Page 8 (1/2)

“Two incidents don’t constitute a pattern for me—

nor do three, usually—but this was the fourth job, and I thought I had it figured out At Cheyenne, I pieced together that the towns these thieves were hitting were getting progressively ical next step But the ti of the hits was a mystery The two hotels appeared to have been robbed souests didn’t realize itee until days or weeks after the fact I figure the thieves had cleared out of town long before anyone was onto them But the railroad jobs were detected the day after the robbery, which didn’t give our thieves much time to move on”

Bell paused He was a natural storyteller and he held the four ed to rob four locked roo a bit of evidence that the locks had been ta rooh to the reception desk that anyone loitering nearby would be seen and the area around the two depots was guarded by railroad bulls”

“The yard dicks never saw anything?” McCallister’s partner, Gaylord, asked

“And they circled the building all night,” Bell told him “The final piece of the puzzle was this”

Bell pulled a sheet of paper fro circus and showed the ringmaster, in top hat and with arround the artist had drawn roaring lions and a string of elephants perforhtly colored big top tent with a pair of trapeze artists swinging between the poles The nized it, for not three days earlier thousands of these flyers had been plastered all over the city because the Fraunhofer & Fraunhofer Circus was soon arriving for their last show of the season before they eles

“Are you saying?” This froer, Porter

“Sure am Once I realized that this circus had either just played or was about to play the tohere the robberies took place, it all fell into place I got lucky and caught up with the show in Fort Collins and ed to watch their final perfor”

“And you were able to finger the perpetrators by just catching the act?” McCallister seemed incredulous

“Gentleo,” Jim Porter said “I need to open the branch before the other employees show up for work” He reached into his pocket for money to settle his bill, and since he’d eaten his nore

Bell shook his hand once again “Mr Porter, all you need to do thisYou needn’t tell your staff anything at all Ourto watch for hi like customers, and accost the thief red-handed”

The man eaty and appeared unwell, but Bell suspected that he habitually looked that way Porter nodded gamely “Okay”

Bell and Northrop, the ton, moved to atable once Porter had left The two police detectives stayed in the back of the little dining room and would take their cue from Isaac Bell

As he suspected, the as a short one Five minutes after the post office opened for the day, Bell watched a h black hat make his way down the sidewalk The day, like most of the month of November, was unseasonably warm, which was no doubt the reason the circus remained on tour this late in the year

A truck with a chain drive briefly obscured Bell’s line of sight, but when it ru dark exhaust, he saw his ain Like he’d observed at the circus, the h his joints were fluid Bell had only really seen hinized the jet-black mustache