Chapter Twenty-Nine
Thief
“Where the hell have you been?” the mayor yelled at me as soon as I stepped into the room. His face was beet-red, his shirt collar was open and his necktie was hanging over the side of his desk like he’d thrown it there. An avalanche of business papers was spilling onto the floor from a briefcase that had been hurled onto a sofa.
I glanced around, noting that Mrs. Harding was nowhere in sight. That was significant.
“I’ve been doing what you asked me to do, find new crimes for you to bust open for the public,” I said in a mild tone, matching his frenzied gaze with a cool expression. “At least I was, until I realized that I was being followed by someone on the city payroll.”
“That’s beside the point!” he shouted, picking up a copy of the local newspaper and wa
