A Barricade in Hell (39 page)

A guilty thought, one that made his heart thud painfully. Dora lay limp against Randy's chest, quiet and so still, he wasn't sure they hadn't lost her. Relief at seeing her fingers move was nearly as painful. Gabe ran faster, grateful he didn't have Isadora's death on his conscience.

Delia rushed into his arms, shaking and gasping in a way that came awfully close to sobs. He wanted to turn around and take her home, far from Effie Fontaine and the dangers Fontaine's followers posed. But he was a cop, and cops weren't allowed to be that selfish. He'd often thought that Delia accepted the price his job demanded better than he did.

Jack and Sam caught up with him. They took up places near Henderson, keeping watch. Gabe allowed himself one brief moment to hold his wife tight before stepping back and holding her at arm's length. “What happened, Dee? Can you tell me?”

“I'm … I'm not certain. My head feels all turned around, and thinking makes me queasy.” She shut her eyes, slumping against this chest. “It's all muddled.”

Gabe brushed hair back from her face and patted her cheeks. “I need you to tell me what happened to Dora. Talk to me, Delia. Tell me what they did to her.”

Her eyes flew open and she pushed away from him, staring at Dora. Horror and guilt flashed across her face, replaced by a confused expression that made his stomach lurch. He'd seen the same look on Archie Baldwin's face the day he wandered into the police station. But Delia was stronger than Baldwin had ever been. He needed to remember that.

“Oh, God, I'm trying, I'm trying. I don't remember what they did to her. I know the hall was full of spirits and … and people fainted. Dora said there was something hidden in the smoke from the incense—” She frowned, forehead screwed up in concentration and thinking hard. Delia's eyes went wide. She'd remembered. “Miss Fontaine's audience kept us from leaving. The smoke kept getting thicker and Dora couldn't walk any farther. Jonas Wolf was waiting for us in the foyer. He knew, Gabe. He tried to force us to leave Dora with him, but I refused. I had to tell him you were outside before he'd let us go.”

“She's right, Captain. Whatever was in that smoke made Dora ill. She was hanging on until then. Now she won't wake up.” Randy cradled Dora closer, his struggle to hide terror sitting in his eyes. “If you ask me, the whole night was a setup, a trap. Luring Dora here was the reason Maximillian gave her those tickets. He knew who she was from the start.”

They never found Dora's driver after he'd spoken to Maximillian. He couldn't dismiss that connection or Nathan's disappearance as coincidence. Part of him wondered if Nathan had driven the car that killed Sal and his wife.

The cold itch between his shoulder blades made Gabe glance toward the front of the church. He couldn't be sure he saw the door swing closed a final few inches, but he couldn't swear he hadn't. “I'm not saying you're wrong, Dodd. Maybe you're dead right. But we need reasonable cause to raid Fontaine's lecture. Otherwise, a lawyer will have her out again within the hour.”

Dodd scowled. “I can give you reasonable cause, Captain. I saw Eli Marsh in there. He was one of the men setting out incense when the lecture started. I saw him again just before we left. Marsh is working for Fontaine.”

He'd heard stories from his father about bad cops, men who'd tossed away the trust of the other officers they'd worked with for money. More was at work here than just greed, even if he couldn't say for sure what. Somehow, that made Marsh's betrayal worse.

But Eli Marsh was already under suspicion for Archie Baldwin's murder. Finding him working for Fontaine was another link, another piece of evidence to take to the judge. That gave Gabe and Jack a reason to go inside. A reason that would hold up in court.

Jack paced a few steps away and turned back, fists clenched at his side. “That sneaky low-life bastard. Are you positive Marsh is the man you saw?”

“I'm sure. That red hair of his stands out. No offense, Lieutenant.”

“None taken.” Jack looked to Gabe, knowing the answer he'd get, but seeking permission to give the orders anyway. “Mercy Hospital is only a few blocks away. Take Dora there and insist on seeing Dr. Jodes. Show your badge, yell, and use my name if you have to, but make sure Scott Jodes is the only one who takes care of Dora. He knows her and understands she's different. Do you need Henderson or Polk to drive?”

“I can drive, Lieutenant.” Sam Butler stepped forward. He shrugged at Gabe's surprised expression. “If I drive, you won't be short an officer. You'll need every man you have here, Gabe. Even then, you won't have enough. I'll get my story once Effie Fontaine's behind bars.”

“Then go.” Gabe felt time slipping past and with it, his chance to catch Fontaine. He pulled Delia close to say good-bye, reluctant to let her out of his sight again. “Make sure the doctor takes a good look at you too.”

“I will.” Delia held on tight when he tried to move away, still trembling. “Gabe, they took a lot of people into those back rooms. You have to find them. She says to hurry, it's important.”

“Who says? I don't know what you're talking about.” He turned her so that the streetlamp shone full on her face, strangely unwilling to dismiss what she'd said as an aftereffect or the result of shock. Delia's eyes were unfocused and slightly glazed, watching things he couldn't see.

Ghosts.

“They're doing this for her, to keep her here. She never wanted them to hurt people, but they won't listen. They won't stop. She says she can't hide the others much longer, they're too strong. They get angry and make her do bad things.” Delia shuddered and looked at Gabe, eyes clear again. “She doesn't want more people to die for her. She says you have to make them stop.”

Cold knifed through his middle. Impossible things intruded into their lives every day, demanding he pay attention. In the beginning, he'd fought against accepting any of what he heard or saw as real. He was a detective, grounded in what he could prove and touch. Spirits and phantoms, or messages from beyond had no place in his world.

How easily he'd come to believe the impossible surprised him.

He cupped Delia's face in his hands. “I'll stop them. Tell her I promise.”

Sam took Delia's arm, walking her to the long black touring car at the curb. Gabe had thought about asking her if she knew who this little girl spirit was, but decided against saying anything. He knew, or at least he thought he did.

Knowing would likely give him fresh nightmares.

Gabe waited until everyone was safely inside the car and Sam had driven away to look back at the church. Only a few minutes had passed since Randy and Delia ran out the front doors. Light still shone from the windows, the faint sound of an organ playing hymns drifting toward the street. Above the entrance, a banner proclaimed that a lecture on pacifism would be given that night. A breeze rippled the painted canvas.

People passing by wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. He envied their innocence.

Henderson had fetched Polk and Finlay from their assigned post down the block. With the two patrolmen, there were five of them to take on Effie Fontaine and her followers. Gabe drew his weapon and waved his men toward the front doors.

No one turned to see what was happening when they burst into the church hall. An older woman continued to play hymns on the organ, filling the room with sounds that echoed off the high ceilings. People in the audience ignored the policemen completely, sitting glassy eyed in their seats and staring at the empty stage. Smoke still rose in lazy curls from brass pots at the foot of the stage and along the walls, filling the room with a bluish haze.

Effie Fontaine and her people were gone.

Jack pressed a handkerchief over his face before kicking over one of the smoldering brass pots. “Gabe?”

“I smell it. Opium.” He covered his face as well, slowly surveying the room and counting empty seats. They'd taken at least twenty to twenty-five people away. There was no sign of the choir either. “Mother of God, she addicted them. No wonder people couldn't wait to come back night after night. Henderson, Polk, get those doors open to the outside and start leading people out. I want this room empty as soon as possible. Finlay, get the windows. Break them if you have to, but get some air in here.”

He and Jack cautiously searched the Sunday school and meeting rooms attached to the main hall, pistols drawn. All in all, they found sixteen people slumped over tables, flopped in corners, or stretched out on the floor. The choir filled the wings on each side of the stage. His heart hammered each time he felt for a pulse and found one.

In the big assembly room behind the stage, they found two more. The young woman and man were dressed in choir robes and sprawled on the floor, puppets with cut strings. Open blue eyes stared at the shadowed ceiling, their skin already taking on the waxy sheen of death. He guessed the couple couldn't be more than nineteen or twenty.

Jack checked each of them for a pulse anyway. He looked at Gabe, anger smoldering in his eyes.. “Their skin isn't cold yet. Looks like Fontaine's people killed them on the way out. Damned if I can tell how.”

“That's the coroner's job.” He thought of Sal and brushed the touch of grief away. “They didn't leave everyone behind. Fontaine took people with her. We need to find them.”

“Easier said than done, Captain Ryan. We've checked every hotel and rooming house in the city limits looking for her. I even sent two men to Sausalito on the ferry to check a few of the inns.” Jack shoved his cap to the back of his head and wiped beads of sweat off his forehead. “No luck. The only thing that makes sense is that Miss Fontaine is tucked up in a private residence. Finding her will be a pretty trick.”

“We'll find her.” He stared at the young couple, memorizing their faces the way he'd memorized Sung Lan's. “There should be a phone in the church office. Call Rockwell and have him station men at all the train stations. I don't think she's arrogant enough to just stroll into the depot on schedule, but I won't take that chance. My guess is she'll look for another way to leave town. The longer we can keep her bottled up in San Francisco, the better. Time is on our side. She still has to make it to New York before that ship sails.”

Jack cocked his head to the side, thinking. “From what the papers say, if she misses this ship, there might not be another. You're hoping she makes a mistake.”

“Damn right. We might be able to push her toward making more than one if things go our way. Fontaine made a big splash in society. I'm hoping she goes looking for help from followers who owe her favors. I plan to make it hard for her to cash them in. And if she tries, someone will get nervous and tell us where to look for her.”

Gabe took a last look around and walked away. Jack followed him back out onto the stage and down the steps onto the main floor of the hall. The seats were empty, the air clearer. Broken glass littered the floor where Finlay had smashed the windows, but he doubted the church board would put up a fuss. Renting the hall to a murderer would loom large over everything.

Jack went in search of a phone while Gabe watched the huddled groups of people shivering on the church lawn. The cold would help to clear their heads, but the more devoted followers who had come to see Fontaine night after night had a rough time ahead.

His bad cop, Eli Marsh, wasn't amongst the crowd, but that didn't surprise him. Marsh would have gone with Fontaine and her men, helping lead away the twenty or more people taken from the church hall. Eli Marsh fully expected Fontaine to keep her promises and be rewarded for his loyalty.

Marsh would be dead before morning. So would Luther and Walsh, loose ends Fontaine and Maximillian wouldn't leave dangling. The only question was whether the three rogue cops' bodies would ever be found.

Henderson had found two beat patrolmen on the next block and pressed them into service. With Polk and Finlay, they were leading the last of the choir out of the church. More officers were on the way from the local station house as well, summoned from a corner call box.

Gabe felt better about his plan to abandon them all. Selfish as it felt, he needed to go to the hospital and check on Delia and Isadora. He needed to know both of them were all right.

And he needed to have a long talk with Samuel Clemens Butler. Gabe had promised Sam a story. Most of that story would be true, but once he'd explained, he didn't think Sam would object to taking a few liberties with the truth.

And if a little yellow journalism brought Effie Ladia Fontaine to justice, so much the better. Gabe had other promises he intended to keep.

 

CHAPTER 23

Delia

We brought Dora to our house from the hospital the next morning. Dr. Jodes had watched her carefully all night and done all he could, but nothing roused her.

Scott Jodes was tall and broad shouldered, but his long-fingered hands struck me as delicate. The hands of a painter or a pianist, not a doctor. Gray frosted his temples, but his face looked years too young for such signs of age. Nothing about his appearance fit properly, but he was kind and gentle, and I knew right off why Jack had insisted Dr. Jodes care for Dora.

“I'll call round to check on her tomorrow night. If she wasn't accepting sips of water and broth without choking, I'd keep her here.” He scribbled notes on her chart and handed it to a nurse. “Give her a little every few hours. With luck, she'll come around before not eating becomes a problem.”

I cleared my throat and tried to smile. “I take it that whiskey is forbidden.”

“Expressly forbidden. Doing without might convince her to come around.” He glanced at me, obviously amused, and I liked him even more. Dr. Jodes brushed a strand of hair off her face before stepping back to let the orderlies lift her onto a stretcher. “I always imagined Briar Rose looked just like this. I hope the curse lifts soon and Dora wakes up.”