Desert Moon

by Susan Page Davis

  Clew looked down at it. His mouth twitched, making his whole beard tremble.

  Julia wanted to reassure the old man, but she held her ground. What did she really know about Clew, anyway? And if she ruled him out as a suspect, who was left?

  “That looks like a matchbook Ollie gave me,” Clew said.

  “And where is that now?” Adam asked. “Do you still have it?”

  Clew patted his pockets and stared toward the doorway, his face grim. “I guess I musta lost it.”

  Adam put away the matchbook. “In that case, I’m sorry to have to do this, but you’re under arrest. I’m going to take you back to the—”

  “Maybe it’s in my coat.” Clew strode toward the wall where a coat hung on a peg amid bridles and tools.

  “Hold it, Clew.” Adam drew his revolver. “Stop right there.”

  Clew turned halfway around. His eyes widened in surprise. “You’re pulling iron on me?”

  “Take it easy. Just put your hands up.”

  Clew stuck both hands in the air, palms out. Oliver stirred uneasily but said nothing.

  Adam said, “Julia, you go over and get Clew’s coat. Turn out the pockets and see if you find anything.”

  Julia threw an apologetic glance at Oliver and walked past Clew to the wall. She lifted down the corduroy jacket hanging there. It was none too clean. A button was missing, and the cuffs were frayed. She thrust her hand into the right pocket and came out with a crumpled bandanna. She grimaced and shoved it back in. In the other pocket, her hand closed on something square. She pulled it out and opened her hand.

  “Arizona, the forty-eighth state. It sure looks like the other one.” She carried it over and handed it to Adam.

  He stared down at it as though he couldn’t believe his own eyes. Slowly he holstered his revolver and took out the matchbook he’d shown them earlier. He held them up side by side. They appeared to be identical.

  “That’s the one Oliver gave me,” Clew said, gesturing toward the matchbook Julia had handed over then self-consciously returning his hands to their upward position.

  Adam opened the matchbook from the robbery site. Only three of the paper matches were left. He closed it and opened Clew’s book. A whole row remained.

  “You didn’t use many matches,” he said.

  Clew shrugged. “I used a few to light the fire. I’m sorry I didn’t give it back, Oliver.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Oliver said. “I don’t think I told you to. It really didn’t matter.”

  Adam looked exhausted. His whole face wilted. His shoulders slumped as he glanced at Clew, who still stood with his hands raised.

  “You can put your hands down. And I’m sorry. I had to make sure.”

  Clew lowered his arms. “I understand.”

  Julia shivered and held out the jacket to Clew. “You’d better put this on. It’s getting chilly, and you must feel it, now that you’re not working.”

  “Thank you.” Clew took it and shrugged into it.

  “Why don’t you come to supper at our house tonight,” she said, casting a belated glance of question toward Oliver.

  “Yeah, you do that,” Oliver said. “If Julia and I aren’t in jail.”

  Julia arched her eyebrows at Adam.

  “I’ll tell the folks you’re innocent, Oliver,” Adam said. “And…I’m truly sorry.”

  “Not your fault,” Oliver said.

  “Yes, it was. I got things all turned around in my mind, and—well, I don’t like that. I should have trusted you. You, too, Julia.” His eyes crinkled.

  Julia wasn’t sure she could trust her voice. And she didn’t know as she should trust Adam either. His error in judgment had obviously upset him. He’d apologized last night. He’d even said he loved her—had loved her all this time. But that was when he’d seen that Clew might be the guilty party. What now? If he couldn’t find the real killer, would his suspicion fall on her and Oliver again?

  Part of her wanted to tear into him again, but another part of her wanted to hold him and comfort him. Until she reconciled those two parts, she’d better tread softly.

  “Come on,” she said to Oliver. “Let’s go get the horses.”

  Chapter 13

  As soon as Julia and Oliver headed down the trail to where they’d left their mounts, Adam had one of those feelings. What if they took their horses and rode off?

  That was crazy, and he knew it. He looked at Clew Harrison. “I need to see if Mr. Gerry’s in his office. Will you stay here while I’m inside, and tell Oliver and Julia where I am when they get back?”

  “Sure,” Clew said. “I’ve still got a few horses to tend.”

  Adam went into the headquarters building. A young man sat at the desk inside the front door.

  “May I help you, Sheriff?”

  “Thanks. I’d like to see Mr. Gerry.”

  “Just one moment, please.”

  The young man disappeared through a doorway and came back a minute later. Right behind him was Gerry. He held out his hand as he advanced toward Adam.

  “Sheriff Scott! Glad you’re back. I heard you were in pursuit of the stagecoach robber. What’s the word?”

  Adam shook Gerry’s hand and stepped back. “I’m still looking for the outlaw. I wanted to ask you, sir, if anyone else besides Oliver Newman was absent from the mine on that day.”

  “Well, I—What do you mean? Have you not found Oliver?”

  “I found him,” Adam said. “And I think he’s innocent. So now I have to look at who else could have committed the crime.”

  Gerry frowned. “I’m glad to hear that you found him—and that he didn’t do it, of course. I’ve been worried about that young man. Where is he now?”

  “He’ll be traveling with me back to Ardell,” Adam said. “I imagine he’ll return to work soon. I wanted to stop in here and see you and assure you that it’s all right to let him do that. But I also need to know if any other mine personnel were unaccounted for on the day of the robbery.” Adam smiled and hoped it looked sincere. “Let’s start with you, sir. Where were you that morning?”

  Gerry’s eyes narrowed. “Why, right here. What’s your meaning, Sheriff?”

  “I’m just trying to establish the whereabouts of people concerned in this matter. Other than Bub Hilliard, you lost the most in that robbery. I’m told all the money in the treasure box on the stagecoach belonged to the mine. So I’m asking you and some of your other associates, where were you when the robbery occurred?”

  Gerry stared at him. “I can’t believe this. Is this a game to you?”

  “Just play along with me, sir,” Adam said.

  After a tense moment, Gerry shook his head. “All right. I believe I was right here all morning. You can ask Mr. Denham at the desk in the entry. He schedules appointments for me and makes note of visitors who come in to see me. At lunchtime, I went home and ate with my wife. That was shortly before you came here.”

  “Thank you,” Adam said. “I’ll speak to Mr. Denham.”

  He went out to the entry. To his surprise, he found Oliver, Julia, and Clew inside. Oliver was leaning over Denham’s desk, talking to him.

  “I thought you were waiting at the stable,” he said to Oliver.

  “I wanted the mine people to know I’m all right.”

  Adam frowned but could think of no reason to protest. “Mr. Denham, could you please check your records for me? On the day of the robbery, was Mr. Gerry here all morning? And if so, did he have any visitors?”

  Denham paged through a book of lined paper on his desk. “It appears that he was, sir. He met with Mr. Cosgrove that morning, as is customary on Mondays, and after that he worked in his office.

  He didn’t have any visitors until after noon, and that would be you, sir. And a Mr. Brink, who came in from Flagstaff on the stagecoach that day.”

  “Thank you. And what about you?”

  Denham blinked at him. “Me, sir?”

  “Yes. Were you here all day?”


  “Oh yes, sir. I ate dinner at my desk. Mr. Gerry took his usual hour to go home, though.”

  “Very good.” Adam turned to the others. “Let’s go into town. I can come back tomorrow and question the rest of the mine’s personnel if I need to. We don’t want to ride into town after dark.”

  They walked outside, and Adam squinted against the bright sunlight.

  “So that pretty much clears Mr. Gerry,” Oliver said.

  “Are you sure?” Julia asked.

  Her brother shrugged. “Well, yeah. Denham keeps track of everyone who comes into the building—visitors, I mean. It’s not like he cares whether I’m there every minute, but if anyone who doesn’t work there comes in, he writes it down. And I’d say he’s pretty aware of Mr. Gerry’s presence all the time. And everyone who works there sees Denham when they go in and out, so in that sense, we all vouch for him. He was there when I left. He was there when Adam came to see the boss. Half a dozen other men who work in that building can tell you he was there when they walked through the entrance, too.”

  “And yet you left, and he had no idea you weren’t in your little chicken coop of an office,” Adam said.

  “Well, like I said, he doesn’t have to know where I am every minute. No one does.”

  “And the fact that they were all surprised that you weren’t in the building tells me that anyone who works there—at least the management chaps—could most likely slip out for an hour or two and not be missed. You stayed away longer, and that’s what made it remarkable.” Adam sighed, feeling rather useless. “Let’s go.”

  “Sheriff, it’s almost my time to quit work for the day,” Clew said. “What do you want me to do this evening?”

  “Do what you normally would, Clew. Just don’t plan any out-of-town trips without telling me, all right?”

  “You got it.”

  “Thank you for all your help,” Julia told the old man.

  “T’weren’t nothin’. You still want me to come for supper?”

  “Sure,” Oliver said. “Come with us now if you’re able.”

  Clew grinned at him. “Kin you wait just a minute? I’ll get Ol’ Blackie.”

  The others mounted and waited while the old man hurried to the corral for his horse. He was ready in just a couple of minutes.

  “You know,” Julia said as they guided their horses toward the road that led to Ardell, “you had that notion about me possibly helping the robber—”

  “Forget that,” Adam said quickly. The last thing he wanted was for her to bring that up and start fussing at him again.

  “No, listen to me.” Julia moved her horse up beside Socks. “The idea of an accomplice inside the stage isn’t so very crazy. What if one of the other passengers was there for that purpose? If things got too dangerous, he could make himself known and keep the rest of us in line while his partner got away with the money. But the man outside had the situation in hand, so he didn’t make a move.”

  Adam frowned at her. “You mean Hinze or Chesley, or that guy visiting Mr. Gerry? Brink—was that his name?”

  “Any one of them could have been in on it,” she said. “You fixed on me because you thought the man outside was Oliver. But what if you’d thought he was Denham, from the mine’s headquarters? In that case, I suspect you’d have looked harder at either Chesley or Brink, because they’re both connected to the mine.”

  Adam let that sink in.

  “She’s right,” Oliver said, from his other side. “And if the robber was a ranch hand, you’d have suspected Ike Hinze.”

  “I can talk to them again, but I doubt I can get any more out of them than I did before.”

  “It would probably be a good idea to ask a few more questions,” Oliver said. “For instance, did you ask Chesley why he was on the stage and not working in the mine that day?”

  “Well, no.” Adam felt about as low as a horseshoe nail.

  Oliver grinned at him. “I can tell you.”

  Adam reined in his horse. “You can?”

  “Sure. It was payroll day, remember? I had to add up every man’s hours for the month. I remember that Joe Chesley’s pay was docked because he’d been out for six days.”

  “What for?” Julia asked. “He looked healthy, though he slept most of the way from Flagstaff.”

  “His sister died. He’d been to the funeral. But he doesn’t get paid for his time away.”

  “Huh,” Adam said. “Well, he wasn’t even armed, so I didn’t really think he was in on the holdup.”

  “How do you know that?” Julia asked. “Just because he didn’t pull out a gun doesn’t mean he didn’t have one.”

  “Well, that’s true, but…”

  “Did you search him?” she asked.

  “No, I didn’t search anybody.”

  “Maybe you should have.”

  Julia was starting to sound belligerent again, and Adam didn’t like that.

  “Calm down,” Oliver said. “He had no reason to search any of you. Jules, you and Brink and Hinze all admitted you had guns, and each of you could testify that the other two had them. Adam wouldn’t need to search you to know you were armed. If he’d had any indication that Chesley was involved, I’m sure he would have searched him, or at least questioned him more closely.”

  “All right,” Adam said. “I admit I didn’t do a very good job on the investigation that first day. Let’s get into town.”

  They rode along in silence for about ten minutes. As they approached the outskirts of Ardell, Julia piped up again.

  “I don’t see how you can figure out who did it. There are too many people who can’t prove where they were.”

  “You don’t have to look at everybody,” Oliver said.

  “Don’t I?” Adam asked. “I don’t want to make the mistake I made before.”

  “No, but look at all the clues. Maybe talk to Chick again about what the robber looked like. Did he really look like me? Was he the same height and weight? What about the way he walked, or his voice? Were they like mine?”

  “There’s the matchbook, too,” Julia said.

  Adam gritted his teeth. “Let’s face it—there’s no proof the matchbook has anything to do with it.”

  “You said you found it right beside where the treasure box landed,” Oliver reminded him. “It’s pretty unlikely that it got there after the robbery, and if it had lain there too long, it wouldn’t be in such good condition.”

  “Yeah,” Julia said. “Maybe you should ask Chick and the other passengers if they’ve ever seen a matchbook like that. You could rule out one of them dropping it while they were helping get Bub into the coach.”

  “That sounds reasonable,” Adam said. “Thanks.” They were coming up on Main Street, and he thought about what he would say to the people. He’d promised to tell them that Oliver was innocent. He was firmly convinced now that Julia had nothing to do with the robbery, and that she arrived the day of the robbery purely by coincidence. But was he a hundred percent sure that Oliver wasn’t in on it? He might be suggesting other people who could be guilty in order to throw suspicion off himself. Adam didn’t like even the shadow of the thought. And yet, the question remained: If Oliver wasn’t guilty of the crime, who was?

  He felt drained, unwilling to again cast his best friend in the role of a thief and murderer, but too exhausted to work out an alternative tonight. Tomorrow he would follow up on the possibilities they’d talked about, and maybe put his doubts to rest. A good night’s sleep was what he needed, and then he’d be ready to deal with this.

  The chance of heading to bed early disappeared as soon as they reached the end of Main Street. Lucas Morley spotted them and yelled, loud enough for it to echo off the mountainside, “Sheriff! You brought him in!”

  Folks began to stare, and soon shoppers were pouring out of businesses and gathering along the edge of the street. People who’d gone into their houses for supper came out to gawk at them. By the time they reached the jail, half the town seemed to be crowding them. Adam k
ept Socks close to Oliver’s horse, and Julia and Clew followed close behind.

  “Sheriff, where’d you find him?” somebody yelled.

  “Why h’ain’t you got him tied up?”

  “Hey, we was wondering where Miss Julia got to. What’s going on, Adam?”

  Adam was going to ignore them all, but when somebody shouted, “When we gonna string that killer up?” he knew he couldn’t do that. Julia’s face was pinched, and she looked pale for a woman who’d spent the last two or three days out in the sun.

  He leaned toward Oliver and said over the hubbub, “You and Julia get inside my office. I’ll disperse the crowd.”

  He hoped he sounded more confident than he felt. Sam Dennis worked his way through the spectators and came to stand beside Socks.

  “You need any help, Sheriff?”

  “Thanks, Sam. Maybe you can help these three get inside and make sure they don’t come to harm while I talk to the people.”

  “Sure,” Sam said. “I can guard the prisoners for you.”

  Adam didn’t try to correct his assumption. Sam was already at Julia’s side, offering her a hand down. Adam watched long enough to make sure Oliver got to the ground and up the steps to the sheriff’s office in one piece. Then he turned Socks around and faced the crowd.

  “Settle down, folks.” Most of them calmed down and waited for him to speak again. From his vantage point on Socks’s back, he watched their faces. These people were angry. Some of them registered fear or frustration. Mostly they looked ready to tear someone limb from limb.

  He glanced over his shoulder at the door to his office and the jail. Sam was leaning in the doorway, his hand hovering near the butt of his pistol. Oliver, Clew, and Julia had disappeared, apparently safe inside. It struck Adam how many of the men in the crowd were wearing sidearms. Normally you might see two or three walking around Ardell armed, but now nearly every man wore or carried a weapon. The robbery had done this to them.

  “We don’t need to wait for any judge, Sheriff Scott,” called the owner of the Red Bear saloon.

  “That’s right,” said somebody else on the fringe of the mob. “We can hoist Newman right now and be done with it.”