The Dark City
Max Allan Collins
Language: English
Pages: 248
ISBN: 1612320287
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
THE UNTOUCHABLES WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING In 1929, Eliot Ness put away Alfonse "Scarface" Capone and became the biggest living legend this side of law and order. Now it's 1935. With the Untouchables and Prohibition behind him and the Great Depression falling darkly across the nation, Ness arrives in Cleveland to straighten out a crooked city. An anonymous ring of bent cops is dealing in vice, graft, gambling and labor racketeering, overlorded by a mysterious top cop known as "the outside chief " But between corrupt politicians, jealous colleagues, a parasitic reporter and two blondes with nothing in common. Ness has big troubles pulling the sheets off the bed of blue vipers. Until the outside chief makes a move, and Ness moves just a bit quicker. THE DARK CITY MAX ALLAN COLLINS, a Shamus-winning master of mystery and suspense, has here skillfully woven fact and fiction to create a unique mystery series based on the life and exploits of one of America's most memorable heroes, Eliot Ness. The Dark City is the first in this rich, exciting new series.
company of a government agent, Special Agent Sidney White, who was here to repay Gus the money the Depression had cost him. Uncle Sam cared about Gus Kulovic. So said Special Agent Sidney White. At first Gus had been frightened. The knock at his door two nights before had been loud enough to wake the dead, even to wake Gus Kulovic, despite his bad hearing— which was getting worse and worse—a disability that dated back to the Great War. Yes, Gus had served his adopted country in the trenches
the 'outside chief.' The chief of the 'department within the department.' " Ness' eyes tightened. "The department within the department, huh?" Wild smiled patiently, as if teaching a child. "The crooked cops know each other. They protect each other. They're a department within, and yet outside of, the department. And their 'chief—whoever he is—directs things, makes assignments, passes the graft around even-handedly and keeps everything and everybody in line. So rumor has it." "I see." "Are
disappearing into the crowd of neighbors. The Salvation Army contingent showed up in a beat-up truck and an old flivver. From the truck the uniformed men and women began dispensing doughnuts and coffee to the elderly victims, and using the flivver to shuttle them to a nearby hospital. It disturbed Ness to see that the Salvation Army was better organized and more efficient than either of the public departments under his command. Chief Grainger showed up when the fire was well under control, a
as a "fringe benefit." The mayor had insisted they move to Cleveland, and some rich friend of his had provided this apartment, already furnished. She and Eliot paid only the utilities and phone. It was a dream come true. Why, then, did it feel like a nightmare? Why was she giving into these crying jags? It was more than just homesickness, though even now she had a pang at the thought of having missed Christmas with her family. Partly, it was the crushing boredom. There was so little
was kidding, just making idle chatter; but "Cap" repeated his desire for a "little car" several times, and finally Brody had told him, "I'll talk to the boys, and see what I can do." Brody and several of his partners in the wholesale bootleg business put together twenty-five hundred dollars for a new Hudson, which they delivered to Cooper, calling it, "A little present from the boys." A year later, Cooper nudged the boys into another little present—a new Auburn. The ashtrays in the Hudson were