Thursday, October 14, 2010

The Crowded Streets, Part 2

Thursday, October 14, 2010

In the last episode of The Crowded Streets, a young woman named Wanda Marcellus, a staff member of congressional candidate George Wilson, had come to Rocky's office to hire him to find some information on the incumbent, Howard Dixon, who Wanda has accused of pocketing government money:

Congressman Howard Dixon, the man Los Diablos has sent to Washington every year for the last twenty, has done more for the city—and himself—than any man who ever sat in that seat before. The freeways they're threatening us with are all due to Dixon, as are a handful of lucrative government contracts for local manufacturers. The boardwalk, along with all of its gaming parlors and tourist traps and seedy joints, are all part of his handiwork, too, and more than one newsman has attempted to get under his nose to see how much money he's pocketed from all of this good work. The smoke has been there all along, but up until now no one never managed to find the fire. Then the Star-Telegram broke the story: Congressman Dixon's brother-in-law happened to start up a company that manufactures toilets, and after only two months he had a contract to supply two branches of the Armed Forces with all the commodes they could handle. The other papers picked up the story and ran with it, and it was just a matter of time before a candidate came along to swipe Dixon's seat out from under him.

George Wilson was that candidate's name. He had been a shoo-in since he had made a name for himself on the city council as one of those politicians they draw up on a drafter's board when they're looking for a new candidate: family man with no whiff of scandal about him, firm handshake, strong jaw, dazzling smile, speaks with the deep, authoritative voice of a radio announcer, the works. Women loved and respected him, men wanted to be him. Wilson was Washington-bound sooner rather than later and it only depended on when he was ready to go.

Wanda Marcellus, one of his staff members, sat across the desk from me and told me more. She had taken it upon herself to inquire into the improprieties of the Honorable Dixon herself, and what she found was something the papers didn't know about, or perhaps had overlooked: the man himself, through a number of shell companies, owned two businesses that had received a boatload of government cash. She consulted a small leather-bound notebook she must have bought after seeing a detective in the movies carry one.

“The first company is named Assura Manufacturing. They received a million dollars to craft and install telephone poles in the city, mainly in Dixon's own constituency." She looked at me over her notebook. "By any chance have you driven down Mission City Drive lately?”

“Can't say as I have.”

Her eyes narrowed, but not because of my answer. “The street is so thick with telephone poles that you can barely see the sidewalk. If it's not the poles, it's the telephone booths.”

I grinned at her. “I take it that would be Dixon's other transgression.”

“Yes, a company called Altair Systems, Incorporated.” she replied, but now her narrowed eyes were directed toward me. “Does this amuse you, Mr. Stone? This man is wasting millions in government money. Your taxes and mine.”

I thought about telling her I didn't make enough money to pay taxes, but she was hot enough already and I needed the work. “What hard proof do you have?”

Wanda gently closed her notebook and placed it back in her handbag. “None, really,” she said meekly. “Just some testimonies. People who know other people...”

“Strictly circumstantial, in other words.”

“Yes, I suppose,” she said, her cute face lowering an inch.

“Then we should get right to work,” I replied. “Open that notebook of yours again and we'll try to find out where all this leads.”


Where will this trail lead? Continue to follow Rocky's exploits in the next episode of The Adventures of Rocky Stone!

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