Deputy at Large

by Judge Rodriguez

  John laughs openly. “Go on, you lot. Enjoy yourselves. I’m going to enjoy a thorough soak in the tub.”

  Jake stands up. “I think I’ll do the same.” He goes to the front desk, asks for a tub and bathwater. The concierge nods profusely and offers up scented soaps as well as a variety of shampoos. Jake laughs and accepts the proffered items.

  When he gets back to his room, he sees that all his clothing is gone. Within a couple of minutes, an attendant comes in carrying a tub.

  In an outraged voice, Jake demands, “What happened to all my clothes?”

  The young Mexican boy blinks at him, then says in a very thickly accented voice, “Laundered, señor. Part of our services here. It’s part of your room bill. Give me your botas and I’ll get a good shine on them, too!”

  Jake expects that he looks idiotic, standing there with the look of shock on his face.

  Hurriedly, the young man emphasizes his words by trying to take Jake’s boots off, while he’s still standing in them.

  Laughing, Jake exclaims, “Hang on a minute!” as he sits down on the bed.

  Chapter 52

  Five hours later, everyone except Liz and Rebekah are sitting around the table in the common room, lounging in clean clothing, newly polished footwear and freshly shaven.

  Jake feels almost human again. Almost. He misses Andy, and he wishes Sean were there with his quick wit. He looks at the clock on the wall and sees that it’s just before six o’clock.

  John stands and starts pacing nervously. He looks at the clock as well and demands, “Where ARE those blasted women already?”

  Jake chuckles. “Peace, brother. They’ll come out when they’re ready.”

  John gives him a look of annoyance, then scoffs in disgust.

  David smiles. “They want to make sure they’re properly put together. That takes time.” He motions toward Joey, who’s sitting at the table quietly brooding. “Isn’t that right, Marshal?”

  She looks up from her glass of water. “Hm? Uh, yeah. Sure, if you say so.”

  John stops his pacing and looks at her. “What’s goin on in that pretty head of yours?”

  She looks up at him with a look of exhaustion. “Even if they don’t take my badge, I may give it up.”

  He steps over to her and places a hand on her shoulder comfortingly. “Why?”

  “When I was bounty hunting, I was responsible for only myself. Now, if someone under me does something bad, I get in trouble as well. I don’t like the responsibility of it.”

  John sighs. “The burden of command. I understand completely. I wish I could tell you something that would make it easier for you. Unfortunately, Judge Logan was right. When you accepted the badge, you accepted the responsibility alongside it.”

  She scoffs. “You think I don’t know that?”

  He squeezes her should tightly. “Relax, Joey. I know what you’re going through. Trust me. We’re all family, here.” He lowers himself to be eye level with her. “You know that, right?”

  She smiles grimly. “I know that, Uncle. I’m really not looking forward to this.”

  Jake looks at his brother and sees the conflicting emotions play across his face. Not knowing what else to say, he says simply, “While John’s right about accepting the responsibility with the badge, you might want to find out what the punishment is first. It could be nothing.”

  She takes a deep breath, considering, then finally nods.

  Jake looks at the clock. Straight up six o’clock. Starting to feel impatient himself, he looks down the hall, to see the door to Liz’s room swing open silently.

  He clears his throat meaningfully at John and, when his brother looks up, points toward the silently opening portal.

  HEARING HIS BROTHER clear his throat makes John want to snap and say, “Finally! At last!” but he chooses not to. Things with Liz are tense enough as it is. If she wants to take a little extra time to get ready, so be it.

  John looks at his daughter-in-law emerging from Liz’s room, radiant as ever. His son definitely chose well for his life-partner. She’s walking slowly, almost ceremonially, out of the room.

  She stops in the hall and clears her throat. “Sorry it took so long, everyone, but it is my honor to present the beautiful, Miss Liz Bakker.”

  Liz emerges from her room slowly and John’s world crashes down around his ears. He can’t breathe. Rebekah is beautiful, radiant even. Liz is . . . is heart-stoppingly gorgeous.

  She’s dressed in an ash gray cotton dress with black trim around the cuffs of the three-quarter sleeves and the bust-line. It’s cinched at the waist with a simple black cloth belt. Her lustrous, if somewhat wet, long, wavy blond hair is pulled into a pony tail at the nape of her neck and a single curl from her bangs twirls down the side of her face.

  John still can’t breathe. Forget any kind of rational thought. Nope. That’s it, stick a fork in him, he’s done. He’s glad they’re going to be in public, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to control himself.

  He hears Josh whistle low at the sight. “Wow, Liz. You sure do clean up pretty.”

  Liz beams at the compliment. “You really like it? It’s all they could come up with in my size on so short notice.” She spins in girlish delight.

  Josh looks at his brother with an annoying twinkle in his eye and asks, “What do YOU think, John?”

  “I . . . I . . . jzhzhbzh . . . ah . . . uh . . .” The only thing more dry than John’s mouth is his throat. He works his jaw to try and get some saliva going, but it doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. He really can’t just stand there and gape at her beauty, but he stands there long enough he begins to wonder if he’s had some kind of stroke.

  He feels a slap on his shoulder as Josh laughs at his trouble. He looks at the smiling face of his brother and still can’t seem to get any words out.

  Seeing his brother’s look of slack-jawed lack of comprehension is enough to make Josh burst out in laughter. He looks at Liz and says, “I think your beauty struck him stupid!”

  David stands up, walks over to his wife, bows low, wraps her in a tight hug and whispers something in her ear. She blushes, then giggles and replies.

  John still can’t speak, but is getting tired of whoever is banging on that infernal drum, before he realizes that it’s his own heartbeat thumping in his ears. He prays silently—since he can’t do otherwise—for strength in dealing with everything tonight.

  Finally, finding the strength to move, John walks up to Liz and says, “Uh, wow.” He’s so proud of himself. He can actually manage to speak some words in ANY language.

  The smile she gives him is the sun rising above the early morning clouds on a crisp clean prairie morning a run for its money. On second thought, no comparison. In fact, her smile undoes all the control John was able to manage over the last several minutes and render him back into a blithering idiot.

  Laughing lightly at his reaction, Liz gently takes his hands, places them on top of her hips, then takes one hand, places it on his neck and pulls him to lightly kiss him on the lips.

  If there were ever a chance of John thinking clearly, it’s now been completely obliterated into the misty ethers of nothingness. He can only stand there grinning stupidly.

  He hears Josh’s raucous laughter as he feels a HARD slap on his shoulder. Without removing his hands from the beauty in front of him, he turns his head and sees his brother laughing at him.

  He can only grin like the Cheshire Cat as everyone joins in on the laughter.

  JAKE’S LAUGHTER IS a mask for his concern toward his brother. He’s genuinely scared, thinking that the sight of Liz has hurt John, somehow. He’s never seen John act like this, for this long.

  He hears the door at the end of the hall open and footfalls approach.

  Jake steps around John and looks down the hall to see a tall, lanky man wearing a black suit, carrying a walking stick, lumbering down their way.

  The man’s face is thin, almost emaciated. His voice is deep as he says in a thick Germ
an accent, “My name is Goerg. The judge sent me to fetch you. Follow me, please.”

  Jake turns to see David and Rebekah, then Joey move toward the butler. Finally, Liz grabs John’s arm and says softly, “Come on, dear. We have to go.”

  John nods and allows himself to be led down the hallway.

  Jake sighs and brings up the rear, praying something fixes his brother, before he makes too much a fool of himself in front of the wrong people.

  Just outside the hotel, Jake sees a large enough carriage to seat ten people. Everyone is already seated, waiting on him by the time he gets close to it.

  Once Jake has taken a seat next to Rebekah, sitting across from Joey, the coachman snaps the reins on the rumps of his team.

  The trip across Guthrie only takes about fifteen minutes and it’s a pleasant trip at that. The citizens of Guthrie are lively. The weather, while warm, isn’t hot and the conversation of everyone in the coach except John, is festive.

  By the time the coach makes it way in front of Judge Logan’s large house and the group dismounts, John is still acting brain damaged, so David does the most expedient thing he can to bring his father out of his stupor. He balls up his fist and belts the older man on the jaw. The blow’s hard enough to send his father sprawling on the boardwalk.

  John comes up swearing and ready to fight.

  Jake steps up to his brother and holds him at bay. “Stop it, John! Do you know where you are?”

  He looks at Jake a moment, glassy-eyed, then sighs, nods and brushes himself off. He looks at David. “Um, thanks, son. Did you have to hit me so hard? You rattled my brains a bit.”

  Smiling beautifully, Liz steps up to him and kisses him lightly on the cheek. “It wasn’t the punch that rattled your brains, dear.”

  John glances at her and his mouth starts to slacken. Jake grabs his shoulder and sharply says, “Stop it, John! Snap out of it.”

  John looks at Jake and just blinks stupidly.

  Jake slaps his brother hard and says, “Don’t look directly at her. Hear me?”

  John gulps. “Right. Scrambled brains. Mixed up thinking. Got it.” He turns back and takes Liz’s arm. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”

  Jake chuckles as the group heads up the stairs to the judge’s house. The butler opens the door and announces the group as they enter.

  Judge Logan comes down the stairs at the opposite end of the foyer and grins at the sight of the party in his house. “Well, I’m glad you didn’t get lost, after all.” He motions toward the dining room. “We have coffee, water, tea, and liquor, if you’re of a mind. John, Jake, come with me please.” He stops and looks at John a moment. “You alright, Deputy?”

  John glances toward the dining room and grunts. “Yeah, it’s just that I’ve had a long evening.”

  Logan gives him an uncertain look, then shakes his head. “If you say so. This way, gentlemen.”

  As they head over toward the stairs, they pass the den and Jake sees Marshal Walters in there, smoking a cigar, staring into the fire. Jake doesn’t say anything, too afraid to interrupt a deep thought.

  When Logan leads the way into his office at the head of the stairs, Jake glances around curiously. The office is open, inviting. It’s in a corner of the building, of course. There are two windows, one right behind the desk, the other to the side of it. There’s a bookcase that’s full of books directly across the room from the desk. On one wall is a painting of Golgotha, on another, a black cross.

  The desk is made of some type of dark wood and has a ledger open on it. The chair behind it is tall and made of a dark leather.

  Judge Logan sits in the chair with a sigh, opens the drawer of the desk and takes out a bottle with several glasses. He offers the two deputies a drink. Jake accepts gratefully, John motions that he’d prefer not.

  Logan looks curiously at John for a moment, but lets it pass. He pours the glass for Jake, hands it to him and raises his own in a salute.

  As Jake drinks his whiskey, he can tell it’s most likely of the best quality he’s tasted in a long while. It’s definitely better than the rot-gut he’s used to.

  Logan drinks his whiskey, sitting there quietly pondering. He looks up at the two deputies, then grins. “So, you boys handled yourselves well today.” He closes the ledger and exposes two marshal’s badges sitting on the top of the desk.

  Logan looks at Jake. “Well, what have you decided?”

  Jake’s mind is racing. He didn’t expect this kind of confrontation. He takes a deep breath. “Before I accept, I have to come clean about a few things.”

  John gives him a look of surprise.

  Jake smiles and jabs his thumb at his brother. “It’s been mentioned to me, that living the life of another man isn’t exactly the Christian thing to do.”

  Logan’s eyes narrow in annoyance. “Go on.”

  Jake spends the next half hour explaining how he and John grew up together, fought together and almost died together, numerous times. He explains about the battle of Crecilla and how he recovered, then came back Then about how he narrowly escaped to make his report to General Sheridan.

  After that, he pours himself another glass of whiskey and wets his throat. Then he goes on to explain how he’s been living as Jacob Isaacson, since.

  Logan looks at John and demands, “How long have you known about this?”

  “Since he came to Denver, around the end of April.”

  Logan shakes his head. “And you didn’t think to mention this before now?”

  “Not my confession to make, not my secret to tell.”

  Logan sits back in the chair, assessing the pair of Deputies in front of him and grins. “Well, I’m glad you’re working as a team again. Jake–or should I call you Josh?—I’ve known your true identity since just before you retired from the Army. Col. Walters told me the story. The badge is still there for the taking, if you want it.”

  He stands there a moment, uncertain, still considering his options.

  John points toward both stars. “What’s the second star there for?”

  “Not what, who.” Logan looks at John seriously. “I expect you have been discussing the choice he’s having to make. I’ll make the same offer to you I made to him.” He points toward Jake. “Same pay, $35 a month, $50, if you take on a permanent deputy. You’ll be riding circuit in your territory and all your expenses will be paid.”

  “Will I be able to choose my area?”

  “Why? Planning on putting down some roots or something?”

  John grimaces. “Already have, kinda. I would like to stay close to my family.”

  Jake has to bite his tongue to keep from bursting out in laughter at the incredulous look on Logan’s face. “EXCUSE ME?”

  John nods. “Found out in the Cherokee camp. Remember me telling you a long time ago about my fiancé that died before the war?” Logan nods. “She didn’t die. She’s David’s mother.”

  No matter what he tries, Jake can’t help but laugh at the nonplussed look Logan has. “So that means . . .”

  “Yup. David’s my son. Oh, and Rebekah’s with child as well.”

  Logan starts chuckling. “No wonder you looked so off-center, earlier. I’m surprised you’re not gibbering in insanity.”

  Jake laughs easily. “No, that was earlier. When Liz came out dressed as she is.”

  John gives his brother a look with daggers in it. “Thanks,” he says flatly.

  Logan’s laughter is genuinely pleased. “She’s a beautiful woman, John. Yes, you can choose your area. However, you’ll be responsible for a new area about to have a landrun in it.”

  John looks surprised. “What is this?”

  “You know that treaty Marshal Brouwer carried?” John nods. “It was for allowing whites to settle the lands of the Shawnee, Sac and Fox, and the Et-o-wah tribes.” He grins. “You sure you want that much responsibility? I mean, we can find somewhere else for you to go.”

  John sighs, nods and takes off his six-pointed star deputy’s bad
ge and places it next to one of the star-in-shield full marshal badges. He inhales sharply and picks up the full marshal’s badge and pins it on.

  Logan turns to Jake. “So, are you gonna accept my offer, like your brother?”

  Jake levels a look at the judge. “One last thing I need to tell you about.” Logan looks at him impatiently. “I have a young daughter. I adopted her while I was in Norman, recently. Does that make you reconsider your offer for my promotion?”

  The judge chuckles. “No. Though, I DO have to say, you two are full of surprises tonight, aren’t you?”

  Jake nods. “Then I’ll accept it, under my birth name, if you don’t mind.”

  Logan sighs, apparently annoyed, then chuckles. “The oath you swore was not on your name, but on your honor. You don’t have to re-swear the oath. Had you accepted a few minutes ago, you would have been given the choice of duty stations. Since your brother laid claim to the territory in Shawnee and Norman, you’re going back to Fort Supply.”

  Jake can’t believe what he’s hearing. He doesn’t have a choice? Really? Well, there could be worse places to be stationed. “What will my territory include?”

  “Because of the sparse population, you’ll be covering the area between No Man’s Land and Mulhall.” He stands up, grabs a map from a box by the bookcase and unrolls it on the desk.

  It’s almost three times as large as the unassigned lands itself. Jake gapes at the amount of land he’s going to have to cover. There’s no way possible a single lawman can cover even half of that. “How many deputies can I have?”

  “I’ll let you have three. You’ll get an additional fifteen dollars a month for each one. Just remember, you’ll be held responsible for the actions of each one.”

  Joey’s voice comes from the doorway as she and Walters enter. “Make sure you keep your deputies under very tight control. You don’t want to take that type of responsibility on your shoulders for no apparent reason.”

  Jake turns and sees the two marshals entering the office. He steps forward and shakes his old friend’s hand. “Hello, Roger. Is everything alright?”