The Shut Mouth Society (19 page)

Baldwin returned in less than five minutes dangling a set of keys in an outstretched hand. After she slammed the door, she said, “Now for one more tour around Beacon Hill.”

“
Excuse me?”

“
The apartment’s on Pinckney Street, behind us. One-ways, remember.”

“
This is so convoluted; no one’ll ever find us.”

“
That’s the idea. It’s on the west side of Charles, which, metaphorically speaking, is on the wrong side of the tracks.” She pointed to the left. “The rich live east of Charles on Beacon Hill.”

“
Parking?”

“
You’ve got to be kidding. After we unload we need to find a garage.”

Evarts thought about his shotgun and other specialized gear he had thrown in his van before they left his house. “Quiet neighborhood?”

“
Extremely. The street dead-ends at the Charles River just a half block away, and it’s off the tourist footpaths. The street’s central but, at the same time, almost completely isolated.”

“
Let’s get unloaded quick, and I’ll run the car over to long-term parking at the airport. Is it far?”

“
No, but I better take it. The route’s tricky.”

“
Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Evarts turned around to check the traffic behind them, but saw no one suspicious. “We either go together or I take it.”

“
I can handle it.”

“
I’m not letting you wander this city alone.”

She gave him a nasty look. “Then together.” She double-parked, threw the car in park, and flipped off the ignition with a sharp movement.

Before she opened the car door, Evarts said, “Hold a sec.” After he inspected the street and the windows, he asked, “Which one?”

“
That door over there. It gives access to a second-floor apartment.”

Evarts saw a plain door at the extreme edge of a two-story brick house. The building had been a single residence at one time, and sometime in the past, an enclosed staircase had been built on the side of the building to provide a private entrance to the second floor.

“
Okay, let’s check it out.”

They both got out of the car. Baldwin had her hand in her purse, and Evarts guessed her fingers didn’t clutch the keys. The commercial-grade lock turned easily when she inserted the key. As she opened the door, Evarts nudged her aside and had his hand on his own gun. The open door revealed only blackness. She reached around him and fumbled against the wall with her hand until she found a light switch. Three bright bare bulbs came on to illuminate a narrow staircase painted a dull brown. Evarts checked the street and buildings one more time and then started up the stairs.

“
Wait,” she said. “The door at the top is locked as well.” She handed him the keys, and when he had moved up a few steps, she closed the street door behind them and twisted the lock closed.

Evarts felt trapped in the staircase, so he hurdled up the steps two at a time. At the top, it took him awhile to find the right key on the ring, but when he did, he felt the heavy-duty deadbolt slide free. He opened the door a crack and reached his left hand inside until he found a light switch. After pulling out the SIG, he motioned for Baldwin to stay down a few steps. He noticed she had her Glock out, and more important, she had it pointed straight up with her trigger finger extended along the barrel. Evidently, her ex-boyfriend had taught her good gun safety.

Evarts bent into a crouch, flung the door open, and swung the automatic from side to side. Nothing but draped furniture. He entered the room and wished he had backup that understood the proper procedure to clear a series of rooms. He glanced back and saw that Baldwin had stayed about two steps down the staircase and had assumed a shooting posture, but with her gun still in the air. He was going to have to ask her about her ex-boyfriend.

In less than a minute, Evarts had cleared the one-bedroom apartment and signaled Baldwin to come in.

“
That was scary,” she said.

“
Cops hate clearing rooms.” Evarts smiled, partly from relief. “You did good. Was your old boyfriend a cop?”

“
Drug enforcement. How’d you guess?”

“
Because he taught you more than how to shoot.” He moved toward the door. “Let’s get our stuff up here.”

In a little over an hour, they had hauled their few belongings up the stairs, stashed the car at an airport off-site lot, and taken a taxi back into the city. Inside again, Evarts checked out the place more carefully. He found it odd that the hardwood door at the top of the stairs would give a police ram trouble and that the windows had blackout curtains. Checking the windows, he discovered a fire escape that provided a quick exit to a rear alley. He opened the window and checked out the drop ladder on the fire escape. Someone had used a spring-loaded C-clamp to lock it in the up position so someone from below couldn’t pull it down.

When Baldwin returned from the single bedroom, she held aloft a brick-size stack of currency. “Money’s not a problem.”

“
Trish, what did your father tell you about this place?”

“
He brought me here when I was seventeen and said I should use it only in an emergency. That I should think of it as my safe haven in case of trouble.”

“
That’s it?”

“
Yeah.” She looked embarrassed. “I didn’t ask questions. I assumed he used it to cheat on my mother. I thought it weird that he took his teenage daughter to see his lair.”

“
Did he show you where he hid that money?”

“
He showed me the floor safe and said one of the keys would open it. He didn’t show or tell me about the contents.”

“
What else did you find in the safe?”

“
Foreign currency, unsigned traveler checks, and this.” She pulled out a .45 automatic she had tucked behind her in the waistband of her shorts.

Evarts ran his fingers through his hair. “Trish, he didn’t use this apartment for illicit rendezvous. In the intelligence business, we call this a safe house: secure, off the beaten track, hidden ownership, and provisioned for emergencies.”

Baldwin looked miserable. “My parents belonged to the Shut Mouth Society, didn’t they?”

“
I’m afraid everything points in that direction. S&M League is a bit too much of a coincidence.”

“
A lot of my rebellion had to do with things like this. Hidden apartments, trusts inside trusts, secretive absences, special phones, and an elitist attitude that our family had a responsibility to take care of the people too ignorant to understand the real world. I didn’t understand it, but as I grew older, I eventually came to believe that my parents were basically good people.” She held up the money in one hand and the .45 in the other. “Despite this, they couldn’t have been members of a secret society that kills people.”

“
All secret societies have layers, and each layer keeps secrets from those outside the inner echelons. It’s possible that the Shut Mouth Society is relatively benign, but that a rogue clique wants to take over or possibly stop it from going public.”

“
Are you trying to make me feel better about my parents’ involvement in this?”

“
I’m just saying we know too little to jump to conclusions. The good news is that your father prepared a safe place for us, so we can relax for the first time since this started. Right now, I’m hungry, tired, and filthy. Let’s start our research in the morning.”

She looked around, and her voice sounded weary when she spoke. “First things first. Let’s get these covers off the furniture, make the bed, and buy a few staples at the grocery store.”

Evarts thought she looked forlorn. “Yeah, it’s been a tough day. I’m sorry.”

She walked over to a couch and flung the cover off. “It’s been a series of tough days.” She suddenly began to cry and used the cover to hide her face. As she collapsed onto the couch with her head in her lap, Evarts heard her muffled plaint. “When will this end?”

His sympathies went out to her, but he had a different question on his mind: How would this end?

Chapter 20

The next morning, they got up late and had cereal and bananas for breakfast. Baldwin suggested that they dress more formally so they wouldn’t look out of place at the Athenaeum. Evarts put on the khaki pants and black polo shirt that he had worn into the office to see the chief, and Baldwin dressed in the same outfit she had worn to dinner at the Douglass home.

The regular bed and the sudden feeling of safety allowed them a sound night of sleep. They had finished their chores the previous evening and then devoured a takeaway pizza in less than ten minutes. When they hit the bed, both instantly fell asleep.

Baldwin placed her bowl in the sink and looked at her watch. “Let’s walk to the Athenaeum. I’m anxious to get started.”

Evarts thought she sounded distracted. He wanted to get started but worried about her frame of mind. “We can wait a day, if you want.”

“
No, I need to keep my mind busy.”

They walked up Pinckney Street into the Beacon Hill neighborhood and then headed right on Joy Street until they got to Beacon Street. She pointed left. “It’s only a couple blocks this way.”

The ten-minute walk fascinated Evarts. Beacon Hill looked like something Disney would build to give the illusion of a quaint district in a distant part of the world, except here the brick sidewalks and gas lanterns were real and older than almost anything in Southern California. Of course, Disney’s sidewalks would be laid with precision so visitors wouldn’t stumble. These brick paths undulated and required a bit of attention to keep your footing. Evarts could tell nothing from the face of the townhouses that rose anonymously right next to the narrow sidewalk, but Baldwin explained that they were all expensively furnished with antiques and artworks normally associated with museums. When she mentioned that an intact townhouse in this neighborhood could command fifteen million dollars, he thought about the Douglass estate that cost half as much and offered a panoramic view of the California coastline. Evarts couldn’t understand rich city dwellers who chose to cramp themselves into outrageously priced tight quarters with only a view of their neighbor’s window.

“
Do you have the list of law books?” Evarts asked.

“
In my briefcase,” she answered matter-of-factly.

Evarts thought her tone distant, but he dismissed it as a product of her grief. Maybe she was right about getting her mind busy on something else. “While I work on the code, I thought you might start with William Maxwell Evarts,” he said.

“
Why him?”

“
Douglass said the family didn’t form a secret society until after the Civil War. Evarts lived in that period.”

“
So did others.” Her tone had gone from matter-of-fact to testy.

“
You said he defended President Johnson during the impeachment hearings. The three seminal events around that time were the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination, and the Johnson impeachment. One of those events probably drove the family underground as the Shut Mouth Society. I think the impeachment might hold the key.” Evarts walked a few more steps before adding, “On the other hand, perhaps the impeachment interests me because I know the least about it.”

“
I’ve got to start somewhere, so William Evarts is as good a place as any.” Baldwin had returned to her matter-of-fact tone. “The impeachment was a political power play, and this whole affair seems connected with politics.”

When Evarts got sight of the Athenaeum, he thought it looked more like a sturdy old bank than a library. The gray stone building, adorned with faux Federalist columns and arches, gave the impression of a structure designed to protect something of enormous value. Even in its day, it must have been exceptionally expensive to construct. Evarts appreciated the value of knowledge, but in the age of the Internet, it seemed like an antiquarian idea to elaborately house paper-based books in such an edifice. On second thought, maybe in the not too distant future, books would find a secure home only in a museum.

Baldwin stopped Evarts on the steps of the Athenaeum. “Let me explain the access procedure. I’ll have to give the guard my real name and show ID, but I don’t have to sign in. Don’t worry. These guards are only interested in getting back to the baseball game or whatever else they’re listening to in their earpiece. Visitors do sign in, but they don’t show ID, so use whatever name you like.”

“
Why haven’t you told me this until now?”

“
Because you wouldn’t have come here.” She pointed toward the Athenaeum. “The answers to our questions lie inside that building. No one knows we’re in Boston, and no one knows I’m a member.”

Evarts took a deep breath. “Okay, on one condition. If I signal to leave, you don’t hesitate a second.”

“
Agreed,
Commander
.” She used the same disdainful inflection as she had on the first day he met her.