Wishes on the Wind (60 page)

    The familiar notes of an Irish jig sounded as she arrived at the grounds, and Meg could not help but smile at the sight that met her eyes. Pat
Scanlan
, his thirteen-year-old feet faultlessly executing the difficult steps of the Irish folk dance, performed in the center of a swaying group of Irishmen. The music came to a sudden conclusion, and the boy's eyes popped wide as the appreciative fellows, feeling no pain, tossed coins at his feet. Meg reached the table where she had spent most of the day just as the boy dropped to his knees to scoop up the change.

    Pausing, Meg glanced at the bar a few feet away, unconsciously amazed by the stamina of the Welsh bartender,
Gomer
James.
Seidels
of beer continued leaving his hand to slide down the bar without interruption as they had most of the day. The fellow was a giant of a man with a face like granite, and even if he was vigorously disliked by many, he was nonetheless

    A gunshot, and the joyous tableau froze! A second shot sent revelers scattering and dropping to the ground even as Meg spotted a stranger at the edge of the clearing, his gun pointed at the    big Welsh bartender. Paralyzed with terror, unable to move, Meg watched as the gunman fired again once, twice! Her breath caught in her throat as
Gomer
James's body jerked spasmodically with the impact of the bullets that struck him.

    The big Welshman's eyes bulged as blood spurted in gushing streams from the holes in his chest, and a scream that would not leave Meg's lips echoed over and again in her mind.
Gomer
James was so close. She felt the deadening thud as his body hit the ground; she heard his breath rattle in his chest. She watched in breathless terror as the stranger leveled his gun again

    A strong arm unexpectedly jerking her to the ground, Meg felt a heavy male body pin her protectively even as she struggled to escape its crushing weight.

    ''Don't move, Meg. It isn't safe, yet."

    Terry's low rasp halted her struggle just as shots sounded again, and the sound of escaping footsteps left behind a shocked, unnatural silence.

    Shouts of panic and outrage suddenly erupted within the grove, filling the air, and Terry drew his bulk off her, obviously shaken. His fingers bit into her arms as he pulled her to her feet. "Fiona told me you were on your way back here. I was afraid you might be"

    Cutting himself short, Terry swallowed and glanced around nervously as Meg's gaze drifted to the crowd encircling the prostrate Welshman a few feet away. The circle separated momentarily, and Meg saw James lying motionless, his chest splattered with blood. She knew he was dead, and she suddenly realized

    Turning to stare at Terry, Meg gasped, "You knew, didn't you? You knew this was going to happen! Oh, God, you knew…"

    The truth of it all was in Terry's eyes her husband's eyes a murderer's eyes, and in that moment Meg also saw the end of everything between them.

Chapter 27

    The colliery whistle shrieked the start of a new week, drowning out the sound of Captain Linden's vehement protests, but David knew he had not heard the last of them. Waiting until the last dying echo faded, the stiff-faced policeman gave the office another guarded glance before continuing in a low tone.

    "Two men were killed this weekend, sir within nine hours of each other. Thomas
Gwyer
in Girardsville, and
Gomer
James right here in Shenandoah. Both were declared enemies of the Mollies, and it's plain to see the warning intended. You've barely escaped death yourself"

    "You're wasting your breath, Captain." David's voice was determined. "I'm going down into the shafts today, and I'm going to walk this operation from one end to the other until I get a clearer understanding of what's going on down there."

    "Your intentions are good, sir, I've no doubt, but the timing is wrong." Linden continued speaking, his eyes searching David's face, and David knew what the concerned officer saw. He saw a man who had not fully recuperated from a grievous wound a man who had insisted upon returning to work despite his doctor's warnings. He saw a man who was still weak and pale, but David knew all that was merely on the surface, for the man inside him was thinking clearly for the first time.

    David briefly closed his eyes. He had read the warning in these latest killings. He knew what they meant. There would be no lessening of Molly activity now, for the tide was turning and the leadership was becoming desperate. The labor pool had changed and the Irish were a lesser minority than before. Condemnation of the organization was at a new height with the murder of
Gomer
James; and under the new, fearless editorship of Tom Foster, the
Shenandoah Herald
was waging a relentless attack against it. The church's unceasing denunciation of the organization had begun being felt at the last bastions of its support, and public outrage against the endless violence was at such a height that the Mollies now had their backs to the wall. The Mollies were not ignorant of their dire circumstances, and they knew they need maintain the level of fear that had protected them in the past or they were lost. They were going to push until something snapped, one way or another.

    David opened his eyes to Linden's concerned gaze. Well, he would not be the one to snap. Nor would he run, or give up, especially now when he had already lost so much.

    "Are you all right, sir?"

    David attempted a smile at the man's concern. "I'm better than I look, and my thinking is more lucid that it's been for a long time, Captain. I suppose that's because
i've
done little else but think for the past week."

    "Well, if you're thinking as clearly as you say, sir, you know that the miners are upset over these latest atrocities."

    "Precisely the reason to show them I'm as upset as they are, that I intend to do all I can to work out their problems with fair concessions on both sides."

    "They won't be fooled, Mr. Lang."

    David returned the policeman's level gaze. "I have no intention of fooling them, Captain."

    Linden's doubts obviously remained, and David sighed. "Let me try to explain. It's like this. Force and threat have been tried on both sides without true success. The mine owners as well as the miners are suffering for the lack of understanding shown for each other's points of view, and it's time to take a step beyond mutual prejudice.

    "You see, during the past week I've had the chance to go over in my mind thoughts that I dismissed too easily before. Someone I care very much about once asked me if I knew what it was like down in those mines, and I said yes, but I've only just realized the hypocrisy of that response. I've studied the operation of this colliery the production figures, the profit and loss, the future potential of this mine as well as the potential of the Pennsylvania fields in general. I've gone below to observe firsthand the techniques being used to mine the coal. I've gone over the safety problems and the measures we took to correct them. I've studied it all until I was too tired to think, but it occurred to me only recently that I'd never actually taken the time to
really
talk to the miners themselves."

    David gave a short laugh at Linden's raised brow. "That's right.

    I walked past them as they labored at the breasts, stepped around them as they loaded coal, and did no more than nod in response when they looked me straight in the eye. And when the union representatives came to my office all steamed up, I answered them with anger without giving their grievances true consideration. I've held the past disturbances of a few against the lot of them in general. I've been so sure that I, and all the mine owners and supervisors like me, were right and they were wrong. But the truth is, I'm not so sure anymore."

    "Mr. Lang"

    "I'm going to sort this thing out, Captain, or make a damned good attempt at trying."

    Captain Linden nodded, his frown deepening. "Everything you've said is very commendable, sir, and I'd agree that you're doing the right thing, except that the timing is wrong."

    "The timing?"

    "Aye." Linden looked uncomfortable. "It's dangerous for me to speak of this, but…"

    "Yes?"

    "But it's soon to come down, sir. All of it."

    David shook his head, confused. "What are you talking about?"

    "We have a witness to the murder of
Gomer
James who thinks he recognized the fellow who did the shooting and is willing to testify against him."

    "Who?"

    "John Williams, a friend of James. It's the first time anyone has had the courage to testify against a Molly. This, in combination with the case our man inside the organization has prepared, should be the beginning of the end."

    David frowned, hesitating at the first concern that touched his mind. "How closely are Terry Donovan and Sean O'Connor tied up in all this?"

    Linden paused, appearing to realize that David would not be satisfied with less than the full truth. "Donovan's in deep. O'Connor's been behaving strangely of late and it's uncertain which way he'll go."

    David knew that if anyone could have worked a change in O'Connor, it was Meg. Over the long week since she had left him, he had come to realize that there was no one else but her brother Terry Donovan included who could have made her leave him. He was now sure that Sean O'Connor had somehow gotten to Meg that last night.

    But that realization changed nothing, and David knew even more certainly than ever that the gulf between Meg and him, the irreconcilable differences that would always keep them apart, could only be narrowed by himself and the dissolution of the prejudices he had so stubbornly maintained.

    He wondered why it had taken him so long to realize it.

    "Where is this witness now?"

    "He's on the job. He'll stay there until we're ready to move."

    "No one knows he intends to testify?"

    "No."

    "Good." David picked up his jacket. In light of the warmth of the day, it was mute indication of his intention to go below-ground.

    "I'll send a few of my men with you, Mr. Lang."

    "I'll go alone. The foreman in each shaft will show me around."

    "Mr. Lang"

    But David had already started toward the door.

    Kehoe's piercing gaze burned into Terry's face. Seated across the table from him in Lawler's upstairs room, Terry felt the heat of the man's fury. His own was no less. In the last few days since
Gomer
James's death, he had seen one part of his world come to an end, and he was not anxious to see the rest of it fall down around him.

    "They have a witness who's willing to testify, ye say?" Terry was incredulous. "What man would be fool enough to speak out against us?"

    "A damned Welshman close to James, that's who!" Kehoe's full lips pulled into a sneer. "Ah, if I only had the luxury of takin' care of the man meself. Them damned Modocs are behind much of our problems here with their jealousies. They're gettin' too bold and it's up to ye this time, Donovan. This is yer town and yer responsible for
straightenin
' this mess out. Ye can do it in only one way."

    "Ye need not spell it out to me." Terry was incensed. "I know what me duties are! I've done as much and done it well many times before. Ye've but to give me the name of the informer."

    "That's the easiest part. John Williams."

    "I know the greasy rodent."

    "Aye, and ye've to keep in mind he'll be as slippery as a rodent, too."

    "I'll get him. Everyone'll think it's an accident."

    "Nay. That won't do." And at Terry's raised brow, "Ye must teach all them
braggin
' Welsh what to expect if they try to finger one of us again. Ye can only do that by makin' it obvious that it was one of us who did it, even if ye must take care not to be identified. And I want it done right. There's been too much gone amiss here already."

    "I'll do the job meself."

    "Ye'll take two men with ye."

    "I'll do it alone."

    Kehoe's eyes sparked fire. "I said
take two men with ye!
Ye'll need one at yer back and one at yer front to do the job right." Kehoe paused. "Are ye tryin' to tell me that ye've not two men ye can trust until we're clear who the informer in our organization is?"

    Terry's small eyes narrowed. "Nay. I have two I can trust, all right."

    Kehoe assessed Terry's tight expression for a long moment before drawing himself slowly to his feet. He gave a caustic laugh as he cast a quick glance around the room. "I think of the many times the membership's been gathered around this table to listen to our plans with full confidence, and it makes me stomach turn to know there's an informer that's one of our own. But we'll find him out soon, and when we do, we'll fix him good. In the meantime, it's up to ye, Donovan."

    "Aye, and it'll be done right. I give ye me word. Williams will breathe his last before the week is out."

    "It can't be soon enough."