Chapter 18
An hour had passed, and Danny walked over and knocked on Cindy’s door.
He waited for a few minutes. She did not open her door. Then he heard her laughter coming from Sig’s room across the hall. Cindy’s laughter.
He moped back to his room, went inside and moped while he sat down on the bed.
An hour passed, and there was a knock on Danny’s door.
He lay on his bed and stared at the ceiling. Then after a few more knocks, he got up and headed over to the door.
He opened the door and saw Cindy standing outside. “Dinner in the dining room in twenty minutes. I’ll meet you down there,” she said, then smiled.
Danny looked disappointed while she turned and headed off to her room.
An hour had passed, and Danny and Cindy were backstage at Edgely Hall.
On the stage, The Rocking Tones started playing their We Will Last song to an audience of over two thousand fans with half of them being screaming teenage girls.
Offstage, Roger stood off by the wall. He had suspicious eyes glued on Danny and Cindy. He watched while she jotted down some notes on her note pad.
He walked over and stood by Cindy’s left side.
She sensed someone was by her and she looked to her left. She got a little nervous when she saw Roger standing next to her, glancing down at her note pad.
“I need to see what you’re writing about the band,” he said and extended out his hand.
Cindy looked at Danny. He nodded that she should give him the note pad. She handed him the pad.
Roger looked at all the pages of her note pad and saw that she only had notes about how The Rocking Tones got started. He was satisfied that there was nothing derogatory written about him. “I insist that I proof your article before you give it to your editor,” he said while he handed her the note pad back.
“Okay.”
Roger glared at Danny and Cindy with eyes that they knew he was not happy with their presence.
Roger strutted away.
Danny and Cindy looked at each other.
“I got to find something soon,” he said while he felt Roger was not within hearing distance.
Cindy nodded agreement.
The two continued to watch The Rocking Tones continued with their song.
Ten minutes had passed, and The Rocking Tones started up with their Rocking My Baby song.
Curiosity started eating away at Danny. “I’ll be back,” he whispered to Cindy.
“Where you going?”
“Check up on Roger,” he said then he walked.
Danny discreetly searched all around the back of the stage. Roger was nowhere in sight.
He went to one of the rear stage doors.
He cracked the door and peeked outside.
He saw Roger pacing back and forth by one of the Chevrolet vans smoking a cigarette. Roger looked in deep thought about something. Danny closed the door.
Danny walked back to Cindy.
“Did you find him?”
“Yeah, he’s outside smoking and thinking about something,” he whispered.
“I wonder what?”
“Take a guess, and the first two don’t count,” Danny replied.
Cindy nodded in agreement then they both watched while The Rocking Tones finished with their song.
Danny and Cindy watched while The Rocking Tones started playing their We Will At Last song. Half of the females in the audience began screaming louder to where it was difficult to hear the band.
Thirty minutes had passed, and The Rocking Tones just finished their last song.
The audience cheered and clapped while The Rocking Tones did their standard bow to signal the end of their songs. Then they blew kisses at the audience, which was their way of showing the audience that they loved them and appreciated them attending their concert.
Cindy jotted down that information on her note pad.
The Rocking Tones set down their instruments and walked off the stage.
Outside at the rear of the Edgely Hall, the Levittown Police had a barricade up. This kept the fifty fans from rushing the bus.
Amongst the fans were Pastor Elmer Watson and his usual flock. They held up their signs protesting rock and roll music.
Then the girls screamed the second The Rocking Tones came out of the rear stage door.
“Repent!” Elmer yelled out the second he saw The Rocking Tones. He held up his Bible. “Repent you, sinners!”
Roger heard Elmer and got a smirk while he walked behind Danny and Cindy.
While Danny and Cindy walked to the bus behind The Rocking Tones, they saw Mickey and Maureen waving at them. Danny and Cindy waved back.
The Rocking Tones walked to the front of the bus and did their standard wave and blew kisses at the fans behind the barricades.
The Rocking Tones, Danny, Cindy, and Roger all got on the bus.
Gus started up the bus, closed the door, and drove away.
Tom and Kenny got out of the vans and headed to the hall to pack up the instruments.
It was late at night at two in the morning, and everybody was back in their hotel rooms.
Cindy’s room door cracked opened. She poked her head outside. The coast was clear, so she quietly stepped out of her room. She tiptoed to the room across from her door. She knocked on the door, and anxiously waited.
She knocked again and waited. “Hurry up,” she quietly said.
The room door opened, and Sig poked his head out. He was topless and in his boxers and looked like he just woke up with his hair pointing in all directions. “Cindy, is there anything wrong?”
Cindy pushed the door opened and walked past Sig and stepped inside.
Sig was a little surprised by her action in the middle of the night. “Ah, it’s kinda late.”
Cindy did not say a word. She just leaned in and planted a kiss on Sig’s lips. He was unresponsive and pulled her away. “This isn’t a good idea at the moment,” he said while he looked away from her eyes.
Cindy felt a little rejected. “What’s wrong? I thought all you band guys had females in your room late at night. Unless you don’t, I’m sexy and pretty,” she said and looked a little upset.
Sig looked a little concerned. “No, it’s not that. I think you’re a stunning woman and very sexy, it’s just that,” he said then looked like he was a little scared to continue.
“What is it? Are you married?”
“Can you promise that you won’t tell a soul?” Sig said and looked serious.
“You can trust me,” Cindy replied and looked sincere.
Sig took her left hand and walked her over to her bed.
Meanwhile, Danny stepped out of his room. He rushed over to Cindy’s room and lightly knocked on her door. He waited for a few minutes, and her door did not open. “Sound sleeper,” he said then he rushed off toward the exit.
The rear door of one of the back hotel exits opened.
Danny slowly poked his head outside and looked around the parking lot. The lot was quiet. He saw the bus, the two vans, and Roger’s Corvette. The coast was clear, so he rushed out of the rear exit.
He ran over to Roger’s Corvette.
He slowly opened up the passenger door and sat down in the seat. He opened up the glove box.
Danny spent a few seconds and rummaged through the glove box.
He removed a sales slip for Roger purchasing the Corvette from Hopper’s Chevrolet dealership in Albany. Danny thought nothing of that slip, so he tucked it away back in the glove box. He looked disappointed without finding some sound evidence. He closed the glove box.
Then he saw the rear door of the hotel open. He saw Roger slip outside.
“Crap,” Danny quietly said while he slowly got out of the car and quietly closed the passenger door.
He looked for a place to hide and decided the row of hedges by the parking lot was the perfect spot.
He scampered on the pavement and crawled through a hole in the hedges. He waited behind the leaves.
From between gaps in the leaves of the hedges, he watched Roger walk over and stand by the front of his Corvette. Roger removed a Winston cigarette from his shirt pocket and lit it. He smoked while he waited.
Then after a few minutes of spying on Roger from behind the hedges, Danny saw that black 1963 Cadillac drive through the parking lot with its headlight off. It headed in the direction of Roger’s Corvette.
The second the Cadillac parked next to Roger’s Corvette. Roger smashed his cigarette into the pavement. He saw Victor behind the wheel with Bruno in the passenger seat and Arnold in the rear seat.
Then Danny watched while Victor Burrows got out of the Cadillac.
Danny removed his iTravel 2 device and immediately turned on the video application. He pressed the record thumbnail.
He shoved the iTravel 2 device through the hedges to record some evidence.
Roger reached in his suit pants pocket and removed a thick white envelope.
Danny immediately knew it contained a large sum of cash.
Roger scanned the area over. Nobody was in sight. He handed Victor the envelope.
Victor looked inside the envelope.
“Trust me, it's all there,” said Roger.
“Galvin will hunt you down if it's not,” Victor said while he checked out the cash inside the envelope.
Victor shoved the envelope into his pants pocket. “Are you sure about this? Because once I give Galvin this initial payment, it’s going to be a done deal. No backing out unless you wanted to be hunted down,” Victor said, and he looked dead serious.
Roger thought about it for a few seconds. “They don’t give me any other option. Just make sure it’s not traced back to us,” he said.
“Oh yeah, that crazy religious guy that’s always hanging outside your concerts is named Elmer Watson. He’s from Montgomery, Alabama,” said Victor then he paused. So, we’ll get a car with Alabama plates,” he added.
“That sounds good.”
“Good, call me tomorrow, and I’ll have the location identified,” Victor said then he walked back to his Cadillac.
Roger headed back to the rear entrance of the hotel while Victor drove off in his Cadillac.
“V eight four T B three,” Danny repeated quietly while he tried to memorize Victor’s license plate.
He continued to watch Victor’s Cadillac while it drove through the parking lot then pulled out onto Oxford Valley Road.
Danny waited for a few more minutes until the coast was clear. He pressed the end, recording thumbnail on his iTravel 2 device then shoved it into his pants pocket.
Then he cautiously crawled out of the hedges and back to the parking lot.
“V eight four T B three,” he quietly repeated while he gingerly walked back to the rear entrance of the hotel.
A little while later, Danny safely made it back to his hotel room undetected by Roger. He sat down on his bed and immediately grabbed the small pad of Holiday Inn paper and pen. He jotted down “V84 TB3’ on the paper. Then he replayed the video. It was too dark to make out Roger and Victor, but the audio was perfect. Then he looked at the iTravel 2 device. “I can’t show this to the guys. How can I explain what this is?” he said then placed the iTravel 2 device on his bedside table.
He replayed the video and jotted down their conservation on the pad of paper.
He got undressed and crawled under the covers. He was fast asleep in minutes.