Chapter 245: The Trap
Inside the carriage, Bill kept grumbling.
“I’ve never felt this uncomfortable in my entire life.”
“Those people—so damned self-important.”
“Upper-class bullshit.”
“If you ask me, it’s pure torture.”
“Though I will say this—Davey seemed to enjoy that kind of torture. He got along just fine with them. Hell, he probably didn’t even notice when we left.”
Arthur and Hosea said nothing. They were closer to Davey, but with Dutch around, this clearly wasn’t the right moment to speak up for him.
“That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”
“Let them torture themselves.”
Dutch paused slightly, hesitating over how to bring up Davey.
Arthur didn’t want to cause any friction between himself and Dutch over Davey, so he reached into his pocket and pulled out the documents from the mayor’s office, deliberately changing the subject.
“Did anyone see you take these?”
“I don’t think so.”
Dutch glanced at the papers and didn’t continue the topic of Davey. Instead, a spark of inspiration crossed his face.
“I’ve got an idea… let me think it through.”
...
At the banquet, Davey naturally noticed Dutch and Arthur leaving.
But what did that have to do with him?
The only real annoyance was Fellowes, who was far too enthusiastic, to the point that Davey felt completely tied up by him. He wasn’t freed until the mayor finally came over.
The mayor was just as warm toward Davey. After all, he had a share in the moonshine business himself, and that made him see a hefty pile of money flowing straight into his own pocket.
Lemieux knew Davey was wealthy, so he cautiously floated the idea of Davey making a donation to the university being planned for Saint Denis.
Davey naturally agreed, which delighted the mayor—another chance to skim off a tidy sum for himself.
Bronte watched Davey and Fellowes interacting so closely, and it irritated him deeply.
Both men were his enemies, even if he was currently cooperating with Davey in the moonshine business.
At the same time, he never stopped thinking about completely swallowing up the moonshine trade.
Having dealt in moonshine himself, Bronte knew perfectly well that nearly all of Davey’s money came from it.
“Mr. Benjamin, perhaps you should take better control of your subordinates.”
“As officers of your police department, they’re constantly working against me. That doesn’t leave me with a very good impression.”
Upstairs, sitting opposite Bronte, was Benjamin Lambert, chief of the Saint Denis Police Department.
“I don’t have much choice, Mr. Bronte. Trappett serves Mr. Lemieux—that’s the will of the City Council. They don’t want to see me fully in control of the department.”
“After all, plenty of people know about the things between you and me. They’re afraid of being threatened.”
“Of course, that’s all it is. Inside the department, more officers follow my orders than Trappett’s. He’s just a regular officer.”
“That said, Mr. Bronte, I didn’t expect you to be so familiar with those wanted criminals.”
Benjamin knew very well that Dutch and the others were wanted men, but he had no interest in arresting them.
As long as Dutch and his people didn’t cause trouble in Saint Denis, Benjamin couldn’t be bothered.
With the sheer volume of daily crime, criminals, and wanted fugitives in Saint Denis, the police department simply didn’t have the manpower to deal with everything.
“Yes, those damn rats and cockroaches wouldn’t even do me a small favor.”
“Perhaps they’ve already lost their value to me.”
“I asked them why they came to Saint Denis. They told me they needed money.”
“So I told them there’d be plenty of cash at the tram station—loose bills, lots of it. That’s what they like most, isn’t it?”
Bronte lifted his glass and took a sip, a mocking curl at the corner of his mouth as he recounted what had happened earlier.
Benjamin understood immediately—Bronte was preparing to make his move.
“Oh, Mr. Bronte, you know how busy our police department is every day.”
Clearly, Benjamin wanted something in return. Even though arresting criminals was the department’s duty, before a crime was actually committed, the police had no obligation to act.
“Fine, you greedy bastard. I’ll make a donation to the police department—enough to satisfy you, Mr. Benjamin.”
“But don’t underestimate them. They’re a gang of hardened outlaws who caused a lot of trouble out west. You might want to deploy a few more men.”
Originally, Bronte hadn’t planned to deal with Dutch so aggressively. But since Dutch refused to be used—and might even cooperate with Davey, given that they were once in the same gang—Bronte decided to get rid of them altogether. It would save him a great deal of trouble.
He had received intelligence that Arthur, from the Van der Linde Gang, had visited the underground Casino in Saint Denis. Davey’s brother, Mac, had personally received him and apparently provided some kind of assistance.
“Oh, Mr. Bronte, you’re truly generous. On behalf of my brothers at the station, I thank you.”
“Rest assured, I’ll arrange for fifty officers to lie in wait. They may be good shots, but there’s no way they can handle fifty men.”
“Still, we’ll need Mr. Bronte’s help when it comes to intelligence.”
Benjamin was in high spirits—this meant another tidy sum was about to land in his pocket.
“Of course, Mr. Benjamin. I’ll have people keep an eye on them. Once they enter Saint Denis, there’s no way they won’t be noticed.”
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