There was so much to tell him, her words tumbled out one after the other. “I’m staying at the hotel. I left Olivia and the farm. For good.”
“You did?”
She told him everything, about Olivia spying on them in Jeff’s bed, and the selfish reason for her treachery.
He told her he knew Olivia had watched them. He told her of Royal Purdy, the man’s favorable impression of Olivia, and his obvious pessimism about Jeff’s case.
“She insists she saw me with the murder weapon, that damned pick of Floyd’s.” His smile was rueful. “We almost made it, didn’t we, Allie? We were going to have a new start on a good life.” His voice trembled ever so slightly. “I even imagined holding our newborn son in my arms.”
An icy shiver of foreboding washed through Allie’s veins. “Jeff, what do you mean, ‘almost made it?’ ” You’re not giving up—you can’t give up. As long as we’re alive there’s still hope.”
“I can’t fight the whole world. And I’m beginning to think that this is the way things were supposed to happen.”
“What? Please, Jeff—I love you.” God, but she wished she had told him sooner, under better circumstances. “I have to tell Sheriff Mason I was with you that night. I am your alibi.”
“No. If you do, you won’t be able to hold your head up in Decker Prairie ever again. Besides, I already admitted that I talked to Matthews and Endicott. Your sister saw me, Floyd saw me.”
Frightened, angry, determined, she stared at his eyes. “But you were only there for a minute. I was with you the rest of the night, and I’ll tell anyone who asks where you were.”
“No. I won’t let you do that.”
“You really can’t stop me.”
He fixed her with a hard look. “If you go through with this, I’ll swear that you’re lying. In this case, I know everyone will believe me. This town thinks little enough of me already—they probably wouldn’t put it past me to try and hide behind a woman’s skirts. And they’ll never forget your part in it.”
“I don’t care what Decker Prairie thinks of me! Remember? I’m already one of the crazy Ford sisters. They’ve always talked about me.”
“But I do care. If I can’t be here to look out for you, I want to know that you’ll be all right.” His expression gentled again. “I love you, too, Allie. A lot more than my own life.”
Allie knew she should find joy in his declaration, but there was none to be found right now. She struggled to blink back the tears gathering in her eyes but she failed, her chaotic thoughts snagging on something he’d said earlier. “What do you mean, this is the way it’s supposed to be? You didn’t kill Cooper Matthews.”
He sighed. “No. I didn’t. But I killed Wesley. That boy’s spirit has haunted me every day since. This is like a reckoning. It’s my atonement, I guess.”
“That’s ridiculous! You shot him in self defense. Letting yourself be convicted for Cooper’s murder doesn’t solve anything!”
He went on as if she hadn’t voiced this objection. “My mother did well by us boys. She was a widow with four sons to raise, but she did a good job. When I think about it, it makes me feel small. She gave me the best start she could. If she could see me now—this complete ruination of her son—well, I’m grateful that she can’t.” He let out a huff of humorless laughter. “Maybe she thinks I’m already dead.”
Allie didn’t try to stem the tears flowing down her face. “W-why?”
“She hasn’t heard from me in years, and she doesn’t know about . . . anything that happened to me. I just couldn’t bring myself to write and tell her. After I shot Wes, well, that was when I realized that everything I’d believed in, been taught, held as truth, was wrong. I couldn’t fix a problem just because I knew how. Some things can’t be fixed. Marriage doesn’t last for better and for worse. If you give some people a hand up, they’ll take your whole arm.” He talked like a man who had learned hard lessons, and now, seeing Death lurking in the shadows, he accepted its presence as inevitable.
It scared Allie. If she could hold him, just hold him and keep the world away from him. “Jeff, please—don’t give up. You can’t. I love you, and I need you. We’ll work this out yet.”
He gave her another wistful smile. “Sweetheart, please, don’t get your hopes up. According to Purdy, I don’t have the chance of a snowball in July. Olivia and Floyd are complete strangers to each other, yet both of them swear they saw me bury a pick in Cooper’s skull. And Olivia is—” His mouth twisted bitterly. “Well, according to the lawyer, she comes off as sweet and angelic, the kind who wouldn’t lie to save her soul. Purdy doesn’t think it’s going to go well for me at the trial, and I . . . I’m inclined to agree. You have to face that.”
Allie felt an awful pressure building in her chest. She wanted to scream and pound her fists on the bars, to cling to Jeff and sob. She needed for him to tell her everything would be all right.
But no—she wasn’t the one facing a noose. Not the one locked up in this dank cell. He was the one who needed comforting, not her. And if that was all God had seen fit to let her give this man, it was little enough. “Oh, Jeff . . . please,” she whispered, framing his face between her hands. “Even in the worst storm, you can find patches of sunlight shining through the gloom if you really search.”
His gaze trailed slowly over her face. In a thick voice, he said, “You’re my sunlight, Allie—and my moonlight.”
Tears filled her eyes, nearly blinding her. “We’re going to be strong and get through this. Together.”
He nodded and pressed close to the bars to kiss her tears away. “All right, honey. Strong. We’ll be strong. And we won’t give up hope.”
Even as he parroted the words, Allie heard the ring of hopelessness in his voice.
“But if it all goes wrong,” he went on, “I have to ask a favor of you.”
She gripped his hands and took a deep breath. “I’ll do anything you want.”
“Write to my mother and tell her what happened to me. Mrs. Kate Hicks in Klamath Falls. You can tell her that Sally left me, but leave out the really bad things, like how I turned into a drunk and was arrested for stealing an egg. That would just hurt her. If I’m convicted and they hang me, don’t tell her that either. Maybe you can just say I died to protect someone else? I know you’ll find the right way to put it. Will you do it for me?”
Allie had heard of heartache and she thought she’d known it. But what she felt now was a thousand times worse. It made her voice shake as if she stood in a high wind. “Yes, if it comes to that. I’ll tell your mother that her son is the finest man I’ve ever known.”
He nodded. “Thanks, Allie.” Then he pulled her closer and reached to place a tender kiss on her lips. She heard an anguished sound in his throat when his mouth touched hers. “You go on now. Are you coming to the trial?” His eyes were wet.
She pressed her hand to his face. “Yes, of course I’ll be there! I won’t leave you alone in this.”
“Okay, then. I’ll see you tomorrow. And Allie? Thanks. For everything.”
Allie turned and stumbled out of the back room, tears blinding her. Will Mason asked some question of her as she hurried through his office, but she didn’t hear it, and she didn’t stop until she was outside on the street.
She looked around her, at a town in a world that rolled on despite the tragedy about to occur to the man locked up in the office behind her. Her sense of helplessness infuriated her to the point of overriding her heartbreak. She clutched her reticule in tight hands. There had to be something she could do to help Jeff.
Her head came up then as an idea occurred to her. A possible way out. It was a slim chance, and it might mean a final and complete schism between her and Olivia. But to save Jeff, Allie was willing to sacrifice anything.
Turning on her heel, she walked back into Will Mason’s office. He was back at his desk, reading his newspaper, and looked up at her with a surprised expression.
“Ma’am?”
“Sheriff Mason, w
here might I find Royal Purdy?”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“I don’t know, Miss Ford. It’s not much to go on.” Royal Purdy sat at his gouged pine desk and leaned back in his chair.
Allie sat across from the lawyer, her back to the wall and with barely enough room for her knees. Her chair was so rough and splintered that she was sure it would catch her skirt. “I know it seems that way, but we could at least go out to the farm and have a look.”
No wonder Jeff had sounded so bereft of hope when Allie had talked to him. She’d been here for the better part of an hour, trying to convince Royal Purdy that Jeff was innocent and must be defended in court. His interest in the case was, at best, lukewarm. Dear God, wouldn’t this man make any attempt to save his client? Did he care nothing at all for the plight of a man who might hang, despite his innocence? Her efforts to remain calm were failing, and desperation crept in. “The real evidence might provide just enough discrepancy to befuddle the two witnesses.”
Purdy put his hands together and tented his fingers. “But the trial begins tomorrow morning. Judge John Cavanaugh and Marshall Hastings, the prosecutor, have already arrived. At this point, I don’t know what—”
Allie thumped her fist on the arm of her chair. “Mr. Purdy, if you are going to represent Mr. Hicks, you cannot stand by and make no effort to spare him from conviction for a crime he didn’t commit!”
“I’m curious, Miss Ford, why are you so concerned with the fate of Jeff Hicks?”
Allie sat back, unprepared for the question. “Well, h-he worked for me, and I believe he’s a good man.”
“Forgive me for saying so, but when I spoke with your sister she indicated that your interest goes somewhat deeper. She even went so far as to reveal that you can, shall we say, account for Mr. Hicks’ whereabouts most of the night before the murder took place.”
Allie felt hot blood rush to her cheeks, and silently cursed disloyal, loose-tongued Olivia. She could barely meet Purdy’s pale gaze. What was he suggesting? That some other kind of inducement from Allie would inspire him to help Jeff? Gathering her tattered dignity to her, she lifted her chin and met his eyes squarely, ready to confront whatever she found there. “Would it help him if I testified to that in court?”
The silence that hung between her question and his answer told her that they were both thinking of her implied offer. “It might. But I wouldn’t dream of calling a lady to the stand to make such a statement.”
“I believe that’s my decision to make.”
He shook his head in a paternalistic sort of way. “It is not your decision at all. It leaps the bounds of decency to even consider it.”
She let out a quiet sigh of relief. “Then you must make use of the evidence I already told you about.”
“Miss Ford, I think it’s pointless to spend anymore time discussing this.” He gathered a stack of papers and tapped their edges on the desk, plainly dismissing both her and the subject.
She would not be told no, she vowed to herself again. She would do whatever it took to exonerate Jeff. But what? What could breathe life into this languid, prosaic man? What was it he wanted? Looking around, it suddenly occurred to her.
“If it’s a matter of money, I can pay you.” She had a little in the bank, and if it meant that there would be less for Olivia, well, that was too bad. Her sister would have to help pay to undo the horrible wrong she’d committed. “I understand that you’ve agreed to represent Mr. Hicks for free. It’s a noble, humanitarian thing you’re doing. Surely, though, you must have expenses to meet.” She gestured at the office around her, a grubby little closet on a side street behind the barbershop, barely large enough to accommodate his rummage-sale furniture and the chair where Allie sat. The walls were painted a dirty tan, and the plaster upon them crazed like a dry riverbed during a drought. In her opinion, if he paid more than two dollars a month rent for this place, he was being robbed.
Purdy straightened and sat forward, his eyes sharply focused on her face. “Yes, well, my practice is very new and I haven’t had the chance yet to establish myself.”
Although Allie’s life had been fairly sheltered, she was not so unworldly that she didn’t understand what power the lure of a dollar had. Despairing, but not wanting to appear so, she threw Purdy another tempting morsel. “I’m sure you have a bright future ahead of you, especially if you display your legal talents and help clear Mr. Hicks.”
He drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair and studied her while he mulled over her suggestion. Pushing himself away from his desk, he said, “You could very well be right, Miss Ford. I think we understand each other better than I first believed. We should make the trip to your farm, right now, while we still have good daylight.”
~~*~*~*~~
Jeff lay in the darkness counting his heartbeats between the flashes of lightning and the claps of thunder. Funny, he couldn’t usually feel his heart unless he’d been working hard in the sun, or as he had the other night, when he’d made love with Allie.
But he felt it now thudding in his chest, just lying here with the storm raging outside. He knew it was because he was scared. Despite what he’d told Allie about atonement and a reckoning, he was so scared of tomorrow he wished he could curl up and hide beneath his bunk.
Royal Purdy had reminded him that Judge John Cavanaugh usually preferred to dispense with a jury, as was within his authority, and decide cases himself. He was a fair man, but stern, with no patience for the follies of humanity. So tomorrow, the judge would listen to Floyd Endicott and Olivia Ford spin their lies, and with a stroke of his gavel, he’d find Jefferson Walker Hicks guilty of murder. And by doing so, he’d bring Jeff to the end of a long, directionless road he’d set his foot upon two years ago. The hope for the future that Allie had given him would be thrown back in his face, because he had no future.
But he was so damned grateful for the time they’d had, and that he’d known love one more time. Any man in his right mind would consider himself lucky to have the chance to hold Allie in his arms, and to have that again was worth facing a whole courtroom full of Judge Cavanaughs.
Will had told him that no matter what happened, Jeff had to make a good showing in court, so he’d accompanied him to the barbershop for a bath and a shave. At least he’d arranged for it all to take place after closing, but the walk down there had been torture for Jeff. Decker Prairie had whispered about him before, but he’d always been too drunk to care. As he’d followed Will on the sidewalk, he’d been painfully aware of every pair of eyes on him and his bound wrists, every murmuring voice, even if he hadn’t been able to hear what was said.
Old Pete Gerard, the barber, had gone to great lengths to tell Jeff that Floyd was going around town, telling anyone who’d listen how Jeff had cracked Cooper’s noggin with that pick and taken from him the best friend a man ever had. Oh, it was such a sorry tale, and good for lots of free beers at the Liberal.
For the briefest moment, Jeff had considered bolting and trying to escape. Even though his hands were shackled, if he could get away he could worry about freeing them later. But he’d abandoned the idea almost as soon as it crossed his mind. Will, the man he’d once called a friend, would have been forced to shoot him down in the street, right there in front of everyone. Maybe in front of Allie.
Somehow that had seemed worse than hanging. Meeting his fate like a man, with his head up, had more dignity than running away. He owed Allie and his family that much.
So now he lay here, listening to the rain, counting his heartbeats, and counting the minutes until morning.
At last, when he couldn’t do that anymore, and because he could do nothing else, he slowly rolled over on the bunk, buried his face against his arm, and wept.
~~*~*~*~~
Allie chose her best dress, a French blue cambric wrapper, and was carefully dressed and ready to leave her hotel room by seven-thirty the next morning. But court would not convene at the Liberal Saloon until nine. There was nothing to do except wait
, so she perched on the desk chair and tried to keep her insides from shaking.
She’d slept little the night before. Most of her time had been spent pacing in a circle in her room at the hotel. Flashes of lightning occasionally accompanied the thunder that seemed to roll in waves from one side of the valley to the other. Rain, when it came, had fallen in angry, windblown torrents. The lace curtains billowed into the room like the remains of a ragged death shroud.
Allie must have gone to the window a hundred times to look down the darkened street toward the sheriff’s office. Now she stood and went to the window to look again. Last night’s storm had passed and the morning had dawned a tender blue. The day promised to be a warm one. It was too fine a day to ruin a man’s life, she thought.
Would it work, the plan that she and Royal Purdy had devised? Could he ask questions that would unravel Olivia’s seemingly calm self-assurance, and break down Floyd’s web of lies? He thought he could. She left the window and recommenced pacing the circle she’d traveled over last night.
As Allie had guessed, the lawyer’s interest and level of energy directed toward Jeff’s behalf took a giant leap forward when, upon returning to Decker Prairie from the farm, she’d stopped at the bank and withdrawn one hundred dollars to pay him.
After treading her well-worn circuit on the carpet, Allie glanced at the clock on the nightstand one last time. Eight-forty-five. Thank God. As she collected her reticule and took one final look in the mirror, she thought that there was almost nothing worse than waiting for fate.
Except perhaps meeting it.
~~*~*~*~~
The Liberal Saloon, now temporarily transformed into a makeshift courtroom, was packed with what seemed to be every citizen in town. People had come from miles around to see this grand spectacle of justice. Borrowed chairs and benches had been pressed into service, and still there were people who stood along the walls and in the back. Although the doors were left open, heat was already beginning to build within the saloon’s confines. Those who couldn’t get a place to sit or stand lingered on the steps outside. The air was thick with whispering, throat clearings, the occasional laugh, and murmuring. This was probably the biggest event in the town’s history and no one wanted to miss out on it.
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