Chapter 18

The first time Chief Tom Walter met Mayor Oliver Hamilton was at a street club in one of the most secluded parts of the town. The mayor then was a young man in his prime, tall and energetic, eager to have a taste of his youthful life.

His father, a strict disciplinarian, had never given him the opportunity to have a taste of the real world, so he grabbed the first chance he got when his father went out of town on a long business trip and hit the city in disguise, ready to savor whatever it was that fueled the spirits of young men his age.

Going to the club for the first time ever at about twenty-one years of age was a tough one. He’d never smoked a j**** before, never had a taste of strong alcohol, but tonight, he was compelled to feel among his peers by partaking in what he felt was most likely going to make him welcome in the midst of the fellows at the clubhouse.

Tom Walter had been a regular at the clubhouse and had never seen that face before. Besides, he knew