The Vaults - By Toby Ball Page 0,115

Whiskers McAdam was going to kill the mayor tonight? Is that it? While the rest of the goddamn unit is out complying with a direct order from the mayor? Is that what you’re suggesting? Whiskers McAdam?”

The sergeant looked back miserably.

“Let him go,” Martens growled. “Let him go.”

CHAPTER NINETY-SIX

Frings watched the big man run through the possibilities in his mind. He knew that Red Henry was smart and that self-preservation would be his first priority. But Henry was drunk, and Frings knew that this was unusual. It added an unpredictability that Frings had not anticipated coming into the confrontation. As the options were laid out, the rational thing for Henry to do was to give up Nora and save his own skin. But this would only be true based on some assumptions that Frings was not at all certain Henry would make. The first was that Frings would, indeed, not run the article if Nora was released. Henry had good reason not to trust him, since Frings fully intended to run the article regardless. The second critical assumption was that Frings would be able to substantiate his allegations in the face of Henry’s denials. This, in Frings’s mind, would be a close one. But people were willing to think the worst of their leaders, and Henry would most likely not be given the benefit of the doubt. But would Henry make the same calculation?

Another critical assumption that Frings was making as well was that he knew all the cards that Henry had to play.

Henry looked at Frings with furious, drunken eyes. Frings maintained his air of self-assurance, trying to intimidate Henry with his attitude because there was no hope for it physically. Henry’s next action had him wondering if he had miscalculated. The big man picked Frings off the ground by the lapels of his suit, Frings sinking so that the coat bunched up around his neck. Henry turned him and propped him against a wall, holding him up with one hand by the chin. Frings stared at Henry with bulging eyes. Half the room turned to them and the band stopped. Frings felt helpless and humiliated. Henry leaned forward and put his lips next to Frings’s ear.

“I will let your quiff go. But if you publish that article, I promise you that you will be killed soon, and you will be killed painfully. And then the same will happen to your girl. Don’t doubt that I can make that happen.”

Henry let go of Frings’s jaw, and Frings fell gasping to the ground. Henry turned to the onlooking crowd and smiled a terrifying smile. “Please return to your goddamn drinks,” he bellowed. “The Poles are not coming tonight. They’re leaving town tomorrow and they’re not coming back. Through treachery and dealing in bad faith, they have whetted our appetites for their presence and then withdrawn it at the last hour. It is my greatest wish that they leave the City safely because I know that there will be great anger among our citizens.”

Frings watched from the floor, recovering. Henry was absolutely in the bag. Henry swayed slightly as he ranted. The guests looked on nervously. Frings noticed men at the fringes of the crowd who seemed amused but kept their mirth quiet. No one wanted to be the target of the mayor’s wrath.

Peja materialized from the crowd and spoke into Henry’s ear. Henry pushed him aside, then turned back to loom over Frings, who was still sitting on the floor.

“Don’t forget what I said. Kill that goddamn story,” Henry slurred. “You can find Nora Aspen at Draffert’s Pub in an hour.”

Henry lumbered toward the entrance, Frings watching as the crowd parted in front of him. The attention of the whole room was on the big man. The band had begun to play again, this time at a dirgelike pace that might just have been mocking Henry’s slow progress.

Frings stood up and pushed through the crowd after Henry.

CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN

Nora was still reading when she felt the room’s atmosphere change, turning electric. The small, dark man was listening intently, his head cocked to something she could not hear. She began to speak but was hushed by a wave of the man’s hand. He was up, moving silently across the room. He turned the knob of the door with two fingers, inching it open. From her bed, Nora could not see the hall, but the man’s demeanor did not indicate any trouble. Then, without seeming to move, he was gone and the door was