VI.

     It was known as the trial of the decade to those in San Francisco. Two reporters and a little known attorney were taking on the district attorney, the mayor and his police chief on charges of corruption, conspiracy, and murder. San Francisco's newspapers crawled all over themselves to get quotations from everyone involved. Both Dan and Katie found it necessary to move out of their rooms to find a refuge from their own colleagues. Dan stayed with his editor while Kate brought the rest of her belongings to the Seamus O'Flynn.

     The trial that might have lasted forever was completed in three days. The evidence that Kate and Dan provided allowed James Jordan to build a solid case against the defendants. Jordan primed the jury carefully with his accusations and the testimony of the remaining eyewitness, and then he brought Kate in to lower the boom. With her detailed account and the evidence the territorial marshal collected; the body, the weapon, the shovels and an unexpected piece of luck, a note in the police chief's handwriting ordering Officers Johnson, Murphy and Collins to "dispose" of Lin Chiang-tu the defendant's fate was all but sealed.

     The jury deliberated all of two hours. When they returned to court, the verdict they brought was both exhilarating and disappointing to the prosecution. The jury found the three officers, the district attorney and the police chief guilty on all charges. However, Jordan had failed to convince them that the mayor had anything to do with any of the crimes so he was acquitted. It was a good thing that Clancey and Jason sat behind Kate and Dan when the decisions were reached. They each put a hand on the shoulders of the reporters to hold them in their seats. The other news that stunned them was that those convicted would serve six-year jail terms.

     "Six years!" Kate stormed once they emerged from the courthouse that evening. "How can they do that? Six years for murder?"

     "Calm down, lassie. You're going to bust a gusset!" Clancey tried to console her.

     "After all we've been through. All that evidence we discovered. I don't understand."

     James Jordan sighed, "It wasn't fair but, seeing as how the accused were so influential and the victims were Chinese, my advice is to take comfort in our success, as unsatisfying as it is."

     "But it's so unfair. If they had assassinated whites..." Kate protested.

     "Those men would never see the light of day." Jordan finished for her.

     "In six years, probably less, this business will start all over again," she clenched her fist.

     "That's why you and Mr. Sullivan should take a long trip somewhere in the near future and head out as far away as possible. You've shaken up our distinguished mayor and he will not be anxious to share this town with you for much longer."

     Jason and Clancey shared a hopeful look. They were heading home the next morning and wanted to bring these two young people with them.

     Dan stretched, "It's all over for now Kate. I say we're lucky that the jury had the guts to convict the men they did. There will be other opportunities to catch the mayor I'm sure. I'm starving."

     "So am I." Jason agreed. "Mr. Jordan, lead us to your favorite restaurant. Clancey and I are buying dinner to celebrate your victory."

      The five new friends strolled down the avenue together in silence. Each of them was too lost in thought to desire idle conversation. Jason and Clancey did their best to keep things lively but it wasn't until they were all seated at a table inside the French restaurant that Dan opened up a conversation.

     "You know, Kate's right. In six years or less these crooks will be back at work in this city. I don't want to see them running business as usual."

     "When they are released," Jordan said, "San Francisco will remember what happened today. I don't expect things will ever be as easy for them or the mayor as it has been before you two got to them. Don't worry, the marshal and I will be breathing down their necks."

     "I want them to know that I'll be watching them too." Dan said quietly. "I've never been one to run away from a fight and I'm not going to start now."

      Jordan sighed, "Mr. Sullivan, your presence in this town is like a match set to a stick of dynamite. Once your version of the trial appears in tomorrow's paper, both you and Miss Macready will become celebrities in the eyes of the public. You'll also be fair game for anyone who sides with the police chief and the district attorney."

     "What better way to draw the scum out into the open," Dan challenged.

     "There may not be a better way, but there is a safer way. This corruption runs so deep that San Francisco couldn't survive the explosion you would create if all the racketeers were brought to trial. Let the marshal, the governor and I handle things slowly, one case at a time, behind the scenes and not on the front page."

     Dan sat back in his chair to think things over. Kate watched him carefully although she pretended to be studying the menu. She had grown to understand the young man sitting beside her in the past three months. She could guess what was going through his mind at that moment, and she wasn't sure how she felt about it.

     By the time the waitress came to take their orders the conversation had drifted to less serious topics. Mr. Jordan called upon Jason to discuss life in the northwest, which he did gladly. He knew Kate was about to decide what she would do with her life and he wanted to paint a picture of Seattle, which would cause her to leave with them in the morning.

     The lumberman described Seattle to them in as much detail as he could. He spoke of his brothers, the brides, Lottie, Aaron Stempel, the merchants, the loggers, and the dream of the future of Seattle they all shared. The dream had belonged to Jason's parents and Kate's too. Up until that moment, Katie had forgotten those nights in the tiny Macready cabin when she would lay awake in her small cot and listen to her father and Jonathan Bolt spin their visions of the Seattle they and their children would help to build someday. The memory had an unexplainable power over her. It was as though something had been sleeping inside her soul and was now stirring about within her. She said very little throughout dinner except to answer Jason's intermittent questions. "Cricket, do you remember...?" She did remember, all of it, and yet Dan's words reflected her own desire to stay and see this story through to the end, if there could ever be an end.

     When dinner was over, Kate waited outside the restaurant with Jason and Clancey. Dan and Mr. Jordan had been caught in a conversation with some acquaintances on their way out.

     Clancey stepped up to the quiet girl. "We sail in the morning, lass. Will you be coming north with us?"

     Kate looked out over the street; "Dan won't leave San Francisco no matter how dangerous it is."

     Jason smiled and asked softly, "Are you in love with him, Cricket?"

     "Love?" The question surprised her. "I..Me? No, we're just partners, I've never thought that...Love?"

     Jason saw how flustered she was and changed the direction of his conversation. "We want you to come home with us, Cricket. And if Joshua and Jeremy were here, I know they would want the same thing. Dan Sullivan is a fine man, but he won't be able to protect you from the kind of danger Jordan is talking about."

     Kate smiled, "During the lunch break today I telegraphed my editor at the Tribune. I was only given permission to come out west to work on this one story, then its back to Chicago. I asked him if he thought our readers would be interested in a story about the New Bedford brides and their new lives in Seattle."

     Jason beamed with delight. "What did he say?

     "I should get an answer some time today or tomorrow morning at the latest."

     "A story about the brides?" Clancey chuckled, "Won't they get a thrill out of that?"

     Dan and Mr. Jordan joined them and they all said their good-byes for the evening. Dan turned to Jason and Clancey and asked them something, which Kate couldn't hear. They nodded said goodnight to Kate and headed off to enjoy their last night in San Francisco.

     "Where are they off to?" The surprised girl asked.

     "I asked them if I could talk to you alone. How would you like a cab ride home? Seems to me we deserve to ride around town in style after what we've been through."

     "Sure," Kate agreed. Dan hailed down the handsome cab and the two young people slid in across the deep red upholstered seats.

     "It's over," he sighed. "I'll give our copy to my editor tonight right after I see you to the ship. The paper comes out in the morning, and like Jordan said, we're celebrities."

     "So whose name goes on top of the byline?" Kate prodded.

     "Yours I suppose."

     "Your darn right, mine," she insisted. "It will be the first time I see my name on any of my work for a paper. I'm going to have it framed."

     Dan was silent for a moment and then said, "Seattle sounds like a wonderful place, and your Jason Bolt seems to be a man with a lot of integrity."

     "It is and he is," she nodded. "What are you getting at?"

     "Kate, your friends have invited me to come to Seattle and start a paper for them."

     "What did you say?" she asked, anxious to hear his plans.

     Dan turned toward her; "I'm staying right here for now. There's so much left to do. There may be a few attempts on my life, but I know how to handle myself. I have friends here. It's my town and I know I'll be all right. Now what have you decided?"

     "I don't really have a choice. I want to work with you here but my job is in Chicago..."

     Dan cut her off. "Don't go back to Chicago, Kate. Go with Bolt and the Captain to Seattle for a while. You start that paper for them. You can do it. Then, this time next year, when things die down a little, I'll come up for you and we can both work together again here." His voice became tenderer than Kate had ever heard it before. "We're a great team, Macready."

     Kate's heart beat faster. What was happening here? Kate had never been confronted with affectionate feelings from someone of the opposite sex. Was Dan Sullivan in love with her? Somebody stop the cab and let her out!

     "Dan, I...What if I have to go back to Chicago? Would you come for me all the way out there?" She tried to joke away this awkward moment.

     Dan threw up his hands in mock despair. "Chicago? All the way to Chicago?" He gave her a quick glance. "Would you pay my train fare?"

     Kate laughed merrily. "Only if you promised to make your visit worth my while."

     The reporter took her hand and held it gently. "Believe me, Miss Macready, I would indeed."

     Kate shivered from her toes to the freckles on the bridge of her nose but only said softly, "I'll write to you, Dan Sullivan, where ever I am."

     "And I'll answer faithfully, as a good reporter should." The cab rolled to a stop before the Seamus.

     Kate stepped out of the cab. "I will probably leave for Seattle in the morning whether I need to return to Chicago or not. I'm just too close to Bridal Veil not to stop and at least visit everyone."

     "Good. I'm glad, just don't get yourself all tied up in domestic life up there. I've heard the weather in the Northwest can make a girl feel like feathering a nest for herself."

     She shook her head. "I've never been the nest feathering type. If I do end up in Seattle for awhile, I'll find plenty of things to keep myself busy. It's a growing town now. I'm actually pretty excited to become a part of it all."

     "From what Bolt has told me, you are a part of it. Here," he touched his heart.

     Kate sighed, "The ship leaves at seven thirty. Will you be here to say good-bye?"

     "Seven thirty ma'am. I'll be here." Dan gave her hand a quick kiss. "Hey, will you be alright here until they get back?"

     "Yes, Clancey's crew are returning from leave. He gave them strict orders to protect me at all costs. They're good men. I'll be fine."

     "Good. See you in the morning."

     Kate waved to him as the buggy pulled off down the road. How amazing! she thought. I never imagined he felt this way. It's probably a very good thing I'm leaving. Love and a career? I don't think I'd ever have time for both.

     A sudden wave of fatigue swept over the girl as she made her way to Clancey's cabin. She locked the cabin door behind her, took time to remove her shoes, then collapsed into the bunk like a sack of potatoes. An exciting adventure was over and, as she gazed sleepily at the tintype, she was certain that another one was about to begin.

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