A day later the Klaxon ran the exposé; it was a special edition written in memory of A. J. McNair.
Years of Mob Rule at City Hall Finally at an End!
Mayor Dean has been relieved of office and arrested pending charges after being exposed as former mobster Ramon LeTeef, the notorious criminal who disappeared into the Witness Protection Programme over a decade ago, following the botched trial of the Lucan Road Mob.
A mountain of hard evidence, collected as part of a long undercover operation by the Klaxon’s own investigative team, was presented to the Prosecutor’s Office early this morning. In response, Peligan City law-enforcement officials have had no choice but to apprehend the former mayor and seize all his official and personal financial records from City Hall. This included documents relating to money-laundering scams, incidences of corporate fraud, insider dealings and election rigging. It is hoped that these documents will be used to make the case against LeTeef and identify some of his associates, former gangsters turned local business tycoons and politicians. As a result several top officials are in line to lose their jobs and contracts. The incriminating paperwork substantiates the allegations that our own reporter Randall Collar has made previously in his column, the Rotten Barrel.
Additional material has also been recovered overnight from the former mayor’s residence at Yang Guang Heights. This includes a ledger that records criminal interactions with City Hall from back during Al Davious’s term. The retired ex-mayor Davious is now being sought for questioning.
Police commissioner Gordian has been brought in to investigate the extent of the corruption at the heart of Peligan’s political system and the city’s assets have been frozen while this goes on.
Thanks to some crusading work carried out by the team at Mandrel Investigations and the endeavours of our own undercover reporters the mob rule at City Hall has finally come to an end.
After they had finished at the police station, Abe walked Lil back to the corner of Angel Lane. His car had been re-impounded when he had delivered LeTeef up to the duty sergeant.
‘Some thanks that is,’ Abe had complained, handing over the keys.
‘You’re lucky we’re not bringing charges against you for stealing it, Mandrel,’ the sergeant had replied, but he winked at the same time.
‘Looks like I took the rap for you there, kid,’ said Abe when they got clear of the station. ‘Officially, if anyone stole my car it was you.’
‘I only liberated it,’ said Lil with a half-hearted attempt at a grin.
Abe slanted a look at her. ‘Chin up, kid. I know you miss him.’
Lil shrugged. She’d had a bit of grit in her eye all day.
‘Collar beat me to the exposé,’ she said ruefully. ‘At least we got a mention, though.’ She folded her copy of the Klaxon carefully and stowed it in her rucksack. ‘This story is going to blow City Hall wide open. Apparently they’re already calling for a new election.
‘So, what will happen to LeTeef now?’
‘He is being transferred to the Secure Wing for the Criminally Insane at the Needle. The new consultant there, Dr Lankin, has agreed to admit LeTeef while he’s awaiting trial. Interestingly enough, Lankin used to work with Carvel at Rorschach too so he was probably on Gallows’ hit list as well.’
‘Maybe he still is. You should warn him.’
‘Maybe so,’ conceded Abe. ‘But I’m not sure he’d believe me.’
‘How about Weasel? Can they get him for aiding and abetting or whatever?’
‘A patrol car picked him up on the highway not far from Yang Guang. He was gibbering. No doubt he’ll have plenty to say once the creeps wear off, but my guess is he’ll try for a plea bargain. The cops are going to be under pressure to put LeTeef away for good this time, and if justice is served Weasel will go right down with him.’
Lil bit her lip. ‘Did you take care of that other thing?’
Abe nodded gravely. ‘An anonymous tip-off. The scene-of-crime fellas will do a thorough search of the grounds at Rorschach. They’ll find him.’
‘Good.’ Lil stared down at her shoes. ‘One day I’d like to tell the whole story: what happened to Nedly before he died and afterwards. I suppose it would be kind of hard to substantiate it, the stuff with Gallows and Owl, and Mr Grip and all that.’ She sniffed. ‘And maybe it would be hard to believe it too, but I owe it to Nedly to try. He was pretty brave, you know?’
‘He was a real hero.’
‘He was. I’m glad I got to know him, just a little bit.’ Lil swallowed back the lump in her throat, and after a moment changed the subject. ‘So what will you do now that LeTeef has been found? Have you got any other cases to work on?’
‘I suppose I’ll have to track down Gallows at some point,’ said Abe grimly. ‘I get the feeling he isn’t done with Peligan City yet.’
‘You’ll get him.’
‘You bet I’ll give it a shot.’
Lil looked at Abe with a critical eye. His mac was drenched and black with soot, his tie was loose and his shirt had seen better days. ‘Well, if you need any help …’
‘I’ll know where to come.’ He cranked out a rusty smile and nodded towards the window of number ten. ‘Looks like your tea’s almost ready.’
Lil had half expected the house to be empty as usual but as she peered through the window past the door of the dark sitting room and into the glow of the kitchen she could see her mum frantically trying to cook dinner, which, she predicted, would be spaghetti bolognese with garlic bread. ‘It’s her “speciality”,’ she told Abe.
‘I remember.’ He looked wistful.
The sound of an approaching train filled the night air, rattling past in a thunder of noise. A hot wind gusted behind it, whipping strands of hair across Lil’s face. After the sound had faded away and the few skittering leaves that had been pulled in its wake finally came to rest, all that was left was the faint lull of a lady singing the blues percolating out into the street from the old record player on the sideboard.
Lil could smell the sweet tomato sauce on the evening air and thought, for the first time in a long while, that it was good to be home. ‘Hey, do you want to come in for a bite?’
There was no reply. The old detective was already halfway down the road and out of earshot. As he passed beyond the street lamp he raised a hand in a wave until he became no more than a shadow in a hat and mackintosh.
Naomi Potkin’s eyes were sparkling happily. She reached out a hand to ruffle Lil’s hair and then pulled her in for a bear hug. ‘I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately, but that big project I was working on – it’s finished, so maybe we can spend a bit more time together. If you want?’
Lil shrugged like it didn’t matter but said, ‘OK.’
Her mother nodded at the kitchen table. ‘This arrived for you.’
She stepped aside to reveal a box-shaped parcel wrapped in dirty newspaper and string. Lil pulled on the bow and grinned widely. The paper opened to reveal an old but unused Olympia SM-3 typewriter. A couple of keys were half melted, it needed a new ribbon and the platen was still a bit sooty around the edges, although someone had hurriedly given it a once-over with a damp cloth. There was a card stuck between the rows of letters. It read: ‘You might as well have this. Abe’.
The food was good and Lil ate as much as she could fit in her belly, but she couldn’t shake off the dark cloud that hung over her that night.
Alone in her room she stared grimly at the silhouette portrait of A. J. McNair. She pinned back the foxed corner and smoothed it down, pressing against the sticky tack that held it in place.
‘Hi,’ she said awkwardly. ‘It’s me again. Feels like long time no see.’ The profile stared blankly ahead. Lil tried again. ‘You’ll never guess what happened.’ It wasn’t the same; the picture just seemed like a picture: two-dimensional and disinterested.
She carefully cut out the front-page news article from the special-edition Klaxon and pinned that up there too and then she switched off the light and listened in the darkness. Behind the soft swell of the blues, which was still drifting up from two floors below, the night seemed eerily still and there was a definite chill in the air.
‘Nedly?’ she whispered hopefully.
No answer.
Lil crept over to the window. It was slightly open. She heard the hum of a train in the distance; the noise vibrated against the latch as she pulled it shut. The train tore past, into the night, with a shunting heartbeat and lonely-sounding honk, while Lil stared out into the street, through the rain, past the street lamps and the houses. She leant closer to the glass, peering out over the city, past the lights of the tramlines, past the prison, to the black of the night sky. Then, taking a deep breath, she let it out in a sigh.
The window misted up before her.
‘Nedly?’ she said again, closing her eyes and screwing them shut.
Slowly she prised her lids open. She was still alone.
‘Nedly, if you can hear me, come back.’
She stood there holding the cord that lowered the blind, ready to pull it down, but hesitating. Come back, she thought, even if it’s just to say goodbye.
A sound rippled through the night, like a fat drop of water hitting a full bath tub. Lil strained her eyes against the fuzzy darkness. Far down the road a speck emerged from round the sweep of the corner. The speck became a small figure, and then the figure became a boy. He was racing determinedly through the slanting rain without disturbing the puddles, and passing under street lamps without casting a shadow. When he reached number ten Angel Lane he came to a stop, and waited patiently in the rain for someone to open the door and let him in.
By the time she had put on her dressing gown and slippers and crept down the two flights of stairs as quickly and quietly as her feet would carry her, some of Lil’s tearful excitement had worn off, so that by the time she reached the front door the first thing she thought to say was: ‘Why didn’t you just come in?’
‘You know why.’ Nedly rolled his eyes, puffed out his cheeks and then deflated them with a powerful sigh. ‘I told you: it’s not a good feeling moving through solid objects.’
‘But if I hadn’t been looking out of the window at that moment, I wouldn’t even have known you were there and then you would have been waiting all night.’
‘But I saw you standing at the window so I knew you had seen me.’
Lil opened her mouth to argue back and then shut it with a lopsided smile. ‘Whatever. It’s very good to see you, Nedly.’
He returned the grin. ‘It’s good to see you too.’
‘You made it back. I knew you would. I knew Grip was no match for you.’
Nedly’s smile flickered and went out with a gulp. He twitched a quick glance over his shoulder and Lil noticed his eyes had a round and stretched look to them.
‘Anyway,’ she said, stepping aside, ‘come in. Welcome home!’
‘Thanks.’ Nedly gave her a bashful shrug as he passed. ‘It’s good to be back.’
Lil paused in the doorway for a moment, wrapping her dressing gown tight. The night had an icy edge to it. The nearest street lamp buzzed and grew dim, making the shadows in the alley opposite thicken into something darker than black.
Listening to her own heartbeat pulsing in her ears, Lil wondered if maybe she had just forgotten what the creeps felt like. Well, she thought brightly, I better get used to them again, and, shaking them off with a sudden shudder, she gave the empty street a good dose of the Penetrating Squint for luck and then turned inside and closed the door.