The Vigilantes

Wy

"Good to see you, Rapp," he said. "Sorry to make you come all the way out here."

Badde shook the hand and said, "Miserable damn day to be out driving. But you said it was important."

Wy

Badde followed him down the sidewalk to the side of the house along Catharine Street. There was a weathered wooden door with another Badde campaign poster on it. Badde knew that this was the separate entrance to the basement; another was inside the house, under the stairwell that led to the upper floor.

Wy

The basement, which Ke

"When the hell did this happen?" Badde asked.

Wy

"You don't know exactly when? This had to have made one helluva racket."

"I told you on the phone that I didn't get back here until after I got your voice mail. That's why there was the delay."

He looked at Badde and saw anger.

Roger Wy

Then he got mad, too.

"What the hell, Rapp? Last night was Halloween, and there was a great party at U of P. I live here. I'm not a prisoner. Nor am I a goddamn warden, watching that moron Kareem. I never liked the idea of him being here when you first forced him on me. But you said it was an important political favor and that he'd be fine in the basement. And I reluctantly agreed. Which, of course, I obviously now regret."

Roger Wy

Badde glanced at him, then looked back at the destruction and sighed audibly.

"Okay, Roger, besides the obvious, what's the damage?" He pointed at the filing cabinets. "What was in them?"

"Mostly Kareem's logs, the lists of all the voters he collected. And he also had many of their absentee-voter cards or forms. I was dumbfounded how he could collect so many. He wouldn't tell me. He just showed them to me and said it was because he was a hard worker and you were going to reward him for that."

Badde raised his eyebrows at the word "reward."

I do have a reward in mind for you, Ke

Just not the one you're probably expecting.

Wy

Badde already knew this, of course, but replied, "Really? Well, you have to give him credit for thinking outside of the box."

Badde walked over and pulled an official-looking governmental form from one of the metal file drawers. The letterhead had the familiar crest of the City of Philadelphia and:

CITY COMMISSIONERS

The first line of the sheet read: "Absentee Ballot Application amp; Requirements."

He read farther down and saw the requirements for "Alternative Ballots": If you are a registered voter who is disabled or age sixty-five or older AND who is assigned to an inaccessible polling place, you are qualified to vote using an Alternative Ballot.

Badde looked up at Wy

Wy

Badde shook his head at first, but then he recognized the name: "The mortician?"

Wy

"What the hell was he stealing? Drugs? Do they even have drugs?"

Wy

"So, what was Ke

"He got caught going through their files."

"Why?"

"He was methodically copying all the names and addresses of Wilson's recent clients."

"Identity theft of the dead?"

Wy

Badde gri

Wy

Badde nodded toward the upturned filing cabinets.

"And took it all with him," he said.

"Stating the obvious, as long as those records were in there, and you already had been elected to office-"

Badde, affecting a bit of a French accent, authoritatively said, "It would have been faint plea, of course."

Wy

"A what?" Wy

"You know, a faint plea-the French saying for 'the cow is out of the barn,' or even 'you can't get the toothpaste back in the tube.' It's a done deal, and you can't go back."

"You mean fait accompli," Wy

"That's it," Badde said.

Wy

"Anyway," Wy

They exchanged a long glance.

"And then," Wy

Badde nodded slowly at the implication.

He said: "And you think Ke

"As your political advisor, I think it's important that we proceed as if he does. Him, or someone more dangerous…"

City Councilman H. Rapp Badde, Jr., inhaled deeply, then let it out slowly.

Then a cell phone rang in his pants pocket, and Badde quickly grabbed his Go To Hell phone. But when he looked at the screen, there was nothing.

And the ringing was still coming from his pants pocket.

Other damned phone.

About time it's not the Go To Hell phone.

He exchanged phones, then looked at the caller ID.

What does Jan want?

"Whut up, honey?" he said into the phone.

"Damn it, Rapp, I thought I told you not to do things with PEGI without my knowledge," she said with absolutely no pleasantries.