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.