The Edge of Town

by Dorothy Garlock

  “Here ya are.” Sparky placed the plates of food on the counter. “I hear ya let Evan Johnson out.”

  “News travels fast.”

  “Well, it isn’t every day we have a murder right here in Fertile.”

  “Did you see Walter last night, Sparky?”

  “I saw him outside as I was closing. Otto Bloom was with him.”

  “Were they drunk or just drinking?”

  “Didn’t seem to be very drunk, but no doubt they were drinking.”

  “That’s the last you saw of them?”

  “Yep. Wife is bringing out some biscuits.”

  It was dark when Corbin and the marshal knocked on the door of the Bloom house. Mrs. Bloom pulled back a curtain and peered out.

  “It’s Chief Appleby, Mrs. Bloom.”

  She opened the door a crack. “I’m not supposed to let anyone in.”

  “You can let us in, ma’am. Doc Curtis is going to lift the quarantine tomorrow.”

  “He never said anything to me about it. Buddy is asleep.”

  “We’ll not disturb him.” Corbin pushed gently on the door and the woman stepped back. He and the marshal entered the small neat house. “Mrs. Bloom, this is Marshal Sanford. We’d like to speak with Otto if he’s here.”

  “Otto? Ah … he’s not supposed to be here,” she said and nervously looked away from the two men.

  “But is he?”

  “No. Buddy has been awfully sick.”

  “Mrs. Bloom, was Otto here last night?”

  “Last night? Oh, yes. He was here all night.” She nodded her head up and down.

  “Sparky Yates said Otto was uptown around ten o’clock.”

  “He came home right after that,” she said quickly.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Bloom.”

  “Pleased to have met you, ma’am.”

  As soon as they were out the door it was shut.

  “He’s there,” Corbin said after they stepped off the porch. “That woman is so scared of him she’d say anything he told her to say. I’ll move the car up the street so they’ll think we’ve gone and I’ll slip around the back. He’ll either come out or I’ll see him through the kitchen window.”

  Corbin heard voices as soon as he stepped up onto the small back porch.

  “I told them what you told me to say, Otto.”

  “You’re a stupid slut, is what you are. Why did you say I came home after ten?”

  “I had to. If you were seen in town, how could you be here?”

  “You could have said Sparky lied, was mistaken or something like that. He came home right after that,” he mimicked in a high woman’s voice. “I ought to knock your teeth down your throat.”

  “I did what you told me—”

  “And it could get you in trouble.” Corbin stepped into the kitchen from the back door.

  “What the hell? Get out of my house!” Otto, barefoot and shirtless, turned to pick up an iron skillet.

  “Go ahead. Give me an excuse to shoot you.” Corbin’s gun appeared in his hand. “Your wife and boy would be better off without a drunk like you. And stay where you are,” he said quickly when the man began to move sideways toward his wife.

  “What are ya …Ya’ve no right here.”

  “The marshal and I are going to talk to you.”

  “Well, talk, damn ya.”

  “Not here. Down at the courthouse. Get his shoes, Mrs. Bloom.”

  “Ya can’t take me to jail ’cause I’m in my own house. That old quack that put a red sign on the door don’t know beans from a bullfrog.”

  “He knew enough to keep your son alive.”

  “Kid woulda got well anyway. Mr. Wood said I could come back here. It’ll be the same as last time. He won’t stand for you keepin’ me away from my job.” Otto’s hands shook when he put on his shoes. His eyes were bloodshot and he smelled like sour whiskey.

  “He’ll be welcome to what’s left when we get through with you. Get a move on.” Corbin prodded him to his feet and toward the front door.

  “What’d’ya mean, what’s left?” Otto was drunk, but not enough so that he didn’t realize the danger he was in. “Go get Mr. Wood,” he shouted at his wife, although she stood not six feet away.

  “What are you afraid of, Otto? Why do you think you need Wood?”

  “He’ll not let you put me in jail. He’ll have yore job for this. He said ya was nothin’ but a know-it-all.”

  Mrs. Bloom followed them to the door.

  “I told ya to get Mr. Wood. And, goddamn ya, ya’d better do it or ya know what you’ll get.”

  “When will he be back?” The woman cowered out of reaching distance of Otto’s fists.

  “Maybe … never.” Corbin dragged the words out and poked Otto in the back with the barrel of his gun. “You’re going to look good in black and white stripes, Otto. They’ll match the blue bruises you’ve put on your wife’s face.”

  “Get Mr. Wood,” Otto yelled over his shoulder.

  Marshal Sanford was waiting in the front yard, and Otto was hustled off to the holding room in the courthouse.

  * * *

  At suppertime, Jethro came quietly from the room across the hall. His eyes swung around the dining room, missing nothing. His family was ready to take their places at the table, their eyes on him. All of them were worth their weight in gold to him.

  “Something smells good. What’er we having, Sis?”

  “One of your favorites, Papa: creamed chicken gravy over hot biscuits and sweet potato pie.”

  “Isn’t that a little much for Sunday night supper? You shouldn’t have fired up that hot stove.”

  “I wanted to. This is to celebrate … Evan’s release,” she added quickly and turned her back to ease the biscuits onto a platter and pour the creamed gravy into a large bowl.

  “That’s not all we need to celebrate, but we won’t speak of it now.”

  With Julie’s nod of approval, Jason took a biscuit from the platter and went to the door. Sidney was hunkered down on the porch but quickly got up to accept his treat.

  “Sidney’s got to celebrate, too.”

  During the meal Jethro asked Jack about the ball practice and Joe and Jack told once again about Evan making the arrangements to bury Walter.

  “We’ll all go to the buryin’ out of respect for a neighbor,” Jethro announced.

  “Papa, I don’t think Joy and Jason should go.” Julie dipped into the crock of butter, then spread it and strawberry jam on Joy’s biscuit.

  “Jason will go to school. Joy can stay in the car.”

  “Sidney will watch her,” Jason said.

  “No. Sidney will have to look after things here while we’re gone.”

  “And he will, Papa. Sidney’s a good guard dog.”

  Julie lowered her eyes and thanked God that the family was back to normal after the recent days of crackling tension.

  After the supper things had been cleared away, Julie washed Joy and put her in her nightdress. The child was wound up and talked constantly.

  “Is Evan comin’? Will he take us for ice cream?”

  “Evan is coming. You’re not to mention going for ice cream. It isn’t nice to ask for things.”

  “I’ll be nice, Julie. I won’t ask.”

  “You can stay up for a while. Papa and the boys are going to play cards.”

  With Joy out of the way, Julie hurried upstairs to wash and put on a fresh dress. She combed and pinned her hair, then slipped a sachet of rose petals into the bosom of her chemise. She returned downstairs to hear the complaints about who was going to be stuck with Jill for a partner. Joy sat on Jethro’s lap. Joe was dealing the cards. He glanced at Julie with a wide grin.

  “Evan’s comin’. I heard the horses nickering.”

  “Go on out,” Jack said with a smirk. “We know you’re dyin’ to see him.”

  Julie could feel the heat flood her face. She stepped out onto the back porch, agonizingly aware that her brothers were snickering and her sister
giggling. Her heart hammered and there was a fluttering in the pit of her stomach that refused to go away, even as she pressed her hands tightly to it. Sure that her hair was smooth and her dress properly buttoned, she waited the few seconds for her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

  Then she saw his white shirt. He was coming across the yard. She stepped off the porch. He stopped and held his arms wide. It was all the invitation she needed. She ran to him. Her arms went around his neck as he desperately hugged her to him, lifting her off her feet.

  “Ah, sweetheart,” he said between kisses. “Ah, sweetheart.” It was all he could say. She was softer and sweeter than he remembered. His lips caressed her mouth gently, tenderly, for a long time. Then he drew back to look at her. “Nothing has changed? You still love me?”

  “Of course I do. Why wouldn’t I?” She cupped his cheeks with her palm.

  “After all that’s happened …I was worried that you might have a doubt about me and wonder if, after I left you, I went looking for him.”

  “If you had brought me home at ten, I still wouldn’t have believed that you did that terrible thing.”

  “Even knowing what you know about his not being my father and that I had always hated him?”

  “Out of respect for what he did for your mother, you never, never would have killed him.”

  “You have that much faith in me?”

  “And much more.”

  “I’ve never told anyone about Walter and my mother, but I wanted you to know.”

  “No one outside the family knows about Joy.”

  “Sweetheart.” His lips moved against her temple when he spoke. “All this time you thought Walter had done that to you?”

  “He was the logical one. Papa thought so, too, but I told him no. I was afraid he would kill him or be killed. Are you sure it doesn’t make you think less … of me? I’d be in disgrace if it ever becomes known, and poor little Joy would suffer the stigma of being a …a—”

  “Don’t say it.” He put his fingers over her lips. “You and Joy, too, are very dear to me. I hope to give her a lot of little brothers and sisters.”

  For a minute Julie couldn’t speak. He was the man she had dreamed about, a man who would love her and who would accept her child. Tears came, but she blinked them away.

  “Will you ever tell her?” he asked gently.

  “I don’t know.” Arm in arm, they walked toward the porch. “I saved you some supper.”

  “I can’t think of eating when I have you here in my arms.” He stopped and pressed gentle kisses to her face. “I thought about this today while I was waiting in the locked room at the courthouse.”

  “I thought about you, too. This has been a day to remember … or try to forget.” She laughed happily.

  “Joe and Jack told me about Mrs. Stuart’s husband coming for her. How did Jethro take it?”

  “At first I wasn’t sure. He walked out into the woods, and when he came back, he went to his room. Jill and I had it ready for him. He didn’t come out until suppertime, then he said the strangest thing. I said that we were celebrating because you were out of that locked room, and he said we had something else to celebrate, but we wouldn’t talk about it. After that he acted like his old self. He and Jill are playing cards with the boys.” Julie stepped up onto the porch, turned and put her arms around his neck.

  “You’re the one who started the detective checking on her, weren’t you? You knew Mr. Stuart was coming.”

  “I thought he was coming. From the beginning, I suspected that there was something fishy about her. She didn’t really want to disappear. If she had, she wouldn’t have used her real name. The Pinkerton man said he thought that she was waiting for her husband to find her.”

  “She couldn’t have married Papa, but we didn’t know that.”

  “She has an unbalanced mind. Let’s forget about her.”

  Their lips met in joint seeking. This time the kiss was deep and long. Her lips parted under the pressure of his and she felt the lightning touch of his tongue on her lips. One of his hands shaped itself over her breast, the other flattened against her buttocks and held her tightly against him.

  “Someday soon, I’m going to touch you and kiss you anytime I want to,” he said breathlessly. “I’ll never get enough of you.”

  “I don’t deserve you,” she whispered.

  “Yes, you do, and I deserve you, darling girl. I must have done something right, for God to bring me back here to meet you.”

  She moved her head to look into his face. Her hand covered the one shaped to her breast.

  “I feel in my heart”—she pressed his palm more firmly against her breast—“that I’ve always known you.” She brought her lips to his and kissed him with such sweetness that he felt a swell of love and joy wash over him.

  “Julie, my sweet Julie. It’s going to be hard waiting to take you home as my wife.”

  “For me, too.” Her voice came against lips that were kissing hers. Finally she drew back, took a deep breath and asked, “What time is the service in the morning? Papa said we’ll all be there except for Joy and Jason.”

  “You’ll probably be the only ones there besides me. Walter didn’t do anything to endear himself to his neighbors or the people in town. That’s why I welcomed the suggestion from Reverend Meadows that we hold a graveside service.”

  “We’ll be there with you. You won’t be alone.” Her arms slipped from around his neck, and she smoothed her hair and poked loose strands back into the bun at the nape of her neck. “Come in and eat—that is, if you can stand the teasing from Joe and Jack.”

  The minute they stepped in the door, Joy slid off Jethro’s lap and ran to Evan.

  “Evan, I’m not goin’ to ask for ice cream. Julie said it ain’t nice. She saved you some pie.”

  Evan scooped her up in his arms. “Well, I guess you’d better mind Julie.”

  Joy planted kisses on his cheeks and he tickled her ribs before setting her on her feet.

  While he ate from the plate of food Julie set before him, the card game came to an end. Jethro and the boys lingered to talk to him. Julie took Joy up to bed.

  When she came back down to the kitchen, the men were talking about the thing that was on everyone’s mind: who had killed Walter Johnson.

  “The thing that puzzles me,” Evan was saying, “is who has a car that looks like mine from the back?”

  “Could it have been someone who came to Spring Lake from out of town and got into a fight with him?” Jethro asked.

  “That’s a possibility. How could Walter have gotten way out there? His horse was tied up downtown.”