Chapter 8

Jarrod went into his office the next morning and found Esther, and a telegram, waiting for him. "This was here on the floor when I got here," Esther said.

Jarrod put his portfolio down in front of her. "I have a couple things in here for you to type up." Then he took the telegram from her and went into his inner office before reading it.

He thought it might be from Alana, but it was from Nat Springer. It answered one question: Reconciliation news to me.

It also prompted Jarrod to think even more on the notion that Alana had been lying about her family, too. He pocketed the telegram and headed over to the telegraph office, where he composed another message to Nat Springer.

Any information on Mrs. R's family – parents, their siblings, her siblings?

He went back to the office and worked through the morning on matters he wanted to have finished before he left for San Francisco, only four days away now. It was about noon when Esther came in with another telegram.

"The runner is waiting for any reply," Esther said as she gave it to him.

Jarrod read it. It was from Springer. No. Client said not to but you can check. Name Martin.

"No, no reply," Jarrod said. "Send him on his way."

Esther left, and Jarrod leaned back in his chair, thinking. Curious that Roman wouldn't let Springer check Alana's background, but maybe he just didn't want to pay for it, especially if he was just trying to pay Alana off and get rid of her fast.

But Springer was right. There was nothing to keep Jarrod from checking on Alana's background, to see if what she told him about her family was true or not. That "Martin" at the end of the wire, Alana's maiden name, gave him someplace to start.

He got up, went through the outer office saying, "Esther, I'm going to get something to eat," and he went over to the telegraph office himself.

He sent a telegram to Philip Davis, his contact at Pinkerton in San Francisco, saying he'd be back in town by Tuesday next and wanted Pinkerton to find whatever they could on Alana Roman nee Martin. As he composed it, he realized he didn't want to hit Nat Springer with any more questions until he saw Springer in person, and maybe had some information to work with.

XXXXXXXXX

"I'll need to go to San Francisco on Monday," Jarrod told his family before dinner that night. "Nick, I'll wrap up what I'm doing for you by tomorrow afternoon and I'll leave it with Esther to type on Monday. You can collect it from her then."

"Has something happened?" Victoria asked.

"Nothing more than me thinking and coming up with more questions," Jarrod said. "If I get answers like I expect to get, I may finish my business in San Francisco a lot quicker than I originally thought."

"Glad to hear that," Heath said. "We could use you out on the ranch."

"I could use some hard work out there," Jarrod said. "I'll let you know sometime next week how things are going."

XXXXX

Jarrod worked so hard over the weekend that he fell asleep on the train to San Francisco on Monday morning. He was a bit groggy when he detrained, stopped at a café to get some coffee, and then headed for the Pinkerton office. Luckily, Phil Davis was there.

"I didn't expect you until tomorrow," Davis said.

"I know you probably haven't uncovered much, given it was a weekend," Jarrod said, sitting down in Davis's office. "But I thought I'd let you know I was here."

"I do have a little bit for you. The newspaper morgue was open. I found announcements of her two weddings, but I suppose you already know about those."

Jarrod nodded. "I could use the dates though. I'm really interested in her family situation – parents, siblings."

"I have someone over at the records office now. We should have something by this afternoon and I can give you a report with dates and names later today."

That would have to be good enough for now. It was a little after one o'clock when Jarrod left Davis and went to his home, where he cleaned up a bit and sat down with a brandy, to think. He decided to go see Springer today but leave Alana until tomorrow. He definitely wanted to have any information Pinkerton found at the records office before he saw her.

Jarrod finished his brandy, got a quick bite to eat at a nearby saloon, and headed for Springer's office.

"No, I didn't tell Steve anything about you and what you're up to or why," Springer told him straight out. "And no, he is not interested in reconciling. Alana lied to you."

"Probably because she thought the threat of another man raising my child might get me to move her way," Jarrod mused. "Alana seems to lie whenever it suits her."

"You better look out for her, and whatever you do, don't sleep with her again," Springer said.

"She caught me in a weak moment," Jarrod said.

"I know a few places in town you can take your weak moments to with fewer complications. Does Alana know you're back in town yet?"

"Only if she's been watching my house or the train station. I haven't gone into my office yet, but I should do that, and then I'm going back over to Pinkerton. Phil Davis might have more for me about Alana. He had someone checking the records office today. I assume you want to know if he finds anything that will help you."

Springer nodded. "The more lies I can catch her in, the more I improve Steve's position."

Jarrod shook his head. "I still wonder, though. Is she just someone who has no interest in the truth, or does she believe a lot of what she says IS the truth?"

"Like being able to have children."

"Like being able to have children," Jarrod agreed. "I guess I'm hoping that finding out more information about her background might answer that question for me."

"How will it make any difference to whether you marry her or not?"

"If she really were pregnant, by me, it would make a difference," Jarrod admitted. "But assuming she's not – if she really believes what she's saying and isn't just a malicious liar – yes, it could change my attitude. Not that I'd marry her. But I might want to help her."

"Be careful, Jarrod," Springer said. "People like Alana, it's best to get far away from, whether she's a malicious liar or just a lost soul."

Jarrod just said, "I'll be careful."

XXXXXX

Jarrod spent an hour or so in his office, checking his schedule and the mail that had come in while he was gone. Late in the day, Jarrod went back to Phil Davis's office at Pinkerton. Davis invited Jarrod to sit down, and then he pulled out a file and opened it. He got straight to the point.

"Here's what we have. Alana was born here in San Francisco 26 years ago, to Henry and Madeline Martin. The census records lose them by 1870, but the records in the housing department have them renting a place in one of the lesser parts of town until 1869. Then they disappear and we're still looking to find their graves, assuming they died sometime in 1869. That's possible – influenza was going around bad that year."

"So Alana would have been more like 18 than 10 and 15 when they died," Jarrod said.

"Looks like it."

"What about a brother?" Jarrod asked.

"Alistaire Martin, born to Henry and Madeline 30 years ago." Davis looked up at Jarrod. "No record of his death. There is an Alistaire Martin in the 1870 records, and an Alistaire Martin still living." He handed Jarrod a slip of paper. "Here's his address."

Jarrod looked at it. He knew it. It was only a couple blocks from the unmarried mother's home he supported. But, "Alana said her brother died when she was a baby."

"Not if this Alistaire Martin is her brother," Davis said. "And there is a little more about this Alistaire Martin. He has a record."

Jarrod looked up, frowning. "Criminal?"

"He did three years for an armed robbery, got out of jail not long before Alana married Steve Roman. No trouble since, but we can't find any real employment for him either. He got the money for his home somewhere. It's a rental. He's got to have a stream of money somehow."

Things were starting to connect in Jarrod's mind. Alana had lied about her parents, about her brother. Her brother was alive and somehow supporting himself. "Do you have a date when Alana divorced her first husband?"

Davis read him a date and said, "Her divorce was final a year after Alistaire Martin went to jail. They married not long before he went in."

"And she married Steve right after he got out," Jarrod mused.

"You're wondering if she's funneling money to her brother," Davis said. "Money from her two well-off husbands."

Jarrod nodded. "I'm wondering a lot of things."

"Like whether funneling money to her brother is something she wants to do or he's forcing her to do."

"Among other things," Jarrod said.