Schufeldt, his broad shoulders straining the jacket of his green leisure suit, looked around for the standing microphone. It was in the aisle, near Colin. When Colin made no move to bring him the microphone, Schufeldt's fleshy face began to turn the color of raw beef.
Colin heard the scrape of a chair and footsteps behind him, then saw Burton Kelly carry the mike to the front. Coming back to his seat, Kelly gave Colin a dismissive glance.
Schufeldt adjusted the mike. "Mayor Gildersleeve, and Councilmen, I thank you for this opportunity to put my problems before you. Since I have come on this case four days ago I have had no cooperation whatsoever from your chief of police, Waldo Hallock. I would have to say that he has gone out of his way to be obstructive. Time after time when I asked him to give me certain information he refused."
Colin looked at Hallock, saw the muscle jumping in his cheek.
"Each new line of inquiry I wished to pursue was met with disapproval and insubordination. I am not familiar, as you can imagine, with this township. Therefore, I needed the help of the chief to clue me in to the various criminals, their records, and that. On several occasions he told me that that was unnecessary, and even went so far as to steer me wrong about things."
Hallock's head snapped up. He wore an expression of puzzlement that quickly turned to understanding, then finally faded into a bemused smile.
"And last but not least," Schufeldt went on, "I happen to know he pursued lines of inquiry that he did not make me privy to. There is no way that I can work with this man and bring this case to a swift conclusion. I urge the Council to dismiss Chief Hallock from his present position. Thank you." Schufeldt sat in his chair with a thud.
"Schufeldt's right up there with Nagle for the sleazeball of the year award," Colin whispered.
"I'm glad I don't have to choose between them," Annie said.
"Thank you, Special Agent Schufeldt. Now, would you like to make a statement, Chief Hallock?"
"No, thank you. No, wait. Yes, I would." Hallock, in his summer uniform of short-sleeved white shirt and lightweight dark blue trousers, gun holstered on his right hip, walked slowly past Schufeldt, eyes straight ahead, shoulders squared. He bent down, not bothering to adjust the mike.
"Mr. Mayor, Miss Townsend, Councilmen. I wish to respond to the charge Special Agent Schufeldt made against me of deliberately steering him wrong. I am guilty of that charge."
There were murmurs in the audience.
"I willfully and deliberately steered Special Agent Schufeldt to Whitey's Dockside Restaurant with full knowledge that the food is lousy and the prices exorbitant. Thank you." He walked back to his seat.
A burst of laughter filled the room and Gildersleeve rapped the gavel. Colin could see that Hallock was trying not to smile and almost losing the battle.
Gildersleeve hammered the desk, his small eyes shrinking with anger. "Quiet. Quiet, people!" Slowly the laughter subsided and Gildersleeve resumed control. "This is not a laughin' matter, there's not one thing funny about this."
A male voice from the back called out, "Whitey Barnes ain't gonna find it funny, that's for sure."
This time there was a trickling of laughter, but the sound of the gavel sliced through it, cutting it off before it could build.
"We are here today to discuss serious business, and I'm shocked to see that our own chief of police would intentionally try to reduce these precedin's to such a trivial level. I think that action speaks for itself. The forum is now open. If any of you would like to say anythin' before the Council takes a vote, this is the time." He nodded his head for emphasis, his jowls wobbling. "The chair recognizes Rita Sherr."
She was a tall woman who had long dark hair streaked with gray. Near the front, she had only to walk a few steps to the microphone. "I've been in business here for six years. By Memorial Day my jeans shop is packed and it doesn't let up till after Labor Day. But not this year. So far, this year has been a disaster. I say, why? A. The economy is in better shape than it's been for a long time. B. This area was written up last year in The New York Times as a swell place to vacation. So why is my business off by over half?" She shrugged and stretched out her hands as if waiting for the answers to fall into her palms.
"I'll tell you why. Because nobody wants to come to a place where they might get murdered. And I say, who can blame them? The thing of it is, and I'm sorry to say this, if the chief of police can't do his job then we got to be ruthless. We got to put somebody in charge who can."
The audience applauded enthusiastically.
Gildersleeve said, "The chair recognizes Elbert Palmer."
"I had to let go the boy I hired for the summer," the barber said. "Couldn't afford to pay him no more. I still got my usual customers but nobody new 'cause there ain't nobody new around here. Leastways, I ain't see no new heads."
Jake Hicks was next. "This kind of thing don't hurt the mail- rain or shine, you know. But what it's doing to me and my family is making us stay home nights. Feels like it's February and I can tell you, me and the wife've got cabin fever."
"It's a disgrace," said Carolyn Dobbs. "This should have been stopped right in the beginning. You don't let a thing like this get out of hand. I say Chief Hallock's had long enough to show his mettle, and he just isn't up to snuff."
"The chair recognizes Reverend Ann Winters."
"I've never been close to a murder case before, but I can't believe that Chief Hallock isn't doing everything possible. If you don't have anything to work with, you can't simply make up clues or arrest people without reason. I feel we should stick by the chief and give him all the support we can."
There was a smattering of applause, but the boos and hisses drowned it out. Annie sat down, shoulders sagging.
Colin said, "Good for you."
"I don't think it helped much."
"It'll mean something to him."
After Annie there were six more speakers, five against Hallock, one for. And then Gildersleeve recognized Julia Dorman.
The microphone was hustled up the aisle by a youngish man Colin didn't recognize and placed in front of the cool blonde who had risen from a seat next to Fran Hallock.
"Thank you, Mayor. I believe what I have to say refers to the lines of inquiry Special Agent Schufeldt was kept in the dark about. Three days ago, I and four other women were enlisted to help Chief Hallock pursue an idea he had pertaining to the murderer."
Colin saw Fran's face fall. She reached out a hand toward Julia Dorman as if to stop her, then let the arm drop back to her lap.
"We were all glad to help because we, as you can understand, wished the murderer to be apprehended as soon as possible, and if we could do anything to help gain that end, well, then we were more than willing to give our time. However, in light of the murder this morning and a certain fact that has come to our attention, we now feel that Chief Hallock has not only wasted our time but his own as well, thereby slowing down an investigation that needs to move rapidly forward."
"Could you please tell the Council what Chief Hallock asked you gals to do?"
Julia Dorman's mouth twitched. "Certainly. Chief Hallock believed that the A that seemed to be a trademark of the killer's was either his first initial, his last, or his middle."
A bark of laughter came from near the door. Colin saw that it was Jim Drew, his hand now covering his mouth and his glance darting from person to person as if to ask for forgiveness for his inappropriate laughter.
"Go on, Mrs. Dorman."
"Well, we had to go through the local phone book, marking off any names that fell into that category. And then we began phoning these people, asking a series of questions meant to narrow down a list of suspects."
"Hey, I got one of them calls," a woman cried out.
"Me, too. Got one this morning."
Others joined in, and Gildersleeve rapped the gavel for silence.