'A check will be fine.'
'Oh?' He looked at me for a moment, then opened a drawer and took out a checkbook, the large sort with three checks to the page. He uncapped a pen, filled in the date, and looked up at me.
'Can you suggest an amount?'
'Ten thousand dollars,' I said.
'It didn't take you long to think of a figure.'
'It's a tenth of what you were prepared to pay a blackmailer. It seems a reasonable figure.'
'Not unreasonable, and a bargain from my point of view. Shall I make it out to cash or to you personally?'
'Neither.'
'Pardon me?'
It wasn't my province to pardon him. I said, 'I don't want any money for myself. Spinner hired me and paid me well enough for my time.'
'Then—'
'Make it payable to Boys Town. Father Flanagan's Boys Town. I think it's in Nebraska, isn't it?'
He put the pen down and stared at me. His face reddened slightly, and then either he saw the humor in it or the politician in him took over, because he put his head back and laughed. It was a pretty good laugh.
I don't know if he meant it or not, but it certainly sounded authentic.
He made out the check and handed it to me. He told me I had a marvelous sense of poetic justice. I folded the check and put it in my pocket.
He said, 'Boys Town indeed. You know, Scudder, that's all very much in the past. The subject of those photographs. It was a weakness, a very disabling and unfortunate weakness, but it's all in the past.'
'If you say so.'
'As a matter of fact, even the desire is completely over and done with, the particular demon exorcised.
Even if it were not, I would have no difficulty in resisting the impulse. I have a career that's far too important for me to place in it jeopardy. And these past few months I have truly learned the meaning of jeopardy.'
I didn't say anything. He got up and walked around a little and told me all the plans he had for the great State of New York. I didn't pay too much attention. I just listened to the tone, and I decided I believed he was sincere enough. He really wanted to be governor, that was always obvious, but he seemed to want to be governor for reasonably good reasons.
'Well,' he said at length, 'I seemed to have found an opportunity to make a speech, haven't I? Will I be able to count on your vote. Scudder?'
'No.'
'Oh? I thought that was rather a good speech.'
'I won't vote against you, either. I don't vote.'
'Your duty as a citizen, Mr. Scudder.'
'I'm a rotten citizen.'
He smiled broadly at that, for reasons that escaped me. 'You know,' he said,
'I like your style, Scudder. For all the bad moments you gave me, I still like your style. I even liked it before I knew the blackmail pose was a charade.' He lowered his voice confidentially. 'I could find a very good place for someone like you in my organization.'
'I'm not interested in organizations. I was in one for fifteen years.'
'The Police Department.'
'That's right.'
'Perhaps I stated it poorly. You wouldn't be part of an organization per se.
You'd be working for me.'
'I don't like to work for people.'
'You're contented with your life as it is.'
'Not particularly.'
'But you don't want to change it.'
'No.'
'It's your life,' he said. 'I'm surprised, though. You have a great deal of depth to you. I should think you would want to accomplish more in the world. I would think you would be more ambitious, if not for your own personal advancement then in terms of your potential for doing some good in the world.'
'I told you I was a rotten citizen.'
'Because you don't exercise your right to vote, yes. But I would think—Well, if you should change your mind, Mr. Scudder, the offer will hold.'
I got to my feet. He stood and extended his hand. I didn't really want to shake hands with him, but I couldn't
