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

weekly check ins. This is not criminal activity. It is more like sedition or espionage. I don’t know who is going to be watching you. I am pretty confident someone involved on the wrong side will. So, be very careful,” Hume said as he rose. Rising and shaking hands was his normal way to dismiss his detectives to depart to begin a case.

“One more thing,” Sarah said as they were standing to leave.

Hume raised his eyebrows and waited.

“Pinkerton’s was effectively his secret agent operation during the war. Why didn’t he reach out to Allan Pinkerton?” she asked.

“I asked Tevis the same thing. He said for two reasons. Brewster and the other cabinet member have read about your exploits for the first thing. With Allan’s rapidly declining health, they are unsure of the future capacity of the agency to handle something this big.”

“Thank you, sir.” They walked out the door.

“Let’s go to the cashier and cash these so we can get our tickets. I want to send Grandpa a letter saying we will be back East on business and can be reached via Hume. I’m thinking, depending on our cover, we may need more formal clothes than we own for this case,” Pope said.

“I agree. We will have to get them in Washington, DC,” Sarah said.

The cashier was able to issue train vouchers not charged against their cash drafts. They went to the train station and found they could leave at nine in the morning. Pope added some cash to the vouchers and got one sleeper car ticket in the name of Mr. and Mrs. John Pope. His partner smiled mischievously as she heard him order it.

“Something worries me, Sarah,” Pope admitted.

“Yes?”

“It worries me we have had so much newspaper exposure two members of the president’s cabinet have read about us on the other side of the country. Notoriety will harm our ability to go undercover and do our jobs. Not just on this case, but any case.”

“I did not know we were famous. You are right. It won’t help us doing our jobs. I am more worried about your fame as a fast gun. There are a lot of wannabes like Kid Taos out there who would like to be the one who outdrew you.”

“Maybe this case will be all investigative and my so-called fame will die down a bit. I guess it depends on how long it lasts.”

“My suspicion, John, is a coup or assassination will not take long to reach its fruition. How in Heaven’s name we are going to come in from the cold and solve it first is beyond me,” Sarah said.

“We will solve it. We just won’t know our investigative plan until we get there and talk with our contacts. I have no idea why the Department of Justice does not have any investigative agents. It makes no sense, does it?”

“My understanding is they borrow Treasury agents for investigative cases,” Sarah said. “Lafayette Baker, who found John Wilkes Booth, ran the National Detective Bureau during the war and worked with Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton’s influence on him ran over into the subsequent formation of the Treasury’s agent cadre. Baker had listened in on Secretary Stanton’s communications and believed Stanton supported the attack against Lincoln. He possessed Booth’s diary and said some missing pages contained information about Stanton and Booth. These allegations made him unpopular, and he was subsequently fired. Yet, his influence lived on. Maybe all of this has to do with a distrust in using the treasury agents for a case like this one. Alas, who really knows?” she ended.

“Interesting. Maybe one of the conspirators here is the Treasury Secretary. I don’t even know who he is or exactly what he does, other than print money,” Pope said.

“I reckon we will find out,” Sarah said as they approached their rooms.

The conversation continued after they arrived and took their coats off. Sarah started brewing coffee. They knew they would take minimal luggage since they did not know whether they would spend their time in downtown Washington at dinners, riding around or travelling.

“Sarah, do you know Detective Ed McEnroe?” Pope asked.

“Vaguely. Isn’t he somewhat older? Maybe mid-fifties?”

“Exactly. Between assignments and well before Wyoming, he and I happened to have lunch together. He told me he had been a spy for the Confederacy during the war. It appeared from what he said, the South had a far more sophisticated spy network than the North. I listened closely to see if it was just bias on his part, however, I think he was correct.

“Anyway, he said being a spy was very different from being a detective. We deal with crooks and with snitches. A spy deals with a variety of entities and never knows what side somebody is on at any given time. Is the person a double agent, agreeing to spy for your side? Or a triple agent agreeing to spy for you, when he is actually still loyal to his original agency and feeding you disinformation? Is he a patriot, a disgruntled job seeker, or just someone in it for the money? He said you have to actually live your cover. You cannot just come home and be you until you go back out again. You have to be careful about every word you utter, no matter who you are conversing with.

“I believe, my Sarah, this is what we have gotten ourselves into. It will be different than anything we have ever done, or even imagined.

“McEnroe said you don’t put the nippers on your enemy, you slit their throat and leave them in an alley as you walk away. He said you never attract attention by running. Sometimes you join the crowd of onlookers surrounding the person you killed.”

“I wonder if we made a mistake taking this case, John?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t know. He certainly pulled our patriotic chains on it. There really was no option, the way I see it. And, despite what Tevis said, turning it down would be tantamount to resigning.

“I believe we must