The Mayors Lover

THE MAYOR=S LOVER

(2043 words)

Hank saw the purple van in the far corner of his vision, then innocuously stooped to pick up an environmentally offensive candy bar wrapper, swiveling as he rose to survey the van=s occupants. As he rose, he grabbed the offending wrapper and found it stuffed with melted candy bar, or maybe worse. Afraid to draw anyone=s attention, he crammed the sticky mess in his jacket pocket and

turned toward the shoe store=s plate glass window. In

October=s early dusk, the window partly showed Brogan=s finest footwear while serving as a

mirror. Reflected in the glass, the

van=s occupants were two people. A middle aged man and youngish pretty girl with frizzy red hair who both seemed damned curious about him. He also saw himself, a tall, blonde young man, quite pale but trim and neat, wearing an almost fashionable tweed sports coat and coordinated slacks. The expensive black leather dispatch case tucked under his arm, seemed out of place.

Tourists don=t

normally carry brief cases but otherwise, nothing in his appearance was different from the thousand of other Fall Festival visitors to Danmont=s lake front park. Hank wondered why the purple Ford van appeared to have a one way glass window in the rear panel and what seemed to be a swiveling glass eye focused on him. Hank was familiar with oneway glass, having faced those windows of guilt several times in police line-ups. Was some accusing witness behind the one-way

glass, fingering him again, he wondered. available options.

He surveyed his

He had a loaded and ready Gluck automatic

complete with silencer in his briefcase, but a shoot-out might be premature. Patient awareness seemed most logical, so he would seem unaware of their presence until he knew what their purpose was. He could deny ownership of the briefcase and incriminating contents.

The initials certainly did not match his.

Hank was more surprised by the sudden appearance of a police car, unloading an older gentleman, too elegantly dressed to be a cop, and too old to be un-retired. He was accompanied by a young and husky black patrolman who strangely, left his gun in his holster.

Hank

tensed, but waited for the next event, before

acting. ACongratulations, young man! Your good citizenship has won you a bundle of goodies.

I=m Mayor Wallack, and we all watched

you win by picking up one of our nastiest challenges.@ Yes, he was Mayor Wallack and Hank had the proof in his brief case.

A glossy 8 x 10 not so flattering with a defiling

giant red X and a hand-written legend saying, AThis is the guy@. AHello Mayor, I guess we were just destined to meet sometime.@ Hank said, and laughed at the fickleness of fate introducing, by chance, the quarry to his hunter, albeit one day early. AWhat=s your name, son? You=re a very lucky young man, you know. My limousine will be here, shortly and we=ll be off for a

fantastic surprise, in your honor.@ AWhy?@ Hank asked, aware he was making a hired killer=s worst mistake if he identified with or interested in his victim. AWhy? You have won my >Good Citizen= award. Part of the >Love Danmont Festival= and my continuing effort to promote trash reduction and clean streets. Wait until you see how we treat good citizens! AJust how did I do you pick me, Your Honor?@ AWe put out an entrapping piece of trash that=s now messing your jacket pocket, early this morning. Too disgusting for most, I guess and we=ve watched hundreds of pedestrians, step over it, and you are the first good citizen to pick it up.

Proves you

love our city as much I do. We are both due to be rewarded.@ Hank thought of the twenty-thousand dollar bank draft in his brief case, and the Mayor=s >reward= it was to buy. He had all day. Apparently, he would play >Candid Camera= with the mayor and his bodyguards, until opportunity came to earn the other half of his hundred thousand dollar fee. His anonymous employer had said he was being grossly overpaid, and high price was no guarantee of quality, but being a novice in the business Hank wanted to start with high standards.

He could always cut his price after he was

established and had more than one client. A stretched black Lincoln limousine appeared and now the mayor=s crowd, was more than dozen. Hank allowed the mayor to pull him into his limo, and was followed by the beautiful redhead

who had been in the van, and the husky uniformed patrolman, who seemed to be the Mayor=s main bodyguard. The others climbed in the following purple van. He sat, where directed, clutching his briefcase to his chest, squeezed between the cop and the red head while the mayor sat facing him in the uncomfortably smaller jump seat. Hank felt like visiting royalty. ACity hall, Vince,@ said the Mayor. and off they went, but not directly to the city hall. The mayor and Nancy, the lovely and gloriously freckled redhead shared the speech in glorifying Danmont=s average downtown and harbor area, with emphasis on the grand improvements during Wallack=s twelve years in power, but they seemed to be edging toward the suburbs instead of toward the Metro Center where Hank had been instructed to find ATwelve years, in office. have you won, Your Honor.

the mayor=s office.

How many election victories is

Were any of them close?@

ASix! The one coming up, will be closest, maybe disastrous unless I come up with another winning gimmick.@ The mayor laughed weakly, unaware he was entertaining his newest nemesis. Nancy said in an assuring tone, AYour approval rating went up three percentage points on KATE=s city wide poll, this morning, Eldon.

At least it=s going in the right direction@

AI can=t celebrate approval ratings less than forty per cent, can I?@ the mayor said, yet displaying no dismay or lack of exuberance.

Hank wondered why would the mayor=s mysteriouss enemies would resort to employing him as a hit man, if the mayor was losing. The investment sure seemed expensive, risky and unnecessary.

Curious, he asked, AYou mean less than half the

voters want you re-elected?

How could this happen?. You sure are

interested in cleaning up the town=s sidewalks, anyway.@ AI got some bad press from a smear campaign during my initial funding drive. I was clean as new snow, but the media was fooled by my opponent. We just have to work harder, the next three weeks before election. You know, I think maybe you can help, in fact, I am sure you can.= Simultaneous with the mayor=s words, Nancy seemed to be edging closer and he could feel her warmth and sense some vibrancy or trembling where their legs touched. On the other side, the patrolman stared straight ahead, and had not uttered one word. Nancy=s hand even boldly strayed to his wrist. Was she flirtatiously inviting some response. The response came from the aloof policeman who

moved

suddenly grabbing his other wrist, jarring his precious dispatch case loose, and it fell first to his lap, then the floor. He felt a sharp prick in the thigh, warming from the nearness of Nancy, and he felt himself falling into a spinning, black funnel. When Hank resumed possession of his body, he was handcuffed and had chains on his legs, and the bondage linked him to a massive wooden chair. Like an electric chair, he thought but he

had not yet killed anyone. He heard the mayor, say softly behind him.

AMake a deal, but get a signed confession.

Lots of

pictures! We have to tie him to my opponent. Anyway, we got the money that he took in a kill contract, which alone should justify throwing away the cell key for any convict fresh out of jail.@ Hank feigned continuing unconsciousness while he pondered whether he was meant to hear Eldon Wallack=s words, and how they knew what brought him to Danmont, and where he came from. Maybe it was the prison tailored clothes. He had arrived only two hours ago, and had spoken to no one, except for his contact, the gay sounding guy who passed him the briefcase, under the separating wall of the adjoining toilet stall.

He had gone to the Greyhound

terminal restroom, exactly at eight-thirty as invited and waited. His employer=s agent and Hank spoke together without haggling, and had

not talked long.

Hank never saw his contact and had

only to confirm his identity and asking price. Hank was sure the assassination arranger he spoke to in the adjoining toilet booth was the same one that had called him person to person, at the half-way house and offered him the contract. That meant only one man beside himself should have known the contents of his now missing brief case. Nancy answered, AIf he=s got a brain bigger than a monkey=s, he=ll confess, and we ourselves can name who hired him.@ She came from behind to face Hank, her face twisted by a gloating leer that distorting her once beautiful face.@

No longer feigning unconsciousness, Hank said, AI never would have figured you for a cop, lady. You=re much too pretty.@ AWell, I am cop when I=m not advising and protecting the mayor. Think of me as the good cop.

The bad cop will be here

shortly. You better decide to play along before I=m joined by my sadistic associate who does bad cop, very well.@ Nancy handed him a clipboard with an already typed confession showing. Hank read it. It was all accurate except it credited Hank with knowing the group who hired him. AWhy would I want to sign this?@ Nancy got close to his face, released his handcuffs, and dropped the clipboard in his lap, then said, AThat=s what you copy in your handwriting and then sign, unless you want to endure unlimited misery before dying in an escape attempt. Willy likes to kill people, and you may qualify. Whoops, here=s our mean Willy now!@ The door opened, Willy must have been cued, and Hank was surprised by how small and insignificant the entering sadistic interrogator appeared. The little man spoke, AMy turn, Nancy.

He

had his chance, now I get to crush his testicles, and gouge out his eyeballs.@ Hank recognized the smallish sneak=s muscular voice, almost lisping. It was the man from the toilet. The man who paid him, and passed him the gun.

Hank now realized he was the election

Mayor Wallack needed for election, a sacrificial lamb, a dumb

fall guy, only out of prison three days. Had he not been an honest, good citizen from Centerville Prison, he could have absconded with the twenty thousand, down payment, but he had been taught that a honorable man=s promise to do a thing was an irrevocable bond. Apparently, he would die after confessing, but as an honorable man who kept his word and his silence. The first session of torture went surprisingly well, as Hank passed out quickly. When again alert, he ached all over although he bore no telltale bruises or scars. He was apparently alone in the interrogation room. Hank was not immune to pain. No sense enduring more, and he knew his short life was over, so he reluctantly picked up the clipboard, extracted the waiting ball point and turned over the scripted confession page to begin filling in the blank spaces between the lines with his admission of guilt. There

was a scribbled note already there. It read:

You were set-up, a fall guy, by our mayor, who is crooked and twisted as a

pig=s

pecker.

I will help you fulfill your

contract and get even. You are in the basement of his special rendezvous, house. He and his lover are in an upstairs bedroom, already celebrating with champagne and passion.

I will let you

escape, get the certified check back, give your Gluck back and provide you the keys to an escape vehicle.

I may even treat you

to some real passion after you really finish off the mayor and his lover. When you hear three quick raps on the door, signify

your willingness to do the contract by stamping both feet twice. Otherwise, endure what Mayor Walleck

planned for you.

He heard three knocks and quickly stamped his agreement. If he were truly released, he would scram so fast he would escape his shadow, never stopping to check the check. Hank would never resume his silly prison-chosen profession. He just did not have the stuff to be a killer, but he did wonder which one of the Eldon Wallack=s campaign trio was the mayor=s lover, and which one was pushing him to finish the job.