Merinda nodded at the evidence. “Exactly. When he met Jonathan, he found a man who was flawlessly precise in everything. A Mountie, for heaven’s sake! Cracker jacks! Who better to know how to follow things to the letter while still taking exceptional care. Jonathan’s training was just what he needed. He has a way out of this.”
“And a man like Hedgehog? You wave a dollar bill in front of his face and anything seems possible,” Ray surmised. “Of course he bought in.”
“Ross is brilliant at convincing people to join his causes,” Merinda expanded. “He has this way about him. Especially susceptible people. I can imagine him painting a brilliant scenario. Saying he has found the biggest score of Hedgehog’s life. Telling him how to go about bribing a guard, staking out a joint. All things he has had to do before setting streetcars on fire.”
“I confess,” Jasper said, rubbing his hands over his knees, “I am more eager to stop Ross and the imminent loss of Roosevelt’s life—not to mention the hundreds of bystanders—than I am to stop a robbery.”
“I concur, Jasper, and that is why we are going to do both. The three of you”—she bopped her head at Jasper, Ray, and Jem—“are going to take care of Hedgehog and Tony and stop them from robbing the bank.”
“And you?”
“Benny and I are going to plant bombs around the Coliseum tonight.”
“Merinda, you’re going to help this man blow people up? Assassinate Roosevelt?”
Merinda shook her head. “No. We’ll get Jonathan to help. I’ll tell Benny tonight. Jonathan knows how to make it look like the wires are set for explosion at first glance. We’ll arrange it so it looks like some kind of decoy. Ross trusts Jonathan to handle the explosives. But he wants to be the one to detonate the bomb closest to Roosevelt. So, that one”—and here she stopped, either to cough or for dramatic effect, her audience was unsure—“has to be real. Or Ross will notice it in a second.”
“So you’re playing with a real bomb.” Jasper shuddered.
“Several real bombs,” Merinda said with a nod. “It will take some quick thinking and action, but Jonathan assures us he can handle it. We’ll let Ross think everything is going according to plan. If he gets suspicious, he’ll do something drastic. And he mentioned having a pistol with him to finish the job if anything goes wrong. So the last thing we need is him spooked and shooting at random.”
“He is a man with a fixed idea, Merinda,” Jasper said. “There’s no reason or giving up in that kind of obsession.”
“That’s his weakness. He can’t see beyond his idea of glory and his planned escape. But he’ll never get a chance to strike the match.”
“This is ludicrous!” Jasper said. “How are you going to detain him?”
“He thinks we’re on his side. Especially me. It’s blinding him to anything else. Benny is twice his size, and he’ll have a gun.”?
“The place will be swarming with guards and police.”
But even as Merinda was assuredly laying out the plan, Jem remembered a Wheaton quotation Merinda often skipped (for it was a far harder pill to swallow than the retired detective’s treatise on deductive reasoning): “Things rarely, if ever, go according to plan.”
Ray, Jem, and Jasper arrived before Hedgehog. Jasper used his weight to shove the door of the lean-to open. Ray scratched a match on the sole of his shoe and lit a lantern.
“She’s being preposterous,”? Jasper said. “She’s going to get herself killed.”
“Have a little more faith,” Ray said. He lowered a crate from a stack and motioned for Jem to sit. Then he kicked one across the floor for Jasper and another for himself.
“Stop wringing your hands, Jemima.”
“I’m a little nervous,” Jem confessed.
“Ray, Jemima, you know at this very moment Merinda and that Citrone fellow are planting bombs. Actual bombs around the circumference of the Coliseum.” He swallowed. “With the intent of killing a president!”
“They’re saving him.” Ray waved a hand. “I trust Citrone. He seems a level-headed fellow. Knows his way around, and obviously this renegade cousin of his wants to make amends.”
“You have to have faith in Merinda too, Jasper,” Jem said.
“I have faith. I… ”
“You have to tell her so. You’ll notice that Benny Citrone never doubts or questions her. He just goes along. He trusts her while taking care of her. Trusts that she can make her own decisions for her own safety and good. She needs that. Or she’ll never feel truly validated.”
Ray’s throat was suddenly dry. He coughed a few times just as the door creaked open and Hedgehog appeared.
“It was really quite good luck that I met you.” Hedgehog found himself a crate and sat, appraising Ray through the halo of light from his own lantern. “Then again, I have always had a certain knack for people who can be of real use to me. And there was something about the way you were able to take that first night in stride.” Hedgehog turned to Jasper and Jem. “Your friend here opened a crate, a dead carcass falls out, and he just keeps working. Doesn’t squeal for the police or faint or shake.”