Minor Corruption Read Online Free PDF Page A

wished to make. Was Sarge leading up to firing him?
Demoting him? He began to sweat.
    “Glad to hear it.”
    “I figure I’ll be workin’ on patrol till my
feet give out,” Cobb said, instantly regretting the remark.
    Sturges chuckled, something he needed to do
more as it instantly invigorated the character in his face – a
high-browed, full-cheeked, essentially cheerful face with eyes that
had seen too much horror on the Spanish peninsula but still had the
urge to dance in their sockets if given the chance. “You wouldn’t
be thinkin’ of a change, then?”
    Cobb flinched, rattling his coffee cup in its
saucer. “I’d like things to stay where they are,” he replied, “or
the way they useta be – when you could run like a greyhound.”
    “Don’t we all?” He leaned forward, grimacing
at the effort. “But I’m thinkin’ of a change fer the better. Surely
you’ve heard the men talkin’ about me retirin’?”
    “They’ve been mutterin’ about that when you
ain’t nearby, but I don’t toll-or-rate such talk. You’re the
Chief.”
    Sturges heaved a theatrical sigh. “And I’d
like to be chief forever. But I asked you here to tell you, first
up, that the wife and I have come to a decision on the matter.”
    Cobb was shocked and flattered – both. “Ya
mean you’re gonna quit?”
    “I’m goin’ to retire on half-pay, as the
gentlemen officers say, like I did when I left the army and joined
Peel’s patrolmen back in ’twenty-nine.”
    “But who’s gonna be our chief?”
    “That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to
you about, man to man.”
    “I can’t see any of us takin’ over,” Cobb
said quickly. The very thought of having to sit in an office most
of the waking hours, of hobnobbing with Magistrate Thorpe or the
Attorney-General or the Aldermen who continually butted into police
affairs, or of supervising laggards like Ewan Wilkie or bullies
like Bob Brown – such thoughts caused him to break out in
hives.
    “Well, before we get anywheres near that
topic, there are other, bigger changes comin’ to the Toronto
constabulary.”
    It was Cobb’s turn to lean forward. “What
kinda changes?” he said, barely breathing the words.
    “Nothin’ lasts forever, my friend, and not
all change is fer the worse, though I know it usually works out
that way.”
    “But the force is workin’ well, ain’t it? Is
the mayor unhappy with us?”
    “No, no, no. It’s because things are
workin’ out well that the City Council is plannin’ to make the
force bigger and better.”
    “But they’ve already made it bigger.”
    Last year five part-time constables had been
added to the five permanent ones (including the chief constable) so
that certain sensitive parts of the city could be policed
twenty-four hours a day. The old night watchmen were gradually
being phased out.
    “True, and as you can see fer yerself every
day on yer patrol, this city is growin’ by leaps and bounds. We’re
addin’ a thousand people a year. Our wharves are teemin’ with
immigrants from Britain. The shanties up in Irishtown are spreadin’
like pigweed. There’s talk of the army movin’ in and ejectin’ all
them squatters ‘cause the property is needed fer respectable
citizens.”
    “Well, I’ll admit we don’t go inta Irishtown
alone no more. But still – ”
    “The decision’s already been made,” Sturges
said, leaning back with elaborate care. “It’ll be official at the
next council meetin’.”
    Cobb wished he were somewhere else – in his
“office” at the Cock and Bull, for example, with a frothy flagon of
ale in his right hand.
    “First of all,” Sturges continued, “startin’
in the new year, we’ll have ten full-time constables with
twenty-four-hour foot-patrols throughout the town.”
    “We ain’t got room fer an extra midget as it
is!”
    “New quarters will be found or built. It’s
possible that a second quarters or station will be set up here in
the east end.”
    “I