The Empress File

jeans, old T-shirts, and ragged tennis shoes. He looked nothing like the slick Mr. Johnson from Memphis. If anybody made that connection, we were sunk.
    J UST AFTER NIGHTFALL LuEllen and I turned a corner downtown, John’s Chevy stopped beside us, and we climbed in back.
    “Is Marvel back?”
    “No, but she should be anytime now. She’s stopping at a friend’s place—the cleaning lady at the City Hall, Becka Clay. Becka was there this afternoon when the state police came in.”
    “What happened with the governor? Marvel took a long time.”
    “The usual bullshit. He wouldn’t deal directly, but he had to approve every little detail, so his hatchet man was running back and forth like a trolley car. By the way, when I talked to her on the phone, she said you wanted Hill and Ballem appointed to the city council, along with our man?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why the change?”
    “We figure if Harold is dead, Hill did it,” I said. “If Hill and Ballem are appointed along with our guy, then we tip the state cops to thecomputer out at animal control. They’ll go in, grab the computer, find the books, and this time they’ll include Ballem and Hill. Marvel can supply the state people with the code words I fixed in the machine.… And as soon as the state guys go in, Hill and Ballem both get anonymous calls. A woman, I think. Somebody who can do a white-southern-lady accent. She calls them up, says she knows Hill killed Harold and says she doesn’t want to turn in a white man for killing a colored, but she doesn’t want killers running the city either. So they have a choice: Quit or burn. They’ll know that the cops have the books, so their council seats are probably gone anyway. When the woman calls… why would they fight it? They’ll go.”
    John grinned. He liked it. “A little racist judo,” he said. Then he frowned. “’Course, if Hill didn’t do it, he’s gonna freak out.”
    “He did,” I said shortly. John gave me an odd look, and I shrugged. “The tarot says so.”
    Marvel came in twenty minutes after we got to her house. She looked exhausted but determined.
    “Harold?” she asked John. John shook his head, took her by the elbow, and led her to the couch.
    “How’d it go?” I asked.
    “The deal’s done,” she said. “The governor will appoint Hill, Ballem, and Brooking Davis just assoon as Dessusdelit, St. Thomas, and Rebeck quit.”
    “What if they don’t quit?” John asked.
    Marvel shrugged. “I don’t see how they can avoid it. Becka fixed it so she was cleaning the second-floor toilets when the state people arrived. Wells and Dessusdelit were there. She said they went straight to the safe, opened it, and didn’t find any money. She said Wells sat down right in the middle of the floor and started to bawl. Dessusdelit was talking about a lawyer.”
    “Did you talk to the newspaper?”
    “Yeah. I called the managing editor, anonymously, and told him what happened—the missing money from the bank. I told him the TV was on to it, too. I told him I was with the state and wanted the word to get out before it could be covered up. He freaked out. He said he’d talk to the head auditor and confirm it. Then I called the TV and told them the same thing.”
    We sat and looked at each other for a moment. Then she said, “That should do it; I don’t know what else we can do.”
    T HE TELEVISION RESPONSE was disappointing. The local station’s ten o’clock news mentioned that state officials were doing an audit of the city’s books. “There are unconfirmed rumors circulating that some funds have been improperly transferred between accounts,” the anchorman saidwith a fairly puzzled air. A reporter talked to St. Thomas outside his house, but St. Thomas, standing in a pool of TV light, claimed he’d been on the river, fishing, and knew nothing about it. Dessusdelit refused to comment.
    At one o’clock John called.
    “Drive up to the E-Z Way and get yourself a newspaper,” he said. “Better hurry before they’re gone.”
    There were four left when we got there. Elvis, the counterman, shook his head and allowed how the papers were selling like rubbers at an AIDS convention.
    The paper led with the story, reporting virtually word for word what Marvel had told them. A hundred thousand dollars were missing from the bank. The state people wouldn’t confirm it but didn’t deny it, either, given several chances.
    I called Bobby on a voice line.
    “This has got to be between you and