Peacemaker (The Flash Gold Chronicles, #3) (3 page)

Somerset leaned there. His eyebrows rose
when he spotted the miniature crossbow, but he merely said, “You
have deft hands,” and nodded to the workbench.

“
The front door was
locked,” Kali said. Not only had it been locked, but she’d designed
the bolt herself after her ex-fiancé had proven apt at picking the
one that came with the shop.

“
I noticed. Don’t you find
that drives away business?”

Kali glowered at him. If she had Cedar’s
height and muscles, it might have cowed him, but he did not seem to
find her five feet four inches imposing.

“
Is that my ring?”
Somerset asked. “Were you able to fix it?”

“
Yes. It needed a new
spring. Naturally parts on something so small are hard to come by,
but I have tools for fine work and improvised.”

“
Excellent.” He smiled, a
friendly white-toothed smile, and Kali imagined he had little
trouble charming the ladies. “How much do I owe you?” he
asked.

Since prices in Dawson had grown so
ridiculous, Kali thought about naming an exorbitant sum, figuring a
gambler who could afford such a ring had to be well off. But then
she remembered that he’d said he had won it, not purchased it with
his own coin. His clothing—simple trousers, shirt, and vest—did not
hint of wealth.

“
Five dollars,” she said.
Only slightly exorbitant, considering Miss Eames was charging two
dollars for a scrambled-egg breakfast.

“
Reasonable, thank you.”
Somerset withdrew a purse and came forward, though not too close.
He counted out five dollar bills while keeping an eye on her
crossbow.

Kali appreciated that he didn’t sneer at or
belittle the weapon. Maybe his keen eye had spotted the smudge at
the end, though she doubted he’d guess that it was her own chemical
concoction, a charge that exploded upon impact.

“
Thanks.” Kali tucked the
ring into its case and pushed it across the bench to him. “There’s
a target in the corner by the spud launcher if you want to test
it.”

“
Spud launcher? You
certainly have an array of interesting weapons here.”

“
Yes, I do.”

“
Do you supply them to
anyone?” Somerset asked it casually, but there was an intensity in
his eyes that put her on guard.

“
Anyone that can pay. A
girl’s got to earn a living.”

“
I see.” He pocketed the
box without testing the ring. “You’re probably wondering why I
disappeared so quickly this afternoon.”

“
No, I’m not.” Kali nodded
to the door.

“
Not even a little?” He
tried his smile on her again.

Kali backed up a step, finger tightening on
the trigger to the crossbow. “What are you angling for, mister? You
want something else?”

“
No, ma’am. You just seem
like an interesting girl. Woman,” he corrected when she scowled.
“How did you get involved in tinkering? It’s not usually a lady’s
trade.”

“
I’m not.”

His brow crinkled beneath his bowler hat.
“Not…a lady?”

“
Not interesting,” Kali
said. “I am, however, busy. So, if you’re not going to test your
piece, you can let yourself out. If it wouldn’t trouble you
terribly, re-lock my door on the way.”

“
Ah, you’re displeased by
my means of entry. I admit, I’ve picked up a few bad habits. But
you mentioned needing a favor this morning, while you were denying
being Miss Kali McAlister.” He wriggled his eyebrows, as if to
suggest her prevarications were just as morally ambiguous as his
lock picking. “Maybe I can help and alleviate some of your
workload.”

Kali chewed on the inside
of her cheek. She
would
like help building the hull of her ship, but this
fellow smelled of trouble. He had to have some reason for wanting
to spend time with her. This whole ploy reminded her of Cedar’s
deception when they had first met. He had wanted to hire on and
help her out too; only later had she figured out that he knew about
flash gold and how a lot of people wanted to capture her and pump
her for its secrets. He’d only wanted to use her as bait, hoping
that Cudgel Conrad, the notorious criminal who’d killed his
brother, would target her as well. She’d forgiven him for his
manipulations—though she might be addled for doing so—and had even
come to trust him, but she doubted lightning would strike twice in
the same location.

“
You think on it and let
me know,” Somerset said. “I’m busy at night over in the Aurora
Saloon, competing with the Injun dancing girls for the customers’
attention, but I wake up around nine or ten in the morning and
could assist you.” He tipped his hat and headed for the
door.

Kali was about to remind him about the lock,
but he paused with his hand on the jamb.

“
I almost forgot,” he
said, turning back to her. “That man who was with the Mounties, do
you know him well?”

Her instincts bristled like the hackles on a
hound’s back. “Why do you ask?”

“
He seems familiar, that’s
all. In fact…” Somerset patted down his pockets while making
thoughtful, “Hm,” noises, then said, “Ah,” as he pulled out a
leather-bound journal. He flipped through the pages.

Though she was too far away to make out
details, Kali spotted newspaper clippings and photographs glued to
many of the pages. Others simply held handwriting.

“
Back when I was in San
Francisco,” Somerset said as he turned pages, “there was a gory
murder. Someone killed a pretty young lady who’d been newly wedded
to a doting husband. The newspaper ran the story with a photograph
of the murderer, a man who’d had an affair with the girl. Then it
seemed things turned sour.” Somerset’s jaw tightened, and he took a
breath before continuing. “The man killed the girl instead of
letting her go back to her husband.” He found the page he wanted
and stared down at it.

Kali shifted uneasily. Cedar had already
told her about a murder that he’d been accused of—Cudgel Conrad had
framed him—but he hadn’t mentioned anything about a husband or an
affair.

“
That fellow I saw today,”
Somerset went on, “he reminds me of the murderer.” He held the
journal up, open to a page with a newspaper article glued on one
side and a cutout photograph on the other. “This is
him.”

The man in the picture had a beard and
mustache, but a scar slashed vertically from brow to cheek, as if
someone had tried to cut his eye out with a knife. It was the same
scar Cedar had.

Kali forced herself to shrug nonchalantly,
though her mouth had gone dry, and her voice cracked when she
responded, “I don’t know him that well.”

“
Of course,” Somerset
said. “I just wished to warn you in case…” He lifted a shoulder.
“You seem like a nice woman.”

He left before Kali could tell him that she
wasn’t any more nice than she was interesting.

With its sawdust floor and hammered copper
cans fashioned into lampshades, the Caribou Cafe probably wasn’t
romantic, but Kali liked it. It didn’t pretend to have fancy
airs—with prices to match, and she liked the clockwork dogsled
teams “racing” each other on tracks that wound along the walls near
the ceiling.

At a table in a dim
corner, Cedar sat across from her, fingering the beadwork talisman
he’d found. He hadn’t spoken since he called upon her, and Kali
wondered if he was intrigued by the mystery or disturbed by the
slayings. Both perhaps. Or maybe he was reminded of another murder
in San Francisco. Her own thoughts had been running about, tripping
over each other, since the gambler—if he even
was
a gambler—left her
shop.

“
We need to talk,” Kali
said. “There’s somebody in town who—”

“
Kali?” a woman asked from
a few feet away. It was Doe-eyed Jane, one of the two sisters who
owned the place. Kali couldn’t remember ever speaking to her other
than to order meals and wouldn’t have guessed that the woman knew
her name. Jane put a hand on Kali’s shoulder and said, “I heard
about what happened to Vixen and the other girls. Land sakes,
that’s horrific. Nobody deserves an end like that, heathen or
not.”

Kali supposed that passed for sympathy,
insulting or not, so she held back a snort. “Thanks.”

“
Is it true that your
people’s bear spirits are angry and killing those that abandoned
your ways to come live in the city?”

“
Uh.” Just how much
speculation was rampaging through town about those murders? “I
don’t know,” Kali said.

“
You ought to let the girl
go back to her kin, Cedar,” Jane said, and Cedar lifted his gaze
from the talisman for the first time since they had sat down. “It
ain’t right to risk her life just so you can get your hammertoes
warmed at night,” Jane finished.

Heat flushed Kali’s
cheeks. Was
that
what people thought they were doing in her shop when they
were working on new tools and weapons for Cedar’s bounty-hunting
endeavors? Not that she wouldn’t consider other…activities someday,
but it flustered her to think of hens gossiping about her sleeping
with someone instead of their usual fare, the fact that she ran
around town in greasy overalls with tools jangling in her pockets
and that she made all manner of strange contraptions in her
tinkery.

“
I’ll take your advice
under consideration, ma’am,” Cedar said, a twinkle in his blue
eyes.

“
We’ll take two meals,”
Kali said, hoping to get rid of the woman. She needed to tell Cedar
about Somerset. As soon as Jane was gone, Kali pressed the talisman
to the table to capture his attention. “We need to
talk.”

The amusement on his face faded. “Are my
hammertoes in danger of going cold in the foreseeable future?”

“
What? No. I mean, I don’t
know. I haven’t even seen your toes yet.”

“
I’ll take it as
encouraging that you said yet.”

“
It’s hard to
yet
when you’re not
around,” Kali pointed out, though she was relieved to hear that he
was still interested in the idea.

“
True.” Cedar’s shoulders
slumped, and he scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “I’ve just
been hunting all over for Cudgel. Once I get him, then…”

“
I know. I understand, but
listen, this is important.” Kali leaned over the table and kept her
voice low so none of the other diners would overhear. “There’s a
fellow in town who says he recognizes you from a newspaper article
down in San Francisco. Because of a murder you were accused of.”
She went on to describe her meetings with the gambler.

Cedar’s eyes sharpened with the intensity
that usually only came out when he was speaking of hunting down
Cudgel. “Describe this man,” he whispered, gripping the edge of the
worn table so hard his knuckles whitened.

“
Tall and
broad-shouldered, like you, dark brown hair, clean-shaven.” Kali
realized that was a generic description and closed her eyes to
picture the man’s face and see if she could pick out something
unique. “He has a little scar on the side of his jaw.” She touched
the spot on her own face. “As if he nicked himself shaving or
was—”

“
Cut with a knife,” Cedar
said grimly. “I gave him that scar when we met last. Got in a
squabble down near Skid Road in Seattle. That’s the last spot where
he caught up with me.”

“
It’s not Cudgel, is it?”
Kali asked.

“
No, it’s Agent
Lockhart.”

“
The Pinkerton
detective?”

Cedar nodded. “He’s been
after me since San Francisco. When he tackled me in Seattle, I
didn’t want to kill him, just get away. Stubborn bastard won’t
leave me be though.” Cedar gazed past occupied tables toward the
windows and the rain dribbling from the eaves outside. “I’m not
surprised he found me again, but I’d hoped I’d get Cudgel first. I
can’t leave the Yukon now. Not when…” He met her eyes. “He’s here,
Kali. I haven’t seen him yet, but the rumors say he’s here, and
he’s setting up some scheme to get rich—
richer
—off other people’s
work.”

“
Could he be responsible
for these murders?”

“
I…don’t see where there’d
be money in it for him, killing innocent girls. He has no trouble
killing folks, but he’s not random about it. He does it when people
get in his way or don’t jump to his fiddle fast enough.” He
grimaced, thinking of his brother, no doubt. “He’s being careful
though. He may not know I’m here, but he knows there’s a big bounty
on his head, so he’s got the worker ants scurrying about on his
behalf. But it looks like he left most of his old crew behind. I
don’t recognize anybody.” He clenched his fist. “I need more
time.”

“
I wonder why Somerset—er,
Lockhart—didn’t shoot you today.” Kali also wondered what had
happened to the real gambler Preston Somerset. Had Lockhart shot
him and taken his gear and identity?

“
He’s tried to do that
before. I’m not that easy to kill.” Cedar’s lips stretched into a
humorless smile. “Besides, he’s new in town, and he’s undercover.
Shooting me in front of two Mounties I’m being social with would be
hard for him to explain. The Pinkertons don’t have jurisdiction in
the Dominion of Canada. No, Lockhart will want to get me alone to
take me out.” He met Kali’s eyes again. “Or he wants to get to me
through you.”