Chapter Thirty Five

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully, but as soon as he began walking down the street back to his house to get the car, little Finn ran up to him shouting.

"Tommy! Arthur said to meet him at the stables! Something happened!"

He crouched down to his little brother's level. "Woah, slow down, Finny. What's happened?"

Finn caught his breath for a moment before stating, "The Kimber man knows. That's all he kept saying."

Tommy looked behind his little brother suddenly aware of how vulnerable he was out in the open and how badly Finn could have been hurt running out to greet him. "Alright, Finn. Let's go inside and check with Aunt Polly before I head down to meet Arthur."

Finn took Tommy's hand as they made their way to the front steps of their home. He peered up at his brother with admiration. "You have a plan, Tommy?"

"I always have a plan, Finny. Don't you worry," he said pulling his cap lower over his eyes as they stepped into the house. "Go find your aunt."

Finn ran off into the house and before long Polly came out and confirmed what Finn had told him. Kimber knew the Lee's and the Shelby's were betraying him. He knew about Black Star Day. There was a rat among them.

He quickly made his way to the stables, keeping his cap low over his eyes, making sure to dodge as many people as possible. He didn't want to run into anyone alone if he could help it. He also had hoped to leave early so as not to have Inspector Campbell scoop him up. He knew that would be coming eventually unless his plan worked. Oddly enough, there seemed to be no police about this morning. Not one.

"Tommy! There you are," Arthur whisper-yelled. At least he knew the direness of the situation.

"Arthur, where are the Lee's?" Tommy asked.

"They went to camp outside of town last night and were going to meet up with us at the city line like we planned, but once they got word about Kimber, they went ahead without us. We've got bigger problems though, Tom. Kimber has the roads blocked. He's trapped us here which means we have to deal with this in the street."

John popped up next to them. "And what do we do about the copper?"

Tommy looked at his younger brother. "Tell all the Blinder's to go home and gather their hat racks and bring them to the betting house as soon as possible. We haven't much time."

John and Arthur looked at him as if he were a nutter. "Hat racks?" John asked uncertainly. "You want them to bring hat racks?"

"Along with their usual weapons, of course. I'll explain at the betting house. Just do it," Tommy said losing patience as the sand in their hourglass was running out. "Quickly!" he said with a wave of his hand to shoo him off.

"You're right though, Arthur," Tommy said, turning back to his brother. "This will be done in the street. I have a suspicion that Kimber told Campbell his intentions when he was being searched last night and our Inspector decided to let us kill each other off. We won't be disturbed and civilians will be out of the way."

Arthur nodded his head, the realization on his face plain. He too had noticed the usual coppers weren't around.

"But here's the other part of his plan he doesn't know I've figured out…" Tommy said leaning close.

x x x

Claire had woken up a few hours later, her head hurting even worse than it had before, thanks to her self-induced bump to her noggin. She felt nauseous and not just from the pain. Tommy had not come to her dreams last night. She still hadn't been able to tell him he and their families were in danger. And now she had lost precious time trying out her first idea.

She had stretched her arm out as far as she could and was able to pull the tray he had left her. Claire sipped the water and used some of it to try and wipe the dried blood from her face. She was sure she looked a right mess.

Then she looked around and tried to come up with a way to get the shackle off of her. The cuff around her ankle was rather loose and she bet she could slip it off if she had something greasy. She quickly looked to the porridge and saw what she had been hoping for. He cooked it with bacon fat! There was a thin layer that had solidified on top and she scooped some out with her fingers and rubbed it under the cuff and all around her ankle and foot. It burned like hell from the cuts she had made when she had been beside herself earlier. She could never remember being that angry in her life. Not even when she had been trussed up like a pig getting ready to be slaughtered when she had been tortured. All she felt was determination now.

After she was greased up, she pulled the cuff until she was able to squeeze her heel underneath it and slip it right off. Why hadn't she thought of this sooner? She quickly stood up and stretched. Now was the harder part. Getting out of the cell.

She examined the keyhole and started to search around for anything long and thin enough to use as a lock pick. Her twin brothers were the experts in that area, but she had learned, too. She just wasn't as quick as they were. Now was a time she wished she wore her hair in the fashionable style. She would have had hair pins on her that would have worked perfectly!

She quickly ended up back at the shackle as the room wasn't overly large and realized it was held together by a pin that she could knock out of place. Claire searched around for a rock to bang against it, but found none. There was a pillar she could knock it against in the center of the cell that she had been chained to, though.

Claire began banging the shackle on its end to try and get the pin to come lose even a little bit. She had knocked her knuckles quite a few times in the process. On one particularly good hit she split open the middle knuckle of her right hand. She stared down at it, biting her lip from the pain.

Her eyes hardened as she focused on the pillar again. I've had worse, she thought to herself and she banged the shackle again.