Shooting For Justice by G. Tilman (top 100 novels txt) 📗

A message was left for the provost marshal by telephone to the telegraph room next door.

“Provost Marshal Pope. Please meet with me and a guest in my office at three o’clock. Bring your partner.” It was marked “from the Secretary of War” by the telegrapher.

Pope looked at his pocket watch. It was almost two. He returned to the Willard and he and Sarah quickly choregraphed their presentation. Armed with the notes and five pages of records which had been redacted from the Customs House, they walked over to the nearby War Building.

Lincoln’s secretary walked them down the hall to a very private conference room. Lincoln was there. Brewster sat at the head of the conference table with an open pad in front of him. Both men rose as they entered. All sat down once brief greetings were exchanged.

“What do you have for us, Mr. & Mrs. Pope?” the secretary of war asked.

“Two things. Let me do the briefest one first. We have established an eighteen-man cadre from Washington Arsenal to protect the President’s House. The office is adjacent to the telegraph room, to give us quick access to a telephone and telegraph. I have coordinated with the Washington Police Department. One officer and one trooper will be on 24/7 patrols with a soldier remaining at the desk for communications purposes. They have been provided specific weapons and have both standing orders and orders of the day. Sgt. Wilders from the Arsenal detachment will conduct daily inspections. I will split most of my time between there and my desk here.”

“Excellent. I trust your planning. Ben, any questions?”

“Not really. I am glad Washington Police remain engaged for arrest purposes from a constitutional standpoint.”

“I addressed the issue of posse comitatus in my briefing to the men,” Pope said.

Sarah stood.

“I will commence the second phase of our reports to you today. Please ask questions at any juncture.

“Our investigations have turned up some things we did not know about someone on our unofficial suspects list. Perhaps you know these things but have no proof. We have proof.

“The suspect is former Senator Roscoe Conkling. As I am sure you both know, he and the president were cronies in New York, but seem to have fallen out due to the president’s reluctance to appoint Conkling and the president’s lack of support and, indeed, opposition to a number of legislative things Conkling feels strongly about.

“It seems Conkling, Arthur and a man named George Chadwick formed a cotton consortium during the war. They made millions of dollars. On the surface it was good business. But, if it was honest, why were all records about it expunged?

“We have in front of you five pages of records from the Customs House in New York. They are allegedly the only ones left from the cotton consortium records destroyed.

“The pages show five instances of where large cotton sales to merchants in Canada were made without report or any sort of duty, tariff or tax being paid. Each should have specified who was responsible for paying—the sender, the Canadian recipient, or a third party. None is stated. It appears nobody paid anything.

“Now, we doubt Conkling would use this against the president without implicating himself, though as a sharp attorney he might find a loophole.

“However, this is proof alleged misdoings did occur and we think the three principals are culpable.”

The two secretaries were quiet for a moment.

The attorney general took possession of the five sheets and studied them.

“Where did you get these?” he asked, immediately putting the two detectives on the defensive.

“From the man who found or stole them. I bought them for a token amount.”

“Who was this?”

“A source whose identity I promised to protect, sir.”

Brewster thought about her reply for a while.

“Alright. I will accept your position. We cannot prosecute or even publicize this without putting the president in an untenable position. If, at some juncture, he goes off the reservation and an impeachment is underway with which we agree as a point of fact, these will surface. We will revisit their use. If Conkling is impacted negatively, so much the better. He is a very dangerous man and, to me, of dubious character.

“I agree, the cotton deal is something one as canny as Conkling could use to influence Arthur. Don’t you agree, Robert?”

“I do, Ben. I believe this solidifies the case for Conkling being a prime suspect.”

“Sarah went to Scarsdale and looked around. We have not determined a link there with Conkling but will continue to seek one. At this time, we are not putting all of our eggs in Conkling’s basket. We just feel we have validated him as a threat. We will continue pursuing the others and whatever new ones pop up. And will, of course, continue to advise you both right away,” Pope said.

“I am intrigued our detectives located evidence which eluded the ones in New York,” Lincoln said.

“Robert, Conkling runs New York. He is a man who exercises daily, is a boxer himself, and is intimidating even without his henchmen. Nonetheless, Popes, this is good work on the hardening the President’s House and investigation standpoints. Keep it up,” Brewster said.

Pope and Sarah went to a gun shop and replaced the .38 with a matching one. A hardware store had a six-inch blade Bowie and she bought it to replace the dagger discarded in New York City. Pope bought both weapons. He attracted less attention with the purchases than Sarah would have.

“Where to now on the investigation?” Sarah asked.

“Let’s move to enemies of Arthur’s pro-Chinese and pro-immigration reform efforts. We assume railroads are against the efforts. This may or may not be true. Let’s figure out a way to validate our suspicion or mark it off our list.”

“I think I will go back and visit my friend who is at the Congressional Library, if you could call the crammed together room a library,” Sarah said.

“I’ll look for discussions on the floor of both houses of Congress about immigration and see who is loudest against it. Then, I will