“Verdammt!”
“If you?re right and Leadbetter was assassinated, that could have been the kickoff, right there.”
Dutch threw away his butt and checked the weather, It was still like a monsoon outside. He sighed.
“Look,” he said, “here?s the long and short of it, okay? The way it went was that big daddy Findley
plugged in Leadbetter, tells him keep the town clean. But Leadbetter inherits a department so old and
leaky, if it was a bucket you couldn?t carry rocks in it. He can?t lust vacuum out the whole outfit.
That?s where I come into the picture. Ike brings me in, gives me a decent budget, says, „Go out, get
yourself a dozen or so of the toughest no-shit lads you can find. Boys who know something about the
LCN and can?t be bent.? So I went lookin?. What I got is one mean bunch of hooligans. They?re savvy
and tough enough to take heat. And they?re about as friendly as a nest of copperheads.”
I said “Uh-huh” pensively. There was a message in all that for me.
“I just want you to understand the way the land rolls, see,” he went on. “What it was, Leadbetter
didn?t trust anybody on the old force. Our job was to keep our eyes open, build up our snitches, hassle
the out-of-town conmen, grifters, dips, hustlers. Put a little heat under the undesirables so they?d move
on. Try to keep a line on who?s who and what?s what. The tough thing is to do it without walkin? on
toes. We hassle a hooker, vice gets pissed. We break down an out-of-town dice game, bunco goes
crazy. So we pretty much been spinning our wheels up till now. I mean, we do okay, but He paused,
looking for the next sentence, and finally said, “Maybe I?m just tired of doin? rounds with the front
office.”
I let it all sink in. What I thought I was hearing was that the local police were either stupid or on the
take. It was Morehead?s job to cover all the bases.
“Leadbetter and Findley played it real smart,” Dutch continued. “They gave us very loose power, so
to speak, and fixed it so we report to a select committee of the city commission.”
“You?re not part of the department, then?”
“Yeah. We deal with them when we have to. But Walters can?t fire any of us, so we pretty much play
it our way. He don?t like it, but it?s a tough-sheiss situation for him. Otherwise, we?d probably all be
sorting files in Short Arm, Kansas, by now”
“He fights you?”
“Not in the open. But he wants control. He?s a back-fighter. Hell, I?m talkin? too much,” he growled
suddenly, and fell silent. I could tell from his flat monotone that he was having trouble trusting me.
He was being just friendly enough not to be unfriendly.
The storm rolled over and the rain turned to a fine mist.
He locked the car and we headed for the front door, squeezing up against the building to keep out of
