The Black Stiletto: Stars & Stripes by Raymond Benson

shoulders. And neck. Dear diary, my whole body hurts!
    But I’m alive.
    What hurts the most is the headline of the
Daily News.
    â€œBLACK STILETTO DEFEATED!” in big, bold letters. Four photos accompanied the article. They were pictures of me lying inthe middle of Pell Street, surrounded by innocent bystanders. In the fourth shot, the police had joined them. Yes, the police. An enterprising pedestrian must have had a camera I didn’t notice. I was a bit out of it at the time. There were no photographs of my assailants. They had all run off by the time the street brawl had become the biggest news story on the planet.
    Alas, it’s true. I
was
defeated. Of course, it was a couple dozen against one, but I didn’t think that would stop the Black Stiletto. I guess I have to know my limitations.
    Most of the article was inaccurate, as they usually are. The reporter especially got the last part wrong. It stated that I was helped up by two policeman, handcuffed, and thrown into a patrol car, under arrest. I was “humiliated and broken in defeat.” That’s not exactly what happened, or I wouldn’t be sitting at the kitchen table writing this now. And I wasn’t humiliated. I was
angry
. The bad guys ganged up on me. It wasn’t a fair fight at all.
    The evening started out with me going to my regular
wushu
lesson with Billy at the restaurant. I was feeling good about catching his father’s killer. I thought he and his mother would be very happy about it. But he met me outside and told me there would be no lesson and to meet him in a few minutes in our shadowy alcove across the street in the building under construction. I thought,
uh-oh
. Something had happened.
    Billy showed up nearly ten minutes later and apologized. He said we can’t meet for lessons anymore. He and his mother have to move out of the building. The Flying Dragons took over the restaurant and still claim his father owed the Tong $20,000! Pock Face’s arrest made the situation worse. Billy said his mother wouldn’t testify and forbade him to do so. She was threatened. And Pock Face was
released
! None of the charges stuck. Like the Italian Mafia, the Tongs had good lawyers and corrupt police and judges in their pockets. At any rate, Billy and his Mom were in a lot of trouble. If they don’t do what the Tong says, they’ll be killed.
    I was horrified. Somehow my fight with the killer put my friendin danger. I guess it made sense, now that I think about it. Why would the Black Stiletto be avenging the murder of Mr. Lee and his brother unless she had a connection to the family?
    â€œWho
are
these people? How can they have so much power? Don’t the police have any say in what goes on in Chinatown?” I asked.
    Billy rolled his eyes. “Not really. The Tongs pay no attention to white cops. There are more and more Chinese policemen in Chinatown, but it doesn’t really help.”
    â€œDo you know any more about the Flying Dragons?”
    â€œAll I know is their leader is a guy named Tommy Cheng. The two men at the restaurant that night are a couple of his enforcers. I imagine the headquarters is on Pell Street. That’s where the Hip Sing Tong is, and the Flying Dragons are their little brothers.”
    â€œWhere are you and your mother going to live?”
    He shrugged. “I don’t know. Some dump. We’re thinking of going back to China to be with my grandparents. At least we’d escape the Tong, but we’d be poor.”
    â€œI’m sorry, Billy,” I said.
    He replied that he understood and that he wasn’t upset at me. His mother was, and she was also angry at him for talking to the Stiletto. It put their lives in jeopardy.
    I immediately said I would make it right, but Billy held up a hand. “No,” he said. “You must go away and forget about all this. I mean it. It’s now too dangerous for you—and for us—if you’re seen