in. Maybe Ells took him to the Potomac. And then again, there’s the tabloid theory. Theories.”
“I’ve heard them.”
“That Ells wasn’t acting alone. That LTC did this and they’ve got the boy”
“And they left their initials painted in blood on the walls. Right.”
“I said it was tabloid.”
“Is there anything connecting Ells to LTC, besides that he went to a meeting?”
“No. The FBI’s position is that it might be a kidnap, so they’re following that up. But they got nothing to work with, far as I know. And the agents assigned to it, they are the worst. The same sorry-ass morons who’ve been assigned to investigate corruption in the Mayor’s new administration. I spoke to some other agents. They said these four agents are known within the division as the Goof Squad, because they’re such idiots. Like the Director pulled the four worst agents he could find in the whole FBI into one squad.”
“Speaking of idiots, is there anything more to Mallory’s involvement than meets the eye?”
“You can call John Mallory a lot of things, but idiot isn’t one of them.”
“I know.”
“And no, it seems to have been a straight thing. There was talk about him being a Jack Ruby here. Believe it or not, there’s been some demand for an investigation into whether John’s connected with LTC or Ells. But the Mayor’s fucks squashed that idea.”
“John’s always been tight with them.”
“His dick must have got hard when the Mayor got reelected. But as to him shooting Ells, he was home when the call went out for all day-shift detectives to come in early and help out on this, and he didn’t get there ahead of no one. It isn’t like he could have planned on being called in, or being assigned to that particular street and all.”
Kellogg and the Black Detective talk for another hour, going over the same ground again.
After hanging up, the Black Detective thinks about how long he’s been doing this. About how he and Kellogg and Mallory were in the same cadet class back in ‘68. Had only two weeks under their belts when the riots came.
Fought together. He and Mallory hadn’t been close the way he and Kellogg had, but Mallory had been a true liberal on a force that was still real white then. And Mallory had joined him in supporting the Mayor’s first candidacy. But Mallory had become friends with the Mayor and stuck with the Mayor long after it became obvious to the Black Detective that the Mayor was corrupt and the police force being destroyed, so he and Mallory were no longer friendly. But he and Kellogg, that was different. He remembered especially Kellogg’s willingness to stand up to the white racist sergeants who ran things back then, and he couldn’t remember many other whites who had.
8
ON TELEVISION A MAN IS SAYING, In a steady, solemn voice, “When whites wrote of a Garden of Eden they meant Africa, where all humans lived in peace, harmonious with nature. But there was among us there a sick brother, a physical and spiritual weakling, who ate of the tree of knowledge, and by this is meant began developing technology. Our African ancestors caught this wicked brother in his blasphemous act and drove the défiler out of Eden. He ran north to the ice country, where he lost his color and became as to ice as we are to earth, the same in color, the same in spirit. There in the frozen north, living like an animal in caves, the défiler mad scientist spawned a race of devils and developed the technology by which he, thousands of years later, angry about his physical inferiority, angry about his expulsion from Eden, came back and enslaved us.”
The speaker is a young black man. A light-skinned, quick-featured young man with a great smile who isn’t smiling. He’s staring sternly into the camera. He’s wearing a black suit, white shirt, bright green-red-and-brown striped tie. That’s the New Africa uniform. This is the
New Africa
show, broadcast weekly on the Black Television Network
“I’ve heard them.”
“That Ells wasn’t acting alone. That LTC did this and they’ve got the boy”
“And they left their initials painted in blood on the walls. Right.”
“I said it was tabloid.”
“Is there anything connecting Ells to LTC, besides that he went to a meeting?”
“No. The FBI’s position is that it might be a kidnap, so they’re following that up. But they got nothing to work with, far as I know. And the agents assigned to it, they are the worst. The same sorry-ass morons who’ve been assigned to investigate corruption in the Mayor’s new administration. I spoke to some other agents. They said these four agents are known within the division as the Goof Squad, because they’re such idiots. Like the Director pulled the four worst agents he could find in the whole FBI into one squad.”
“Speaking of idiots, is there anything more to Mallory’s involvement than meets the eye?”
“You can call John Mallory a lot of things, but idiot isn’t one of them.”
“I know.”
“And no, it seems to have been a straight thing. There was talk about him being a Jack Ruby here. Believe it or not, there’s been some demand for an investigation into whether John’s connected with LTC or Ells. But the Mayor’s fucks squashed that idea.”
“John’s always been tight with them.”
“His dick must have got hard when the Mayor got reelected. But as to him shooting Ells, he was home when the call went out for all day-shift detectives to come in early and help out on this, and he didn’t get there ahead of no one. It isn’t like he could have planned on being called in, or being assigned to that particular street and all.”
Kellogg and the Black Detective talk for another hour, going over the same ground again.
After hanging up, the Black Detective thinks about how long he’s been doing this. About how he and Kellogg and Mallory were in the same cadet class back in ‘68. Had only two weeks under their belts when the riots came.
Fought together. He and Mallory hadn’t been close the way he and Kellogg had, but Mallory had been a true liberal on a force that was still real white then. And Mallory had joined him in supporting the Mayor’s first candidacy. But Mallory had become friends with the Mayor and stuck with the Mayor long after it became obvious to the Black Detective that the Mayor was corrupt and the police force being destroyed, so he and Mallory were no longer friendly. But he and Kellogg, that was different. He remembered especially Kellogg’s willingness to stand up to the white racist sergeants who ran things back then, and he couldn’t remember many other whites who had.
8
ON TELEVISION A MAN IS SAYING, In a steady, solemn voice, “When whites wrote of a Garden of Eden they meant Africa, where all humans lived in peace, harmonious with nature. But there was among us there a sick brother, a physical and spiritual weakling, who ate of the tree of knowledge, and by this is meant began developing technology. Our African ancestors caught this wicked brother in his blasphemous act and drove the défiler out of Eden. He ran north to the ice country, where he lost his color and became as to ice as we are to earth, the same in color, the same in spirit. There in the frozen north, living like an animal in caves, the défiler mad scientist spawned a race of devils and developed the technology by which he, thousands of years later, angry about his physical inferiority, angry about his expulsion from Eden, came back and enslaved us.”
The speaker is a young black man. A light-skinned, quick-featured young man with a great smile who isn’t smiling. He’s staring sternly into the camera. He’s wearing a black suit, white shirt, bright green-red-and-brown striped tie. That’s the New Africa uniform. This is the
New Africa
show, broadcast weekly on the Black Television Network
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