“It looks as if all your motor skills are working as hoped, Mrs. O’Neill,” the doctor said as he concluded his examination. “Start getting up on your feet for five or ten minutes at a time. Aim for a little more each day.”
Patrick closed the door to his mother’s bedroom before walking the doctor to the front room because he didn’t want her worrying about money.
“I need to know what I owe for my mother’s treatment.”
Dr. Haas looked surprised. “That’s not necessary. Everything is paid for by the college.”
Patrick shook his head. “A man should pay his own way in this world, but I don’t know how much that special serum costs.”
“Each dose costs around fifteen thousand dollars.”
Patrick choked on his own breath. He cleared his throat a few times while gathering his thoughts. “That’s a little steeper than I thought,” he managed to get out. It was more than he had earned in his entire life. He could go to his grave still owing on that bill.
“That’s why we don’t expect anyone to pay for it,” Dr. Haas said with a good-natured clap on Patrick’s shoulder. He went on to relay how expensive it was to maintain a stable of horses, a team of medical assistants, the laboratories, and the years of research that had gone into the production of the experimental serum. “Don’t worry about the money,” the doctor assured him. “We’re still in the testing stages, and we gained valuable insight from your mother’s treatment. Besides, the college treats this as a charity case. No need to worry about payment.”
Patrick felt sick. He didn’t like being beholden to anyone, but especially not Gwen. He didn’t want to be seen as a charity case. He needed to make good on this bill, or it would eat away at him and taint the purity of what he and Gwen had together.
And that he couldn’t bear.
Patrick still worried about that staggering debt as he headed out for his stint at the soup kitchen. How could a man stand proud and tall with liability like that on his soul? He tried to put the debt out of his mind as he arrived at the soup kitchen to lug water, wash tables, and swap out pots.
He hefted a five-gallon pot of chicken stew to the serving counter where old Mrs. Magill was scraping out the last of the day’s first batch. She stood aside so he could swap her empty kettle for the new one, prompting the crusty old man she had just served to complain.
“How come I got the dregs?” he growled around the butt of a cigar still clamped in his teeth. “I want another bowl.”
Mrs. Magill cowered a bit. She was too kindhearted for a gritty neighborhood like this, but Patrick didn’t mind standing up to a bully.
“Take the cigar out of your mouth when you address a lady, eat what you’ve been given, then go to the back of the line. If there’s anything left, you can have another bowl.”
“There’s never anything left!” the old man groused.
“Fancy that! Be grateful for what you got, then.” Patrick lifted the empty pot but wouldn’t take it to the kitchen until he was certain the cigar-chomper wouldn’t cause more grief for Mrs. Magill. He followed the old man through the tables to one of the few vacant spots left. It was always crowded in here, and Patrick cleared some abandoned bowls from the table, putting them in the empty kettle to carry back to the kitchen.
That was when he noticed Liam Malone leaning against the back wall of the room, watching him.
Patrick instinctively knew the hard-eyed welder wasn’t here for a bowl of stew, but he asked anyway. “Hungry?”
Liam shook his head. “My uncle said you work here on Saturdays. I need to talk.”
Everything about Liam’s stance, from his worried gaze to his bobbing Adam’s apple, indicated he was nervous. After Mick’s victory in court, the troublemakers who came to the city to whip up resentment against the U.S. Steel deal had gone home, including Liam and the other welders from Philly.
Now Liam was in New York again, and Patrick wanted to know why.
“Come on back to the kitchen. You can help me scrub pots.” Patrick led the way, and Liam followed.
It was sweltering in the kitchen, with the stoves and ovens working at full blast, but Liam rolled up his sleeves without complaint and lowered the empty pot into the sink filled with wash water.
Patrick grabbed a rag to begin drying bowls. “Out with it, then.”
“I need a lawyer,” Liam said.
“You came a long way, and I don’t practice law in Pennsylvania. I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time.”
Liam glanced at one of the ladies preparing a vat of coffee, then back at him. “It’s a New York problem and not something I want overheard.”
Patrick nodded. “Help me finish the lunch duty, and we can talk when we’re done.”
The cleanup didn’t take long because Liam worked hard. He scrubbed, dunked, rinsed, and dried. He was clearly no stranger to work, as he cleared dishes, swept the floors, and wiped down the tables. Patrick finished the chores an hour earlier than he could manage when working on his own.
“We can talk in the alley behind the kitchen,” he suggested.
Liam nodded and followed. Empty crates and dented trash cans cluttered the narrow brick alley. There was nobody else back here, but Liam glanced nervously up and down the street before speaking in a low voice.
“I don’t know who to trust,” he finally said. “Uncle Mick said you were a decent lawyer and you promised not to tell any of his secrets. Something about the rules of being a lawyer.”
“That’s right.”
Liam fidgeted, continually shifting his weight. “Yeah, well, the only lawyers I’ve met are shysters who work for the owners of the steel mills. You’re nothing like them. You seem like one of us, like I might be able to trust you.”
“Trust me to do what?”
Liam looked him straight in the eye, his face intent. “You know the rumors about me, that me and that Blackstone kid might be one and the same. I don’t know if they’re true, but I have eyes in my head. I saw a picture of Theodore Blackstone, and we look alike. I wouldn’t put it past Mick to play mean and dirty. My dad had a long and healthy hatred for the Blackstones. He’s been dead for ten years, so there’s no asking him, but he played dirty too. Crocket Malone was a brute, and I left home as soon as I could get away from him. I’ve been working in the Philly shipyards ever since.”
“And your mother? The one who bemoans delivering a ten-pound child? Is she lying too?”
“Maybe,” Liam said. “She still lives in Pittsburgh and has a big box of legal papers under her bed. I’ve tried looking through it to find a birth certificate or something else to prove who I am, but I can’t make much sense of all those papers.”
“Why not?” Patrick asked. “It shouldn’t be hard to spot a birth certificate.”
Liam stared moodily down the alley. “I’m not much for reading,” he admitted. “I need help going through that box.”
“Can you read at all?” Patrick didn’t want to embarrass Liam, but he needed to know.
“Not really,” Liam said. “I can sign my name but not a whole lot more, and there’s no one I can trust to help me with those papers.”