David eyed her quizzically. “Of… of a few. Of course.”
Benny, inspired by Merinda for different reasons, felt himself surprisingly tense the more David leaned into her and explained the ins and outs of the operation.
The receiving area of the warehouse was populated by a few very familiar faces. Jasper and Jem (of all people!) carefully opening each “maple syrup” crate and extracting the sticks of dynamite from wood shavings.
Merinda excused herself. “I think that fellow might not know how to properly excavate the explosive,” she said lamely, bounding in Jem’s direction.
She dropped to Jem’s level. “Jemima!”
“Silent Jim!” Jem said through gritted teeth. “No one here knows I can talk.”
Merinda huddled closer. “I can’t have you getting sidetracked and wandering around the city in pursuit of DeLuca when I need you.”
Jem snickered. “Exactly how long did it take you to get over my absence before you found Benny Citrone?”
“Explosives,” Merinda said quickly, driving Jem’s eyes back to the shipment.
“From Spenser’s,” Jem whispered.
“Well, David Ross was clearly in Toronto with a mission other than his undying support for Emma Goldman,” Merinda said while Jem carefully extracted a few cases of gunpowder. “Indeed, I think it quite likely that he has burned any precarious bridge he had here.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Well, Silent Jim, to transport explosives in maple syrup crates from Spenser’s cannot be the easiest task.”
“Maybe that’s what he wants.” Jem hypothesized. “The least likely scenario.”
Merinda rose and brushed the dirt of her trousers. The least likely scenario.
Merinda reached into her vest and extracted her torchlight, brushing it over the circumference of the warehouse until it settled on a small man with close-set ears and another man beside him. A very familiar man.
DeLuca.
Silence deepened over the warehouse, and she thought of Jem: her teary eyes and pale face, the reason for her queasiness on the train, her anger at DeLuca’s frankly abhorrent attempt at a consolation note. She would have none of it. If this man, however fond of him she was, was to be worthy of her glorious, intrepid, and wonderful best friend, he would have to do a better job of protecting and providing and, well, being there. A lesson had to be learned. She sidestepped and moved in front of him, tilted her chin, propelled back her arm, and did a frankly horrible job of slamming him in the jaw.
Merinda, of course, had no experience in fisticuffs, and while she was angry at him, she couldn’t bear to look at the face she would be driving her fist into. Thus, she flinched, her aim was misdirected, and her bunched knuckles caught him somewhere between his cheek, his nose, and his eyes.
Ray fell back, clutching his nose. When she dared to look, she saw that his fingers were stained red.
A sound emitted from the small man beside him.
“I suppose I deserve that.” Ray sounded as if he had a cold.
“You two know each other?”
Ray pressed his sleeve to his nose. “Our paths have crossed before. On bad business. Bad business that wasn’t entirely my fault.” The end of the sentence was a bit of a plea.
“Harrumph!” said Merinda
Hedgehog looked Merinda up and down. “You’re a woman.”
“I am here with David Ross,” she said by way of explanation. She looked at Ray. “You better be a little more attentive to Silent Jim’s willingness to assist!”
“Silent Jim is not prepared to be patient.” He clenched his teeth. “Silent Jim is too eager to provide the end user with the goods without thinking things through! Rather like someone else I know.”
An hour later and all the crates had been unpacked. Hedgehog promised Benny, Merinda, and David that another shipment would be ready for them by midafternoon the next day. David and Hedgehog went to consult on more specifics for the coming days, and Jasper, Benny, Merinda, Jem, and Ray stepped into the starlight.
“It’s really rather convenient,” Merinda said lightly, “that they have such an easy channel for getting these explosives from Toronto.”
“There’s definitely someone I have to arrest when I get back,” Jasper said with a whisper. “I just don’t know who.”
“They’d need someone with major shipping influence too,” Ray added. “This place serves as a front for the more important shipments. Humphrey and Williams—a large department store. Hedgehog’s crew makes deliveries. Clearly not from the usual shipping companies. So they must pay someone there.”
“So it stands to reason,” Merinda theorized, “that someone in Toronto who had the same warehouse space and the same access to ships and barges would be able to take a cut of any illegal explosives being sent from there.”
“Tad Spenser,” Ray and Jasper said at the same time.
“Who else straddles both worlds?” Ray wondered aloud. For a moment, Merinda forgot she was angry at Ray.