have to drive down Front Street anymore. They can afford to shop in Atlanta”
“So they drew the battle line at Front Street,” I said. “Gave that to the hoodlums.”
“More or less.”
I stared him hard in the eye.
“What?s the Committee?” 1 asked bluntly.
He paused again. I had the feeling he wanted more out of me before going on but I waited him out.
Finally he talked:
“Before he stepped out of local affairs, Harry formed an ex-officio committee. The five most powerful
men in town. They have no legislative power per se. They don?t have a name, an office, don?t even
meet any one place in particular. They?re just old friends who feel it?s their responsibility to look out
for the town, just like your friend Chief used to do, and Titan still does. It?s the way things?re done
down here.”
“What do they do?”
“As I get it, the idea was that they screen everybody who comes near this town with a dollar to
invest.”
1 said, “To make sure people like Tagliani don?t get a foothold, is that it?”
“Part of it. And to contain the roughhouse element, so nobody gets out of line.”
“That what you?ve been doing, containing the roughhouse element?”
“Part of it.”
“That gives them ten points for awareness and none for performance.”
“Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“1 don?t mean you. It wasn?t your job to spot Tagliani.”
“They?re local boys, Jake. They don?t know from the Mafia. Babes in the woods. That was what
Ledbetter was supposed to do, keep an eye on the new shakers that moved in.”
“That makes a strong case against the Tagliani clan for Leadbetter?s murder,” I said. “Maybe he
tumbled them and they hit him before he could say anything.”
“I?ve been thinkin? the same thing. When Leadbetter took the wash, it kinda fell in my lap. What can I
tell you, Tagliani got by all of us.”
“Hell, I can?t knock that,” I said. “I Lost them for a year. But how could five men operating exofficio, have any effect on the town?”
“Cause they?re the most powerful m en in the city, son,” he said. “This is still a small town to them.
Since the day they laid the first cobblestone, a handful of men have run Dunetown. Them, their wives
and families—hell, they own or control most of the property on the islands. They are the political
power. They set the social standards. They screen people who want to do business here. And they
