Oh Danny Boy

by Rhys Bowen

  “Molly!” he exclaimed. “You came. Thank God.”

  THREE

  I pulled the chair up closer to the grille and was shocked at what I saw. He looked haggard and hollow eyed. His normal unruly dark curls hung limply on his forehead. There was a nasty bruise on one cheek.

  “I’m sorry to have you hauled in like this,” he said, “but you didn’t answer my letters.”

  However shocked I was by his appearance and circumstances, I wasn’t about to be unjustly attacked. “Answer your letters? Are you surprised, after the way you behaved?”

  “No, I suppose not, but you could at least have let me explain.”

  “I’ve listened to too many explanations from you, Daniel Sullivan,” I said.

  I saw him wince, almost as if I had struck him. I had planned to be cold, reserved, and in complete control, but I had never seen him like this. I was used to the self-assured, cock-of-the-walk Daniel. I heard myself blurting out, “Daniel, in heaven’s name—what’s happened to you?”

  “Good question.” He put his hand up to his cheek and attempted a smile. “This was a lucky blow from another inmate who recognized me and took his chance to get even.”

  “But what were you arrested for? What do they say you’ve done?”

  Daniel leaned closer to the grille. “Would you mind waiting outside, Byrne?” he said to the constable.

  “Not at all, sir,” the constable said.

  “Oh, and thank you for bringing her in. I hope she didn’t put up too much of a fight.”

  “You did warn me, sir. All in all she came quite peacefully.”

  “Did she now?” He looked at me. Those bright blue eyes that normally flashed alarmingly looked gray and lifeless. “You must be slipping, Molly. I fully expected you’d get in a good kick or two.”

  The door closed behind me, and I was alone with just an iron grille between Daniel and me.

  “I thought it was better to send him away,” he said quietly. “He’s a good lad, but he could be coerced by the powers that be to repeat our conversation here.”

  “What on earth have you done, Daniel?” I repeated. The suspense was killing me.

  “Caught accepting a bribe from a gang member.”

  I almost laughed out loud. “Accepting a bribe? Daniel, I thought that was standard practice for the New York police. Isn’t that how every policeman manages to squirrel away a hundred thousand dollars from a salary of five hundred a year?”

  “Until recently, yes,” Daniel said. “But it’s the new police commissioner, John Partridge. He was appointed by our new mayor, who you may know is the archenemy of Tammany Hall. So this new fellow, this Partridge, is making a big fuss over reforming the police, stamping out corruption, making New York a city fit for God-fearing people. What he really wants to do is wrest power away from the Irish and put his own cronies in their place. He probably has political ambitions of his own as well.”

  “So you were caught accepting a bribe, and he wants to make an example of you? Surely jail is a little extreme. I’d have thought a public slap on the wrist would be enough.”

  “There’s more,” Daniel said. “I have this friend, a prizefighter. You probably don’t know, but prizefights were banned in the city a year ago. However, there are still plenty of men who enjoy watching a good prizefight and my friend is the best—heavyweight champion of the world at one stage. Now he’s down on his luck, finding it hard to make ends meet. So he asked me to help him set up a fight in a place where it wasn’t likely to be stopped or raided by the police. There’s big money in it, of course. Lots of betting going on. Big money for my friend, too, if he wins.” He paused and waited for me to say something. When I remained silent, he went on, “So the police raided my rooms after I was arrested, and they found evidence that I was trying to set up an illegal prizefight. The commissioner decided to throw the book at me as an example to other officers who might want to stray from the straight and narrow. Oh, and apparently I resisted arrest.”

  “Apparently?”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to be handcuffed by one of my own junior officers, was I? That will get me another week or so in jail.”

  I stared at him long and hard. “I don’t know why you had me brought here,” I said at last. “What do you think I can do?”

  “Help me prove my innocence,” he said. “Get me out of here and reinstated in my job. You see, Molly, the interesting part of this is that I’ve never accepted a bribe in my life. I know other policemen have feathered their nests very nicely, but not me. My father was the finest cop in the force, and he never did anything he’d be ashamed of. I was conscious of following in his footsteps, so I’ve always kept to his standards.”

  “But you just said they caught you accepting a bribe.”

  “I thought I was meeting a gang member to be given a list of names of underworld figures who might be interested in sponsoring this prizefight. But when the police opened the envelope, there were five twenty-dollar bills in it, as well as the names of known gangsters. So I can’t blame them for thinking it was a payoff.”

  “You may be innocent of accepting a bribe, but you’ve just told me that you were setting up an illegal prizefight with the help of a gang. That doesn’t sound so innocent to me.”

  “A prizefight, Molly—what’s wrong with that?”

  “It’s illegal, apparently.”

  “Good harmless fun. Every man in the world enjoys a boxing match. The city was shortsighted to ban them. If it takes place, I’ll wager half the aldermen and high-ranking police officers will be there in attendance, probably including Mr. Partridge.”

  I digested this, then continued, “So what about the money in the envelope? You must have some idea who put it there. Was it supposed to be a bribe?”

  Daniel shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I’ve had a lot of time for thought these past few days and I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole thing was set up. Why else would the police commissioner just happen to be in the right place, at the right time, to witness me accepting money from a gang member? Why else would they go immediately to search my rooms for more incriminating evidence? They haven’t shown me exactly what they found in my rooms, but that could have been planted, too.”

  “Who would want to defame you?” I asked.

  He shrugged. “Again, I’ve no idea, unless it’s Commissioner Partridge himself.”

  “Why would he want to do that?”

  Daniel shrugged. “Maybe he plans to get rid of Irish officers one by one, starting at the top. All I know is that my so-called friends have dropped me like a hot potato. They’re all scared they’ll be next, you see.”

  “I still don’t know why you called on me, Daniel,” I said. “Don’t you have all kinds of friends in high places? Your father knows everybody, and they all respect him. And what about your fiancée’s family? They’re part of the famous Four Hundred, aren’t they?”

  He looked away. “That’s the trouble. I can’t let my father know anything about this. The doctors have told him that he has a bad heart and the shock might kill him. I can’t take that risk. And as for Arabella—” He looked up suddenly. “Miss Norton and I broke off our engagement.”

  “You did?” I tried not to sound too interested.

  He nodded. “Right after you disappeared from the Flynn place.”

  “But I heard you,” I said. “When she asked about me, you told her she was making a fuss over nothing. You said I was nothing to you.”

  “I didn’t exactly say that,” he said quickly. “And if I did, I didn’t mean it. I had to appease her at that moment, Molly. Surely you realize that. I couldn’t have told her the truth in front of all those people. It would have mortified her.”

  “And me? Did you think of how I felt?”

  “Molly, the last thing you’d have wanted is for Arabella to make a scene. She’s used to having her own way, you know. And she’d never forgive me for humiliating her in public.”

  “There you are!” I shoute
d suddenly, loudly enough that the words echoed back from those peeling brick walls and stone floor. “That’s it. If you’ve really broken off your engagement, you have your answer.”

  “To what?”

  “To what? The man’s as thick as a plank. You said the whole thing was set up to disgrace you. Well, there you’ve got it. Arabella didn’t like the idea of being made a fool of and being betrayed by you, so she’s paying you back.”

  “Oh, come now. Surely not…”

  “You told me once before that she’d ruin you if you ran out on her. Well, now she has.”

  He shook his head violently. “I can’t believe that of her. She actually took my request to break off our understanding pretty well, considering. She said she’d suspected for some time that my heart wasn’t fully committed to her. Then she did go on to say that if my taste in women didn’t aspire any higher than you, then you and I were welcome to each other.” For a second I saw the flicker of the old Daniel in his impish grin.

  “Then her family wants to punish you for upsetting their precious darling.”

  He shook his head again. “I think they’d be relieved. They’d hoped for someone with more money and status than me. They are civilized people, Molly. If they’d wanted to pay me back, they could have brought a breach of promise suit against me and attempted to punish me through the courts. I simply cannot believe that they would go to all this trouble to get me thrown in jail. And how would they have contacts with the underworld?”

  “They may well have ties to the new commissioner,” I said. “Don’t they tell you always to start with the most obvious suspect? That’s what Paddy Riley told me.”

  Daniel sighed. “Paddy Riley. I wish he were still here. He’d be able to get to the bottom of this with no trouble at all. He’d know how to pry or bribe the truth out of that gangster.”

  “But you know I can’t do that, Daniel,” I said in horror.

  “I realize that, and of course I wouldn’t want you getting mixed up in that kind of thing.”

  I remembered, all too clearly, an encounter with Monk Eastman, boss of the Eastman gang, when I had come close to losing my life, or worse. “If you don’t want me mixed up in it, then why did you call me here?”

  “I want you to take a message to somebody,” he said, leaning closer to the grille. There might have been a guard in the cell behind him, listening in on our conversation. It was too dark to see.

  “All right. Who?”

  He lowered his voice to the merest whisper. “My friend Jack Brady. Have you heard of him? Gentleman Jack, they call him, the Irish sledgehammer. He was a world champion prizefighter once, and he was counting on me to help him make a comeback.”

  “Why Gentleman Jack? Did he always play by the rules?”

  “No, he likes to dress like a dandy, or he did when he was in funds. He’d wear an ascot with a diamond pin at his throat—that kind of thing.”

  “I see,” I said. “And where would I find this Gentleman Jack?”

  He leaned even closer so that his lips were almost touching the bars. “He’s recently arrived in New York and I have put him up at a boardinghouse around the corner from my place. On the corner of Ninth Avenue and West Twenty-third. Mrs. Collins is the landlady. Tell Jack what’s happened to me. He knows what I’ve been doing on his behalf to set up this fight. He can ask questions in the right places.”

  “And what would the right places be?”

  “Places that he can go and you can’t,” Daniel said bluntly.

  “And what about Arabella Norton?” I demanded. “You may not think she has anything to do with your arrest, but to me she’s the logical number-one suspect. Are you planning to send your Gentleman Jack to her first?”

  Something like a chuckle escaped from his lips. “I can’t see Arabella receiving the likes of Jack Brady.”

  “Then I’d better go myself.”

  “I should have thought that would be equally disastrous—even more so,” Daniel said. “I don’t know what you’d hope to achieve by it, other than the indignity of being thrown out of White Plains.”

  “I should have thought that was obvious—to find out if she had any part in your arrest.”

  “And you think she’d tell you if she did?”

  “I am a detective, after all,” I said. “I’m experienced at asking the right questions.”

  “You could only ask the right questions if Arabella would agree to talk to you,” Daniel said, “and I can’t see that happening in a month of Sundays.”

  “Surely she’d be concerned when she heard what has happened to you. If she’s not involved in this plot, she wouldn’t want you rotting in this filthy jail.”

  “She might think I deserve to be taught a lesson.”

  “So might I, for that matter,” I reminded him.

  “True enough,” he agreed. “But I really don’t think you’d get anywhere with Arabella. Just go to Jack and tell him what’s happened to me. He’s the only one who can help me now.”

  “You had me hauled in unceremoniously just to tell me to find someone else to help you?” I said. In a way I was relieved that I was being let off this assignment but at the same time stung by his lack of trust in my skills. “Why didn’t you have him brought to you if he’s the only one who can help?”

  “Because he’s a well-known face,” Daniel said. “If the police got a glimpse of him, he’d be arrested and run out of town. That’s why he’s undercover at the boardinghouse, living there under the name of John Sykes.”

  “John Sykes,” I echoed. “All right. I suppose I’ll do what you ask, since you obviously don’t think much of my abilities as an investigator.”

  “Of course I do,” he said. “I’m very impressed with your skills, if you want to know. But I’m not risking putting you in danger. You’re not getting yourself mixed up in underworld dealings and that’s an order.”

  I gave him a haughty stare. “It seems to me you’re hardly in a position to order anybody around. But don’t worry. I still remember my last encounter with a gang. I have no wish to repeat it.”

  “Good girl,” he said. “Of course, there’s nothing to stop you from using your brain to help old Jack figure things out. He’s not the brightest button in the box.”

  “You’re presuming I’d want to help you,” I said. “You haven’t exactly deserved my loyalty.”

  “I realize that,” he said. “Molly, I haven’t been fair to you before, but this time I’ve tried to do right by you. I broke off my engagement as I promised, didn’t I?”

  Until now we had been having a polite and reserved conversation. Suddenly Daniel cracked. He reached for me, grabbing at the bars that separated us. “For God’s sake, please don’t desert me, Molly. I need you. Help Jack get me out before it’s too late. Even if you don’t want me as a suitor anymore, then as a friend.”

  I swallowed hard. “All right,” I said. “I’ll give it a try.”

  As if on cue the door behind me opened. “Ten minutes and no more, I said,” the warder’s voice boomed out. Hands grabbed at Daniel’s shoulders. The partition started to close.

  “Wait,” I called. There were so many facts I needed to know. “Just a minute. Let me talk to him.” I tried to shake myself free as I was escorted from the room. The partition slid shut and Daniel was gone.

  FOUR

  I was led out of The Tombs by the young constable Byrne and stood blinking in the fierce sunlight while the brick dust floated in a haze around us.

  “He says you’re still his friend.” I turned to the constable. “How many friends does he still have?”

  “Hard to say, miss,” he said. “The problem is that rumors are flying around. Nobody knows what to believe. There’s talk that Captain Sullivan is in the pay of a gang. They say he tipped off the gang that a police raid was coming and one of our men copped it. Our boys don’t take kindly to being betrayed by one of their own.”

  I stared at him in horror. “You know very well that Daniel woul
d never do that. He told me he’s never even accepted a bribe. This was all arranged to discredit him, Constable Byrne.”

  Byrne nodded. “Quite possibly.”

  “By whom? Do you have any ideas at all?”

  His young, fresh face flushed red. “I’m only a constable, miss. I do my job, take my orders, and mind my own business. Captain Sullivan was good to me when I first joined the police. Set me straight on a lot of things. So I feel I owe it to him to give him the benefit of the doubt. I’d help him if I could, but I don’t see how.”

  I put my hand on his arm. “Can you tell me the names of more senior officers that Daniel can trust—men who might be able to help him?”

  He shook his head. “Like I said, I don’t know what goes on among the top brass, miss.”

  The message was coming through loud and clear. In theory he wanted to help Daniel, but he wasn’t going to stick his neck out and lose his own job doing so. I could understand him. A New York policeman was a good, secure job for an Irish person. Tammany Hall and the police were thick as thieves. It wouldn’t pay to get on the wrong side of either, and that was just what Daniel had done, apparently.

  “Can I ask you to do one thing, Constable Byrne?” I said. “Could you at least keep your ear to the ground? If you hear anything, anything at all that might help Daniel, come and tell me. Daniel gave you my address, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, miss,” he said. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Then I’ll be on my way, if I’m not still under arrest.”

  He grinned. “No, miss, you’re free to go.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled back at him. He might turn out to be the only ally I had among the police.

  “One thing, Miss Murphy,” he called after me. “How does Captain Sullivan think that you can help him? Do you have friends in high places or what?”