Toooot!
Toooot! Toot! Toooot!
Four blasts from the Empire Builder’s horn cut through the
walls of the coaches and into the dining car, where they could be heard by all
the guests that either were or just had been hungry. The horn fit right in with the jaunty jazz
tune playing over the radio, and the guests kept right on clinking their
silverware against the china as they ate.
When you rode a train for a while—45 hours if you were making the entire
Chicago-Seattle trip—you got used to hearing the horn. People tended mainly to think about it when
the train sped through a rural area, and not a one was to be found.
In the dining car, Phil
Huxley folded a silk napkin and calmly plunked his tip on the table. “An excellent meal, Joe,” he said, standing
up. “Excellent, indeed.”
His partner, Joe Burton,
nodded. “There’s nothing like that
spring chicken when we have to travel this route.”
“Things should get
interesting once we get to Seattle,” Phil said, as the men worked their way
through the train. “I wonder how many
years they’ll give that embezzler.”
“If you ask me,” Burton
replied, “there’s more drastic things you could do than embezzle money from a
baby powder company. Highly illegal, but
it certainly won’t make the front page.”
“A clever strategy,” said
Huxley. “Those Communists don’t care for
the front page, though. They stick to
the shadows as much as possible. Ah, but
they ain’t no match for the FBI.”
After a few more feet,
though, he shook his head. “For once, I
would like to get a high-profile case,” he complained. “Something that’d make the headlines.”
“Like catching Gerhard
Puff?”[1]
Burton nodded. “One day our time will
come.”
“The sooner the better,
as far as I’m concerned. Well, on to the
ranch car. We can play a game of cards
if you want.”
“Might as well,” Burton
nodded. “There’s only so much to do when
you’re travelling at night.”
The agents were wandering
through one of the sleeping cars right now.
Up the hall, a tall, broad-shouldered, husky individual watched them
pass by. He waited until they’d gone
into another car, then knocked on one of the sleeper doors.
“Yes?”
“Charlie couldn’t hit a cardinal
at 17 paces.”
The door was swiftly
opened by a man with a jagged scar running down his left cheek. Steely green eyes glared out from under a
pulled-down fedora. The brim of the hat
left the man’s face in shadow, making the eyes seem brighter than they really
were. This was Edgar Malone, #1 on the
FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List, the most dangerous criminal west of the Mississippi.
“What’s up, Nails?” he
asked.
“Two G-Men on the
train. Heard them talkin’. They’re headed to Seattle to testify in a
case about a man who embezzled baby powder—er, embezzled from a baby powder
company.”
“Know what they look
like?” Malone drawled softly.
Nails nodded.
“Good. If they were after me, they wouldn’t be
gabbing about their occupation. Warn me
when they’re around, but leave them alone, unless they cause trouble. And tell Pinky who to look for.”
With a nod, Nails stepped
back out into the hall. The door to the
sleeper slammed behind him. Edgar Malone
wasn’t leaving his berth until the train got to Seattle.
That is, if it ever reached
Seattle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IT'S AVAILABLE!!!!
When Frank, Nancy, Louis, and Susan Anderson travelled
to El Reno to solve a couple kidnappings, they didn’t plan on getting kidnapped
themselves. But the gang sabotaging the
oil wells was desperate, and Frank soon found himself searching for more than just
friends. A mysterious rendezvous at
midnight produced the only person who knew what the mastermind looked like, but
she couldn’t give a description! The
clues led to stranger and stranger discoveries, but one thing was for
sure—there were enemies at every turn. If
Frank was going to rescue everyone, he’d have to be very careful who he called
on for assistance. An eccentric cabbie,
an abandoned railyard, dark chases, and the most unexpected calls with the
REDIAL button—all this, and much more, awaited the Andersons in one of their
most exciting adventures yet—
THE EL RENO STORY
Available on Amazon and Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Reno-Story-Anderson-Family-Mystery/dp/1546900365/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1497833814&sr=8-1
[1]
Bank robber and murderer who was one of the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted in the 1950s.
He was captured in New York City in 1952.
Ooh!! I want to read it!!!!
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