20
Kitty stared, dumbfounded. He had been lying right there on the floor where he'd fallen when Charlotte shot him. The few minutes she and Charlotte were in the room after the shooting, as well as when she'd stepped back in after her shawl, he hadn't moved. Looking back up at Troy, she saw concern and curiosity but no real doubt of her truthfulness.
Yet.
"Troy, I… I don't understand. He was here. He was right here, when I came for you. I swear."
"Well," Troy shrugged. "He's not here now. I guess he wasn't as bad off as you thought. Did you actually check him to make sure he was dead?"
The look of disgust on her lovely yet worried face was enough of an answer.
"Well, tell ya what. Why don't you find you another room for the night and I'll scout around, see if maybe I can find him. He may not be dead, but he could be pretty badly hurt and needing help."
Kitty continued to stare at the empty spot on the floor, where a dead body was supposed to be, for several moments before finally nodding and looking back at Troy. "Alright. I don't think I could stay in here anyway." Turning, she looked back at him. "Troy. Thank you."
"Go on." Troy told her. As soon as Kitty left, Troy reached over and closed the door. Something in the room wasn't right. Even if he was correct and Grant had merely been wounded but not killed, there still should've been something showing that. But other than Stark's hat, a mussed up bed and an out of place rug, there was nothing but a few small spots of blood on the rug.
Of course there were a few other things that didn't fit as well. Kitty had said she'd left Charlotte and her baby in Charlotte's room sleeping. But if that was so, why was the bassinette in Kitty's room? He also wanted to know where the gun was. It wasn't lying around anywhere that he could see. What did Kitty do with it?
Troy seriously liked the beautiful redhead and he thought her honest, but something wasn't adding up just yet. He doubted she would've reported something like this if it hadn't happened. But if it did, where was the dead man? Taking one last look around the room, Troy finally turned and left the room. First order of business was to find Grant; he'd tackle everything else after that.
After leaving the room, Kitty made her way back down to Charlotte's room. She was still wearing the torn blouse but right then she wasn't much in favor of returning for other clothes. She figured she'd borrow something from Charlotte.
Charlotte was sitting up in bed, looking pale and frightened. Rebecca was sleeping on the bed beside her when the door opened and Kitty came in. "What happened?" She asked anxiously. "Is the Sherriff going to arrest me?"
Kitty shook her head as she crossed over and sat down on the bed beside her friend. "No, he's not going to arrest you. Right now, he's not going to arrest anyone."
"What do you mean?" Charlotte was on the edge of a nervous breakdown and the stress of not only her own illness as well as finding her husband trying to rape her best friend was coming close to pushing her over. "I killed him, Kitty."
Charlotte's ragged voice rose. "I shot him."
"Sssshhh." Kitty admonished her. "I know you shot him, honey. But you did it to protect me, first of all." Kitty answered.
"First of all?" Charlotte questioned. "There's nothing else, Kitty. I killed my husband."
Kitty sighed heavily and shook her head. "No, you didn't Charlotte." She reached over and placed a hand on her arm. "I went and got the Sherriff and had him come back with me and Grant was gone when we got back to my room."
"Gone?" Charlotte visibly paled. "Ho… how? Kitty, I shot him!" Her voice rose again and Kitty lightly squeezed her arm again.
"Charlotte, please, calm down. I don't know how. The Sherriff thinks maybe his wound wasn't as bad as we thought. But whether it was or wasn't, I want you to stop saying you shot him. You hear me? Stop saying that."
"How, Kitty?" Charlotte looked at her incredulously. "Even if he's alive, it doesn't change things. It doesn't change what I did."
Kitty took a deep breath. "No, it doesn't. But what I told the Sherriff does."
Charlotte was clearly worried by that statement. "What'd you tell him? Kitty, he was attacking you. I had to shoot him. I had…"
"Charlotte, calm down." Kitty advised again. "I know you did. And I'm grateful you did. But the law doesn't look at things the way we do sometimes. You shot him in the back, Charlotte, and he was unarmed. The law takes a dim view of that kind of thing, no matter your reasons. So, I told the Sherriff, I shot him."
Charlotte's eyes widened. "You told him you… Why? Kitty, you can't do that. You can't. You can't take this kind of thing on yourself."
"Charlotte, it's best this way. Don't you see?" Kitty tried to reason with her. "Besides the fact that you shot an unarmed man who wasn't threatening you at the moment, you also have that baby to consider. Charlotte, chances are that if Grant is found dead, questions will be raised as to the circumstances. Now, I have a better chance of getting out of this than you do and I have less to consider if things went wrong. You have a daughter. I have no one."
Kitty felt a pang of guilt when she said that last part, knowing she had Matt. But she also knew that it wasn't the same thing. Matt would be able to go on, should something happen to her. Rebecca would lose her mother and her whole world.
But Charlotte was having none of it. "NO, Kitty. NO! I will not let you do this. I won't."
Kitty shook her head at her friend. "You have no choice, honey. I've already done it. Now I don't want you to worry. It'll all work out."
Outside the closed door, Troy Bowman, Sherriff of Abilene stood with a slight smile on his face. He had been about to leave when he thought of something he wanted to ask Kitty, so he went down to Charlotte's room to talk to her. But no sooner did he raise his hand to knock, then he heard Charlotte's voice, clear, strident and loudly proclaiming her guilt.
Standing perfectly still, Troy listened to the rest of the conversation between the two women; Troy got the answers to the questions he'd had without having to ask them. He also developed an even deeper appreciation for the lovely redhead as well as a consternation for her willingly risking a murder charge for something she didn't do.
Turning, he quietly left with a shake of his head at the saloon owner called Kitty Russell.
TBC
AN: Once again, thank you to all the readers. You guys are great and Tenglund, thank you for catching my goof. GSOBSESS you are correct about Peter.