The Chimney Sweep's Tale

The Chimney Sweep's Tale

A Mimi Delboise Mystery

New Orleans, Louisiana - October 1891

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PART SIX: "Justice Served"

The trial of Émile Gautreaux and Claude Boudwin became one of New Orleans' most talked-about criminal proceedings that winter. Tommy Calhoun, his leg healing but memory sharp, described what he had witnessed in the Beaumont mansion walls and identified Boudwin as the man who had pushed his ladder. Dr. Tran's medical evidence proved conclusively that the boy's injuries resulted from a deliberate attack rather than accident: testimony that proved devastatingly effective with the jury.

Both men were convicted on multiple counts. Gautreaux received twenty-five years for masterminding the theft ring and ordering the attack on Tommy. Boudwin, who had actually pushed the ladder, received twenty years. The judge, noting the defendants' exploitation of child laborers and willingness to commit violence against society's most vulnerable members, expressed particular disgust at the calculated nature of the crimes.

A week after the trial, Mimi sat in Dr. Tran's clinic watching Tommy practice with his new crutches. His determination suggested he understood the larger implications of his experience: that children like him could be heard, that their safety mattered to some adults, that speaking truth sometimes produced real results.

"Will things ever get better for kids like me?" Tommy asked, pausing in his exercises. "For people who have to do dangerous work just to eat?"

It was a question that went to the heart of everything Mimi had observed. The case was solved, the criminals punished, the immediate threat removed. But the systemic issues that enabled Gautreaux's crimes—poverty forcing children into danger, social attitudes dismissing working-class testimony, economic systems valuing property over human welfare—remained entrenched.

"I don't know, Tommy," she said honestly. "But change happens one case at a time, one person at a time. Your courage helped catch a dangerous criminal and prevented him from hurting others."

Tommy nodded thoughtfully, then resumed his exercises. He had learned that truth could triumph over power, that justice was possible even for the powerless: lessons that would serve him well in whatever future awaited.

As Mimi walked through the Quarter toward her office, afternoon sun warm on her face, she reflected on the intersection of individual crimes and systemic injustices. Gautreaux was imprisoned, Tommy was healing, stolen valuables had been returned, and some wealthy families had even compensated the boy for his courage.

It wasn't perfect justice, but it was justice nonetheless. And for a detective working in a city where the powerful too often escaped accountability, any victory for the powerless was worth celebrating.

There would always be another mystery to solve, another criminal to catch, another opportunity to ensure that truth and justice prevailed over wealth and influence. In New Orleans, as in most cities, that work would never be finished.

But it was work worth doing, one case at a time.

THE END

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Thank you for reading The Chimney Sweep's Tale! Mimi Delboise will return in future mysteries as she continues fighting for justice in 1890s New Orleans, where the powerful prey on the vulnerable and only determination can triumph over corruption.

Follow all of Mimi Delboise's adventures over at The Elephant Island Chronicles and on Medium