Violet Vanquishes a Villain Page 8

  Alec licked his lips and then nodded, not looking Nate in the eye. Annie could smell the fear mingled with alcohol rolling off of him in waves…and her heart sank.

  The boy’s in no shape to do this.

  She was just thinking that maybe they could figure out how to delay the meeting when Violet appeared behind Alec and put her hands on his shoulder.

  She said fiercely, “There is no way that I will let him do this. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good plan. But I will be the one who shows up at that meeting…pretending to have the money. And it will be me who gets that terrible man to incriminate himself and put an end to this nightmare.”

  Chapter 7

  Friday early evening, August 13, 1880

  San Jose

  Hours later, Annie, Nate, and Violet were on the way to San Jose and the meeting with Bickers. As Annie sat next to Violet, she could hear the rapidness of the young woman’s breathing.

  Oh, please don’t let this do anything to hurt the baby.

  She would never forgive herself if this whole escapade had any negative effects on her sister-in-law or her unborn child. Only the reassurance by Nate’s mother that Violet would be all right had kept her from refusing to support the plan. When Violet made her startling proposal, Annie could see that Nate was against it, muttering that Billy would have a conniption. However, since he’d already bragged about his own wife doing something similar, he really couldn’t object.

  Alec, on the other hand, melodramatically swore he was perfectly capable of doing what was necessary to ‘bring the cad to justice’ and that he’d never be able to live with himself if he ‘hid behind his sister’s skirts.’

  Unfortunately, the fact that he knocked over his coffee as he rose to make this speech seriously undercut its effectiveness. Violet simply ignored him. Instead, she began to ask Nate a series of questions about the plan to trap Bickers into confessing.

  Nate had just turned to Annie, no doubt hoping she’d intervene and squash the whole mad idea, when his mother spoke up. Having entered the kitchen without anyone noticing, she went up and put her arm around Violet and said that Violet was a lot stronger than anyone gave her credit for and it was up to her to decide what she wanted to do on behalf of her brother.

  And that was that––although Annie’s suggestion that she chaperone Violet in her meeting with Bickers seemed to please everyone, even Violet.

  The rest of the afternoon was filled with fleshing out the details to the plan and then Nate driving back into town to get the approval of Eagan, Haskins, and Tom Campion for the substitution of Violet for Alec. Haskins and Eagan in particular were quite upset by the idea of ‘dear sweet Violet Dawson’ being involved in any fashion. Nate had to do a fair amount of persuading. This meant that by the time he made it back to the ranch, it was time to turn around and drive Annie and Violet to the bank.

  So now he was once again urging the team to pick up their pace, while Annie sat with Violet behind him in the carriage, casting around for some topic of conversation that might help distract her sister-in-law from the coming meeting.

  Inspired, she said, “Violet, I do envy you for your close relationship with Abigail. From what a number of Madam Sibyl’s clients have confided to me, it’s seems that living with one’s mother-in-law can be difficult. But the two of you get along so well.”

  The mention of Madam Sibyl prompted a sharp look from Violet, which was rather what Annie expected. At least she had her attention. She continued, saying, “I hope that someday I will have earned the confidence she has in you.”

  “Mother Dawson’s approval means a good deal to me,” Violet replied, giving Annie a brief satisfied smile.

  Pleased to see her gambit was working, Annie said, “I am certainly impressed at how calm you are. I confess, my knees were knocking the day I went to confront that poison pen writer.”

  Violet raised her chin a bit. “Well, it’s a woman’s responsibility to look out for and protect members of her family. I am just doing my duty.”

  Annie decided to ignore the negative personal implications of that statement and said, “Has Alec often needed your protection before?”

  Violet looked out towards the mountains. “The first time was when he was three. He’d escaped from his nanny, a feckless girl. He climbed up on a chair to reach some prisms on a lamp on the dining room sideboard, and the lamp crashed to the floor.” She proudly went on to tell Annie how she’d arrived in the room at the same time as the nanny and taken command of the situation, directing the servant to take Alec up to the nursery to get him cleaned up, while she’d gone to her mother’s upstairs sitting room to confess that she’d broken the lamp.

  “I was eight, so I knew it was my responsibility to protect him. Mother had…has a temper, and naturally she was upset because the lamp was one of a pair, so she would need to replace both.”

  “Did she punish you?”

  “She didn’t let me go that weekend to visit my grandmama.” Violet’s voice quavered a bit. “I loved my grandmother…and she died soon after…before I got to see her again. But I learned something important about myself that day. I could stand anything if it made life easier for my little brother.”

  “But I thought from what you’d said earlier this week that Alec is very close to your mother?”

  Violet shrugged slightly. “Well, he did learn pretty quickly how to please her. They have so much in common, you see. He’s much more at ease socially than I am. He loved going on calls with her and performing his little recitations when people visited our house. Also, they have always shared a common interest in such things as the newest designs in home decorations and fashion. I am afraid I was always a disappointment to Mother in those areas.”

  “But your brother still needed you to help make his life easier? Was he bullied by other children?” Annie could imagine that a young boy who enjoyed reciting poems and discussing the latest Paris fashions with his mother might very well be the object of ridicule to other boys.

  “Oh, no. Alec has always been very well liked. Always had loads of friends. And of course my father was very proud of him, his only son. Bragged all the time about how smart he was, how good at sports. All a father could wish for in a child.”

  Annie’s heart contracted, hearing in Violet’s words the hurt feelings of a daughter who’d probably not counted at all in her father’s eyes. I was so fortunate that Father treated me with respect, made me his companion. But what if I’d had a brother? Would all that love and attention have been showered on him instead of me? Annie sighed, knowing she had her own wounds regarding her father that were just beginning to heal.

  Noting the past tense in Violet’s statement about her father’s opinion of his son, Annie said, “I gather from something Billy said that Alec’s lack of interest in the cannery caused problems between him and his father.”

  Violet glanced quickly at Annie then said, “Yes. When Alec turned twelve, Father thought he should start to learn the business by coming with him to the cannery on Saturdays. This was really part of an old fight between my parents about who would have the most influence over Alec. I am afraid Alec rather enjoyed the attention from both of them, and he may have become a bit spoiled.”

  “Did Alec resist going into work with your father?”

  “He outright refused. Said the cannery was dirty and boring and he would prefer to go with Mother on her shopping trips to San Francisco. Father wasn’t pleased.”

  Annie knew that for men like Kemper, “not pleased” usually meant the strap.

  Confirming her suspicion, Violet continued, saying, “There were the most tremendous rows. Mother would cry and retire to her bedroom when Father threatened to use his belt on Alec.”

  “And what did you do?”

  Here Annie was surprised to see genuine amusement in Violet’s eyes as she described how she figured out that if she did something to annoy her father, she was often able to deflect his anger away from Alec.

  “I would knock o
ver something, or ask him some inane question, or pester him for some trinket. He’d explode at me and Alec would slip away. By the time Father finished berating me, he’d be so in charity with Alec for not being a clumsy fool like his sister that his reason for his initial anger would be forgotten. And of course, because I was a girl, all he did was yell at me.”

  Annie’s admiration for Violet’s intelligence increased…although she wondered if the young woman’s constant interventions weren’t in part responsible for her younger brother’s lack of maturity. He’d not learned to stand up for himself. Curious about what happened when Violet moved away from home, she said, “I assume by the time you married and moved to the ranch, Alec had learned to take care of himself?”

  “Oh yes. Alec is really quite resourceful. He was the one who came up with the idea of working summers for Uncle Samuel, my father’s brother, instead of working for the cannery. My uncle was delighted to hire Alec as a carpenter’s apprentice if it meant annoying his older brother. I remember the look on Father’s face when Alec told him was just following his instructions—learning how to be a man and put in a good day’s work.”

  “Ah, hard for your father to argue with that.”

  “Yes, he’d always bragged about starting out as a manual laborer. I also think that was the day I spilled ink on Father’s account books,” Violet said.

  Annie stifled a laugh, imagining the scene and Violet’s quiet satisfaction at having spared her brother one more time from the rod. “I suppose your father couldn’t really complain when Alec later decided to work as a bank clerk.”

  “No, not when all his business friends praised him for raising a son who was willing to stand on his own two feet. Father made the best of it. I think he has just decided to be patient, figuring that eventually Alec would get tired of the low pay a bank clerk gets. But that was why Alec kept his plans for going to university a secret. Once he was in San Francisco, paying his own way…there really wouldn’t be anything Father could do. Meanwhile, he’s just tried to stay out of Father’s way. He’s never been good at direct confrontation.”

  And there’s the rub. He’s never really had to, not as long as his older sister’s been there to step in.

  Before she could say anything, Nate looked over his shoulder at them and said, “I’m going to pull in here and drop you off. Probably best that Bickers not see me with the two of you.”

  They were two blocks away from the bank, and it was just past six. Alec said that Bickers had told him to come at that time, three hours after the bank closed, to ensure Eagan would have gone home for the day. The first hurdle was to get Bickers to open up for them when they knocked on the front door and he saw they weren’t Alec. The second was for them to make enough noise to cover Haskell and Eagan going in the back way and nipping into the storeroom. Then, of course, there was how to get Bickers to confess to his part in the stock swindle, the crooked roulette wheel, and most importantly, the theft of the money.

  As Annie and Violet approached the bank, Annie saw that the shades on the two front windows were pulled down. The door had a neat “Closed” notice pinned to it, as well as a placard listing the bank’s operating hours. Violet knocked loudly on the sturdy wooden front door, then reached back and grabbed Annie’s hand. It was the first overt sign of nervousness she’d displayed.

  Annie whispered her encouragement, although after the conversation she’d just had with Violet, she was confident that if anyone could manipulate Bickers into confessing, it was her sister-in-law. She saw a movement of one of the shades and a brief glimpse of a face…she assumed it was Bickers. She used the end of her parasol to knock even more loudly. It was important that he at least hear Violet out. They heard some bolts being shot, and the door opened up a crack.

  “Mrs. Dawson, I am sorry, but as you can see, the bank is closed; you and your friend need to come back tomorrow.”

  “Mr. Bickers.” Violet stepped forward, getting her foot in the door. “You are the one who asked for this meeting. I am here on behalf of my brother. I can assure you…you need to let me in. Unless you would like to conduct your business on the street?”

  Bickers opened the door wider and looked sharply at the black cloth purse Violet was holding up to her chest. They had stuffed the purse with cut up pages from a Lady Gody’s Magazine to masquerade as stacks of bills worth two thousand dollars. Alec said that Bickers had explained that over the next two weeks, he would exchange these bills for the exact denominations and coins that were registered in the ledger so no one would know they’d ever been missing. But this would take time, which was one of the reasons he’d insisted that Alec had to get the money to him today.

  Bickers opened the door wider and leaned towards Violet, causing her to clutch the purse more tightly. He said, “Why am I not surprised that Alec decided to send his sister? And who is this lady? And what does she have to do with this business?”

  Annie had to clench her teeth not to tell this pitiful excuse for a man what she thought of him. From his ostentatious cravat with its diamond stick pin to the sneer on his face, he reminded her of a man named Hiram Driscoll who’d once tried to trick her into giving him the O’Farrell Street boarding house. She’d bested Driscoll and was determined that they must best Bickers, one way or the other, to keep him from ruining Alec’s life.

  Violet replied calmly, “She is my sister-in-law, Mr. Bickers. I thought you would appreciate that I would have reservations about meeting a man like you without a proper chaperone.”

  “Well, you will appreciate that I have just as strong reservations about conducting my business in front of some stranger. So, Mrs. Dawson, you have a choice. Come into the bank alone…or go back home and tell your brother that I had no recourse but to inform my uncle of how sadly he’s misjudged the honesty and integrity of his assistant cashier.”

  Violet turned to Annie and said in a steely voice, “I will meet you at the carriage in a few minutes when this transaction is completed.”

  Then she disappeared into the bank, and Annie found herself staring foolishly at the door with its closed sign, wondering whatever she should do now.

  Finding herself alone with Bickers, Violet took a deep breath and welcomed the feeling of icy calm that had filled her ever since she’d volunteered this afternoon to stand once more between her beloved younger brother and the consequences of his actions. She’d meant it when she told Annie that she saw this as her womanly duty…not some career. Mother Dawson understood. She’d do the same if either of her sons were in danger.

  As Violet moved into the front room of the bank, Bickers brushed past her to close the door, and she heard him slide the bolts closed, locking Annie out.

  It’s probably better that he didn’t let Annie come with me. Such a forceful woman…she would have put him on his guard. But me? No man takes a woman like me seriously.

  Violet looked around. Like most banks she’d been in, the front room of San Jose National Bank was divided from the rest of the bank by a wall. On the left were the two square barred openings that were the cashier windows for transacting business. To the right of the cashier windows was a door that Alec said led to a hallway that went to the back of the building where there was a locked exit onto the alleyway.

  He’d explained that off this hallway, on the left, was first the door to the cashiers’ room and then a second door leading to a storeroom at the back of the building. Off to the right were the doors to Eagan’s large office and a tiny bathroom. The cashiers’ room had a locked steel door that lead to the vault room, which contained the safety deposit boxes and the large walk-in safe. The plan was for Violet to get Bickers to take her into the vault room, so that Eagan and Haskell, who would be hiding in the store room behind it, could overhear what he said.

  This evening, with the window shades pulled and the gas chandeliers turned off, the front room was like a dark cave. What little light there was came from the cashier’s room, which still had the gas chandeliers turned on. As planned, she
walked towards the doorway to the hallway, saying, “Mr. Bickers, since you insist on meeting me alone, let’s retire to the back room where there is no chance of anyone seeing us from the street.”

  Relieved, she found when she got to the hallway door that the handle turned and she was able to walk right through before Bickers could stop her. She thought she heard a door close towards the back of the hallway, so she said loudly as she went on into the lighted cashier’s room, “This will do nicely, Mr. Bickers.”

  She prayed that the noise she’d heard was Eagan and Haskell sneaking into the storeroom.

  “Mrs. Dawson, this isn’t a social occasion,” Bicker snapped, following her into the cashiers’ room. “If you hand over the money your brother owes me, you can be on your way and preserve your precious reputation.”

  Bickers eyed the purse she held with suspicion and reached out again to take it, saying, “Where did the funds come from? Did your husband come through? I wouldn’t have suspected he had enough saved. I thought your brother was going to have to go to your father. You do have the whole two thousand, don’t you?”

  Violet let her one hand flutter up to touch her face as she stepped back and said plaintively, “It’s my dowry money that Father put into savings for me. Alec said that before I give it to you, I must insist on seeing the box where the tax money is kept.”

  “That won’t be necessary. I can assure you I will put it where it needs to go; please hand it over.”

  Violet tucked the purse under her arm and stuck up her chin in a stubborn pose she’d seen her mother use numerous times with her father. “No, I won’t. Alec said it needs to go into the box and then into the safe. I promised to see with my own eyes where you put it.”

  And you are supposed to think that my brother and I are so simple-minded that it wouldn’t occur to us that once I leave this bank, you can do whatever you want with the money I have handed over.