596DENNIS LEHANE

Danny looked back at Nora and Luther again. "Do I have your word that if I sell my men on withdrawal from the AFL, the city will grant us our due?"

"You have my word and the mayor's and the governor's."

"It's your word I care about." Danny held out his hand. "I'll sell it to my men."

Storrow shook his hand, then held it firm. "Smile, young Coughlin-- we're going to save this city, you and I."

"Wouldn't that be nice?"

Danny sold it to them. In Fay Hall, at nine the next morning. After the vote, which was a shaky 406 to 377, Sid Polk asked, "What if they shaft us again?"

"They won't."

"How do you know?"

"I don't," Danny said. "But at this point, I don't see any logic to it." "What if this was never about logic?" someone called.

Danny held up his hands because no answer occurred to him.

Calvin Coolidge, Andrew Peters, and James Storrow made the drive to Commissioner Curtis's house in Nahant late Sunday afternoon.

They met the commissioner out on his back deck which overlooked the Atlantic under a sallow sky.

Several things were clear to Storrow within moments of their assemblage. The first was that Coolidge had no respect for Peters and Peters hated him for it. Every time Peters opened his mouth to make a point, Coolidge cut him off.

The second thing, and the more worrisome, was that time had done nothing to remove from Edwin Upton Curtis the air of self-loathing and misanthropy that lived in him so fully it colored his flesh like a virus.

Peters said, "Commissioner Curtis, we have--"

"--come, " Coolidge said, "to inform you that Mr. Storrow may have found a resolution to our crisis."

Peters said, "And that--"

THE GIVEN DAY"--if you were to hear our reasoning, I'm sure you would conclude we have all reached an acceptable compromise." Coolidge sat back in his deck chair.

"Mr. Storrow," Curtis said, "how have you been faring since last we met?"

"Well, Edwin. Yourself?"

Curtis said to Coolidge, "Mr. Storrow and I last met at a fabulous fete thrown by Lady Dewar in Louisburg Square. A legendary night, that, wouldn't you say, James?"

Storrow couldn't recall the night for the life of him. Lady Dewar had been dead more than a de cade. As socialites went, she'd been presentable, but hardly elite. "Yes, Edwin, it was a memorable occasion."

"I was mayor then, of course," Curtis said to Peters.

"And a fine one you were, Commissioner." Peters looked over at Coolidge as if surprised the governor had let him finish a thought.

It was the wrong thought, though. A dark squall passed through Curtis's small eyes, taking the blithe compliment Peters had delivered and twisting it into an insult. By calling him "Commissioner," the current mayor had reminded him of what he no longer was.

Dear Lord, Storrow thought, this city could burn to its bricks because of narcissism and a meaningless faux pas.

Curtis stared at him. "Do you think the men have a grievance, James?"

Storrow took his time searching for his pipe. He used three matches to get it lit in the ocean breeze and then crossed his legs. "I think they do, Edwin, yes, but let's be clear that you inherited those grievances from the previous administration. No one believes that you are the cause of those grievances or that you have done anything but attempt to deal with them honorably."

Curtis nodded. "I offered them a raise. They turned it down flat." Because it was sixteen years too late, Storrow thought.

"I initiated several committees to study their work conditions." Cherry-picked with toadies, Storrow thought.