The San Diego Bonanza by Wesley Ellis

Author:Wesley Ellis
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2010-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The next morning, Ki knocked on Jessie’s door as usual at seven for their breakfast. She answered at once, and they went to the Gold Mine Cafe.

Jessie smiled at Ki. “You look anxious to tell me something. What did you find out about Clatter?”

“I trailed him most of the afternoon and evening. He spent the night at the widow Agatha Blaine’s house, and it wasn’t a social call. I figure that gives Clatter a strong motive to kill off the husband, so he can have the widow.”

“Clatter and the widow Blaine. That’s interesting. I was at her house the other morning just after she’d had a hard night in bed. Clatter must have been there. Would Clatter kill Lawson at the Ready Relief mine?”

“Why not? It would throw suspicion on Maxwell and not involve Clatter.”

Jessie nodded and worked on her breakfast. After a while she pointed her fork at Ki.

“I learned something else yesterday about Clatter. Vince told me that both Clatter and Maxwell have silent partners. Not generally known, but there are investors involved. Now, that means regular reports to the investors and sharing profits. Vince said in cases like these the operating partner has been known to skim money off the top like rich cream, before he figures the profit and loss statement. A man can get rich that way on a good mine, and the partners never know.

“If Lawson found out about the skimming, most likely at Maxwell’s mine, it would be big trouble for Maxwell. He’d have to buy off Lawson to keep him quiet—or kill him. So we have another good motive for killing Lawson.”

“It’s also another one that’s hard if not impossible to prove,” Ki said. “We can’t get in to look at the books. Anyway, any skimming would not show up on the books. It would take place in the smeltering shed before the gold bars were cast and stamped.”

“Yes, and Lawson would have had a good chance to find out about it, working in the smeltering operation for that long.”

They finished breakfast and went outside, into the high mountain sunshine. There was a nip in the October air, signaling the coming cold days. Julian sat a little over four thousand feet up the edge of the mountains.

“Let’s check the telegraph office,” Jessie said. “Something might be in for us from Wyoming.”

At the small telegraph office, the key operator sorted through half a dozen envelopes and picked out one for Jessie.

She ripped it open and read the note inside, handwritten on a yellow sheet. Most of the telegraph offices had the new typewriters but not this one in Julian. The message read:

JESSIE STARBUCK, GEN. DELIVERY, JULIAN, CALIFORNIA. YES, REMEMBER LAWSON. WORKED WITH HIM HERE. HE ASKED ABOUT A WANTED FOR TRAVIS YOUNG. SENDING IT TO YOU BY MAIL. WANTED HERE FOR BANK ROBBERY AND MURDER. DESCRIPTION: SIX FEET TALL, 190 POUNDS, BROWN HAIR, BROWN MUSTACHE, GREEN EYES, BULLET SCAR ON LEFT ARM, TATTOO “ROSE” ON RIGHT SHOULDER. REWARD $2,000. MAIL WILL TAKE ABOUT A WEEK.

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