Peacemaker

Cedar sighed, his breath stirring her hair.“Maybe. Yes, probably. It was going that way.”

“Oh. The paper said shewas married,” Kali said, careful to keep her tone neutral, notwanting to come across as accusing or judgmental, though somethinginside her broke a little. She wasn’t sure if it was because shehad thought Cedar a better man, someone who was too honorable toget involved with a married woman, or maybe because it hurt tothink of him loving someone else. Kali had thought…well, she’dthought she was special, that he appreciated her creativity andtinkering skills, and that was why he liked her. But, if he couldfall in love so easily, what did his affection reallymean?

“Yes,” Cedar finally said.“It was an arranged marriage, and he was older and barely paidattention to her. He just wanted an heir for his business empire,and…” He sighed again. “I don’t suppose having a bunch ofjustifications for something makes an ignoble choice a noble one.If, when I first met her, I’d just said she was married and walkedaway, she’d be alive today.”

“How…” Kali started.“How’d Cudgel arrange it?”

“There’d already been aseries of murders, all women, in town, so the police and the peoplewere on edge. I was busy tracking Cudgel and was barely aware ofthe killings. I was getting close to him, and I’d taken out two ofhis onerous henchmen just that morning. Cheryl’s husband was out oftown, so I went over to, uhm, visit, and… she was dead on the floorof their parlor, blood everywhere. It was…ugly. I later learnedshe’d been butchered in the same manner as the other murderedwomen. The husband returned home early. He walked in when I wasstanding over her, still in shock. Cudgel had arranged it all, senta message to let him know his wife was cheating on him. He wascharging home to catch us in the act, I reckon, and he was fixingto kill me. Well, I could have taken him, but I didn’t want to. I’dalready done enough wrong by him. I escaped with my life, thoughCudgel had some henchmen lying in wait, figuring to help thehusband out.” He touched the scar on his face. “That’s when I gotthis. I was too shaken to fight proper. I’m lucky I survived atall. After that, the husband contacted the Pinkertons, and word ishe’s financing everything.” Cedar let his head fall backward, andit thunked against the boulder. It sounded painful. Maybe he wantedit to be. “I wish I’d never gone to San Francisco and never beenthat stupid. But I can’t rewrite history, so now I just want to doright when I can. If I can protect these girls…” His shouldersdrooped. “It’s never going to be all right, but maybe it canbe…less wrong.”

Cedar fell silent. Kali didn’t know what tosay. He sounded like he needed…comfort. She knew how to be toughand sarcastic, but nurturing or comforting? Her tongue tangled atthe idea of even trying to say something along those lines. Womenwere supposed to be good at comforting people, but maybe she’d beenborn with some sort of deficiency.

“I suppose,” Kali said,“that you wouldn’t appreciate it if I told you the perfect thing toget your mind off of your problems would be planning to take overan airship.”

At least he chuckled, and his musclesloosened a little. “Come back to town with me tonight, and help mewith this murderer. We’ll talk to the Mounties right away-maybethey can get back out here and take care of these pirates beforedawn. I’ll remind them of favors they owe me when they’re decidingwhat to do with the airship. I doubt they’ll have a use for it, sogetting it for you shouldn’t be that tough, especially if it’sdamaged.”

Kali worried that the pirates would have theship fixed and be back in the air before the Mounties came, but shenodded and stepped back from Cedar. “Agreed.” As he said, it wouldbe selfish of her to choose her own interests over those of womenwho were being tortured and killed. She didn’t want to choose herinterests above Cedar’s either, not in this case. He needed thisredemption. “I don’t know all the Han girls in town, but I heardthere’s a show at the Aurora Saloon. Dancing girls, all tribal.” Hewasn’t going to like it when she admitted who had mentioned thatshow.

“Oh, I’d forgotten aboutthat,” Cedar said. “One of the Mounties mentioned it. Some fellowgot a bunch of unmarried girls from tribes from all around theYukon, and they travel about, going from town to town performing toentertain the menfolk.” He tilted his head. “I’m surprised you’dheard of it.”

“Your Pinkerton detectivetold me about it. Said he’s working at the Aurora Saloon and that Icould find him there in the evenings if I changed my mind abouttalking to him.”

“I see.” Cedar clenchedhis jaw. “We’ll do our best to avoid him.”

“Hm.” As Kali shoveledcoal into the SAB to fire its engine up anew, she asked, “Did theyever find out who was responsible for the other murders in SanFrancisco?”

“Not that I know of. Assoon as they indicted me, they stopped looking for the real killer.I had to flee town to avoid the firing squad, so I don’t know ifthe murders stopped after that or not.”

If the murdershadn’t stopped afterCedar left, that ought to show the law down there-and maybe thisAgent Lockhart-that Cedar wasn’t responsible for them. If Kalicould talk to the detective alone, maybe she could convince him todouble-check his facts.

Part VII

A breeze scuttled down Main Street, swattingat a newspaper page too mired in the mud to escape, though itrattled and whipped in a valiant effort to do so. Kali leanedagainst a support post on the covered boardwalk outside of the RCMPstation. A single whale-oil lantern burned on a desk inside, andthe voices of Cedar and a Mountie he had roused from sleep floatedthrough the open door. Cedar was relaying the pirates’ location, adescription of Sparwood, and trying to get a list of tribal womenliving in the city, something the Mounties apparently didn’t track.With so many new people flooding into Dawson each week, it must beimpossible to keep an eye on everybody.

Though midnight approached, raucous voicesand music filled the street. Candelabras and lanterns burned behindthe windows of many hotels, bit houses, and the popular Main StreetDancing Hall. Nearby, a man lay on his back, snoring, in the spotwhere he’d been thrown out for not being able to pay.

Kali leaned away from the post and peered upthe shadowy street. Electricity had not yet come to Dawson- indeed,electric lights were something she had only read about-and therewere no gas lamps at the intersections; but the northern sky wasnot entirely dark, and she could make out people stumbling out ofbit houses. She could also make out the Aurora Saloon sign, only afew buildings up the street.

Kali glanced back throughthe RCMP window, decided Cedar would be another fifteen minutes atleast, and left the post to stroll up the boardwalk. Giveneverything that was going on, wandering the streets alone at nightwas probably not a good idea, but she couldn’t very well go seeAgent Lockhart with the man he wanted to shoot at her side. It wasworth taking a risk if there was a chance she could convince him ofthe truth and get him off Cedar’s back. Besides, nobody was likelyto attack her, or try to kidnap her, in the middle of a crowdedsaloon. If someone did, she had two smoke nuts stuffed into her pocket, and an uglylittle pistol Cedar called a “man stopper” jammed into the front ofher overalls. He’d insisted she carry it around town. She wasn’tmuch for shooting people, but she could do it inself-defense.

“Sure, tell yourselfthings like that,” Kali muttered to herself. “Maybe it’ll make themtrue.”

Kali paused to adjust the cuff of heroveralls, making sure they hid the bulge in her sock-she still hadthe vial of flash gold tucked in there-then stepped over thesnoring man to push open the Aurora’s front door. She crinkled hernose at the stench of sweat and tobacco smoke, and she had to blinka few times to get her eyes used to the smoky haze that filled theair. One would never know how late it was, going by the amount ofactivity in the large main room.

Lively fiddle music bounced off of the darktimber walls. Stuffed elk, caribou, and moose heads were mountedeverywhere, and more than one set of antlers was being used for acoat rack. Men filled tables, most with chairs turned to watch awooden stage where bronze-skinned women danced in costumes thatwere about as close to traditional garb as root beer was to beer.The girls’ bellies showed as they wriggled about, flinging barefeet into the air. Men clapped and roared their appreciation witheach glimpse of flesh.

A sign propped up near the stage promisedthis was an “Authentic Injun Dance.” Kali snorted. The only timeshe’d seen people twist and gyrate that much had been when theywere flailing about on ice, trying to ward off an inevitablefall.

A drunken man staggering toward the doorwayspat at a copper spittoon. The black tobacco spittle missed Kali byinches and spattered onto the wall a good three feet above thereceptacle. It joined copious other stains darkening the pineboards.