Roger Smalley parked his Cadillac on the southern boundary of Calvary Cemetery, along an unpaved access road sandwiched between a Cyclone fence and a set of railroad tracks. Beyond the fence, headstones and crosses marched away in solemn diagonal ranks.
He had been waiting five minutes or so when Fran Traynor's foreign compact car turned onto the access road and pulled up behind him. The dust took a moment to settle, and then she left her car, moving around to slide in on the passenger side of the Caddy.
"Good morning, sir," she offered, smiling faintly. "I'm really sorry about all this."
Smalley returned the smile, waving her apology away.
"Nonsense. If you're correct in your suspicions, I want to get to the bottom of it immediately." He watched her relax visibly. "Now, why don't you start at the beginning."
The lady cop took several moments to put her thoughts in order, and then she began speaking in hushed, hurried tones.
"I'm convinced that Lieutenant Fawcett is suppressing evidence in a multiple rape-murder case. He's withdrawn all the suspect sketches without explanation. He's done everything possible to discredit the only real witness, he..."
Roger Smalley raised a hand to dam the sudden flow of words.
"All right take it easy. On the telephone you mentioned a suspect."
Fran Traynor nodded excitedly.
"Yes, sir, that's the clincher. It turned up in a routine check on the local sanitariums."
And the assistant police commissioner of St. Paul sat there listening, while the attractive lady cop laid out the whole circumstantial case against one Courtney Gilman. He heard it all, feeling the old familiar tightness and burning in his stomach, keeping one eye riveted to the rearview mirror.
Fran was just finishing her presentation, her excited voice winding down, when a black car turned onto the gravel access road, closing the exit behind her compact. The doors on either side opened, disgorging several men in dark suits.
As Fran Traynor finished, Smalley idly unbuttoned his suit jacket, sliding a hand inside to encircle the butt of his holstered .38.
"I believe you may be on to something, Traynor," he said, smiling at her.
The lady cop started to answer that smile with a relieved one of her own, but it vanished as she saw the revolver in Smalley's hand, its squat muzzle aimed directly at her chest. Smalley broadened his grin, feeling better now.
"Now, if you'll hand over your purse..."
Instead, she flung it at him, aiming for his face, twisting away at the same instant and clawing for the interior door handle. Smalley batted the handbag aside and clubbed her hard behind the ear with his revolver. Her forehead smacked against the window glass, and she gave a stifled yelp as she rebounded, landing prostrate and unconscious with her head resting on the commissioner's thigh.
At that moment the passenger door of the Cadillac was opened, and one of the new arrivals leaned in, letting appreciative eyes wander over the provocative display of leg where Fran's skirt had hiked up during the struggle. He flashed Smalley a lecherous grin.
"Not bad, Commissioner," he chuckled.
Smalley's mouth turned down in distaste. This one was worse than Benny Copa.
"Put a lid on that," he snapped curtly. "You're here to do a job, nothing else."
The hardman lost his smile.
"Yeah, sure. We hold her with the other one until we hear from you."
Smalley nodded.
"Right. It shouldn't be more than an hour or two at the most."
"Okay." The man nodded.
He edged over to accommodate a second burly figure in the doorway, and together they leaned into the Caddy, hauling Fran Traynor outside and letting the skirt bunch up around her hips in the process. Roger Smalley heard the evil snicker again and turned away in disgust, closing his mind to it, waiting until the door clicked firmly shut.
He was alone once more.
The assistant police commissioner fired the Caddy's power plant and pulled away, avoiding the rearview mirror with his eyes. There was a sour taste in his mouth, as there always was when he was forced, at this stage of his life, to deal with scum. But he knew from grim experience that the human savages and garbage of the earth could have their uses... so long as they were firmly and strictly controlled.
Smalley was glad to be leaving them behind. And, at least temporarily, to be leaving his problems in their hands.
It seemed fitting, somehow. The dregs of the earth helping a basically decent man salvage his life and his career. Keeping him in the position he had clawed and fought for over the past fifteen years.
Not that the struggle had been so great since Jack Fawcett discovered Courtney Gilman, oh, no. But the nagging pain in his gut was the same, if not worse. And the worries were still there, damn right, in abundance.
Now Roger Smalley had a plan for eradicating those problems once and for all, without giving up any of his gains. It would require a modicum of luck, sure, but Smalley was feeling lucky that morning. Batting a thousand in the problems department.
And with luck, he might soon be free of the whole stinking Gilman dilemma.
Roger Smalley smiled to himself as his vehicle rolled onto pavement again and he nosed it back in the direction of his office.
Fran Traynor and her big, loose mouth were in the bag, and they were going to stay there. Damn right.
And the commissioner's problems were already starting to fade like the memory of a half-forgotten nightmare.