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Rizzo threw on his hat and coat, caught a streetcar to a neighborhood where no one knew him, purchased a quart tin of kerosene, and boarded another streetcar, which carried hiot off and walked quickly through a warehouse district until he found a saloon in the shadow of the levee He ordered a beer and ate a sausage at the free-lunch counter, eyes locked on the swinging doors The instant that warehouse workers and carters barreled in,the end of the business day, Rizzo left the saloon and hurried along dark streets to the offices of the Union Pier amp; Caisson Company

A clerk was locking up, the last man out Rizzo watched from across the street until he was sure the offices were empty Then, on a route plotted months earlier, he entered an alley that led to a narrow passage between the back of the building and the levee standing between it and the river He tugged a loose board, pulled out a short crowbar he had stashed behind it, and pried open aHe climbed in, found the central wooden staircase that led to the top of the three-story building, climbed it, and opened several s Then he pierced the kerosene tin with his pocketknife and started back down the stairs, splashing the volatile liquid on the steps At the bottom, he lit a match, touched it to the kerosene, and watched the flames leap up the dry wood He waited until he was sure that the wood itself had caught fire Then he slipped back out theand left it open to feed the draft

ISAAC BELL RODE THE slow Snake Line switchback train down to the town of Cascade Eric Soares had told Franklin Mowery that he ht work late, as he often did As usual, he would take his supper in the town, then would bunk down in one of the guard shacks beside the piers and start work early in thethe train back up to the top

When Bell got to the guard shacks, the detective discovered that the supposedly hardworking Soares had quit early

No one knehere he had gone

DOWN THE RIVER FROM the original town of Cascade, a shanty-and-tent city called Hell’s Botto up It owed its existence to the ironworkers, masons, and caisson e, the railroaders who’d laid the steep Snake Line froe, and the luon Lumber Company back in the mountains

Eric Soares headed for Hell’s Bottoht, with the cash in his pocket that the Senator had forked over as the first of many payht He was also in love, which his hard-knocks youth had deet Particularly falling in love with a whore Half-witted or not, he visited her every night he could get away from Old Man Mowery Now, thanks to the Senator, he could afford to keep her for hi

There were three grades of brothels in Hell’s Bottom

The roughest serviced the luet there Saturday nights by shooting the rapids down the rocky river in “Hell’s Bottos with axes and fire

The wos, who arrived via the Snake Line Track layers descended on Saturday night Train railroad schedules swaggered in night and day swinging their red lanterns

There was only one top-grade establishenteel, particularly by western booIts custo business owners and professionals of Cascade, wealthy tourists staying at the faineers, lawyers, and ers orked for the railroad

Madaular he had become

“I would like Joanna,” he told her

“Engaged, sir”

“I’ll wait”