“Miss Bryant, do you believe they will attempt to come here to see you?”
Addie looked to Isaac. He could see the fear in her eyes. “They wouldn’t dare,” Isaac said before she could speak. “I’ll be here to protect and guard her.”
The nurse stepped in just then. “Everyone needs to leave now. Miss Bryant must rest.” She ushered the police to the door.
“We’ll be back if we have any further questions. But I think once the expo officials realize this is a personal matter, they’ll rest from further demands of an investigation.”
“Does that mean you won’t seek to find her brothers?” Isaac asked.
“We will of course keep an eye out for them, but you must understand we can only do so much. This is a mere family feud, and Seattle is a big city. We hardly have time to interfere in every fight that takes place between family members. Hopefully her brothers have cooled off and will realize just how wrong they were to have taken advantage of their sister.”
Isaac wanted to roar. “You mean that’s it? She nearly died, and you won’t even have her brothers arrested?”
“Do you intend to file charges against them?” the man asked from the door.
“Of course she does,” Isaac answered for her, then looked to Addie, who nodded.
The suited man stepped forward. “You want to put your own brothers in jail?”
“That’s where they belong. They won’t only beat me,”Addie said, shaking her head slightly. “They’ll hurt anyone who gets in their way. You must find them—before they kill someone.”
The man studied her, then nodded. “We’ll do what we can.”
“Now, everyone out of the room,” the nurse insisted. She herded them toward the door, but Isaac didn’t budge.
The look in Addie’s eyes was sheer terror. He reached out and took her hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t want everyone to go. What if Hiram comes here?”
“I won’t leave you alone,” Isaac promised.
“Unless you’re her husband,” the nurse said from the door, “you will have to go.”
“I want to be her husband, but I’m apparently not good enough.” His tone clearly revealed his sorrow.
Addie shook her head. “That’s not true. That’s never been the case. It’s me. I’m not good enough. You don’t know about the past.”
Isaac smiled and kissed her fingers. “I know everything, Addie. I visited your brothers in prison, and they told me everything. Probably even made some stuff up. I don’t care about your past. You had no say in any of it, but I want you to have a say in your future ... and I want a say in it too.”
20
Isaac wasted no time in getting help. He went to the police station first to speak to the officer in charge. Explaining the situation and the danger that the Bryant brothers could pose, Isaac finally got someone to take the matter seriously. Then he arranged for the Pinkertons to come to the house. Isaac once again gave all the details of what had happened and related the situation as best he could.
“Do you know for a fact that the necklace exists?” one of the Pinkerton men asked.
“I don’t have any reason to believe it doesn’t,” Isaac replied. “I’ve personally never seen it, but I have heard from those who have. Her best friend in the Yukon told me it was a birthday present worth thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars.”
The man jotted down notes, while his partner picked up the questioning. “You said that the two men in question have a criminal history.”
Isaac nodded. “They were only recently let go from the prison at Vancouver.” He reached into the desk drawer and pulled out the letter he’d received and handed it to the man.“Here’s proof of that. While living in the Yukon, they were constantly in trouble for everything from fighting to thievery. It was felt certain by most folks that the two had even committed murder. It wasn’t unusual for men to go missing up there, and no one ever knew for sure what happened to them.”
“Did the law not get involved?” the Pinkerton asked.
“There wasn’t much law to begin with. The Canadians offered what they could, but the influx of thousands upon thousands of people made it impossible to keep up. Even though the Canadians recorded each person entering the country, they had very little ability to keep track of them afterward.”
“But they were never arrested for murder?”
“Not that I know of,” Isaac replied.
