The Noir Evil Read online

  An irritated Sweeney then spoke with a natural flair and aura of authority that was becoming of any well-seasoned and veteran politician “Ness are you listening to me?” Ness was physically present but not mentally as he took a moment to indulge himself on his own greatness one last time. Sweeney’s irritated voice could just be heard yet again through the jumble of elated thoughts that’s besieged his wandering mind “Ness! Ness!? Are you listening to me?” Ness immediately snapped out of his own self-grandiose mind and immediately replied with a slurry speech “S… Sorry sir, it’s been… it’s been a very long morning, I do apologise, please… please do continue!” Ness then attempted with all of his might to re-establish a focused eye contact with Sweeney without giving away that he was high. This was no easy task because his pupils where dilated and unfocused upon the gargantuan man and he had noticeably slurred speech, hence him not talking much and mainly wanting to just listen which allowed Sweeney to take the lead in the verbal interaction.

  An agitated Sweeney then continued as he raised a suspicious eyebrow at the famed lawman “As I was saying, my office is extremely happy with your continued pressure on the Mayfield Road Mob’s’ new boss, Alfred ‘the owl’ Polizzi and his numerous financial dealings. I must say that I personally loved what you and county prosecutor Cullitan did by closing his infamous Harvard Club so publicly, very impressive how you brought in the press there to witness its closure. That illegal gambling den was a huge revenue source for his Mayfield Road Mob and it’ll hit him hard. My office is also happy that his ex-boss, Antony ‘old man’ Milano ran off to Mexico to avoid prosecution. Strange thing that? Just before you became safety director, funny business that isn’t it? It’s as though he ran as soon as he heard you were coming into town hehe! Did you by any chance have anything to do with county prosecutor Cullitan’s indictment against Milano for tax evasion charges?”

  Ness knowingly smiled and tapped his finger on his nose from across the desk at the curious Sweeney, more concerned with why the congressman wanted to know such intricate details about an ongoing investigation. He had secretly been working with the county prosecutor on a number of different cases that were aimed at the underworlds financial dealings but was not about to tell the scheming congressman that, even if he was high on his beloved opioid drug. An uncomfortable Sweeney swiftly continued, realising that Ness would not comment on the sensitive matter “Yes, well! I’m not one to pry of course hehe! Just curious, where was I? Ah! Yes! Where happy with your anti-corruption progress as well, weeding out those two hundred crooked cops…” he paused for a moment and appeared to look lost before he then took a notepad out from his inner jacket pocket.

  Ness immediately smelt the powerful and expensive musky aftershave invade his senses before Sweeney then continued whilst looking at his notepad with some newly placed reading spectacles on and squinting his eyes “Two hundred crooked cops sacked or given early retirement, fifteen crooked officials sacked: an inspector, two captains, two lieutenants, two agents and not to mention the modernisation of the traffic department and your special courts implementation for harsher punishments! Well! Ness, I must say that this is all rather impressive, along with your rooting out the labour racketeers within the unions. On a personal note, the sacking of those two drunk policemen whilst you being on the job for just five days! A stroke of pure public relations genius! Hehe! You’d make a good politician hehe!”

  The amused Sweeney then took off his spectacles and warmly smiled at the smirking Ness whilst he placed his notepad back within his upper jacket pocket, once again invading Ness’s personal space with his sickly rich odour. Ness then reciprocated his warm comment about his extreme efficiency, deducing that cunning Sweeney knew that flattery would get him everywhere with him “Why thank you sir, your too kind but I’m just simply doing my job. It’s not all a ‘bed of roses’ so to speak because when I first came here the Plain Dealer stated that I was ‘thirty two years old and single’ and Edna didn’t like that, not one bit Hehe!”

  They both laughed in unison before the more un-focused Ness continued, strangely warming to the untrustworthy politician “I realise you and the mayor have serious issues in this city along with the mafia but the high traffic mortality rate is now, thanks you my policies!, drastically lowering and by the end of this year I’m sure that we’ll have the safest roads in…” A bored looking then Sweeney interrupted him in an irritable tone, wanting to speed up the conversation and forego the niceties of self-admiration “Yes! Yes! Yes! Let’s lay off the polite chit-chat niceties shall we and get down to some serious business. The main reason that I’ve come here today is to discuss these unsolved homicides of yours. I need them solved ASAP because my office is being inundated with newspaper requests specifically inquiring about its progress. I’m sure you’ve seen all these awfully bad headlines recently and I know you understand the how relentless the newspapers can be so, how is it coming along? Any suspects yet?”

  Ness quickly replied feeling unnerved at the sudden change in tone of what he thought was an otherwise pleasant conversation “I have my top detectives on it and as we speak there interviewing a potentially good suspect right now. I feel that these unsolved homicides will all be resolved soon enough so please don’t concern yourself with it sir” A relived looking Sweeney then spoke whilst he surprisingly started to stand up, heaving his massive frame off the creaking chair which had almost buckled under his weight “That’s good to hear Ness, very good news indeed because this has all become politically sensitive as you can see and when it becomes political it takes on a greater importance rather than ‘traffic fatalities’. The press adore such dramatic stories of gruesome nature such as these unsolved homicides and I’m sure I don’t have to explain all this to you. You already have vast experience in such matters of good public relations maintenance from your Chicago days don’t you, with Scarface and his goons. I’ll be blunt about this and forgo torturing you with my well-mannered tongue. It’ll be your head on the chopping block as safety director if this case is not solved, not mine! Now I have to go but do keep me informed about this case and oh! Er? And keep up the good work, Safety Director!”

  Sweeney now looked incredibly preoccupied as he finished his last sentence as he heard the alarmingly familiar sound of a collection of reporters gathering just outside the department’s main entrance. The predatory group where all awaiting his imminent appearance as they had heard, through an unnamed source, that he was paying the new safety director a meeting regarding the unsolved homicides. Ness then immediately also stood up, went over to the door and opened it for the large preoccupied congressman whom was already quickly leaving in a vain attempt to possibly avoid the throng of gathered reporters outside. Sweeney then paused just as he was about to leave the office and spoke again in a deeper tone, with a heavy voice that eradiated an ominous authority “Don’t trifle with me Ness! Solve this case before it solves you!”

  The shaken Ness then tentatively escorted the warmly smiling Sweeney back to the stairs as the eager congressman desperately wanted to take his leave of the opium saturated ex-prohibition agent and evade the gathering reporters outside. A smiling Trunk then miraculously appeared and handed the preoccupied Ness his latest origami creation, silently standing there in waited expectation for the Ness’s guess at what it might be. The surprised Ness struggled to focus on the unusual complex creation of paper folds and creases that chaotically saturated his already blurry vision. He felt pressurised to guess correctly whilst the curious Sweeney looked on as he eagerly lit up his new cigar and took a few puffs on his decadently rich tobacco. After a pressurised second or two he gave his answer to the eagerly awaiting Trunk “Is it a Sheep?” An unimpressed Trunk immediately replied “No! A Wolf!” before he rolled his eyes and then quickly turned around to talk with the curiously on looking Sweeney.

  As Ness looked at the creation further he then hastily spoke whilst still slurring his ill-chosen words “Sheep! Wolf! There one in the same aren’t t
hey congressman? You should know right? ‘Wolf in the fold’ and all that, Hehe!” The pleasantly surprised Sweeney gave a sinister look of death with his cold blue eyes at the insolently arrogant Ness, not amused at his public insinuation and slowly walked over to him and whispered in his ear with his intimidatingly deep voice “Careful Ness, I eat people like you for breakfast! You wouldn’t want me to tell all your beloved loyal officers here about your little drug habit would you? Or your affair with that tasty little blonde secretary of yours?”

  The worried Ness then looked through the corner of his eye at the concerned looked Poppy as she pretended not to notice the quiet confrontation that was alarmingly taking place before her very eyes. The smiling Sweeney continued to sinisterly whisper whilst enjoying looking at Poppy within his wanting eyes “Perhaps I should ask County Prosecutor Cullitan to investigate you? Yes! I take a keen interest in the affairs of my enemies and an even keener interest in the affairs of my work colleagues” The smiling congressman then blew his rich cigar smoke into the coughing face of Ness before he then strongly patted him on the back and smiled whilst putting the cigar back into his mouth. He then uncomfortably pulled the confused looking safety director closer towards himself and sniggered as the silent on looking office watched this unusual scene.

  After a moment of parading the confused looking Ness joyously in front of his on looking officers, he then turned to descend the staircase with his well-trained lackey, Trunk. The struggling Ness stood there for a moment of quiet contemplation before he then slowly stumbled his way back towards the sanctuary of his office and disposed of the paper origami wolf into the nearby trash can. He stood there for another moment of contemplation but could not think straight as he attempted to gather his chaotic thoughts and analysed the confrontation that had just occurred. He actively tried to avoid the disappointing gaze of a sad looking Poppy as he considered the potential future conflicts that may develop with the congressman due to his ill-mannered origami remark.

  The high Ness then swiftly went directly back into his office and slammed the door shut behind him, thankful to have made it back into the safety and privacy of his beloved office whilst still being able to stand. He then smiled to himself and giggled at getting his origami guess wrong whilst reminding himself to investigate Trunk later on to identify his obviously close relationship with the congressman. He then heard a commotion outside his window and picked up his lukewarm coffee from his desk and carefully opened the half-closed blinds with his two shaking fingers. He peered out to see a throng of squabbling reporters surrounding the smoking Sweeney as he hastily left the building with the ever loyal Trunk by his side. The press attacked him on all sides with their many questions as camera’s flashed around him whilst the determined Trunk pushed them all aside so that they could both desperately make their escape.

  The sniggering Ness watched on in delight as the struggling congressman and Trunk both hastily got into his impressively shiny, red, black and gold 1935 SJ LaGrande Dual-Cowl Phaeton. Ness scoffed at the extravagance of the massive machine that filled the parking lot with its flashy expression of unhindered wealth, knowing that only a man of Sweeney’s nature would have thought it to be visually beautiful on the eye. Ness noticed that Sweeney and his Phaeton where surprisingly colour coded in that they both adorned the black, red and gold of imperialist Rome with pride. He then thought that all that he lacked was the golden laurel wreath around his head and his face painted in a large red spot, like the victorious Caesar had done all those eons ago when he impersonated the king of the Gods, Jupiter in a victory parade.

  Ness took immense pleasure from the congressman’s uncomfortably hasty exit and satisfactorily sipped his coffee whilst observing the relentless vulture-like reporters squabbled amongst themselves to obtain there pound of flesh. Then Trunk put the impressive Phaeton into gear and left with the utmost haste, determined to leave the throng of reporters that now surrounded the congressman’s mobile gilded cage quickly in his wake. Ness then speculated that the congressmen would probably now go back to his famed penthouse apartment at the top of the impressive Terminal Tower to survey the city as a god would survey there kingdom. The annoyed Ness then delighted as his attentions where drawn elsewhere as he saw Merlyo and Zalewski’s battered Ford leisurely drive past the fast moving Phaeton and pull up to park in the below parking lot.

  Both detectives then leisurely got out and started to walk slowly towards the building as they spoke amongst themselves whilst briefly looking back at the impressively expensive automobile of the congressman. His mood suddenly changed whilst looking at Merlyo because he knew that Poppy was seen in his Ford at the Flo Polillo homicide scene because the clumsy coroner had accidentally told him whilst giving him Flo’s file. Ness’s anger towards the detective was building up because he thought about the possibility that he might want to rekindle his lost relationship with Poppy, the woman that he now considered to be his and his alone. The jealously infused chaotic mind of Ness then got even more agitated as he realised that they had arrived without there promising suspect they had left to interview, Frank Dolezal.

  In his drug fuelled and irrational mind he speculated why, for some inexplicable reason, they had not arrested the man whom had been linked to two of the four victims and this troubling new development would further embarrass him in front of both the media and the accursed congressman. Every smile and relaxed look that both casually expressed whilst they leisurely strolled into the department further infuriated the peering Ness and he soon heard the two detectives talking voices as they slowly came up the stairs. Ness covertly watched the two men as they then slowly migrated casually towards their desks, laughing as they did so which in turn heightened the palpable anger that was welling up inside him. He could only hold off his anger for so long and knew he had to have answers to his many questions before the opium would send him unwillingly drifting back into the awaiting arms of Morpheus. He then promptly opened his door and angrily shouted at the two frightened detectives, whom both jumped in frightful disarray “Merlyo! Zalewski! In my office NOW!”

  Both startled detectives stood there in a motionless silence as Zalewski comically stopped munching on a fresh doughnut that he had just placed into his salivating mouth, scared to take another bite of the delicious dessert through fear of offending the already annoyed Ness. They starred at each other in worry as they then both quickly and made their way through the silently on looking office and into the dangerous dragons den. Zalewski quietly throw his partly eaten doughnut in the trash can just before entering the humid office which fan was still making an odd sound and not circulating the stagnant air at all well. An angry Ness slammed the door shut behind them both and then spoke forcefully, now that his quarry was within his sights “Why the hell are you here without the arrested Frank Dolezal?!”

  The standing two detectives worryingly looked at each other in silent unison and then reluctantly turned to Ness before a hesitant Merlyo replied with a shaky voice “He’s not our guy! He’s just a dumb drunken lout who likes to start trouble in bars and he may have known two of the victims, but that’s all! We grilled him hard sir! But he’s not the killer, where sure of it!” There was a moment of awkward silence as Ness looked at Merlyo hard and tried to theorise why Poppy still wanted him and why he was making his life hard by not simply arresting Dolezal on suspicion alone. By arresting him this would at least give the newspapers something to feed there ravenous appetites on and take the pressure off of him and his department.

  Zalewski then broke Ness’s unfocused, hateful glare at the worried Merlyo and injected himself within the intense conversation, attempting to save his partner from Ness’s jealous fury “Yeah! Dolezal just doesn’t seem like our guy because he’s a brick layer, no medical knowledge, a drunkard and not very smart to boot! He simply just doesn’t fit the profile of our well organised killer” Ness then spoke in a slightly calmer in tone whilst still keeping his hawk like gaze locked on both the trembling detectives in f
ront of him “Listen to me very carefully, you’re both treading on thin ice and I shall be waiting under it when it breaks! I need an arrest! Something to get the congressman and newspapers off my back so go out there and hit the streets! Go under cover if you have too and dress like bums! Whatever it takes! Just catch this god-dame lunatic!”

  Both concerned looking detectives immediately replied in unison, wanting to deescalate the extreme situation that they both currently found themselves in “Yes Sir!” Ness then angrily glared at Merlyo again and wondered if he knew about his addiction or other personal issues that he had discussed in confidence with Poppy before he pushed these troubling thought into the darkest recesses of his unfocused mind and shouted at them “Go on! Get out of my sight! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!”

  The furious Ness chased the two surprisingly scared detectives out of his office and slammed the door behind them, not wishing to see Poppy’s or anyone else’s reaction to his momentary loss of control. The sweating Ness then placed his back up against the closed door, closed his eyes and ran his fingers through his messy hair whilst hearing the creaking glass behind him. He then slowly reopened them and looked up at the noisy fan as it appeared to be singing some unrecognisable tune to him again. He smiled and giggled to himself as he looked at the musical fan, pleasantly surprised by the maddening tune it played within his own troubled mind.

  He then started to slowly stagger back towards his awaiting desk and as soon as he exhaustedly sat down, he looked at the reversed words upon his office door window. He once again giggled to himself as he read the words “SAFETY DIRECTOR” and amused himself with the actual definition of such an impressively convoluted and vague title. He then let himself drift into a drug fuelled stupor whilst a sad on looking Poppy shed a tear from the slightly ajar door before gently closing it, leaving Ness alone and within the arms of his new solitary mistress, the dreaming midnight oil.