Jed Rubenfeld - The Death Instinct

The following morning, fresh air and dappled sunlight poured in through the window of Younger's hospital room, the curtains of which were now thrown open, affording a pleasant view of Washington Square Park and its autumnal trees. Younger was awake, propped up by pillows. He had lost weight, but his skin had regained its color, and he could move again.

Colette came in, radiant, carrying a baguette and a paper bag filled with other groceries. 'I found a French bakery,' she said. 'I brought you croissants. Can we live here?'

'Where did you get those diamonds?' he asked, looking at her choker.

Colette shook her head, breaking the baguette. 'These hideous diamonds. I can't get them off. I've even taken my baths with them.'

'I like you in them,' replied Younger. 'I command you to keep them on. Day and night.'

'But I don't want to,' she said. 'Some slave,' he answered. 'Come here.'

She bent to him. Younger reached behind her and — with infuriating male handiness — unclasped the necklace. She kissed his lips. He handed her a telegram brought by Officer Roederheusen from the Commodore Hotel. Colette read it:

26 NOV. 1920

BOY CURED. HAVE BOOKED CABIN FOR HIM S.S. SUSQUEHANNA

ARRIVING NEW YORK 23 DECEMBER IN COMPANY OF YOUR

FRIEND OKTAVIAN KINSKY. PLEASE ADVISE IF THIS PLAN SUITABLE.

FREUD

On December twenty-third, in the icy early morning harbor air, below an overcast sky, they stamped their feet — Younger and Colette; Jimmy and Betty Littlemore — and waited for the steamship Susquehanna. Winter had come. A dusting of overnight snow had given New York City a fairy-tale veneer, belied by the heavy, forbidding waters of the port, dotted with skins of fruit and other refuse.

The men stood on the dock. Colette and Betty conversed near the harbor buildings, which sheltered them from the sharp winds. Younger, whose rib cage was trussed in bandages below his suit, asked the detective for the time.

'Quarter of eight,' said Littlemore, rubbing his hands for warmth. 'Where's your watch?'

'Sold it.'

'Why?'

'To pay the hospital,' said Younger. 'And to pay Freud for Luc's ticket.'

'Does Colette know?'

'She knows I'm cleaned out,' said Younger.

'I can top that. Betty and I are packing up the apartment. Had to choose between paying the rent and feeding the kids. I was for paying the rent, but you know women. At least you can make some dough as a doctor.'

Younger smoked. 'You'll go back to the Police Department. You're a captain in Homicide.'

Littlemore shook his head. 'Department s on a payroll freeze. Maybe next spring.'

'Maybe we could rob a bank,' said Younger. 'How's that girl — the one Brighton was keeping prisoner?'

'Albina? Better. Colette visiting with her helped a lot. Want to know how it all started?'

'Sure.'

'There were three sisters — Amelia, Albina, and Quinta. They all went to work for Brighton in 1917. Within a couple years, girls at his factories started taking sick — their teeth are falling out, they're having trouble walking, there's something wrong with their blood.'

'Anemia,' said Younger.

'Brighton knows it's radium, so he builds a kind of hospital room upstairs in his factory where his own doctor would examine them — except it wasn't a doctor; it was Lyme. When that growth first showed up on Quinta's neck, Lyme told her she had syphilis. Brighton magnanimously offered to treat her for free in the infirmary, but Lyme was just doping her up. Amelia was next. Her teeth were coming loose. But she was tough. When Lyme told her she had syphilis too, she knew it was a lie. She went to Albina and told her something terrible was happening. They snuck Quinta out of the infirmary and got the heck out of the factory. Brighton had men all over looking for them. The girls knew it and were scared. So they went into hiding. Amelia took a bunch of scissors from the factory, which they carried around just in case. Then they heard about Colette. They heard she'd been telling people that the radium paint factories were killing people, and they thought maybe she could help them. You know the rest.'

'Why did Albina take her shirt off in front of Luc?'

'After she followed the Miss to Connecticut? It was her skin: her skin was glowing in the dark. She wanted Colette to see it, but the Miss wasn't there, so she showed Luc instead. She was afraid Brighton had men watching for her in New Haven; that's why she ran. She was right too. They caught her and brought her buck to New York, Darn it — I should have known Amelia's tooth had radium in it,'

'Why?' asked Younger.

'Remember how your radiation detector gizmo lit up when you pointed it at me — right at my chest — in front of the hotel?'

Younger saw it: 'I gave you the tooth.'

'It was in my vest pocket,' said Littlemore.

The two men stood silently for some time. 'What about your senator?' asked Younger.

'Fall? He's doing fine. Going to be in Harding's Cabinet. Not Secretary of State — they're going to give him some less high-profile position, but still in the Cabinet.'

'Who says crime doesn't pay?' said Younger.

'He'll pay. I had a look through Samuels's books. I found a hundred- thousand-dollar cash payment from Brighton to Fall; I'll nail him with it sooner or later. But for now nobody can touch him. He's got something on Harding.'

'What?'

Littlemore looked around to be sure they were out of anyone's earshot. 'Harding's got a woman problem. The Republican Party just paid twenty-five thousand dollars to keep one gal quiet. Now there's another girl in bed with him, and only Fall knows about her.'

'How?'

'Because she works for him. Good-looking girl. Ever since I quit as a T-man, she's been feeding me all kinds of Washington secrets. She says Houston's got something to tell us.'

'Us?'

'Yeah — you and me.'

The men were quiet again for a while.

'You were right about the machine gun,' said Littlemore.

'How's that?'

'Turns out the bombers blew up Wall Street twelve hours after they were supposed to. So they had a little problem: the manhole was locked.

There they were in the alley, with all that gold and no place for it to go. One of them runs across the street and fires his machine gun into a wall of the Morgan Bank, trying to get somebody to open up the manhole. Apparently it worked. I told Commissioner Enright about it, and he sent Lamont a letter telling him to keep those bullet holes unrepaired. He says Morgan can tell everybody it's a memento, but if they repair the holes, he'll arrest them for destroying evidence.' Littlemore looked out to sea. 'Where's that ship?'

'Late.'

'It's funny,' said Littlemore. 'People are already forgetting September sixteenth. When it happened, it was like nothing would ever be the same. The country was frozen. Life was going to be different forever.'

'At least we didn't go to war. A manufactured war on a country that had nothing to do with the bombing — God knows the price we would have paid for that, if you hadn't stopped it.'

'Yeah — I should be famous,' said Littlemore. 'Instead I'm broke.'

'We could go to India.'

'Why India?'

'Poverty is holy in India.' Younger ground out his cigarette under a heel. 'So no one gets punished for it. The bombing.'

'I don't know about that. Where did you and I first see Drobac?'

'At the Commodore Hotel — after they kidnapped Colette,' answered Younger.

'Nope.'

Younger shook his head: 'Where then?'

'A horse-drawn wagon passed you and the Miss and me when we were walking down Nassau Street the morning of September sixteenth. Remember — about three minutes before the bomb went off? With a load so heavy the mare could barely drag it behind her? Drobac was the guy driving that wagon.'