Kissing Comfort by Jo Goodman

Author:Jo Goodman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-07-24T22:00:00+00:00

Bode heard the first inklings of Comfort’s fate from one of the crew from the steamer Demeter Queen. Tapper Stewart reported back to him within an hour of being loosed on Pacific Street at nightfall. All of the men from the ship were prowling the alleys and streets that defined the Barbary Coast. With the assistance of the shipmaster, Bode sketched the Coast in detail and then divided the area into sections. Nathan Douglas made the assignments, giving each group of men a list of establishments they should most particularly enter.

No man who sailed for Black Crowne was unfamiliar with the deadfalls, melodeons, gambling palaces, and brothels that made up the Barbary Coast, but there wasn’t one among them who’d seen them all. Bode directed them to correct that oversight. He gave them money to purchase drinks but warned them they shouldn’t take more than a swallow, and even then they should keep their wits about them because in some of the deadfalls, the drink would blind them.

He asked to see their weapons and was shown a wide assortment of serrated blades, daggers, filleting knives, brass and iron knuckles, garrotes, and in one case, a small and supple leather bag of buckshot that, when held in a capable fist, worked every bit as well as the knuckles. This armament was what passed for calling cards in the Barbary Coast. Bode didn’t need to remind them to keep their weapons hidden but also to keep them close.

It was the rhythm of the Barbary Coast’s activity that forced Bode to hold back the men until dusk. A widespread foray into the saloons and cheap groggeries during the daylight hours would have attracted suspicion, especially since the Demeter Queen was known to be leaving the harbor in the morning. As difficult as it was to wait once their plans were in place, there also existed the hope that Newton and Tucker would be contacted for the payment of ransom. It was what the police wanted them to believe. It made their slow advance on the Coast seem more prudent than cowardly. By nightfall, there was no police presence left. Bode understood their reluctance to remain anywhere on Pacific Street between Montgomery and Stockton. Even traveling in pairs, the police were targets. His men were not; they were marks.

Bode encouraged the crew to make a thorough sweep of each establishment they entered, but at the same time, not appear to linger. He instructed them on what to look for and how they might be able to identify the Rangers from the rest of the riffraff. He described what the Rangers had been wearing at the time of the attack, and because they feared no one in the Coast, the probability was high that they were still wearing the same black hats and jackets. Bode explained that the Rangers would organize themselves into some kind of hierarchy wherever they were gathered. A leader would always emerge in any group, and if Bode’s men were fortunate, they’d see this shift of power happen in front of them.

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