He looked at the chair and back at her. “No. I haven’t seen it before. Kind of like the other day, huh? I can check with reception if you like.”
At her nod, he turned and headed off to finish his deliveries.
She knew he wouldn’t find out anything from reception. Just like the last box, the one with Tommy’s badge, no one would have seen who brought it. Picking it up and setting it on her desk, she sat down. Her hands were shaking and fear was pounding through her, but she knew she had to open it. Part of her argued to send a message to Alec. But someone could be watching—and then what? She had to curb her fear. She knew this package would lead her to Freddie. Opening it, she saw a folded piece of paper but nothing else. She unfolded it, revealing a sweeping script.
Bring your work to the warehouses on the Oriental Dock. At the second warehouse, go inside and leave your papers in the open chest. Do not tell. I will know if you are being followed, and I will kill your brother. I am San Francisco, and I have eyes everywhere.
Tears slid down her cheeks as she clenched the sheet in her hand. Freddie must be terrified, and she was the only one who could help him. She had been down to the Oriental Dock area once. It was not far from the office, set away from the bustle of the East Street wharves. Blood rushed from her head. Her mind raced. She sat before she fell down. How was she going to get away without being followed? She knew in her heart that Alec and Hawke were doing their best to protect her and her family, but Vonn’s threats were too much. She couldn’t leave until she had covered all possible outcomes. Wiping her cheeks dry, she drew a deep breath and walked to Mr. Weathersby’s office.
“Sir?” She knocked on the glass pane with the word Editor painted in gold.
“What!”
She opened the door and poked her head inside, hand braced on the door, hoping he wouldn’t ask too many questions.
“Sir, I wanted to let you know I was going to leave and work on some human interest stories today. Charity works down by the docks …” She smiled, trying to hide the anxiety eating through her stomach.
He waved his hand dismissively. “Fine. Fine. Scotty is working on a breaking scandal at the mayor’s office. That will be the lead story for several days.” He grumbled as he continued working on papers in front of him. Linnie stepped into the office. A scandal in the city government could have ties to Vonn. Looking at the amount of red on the article, Linnie guessed a newer reporter had written it.
“What scandal? I hadn’t heard anything.”
Chomping on his cigar, he looked up, arching an eyebrow. “Don’t know why you would’ve heard. You’re a society reporter.” Shrugging his shoulders he glared down. “I swear, they don’t teach grammar or sentence structure anymore.” His red pencil slashed across the page. Clearing her throat, she pressed. “Do you need me to go to the mayor’s office to take pictures?” She fervently prayed he would say no, but knew if she didn’t ask, it would look suspicious.
“No, Jeffrey went. It looks like the governor has sent a team to audit city contracts. There have been rumors that Charles Vonn has been implicated in fraud to secure the most lucrative contracts. Rumors are he instructed contractors to submit fake bids to ensure his company would win the bids. Also, his company may have padded invoices and charged the city for work not in the contracts.”
Linnie gasped. The danger to Freddie just escalated a thousand times. Vonn would feel cornered, and even though her investigations had nothing to do with what was happening, he had a target—a small, vulnerable target to unleash his fear and fury upon. Stepping out of the office, she closed the door behind her, still gripping the doorknob as she tried to steady a heart that pounded harder than the surf during a storm. After taking a moment to compose herself, she hurried to her desk, grabbed her camera and her bag with all the notes she had gathered on Vonn, and walked to the back staircase, down to the basement, and left through the lower delivery dock, determined not to be followed.
• • •
The docks were quiet when Linnie arrived. It was unnaturally quiet for a weekday. Looking around, she saw a few men moving about, and most of them appeared to be watching, not working. A frisson of fear electrified her; Vonn had set up guards. Walking toward a dilapidated warehouse, she couldn’t help but note the windows were painted black and several were boarded over. Water lapped against the pier moorings, and seagulls squawked as they circled looking for food. The air was fetid from the trash in the water. Stopping, she stared at the door, warped with the continuous onslaught of sea air and lack of paint to protect it; she tried to get control of the fear making her shake uncontrollably. She wished Alec were here and hoped she hadn’t made a fatal mistake in not contacting him. Clenching her back teeth tight, she pulled her shoulders back and lifted her chin, determined not to be weak. She realized she’d been through too much in her life to allow this situation to destroy her. I will get Freddie back. The sea isn’t my opponent this time. The sea was unreasonable. She couldn’t talk to it; tell it to not take her husband and father. Vonn is just a man. A desperate man, her mind screamed at her. A man willing to kill to keep his secrets. Well, she told herself, I’m desperate too, and I will do anything to get Freddie back—even die.
She opened the door. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the dark interior. Shapes began to resolve. There were boxes and crates and what looked like cages. Was this where he kept girls before he shipped them to other cities? She turned at the sound of feet shuffling against the dirty boards. Her eyes narrowed, trying to focus, drawn by large frightened eyes in a small white face. Freddie. Light filtered through slats in the windows, dust motes creating a haze, making it harder for her to see the man behind him. Her heart dropped at the sight of a brutish hand pressed hard against the boy’s mouth. The strained panting as he tried to breathe past the pressure echoed in her ears.
“Let him go,” she pleaded. “He’s got nothing to do with this. He’s just a boy!”
“If you had kept your nose out of my business like I told you,” growled Vonn, “then I wouldn’t need to hurt him.” Freddie moaned as Vonn’s arm tightened across his chest.
Her heart cracked as she watched Freddie struggle. Wanting to reassure him, she moved farther into the large room.
“Back off, or I’ll snap his neck!”
“No … please, no. You have children of your own. How can you treat a child this way? I’m the one you want; I’m the one who meddled and snooped. I’m the one who found out about your …”
“It’s because of my children I have to do this,” he cut her off. She saw a momentary flicker of doubt in his eyes, but it was rapidly quashed. “If the governor’s audit leads to my other business and the truth comes out, I’ll be ruined. They’ll be ruined.” His voice wavered; sweat trickled down the side of his face. “I won’t let them end up on the street, growing up the way I did. This is your fault, yours and your do-gooder cousin’s. I was on my way to owning this town.” Linnie saw the sanity drain out of his eyes. “I would have had everything.”
He stepped back, dragging the boy with him. Linnie knew she needed to keep Vonn distracted. “But I had nothing to do with the audit. No one knows anything about my investigation, and if you let us go, no one will ever know.” She saw her promise didn’t seem to move him. She thought back to what she knew of him. “You grew up in New York?” She watched his eyes lose focus like he was seeing another world.
“In the stews. My ma, she worked in the shirt factory, and my pa in the tannery. By the time I was ten, he was gone. Drunk, he died face down in the gutter.” A small smile twisted his face. “Ma wasn’t much better. She held her liquor, but she’d rather buy rotgut than food. Told me when Pa died that I was on my own. So I learned—learned the lessons the streets teach you. Survival.”
The practiced eloquence of his speech slipped with him into the gutter of his birth. Linnie held her breath, not wanting to break his trance, but looking anxiously for a way to save her brother.
“Ma died in a fa
ctory fire. I saw the disdain on people’s faces. We weren’t no more important to those society pricks than slaves. White slaves! That’s all the poor are. Not me! I decided at Ma’s grave. Not me. I lied, stole, and clawed my way outta those slums.”
Linnie saw his arm loosen as Vonn fell deeper into his memories. Looking at Freddie, she saw his breathing was easier and the color was returning to his face. She made a small movement with her hand, encouraging the boy to stay still. He gave a small bob of his head letting her know he understood. Some of the fear in his eyes abated.
“But how did you learn to speak so well, to become one of them?” Her voice barely above a whisper hoping to keep him locked in the past.
Another smile thinned his lips. “That was easy. I was always good at mimicking my betters. I got a job in a fancy restaurant. Worked my way up and listened.” The smile dissolved into a sneer. “I’d scrape and bow, help those gentlemen on with their coats, and lighten their pockets. Didn’t stay too long at any one job, so they couldn’t catch on.” His face tightened, and his pupils narrowed. “Almost got pinched once. Some dandy felt my hand in his pocket. He grabbed my wrist and drug me into an alley.” A low chuckle sent chills down Linnie’s back as she listened. “Last thing he ever did. Forced me to head west. I remade myself on the way to San Francisco. New clothes, new name, new history.” He shook his head, remembering where he was. “It was mine for the taking.”
His head snapped to the side as a flash of light from an opening door caught his attention. His brows knitted in confusion, and his grip on the boy wavered. Linnie watched amazed as Freddie dropped to his knees, his weight pulling him from the loosened grip, and rolled away. Vonn lunged at the boy, but he was too slow. Freddie ran quickly through a maze of crates.
Linnie felt the fear slide from her like water rolling down the roof. “Run, Freddie. Go get help!” She turned to follow him but stumbled as her gown tangled around her ankles. Dropping her bag and camera, she threw her hands up, breaking her fall. Scrambling to regain her feet, she turned her head and saw Vonn lumbering toward her like a mad bull. Sweat poured down his scarlet-hued face, breath labored as he attempted to get to her before she could rise.
“Bitch!” he roared as he reached out to grab her. “You will pay for what you’ve done to me.” Linnie was on her feet and moving, but not fast enough. She felt his fingers brush her arm as he tried to grab her. Knowing he would kill her, she twisted as she hiked up her skirts and began running like she hadn’t since she was little. Her heart pounded in her ears, muting the sound of the man behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a blur coming from her right and heard a loud grunt and thud as something large crashed into stacked crates. She realized the something was Vonn. Spinning around, she saw two people prone in a heap of splintered wood. Her feet felt nailed to the floor as she watched one of them begin to rise. It was Alec. He was unsteady on his feet, stumbling back from the crates, looking dazed as his eyes swept the warehouse until they found her. Gasping, Linnie moved, slowly at first but then rushing into his arms, wanting nothing more than to be held by him forever.
“How—how did you find us? I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. Vonn said he’d kill Freddie if I didn’t come alone.” She reached up and stroked wayward locks out of his eyes.
“I knew there was something wrong when I came by the paper after hearing about the investigation at City Hall. You weren’t there.”
“But still … how did you know to come here? I’ve never been here before, and I wasn’t aware that Vonn had any connection to this place.” Linnie looked over at the man still lying prone in the pile of wood. “Alec,” she looked back at her rescuer, “is he alive?”
Alec released her reluctantly, kneeled down, and rolled Vonn onto his back. A large sliver of wood protruded from his neck; lifeless eyes stared at nothing. Linnie felt her stomach lurch. As much as she had wanted to bring Vonn to justice for the death of her cousin and for the many terrible things he had done, she would never have wished him dead. His poor family, she thought. So much pain, and for what?
Alec stepped back and took her in his arms, shielding her from the grisly sight. They walked out the door into a throng of constables arriving at the scene. Freddie leaped into his sister’s arms, squeezing her neck as hard as he could.
“Sis, I was so afraid,” he sobbed. “I didn’t want to leave you, but I saw Lord MacCairn outside and knew he would help. He told me to run and find a constable while he helped you—so I did.”
“You did wonderfully, Freddie.” Linnie laughed and covered the boy’s face with kisses.
“Stop, Linnie!” he protested, “It’s ’mbarrassin’.”
“Ah, laddie,” Alec smiled, “someday you won’t be saying that.”
Looking at the gathering crowds, she noticed the men she’d thought were Vonn’s guards were still there. She looked at Alec, perplexed. He smiled and nodded at one of them. “Those are Pinkertons we hired. They’ve been keeping an eye on you. I learned about the warehouse from one of the women at Madame Jones’s. They have been staking it out, waiting for Vonn to make his move.” He winked. “Nice try going out the loading dock—they sent a runner to find me. They didn’t go in first, fearing Vonn would kill your brother.”
“I’ve never been so happy to have my privacy invaded.” Linnie laughed and hugged Alec. “When you stormed in there, I wasn’t sure if you were friend or foe. You know the police will want to talk to us.” Fear raced through her. “Alec, my family and I are still in danger! If the police learn of all the information I have tying them to Vonn and his schemes, they’ll come after us.”
“You won’t be giving your statement to the police,” Alec said calmly. “The person who followed you is a member of the US Secret Service. After Hawke and I realized how dangerous Vonn really was and how deeply he was involved, we told the Pinkertons. They contacted the Secret Service and found out they had been investigating him for counterfeiting and smuggling. They’ve been building case for quite a while. Your investigation panicked Vonn and caused the Secret Service to move up their plan. Your notes will help solidify their case. He smiled at her. “Because of your notes, the police are now being investigated as well. The corrupt elements of this city will be rooted out. His expression grew serious. “Now that he’s dead, they will be moving in to dismantle his organization before one of his flunkies tries to step in and take his place. There should be a lot of prominent people taken into custody. Quite a story for any journalist.”
“Linnie, I’m hungry,” Freddie whispered as he laid his head on her shoulder, small arms tight around her neck. “And I miss Momma.”
“We’ve sent someone to tell her he’s safe and to meet us at the hotel.” Alec slid his arm from her waist and wrapped it around her shoulders and Freddie’s back. “We’ll get you plenty to eat, young man. You were as brave as any warrior today.”
• • •
Linnie’s eyes were crystal with tears, and her shoulders curled with exhaustion. “Let me.” He reached over and gathered Freddie into his arms. Holding the small boy close, Alec realized for the first time in his life how much he needed this—children and one woman to love forever. Shifting Freddie to his other side, he gathered Linnie to him, burying his face in her hair, and closed his eyes for a moment, reveling in the feel of her arms wrapped around his waist.
“Excuse me, sir.” His eyes flew open as one of the Pinkerton agents came over to them. “The constables would like you to come down to the station later to make a statement,” he nodded, indicating Linnie and Freddie, “after you’ve seen them safely home.”
“Why wouldn’t they want to talk to me?” Linnie looked over at the agent, confused.
“They do, ma’am,” he replied. “They will visit you later at your home. They felt you had been through enough for today and going into the station for questioning might be too much.”
“Oh …” Linnie paused. “I’m not sure if I’m flattered or insulted.”
Alec lau
ghed. “I’m sure you will be insulted later, but now, let’s get you two out of here.”
Linnie pulled away, turning back toward the warehouse. “My bag … it has all of my notes, and my camera. I dropped it when Vonn … I need to retrieve them.”
“That won’t be necessary.” Another agent approached them, holding her camera out to her. “Your notes have been collected, and we will be taking them to the governor’s team. We suspect your information along with the contract irregularities will bring Vonn’s entire organization down.”
• • •
Freddie had fallen asleep in Alec’s arms on the ride to the hotel. Alec carried him up to the suite, careful not to wake him. He opened the door and Linnie rushed into her mother’s arms. Hawke and Kara stood back, watching the reunion with smiles on their faces. Releasing Linnie, Martha hurried over, taking Freddie from Alec and waking him in the process.
“Momma!” Freddie cried, throwing his arms around his sobbing mother’s neck. “Don’t cry.” He leaned back, looking at her tear-stained face. “I’m home now.” He brushed her tears with his small hand. “It’s okay, you don’t gotta cry.”
Martha smiled as she kissed his little cheek. “They’re happy tears, baby. Happy tears.”
Alec looked past Martha at Linnie. She was telling Kara about the warehouse. All he wanted was to take her in his arms and never let her go. The thought of almost losing her slammed into him like a fist, ripping the breath from his body.
“Here, you look like you could use this.” Hawke pressed a large glass of scotch into his hand. “Scared the hell out of me, too, when I thought I’d lost Kara. You know you love them but don’t understand how much until something like this happens.”
“No, my friend.” Alec took a large drink, relishing the fiery burn. “I knew how much I loved her. I didn’t realize how much I love the little man too.”
Hawke clapped him on the shoulder, and they joined the ladies on the sofa.
The Heart You Need Page 13