Dead Man's Bluff

Chapter 1

The funeral of a young man is always tougher for those left behind than the funeral of an older man would be. When you lose a young man, you not only lose the man he was. You lose all he would have become if he had lived the life of an average man. You lose the children he would never have, the good works he never would perform, the happiness he would never bring to the woman he loved. You lose the possibilities never fulfilled. You lose the future, and that's always worse than losing the past.

For the Barkley family, losing David Crispin was that kind of loss. Even though he wasn't family, he may as well have been. He was Audra's first love, back when they were children and love was innocent and fun. They'd grown older and a little bit apart, but the bond Audra had with him transferred to the girl he did end up marrying. Laureen Devlin, a girl who had come to Stockton to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents died. David and Laureen had fallen in love as adults did, and married as adults did, only a year before David died in a fall from the roof of his house. There had been no children and would never be any. Laureen had lost her aunt and uncle in the influenza epidemic that swept through Stockton only two months after she married, and now she was alone.

Except that she still had Audra, who stood beside her, holding her hand as the coffin was lowered into the ground and the minister said the words meant to comfort and heal. But when it was a young man's coffin, a man only 23 years old, there were no words that would comfort and heal. Laureen was a ghost, the shell of a beautiful girl and a loving wife. Audra guided her where she needed to go on this most horrible day of her life, and she managed to put one foot in front of the other, but she didn't seem to see anything or hear anything. The only thing she could even seem to do was insist that she would wear a black veil over her face. Audra saw to it. She was seeing to everything Laureen needed now.

The three Barkley brothers had been pallbearers for David, along with three men who worked with him at the bank. They all lowered him into his grave together, and each one of them emptied a shovel full of dirt into the grave before Audra led Laureen away and the other mourners followed. Jarrod saw to his mother. Nick and Heath followed along. They escorted the women to the surrey and Nick drove it to the Barkley house, while Jarrod and Heath rode their horses following. Laureen would stay with the Barkleys for a while. No one wanted to leave her alone. She took to her bed as soon as they got there, and Audra went with her to help her undress, and just to be there.

"This is just too impossible to believe," Victoria said. Even though she had seen more than her share of young men die in many different ways, it never seemed easy to believe.

Jarrod handed her a brandy as she sat down on the settee in the living room. He didn't say anything. It didn't happen often, but right now he didn't know what words to use.

"Maybe someone should go check on their house, make sure it's secure," Victoria said.

"Fred Madden did that," Nick said. "He'll keep an eye on it until Laureen's ready to go home."

"There's no telling when that will be," Victoria said, and she looked toward the stairway. "I hope Audra is up to everything Laureen is going to call on her for."

"She is," Jarrod said. "I know David meant a lot to her, but so does Laureen, and you didn't raise a spoiled little girl, no matter what I might have said in the past."

Victoria smiled a little. "She's grown quite a bit over the past few years. I'm proud of her."

"She's grown since I've been here," Heath said. "She was quite the little spitfire when I met her, but now – she's one fine woman."

"I told Carl if he wanted to come by, he should wait until tomorrow," Nick said. "Audra might need some reinforcement then, but today she just needs to be with Laureen, and I don't think Laureen needs to see a young couple around her right now."

"You and I need to get ready and get out to work," Heath said.

Nick nodded and headed for the stairs, Heath right behind him. Victoria asked Jarrod, "Are you going back into town?"

Jarrod said, "I should. Are you going to be all right?"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine," Victoria said. "I'll help Audra, but I have a feeling Laureen is going to spend most of the day sleeping. I heard her up very early this morning. I know she couldn't sleep."

Jarrod remembered. His mother was much the same way on the day of Tom Barkley's funeral, so many years ago now. But Victoria was seeing it like it was yesterday. Jarrod had his own bad memories of losing a spouse to deal with, but he leaned over and kissed her hair. "I can stay if you need me to."

"No," Victoria said. "We'll be all right."

"I won't stay in town, just long enough to gather up some work and bring it home."

"That'll be fine, but don't worry. We'll be all right."

XXXXXXXX

It was an hour after the men left that Audra finally came downstairs. She was still in black funeral clothing, not even taking time to change clothes yet. She looked exhausted, heartbroken. Victoria had changed clothes and was mending some clothing in the living room, but she put it aside and met her daughter at the foot of the stairs. Audra came into her arms, weak and devastated, but not crying anymore.

"She's finally fallen asleep," Audra said. "I stayed long enough to make sure she'd stay that way for a while."

"Perhaps you ought to catch a nap yourself," Victoria said.

"No," Audra said, "I don't need one. I slept last night. I was fine, except for the dreams."

"Of David?"

Audra nodded. "And of Laureen. Oh, Mother, they were such a beautiful couple together. Do you remember the wedding?"

"Yes," Victoria said, and grieved that they hadn't even gotten to the first anniversary of that lovely event yet. It was only three weeks away. It would be incredibly difficult to go through that, almost as hard as today had been.

Victoria and Audra kept their arms around each other as they went back into the living room and sat down on the settee. Audra said, "You want to do everything you can to take the pain away, but it just won't go."

"No," Victoria said. "Only time can reduce the pain, but even then it doesn't entirely go away."

Audra saw the mistiness in her mother's eyes and knew what she was thinking.

But Victoria smiled. "There comes a time – sometimes it happens in a year, sometimes it takes ten – but there comes a time when you don't want the pain to go away entirely, because it takes the love with it. You want them both to stay, the pain and the love."

"I don't know what Laureen's going to do," Audra said. "She has no one now, no one at all."

"She has you, and the rest of us."

"But it's not the same as having your family around you. Laureen's is all gone."

"We'll do what we can to help her adjust," Victoria said, "and she will adjust. Have faith, Audra. We women are stronger than we know."

"I guess we have to be," Audra said, and she picked up a needle from the pincushion in her mother's sewing basket, ready to help mend some clothing.

XXXXXXXXX

Jarrod had written David's and Laureen's wills right after they married, but he never thought he'd be taking either one of them out now to begin probate. There was nothing really startling in either one of them – Laureen left everything to David, David left everything to Laureen. Jarrod knew he would have to talk to Laureen about writing a new will for her, but now certainly was not the time.

The official copy of the will was on file at the courthouse, but Jarrod kept a copy of every will he wrote in his filing cabinet in the office. He'd written many a will over the years and never discarded one, not even after probate and distribution were complete. You just never knew when something might come up and you'd need it again. He took David's will out of the filing cabinet now and looked it over. Then he began the paperwork involved in probating the will, to see that everything was put in Laureen's name as soon as legally possible.

He lingered over it for a while, thinking about David, gone so young. It shouldn't have shocked him as much as it did – many a man and woman died young. Women often died in childbirth, men in accidents of some sort, like David's accident. But 23 was so awfully young, it stung. It stung that this dead man was Audra's age, Audra's childhood friend, Audra's first boyfriend. If for some reason he and Audra had married, instead of he and Laureen, Audra would be a widow now. That's what bothered him – the thought of his little sister, the girl he had helped raise after his father died, being a widow.

Widowed, like he was himself.

He put it out of his mind and kept up with the paperwork, but he was interrupted after a few minutes. His secretary knocked and came in, saying the sheriff was there to see him. "Send him in," Jarrod said.

Sheriff Madden came in with his hat in his left hand, holding out his right hand. Jarrod stood up and shook hands with him. "Jarrod," the sheriff said. "I know this is kind of a rough day to come to you with this, but it really can't wait."

"What's going on, Fred?" Jarrod asked.

Sheriff Madden heaved a sigh. "I had somebody come by my office, and he had quite a tale to tell."

"About what?"

"About David Crispin."

Jarrod was surprised. "What kind of tale?"

"You better sit back down," Sheriff Madden said.