4

Chapter Twenty-One

The whole rest of that day Tommy was not himself and his family noticed. He was distracted and was constantly found staring off into space, missing when someone asked him a question or losing himself in a trance in the middle of doing something. He kept going back to the confession he had made the night before.

He hadn't been to confession in years. It felt strange admitting something he had no wish to admit to. He couldn't understand why he had admitted it in the first place. Anytime he had ever revealed something, it wasn't because he was forced to. It was because he had chosen to do so from the very beginning.

He had never intended to tell Claire he had never hated her because by that logic, saying that would mean he never stopped loving her. A thought like that would distract anyone.

Not to mention he could feel something big brewing with the law about these guns he was still hiding. It had been too quiet on the inspector's end as of late. Like the calm before a bad storm.

"Tommy? Thomas? For the love of God, Thomas, what is wrong with you?" Polly asked completely miffed at her nephew's mood.

He turned dazed to look at her and said, "My mind just isn't here right now."

"I'll say. Anything in particular?" she asked as she lit a cigarette. Tommy took it from her fingers and pulled a drag from it. "Help yourself," she said as she took another one out.

Tommy blew the smoke out in one breath. "Yes," he answered simply.

Polly waited a beat. "Care to elaborate?"

"Not really," he answered as he pulled another drag from the cigarette.

"I can't help you, Thomas, if you don't tell me what's wrong," Polly said taking a drag herself.

Tommy stood up from the couch he had been perched on, feeling too jittery suddenly to stay seated. He decided to only tell Polly half the truth. "I can't help but feel as if something bad is about to happen."

Polly drew her eyebrows together in question. "What do you mean?"

Tommy looked at her and sighed. "It's these – " he stopped to close the door to parlor at the office. Wagging ears was something that was a problem anywhere, especially in a family business. "It's these guns," he finished. "Something is about to happen with that bastard Campbell, I know it."

"Have you heard something?"

"No, that's the problem. Nothing good or bad to report from any of the Blinder's. He's been holed up at the station for days, coming in early and leaving late. Not a clue who he has spoken to or what plans he's been making. None of our usual inside cops have been able to report anything. He's letting nothing slip."

"Do you suppose he's readying another raid?" Polly asked.

Tommy gave it a thought for a moment. "No, he wouldn't have to plan this much for a common raid. He would just do it."

Polly smoked a bit more and Tommy copied her as he paced the room. "Perhaps he's planning on making arrests," Polly offered with a little more alarm in her voice.

Tommy stopped his nervous pacing and turned to look at her. "I would imagine doing a large number of arrests would be easiest if the people were all together at once. Make it easier."

Polly thought a moment longer and then her eyes widened. "The wedding," she said, the two words dripping from her mouth in dread.

Tommy leaned down next to his aunt and placed a hand on her knee. "Pol, don't breathe a word of this to anyone. They can't know that we've figured it out or they'll just do something worse. I'll warn the men, but don't tell Ada or anyone else, alright?"

"But it's tomorrow, Thomas," Polly said sad at the thought of her niece's big day being ruined.

"We'll sort it out so Ada still has her moment in the sun, but right now this is a bigger problem," Tommy said trying to ease her fears before heading out the door in search of his brother's.

x x x

"A little to the left," Claire said, standing back admiring the handiwork she and her brother had been working on all afternoon.

"Claire, I swear to God, if you tell me to move this damn fabric one more time," Keagan said seething at his older sister. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Suddenly John stormed into the pub. He took his cap off as he looked around the room. "Looks lovely. Hate to tell you this though, but we're going to have to move it all."

Claire's shoulders slumped and Keagan exclaimed, "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

"Tommy's orders. Just trust us, alright? You'll thank us later," he said as he turned to leave again.

"Where are we moving it to?" Claire shouted after him raising a hand in exasperation.

John cocked his head to look back at them as he put his cap back on. "The stables. We spent all night clearing them out along with the barn." With that being said he went out the door.

Claire looked to Keagan completely miffed. "The stables?"

Keagan just shrugged his shoulders then turned around to stare at all the decorations they had spent the past three hours hanging up. "How did I get stuck with this job?" he asked himself as he climbed up a step ladder to begin taking everything down.

Claire started taking off and folding all the tablecloths that had been draped over the reception tables. After about twenty minutes of silence Keagan said, "I still can't believe all of this happening."

She smiled as she started packing up some of the decorations on top of the tablecloths in a box. "It is strange, but in a good way." She turned to help him pack up the fabric that had adorned the walls so prettily to be put back in their boxes. "When are you going to settle down, little brother?"

He looked down at her and smirked. "When hell freezes over," he joked.

Claire swatted him. "You don't want to get married?"

"Why do I need a wife when I've got you and Margaret to beat up on me?" he said with laughter in his voice.

"Come on! I'm serious!" she said laughing herself now. "Don't you want some children to chase after?"

"Sure I do, but I'm in no hurry. Why do you ask? You've never brought this up before."

"I don't know. Daniel's getting married. Margaret is due any moment. We haven't had a little one around since the youngest were babies," Claire felt more and more sad as she continued to speak. She put a hand to her stomach and it suddenly felt very empty. She had not thought of a family other than one she had been born into for years. It was just never the right time with them traveling everywhere, never meeting anyone that caught her eye.

Keagan knew his sister better than that and turned to look at her more closely. He put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you all right, Claire?"

Claire looked up at him and smiled. "Yes, just emotional with everything going on."

He nodded and said, "You'll have babies of your own, I know you will." He turned back to continue taking down the decorations. Quietly so Claire wouldn't hear he continued, "Little blue eyed babies."