The Pastor’s Daughter: Episode XXIII

Since there was nothing else I could do, I came down. If it came to a fight, there was no room up on the landing anyway. Besides, I was so surprised that he, Councilman McCutchen Smith, was behind all this. So I wasn’t in the mood to fight him, even though my mind told me the he must be definitely a very dangerous man to be involved in this drama.

I came down very slowly.

“Councilman McCutchen Smith!” I said. “What a pleasant surprise! How did you got involved with this? I mean, is this how you spent your time?”

He smiled, showing big, white even teeth.

“Hello Harry,” he said. “You are the one who’s surprised. I’m not. I was right behind you all the way from your apartment to this place. Come on down. I’ve been waiting to have a talk with you. There’s business to be done.”

I was not interested in any business, and I was still speechless.

In order not to be too close to me when I reached the hall, he took about four paces back. In any case, I was too speechless and dumbfounded to start anything – not just yet. But I told myself that if he went for me, I’d try to handle him.

“Go in there and sit down,” he said, pointing towards the lounge.

I went into the lounge, chose a comfortable chair that faced the door and sat down. By now I had control of my jittered nerves. Though I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, I knew he would not call the police. If he does call the police, all I had to do was to show them my things upstairs and he will be in a worse jam than I.

He followed me into the lounge and sat down on the arm of one of the chairs, facing me. He was still smiling.

“You are aware that I can put you in trouble if I write about this?” I said. “Are you aware this will make the headlines: a Baltimore City Councilman mixed up in a murder case?”

“Now don’t start,” he replied. “You know I have you by your balls. If you expose me, you will also expose yourself. You are much into this as I am.”

He was right.

“Let me ask you one more time,” I said. “What the fuck Councilman McCutchen Smith? Why the hell should you, a well-respected African-American councilman get involved in this?”

“Listen: don’t judge me, okay?” he said.  “I’m the one to ask the questions here. Not you.”

“Let say, for the sake of conversation – or even curiosity. What’s this about?”

“Well,” he replied. “Since I’m going to do some business with you, I should as well give you a brief history of my life. Vito Roselli  is my father.”

That was another big surprise.

“Vito Roselli is your dad? No way!” I said. “He is white and Italian. And you are African-American!”

“Oh shut up, will you?” he said. “My dad has soft spot for fat black women. That’s why he fell for my mum, and they had me.”

“You mean, your mum was his mistress?”

“Now, is that polite?” his eyes hardened. “I’m trying to be polite here. And, you are not making it easy for me one bit.”

Now I can see the connection to crime. If Vito Roselli is his dad as he said, it won’t be much surprise to people if he becomes involved with crime. That doesn’t mean that every child of a criminal must grow up becoming a criminal. Far from that! People have choices. I mean, in my line of work I  have seen children born to criminals who grew up becoming professionals like doctors or even politicians, just like this crazy animal here, Councilman McCutchen Smith. But, for a councilman to voluntarily get involve in murder, that’s a rare case for me.

“So, if you are Vito Roselli  son, how come you has the last name “Smith”?” I asked.

“I guess my parents will answer that better,” he said.

There was a brief silence, then he took out a pack of Newport, took one out and set fire to it with a match. He looked more like a guy from a Hollywood gangster movie when he did that.

“Find your stuff up there?” he asked.

“Yes – I found them,” I said. “Where’s the camera?”

“I just told you I will ask the questions!” he snarled. “Now listen and answer my questions. How did you get on to this place?”

“It wasn’t difficult to find,” I replied. “A girl wrote the your telephone number on her wall.”

“Brittany?”

“That’s right.”

He pulled a face.

“That slut.” He learned forward. “What did  Lieutenant Ludlum want with you this afternoon?”

I suddenly wasn’t scared of him any more. A councilman like him was the cause of all these problems! I was so mad at him. To hell with him, I told myself. I wasn’t going to sit there and answer his stupid questions.

“Why not ask him?” I said.

“Well, I’m asking you,” his smile went away. I could see a vicious look in his eyes. “Listen very carefully. That I am a councilman doesn’t mean I can’t get tough with you. You don’t want me to do that, do you?” He laid his hands on his knees so I could see them and slowly closed them into fists. “Right now I don’t want to hit you. But I will be glad to do that if you proved stubborn. All I want to do at this point is to talk to you. So, for your own good, don’t make me hit you. What did Lieutenant Ludlum say?”

I braced myself.

“Why not go ahead and ask him?”

I was half-way out of the chair by the time he reached me. It was stupid of me to have sat in such a low chair. I would have been more ready for his rush if I had sat on the arm of the chair as he had done. He came across the space between us so fast I hadn’t a chance. He threw a left-hand punch towards my stomach that I managed to knock aside. But what I didn’t know then was that he was only making an opening for his right-hand. I swear I didn’t see it coming. All I could say was that I only had a brief glimpse of his snarling face when something that felt like a sledge hammer slammed against the side of my jaw. The room exploded into a blinding flash of white light, and a black oblivion wiped out all my consciousness as I fell.

I regained consciousness and came to the surface in about five or six minutes. I found myself spread out in the lounging chair with a sore jaw and a head that felt like it was going to explode any minute. Councilman McCutchen was sitting close to me. He kept slamming his balled-up fist into the palm of his hand, which made me to think that he were itching to hang another bone crusher to my jaw.

With great difficulty, I struggled into an upright position and looked at him. I also had some difficulty getting him into focus because that punch had taken a lot of steam out of me. I had thought that all these years in politics would have softened him and I still found it hard to believe that he still had that kind of strength.

“Well, Harry,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, let’s start again. I’m gonna hit you again if you play games me. And my next hit will bust your jaw. I promise you that. Now tell me: what did Lieutenant Ludlum want?”

I tested my teeth with the tip of my tongue, just to make sure that none of them is loose. I felt so mad deep inside me. How happy I would be if I could get to close quarters with this thug and maim him! But I wasn’t that crazy. I know I was big and strong, but I also know when I am out of my class. I wouldn’t mix things with Muhammad Ali: not just because I would be scared to, but because I know I wouldn’t stand a chance. I told myself that if it came to a fight, this animal here was too strong and much, much too fast for me.

The only way to take down a guy like this was to surprise him. There was no other way. I will need to slow him down first with a club or some kind of weapon.

“He wanted the names of Brittany’s men friends,” I said thickly, since it hurt to speak.

Councilman McCutchen scratched the end of his nose.

“Why?”

“Because he’s looking for her killer.”

I hoped that would faze him, but I was wrong. Instead, he grinned and left off pounding his fist into his palm.

“Really? He thinks she was murdered?”

“He’s not thinking: he’s sure of it.”

He continued to grin, and then said, “Well, I never knew he would be that smart.”

He lit another Newport.

“Here Harry,” he said, throwing a stick of cigarette and a box of matches into my lap. “Have a cigarette yourself. You look as if you could use a smoke.”

Lighting up the cigarette, I dragged down a lungful of smoke.

“Now, let my ask you this: why is Lieutenant Ludlum sure that Brittany was murdered?” he said.

“I think you should know the answer to that question,” I replied. “You did a pretty dumb thing: you ripped the film out of the camera and stole her spares, see?”

“I don’t see it that way,” he said. “I think it was a smart move, Harry. Had he got onto you yet?”

I tried to control my surprise, but I wasn’t so successful.

“You lost me here,” I said. “What do you mean by that?”

Councilman McCutchen’s grin widened.

“Don’t give me that crap, okay?” he said. “Of course you know what I mean. I told you I have you by your balls. You are an open and shut case in this Brittany’s business. Why, I even took the trouble to alter her watch so the police would think you were up there when she took her dive through that window.”

This man is so evil!

“So you killed her?”

He shook his head.

“You know what I don’t understand, Councilman McCutchen?” I said. “Why did you do this to Reverend Waters? Why do this to his only daughter? He trusted and loved you so much. And he was so nice to you. You won the election to become Baltimore City Councilman because Reverend Waters gave you the black voters. Why, you were even a member of the Parish Council of St. Teresa’s  Episcopal Church. Yet, the way you paid him back was to fool around with his only daughter behind his back, and to murder her as well? Why did you do this to the Reverend? Why….”

“Oh, look at you!,” he said. “The pot calling the kettle ‘black.’ You were fooling around with her too.”

“I couldn’t help it,” I said. “She practically threw herself at me.”

“Poor you,” he sneered. “Now, enough of this…”

Cutting him off, I asked him one more time, “Did you kill her?”

He shook his head again.

“The record said you did,” he replied, leaning forward and pointing a thick finger at me. “You were up there when she fell through that window. You are the guy named Graham Reed. And you left a note for her to meet you at the train station. You forgot all about the note, didn’t you? Well, I found it where you left it on the table at the vacation house, and I’ve got it.”

END OF EPISODE XXIII

P.S. Episode Twenty-Four  will be published here next Monday.