“Never mind that.” He paced the hall. “The mayor is going to fight corruption in this town.” He sounded excited, as though he was in a thirties gangster movie.
“Tell me about the town.”
“It’s pretty straightforward,” he said. He was a guy who loved an audience. “The Hammers control the jobs. They’re the first family around here, and they’ve always had a nose for the next thing. The next move to make. Until Cabot, that is.
“The Dubois brothers keep the peace, maybe a little too much. And lately they run a protection racket. I’ve been trying to get someone in town to go on the record about this, but no one will.”
“Not since Stan, the bartender.”
“How did you know about Stan Koch? He was supposed to bring me a bunch of records showing how much he’d been paying to Wiley Dubois over the years, but he was killed.”
“Attacked by wild dogs.”
“There really aren’t a lot of dogs in town. Never have been. Someone gets a dog, it barks all night and all day, and within a couple of weeks it vanishes. That was a dull story to track down, let me tell you.”
“The Hammers and the Dubois brothers. Is that it?”
“There’s the reverend in there. Thomas Wilson. His church is the largest in town. There is a small Catholic church behind the Bartells Pharmacy, and there are some folks who speak the language of the angels in living room ser vices, but Wilson’s is the biggest. He doesn’t do much, though. He cares about souls, not works.”
“Who else?”
“I guess Phyllis Henstrick. She runs the vice, and some of the jobs, too. When business is good, her boys build and fix. When it’s bad they get a little something from the whore house. A whore house is pretty recession-proof. That’s pretty much everyone.”
“What about drugs? There are always drugs.”
“Sure, there’s a little weed to be had here and there. No one much cares about that. Everything else, the Dubois brothers have some trick where they hunt them down.”
“They take them over?”
“Actually, no. Their mama had a little trouble with pills back in the day. Mama’s little helper, if you know what I mean. She cracked up their car, killing herself and their little sister. They don’t much like drugs. When someone goes into the woods with a trailer to start up a meth lab, they don’t come back. They just disappear, and Emmett drops by to give their friends little warnings. You know what I mean?”
“Subtle things, under the guise of investigating the disappearance, right?”
“You
“If I wanted to talk to Charles Hammer the Third after business hours, where would I find him?”
“Probably at his home.”
“And where’s that?”
“Oh, no. We’re protective of our patrons around here, Mr. Lilly. You’re going to have a hard time with those sorts of questions.”
“What if I ask about his seizures?”
“The Hammer family, er,
“No comment.”
“Oh, come on! I just laid out the whole town for you, and you don’t pay me back?
“I have something for you. How much do you know about the shooting at the Hammer place?”
“Cabot took a shot at his niece after they argued about the family business. He hit Frank instead. You coldcocked him and saved them both.”
“Not quite true,” I said. “The truth is, the mayor saw the gun and stepped in front of Cynthia, protecting her. He stepped in the path of the bullet without even thinking about his own safety. Sure, I slugged Cabot, but I was standing right next to him when he came in. I don’t think he even realized I was there. And I didn’t really save anyone; Cabot’s gun came apart after one shot. Frank is the real hero.”
“Is this true?”
“Ask Cynthia.”
“Don’t think I won’t. What else?”
“First, don’t put anything in the paper about the mayor and Emmett Dubois. Not yet. Give Frank a chance to recover and prepare for the fight.”
“He’s had three terms to prepare for a fight.”
“If you publish too soon-“
“I hear you. Anything else?”
“Leave town. Go to Seattle and sign on with a big daily. Or a weekly. But go. This town is dead already.”
“So it’s true, then? The jobs are going to China?”
