City of the Absent (30 page)

McCumbler's stock answer had become a mantra. “Quit making my case out to be so bloody awful! It's not awful.”

“And it's not your life on the line is it, Malachi?” This, as Alastair wondered,
Can I trust even this man? Suppose the senator's money has reached out to him?

And so it went, and so he paced day after day, awaiting trial here in what'd always been his second home, the station house he'd worked out of for so many years. Seeing it from a cell was not a new experience. He'd been thrown in the drunk tank before. However, awaiting this ordeal for his life while caged and staring through a barred window at the dreary rain-swollen Chicago clouds had converted this place into a bleak, bleak house indeed.

When Alastair slept, fitfully if at all, he recalled stolen moments with Jane. He'd lie half awake, recalling all she'd whispered in his ear. How she'd said,
Alastair, I have been
Ransomed
and hope to be again.

Now Ransom wondered at the odd, unfamiliar schoolgirl behavior, her silliness, her abandon and giddiness in those intimate moments. Yet it'd felt good to see her with no guard up, to experience her truly; to know her feelings, even though her zeal frightened him off that night the world had been upended when Mayor Carter Harrison was murdered.

He recalled how Jane had voiced a desire to be his completely. Still, this abandon had come on the heels of their lovemaking, when all else save the thrum of the city outside
Jane's window had fallen silent. She'd made amazing pronouncements then, all of which had stuck in his head these many days. Words no flesh and blood woman could possibly live up to.
What in hell was she thinking?
he silently asked the empty cell now.

In Ransom's head, her melodic voice and words played again, a kind of sonata; the kind of unfettered, unconditional song a man of his bearing, nature, and sensibilities had never heard in life. Yet deep within, it amounted to words he'd always secretly longed to hear from a loved one.

What was that she whispered?
The world be damned, Alastair, if things aren't all right with me and you…

Could things ever be right with them again?
he wondered now, lying on his back in this cell.
Could he come out on the other side of this trial a free man, declared innocent by a jury or by a judge or by decree or blackmail?

The latter might well be his only hope, but at least he was not without hope.

Along with McCumbler, who claimed to have more than mere hope on his side, along with Jane's and Gabby's belief in him, perhaps he could indeed beat the charge and bring down his worst enemies in the bargain.

“And why not?” he roared like a bear, disturbing others in cells around him, mostly derelicts and petty thieves. He stood out as the star inmate here.

His bare hands and cell walls were beginning to take on the same color and texture before his eyes, and he found his hands trembling at times. They trembled now as Jane and Gabby were led in to see him, guided by Mike O'Malley.

“I told you, Alastair,” began a tearful Jane, “that Nathan Kohler would one day have your head.”

Mike quickly vacated to give them a moment and to guard the entryway.

Alastair had come off his bunk like a man propelled, and he took Jane's hands in his through the bars. “And I'm telling you two that McCumbler and I have a few heads to chop off ourselves, Nathan's among them.”

“And if McCumbler is gone before the trial?”

“What're you saying?”

“He's in Cook County Hospital.”

“No, how? What's happened?”

“Christian says a bad case of food poisoning, but I suspect simple poisoning.”

“Poisoned how?”

“Impossible to say, but he very nearly died.”

“But he can't die. I need him.”

Gabby piped in, “I've no doubt they tried to eliminate Mr. McCumbler. He's been through a shocking night. But to be safe, we've hired a private guard around him twenty-four hours a day.”

“It may take that. This means he's frightened them; means we do have enough to counter their lies and slanders.” Ransom paced his cage now, looking like a trapped animal.

“We've hired an outside lawyer, an Indianapolis fellow that McCumbler respects. They're catching up now at the hospital.”

“Backup…in case they get to Malachi next time.”

“All manner of people die around you, Alastair,” accused Jane, her eyes boring into him, “but this time I mean to keep those helping you alive.”

“I believe we can win in this case and cast serious light on Chapman and Kohler's dealings.”

“So do I, dear. So do I.”

“Mother means we,” added Gabby. “So do we.”

“You will hear all manner of vicious attacks against me at trial,” Ransom assured them.

Through the bars, Jane clasped his hands in hers. “
Ahhh,
but we know the true man within the bear.”

“With you and Gabby at my side, Jane, I know I'll win. I will.”