The Empress File

was only one place they’d be able to get that much cash that quickly. The float. The float and the city’s cash account at the bank. We’d work it so they had to take the money out of the bank but wouldn’t be able to return it the same day.
    St. Thomas, who ran the loan-sharking business, kept his stash at the City Hall, in the cityclerk’s safe. We figured they’d put the hundred thousand in the same place, for safekeeping until the banks reopened Monday.
    If we could get the cash out, Marvel would be at the capitol. When we called, she’d go straight in to see the governor’s hatchet man. He’d turn out the cops and accountants, and by Saturday night the council would be trying to explain what had happened to a hundred thousand dollars in cash—and why it’d been taken out of the bank in the first place.
    Marvel and her friends would have delivered the doctored printout detailing Longstreet corruption and would also be singing a quiet chorus in the background. A hundred thousand? Probably dope, she’d say. Cocaine and crack. Run through the fire department. And with Marvel providing the details, there’d be enough meat on that bone to interest the state.
    “I WORRY about you, Harold,” I said as we were leaving. “It all sounds good in theory, but these guys… you don’t run a machine like Longstreet’s without being tough. They might not roll over so easy.”
    “I grew up in Longstreet,” Harold said with an unhappy grin. “I know how it works. I can take care of myself. And Marvel thinks—”
    “Yeah. Well. Good luck.”
    B ACK IN L ONGSTREET , LuEllen and I climbed up on top of the
Fanny
’s cabin with gin and tonics, to watch the sun go down, and I told her about the change of plans.
    “I don’t like it,” she said. “I’m getting spooked. In the bad old days, if I got spooked, I called off whatever I was doing. Walked away. I figured there might be a reason for being spooked, something unconscious.… If Harold can blackmail Dessusdelit and St. Thomas and Rebeck off the council, more power to him. We won’t have to hit City Hall.”
    A small boat’s bow light appeared downriver and cut an arc through the darkness as it came into the marina. A commercial catfisherman in a fat green jon boat. His wife was waiting up the levee with their station wagon and a stack of drywall buckets for the catch.
    “I don’t know,” I said, finishing the drink. I crunched the ice cube between my teeth and sucked on the pieces. “It doesn’t feel right.”
    We sat for a couple more minutes in silence; then LuEllen scraped her chair back and stood up. “Mosquitoes coming out,” she said.
    As I looked out at the river, in the hot, humid night, with the water burbling under the hull and the sound of car radio rock ‘n’ roll floating down the levee wall, it was hard to remember that winter always comes.

J OHN CALLED AN hour later.
    “Harold talked to Dessusdelit. She says she’ll see him at her house tomorrow morning.”
    “Did he tell her—”
    “No. He just said it was important, that it involved corruption and high city officials. She agreed right away—nervous, I guess. He’s supposed to be there at ten o’clock.”
    “Terrific,” I said. John sounded unnaturally cheerful, and I heard Marvel’s voice in the background. “Is that Marvel?”
    “Yeah, I’m at her place.”
    “Let me talk to her.”
    “Just a minute,” he said. I heard him call her; then there was a delay; then he came back on and said, “You gotta wait a minute; she can’t talk to you unless she got her pants on.”
    I heard Marvel squeal and John laughing; then Marvel came on, somewhat breathless,and said, “You don’t pay any attention to this liar.”
    “Hey, he’s a good guy,” I said.
    She laughed and said, in an aside to John, “Quit that,” and then to me, “He’s been hanging over me since that first night. You know what finally did it? I think it was those fuckin’ wing tips of his. He looked so cute in them.”
    “Jesus, that
is
perverted.”
    “That’s me.”
    “I don’t mean to bring you down, but something occurred to me. This woman out at animal control…”
    “Sherrie?”
    “Yeah. A black guy’s going to show up at Dessusdelit’s place tomorrow with a copy of the secret books. The question may arise, Where did he get them?”
    “Oh, shit,” she said. There was another pause. “I can handle it, I think.”
    “OK.”
    “I can tell her… to get sick, or something. If