Outlaw Country

by A. T. Butler

  “Oh!” The saloon owner looked surprised. “Let me send someone up to fetch Ms. Merritt for you.” He had a quiet conversation with Benny before turning back to the lawman.

  “You sure you wouldn’t like to go back to your office for this?” Jacob asked. He was getting the impression that Randall wasn’t taking this seriously as a murder investigation.

  “No, no. Stay here. What else can I help you with?”

  Deputy Lowry pulled the bulletin out of his inner pocket, unfolded and smoothed it out onto the bar in front of Randall. Jacob kept his eyes fixed on the saloon proprietor, gauging his reaction. Earl Pelling’s dark eyes stared out at them from the portrait. It was so true to life, so exactly the same hair, the same jaw of the outlaw that Jacob had spied just a few hours earlier. Randall peered at it.

  “Can you tell us about this man?”

  “Well, yes. He does look familiar,” Randall said. “I believe he was here a few times in the last few days, though. Not sure I caught his name before now, though.”

  “Did you see him with Timson at all?”

  Randall nodded slowly. “Maybe once.”

  “Well—”

  Jacob elbowed the deputy before he could continue. He didn’t take his eyes off of Randall; the man began biting his nails. They needed to let him fill the silence instead of pressing him with more questions. Randall stared at the poster in silence for several more moments before looking up. While they were waiting for the saloon proprietor to fill the silence, Deputy Lowry rolled and lit himself another cigarette.

  “It was only once that I noticed, but I saw Timson spill beer on this man a few days ago. I think it was an accident. I’m almost sure it was an accident. I don’t think he meant anything. It was fine.” He started to speak faster. “It was just a little thing. An accident.”

  He lapsed into silence. Lowry and Jacob exchanged a glance.

  “Do you know where we could find him?” Jacob asked.

  “No. No. Sorry. I didn’t even know his name until you showed me…” Randall gestured. “But, as I say. I’m sure it was nothing. You’re much better off talking to Holly.”

  “Hello, Deputy.”

  Jacob turned to see Holly Merritt standing at the foot of the stairs. She wore a navy blue gown, with her hair done in the same style he had seen last night. Around her otherwise bare shoulders, she had pulled a lace shawl tightly around her, put together primly and carefully for the Sunday morning.

  “I understand you wanted to speak to me about what I saw?” She swallowed nervously.

  Jacob stood to greet her.

  “Thank you for meeting us, Ms. Merritt,” he said.

  “You’ve been very helpful, Mr. Hall,” Lowry said. “Appreciate your time.”

  “You, um …” Randall’s eyes darted from one to the other. “You need anything more from me?” He seemed reluctant to leave them alone.

  “We’re fine,” Lowry said firmly.

  “Alright. I’ll just … I’ll leave you to it then.”

  He looked back over his shoulder as he crossed the room to return to his office. Benny, the bartender, remained far enough away, cleaning glasses, plausibly out of earshot, but Jacob knew better. Randall had seemed more than a little interested in the investigation and would no doubt have tasked Benny with keeping an eye on them.

  “I apologize we don’t have a better space for you, Ms. Merritt,” Jacob said. “We would have liked to do this more privately. Please understand we’re moving quickly and solving the murder must be the priority.”

  “Of course.”

  “Have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?”

  “Oh, no thank you, Mr. Payne. That’s very thoughtful of you.”

  She looked frailer than Jacob had ever seen her, pale and delicate, and he wondered if she had gotten any sleep at all the previous night.

  “You claim to have found Mr. Timson’s body, do you not?” Lowry asked abruptly.

  She seemed to shrink into herself. “Yes, that’s right.”

  “You don’t think it is awfully convenient that you were seen earlier this week handling the murder weapon and then just happened to be the only person upstairs when the man died?”

  “What—? No, I wasn’t—”

  “You expect us to believe that you weren’t there when the man died? That you just happened upon the body?”

  “Well, yes, I do. It’s the truth.”

  “That is for us to decide, Ms. Merritt.”

  “Ask me whatever you like. I have nothing to hide.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” Lowry said, standing. “Because before we get to any more questions, Mr. Payne and I will be searching your room.”

  Jacob looked at the deputy, surprised. He figured this would be necessary but didn’t realize it would be their first step.

  “What? No. I can’t have my privacy violated in this way,” Holly protested. She stood and positioned herself between the lawman and the foot of the stairs.

  “We have to, Ms. Merritt. Step aside, please.”

  Chapter Eight

  Holly Merritt continued to voice her protests, following closely behind Jacob and Deputy Lowry as they headed up the stairs to her private quarters at the Golden Saddle Saloon. She must have been making quite a racket; Jacob noticed by the time they reached the second floor that Randall Hall had joined their party as well. All along the hallway, girls still in robes and hair in pin curls poked their heads out of doors to see what the noise was. Jacob tried to calm the woman, but she was furious.

  “You have no right,” she claimed. “There is no reason you have to search my room. This is … this is an outrage!”

  “If you really have nothing to hide, Ms. Merritt, I would think you would have no objection to us taking a look around.”

  Jacob had forgotten how pompous the deputy could be during an investigation. He seemed to be more aggressive the less sure he was about something. He had lit himself another cigarette, letting slip his nervousness. Jacob would be the first to admit their evidence against Holly wasn’t anywhere close to damning, but merely circumstantial.

  They had reached the door to Holly’s apartment suite at the end of the hallway. Lowry tried the door and found it locked. He turned to glare at Holly who sneered back at him.

  “Unlock this right now.”

  “I won’t.”

  “Come on, Holly.” Randall put his hand on her arm and tried to speak to her gently. “They need to take a look. If you don’t unlock it for them, I will have to.”

  “Some friend you are,” she said. She rolled her eyes and drew a long necklace with a key on the end out from the neckline of her gown. “You boys aren’t going in there on your own. I won’t stand for that. I’ll be standing right here the whole time.”

  “That’s fair, Ms. Merritt.” Jacob tried to be soothing as she handed the key over to Lowry, but he could tell the woman wasn’t even listening to him.

  When the door swung open, the men were treated to something none of them had experienced in quite a while: the delicate scent of lavender and clean linens. Holly Merritt’s private quarters was divided into a small living area and an even smaller bedroom to the right. She had a tidy vanity, a wash stand, two chairs and a cozy settee to welcome any guests she might have in her sitting area. Jacob could imagine Holly welcoming one of her girls in to talk, drink tea and help solve their problems. That is, after all, what a good madam did. She played surrogate mother to these younger women who were far from home and what they had grown up with.

  Lowry was already deep into the room, going through the containers of powder, perfume and jewelry on the vanity. Jacob took a step inside and peered into the bedroom. The patchwork quilt on the narrow bed was clean and smooth. The curtains were worn, but heavy and fine. There was even a vase of fresh wildflowers on the bedside table. Jacob was loathe to disturb anything in this neat chamber, but he knew they had to search.

  “Be careful with that!”

  The knocking sounds of
drawers being opened and dug through carried on behind him while Jacob walked farther into the private bedchambers. Some silk and lace, delicate clothing hung on hooks to the left of the door. He gently pushed the fabric aside, checking for something hidden underneath, but found nothing. He dropped to his knees to check under the bed and again found it clean and bare. Not even a loose bobby pin had found its way to that clear surface. The bedside table was merely that. No drawer or hidden compartment existed to hide any clue or detail tying Holly to the death of Bob Timson.

  That left only the monstrous wardrobe in the corner for Jacob to search.

  It pained Jacob to be going through a woman’s private, personal space, but the law was the law. If Deputy Lowry thought they had sufficient reason to suspect Holly Merritt, Jacob needed to do his part to bring the dead man justice.

  He opened both doors of the wardrobe and peered inside. Like the rest of her apartment, this too was neat, clean and well organized. If she had hidden any clue from the night before, Holly was thorough and deliberate about it. Not a single stocking looked out of place.

  The murmurs of conversation carried on in the sitting room; it seemed evident that Lowry had not yet found anything of note. Jacob self-consciously wiped his hands on his shirt before reaching into the wardrobe. He ran his hand along the inside wooden panel, first on one side and then the other, looking for a gap or button that indicated a hidden panel or compartment. He took the linens and boxes out of the floor of the wardrobe and performed the same check along the bottom. Everything appeared to be exactly as it seemed, simply a well loved piece of furniture that held the whole of Ms. Merritt’s life.

  Though he couldn’t hear all of what was being said, the conversation in the sitting room seemed to be getting heated. Perhaps Lowry had found something, or perhaps he had run out of places to search. Whichever the case, it sounded as though Holly was not going to succumb quietly.

  Jacob pulled out the first of the hatboxes that rested on the top shelf of the wardrobe and opened it cautiously. Inside was a flowered straw hat, with one large hatpin speared through it. Jacob smiled, thinking about what occasion Holly would have to wear such a contraption.

  As he replaced the lid of the hatbox and moved to return it to his place, he heard something heavy slide inside and the weight of the box shift as he tilted it. There must be something else within. He set the lid to the box aside and carefully lifted the hat with one hand.

  There, sitting in the center of the hatbox previously disguised by the hat itself, was a thick, folded and bound stack of greenbacks. Even with just a glance, Jacob guessed it must be close to a thousand dollars.

  Timson had been widely known in the short time he was in Tucson to be carrying large amounts of cash.

  Jacob’s heart began beating more quickly.

  He left the hat and box on Holly’s bed and carried the wad of bills into the sitting room, held out in front of him like a weapon.

  “I appreciate that you’re trying to help, Randall, but—” Lowry was saying. He stopped short when he spotted Jacob. “What is that?” He spoke quietly, cautiously, as though Jacob were carrying a rattlesnake he didn’t want to spook.

  “Can you tell us about this, Ms. Merritt?” Jacob asked, still holding the cash gingerly.

  She opened her mouth, but then closed it again without a sound. She shook her head and collapsed onto her settee, drawing her shawl more closely around her.

  “This seems like an awful lot of money for someone in your profession to be holding,” Jacob suggested.

  “It’s not,” she said. “I mean, it is. That’s true. But I’ve been saving for such a long time. It’s all mine. It’s—”

  “Where did you get all that money?” Randall asked.

  Jacob frowned at him. Randall’s input wasn’t helping. He handed the evidence he had discovered to the deputy and then took hold of Randall’s arm.

  “We appreciate your help, Mr. Hall, but we need to conduct this interview in private. Ms. Merritt deserves that.”

  “Oh, I see,” Randall said. “Of course. I’ll just … I’ll wait in the hallway, shall I?”

  “Better to wait down in your office. We can find you there if we have questions.”

  “Alright.” He nodded. “I’m happy to help.”

  Jacob nodded, lips pursed and closed the door to Holly’s quarters, shutting the other man out. When he turned around, Lowry was scowling at their suspect, who sat slumped down with her head in her hands.

  “Did you steal this money from Timson, Ms. Merritt? Is that why you were in his room last night? To take advantage of the poor man?”

  “No!” she all but shouted. She caught herself and took a deep breath before continuing. “No. I told you. The money is mine. Not only am I quite good at my job, but I am responsible as well. I’ve been saving every penny I could for a long time.”

  “Look around,” Lowry said angrily. “You have possibly the nicest room in all of Tucson. You expect me to believe you haven’t been spending your money on these fine linen and jewelry?”

  “None of this is luxurious or irresponsible, Deputy. If you were smart about how you spent your money and didn’t squander every night drinking and gambling, maybe you too could have nice things.”

  Jacob winced. The deputy was already acting as though his pride had been wounded. Further criticism would not help her case.

  “Believe me or don’t believe me,” she continued. “I don’t know what else I can say to convince you of the truth. That money is mine, earned fairly, and you’re wasting your time here. Have you even looked into what Lucky and Abe were doing last night? I heard the argument between them and Timson. I would have thought you’d begin there.”

  “We have lots of tips we are following,” Jacob said. “But since you brought it up, what else can you tell us about Lucky and Abe?”

  “I know they’re not making themselves any friends. It seems as though every man I talk to has lost money to them.”

  “Including me,” Jacob said.

  Holly laughed. “Sorry, Jacob. I could have warned you not to play with them.”

  Jacob waved his hand to deflect. “Serves me right. But those men taking money from in card games is not the same as them murdering an unsuspecting victim.”

  “That’s true. But you know as well as I do that plenty of damage can be done in the name of self defense. That fight we witnessed last night was not the first.”

  “Oh?” Lowry asked, leaning forward.

  She shook her head. “I believe that was at least the third time I saw Mr. Timson confront Lucky and Abe in the last week. In fact, after the second time a couple days ago I overheard those boys talking about leaving town.”

  “What did they say?” asked Jacob. “Did they realize you could hear them?”

  She shrugged. “A woman in my line of business knows plenty of secrets. I hear a lot of things and most men don’t pay any attention to whether or not I’m listening.”

  “Did they say when they were leaving?”

  “No, but I got the impression that it would be soon. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this murder investigation pushed up their timeline.”

  “We’ve got to find them,” Lowry said. “Now. Today. We’ve got to question them.”

  “At least Lucky. He disappeared well before Abe. We don’t know where he went,” Jacob said. “I remember thinking it strange he’d leave Abe behind since I’ve never seen them apart.”

  The deputy seemed to be hedging, indecisive about what the next step should be. His hands shook as he lit another cigarette.

  “Why don’t you go find Lucky and Abe to interview them,” Jacob said. “I can stay here with Holly. I’m sure she has more to tell us, but those card playing boys will respond better to your badge.”

  Lowry nodded, but still eyed Holly suspiciously. “You’re right. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  The deputy closed the door behind him, leaving Jacob and Holly alone.

  Chapter Nine


  The day was getting away from them, the number of suspects and threads to follow was becoming too much for Jacob and Deputy Lowry to do together. Splitting up to continue the investigation was the only way they could be sure to find the murderer as soon as possible.

  “Would you like me to open the door, Ms. Merritt? I wouldn’t want anyone thinking anything untoward was going on.”

  She laughed lightly. “Mr. Payne. Being behind a closed door with a single man cannot possibly damage my reputation. I appreciate the offer, but no. I would rather this conversation take place in private. Particularly away from Randall Hall.”

  That last sentence was so imbued with venom that Jacob was surprised, although given the warning he had received maybe he shouldn’t be.

  “Why Mr. Hall specifically?”

  She sat back against the settee and waved her hands impatiently. “He is just a nuisance sometimes. He already knows more than he should and I don’t trust him.”

  Jacob watched her for a moment before asking another question. Though she seemed a little overwhelmed at the events of the morning thus far, she didn’t give away any sign or indication that she was deceiving him or hiding anything. Holly drew a plain white handkerchief from the end of her sleeve and dabbed at her forehead, wiping away the shine she had gotten from her heated exchange with Deputy Lowry.

  “Tell me more about why you don’t trust Mr. Hall.”

  She looked at him in surprise. Jacob supposed she had expected his line of questioning to be about her and her activities, but he suspected she had plenty of information on a range of topics that might be helpful. After a moment, he realized she was scrutinizing him. Holly took a long hard look at him, likely deciding whether or not he was trustworthy as well.

  “It’s difficult to describe,” she said after a while. “Maybe it’s just my women’s intuition, but there’s something about him. I always feel as though he is trying to manipulate me into doing what he wants.”

  “How long have you been here?”