The room was hazy, and the odors were definitely unpleasant. It wasn’t just the opium, but also the smell of unwashed bodies. That wasn’t at all what she expected from a room that was supposedly only used by the wealthy, but then she remembered what Jed had told her about people ceasing to care about anything but the opium. If people were giving up their lives to spend every last dime in this place, they were too far gone to care about bathing and the like.
She was shown to a couch, just like before, but this time she was also brought a tray of refreshment and a pot of tea. The girl who brought her the tray also knelt down and removed her shoes, putting slippers on her feet and arranging the pillows just so. Lucy smiled to herself. So this was how the wealthy were treated as compared to the outside room.
She didn’t look around much until the attendant had left. Then she set down her pipe, pushed the tray to the side, and stood up. Mr. Dodrill was in one corner, a blissful look on his face. A sallow-looking woman lounged on a couch in the center of the room, her hands trembling as she clutched her pipe for all she was worth. Lucy would definitely be doing everything she could to help these people get out of this mess—it was heartbreaking to see what their lives had been reduced to. Then she noticed that there were bunks along the end of the room, and there were people lying in those bunks.
She glanced around to see if anyone was watching her. It was a risk no matter what. She slid her feet along the floor, trying to remain silent while avoiding stepping on the people who were sprawled here and there like ragdolls.
When she stepped up to the bunks, she found that it was hard to see the faces of the people lying there because of the shadows created by the bunks themselves. She did recognize the fabric of a dress, though, as the corner of it peeked over the edge of one of the bunks, and it was all she could do not to let out a cry.
She bent over and touched the shoulder of the woman wearing the dress. “Mrs. Collins?”
The woman slowly rolled onto her side and looked up at Lucy with eyes as sunken as a skeleton’s. She had lost a great deal of weight, her hair was ratted and bedraggled, and she hadn’t bathed in quite some time, but there was no doubt about it.
Lucy had just found Delphine Collins.
Chapter Fifteen
Jed had picked up his shirts and taken them back to the hotel. That was as close as he dared get to Lucy, although every instinct was screaming at him to charge in there and make sure she was all right. He’d never felt that way about another partner before, and he knew it had nothing to do with actual danger, but everything about his romantic feelings for her. If she tried to annul their marriage, he would do everything he could to talk her out of it. He wanted her in his life.
He was waiting on a side street, pretending to shop for trinkets, when he heard a whistle and turned. Reece, one of the agents from the Denver office, was signaling to him.
They stepped into an alley so as not to be overheard, and Reece asked how the case was going, mentioning that he was on the trail of a man named Dodrill.
“We’ve encountered him several times now,” Jed said, filling Reece in on everything that had been going on and giving him some pointers for how to access the opium den. He was glad he could help out his friend—Reece had been there for him several times over the years they’d worked together.
“Thanks,” Reece told him. “So, how are things working out with Lucy?”
Jed swallowed. He didn’t want to admit to anything yet—he couldn’t, really, until he knew how Lucy felt about him. Relationships were complicated things. “They’re going fine,” he said, then asked about Reece’s new wife, Mina.
They chatted for a few more minutes, then Reece excused himself to return to his hotel. He was circling around Mr. Dodrill as the suspect in a missing jewel case, and the information Jed had given him would hopefully be the key to bringing about the arrest. Jed wished Reece and Mina all the luck in the world—not only with the case, but with their relationship. If Jed knew Reece at all, he’d have to say that his friend was more than a little taken with his new bride.
A feeling Jed knew all too well.
He turned his focus back to the building in front of him, wishing he could somehow see through the walls. He trusted Lucy to keep her wits about her, but he’d still like personal knowledge that she was all right.
***
Lucy touched her friend’s shoulder again, almost sobbing with relief. “Mrs. Collins, it’s me. Lucy.”
Mrs. Collins looked up at her with red-rimmed eyes. “Lucy. Oh, hello, Lucy.” Her words came slow and thick, like she was having a hard time moving her mouth. “How are you?”
“I’m much better now that I’ve found you. Mrs. Collins, you’re very sick. I need to get you out of here.”
Mrs. Collins blinked. “Sick? Oh, no. I feel fine. Better than fine.” She held up the end of her pipe. “You should try this. It’s amazing, Lucy. No more worries . . .”
Lucy looked over her shoulder. They were still alone except for the other clients, but she had no way of knowing how long that would last. “You need to come with me. Mr. Collins is so worried about you.”
“He doesn’t want me to have any fun.” Mrs. Collins sounded like a petulant child. “He doesn’t understand.”
“He wants you healthy and safe. Aren’t those good things?”
Mrs. Collins pulled away. “You tell him for me, Lucy. You tell him I’m happy now.”
Lucy blinked back the tears that had risen in her eyes. She was so frustrated—how could she get Mrs. Collins to understand? “Why weren’t you happy before?” she asked carefully.
“My son,” Mrs. Collins wailed. “My son is dead, and no one even seems to remember him anymore.”
Lucy closed her eyes. She’d thought Mrs. Collins had moved past her son’s death, but she realized that such a thing couldn’t be overcome so easily. She ached for the pain Mrs. Collins had been carrying around all this time, and now she could understand how the woman became a victim to this foul practice. If opium clouded memories and soothed emotions, it would be all too easy to become addicted.
“Let’s hold a memorial service for him, Mrs. Collins. We can share our favorite stories about him and look at pictures, and have a meal with his favorite foods.”
Mrs. Collins looked up at Lucy again with bleary eyes. “Do you even remember him, Lucy?”
That was an uncomfortable question. Robert Collins had been enough older than Lucy that her memories of him were dim, but she thought for a moment and found one. “When I was three, he came over to our house and pushed me in the swing in our front yard. I wasn’t holding on very carefully and I fell, and he took me inside and helped me wash the scrape on my elbow. He was very kind to me.”
Mrs. Collins nodded. “Yes, he was a kind boy. He was always thinking about others, doing things for others . . .”
“And he should be remembered.” Lucy was beginning to panic. If she couldn’t get Mrs. Collins off the bunk, she’d have to come up with some other way of rescuing her. Jed could come blazing in here with his pistol, and maybe the police would get involved, but she wanted Mrs. Collins well and truly away before the police burst in. She didn’t want her to experience that. “Come with me. Let’s plan a party in Robert’s honor.”
Just then, Lucy felt a heavy hand come down on her shoulder, and she turned to see the face of a very large Chinese man. Next to him stood a shorter man who didn’t look any less angry than the first.
“I have been watching you, Mrs. American,” the second man said in near-perfect English. “For some reason, you decided to visit my shop, and you learned the secret code to enter our hidden world.” He motioned around with one elegant hand. “But you are not here to smoke with us, Mrs. American. You are here for something else, and now you are upsetting my good friend. I must ask you to stop.”
“I wasn’t trying to upset her. I was just making conversation.”
“Your conversation is upsetting her.” The man nodded toward his larger compani
on. “I think you’re in the wrong room, Mrs. American. Let us show you to a different one—you’ll be much more comfortable there.”
Lucy didn’t believe that for a minute.
The larger man stepped forward and grasped her by both arms, then began marching her toward the back of the room and toward a door she hadn’t noticed yet. In order to take her through the door, he’d have to open the door, and that would be her opportunity. She dragged her feet, trying to slow him down, but he was a great deal stronger than she was. Rather than allowing him to hurt her further by forcing her along, she gave up the fight and walked as he wanted her to.
As soon as he let go of one of her arms so he could open the door, however, she pulled in a deep breath and went into action.
She brought her free arm up and then drove her elbow backwards with the momentum she created. When it connected with his solar plexus, she spun around and drove her palm unto his nose with an upward motion. She felt the crunch beneath her hand as his nose broke, and then she turned and ran through the doorway for all she was worth.
She heard shouting behind her, but she didn’t slow down. The echo of a gunshot sounded just as she felt the sting of a bullet graze her arm. That was curious—she’d always thought that you couldn’t hear the bullet that shot you. That’s what the adventure novels she’d read had said. No matter. She was in the alley now, and in a moment, she’d be on the street, and on the street, she’d find safety. She just had to keep running.
Blinded by pain, she couldn’t see clearly, and she ran full tilt into a broad chest. Arms wrapped around her, holding her in place.
“No!” she screamed. They weren’t going to capture her now. She refused to be taken like this. She pummeled her fists against the chest. “Let me go! Let me go!”
“Lucy, it’s me.”
She barely had time to register that it was Jed before he’d tucked her behind him and was shooting back at her assailants. They ducked behind some boxes stacked along the sides of the alley and continued to shoot. Jed pushed Lucy into a doorway and joined her there, peering out just long enough to return fire.
“Are you all right?” he called over his shoulder. “Your arm’s bleeding.”
“I don’t actually know,” she replied. “Finish saving my life and then we’ll talk about it.”
A moment later, the shooting stopped, and Jed leaned back against the doorway, breathing hard. “They disappeared inside their building,” he reported.
“I found her, Jed. She’s sick and barely alive, but I found her.”
He turned to her with a grin. “Great work, Agent Green. Let’s get the police and rip the place apart.”
Chapter Sixteen
It was all Lucy could do to stand on the sidewalk and wait for the police to finish their raid. She’d allowed one of the officers to tie a bandage around her arm, but that’s all the medical help she would accept until she knew Mrs. Collins was all right. One by one, the clients of the opium den were led outside, some able to use their own two feet, but others coming out on stretchers. When at last Mrs. Collins was brought out, she was on a stretcher, and she looked even more ghastly in the light of day than she had in the dim light of the back room. Mr. Collins had been told to wait for her at the hospital, and she was glad of that. If he saw her in her current condition, it would likely undo him.
Jed was helping the police round up all the workers, and Lucy watched with pride as he escorted the largest man out of the building in handcuffs. The man’s nose was swollen and both his eyes were black. Lucy didn’t feel even the smallest bit sorry about it. Her hand would be sore for a few days, but it had been worth it.
Once all the suspects had been trundled to the police station and the clients were off to the hospital, Jed joined Lucy on the sidewalk. “We need to get you checked out,” he said, and she looked down at her arm. She’d bled through the bandage, and her sleeve was now soaked.
“I suppose we should,” she replied. “I can hardly feel it, though—it must be the excitement of getting everything wrapped up.”
“Must be,” he replied, but a look of worry crossed his face.
One of the officers gave them a ride to the hospital on the front seat of a paddy wagon, and Lucy was taken right back to an examination room. “I’m glad you’re my husband,” she told Jed. “This way, they have to let you stay with me.”
“I’m glad I’m your husband too,” he said, bending over to kiss the top of her head.
Then she felt herself falling backwards, and lots of loud voices, and it went black.
***
“Your wife suffered quite a lot of blood loss, Mr. Green, and that’s why she fainted.” The doctor assigned to Lucy’s care took off his spectacles and put them in his breast pocket. “She’ll be fine once the bleeding has stopped. My bigger concern is the location of the bullet. We’ll need to extract it, of course, but then we’ll have to examine the damage it did to her arm. It looks to me as though it may have damaged her nerves.”
“She said she thought it was just a graze,” Jed said, realizing how ridiculous that sounded. Of course it wasn’t a graze—grazes didn’t bleed like that. “She also said she couldn’t really feel it. Is that because of the nerve damage?”
The doctor nodded. “Now, sometimes things like that regenerate, so we can’t say for sure what her outcome will be. Let’s focus on getting her arm repaired, and we’ll deal with the rest as it comes. I’ll need you to wait down the hall.”
Jed looked over at the still form of his wife where she lay on the hospital bed. His wife. He loved those words now, but wondered if he would lose the chance to use them. “Take good care of her, Doctor.”
The man nodded. “I will.”
Jed wandered down the hall in a daze. A bullet to the arm wasn’t life-threatening, but the loss of blood was a concern, and nerve damage could alter her life forever. She was brave—so brave.
Up ahead, he saw Mr. Collins talking to a nurse, and he approached slowly so he wouldn’t interrupt the conversation. When Mr. Collins saw Jed, he turned and gave him a broad smile.
“Agent Green, thank you so much for everything you’ve done for me and my wife. I can’t even find the words to explain how grateful I am.”
Jed shook the man’s offered hand. “How is Mrs. Collins?”
A shadow crossed Mr. Collins’ face, but he smiled again. “She’s been bathed and she’s had something to eat. She’s sleeping now, and the doctor says she likely will sleep for quite a long time. The recovery will be difficult, just like you warned me it would be, but I have her back, and we’ll face whatever comes together.” He paused. “How is Lucy?”
“She’ll be having surgery to extract a bullet from her arm. It should be fairly simple, but we’ll see.”
Mr. Collins peered into Jed’s eyes. “You care about her very much, don’t you?”
Jed couldn’t even pretend to hide his emotions. “Yes, sir, I do.”
“Then hold fast to your faith. Those words got me through these last few days. Use them for yourself, son.”
Jed nodded. He would hold fast to his faith. Lucy was counting on him to be strong.
***
The pain coursing down Lucy’s arm was unlike anything she’d ever felt before. Burning, searing, scorching, agonizing pain. She was aware of it before she even opened her eyes to figure out where she was, and she whimpered.
Someone was at her side immediately. “Lucy?”
She knew that voice. “Jed?” She fought to open her eyes, and there he was, standing over her. “What’s going on?”
“You’re waking up from surgery,” he said, smoothing her hair off her forehead. “Do you remember what happened?”
She thought for a minute. Everything in her head was a jumbled mess, but then a few things clicked into place. “We found Mrs. Collins,” she said. “Is she all right?”
“She’s resting right now, and she’s getting all the care she possibly can,” Jed told her.
“And I remem
ber getting shot. I didn’t care for that part very much.”
“No one really likes getting shot. They got the bullet out, though.”
“That’s good. I don’t think I’d want to walk around with a bullet in me for the rest of my life.” She closed her eyes and then opened them again. “Why is my arm so heavy?”
“They put a cast on it to hold it steady while it heals. The bullet chipped some of the bone, and they didn’t want to run the risk of it snapping.”
“Oh, so it’s my turn to have a cast now, is it?”
Jed grinned. “Sure is. Don’t get too excited, though—I had mine first.”
“Fine. I’ll allow you that.” She felt sleepy again—so sleepy. “Jed?”
“Yes?”
“When I wake up, I’m going to run after you and throw myself into your arms and kiss you until neither one of us can breathe.” Did she really say that out loud, or did she just think it? She didn’t know. She was too tired to figure it out.
“I’ll look forward to it,” he said, and she felt his lips brush her forehead. That was so nice.
Chapter Seventeen
Jed and Lucy stood side by side in front of Archie’s desk, waiting for him to finish reading their report. Lucy’s arm was in a sling, thankfully. It took the weight of the cast for her—she hadn’t realized those things were so heavy. Marianne had offered them tea, which they both declined. Lucy didn’t want to see tea again for a long time.
“You’ve done an excellent job on this case,” Archie said at last, setting the file down on his desk. “Mr. Collins has nothing but the highest praise, and the San Francisco police sent me a letter of commendation. They were able to locate your little friend Tommy—he’d threatened to tell the police what was going on, so they’d locked him away in the attic of the building.”
“Oh, I’m so glad he was found,” Lucy said. “His mother must have been worried sick.”
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