"I'm arresting you Mr. Carver for the murder of Mr. George Stanley." Rusty announced as he grabbed Mr. Carver's hands and pulled them in back of him, handcuffing him.
They were having a town council meeting, it was late at night so as not to alarm the citizens of Hard Tack. Rusty planned the arrest himself. He knew they were meeting, and after Penelope identified the ring, he was sure of his suspect. He had to act now.
Mr. Carver's eyes were wide and he arrogantly protested the arrest. He mouthed several profanities. The others gathered around him, almost protectively at first.
"You can't arrest me…what proof do you have that he's even dead?" Mr. Carver asked as he tried to protest their actions in front of some of the other town council.
"The body, for starters." Rusty exclaimed waiting to see how Mr. Carver would react to that news.
"You found……" He stopped in mid-sentence as he almost blurted out all they needed to hang him.
"Yes, you can thank Marty here, for finding the shallow grave you put him in. Pretty good detective work if you ask me." Rusty smiled. "Although, I'll give you this, you almost got away with it, his body was deteriorated so much, it was hard to prove who he was. If he hadn't left something behind, you would have. Again thanks to Marty."
"But why me…what proof have you that it was me?" He demanded to know.
"For starters…this…" He pulled out the ring that they found in the grave.
"Mr. Carver's face screwed up, "That's not proof. You found his ring…So what?"
Rusty smiled like a cat nipping milk. "Well, it once belonged to you, I'm told. I happened to stop off at the ranch and ask your daughter if she'd ever seen the ring. She confirmed it was yours but that she hadn't seen you wear it in years. She said she knew it was yours as she had given it to you for your birthday one year. She wanted to know where I got it."
Mr. Carver's face paled. "Good Lord, you didn't tell her, did you?"
"No…I didn't tell her where. But it's only a matter of time until the whole story comes out."
Mr. Carver's face mirrored his anguish.
"And I am sure you wouldn't want the whole story to come out. Not in front of her…."
"No…I wouldn't." Mr. Carver snapped.
"I thought not."
"The only thing you have to do now, is tell us who else was with you when you killed him. Otherwise, I might have to tell her everything."
"That's black-mail." Mr. Carver yelled.
"Yes, it is….something you know a lot about, since you were trying to set your son-in-law up as the scapegoat. And if it hadn't been for the ring, it might have worked. Now, tell us, who else is involved."
Mr. Carver looked around the room and nodded toward his close associate, Joe Simmons.
Joe started to run but Marty caught him and cuffed him.
"Anyone else involved?" Rusty glanced about the meeting hall.
"No…"
Everyone in the room was muttering under their breath and shocked at the arrest. Some seemed appalled others stood in stunned silence.
As Marty and Rusty sat around the office that night, Marty asked him. "How did you know about the ring?"
"I didn't. But I know that men like that…often times wear a ring such as that on their little finger. It is a way of identifying themselves to others without words. And since it was the only thing we dug up that day aside from Stanley, I figured I would ask around. I ask a lot, but I finally decided to ask Penelope, since I half expected Mr. Carver all along."
"But John looked the most likely, why didn't you suspect him?"
Rusty squinted a moment. He twisted his head. "John is just too honest. I figure John has done some bad things, maybe some real bad things, but whatever it was, he's trying to make up for it. He's too good to be true, in other words. But I began to notice how he prayed, very hard every Sunday. Like a man with a problem he didn't know what to do with. A good man prays, Marty. I'm sure John knew Mr. Carver was involved. He might have even tried to black-mail him into silence."
Marty nodded.
"I was pretty sure John didn't kill Stanley. It was too obvious. And Mr. Carver kept putting him right in my path. That led me to Mr. Carver. You see, he and Stanley liked each other."
Marty's face nearly dropped to the floor. "How did you figure that one out?"
"Pure instinct." Rusty laughed.
"Well, remind me to trust your instinct more often." Marty laughed. "So did Joe know about Mr. Carver and Stanley, do you think?"
Rusty scratched his head. "The way I got it figured, Mr. Carver is a very influential man in this town, or was. He probably just talked Joe into going with him. Either that, or Joe liked Stanley too and wanted to keep it quiet."
"Of course good people will be hurt from all of this. Penelope is one. It might take her a while to come to terms with it, when it goes to trial. Because despite her innocence, the truth will come out." Rusty reflected. "Her father spent a lifetime of building himself an empire here in Hard Tack. People respected him, he was one of the original pioneers of the town. This arrest will have mixed reactions, that much I know…"
"What do you think John is hiding in his past?" Marty asked.
"I don't know…but I do know that these things have a way of coming out, sooner or later." Rusty smiled. "And I kind of hope whatever it is, isn't so bad. I've come to have a lot of respect for John."
"Yeah…he's sure changed since the first day he rode into town."
Rusty nodded. "And for the better I might add."
Suddenly Jonesy burst into the office. "Telegram for you…"
The look on Jonesy's face told Rusty something was wrong. He dreaded the telegrams. He was afraid it might be from Smitty again.
It was.
But what he read he had to reread to believe. His eyes widened, his face paled and the way he laid the piece of paper down, told Marty that this time the news was not good at all.
"Something wrong?" Marty questioned.
"Just got a wire from Jim Bonner in Melville. About a year ago he was tracking a killer in the area. Anyway, by the time Jim narrowed it down to who the villain was, he had to ride over to Cross Timbers to confirm his information. That's when he met Sadie Martin and her brother Elmer. Elmer was the killer, but Sadie was just an innocent in the whole thing. Jim and Smitty had gotten very close to Sadie during that time. They felt sorry for her. She was running a little café in her town to feed all the people that couldn't afford to feed themselves, which was about half the town, as the mine played out. So Sadie fed them for years. Well before Jim could nail Elmer for the murders, he took off, leaving Sadie there alone. Jim and Smitty would often go to Cross Timbers to check and see if Elmer had come back, and the to check on Sadie, because she was so alone. It seems her brother had been supplying her meat which she fed everyone with. Well, even though Sadie didn't know it at the time, Elmer had cut up some of his victims and she had fed the town some human remains. That's how we figured out who was killing the ranchers.
"Now Sadie was very innocent of it all. She didn't know what Elmer had got up to.
"This telegram says that the people found out in Cross Timbers what her and her brother had done, and some loud mouth from Melville went over and told them, started a riot. They ended up hanging Sadie, but that wasn't all, according to this. They burned her and then drove a stake through her heart to make sure she was dead. They…they thought she was a witch."
Marty took in the story, his face contorting with the gruesome details. "You don't mean it. A woman?"
"Yeah…"
Marty sobered quickly. "A witch. Did you know her?"
"Not personally, no, but I knew what was going on through Jim and Smitty." Rusty explained.
"Did they arrest anyone…" Marty asked.
"No…most everyone moved off and the only one Jim and Smitty knew was Tom Mueller. I don't know if Jim went after him or not. He wants me to keep a look out for the man. And arrest him if he should come here."
"Do you think he would?"
"No…there's no reason to, I don't expect." Rusty glanced at the telegram again. "But if you hear of a Tom Mueller, we'll have to arrest him."
Marty nodded. "That is such a sad thing. The poor woman had fed the people for years?"
"Yeah…"
"Do you know what this Tom Mueller looks like?" Marty asked.
"Yeah, I treated him once for a boil on his side. He was a nobody but he had such a mouth on him." Rusty reflected.
"And what about this Elmer character. Did you ever see him?"
"No…I never did. I guess he's long gone by now." Rusty muttered. "We'll probably never see Elmer Martin in Texas again."
"You think he'll go back when he hears about his sister?"
"Maybe…there's no tellin'. I guess it depends on where he went from there. If he went out west, he might not ever know. I never thought he'd stay gone as long as this though. You see him and his sister were twins. They took care of each other."
"That's some story." Marty remarked. "Makes Mr. Carver look almost nice, compared to that."
"Don't under estimate Mr. Carver. I know why he killed Stanley, but I also know if we hadn't found that ring, he'd still be loose." Rusty glanced toward the door leading to the cells. "Mr. Carver is a different breed of man."
"I guess poor Penelope had no idea about her Pa?" Marty concluded, folding his arms over his chest and looking smug.
"No, she was an innocent too. Often times the relatives of people who do these things suffer more than the one that done it." Rusty declared. "It's a shame, but it happens."
"You know, I never liked Stanley, always thought there was something strange about him, never expected this though. I wonder if John knows about him…I mean the way Stanley was?"
Rusty shook his head. "I don't know. He might. It could be why he accepted Mr. Carver's offer to come out to the ranch and work from there. I mean it makes sense. But the less we say about all this until the trial, the better. I don't want a mob."
Marty agreed.
Marty grew quiet then added softly. "All that money and land…Mr. Carver had. The position on the town council. Goes to show you the best of people can fool you."
Rusty nodded as he glanced out the window. "That's for sure. But I have found that men of position have so much more to lose, that they sometimes stoop to murder to keep things quiet. For Penelope's sake, and John's, we'll keep quiet about this case. Besides, if a loud mouth like Tom Mueller came to town he might blow the town wide open with the scandal of it all. And I don't want anyone treated as badly as Sadie was…"
Marty heard Mr. Carver yelling and opened the door. "What do you want?"
"Some water, please." Mr. Carver yelled.
"Okay, now hush up." Marty directed as he got some water for the old man.
"How long do I have to stay here, Sheriff?" he yelled.
"Until the trial." Rusty said and closed the door behind Marty when he came out.
"Joe's been awful quiet…" Marty said.
"Was he alright?" Rusty asked.
"He was sleeping…"
"Good…I think we need to get some rest. See ya in the morning." Rusty said as he headed out the door.
But the next morning, everything wasn't alright.
Marty went in to check on the prisoners and Mr. Carver cut him on the arm through the bars with a knife. Marty reached for his gun with his other hand. He was fast and Mr. Carver was shocked he could do it. "Don't you try it. Throw that knife out there." Marty directed him to throw it outside the cell. Mr. Carver chunked it, missing Marty's foot by inches.
"You're really asking for it, Mr. Carver."
Since Joe hadn't moved from his position on the bed since last night, Marty nudged him as he came inside the cell and still held a gun on Mr. Carver. Joe fell against his arm, dead.
Marty nearly jumped out of his own skin. Sweat peppered his lip, his hand shook, and he yelled for Rusty.
Rusty came in and saw what had happened.
Mr. Carver was about to jump Marty.
Rusty pulled his pistol and aimed it at Mr. Carver. "Get over there in the corner and stay there." He demanded.
Mr. Carver didn't object. He did watch him with his beady dark eyes though, waiting for the right moment. It never came.
"Go get the undertaker, Marty." Rusty instructed, his gun steady on Mr. Carver.
"Yes sir…" Marty ran out of the jail.
"Sit down Mr. Carver. You've hung yourself now for sure…" Rusty exclaimed.
Mr. Carver was calm, not at all rattled by what he had done. "You've got to bring me to trial first…"
"I'll do it." Rusty confirmed. "Why did you kill Joe? I thought you were friends." Rusty demanded to know.
"It will be a scandal enough, without Joe spilling his guts. I did it to protect Penelope. I don't want her to suffer through all of this."
"You should have thought about that before you killed your partner and friend." Rusty stared at him. "You kill a man awful easy, Mr. Carver. Makes me wonder how many times you've done it?"
The old man shrugged. "It comes with the territory."
"And what territory is that, sir?"
"Building an empire…"
"Were you protecting Penelope when you killed Stanley? Or protecting your reputation?"
Mr. Carver for the first time looked weak and almost frail. "Strange as it may seem, yes. A man of my means has to do a lot of things that he doesn't really want to do, to protect the ones he loves. If Penelope ever found out the truth…"
The undertaker arrived with Marty a few minutes later.
"Get him out of here, Seth." Rusty ordered his exasperation running over as he mulled Mr. Carver's excuses.
"Sure Sheriff. Did they try to escape?"
"No…Mr. Carver killed Joe in cold blood with a knife we didn't know he had on him. And he's going to hang for it." Rusty replied giving Mr. Carver a cold look.
"You don't say…well, I'll be. A man like that…"
"Yeah, a man like that," Rusty repeated dully.
Rusty put Mr. Carver in another cell and yelled for Marty.
"Marty, clean that bed up, we might need it later. I've got Mr. Carver in my maximum cell now. He won't be hurting anyone else." Rusty frowned.
"You betcha!" Marty replied and he darted about to get some soap and water.
When Rusty went back to look at the mattress he nodded. "That's good, Marty. Now stand it up at the door and let it dry."
"Okay."
"Mr. Carver," Rusty eyed the old man once more. "Make yourself to home, you are gonna be with us a while. And if I was you, I'd be thinkin' on what I was gonna tell my daughter."
The old man sighed and flopped down on the edge of the bed.