The Big Mitt (A Detective Harm Queen Novel Book 1) (30 page)

“Do you know anything about the dead girl?” Queen asked, despair rising in his throat. “Does this have something to do with you and your boss?”

“Never mind about that,” Peach said. “You’ve got enough to worry about here.” He put the knife back inside his lapel, and straightened his cuffs. “I think I’m going to grab some of those Coffee John oysters before I depart your fair city. Saint Paul has its charm, but the seafood can’t be beat at Coffee John’s.”

Queen felt inadequate in front of Peach, and couldn’t find words to respond. The man had come into his city, slapped him in the face, and was now just strolling away as if conversations like this were everyday episodes for him.

To
hell
with the debt release. No one ever tells Harmon Queen not to investigate a murder, and no one threatens his friends.

Except Jack Peach, evidently, who gave him a wry little grin, and then strode away, turning the corner into nothingness.

CHAPTER 10

S
OMETHING WAS WRONG,
Q
UEEN KNEW,
when he hopped from the cab and saw the broken lock on Peder Ulland’s front door. A Shanghai rooster was crowing crazily in the front yard, and it charged him as he walked up the dirt path towards the house. He pulled his revolver as the bird came closer. The rooster must have gotten a good look at the gun because it bolted in the other direction, screaming its anger to the world.

Queen scoured the yard for anything out of place. The snow continued to melt in the mild warmth, and water dripped from icicles on the eaves, but otherwise all was quiet. The driver of the hansom he’d ridden was still sitting in his rig, watching Queen in fascination. Queen gestured for him to drive on, but the driver, wanting a show, refused. Queen groaned an obscenity and cautiously approached the door, which besides being broken was ajar. A feral moan, low and guttural, came coursing from the house and then abruptly stopped. A thousand terrible thoughts stabbed Queen’s brain all at once. Three women had no chance against intruders, and the idea of both Karoline and Trilly hurt made his head spin. He cocked the revolver with his thumb, slowly pushing the door open with his foot before stepping inside.

He saw the gore immediately. A huge figure lay on the parlor floor, fat body blocking most of the entrance. Blood seeped from the man’s mouth into a tiny pool that trickled into a crack in the floorboards. Higgins had a look of surprise on his face, and his glazed eyes were twisted to the right, as if he’d been caught off guard by something seen too late.

A sagging clothesline hung across the room, filled with bloomers, shirts and other wet, wrinkled garments. There, between a pair of long underwear and a veil-thin bed sheet and slumped back in Peder’s favorite armchair was Emil Dander. His throat had been slashed and his necktie and shirt were washed with red. Even in death he was fiendishly handsome, Queen thought with a moment of irritation. The moan came again and it was from Higgins. At least a dozen stab wounds marked his burly chest but it still moved faintly. Higgins’s eyes suddenly snapped forward, meeting Queen’s in confusion. Queen wanted to ask him what had happened, but wasn’t sure if the culprits were still in the house. He thought back to Peach and his blood-caked knife and suspected not. The detective stepped over the large body and crept into each of the main floor’s small rooms. Each one, empty.

“Who’s here?” he called out. A teapot started to hiss on the stove, startling him a little, the only answer he got. Trilly and Edna were gone, and Karoline as well. His forehead throbbed and his palms dripped with sweat. Goddamn it. Goddamn it. Where are they? What the hell happened?

Queen pushed his way back through the damp clothes to Higgins. He kneeled down and brought his head level to the brute, whose eyes were darting around the room madly. His lips were pulled back, and he wore an expression of intense pain. There would be more if Queen didn’t get the answers he was looking for.

“Did Jack Peach do this?” he asked.

Higgins’ chest lifted and fell in grunts and wheezes, and he struggled to speak, but his mouth was jelled with blood. The words came out gluey and unintelligible.

“Just nod or shake your head,” Queen said.

Higgins nodded.

“Did you come here to kill the girls?”

Higgins shook his head. He gave another terrible moan.

“But you wanted to take them with you?”

A nod this time. He’s telling the truth, Queen thought. “Did you see them? Were they here when you arrived?”

Higgins struggled to lift his head, to get closer to Queen’s face, and then in an instant his immense hand grabbed the back of Queen’s neck like a vise. Holy hell, Queen thought. He was still holding his gun, and raised it to Higgins’s head, shaking it slightly under the pressure of the big man’s grip. However Queen saw no anger in his eyes. He wanted Queen’s attention. Violently and emphatically, Higgins shook his head. Trilly and Edna hadn’t been here, and neither had Karoline. Queen exhaled as Higgins released his grip, and felt a wave of relief settle over him. They’re fine.

In a last heaving gasp, Higgins let out a whistle that hung for a moment in the air, and then petered into oblivion. Its sound melded into the noise from the teapot, now bubbling and shrieking. Queen got up and took it off the stove. He saw the teacup on a little table next to the forever-slumbering Emil Dander. He had been making himself a cup of tea. Unbelievable.

Queen needed fresh air to clear his head and stepped outside into the sunlight, taking care not to touch Higgins’s oversized corpse with his feet. The gawking cab driver was still there in his hansom, but wasn’t watching the house now. Behind him was another carriage, and stepping down were Trilly, Edna and Karoline. Lovely women evidently had as much hold on him as they did on Queen. Peder was last out of the carriage, giving Queen a quick wave and a cheery smile.

When Karoline saw the detective, her normally composed face broke into a radiant beam. She ran towards him, holding up her skirt in a lady-like fashion so as not to let the hem drag in the dirt. He smiled back, and was surprised when she embraced him. Not a proper thing for a respectable woman to do, but he enjoyed it nonetheless.

“Well, you are a sight for sore eyes.” She said it with barely the hint of an accent. He’d often wondered how she had escaped it, while her brother had not.

“Your brother had mentioned you were returning,” he replied.

“Does it matter anyway? I was here all autumn, and you didn’t call on me once.” Her cheeks were wind-burned, and her shining green eyes sparkled playfully at him. There was a sweet gentleness to her; a grace and presence that put him immediately at ease.

“The election consumed my time, Karoline.”

“I know, Harm. Peder followed the papers and kept me abreast. You certainly have a way of keeping the spotlight.” She gave a little laugh, covering her mouth with her dainty gloved hand, and then took his hand in hers, patting it gently in comfort.

Queen blushed a bit. He’d had some trouble in a lush-crib last September, compounded by a few too many whiskeys. A Polish laborer had been bragging about his boxing prowess, and Queen, in his inebriated glory, had challenged him to a match of fisticuffs in the street. Queen had taken a single chump to the head, which had ended his night’s festivities, and the
Minneapolis Times
had been on the scene to gloriously document the exchange for its readers the next day. Mayor Gray had been furious, and old Doc, of course, had thought it marvelous.

“That wasn’t my brightest moment,” Queen admitted. Behind her, he could see Trilly and Edna watching them. Trilly looked amused, and suddenly Queen felt guilty. He let go of Karoline’s hand, and took a step back.

“Miss Flick, and Miss Pease, good day to you!”

Edna mouthed out a hello, still looking bewildered. Trilly sauntered up, not bothering to keep her skirt from the dirt, and flashed her beautiful smile.

“Detective Queen, come to check on the poor helpless women.” She inspected the cab, and then him. “But I don’t see any gallant steed out of a fairy tale book. I thought you carried a fat wad of dough? Or are you all busted out?”

First she refuses the cush I offered her, and now she’s worried I’m on the cheap, Queen thought. He had no idea what to make of this girl. “I considered a bicycle but the road out here is bumpy,” he finally said, and then instantly felt regret at his words.
A bicycle?
What tongue-tied foolishness would he utter next? He looked at both, waiting for a laugh, but neither reacted.

“Karoline is such a lovely hostess,” said Trilly, tossing her nose up and taking Miss Ulland’s hand. “And Peder was kind enough to take us to the Donaldson Department Store. It sits in a building called the Glass Block! I don’t mind ruining this awful thing,” she continued, brushing her skirt, “because the new green fabric will make a simply swell looking dress. Isn’t it woozy, Karoline?”

“Yes, of course, dear. Brother Peder, can you help these young ladies carry their purchases in?”

“Ya, sister,” Peder replied. He had one hand on his hip and held his hat with the other, smiling ridiculously at Queen and Karoline standing together. He gave Trilly his arm and escorted her back to the buggy to fetch Edna and their belongings.

Queen wanted to scratch his head. These two women, both of whom kindled feelings in him, were getting along well, but Trilly was being a queer fish. Then he saw Karoline give him a little wink and a droll smile.

In a low voice she confided, “She fancies you, Harm. Hasn’t stopped talking about you all morning.”

He didn’t know what to say, and shifted uncomfortably on his feet, until finally something came tumbling out. “Well, first off, I can’t tell. Second, I’m sure she’s confused about things right now. I don’t know if you’re aware of where she’s recently been, but the conditions were dire. Downright horrifying. My coming to her rescue –”

“Peder told me everything. Thank God you’ve delivered them from danger.” She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and Queen smelled the faintest scent of lavender. It was delicious, made even more so by the fact that as a young, unmarried woman, she shouldn’t be doing anything so scandalous.

“Why is the lock on the door broken?” she suddenly asked, looking over his shoulder.

Queen heard Edna gasp. He looked up to see them all staring at the house. Christ, he thought. Bewitched by two women and he had already forgotten about the grisly wreckage of bodies inside.

“Please,” he announced, clearing his throat. “What’s inside is not a sight for a woman to see.”

“What’s going on, Harm?” Karoline gripped his arms firmly, but her voice trembled. “Is there someone hurt? Perhaps I can help them. I volunteer at the hospital and—”

“There’s nothing to be done.”

“But—”

“Peder!” Queen shouted. The Norwegian was already trotting towards them.

“Vot’s da matter, Harm? Vot is wrong vit the door?”

“Karoline,” the detective said. “Please, go to the carriage, and wait for me there.”

She touched him again, this time grabbing his arm with a working woman’s firm strength. He looked at her with pleading eyes and saw recognition lighting hers. She turned and went back to Trilly and Edna.

“Peder,” he said in a low, firm voice, once out of the women’s hearing range. “There are two dead men in your house. These ladies need to be moved somewhere else.”

“Vot do you mean? Who are dey?”

“The men who enslaved the young women in your care.”

Peder ran his fingers between his stringy blonde strands. “You are certain dat dey are dead?” he asked.

“I am. I’ve already been inside. I’ll go and get the coroner.”

“Yah, a good idea. Vonce things are cleaned up, I vill move the girls back here.”

Queen shook his head. “No. I have good reason to believe the men responsible for this might come back for them.” He opened his flask without even thinking, and took a long drink. I’m parched with this goddamn ghastly work, he thought, and to compound matters, I’m infatuated with two women, both of whom who seem to actually like me back. Although, he admitted to himself, he had to take Karoline’s word on how Trilly felt towards him. Every time he thought he had women figured out he’d get a surprise hurled at his head faster than a Minneapolis Millers fastball. At least keeping them safe, now, was in his power. He could worry about his feelings later.