"Chat with Lansky" - a possible scene for my novel Breaking Point

Being in the re-write/editing stage for my novel Breaking Point, I have had some flashes of inspiration. However, the following I'm not sure whether to add, whether it adds to the story but felt it worth writing down and speculating on no less (and Meyer Lansky I chose because he was a big mucker in the New York Underworld in the 1940s):

Frank and Al walked into the club and saw him sitting at the table, a small man with a long nose, too much lip and not enough chin but one impressive head of thick black hair. They recognised him in an instant.
“Meyer Lansky,” Frank said as he and Al approached his table, producing their badges as they did. “Detectives Roebling and O’Malley, NYPD.”
“How can I help you, officers?” was the affable response.
“We’d like a word with you, Mr. Lansky,” Al added.
“Sure,” he smiled, and asked his companions to give them some space. “What is it you want to discuss?” Lansky asked when the detectives sat.
“You’ve no doubt heard about the shootings in Harlem recently,” Al said, “and we were wondering how much you know about it.”
“I know that Leo Killeen and his sons have one or two friends in Harlem, and four white guys and one schvartz catchin’ some lead in Harlem does seem fishy, but what’s it got to do with me?”
“Is Nathan Zimmerman a friend of yours?” Frank asked.
Lanksy’s face soured. “That skin-poppin’ schmuck? He’s nothin’ to do with me.”
“Wasn’t he associated with your good friend Charlie Luciano for a time?”
“He approached us both lookin’ for work, and we told him we had nothin’ for him. I sensed somethin’ about him was a little off, and Charlie said to me he was a hophead, so we want nothin’ to do with him. You can’t trust a guy like that.”
“So you wouldn’t have sent him after Leo Killeen or any of his family or associates?” Al asked.
“I regularly do business with Mr. Killeen, he’s a friend of mine, he’s a mensch, and so was Martin.”
“‘Mensch’ means he’s a stand-up guy, a good man, a man of honour and integrity and strength,” Al explained to Frank. “I have Jewish friends,” he then said to Lanksy.
“I was gonna say, I’m impressed by an Irishman who speaks at least some Yiddish.”
“Well, where my people come from, ‘mensch’ just means ‘man’,” Frank said.
“I thought you might be German, Detective Roebling.”
“Yeah, but don’t worry Meyer, I think Hitler is a complete arsehole too, and so does my son who’s fighting him.”
“And I hope your son comes home in one piece Detective Roebling.”
“Thanks Meyer.”
 “And Detective O’Malley, I wish your brother a speedy recovery.”
“Thanks.”
“And just so you know, Martin Killeen was a friend of mine, as is his father, and your brother, and if it was in me to have someone killed young Vincent would have gone unharmed, he was just a kid, and as you’ll attest, Detective O’Malley, you never give an Irishman just cause for revenge.”

What do you all think?

The Story so far (working title "Memphis")...

I have made a fair degree of headway with my current project and (at least I trust) it's coming together quite nicely.  For the most part the plot's developing along the lines I initially envisioned - the clear-cut dichotomy of good and evil, the Fall in Act One followed by the Redemption in Act Two, plus all the other happenings which help flesh the whole thing out, and even a little subversion of some elements of the noir genre (e.g. the "femme fatale" who in this case isn't) while remaining true to others (the lost souls who populate these pages, particularly the main protagonists).  One deviation from the initial rough sketch is that Dorothy (Hank's wife) has turned out to not be fixated on materialism at all.  Far from it, she's a good Christian woman, indeed is almost a Christ-figure, her death playing a big part in the redemption of the sinners, the salvation of the lost souls (Hank and Lucy).  Otherwise, it's fleshing out as planned.

...Because no novel is complete without a title

Good news everyone!  I finally have a title for my novel (the noir novel completed in October).  After years of referring to it by its working title "Noir" it now has a real title: Breaking Point.  It's starting to feel more legit now.

A massive "thank you" to Nikki for suggesting the title, and to Sarah for encouraging me to not go with a cheesy, cliched, pulpy title like Murder in Manhattan or Death of the Black Widow or some such piffle.

Good News: novel completed (subject to editing and proofreading)

After several years on and off and a lot of reworking I finally finished my novel yesterday, subject to editing and proofreading.  I thought I had finished it on Sunday, but then going through and rereading it I noticed I hadn't, that there was a great big hole that needed filling, and one or two important parts missing, so I knuckled down and wrote and filled it in.  Of course, I have no doubt that I will need to do more work on it before hawking it to publishers - I've sent it to various friends to proofread it.

Also I will have to come up with a title for it as I still haven't yet.

For those who just came in, and to refresh people's memories, it’s a crime novel set in New York during the Second World War.  A wealthy but immoral socialite is murdered; the prologue details the murder scene, the first half of the narrative details the circumstances that brings us to this event and the second half deals with the consequences.  The three main protagonists are the two detectives investigating the case, Frank Roebling and Alfred O’Malley, and the husband of the deceased, Stan Rosenbaum, mob lawyer; the main antagonist is – funnily enough – the victim, Rachel Warner-Rosenbaum.  The supporting cast includes a fictionalised version of the Hell’s Kitchen Gang, an enigmatic hitman feeling conflicted about his chosen vocation, a sick, perverted multimillionaire banker and a water buffalo named Nigel.  Okay, I’m kidding about the buffalo, but the rest are definitely in there.

I like to think that I've plumbed the depths of the human experience, or at least touched on deeper themes, such as choices we make, what it is to be a man and so forth, but I might sound a bit full of myself if I carry on like that.  I guess I should let the reader be the judge.

Hopefully it’ll pass muster, get published and sell.  E-books look like the way ahead because they’re cheaper to produce and will reach a much wider audience, but I hope to see (and sign) printed copies too, and support bookstores.

Perhaps the worm is starting to turn.  It's exciting to contemplate…