Texas Lawman

by Ginger Chambers

  Word finally arrived from two sources. A cowboy rode into the compound and announced that a pickup truck had been spotted coming across the valley with two people inside, “driving like all get out” toward the compound. And one of them had bright red hair. Jodie!

  The second source was Tate’s police radio. One of his deputies had spotted the Hammonds cruising slowly along the highway that fronted Parker land. Tate told him to keep an eye on them until the other deputy patrolling the highway arrived, then they were to take them into custody and bring them to ranch headquarters. The second deputy responded that he’d heard and had already turned his patrol car around to assist.

  Shannon gathered the children in Mae’s house with promises of cookies and ice cream in the kitchen.

  Everyone else stayed where they were, once again waiting.

  AFTER RIO HAD FINISHED gathering his limited possessions from the trapper’s shack, he and Jodie had made their way out of the canyon. At times Jodie had ridden the horse, at others—when the going was especially tough—she’d walked, all the while following Rio, who was leading the way to where he’d left his borrowed pickup three days before.

  He’d done a good job of hiding it, slipping it into a ravine and covering it with a tarp and plenty of brush. As he’d dug it free, Jodie had seen to the horse. Using Rio’s hat as a container, she’d offered the remainder of the water to the animal. He’d drunk thirstily. Then she’d removed the saddle and blanket and rubbed him down with a towel she’d found among Rio’s things. Finally she’d patted his neck and removed the bridle. He’d seemed startled at first to be free, but soon remembered his unencumbered youth. When Jodie gave his rump a friendly slap and told him to run off and find his friends, he’d done just that, excited at the prospect of being on his own.

  “Whose horse was that?” Rio asked, coming up beside her.

  “I’m not sure,” Jodie said.

  “Hope he’s not someone’s favorite mount. He’s gonna be harder’n hell to catch again.”

  They watched as the horse whinnied and kicked his rear legs, then took off in a ground-covering trot.

  The closer they got to ranch headquarters, the more nervous Rio became. Jodie had insisted on driving for just that reason. She didn’t want to have to fight him for the wheel if or when he flipped out.

  “I don’t know about this, Jodie,” he said, his body twitching. “Rafe told me a long time ago not to come back. He’s not gonna like seein’ me again.”

  “He’s not going to like anything about this, Rio.”

  “So maybe you should let me out right here. I can make my way to the highway and catch a ride from there, and—”

  “You’re forgetting the Hammonds.”

  “I’m not forgettin’ anything! I just don’t want Rafe or Mae gettin’ their hands on me!”

  “Tate said to bring you to the compound.”

  “Tate’s not Rafe!”

  The pens and corrals and cluster of outbuildings came into sight. To discourage him from doing anything foolish, Jodie increased the truck’s speed. Dust billowed high into the air as they bounced along the cleared but uneven roadway.

  Tate’s patrol car was parked in front of Mae’s house and people were on the porch. Close to three hours had passed since Jodie had talked to Tate. He’d had plenty of time to get there and plenty of time to fill everyone in.

  Jodie suffered her own qualms as she pulled the truck to a stop, her gaze sweeping over all those who waited. Tate and LeRoy looked grim, Rafe’s temper was obviously smoldering, and Harriet, holding the screen door open, appeared anxious and concerned. Mercifully Mae and her father had yet to return.

  Rio had stopped talking after his earlier outburst, and when she glanced at him now, he looked frozen. All the more so when Rafe jerked into motion and strode down the steps, not stopping until he was outside the passenger door. Without a word he opened it, reached in and dragged Rio out.

  Rio whimpered high in his throat, his arms hanging at his sides, completely unable to help himself.

  Jodie jumped out of the truck. “No, Rafe!” she cried.

  Tate rushed off the porch. Both had been caught off guard by Rafe’s sudden action.

  Rio hung limply in Rafe’s grip, his shirtfront bunched near his throat. Rafe glared at him and said softly, “I thought I told you not to set foot back in Texas. Are you reckless, boy, or just plain stupid?”

  “Easy, Rafe,” Tate said, catching his arm.

  Two more patrol cars drove up and stopped behind the truck. One by one the deputies stepped out.

  “Where you want ’em?” the nearest deputy called to Tate.

  “Bring ‘em over here,” Tate called back, “and keep ’em cuffed!”

  Rafe’s grip on Rio eased, to be replaced by Tate’s quick neck hold. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep real still and real quiet for a piece,” he warned. “Rafe, watch him,” he instructed the other man.

  Jodie’s gaze slid away from Tate as he turned. She knew he was still angry with her. She wouldn’t even chance a close look into Rafe’s set face.

  The Hammonds were extracted from the patrol cars—Rufus from the first, his sons from the second. They were already highly out of sorts, protesting their treatment to the deputies who accompanied them. Then they saw Rio. One bellowed, another cursed, and all three fought hard against their restraints.

  Tate took charge of Rufus while his deputy hurried to help his counterpart contain the brothers. Both brothers ended up on the ground, their cheeks pressed into the grass.

  Rufus Hammond behaved like an enraged bear. Tate let him fuss and fume and strain until he was temporarily spent. “Are you through?” he asked calmly.

  It took Rufus a moment to become coherent. Finally he sputtered, “What the hell’s goin’ on here? Why are we bein’ held like this when he’s the one who—”

  “I’ll tell you if you shut up a minute. Are you gonna shut up? Or are you gonna keep talkin’ and fightin’ and makin’ life all around difficult for everybody?”

  Rufus drove forward again and Tate gave his bound arms a quick upward jerk. Rufus cried out in fury.

  “I asked nice,” Tate said mildly.

  Rufus roared another protest, before his head slumped forward in grudging compliance.

  Tate signaled his men to help the brothers up. Nasty resentful looks were thrown around, but they, too, were more subdued.

  “All right,” Tate said. “Let’s get this over with. Rio Walsh has an alibi for the night your daughter was beaten, Mr. Hammond. An alibi that’s been checked and double-checked and it holds true. He didn’t do it.”

  Rufus Hammond’s head snapped up, his mouth curling into an ugly snarl.

  Rio tried to hide behind Rafe, but Rafe wouldn’t allow it. He grabbed the back of his collar and made him face his accuser.

  “He was playing cards in a town near you,” Tate went on, “where a ropin’ contest was bein’ held. Do you remember it?”

  “That still don’t mean he didn’t do it!”. the younger of the brothers cried.

  “It does when everyone he played cards with says he was there all night,” Tate shot back.

  “They’re his friends! He coulda told ’em what to say!” the younger brother countered.

  “Only one was his friend.”

  “He coulda paid ’em!”

  “With what? He’s not rich, and most of the money he had that night he won from them. What man is gonna risk giving a false statement on a murder case, turning himself into an accessory, just to get his gambling money back? We’re talkin’ twenty years here in exchange for a few piddlin’ dollars. And three of these men didn’t know Rio Walsh from Adam! Uh-uh. I don’t think so.”

  “It’s the truth!” Rio burst out. “I never hurt her! I loved her!”

  “You loved the money you thought was comin’ her way!” Rufus Hammond roared. “You...” A string of hard-edged venom spewed from Rufus Hammond’s lips. Rio twitched at each increasingly abusi
ve epithet as if receiving a physical pounding.

  Tate broke in shortly with, “That’s enough!” Then when Rufus didn’t stop, he repeated more authorita-tively, “That’s enough! I’ve been givin‘ you a lot of room, Mr. Hammond, because of your situation, but there are children inside who shouldn’t be hearin’ this, not to mention these women.”

  “Room, you say!” Rufus snarled. “If that’s the case, then what am I doin’ with these things on?” He turned sideways and rattled his handcuffs. “Me and my boys haven’t done a thing! Either charge us with somethin’ or let us out of ’em!”

  Tate was not the least bit intimidated. He turned pointedly to Jodie and said, “Here’s another chance to change your mind. You sure you don’t want to press charges?”

  Jodie could feel her family’s attention turn on her, could almost hear their minds working. There was something else she hadn’t told them? “No, let them go. As long as they don’t try to hurt Rio.”

  “You heard the lady,” Tate said flatly, turning back to Rufus. “As long as you don’t try to hurt...Rio.”

  Rufus’s eyes narrowed as he mulled over his answer.

  Tate simplified things for him. “Because if you do,” he continued, adding his own admonition, “I’m gonna charge you. And believe me, I use all my spare time thinkin’ up things I can do to make people’s lives miserable, people who irritate me, especially people who give me their word and then break it.”

  “All right! All right!” Rufus agreed belligerently. But when Tate made no move to free him, he changed his tone to something slightly more amenable. “All right.”

  “And the boys?” Tate asked, extracting the key.

  “What I say goes for them, too. They know that.”

  Tate freed Rufus while his deputies did the same for the brothers. Each lawman remained on alert.

  Tate said, “You can check with Sheriff Preston if you want. By now he’s probably talked to everyone involved. He’s some kind of relative of yours, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” Rufus said, rubbing his wrists.

  “Then you’ll trust him when he gives you the same information I just did.”

  Rufus frowned and motioned to the still-cowering Rio. “If he didn’t do it, who did?”

  “That’s somethin’ I don’t know,” Tate said.

  Rufus Hammond’s tiny eyes moved from Parker to Parker, settling longest on Jodie. He looked at her for a long time. Finally he warned, “You better watch that girl if he stays around. My Crystal was a good girl. Never did a thing wrong in her life. Then he came to the ranch and got her pregnant. You’re not denyin’ that, are you?” he demanded of Rio. “That baby was yours?”

  “Y-yes,” Rio stammered. “And that’s why I wanna know who did it, too! I loved her! We were gonna get married! That’s the reason I was playin’ cards. So we could get enough money together to...Then when I got back to the ranch and found out she’d been hurt, one of the boys told me you thought I did it. So I took off!”

  “And never gave her another thought! Never mind what she might be goin’ through.”

  “I thought about her all the time! I just couldn’t do anythin’. But I didn’t think she was hurt that bad. I—”

  The younger round-faced brother lunged forward, evading the deputy’s reach. “But she was hurt that bad, wasn’t she, you little—” He jerked Rio off his feet.

  “Phil!” His father intervened sharply.

  “I just don’t believe ’em, Dad! It’s a trick to make us leave! Crystal never would’ve agreed to marry him! He musta raped her for her to get pregnant...and then she was afraid to tell us what happened! It had to be rape! She’d never—”

  Rio clamped his fingers over those holding him and pried them loose. “She was afraid, all right!” he blurted as he jumped back, panting. “Of you!”

  “Shut up!”

  Rio began to circle him, tired at last of being made the goat. “She was! She told me she was! She also told me how you used to look at her, how you’d watch her every move—”

  “I was just bein’ a good brother!”

  “Stepbrother!” Rio said. “And that ain’t the way she said you looked at her, either. So if anybody raped anybody, it was you! Crystal came to me ‘cause she wanted to, not ’cause she—”

  Phil struck with the speed of a snake, knocking Rio to the ground. But when he reared back to deliver a hard kick to the ribs, Rafe grabbed him, while Rio scrabbled back to his feet.

  “That’s right!” Rio taunted, growing angry. “She said you even came into her room some nights sayin’ you just thought you’d adjust the window shade, or you wanted to check on a noise you thought you heard, but she wasn’t fooled.” He tilted his head. “You know why she was in such a hurry to get married? ’Cause she wanted to get away from you!”

  “What’s this?” Rufus Hammond said, turning pale.

  Rio stuck his hands in his back jeans pockets and rocked on his heels. “Yeah, you heard me. You didn’t know about it, though, did you? But if she’d said anythin’, would you’ve believed her? Your own son makin’ a beeline for your daughter, or your ‘good as’ daughter?”

  Color returned with a rush to Rufus’s face. His expression turned mean, his mouth a thin line. “Is what he sayin’ true?” he demanded of his younger son.

  Jodie wanted to look away but couldn’t. It all seemed too private to be played out on a public stage. But it was the Hammonds, or at least, one of them, who’d pressed the issue, insisting that Tate wasn’t telling the truth. She examined the younger brother curiously. Up till now Phil had been the quieter of the two. Hanging back, not putting himself forward. Leaving the belligerence to his older sibling, Tom. But Phil was sweating now, his elbows caught in Rafe’s strong arms. He wasn’t going anywhere and he knew it.

  “Is it?” Rufus roared.

  The antagonism on Phil’s face faded fast. He moved from aggression to contrition to misery all in the space of a few seconds. He was a big man, but everything about him seemed to get smaller. Then he started to cry. Great racking sobs shook his body. “I didn’t mean it,” he whined in a wet whisper. “I just wanted to talk to her and she wouldn’t listen! She—”

  Rufus stepped closer, his low voice ominous. “Are you sayin’ what I think you’re sayin’?”

  Phil Hammond shrank even more. “Daddy, please—”

  “You killed her?”

  “I didn’t mean to! I loved her.”

  Rufus smashed a fist into his son’s face even as Rafe tried to twist him away. Phil Hammond screamed in pain. Then Tom broke from his stupor to join in the attack.

  Tate pushed Jodie toward the porch, to keep her free from harm, then he waded into the fight, as did his deputies. Moments later it was over, with all three men under control.

  Rio had jumped onto the porch with Jodie. When she realized he was right behind her holding on to her, she quickly shook him off. But not before Tate had seen them together.

  Shannon came running from the back of Mae’s house. “What is it? What’s happening? I heard someone scream!”

  Harriet answered her. “Everything’s okay. Don’t worry.” Then, “Don’t let the kids come out.”

  “I gave them a second helping of everything,” Shannon said, breathing her relief that no one, particularly Rafe, was hurt. “That should keep them busy for a while.” She looked around at the captured men. “What’s going on?”

  “I’ll tell you everything later,” Harriet promised.

  Jodie turned away, no longer listening. The full import of what had occurred was just beginning to hit her. Phil Hammond had confessed to killing his own stepsister? To beating her so viciously, so savagely, that she’d lost both the child she was carrying and her own life. And all because he “loved” her. Because... he was jealous.

  She felt more than a little sick to her stomach.

  He’d then been content to let Rio take the blame, which might have worked if she hadn’t agreed to help or if Tate had turned a deaf ear to
her plea.

  The melee in the front yard started to sort itself out. Phil Hammond was taken into custody, the handcuffs back in place, while the remaining Hammonds worked to collect themselves.

  “Take him in, put him in a cell, get the doc to look at his cuts and I’ll be there shortly,” Tate told one of his deputies. To the other he said offhandedly, “Hang around a bit.”

  As mean and disagreeable as Rufus Hammond was, it was difficult to look at him and not think of his shattered life.

  Tate inquired evenly, “You want to get your son a local lawyer?”

  “Who?” Rufus inquired flatly.

  “The lawyer in Del Norte’s pretty good. Her name’s—”

  “I meant, get who a lawyer. I only have one son and he’s right here. He don’t need a lawyer.”

  Tom Hammond stared hard at the ground.

  Tate nodded. “Sure. Okay. I guess I can see that.”

  The deputy started to take Phil away. “Daddy?” he called plaintively. “I didn’t mean to hurt her none. Everything just...”

  Rufus turned his back and made sure Tom did likewise.

  Nothing was said as the deputy put his prisoner into the patrol car and drove off.

  Moments later Rufus Hammond cleared his throat. “I, ah, owe everyone here an apology,” he said stiffly. “If there’s any hurt feelin’s, I’m sorry. The way things turned out...” He swallowed, then shook his head, unable to go on.

  Tate motioned to his deputy. “Why don’t you take these people back to their truck,” he said quietly. “Then maybe help ’em find their way to the main highway. We’re sorry about your losses, Mr. Hammond. And if you change your mind and want to see—”