Dannyboy Marley followed the course of the gang’s trial in the tabloids. Bad Mother Fucker was sent away for life. Big Stick and the other eighteen-year-old member of the gang, Oney Davis, went to jail for a couple of years. Seventeen-year-old Retta Mae Wagons was released for lack of evidence, no prior record, and being a minor.

Dannyboy Marley was lingering on the courthouse steps when Retta Mae Wagons walked into the sunshine. When their eyes met, Dannyboy’s heart skipped four or five beats and did a flip-flop or two.

“What are you looking at, nigger?” asked Retta Mae.

“I’m lookin’ at you,” said Dannyboy, dressed to the teeth in his best black pin-striped suit, white-on-white silk shirt, black tie, and brand-new shiny black-and-white wingtip shoes. He wanted to look good for this Retta Mae girl. “I tink dat you’re de prettiest girl I ever seen.”

“I ever saw or I’ve ever seen. Speak the King’s English, nigger,” snapped Retta Mae.

Dapper Dannyboy Marley was a goner. “My heart flew de coop back when Retta Mae asked me what was I lookin’ at,” he would tell his friends. “And den when she told me to speak de King’s Engleesh, well, man, dat did it! Dat was de cherry on de sundae.”

Dannyboy Marley’s goose was cooked!

In a matter of weeks, Retta Mae Wagons was ensconced in a relatively luxurious one-bedroom apartment on a corner of Madison and Ninety-first Street, opposite the Jackson Hole Restaurant. They made the best pancakes in New York City at the Jackson Hole Restaurant.

As part of her new job, Retta Mae was told to commit to memory a set of rules laid down by her new pimp, Dannyboy Marley. “In de first place,” he said, “you gonna meet de john down in de lobby. You never meet him at de apartment’s front door. I’m gonna give de john a card wit a code word on it dat only you and me knows.”

“You and I know. Like what kind of code word?”

“Like New York Mets or Count Basie or somethin’, unnerstan’?”

“Okay.”

There were other rules and regulations Dannyboy Marley stated. Stuff about condoms, Retta Mae’s personal hygiene requirements, and making the john show his dick. “’Cause if he don’t want to, den he be vice or somethin’ like dat, unnerstan’? An’ remember dat I’ll be checkin’ up on you to see if you be stickin’ by de rules, unnerstan’?”

“I understand. And can’t you say un-der-stand and not unnerstan’? You really going to check on me, Dannyboy?”

“You can bet on it,” he answered. “I be checkin’ johns to see if you be stickin’ to de rules. If you’re makin’ ’em show dey dicks and cleanin’ yourself an’ shit like dat. If you don’t be stickin’ to de rules, I fire you. I tink it break my heart to do dat, Retta Mae, but I will do dat. Bidness is bidness, Retta Mae. If dere’s one ting dat’s more important to me over affairs a de heart, it’s affairs a de bidness.”