“You know what the Bible says about men who need to take it easy. You are supposed to lie down in green pastures. Enjoy the still waters, restoreth your soul. There is a time to work and a time to play. A time to go to the Smithsonian and a time to be an idiot.”
“That’s not in the Bible.”
“The principle is. Did Caroline ever tell you how our mother died?”
Nathaniel looked up, taken off guard by the topic change. “No.”
“We were four years old. It was a perfectly ordinary day, and we were waiting in the foyer for Mother to take us outside to admire the tulips just coming into bloom. Mother was at the top of the staircase. When she saw us waiting for her, she laughed and said she had better hurry. A moment later she tripped and tumbled down the stairs. She broke her neck. I think she was dead before she even hit at the bottom.”
Luke casually moved a pawn and kept talking. “After that, Caroline became terrified of everything. Stairs, loud noises, going outside. It was months before she was willing to use the staircase again, and Gray had to hold her hand the entire time. I suppose all those fears were normal, but she also withdrew from people. She wouldn’t make friends or take care of the puppy our father bought to cheer us up. My father thought something was wrong with her and brought in a minister. He said she was stricken with ‘a terror of abandonment,’ whatever that means. Now you’ve managed to awaken all those feelings by being an ardent Romeo one day and a block of ice the next.”
Getting lectured by the most irresponsible man on the planet wasn’t something Nathaniel could take lying down. “Youabandoned her by going to Cuba.”
“That’s right, I did,” Luke said, a flash of temper in his eyes. “And it chafed at me every day while I was imprisoned. The difference is that I’m her blood and she won’t ever abandon me. But you? She’ll drop you like last year’s fashions if you hurt her.”
Nathaniel mulled over the words but couldn’t accept them. “Caroline understands,” he said shortly, hoping it was true. She certainly knew what a wreck he’d been since McKinley was shot and how returning to work had helped beat back the savage waves of despondency. She knew how much he needed this.
Across from him, Luke stilled. “Here comes the telegram,” he whispered.
A rider carrying a Western Union satchel dismounted before the Holland house and headed up the front path. Captain Holland himself answered the door. He accepted the telegram, reading it while the messenger waited. Holland stared at the card for an entire minute, then glanced up, tipped the messenger, and closed the door.
“No return message,” Luke said.
“It might still be coming.” The message would be a shock to Holland, and he might take plenty of time to analyze the implications.
Nathaniel strolled over to his horse, methodically checking its saddle to be sure it was ready to follow Holland if he left the house.
“He’s leaving,” Luke whispered, and sure enough, Holland had donned a light jacket.
But instead of leaving by horseback, he was cutting across his lawn to a neighboring house, walking up the path and knocking on the front door. To his dismay, Nathaniel noticed the telephone wire leading from the neighbor’s house to the street.
“That house has a telephone,” he warned. This was a development they hadn’t foreseen. If Holland started the wheels in motion via that neighbor’s telephone, they would have no way of tracking it.
“I’m going in,” Luke said, taking a step toward the house, but Nathaniel dragged him back.
“Don’t be insane,” he whispered sternly, but Luke still stared across the street where Holland had already been invited inside the neighbor’s house.
“I’ll get in through a basement window, and you’re not going to stop me.” Luke jerked his arm away, loping toward the house in long strides.
“Get back here,” Nathaniel said in a furious whisper, but Luke ignored him, jogging toward one of the basement windows. A quick glance up and down the street showed no passersby, and Luke was now crouched in the window well. What was Nathaniel supposed to do? The fool was going to be caught, but trying to haul him out of there would only call more attention to him.
He plopped back down onto the park bench, staring at the house in helpless frustration. Sunlight glinted on the glass of the window as Luke pried it open. Nathaniel’s stomach turned as Luke wiggled through the window, compromising their entire investigation.
Minutes passed, and a bead of sweat trickled down Nathaniel’s neck as he waited, counting his heartbeats. He glanced at his watch. Five minutes had passed. Then ten. When the tension became unbearable, he moved behind a screen of trees to pace, but he still kept an eye on the house. How much was this rash move going to cost them? It was hard to believe this scoundrel was actually Caroline’s brother, for although she could be impulsive and frivolous, she was sensible. She could be reasoned with, not like this—
The front door opened and Luke shuffled out, a middle-agedman and woman standing on the front stoop to watch him go. Luke’s head hung low as he lumbered down the path, looking like a beaten dog. He carried a loaf of bread beneath his arm.
The man and woman still watched, and Nathaniel took cover behind the wide trunk of an ancient oak tree. The homeowners eventually retreated inside, but Luke continued his shambling, unsteady gait as he crossed the street and into the park. He was a mess. His clothing was disheveled and his hair had come free to hang over his shoulders.
Finally, Luke drew alongside Nathaniel with a grim expression as he tossed him the loaf of bread. Nathaniel caught it.
“They mistook me for a vagrant breaking into their house for food,” Luke said. “They felt sorry for me.” He gestured Nathaniel in closer and continued speaking. “Holland was already on the telephone when I got inside, but I overheard plenty before they caught me. He was talking to someone from a bank, who was annoyed to be called at home, but Holland said it couldn’t wait until Monday. He wanted the guy to open the bank right now so he could get his money. It sounds like he’s getting ready to run. He clammed up when the maid started screaming her head off at the sight of me hiding on the basement stairs.”
He went on to report that the telephone was in the kitchen, and when the homeowners brought him in for a hot meal, Captain Holland had hung up and didn’t say another word.
“Did he recognize you?”
“I don’t think so,” Luke said. “I kept my hair hanging in my face, and I got out as soon as I could. Holland is ten steps ahead of us, with a plan already in place to flee the country. He’s got money, papers, everything lined up.” He trembled so badly that his voice shook. “I feel like everything I’ve worked for is slipping away, and I don’t know how to stop it.”
