Bitter Cry Read online

  Table of Contents

  BITTER CRY

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty One

  Twenty Two

  Twenty Three

  Twenty Four

  Twenty Five

  Twenty Six

  Twenty Seven

  Twenty Eight

  Twenty Nine

  Thirty

  Acknowledgments

  BITTER CRY

  Also by S.L. Stoner

  in the

  Sage Adair Historical Mystery Series of the Pacific Northwest

  Timber Beasts

  Land Sharks

  Dry Rot

  Black Drop

  Dead Line

  The Mangle

  Slow Burn

  BITTER CRY

  A Sage Adair Historical Mystery of the Pacific Northwest

  S. L. Stoner

  Yamhill Press

  www.yamhillpress.net

  Bitter Cry

  A Sage Adair Historical Mystery of the Pacific Northwest

  Bitter Cry is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or person, living or dead, is entirely coincidental unless specifically noted otherwise.

  A Yamhill Press Book

  All rights reserved

  Copyright © 2019 by S. L. Stoner

  Cover Design by Vladimir Stefanovic based on the original series’ design by Alec “Icky” Dunn

  Interior Design by Slaven Kovačević

  Printed in the United States. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by any means, without written permission. For information contact: Yamhill Press at www.yamhillpress.net.

  Published through Smashwords

  Edition ISBNs Softcover

  ISBN 978-1-7320066-2-1

  EBook ISBN 978-1-7320066-3-8

  Library of Congress Control Number:2019911427

  Publishers Cataloguing in Publication

  Bitter Cry / S.L. Stoner.

  214 pages cm – (A Sage Adair historical mystery of the Pacific Northwest) 1. Northwest, Pacific—History—early 20th century—Fiction, 2. Detective and Mystery Fiction, 3. Action and Adventure—Fiction, 4. Progressive History—Fiction, 5. Child Labor—Fiction, 6. Poverty—Fiction, 7. Newsboys—Fiction, 8. Messenger Boys—Fiction, 9. Historical Fiction

  For George Slanina, Jr.Always and Forever the Absolute Best!

  And

  For My Siblings: Dennis, Sally, and K’Lynn Who Have Always Been Just Plain Wonderful and Inspirational In So Many Ways

  “It is not possible to injure a child without injuring society.”

  John Spargo, Author, The Bitter Cry of the Children, 1906.

  One

  The boy slipped into the saloon on the heels of a stumbling drunk. Squaring bony shoulders beneath a dirty canvas jacket, he headed for the bar, scuffing across the uneven plank floor in too-large boots. Shin-length knickers and woolen socks covered spindly legs. The tattered cap riding low on his forehead didn’t hide the bright, appraising eye he cast over the saloon’s patrons.

  He clomped around the room offering his newspapers, a wide smile on his thin face. The smile didn’t work. No one bought a paper. The reasons were obvious: stale news and drunken patrons, most of them likely couldn’t read. Not their fault. They probably had gone to work at an early age when schooling was rare and not compulsory. So, one after another, heads shook and grimy hands shooed the newsboy away.

  Then it was Sage’s turn. The serial rejections had dimmed the boy’s smile. “Please, Mister. How about you buy a paper? I only got but a few ‘afore I can head home. I’ve been on the streets since early this morning.” He thrust the stack forward, his eyes as imploring as his words.

  Memory punched Sage’s gut, stopping his breath. It was an elfin face with peaked eyebrows, pointed nose and chin. A tentative smile exposed those same bucked and gapped front teeth.

  This boy isn’t Mickey. Mickey is long dead, he reminded himself. He switched his attention to the boy before him. What to do? He was here to meet up with someone to discuss confidential matters. Still, Meachum was already an hour late so it was unlikely he’d show up at all.

  “Go ahead, take a seat,” Sage said, gesturing at the chair across the table.

  The dark, slightly slanted eyes narrowed as the boy studied the stranger. He was no innocent street urchin ignorant of predators. The boy glanced at the barkeep that was busy elsewhere. Calculation raced across his face. Curiosity or the hope of earning a few coins won out. Besides, the people in the saloon would stop the dark-haired, mustachioed man from trying anything peculiar. The foggy streets and inky alleys outside held more danger.

  The boy pulled out the chair but perched on its edge with his feet barely touching the floor and his body tense and ready to flee.

  ‘So, what’s your name?” Sage asked, settling farther back in his own chair to give the boy more space.

  Pride raised the pointed chin. “William Gladney Tobias,” the kid said. “But, the other fellas call me, ‘Glad’,” he said, raising a hand to smooth his hair and exposing an inexpensive copper wrist band. Sage momentarily wondered if it had been a gift.

  “My name’s John Miner,” Sage said. “How old are you, Glad?”

  “I’m fourteen,” he said and added as his eyes flicked sideways, “but small for my age.”

  More like ten, if even that, Sage thought. But, no point in challenging the boy. “How about a sausage and sarsaparilla?” he asked instead.

  Once again suspicion narrowed the boy’s eyes and he stiffened in his chair. “What ‘xactly will you be wanting in exchange?” he asked.

  Sorrow was Sage’s first reaction. What had this child suffered from the adults in his world? Glancing around he noted no one was looking in their direction. Nobody cared what happened between the child and the stranger who wore drab canvas and a weathered hat. More’s the pity, he thought.

  “Only a little conversation, Glad. Nothing else. My friend never turned up so some friendly company would be welcome while I finish my beer,” he said matter-of-factly.

  At the boy’s nodded agreement, Sage strode to the bar and returned with a bread-wrapped sausage, large dill pickle and mug of foamy sarsaparilla.

  Glad’s first bite was tentative but that soon gave way to ravenous swallows of pickle, sausage and drink, each in turn. A smile tugged at Sage’s lips—he liked to eat the same way. He never understood why some people would eat all of one thing before moving on to the next. After all, it was a meal, meant to be savored as a palette of complementary bites—one after the other.

  There was time for such idle pondering because Sage wanted the boy to satisfy his hunger without interruption. While he waited, his gaze turned inward, mulling over those long-buried memories triggered by Mickey’s spitting-image sitting across from him.

  Sage had been younger, only eight, the first time he’d climbed up beside the conveyor belt that carried chunks of coal and rock toward the crusher. His arms had grown long enough to grab and toss aside the rocks passing between the belt’s edge and its center. Mickey had stood across from him doing the same job. The work had been hard and dirty but they still managed to exchange gri
ns.

  He’d been lucky. His mother worked in the same coal shed, close enough to countermand the foreman’s order to put a knee on the belt if there were rocks just beyond Sage’s reach. She’d tried to do the same for all the boys but Mickey was across the belt and she didn’t hear the foreman’s order to Sage’s friend.

  Though he was now a grown man and sitting in a saloon clear across the country, Sage still tensed at the memory of what happened next. His mother’s shout jerked Sage’s eyes from the belt just in time to see Mickey clamber onto it, face tense with fear that he tried to overcome with a carefree shrug. That shrug cost him his balance. Sage yelled but no one moved fast enough. Mickey screamed as he tumbled down the fast-moving belt and disappeared into the crusher.

  A sheen of sweat coated Sage’s face at that memory. He noticed Glad had finished eating and was eyeing his benefactor, a furrow of concern between his brows.

  “You okay, Mister?” he asked. “You’re looking kinda peaky.”

  “Yeah, just remembering something that happened when I was about your age,” Sage said before quickly changing the subject. “How long you been peddling newspapers?”

  “Going on two years now. Ever since us kids and ma got here from Missouri.”

  “Ever since you were eight, then?”

  The boy’s agreeing nod froze the instant he realized Sage had just caught him in a lie. He didn’t bother trying to wriggle out of it. Just shrugged and gave a lopsided smile that made Sage like him all the more.

  “So, do you have brothers and sisters?” Sage asked.

  This time the nod was definite and the eyes held steady. “Yup. Got me an older brother and two sisters. My brother works nights as a messenger. Carrie Lynne mostly works at home taking care of Ma and baby Emma. She earns us a bit of money watching after neighbor kids and by helping Ma make artificial flowers.”

  “What’s wrong with your mother?”

  A look of helplessness washed across the boy’s face. “She’s took ill with that consumption. Always coughing and spitting up blood. She can’t work no more. But she tries real hard, anyway. Does piece work at home for the paper flower company when she can sit up. Don’t know how long that’s gonna last ‘cause she just keeps getting sicker. All night long—cough, cough, cough.” The words trailed off into heavy silence and the boy looked down at his hands on the table.

  “What about your pa?”

  Sage’s question brought a grimace and for a beat, Glad said nothing before answering reluctantly, “We done left him in Missouri. The drink got him and he took to hitting us when he wasn’t off throwing all our money at some saloonkeeper.”

  It was a familiar story. Every day countless men, lost to drink’s temporary oblivion, abandoned their wives and children. Sage thought alcohol in moderation acceptable. In fact, his business sold it. Still, encounters with families made destitute by drink made him wonder whether those ax-wielding temperance women had a point.

  The boy stirred and continued, “So’s we came here and Ma got a job and things were looking pretty good until she got sick.”

  Glad didn’t need to give further explanation. When the only parent was unable to work, it became the children’s job to keep the family afloat. Earning enough for food and housing became their daily task. Dreams of anything beyond that were just that—dreams.

  “You going to school tomorrow?”

  The boy shrugged. “Maybe. Depends on how late I get back. Since I paid a half-cent for each paper, I got to sell them all ‘afore I’m done.” He straightened. “You want to buy a paper, Mister Miner? Only one cent.”

  Sage fished in his pocket for a dollar. “Well, Mr. Tobias, I think I’ll just buy them all.”

  Glad’s eyes fixed eagerly on the coin. “I don’t have change for a whole dollar but I bet the barkeep does.”

  He started to rise but Sage grabbed his elbow. “Hold up, Glad. You can keep the whole dollar if you will promise me one thing.”

  Glad sank back on the chair, suspicion darkening his face. “What do you want me to promise?” he said, with a hint of glum resignation.

  “That you’ll go straight home and that you’ll go to school tomorrow. A fellow’s got to learn to read and write and calculate if he wants to get anywhere in this world. You don’t want to be selling newspapers forever do you?”

  Relief brought an emphatic shake of the head. “I’m going to college when I get a bit older,” Glad said and added proudly, “I can read pretty good already. Mama taught me and every day I read the newspaper from cover to cover.”

  Sage sat back in surprise. “How do you plan on paying for college?” he asked.

  Glad’s eyes brightened and he leaned forward, eagerness vibrating in his spare body. “I got me a bank account. Every week I put in a few cents. The rest I give to Ma. I don’t have nothing to do with playing craps or wasting money on the nickelodeons like the other newsboys. Anyway, next fall, I’ll have enough saved so’s I can buy a delivery route up there in the West Hills. Them rich folks like having the paper with their breakfast. It’ll be a steady bit of cash and I’ll have my route done before school. Then, starting at 4:30 in the afternoon, I’ll sell rush hour papers—that’s the best money,” he confided.

  “How long have you had this plan of yours?”

  “Oh, I started thinking on it awhile back,” Glad said, sitting back and crossing his arms across his chest. A worried look crossed his face and he leaned forward again to say, “‘Course, first off we got to find a better place to live. That dampness ain’t helpin’ Ma’s breathing none.

  “Where is it that you live?”

  There was a slight hesitation. Sage waited for the hasty lie only to realize that it was embarrassment holding Glad’s tongue because the boy flushed as he said, “We got us a one-room place down there in Sullivan’s Gulch.”

  Sage knew where he meant. Only the destitute and crazed lived in the shacks that squatted on the ravine’s bottom beside a spring-fed Tanner creek.

  “I’ve heard there’s fish in that creek. You ever fish it?” Sage asked, and was gratified to see the question ease the boy’s embarrassment.

  Glad nodded eagerly. “I surely do and I’ve caught some good ones. But my brother, Terrance, is even better at catching them.”

  Seeing that the boy was again on firm footing, Sage said, “Well, you best head home. I’m sure your ma’s worried.” Sage handed Glad the dollar coin and received the boy’s remaining papers in return.

  Pocketing the coin, Glad’s face turned solemn as he said, “I thank you kindly, Mr. Miner, for the sausage and the pickle and the sarsaparilla. And the dollar,” he added hastily. He stood, leaving his papers on the table. Sticking out his hand he said earnestly, “You ever need anything, anything at all, you can always find me down here late evenings ‘cause I stop here to Slap Jacks on my way to home.”

  Sage smiled, his mind fixing momentarily on the fictional Sherlock Holmes and his army of helpful street urchins the author called, “the Baker Street Irregulars.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Mr. Tobias. It’s been a pleasure,” he answered solemnly as he shook the boy’s hand.

  As Glad turned to go, Sage couldn’t resist cautioning him, “And, you take care going home.”

  “I will.” Glad gave his gap-toothed grin. “I surely will, especially tonight,” he repeated as he patted the pocket holding the coin.

  After the boy slipped out the saloon doors, Sage pulled his tin watch from his pocket. Almost eleven. Definitely too late for Meachum to turn up. The last freight train from the south would have pulled in an hour ago.

  Stepping out onto the boardwalk, he paused when an odd noise, about half a block away, caught his attention. The street was partially obscured by thinning fog so Sage stepped in that direction and squinted to see better. Sure enough, there was Glad; a stack of newspapers draped over one arm. He was run
ning toward a cab that had pulled to the curb.

  “The little imp,” Sage muttered, realizing Glad must have stashed some papers outside the saloon. As it was, he’d been taken in by that newsboy ploy, “Gee, Mister. These are my last papers to sell before I can go home to bed.” He smiled and felt a bit of admiration for the enterprising youngster.

  Sage watched two men dismount from the cab. The driver stayed on his rooftop perch, holding the horse in place. Suddenly, Glad gave a cry of alarm, dropped his papers, backed away and turned to flee.

  “Hey!” Sage shouted and began to run.

  His shout didn’t divert the men. One of them, the biggest fellow, snatched the boy, turned him upside down and shook him like a pepper shaker. Sage heard coins raining onto the boardwalk. The two attackers didn’t pause to pick them up. Instead, the second man opened the cab door and tossed Glad inside like a bag of laundry. Then both men jumped in after him and the cab rattled away at a fast trot.

  Outrage powered Sage’s legs. Over the thudding of his feet, he heard Glad shriek. Sage ran until his lungs started heaving. Still, the cab drew even further away. Finally, after three blocks, it turned a corner, leaving him so winded that he had to stop, hands on thighs, to catch his breath, stale beer forming a nasty bubble in his throat. Seconds later, he ran on but, rounding the corner he saw only an empty street. The cab’s red tail lantern had vanished.

  Defeated, Sage headed back to the scene of the attack despite knowing nothing there could explain what he’d just seen happen. A slight breeze began dispersing the fog and fluttering Glad’s dropped newspapers. He leaned against a darkened storefront and pondered the scattered copper pennies and the silver dollar in their midst. Rain began pattering the newspapers, a dismal accompaniment to the despair washing over him. If it wasn’t a robbery, what the hell was it?

  Two

  “Hey, Lazy Bones, we could use your help downstairs this mor—” The chiding cut off as she took in the unused bed and her son, sitting slumped in a chair, staring out the window.