Awake Unto Me (8 page)

But listening to Leo and Jack talk, Kerry had a germ of an idea. She resolved to talk to Teddy about it.

*

Kerry had her time with Sally in the afternoons after she woke up. She would bring Sally her wake-up glass of beer and get in bed with her.

“Ugh. You didn’t wash before you went to sleep?” Kerry asked. She’d started touching Sally right away, but the moisture on Sally’s thighs wasn’t Sally’s.

Sally yawned. “I was too tired. Leave me be then.”

Kerry rolled over and lay on her back and stared at the ceiling, grinning when Sally rolled out of bed a second later without saying a word and went to take a bath. Before she could talk to Jack, she had to get all her plans together. She didn’t want to fight with Sally since she was an important part of the plan.

When she’d gone to him, Teddy had said, “It’s the truth. Big Moe’s got all the captains from every whaling ship and most of the others in his pocket. It’s the boatmen who do most of his dirty work. You have to bribe them better than he does.”

“I can manage that if you lead me to the right ones,” Kerry said.

“Oh, jeezus. You can’t be thinking of pulling one over on Big Moe, Kerry. That’s suicide.”

“No, see, I got it worked out. Just listen.”

Teddy was dubious but finally said yes, because he’d never known Kerry to be wrong about much.

Now she had to convince Sal.
For money, it shouldn’t be a problem.

She lay in bed and thought out what she would say when Sally came back.
Well. After we get a little fun.

“Here I am, Kerry-o. All ready for you.” Sally jumped into bed and rolled over on Kerry and rubbed their breasts together and Kerry stopped thinking of anything. When Sally got her started, that was all she cared about, though, truthfully, Sally’s charms were getting a mite thin. Kerry was getting disgusted by the drinking and the men. When they were done and Sally was blowing smoke rings up at the ceiling from the little cigars she favored, Kerry kept up a light teasing touch all over her body to distract her and soften her up.

“Sal. You feel like makin’ some money you don’t have to split with Rose?”

Sally exhaled and said, “How you figure?”

“I got a plan. I gotta get Jack some more crimping and I need your help.”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“You know that thug, Big Moe. Well, I want you—”

“No. I ain’t fucking him.”

“Easy. I think you can make him think you will, but you won’t have to.”

Sally sat up then and looked at Kerry. “What are you talking about?”

“I need you to entertain him for a while while we get his marks off the next big ship.”

“You want me to do what?”

“Just string him along. I’ll give you the laudanum to spike his whiskey. You just have to keep him by you for the night.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s all.”

Sally stared at the ceiling, her eyes narrowed in thought as she puffed away on her little cigar. “Okay, Kerry. You got yerself a deal. How long do I get to keep that piece of crap in my bed overnight?”

“I’ll make sure you get a fair cut, even if I have to take it out of my own.”

Sliding her fingers inside Kerry, Sally grinned wickedly. “Oh, I’m sure I’ll get mine, sweet girl.”

*

Teddy gave Kerry the word a week later. The gossip at Black’s said a big shipment was coming in. Kerry had convinced Jack that the scheme would work, and although he was reluctant he gave in to Kerry’s certainty. They would offer the Whitehall boatman a good price and tell him that Big Moe was indisposed for the evening. Jack looked hard at Kerry and asked, “What do you mean indisposed?”

“He’ll be with Sally.”

“Oh, Christ.”

“She’s gonna give him a dose of laudanum just like we give the sailors. He won’t remember a thing. He’ll go to her thinking he can have her for a while and then be ready to meet the longboats when they come in. I know which one he’ll go for.”

“You have it all worked out, I guess.”

“I do, Jack. Just give me some money.”

It worked perfectly. Jack got six able-bodied sailors for the captain of the
Leeward On.
Sally told Kerry that Big Moe was almost chivalrous to her when he came around, but after his one glass of whiskey, he went down like a buffalo that had been shot, and when he woke the next morning, she’d been kind to him and told him all sorts of lies about how wonderful he’d been. He left her with a pounding headache and not remembering a thing, which bothered him no end, seeing as how his not remembering included anything that happened to Sally. He went away puzzled and hung over.

Kerry went around to Black’s and found Teddy where he could always be found when he wasn’t bellhopping.

“Big Moe might not be as dumb as we thought,” he said, his voice fearful. “He’s been askin’ a lot of questions. No one says nothing, of course. They ain’t crazy.”

That night, Kerry raced upstairs to Sally’s room to find out if Big Moe had come back around.

Sally was sitting at her dressing table, brushing her hair. She looked up and met Kerry’s desperate eyes in the mirror. “What’s your hurry, girl?” she said, her tone dismissive. “It’s time for me to go to work. You can hear them all down there.” She tossed her head to indicate the noise from the saloon that filtered up through the floor.

Kerry took a breath and forced herself to speak calmly. “Big Moe might come back around to talk to you. Just play dumb, will you?”

“Don’t worry about me, lover. Look after yourself.”

Kerry knelt and put her arms around Sally’s waist. “I just don’t want nothing to happen to you.” She buried her face in Sally’s side.

Sally kept brushing her hair. “It’s fine, darling. It’s going to be fine. Now let me loose. I have to get ready.”

Kerry reluctantly let her go, stood up, and bent to give her a long deep kiss. She wasn’t sure, but she thought Sally didn’t return the kiss as warmly as she usually did.

*

Leo shook Kerry awake roughly. She looked into his face. It was a stolid mask.

“What time is it?” She rubbed her eyes.

“Four a.m. Come on.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Get dressed quick. We need to go.”

In a dank basement in police headquarters, Leo and Kerry stood with a policeman next to a grim-faced man in a heavy apron. At the sergeant’s nod, the morgue keeper pulled back the sheet. It was Jack, his head bashed in. Kerry stared for a long moment, then turned and buried her face in Leo’s waistcoat and wept.

“I guess you got your answer then,” Leo told the sergeant. “Send the burial fee to me.”

Back at the Grey Dog, Leo shoved a shot of whiskey across the bar to Kerry. “It was Big Moe. I guess you know that,” he said, his voice dull with grief.

She nodded, unable to speak. She tossed down the whiskey, welcoming it as it seared her throat, crashed into her stomach, and a moment later caused her head to spin and her mind to dull. Leo watched her for a moment, then poured another shot. She drank it. And another. The room pitched and she went with it, cracking her head on the floor before darkness hit.

*

Kerry woke up in the early evening, her mouth foul and her head pounding. Neither was enough to distract her from her first thought.
Jack’s dead. My fault.

Rose poked her head in the door and said, “You up? Hungry, I expect. Stay still and I’ll bring you something.”

“You all right?” Rose asked when she came back with some bread and soup. Kerry didn’t answer.

“It woulda happened sooner or later, child. He knew that.”

Kerry said nothing. She ate the food mechanically,
Jack’s dead. My fault
running a noisy loop in her head.

“You can stay here, you know that. He woulda wanted you to. We can always find a place—”

“Shut up. Just shut up,” Kerry said emotionlessly. The food was making her head feel better. Being sober, though, was letting her mind work again.

She found Sally in her room, making up for her night’s work. Sally wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“I heard about Jack. I’m sorry, girl. You come by tomorrow around noon, and after I get some sleep and clean up, we’ll have us some fun. I can make you feel better.”

“You told Moe, didn’t you?”

Sally flinched and looked away.

Kerry grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her.

Sally started crying. “He was gonna beat the life out of me. He’s a mean SOB, you know that. I had to tell him. He was suspicious of me entertaining him after I told him no so many times. Then he couldn’t remember anything.”

“You got Jack killed,” Kerry said tonelessly.

“Well. It was your idea. It ain’t my fault if Big Moe is smarter than we thought.”

“Yeah. It was my idea.” Kerry let go and stepped back, staring out the dirty window. “But the truth came outta your mouth. I ain’t never sleepin’ with you again.”

“Kerry! Honey. I’m sorry.”

Kerry left.

Down at the bar, Leo didn’t slide another glass of whiskey to her. Instead he handed her an envelope.

“Read it to me,” she said. “You know I can’t read.”

Leo’s writing this for me. I told him to give it to you if something happened to me. You can’t stay here on the BC, Kerry. I’m gone, no one is going to protect you, and I don’t want you to try and make your living here. It’s no place for a bright girl like you. It’s nothing but drunks, murderers, thieves, and whores. Not you. Go find Dr. Addison Grant. He promised me if you or I ever needed him, to just come find him. He’s out to the big county hospital in the Western Addition part of town. He’ll take care of you. I want you to make something of yourself. I love you, girl. I always have. You’re the best thing I ever done.

Your father,

John Aloysius O’Shea

Kerry made Leo read it a couple more times. She listened intently and nodded. She was silently speaking the words from the letter to herself, memorizing them.
Aloysius? I never knew that. Huh.
Leo handed her another envelope. It had some bank notes in it and a savings book.

Leo cleared his throat. “He left this for you too. I don’t know how but old Jack managed to save some money.”

She looked blankly at the items for a long time.

Leo said, “You should take it and go. Like he said, there’s nothing for you here.” He gestured around the bar.

Automatically, Kerry looked. She saw the pretty waiter girls and the customers drinking. She heard the noise. She smelled beer, whiskey, and smoke.
Jack’s gone.
She felt sick to her stomach.

She picked up the envelope. She counted it all, stuffed into her pockets. She went upstairs and begged a carpetbag off one of the whores and packed what few clothes and belongings she had. She found Rose, who stared at the suitcase instead of Kerry’s face. Kerry ignored the unshed tears. Rose had given her a place to live, food to eat, and some occasional money for clothes in return for Kerry doing work around the building. But she had never gotten so much as a hug from the woman, and suddenly it just didn’t matter that she would be leaving her behind.

“Tell Sally I said good-bye.”

Rose nodded and Kerry hefted the suitcase, put on a cap, and walked the four blocks to the Ferry Building to catch a cable car uptown.

An hour or so later, she stood at the reception desk at the City and County Hospital feeling very young and very lost. She’d kept asking conductors which car to take until she got to the one that served the hospital.

The nurse on duty looked up and peered into her face suspiciously. “Help you, son?”

Kerry got a nice little stab of satisfaction that her clothes could fool the likes of an old battle-ax like this one. “Ma’am. I’m looking for Dr. Addison Grant.”

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Uh, no, ma’am.”

“Whom shall I say?”

Kerry gave her name and the nurse instructed her to wait. She sat down on the hard bench near the door and, after a short time, fell asleep on her suitcase.

She had another abrupt awakening, but this time, she didn’t see Leo or Rose, but a tall man with kind brown eyes and a deep voice.

“Kerry. Sorry to wake you. This is a surprise. It’s me, Addison.”

She remembered his voice more than anything else. He’d only had a mustache before, but now he had full sideburns and a beard. His hair was fuller as well. He wore a white coat over his suit and had a stethoscope in his pocket.

“Addison?” Her memory was working a little. It was the man who’d been around her father for a year or so when she was only eleven and then was gone as suddenly as he arrived.

“Nurse Brett!” he called sharply.