Chapter 11

"Oh, brother," Nick moaned when he and Heath reconnected with Jarrod at his office, and the three of them shared the information they'd picked up since they split up. "This just gets worse and worse."

"Doesn't it?" Jarrod said.

"What I found out doesn't sound much different from what you found out, Jarrod," Heath said. "I think I'll skip taking it to the sheriff for now and keep Harry out of it. Word doesn't need to get around that Harry knows things."

"Everybody knows bartenders hear gossip," Nick said.

"But I'm with Heath for now," Jarrod said. "It should stay gossip. We don't need another potential victim thrown into this. Heath, if there's anything he said or anything you hear that adds any real validity to what Harmon told me, you let me know."

"I will," Heath said.

"So, what do we do next?" Nick asked.

"Talk to Mike Chang again," Jarrod said. "See if he's picked up anything new, especially about the book. If he hasn't, we may just need to lay low for a while and keep our eyes open for somebody else coming into town to replace Imwald."

"What about Mother and Audra?" Heath asked. "Audra wants to come in to help at the church on Saturday, and you know they want to be in church on Sunday."

"It might be all right as long as one of us is with them," Nick said.

"I hate splitting up," Heath said. "I don't know if I'm in the clear yet, but Imwald coming after Jarrod last night tells me he's not. Somebody thinks Korby told him something, maybe something about the book."

"It won't be long we should be heading home," Jarrod said, checking his watch. "Let's talk to them about it and see how they feel."

The Barkley women never held back their opinion, and this time they were agreed. "We'll skip going into town until this is more settled," Victoria said. "You three need to take care of each other. Someone else can help get the church ready for services, and I doubt Rev. Johnson will be too upset that we're not there on Sunday."

Jarrod breathed a sigh of relief when his mother said that. He and his brothers had decided to try to talk them into staying at the ranch for the time being. Now it seemed they didn't have to twist arms. "We'll talk to him tomorrow," Jarrod said.

Nick handed his older brother a glass of scotch, saying, "We don't really know how long it's gonna take for this all to settle down."

"I know," Victoria said, "but you don't need to be worrying about us while we're worrying about you."

"We're all right, Mother," Jarrod said. "There's no need to worry."

"He says as he holds his drink in his left hand," Audra said, without a smirk but with eyes that were concerned.

Jarrod switched his drink to his bandaged right hand. "There. No problem."

"Yeah, well, you don't need to be trying to shoot a gun with that hand just yet," Nick said.

"We'd rather you didn't need to," Victoria said. "Audra and I will be fine out here."

"We'll keep a couple extra hands around here during the day, just to keep sure," Heath said.

"Is Mike Chang aware of what's going on?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod nodded. "We've talked to him a few times, and just before we came home today in fact. He's sure the Tong isn't part of this, that it's just a supplier's problem and not theirs."

"At least so far," Nick added.

"He'll let us know if he finds out anything else," Jarrod said. "For now, we just wait, and watch."

"We'll go back into town with Jarrod tomorrow," Heath said. "Just in case something starts happening."

"You expect someone else to come in to do Imwald's work, don't you?" Victoria asked.

"It wouldn't surprise anyone," Jarrod said. "And if things continue to run as fast as they have been, he might be coming in tonight."

Audra sighed. "How wonderful."

The Barkley men exchanged looks with one another. They were having the same thought Audra was.

XXXXXXX

Jarrod, Nick and Heath went into town early the next morning, deciding they wanted to be there and off the road before too many people woke up. They wanted to reduce the chances that someone replacing Imwald had come in overnight and would try for them again.

The town was awake with delivery people and shopkeepers setting up their outside wares, but few if any people were walking around idly. The Barkleys went to the sheriff's office first. After they bid him good morning, the sheriff said, "Some good news at least. No new bodies again last night."

"Maybe we're over that part of it," Jarrod said. "How about new arrivals on the late train?"

"Too many to keep track of," the sheriff said. "As soon as Henry gets in, I'll have him head to the hotels and see what out of town types have checked in but you can pretty much count on too many to keep track of."

"Maybe if he can get some names you can run them by Mr. Harmon," Heath suggested.

"Maybe," the sheriff agreed. "Where will you be today, Jarrod?"

"My office," Jarrod said, "after we track down Rev. Johnson and tell him our sister won't be in to help clean up the church for services. We all thought it was best she and Mother stay at the ranch for the time being."

"Probably a good idea," the sheriff said. "I'll let you know if anything breaks. You let me know too, all right?"

The Barkleys took off for the church, finding Rev. Johnson in his small house that adjoined it. They let him know about Audra, and he thanked them. He asked if there were any more killings overnight and was happy to find out there were none. "Maybe we're over that," he said, just as Jarrod had said.

From there, they went to Jarrod's office. Esther would not be in and so could not be driven crazy by Nick and Heath. "We'll hang around here," Nick said.

"Unless you drive me crazy, in which case I'll send you off to the saloons to fetch some gossip again," Jarrod said.

"We'll see," Heath said. "I'm not comfortable leaving you alone."

Jarrod went to his filing cabinet and pulled out a file. When he laid it on his desk, both Nick and Heath were surprised to see it was Korby Kyles's file. "Aren't you done with him?" Nick asked.

"I usually straighten a file out before I put it away for good," Jarrod said. "I was waiting until after Korby's – " He hesitated with the word. "Execution before I took care of his file, but all this craziness has interfered."

"Do you think there might be something in there to help us out?" Heath asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "I don't remember anything, but I'll – "

He was going to say he'd review it carefully, but as he opened the folder, he saw something. Something he hadn't seen before because he hadn't opened it since before Korby's outburst at the trial. His eyes narrowed as he looked on the inside cover of the folder.

"Well, this is new," he said.

Nick and Heath looked over his shoulder. There was something written on the inside of the folder itself, in pencil. It said "Ashby – back step 2."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nick asked.

"I don't know," Jarrod said. "I didn't put it there."

"Who did? Esther?"

Jarrod shook his head. "It's not her handwriting."

He thought. He closed his eyes. He tried to remember.

"What are you thinking?" Heath asked.

"There's only one person other than Esther or I who would have had access to this file," Jarrod said. He opened his eyes. His gaze was down, shifting back and forth. "When Korby blurted out his confession in court – after you and the others hauled him down, Nick, and sat him down at the defense table – I turned my back on him for a minute. He was alone there for a moment with this file and my pencil. There was so much pandemonium going on, what with you and Heath trying to get Mother and Audra out and the deputies trying to get other people out – it had to be. Korby had a moment alone with this file and my pencil. He had to put this in there."

"Why would he do that?" Heath asked. "If he had something to tell you, why wouldn't he just tell you?"

"I don't know," Jarrod said. "He barely said two sentences to me or anybody else at all after he'd opened his big mouth and confessed. And why he would want me to know this, I have no idea."

"Knowing Korby, he just didn't want to go down by himself," Nick said. "Until we go over to the Ashby house we won't know what's around the back steps, if there's anything."

"Let's get the sheriff," Jarrod said.

He closed up the file and put it back into the filing cabinet, locking the cabinet just in case. They hurried over to the sheriff's office, but neither he nor any deputy was around. They had no idea where he'd gone.

"There's nobody at the Ashby house," Nick said. "Let's get over there and look."

"Wait," Jarrod said. "If there is anything, I'd prefer to have the sheriff around when we find it, and if there is somebody new in town ready to follow us where we go, we want to know about it. "

"All right," Nick said. "I'll stay here and wait for Fred to come back, and I'll also keep an eye out for anybody going the same way you're going."

"Good idea," Jarrod said. "But you'll lose sight of us in a few blocks. As soon as you do, start following us even if Fred isn't here, and if there is someone following, you can come up behind them and we can find Fred and whatver's at the back steps later."

"All right," Nick said. "Just watch yourselves."

They all went outside, and Jarrod and Heath took off at a fast pace down the street, heading for the Ashby house. Nick waited outside the sheriff's office, watching, glancing around for the sheriff but keeping his focus mainly on his brothers.

Every one of the Barkleys was hoping there was something to be found under the Ashby's back steps.