Oh Danny Boy (Molly Murphy Mysteries, #5)

She returned with a gracious smile on her lips. “The commissioner would be delighted to see you, Miss—?”


“Delaney,” I said, uttering the first name that came into my head.

“Miss Delaney to see you, sir,” the secretary said, and I was ushered into a most impressive office, complete with a polished mahogany desk big enough to skate on, and walls decorated with citations and photographs of the commissioner shaking hands with President Teddy Roosevelt and President McKinley before him.

“Miss Delaney?” The man behind the desk stubbed out a cigar, then rose and extended a bony hand. He was a big man with heavy jowls and an impressive brush of a moustache. His eyes were hooded, like those of an owl. He was obviously a stickler for convention, as he was dressed in a well-cut suit with a high, starched-collared shirt beneath it, even though most men would be in shirtsleeves or at the very most in a linen blazer in this kind of summer heat. I shook his hand and accepted the chair he offered.

“And what exactly brings you to my office?” he asked pleasantly. “You come from Mrs. Astor, as I understand.”

This was going a little too far into the realms of fantasy, even for me. “Not directly from Mrs. Astor,” I said. “But our organization, the Ladies Decency League, has dispatched me to congratulate you on the fine job you are doing in restoring decency to our city.”

He smiled, a cold, thin-lipped sort of smile that didn’t reach his eyes. All in all a very cold fish, I decided, and one whose face didn’t betray at all what he was thinking.

“I am doing my best, Miss Delaney,” he said. “I am faced with a formidable challenge, as you know only too well. Vice is rampant in our streets. Prostitution, gambling, drunkenness, corruption at all levels—these are blights that threaten to destroy our fine and noble city.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more, Commissioner,” I said. “As for corruption—we know that it is rampant in your very own department, and we are delighted that you are taking such firm measures against it. Are we right in thinking that you had one of your senior officers arrested for receiving a bribe only this week?”

His face registered a flicker of surprise before those eyes became hooded again. “My, my. News does travel fast in this city, doesn’t it? How did your organization hear about this?”

“We keep our ears to the ground, Commissioner. One of the reasons I was sent to you today was to congratulate you on this firm and bold action. It sends a message throughout the ranks of the police, as I am sure you mean it to.”

“It does indeed.” Now he looked pleased with himself. “Corruption must be weeded out from the top down, Miss Delaney. Young officers look up to their captains. We must let them know the high cost of straying from the straight and narrow path.”

“Of course we haven’t been privy to any details,” I said, leaning confidentially forward. “Do we understand that this officer, this captain, was actually in cahoots with the gangs?”

“Of course the case has not come to trial yet, so I’m afraid I’m really not at liberty to discuss it.”

“Of course not,” I agreed. “But how did you catch him out? Have you already managed to set up a network of spies within the force?”

“Not really,” he said. “It was pure luck, actually. I have been conducting walking tours of the most unsavory parts of the city because I believe that displaying my presence sends a powerful sign to the criminals there, also because I wanted to see for myself just what I was up against. I came around a corner, and there was one of my officers actually being passed a bribe by a known gang member. I had him arrested at once, of course. The envelope was opened and dollar bills cascaded to the sidewalk. The gang member took to his heels and left my officer to face the music—which he is now doing.”

“Amazing,” I said. “So this was all complete happen-stance? You just chanced to be in that part of the city at that very moment?”

“Pure coincidence, Miss Delaney.” There was something in the way he was looking at me. I couldn’t quite read it—was it triumph? Was he gloating? He set the trap to catch Daniel himself, I thought. I tried to make my brain work. What else could I possibly ask him?

“And he was being passed a bribe in broad daylight,” I asked, “or was it under cover of darkness?”

“In broad daylight, can you believe?” The commissioner smiled again at Daniel’s supposed stupidity.

“In some back alley, I’ve no doubt.”

“Not at all actually. It wasn’t a street where ladies like you would feel safe walking alone, but a broad-enough thoroughfare for the event to be witnessed. Water Street, down by the docks, as a matter of fact.”