Sathow's Sinners (21 page)

Frank's eyes narrowed as he studied his friend carefully. Finally, he nodded and said, “All right then. I'm in.”

I
t was a half hour before noon the next day when Deaugrey marched Angelica into the offices of Anstel & Joyner. They were immediately greeted by a pair of tired-looking gunmen who stopped them before they could get past the main desk situated at the bottom of the stairs. A few minutes later, Preston Anstel appeared at the top of the stairs looking much less polished than he had at his and Deaugrey's previous meeting.

“What's this?” Anstel grunted.

Deaugrey nodded toward Angelica and said, “This is Melanie Cavett.”

Making no attempt to hide the path his eyes took as he drank in the sight of her, Anstel said, “She's quite beautiful, but not quite as . . . ample as you'd described her.”

Angelica adjusted her posture and arched her back while every man in the room stared at her chest.

“Tastes vary,” Deaugrey said. “Also, the selection within McKeag's walls isn't exactly as good as one might find around here.”

Anstel waved them up and turned to walk away. After Deaugrey's guns were taken from him, he and Angelica were ushered up the stairs to the familiar hallway on the third floor. Having already opened the first door on the right, Anstel held it open so they could step inside. It was a modest office with a rolltop desk against one wall, a map of the state on another wall and enough books piled onto a pair of shelves and a couple of tables to stock a small library. Sitting at the desk, Anstel began rustling through the narrow drawers as he said, “That was fast.”

“I'm a little early,” Deaugrey said. “But not by much.”

“No. I mean finding Miss Cavett there. Was she already in town?”

“Close.”

The drawer he'd been looking for contained a pair of spectacles which Anstel placed upon the bridge of his nose. After the wire frames were looped behind his ears, he took a longer look at Angelica.

“If you don't believe I could get her here,” Deaugrey said, “then you should have set a longer deadline.”

“Honestly, I thought you'd come back with some sort of excuse telling me why you couldn't get to her just yet.”

Deaugrey smirked. “And during my explanation, I'd part with a few details that would allow you to go and retrieve her yourself without having to pay me. Or, after you graciously gave me more time, you'd knock down my fee. Am I close?”

Anstel smirked and opened one final drawer. “I did have a word with someone else who'd met Miss Cavett some time ago. They gave me a few things that would help me identify her. They should be around here somewhere.”

“Or you could talk to me,” Angelica said. “I'm standing right here, you know.”

All this time, Anstel had barely acknowledged her presence. He didn't do much to change that except to look at her for less than a second and getting up from his seat. “Where are those damn pictures?” he shouted into the hallway. He then stepped outside and slammed the door shut behind him.

Deaugrey looked over to Angelica and said, “He was much more polite the last time we spoke.”

“He's an ass. Where's the safe?”

“Across the hall.”

“So,” she said impatiently. “Let's go.”

After waiting for the sound of Anstel's steps to fade, Deaugrey stepped up to the door and took a look outside. It was barely open a crack and when he peeked through, he froze for a few moments and then stepped back. “There's a man outside.”

“There's probably a lot of them,” she said. Since Deaugrey didn't say anything to that, she let out a heavy sigh, pushed him out of her way and pulled open the door. “Could you come in here?” she asked the burly fellow standing just outside the door. Smiling sweetly and giving him a look that could have started a war, she added, “Please?”

The man who stepped through the door was one of the biggest ones they'd passed on their way up from the lobby. The pistol holstered at his side seemed like an afterthought since he could probably crush just about any living thing in his bare hands. As soon as he was in the room, he looked expectantly at Angelica and she looked expectantly at Deaugrey.

“What, umm, do you need?” the gunman asked.

Angelica may not have been saying much, but she looked awfully good doing it. She chewed on her lower lip and swayed a bit as if she was pondering the mysteries of the universe. She eventually glanced over to Deaugrey, only to find him watching her just as intently as the gunman. “I was hoping you might help me with something,” she said in a voice that was smoother than fine satin against warm skin.

“Sure,” the gunman said.

When he stepped toward her unimpeded, Angelica grabbed a candlestick from the desk and cracked it against the gunman's forehead. His brow twisted in pain before his eyes rolled up into his head. Angelica grabbed his lapels so she could guide his fall toward the floor without knocking anything over on the way down. The gunman hit the floor heavily, leaving her standing over him with the candlestick.

“When I distracted him, you were supposed to knock him out!” she scolded.

Deaugrey blinked in surprise. “Did we make that plan on the way in?”

“No, but you should have seen what I was doing.”

“Oh. That sounds more like something Nate would have seen.”

Angelica shook her head and plucked the pistol from the gunman's holster. “Show me to that safe,” she said while handing Deaugrey the pistol.

“We're supposed to wait for Nate to make his move.”

“Is the hallway clear?”

Deaugrey took a look outside. “More or less,” he said.

“Then let's go! Christ Almighty, when did you become so timid?”

“I'm not timid, but I'm also not crazy! There are only two of us with significantly more killers and assorted brutes in here with us.”

Pulling quickly away from the door, Angelica shut it tight and put her back against it. “Someone's coming,” she said, “and they're in a hurry. Hide that man.”

Deaugrey looked from the gunman taking up a good portion of the floor to the limited amount of remaining space in the room. “Where should I put him?” he hissed. “In one of those little drawers? Perhaps under the desk where anyone larger than a child would have trouble fitting their damn knees?”

The floor shook with several approaching feet until it sounded like a stampede was making its way down the hall. Deaugrey held his gun at the ready and set his sights on the door. Rather than burst through it, however, the men in the hall charged straight past the door and continued to the stairs. When they'd gone, Angelica took another look outside.

“It's clear,” she whispered. “Let's go.”

As soon as they were both in the hall, Deaugrey began to smile. “This promises to be a very interesting afternoon.”

*   *   *

As it turned out, Nate didn't need to make an appointment to get a meeting with Preston Anstel. All he had to do was walk up to the front of his offices and shout his name along with a few other colorful phrases that sent the locals scattering away from him. In less than a minute, men came running out the front door to fan out in front of the building. A few even stepped onto the second-floor balcony, which was where Nate kept his eyes pointed.

When he spotted a familiar face on that balcony, Nate smiled widely enough for it to be seen even if someone were looking down from the roof. “There you are, Keyes! I figured you'd want to stay as far from me as possible.”

Preston Anstel stood next to Keyes with his hands on his hips like an emperor surveying his lands. “I'm the one you called for, mister! What's the meaning of this?”

“I came to ask that you release Abraham Keyes into my custody,” Nate replied. “He's wanted for killing a lawman and plenty of others.”

“I was cleared of that killing,” Keyes said proudly. “Get your ass out of my sight.”

Anstel extended an arm to hold Keyes back without taking his eyes off of Nate. “What if I refuse your request?” he asked.

“Then I'll change it from a request to a demand,” Nate said. “Send that murdering son of a bitch down to me. Now.”

“I don't have to do anything you ask,” Anstel said. “In fact, I'm within my legal rights to have you shot.”

“Since I imagine you've got a few lawmen in your pocket, I reckon that's so. Do you know who Casey Pescaterro is?”

“Of course. He's that wild dog Sam Cavett busted out of jail. Nearly burned down half of Joplin in the process.”

“Him and that son of a bitch,” Nate said while pointing a steady hand at Keyes, “are partners and they're setting your company and Western Cartage against each other so they can swindle as much money as they can from both sides.”

“That's preposterous!”

“I can prove it.”

“How?”

Keeping his finger pointed at Keyes, Nate said, “Send that one down here and I'll make him squeal.”

Keyes grinned as well when he said, “Gladly.”

“No,” Anstel said. His one arm proved too weak to keep Keyes from moving toward the door that would take him back inside, so he grabbed Keyes and said, “No! I'm a businessman, not a killer. These are insane accusations, nothing more.”

“Then where's the law?” Nate asked.

“Probably dealing with the hell that was unleashed last night. Probably still looking for that Pescaterro fellow. Probably questioning Sam Cavett about his part in setting that animal free!”

Nate nodded. “I imagine you're right. So that just leaves you right here with me and I ain't about to go away.”

“Let me go,” Keyes said.

Too frustrated to contain himself, Anstel not only let Keyes go but shoved him toward the door. “You want to take care of this?” he said in a low, rumbling voice. “Then end it here and now before any lawmen do show up.”

Keyes nodded and stormed through the door that would take him inside so he could get to the stairs.

*   *   *

“This isn't good,” Deaugrey said as he hurried back into the room they'd just snuck into. “He seems upset. They seem real upset.”

Angelica knelt in front of the safes that had been hidden behind a set of shelves. As soon as Deaugrey had brought her to that room and showed her the stack of iron boxes hidden behind the shelves on one wall, she'd known which safe required her attention. Judging by the way she'd caressed the dial and even touched the hinges on the door, she didn't even need to see the maker's mark stamped into the corner. “Which is it?” she asked, keeping one ear pressed against the front of the safe. “‘He' or ‘they'?”

“It was he, now it's they. And they seem rather close to trading blows . . . or bullets.”

She paid no attention to the pounding of steps directly below them. Instead, she kept her eyes closed while slowly turning the dial. “Are they coming up the stairs?”

Deaugrey cracked the door open, peeked outside and closed it again. “No. I believe they're headed down.”

“Good. Let me know if anyone comes this way. I've almost got this open.”

“Really?”

“Yes,” Angelica said before she turned the handle and opened the safe. “Really.” Although there was plenty of money to be found as well as a few bundles of folded papers held together with twine inside the safe, she pushed all that aside so she could run her fingertips along the interior walls and bottom of the safe itself.

“That seemed fairly easy,” Deaugrey said. “I suppose that's why you're the expert in such things.”

“That wasn't the real lock,” she said.

“Seemed locked to me.”

“It was, but it's just a regular lock. There's got to be more. With a Grunwaldt safe, there always is.”

“Obviously, Nate is creating some kind of stir outside but I wouldn't count on it lasting forever.”

“That's why you're here, isn't it?” she asked. “To guard me?”

“Yeah, well hurry it along all the same.”

Angelica's eyes snapped open wider as if she'd just awoken from a deep sleep. “Got it!”

Rushing to her side, Deaugrey hunkered down to get a look. “What is it? What did you find?”

“The second lock.”

Beneath the papers she'd pushed aside was a subtle crosshatch pattern that had been etched into the bottom of the safe's interior. After a little more searching, Angelica's fingers ran along the continuation of that pattern going up along one of the safe's walls.

“Where's the lock?” Deaugrey asked.

“This is it,” she told him. Pressing down between two of the lines etched into the safe's interior, Angelica slid a thin strip down and to the side before putting it back where she'd found it. “Have you ever seen a Chinese puzzle box?”

“Yes.”

“This is sort of like that. These panels slide around and when they're put into the right shape or order, the box opens.”

“So get it open and we can get the hell out of here,” Deaugrey snapped.

“It's not going to be that easy. Grunwaldt is a master craftsman.”

“If you can't do it, tell me right now.”

Angelica scowled as she manipulated the panels embedded within the safe. For every one she moved, another was revealed. “I've opened one like this before. It's going to take a little time.”

“That may be in short supply, darlin'.”

*   *   *

Abraham Keyes stepped out of the front door of the building and came to a stop at the edge of the boardwalk. Even though several men watched from within the building and plenty more watched from the streets or windows nearby, it seemed he and Nate were alone.

“You got some nerve, Sathow,” Keyes said. “Throwing accusations at me when you ain't nothing more than a bounty hunter with more kills to his name than any of the men you go after.”

“And you're too full of yourself after twisting the law into some foul thing just to suit your purposes.”