Something In The Air

Chapter 17 - Playing Politics

Leon called him early the next morning. Despite the hands on his bedroom clock having not even hit seven yet, Maddox was already up and awake, perched fully-clothed on the edge of his bed with his knees jiggling up and down with restless energy, when his mobile phone started vibrating next to him.

"Tell me we've got the gig," Maddox said expectantly.

"We've got the gig," Leon replied. "Ten o'clock. The town hall. He's granted us forty minutes."

"Must be a busy guy. I'll see you there."

Maddox finished off his normal morning routine, making sure he took his new antibiotics as well as his nebulisers, then chanced that the traffic would be manageable on the short drive to Newham Town Hall by taking the car. Before leaving, he received a text from Megan asking him if he'd found anything of interest when he'd broken into and searched Christos' house. Remembering his promise to reply promptly to her every message, Maddox told her he had and that it wasn't good news on that front, but that he would explain in more detail later on when he was finished with his immediate task.

It was a crisp morning, with the sky a brilliant white and a fine layer of frost having formed on the car windscreen overnight. For a Saturday morning it was also quiet and Maddox found he could sit back and almost relax as he drove, diverting his thoughts to the matter at hand instead.

Despite living in Newham himself, he hadn't known an awful lot about the current mayor and MP for the borough. That's why, having seen him for the first time at the charity casino night, he'd decided to brush up somewhat on his general knowledge. He now knew that his full name was Kishan Vivek Hegde and that he was a second-generation Indian immigrant, his parents moving to the UK several years before he was born. He'd been elected mayor for the first time three and a half years ago after a narrow victory and had put himself forward for re-election this time round as well. He represented Labour, but it might as well have been the Conservatives for all Maddox really cared. He was officially in his late forties, though in several tabloid newspapers he looked distinctly older, with a naturally dishevelled and informal look that often drew ire from critics. Then there was, of course, the controversy that still hung around him like a bad body odour from last year's scandal, when a major news channel reported that several allegations of sexual misconduct had been made against him, including the hiring of prostitutes for a wild after-party following the annual council Christmas do. The married man had vehemently denied all allegations throughout and, ultimately, they were dropped after a prolonged legal battle, but as far as most people were concerned his reputation was tarnished and it would take a lot of good work to restore the community's faith in him again.

It had only been a few days since Maddox had last been at the town hall for the Newham Neighbours United protest (well, if that's what you could call it) and nothing much had changed in that time, though, being the weekend, the scaffolds were empty with no workers in sight. Maddox pulled up in the car park round the side of the Edwardian building and looked around for any sign of Leon's police car. He was early and there was still fifteen minutes before their meeting with Mayor Hegde, so he wasn't surprised to find he was alone. To pass the time, he pulled out his notebook and made a written list of everything that he wanted to ask the mayor. It ended up hitting two pages.

Leon arrived ten minutes later, but in a blue Audi A4 saloon rather than a police vehicle.

"Technically I shouldn't be working today," he explained after the two of them had shook hands in greeting. "I'm coming here because I bloody well want to."

"Was it difficult getting an appointment?"

"The mayor is as in demand right now as he has been during his whole incumbency, bar that hilarious stuff with the prostitutes when the tabloids were crawling all over him. It seems like everybody's got something to say to him – good or bad."