The Day Steam Died, by Dick Brown

Ann sneaks out to meet her lover, Rick Barnes, who lives across the hall in their creaky old apartment house to collect spilled coal in the rail yard of the dying railroad town. Escaping her alcoholic father for stolen moments of intimate bliss, they plan their future together. A future that Tank, the son of Sam Johnson, the most powerful man in town, aims to disrupt.

Suddenly, Ann and her family vanish without a trace. Rick is devastated. Using his resources as a successful newspaper reporter he begins investigating Tank’s political career, the man he believes is complicit in Ann’s disappearance.

Living in another city with her family through a financial arrangement with Sam Johnson, who shuts down the railway repair center, Ann is well paid to keep silent about her maternal condition. Even though she marries later, she is never able to totally shut Rick out of her fantasies. Sam pays for her silence, but doesn’t stop her determination to punish him and Tank for what they did.

A shocking murder of a friend and colleague gives Ann the evidence she needs to incriminate Sam and Tank. Her revenge is bittersweet, but an unexpected twist changes her future prospects.