The Great Train Massacre

by William W. Johnstone

“Oh, she’s married!” Mary Beth said with a broad, relieved smile. “I thought . . . well, never mind what I thought.”

  After finishing the wine, Matt walked Mary Beth up to her room.

  “Would you like to come in?” she invited with a seductive smile.

  “Mary Beth, you have no idea how much I would like to come in,” Matt said. “But I couldn’t do this to your father.”

  “Why, Matt, are you afraid? I didn’t think you were afraid of anything.”

  “Let’s just say I’m cautious.”

  “Too cautious for this?”

  Mary Beth put her arms around Matt’s neck and pulled him to her for a deep kiss. Then, pulling away, she smiled at him, her eyes reflecting the light of the hall lamp.

  “You’ll be sorry you didn’t accept my invitation,” she said.

  “I know I will be,” Matt agreed. “Now, get on in there before I change my mind.” He pushed her, gently, back into her room, his rejection ameliorated, however, by a broad smile.

  Once Mary Beth got inside and went to bed, she was asleep within minutes. She had no idea how long she had been asleep when she woke with a start. She felt someone put something over her face, a cloth with a strong, cloying smell. She tried to call out and to fight against it, but her head began to spin, and she passed out.

  When Mary Beth came to later, she found herself, not in the well-furnished hotel room, but in a small room that consisted of four bare walls. Rather than the large comfortable bed she had gone to sleep in, she was now lying on a cot. She wasn’t covered with silk sheets and a woolen blanket, and all she had to push back the cool, morning air was her cotton sleeping gown and a single quilt. There were no sheets between her and the bare canvas of the cot.

  Frightened, she looked around the room and saw as the only furnishings a table, a chair, and a chamber pot. Where was she? And how had she gotten here? She sat up on the cot and looked for her clothes but didn’t see them.

  Why would she have come here without her clothes?

  Then she remembered the frightening scene in her bed when she had been awakened, then passed out again.

  “Hello?” she called. “Hello, is there anyone here?”

  Padding barefoot across the floor, she walked over to the door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She knocked on it.

  “Hello?” she called again. “Is there anyone out there?”

  She was a prisoner. But who had brought her here and why?

  She knocked on the door again, and when the knocking got no response, she banged on it as loudly as she could.

  “Let me out of here!” she shouted at the top of her voice.

  She saw the doorknob turn slightly, then she heard the sound of a key being pushed into the keyhole from the other side.

  “Step back away from the door, miss,” a woman’s voice said.

  Mary Beth did as she was asked.

  When the door opened, a middle-aged woman with unkempt hair came in carrying a bowl and a spoon.

  “Here’s your breakfast,” she said as she started toward the table.

  Mary Beth waited until the woman had reached the table, then she jerked the door open, intending to escape the room.

  There was a large man standing in the hallway, right in front of the door. His arms were crossed over his chest, and doing so flexed them in such a way as to disclose powerful biceps.

  “Where do you think you’re goin’?” he asked in a low, gravelly voice.

  Matt, John, and Drew were sitting at a table in the dining room.

  “I have no idea what’s keeping her this morning,” John said. “Mary Beth is normally an early riser.”

  “Well, it had to have been a tiring trip for her,” Drew said. “If you would like, I’ll go up and knock on her door.”

  “Would you?” John asked. “Tell her there are three hungry men waiting for her.”

  Matt didn’t say anything, but he drummed his fingers on the table as he watched Drew leave the dining room.

  “He’s a good man,” John said. “I never worry about getting anything done with him around.”

  “You say you met in college?”

  “Yes. We had what you might call a symbiotic relationship.”

  “A what?”

  “It means I looked out for him in areas where he wasn’t very strong, and he looked out for me in areas where I wasn’t very strong.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yes.” John laughed. “I’ll be honest with you, Drew wasn’t that strong of a student, and I helped him with his class work. On the other hand, even then, he had a way of getting things done.”

  “What do you mean by getting things done?”

  “He just seemed be able to go around the rules if he needed to. For example, we weren’t allowed to have liquor in the fraternity house, and some of our parties would have been terribly dull if Drew hadn’t come through for us. I don’t know where, or how he did it, but he always had liquor available.”

  “By available, you mean he sold it?”

  John laughed. “Oh, yes. Even then he was a good businessman.”

  Drew came back into the dining room then, alone, and with a concerned look on his face.

  “I knocked, pretty loud, and I called out to her, but I didn’t get an answer.”

  “Are you certain you knocked loudly enough?” John asked.

  “I was loud enough that some of the other guests on the same floor opened their doors to see what was going on,” Drew replied.

  “Why don’t we get a key from the front desk and check on her?” Matt suggested.

  “Yes, that’s a good idea,” John said.

  “Now, that is very odd,” the desk clerk said.

  “What is odd?” John asked.

  “I don’t have another key for that room. I have two keys for every room, one that I give to the hotel guest, and one that I keep here at the desk just for such a reason as this. But I can’t seem to find the other key.”

  “Don’t you have a skeleton key?” John asked. “How do the maids get into the rooms to clean them up?”

  The desk clerk smiled. “Yes, of course, I do have a skeleton key. Just a moment.”

  The clerk stepped into the room behind the check-in desk, then returned a moment later with the key.

  “I’m afraid I’m going to have to send the concierge up with you,” he said. “This key grants access to any room in the hotel, and I can’t just give it to any guest.”

  “I understand,” John said. “But I do need to get into my daughter’s room.”

  The three men and the concierge went up to Mary Beth’s room, which was on the fourth floor. John pushed past him almost as soon as he opened the door.

  “Mary Beth?” he called. It took but a second for him to see that she wasn’t there. “Matt!”

  Matt rushed into the room, followed by Drew.

  “She’s gone!” John said.

  “Maybe she went shopping,” Drew suggested. “I know that women like to do that.”

  “She wouldn’t have gone without telling me, and she certainly wouldn’t have gone without her clothes,” John said. He pointed to her dress and shoes. The suitcase was nearby and unopened.

  “Here is something,” Matt said, picking up a piece of white paper that was folded over on the dresser.

  Gillespie, if you want to see your daughter alive again, meet me near the railroad tracks on the lake shore in Lake Park by ten o’clock this morning. I will give you further instructions then. Come alone.

  “Oh, my God! Someone has taken her!” John said in shock and fear.

  “There is no way I’m going to let you go alone,” Matt said. “I’m going with you.”

  “No!” Drew said sharply. “You’d better not. They said come alone. If they see someone with John, they might . . . kill her.” He added the last two words ominously.

  “I’m not so sure that they would,” Matt said. “It seems to me like they are using her as a bargaining chip. They are going to ask for
money, and in order to do that, they are going to have to keep her alive.”

  “Yes, they are going to ask for money, aren’t they?” John said, with a sense of relief in his voice. “This has nothing to do with the consortium wanting to kill us.”

  “It is obvious that they know who you are,” Matt said. “That means they know that you are a very wealthy man. It also means they are going to ask for a great deal of money.”

  “I don’t care how much money they ask for. All I care about is getting my daughter back alive,” John said.

  “I still don’t think you should go alone.”

  “Don’t go with him, Jensen,” Drew said. “That young woman means almost as much to me as she does to John, and I’ll not stand by and watch you do anything that would put her life into jeopardy.”

  “Her life is already in jeopardy,” Matt said.

  “All right. I’ll not let you put her life in further jeopardy.”

  “Matt, please,” John said. “I think that Drew is right. I know you mean well, but I would much rather go by myself.”

  Matt sighed, then nodded.

  “All right, John,” he said. “If that is the way you feel about it, I won’t interfere.”

  When Matt went back downstairs, he stepped into the bar and ordered a beer. He was angry with himself. Mary Beth had invited him into her room last night, and if he had accepted her invitation, this wouldn’t have happened.

  He was also angry with himself because he had been hired to protect John and Mary Beth, and he had failed. Matt thought about the message. It contained no instructions as to where money should be left, nor did it mention money at all. The only instructions were for John to meet someone at Lake Park.

  Mary Beth sat on the edge of the canvas cot. She knew her father would be worried sick about her, and she was more concerned about the distress her father must be in than she was about her own situation. Who were these people, and why had they taken her? She knew that someone had been trying to kill her and her father for the last month, starting with the sabotage of their coach. But if they were going to do that, why was she still alive?

  The door to her room opened, and the same woman who had brought her a bowl of oatmeal earlier came in.

  “You have a visitor,” she said.

  “Who?”

  The woman said nothing, but stepped back out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. A couple of seconds later, her visitor came into the room.

  “Uncle Drew!” Mary Beth said excitedly. “I’ve never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life!”

  Mary Beth jumped up from her cot and started toward him, but he held his hand out toward her. Puzzled by his odd reaction she stopped.

  “Bring her her clothes,” Jessup said.

  “Oh, thank you!” Mary Beth said. “I don’t mind telling you, I have been very uncomfortable wearing only my nightgown.”

  The man who Mary Beth had seen standing guard outside the little room when she tried to leave earlier came in then, carrying a sack. He handed the sack to her, and looking into it she saw her clothes as well as a pair of shoes.

  “Get dressed,” Jessup said.

  “I will, and gladly so. Where is Papa? Does he know you have found me?”

  Mary Beth removed the clothes from the sack, then looked toward Jessup and the man who had brought them to her.

  “Well, aren’t you going to step outside?” Mary Beth asked, with a little laugh.

  “No. Get dressed.”

  Jessup’s reply was clipped and cold.

  “Uncle Drew? What is this? What is going on?” Mary Beth was confused by Drew’s odd behavior.

  “What is going on is you are going to get dressed, and you aren’t going to give me any more back talk,” Jessup said.

  Mary Beth’s joy had turned first to confusion, now she was experiencing fear.

  “I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?”

  “Take off her nightgown,” Jessup said to the muscular man who was in the room with them.

  Mary Beth looked around, hoping to see the woman she had seen earlier, but the woman was gone and now only the two men were present, and one of the men she had known her entire life. The fact that she knew him so well made the current situation even more bizarre and more frightening.

  Back at the hotel, Matt studied his beer and drummed his fingers on the bar.

  Damn! He thought. They aren’t after money! The consortium is using Mary Beth to get John there, and when they get him there they will, no doubt, kill both of them.

  Why? Why would the consortium want to kill both of them?

  A memory of something Mary Beth said suddenly popped up in his mind.

  “Well, what difference does it make, Papa, whether I spend it now, or I spend it later? It will all be mine someday anyway. You told me so yourself.”

  That’s it! He thought. That’s why Mary Beth must be killed, because she will inherit the business after John is gone. But why would that matter to a consortium who is trying to get even, or get a business advantage over . . .

  The unfinished question died in thought.

  There is no consortium. The only one who would profit by both of them being dead would be Drew Jessup! It all made sense now. Jessup had arranged for Matt to catch a train by six o’clock this morning, and if he had left, he would have been gone before Mary Beth’s abduction was discovered. That is also why there were four separate rooms on four different floors, and that was why there was no second key at the desk. Drew Jessup had gotten the second key and provided it to someone to give them access to Mary Beth’s room.

  Matt glanced up at the clock that was between the two mirrors behind the bar. It was already 9:40.

  “Hey!” Matt called to the bartender.

  “Yes, sir?” the bartender replied, then noticing that Matt had not drunk all his beer, got a worried expression on his face. “Is something wrong with your beer, sir?”

  “No, the beer is fine. Tell me how to get to the lakeshore in Lake Park.”

  “Oh, that’s very easy, sir. You go out the front door, turn left, and just keep going until you reach the lake.”

  “How far is that?”

  “About a mile, I would say.”

  “Thanks,” Matt said.

  He thought, for a moment, about going up to check John’s room to see if he had left yet, but he was sure he had. No time to check on Jessup either.

  When Matt stepped out of the hotel, he saw a mounted policeman dismount and tie his horse off at a hitching rail out front. The policeman went into the hotel.

  Matt untied the horse’s reins.

  “I’m sorry about this, boy,” Matt said to the animal. “I’ve never stolen a horse before in my life, but this is an emergency.”

  Matt swung into the saddle, then headed east at a gallop. Within a few blocks he was onto a large grassy area, filled with trees, low-lying shrubbery, and blooming flowers. Pulling his pistol, he urged the horse into a gallop across the park. Then, when the lake came into view, he stopped and dismounted.

  “Go,” he said, slapping the horse on the rump, and the horse turned and began trotting away. Matt didn’t know if he would be returning to the hotel or going back to the police barn, but it was obvious that he had some destination in mind.

  Matt began running toward the lake, keeping a low profile behind a long hedgerow. When he reached the edge of the hedgerow, he saw them. John was standing with his arm around his daughter. Drew Jessup and three men were standing across from them. The three men were holding pistols pointed at John and Mary Beth.

  “Drew, I can’t believe you are doing this to us,” John said. “Do thirty years of friendship mean nothing to you?”

  “It wasn’t thirty years of friendship, you old fool,” Drew replied with a harsh sneer. “It has been thirty years of ‘Drew do this, Drew do that.’ I’ve never been anything but your personal servant.”

  “But that’s not true! I have paid you very well all these years. I pu
t you in charge of my entire operation. Why, I even set it up so that if anything happened to me, you would be next in line after . . .” John stopped in midsentence. “Drew, no, my God, no. It’s you, isn’t it? It’s been you all along. You want the business.”

  “Ha! Figured it out, have you? Putting me next in line after your daughter was a totally meaningless move. I’m much older than Mary Beth. What were the chances I would ever wind up inheriting anything?”

  “Drew, Drew, Drew.” John shook his head. “Et tu, Brute?”

  “I don’t even know what the hell that means,” Jessup said.

  “Well I know what it means, and I didn’t even go to college like you did,” Matt said.

  “What the hell?” Jessup shouted. He pointed toward Matt. “Shoot him! Shoot him!”

  Borski and the two armed men with him spun toward Matt, but it was too late. Matt fired three times, the shots coming so quickly on top of each other that it sounded like one sustained roar. All three of Matt’s bullets found their mark, and only one of the Chicago thugs, Borski, managed to get off a shot. But that shot occurred after he was hit, and as he was twisting around while going down. As a result of that, Borsky’s shot hit Drew Jessup in the middle of his chest.

  Matt kept his eye on the three armed men to make certain that none of them posed a threat, but he saw, quickly, that they did not.

  “Oh, I was so scared!” Mary Beth said, running to Matt to wrap her arms around him. Matt embraced her, pulling her close to him.

  “John, I’m sorry.”

  The words were quiet and strained, and they came from Drew Jessup, who like the others, was lying on his back.

  “Drew, how could you have done this?” John asked, squatting now alongside Drew’s prostrate form.

  “I’m sorry,” Drew said again.

  “But the attack on your house,” John said.

  “I set it up to draw attention away from me,” Drew said, barely able to get the words out.

  “Don’t you understand, Drew? You didn’t have to draw attention away from you. I never suspected you, and I would never have suspected you.”