The Bachelor's Bride (The Thompsons of Locust Street #1) - Holly Bush Page 0,34

the future, but not today.

Alexander was in the file room with Kleinfeld, digging through crates, looking for a file on a long-ago fired employee of Schmitt’s. The man’s widow wanted her husband’s pension money, even though that employee had been let go for theft. Extortion was typical in politics, Alexander had come to understand. Normally, he would have given the woman some cash or a gold piece and sent her on her way, but this woman claimed to have papers signed by Schmitt that stated her deceased husband or his heirs would be entitled to one thousand dollars. A fortune to a low-level employee at the Gas Trust. Alexander wanted to see what paperwork, if any, had been kept by Schmitt.

He was kneeling on the floor beside the wall between the room he was in and Schmitt’s office, shuffling through papers wrapped in string, when he heard Schmitt’s voice and the sound of a door closing through the vent where the warm air from the boiler in the basement heated the building in the winter. He could not hear every word, but he leaned closer when he heard Elspeth’s name. He could not tell who Schmitt was talking to or what they were saying. He thought the person must have been standing near the door of Schmitt’s office. Alexander imagined Schmitt was pouring himself a whiskey at the hutch beside the heating vent and knew he was right when he heard the faint clink of glassware.

“Not their name?” Schmitt said as Alexander bent closer. “. . . changed at Ellis?”

“Twenty thousand dollars, if it’s that important to you,” Schmitt said.

A loud thump shook the wall beside him.

“What was that?” Kleinfeld asked.

Alexander put his finger to his mouth for quiet. He leaned close to the vent, heard another bang, and then Schmitt moaned and cursed and another voice spoke. The man must have been standing near the wall that separated them as Alexander could hear nearly every word.

“You’re a very small piece of this operation, Schmitt. Very small and not particularly useful. The men who want this information are dangerous. Do you understand? You’re in no position to ask for anything. Get the name, Schmitt.”

Not much later, Schmitt bellowed Alexander’s name. “Get in here,” he shouted.

Alexander straightened his clothes and swiped off the dust from the file room. “What can I do for you, Mr. Schmitt?” he said after entering the office and scanning the room. He saw a glass on its side, its contents spilled on the hutch, and Schmitt looking grim and gray faced.

“I need the woman’s name before they came here, Pendergast,” he said. “The Thompson woman. Who were they in Scotland?”

Alexander shrugged. “I have no idea.”

“You need to find out.”

“I told you I’m not going to do any of this unless I know what is going on.”

Schmitt stood, unsteady on his feet, and leaned forward on his desk. “I said I need to know about this Thompson girl and her family, and I need to know it now.”

Alexander stared at him until Schmitt looked away.

“We don’t have a choice, Pendergast. We don’t have a choice.”

Alexander did not know how he was going to protect Elspeth and her loved ones, but he would. And he didn’t know how he would keep his job if the threat to Schmitt had been real. What was to keep these men, whoever they were, away from his own family? How would he keep them all safe? Whatever the answer, he needed time to think and plan.

“I’ll see what I can find out,” he said.

Schmitt let out a held breath and dropped into the chair behind him. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Thank you,” he whispered.

For the first time, Alexander felt a frisson of fear rumble down his spine. Anyone or anything that frightened Henry Schmitt must be taken seriously. The fact that Schmitt had actually given him his thanks made Alexander’s concerns even more sobering.

Alexander pushed through the crowd at the Continental Hotel’s bar until he saw his father seated at a corner booth. Alexander pulled off his hat, sat down, and ordered a scotch whiskey from a busy young man carrying drinks to the loud and jocular crowd.

“Thank you for meeting me.”

His father nodded in reply, a grim look on his face.

Alexander was caught off guard. His always confident father was hesitant. Unsure. “Is everything all right?”

“I don’t know, Alexander. The last time we spoke was when we came for you at the Thompson’s house and you