“What did Dick do?” Marc asked hismother.
Before he could do anything, she said, one ofthe toughs employed by the club manhandled him out of the parlourand pushed him into the street. There was nothing to do but gohome. The door of the club was slammed behind him. “Now, before youcondemn him, Marc, you must understand the politics of thiscity.”
“Brodie has given me an introductorylesson.”
Dick had realized that the crime, for that itwas several times over, would be hushed up. The victim wasundoubtedly some homeless urchin recruited for the vile purposes ofthat brothel. No-one would report him missing. Dick had recognizedseveral of the faces in there, and knew that they would come underthe protection of Tammany Hall. If he himself went to the police,he would be the sole witness to the crime. Nor could he identifythe fellow he had seen fleeing the death-chamber. Moreover, withthe whispers about town regarding his own eccentric sexuality, hewould quickly be discredited and, if push came to shove, more thanlikely incriminated. Nevertheless, he did send an anonymous note toone of the police justices. After which he heard no more about theevent.
However, Dick had other plans for thepedophile section of the Manhattan Club. He had one of his firm’s“operatives” watch the club and obtain information about the youthsseen frequenting the area or coming out of the house itself. Ittook more than a month, but Dick was able to locate four of theboy-whores, all of them under the age of fourteen. He visited thehovels they lived in, gained their confidence, and eventually gotthem to sign affidavits in return for a promise to stake them to anew and better life outside the city. Whether the lads fullycomprehended what they were doing was a moot question. Dick’spurpose in gathering evidence – dates, times, preferred sexualacts, names, the exchange of money – was to take it to theattorney-general in Albany, a Federalist with no love for TammanyHall, in an effort to have the operation shut down. He realizedthat he could not have the perpetrators prosecuted, but he wascertain that the probity of the evidence and the threat of itsexposure would be enough to frighten the “invulnerable” members ofthe club and its executive.
“But something went wrong,” Marc said.
“Yes. And nothing went right for himthereafter.”
While Dick was trying to work out just how heshould approach the attorney-general, events overtook him. One ofhis informants must have alerted the higher-ups, for Dick got anurgent message that Barney Wright wanted to see him. Barney was afourteen-year-old catamite who had run away from his home upstateand taken to prostitution to survive in the city. He was alsoDick’s most reliable witness. Barney lived in two rooms at the rearof a ramshackle tenement in the gritty Five Points district. WhenDick arrived, he discovered a very nervous youngster who was havingsecond thoughts about what he had signed his name to. Dick calmedhim down, reassured him that he would personally escort the ladback to his parents and help him rebuild his life with them. Theythen shared a pot of tea and some biscuits. Minutes later, Dickbegan to feel very drowsy, and that was his last thought before hewoke up to a pounding in his head and a louder pounding at thedoor. It burst open to reveal Thurlow Winship, the corrupt policejustice, flanked by two burly constables. Dick himself was naked.His clothes were neatly arranged on a nearby chair. Barney Wrightlay beside him on the bed, equally naked and not nearly asterrified as he should have been.
“They set him up,” Marc said. “Entrapped himto shut him up.”
His mother nodded sadly.
Dick was hauled down to the municipal court.Winship went through the motions of laying charges of buggery andrape against him, but he had barely begun when Alderman NathanielBloodgood made a timely appearance. He had come directly fromTammany Hall with a proposal. Dick was to hand over all his notesand affidavits concerning the pedophiles at the Manhattan club, inreturn for which Dick would be given twelve hours to pack up hisbelongings and leave the state – with no charges laid and no reportabout his outrageous behaviour to the New York Bar.
“It was Hobson’s choice, and Dick knew it. Hewent home, told his wards to get ready, retrieved the papers andtook them straight to Winship and Bloodgood. Then he came here – totell me what had happened and why he had to go.”
“They didn’t give him a chance to fight back,did they?”
“No. And as you know, Tammany subsequentlyspread vague rumours of the charge and Dick’s apparent flight -ruining his reputation here and abroad, and ensuring that he couldnever really return.”
Marc shook his head. “But with the affidavitssurrendered and destroyed, and the boys bought or frightened off,it’s hard to see how Dick would pose any threat to thepowers-that-be here in New York. Whatever he might say – and hesaid nothing to anyone, not even Brodie – he had been thoroughlydiscredited in advance.”
“But, you see, he didn’t surrender all of hispapers.”
Marc was stunned, not merely at thisunexpected revelation but at the offhand way in which his motherconveyed it. “You have them?” he said, open-mouthed.
She smiled, and there was a sorrowful kind ofsatisfaction in her eyes. “He kept back one affidavit and itsbackground notes – of a fifth boy who lived alone and did notassociate with the others. He gambled that Winship and Bloodgoodwould not find out about him. ‘These papers are my insurancepolicy,’ he told me that afternoon. He asked me not to read them,but to keep them in that safe over there in the wall beside thescreen. If the justices ever attempted to revive the charges, evenafter his death, I would have some bargaining power here to savehis reputation and protect his wards. You see, the rumours abouthis homosexuality were something he could live with – they werepart of his being alive and successful in New York – but he livedin mortal fear that the trumped-up charge of his being found in bedwith a mere boy would be publicly and irrefutably revealed. And ina sad way, I think he felt guilty about his own sexual deviancy.”She looked him squarely in the eye. “I understood, of course, eventhough I have never felt so myself.”
“Is it possible that Winship or Bloodgoodrecently got wind of the missing affidavit, and were afraid thatDick, who had begun to come back to life in Toronto, might act onit?”
“It’s a possibility, but a remote one. Ittakes an awful lot to truly frighten Tammany.”
“I was shadowed by a tough-looking characterfor a few blocks this afternoon.”
“It could mean little,” she said not tooconvincingly. “Tammany is suspicious of anyone whose business isnot their own.”
Marc was silent for a full minute, then said,“Will you show me the papers? There may be some names in them thatwill lead me to the persons here who are worried about my presenceand purpose in the city.”
“You could end up doing more harm than good,Marc. I loved Dick very much, and these papers are still his onlyinsurance against the defamation of his life and character.”
“I understand.”
“But I am too tired to think about it rightnow. I have to go next door where the cast is dining andcelebrating, and pretend to share their happiness. But please cometo the play tomorrow night. I’ve got a small role only. I’ll have asupper prepared – bring Brodie if you like – and I’ll have ananswer about the papers for you then.”
Marc rose to go, but stopped when he heardthe sound of a footfall, of someone stumbling perhaps, just outsidethe door. Marc rushed over and flung it open. A door slammedfarther down the hall. When he reached it and jerked it open, hesaw that it led to the wings. The theatre beyond was insemi-darkness. A janitor was haphazardly sweeping one of theaisles. That was all.