Dan Shaye turned the key in the cell door on the man named Nils, and now he had taken care of five of Doucette’s men. Nils had started trouble at the whorehouse, and Miss Lizzie, the Madam, had sent her Negro piano player to fetch Sheriff Shaye.
“He got rough with one of my girls,” she told him, when he arrived. That was all he needed to haul the man’s ass off to jail.
He came out of the cell block, hung the key on the wall peg, and sat behind his desk. That left Doucette with three men still walking around free: the two Shaye had met before—Hawko and Tayback—and the one called Vin.
Hawko and Tayback were the men Mayor Snow had tried to saddle him with as temporary deputies. Turned out they were working for Doucette all along. It was a good thing Shaye had turned them down and kicked them out of town.
Wait a minute . . .
That was right. He kicked them out of town, and now they were back. He could toss them in jail for that, call it . . . trespassing. Couldn’t he?
He figured before he did that, he’d better make sure he could make the charge stick—if it was a legal charge. Judge Fairly could tell him that.
Shaye didn’t have much use for Judge Fairly. He was simply a friend and lackey of Mayor Snow’s, but he’d have the legal issues at his fingertips.
Judge Fairly was in his office at the courthouse when Shaye arrived. His clerk told him that the sheriff needed to see him, and Fairly consented to an audience—reluctantly.
“I have a lot of work, Shaye,” he said, gruffly. “What’s so important?”
Fairly was in his late fifties, a man who kept himself neat and fit. His hair and mustache were trimmed almost daily.
“I have some legal issues I need to check with you, Judge,” Shaye said. “They’re on behalf of the mayor.”
At the mention of the mayor, the judge stopped playing with the papers on his desk and looked directly at Shaye.
“Why didn’t you say so?” he asked. “Have a seat.”
Shaye sat across the desk from the judge. He knew the papers on the man’s desk were probably pointless, just props to make the man look busy when he wasn’t.
Shaye went on to tell the judge that he had men in his jail cells on trumped-up charges, and asked about the charge he was thinking of using on Hawko and Tayback. He also told him that would then leave Cole Doucette with only one man available to him.
Since Fairly was friends with Snow, he knew what the situation was with Cole Doucette.
“Why don’t you just trump up a charge on Doucette and toss him in jail?”
“I wouldn’t be able to keep him there long, Judge,” Shaye said. “You know that. A good lawyer would get him out.”
“I could keep him in,” Fairly pointed out.
“That’s true, Judge, but knowing you, eventually you’d have to go by the letter of the law. I mean,” Shaye said, almost choking, “that’s the kind of man you are.”
Fairly cleared his throat before speaking. “Yes, well, a halfway decent lawyer will get these other fellas out, as well.”
“But maybe not until I’ve dealt with Doucette.”
“And how’d you plan on dealin’ with the man?” Fairly asked.
“I haven’t decided yet,” Shaye said, “but I’d like him to not have much in the way of back-up when I do.”
“Sounds like a cat’n’mouse game to me.”
“You’re probably right, Judge.”
“Well,” the judge said, “lock these other men up for trespassing, and if the case comes up, I’ll rule in your favor. We’ll keep these men off the streets as long as we can.”
“That was my hope, Judge,” Shaye said, standing. “Thank you.”
“Yes, yes, of course,” Fairly said. “The last thing we want is for our illustrious mayor to get shot.”
“Exactly what I was thinkin’, Judge.”
“Well,” Judge Fairly said, looking surprised, “it isn’t every day you and I are on the same page, is it, Sheriff.”
“No, sir, it sure isn’t,” Shaye agreed, “but I’m glad we see eye to eye on this. So will the mayor. I’ll let you get back to work.”
“Oh, yes,” the judge said, once again grabbing some papers from his desk. Shaye made his way to the door, eager to leave.
In front of the building Shaye stopped and considered his next move. Actually, a bath wouldn’t be a bad idea, since he felt dirty from kowtowing to the judge the way he had. Still, he had gotten what he wanted. Now he needed to locate Hawko and Tayback and, somehow, get the jump on them. Hopefully, bringing them in wouldn’t lead to gun play.