Children in Need — Friday, March 1, 1991, 5:45 PM

Fri, 01 Mar 1991 17:45:00 +0000

Halsted (Pilsen) / Bridgeport / Loop / Prudential Building (41st Floor)

Chicago, Illinois

She was at the mouth of the alley between a laundromat and a bodega. Eight years old, maybe nine. The coat was a man’s, sleeves rolled twice past her hands. No hat. No gloves. Patent leather shoes with the buckle missing on the left one.

Darius was walking south on Halsted. Friday night, thirty-four degrees, wind out of the northeast. The clouds were lit orange from the sodium lamps. He saw her looking at him before he registered what she was.

Chuc Luc's Reckonings — Wednesday, February 27, 1991, 5:31 PM

Wed, 27 Feb 1991 17:31:00 +0000

Wentworth Avenue (Old Chinatown) / 22nd Place, above the fish market

Chicago, Illinois

The phone call came Wednesday at 9:47 PM. Not the ghoul. The man himself. Two sentences. An address on 22nd Place. A time. The line went dead before Darius could close on a yes.

Five days since Annabelle had called Kaspar & Sons at one in the morning to tell him Ballard was filing a motion that would not pass. Five days of watching the procedural side play out exactly as she’d predicted — motion tabled Monday, Critias and Annabelle voting it down, Ballard abstaining before the final tally so the vote would not stand on his name. A tell. Or a stage direction. Either reading worked.

Chapter 23 — Reckonings on Chicago Chronicles

Children in Need — Friday, March 1, 1991, 5:45 PM

Chuc Luc's Reckonings — Wednesday, February 27, 1991, 5:31 PM