Robert Walker - Shadows in the White City

Ransom threw the bundle back at Fenger. “You told Kohler about Audra, didn’t you?”

Fenger lifted the bundle and shook it at Ransom. “I have no idea in hell how that got out! Do you?” The accusation hung in the air.

Again the bundle was thrown to Ransom.

“Build that damn wing you want!” Ransom threw the money back at him.

“Give it to Jane for her plans for the homeless children!” shouted Fenger, tossing the stack of bills back.

“Are the two of you blind?” asked Philo. “Don’t you see? This is Kohler’s idea, all of it!”

“What’re you talking about?” asked Fenger.

“Giving you, Christian, blood money to give to you, Alastair!” Philo shouted. “He wants to drive a wedge between you, a permanent one. And I am left to watch this pissing contest!”

“What’re you suggesting, Philo?” Ransom’s nostrils flared.

“I know he gave you the impression that Chapman was running things, but no, Nathan is and has been from the start.”

“You mean he started this whole thing with Chapman in motion?” asked Fenger.

“When have you ever known Kohler to relinquish control? Either of you?”

Christian and Alastair looked across the chasm that Kohler had created between them. Fenger finally said, “Philo’s right. Giving this money to me to deliver to you…it’s his design.”

Alastair agreed. “Part of his goal from the outset.”

Philo Keane felt as if he could breathe again. “That sounds a proper end to it-give the money to the fund Jane Francis has established for the homeless.”

“Aye, a fitting end to it,” Alastair poured himself another cup of tea, then raised his cup, and all three toasted this conclusion. Then Ransom asked, “Did they get the right murderous children? Tell me they didn’t get it wrong this time.”

“They were caught while sleeping, and their own knives were used on them,” explained Christian.

“They were bred to it like animals by their own parents,” said Philo.

Fenger added, “They were children turned into Frankenstein monsters.”

“What justice is there in this end?” asked Ransom.

“Those children would’ve continued on, butchering other children, Rance-we all know that.” Philo sipped the last of his spiked tea.

“They damn near killed you, Alastair,” added Christian.

“Still…I was out there at those stables. I saw the kind of justice Chapman and Kohler meted out on Bloody Mary, an insane woman, and a complete other innocent man. I can’t say any of this sits well with me.”

“Still, you’ve got to take the money, Alastair.” Fenger stood to leave.

“What’re you now, Christian? Nathan’s errand boy?”

Philo leapt to his feet and placed a firm hand against Alastair’s chest, trying to calm him. “You two are allowing Kohler to win if you end like this.”

Christian stopped at the door and looked deep into Ransom’s eyes. “Until you lay the man low, Alastair, we all have him as a cross to bear, and we all have to work with him.”

“That’s it, isn’t it, Christian? He holds your notes-bought up all your debts, hasn’t he? Makes a mockery of your office as impartial coroner.”

Christian’s jaw twitched with the anger of this kind of information being shouted to the world where he stood at the open door. The two old friends held one another in a grim stare.

Philo determined to end this before more was said. He joined Christian at his side, shook Alastair’s hand, and gave him a brief hug. “Don’t you be led by Kohler, either of you! You are both better than that. Now we’re going, Rance, and…and well…don’t be a stranger. Come round to the studio, both of you. I have some of that whiskey left.”

Ransom nodded and relaxed, bidding them good-bye and raising the money bundle overhead. He knew why Kohler had gotten his two best friends to bring the cash. Anyone else and he’d have shot them. This way, at some future date, Nathan Kohler might be able to use this blood money against him. He imagined that one of Nathan’s spies was not too far from his door, closely watching everything. Unless he missed his guess, it’d be Henry Bosch.

A week later

More time had passed and Chicago returned to what most people termed “normal” and all commerce doubled and quadrupled daily, prices skyrocketing, and the homeless population, both adult and child, only increased, putting an even greater strain on the city shelters and jails. No one questioned the mystery of where Jane Francis’s funds, or those of her brother, Dr. Tewes, had come from, and when asked, each was quick to reply, “A donor whose greatest wish was to remain anonymous.”

Other than a program begun by a Dr. Jane Francis to find a home for every parentless child, and a roof for every homeless child, little had changed, despite the sheer terror of a story that was so horrendous that it would never see full play in the mainstream press. Word on the street had it that Inspector Alastair Ransom, with help from the deceased Jed Logan, and a heroic Ken Behan, had pretty much single-handedly taken on the entire family of beasts in their own lair and had wiped them out, one and all.

The legend of Beowulf recounted.

As for Audra, she could be found any day in the Cook County Asylum-seen daily by Gabby Tewes, and from time to time, Gabby’s father, Dr. J. P. Tewes, whose phrenological exams, Audra looked forward to, although she could not voice this or any other fact. Another and final victim of the Leather Apron gang? Or Chapman and Kohler’s inquisition?

As in all things he touched, no matter the twisted outcome, Alastair Ransom had landed on his feet. Most beat cops, firemen, and even most of the petty criminals and burglars and pickpockets had only more respect and greater fear of the Bear. But one man, Nathan Kohler, uneasy with all that Alastair knew of his true nature, lived now to destroy Inspector Ransom at all costs.