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were complete strangers. Chuck Ford must have broken the story. Jake wasn’t surprised, but he wasn’t happy either.
    He parked his car and walked up the path. As he pushed his way through the group some tried to get in front of him.
    ‘Detective Austin, what can you tell us about yesterday’s murder?’
    ‘Will the police be issuing a statement today?’
    ‘Why was your suspect released so quickly?’
    He tried not to make eye contact with anyone.
    Ford was leaning against the wall beside the station door. He uncurled himself as Jake came up.
    ‘You going to be digging into Sonny’s history?’
    Jake just gave him a cold look. Ford shrugged and stepped aside.
    As Jake turned into the detective bureau he could feel his shoulders hunch. The scant Christmas decorationsof yesterday had been taken down – Gina (or Tina) had obviously made the call. Mills was already at his desk and a few of the other guys – what remained of the staff during the holiday season – were talking by the coffee machine. Outside the window the reporters had started up their questions again and flash bulbs strobed. Mills stood, then punched Jake on the shoulder.
    ‘The eagle has landed.’ He grinned.
    Jake followed him to the window and looked out. Councilman Mitch Harper had arrived, and arrived with a bang. Dressed in a dark woollen coat, the councilman had planted himself on the top step of the station entrance. He stood tall, shoulders thrown back. His dark Lincoln was casually parked. Jake wondered if detectives could write parking tickets.
    The reporters crowded around in a semicircle, looking up at him. Through the window Jake could hear everything.
    ‘A single mother should not have had to die to show up the inadequacies of our city’s social policies,’ Harper thundered.
    A reporter raised a biro as if to ask a question, but Harper held up a hand.
    ‘Let me just say that there are two guilty parties here: the man who killed Marcia Lamb, and the system that sent her out to work when she should have been at home with her young child. We need proper affordable day care, so that women like Marcia can hold downproper jobs, and not be forced to waitress in the shadow economy.’
    ‘Are you blaming—’
    ‘If the school system had not failed Marcia, she might have had a shot at college, a different life. And she might still be with us.’
    ‘What a prick,’ Mills muttered. ‘He’s milking her corpse for votes, and she’s not even cold yet.’
    ‘Sick,’ said Jake, remembering his thoughts about Marcia’s body temperature, cooled by the weather. He made a note to check with the coroner on the time of death, on which any attack they were to launch on Sonny’s alibi might hinge.
    Just then Colonel Asher came in. ‘Mills, Austin, I need a word,’ he said. They followed him across the hall into his office. A stocky man whose muscles were beginning to turn to fat, he had a red face and a shaven skull that only emphasized his bullishness. ‘Anything I need to know before –’ he rolled his eyes ‘–
Harper
comes in here?’
    ‘There’s nothing yet,’ Jake said, looking to Mills for confirmation.
    ‘Nothing new,’ said Mills, ‘except nobody at the club remembers Sonny Malone being there, so maybe we can crack his alibi.’
    ‘Good.’
    Was it good? Jake strongly suspected that Sonny Malone was the one case out of a hundred.
    Asher sat heavily behind his desk and pulled Sonny’s file towards him. ‘You two might as well sit in when I talk to Harper.’
    Jake nodded. He could hear the councilman from a mile away. He was greeting every officer as he passed them in the hall and creating as much fuss as possible. When he got to Asher’s open door he knocked twice before striding in. He walked straight to the colonel’s desk, put out his hand and smiled. ‘Colonel,’ he said. ‘Thanks for taking the time to see me.’
    Asher shook his hand. ‘Of course, Councilman.’ He motioned to Jake and Mills. ‘Councilman