Chapter 10

After tidying up the room a little, William had visitors.

The place he was staying in was an old four-story building facing the street. The first and second floors were a small bar. The third and fourth were ordinary rental rooms.

In many hotels and taverns, the upper floors had short-term rooms for rent, three or five days, maybe a week, with one-day stays accepted as well. More like an inn than a residence.

That model had originally grown out of drunkards. Tavern owners would give them a bed and charge a little extra. Before long, most taverns were doing the same. No one complained about squeezing money out of drunks.

Liquor was a peculiar thing. It could leave some people insensible enough to be dumped into a “premium” room for the night at a higher rate, and it could make other people simple and direct. That was why every bar and tavern needed a few rooms.

Which also meant the place William was staying could never be too remote, never some deserted outskirt. People passed by here constantly, day and night alike.

The police said there were no witnesses, maybe the thief had been a seasoned professional. In truth, there was no way there had been no witnesses. The other tenants on the second floor, the bartender behind the counter downstairs, even the scattered customers, they could not possibly have known nothing.

They simply would not talk.

First, William had no direct stake with them. Second, no one wanted the IRS looking at them over a stranger they neither knew nor cared about. So they all kept their mouths shut.

But that silence also happened to mislead the police about a few things, and gave them room to maneuver afterward.

He had only just finished straightening the room when someone came to the door. A few newsboys.

Their leather satchels bulged, each one clearly straining under the weight, their faces flushed, partly from carrying the heavy bags, partly from excitement.

The boss had promised them that as long as they delivered this money and remembered a few details about the room, they would each get an extra reward this month, no less than fifty dollars.

For children their age, that money mattered. In two or three years they would have to begin living on their own. They needed savings before facing society, and chances like this did not come often, even if it was only fifty dollars.

Before closing the door, William glanced outside.

The little tavern he was staying in sat right beside the main road. Outside his door was a corridor, and beyond the railing was the street itself. Standing there, he could see most of what was going on outside at a glance.