Free City for Ransom by Robert W. Walker

Orion Saville.”
    â€œAll right, Orion. Tell us what you saw. Every detail. You want to help the authorities, don’t you?”
    â€œY-y-yes-sir…only…only got a fleetin’ glimpse of the killer’s legs and shoes—”
    â€œThrough the slit in the stall?”
    â€œYes. Thought he’d see me, turn on me, and—and kill me.”
    â€œTell me what was noticeable about the shoes?”
    â€œShined up nice, fine leather. I know leather. Was a tanner before coming here.”
    â€œExpensive wear.”
    â€œThe best quality it was.”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œAnd when I escaped the bloody men’s room…and—and saw the body aflame, I shouted for help but nobody ’round that time o’morn. I tried to put out the fire. And the whole time this madman was whistling a tune as he rushed off.”
    â€œWhat sort of tune?”
    â€œWhy…I believe it was ‘Listen to the Shepherd’…no, no! Twas ‘Coming Through the Rye.’”
    â€œHmmm…OK, tell me just how you put out the blasted flames. Exactly how did you accomplish that?”
    â€œYeah, how’d you do that?” mimicked O’Malley.
    â€œBy—by…by dousing it with my own mother’s coat—only thing left me in this world.” If true, this made a liar of the watchman, who’d claimed that he’d hosed down the body while yet aflame.
    Ransom noted the moth-eaten coat, parts of it showing obvious signs of fire damage. The homeless man’s gesture had been successful, and he’d salvaged his coat, along with the boy’s wallet. In the process, he’d burned his hands.
    â€œAnd the name you gave is no alias, sir? What is your given name and where indeed are you from?”
    â€œOrville then…Orville McEachern is my true name. Feels good to say it aloud again.”
    â€œAn outstanding warrant out on you from where?” Ransom had seen scores of homeless and hobos, and most had had at least one run-in with the law.
    â€œBoston.”
    â€œSo you came here to rid yourself of problems in Boston?”
    â€œI did. You have found me out.”
    â€œAnd how did you arrive here? By mule, pack train, afoot?”
    â€œI come by the rails.”
    â€œIndeed…in style.”
    â€œA—a stowaway from the Ohio Reserve on the Baltimore and Ohio.”
    â€œYou fled Baltimore after leaving Boston then, Mr. Saville?” Ransom was careful to use his alias, and a half wink told McEachern that he’d come to the right city to start over with a new name. “The truth now I’m asking from you.”
    Saville-McEachern cleared his throat and scratched himself all over, clearly uncomfortable under Ransom’s and O’Malley’s combined gaze and in need of a bath. “I ahhh…ahhh , hell…I fled…fled Baltimore after robbing a bartender of twenty-four dollars and some change.”
    â€œThere’s no work in Baltimore, I’ve heard, no more than in Chicago.”
    â€œThen you have some idea how it is with me. No work for an honest man,” he lamented.
    â€œSo desperation creates liars and thieves of us all?”
    â€œI was without choice.”
    â€œYou speak like an educated man beneath all that grime, sir.”
    â€œI was schooled in Boston.” He said this as if it were a badge of honor.
    â€œYou say you’re a tanner?”
    â€œAye, it’s my father’s gift passed on.”
    â€œThen it is your gift. We must help Saville here, O’Malley! Get ’im fixed up with the right people all properlike. What do you say, O’Malley?”
    â€œOh indeed, Inspector Ransom.”
    â€œSo’s the man can use those hands for honest work and rob no one in my city, what? O’Malley’ll see you to a hotmeal at the shelter. Get round then to see me, and I’ll introduce you to some friends who can get you solid on your