The Girl in the Mob — Part One
When acting becomes real-life
Deborah Barnes’ acting career was taking off. Her current role in a gangster production received rave reviews — perhaps too good. After attracting the attention of the FBI, she’s swept into a real life drama. She is introduced to the real mob.
The taxi lurched to a stop beside the theater and Deborah Barnes stepped out. September in New York City was normally a warm month and Deborah immediately began to sweat as the late afternoon heat embraced her. However, this could not dampen her bright mood. She loved her work. Whistling one of the show tunes from the Off-Broadway production, she did a mock dance step as she walked down the alley to the theater’s side entrance.
The security guard opened the door as she approached. “Good evening, Miss Wells,” he said. She used her stage name, Kate Wells, for pretty much everyone in the business. She’d not had any bad experiences, but she had been warned not to use her real name. There were just too many stalkers. Most fans were polite and adoring, but some took their desire to get close to the actresses too far.
Deborah, aka Kate, was not the star of the production, but she had a significant role, or actually, roles. The play was a dark comedy dealing with the lives of mobsters. As the story opened, the head of the crime family and his son were killed in a shootout with the police. Maggie, the protagonist, moved back home to take over the family business. In the sense of Michael Corleone, she had been kept separate from the crime business of the mob family. However, completing the parallel with the Godfather plot, Maggie sought vengeance after the deaths of her father and younger brother.
Kate did not play Maggie, but she did have three roles. In two scenes she was in the background chorus, but her primary role was that of the wife of Maggie’s cousin, Tony. The primary conflict in the plot was between Maggie and Tony. He had thought himself to be the heir apparent, and he displayed passive aggressive resistance to Maggie’s control of the family. In the end, Maggie had Tony killed. In a pivotal scene near the end of the show, Kate pledged her allegiance to Maggie, thus creating a female dominated mob family.
Kate admired her face in the mirror as the finishing touches to her makeup were applied. It was 30 minutes to show time. Since she had several costume changes, she was dressed in layers.
♦♦♦
With the conclusion of the performance, the cast bowed one last time, and the curtain was lowered.
“Great job,” the stage manager said, as they trouped to the dressing rooms.
Deborah thought, it had been an excellent performance; one of their best. The theater company had five performances a week, two of them on Saturday. This was the third week of the run, and everyone was optimistic the show would go on for several months. Deborah was grateful for the steady paycheck. This was not her first acting job since graduating from college, but it was her most significant role, and the best paying job of her life.
The cast changed into street clothes quickly; they wanted to get out onto the sidewalk and sign autographs before the theater patrons dispersed. The cast left the stage door in reverse order, with the actress and actor playing Maggie and Tony bringing up the rear. At the end of the line of fans a row of taxis waited to carry the performers away.
While they had been on stage, the weather had changed. The sky was heavy with dark, turbulent clouds. The light rain dulled the illumination from the overhead lights creating a sinister hue upon the street. Everything was a shade of gray. Deborah was disappointed; there were few groupies waiting under umbrellas to greet the cast.
Deborah worked her way along the line of fans, each one thrusting out a copy of the show’s program or a playbill advertisement. She carefully signed them “Kate Wells” with her bright blue sharpie. “Thank you,” she said to each of her fans. As she reached the curb, one last man pushed a playbill into her hands. She signed it and passed it back.
“Miss Barnes, I have a car waiting for you,” the man said.
Startled that he knew her real name, she looked up. As if on cue from some cosmic stage manager, a bolt of lightning illuminated the man and the badge he held in his hand. The black letters flew up from the white background and danced before her eyes: F-B-I. He was wearing a black suit, white shirt, and black tie. He looked like Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black.
“Wha-what?” she stammered.
“I have a car here. Let’s get out of the rain and have a chat, Deborah Barnes.” He used her name again. He gestured to a black SUV wedged in the line of taxis. A second man, identically dressed, opened the SUV’s rear door. “There’s no need to draw undo attention.”
The first man placed his hand in the small of her back and gently propelled her toward the gaping door. A third man held an umbrella.
“What is this about?” she asked.
The second man slid into the backseat. He placed a hand on her elbow and guided her into the SUV. The first man sat on the end of the bench seat and closed the door.
“Here, let me help you with this.” He reached across her body to fasten her seat belt. She was trapped between the two big men. The third man climbed into the driver’s seat.
“Am I under arrest?” She wondered if the seat belt might be locked somehow and she would be unable to release it.
THE END of Part One
Part Two, The FBI’s Proposition
Copyright ©2023 by S. M. Revolinski All Rights Reserved
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