Hudson City

      The newspaper office where Nat worked was not the same one he had started at, an old storefront office filled with the scent of ink and rotting newsprint. The publisher had started the newspaper after con consolidation had destroyed the original hometown publication. The publisher believed people would pick up his paper if he made it more reflective of the town they lived in and he was right. The new paper flourished after a fashion. The son of the founder had brought to the paper his own ideas, making deals with local politicians – much in the same way his father had, giving good news coverage to those who steered advertising his way, bad news for those who didn’t. Only the son was never as savvy as his father, bad deals gave the paper a sour reputation nearly as negative as from the day of Dix’s reign, only nowhere near as profitable. The son was also a cheap son of a bitch, refusing to invest in the technology necessary to let the paper compete in the internet

      The police chief Nat wrote so scathingly about was never my chief. Police Chief Nelson Rogers became acting chief when my chief got caught taking kickbacks from local restaurants to turn a blind eye to illegal aliens they employed as cooks, waiters and such. He also ran protection for the alien women who got sold off for sex duties at local spas. He also provided protection for the massive gambling trade he knew about and profited from. I never forgave him his transgressions if only because his removal allowed Rogers to rise in the ranks to chief – a man who had been a kiss-ass deputy chief with high hopes and an intense dislike for me while I still was in the department. Rogers took credit for bringing down the former chief, although, in fact, he like many of the lower ranking officers, had padded their own income by shaking down the alien workers, and turned states evidence against the other cops when he himself got busted. He was also savvy in the use of the intern