“We didn’t. Not for a long time. But now . . . with all the others since, yeah. I think she was his first.”
Again silence settled around them. Malone rose and stoked the fire and Ness waited for him to return to his chair.
“Maybe he’s showing off,” Malone mused, sitting again.
“Who?” Ness frowned.
“Your Butcher.”
“My Butcher?” Eliot grunted.
Malone shrugged and pushed the bottle toward his friend. “Your city. Your Butcher.”
“Showing off for who?” Eliot said. He picked up the bottle but didn’t take off the cap.
“You.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. Didn’t the bodies start turning up right around the time you got into town?”
Eliot frowned at him, his gaze sharp. He set the bottle down with a thump. “What?”
“The bodies started turning up right around the time you got into town, yeah? You said you moved to Cleveland in August of ’34. Lady of the Lake turned up in September of ’34.”
“Ah hell, Malone.” Ness rubbed at his eyes. “This has nothing to do with me. I didn’t even take the job until December of ’35.” But he sounded tired, like he suddenly wasn’t certain.
“The papers love you, Eliot. Young, good-looking, straight as an arrow. Took down Al Capone. Maybe this guy just wants to give you another challenge. I’ve seen plenty of gang hits where the heads are lopped off. What makes you think this isn’t just more of the same stuff we faced here in Chicago?”
“I wish it were. But . . . it isn’t. I’ve stayed out of it and let the dicks handle it. But the mayor, Harold Burton, told me I need to take a more active role.”
“A more visible role?”
“Yeah. He says the whole reason I got the job was because the people believed I could clean things up. I didn’t know I’d be cleaning up severed limbs and dead ends.” He was so morose that Malone handed him his own glass. He wasn’t going to drink it.
Eliot raised his blue eyes to Malone’s almost like he was waiting for Malone to catch up. Malone glowered back.
“What’s this all about, Eliot? I thought you came by because of Irene.”
“I did. But her death . . . gave me an opening. I knew I had to move fast, or you’d be gone again.”
“No,” Malone said. He suddenly knew what Eliot was going to say, and he wasn’t interested. Not at all.
“You’ve always been a details man. You know your onions, and I need some fresh eyes. Do you realize that you are the first person to connect me to the case? I can’t say I like the idea, but it’s a lead. Nobody else put that together. That’s what I’m talking about.”
“You’ve got good cops in Cleveland, don’t you?”
Ness hesitated and Malone groaned. So that was it. That was always it. Corruption. Ness didn’t trust the team that was in place.
“There are always good men. Always good cops,” Eliot amended, judicious.
“So? Let them do their jobs.”
“It’s been more than two years, and we’re no closer to solving this thing than we were the first day. The whole thing is rotten.”
“It always is. The bad guy is never who the politicians need him to be. And the good guys are always a little dirty.”
“And that’s why I need you. A group of businessmen have put a fund together to hire some independent investigators to solve this thing. Separate from police. Just like we did when we took down Capone.”
“I just put Irene in the ground.”
Ness was silent, eyes clinging to Malone’s face.
“You’re free now, Mike.”
“I won’t ever be free, Ness. My job has made sure of that.” He changed the subject. “What does Edna think of Cleveland?”
Ness hesitated again, and Malone had his answer. So the trouble persisted in the Ness marriage.
“So far she likes it better than Kentucky,” Eliot said. “But she’s lonely. We don’t have any children. She doesn’t like my work.”
“Ah. Well. Can’t argue with her there.”
“No,” Eliot sighed. “She’s at her mother’s. She sends her condolences.”
“So you came all the way to Chicago when you heard about Irene?”
“No. We came for Christmas. We’re heading back to Cleveland tomorrow. I need you, Malone.”
“I already have a job, Ness.”
“I talked to Elmer Irey before I came here.”
“You talked to my boss?”
“He says you’re between assignments. He can spare you for a bit. He said he could even make it official. There’s no Treasury angle, at least not that we know of, but the big brass in Washington wants this thing put to bed. It’s an embarrassment. The German papers are using it for propaganda. Savage Americans. Brutal Americans. ‘The Americans can’t stop one man; how do they think they can stop a single German tank?’”
Malone sighed. So much for going back to the Bahamas.
“Irey said you just wrapped up a case,” Eliot added. “I heard you were on the Lindbergh kidnapping too. Terrible, that.”
Malone said nothing. It was terrible. A toddler taken from his crib for ransom and killed. Left by the side of the road. But they’d caught the bastard. It had taken them two mind-numbing years, but they’d caught him. Malone had dreamed about Mary every night for those two years.
“Irey thinks the rest will do you good,” Ness continued.
“Rest? In Cleveland? I don’t think rest is what you have in mind.”
“There won’t be any pressure. It’s all off the record. And like you said, you can’t stay here. You know that. You’re a wanted man in Chicago. Somebody recognizes you . . . you’re dead. Capone might be at Alcatraz, but he still has reach, Malone.”
“Why me, Ness?”
“You’re perfect for the job.”
Malone snorted in disbelief. “How do you figure?”
“You’re not afraid of anything. You’re patient. You know police work. You’ve got powerful resources. And at the moment, you’ve got nothing else to do.”
“You mean if something goes wrong, and the Butcher decides to take me out, no real loss. No crying widow or fatherless children on your doorstep.”
Ness shrugged. “It’s how we decided on the Untouchables, you know that. You were there. If they’d ever have caught on to you, Malone, you’da been dead.”