They emerged from the alleyway at the back of City Hall to see Abe waiting under a street lamp on the other side of the road. The brim of his hat was down low against the drizzle, and his face was in shadow. He seemed to Lil as though he was thinking deeply or maybe even asleep.
He looked up as they approached. ‘So?’
‘No dice – she was busy.’
‘Oh.’ He kicked at a bit of gum wrapper that was stuck to his shoe.
Lil could see that he was trying to hide his disappointment so changed the subject. ‘We did run into the mayor and his bodyguard in the corridor,’ she told him, wincing inwardly at the ‘we’ that had slipped out.
‘Did you get caught?’ Abe hadn’t seemed to notice her mistake. ‘I heard alarm bells ringing.’
‘No, but it was close.’
‘That mayor is a strange character,’ Abe mused. ‘There’s something about him I don’t like.’ He shook his head thoughtfully, as though he was trying to dislodge a memory from the cobwebbed recesses of his mind.
Lil cleared her throat to knock the detective out of his reverie and said: ‘So, what now?’
‘Well, the more official channels are no good without Naomi’s help.’ He sighed. ‘All right, we’ll try the orphanage again, maybe ask some of the kids if they remember anything from the night Stubbs went missing, see if he had any friends there – but first I need to get the word on the streets about something. There’s been another fire, last night.’
‘Really?’ Lil attempted a look of total surprise.
‘You heard about it then?’ Abe growled. ‘Thanks for telling me.’
‘I forgot.’ Lil shrugged, her ears reddening.
‘Hmmm. Worried I’d get distracted, eh? Look, I don’t even know if this one is connected. This vic wasn’t on my list; he’s a doctor, a real one, so why would the Firebug target him? Something doesn’t add up.’ He scratched his chin. ‘I need more information. Come on, let’s eat.’
‘Ice cream?’ Lil said hopefully. ‘You could treat me. What do you say?’
Abe scowled at the sky and turned up his collar. ‘I say it’s raining. How about we settle for a hot dog?’
The hot dog stand was on the corner of Fig Street where a steady stream of traffic crawled by in a chorus of blaring horns. The city stretched up from the pavement, its lights reflected by puddles, a fairground of colours from the traffic signals and advertising bill-boards to the office tower blocks that loomed like giant dominoes.
Mist blew around the hot dog cart, mixing with the steam from the grill. The vendor wore a pillbox hat and an apron over a shiny blue tracksuit. Her face was peppered with freckles and she had three watches strapped to her right arm.
Abe sidled up to her with a nod. ‘Hey, Minnie.’
She looked up with a double take and then smiled a genuine yellow-toothed grin. ‘Well, look who it is! Detective Absolom Mandrel as I live and breathe.’
Abe adjusted his hat. ‘How’s tricks?’
‘Same old, same old.’ A semi-awkward silence descended. ‘It’s been a while.’
‘Yeah, I’ve been busy.’
‘I heard that.’ Minnie flipped over a shovel full of onions on the hotplate.
Abe gave a grim snort. ‘You always did have big ears, Minnie.’
Minnie winked and then pointed a thumb at Lil. ‘So, who’s this?’
‘Mind your beeswax.’
Lil stepped closer and breathed in the warm onion and sausage smell. ‘I’m Lil, Mandrel’s associate.’ She murmured out of the corner of her mouth to the detective: ‘You don’t mind if I call you Mandrel, do you?’
Abe muttered back, ‘Actually I do.’ He shook his head disapprovingly and then told her: ‘Minnie here does the best dogs this side of the river. I’ll take mine with the works.’
Minnie opened up the bun and started ladling onions and then squirting ketchup and mustard on top of the sausage.
‘I’ll have the same,’ said Lil. Minnie continued to layer up Abe’s hot dog with mayonnaise, chilli sauce and pickles. ‘On reflection, hold the works. Just give me onions and ketchup.’
‘Coming up.’ Minnie winked at her again.
‘So …?’ The detective leant in closer and dropped his voice. ‘What do you hear?’
Minnie’s gaze flitted around before handing Lil a hot dog in a serviette. She replied in a whisper, ‘Those fires have got everyone spooked.’
Abe narrowed his eyes and took the hot dog he was offered. ‘OK, Minnie, I’ll bite. What have you heard?’
Minnie shrugged. ‘Take a look at this.’ She pulled a copy of the Klaxon out from beneath a bag of finger rolls, licked her thumb and turned to the second page. She read the article out loud.
Death of Prison Doctor is “Unexplainable”
‘Yesterday evening Dr Hans Carvel burnt to death while locked in his office on the Secure Wing for the Criminally Insane at Fellgate Prison.
‘Several members of prison staff are willing to testify that due to the extreme security conditions on the ward the doctor was not only under guard at all times but his office door was double-locked from the inside. Police have no CCTV inside the room, though there are plenty of cameras surrounding it, and there was no sign of an intruder. It was reported to have been a suicide but the Klaxon can reveal that expert investigators have been unable to ascertain the source of the fire.’
‘It’s an unusual way to do yourself in,’ Abe mused.
‘Furthermore, police photographs taken at the scene reveal deep and frantic nail marks on the inside of the wooden door. The scratches contain ingrained traces of soot suggesting they were made during the fire and not before it.’
‘So, the Firebug strikes again?’ Abe said, but he didn’t look convinced. ‘Except we all know that the other victims all had a past – they were ex-mobsters.’
Lil pulled out a pencil and chewed on the end of it. ‘Maybe there’s another connection?’
Minnie shrugged. ‘If it’s the Firebug, then he’s one clever so-and-so. The door was locked from the inside and it was under guard. It would have been impossible for anyone to get in without being seen.’
‘Not impossible,’ Nedly murmured darkly.
‘You would have thought this city was too damp to burn,’ muttered Abe.
Minnie squinted at the ex-police detective. ‘So, what’s all the interest? Are you on the case?’
‘You know me, Minnie,’ Abe replied. ‘I’m just curious.’
‘Well, good luck! Someone’s got to stop him. You know, the police – they aren’t even investigating. Some of the guys were down here the other day; off the record they say it looks like murder but they’ve got nothing to go on. I heard them: “No forensics, no witnesses.” Whoever it was, they came and went like a ghost.’
Lil choked on a piece of onion. She looked at Nedly.
‘Don’t look at me!’ he said.
Minnie pulled her coat round her and looked over her shoulder again. ‘And that’s not all that’s happening over at the Needle. It might be something, it might be nothing, but the new doctor, down there at the Secure Wing, who’s just took over from the dead one, he’s got the place locked down – saying there’s an outbreak of some kind of sickness there. One of the inmates has already died, but no one is saying who.’ Minnie wrinkled her nose and grunted. ‘Good riddance, some say. One less prisoner to pay for.’
Abe frowned. ‘They’ve got a new doc in post already? That’s fast work. Sounds like someone was waiting in the wings, a motive for a copycat maybe. You think it’s connected?’
Lil saw a glimmer of something in Abe’s eyes that sharpened his gaze, a faint suggestion of his former steely glare.
Minnie gave an offhand snort. ‘Who knows?’ She stopped flipping onions and gave the detective this X-ray-eye look. ‘One more thing, hot off the press, so to speak.’ She took a long sweep of the street on either side and then lowered her voice to an almost-whisper. ‘Rumour has it the Klaxon is about to break a big story. It’s all hush-hush but the word is they’ve got their hands on some incriminating materials: official documents, ledgers, that kind of thing.’ She leant in conspiratorially. ‘Enough to bring down the Mayor’s Office.’
Abe rubbed his jaw with the prosthetic hand. ‘The last time anyone took a shot at City Hall, it was McNair.’
Minnie frowned gravely. ‘And we all know how that ended.’
They nodded silently at each other and then Lil gulped, breaking the spell. Abe passed her his hot dog while he fumbled in his pocket for some change.
Minnie shrugged and looked at the money. ‘You’re a bit short there, Detective. Have you got another five?’
Two police officers swaggered up to the stand. One male, one female. They both wore standard-issue clear shower caps that stretched over their hats to protect them from the rain. All Peligan City police wore them all the time.
The male one flashed them a smile. ‘Well, look who it is. Ex-police detective Absolom Mandrel.’
Abe smiled back with wary politeness, still rummaging in his pocket to find the extra five to pay Minnie.
‘I just came to get a hot dog,’ he said in a way that sounded like ‘I’m not looking for any trouble’. The money was eluding him. Lil reached into her pockets and started pulling out some coins.
Abe’s cheeks began colouring. ‘No, kiddo, forget it. I said I’d treat you, didn’t I?’
Lil watched as he pulled out fluff and old receipts and a small note, which caught the wind and flew away.
‘You can both forget it,’ Minnie said obligingly. ‘It’s on me – for old times.’
Abe looked like he was going to refuse but then, his shoulders slumped in defeat, he gave Minnie a smile of weary gratitude. ‘Thanks.’ He took the hot dog back from Lil. ‘I’ll see you around, Minnie.’
They were only ten feet away when the male officer’s voice caught up with him.
‘He’s the old-timer that got washed up on the Lucan Road Mob case. They retired him early and good job too – he was a drunk. Still is, by the look of him.’
Abe stopped in his tracks. He passed his hot dog to Lil again and then pulled off his prosthetic hand. The officers at the hot dog stand had stopped talking. It seemed to Lil as though the streets had fallen silent, holding their breath the same way she was. Abe picked through the Swiss Army attachments and pulled out a flat metal object shaped like a crab’s claw.
‘What are you going to do?’ Lil whispered. She looked back at the hot dog stand. The officers were watching Abe’s back. No one moved.
‘Eat my hot dog, that’s what.’ He held out his hand for the bun, placed it in the pincer and turned a screw to tighten the grip.
‘Come on, we’ve got work to do.’
Lil ran after him. Nedly stayed behind.
A moment later the police officer yelped and jumped, dropping his hot dog in the overflowing gutter.
His partner frowned at him. ‘What is wrong with you?’
The man looked around him fearfully, his heart still galloping. ‘I don’t know, I just … I mean, I thought I just … never mind. I just got a bad feeling.’