The Bags of Tricks Affair

7 Sabina

“You’ve kept me in suspense long enough,” John said a short while later, in her room at the Holbrooke. “How did you know Lady One-Eye’s cane had been outfitted as a firearm?”

Sabina, freshly bathed, was dressed in one of her own stylishly sedate outfits; the Saint Louis Rose had been packed away in her traveling bag, to be given back to the costumer who had supplied the bawd’s various components upon their return to San Francisco. She was tempted to draw out the explanation as John would have, give him a taste of his own medicine, but that would have been petty.

She said, “I once encountered a man in Denver when I was with the Pinkertons who employed a similar device. He had a pegleg that a gunsmith had bored out and fitted with a sawed-off rifle barrel. He fired it through the pocket of his trousers by means of a spring mechanism attached to his thigh.”

“Ah. You might have mentioned this to me.”

“I had no reason to before tonight. Or to suspect Lady One-Eye’s stick of being anything other than what it seemed — not until Jack O’Diamonds was shot and I glimpsed the tip of the cane beneath the table skirt before she pulled it back, saw a faint wisp of smoke rise up at that point.”

“And then noticed that her hand was on the knob.”

“Yes.”

John gnawed on the stem of his favorite briar. He would have liked to smoke it, but she’d forbidden him to do so. The stench of the godawful tobacco he preferred would have been intolerable in the confines of the small room. She really must try to convince him to change his brand.

“It must have taken considerable practice for her to fire her weapon accurately in such a fashion,” he said.

“No doubt it did,” Sabina agreed. “And no doubt Lady One-Eye carried the weapon for self-protection in the event any of her challengers tumbled to her skin-game tactics, and that she practiced often with it. She may even have had occasion to use the trick a time or two before last night.”

“Her brother must have known she was guilty of the murder as soon as it happened. And he’ll keep on lying to protect her.”

Sabina nodded. “He’s fiercely protective, loyal to a fault.”

“That, and the fact that she was his meal ticket,” John said cynically. “Did you notice how furious he was at you when you revealed her as both a murderer and a card cheat?”

“Oh, yes, I noticed.”

“He is a piece of work, and so is she — two of a kind. Her claim to the sheriff that there was an empty cartridge in the weapon because she’d fired it accidentally this afternoon, and his that he’d witnessed it, are a feeble defense. If it were true, she would surely not have ‘forgotten’ to reload it. Could the bullet that killed Jack O’Diamonds be matched to the cartridge, she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.”

“That’s an atrocious pun, John.”

“Eh? Oh, strictly unintentional, but nonetheless apt. As it is, there’s little doubt that she’ll be convicted.”

“Don’t be too sure. She’s bound to use her handicaps to play on the sympathies of a jury. With a certain kind of lawyer representing her, she might succeed in winning an acquittal.”

“Not with your eyewitness testimony, and her dubious background.”

“We’ll see. Juries are notoriously unpredictable.”

“Not in conventional mining towns like this one.” He gazed fondly at her. “In any case, my dear, I congratulate you. You really are a splendid detective.”

“For a woman.”

“I didn’t say that. Nor did I mean it that way.”

“Your equal, then, hmm?”

“Indeed,” he said.

Sabina eyed him closely to make sure he was not being condescending. He wasn’t. He meant it.

“I’m afraid Mr. McFinn isn’t satisfied,” she said. “He holds us responsible for not preventing tonight’s public spectacle. And with some justification, from his point of view.”

“Bah. Even if you’d been certain Lady One-Eye carried a concealed weapon, it wouldn’t have foreshadowed her intent to use it on her husband when and where she did.”

“True. But he doesn’t see it that way. In a way I feel sorry for him.”

“Why? Lady One-Eye’s winnings will be confiscated and McFinn reimbursed the two thousand he staked you.”

“That doesn’t matter to him. What does is that the anti-gambling elements may have enough fuel now to close him down.”

John shrugged. “He’d be out of business before long anyway. Small-town gaming parlors such as the Gold Nugget are doomed to extinction.”

“You do realize that he might refuse to pay us the balance of our fee?”

His face darkened perceptibly. “By Godfrey, he had better pay it! If he doesn’t, we’ll add to his woes by bringing suit against him.”

Sabina repressed the urge for further comment; when he made up his mind about something, there was no changing it. If it were up to her, she would forfeit the balance of their fee as a gesture of goodwill. From a practical standpoint such largesse could be used as a promotional tool to enhance the reputation of Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services. Results guaranteed at no risk to their clients. The new century was almost upon them. Fresh business practices were necessary in a new age.

But she knew better than to suggest this. Like his father and Allan Pinkerton before him, her partner would’ve been outraged at such a heretical proposition. John Quincannon would rather be horsewhipped than willingly give up a penny earned for services rendered.

Outfitted in her gray serge traveling dress, Sabina was packing the following morning when the knock came at the door. It couldn’t be John; he’d gone to see Amos McFee in an effort to collect the remainder of their fee. They had arranged to meet in the Holbrooke’s lobby at ten whether he succeeded or not, to first ride to Sheriff Thorpe’s office to sign official statements and then to the railroad station to board the NCNG on the first leg of their trip home to San Francisco.

The knock sounded again, more insistent this time. She crossed to open the door. No, it wasn’t John. Her caller was Jeffrey Gaunt.

He didn’t say anything, merely looked at her. His gray eyes were even colder, more piercing than they had been the previous evening — as palpably cold as the Rocky Mountain high country in winter. But there was a glow of fire in their depths, the fire of hate. The skin between Sabina’s shoulder blades crawled; she repressed a shiver.

“What do you want, Mr. Gaunt?”

“I’ve been told you and your partner are leaving Grass Valley today.” His drawling voice was without inflection of any kind.

“There is nothing further to keep us here.”

“But you intend to return to testify at my sister’s trial.”

“Naturally.”

“That would be a mistake.”

“And why is that?”

“She didn’t shoot Jack.”

“Of course she did, despite her claims and yours to the contrary. I saw her do it.”

“Mistakenly, in a time of turmoil. Or perhaps deliberately to further your own agenda.”

“I have no agenda,” Sabina said sharply, “except for the pursuit of justice.”

“Be that as it may, your unfounded accusations that she is a card mechanic and a murderess have destroyed her reputation and her livelihood. That is reprehensible enough. I won’t allow her to be convicted of crimes she didn’t commit and sent to prison. Her handicaps would make even a short incarceration a living hell for her.”

“Perhaps so, but it’s a jury’s decision to make, not yours. Or mine.”

“I intend to hire the best lawyer in this state to represent her. If you fail to testify, she’ll be acquitted and vindicated. I suggest you give that option due consideration.”

“Are you threatening me, sir?”

Gaunt said nothing.

“I don’t take kindly to threats,” Sabina said. “Nor does my partner.”

His mouth twitched upward in a brief travesty of a smile.

“Attempting to intimidate a witness in a murder trial is a serious felony, Mr. Gaunt. So, as I shouldn’t have to remind you, is any attempted infliction of bodily harm.”

“I said nothing about the infliction of bodily harm.”

“You implied it. I could have you arrested.”

“As you caused my sister to be arrested — on the basis of misinterpretation and enmity. Besides, there is no one else here. It would be your word against mine.”

He stared at her a few moments longer, as if trying to will her to show fear or weakness by averting her eyes, and when he received no satisfaction he turned abruptly and walked off down the hall.

She shut and locked the door. He hadn’t frightened her in the least; she was far too experienced, strong-willed, courageous to be swayed by threats implied or otherwise. Nevertheless, the afterimage of his frigid eyes and the crawly sensation on her back lingered while she finished her packing.

She waited to tell John of Gaunt’s thinly veiled threat until after they were aboard a Southern Pacific passenger train bound from Colfax to Oakland. She knew he’d be furious enough to go storming off to confront the man, and that would have served no purpose except to escalate what might turn out to be a tempest in a teapot.

She said as much to him when he’d calmed down. “We’ve been threatened before, John, and nothing has come of it. Men like Gaunt are usually nothing more than blowhards.”

“Usually, but not always. You saw how fiercely protective he was of his sister last night.”

“Yes,” Sabina admitted, “I did.”

“If you’re unable to testify at Lady One-Eye’s trial, she may well go free. You were the only witness to her actions after the shooting.”

“She could go free even with my testimony,” Sabina said. “A handicapped woman is a sympathetic figure, even one with Lady One-Eye’s reputation, especially if she’s represented by a canny criminal attorney. Gaunt knows that as well as you and I do.”

“But we don’t know Gaunt, what lurks behind that stoic façade of his, what he’s capable of.”

“Yes, that’s true.”

“A man of dark and hidden depths,” John said ominously, “that’s my estimation of him. A dangerous man. You’re to be very careful from now until the trial, my dear.”

“I’m always careful, you know that.”

“Extra cautious in the city, triple cautious when the time comes for us to return to Grass Valley.” He lit his pipe, scowling, and puffed up a great cloud of foul gray smoke. “By God,” he muttered, “if that damned rascal comes anywhere near you...”

Sabina rested a steadying hand on his arm, smiled when he looked her way. His deep concern touched her. He really did care, not only for her as a partner but as a woman he would do anything in his power to keep safe. If that wasn’t love, it was the next thing to it.