Part 74 (1/2)

”It will all work out because Parver didn't make it,” I said. ”He went down saving me and Doe.”

t.i.tan stared at me. A long minute crept by before he said, ”What do you mean, it will work out?”

”I mean for the record, it will work out.”

”I thought you just said Costello was behind it all, doughboy,” t.i.tan said cautiously.

”I think I can sell the idea. Who's around to argue, right?”

Doe looked at me with curiosity.

”I don't understand,” she said.

”We don't need to talk about this right now,” Chief said.

”Talk about what? You couldn't get me out of the room now if you tried!” she protested.

”Let it pa.s.s,” t.i.tan said, looking at his feet.

”No!” Doe said. She stood up. ”What is this all about?”

Chief said, ”It's nothing, baby. Just business.”

”What kind of business?” she persisted.

I said, ”The business of murder.” I wanted her to know. I wanted all the dark corners swept clean, once and for all.

”Tell her,” said Chief. He was too old and tired to argue.

”The thing is, we know better, don't we, Mr. Stoney?” I said.

t.i.tan turned his back to me and stared into the empty fireplace.

”Parver was an agent of the Freeze, the same outfit I'm in, but he was a.s.signed to Dutch Morehead and his squad,” I said. ”Stick claimed he didn't know anything about the Cincinnati Triad until my boss, Cisco Mazzola, tumbled on to it a month or so ago. It went by me at the time. I've never been much on filing reports. That was one of my mistakes.”

”You mean you're capable of making a mistake?” t.i.tan asked caustically.

”Oh, I made a lot of them,” I said. ”We all did.”

”For instance?” t.i.tan asked.

”For instance, I had a five-man team in Cincinnati for three years working on the Tagliani case. There were pictures, newspaper clippings, snitch reports, and a link a.n.a.lysis on the Triad in our confidential files. Stick had spent six months studying our computer reports before he came here. He knew all about Tagliani and his bunch. Stick made the Triad right after he got here. Had to be. The question is, who did he take the information to?”

n.o.body said anything. Doe still looked confused.

”No takers?” I said. ”Okay, I'll try. I think he came to you, Mr. Stoney. You're the logical one, not Dutch. You're the one with the iron hand. You represented the law on the Committee.”

He didn't say anything, he kept staring at the fireplace.

”So you asked Parver to kill Tagliani,” I finished.

t.i.tan turned around and glared hard at me from across the room.

”Now why would he do a d.a.m.n fool thing like that?” Doe said, getting defensive.

”Two reasons, I can think of. To protect Harry Raines' career, and to break the Triad's back.”

”Hah,” said t.i.tan. ”I'm not a miracle worker.”

”You're just finding that out,” I said, and before he could respond, I went on, ”I think you honestly believed by getting rid of Tagliani, you could run the Triad off, the old 'get out of town before sunset' routine, but it was a risky move. Then you found out I was coming down here and the whole story would come out, so you cut Stick loose in desperation. You knew the press here would buy anything they were told. You could write the killing off as some kook slaying, or better still, you could let Graves be the fall guy. As long as it couldn't be proven, he didn't give a d.a.m.n. He never even denied killing Cherry McGee, even though it was Tagliani who had the job done. And Stick cased that setup by hijacking Graves' cocaine s.h.i.+pment. That provided the final motive, if one was needed at all.”

Doe stared at me, her expression changing from bewilderment to disbelief.

”That's just plain crazy,” she said. ”Isn't that so, Mr. Stoney?”

t.i.tan sneered at the idea.

”I'll admit, it was a rather naive notion on your part,” I said. ”It's understandable, though. You thought you were still playing by your rules; if you need to get rid of someone, do it the quickest way possible, like framing Tony Lukatis because he was a potential threat to Raines. Or suggesting Stick use him on the hijacking run and then get rid of him. Graves' people and Tony were both shot with the same gun-Stick's. Aw, h.e.l.l, I guess when you've run a town for forty years, playing G.o.d comes easy.”

Doe, still confused, looked at me and said, ”Whose side are you on, Jake?”

”n.o.body's. I'm just a simple cop trying to do his job. It's really none of my affair anyway, except I contributed to it.”