“How much do you know about Beaumont’s business?” Jessie asked.
“I know he really owns this place and Dupree’s and a lot of other places in St. Louis,” Preacher replied. “Some of ’em are pretty shady, but some of them are real businesses.”
Jessie nodded. “That’s right. Does he let you in on his plans?”
“Nope,” Preacher said with a shake of his head. “He tells me to come with him when he goes somewhere, and I go. That’s it.”
Jessie clasped her hands together in front of her. “One of the businesses he owns is a cotton brokerage. A riverboat is supposed to dock tomorrow with a load of cotton from New Orleans that’s bound for Shad’s warehouse. But it’s not going to make it. River pirates are going to take it over, run it aground, and steal the cotton.”
Preacher had run into river pirates before. He knew how cunning and vicious they could be. “These here pirates . . . they’ll be workin’ for you?”
“Not at all,” Jessie said. “They work for Shad.”
Preacher frowned. “Wait a minute. He’s gonna steal his own cotton?”
“That’s right. The cargo is insured, you see. Shad’s men will deliver the cotton to one of his other warehouses here in St. Louis, so he’ll still have the shipment and can dispose of it discreetly, but he’ll collect the value of it from the insurance company, too.”
“That’s mighty tricky,” Preacher said. “Most robbers I’ve ever heard about just stick a gun in somebody’s face and tell ’em to stand and deliver.”
Cleve said, “That’s penny-ante stuff. Beaumont operates on a bigger scale than that. At the rate he’s going, he’ll soon be one of the richest men in the entire country, and most of it will have come from ill-gotten gains.”
“So you plan to stop this riverboat hijackin’?” Preacher asked.
“That’s right,” Jessie said. “Anything we can do to put a crimp in Shad’s plans . . . is really less than what he actually deserves.”
Preacher couldn’t argue with that. “What can I do to help?”
“You go with Beaumont every time he goes out?”
Preacher nodded. “That’s right.”
“But on a night like this, where he stays home . . . he didn’t have anything for you to do?”
“Nope.” Preacher didn’t want to think about the reason Beaumont had stayed home tonight. He could see her for himself, sitting right across the desk from him.
Knowing what she knew about Beaumont, how could Jessie act around him like she did? How could she—
Preacher shoved those thoughts out of his mind. The answers to those questions were none of his business.
“If he was going to be at home tomorrow, maybe he would send you with the men who are supposed to rob the boat,” Jessie mused as she leaned back in her chair. “I can arrange for him to be busy, and you could tell him that you want something else to do, something bigger than just guarding him.”
“You reckon that would work?”
“Shad admires ambition . . . as long as he doesn’t think anyone who works for him is getting
“And if I go with those so-called pirates . . . what then?” “We’re going to have men waiting for them,” Cleve said. “Having a man on the inside who could take them by surprise might make it easier to deal with them.”
“To bushwhack them, you mean,” Preacher said heavily.
“You can’t very well claim you have some sort of moral dilemma when it comes to killing Beaumont’s men,” the gambler shot back at him. “You’ve done plenty of that yourself.”
What Cleve said was true, of course, but there was a vital difference, Preacher thought. His previous battles against Beaumont’s agents had been fought out in the open. There hadn’t been any sneaking deception involved.
But wasn’t something like this exactly what he’d had in mind when he decided on this masquerade? he asked himself. He’d wanted to get on the inside of Beaumont’s organization so he could wreak havoc.
“I reckon what you’re sayin’ might work, Miss Jessie,” Preacher admitted grudgingly.
She smiled across the desk at him. “I hoped you’d see it that way.”
“The fellas who work on the riverboat . . . they don’t know anything about this?”
“Not a thing,” she said. “And it’s very likely that some of them will be killed when Shad’s men attack the boat. So if you help us ruin his plans, you may well be saving the lives of those boatmen.”
Preacher couldn’t argue with that conclusion. He gave a grim nod and said, “All right, I’ll go along with that plan. Beaumont may not, though.”
“I know,” Jessie said. “If he doesn’t, we’ll bide our time and wait for our next opportunity to make use of you. The one thing we can’t afford to do at this point is to make him suspicious of you.” Her lips curved in a smile. “You’re our secret weapon, Preacher.”
“Just don’t misfire,” Cleve added.
Preacher’s eyes narrowed as he got to his feet. “Ain’t likely,” he said.
“Where are you going?” Jessie asked.
