*Jem felt bad about stealing Ray’s journal. Very bad indeed.
?Readers of Merinda’s previous adventures will recollect the term golden moment being applied to her more breathtakingly astute deductions.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Our first loyalty is to God. Then to the Force. Then to our brothers in arms. There is no stronger bond than men united in a common goal: for the good and peace of our post, the contentment of those under our charge, the upholding of the law that strengthens and binds us all.
Benfield Citrone and Jonathan Arnasson, Guide to the Canadian Wilderness
Where were you?” Jem asked the moment Merinda arrived at the Palmer House. “No one has seen you for hours.”
“I was connecting the dots.” Merinda extracted her bowler hat and shook out her blonde curls. “Jasper, DeLuca! Good. Anyone seen Benny? No? Well, his loss. We’ll inform him later.”* She plopped into a chair and ordered a few pots of strong coffee and several pastries without regard to cost. “I went down to Hedgehog’s office at the wharf.”
“By yourself?” Jasper said, scandalized, and then he looked to Ray. “Tell her how dangerous that is. Remind her how just yesterday an entire boat of explosives resulted in your losing hearing in your right ear.”
“That’s very dangerous,” Ray said unconvincingly to appease Jasper. For she had his rapt attention the moment she mentioned Hedgehog’s office.
“There’s a tie to Toronto of course. Spenser gets a cut of all of the explosives purchased. But that’s the least of our problems right now. Because someone is going to get an even bigger cut.” She took a deep breath. “You blow up a streetcar, and the already heightened police presence is more than enough to take care of the aftermath. You blow up a Coliseum, and you have the entire force appearing for duty. It will be chaos.”
“What does this have to do with Hedgehog?”
“Look at these orders.” Merinda spread the papers on the table in front of her.
“Hedgehog doesn’t care if Ross blows up the entire city,” Jasper said. “All he wants is the black market money.”
“Didn’t DeLuca’s sister say that Tony was primed for a score? I doubt that had anything to do with rattling a political rally.”
“Hold on,” Ray interjected. “I never told you that Viola… ”
“You left your coat in my hotel room after Benny patched you up. I went through the pockets and found the telegram.”
Ray’s ears reddened. “Merinda! You had no right… ”
“Shhh. This is not the time, Ray,” Jem chided.
“David Ross thinks he is a phoenix, and he wants to make a bang. Literally,” said Merinda. “But after this he will need more money. Legal fees, if he’s caught. Or a quick getaway and enough to set up this anarchist sect of his somewhere else. He thinks he’s a martyr for his own cause, but I can’t see him going through with actual martyrdom. He keeps sinking his money into these explosives and having to pay out Hedgehog.” Merinda stopped, smiled, stretched. “But what if he could do something for Hedgehog that would also set him up for good?” Merinda paused. “There’s a Sherlock Holmes story I was just telling Jemima about. How Sherlock and Watson discover a ruse to lure Jabez Wilson from his pawnshop and into phony employment so criminals can dig a tunnel to a bank.” She reached into her pants pocket. “When at Ross’s place on our first day here, I noticed two copies of this newspaper. I couldn’t figure out why he kept it. It is from two weeks ago and it has nothing about the anarchists or Goldman or Roosevelt. Nothing that could possibly interest him. Until… ”
She swiveled the crumpled paper toward Jasper, Ray, and Jem, smoothing it with her hand. “The Heritage Trust Bank grand opening.” She pointed to the article. “The bank isn’t even open yet. Won’t open until Thursday, a week after Roosevelt has left. Right now, though the bank has a beautiful exterior, the article says it is still under renovations. But according to the article, security has already started moving in some of the goods and money to be ready for the grand opening.”
“A deserted bank.”
“No one will care about a deserted bank when a bomb blows up the Coliseum and the president.”
Jasper whistled. “That’s quite a lofty goal.”
“Ross has nothing to lose. But he has spent the past several months ensuring that someone else would take the fall.”
“How?”
“Well, you would need some type of defining signature. Something you could plant at the scene.”
Jasper’s hand went to his breast pocket. He extracted one of Jonathan’s Turk knots and held it up.