Chapter 19

Jennifer stared at the scar on Jarrod's neck. Then she looked back up into Jarrod's eyes. "Did Burt do that to you?"

"Yes, he did," Jarrod said. "He missed his chance to kill me once, and when he tried it again, he missed it again. And that's how I ended up killing him."

Jennifer shook her head. "I'm sorry."

"There's no need to be sorry for me," Jarrod said. "But you can help us."

"How?" she asked.

"Burt was hiring himself out as a professional killer, wasn't he?"

Jennifer nodded. "I suspected he was. When I confronted him with it three weeks or so ago, he did this to me." She waved a hand at her battered face.

"Do you have any idea how long he was doing it?" Jarrod asked.

"No," Jennifer said. "I only found out when his boss, Mr. Ipswitch, came here looking for him and he told me Burt was doing some special job for him. He was real nasty about it, and Burt had been nasty for weeks so I figured he had Burt after somebody and it was probably because his son had died and - oh, you're the lawyer who defended his son a couple years ago, aren't you? I'll bet it was you – but why would it be you?"

The name Ipswitch perked all three Barkley brothers up, but Jarrod didn't answer Jennifer's question. "I thought Burt worked on the Ipswitch ranch," Jarrod said.

"He did, but more and more he was disappearing for a time. Mr. Ipswitch kept hiring him back, though. I don't know why. I don't know what was going on with that."

"Why was Ipswitch looking for him when he came here? Did he say?"

"He said Burt was doing some job for him," Jennifer said.

"When was it?"

"Oh – several weeks before Burt came after me. Burt wasn't here at the time but I guess he went back to Mr. Ipswitch because that's how he found out I might have known what he was doing. When he beat me up, he warned me not to tell people about him. I don't know where he was before he came to beat me up."

Several weeks ago was about when I was attacked the first time, Jarrod said to himself. Maybe Ipswitch was trying to find out if McFarland had done the job on me in San Francisco.

"Tell me something, Mr. Barkley," Jennifer said abruptly. "Tell me exactly how you killed Burt."

There was venom in her request. She wanted details because she wanted to revel in them. Jarrod hesitated, not wanting to feed her hatred, but he had to tell her, so he said, "He threw me off a train, and also threw off a friend who was with me. My friend was killed. When your husband came back to verify he'd killed me, he tried to slit my throat again but I got away. I grabbed a gun he had dropped and I shot him."

"I hope he suffered," Jennifer almost growled.

Jarrod shook his head. "I killed him instantly. I was more concerned with my life than making him suffer."

Jennifer slumped a bit. She suddenly seemed to be ashamed of what she was asking. "Of course you were."

She turned away, and the older woman took her arm to support her. "I think you gentlemen better be going," she said.

Jarrod looked at Heath, who said, "Can I ask just one more thing?"

The women looked surprised that someone other than Jarrod had something to say.

Heath said, "Mrs. McFarland – Jennifer - I knew your husband eight years ago. We worked in a mine together, and back then he was not a killer. He didn't even carry a gun. We were both just kids having a good time and trying to make some money."

Jennifer said, "You want to know what happened to turn him into someone who would hire out as a killer."

Heath nodded.

"I think because he never made the money any other way," she said. "He bounced around being a cowhand – back and forth with Mr. Ipswitch several times. When we first got married, I thought he was gonna be a good provider, but he just got into the poker and the liquor and never made the money we needed. I threw him out and moved back here, and that must have been when he started hiring out to kill people, because all of a sudden he was making money, not losing it. I just didn't know what he was doing to get it, not until Mr. Ipswitch came by here and then, even though he didn't say it out loud, I got the message."

"It was just the money?" Heath asked.

"I think the liquor had something to do with it, too," Jennifer said. "He drank more and more as time went on. But mostly it was the money, I think. Yes – mostly, it was the money."

Heath looked vacant for a bit, nodding, processing the information. Then he looked back up at Jennifer. "I am sorry," he said. "I wish the Burt I knew had been the Burt you knew. It would have been all right."

She actually smiled a little. "I wish he had been, too. I expect the Burt you knew was more like the man I fell in love with. I'd have liked to had more time with him."

Heath sighed a little. "Maybe I can come back another time and we can talk a bit. Maybe get to understand better."

Jennifer nodded and said, "Maybe."

XXXXXXX

After leaving Jennifer McFarland, Nick was the first to verbalize what he and Jarrod were both thinking. "You're gonna go back and spend some time with Jennifer McFarland, aren't you?" he asked Heath.

"I'd like to," Heath said. "Not necessarily today. Not with everything we have to do. Not before we know where things stand with Ipswitch."

"Maybe tomorrow, though."

"Maybe," Heath said. "I'll have to see. Figuring out whether Ipswitch is behind this threat or not has to come first."

"He is, and getting rid of the threat has to come first," Jarrod said, straight out. "Not just for me – for Mother and Audra and the two of you, too, especially after we go see Ipswitch. What we're about to do is gonna put you right in the gunsight, too."

"I think we're already there," Nick said.

"But now he's gonna know you personally," Jarrod said.

They first went to the telegraphers and sent messages home and to Davis at Pinkerton's. Next they went to the hotel and got a room, where they left the saddlebags they had been carrying around and cleaned up a little.

"All right," Jarrod said then. "We best go see if the sheriff is in his office before we go see Ipswitch, like the deputy wanted."

They did find the sheriff in this time, and he knew who they were the moment they came in the door. Jarrod remembered the man from Aaron Ipswitch's trial, and he offered his hand. "Sheriff Tolson."

"Mr. Barkley," the sheriff said. "I understand we're going to see Jason Ipswitch."

"You're coming with us?"

"I don't want to see you get killed, and from what my deputy tells me, I better ask some questions that might connect Mr. Ipswitch with a murder."

"The man's name was Willoughby Carson," Jarrod said.

"You're sure it was this Burt McFarland who threw you off a train and killed this Carson fella?"

"I'm positive, Sheriff," Heath said. "I knew Burt years ago. I knew him the minute I saw him."

"We know it was McFarland who killed Carson and tried to kill me," Jarrod said. "According to Mrs. McFarland, her husband was doing some kind of special work for Ipswitch – she had that from both Ipswitch and her husband. But that's the only connection we have. It might not be enough."

"Which is why I want to ask some questions of the man," Sheriff Tolson said. He grabbed his hat and head for the door. "You can fill me in on every detail you can as we ride out there."

"We need to get horses," Nick said.

"The livery down the street will fix you up," the sheriff said. "Let's get going."