Chapter Four

Stacey pulled the wagon to the side of the mercantile and stepped down into the dusty street. The little town of Silver Falls was a complete misnomer because there were no silver mines for miles around and the nearest waterfall had dried up when ranchers had diverted the flow of the river years before to better suit their needs. As Stacey headed to the store to pick up her list of provisions, she glanced down the main street. The sheriff’s office was not much further down and she paused in the doorway.

“Can I help ya, Missus Collins?”

Stacey forced a smile onto her face as she stepped across the threshold and nodded towards the owner. He was a plump man in his mid fifties who had run the mercantile for as long as most folks could remember. “Yes, Mister Baxter. I’ve got a list here of things I need. I was just wondering if you wouldn’t mind collecting them for me while I go and run another errand. I shouldn’t be too long.”

“Course not ma’am. Your rig outside somewhere?”

Stacey pointed towards the wall and nodded. “It’s just out there in the shade.”

“Then I’ll have young Jimmy load it for ya and we can settle when you are done with ya business.”

“Thank you, you’re too kind.” Stacey flashed her biggest smile as she made her way towards the door. Something about the man always left her skin feeling somehow dirty, but since he kept his hands to himself, she had no choice but to buy from him. Of course Luke had always made it clear that his wife was off-limits, but that seemed so very long ago now.

It was only a few moments later that she found herself seated across from the sheriff with a glass of water in her hand. It had been over a year since Luke had died, but every time she saw his brother, the resemblance caused her to pause. Over time, the pain had begun to ease a little, but it still caused a measure of grief to see a man who looked so similar to the man she had loved since she was fourteen and yet it wasn’t him. For his part, Harry had guessed as much, but there wasn’t much he could do about it except grow a beard. If that bit of personal discomfort helped in some small measure, he was happy to oblige. After all, he’d failed his brother and his wife in every way that mattered. Luke’s murderer had never been brought to justice and it weighed heavily on the sheriff every time he thought of his brother’s young widow. They had barely shared five months of marriage before tragedy struck. At just a few weeks short of twenty, there were times that Stacey seemed to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders.

“Stace, whatta ya been doing? I haven’t seen you in town for weeks and I was starting to get a little worried. I planned to come and check on you, but I had to head over to Carson City first and follow up on that gang of rustlers.”

“I’ve had a guest at the ranch.” Stacey fiddled with the waist of her dress as she tried to avoid eye contact. Harry could be overprotective when he chose to be and she just knew this was going to be one of those times.

“A guest? Didn’t think you knew many folks out this way.”

“Well he wasn’t exactly invited.”

Harry was half way to his feet as Stacey waved at him to sit down. “Calm down! I’m not in any trouble. He was … and I helped him.”

The lawman’s instincts were already on alert at her first comment, but the second one just shifted them up a notch.

“All right, I think you’d better start at the beginning! Who is he? And what kinda trouble is he in that he needs your help?”

“Harry!”

“Now don’t you “Harry” me! I promised Luke I’d watch out for you and I intend to keep that promise.” Harry waved a finger towards her and Stacey couldn’t help but smile.

“I’m not a child, Harry.”

Harry sighed as he looked at his sister-in-law. “I know that, Stace. And I know you can look after yourself. But it’s a big brother’s job to worry.” The half smile that graced his face did not quite conceal a flash of pain. “Now who is he? And what’s he want with you?”

“Well, I was sort of hoping you could help me to find out who he is. His name is Joe, but that’s all he remembers.”

“Stacey! This fella’s got some kinda scam going and you are his next target! A pretty little thing like you, out there alone … you know how easy …”

She reached across the desk and grasped at his hand. “No, it’s no scam! He turned up almost two weeks back and somebody had nearly killed him. He’d been beaten … badly and shot in the shoulder.”

“So you took him in like some kinda stray. And I don’t s’pose you ever thought it’d be a good idea to tell me!”

“Harry, he could barely stand up, let alone be any kind of threat to me. I was too scared to leave him in case he died while I was gone! He didn’t remember anything much at first, but yesterday he recalled his brother’s name is Adam. I was hoping you might have some kind of missing person report or something. I mean, somebody must be missing him by now.”

“All right, Stace. Let’s assume for a minute that it’s not a scam. What’s this Joe fella look like?”

“About your height. Brown hair. Green eyes. He’s young, maybe a little older than me.”

Harry pushed himself away from the desk and grabbed a couple of mugs from the bench behind him. He hesitated with pouring two coffees as his mind chewed over the possibilities. He had a wire sitting in his drawer from the sheriff of Virginia City searching out just such a man. There were no specifics other than a general description and he found his lawman’s instincts kicking in. Why would a sheriff send out a wire like that for an innocent man? He didn’t want to jump the gun and alarm Stacey, but he needed to check on a few things. He also knew how stubborn the woman could be and he needed to tread carefully. He slowly turned back with a mug of coffee in each hand and smiled as he pushed one across the table.

“Tell you what. I’ll send out some wires and see what I can find. In the meantime, do me a favour and don’t let on to this fella you’ve been to see me. Don’t want to scare him.”

Stacey sipped at the coffee as she considered the request. In some ways, Harry was just like Luke. Both men thought they could pull the wool over her eyes and both men had thought of her as somebody who needed to be sheltered. Luke had held her in his arms at night and told her of all the things he wished for her. He thought she didn’t know that something was wrong and she had begged him to tell her what it was. As the roles reversed and she held him in her arms as he died, he had taken that information to his grave. Of course all that had done was push Harry into protective mode even more than before. He’d failed his younger brother, but he vowed he would not fail his new sister ever again.

“Fine, just let me know as soon as you find something.”

Glen pulled out his canteen and took a long pull from it. He hadn’t slept at all the night before and had walked around in a daze long after Nate and Mac had disappeared into the treeline. He’d hoped to sneak back into the bunkhouse the next morning, but several of the hands were already up and waiting on the verandah for the call to breakfast. He felt his stomach lurch at the thought of food and hastily retreated to the barn instead. He needed an excuse if anybody called him out over his whereabouts and the barn seemed like the obvious choice. He quickly rubbed a handful of hay into his hair and stepped back out into the early morning gloom while scratching at his head.

“Where you been, boy?” Nate was beside him before he even knew where the shadow emerged from and he stiffened.

“I slept in the hay. Couldn’t get no rest from these dang bruises!” As if to emphasize the point, he lifted his shirt and rubbed at a sore spot. There was no mistaking the black and purple skin beneath the fabric and Nate frowned at him.

“Well, if you weren’t so busy showin’ off to Hoss and tryin’ so hard to impress the Cartwrights, you’d be a whole lot less sore!” The distaste in his words as he spoke the Cartwright name could not be disguised and Glen almost pulled back from him.

“I’m just trying to break me a horse. Hoss has been showing me the ropes.”

“Pity Joe ain’t here no more to show you.” Glen barely managed to keep his composure as he looked at the barely disguised contempt on Nate’s face. “Course, who knows where he is now? He could be half way to Mexico by now.” The sound of his laughter made Glen shiver as he made his way towards the bunkhouse. “Or he could be dead in a ditch somewhere. Who knows?” Glen couldn’t be sure if he was being tested or simply imagining things, but either way, he wanted to put as much distance between them as possible.

Roy looked at the wire in his hand and felt a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. It seemed that Joe had surfaced at last. As he read down the page again, one line made the smile slide off his face. Instead of simply responding to a query about the boy’s whereabouts, it seemed Joe was under some suspicion. He just couldn’t decide what for. If Adam hadn’t ridden out the day before, he’d have passed him the wire and sent him off for Silver Falls. Instead, he’d have to send a few wires and hope to intercept him in his search for his brother. It was hours later when Roy was headed back to his office and he looked up to see a young cowboy leaning against the door. His stance was tense and Roy guessed he was barely keeping himself from pacing. His hat was pulled low over his face and he seemed intent on keeping himself in the shadows.

“Something wrong, son?”

The lad shuffled from one foot to the other and kept his head low. “Need to talk to you, in private. Not out here!”

“Sure.” Roy nudged the door open and pointed towards the darkening interior. He’d not bothered to light a lamp before leaving, not expecting to be gone so long. His time had been taken up in the telegraph office, trying to cover all possibilities of where Adam could be while waiting for a follow up wire from Silver Falls. It hadn’t come and twilight had crept up on him instead.

As Glen edged inside, he kept looking up and down the street, as if waiting for something. Or someone. “Sheriff, I heard tell that you and Mister Cartwright are longtime friends.”

Roy lit a lamp and dropped into his chair as he waved towards another one. “I’ve known Ben a good many years. What’s that to you?”

”Would you know if he had any enemies?”

Roy leaned forward onto his desk and considered the young cowhand sitting across from him. “I think you’d best get to the point young fella.” The warning growl in his voice reminded Glen of his pa when he was bordering on a dumb decision.

Glen shifted in his seat and sucked in a deep breath. “I think somebody has murdered Little Joe and I think they did it to get back at Mister Cartwright for something.”

“Now that ain’t the slightest bit funny!”

“I’m not funnin’, Sheriff. I wish I was!”

Roy watched as the colour drained from the young man’s face and he decided that for whatever reason, he really did believe what he was saying. Except Roy had a wire in his pocket that seemed to indicate otherwise. The one that said that Joe was injured after possibly being attacked. Assuming it really was Joe.

“Ever been to Silver Falls?”

Glen frowned as the conversation shifted suddenly. “No, sir. Never heard of it.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yes, Sheriff. I’m real sure! Why?”

“No concern. Now suppose you tell me where you got this fool idea that Little Joe’s been murdered.”

Adam slopped the last of his coffee into the grass beside him and settled back against his bedroll. He hadn’t been expecting to find Joe on his first day out, but he couldn’t ignore a sense of disappointment that washed over him. He felt the prickle of irritation arising again that he was even out on the trail instead of eating Hop Sing’s supper, but he squashed it back down.

As sleep finally claimed him, he found himself dreaming of a small boy who trailed behind him like a shadow. How he wished he had never chased that shadow away.