True Detective

wrong, but never mind. I'll try to explain. A gangster named Ted Newberry tried to have Frank Nitti killed; your brother died as a result.'

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to think, tried to make sense of it. 'Newberry,' she said. 'He's dead, isn't he? Wasn't it in the papers? He was the man responsible for Jimmy's death?'

That was only vaguely true, but I nodded.

'Shouldn't we do something? What can we do, Nathan?'

'There's nothing we can do. Newberry's dead. Nitti disposed of your brother's body. Nothing can be proved. I'm sorry. It's ugly, but you're going to have to learn to live with it.'

'We should tell somebody. The police. The newspapers. Somebody...'

I held one of her hands in both of mine. 'No. Your brother would be made out to be a dead gangster. Is that something you want to cany- with you? You've got a career, Mary Ann…'

'Do you think I'm that crass?'

'I'm sorry.'

'I have to- have to at least- tell Daddy.'

'I wouldn't.'

She looked at me, confused again.

I said. 'I think it'd just about kill him. Let him think Jimmy's riding the rails someplace. Let him think his son will rum up one of these days. It's kinder.'

'I- I don't know.'

'Mary Ann, believe me. there are some things people are just better off not knowing.'

She thought about that. said. 'I suppose so.' and got up.

With her back to me. she said. 'Nathan, could you leave me alone for a while? I think I need to be alone for a while.'

I got up. 'Sure.'

I went out of the room.

I was going out the door when she caught me; she wasn't crying, but she was close to it. She hugged me again.

'Call me tonight,' she said into my chest. 'I love you. Nathan. I still love you. This doesn't change anything. Not anything.'

'I love you too, Mary Ann.'

She looked up at me. 'I told you never to hold anything back from me. No secrets. No deceptions. You could have hidden this from me, but you didn't. That was brave of you. Nathan. That was very brave. I want you to know I respect you for it.'

I kissed her on the forehead and went out; I could feel her eyes on me as I went down the steps.

Well. I had her respect; I didn't deserve it, but I had it. As for her love, that was already fading. Try as she might to turn me into a brave knight who had the courage to tell his fair lady the bitter truth. I knew I would never again be the same in her eyes. She didn't know I killed her brother; but she might as well have.

I killed her romantic notions about me. and that was just as bad. I killed the dream that I was the true detective who would find the heroine's brother and make the world right again.

I killed the happy ending.

The Big Fall September 1,

I was sitting working up some insurance reports, rain pelting the office windows behind me. when Eliot came in. dripping wet. not wearing a raincoat.

'Damn rain came out of nowhere.' he said, coming over and taking the chair across my desk from me.

'Glad to see you know enough to come in out of it,' I said.

'Looks like you're keeping busy.'

'I'm having a good first year.'

'Job at the fair alone made it a good year.'

I nodded. Put my pen down. 'So. You're leaving tomorrow.'

'Morning. Me and Betty and a Ford full of belongings.'

'What exactly did you do to the Treasury Department to deserve Cincinnati?'

'Well.' he shrugged, 'where else are they going to send a prohibition agent when Prohibition's winding down? I'm supposed to clean up the 'Moonshine Mountains.' Think I'm up to it?'

'A hillbilly's squirrel gun can kill you just as dead as a machine gun.'

'I suppose. Still, I never pictured myself as a 'revenooer.''