City of Dark Corners by Jon Talton (novels to read .txt) 📗

figured you’d get that far, lad. But you did, and so you might say this rendezvous between the two of us was inevitable.”

Muldoon pointed at a vast shimmering body of water off to the west. “That’s the Salton Sea. Sits below sea level. Happened by accident, you know, when a canal broke and the Colorado River poured water in here for two years. It was never meant to happen. But there it is. Surprising but inevitable.”

“Here’s the piece I don’t understand, Turk. The gold pocket watch. How did that end up at an Okie camp east of town?”

“Baby Girl gave it to me as a gift in better times. Later… Well, I knew it was too risky to keep it, so I gave it to a drifter. He looked like he could use some luck, move out of town, and nobody would ever find the watch.”

“But I did find it. You taught me well, Liam.”

He tossed the nail over the observation car’s three-foot-high brass railing and it flew out into the night like a red comet. “I miss those good times, lad, the ones with you and me. Catching the strangler. I’d admit to feeling a bit jealous of what a smart and capable detective you’d turned out to be, and so quickly.”

“But why would you kill your child?”

“She wasn’t pregnant. That was a ruse to manipulate me.”

“She was pregnant. Don had a postmortem carried out.” I took a risk and continued. “She made her lovers use rubbers, but you refused. Only you could have been the father.”

He stared at me. “Oh, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph…”

Then he came fast, very fast for a big man, and ripped me up from the chair. Next, I was hanging backward over the railing with his hands around my throat.

“Go easy, lad, and at this speed it will be over in no time at all. Only a little pain, then sweet oblivion.”

But I wasn’t going easy. I brought my knee up and connected with his groin. He let go. I gasped sweet breath and rose to my feet as he threw a haymaker in my direction. But he was off-balance, hurting in his balls, and I easily evaded the punch. I delivered a series of my own sharp jabs to his eyes and gut and kneed him in the groin again for good measure. He was bent nearly to the floor, groaning.

“Stay down. I’m taking you back to Phoenix under arrest.”

He moaned, “That will never happen, lad.”

In an instant he threw himself past me and was over the brass railing. I don’t know if my punches had blinded him or if this was deliberate, suicide. Then he had second thoughts and grasped the railing desperately.

I braced myself and brought my arm toward him. “Reach up, Liam, and take my hand!”

The ties and ballast flew beneath him. His eyes were full of terror.

“No, lad. But thank you for trying.”

He let go.

I watched his body tumble hard onto the railbed, roll and roll, arms and legs akimbo, until it was devoured by darkness.

Author’s Note

Barry Goldwater became a Phoenix City Councilman in 1949 at the urging of Harry Rosenzweig, running as a reform candidate. In 1952, he was the surprise winner of a seat in the U.S. Senate. Goldwater’s Department Stores was sold in 1963. Barry Goldwater is widely credited with being a pivotal figure in the rise of modern American conservatism. He was the Republican nominee for president in 1964, losing to Lyndon Johnson. Although never officially connected to organized crime, Goldwater enjoyed the company of a fast crowd. When he died in 1998, Barry Goldwater was the most beloved figure in Arizona. He maintained a long friendship with Gus Greenbaum, who attended his funeral.

Gus Greenbaum enjoyed a long career in organized crime, becoming legendary as a turnaround artist for Las Vegas casinos. He was dependable and professional, “master of the skim”—where the mob stole money from casino winnings before it could be recorded and taxed. Greenbaum didn’t want to leave Phoenix and repeatedly asked to retire so he and his wife could enjoy their home there. But the Outfit kept calling him back to fix problems at casinos. He was torn between a desire to live full-time in Phoenix and his love of the Las Vegas excitement—and being a big man in the town. Greenbaum became an alcoholic and a heroin addict. The Outfit began to question his reliability. This proved true when they found the master of the skim was skimming himself, and too much to be tolerated. In 1958, he and his wife were assassinated in their Encanto-Palmcroft home in Phoenix. The crime was never solved.

Sharlot Hall came to Arizona Territory as a child in 1882. In 1906, she was active in efforts to prevent Congress from making Arizona and New Mexico one state. Her epic poem, “Arizona,” was placed on the desk of every congressman. She served as territorial historian from 1909 to 1912, when Arizona became a state. When Calvin Coolidge won the presidency in 1924, Hall was deputized as the elector to present Arizona’s three Electoral College votes in Washington, D.C. In 1927, she moved her extensive collection of documents and artifacts to the old territorial Governor’s Mansion in Prescott and opened it as a museum. The Sharlot Hall Museum continues to operate in downtown Prescott.

Winnie Ruth Judd’s death sentence was commuted, and she was sent to the state insane asylum (Arizona State Hospital). She escaped six times between 1933 and 1963. After her final escape, she became the live-in maid for a wealthy San Francisco Bay Area family using a false name. Once unmasked, she was returned to Arizona. After a legal fight including famed defense attorney Melvin Belli, Judd was paroled by Governor Jack Williams. A radio announcer who had gained fame broadcasting coverage of the original Judd trial, Williams went on to become mayor of Phoenix and three-term governor of Arizona. Journalist Jana Bommersbach wrote a book about the Judd case, arguing convincingly that Ruth was