by A. T. Butler
The gambler nodded his head toward the door of the saloon, or toward the bar, or the stairs. From where they were sitting Jacob couldn’t be positive which the man was indicating.
“Come on, friend,” Lowry said gently. “We know you ain’t mute. You gotta tell us where you were, or we’ll have cause to take you into the jail.”
Lucky scowled even harder and glanced at Abe. The men shared some nonverbal communication, which ended with Lucky sighing heavily.
“Out,” he said. His voice was deep and gravelly, as though rusty from disuse.
“And, on the way, did you run into anyone?” Jacob asked. “Did anyone see you leave? Did you happen to talk to— or, that is, did anyone talk to you?”
Lucky shook his head.
“So you have no way to prove that this happened the way you claim?”
He shrugged, unperturbed.
Jacob took a slow breath in and rubbed his temple. For as crowded as the saloon was the previous night, how did no one see anything that happened? He looked at Deputy Lowry who shrugged.
“I got no cause,” he said.
Jacob nodded. He knew that was true. Each one of their many suspects hadn’t actually given them solid reason to arrest them. They’d need to keep digging, keep looking for the one final piece of evidence that made them sure of guilt.
“Can you boys do something for us?” Jacob asked them. The condescending smirk on Abe’s face was almost enough to make him swallow his words, but he forged ahead. “I don’t know what you all were planning to do next, but can we ask you to stay in town?”
The men exchanged a look.
“We may have more questions for you. Just don’t leave Tucson until after we’ve found the killer,” Lowry said.
“And what if you never find him, eh?” Abe said. “Can’t say I have much faith in the law of this town, with all the evading the law going on right under your noses.”
Jacob grasped on that. “Wait. You said something like that earlier. What do you mean? Who should we be looking at?”
“Nope. Nuh uh.” Abe shook his head. “I’m not telling you nothing. There’s nothing worth getting on the bad side of any outlaw in this town. I’m not doing your job for you.”
Jacob banged his fist on the table, through with being patient. “Tell us, Abe. The sooner we get that man in jail, the safer everyone will be. Including you.”
There was a short pause before the gambler spoke again. “I’m just telling you to double check your wanted notices.” He stood up and moved to stand next to Lucky. “I heard there was a bank robbed in Prescott not too long ago.”
The two men were already headed toward the door of the saloon as Jacob called after them. “Stay in town, boys.”
Abe lifted a hand to acknowledge he heard, but neither turned around as they left.
“Who—” Jacob began before being interrupted.
A heavy thump sounded from the back of the saloon where the door to Randall’s office was closed. Both Jacob and Lowry jumped to their feet.
“No!” a female voice cried from behind the door.
“Holly,” Jacob said, starting toward the office.
Before he could reach it, the door swung open and Holly stumbled out, holding her handkerchief to her mouth.
“You are no man,” she said vehemently. “How dare you. How dare you!”
“Ms. Merritt,” Jacob said as he reached her side. “Are you alright?”
“He—” she said, pointing to Randall standing in the doorway of his office. “That— that monster struck me!”
“Randall Hall!” Jacob said, shocked. He stood between him and Holly. “How could you?”
“She was…” he began. “Oh, you don’t understand. She had it coming.”
Jacob had never seen the saloon proprietor so perturbed. Whatever argument the two had been in must have been greatly upsetting to him. Randall had never seemed like the time to get into a physical confrontation with anyone, let alone with a woman.
“What is this about?” Lowry asked, making his way to Randall’s side. “Let’s talk about this.”
“No,” Randall said shortly. “It’s fine. Nevermind. We’re fine.”
“Holly?” Jacob asked gently.
If she was bothered by his use of her Christian name, she didn’t show it. She dabbed at the small cut on her lip. Fortunately the blood was already beginning to dry.
“You catch that killer,” she said. “Catch that man so I can get out of this blasted town and away from him.”
Chapter Eleven
Holly stormed up the stairs to her private room on the second floor. Randall slammed his office door, locking himself alone inside. In the main room of the Golden Saddle Saloon, Jacob and Lowry looked at each other, amazed at what they had just witnessed. Jacob’s head was swimming with all the new information, accusations and additional leads they had heard in the last half an hour. It felt like they were getting closer to discovering who had murdered Bob Timson the night before, but every step forward was excruciating.
One glance at Deputy Lowry, however, told Jacob he needed to step up and take charge. The lawman was pale and sweating. As Jacob watched, Lowry collapsed into an empty chair and pulled out his handkerchief to wipe his brow.
“I don’t know, Payne,” he said. “Men striking women? Us trusting gamblers to do us a favor? I don’t know what to do next.”
“You still got that picture of Earl Pelling?”
Lowry nodded and patted the pocket where the paper was hidden away.
“We already know there’s a murderer in town. We find him and maybe we solve our own murder too.”
Five minutes later Jacob and Deputy Lowry were stepping into the dim interior of Tucson’s livery. Caleb Shaw, seemed surprised to see them.
“Hey there, Deputy,” he said slowly, confused. “It’s Sunday morning, ain’t it? You fixing to go riding?”
“Morning, Caleb. We’re looking for a man that has been hanging around town the last few days, and wondered if you’ve seen him.”
“Oh, yes. Of course. Happy to help.” He put down the saddle that had filled his arms and gestured to a bale of hay sitting just inside the door. “Would you like a seat?”
The contrast between interviewing this witness and interviewing Holly Merritt made Jacob grin to himself. He supposed you never knew what you’d be running into out here in the west.
“What’s this man look like?” Caleb asked before taking a swig from his whiskey flask. He generously offered it to the other two, who both declined.
Lowry fished out the folded bulletin, and smoothed it out on his knee. Caleb leaned over to look, chewing his lip thoughtfully.
“Hm. I think maybe I have seen him. Earl Pelling, his name is?”
“When did you see him?”
“Oh…” Caleb leaned back against the wooden slats and ran his fingers through his hair while he thought. “Must have been three or four days ago now. But I seen him twice in the same day.”
“He came back here the same day?”
Caleb nodded. “Showed up not long after dawn, wanting the names of men who might buy a horse. Thought of you right off, Payne,” he nodded to Jacob, “before I remembered you got Blaze from that Mormon fella.”
“Thanks, Caleb. So you sent him to someone else?”
“Yeah. There’s two or three others here right now that might be looking. Larry, I think his name was. Maybe the reverend over at the baptist church too.”
“But then this man Earl came back later the same day.”
“Oh, right,” Caleb said, returning to his original thought. “I thought it was strange, as a matter of fact. When he first showed up he was on a horse, asking about selling it, and when he came back he was on foot asking about buying a horse. I asked him why he didn’t just keep the one he had, but he growled at me.”
“You never got an answer out of him?”
“Nope. Just had to tell him I didn’t know of any horses for sale. You’d think he’d un
derstand, since I gave him three different names of men who were buying, but …” Caleb shrugged. “So he left again, and I haven’t seen him since.”
“You’re sure it was this man?” Lowry asked, pointing to the bulletin.
“Yep. Say, there isn’t a chance I could get some of that bounty on him, is there?” The eight hundred dollar reward was plastered in huge letters above Earl’s face.
“Are you going to go try to capture him?” Lowry asked.
“Oh, no. You’re right. That seems like a bad idea, huh?” Caleb grinned.
“Did he give you any more info, or any other details about where he’d be? What about this fella you said was looking to buy a horse? Larry?”
Caleb nodded. “Yeah. Wait.” He frowned. “No. Not Larry. Lenny? I think Lenny. He’s kind of new to town too, but came here looking to buy.”
“Lenny,” Jacob repeated. What were the chances it was the same Lenny they had seized and interviewed the night before? “Any idea where we can find this Lenny?”
Caleb shook his head. “I’ll just tell you what I told Earl. Lenny, skinny and tall with dark scraggly hair, and I’ve seen him ‘most every night at the Golden Saddle. I don’t know where to find him otherwise.”
“I guess we’ll have to go back there,” Lowry said, standing. “Feels like we’re running around in circles. Caleb, don’t tell anyone what we talked about today, will you?”
“No, sir. I don’t need any wanted murderer knowing I know something.”
“Smart man.” Lowry shook his hand and said his good-byes.
“I have an idea,” Jacob said when they were alone again, walking through the streets of Tucson. The midday sun was creeping overhead, and the churches must have let out because more and more citizens filled the streets. The passage of time reminded Jacob first how hungry he was, but more so, how little time they had left to solve this murder while it was still difficult to leave Tucson.
“We need to think,” Jacob said. “We need to go over what we’ve already learned, and I for one need to eat. I’m not sure we can do anything more or make any other decisions right now.”
“You just want to go visit Bonnie Loft,” Lowry said with a grin.
Jacob laughed, in spite of himself. “She might not even be working today,” he said. “She’s probably not, in fact. It’s Sunday.”
“Nevertheless,” Lowry said. “You’re right.”
The San Xavier Cafe was only four blocks from where they were, and the short walk gave Jacob a chance to catch the deputy up with what he had learned from Holly. Lowry was sympathetic to Holly’s plight, and her desire to leave Tucson to retire from her current business, but he was far less confident than Jacob as to her innocence. He still insisted they may need to arrest her for the murder.
“We have plenty of cause,” Lowry said. “That stack of cash could have been from anything, and most certainly could have been stolen from the missing billfold of that traveling salesman. I’d be hard pressed to find any other man in this town that has that much money readily on hand. Not to mention the fact that we have a witness placing the weapon in her very hand.”
“But, a witness that we later saw hit her in the face,” Jacob protested.
“Maybe she started it. Maybe she tried to attack Randall and he was defending himself.”
“It sure didn’t look like self defense to me,” Jacob mumbled.
But they had to cut their discussion short as they walked into the cafe and found seats. He had been right and Bonnie was not on duty for lunch that day. A matronly woman Jacob had interacted with only a couple times prior waited on them. The day’s special was ham sandwiches, with fresh bread and—somehow, incongruously—actual fresh vegetables. Sliced sweet peppers. That was one thing about living in the Arizona Territory that Jacob had been looking forward to. With as warm as the weather was, they had two growing seasons and locals had been tantalizing him with promises of greens and fresh fruit for weeks.
“Thank you, Mrs. Everill,” he said when she brought their plates.
“Why, Deputy Lowry! Jacob!” A familiar voice appeared next to the table and Jacob’s favorite waitress Bonnie stood nearby, dressed in her Sunday best. Both men stood to greet her. “I didn’t expect to see you here on today of all days. I thought you …” She dropped her voice to a whisper and looked around. “I would have thought you’d have plenty keeping you busy today.”
“Oh, we do,” Lowry said. “But we still need to eat.”
“What are you doing here?” Jacob asked.
“Mrs. Everill sent word that they have peppers today, so I wanted to come have lunch before they ran out. How’s the sandwich?” Her eyes looked hungrily at their plates.
“Have a seat,” Jacob said, pulling out a chair for her.
“I don’t want to intrude…”
“Not at all. I insist.”
Deputy Lowry tried to catch his eye, but Jacob deliberately didn’t look. He needed this. He needed a nice, quiet meal with this amazing woman. The fresh vegetable was just an added bonus. With no new information to impart to the deputy, the two men were at a dead end of their investigation.
“How are you, Jacob? What are you two up to today?”
Jacob could tell she was providing them an opening to talk about the investigation without actually asking about it directly. She was always so respectful of what other people needed.
“We’re at a bit of a lost, to be honest,” he said. “All our threads of investigation have reached an end.”
“Oh, that’s too bad.”
Lowry lit a cigarette as he spoke. “I just don’t know what to do next.”
“Yeah,” Bonnie said, commiserating. “I’m sorry. I can’t even pretend to understand the way outlaws think. That must be so difficult.”
Jacob almost wanted to hug her. Who else would be so understanding?
“Where could they be spending a Sunday, I wonder,” she continued. “Your suspects. Not in church, surely?”
“Don’t seem likely,” Jacob agreed.
“Maybe … Well, as I say, I don’t know how criminals think, but it seems like they’ll be looking to get out of town, don’t you think?”
Jacob paused his chewing. What did she just say?
“I know what our next step is,” Jacob said, standing. He threw several dollars down on the table, apologizing to Mrs. Everill for having to leave in such a rush, and led the deputy out of the cafe.
Chapter Twelve
As Jacob approached the livery, he could hear the murmur of conversation within. He held his hand up behind him to stall or slow the deputy and crept up to the door as quietly as possible. Caleb’s scratchy tenor voice was evident, though Jacob could only hear every fourth or fifth word. The other voice—or voices—he couldn’t identify. It sounded somewhat familiar, but then he had heard so many men’s voices in his hunts for outlaws that he could be mistaken.
Lowry reached him crouched by the open door, far to the side and out of sight of anyone within.
“Who is that?” the deputy asked in a whisper.
Jacob shook his head. He couldn’t be sure but was growing more and more certain by the second. The group of voices came nearer to the door. He was right. That second voice was familiar.
“Sorry, fellas,” Jacob heard Caleb say. “I told you. I don’t have any extra horses for sale. You’re free to hire one for the day or a week, but I’m not at leave to hire them out today. You’ll have to wait until Monday.”
“And we told you,” an unfamiliar voice growled. “We don’t care about no rules or what day it is. You saddle these horses for us now!”
Jacob heard a thud and crash, what sounded like a man’s body being pushed into a wooden beam or wall. He cringed, imagining how Caleb may be being attacked by whoever these men were.
“We’ve got to get in there,” Lowry whispered. “Who is that?”
“I’m going to go around. I’ll try to get high up. Wait for my signal.”
The deputy nodded a
nd crept toward the open door to the livery when Jacob stepped back. Within the building the bullying and fighting continued. He felt bad for Caleb who had gotten on the bad side of whoever this was—Jacob had suspicions—in spite of his specific effort to mind his own business.
Around the side of the building, toward the shade, so he would not be backlit and silhouetted by the sun, Jacob walked quickly. He scanned the wall, looking for an easy place to climb up. He craned his neck to check the roof for the best place to climb up. Narrow gaps between the boards let Jacob peer into the dark interior.
Caleb Shaw was scrambling on the ground, backing up against one of the far walls to get away from the man bearing down on him with fist ready. A second man stood to the side, aiming his shotgun at the prone man. When the second man spoke, he turned his body toward where Jacob was watching and he saw the man’s face.
“Well, he can’t do anything if you knock him unconscious, Earl,” Lenny said, sneering.
The threatening man with his back to Jacob must be Earl Pelling. His dirty blond hair peeking out from under his hat matched the description Jacob had seen on the wanted poster.
Bonnie had been right. These men were looking for the fastest way out of Tucson, and away from Deputy Lowry’s murder investigation.
As the two men moved around Caleb’s vulnerable form, Jacob noticed a square of sunlight cutting through the darkness onto the floor. He looked up. Somewhere above would be a window or break in the roof. That would be where he needed to climb to. The problem would be doing it quietly enough that the men inside wouldn’t hear him through the thin walls.
“Well look at this,” Jacob heard behind him.
He spun around quickly to see Abe and Lucky approaching the livery on his side of the building. Frantically gesturing for the men to go away, Jacob couldn’t bear to let anyone else come to harm. Caleb was enough, and who knew how many other men had gotten in Earl Pelling’s way since he got to Tucson. Bob Timson, for example. Though no fan of the gamblers, Jacob hoped to make it clear that they should leave.