Chapter 10 #2
Phillip thought, for all her scowls, Littleman was flattered by the request. Wasn’t it just like Virginia to find a soft spot in an ally or an opponent? “What do you want from me?”
“I doubt they’ll let Thomas in this meeting. And I’ve got concerns that one of the do-gooders would have the police take me to jail. You can guard me in the meeting. Keep the coppers away from me.”
“If the police decided to storm the meeting, I’m not sure what you’d want me to do.”
“You’ll figure it out, though, won’t you?”
Phillip knew that he could get himself in serious trouble if anything happened as Littleman described and wondered if it would be worth it. “Can you help me?”
“I know where the girl is held.”
“The Button girl?”
Littleman nodded.
“Where? Tell me where.”
Littleman just stared at him and lifted one eyebrow.
“I won’t break the law. I’ll use any influence I have to protect you. You’ll have to do things my way, but I won’t break the law. I have ideas for my life, and it doesn’t include rotting in a jail cell.”
“Your way?”
“Yes. My way. I’ll have to know where the meeting is to be held and who is attending. Then I’ll make a plan.”
“Your plan better work. Thomas would be most unhappy if there were . . . complications. I have your word?”
“You do.”
“Nora Button is being held by Thomas Bruner. I’m not sure where, as he has several hideouts.”
“Where should I begin?”
“Probably stay clear of his dock warehouse. She’s not there, and it’s well guarded. My information is that she’s in one of his brothels.”
“She’s thirteen,” he said.
“I doubt she’s been sold yet. I heard that she’s not cooperating.”
“She may make it if she’s got some spirit.”
“True. But they will eventually win. They’ll withhold food and water. They’ll beat her, but not too much since she can’t be bruised. But they will win. They always do.”
“How do you know so much?”
“You don’t want to know, Mr. Brown. And I’ll never reveal where I get my current information.” Littleman looked up when the door opened. “Ah, Thomas. Just in time with my coffee.”
Phillip stood and picked up his hat. “Thank you, Mrs. Littleman. I’ll be in touch about the other.”
Phillip went to the cannery for a shift.
Even though Mr. Wiest himself had said he could take as much time as needed to free Timothy, he knew they were short-handed and filled in when he could.
He was exhausted when he dragged himself home later that evening after working with the mechanics to fix the machinery and pulleys that lifted the nets out of the bay.
The sun was just setting as the days were getting shorter, and while still hot during the afternoon, he could smell fall in the air. As he walked to his front door, a child darted in front of him, stopping him from putting the key in the lock.
“Mister! Mister! Wait!” the boy said and stopped to catch his breath.
“Frank? Frank Moulder? What are you doing out this late? It’s getting dark.”
“I know. I got to get home before Pa wakes from his nap. But I had to tell you. Pa unlocked the door the night Miss Button got killed.”
Phillip studied the boy’s face. “You’re sure?”
He nodded. “I was sleeping on the sofa ’cause my room is so hot. I heard Pa come out of the back. He opened our door and went in the hallway there. Then I heard the lock click and he jiggled the knob. I know he opened the door, mister. I know it.”
“Maybe he was just checking to see it was locked.”
Frank shook his head. “I saw it. Saw the gold piece in his hand after Mr. B’s man come by.”
“Mr. B’s man?”
“The one that collects the rent money and gives Pa his share. But that day wasn’t rent day.”
“Who’s Mr. B’s man?”
“Pa calls him Norris.”
“Thank you for telling me this. It helps.” Phillip handed the boy a coin. “Get home now before the sun’s all the way down.”
Frank turned and took off at a run across the street and down the next.
Phillip sent a message to Danny Hendricks early the next morning and met him in the stables behind Station 5 shortly after the horse patrol mounted and began their sweep of the streets.
“Do you know who Norris is who works for Thomas Bruner?”
“Yeah. Keeps his nose generally clean. He does Bruner’s legitimate work, like collecting rents and buying properties. Why?”
“Have a source that says Norris paid Hiram Moulder to leave the front door of the building Timothy was found in unlocked.”
Hendricks stared at him a minute. “That’s why it wasn’t busted in like the door of the room Timothy was in.”
Phillip nodded and asked the most uncomfortable question anyone could ask a police officer. “Is Youngman dirty?”
“Damn it to hell and back, Brown. What do you want me to say?”
“Just your opinion. I’ll never repeat it, I swear on my sister’s life.”
“He thinks about it. With a sickly mother, a wife, and a new baby. He thinks about the money. But I don’t think he’s crossed the line. I hope not.”
“Hope he knows that once he’s done one thing for them, they own him.”
“Yeah,” Hendricks said. “What else?”
“I need to find out where Bruner’s brothels are. Nora Button is in one of them. That’s what Timothy was trying to find out for her sister Josephine. That’s when he found himself in bed with a dead woman.”
“You know what this means, don’t you, Brown?”
“What?”
“If Bruner or whoever was behind this can drug a police detective, kill a woman, and stage a room with them both in it, implicating the detective, they can do anything to anybody. Watch your family.”
Phillip nodded as Hendricks went back in the building. He’d better make some plans. Twenty minutes later, the officer came back out to the stables and handed Phillip a list.
“These are the ones we know about that are listed in Bruner’s file.”
“Thanks, Hendricks. Gives me a place to start. And you’re right about your warning. I’d be a fool not to prepare.”