O’Meara drained his pint in one long swallow. The men erupted and followed suit. Marty Leary called for another round, and Danny noticed that they had somehow become children again, boys, unconditional in their brotherhood.

O’Meara leaned in. “You’re not your father, son.”

Danny stared back at him, unsure.

“Your heart is purer than his.”

Danny couldn’t speak.

O’Meara squeezed his arm just above the elbow. “Don’t sell that, son. You can’t ever buy it back in the same condition.”

“Yes, sir.”

O’Meara held him with his gaze for one more long moment and then Mark Denton handed them each a pint and O’Meara’s hand dropped from Danny’s arm.

After he’d finished his second pint, O’Meara bade the men good bye and Danny and Mark Denton walked him out into a thick rain that fell from the black sky.

His driver, Sergeant Reid Harper, exited the car and covered his boss with an umbrella. He acknowledged Danny and Denton with a nod as he opened the rear door for O’Meara. The commissioner rested an arm on the door and turned to them.

“I’ll speak to Mayor Peters first thing in the morning. I’ll convey to him my sense of urgency and arrange a meeting at City Hall for negotiations with the Boston Social Club. Do either of you have any objections to representing the men at that meeting?”

Danny looked over at Denton, wondering if O’Meara could hear the thumps of their hearts.

“No, sir.”

“No, sir.”

“Well, then.” O’Meara held out his hand. “Allow me to thank you both. Sincerely.”

They each shook the hand.

“You’re the future of the Boston policemen’s union, gentlemen.” He gave them a gentle smile. “I hope you’re up to the task. Now get out of the rain.”

He climbed in the car. “To home, Reid, else the missus will think I’ve turned tomcat.”

Reid Harper pulled away from the curb as O’Meara gave them a small wave through the window.

The rain soaked their hair and fell down the backs of their necks.

“Jesus Christ,” Mark Denton said. “Jesus Christ, Coughlin.”

“I know.”

“You know? Do you understand what you just did in there? You saved us.”

“I didn’t—”

Denton wrapped him in a bear hug and lifted him off the sidewalk. “You fucking saved us!”

He spun Danny over the sidewalk and hooted at the street and Danny struggled to break free but he was laughing now, too, the both of them laughing like lunatics on the street as the rain fell into Danny’s eyes, and he wondered if he’d ever, in his life, felt this good.

He met Eddie McKenna one night in Governor’s Square, at the bar of the Hotel Buckminster.

“What have you got?”

“I’m getting closer to Bishop. But he’s cagey.”

McKenna spread his arms in the booth. “They suspect you of being a plant, you think?”

“Like I said before, it’s definitely crossed their minds.”

“Any ideas?”

Danny nodded. “One. It’s risky.”

“How risky?”

He produced a moleskin notebook, identical to the one he’d seen Fraina use. He’d been to four stationers before he’d found it. He handed it to McKenna.