The Cowboy Who Caught Her Eye. Lauri Robinson

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СКАЧАТЬ them wouldn’t help his case, so he pulled up a grin. “Nope. Just wanted to say your reputation precedes you.”

      Her glare turned omniscient, and said she didn’t like what she thought he knew. Which meant he had more to learn. Picking up the pastry, he nodded. “Your cinnamon rolls. I heard they’re the best around.”

      She didn’t believe that any more than he did. Interesting. He tipped the brim of his hat with one hand. “Ma’am.”

      He was out the door, but heard her growl nonetheless. That was one ornery woman, and irritating her had a smile wanting to crack his lips. He didn’t let it. Took a bite of the cinnamon roll instead, and then leaned one elbow on his saddle. The pastry was tasty, might be the best he’d ever had, and he ate it right there, watching the front door of that mercantile, coming up with a new plan.

      When the roll was gone, he folded the paper and stuffed it in his saddlebag—never know when it might come in handy—and then he patted Sampson’s neck while untying the reins from the post. “Time to visit Ted Wilcox. We need more information before we set our plan in place, boy. Then I’ll get you some oats.” Keeping his voice low while conversing with the horse—as he often did on cases—he added, “Molly Thorson is hiding a secret as big as you, and my gut says money is involved. Stolen money.”

       Chapter Two

      Ted Wilcox was at the train depot in his office on the second floor, and upon seeing him, the man nodded toward the steward sitting behind a desk in the outer room Carter had entered moments ago.

      “J.T.,” Wilcox said, “go reserve a room at the hotel. There’s a guest on the next train that will be expecting it. Put it in the railroad’s name.”

      “Yes, sir,” answered J.T., who was little more than a boy with round glasses and long brown hair, who just might be afraid of his own shadow.

      Carter returned the young man’s nod, knowing Wilcox was reserving a room for him but didn’t want anyone to know that. He waited until the assistant was gone before crossing the room to shake the railroad man’s hand.

      Average height and stocky, Wilcox displayed an attitude that said he expected to be listened to. “Mr. Buchanan, I presume?”

      “Carter,” he answered.

      “Ted,” the man offered in return. “Let’s step into my office.”

      Carter followed through the thick wooden door. If the railroad had spent as much money on their passenger cars as they had this man’s office, they’d have a lot more happy travelers. Then again, maybe folks out here weren’t used to the plush cars the trains back east had. He hadn’t heard many complaints on his trip, but no one heard much over that brood of redheaded kids.

      “The room I sent J.T. to reserve is for you,” Wilcox said as he walked around his big mahogany desk. “I was going to see to it during lunch, but since you hadn’t stopped in, I wondered if you’d been on the train.”

      Carter questioned holding his explanation. This was the one thing he didn’t like about being a Pinkerton man. It was expected he should instantly trust his connections when on assignment, but he liked getting to know people first. In this instance, there wasn’t time. He needed to learn as much as possible, fast, to determine how—besides working there—he could watch the coming and going at the mercantile. Therefore, he’d have to give a little to get a little. “I wanted to get a feel for the town first.”

      “Good idea,” Wilcox said, gesturing to a chair.

      Once Carter sat, the man pulled open a drawer and handed a bill over the top of the desk.

      “This is it, the only bill that’s surfaced,” the man said. “The serial numbers match those the mint confirmed were in the shipment stolen last year.”

      A five. Crisp and new. Not so much as a corner bent. The numbers did match. Carter had memorized them. “In May?” he asked, verifying that’s when the bill was discovered.

      “Yes. J.T. is who got it. He’d bought some things at the mercantile. The poor lad has a crush on the youngest Thorson girl, they went to school together. He showed it to me because he’d never seen a bill so new. I paid him ten dollars for it.”

      Carter let a lifted brow express his thoughts.

      Wilcox grinned. “The railroad paid him ten dollars for it. I recognized the serial numbers right away.” He took the bill Carter passed back across the desk and replaced it in the drawer. “J.T. thinks I just like new bills, so he’s on the lookout for more.” The man propped his elbows on his desk and laced his fingers together. “Nobody knows about the robbery, and the C&NW wants to keep it that way. Having people believe we lost that kind of money would damage our reputation. That wasn’t a passenger train. Not a single person boarded after it left Chicago, and no one got off until it arrived here. But the loss was noted in Nebraska.”

      None of that was new information. Carter had read the inside report, knew how the railroad had covered the loss and tried to solve the inside caper themselves, without any luck, and now the owner wanted it completely investigated and resolved. Carter had also memorized the manifesto of passengers. Railroad men and soldiers.

      “The money had been in a locked box in a private car,” Wilcox said. “The box was still there, just empty, and one man couldn’t have carried that amount out without being noticed, not with a hundred pockets. He’d have needed a carrying bag of some sort, and every man on that train was searched.”

      None of this was new, and that’s what Carter needed, new information. “How’d the Thorson sisters end up owning the mercantile?”

      “You’ve been there?”

      He tipped his hat back a bit. “Had a cinnamon roll for lunch.”

      “That’s what keeps people coming in their doors. The older sister came up with that idea.”

      The way Wilcox leaned back in his chair and folded his arms said he wasn’t impressed. Carter waited, knew the man would say more.

      “The Chicago and Northwestern Rail needs to own this town, Mr. Buchanan—Carter. We opened a dry-goods store three years ago, and little more than those cinnamon rolls keep people from buying everything they need from us instead of those sisters.”

      “A little competition makes good business.” Normally he wouldn’t have voiced his opinion, but the situation merited it.

      “Usually,” the other man answered, “but laying new lines is costly. What the railroad makes here is invested in more rails heading in all directions. Once the tracks are all constructed and C&NW trains are flowing, competition will be welcomed. Until then, it’s up to me, and now you, to see that every dollar spent in Huron flows through the railroad’s coffers.”

      That wasn’t new either. Mining towns were the same. The trouble was greed. By the time the tracks were all laid, the railroad would have another reason why they needed to own everything. They always wanted more. And the man was wrong. It wasn’t up to Carter to see people spent their money with the railroad. He was a Pinkerton man. Solving a crime was his job.

      “We almost had it,” Wilcox said. “Thorson’s Mercantile. The old man had never wanted a store, he was set on ranching. Raising horses for the army. Story is he found СКАЧАТЬ