They thought he was drunk (he was) and they
were going to have some fun and rough him up. When Eli looked up, he
saw Erszebet being pulled out of the car and Ray resisting arrest.
“That ain't my shit you rat-soup-eatin' motherfuckers!” was one
memorable curse Ray hurled at the men in blue. He used kung fu (his own
peculiar technique) on the cops but their sheer number hemmed him
in. Eli grabbed one of the cop's guns and shot his Erszebet, then shot
at the cops. They blasted him away, and he lie cold and dead in the
snow as the police pushed Black Torpedo Ray into a car and took
Erszebet, shot in the arm, to an ER.

The police report was
chilling: a pimp resisting arrest, a hooker shot by a wino who had to
bekilled in self-defense... everything was distorted, but to the
racist, sexist police commissioner it was just another day. The mayor
called for the club to be closed. Javier realized he needed to lower
his profile or face the wrath of someone like his father or Urias. So
the club closed while Black Torpedo Ray languished in prison for
nearly five long years.

VII. The Prince of Flicker
Street

Erszebet recovered quickly
from being shot, and grieved her mad brother. She soon found out that
she was pregnant again. She resolved to once again give her child up
for adoption. It was a daughter, born in September 1969. She named
her Celeste but her new parents changed her name. It would be years
before this girl would find out her true parentage. Even Erszebet
wasn't sure if it was Henry's, Luca's, or Javier's.