Chapter XXIV
An Honest Confession
At the first possible moment, Gertrude and Mary went carefully through the books and papers in their private desks. The first discovery they made was that all notes and papers pertaining to Vickery and the Boulevard Railway Company were missing, thus destroying every bit of evidence, beyond their spoken word, in that particular case. Other documents were missing also, and the trail of the corrupt politician was over all. She sent for Robert Joyce, the district attorney, and Bailey Armstrong, as city solicitor, and they held counsel together until the lengthening shadows drove them home. But not until they had sent for Otis H. Mann, and put the case strongly to him. That functionary was, however, as smooth and oily as ever, disclaiming all knowledge of everything.
"I assure you, gentlemen," he said, "and you, madam, that only the most perfunctory of routine work has been done in this office while I was acting-mayor. It was our one object to let things slide along as easily as possible until the real mayor should return. We desired no radical changes, and on the other hand, as few breaks in the regular routine of city affairs as possible. I desired, above all, to be a faithful servant to the people—to—in short, ah—"
"How about those contracts you negotiated with Watts?" broke in Joyce.
"And McAlister's new job—under the name of Peter Grayson?" added Bailey.
Mann's face was a shade more purple for an instant, but he went on, unctuously.
"The man who suddenly becomes the head of a city has a great responsibility—especially if he has been, in a sense, shut out from the confidence of its mayor up to the time of his incumbency. He cannot expect to please everyone. He will be called 'demagogue' by the opposite party; his motives will be misconstrued; his honesty brought in question, his principles—"
"O, spare us," interrupted Bailey. "While you were the head of this office, some important testimony has disappeared; private papers belonging to the mayor and her secretary were taken away, and several other questionable things were done. We called you here now, to explain these things; and if you cannot produce them, to say why. The least thing a man in your position can do is to institute a hearty search for the missing papers, and to act in accord with us in leaving no stone unturned to find them."
"Gentlemen," said the chairman of the board of aldermen, rising and laying his hand impressively across his heart, "I will swear to you that the mayor's desk and her secretary's were turned over to her exactly as I found them. If anything has been taken from them, the robbery occurred either before I came or after I went out."