CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

 

 

July 9th, 1906

Oregon Coast

 

BUSHNELL FINISHED UP his dinner and then paid while Jesse and Kelli were still finishing their first course. So as Bushnell put on his coat, Jesse excused himself from Kelli.

As he stood, leaving his coat and hat on the hook, he apologized loud enough for Bushnell to hear.

“I’ll be right back, dear,” he said. “I just needed to get something from our room.”

Kelli nodded and smiled, “Don’t be too long, dear. I would hate for your meal to chill.”

Jesse smiled at her and went out the door, walking down the wide boardwalk at a normal pace toward the hotel. The evening air was still clean and crisp and comfortable, with almost no breeze off the ocean. The sun was still a couple hours above the horizon.

About halfway to the hotel, Jesse heard the door to the restaurant close behind him.

He glanced back to see Bushnell following him with the heavy saddlebag over his shoulder. Kelli had been right. That bag had a heft to it, there was no doubt. To someone in this time period who knew what they were looking for, that bag was like a sign for Bushnell to be robbed. He carried it like he had pounds of gold in there.

Jesse went into the hotel and moved off to one side of the lobby, picking up a local paper and pretending to read intently as Bushnell came in.

Jesse let Bushnell get up to the first floor before he went across the lobby and up the stairs himself. Bushnell hadn’t even looked around, but instead walked with his eyes on the floor in front of him.

Bushnell stopped on the second floor and Jesse could hear him from his heavy steps on the wood floor turn down the hallway to the right.

Jesse reached the second floor just as Bushnell opened the third door down the hallway from the stairwell and went inside and closed it. The sound of the bolt latching from the inside echoed in the hallway.

Jesse turned around and headed back down the stairs, again going to the newspaper near one seating area and pretending to read.

After five minutes, when Bushnell hadn’t come down, Jesse put the paper down and returned to the restaurant just as the waitress was serving his steak, still sizzling.

And beside the steak was a cob of corn and a large dinner roll. Perfect, and it smelled heavenly.

“Any luck?” Kelli asked.

Jesse smiled as he picked up his fork and knife. “A beautiful woman and a wonderful meal. Can’t get much luckier than that.”

She shook her head. “Trust me, mister. You’re going to get a lot luckier later.”

“Does that mean I should eat fast?” he asked, looking intently into her dark eyes.

“No,” she said, shaking her head as she dug at her corn with a knife as a woman should do in this time period. “I would rather have you eat and build up your strength.”

“Same goes for you,” he said, laughing.

And then he leaned forward and whispered, “Our target is tucked in bed on the second floor, third room down on the right.”

“So we have until dawn,” she said, nodding.

“I would love to make the best of that time in more ways than just one.”

She laughed as she took a spoonful of corn. “I can think of about a dozen ways.”

He really, really liked the sound of that.