The Sporting House Killing
A Gilded Age Legal Thriller
By
G. Reading Powell
Copyright © 2021, Gerald R. Powell
All rights reserved.
www.greadingpowell.squarespace.com
ISBN: 978-0-578-84642-2 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-578-84643-9 (ebook)
No part of this book may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, internet transmission, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law, or in the case of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews.
This book is dedicated to the trial lawyer, that stalwart defender of the rule of law.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Author’s Notes
Chapter 1
Jasper wasn’t so sure this was a good idea, but Cicero was already squeezing out the first-floor window.
“Let’s go,” Cicero said quiet-like after he hopped on down.
“Somebody’s fixing to catch us,” Jasper whispered out the window, then glanced back at the door. No light coming under the door from the hall.
“No, they’re not.” Cicero crossed his arms. “Everybody’s in bed. Now come on.”
Jasper heaved hisself up on the windowsill and listened. Still quiet. So he jumped out. Even with a crescent moon, it was dark as pitch. He waited for his eyes to get accustomed to the dark and followed Cicero up to the street corner.
This late on a Sunday night, Webster Street was deserted. On Fifth Street toward downtown, two lights bounced around, getting bigger and bigger—a hackney carriage with its sidelights burning.
Cicero stepped into the street. “Here comes one.”
Jasper glanced back at Maggie Houston Hall, where they’d lived since starting college last fall. Cicero always complained it didn’t have indoor plumbing like most newer buildings did. It’s 1894, he’d say, you’d think Baylor could do better, like Waco was in ancient Babylon or something. Truth was, their outhouse was downright fancy. It was painted and even had paper sheets instead of corn cobs.
Professor Charlton and his wife lived in the dorm, but they always went to bed early. Jasper checked their window one more time. Sure enough, the lights was still out.
The hack horse trotted up, and Cicero hailed the driver. “We need a ride, mister.”
“Aren’t you boys out kinda late?” the hack driver said. “I’m headed home.”
“No, sir. The matron told us it was just fine.”
Jasper looked at his shoes, his hands in his pockets. She’d said no such thing. What was he getting them into?
“Would you take just one more fare for the day?” Cicero asked.
“All right, get in.”
They settled in behind him.
“Where to?”
“Corner of Washington and First Street.”
The hack driver twisted around and eyed them both. “How old you boys?”
“Twenty-one,” Cicero said.
They ain’t twenty-one.
The driver shook his head and turned the carriage around, and the horse trotted back up Fifth Street for downtown. They rattled across the railroad tracks on Jackson, then Mary Street.
Jasper leaned close to Cicero. “I ain’t so sure we oughta do this.”
Cicero poked him in the arm. “You said you were thirsty.”
“I did, but I don’t know where we can get no sody water this late on a Sunday night.”
“We’re not drinking soda water, you numbskull. We’re drinking beer.”
He wiped his palms on the legs of his pants. They should just get on back. “Well, we can’t get no beer neither. You heard the preacher. All them saloons is closed today.”
Cicero looked at him like he was about to let loose some important secret. “I know where we can get some.”
“How you know that?”
“A senior told me.”
“Who?”
“Pat Neff.”
“I don’t believe it,” Jasper said, crossing his arms. “He don’t drink beer.”
Before long, the hack turned right on Washington Avenue and after several blocks passed a place with a beat-up ol’ sign: the Red Front Saloon. A crowd of fellas tarried out front. Whether Preacher Jones said so or not, this saloon sure was open. Jasper hoped they wasn’t going there. The hack kept on but slowed when the street went from gravel to dirt near the end of Washington, almost to the river.
The driver pulled over to the curb on the right. “That’s two bits.”
“Here, mister.” Cicero handed him a quarter.
“Watch yourselves, boys.”
“Yes, sir,” Cicero said.
The hack rolled off and turned right onto First Street.
Jasper swallowed hard. “Why’d he say that?”
“He’s just being sociable.”
There was just enough moon to make out a steam barge chugging down the Brazos River toward the suspension bridge. The only folks out on the streets was them fellas back at the Red Front. Another hack clattered over the gravel toward the bridge over the creek.
Cicero took off lickety-split across Washington, heading for a two-story red-brick building. The windows on the first floor all had curtains, but they was cinched back, and bright light was pouring out from inside. The upstairs windows was dark. A man and a lady hunched close on the curb across the alley to the left of the building. They was likely smoking, judging by the two small orange lights flickering around them.
Jasper rushed ahead to catch up. “We ain’t going inside, is we?”
“Of course we are.”
Cicero stopped at the door. Piano music blared out through the door but then stopped. Wasn’t nobody in sight through the front door window into the entrance hall.
“Why don’t it
