Chapter 39
“They say nearly two hundred thousand people have visited the Exposition this week alone.”
Maggie came into the room, brandishing the latest edition of the Chicago Tribune, determined to be bright for Brendan’s sake.
Even though the famous Ferris wheel had yet to work, the fair was bringing thousands of visitors to the city.
The streets were thronged, the air one of merriment and exultant expectation.
And meanwhile Maggie, her brother, and Brendan were holed up in a boarding house in Packingtown by the stockyards, the only place they’d been able to find a room, where no one asked questions… and no one would find them.
It had been a week since they’d fled Englewood and Holmes’ drugstore.
In Maggie’s empty apartment, she and Brendan had managed to convince Danny of Holmes’ evil ways, and her brother had been shaken to the core, especially when he realized the awful part he’d had to play in doing the man’s bidding.
The next day, they’d discovered from the papers that Holmes had made an official report to the police, and Brendan was now a wanted man, unable to show his face.
With all the visitors to the Exposition, Maggie insisted, it would be easy enough for them to disappear… one way or another.
The trouble was convincing Brendan to do anything. Even now, a week later, he simply sat by the window, watching the world go by as she once had, after O’Malley’s attack, all interest and energy drained out of him, so he seemed lifeless, a shadow of the man he’d once been.
He blamed himself, Maggie knew, for all the disappearances and deaths, and he could not bear the fact that Holmes was continuing his evil acts and there was nothing any of them could do about it.
Meanwhile, their money was running out, Danny was getting restless, and Maggie knew she needed to come up with a plan.
“Brendan.” She kept her voice gentle as she walked to the window and sat down opposite him.
The room they shared was dark and squalid, overlooking the stockyards and smelling of them, as well, even with the window closed, so the air was stuffy and fetid.
Maggie was desperate to leave. “We have enough money for the train fare,” she said quietly.
“But we won’t forever, not as long as we have to pay for this room.
There’s no reason not to leave this wretched place. ”
Brendan shook his head, his empty gaze still on the street. “If we go, we give up,” he replied lifelessly. “How long will Holmes continue? How many other people will die?”
Maggie sighed. This wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation, and she had no solution for it.
It seemed impossible to have Holmes convicted of anything; the man was simply too slippery.
And, meanwhile, their own hope of escaping this nightmare dwindled by the day, along with their savings.
“We can’t stay here,” she reminded him. “Brendan, there’s no future for either of us here, or Danny. You must see that. We cannot simply watch and wait to see what happens to Holmes.”
“What I see,” Brendan replied, his voice trembling, “is that I am as guilty as he is, if I simply walk away, knowing what I do.” He bowed his head, his shoulders shaking.
“You suspected something all along, Maggie,” he told her, his voice choking.
“You knew when I did not. When I refused to. I so wanted it all to work—the job, the life. I closed my eyes for far too long, and I will never, ever forgive myself for that. I will not let myself close them any longer.” He looked up at her, tears starting in his eyes and slipping down his pale cheeks.
“Can’t you see that, Maggie? Understand it? ”
“Oh, Brendan.” Filled with pity, Maggie dropped to her knees and put her arms around him.
Brendan rested his head on her shoulder, his own shaking with sobs he had not surrendered to until now, while Maggie’s heart ached.
She’d known he’d been tormented by his unwitting part in this whole terrible affair, but she hadn’t realized just how wracked by guilt he truly was.
“It’s not your fault,” she said gently. “You must believe that.”
“I don’t,” he replied, and now he sounded savage. “I don’t, and I never will. I can’t.” He pressed his face against her shoulder as Maggie held him, aching for him and all he’d lost. Would there ever be a way to get it back?
“I think I’ve found a way.”
Danny’s voice, quiet and sure, had them both stilling.
Maggie looked up to see her brother standing in the doorway of their room; in their moment of anguish, he’d come in without either her or Brendan noticing. For a second, she was jolted by how old he looked, truly a man now, with a shadow of stubble on his jaw, a world-weary look in his dark eyes.
“Danny…” she began, scrambling to standing.
“We can’t prove any murders,” he stated as he came further into the room. “He’s too clever for that. But there is evidence of fraud. I’ve seen it myself. Holmes buys everything on credit and then charges it to a company that doesn’t exist. The paper trail probably goes on forever.”
Brendan lifted his head, unashamedly wiping the tears from his face. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying if he’s behind bars,” Danny replied, his voice getting stronger, “what does it matter why? At least he won’t be able to kill anyone anymore.
” For a second, his eyes became shadowed and his jaw worked, and Maggie knew her brother struggled with the same kind of guilt Brendan did.
Heaven help them all, she thought. Would they ever escape the horror of this place?
Of what they’d seen and endured, even without realizing?
“How?” Brendan whispered.
“There’s a room in that building,” Danny told him.
“A secret room, filled with furniture that’s mortgaged.
He showed it to me, when he wanted me to shift some pieces.
He’s trying to sell it for some cash, and I don’t think the police will look kindly upon that, especially when the company that’s owed the money comes to them.
” He paused. “I’ve already told them where it is. ”
“What!” Maggie stared at him, shocked, and also hopeful for the first time in what felt like eons. “Danny, truly? What’s happened? What have you done?”
He shrugged. “The furniture company, they’ve gone to the police. They’re investigating now. God willing, Holmes will be arrested, and maybe, just maybe, that will be the end of it.”
Brendan shook his head slowly. “Can it be that easy?”
“Well, it wasn’t easy, as it happens,” Danny replied tartly. “They didn’t believe me at first, and then they said I must have had some part in it, to know what I did. I had to be quick on my feet, let me tell you, or I would have gone down too.”
“Oh, Danny.” Maggie crossed the room to give her brother a quick, tight hug. “That was very brave of you. And quick-witted, as well.”
“Well.” He shrugged, his gaze downcast. “It’s the least I could do, considering…
” He shook his head, his expression turning grim.
“There are some things I’ll never forget,” he said quietly.
“Ever.” He lifted his gaze to exchange a long look with Brendan, both men silently acknowledging what they’d both seen and endured.
It would be a long time, Maggie knew, before either Brendan or Danny could be truly free of the hellish curse of that murder castle.
“At least we can try, away from here,” she urged. “Especially if Holmes is arrested.” She paused, for they had not yet discussed where they would go. No one had been willing. “You know Da is in San Francisco?”
Danny nodded. “And has been for a year. Holmes was lying all that time about that, too.”
“We can join him,” Maggie insisted. “I have enough money for the train fare, and San Francisco is far from all this. And they say it’s an up-and-coming city, like Chicago once was. The newspapers called it the Golden City, I read.”
“And will you make hats there, too?” Danny asked, still sounding doubtful about the whole seemingly impossible scheme.
“No.” Maggie’s voice was firm. “I’m done with all that.
Truth be told, I don’t know what I’ll turn my hand to, but it will be something worthwhile, and far from the starry climes of society.
” She’d had enough of the whims of the wealthy, of chasing fame and fortune as if they mattered, of twisting and turning herself into someone she no longer wanted to be.
Whatever San Francisco held for her, it wouldn’t be that.
Brendan shook his head, already seeming defeated by the notion. “We’ll be right back where we started, in a strange city, with no money, no job, knowing no one.”
“Maybe our father can help us,” Maggie replied, even though she had her own doubts as to whether they’d even find him.
Perhaps their da had moved on yet again; she wouldn’t be surprised.
And yet maybe he hadn’t. And even if he had, they could still go.
“And we’ve done it before,” she urged Brendan.
“We can do it again. There’s lots of opportunity in San Francisco, or so I’ve heard, and, Brendan…
” She gentled her voice. “You know we can’t stay here, and at least there’s a chance of someone we know in that city.
Where else should we go? Why not San Francisco? ”
Brendan gazed at her, a small, sad smile curving his lips. “You’ve always been stronger than I am,” he said, and Maggie shook her head, resolute.
“You know that’s not true.”
“It is—”
“We’ll be strong together,” she insisted, glancing first at Brendan, then Danny. “All three of us. And we won’t let anything—anything—split us apart again.” Not the caprices of their own hearts, or the shifting tides of the world around them.
Whatever the future held, she would not face it alone, of that Maggie was sure. None of them would.
“They found gold in California,” Danny remarked thoughtfully. “I read about it.”
“Danny, that was years and years ago,” Maggie protested with a laugh. “Nearly half a century—”
“Still,” her brother retorted with a ghost of his old grin, “they could find it again.”
“Or we could get rich selling shovels and picks to the miners,” Brendan told him. Although he still looked haggard, there was a small spark of life in his eyes that Maggie was very glad to see. “That’s where the real money is.”
“O’Donaghue Dry Goods,” she stated grandly. “Outfitting all the prospectors. I can see the sign already.”
For a second, she thought Brendan could too, but then the light in his eyes dimmed. “Do you really think we can do it?” he asked, a trace of the old sorrow and doubt in his voice. “Should we even try?”
“I know we can,” Maggie replied firmly. “And we should.” She thought of all the times Brendan had believed in her, stood by her and steadied her and done whatever he could to help her find her dreams. She’d lost them all on her own, out of her own folly, but new ones, hazy and nascent, were taking their place.
And, meanwhile, maybe she could finally help Brendan find his own.
“I believe in you,” she stated with quiet decision, and Brendan held her gaze, his own softening as the words reverberated through both of them.
“Do you?” he asked quietly, the smallest of smiles tugging at his mouth, and Maggie nodded.
“Yes, I do.”
They continued to hold each other’s gazes, each of them, Maggie thought, acknowledging all that had gone before… and what was yet to come.
In the distance, a train whistle blew, the sound both hopeful and mournful, beckoning them forward and calling them to a future they had yet to find.
* * *