The governor, as it happened, had already served two terms in the statehouse and was barred from succeeding himself. Not ready to retire, he was looking at a race for a U.S. Senate seat. He had a shot at it, too, as long as the black wing of the Democratic party didn’t raise too much hell. The black caucus had been complaining that it wasn’t getting enough goodies in return for the votes it delivered, and there were noises that sounded like the beginnings of a revolt. If the blacks bolted and the party fractured, the governor would be retired whether he liked it or not

And right there was the crux of a deal.

Marvel and Harold would talk to the leaders of the black caucus. They, in turn, would talk with the governor’s hatchet man. If the governor agreed to act on Marvel’s request to clean up Longstreet, the black caucus would back off

When I outlined the idea to Marvel at the hotel meeting, she first thought it over and shook her head.

“It’s an idea,” she said, taking a lick of the ice cream. “But no matter how much he wanted to help us - help himself - the governor couldn’t appoint a black majority to the council. That’d kill him for sure. The black caucus has got some clout, but there’s a country boy caucus, too. They’ve got more clout than the black caucus, and they wouldn’t stand for that shit.”

“The governor doesn’t have to appoint a black majority,” I said. “Suppose we take out three white council members, leaving the Reverend Dodge and this Lucius Bell, the guy you say might be honest. OK?”

“OK,” she said, nodding.

“So the governor appoints the replacements: one of our people and two more machine members. They can be the worst rednecks in the state, we don’t care. But they have to be from our list, the list of people we can control-“

“That we got dirt on,” Marvel chipped in.

“That’s right. When the council is legally functioning again, we take out those two. We either sic the state cops on them, or the IRS, or just go right straight to them, show them the evidence, force them out-“

“Blackmail,” said Harold.

“Right. Push those two off the council. That still leaves three: our appointee, the reverend, and Bell. Three council members is a quorum. Three members can appoint replacements. You’ve got the reverend by the balls, for diddling these little girls, plus our new guy

“

“And those three appoint the two new members. That gives us four to one,” Marvel said, sitting up straight, the ice cream forgotten.

“With four to one, we’ve got the votes to redraw the election districts,” I said. “We gerrymander it just like the machine did, but in our favor.”

Marvel stared at Harold. “It could work,” she blurted.