Murder and Mayhem in Manayunk

by Neal Goldstein

  Regan and Ichowitz were scheduled to meet with the Mayor at 4 PM the next day. They figured that by then they would have finished their meetings with Avi Nooris concerning the hole in his alibi and the DA and Charley Ferguson to fill them in on their conversation with Vito Coratelli Sr.

  Regan had failed to return a number of his mother’s telephone calls he had received throughout the day. He was trying to figure out which discussion would be more problematic: tomorrow’s meeting with Mayor Gallo, or the grilling he would shortly receive from his mother about Kate O’Malley and her son Liam.

  Ichowitz said, “You better return your mother’s calls. She already called my wife. I’m sure she asked your father to send a squad car to your house or put an APB out for you.”

  “I know, Izz.”

  “Devil hates a coward, isn’t that one of your Irish expressions?” Ichowitz said as he handed him the phone and left him alone in the Fourth District conference room. “See you tomorrow,” he said as he closed the conference room door.

  “Hello mother. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to return your calls. We’ve been pretty busy today.”

  “Jack, are you going to tell me about that attractive young woman and that adorable little boy I saw you with at the Phillies game last night?”

  “Mother, her name is Kate O’Malley, she’s Mike O’Malley’s niece. She and her son Liam recently emigrated from Dublin. She’s helping Mike run the Grape Tavern.”

  “Did O’Malley fix you up again?”

  “No mother, I decided to ask her out all on my own.”

  “But I thought you and Courtney were going to get back together.”

  “Courtney and I are just friends.”

  “Is this O’Malley woman divorced?”

  “No mother she was never married.”

  “Oh.”

  After a moment of silence he said, “Mother, why don’t you reserve judgment until you meet Katey?”

  “So I’ll be meeting her sometime soon?”

  “I’m hoping she’ll come to our Sunday get-together.”

  “Good.”

  Regan noticed among the missed calls was his sister Annabelle.

  “Annie…”

  “Jack, did you call Mother?”

  “Yes Sis.”

  “Jack, we saw you on TV last night. The woman you were with is absolutely gorgeous; and that little boy… Jack I’m so happy for you.”

  “Annie, look. Let’s not get carried away. We’re just friends. I’m not sure how she feels about me or exactly where this is headed.”

  “Jack, you’ll bring her Sunday?”

  “I’ll ask.”

  When he pulled his car into his parking space, his mobile phone began to vibrate. He smiled when he saw it was Kate.

  “Hi Kate, I’m glad you called,” he said.

  “Well, Liam’s been askin whether you’d be stoppin by tonight,” she said.

  “I wouldn’t want to disappoint Liam. See you soon, if that’s allright with you.”

  Regan was greeted by Mike O’Malley when he made his way past the crowded bar.

  “Mike, I see that your bartender is still pumping out the cosmos,” he said and watched the show Melody Schwartz put on twirling the shaker and filling multiple martini glasses to the brim with pink and blue concoctions.

  She smiled at Jack as he approached. “Mel, wasn’t your hair blue last time I was here?” he asked.

  “I felt like a change, do you like the green?”

  “Very you,” he said.

  “And I thought you only went for red heads,” she said and nodded towards the kitchen.

  O’Malley grabbed his arm and said, “You’ll never guess who called me his afternoon.”

  “My mother?” Regan replied.

  “Right ya are, me bucko. She wanted the complete dossier on me niece and Liam, don’t cha know. She wanted all the particulars on yer relationship too.”

  “And I’m sure you told her everything,” Jack said.

  “Yeh. I told her how the two of you have been attendin St. Cecilia’s classes in celibacy, and how I’ve heard you sayin your Hail Marys for havin impure thoughts and all. I think she bought it,” O’Malley deadpanned.

  “Ya better get in there before she overcooks the stew or something,” O’Malley said and nodded towards the kitchen.

  She was standing next to Eduardo and Miguel, the two line cooks she had hired to help since the word had spread that the cuisine at the Grape was no longer limited to ham and cheese on stale bread and beef stew from a can. The two young men from Belize were amazing cooks, grateful for the opportunity to refine their craft under Kate’s tutelage.

  “Hey you,” Regan said as he approached.

  She smiled, “Hey yourself. What’s in the box?” she asked.

  “I bought something for Liam,” he said.

  “Oh, tryin to get in with me by bein nice to the boy.”

  “Something like that,” he blushed.

  “Liam’s waitin for ya. Why don’t you go up and tell the sitter she can go home. I’ll be up after the rush. I made a little something for you. It’s heating on the stove. Now shoo, the boys and me are busy.”

  Liam looked up from the checker board when Jack walked through the door. Jack could not believe the rush of happiness he felt at the boy’s smile.

  “Jack, what’s in the box?”

  “I got you something I think you may be needing soon,” he said.

  Liam ran over to him and Regan handed him the box. Liam tore off the wrapping, opened the box and looked down. His eyes widened with delight as he pulled the baseball glove out and put it on.

  “There’s something else in there,” Jack said,

  Liam looked in the box and pulled out another smaller box. When he unwrapped the package he found a wrist watch compass like the one Jack wore.

  “Liam, when you wear the compass you’ll always be able to find your way home.”

  Later when Kate walked in Liam rushed to her and said, “Mum, look what Jack bought me!” He showed her the glove and compass watch.

  “Well, I trust you thanked him properly,” she said.

  “Jack said he would teach me how to play. He told me if you agree we can play this Sunday with his nieces and nephews. Mum, can we?”

  Katey looked at Jack and asked, “And where might this game be held?”

  “That would be at my folks’ place. We have this regular get-together. I think Liam will fit right in,” Regan said.

  “It’s not Liam fittin in I’m worried about,” she said.

  EIGHTEEN

  “Detective Ichowitz, Jack, what can I do for you?” The Honorable Bruce Peter Gallo, Mayor of the City of Philadelphia said when they were ushered into his office. Gallo was sitting at his desk and gestured for them to take the leather chairs in front of the desk. As was his custom, the Mayor always assumed what he perceived as the position of power having elevated his desk and chair four inches higher than his visitor’s chairs.

  “Mayor, thank you for seeing us,” Ichowitz replied. “We asked to see you in connection with our investigation of the Megan Larson murder.”

  Gallo shook his head and sighed, “What a terrible tragedy. She was a lovely young woman.”

  “Mayor, did you know Ms. Larson very well?”

  Gallo paused as if carefully considering his response and said, “Yes.”

  “Did you see her on June 8th, the night she was murdered?”

  He paused again stared at Ichowitz as if trying to discern what the detective knew and said, “Yes I did.”

  “Can you tell us about it?”

  “Megan and I were very close friends. She told me she was staying at a friend’s place in Manayunk. She asked if I could stop by and give her some advice about a situation in which she was involved.”

  “What situation?” Ichowitz asked.

  Gallo stared at the detective for a few moments and finally replied, “Well, she had resigned from her job with Dorothy Wiggins, and she was
ending their personal relationship. Megan was concerned that Wiggins would react,” he paused apparently choosing his words carefully, and continued, “Megan was concerned that Wiggins would be upset, that she would try to dissuade her from moving on.”

  “Did Megan tell you anything about the nature of her personal relationship with Ms. Wiggins?”

  Gallo considered his answer and said, “Wiggins was Megan’s mentor. Unfortunately Wiggins wanted their relationship to be more than strictly professional.”

  “You were aware that Megan had been living at Wiggins’ home, weren’t you?” Ichowitz asked.

  “Yes. But as I told you she had moved out and was staying at her friend’s place.”

  “Mayor, did you know whose place she was staying at?”

  “Not until I got there. It happened to be Ari Nooris’ condo. Ari, Megan and I had been working on the court house project. That’s how I came to know Megan.”

  “Mayor, did you know that Megan was pregnant?”

  Gallo stared back at Ichowitz, obviously surprised by the question. He took a deep breath and said, “No.”

  Before he could recover from his shock over the revelation of Larson’s pregnancy Regan asked, “When exactly did you see Megan on the 8th?”

  “It must have been around 8 or 8:30 that night. I’m not sure. It was only for a few minutes. I was in between events. I had been at the fundraiser at the Union League; Jack, I saw you there. I had to be at a meeting with the ward leaders in South Philadelphia at ten. So I couldn’t have been with Megan for more than a half hour at the most.”

  “Was anyone else there?”

  “No.”

  “Mayor, I have to ask you this question.” Ichowitz said. “Were you and Ms. Larson in an intimate relationship?”

  Gallo blushed and said, “Yes, yes we were. I cared very deeply about her.”

  “Mayor, would you provide us with a DNA sample? We’re trying to determine the identity of the father of Megan’s baby.”

  “Of course.”

  At their meeting with the DA and her Chief Investigator Charles Ferguson, Regan and Ichowitz told them they believed Gallo had been unaware of Larson’s pregnancy. As to his not knowing the nature of Larson’s relationship with Wiggins, they were not buying that. Gallo was too shrewd not to have realized that Larson and Wiggins had a sexual relationship. They had checked out his alibi, and Gallo had attended the meeting with the South Philly ward leaders as he claimed. Since Jack corroborated Gallo’s attendance at the Union League, it appeared that Gallo was not a suspect in the murder. Besides, as far as they could see, Gallo had no motive to harm Larson.

  “Jack, Izzy, do you believe that the Mayor was being honest about his feelings for Megan Larson?” the DA asked.

  “Yes. I don’t think he’s that good a liar,” Ichowitz responded.

  Romansky laughed and said, “He’s a politician, of course he’s an accomplished liar. Where are we on the court house case?”

  “Vito Senior is on board. Izzy and I will meet him tomorrow to finalize our strategy,” Regan replied.

  When they had concluded the meeting, Ichowitz asked Regan, “So do we have a strategy for Vito to implement?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure we’ll come up with one by tomorrow,” Regan said. “First I have to come up with a strategy for Sunday’s meeting between my mother and Katey. Got any advice?”

  “Introduce them and then go play baseball with Liam and your nieces and nephews. Your mother and Ms O’Malley will take it from there.”

  “Really?”

  “It’s the emess,” Ichowitz said and patted Regan on the shoulder.

  The following morning Ichowitz and Regan returned to Vito Coratelli’s home.

  “Mr. Coratelli, Izzy and I think the best way to proceed, is to…”

  Coratelli waved his hand cutting Regan off in mid sentence, “Young man,” he said. “I have been handling ‘faccio di stronzo’- what you call lowlife bastards, like Gallo and Saunders and the rest of them, since before you were born.”

  “Here’s how we’re going to fix these schifozos,” he said.

  For the next forty-five minutes Coratelli laid out his strategy.

  Coratelli would start by confronting Mickey Saunders, who he believed was the weakest link in the chain. He would suggest that Saunders’ principals were setting him up to take the fall for his son’s murder and that the police were already making plans with the DA to arrest him and indict him for Vito Junior’s murder. Coratelli would tell him he knew that Saunders could not be involved. After all, Saunders, Chief Justice Bob Fogerty and Coratelli had been friends for over forty years.

  “Sow the seed of division, and then we will cultivate them,” Coratelli said. “Before he has a chance to react, I will move on to His Honor, and tell him I have been informed that Saunders is about to implicate him in the murder. Let’s see how these rats respond.”

  “Vito, do you really believe they will turn on each other?” Ichowitz asked.

  “Izzy, they are all gutless. Neither Saunders nor Gallo actually put the poison in my boy’s veins, but they were all guilty. No, it was the Nooris brothers, or someone working for them who did it. We need to scare one of them to rat out the Nooris.”

  “You’ll see. They will be jumping over one another to be the Commonwealth’s witness.”

  Later on, after they set up the time and sequence of Coratelli’s meetings with Saunders and the Chief Justice, Regan asked Ichowitz, “Do you think Coratelli will be able to get Saunders to finger the Nooris brothers?”

  “Jack, I have watched Vito tear holes in the most solid prosecutions the Commonwealth had ever presented. He can bring a jury to tears even when his client is the most despicable scumbag they have ever encountered. If he can do that, he can convince Mickey Saunders he’s going to the needle if he doesn’t come forward and make a deal.”

  NINETEEN

  “Mother, Dad, I asked Katey O’Malley and Liam to join us today,” Jack said as they entered the back yard of his parents’ home.

  The Commissioner and Patricia Regan were standing at the gate.

  “Welcome to our home,” Commissioner Regan said, as he extended his hand to Kate. “Liam, that’s a really nice glove you have there,” he said and was greeted with a smile. “It looks just like the first baseball glove I bought Jack when he was around your age. Jack, that’s an outfielder’s glove. I guess you figure Liam’s got the speed and coordination to play out there.”

  “Dad, Liam’s got the makings of a five tool outfielder,” Jack replied.

  Liam blushed.

  “Ladies, if you don’t mind, Liam, Jack and I are going to throw the pill around a bit,” the Commissioner said, as he took Liam by the hand.

  “Hello dear,” Mrs. Regan said as she extended her hand to Kate.

  “Thank you for inviting us, ma’am,” Kate replied.

  They watched as Jack and his father introduced Liam to Jack’s nephews and nieces who had already arrived. Liam stood next to Jack, who draped his arm over the little boy’s shoulder.

  “My Liam favors Jack,” Kate said.

  “And I can see that the feeling is quite mutual,” Patricia Regan said. “Come let me introduce you to the rest of the clan.”

  Jack looked back at Kate and his mother.

  “Jack, you can stop worrying about your mother and Ms. O’Malley. That young woman looks more than capable of holding her own. Besides, all your mother wants is for you to be happy,” Jack’s father said.

  Liam was the star of the wiffle-ball game. When Liam and the other kids started to kick the soccer ball, Jack went in search of Katey and his mother. He found them in the kitchen.

  “What are the two of you cooking up?” he asked.

  “Kate was just giving me pointers on how to prepare the turkey for Thanksgiving dinner,” his mother said.

  “Mother, I think you’ll find that Kate’s a whiz when it comes to the culinary arts. She’s a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu.”


  “Is that so, my dear?” Mrs. Regan asked.

  Kate blushed and nodded.

  “No wonder I heard all the raves about your transformation of the menu at the Grape Tavern. I bet your uncle gave you quite a battle over changing the ambiance of his bar.”

  “So you know O’Malley pretty well I see,” Kate replied with a smile. “I don’t think the word ‘ambiance’ and the Grape were ever used in the same sentence before, Mrs. Regan.”

  “Call me Patty, dear,” Jack’s mother said. “Now Jack, you shoo. Go out and play with the kids. Kate and I are talking turkey, and I have to make some notes.”

  Jack sat down on the Adirondack chair next to his father. The Commissioner handed him a cold bottle of Harp from the cooler. Jack touched the neck of his bottle to his father’s and said, “Mother and Katey are talking turkey.”

  “I assumed the girls were getting along well. I noticed your sister Annie guarding the kitchen door a few minutes ago in case hostilities broke out. I figured that things were going well when she left her post,” his father replied. “Kate’s a beautiful girl, and that little boy,” his father said. “Jack I told your mother that you needed some time to mourn and not to meddle. But you know, she couldn’t help herself, and tried to reunite you and Courtney. Does Courtney know about Ms. O’Malley?”

  Jack nodded.

  “Oy-vey.”

  “You must have been hanging out with Izzy.”

  “Since before you were born Jack; Izzy told me that Vito Coratelli Sr. is going to help you with the investigation of his son’s death do you think his plan is going to work?”

  “Dad, this case seems to be morphing into a conspiracy that could bring down the Mayor, the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and God knows who else,” Jack replied.

  The Commissioner nodded.

  “Why don’t you give me a summary of what your investigation has uncovered so far?”

  Jack took a breath and said, “I became involved as part of a task force looking into municipal corruption by city officials and public employee unions. The investigation led us to the Family Court House project and the possible involvement of the Chief Justice and others. Megan Larson’s murder changed everything. She had been a cooperating witness and was going to testify before the grand jury. With her death it appeared that our investigation was going nowhere.”