Journey Under the Midnight Sun - Gallavich

the "gallagher affair"

The life of Tony Markovich was easy.

He knew since he was a kid what kinda work he wanted to do and managed to do it without a problem.
His family was good to him and so were his friends. He didn't have a relationship problem either.

He led a simple and easy life that suited him completely.

But his life had changed once and for all, the day he had started dating Fiona Gallagher.

He appreciated the presence of the young woman and to his delight, it seemed reciprocal.

He knew that because of her family's history, she probably hadn't been with many men, but he hoped it wasn't the only reason that prompted her to accept his advances. Because the more they were together, the more he could imagine spending his life with her.

The Gallagher family was known throughout the city and no one dared approach them too closely.
They were nothing scary or brutal. But the actions of Frank, Fiona's father, had forever cast a shadow over this once joyful family.

Back then Tony was a young teenager, idolizing his father and following him everywhere, begging him to talk to him about his investigations.
Tony's father was a policeman and maybe that was what made Tony choose this career.

He remembered how much his father felt involved in the "Gallagher affair" as most people had ended up calling it. And how much it had troubled him for a long time.

Terry Milkovich, a father from the Southside, was found dead in an abandoned building a few blocks from his home.
It was a playground that was particularly popular with young people in the neighborhood who could freely let off steam in the multiple rooms of the building, crawl in the ducts, hide in the huge closets or create huge mazes with the few pieces of furniture still present.
Terry's body was found by a young boy who had come to play in this building with his friends.
He had seen the body as he crawled into the air duct.

He had initially thought that the man was only asleep. And caught by a sudden desire for mischief, he had crawled gently to him, with the thought of stealing his wallet as long as he was unconscious.

The boy had changed his mind when he finally saw all the blood that was staining his clothes.

The boy had quickly exited through the door and cleared everything that encumbered his exit before running away from the building as soon as possible.

It was the boy's mother who had called the police when after finding her son's clothes stained with blood, she managed to make him confess what had happened.

Tony remembered hearing his father telling this story over and over again, trying to turn things around differently to find the information he had missed.

Tony also remembered reading his father's interrogation summaries while he had his back turned.

The victim's wife, his son Mickey and her baby daughter, Mandy, had stayed home all day long. Their alibi had been confirmed by Henry Milkovich, the victim's brother.

It didn't take long for the policeman to discover that Terry Milkovich had used the money from his parents' inheritance to pay the pawnbrokers to round off his end of the month from the many people in the neighborhood owed him money.

Tony had heard the name of Frank Gallagher for the first time a few days after the murder.

This guy was known throughout the neighborhood for being one of the greatest boozers in this city.
It hadn't been difficult for the police to discover that Frank owed Terry money. A lot of money. He was the one who owed Terry the most money. And it didn't take long after that, for the investigators to be interested in him.