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“I work—worked—at the hotel.”
He supposed her flippant answer was his reward for being honest. “You weren’t in the habit of having a drink after work.” She cocked her head at him again and he gave into her curiosity. “I wasn’t so drunk I didn’t notice how surprised the bartender was to see you there.”
“You are two completely different men. At home, you barely say a word and act like you don’t know how to use the muscles in your face. Out in public, you shake hands and smile at people.” She pursed her lips, and he waited to see what she would say next. “Of course, even out in public, if someone asks a question you don’t like, nothing in the movement of your face gives away a smidgen of answer. I fell into the trap of thinking you’re two different people, when really the public face is just a mask over the private, listening and watching one.”
“You’re not the first to have made that mistake.”
“You say that like it’s a damnation of the entire city of Chicago. How many people have been in your apartment long enough to notice the private man behind the very sincere fake smile?”
His ex-wife, but it had taken her years to realize that the Karl who shook hands with strangers was the fake one. It wasn’t until Jessica asked for a divorce that Karl realized she’d been mistaken. His first marriage had been full of misunderstood beliefs and poorly conceived, even if sincere, attempts to fix the missteps. This second marriage was still unbelievable.
“You assume it’s a fake smile. But I’m very sincere.” He had a duty to each and every citizen of Chicago.
“Why do you do it? The shaking hands and greeting people? You don’t like it.”
Jessica had never been perceptive enough to notice that. Thankfully, most other people weren’t, either. “You still didn’t answer my question, Vivian.”
“Sure I did. I was there to get a drink.” Despite looking right at him as she talked, her voice lightened to a ridiculous pitch for anyone telling the truth. Still, she was becoming a better liar.
He ignored her evasion. If she was so determined to lie, the reason she was at the bar must be pretty damning, and there was probably evidence he could find if he dug deep enough. And he would. He just didn’t want to—not quite yet.
Despite the lack of full satisfaction he’d gotten from his hand in the shower, and his unaccountable interest in the curve of her lips, he was glad she’d stopped their lovemaking. It was bad enough to want someone with deep secrets.
“I smile and shake hands with everyone I meet because I want the city of Chicago to know who I am. I want them to realize there is an independent city office dedicated to investigating and prosecuting corruption, fraud and waste. If they know or suspect something, I want them to pull out my business card and give my office a call. If they are taking money under the table so an inferior building passes inspection, I want them to know I’ll find them and they’ll go to prison.”
Pressure was building up in his chest and he stopped before he exploded. In a world with starvation, war and disease, one city employee taking a bribe so a building passes inspection probably doesn’t seem like a big deal, but government corruption prevented the Mexican government from being able to prosecute drug dealers. Government corruption nearly brought down Kabul Bank and made the United States’s exit from Afghanistan more difficult. And in the city of Chicago, it was a big deal to the family that lost their lives when their house burned down because shoddy electrical work had passed inspection when money changed hands.
One small employee in a huge organization—what harm could it cause? After all, bribery was supposed to be a victimless crime.
He sank back into the depths of his chair. Among the forty thousand people who died in car accidents every year, three may not have seemed like so many, except to the five people left to mourn.
“I read on the internet about the death of your family,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“It was over twenty years ago.” Twenty-three years, but who was keeping track? Karl could recite the key dates in the scandal as if he had memorized them for a history test. Former Illinois Secretary of State George Ryan was elected governor in 1998. Twenty days later, two of his employees pled guilty to racketeering. On September 27, 1999, a trucking company official admitted to paying to fix licenses for his drivers, including the driver involved in the crash that killed Karl’s family and one who was involved in the crash that killed six children in Wisconsin. It took Governor Ryan five months to apologize for corruption in the secretary of state office and it took until December 17, 2003, for Ryan to be indicted for taking payoffs. By that time, Karl was old enough to know justice was a slow and frustrating process.
