THE IMPERIAL ENGINEER (38 page)

"Someday women will be given credit for having minds as good as men's," he
said, and had to chuckle at her expression. He'd probably taken the words right out of her
mouth. "Let's get some rest. I have a hunch tomorrow's going to be a long one."

When he climbed between the sheets, she blew out the lamp and snuggled close.
"I'm trying very hard not to be angry with whoever destroyed our home," she said,
sounding as if she was losing the battle.

"Yeah, me too. If I think too much, I'll want to go out and get even."

"Even if the sheriff discovers who did it, there's nothing we can do, except be
angry."

"That's the trouble with living in enlightened times," he said, not entirely joking.
"One has to act like a civilized person, not like a barbarian. Right now I'm feeling pretty
damned barbaric."

"You aren't the only one," she agreed, "no matter how civilized I try to be, I would
like to-- Never mind." She snuggled against him. "Tony," she said, as he wrapped his arm
around her, "do you realize we've gone an entire day without arguing?"

"Hmmm," he murmured, as he found the sweet curve of her bottom, covered only
by the soft linen of her shift. Neither of them had proper night dress, but that had been the
least of their worries. She was warm, sweet-smelling, and supple as she arched against
him. "That's good," he said, wishing it was two hours earlier.

"I think it's remarkable. No, don't do that. It's late, and you have to be up early."
She pushed his hand away from her breast, but made no protest when he put it back. A
sudden inhalation told him she was willing.

Unlike the other times they'd made love, they moved together without hesitation,
with confidence and knowledge of what would please, would excite. Her fingers were sure
when they clasped him. His hand went unerringly to her delicate folds, parting, finding the
small seat of her passion without hesitation. Tony lost all sense of time and place as he
explored the textures and curves of her body, riper and more lush than ever before, but still
unmistakably his Lulu.

His love.

He told her in sweet words and in explicit ones what he wanted to do to her. She
begged him to, and when he did, she went wild. When he entered her at long last, she
arched against him and, with a cry, came unraveled in his arms.

Her inner spasms brought him to his own completion, hard and fast, and he
collapsed on her, panting.

When breath came easier, he rolled away and pulled her close against him. "I
think we're getting the gist of it," he said, still slightly breathless.

"Are you sure we don't need more practice?" Her voice was soft, and blurred with
incipient sleep.

"Only forty or fifty years' worth," he told her with one last kiss.

* * * *

The desk clerk tapped on their door at six the next morning. "Oh, no," Lulu said,
her words distorted by an enormous yawn. "I feel as if I just got to sleep."

"You don't need to get up now. I've got to meet the sheriff, but you don't have to
open the office until nine." Tony was rubbing his hands over his face. He sounded still
half-asleep. She had to laugh at the way his hair stood on end..

Lulu stayed in bed while he washed and dressed. The hotel room, the only one
available, was far too small for two people.
One more item for my list of what to do.
Find better lodgings.
"Mr. Teller said he wouldn't try to rent the apartment until the
fifteenth, so it's still available. Would you object to living there?"

"It might be a good idea. Mrs. Graham seems one to keep her eye on the whole
neighborhood."

"Thank heaven for nosy neighbors," Lulu agreed. "I'll speak to her this morning."
She hesitated. "What about furniture? What's there was adequate for one person,
particularly since I was rarely at home. The two of us will need more, if we're to be at all
comfortable."

"Hold off for a day or two," he said, after a moment's thought. "I'd like to keep
some funds in reserve." He pulled up his suspenders and reached for his waistcoat. "We'll
both need clothes, and...
damn!
"

"What?"

"My bankbook. I can't remember whether it was at the office, or--"

"I'll look for it. Is there anything else I should do?" She reached for her notepad,
waited for him to answer. So many small details to remember. A good thing, she decided.
The less she thought about what they had lost, the better.
Look ahead, not behind
,
her mamma had always told her.
You can change what's coming, but not what's
gone.

* * * *

The sheriff tutted and hemmed, poked a finger into messes and pushed piles of
debris around with his foot. By the time he signified he was done looking around, Tony
was ready to demand some action. "Well? Any ideas," he demanded.

"A couple." At the door the older man stopped and looked back into the kitchen.
"Looks to me like he--or they, but I'd bet on one person doin' all of this-- knew he'd have
all day. You said your Chinamen went to town before you did. So he knew they was gone
too, and probably figured they had the day off. Did you tell anybody you were goin' out to
Tellers' for dinner?"

"Not a soul. My wife might have, but I don't know who. She's not too well
acquainted around town."

"Hmmm." The sheriff scratched his chin. "I'll have words with Jacob and Mrs.
Graham. Not that I'd expect either one to be connected with this, but they might remember
who they talked to about your plans." He kicked at the snow beside the walkway.
"Something in here." After a few more kicks to break the frozen crust, he bent and scraped
the snow aside. Holding up a ball-peen hammer, he said, "This yours?"

"No, I haven't any tools out here. They're all down at the exchange."

"And I don't reckon the Chinamen brought anything like this out." Turning it over
in his hands, he examined the handle carefully. "Brand new, or close to it. Coffin's carries
this brand, so I'll talk to the folks down there, too." He tucked it into his hip pocket. "I took
a good look at the dents on your cupboards. Want to bet they'll match this?"

"No, I learned a long time ago not to bet on a sure thing. So he came
prepared?"

"Oh, he had it all planned, I reckon. Knew where you was goin' and how long you
was likely to be away. Just like he knew when was the best time to hit the exchange."

Tony had been looking around, trying to figure where a watcher might have been,
where he could see comings and goings in this yard. He jerked his head around to stare at
the sheriff. "You've decided it could be the same person, then?"

"I have, now I've seen your list. I've been a lawman long enough to know there
ain't a lot of coincidences. When a bunch of similar crimes come along, chances are they're
all done by the same folks. Oh, sometimes somebody will try to get away with something
by making it look like a known outlaw did it. Mostly they do such a poor job of it that
nobody's fooled for long."

After a last quick look around the place, the sheriff headed back to town. Tony
followed after one more walk through the ruin that had been his home.

His and Lulu's.

I hope the sheriff gets to whoever did this before I do. Because if I find him
first, I may end up serving time for murder.

He prided himself on being a civilized gentleman. As a child he had seen far too
much barbarism, too much violence, too much needless wasting of lives. He had vowed,
when in his early teens, never to raise a hand in anger unless he had no alternative.

Nonetheless, he had learned to fight. Civilized or not, some things were worth
fighting for.

* * * *

Alone in the office, Lulu looked first for Tony's bankbook. To her relief, she
found it in the first place she looked, the upper left hand drawer of his desk. Relieved, she
sat down and studied her list. Had the shipment of iron wire instead of copper been an
attempt to delay the telephone installation? How about the rockslide up along Croy Creek,
the one that uprooted three telephone poles and snapped the wires they carried? Tony
seemed to believe that only a few of the incidents on her list had been deliberate attempts
against the telephone company, but she wasn't convinced. Surely no well-engineered
project should be so disaster-prone. And this one had been well-engineered. She knew
Tony, knew his meticulous ways. He would have planned everything to a gnat's
eyebrow.

Tossing her pencil down, she leaned back in the chair and looked out the window.
Last night's snow was all but gone, melted by a soft south wind that had brought springlike
temperatures to the Wood River. The streets were rapidly turning into gigantic mudholes.
The last freight wagon she'd seen go past had been axle-deep and sinking fast. She went to
the window and looked out, wishing she could be out in the sunshine instead of here,
waiting for the phone to ring with news of another disaster.

"Why am I so certain there will be one? Surely there's nothing worse he could do."
She and Tony had almost nothing left to lose. Or had the vandal been a woman?

No, because a woman would not have been able to carry off that exquisite ebony
screen. Lulu had needed help just to move it.

The telephone rang. With sinking heart, Lulu crossed the room.

What now?

A CARD
To the Executive Committee of the Anti-Chinese League:
As I am informed that my name is mentioned in an unwarranted manner because a
Chinaman has heretofore swept my store and cleaned my lamps, I wish to state that, being
in favor of getting rid of the Chinese by all lawful means. I am looking about for a white
man to do the work, and shall employ him as soon as I can.
In the meantime, I respectfully but firmly request the members of the Executive Committee
to refrain from bandying my name in an improper manner upon the streets, or to cause it to
be done.
H.J. FRIEDMAN

Wood River Times
- Paid Notice

~~~

"Tell the yellow heathen to get out of town, or worse will happen." The voice was
whispery and slightly muffled, as if the speaker had a hand cupped around the
mouthpiece.

Stunned, Lulu could do nothing but stare at the earpiece as if it were alive. Only
when she heard the peculiar hollow sound that denoted an open connection did she react.
Ringing the switchboard, she waited impatiently for Jack to answer. When he did, she
interrupted his greeting with, "Mr. Denham, where did that last call come from?"

"The Bullion Mine office. Why?"

"Did you recognize the voice? Was it someone who usually called from
there?"

A pause. "I didn't really pay attention, but...no, it didn't sound like Mr. Pinnick.
He's the only one whose voice I'd recognize, because he makes almost all the calls from
there."

"He wouldn't have made that call." Lulu had only met Dave Pinnick once, but he
had surprised her with sympathetic comments about women's suffrage. She thought him an
extremely intelligent man.

"Did I make the wrong connection?" Jack sounded worried.

"No. No, I'm sure you didn't. It's just that the caller didn't identify himself, so I'm
not sure what he wanted. He only spoke a few words, then disconnected."

"Perhaps he'll call back later."

"Yes, perhaps." Lulu wasn't sure she wanted him to, unless it was to tell her who
he was. That evening, when she was telling Tony about the call, she said, "I've tried to hear
in my mind what he said. There was something about his voice...almost as if I'd heard it
before."

"Someone you've spoken to?"

She shook her head. "I wish I knew. Have you ever had one of those feelings that
you've missed something important?"

He grinned. "Many times. Most often just before an examination at college." Then
he sobered. "You're sure he said to tell me to get out of town? He wasn't talking about the
Chinese in general?"

"He said 'the yellow heathen', but I have this feeling he was speaking specifically,
not generally. Whoever he is, he
knows
." A sick sensation had made its home in
her gut ever since the telephone call, one she knew presaged something awful. Instinctively
she spread her hands across the mound of her belly, frightened of what this all could mean
for their child. "He knows you're Chinese and he hates you. I could hear it in his
voice."

"It doesn't make sense, damn it! If he's after me because of that, why was he trying
to delay the telephone installation, way back last June? And why doesn't he denounce me
to the League? God knows, if that bunch of fanatics found out what I am, they'd probably
string me up to the nearest tree."

An icy chill went up her spine all but taking her breath away. "It's not a joke! You
could be in danger."

"I'm more concerned that you are. Nobody but a crazy man would do the things
this fellow's done. What if he decides to get at me by harming you?" He rose from the
settee and came across the room. Going to one knee before the rocker in which she sat, he
caught her hands. "Lulu, I want you to go to Boise. Attacks on the telephone exchange are
one thing, but this destruction of our home is personal. Next time he might not stop at
damaging our possessions."

"Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going to run away from a little danger." Oh, she
wanted to, for the sake of her baby, but it just wouldn't be right. "Besides, wouldn't that be
admitting defeat? If I go away, mightn't he think you're sure to follow?"

He frowned, fiercely. "What if I make it an order?"

"I hope you won't. We'd only fight, and right now it's far more important that we
work together." She pulled one hand free of his grasp and stroked his cheek. "Tony, I don't
know where you got this outmoded notion that I need protecting. My mamma would be
scandalized if she thought I'd let you stand alone between me and danger. And Soomey
would probably be outraged you even suggested it. Whatever happens, we'll face it
together."