2
“Morning, Mrs.
Griff.”
“Morning,
Sheriff.”
“Wondered if your
husband would be around?”
“ ’Fraid not. He went
over town early.”
Dodds smiled. “Darned
early. It’s hardly seven.”
“He was needin’ some
kind of wrench he didn’t have. Said he could borrow one from
Charlie Smythe.”
Dodds nodded to the
barn in back. “He still works on his buggies, huh?”
“They’re his pride
and joy.”
“Guess they would
be,” Dodds said. “He built some good ones when the wagon works was
open.” Seeing that he’d made Mrs. Griff melancholy-he was not what
you’d call steeped in the social graces, particularly where women
were concerned-he bent down to look more closely at the two little
girls who stood on either side of their mother. “Now let me see.
One of you is Eloise and one of you is Tess. Right?”
The older girl
giggled and blush. “Uh-huh, Sheriff, uh-huh.”
“You’d be Eloise,
wouldn’t you? The oldest one?”
“Uh-huh.”
“How old are you,
sweetie?”
“I’m six and Tess is
four.”
“Four!” Dodds said,
turning to the littlest girl. She had golden braids-her sister had
dark hair-and wore a blue calico dress. “Why, I thought you were
five for sure.”
Tess blushed and
buried her face in her mother’s apron. Dodds looked up at Mrs.
Griff and winked. “Last time I saw your mother, I said that, didn’t
I, Mrs. Griff? I said why I thought that Tess was five years old
for sure.”
The girls giggled and
flushed some more, thoroughly charmed. Dodds straightened up, his
bones cracking as he did so. The older one got, the more noises
one’s body made. “Do you suppose you could walk me down to the
corner, Mrs. Griff? Maybe have Eloise and Tess stay here?”
He could see the
instant alarm in the woman’s eyes. He hadn’t wanted to put it there
but there was no other way.
“Why don’t you girls
go back and finish your breakfast,” Mrs. Griff said. He could hear
the tightness in her voice, the fear. Something was wrong and now
she knew it. She was a plump woman, but pretty even though her hair
had started turning gray. She had always struck Dodds as one of
those women who can handle any crisis, much stronger than most men
at such moments, himself included. But now, panic besetting her
gaze and sweet pink mouth, he saw her vulnerability. He was almost
disappointed.
They set out down the
walk.
“Just tell me
straight out,” she said. He could feel her trying to remain
calm.
“I think he’s in some
trouble, Mrs. Griff.”
“What kind of
trouble?”
“Old trouble,
actually. A bank robbery a few years back.”
“A bank robbery?” She
smiled with a kind of pretty bitterness. “Believe me, Sheriff, you
go take a look at the food on our table and then you tell me that
we ever saw any money from a bank robbery.”
“That was one of the
problems, at least from the robbers’ point of view. A young girl
got killed and the robbers got all het up and took off without any
money.”
“A young girl?”
“Thirteen. Delivering
something to the bank for her father.”
“My Lord.” She
sounded shocked and almost angry. Obviously she was thinking of her
own girls.
They walked a time in
silence. Kids were invading the green dusty summer day, streaming
clean from the small white respectable houses of Tencourt Street,
eager to soil shirts and trousers and dresses and, most especially,
faces.
“Why do you think my
husband had anything to do with this?”
“An ex-Pinkerton man
was in town a while back. He’d traced the robbers to here.”
“And he said Mike was
one of them?”
“That’s what he
said.”
“Who else?”
“He said Kittredge
and Carlyle.”
At the last name her
face turned sour with a frown. “Carlyle, I could understand. But
not Mike or Kittredge. They’re good men, Sheriff, and you know it.”
She was watching him now, expecting him to agree.
“That they are, Mike
and Dennis,” he said. “Good men. But think back to when the wagon
works closed. Think how desperate men were around here.” He didn’t
have the courage to look at her as he said this.
They reached the
corner. A small band of kids stood ten feet away pointing at the
sheriff, or more specifically at his badge. It always brought a lot
of ooohs and aaahs
of the sort kids muster for people in uniform.
Now they faced each
other and Dodds said, “The girl’s father came to town
yesterday.”
“My God. Does he
think Mike is responsible?”
“I’m pretty sure
that’s what he thinks.”
“Are you going to
tell him otherwise?”
This was the hard
part for Dodds. “Mrs. Griff, I’d like you to talk to Mike and have
him turn himself in at my office.”
“My God. You think he
did it, don’t you?”
“I’m afraid I
do.”
“My God.”
“If he don’t turn
himself in, Mrs. Griff, he’s at the mercy of this fellow Ryan. So
far Ryan has done nothing I can arrest him for. That means he’ll
have every opportunity to kill the three men.” He hesitated a
minute. “You’d rather have Mike alive, wouldn’t you?”
“He couldn’t have
killed a girl. He just couldn’t have.”
“It was an accident.
Even the bank employees agree on that. An accident. So in all
likelihood he wouldn’t be facing any murder charge. Least not a
first degree one.” His jaw clamped. “You’ve got to see this Ryan
fellow to know what I’m talking about, Mrs. Griff. He’s insane.
He’s so grieved over his daughter that nothing else matters than
killing the men responsible. If Mike don’t turn himself in, Mrs.
Griff, Ryan’s gonna kill him for sure.”
“My God,” she
said.
The kids watching
them inched closer. One kid said, “Sheriff, did your badge really
cost two hunnerd dollars?”
The sheriff winked at
Mrs. Griff and said to the kid, “Oh, a lot more than that, Frankie.
You just can’t see the jewels I got on the other side.”
“Jewels! Wow! See, I
tole ya!” Frankie said to the other kid and then they took off
running, tumbling into the morning.
“You tell Mike to
turn himself in, Mrs. Griff,” Dodds said after turning back to the
woman. “That’s the safest way for everybody.” He touched her elbow.
“Please do it, Mrs. Griff. I don’t want anybody else to die because
of all this. The girl was enough.”
Mrs. Griff was crying
now; soft silver tears in her soft gray eyes. “He just couldn’t
have killed any girl, Sheriff,” she said. “Not on purpose; not on
purpose.” That’s all she could think of, the girl.
“You tell him,” Dodds
said quietly. “Please, Mrs. Griff. All right?”
He went back to his
office.