-nine, after an hour of brainstorming, we finally agreed that the name of our band would be called The Rocking Tones,” added Sig.
“Our fathers expected us to follow the careers that their father and their fathers had,” said Jackie.
“What was that?” asked Danny.
“All of our fathers were police officers with the Manchester Police Department,” said Carter.
“So they expected us to follow family tradition and become cops,” Delmar said.
“But they thought this band stuff would become just a fad for us and we would lose interest in a few months,” said Jackie.
Gus pulled the bus into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn motel.
“That’s all for now. We need some rest before the concert tonight,” Jackie said then everybody started to gather up their belongings.
Cindy tucked away her pen and note pad back into her purse.
“Hey guys, Kent Sommers wants to have a short meeting with us on the phone later tonight. He wants to go over the upcoming events in Chicago,” Jackie told the other band members.
“What’s the story with Kent Sommers?” Cindy curiously asked.
Jackie and the other band members looked at each other to see how to answer her question.
“Ah, just a business associate,” Jackie replied.
“Yeah, a business associate for some important business for a concert in Chicago. Music stuff,” Burt added.
Carter, Delmar, and Sig nodded in agreement and looked like they wanted to drop this topic.
Danny looked extremely curious with the information concerning Kent Sommers. He figured he might have something to do with their demise coming up soon.
“So Jackie, are you going to also see your number one fan?” Sig asked and winked at Jackie.
Danny looked curious with Sig’s comment. “Number one fan?”
“He’s seen her whenever we’re in the state,” added Carter with a smirk.
“Be nice, she’s a sweet girl and means a lot to me,” Jackie replied.
Delmar kissed the air teasing Jackie who could care less, as he really liked this fan.
Danny got even more curious and wanted to ask more questions, but Gus stopped the bus by the office of the Holiday Inn. He opened up the door.
Everybody started gathering up their belongings.
Gus turned off the bus, opened the door then he climbed down the stairs.
While everybody stepped off the bus, they saw Roger standing next to a shiny red with red interior 1964 Corvette Coupe parked by the front of the Holiday Inn office. He grinned from ear to ear.
Everybody walked up to Roger’s Corvette.
“Whew, what a pretty car,” Burt said while he walked around and checked out the car.
“How much did she cost?” Carter asked.
“Oh, my buddy got it for me at a good price. I got her for thirty-five thousand,” Roger said and had a cocky look on his face for getting a deal on this sports car.
“Maybe your buddy can swing us a deal like that,” Delmar said while he took a peek inside the Corvette.
“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do for you guys,” Roger replied, but he did not look like he was interested in getting the guys their own Corvette.
“Go get some rest for tonight’s concert,” Roger told the guys.
Roger handed out the room keys for everybody and hated the fact that he had to spend money on rooms for Danny and Cindy. But he decided to play along for now.
Danny and Cindy followed Jackie and the guys while they headed to their rooms.
“I still think Roger’s squandering with our money,” Delmar quietly said while he leaned over at Carter.
“Don’t worry, that will be taken care of in Chicago,” Carter quietly replied.
Danny heard their conservation, so he glanced back at Roger while he got in his Corvette.
Roger’s Corvette started up with a roar, and he drove away and headed off to the street.