Page 108 of One In Vermillion

“Patrick O’Toole,” Vince said, calm as ice, not bothering to lower his voice. “You are under arrest for election tampering, spousal abuse, resisting arrest, and threatening a citizen. I’ll think of some more things by the time I get you back to the station.”

O’Toole swung around to Bartlett. “Fire his ass,” he snarled.

Bartlett tossed his badge on the table and almost took out my onion rings. “I quit.”

O’Toole stared at Bartlett, which gave Vince the seconds he needed to cuff him.

Right there in front of all of Burney, my guy cuffed the corrupt mayor and saved Burney. Or at least got us close to the end of Phase Two of the plan. And guaranteed that he’d get laid tonight because that was seriously hot.

“Now all we need is a new mayor,” I told Vince.

“I’m not resigning,” O’Toole said, dumbfounded by the cuffs.

“Cash Porter,” Vince said, close to his ear. “You and he were money laundering for the Iron Wolves. You think he won’t roll on you? And I know a Wolf who doesn’t want to spend time in prison. I’m betting he’ll come across with some good stuff. And I’ve got Thomas Thacker’s laptop, so there’ll be something about you on there. Not to mention the old election commissioner’s confession that you bribed him. You can resign now and most of that won’t be public, or you can try to brazen it out, there’ll be a big legal fight, and it’ll be on the front pages of the Dispatch and Enquirer. Might even make the Times. Think about it.” Then he pushed O’Toole toward the door.

O’Toole went, I think mostly to get out of sight of the people scoping out his handcuffs.

Bartlett looked at me, miserable. “I’m sorry.”

“I know,” I said. “Sit down.”

He looked surprised but he sat.

“If you’re hungry, you can have the rest of Vince’s lunch. He’s not going to be back in time to finish it before it gets cold.”

Bartlett tentatively took a french fry.

“I think you should resign as police chief,” I said, “but I don’t think you should resign from the force. Vince thinks a lot of you.”

He jerked his head up on that one. “He does?”

“He thinks you have potential,” I said, trying not to lie. “He really liked what you did with the whiteboard.”

Bartlett nodded, buying that.

“So, I think you should stay on the force, let him mentor you. He has a lot to teach you.”

He nodded again, happier now.

“Maybe go to detective school,” I said, not wanting to oversell the idea and not sure if detective school even existed.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding again.

He was still finishing off Vince’s fries when I left.

I had Phase Three of The Plan to start on.

The senator was next.

CHAPTER 56

I got O’Toole processed quickly, trying not to enjoy it too much. He did a lot of screaming for a lawyer, but when we gave him his phone call, he called Cash. Yeah, that was a guy to depend on. Once O’Toole was in a cell, I went back to the Red Box. Liz was gone and so was my lunch, but Sun was there, grinning at me.

“You found something,” I said.

“Oh, boy, did I,” she said and handed me the computer. I flipped through the files she’d dragged to the desktop.

“If you decide you want to be a cop,” I told her, “the Burney Police Department will hire you.”

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