Eden's Sin Read Online Free Page A

mouth. Sinclair, I did not send you to West Point so you could become a common soldier. West Point is simply a small step on your path to a prestigious political career.
    Sinclair blocked out the past and folded his notes. “All right. I think I'll start by talking to the workmen. Who's your man in charge of the crews?”
    “ Cormac McGrady. He should be in from the cut soon,” Henry interjected, then looked to Parsons like a puppy waiting for the approving pat on the head.
    “ Working in this weather?” Sinclair nodded outside.
    “ Mr. McGrady's Gang is the best damn group of men I have. If all these bastards worked as hard as those Irish fools, the railway would be built already. McGrady could get a dead man to drive a spike.” Parsons sighed, then dropped into his seat and picked up his pen. “Henry, you'll introduce Major Bradford to the men.”
    “ Yes, sir. McGrady will be at the saloon. The men always have a drink there.”
    P arsons nodded. “Fine. Major, you can start your investigation there.”
    The dismissal made Sinclair grit his teeth. 
    “ Judge, we're not quite done talking.”
    Parsons looked up, his expression clear he didn't like Sinclair's tone of voice.
    “What else?” He tapped his fingers on the blotter.
    “ I think you should know I've heard about the rape, and I intend for that to be part of my investigations.”
    “ Rape? What are you—” Parsons stopped and waved his hand as if rape were a pesky fly buzzing his head. “Oh, you mean that whore outside town?”
    The way he said whore grated down Sinclair's back like the screech of train brakes. He nodded and searched his notes.
    “ I have her name as Mary Rose. Fifteen years old. And from what I was told, she was a cook and laundress. Not a whore. “
    Parsons scowled. “Same difference as far as the men around here are concerned. And a whore is the absolute least of my concern. Or yours. That is not why you were sent.”
    “ I don't think—”
    “ Damn it, Major,” Parsons slapped the ink blotter, “there will be no arrests. I can't afford to lose the man power.”
    Sinclair leaned over the desk. “There will be an arrest, if I can find the guilty man. The deadline of this railroad's completion doesn't negate the law.”
    Parsons' face reddened. “Are you telling me you think a common prostitute is as important as what we're trying to accomplish here?”
    “ I'm telling you right is right and wrong is wrong. I don't prescribe to the theory that progress somehow voids that truth.”
    “ Perhaps I should telegram Washington and have you replaced for this job.”
    Sinclair grinned. “Perhaps.” He turned for the door. “You do what you have to do, and so
will I.”
    Damn that man . He slammed out of the railcar and loped down the steps.  He'd traveled thousands of miles from Washington and politics and greed, yet here he was right back in the middle of one of Father's games.
    “ Hold up there, Major.” Stevens splash-slomped down the mud-puddled street behind him. “You have to go meet McGrady.”
    “ Fine.” But he didn't have to converse with Stevens on the walk to the saloon. He increased his stride, leaving the man a few steps behind. Damn but he wished he could saddle Lincoln and ride back to Fort Hayes. Surely there was an assignment in the farthest, most remote point of Wyoming or Montana, some place he could avoid doing his father's favors , some place he could thwart his family's political expectations. Some place he could forget the past. Forget whose son he was.
    “ …and this is where you'll find the men, if they're not working.” Stevens was talking.
    Sinclair slowed his pace until the man walked beside him, then stopped to look at the building Stevens pointed to.
    “ Devil's Gate, huh? Is this the only saloon in town?” Sinclair peeked through the dimly lit windows.
    “ No, but it's the one the men frequent. You see, upstairs is Garden of Eden, the brothel. As I said, if the men aren't working,