Henry let them process the news.
After a long moment, Alice was the first to speak. "Is it true? That's wonderful."
"Of course," Henry confirmed. "Unfortunately, the house and the two ships have already been transferred. I can't get them back."
Hearing the certainty in his voice, Rachel and Robert finally believed him.
"Henry, you've saved our lives," Rachel said, her voice choked with emotion. The terror of the past few days finally broke, and tears streamed down her face.
Alice looked at Henry's perfect profile with a sense of pure, unadulterated admiration.
When Rachel and her father had composed themselves, Henry spoke again. "Mike confessed that he was hired by State Senator David Smith. He wanted your business, Robert. And he wanted your daughter."
The final piece of the puzzle clicked into place.
"Thank you, Henry," Robert said, his voice filled with a new, cold anger. "Thank you for telling me the truth."
"It was my pleasure," Henry replied. "Is there anything else I can do to help?"
"You've done more than enough. I'll contact some old friends. I'll see what I can do to convince the good Senator to change his mind."
"Mr. Murphy," Henry said, "you should both stay here at the hotel for the next few days. I'll arrange another room for you. You need to rest and recover."
Robert, penniless and wounded, could not refuse his kindness.
Henry and Alice exchanged a look. "Rachel, Mr. Robert, we should let you rest," Alice said. "We'll be going now."
As they left the room, Henry asked, "Have you had lunch, Alice?"
"I have. You?"
"Me too. I'm going downstairs to arrange Mr. Robert's room, and then I'm going to check on Linda. Would you care to join me?"
"I'd love to. I haven't seen her in ages."
Half an hour later, they arrived at her parents' apartment. Linda's parents, Jacques and Aurelie, were a charming, elegant couple in their sixties who greeted them warmly. Little Becky immediately ran to Henry and demanded to be held.
Linda served afternoon tea, and the group chatted pleasantly. Alice had taken piano lessons from Linda for three years in Frisco, and the two were old friends.
At the same time, at the Five Points, a massive crowd of onlookers, firefighters, reporters, and police had gathered around the ruins of the Phoenix Brothers Hotel. The Whyos Gang headquarters had been completely destroyed, the building a collapsed, smoldering ruin.
The local precinct captain, a man named Charlie, was being hounded by reporters.
"Captain Charlie, was this a gang war?"
"Is Mike dead? Has the Whyos Gang been destroyed?"
"How do you explain an explosion of this magnitude in the middle of the city?"
Charlie's head was pounding. He had deep ties to the Whyos. If they were gone, and especially if Mike was dead, it would be a disaster for him. But he couldn't afford to antagonize the press; in this era, they were the uncrowned kings of the city. He fobbed them off with a few non-committal answers and then went to find the Pinkerton chief, Alston. The mayor's office had already commissioned the agency to investigate.
Alston's men had already interviewed the staff at the Phoenix Hotel. They had a single, vague lead: a very tall man had been seen running from the hotel just before the explosion.
Alston knew that even if there were other witnesses, they wouldn't come forward. No one wanted to get involved with a killer this powerful. Besides, most of the city was celebrating the demise of the Whyos.
He had a nagging feeling that he had seen a similar scene before, but he couldn't quite place it.
It was after 6 PM when he finally returned to his office. The evening edition of the Sun was already on the streets. He saw the headlines and suddenly, it all clicked into place.
The black market in Denver, destroyed by explosions and fire, hundreds of bodies left behind. The Raven Brotherhood clubhouse in New York, burned to the ground. And now the Whyos.
Henry hadn't even been in New York when the Denver black market was hit. But he was tall. And he had a motive.
The implications were chilling.
He knew he couldn't make a direct move against Henry. The man had just saved the children of half a dozen of the most powerful families in the country. They would protect him. And besides, how do you move against a man like that?
His orders from headquarters were clear: provide intelligence, but do not get directly involved.