“I am ’fraid you can’t stop any time ’til you get too old.”
“Isn’t that grand?” Ellen groused as she lay in bed, getting a tuck from Eva at bedtime.
Eva bent to kiss her, and Liam entered to read to them out of Huckleberry Finn.
“Ellen is not happy, Pappa,” Eva said empathetically, smoothing Ellen’s hair out of her face.
“Don’t tell him anything, Mamma.”
“Too late, Ellen,” Liam said.
“Damn,” Ellen muttered.
“Ellen!” Eva scolded quietly, “Älä kirous.” Don’t curse.
“Sorry, I swore.”
“Ewwen sad, Pappa,” Liisa added, having walked over from her trundle bed.
“I’m sorry to hear it,” Liam said. “Times of change in someone’s life always have a little turmoil, but you’ll settle in. Ye won’t even notice it after a while.”
Liam got a sharp look from both women.
“Ye mean, ye notice it all the time?” he asked.
“Yes,” Eva said. “My belly hurt and I get verdy piss off at you, Liam.”
“Really? So, when ye’re pissed off at me it’s because ye’ve got yer monthly? Then what I’ve done doesn’t matter?” He seemed eager at the prospect of this notion.
“Yes, it real, I get mad. If I don’t haff my montly, I don’t see any tink stupid you do.”
He noticed Ellen giving her mother a perplexed look from her half-buried face in the feather pillow.
Eva turned her attention back to her daughter.
Liam did not understand what Eva had said and gave her his best bovine look. Then he started to titter.
Eva snapped her head to look at Liam. “Vhat you tink is funny?”
Liam put the book on his lap and held his hands up in ignorance, shrugging his shoulders. He could not stop laughing. Liisa looked at him and mirrored his mood. She climbed on his lap, giggling with glee.
“Pappa funny.”
“Vill you read, or not?” Eva asked.
“Katso, Mamma, Pappa itkeä.” Look Mamma, Pappa is crying.
This went on for several minutes. He snorted and blew his nose. Finally, he was under control enough to start reading.
“I wuff ’Bewwy Finn, Pappa.”
~~~
It was July third. Crowds were arriving in droves for the Fourth’s events. Ed Murphy came to the house one evening to tell Liam that he’d noticed more U.S. Marshals on hand. He had also seen McKay’s men starting to mill around Last Chance Gulch, in the saloons and in his and Annie’s restaurant.
Ed told a story about how two men fitting the description of McKay’s men came into the diner and Ed decided to use his gift of gab to find out information on the fight tournament and McKay’s whereabouts. “I treated them like any other customer when they came in. One was broody. The other was friendly. I asked if they were here for the races or the fights. The younger one said they worked for McKay. The other one didn’t like that mentioned in public. Later Annie had a chance to chat with the younger one. She found out McKay was at the Hotel Helena.”
“At least we know he’s here, and it doesn’t make me feel good,” Liam said as he walked Ed to the door. “I’m havin’ Jake Russell escort Ellen all day tomorrow.”
~~~
Ellen was up early with Liam on the Fourth. The parade was at ten in the morning, and she had planned with young Sean that they would ride together with elder Sean to the stables to tack up and then ride to the start of the parade.
“Ellen,” Liam said as they started breakfast. “McKay’s in town, and I want ye safe. I’m havin’ Jake Russell escort ye all day. He’ll meet up with ye at the stables this mornin’ after Dr. O’Neill brings ye there.”
“Is McKay coming for you?” she asked.
“I don’t know if he knows I’m here. I’m not comin’ to the parade. I’ll be at the hospital all day. It’s best I stay hidden.”
“Does he know what we look like?” Ellen asked.
“I’m not sure. That’s why I want ye with Jake. Stay away from men with leather vests and newsboy caps, and the fight arena in general. It’s at the fairgrounds.”
“I will, Pappa.”
Ellen was grateful that her first monthly had not lasted all that long and she was free of rags and belly cramps for this fun day. She thought it would be a good idea to eat breakfast before she put on her costume. She always ate before dressing on school days because she otherwise ended up wearing drops and smears of whatever she ate. Ever since Robbie Violet, the class eejit, had announced loudly one day that she smelled like his breakfast, it mortified her to smell like oatmeal or preserves or bacon grease in public.
~~~
Eva got up to feed Conor and Liisa and get them ready for the day. She had planned to go to the parade with Molly O’Neill and her girls. The parade would go right past the restaurant. Since Annie was cooking breakfast, that’s where they’d eat. They would see the parade from the giant second-floor windows of the apartment above the restaurant. She first had to feed the two young ones; otherwise they would scream all the way to Annie’s. With Conor and Liisa and a canvas bag full of diapers and extra clothes ready for the pram, Eva went to the pantry. With a foot stool, she reached into the highest corner of the cupboard for a box that held her Colt pistol. She opened the cartridge to see it fully loaded, clicked it back into place, and checked the safety. It was engaged, and she put it in her right-side skirt pocket. I don’t think I will need this, but I want to have it, just in case…
When the three of them were ready, Eva gave a quick call to Molly on the telephone to see if she was ready. Wealthy people, businesses, and doctors were some of the few people in town who had a phone.
Elder Sean’s Irish friends were waiting outside the house to walk with Eva and Molly and the children. It wasn’t a long walk to Last Chance Gulch through the maze of streets. It was all downhill as well.
When Eva, Molly, and the children arrived at Annie and Ed’s, it was starting to get crowded along Main Street. They all headed upstairs to the apartment through the alley door. Ed had prepared a table for them in the center of the parlor, and he and Annie invited them all to sit down, explaining that the diner was too crowded for all of them to eat there. The patrons in the diner were already rowdy, half of them hung over from the night’s parties and the other half still drunk.
Eva was surprised at the crowds, their sheer size and wildness unnerving her a bit. She was glad Jake Russell was with Ellen and young Sean. It was a wild place and she was glad she had taken the shooting lessons with Jake.
“There were a number of McKay’s men in the diner this morning,” Ed reported. “I don’t know why they’re not eatin’ at the hotel.”
“Perhaps they know somehow of our association with Liam,” Annie suggested.
“Good thinkin’, darlin’. Ye’ll make a good member of our association yet.”
“Does it mean dey know who I am?” Eva asked.
“It’s more than likely, darlin’,” Ed answered. “That one in Duluth did see Liam with you. Us, too.”
“Den it’s good I haff dis,” Eva said, standing and pulling the little Colt out of her pocket and revealing it to Ed and Annie.
“Mother of God, Eva,” Annie whispered.
“Ye know how to use it, then?” Ed asked.
“I know ’nuff,” Eva said.
“Enough is all ye need.”
~~~
Liam and elder Sean were busy at the hospital. Patients were pouring in, ranging from minor to serious: including men in fights, alcohol overdoses, feet stepped on by race horses. There were also a few prostitutes with various injuries and overdoses being brought in by their compatriots. The retired Wayne Johnson was in to help with the few days’ celebration. He took the more superficially injured, while Liam and Sean took the more serious.
“I feel like I’m on the front lines in a war,” Sean said, sweat dripping from his hairline. He and Liam were triaging the incoming wounded and inj
ured. The patients were spilling out into the hallway entrance of the emergency room.
“Jesus, ye’re not joking, are ye.”
Liam, while triaging out in the hall, examined a severely injured man with a gunshot wound to the head. He had been put on a rolling gurney right away. He pulled an eyelid open and looked at his pupils, and then listened to his chest with the stethoscope for several seconds. He heard nothing. “Who brought this man in?” Liam called over the crowd in the emergency room waiting area.
An inebriated man answered. “I did.”
“How old is he?” Liam asked.
“Twenty.”
“What do ye know of his injuries?” Liam inquired further.
“All I know is, we were in a saloon and firecrackers were goin’ off inside and next I know, he’s down on the floor. I’m thinkin’ he’s just passed out from drinkin’. I had friends carry him to our room and now, here he is. The brothel madam called an ambulance when he didn’t wake up.”
“Christ,” Liam muttered. “He most likely died of this gunshot wound to the head. Do ye know his name and where he’s from?”
“His name’s Caleb Lassiter, from Great Falls.” The much younger man sat dumbfounded and began to stutter. “He … He’s dead? My brother?”
Liam listened to the man’s heartbeat with his stethoscope again. He heard nothing again. “I’m sorry. Yer brother’s gone. Ye may want to say yer goodbyes, son. I’ll wheel him to a more private area down here. Someone will help ye with arrangements when ye’re ready. I’ll send a nurse in a few minutes.”
Liam looked at the crowd as more injured and wounded filed in the door.
~~~
When the parade was over, Eva started to gather her babies to head on home through the wild crowds of Helena. Molly and the girls decided to take a cab to the fairgrounds to watch young Sean in his riding exhibitions. The street started to empty as everyone headed to the fairgrounds for the horse riding competitions and races. Annie and Ed went down to the diner to start the dinner hour. The little ones had fallen asleep on the sofa. Eva’s plan was to lift them into the pram and let them sleep as soon as she packed the pram.
As Eva finished putting the baby bag on bottom rack of the pram, she heard the door shut from the alley entrance and footsteps coming up the stairs. It didn’t sound like the quick, happy footsteps of Annie or Ed. A shiver passed through her spine as she saw a large man with a leather cap and vest make it to the top of the stairs.
“Hello, Mrs. Dady,” he said.
“How you know me?”
“We’ve known for a while now who Liam Dady’s family is. We knew the Murphys from Duluth. It was much to Sheridan McKay’s pleasure that Liam and you all were discovered here. One of our men spotted you and the Murphys in the windows watching the parade. We were given our orders.”
Eva’s heart began to race. This man who came to kill her was very near her sleeping children. Her whole body began to shake.
“Vhat you gonna do?”
“I’m ordered to hold you, so Liam will come out of hiding.”
Eva saw him spy the children on the sofa. She thought of screaming, but she instinctively moved across the room so the man would get away from her children. When she moved to the far corner of the large room, he followed her.
“Don’t make this any harder, Mrs. Dady. I’m going to tie you up. I’ll tell Mrs. Murphy to let Liam know we have ye.”
Eva felt the hard metal in her pocket hit against her side and stuck her hand in her pocket. She let the man get close enough so she couldn’t miss him. He had no weapon she could see, just his hands.
He smiled. “Whatcha have in yer pocket? A gun?”
Eva understood that he thought it implausible and was joking about it. That was her last fully conscious thought. When he was about four feet away, Eva, with her hand in her pocket, grabbed the pistol butt and took the safety off. She pulled the pistol out of her pocket and, in a fraction of a second, her would-be kidnapper and likely assailant lay on the floor with a single bullet to the heart. For those few seconds, Eva had no fear. The next thing she knew, Ed and his Irish friends, who were supposed to be watching her were racing toward her.
Ed gazed at the dead man. “Eva, darlin’, what the hell happened?” He took the gun out of her hand and carefully passed it to one of his friends. She fell into his arms. “It’s all over, Eva. Ye did fine.”
“He say he gonna hold me so Liam would come get me. Den dey kill him.”
“Jesus, Ed,” one of the guards sputtered. “He came from the rear. We were watchin’ from the front. I didn’t think … Jesus, we’re sorry. Thank God she’s all right.”
“Please take me home vit my babies.”
~~~
Liam left the young man with his brother in a quiet part of the hall. How tragic, he thought. They intended to have a good time in Helena for the Fourth, and ended up with one man fatally wounded and a stunned, grieving younger brother, not much older than Ellen and young Sean, to pick up the pieces and go home. Liam had written the dead man’s name on his clipboard, and noted the probable dead on arrival status for the medical report the Sheriff would need to write his report.
Liam worried about Eva and his family. As he went back to triage the living patients, he glanced at the regulator clock in the hall. It was two o’clock. His family would be at home now, escorted by Jake and the “Irish secret police.” He huffed in irritation. He wouldn’t be getting out of there any time soon. He convinced himself they were safe. “Sean, have a nurse get hold of the Sheriff’s office. We have a death by gunshot out in the hall,” Liam reported. He walked back into the emergency room.
Liam sent a man with a gash across his forehead to Dr. Johnson, and then tended another head wound. This patient was a pugilist. Liam knew all the telltale signs. There were contusions on both eyes, one swollen shut. The bottom lip was split wide in the middle. As Liam manually examined the man's torso, he could feel that his ribs were bruised and one felt broken.
“Jesus Christ, that hurts, Doc,” the injured man said.
“Ye’re quite a mess. At least ye’re conscious. I’m wrappin’ ye for now. Ye shouldn’t fight for six to eight weeks. These ribs need to heal. After that, ye might think of findin’ another way to earn a livin’.”
“Well, I almost had the other bastard,” the man whispered. “But I was supposed to lose. I let the other guy hammer me, to make it look good. My boss woulda done worse if I hadn’t.”
Liam thought to himself, all I need is for McKay to show up here at the hospital. He took a deep breath. “I’m afraid I’ll have to stitch these cuts on yer lip and one on yer eyebrow. It’s gonna hurt.”
“I don’t care. It won’t be any more than what hurts now.”
As he started to stitch the eye wound, Liam felt compelled to ask questions. “So, who’s yer boss that he would want ye to throw a fight?”
“I’m not supposed to mention his name anywhere, anytime.”
I remember that rule very well and what would happen to anyone who was heard sayin’ it, Liam thought. He decided not to push his patient. “I need to finish ye fast. There are a lot of patients to be gotten to.”
As Liam was working as fast as he could behind a white linen screen, there was a loud but brief ruckus in the hall.
“Ye’re good to go, young man,” Liam announced to the stitched-up fighter. “Keep these wounds clean with iodine several times a day. Like I said, it may do ye well to find another way to make a livin’.”
“I think you’re right.”
“Good luck,” Liam said as the man left.
As he cleaned up rapidly, Liam heard Sean say, “We have two here that were in a knife fight. Both have multiple stab wounds.”
Then a nurse said there were two Sheriff’s deputies and two Marshals in the building to tend to the dead man and his brother, and to arrest the two knife fighters.
Liam walked out of the sectioned-off cubicle into the common area. He saw Sean and Wayne Jo
hnson examining the two knife-wound victims. One was very big, lying on a gurney. Sean was talking to him.
“Ye know ye’re seriously wounded. This one stab wound has gone into yer liver. Ye’re bleedin’ internally. We have to operate. Let me get a second opinion from my colleague, Dr. Dady.”
Sean addressed his colleague, “Liam, come look—”
The big man jerked his head up at the name “Liam”. His bulging bloodshot eyes glared at Liam and he laughed. “As I fuckin’ live and breathe, it’s you, ye little fuck. Ye’re a God damned doctor?” the man said. “I’ve wanted to kill ye since ye lost the fight in St. Louis. We’re holdin’ yer wife, so’s we’d flush ye out so I can kill ye. I guess now’s as good a time as any.”
Liam’s head buzzed at the words “we’re holdin’ yer wife,” and he didn’t feel himself prepare for an attack. The confrontation was finally at hand and it paralyzed him.
Although there were two deputies guarding the knife wound victims, two vested men barged into the exam room upon hearing McKay address Liam. McKay flew off the gurney and got his hands around Liam’s throat. Liam snapped to when he felt McKay’s hands squeezing hard on his throat and he couldn’t breathe. Eva! The thought of Eva and his family was foremost in his mind. He punched McKay’s face and tried to pull his vice-like hands off his neck. He couldn’t. McKay suddenly let go with one hand and punched Liam in the eye. Liam felt like he had lost his ability to fight. But his instinct was to defend himself. There was no running anymore. He screamed his wife’s name in his head.
The attack took the deputies off guard, but they began to intervene when the vested men went for Liam.
Liam could hear people yelling and screaming, feeling a brawl erupt around him. He could hear Sean yelling and the lawmen ordering the brawl to stop. Still in McKay’s choke hold, Liam impulsively began to hammer with a left body jab over and over at McKay’s midriff, aiming directly for the liver wound. McKay screamed in Liam’s ear. He felt McKay flinch, and his knees buckled like a shot horse. As Liam felt himself start to lose consciousness, he kept pummeling and pummeling McKay’s gut until he was free from the chokehold, preventing him from completely passing out. He felt someone else push him, shoving him to the floor. There was a hard, painful thudding on his torso. Then the body on top of him slid off as he heard a gunshot ring out at close range. A heavy body slumped to the floor. Liam scrambled up to his knees and towards McKay.
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