Jim Cogan - The Dirty City

“Now, what’s on your mind, Johnny? You look deeply troubled.”

“It’s fair to say I’m a bit troubled, Father. I’ve had some business go a bit off the rails these last few days. But that’s not my problem.”

“Then do tell, please.”

“Well, this might sound really daft, but do you believe in demons?”

“Hypothetical or physical?” Not quite the response I was expecting. I guess that’s why I liked Father McBride – like me he was a sucker for detail.

“Well, physical – I think.”

“Have you been unwell at all, Johnny? Or hitting the drink a bit hard?”

“Father, I know what I’m asking is, well, irregular , but I can assure you I’ve not been unwell nor do I drink any more than the next man.”

“So, you’ve seen something you simply can’t explain, and that something is – shall we say, unpleasant in its nature?”

“You got that right.”

“There are lots of things that can’t easily be explained. I’m a priest, my job is all about trying to teach people of things that can’t rationally be explained by science or other orthodox means. Do you believe in angels, Johnny?”

“What? Angels, Father – I don’t know-.”

“I believe in angels,” he interjected, “I know I’m supposed to, it goes with the territory I guess, but trust me – I do believe in them. Now, the concept of angels – from the point of view of a scientific, rational mind, is completely ridiculous – I mean the more you think about them the more ludicrous they seem, right?”

“Uh…”

“It’s okay, I’ll take your hesitation as kind of agreement. Anyway, so I believe in Angels, 100%, right? And if I believe in angels then, by definition, I surely have to believe in demons too, right?”

“I guess.”

“Right! So, if you’re being plagued by demons, I guess you’d better hope that you’ve got an angel looking out for you?”

“Have I?”

“No idea, Son. You’ll truly not know the answer to that until you next run into this demon of yours again. But if it’s any help, I pray to God that you have.”

I didn’t expect Father McBride to have any real answers for me, but it was nice of him to not tell me that I was crazy – and in some small way, it have me some reassurance for what lay before me.

Once back on the streets I started feeling vulnerable again. I was pretty inconspicuous at the best of times, it comes with the territory – you’ll never successfully follow someone secretly if you can’t blend into the background, but while this might work for me for a little while I knew that with the sheer volume of folks after me it was only a matter of time until I was found.

I’d opted to go on foot, figuring that there would almost certainly be eyes on my car. It was a warm day, the kind of day a guy might like to take off his coat and carry it under his arm to let himself cool off. I could afford no such luxury so I sweated and sweltered in the heat with coat done up, my collars turned up and my hat firmly planted on my head and tilted down almost obscuring my eyes.

I’d carefully considered my next move. Valance hadn’t given me much room for manoeuvre. There was no way in hell I was going to work for her and her kind – that would be like striking a deal with the devil himself. I dare say the pay and perks would have been good, but I’d be selling out my own species, for Christ’s sake. And if Valance got it all her own way and the vampires did manage to take over, how long would I be useful for? I was willing to wager that I’d be living on borrowed time, and as soon as I was no longer considered usual then she wouldn’t think twice about putting me on ice. Or worse than that, winding up on one of her ‘blood farms.’

She obviously valued my services as a potential employee enough to even bother making the offer, after all - she could quite easily have murdered me right there in my own office. I figured she gave me the twenty four hours because she was totally convinced there was nowhere in the city I could hide out at or could try and make a break for it and jump the city altogether.

I decided to test the theory, so I stopped at the next public phone I came to. Cautiously, keeping an eye out all around, I dialled a number that very few people in the city knew about. I was calling just about the only place that could be classed as neutral territory. I was calling the Speakeasy.

After five rings the phone was picked up and a familiar voice answered.

“Y’ello?”

“Mack. This is Johnny. Johnny Jerome.”

“Oh. Hi Johnny.”

“Listen, you might have heard, I got a bit of a situation happenin’ here.”

“Yeah,” I heard Mack give a definite sigh, like he knew what was coming. “I’ve heard about it.”

“I see news travels fast. Anyway, I was wondering if, what with the Speakeasy being neutral and all-.”

“I’m sorry Johnny, no can do.”

“Hey, Mack, what gives here? We go back a fair way, don’t we?”

“We do, Johnny.”

“But?” I knew there would be a ‘but’ in there somewhere.

“But, this ain’t the old days no more, Johnny, times have changed. There is one defacto mob in Santa Justina these days – one mob, with one boss.”

“Vitalli?”

“Right. And what he says goes, you understand? He says you don’t come in here. He says this place ain’t neutral as far as you’re concerned.”

“And what about you, Mack, what do you say?”

“I say, Gianni Vitalli has put a price on your head so big that every two bit creep and hood in the city will be queuing up to put a cap in your ass – no matter where the hell you are. And it’s not just the hoods, it’s the cops too – all the dirty ones at least, so pretty much most of ‘em. You got no allies, Johnny, I don’t know what you got yourself into, but you’ve pissed Vitalli good and proper and from where I’m standing, you’re in some pretty deep shit.”

“So that’s the way it is, huh?”

“I’m afraid so, Johnny. If you want my advice, do what you can to get the hell out of the city. Rent an unmarked car in a false name, wear a disguise and put as many miles between you and this place as you can, ‘cos if you stay here – well, you’re basically a dead man.”

I thanked Mack for his advice and got off the phone. Things were bad. It seemed in the daylight at least that Vitalli wouldn’t honour Valance’s offer, he’d have hoods all over the city looking for me, and cops checking every exit out of the city too. I could probably give them both the slip easily enough, after all – this was just as much my home turf as it was theirs – but come sundown, well, that was a different matter. A whole different kind of individual would be stalking me then, and I had nowhere to hide.

The remainder of the day was one of frustration and desperation. I did give Mack’s advice a go, but it seemed that luck had completely deserted me. I tried three different car lots to see if I could anonymously rent a vehicle to escape the city in. The first had nothing available, the other two were quite blatantly under surveillance by hoods – it appeared that Vitalli was onto this tactic and figured I might show up at some point. There were no other car rental places within walking distance of my location, I was stuck in the city.

The evening was closing in, and I truly did not have a plan how to deal with it. I took on an almost resigned air as I tramped the streets. While still trying to look anonymous, I decided that my best chance of not being attacked by a vampire would be in very public areas in plain sight.

As the sky became dark and the city took on its neon tinged night look, it seemed to become all the more menacing. I was still playing on home turf, but the city itself seemed out to get be now as well.