Chapter 3

Every single murder victim Hogan had been investigating was someone Jarrod had known and seen right before they were murdered. Jarrod was completely taken aback.

"That's still not enough to arrest me on," Jarrod said. "I did not kill any of those people and I wasn't involved in any way with their deaths."

"You can understand why my interest is in you, though," Hogan said.

"Marshal, I have plenty of enemies in this world," Jarrod said. "I put many a man in jail when I've been prosecutor. This could just as easily be someone following me from place to place. You don't have enough to arrest me on."

Hogan admitted, "You're not under arrest yet."

"Have you checked with the railroad to see if someone has been going where I've been going?"

"I'm working on that," Hogan said, "but so far I have no names at all."

"It would be easy enough for someone to use different names at different times."

"Granted, it would, which is why I haven't given up working on that angle. But Mr. Barkley – while you are an upstanding community leader, you have had a history of occasional violence. You have killed men."

"In war or in self-defense," Jarrod said quickly, firmly.

"There's one exception."

Jarrod knew exactly who Hogan was talking about. "Don't use that on me, Marshal. That was a year ago and I did not kill the man – "

"It was just before these killings began," Hogan said.

"Have you been to Rimfire? Have you talked to the sheriff there?"

"Yes, a couple days ago, right before the Carson City killing. I got the details about your – " He thought for a beat about what word to use and came up with " – experience in Rimfire. I checked on killings there. There haven't been any. This trail starts in San Francisco and now it leads to Carson City. I didn't let it settle on you until after I went to Rimfire but you were already top of my list. Mr. Barkley, I am not arresting you and I'm not giving up on the notion that someone might be framing you, but you are definitely my main suspect. I expect you not to leave the area – "

"I was planning to get back to San Francisco in a couple weeks. I have clients there that need attention."

"I'm aware of that. I'm planning to have this situation resolved by then, but if I don't, I suggest you put your trip off. If you disappear, you realize of course there will be wanted posters out on you before you can whistle Dixie. And within the next day or two, I suggest you get yourself an attorney. You might be needing one."

Jarrod grumbled. How could this be happening?

"You haven't asked how any of these people were killed, or why you were so high up on my list that I went to Rimfire," Hogan said unexpectedly.

Jarrod didn't realize that. His head had been spinning too much. "No, I haven't. Does it matter?"

Hogan said, "The reason I was brought into this case in the first place was because of the nature of the killings. Very unusual for a serial killer. All of these people were strangled, but several of them were finished off by being drowned on dark streets in watering troughs."

Jarrod straightened. Drowned in watering troughs….

Hogan went on. "Every person, even the ones who were ultimately drowned, showed signs of being strangled by someone with large hands and long fingers. Piano player's hands, the coroner in San Francisco called it."

The coroner in San Francisco was an old friend of Jarrod's. They'd become acquainted over the course of three murder cases Jarrod had been an attorney in there. The coroner there knew Jarrod played the piano because he'd been in the man's home and played for his family, and like many people, he knew about Rimfire. A lot of people knew about Rimfire, and if Hogan had asked the man the right questions – like have you heard about anyone with hands like this drowning someone this way? The coroner would have been duty bound to give an honest answer. Jarrod began to turn cold.

Hogan said, "You have large and powerful hands, with long fingers, just like a piano player." He pointed to Jarrod's hands.

Jarrod looked at his hands. "And I do play the piano," he said. He looked back up at Hogan. "I'm not denying any of the things you just said. The coroner in San Francisco knows me. He knows what happened in Rimfire. I've haven't spread that news around, but I haven't denied it either."

"I appreciate your candor, Mr. Barkley," Hogan said. "And like I said, while I have settled on you as my main suspect, I am not convinced you haven't been set up to take the fall for someone else. A lot of men have big hands, whether they play the piano or not. I'm still looking at all angles, and because you are a pillar in society in northern California, I'm giving you the benefit of my doubt. But get a lawyer, and don't leave the area."

Jarrod seethed, but there was nothing he could do about this right this minute. At least he wasn't going to jail, but now he wondered how he was going to explain the situation to his family.

He was thinking about that as he went to his horse and didn't even know Sheriff Madden was still with him. Jarrod stopped at his horse and gave the sheriff an ironic smile. "What's the matter, Fred? Are you afraid I'm going to bolt?"

Sheriff Madden shook his head. "No, but part of the deal I struck with Hogan was that I'd get you down here to the office tonight and then make sure you went straight home, too."

"So, him going easy on me is your idea, not his," Jarrod said.

"Jarrod, he understands everything about you and this situation," the sheriff said. "Most of all, he understands the timing."

"That this started happening just after I got home from Rimfire."

"And when you started to get back to work."

Jarrod quieted his voice. He didn't want to be overheard. "Fred, I didn't kill any of those people he had on that list. I knew them all, but just peripherally, either because I defended them as their lawyer or met with them on business. But I didn't know any one of them was dead. I haven't had anything to do with any of them after our business was concluded. I didn't have any reason at all to kill any of them, and I didn't kill any of them."

Sheriff Madden sighed. "I don't think you did, I know you better than that. But I have to go with the evidence, Jarrod. Right now, yeah, I believe you. There's not enough there to charge you with anything."

"And there won't be, because I didn't do it," Jarrod interrupted him. And then sighed exasperatedly. "How many times have you and I heard that line – 'I didn't do it' – and it turned out they did?"

"Jarrod, I don't think you're lying to me. I don't know what's going on, but tonight, I'm gonna get you home, and you're gonna have to talk to your family. And knowing you and yours, you're gonna work out some way to figure this out. In the meantime, I'll try to keep Hogan from locking you up, but I do have to follow the evidence wherever it leads. You know that."

Jarrod nodded, mounting up. Sheriff Madden mounted his own horse and the two of them headed back to the Barkley ranch.

Sheriff Madden left Jarrod off at the stable in the Barkley compound where Jarrod had the stable hand take his horse to care for it. Jarrod headed to the house, watching the sheriff ride away, knowing he could go right back and get his horse and get out of here, but he also knew better than to do it. Not only would it mean wanted posters out on him. It would cost him all his credibility and the help of the people inside this house. Besides all that, Sheriff Madden had put himself out on a limb for him with Marshal Hogan. Betraying the sheriff would cost Fred his job.

Jarrod went into the house. No one was in the foyer or the living room, but he could hear muffled voices coming from the library, followed by a loud, "Oh, what a shot!" from Nick that told him his two younger brothers were playing pool. Jarrod left his hat on the hat tree by the door, gathered in his breath and headed for the library. When he went in through the library doors, he still wasn't sure how he was going to tell them what was going on, but when they all stopped and looked at him – when he saw the questions in their eyes – he knew how he had to start.

"We need to talk," he said. He didn't fetch himself a drink or let himself look worried or frightened – even if he was. He stood there in the middle of the room, at the foot of the pool table where Nick and Heath stood, and he looked at his mother and sister on the sofa. "Fred didn't come to see me about a client. He came to see me about me."

They looked at him. A flash of surprise came into every set of eyes.

Jarrod sucked it in and went on. "There's a federal marshal in town named Hogan who had questions for me. He's been following the trail of some unsolved murders in several towns and cities not far from here – San Francisco, Sacramento, Carson City, others. What he's found is that what these places and what these murder victims have in common is me."

Nick and Heath frowned at each other. Audra looked at her mother, but Victoria stayed looking at Jarrod, and he looked at her. They all still waited for him to keep talking.

"I haven't murdered anyone," Jarrod said flatly. "I knew all these victims but I didn't know any of these people were dead. The first victim was in San Francisco nearly a year ago, a client of mine. The most recent was in Carson City right before I left – Mark Coleman, the attorney I was seeing about the deal with Sam Gregory."

The mention of Coleman's name, the fact that he had just been killed, sent Audra gasping.

Heath got straight to the real point. "Somebody's watching you. Somebody who has it in for you."

Jarrod looked at him, grateful Heath was going to that thought and not straight to are you murdering people. Jarrod nodded. "That's the only thing I can think of – that or some lunatic has latched onto me for cover and killing just because he likes to kill."

"Whoever it is, he must be following you," Victoria said. "Has this marshal checked on that?"

"Yes, but a traveler can easily use different names when he's traveling," Jarrod said.

"Are they arresting you?" Nick asked, very seriously.

"Not yet," Jarrod said, "but I'm going into town in the morning and hiring a lawyer to defend me. They could lock me up at any time."

Nick laid his pool cue down on the table with a huge sigh. Game night was over.