Ransom on the River: Deep River Inn

by Bettie Jane

  Hellfire and brimstone had never been Sadie Andersen’s cup of tea. Not when she was Sadie XX, and certainly not now after everything that had happened.

  Augustus—Gus to his friends—tipped his hat toward Sadie.

  “How are you, Miss Sadie? Word has it that you wore pants to the Daughters meeting.”

  Gus sat just a couple seats down from her and was another of Sadie’s bright spots in this isolated and somewhat backward river town.

  Augustus Birnie. He was a descendant of one of the town’s founders—if you didn’t count the native population that was here long before the white men. None of the locals seemed inclined to count that. James Birnie settled Cathlamet, named for the Chinook tribe that lived here originally back in the 1850’s. The town was called Birnie’s Slough in the beginning but sometime in the last 70 years, the town took on the name, or a version of the name, of those original inhabitants.

  She’d been more than eager to learn of the town’s history. Dead people were much easier to live with than the live kind.

  She groaned, not in surprise but in disgust. “Well, that didn’t take long, Gus. Who’d you hear it from?”

  Gus’s laugh came from somewhere deep in his belly and she’d grown used to the sound of it. That laugh calmed her frayed nerves every time it rose from his throat.

  “I just came in from the docks. It seems that Margaret and her flock of she-birds were raving on about your lack of respect for their customs. Half of Main Street heard her carrying on.”

  Sadie let out a deep sigh and lay her cheek on the cool bartop. “Only half? She must have been whispering. Next time, I’m drinking before I go to their meeting. No, I take it back. I’m drinking instead of going to their meeting. If it didn’t mean so much to Daniel, I wouldn’t even have bothered. He’s convinced it’s the only way I’ll ever get accepted here. Get close to the women who run this town, he said, and they’ll see how remarkable I am and welcome me with open arms. Ha! The only thing they’ve found remarkable about me is my terrific lack of respect for their customs. Did you know that they have a bible verse as a motto for their meeting? And they use a gavel as if they were the town’s judges and jury.”

  She knew she was rambling but the frustration she felt was pouring out of her anyway. She knew the saloon was one of the safest places for her to let her hair down and her complaints fly.

  “In a way, they are precisely that. You’re on quite a tear today, Mrs. Sheriff.” William refilled her cup again. She’d long since warmed up, but sipped the bitter drink anyway.

  Gus continued addressing Sadie. “They might be more judge in this town than the actual judge, to be honest.”

  Then William joined in. “If they don’t like you, I agree with your husband that you need to win them over. But be patient. They’ll get to know you like we have and come to love you in the end.”

  Sadie’s innocent blush came easy. He wasn’t exactly flirting with her, neither of them were, but it was nice to spend time with people her own age. Even her new husband was closer to her father’s age than hers.

  “I think you’ve been drinking too much of your own product if you think it’ll be that simple.” She stood and smoothed her hair. “Speaking of the sheriff, I better get home and check on him. I don’t trust him to stay in bed and actually rest.”

  She pushed down a bit of worry that tried to creep up. This was not the flu. It wasn’t.

  “At least let me send home a hot meal with you. Have a seat. It’ll be ready in a jiffy.”

  When he returned from the kitchen, he refilled her shot glass one more time. “This one’s on the house. Nobody should have to start their Sunday being trapped in a room with those women. We’re mostly real glad you came to our town. Things are much more lively with you around. Plus, the Sheriff’s got a spring in his step that wasn’t there before you.”

  “I’m glad my misery provides some entertainment value for you men.” She rolled her eyes and sucked down the rest of her drink.

  Gus smiled and gave her one of his heartfelt laughs. “When the ladies are focused on you, they leave some of the rest of us alone. We’ve been subject to their abuse our whole lives, the least you can do is give us a break from their tirades.”

  She smiled at him. “What would I do without you boys? Throw myself into the Columbia, I suppose.”

  “Now don’t do nothing so drastic, Mrs. Sheriff. We’d sure miss seeing your face. Not to mention we’d be the focus of the women again if you weren’t here to distract them.”

  He winked and Sadie opened her mouth to tease him but was interrupted by a gust of frigid air and a woman’s high-pitched voice.

  “Is Oscar here?” the breathless woman asked William. Her face was paler against her dark hair than Sadie remembered it and there was strain around her eyes that wasn’t usually there.

  Instead of William, Gus answered, standing to greet her. “Hello there, sister. What’s brought you into the pub on a Sunday? I saw Oscar earlier. He went to Astoria, said something about a shipment he needed to look into.”

  Henrietta moved across the creaky wood floors, her skirts swishing around her ankles and fell into Gus’s arms.

  “Brother, I’m so glad your here. Something’s happened to Jemmie.”

  2

  Gus held his sister close and she began to sob as soon as she was wrapped up in her brother’s safe embrace. “What’s happened to Jemmie?”

  After a few seconds, Henrietta stepped back, and dried her eyes with the handkerchief that Gus offered her.

  “I—I don’t really know.” Her lip quivered as she spoke and Sadie could see the terror in her eyes. A mother frightened for one of her children was bone-chilling. And this mother was terrified.

  “The boys were out on one of their adventures and Joel came back just now—pale as a ghost, not talking, and Jemmie’s nowhere to be found. He just kept saying, ‘Jemmie’s gone, Jemmie’s gone’ over and over.”

  Sadie offered a concerned smile to the distraught mother.

  “Do you know where they were playing, Henrietta? I’ll get the sheriff and we’ll start searching for your boy.”

  The overwrought mother looked at Sadie with a bit of blankness behind her eyes. She shook her head in frustration and her barely dry eyes welled up with tears again. “I wish I knew. They had a few usual spots but Joel—whatever he saw must have really scared him because he’s not talking at all.”

  “I’ll talk to Joel,” Gus said. “Is he at the house?”

  Henrietta sniffled and nodded. “I left him at the house with Mother so I could come look for Oscar. Oscar will know what to do.”

  Her voice trailed off at the end of her sentence. Sadie’s heart broke for her. She seemed so lost and so frightened.

  Gus had already put his coat on. “Come with me Henrietta. We’ll talk to Joel and find out what happened.”

  He pulled his sister under his arm and they made their way toward the door.

  Sadie called after them. “I’ll go get Daniel and we’ll meet you at your house.”

  Gus nodded but Henrietta didn’t react at all.

  She had her coat on and was headed out when she had another thought. “William, can you see if you can reach Deputy Fisher’s wife. Daniel said he was going to Portland today—maybe he hasn’t left yet. Have him meet us at Brix House. We might need his help if Daniel is still feeling ill, although it will be tough to keep him in bed when a child’s gone missing.”

  She didn’t know Daniel all that well yet, but she did know he was a good, kind man. She knew she was lucky to find someone like him after, well, after Astoria.

  “Sure thing, Mrs. Sheriff. I’ll also close the bar and gather the boys at Brix house for a search party. We’ll find him before nightfall.”

  “Thanks William. I hope Gus can get Joel to talk.”

  “Don’t forget Sheriff’s dinner.”

  He handed her a boxed meal and she accepted with a grateful smile. She walked out of the saloon and couldn’t su
ppress the shiver that overtook her. Why on earth someone would voluntarily wear a dress in this weather was beyond comprehension. The freezing rain was coming down in sheets now and the wind had picked up. She thought of little Jemmie lost somewhere in this weather and she picked up her pace, running as quickly as she dared through the wet and muddy streets toward the two-story home on the hill that she shared with her new husband.

  By the time she rushed in the front door of her house, her lungs were burning from the exertion.

  “Daniel,” she called out as she made her way through the kitchen, depositing the food on the counter, then through the living room, and up the stairs toward their shared bedroom. “One of the Brix boys turned up missing. I’m afraid you’re not going to get much of a sick day.”

  She rounded the corner into the bedroom and stopped short at the sight before her.

  Daniel, who’d been a bit pale and tired when she left, was now huddled under many layers of blankets and shivering so hard his teeth were chattering. It sounded like they might break from the impact. She rushed across the room to his side.

  “Oh, no, Daniel. You look a bit worse than when I left, I’m afraid. Don’t worry, I’ll fix you right up.” She forced a smile to her face and determined to not let him see her panic. She touched his forehead with the back of her hand and then jerked back as if she’d touched a hot stove.

  She willed her hands to stop shaking. “Your fever is quite high, I’m afraid.”

  The dreaded words hung in the air between them and a chill passed through her. She’d seen this before. The same flu that had taken her mother and father from her now had its sights set on her husband. Even with great effort, she couldn’t suppress the flashes of her dying parents.

  Not again, please, she silently begged of the universe.

  She avoided making eye contact, certain that he’d see the fear there if she let him get a glimpse.

  “I’ll get a cool cloth. It’s good you took today off. You need the rest.”

  She walked to the bathroom and ran a cloth under cold water.

  In her mind, she was already making the calculations. Father had had a fever like this. How much time had passed from his first high temperature until he started turning blue? Hours, she thought. Maybe a day, but it wasn’t long. There were no doctors in town. Most of those members of the county who’d fallen ill from the influenza, some called it the Spanish Flu, this last year either nursed themselves at home as best they could or they died at home. Traveling to Astoria or Portland by boat was an option for less severe cases if they caught it in time, but it wasn’t an easy journey in the best of times. She considered what the conditions might be like on the river right now and had to fight the despair that threatened to bubble over. Getting his fever down was the most important thing right now. Well, that and determining what to do about the lost Brix boy.

  Only a few short minutes ago, her biggest problem had been the self-righteous women in town. Bourbon could fix that. Bourbon couldn’t fix either of these new, more pressing problems.

  She moved back to Daniel’s bedside and placed a cool cloth on his forehead. “Let’s just get this fever down.”

  “I’m alright, dear Sadie. Don’t worry about me. It looks worse than it is. What were you saying about the Brix boy gone missing?”

  He started to sit up and push away the cool cloth, which must have felt like ice to his unnaturally hot skin, but he was too weak to get up.

  “Relax, darling, you need your strength. The Brix boys were out playing in the woods. One of them, Joel, I think it was, came back saying something about Jemmie being gone. They can’t get more than that out of him. Gus, you know him, he went to try and get more information from Joel and William and the boys are gathering for a search party. They planned on meeting up with you for direction at Brix House.” Everyone in town called the Brix residence Brix House because the Brix family had been here almost as long as the Birnie’s. The historical home, and the legacy attached to the family, was a centerpiece of Cathlamet life. “Oscar’s in Astoria, apparently. Went early this morning.”

  The sheriff lay back in his bed, unable to fight off the cloth that Sadie persisted in resting on his forehead. He looked out the window and groaned in frustation. “It’s freezing out there. We need to find the boy before nightfall.”

  “I know. I’ll call over to Brix House and tell William to let Deputy Fisher know he’s in charge.”

  Sheriff shook his head. “He’s in Portland for a few days. We needed some supplies so I sent him.”

  Sadie nodded. “I know, but I sent William to see if perhaps he hadn’t left yet.”

  “He likely left outta here at first light, on the earliest ferry.”

  Sadie knew it was unlikely that Deputy would still be in town, this late in the day, but it had seemed right to try. Without the Deputy and with the Sheriff now out of commission, things just became much more complicated for the Brix boy.

  Sadie chewed on her bottom lip thoughtfully.

  “Sadie, get my badge and my gun holster and bring it to me.”

  “Daniel, you can’t even sit up. You can’t traipse out into the woods to find Jemmie Brix.”

  “I know that, don’t you think I know that better than anyone, woman?”

  He hadn’t exactly raised his voice, but it was his very stern Sheriff voice that he used on her now. That voice was one she’d learned not to argue with. He didn’t take that tone often, but when he did, it was serious.

  “Just get it for me. Please.” His voice softened at the end and she crossed the room to the chest of drawers where he kept his gun and the little silver 5-pointed star he wore as a badge. She took it to him and again tried to will her hands to stop trembling. Whatever he had in mind, she still needed to figure out she was going to help the Brix family and nurse Daniel back to health. Daniel fully recovering was the only option here. She’d lost enough people she cared about to the killer flu and this small town had also been ravaged by it. The worst of the pandemic seemed to be over here but it had taken a toll on her little town. She’d only witnessed part of it, since a lot of the worst cases and deaths were in the fall just before she married Daniel. But she’d heard the stories and when she’d arrived the rawness of the community’s grief was still in the eyes of most of the town’s inhabitants.

  She forced herself back to the present. “What praytell are you going to do with those, Sheriff Andersen?”

  He’d managed to get himself into a seated postion.

  “I’m going to deputize you, little lady.” He winked and she rolled her eyes at him, resisting the urge to punch him at the silly nickname. It was a game they often played. He’d tease her with nicknames that infuriated her and she’d pretend to be mad. Normally, she enjoyed their banter, but today it was a painful reminder that he was trying to act like everything was fine.

  “You’re going to deputize me,” she repeated back flatly. The words took a moment to sink in. “You’re going to deputize me? You’ve got to be kidding me, Daniel. The town hates me. How is this going to help anything? Besides, I need to take care of you. Why don’t you deputize William? Or—isn’t there someone else that is more qualified for this job?”

  He chuckled and it did help the panic stay at bay that he was still able to make jokes and laugh a bit. “Oh, you are just pulling my leg. Very funny, Sheriff. I suppose you should deputize someone seeing that Deputy Fisher is out of town. Who did you have in mind?”

  “I’m quite serious, Mrs. Sheriff. Isn’t that how the boys down at Columbia Saloon refer to you?”

  “That’s got nothing to do with actual Sheriffing, Sheriff. The whole town would riot if I walk out of here with a badge and your revolver. You know they would.”

  He shook his head. “The womenfolk might not much care for it, but the men, they’ll respect my wishes. Besides, I can’t deputize William because he’s not here and he hasn’t had the flu, which means he can’t come here. You are in fact here and have also had and survived the
flu. I’ll deputize you and then you get yourself over to Brix House. You’re an excellent shot and even better on a horse. You’re as qualified as any of these men to be out searching. If anyone gives you trouble, you tell them to call me.”

  “Who will take care of you if I’m out searching the woods? You need someone to make sure your fever gets and stays down. You need care, Daniel, and I doubt there is anyone you’d let take care of you who isn’t me.”

  She put her chin up in defiance and crossed her hands over her chest, daring him to disagree.

  “You’re mostly right. I’ll call Olivia. She’s already been sick so she can tend me. You’re better with a gun than William and it wouldn’t make sense to deputize Gus, he’s the boys’ uncle. He’s too close to the situation. Now, we’re wasting time. Where’s the Bible?”

  She looked back at him blankly. “I think your fever is worse than I thought, Daniel Andersen. We don’t have a Bible.”

  “I mean for the swearing in. I need you to put your hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the laws of the county, state, and federal government.”

  “Oh.”

  She looked around the room and her eyes landed on a hard copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. She retrieved it from the nightstand and held it out to Daniel.

  He looked at it and raised an eyebrow. “You are going to swear on a novel by Mark Twain?”

  “Sure, why not?”

  He rolled his eyes and she couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Maybe he wasn’t as sick as she’d originally feared. Of course, he was or he’d be up and out the door already, but it felt nice to pretend. Or hope. She wasn’t quite sure which she was doing more of at the moment.

  “Put your hand on the cover.”

  She obliged.

  “Good. Now, do you Sadie Andersen, swear on the literary works of Mark Twain to uphold the laws of Wahkiakum County, Washington State, and the United States of America?”

  She thought she might throw up. Instead, she swallowed hard and nodded meekly.

  “You have to answer out loud.”