“Very good, Lieutenant.” Lemouz nodded. “To this day, there is a statue there. To mark it. On May first, 1886, there was a massive labor demonstration up Michigan Avenue. The greatest gathering of labor to that point in the history of the United States. Eighty thousand workers, women and children too. To this day, May Day is celebrated as labor’s official holiday around the globe. Everywhere, of course,” he said with a smirk, “but in the United States.”
“Cut to the chase. I don’t need the politics.”
“The demonstration was peaceful,” Lemouz went on, “and over the next couple of days, more and more workers went out on strike and rallied. Then, on the third day, the police fired into the crowd. Two protestors were killed. The next day another demonstration was organized. At Haymarket Square. Randolph and Des Plaines Streets.
“Angry speeches blasted the government. The mayor ordered the police to disperse the crowd. One hundred seventy-six Chicago cops entered the square in a phalanx and stormed the crowd, wielding their nightsticks. Then the police opened fire. When the dust settled, seven police and four demonstrators lay dead.
“The police needed scapegoats, so they rounded up eight labor leaders, some of whom were not even there that day.”
“Where is this heading?”
“One of them was a teacher named August Spies. They tried and hanged them all. By the neck. Until dead. Later on, Spies was shown not to have even been at Haymarket. He said, as he stood on the scaffold, ‘If you think that by hanging us you can stamp out the labor movement, then hang us. The ground is on fire where you stand. Let the voice of the people be heard.’”
Lemouz stared deeply into my eyes. “A moment barely recorded in the history of your country, Lieutenant, but one that would inspire. One that apparently has.”
Chapter 75
PEOPLE WERE GOING TO DIE here soon. Quite a lot of people, actually.
Charles Danko sat pretending to read the Examiner underneath the giant fountain in the sparkling glass atrium of the Rincon Center just off Market Street, downtown near the Bay Bridge. From above him, an eighty-five-foot plume of water splashed breathtakingly into a shallow pool.
Americans like to feel awe, he thought to himself—they liked it in their movies, their pop art, and even their shopping centers. So I’ll make them feel awe. I’ll make them feel in awe of death.
It would be busy here today, Danko knew. The Rincon Center’s restaurants were getting ready for the surge of the lunch crowd. A thousand or more escapees from law firms and real estate trusts and financial advisers around the Financial District.
Too bad this can’t stretch out a little longer, Charles Danko thought, and sighed, the regret of someone who has waited such a long time for the moment. The Rincon Center had proved to be one of his favorite places in San Francisco.
Danko didn’t acknowledge the well-dressed black man who picked out a place beside him facing the fountain. He knew the man was a veteran of the Gulf War. Despondent ever since. Dependable, though perhaps a little high-strung.
“Mal said I could call you ‘Professor.’” The black spoke out of the side of his mouth.
“And you are Robert?” Danko asked.
The man nodded. “Robert I am.”
A woman started to play on a grand piano in the center of the atrium. Every day at ten to twelve. A melody from Phantom of the Opera began to fill the gigantic space.
“You know who to look for?” Danko asked.
“I know,” the man said, assured. “I’ll do my job. You don’t have to worry about me. I’m a very good soldier.”
“It must be the right man,” Danko said. “You’ll see him come into the square at about twenty after twelve. He’ll cross it, maybe drop some change off for the pianist. Then he’ll go into Yank Sing.”
“You seem awfully sure he’ll be here.”
Danko finally looked at the man and smiled. “You see that plume of water, Robert? It falls from a height of precisely eighty-five point five feet. I know this because having sat in this spot for a very long time, I have calculated the exact angle of an imaginary line stretching from the center of the pool, and the corresponding right angle created at its base. From there, it was e
asy to extrapolate its height. You know how many days I’ve sat and watched this fountain, Robert? Don’t you worry, he’ll be there.”
Charles Danko stood up. He left behind the briefcase. “I thank you, Robert. You are doing something very brave. Something that only a small few will ever commend you for. Good luck, my friend. You’re a hero today.” And you’re serving my purpose as well.
Chapter 76
ON A DANK, DRIZZLY AFTERNOON in Highland Park, Texas, we said good-bye to Jill. I had said good-bye to people I loved before. But I had never felt so empty or numb. And never so cheated.
The temple was a modern brick-and-glass structure with a steep-angled sanctuary filled with light. The rabbi was a woman, and Jill would’ve liked that. Everyone flew down. Chief Tracchio, D.A. Sinclair. Some associates from the office. Claire, Cindy, and me. A group of girls from high school and college Jill had kept in touch with over the years. Steve was there, of course, though I couldn’t bear to speak to him.
We took our seats, and an aria from Turandot, Jill’s favorite, was sung by a local choir.