Cold Steel and Hot Lead [How the West Was Done 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) by Karen Mercury Read Free Book Online

people. These fellows had nothing to do with Kittie’s disappearance! They want to know just as you want to know who stole our dear Kittie Wells from us.”
    Bob’s friend shouted, “That guy is another magician, one of those circus charlatans!”
    Alameda tried to say, “Rudy isn’t with the circus. He lives here in—”
    But Rudy himself stepped forward to confront the accusers. The whole dining room was quiet now, with only the occasional clank of a fork. Rudy spoke in a clear, loud showman’s voice. “People of Laramie, of which I am now one. I am Remington Rudy, not connected with this circus currently stuck in your beautiful town. But I have experience with the romantic world of the big top, and knowledge of some of their tricks and illusions. I can tell you that Montreal Jed, the illusionist in question, who was performing when Memphis Kittie—”
    “Kittie Wells, you bastard!”
    “—when Kittie Wells vanished and didn’t return. Montreal Jed knew nothing of it and was as surprised as we were, which I’m sure you could tell from his reaction. Now, we have a few leads to follow. We are looking just as hard as you are for the kidnapper responsible. I am assisted in this quest by Mr. Derrick Spiro, senator for Wyoming Territory—”
    “Another mountebank!” bellowed Bob Freund.
    Rudy spoke even louder to drown out Bob. “ Senator Derrick Spiro, who is on his way to Cheyenne in support of a measure he wrote proposing giving the vote to women!”
    This had the desired effect, as many women’s faces lit up, and a low buzz filled the room as they remarked upon this favorably.
    Bob seemed to be aware he was losing righteous ground. He looked around lamely then stammered, “Well, why should we trust a magician and a politician who don’t even know Kittie?”
    Rudy opened his mouth to answer, but Derrick stepped up. He spoke in the rich oratory tone of a politician or perhaps actor. “Sometimes outsiders can look at things most clearly. So if you patient residents would be so kind, we would like to go right now and follow some of these leads. Oh, and please refrain from lynching Mr. Montreal Jed. He is quite ill and completely incapable of perpetrating such a heinous crime as this. We will find Miss Kittie! ”
    Most of the women applauded, perhaps just as much for Senator Spiro’s good looks as his introduction of the women’s bill. One woman’s voice rose above the applause, crying, “Independence is happiness!”
    Alameda knew this to be a battle cry of the women’s suffrage movement. She had heard her sister Liberty utter this slogan before. Soon other women took up the chant. Alameda mouthed it under her breath, unsure of the effect this might have on the crowd, as the majority of them were still irate, roostered men.
    Bob Freund looked quite crushed to have had his mission derailed. He shouted, “Why don’t you just tell me what your leads are? I am Kittie’s fiancé, and I deserve to know if you know something I don’t!”
    Smoothly, Derrick said, “Because we’re not entirely sure of them yet either. Now, if you’d let us follow these leads, perhaps we will have something to tell you tonight.”
    “Can you accompany us?” Rudy whispered in Alameda’s ear. “Will your boss allow you to leave?”
    “Yes.” Her boss was also her sister’s paramour, Captain Harland Park, the city’s main engineer. But Alameda also had another plan.
    Once out front on the sidewalk, safely away from the bellowing buffoons that seemed to make up Bob Freund’s crowd, they headed toward the Union Pacific Hotel just a few doors down.
    Alameda told the men, “Why don’t you stay at my sister’s house while we’re trying to find Kittie? Senator Spiro, surely the hotel is full with stranded passengers from the train, and my sister’s house is empty. She and her husband are in South Pass, actually, where they own a mine.”
    “Indeed?” said Derrick. “Which mine?”
    “The Carissa Lode.”
    This