A Tee-Less 340

Tee's departure meant big changes at the 340 Club. His organizational skills had to be replaced. The duties of collecting and paying the rent fell to Mitch. As Tee described him in the previous post,"He wouldn’t be the first you would seek if you needed to borrow a sawbuck or wanted someone to take the rent money to the man".
Unfortunately we soon learned why. The landlord,George Kraztert,called me one day to complain about the rent being overdue. City and I confronted Mitch and asked him why he didn't pay it yet since we had given him the money. He contritely told us he blew the money. Not wanting to risk an eviction I wrote a check out to Mr.Kratzert with Mitch promising that he would repay me.
A few days later the landlord called me again and said my check bounced. Unlike today's banking technology where you can get your up to the minute balance by either phone or a computer, we had to wait for our monthly statement via snail-mail. Granted in those days I might not have been as accurate a record keeper for my finances as I am today but I was confident I had enough in the till to cover the rent.That's when Mr.Kratzert floored me with these words, "Your last check was good but not this one". I protested that he must be confused, that this was the first time I ever used my personal check for rent.He said, "No,You paid last month's rent with a check". I asked him for the check numbers and realized then that he was correct, a check had been stolen.
City L was livid and told Mitch to meet us at Zangari's South. I on the other hand was more forgiving, perhaps realizing the West King Street party was soon going to be over and not wanting it to be, I made Mitch promise to repay me even though in the back of my mind I knew that wasn't going to happen with his irregular work habits.
City wanted me to go the authorities and press charges but I refused. I remember City really giving Mitch a tongue-thrashing and I believe ordered him out of the Club. I would really like to hear his version of these events.
Meanwhile one could almost hear the Search and Rescue "choppers" filling up their gas tanks at the launch pads. The 340 Club Era was about to end.