Storing Up Trouble, стр. 77
“Beatrix,” Mamie exclaimed. “Thank goodness. We were just on our way back to the house, but time is short and perhaps you can help us.”
Beatrix frowned. “Help you with what?”
Blanche swiped a hand over a forehead that was drenched in perspiration. “Colette’s been arrested.”
Of all the women who lived under Aunt Gladys’s roof, Colette Balley, a shy and retiring woman who’d come to live with Gladys after experiencing a troubling incident with a manager at the slaughterhouse where she’d been working, was the last woman Beatrix would have expected to get arrested.
“What happened?” she demanded.
Mamie shook her head. “Colette, if you’ll recall, missed our dinner last week, having gone to assist her sister with a sick child. She’s not returned since, which is why Blanche and I decided to check on her today. When we arrived at Colette’s sister’s house, we were informed by Colette’s brother-in-law, an unpleasant man who drinks too much, that Colette and his wife had been arrested, and they’re still in jail because he refused to pay their bail.”
Beatrix frowned. “But why were they arrested, and why, pray tell, wouldn’t Colette’s brother-in-law post bail?”
Blanche blew out a breath. “Colette’s brother-in-law was stingy with details, but from what I could gather, their arrest was apparently a result of a protest at the slaughterhouse where Colette used to work and where her sister still does. As for why he wouldn’t post bail, I have to imagine he’s one of those men who doesn’t support women protesting anything and has decided his wife can rot in jail for all he cares.”
“Do you know what jail Colette’s in?”
“She’s been taken to the House of Correction located on the far southwest side of the city.”
Beatrix nodded to Blanche. “I’ll go there immediately, but you should go and fetch Aunt Gladys because I might need help.” She nodded to Mamie. “You’ll come with me?”
Mamie returned the nod. “Don’t know what we’ll be able to do, unless you have money for bail.”
“I have money” was all Beatrix said to that, and after watching Blanche head off for the train, she and Mamie hurried to a line of hansom cabs for rent, climbing into the first one she reached and telling the driver to take them to the House of Correction.
The ride through the streets of Chicago was done mostly in silence, Beatrix taking the time to gather her thoughts and brace herself for dealing with men of authority, who were often quick to dismiss any concerns voiced by women, something she’d experienced during the two times she’d been arrested.
Luckily for her, though, she had a father who hadn’t hesitated to bail her out of jail, but she could only imagine how helpless the women currently behind bars were feeling, what with their lack of access to funds that would secure their freedom and marriage to men who didn’t approve of their actions and were refusing to pay the bondsman what Beatrix knew, from prior experience, were minimal fines.
Climbing from the cab once they reached the House of Correction, Beatrix wasn’t surprised when the driver refused to wait until she was finished inside, even though she’d offered him a substantial amount if he’d agree to wait.
“What’s wrong with men these days?” Mamie muttered, shaking her head as the hansom cab trundled away. “First we learn that Colette’s brother-in-law didn’t bother to get his wife and Colette out of jail, then that driver leaves the two of us here in a most dangerous part of town, and that was after I fluttered my lashes at him and . . .” Mamie stopped talking, her eyes widened, and then she was smiling broadly and batting her lashes like mad right as Agent Cochran, the Pinkerton man Norman felt was best suited to watch over Beatrix, jumped out of a hansom cab and began striding their way.
“Care to explain what you’re doing here, Miss Waterbury? Or why you didn’t bother to wait for me or another Pinkerton to accompany you here? Or better yet, why you left Marshall Field & Company early?” Agent Cochran demanded. “I’m fortunate I caught sight of you leaving the store, although I have no understanding why you abruptly left the train station and came here, a circumstance that had me scrambling to catch up with you.”
Beatrix winced. “Would you believe I completely forgot I was supposed to apprise you of any changes to my schedule, that forgetfulness brought on, no doubt, by my unexpected dismissal from my position earlier?”
Agent Cochran blinked. “You were dismissed?”
“It appears Marshall Field & Company has a policy regarding their employees shooting anyone.”
Agent Cochran narrowed his eyes. “That’s ridiculous. You only shot that man because he was threatening you.” He cracked his knuckles. “Want me to have a talk with whoever dismissed you?”
As Beatrix shook her head, Mamie batted her lashes at a furious rate. “What a delightful man you are, Agent Cochran, and here I was just complaining about men and their lack of chivalrous behavior, but then you show up and . . . well . . .” Mamie smiled and took hold of Agent Cochran’s arm, earning a rather surprised look from him in return, although he didn’t shrug from Mamie’s hold. “I hope you’ll accompany us into the jail because we may very well need your assistance getting Colette released.” She shook her head. “Poor Colette is a most anxious type, preferring to spend her time knitting and talking to Gladys’s cats. I can’t imagine the terror she must be feeling over finding herself locked away in jail.”
Agent Cochran tilted his head. “How did a knitting cat lover manage to get arrested in the first place?”
Beatrix shrugged. “There was limited information available as to how it happened, but I’m hoping we’ll be better informed soon.”
Moving into a large waiting area, Beatrix paused as she looked around, setting her sights on an officer who was stationed behind a desk that had a long line in front