Oh Danny Boy (12 page)

“But Daniel swears he had nothing to do with that. He’s not in the pay of the Eastmans either. He was trying to help his pal, Jack Brady, by setting up a prizefight for him. And yes, I know it’s illegal these days, but that’s a far cry from being in Monk Eastman’s pocket.”

O’Hallaran nodded, digesting this. “Then who’s been spreading the rumors?”

“How did you hear?”

“I can’t say. You know what rumors are like—like a jar full of moths. Once they escape, they’re all over the place.”

“Is there anyone you’ve noticed who seems to take a particular delight in these rumors?”

He shook his head. “Most of the men are real sorry this had to happen to Daniel. He was generally respected, you know. A good captain. Always put his men’s welfare first.”

“Could someone be jealous of him?”

“It seems a long way to go over a little matter of jealousy. I can’t think of anybody he’s particularly slighted or upset—other than most of the criminals in the city.” He glanced up at me and grinned. “My bet would be on Monk Eastman himself to have planted the money and started the rumors, you know. There’s always been little love lost between him and Daniel. In fact, I was surprised when I heard they were in this together.”

“It wasn’t Monk,” I said. “I asked him.”

The old sergeant’s eyes shot open. “You went looking for Monk Eastman? That was a very foolish thing to do, young lady.”

“I didn’t have much choice. I sent Jack Brady to ask the questions, and he disappeared. Monk seems to know where he is, but I don’t know if he’s alive and well or not. So now I’m all that Daniel’s got. If I don’t find out the truth, nobody will.”

“You’ve got spunk, I’ll say that for you,” he said. “So it wasn’t Monk.”

“I’m wondering if it was the police commissioner himself,” I ventured. “He seemed so pleased that he’d caught Daniel.”

“You went to see him, too?”

I nodded. “Again, I had no choice. He claimed he just happened to be in the area, and it was completely fortuitous that he witnessed the bribe being passed.”

“But why would the commissioner want Daniel out of the way?” O’Hallaran asked. “You don’t get rid of well-respected officers if you want your department to run smoothly. And it would be the commissioner’s own head that would roll if the department doesn’t run smoothly.”

“Maybe it’s a personal grudge. A vendetta we know nothing about.”

“Possible, I suppose.” He stroked his chin as if half ex
pecting to find a beard there. “Seems to me there are three possibilities—a grudge in his professional life, a grudge in his personal life, or”—he paused and looked up at me—“a case he was working on that somebody didn’t want to be solved.”

“That’s an interesting thought,” I said, digesting this new suggestion. “I never asked him what he was working on. But then that wouldn’t make sense. If Daniel was taken off a case, another officer would be put in his place and the investigation would go on.”

“Daniel was good, Miss Murphy. Better than the average cop. Maybe somebody wants the investigation to drag out until we lose interest.”

“Could you find out for me which of your men were accompanying the commissioner when he stumbled upon Daniel accepting the bribe?”

The sergeant nodded. “Yes, I can do that. And if you let me know what Daniel was working on, I can tell you who has been put in to replace him. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Someone else entirely could be pulling the strings in the background.”

“Somebody would really have to be desperate to go to those lengths,” I said.

He nodded. “Desperate people do desperate things. Give me your address, Miss Murphy. I’ll do what I can for you.”

I got to my feet. “I much appreciate it, Sergeant O’Hallaran. To tell you the truth, I’ve started feeling it’s a hopeless case. I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing and if I don’t get Daniel out soon…” I had to look away, horrified that I might start crying again.

He put a clumsy hand on my shoulder. “Don’t you worry yourself, my dear. I’ll do my very best for you and Captain Sullivan. It will all come out right in the end. Truth will out, don’t they say?”

I nodded as he escorted me to the front door. It doesn’t always come out right in the end, I thought as I walked away. Sometimes there is no justice. Sometimes good people die and villains go free.

I could tell, as I climbed the stairs to the legal offices of J. P. Atkinson, that a top-notch lawyer had not been selected for Daniel. The office was on the fifth floor of a building on the corner of Lower Broadway and Wall Street, the other floors being taken up by a tailor’s shop, a dentist’s office (
J. BLOGGETT. PAIN-FREE DENTISTRY. WE PULL ’EM—YOU WALK AWAY SMILING
), and various types of small commerce. There was no elevator. The floors were covered in worn linoleum, and I was quite out of breath by the time I reached the top landing.

“I’ll see if Mr. Atkinson can see you,” a rather slatternly woman receptionist said, although through the half-open inner door, I could already see that Mr. Atkinson was not with a client. She went through to the office, a low conversation took place, then I was ushered in. The inner office was no more comfortable than the outer one had been. It had the austerity of a schoolroom.

Mr. Atkinson looked almost painfully young and skinny, straight out of some college in a suit that could have been passed down from his big brother. He had a rather fishlike expression, and the hand that shook mine felt equally cold and fishlike.

“I understand you have come about Captain Daniel Sullivan? You are a friend of his? Obviously you are concerned. We all are. But I’m not sure what exactly I can do for you.”

I had managed to keep my frustration and fear in check
until now. But everyone has a breaking point, and I’ve never been known for my even temper at the best of times. His unctuous smile and limp handshake were too much.

“Do for me? More to the point, what are you doing for him?” I shouted. “If he hasn’t yet been charged with a crime, then why in heaven’s name isn’t he out on bail? Why aren’t you doing more to prove his innocence?”

He stepped back, eyeing me warily. “I assure you, my dear Miss Murphy, that I am doing everything within my powers. And as to bail—bail would have been granted, except that the captain’s assets have been frozen until it can be proven that they are not the proceeds of gang payoffs. All we can hope for is a speedy trial.”

“He’s already been in jail over a week with no charge. I don’t call that speedy. Why aren’t you doing something about it?”

He spread his hands in a gesture of futility. “It’s summertime. Many of the judges leave the city for the worst of the summer heat. Cases pile up, and we just have to wait our turn.”

I noticed that he hadn’t invited me to sit. I sat anyway.

“I have to tell you, Miss Murphy,” he said, resuming his own place at his desk, “that the captain could make it much easier on himself if he were more cooperative.”

“You mean if he pleaded guilty to a lesser offence.”

“That is exactly what I mean. Captain Sullivan doesn’t seem to realize the severity of the case against him. Accepting a bribe is one thing. Being in the pay of a known gang, betraying fellow officers—they’ll throw the book at him for those.”

“And what if he is innocent of all the charges against him? What if the money in the envelope was planted and the commissioner deliberately brought to witness the transaction? What if this whole thing were orchestrated with one thing in mind—Daniel Sullivan’s ruin?”

“That’s what he has tried to tell me.”

“Because it’s the truth.”

He smiled again—that patronizing smile made me want
to punch him in the nose. “You’re a pretty young girl and the captain is a good-looking man who has a way with women. Of course you’d believe anything he told you.”

“And so should you, if you’re being paid to represent him. If you don’t start off with the belief that he’s innocent, Mr. Atkinson, then who does he have on his side? If you believe he’s guilty, then for God’s sake find him another lawyer who does believe him.”

“You’ve no doubt heard the phrase ‘beggars can’t be choosers,’ Miss Murphy? I’m doing the best I can with the limited resources given to a court-appointed defense counsel.”

“So who hired you? Were you given instructions to try and make Daniel plead guilty?”

“As to who hired me—I’m part of a pool. My name came to the top of the list. I was assigned to his case. And nobody has suggested that I make him plead guilty. I am just trying to get him off as lightly as possible.”

“So you don’t believe that he could be entirely innocent?”

“That would mean that somebody went to extraordinary trouble—that somebody managed to slip money into an envelope being carried by a gang member, that they managed to bring the commissioner of police himself onto the scene at exactly the right moment—”

“That’s exactly what I mean.”

“And why would somebody go to all that trouble?”

“You’re his lawyer. You’re supposed to be looking into it.”

He swallowed hard, making a large Adam’s apple dance up and down on a scrawny neck. “If somebody was out to destroy him, then it would most likely be the gang members themselves; and you’d never get the truth out of them in a month of Sundays.”

“I’ve already asked the gang in question, and they deny that they had anything to do with it,” I said, relishing the look of astonishment in those fishy eyes.

“You went to the Eastman gang?”

“Yes, and I spoke with Monk Eastman himself.”

“Good heavens.”

“So you see, things can be done. I’m doing my very best,
but I need help. Right now I need to speak with Daniel himself. They won’t let me into the prison again, so you’ll have to get me in.”

“Impossible. It’s hard enough for me to gain entrance.”

“They can’t deny an uncharged man the right to see his lawyer.”

“No, but ‘reasonable access,’ I believe, is the terminology….”

“This is reasonable access. You have new information for him.”

“New information?”

“Information that is vital to his case.”

“But I—”

“Use your imagination, for God’s sake, man,” I snapped. “And you’ll bring me along as your assistant. You are taking me along to record the whole thing in shorthand—being a very modern sort of office.”

“Oh, right. Shorthand. Do you write shorthand?”

“No, but I can give a good imitation.”

“I don’t really like deception, Miss Murphy. If it came to light that I was smuggling you in, it wouldn’t do my career any good.”

“Ah, but if you managed to win this case, against all odds, think what that would do to advance your status in the profession.” I leaned closer to the desk. “He was the one who got Daniel Sullivan off when nobody else believed he was innocent.”

I had tossed out this last thought, but it turned out to be a good one. I saw him digesting the idea.

“You really think you may be able to prove his innocence?”

“I’m doing everything I can,” I said, sounding more confident than I felt. “But I can’t do anything when it takes so long writing letters back and forth. If you can get me in to see Daniel this morning, I can get on with my job.”

“Your job? I understood that you were a friend of the captain.”

“Who is also an investigator who has worked with the police before,” I said, again relishing his astonished look.

“Good God, the police actually use female investigators?”

“When undercover work is needed,” I said in a suitably enigmatic way.

“Very well, Miss Murphy.” He got up and straightened his tie. “I’ll do what you ask. Let’s hope it doesn’t get both of us and our client into even deeper trouble.”

“It won’t if you don’t let on as to who I really am and what I’m doing there,” I said.

I felt more satisfied than I had felt in days as we walked together down the stairs.

It was only later that I experienced a moment of panic as I was ushered into the dark, dank cell and realized I was about to see Daniel face-to-face again. It would be the first time since I had realized my current condition—how could I possibly face him? Would he read from my face that something was wrong or different? My heart was beating so loudly that I put my hand to my chest as if this gesture could calm it.

I heard the sound of footsteps and a voice saying, “Your lawyer to see you, Sullivan. Sit down.”

Then the panel slid open. Daniel’s face appeared, his hair and expression even wilder than when I’d last seen him. He looked hollow eyed, sallow faced. He was wearing a filthy white shirt that almost matched the ashen gray of his skin.

“What do you want today, Atkinson?” he demanded. “If you’ve come waving a confession at me again, then you’re wasting your time and mine.” This tirade was interrupted by a fit of coughing.

“I’ve come because I was asked to by the young woman I gather is working on your behalf, a Miss Murphy.”

“Molly? Has she news for me? She’s found out something?”

“She’s here herself. You can ask her.” Atkinson moved aside so that I was visible to Daniel for the first time through the bars. I saw his face light up and my heart leaped.

“Molly! I can’t tell you how good it is to see your face.”

“How are you, Daniel?” I asked.

“Not too good. Fighting despair daily. Terrible cough.
What about you? You’re looking wonderful. A real sight for sore eyes.”

“I’m just fine,” I said. “I’m doing everything I can for you, but I don’t seem to be getting anywhere, Daniel.” I was conscious of Mr. Atkinson, standing to one side, out of Daniel’s sight.

“What about Jack? Has he had a chance to talk to the Eastmans?”

“Jack has vanished,” I said. “Monk Eastman knows where he is. Whether that’s good news or not, I can’t tell you.”

“Jack has vanished? Gone into hiding presumably. He was awfully jumpy about coming to New York in the first place. Well, that’s not good for me.” He leaned closer to the grille and wagged a finger in my direction. “And that doesn’t mean that you’re going to start asking questions yourself. I’ve already made it very clear to you that I don’t want you going anywhere near the Eastmans’ territory. You do understand that, don’t you?”

“Too late,” I said. “I’ve already spoken with Monk.”

“Molly, are you mad?” The words turned into a new fit of coughing. He fought to speak again. “I expressly told you not to. How can you go against my wishes like that?” Those wild eyes glaring at me were quite alarming.

I tried to sound calm. “Somebody had to after Jack disappeared. And don’t worry, it turned out just fine. We had an amiable little chat, but he couldn’t shed any light at all as to how the money got into the envelope. Just that he didn’t order it put there.”

“An amiable little chat.” Daniel put his hands up to his face. “I’d never have told you anything about this if I thought you were going to take foolish risks. So what else have you done?”

“Saw Arabella, whom I don’t think is involved in a plot to ruin you. Also questioned the police commissioner, who might be our leading suspect.”

“Mr. Partridge? How in God’s name did you manage to see him?”

“Never mind. Undercover work. But I can tell you one
thing—he was very satisfied with himself for having you arrested. So I thought I’d find out if you could think of a reason why.”

Daniel shook his head. “He looked satisfied because he’s a sanctimonious and pretentious prig. If he believes that I was taking bribes from gang members, he’s probably patting himself on the back for ridding the department of a corrupt cop.”

“So there was no bad blood between you before this?”

“I hardly know the man. We’ve never moved in the same circles. I’ve barely spoken five words to him.”

“And you can think of no reason why he’d want your downfall over that of other officers, say?”

Again he frowned, then shook his head. “When he first came on board, he shook hands and said he’d heard fine things about me. Of course, there were rumors that he is the archenemy of Tammany Hall. He may be planning the systematic removal of every Irish cop from the force, starting with me. I did think that at one time.”

“But then you’d soon have the rest of the force coming to your defense, once they realized what Mr. Partridge was up to.”

“And why go to all this trouble? He could presumably demote me or even fire me for having a hand in the prizefight. Planting money, saying I’m in the pay of a gang—that is more than removing me; that is destroying me.”

“You’re right,” I said. “Somebody is out to do just that. We have to find out who had a compelling reason for setting up the whole nasty little scene. Have you crossed swords with any member of your department recently? Beating out someone for promotion, maybe? Or catching out another officer involved in bribery and corruption?”

He sat silent for a while. “You think it might be a fellow officer?” he said at last.

“Your Sergeant O’Hallaran suggested it. He suggested a grudge in your personal or professional life. So that might mean another officer, or it might be a payback from some criminal you had arrested.”

“I can’t think of another officer who might have a grudge against me. I’ve been at captain’s rank for over three years. There might have been bad feeling that I made captain before a lot of older men, but surely that would have come to the surface before now. And my men respect me. There’s no questioning my ability to do the job. As to catching out a fellow officer accepting a bribe—we have a code of honor among ourselves. How any officer handles his job is up to him. If getting results involves slightly unorthodox methods, then the rest of us would turn a blind eye. I’d never snitch on a fellow officer. It would be more than my life is worth because one day I might need him to back me up in a jam.”

“All right. Not a fellow officer then. What about a criminal? Has any big-time criminal gone to the dock recently shouting, ‘I’ll get you yet, Daniel Sullivan’?”

“Frequently.” Daniel managed a grin. “But there’s just one thing against that. No criminal with any brains would mess with the Eastmans. He wouldn’t be on their territory to start with. And I don’t see how he’d get hold of an envelope that came from Monk’s hands to Bugsy’s.”

“This is hopeless, Daniel,” I said. “Every turn leads to a brick wall. You must have offended or scared somebody. Sergeant O’Hallaran suggested it might have something to do with a case you were working on. He said you were too good and perhaps somebody wanted an investigation that dragged on forever and ever.”