Monthly Archives: June 2018

A Burning Cold Morning (Part 36)

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western white pine

western white pine

They walked in silence for the entire two blocks, a few passersby looking at them with idle curiosity,  and entered the park from the north side.  It was a mostly open space with well-kept grass and an occasional bench for visitors to sit on.  At the western edge was a small group of fairly young Western White Pine trees and this is where Lester motioned Leo to go, something he complied with reluctantly.  He did stop next to one of the benches, peeking back over his shoulder only to see his former partner give a small shake of his head.  By this time Leo had determined he may have made an error in pursuing a confrontation with Lester, who seemed simply intent on fulfilling his apparent desire to get some payback.  He pushed the boughs of the young pines aside as they entered the copse, not bothering to hold them for Lester who remained close behind him.  Finally they were in the middle of the trees, well screened from view even if someone had passed very close to the two men.  Leo turned around.

“Listen, I know you think you have a beef with me Rob, but I’m telling you that I never did anything against you.”

Lester grunted in reply, pulling the gun, a Remington Model 51, fully into view and pointing it at Leo.

model 51

model 51

“Come on, don’t shoot, ok?  Listen for a minute,” Leo pleaded.

“That’d be about how long you’ve got rat, I’ll give you about a minute of mercy.  Then I’m going to shoot you.”

“I read your letter, the one you sent to Minnesota for me.  It wasn’t until just a little while ago really, when I ended up back there this spring, but I read it and I’m telling you that what you think about me just ain’t true.”

“Of course you’d be saying that now, now that I’ve got you at the point of this gun, but I know what happened.”

“You think I ratted on you?” Leo asked.

“I know you did,” Lester replied while looking Leo squarely in the eyes.

“I read it and headed out here directly.  I needed to set the record straight with you.  Why would I come looking for you like that if what you think I did is true?  Why would I see you and then chase you down on the street?”

Lester did not reply immediately, a slightly confused look on his face which he then shook off.  “I don’t know or give a damn why, but I’ve been waiting all this time to square up with you and it’s gonna happen right now.  Your minute’s up.”

“I’m no damn rat!” Leo shouted back, “and I won’t go down with you thinking I am.  I never told nothing on you, not in Hawaii, not in prison and not since.  I even wrote you a letter from McNeil telling you I never talked but I’m guessing you never got that, did you?”

“I didn’t.” Lester replied tersely, the gun still pointed at Leo.

“Well, I’m telling you I wrote it, hell I thought you were a free man at the time, they never even told me you got pinched on that scam.  I was rung up so fast in Hawaii and shipped off to the rock,  I never knew.  I swear though Rob, I never said a damn word about you or our business.  Now shoot me if you must but at least tell me you know I ain’t no rat.”

Lester continued to hold the gun on Leo but removed his finger from the trigger, tapping it instead on the slide of the gun as he continued to look at his former partner.  There was still steel in his eyes but it was softening a little, and then he slowly lowered the weapon.

“I’ve been angry at you for a long time Leo, a long damn time.  When they arrested me back then they told me you had given up the scheme, told it all.  They had details too, ones I thought would’a had to have come from you.  They knew so much I just plead guilty.  But I guess maybe they just did a good investigation.  I really held it against you though, figured you for a rat.”

“I’m telling you I’m no rat,” Leo replied sharply, “and you better tell me you know it.”

“You still ain’t in no position to be demanding things even if I do believe you,” Lester replied as he gave the lowered gun a small shake to illustrate he still had it ready for action.

“I think you see it now, the truth of it, and I need to hear you know I’m not a rat.”  Leo’s voice was earnest and strong, pleading and demanding at the same time.   “I know you’ve thought it for a long time but I won’t take that disrespect when it ain’t warranted.  Like I said, shoot me if that’s still what you’re after, but say it first.”

Lester looked back thoughtfully, seeing the anxious desire to be validated in Leo’s eyes, the absolute need to have his reputation cleared even if he died afterward.  He let it linger there for a few extra moments, just to make a point that he could not really explain, and then a slight smile crossed his face and he holstered the gun.

“Hell Leo, I know now that you ain’t no rat.  You’re square with me.  I hope that makes you feel better.”

“I does, it certainly does,” Leo replied as he wiped his forehead with a handkerchief.  “What are you doing out here in Bakersfield anyway?”

“Escaping from Portland,” Lester replied with a wide grin before continuing, “I’m parched old friend, let’s go find one of those wonderful speakeasy’s they have around here and we’ll get caught up.”

They walked over to the National Bar, a soft drink stand run by a often arrested man named Albert Martin, and enjoyed several illegal libations over the course of the next two hours.  There was still a little lingering tension between them but the conversation went well up until Leo gave a very vague overview of the scheme he was running with the Clockmaker.  He had not intended to say anything at all about it but Lester had been pressing him hard and eventually it slipped out somewhere in-between the liquor and an old sense of camaraderie.   He left out the name of his partner and their store but did tell how they were making the fake pieces of jewelry.   Lester made his disapproval of that scheme apparent, telling Leo it was a sure way to get caught because someone would figure it out, probably sooner rather than later, and they would know exactly where they had gotten the fake item.  Once one person made a fuss, another would and soon the police would be down upon Leo and there would not be much of a defense to offer.  That comment sparked the nagging nervous feeling Leo already had considering what had happened at the store with the police and the other recent complications; however, he kept his cool and told Lester that the scheme was running fine and would continue to do so as long as no one ratted anyone out.  He said that just to make sure Lester got the picture about keeping his mouth closed, kind of a way to shut the barn door after leaking out information he never intended to disclose anyway.  Lester nodded in reply but kept pressing him, telling Leo to give up that business and get back into a scheme that the two of them could run together.  They argued back and forth for awhile and eventually Leo said that although he was going to keep the jewelry business he would do some side jobs with Lester.  That seemed to make the man happy and the two of them parted with a promise to meet back up in a few days.  

…to be continued

A Burning Cold Morning (Part 35)

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“What do you mean, what does he know?  I told you, everything!” Stanley exclaimed, rubbing his hands together and walking slowly in a tight circle around the shop floor.  

“Will you settle down?  Just stop for a minute and tell me what he said.”

“He knows!  He asked me how the business was going!”

Leo reached out and grabbed his partner to get him to stop moving.  “What did he say exactly?”

“I told you!  He asked how the business was going!”

Leo rubbed a hand across his face, realizing that Stanley might be just a little bit unstable after all.  “That’s all he said Stanley?”

“Yes! That’s all he needed to say.”  

“You don’t suppose he might have been asking about your clock business?” Leo asked.

“Why?  What?”  Stanley replied, and then he stopped, a dumbfounded look on his face.  “Well, I mean, maybe, but why would he ask me that?”

“Maybe he was just wondering about it, or making small talk, or who knows why.  Did he mention the shop, or me, or anything about jewelry?”

By now Stanley’s face was bright red and his eyes were averted, staring down at the rugged wooden floor of his shop.  “No, nothing else.  Just like I said, he asked how business was. But…”

“But what?”

“Nothing,” Stanley muttered back, his face getting even more red.  Leo reached out his hand again and shook the other man’s shoulder.  

“Look at me friend, I think maybe you have something to tell me.  What did you say after he asked you that?”

There was a long pause and Leo knew he was not going to like the answer, but he needed it nonetheless.  He shook Stanley’s shoulder roughly and asked him again what he had said to his father.

“It, well, I thought he was on to us, you know.  I thought he knew about all of it.  I was just afraid, I didn’t know what to say.”

“But you did say something, so what was it?”

“I told him that it wasn’t my idea, that I was just doing the work, making the pieces but not selling them.  He was confused, starting asking me questions, and I, well, I just ran out of the place and over here.”

Leo stayed silent but his grip on Stanley’s shoulder increased, until his partner started to squirm under the pressure.  Finally he let go.

“Damn, damn, damn!  You stupid foolish dumb,” was a far as he got before he decided that berating Stanley was not going to be very useful.  He needed to figure out what to do next.  Collapsing back into the chair where he had been reading the newspaper, Leo sighed deeply and returned to silence, staring blankly down at the floor.  Five minutes later he looked back up.

“That’s all you said?  Absolutely nothing else?”

“Nothing else, I swear, nothing.”

“Ok, so now you are going to go back home and figure out just what exactly he might be thinking about what you said, and what he might be doing about it.”

There was about ten more minutes of protesting from Stanley but in the end he went and then met Leo the next day.  It turned out that his father was mostly confused and figured his son was having some kind of a fit, after which a long lecture on the effects of fire-gilding followed, and then it was dropped.  Ben Bittenhopper had mentioned through that he was going to be, “taking a stroll around,” to see what some of the new businesses were up to in town.  Leo knew that did not bode well, but things were less serious than they might have been.   As a safeguard he decided to shut the store for ten days, taking off into the nearby countryside for what he considered was a well deserved break.  When he returned Stanley confidently reported that his father had not mentioned the episode at all and had indeed toured the new businesses in town, returning only with some concerns about there being too many mercantile establishments.  Feeling he was in the clear at least for a little bit longer, Leo reopened L&S and they were back in business.  

A profitable three weeks followed and Leo was walking down the street behind his business on October 5th, on his way to eat lunch in a small park he liked, when he was brought to a dead stop.  Across the street, walking next to a short, blonde-haired woman, was Robert Lester.  

Leo took a few moments, following the couple with his eyes as he tried to convince himself that he was wrong.  After all the time he had spent looking for the man it was hard to believe that they had just walked past each other on a public street.  The man never looked back but it did not matter.  By the time he stepped off again toward the park, Leo was pretty well convinced that he had found the man he had come to look for in Bakersfield.  He was, however, not certain on how he wanted to proceed, weighing the need to get the “rat” issue resolved against Lester’s threat against him.  He thought about that as he ate, and for a whole day afterward, and then decided he was going to face the situation head on, just like he had originally planned.   He would go out and find Lester and talk to him and get this whole thing straightened out regardless of if it put his safety in jeopardy.   Knowing from his previous attempts that locating him through public records was futile, Leo took to spending one to two hours a day on that street behind his shop, just watching and hoping for a repeat appearance.  It finally came four days later, the man’s slight limp and arms that swung too much as he walked reconfirming Leo’s belief it was Lester,  and he ran across to confront the man.

“Robert!”

The man took three more steps before stopping, slowing turning around but reaching inside his jacket as he did so.

“Hold on, hold on, it’s just me after all, you remember don’t ya?” Leo said.

“You bet I know who you are,” the olive-skinned man replied, “and I got a score to settle that’s up on the board right now.  I plan to cash it in.”  Leo could see the gun, held just under the man’s jacket, free of its holster but still out of sight of the few others walking near them.

“You don’t need to do anything like that Robert, really, this is all a big misunderstanding, it really is.  I came here to find you, to straighten it up.  Let’s just talk for a few minutes, ok?”

Lester motioned his head back up the street in the direction of the park.  “Sure, we can talk if that’s what you want.  It’ll be much better to be in a secluded place anyhow.  After you then.”

Without looking back, but with his heart beating rapidly in his chest, Leo walked toward the park, his former partner a few steps behind him with one hand still nonchalantly inside of his jacket.  

…to be continued

A Burning Cold Morning (Part 34)

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The next month was very profitable for the two of them with their “L&S Silver & Gold” shop maintaining a brisk flow of business well into August.   Although Stanley continued to have some issues keeping up with the demand, overall Leo was happy with his partner and believed that he had made the correct decision.  For his part, Stanley worried often about the potential of getting caught, sometimes having to be calmed down by Leo before he could focus again on his work.  He did enjoy the money though and had spent it freely and not so discreetly, although his father so far had no idea about the reputation his son was gaining out in town.

Black Board Dancing Club

Black Board Dancing Club

  This new found notoriety pertained mostly to his activities at a few local saloons and also at the Black Board Dancing Hall.  Stanley spent almost every night there, buying drinks for women and trying to get them to go spinning around the dance floor with him.  The fact that this reputation had not leaked back to his well-connected father was a luxury which would not last much longer of course, and Leo had just started to warn Stanley about this when they also received their first police interaction.   

The officer, a tall man with a medium build and black hair, entered the store just a little after noon on Thursday August 12th, 1926.  The interaction was fairly short, with the officer stating that a local woman had made a complaint that an item purchased at L&S by her husband was a fake.  He produced the ring, with a section of the electroplating scraped off, and Leo denied that it could have been purchased at his store.  He asked the officer if there was a receipt, which there was not, and without too much more trouble the lawman left.  Leo always avoided giving a receipt if he could, often going to great lengths to distract patrons who asked for one, and then sending them of their way after they had forgotten the request.  It was a small complaint and the officer seemed to believe him but Leo knew that this was likely the beginning of the end for his scheme, the first little blow to their operation.  He was determined to draw it out as long as possible though, so he went back to selling.  That same night though he did take the precaution of secreting another vehicle in a hidden area outside of the town, as this trick had proven so useful to him in Olympia.  That made him feel much better and he decided that Stanley did not need to know about the police inquiry.  

It was six days later when a much more unwelcome interaction occurred, with a local grifter named Jess Miller.  This man, long-haired and grimy looking, stopped into the shop for the sole purpose of winking at Leo and saying, “I know what you’re up to in here,” before walking out again trailing a laugh behind him.  Leo knew that once his scheme became known to the area’s criminal element there was dual danger to his business; both from a rat telling the police about it to gain some credit and also from similar operations starting up in the area.  That would thin out the demand pool and inevitably cause an increase of customer complaints to the police as more shops starting selling fake items.  This troubling thought, the second blow to his scheme, sent Leo into a brief bout of depression but he emerged from it fairly quickly and by August 20th he was back to pressuring Stanley on his production pace.   That afternoon, while observing his partner at work, he also brought up the subject of the new building being built in town.

“You know Stanley, that newspaper building, that one they are putting up over on 17th and Eye?”

“Yeah, sure, I know about it.”

“Well, did I ever tell you that I am a civil engineer?”

Stanley raised an eyebrow but then turned away.  Leo reached out to grab his shoulder.  “I am, really, I know about these things.”

“From what, school?”

“Sure, that,” Leo replied, “some anyway, and when I was in the Army, that too.  But mostly from reading books.”

“You learned how to build things by reading books?”  Stanley scoffed as he spoke, “Well, maybe don’t build anything for me, okay?”

Leo fussed with his hair for a minute, slicking it back over his head.  “I’m telling you this my friend because I know they have a vault in that building, they’ll be building one right into the foundation of the place.”

“How do you know that?”

“I already told you, I know about these things.  Newspapers always have a vault, they need to keep all the information in it, you know, the secret stuff they use for their stories.”

“Secret stuff?” Stanley replied, “I don’t think there’s that many secrets in the reporting business.”

“Sure there is, sources, and special information they have collected up along the way.  They store it just in case it becomes a story later, or to use it against a politician.”

“Sure, sure, whatever you say.  People think I’m paranoid sometimes but you sound much worse than me right now.  Who cares anyway?”

“Well, I don’t care about the vault really, not all that paperwork.  But I would like to see if we can get inside before they seal it all up, you know, take a look at what the vault looks like as it’s being built.”

“Why?”

“Research my friend, for the future.  Could your father get us in?”

“I doubt it, and I’m not asking.  He’s already giving me some strange looks these days.”

That reply silenced Leo, who remained sitting near Stanley, staring off into space.  Twenty minutes later he shook his head, stood up and walked out into the night.  

It was on September 1st that a third blow came and this one had the potential to be trouble for the L&S operation in a much more immediate fashion.  It was two-thirty in the afternoon of that fairly warm summer day when Stanley burst into the clock repair shop, sweating and out of breath from running.  Leo, who had been smoking a cigar and reading the newspaper, lowered it slowly and peered over the tops of his glasses at his partner.  A few deep breaths later Stanley managed to spit out the troubling news.

“It’s, my father, it’s too late, it’s all over, he knows!”

This statement alarmed Leo but he managed to contain his reaction well.  Reaching up to remove his glasses, he calmly stood up and walked over to Stanley, reaching out to put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder.

“Now, tell me what you mean by that.  What do you think he knows?”

…to be continued