Chapter 8
Sandra looked out the window of her room, down into the street below. Because she worked late, she slept late, and it was now nearing eleven. The street was full of people going about their day. She was looking for two men – Buster and Jarrod. She was glad when she didn't see either one.
She needed to go to the mercantile today. There were personal things she needed that she couldn't ask anyone else to get for her, and she really didn't want to drag any of the girls from the saloon along with her, just in case there was trouble. A.K. wasn't available – there was always too much to do in a bar to get it open for the day and opening was approaching fast. When Sandra didn't see Buster in the street, she decided to make a fast trip to the mercantile.
She was lucky on the way there – no Buster. But not so lucky on the way out. There he was, heading toward A.K.'s Court from the opposite direction. He saw her.
Sandra stopped. Buster kept coming.
She remembered that angry expression he usually wore. It was worse now. The lines in his face were deeper, his eyes were more glassy. Sandra was frozen. Buster came past the door to the Court and came right up to her.
"You ain't changed much, just got older," Buster said.
Sandra didn't know what to say, so she said nothing. She would have looked for help from someone nearby but she couldn't take her eyes off his.
"I won't forget what you did," Buster said. "What you and the lawyer did."
"I told the truth," Sandra said quickly.
"You and the lawyer, you wanted me out of the way."
"That's not true. This had nothing to do with Jarrod."
"Leave her alone, Shane," the low baritone came up beside them. Jarrod had been heading for A.K.'s Court, to get there when it opened. Sandra was bound to have heard what happened the night before, what Shane had said in the street that everyone heard, and he wanted to talk to her about it. He hurried his step when he saw Buster accosting Sandra.
Both Buster and Shane looked Jarrod's way. Shane said, "Still protecting her. You were supposed to be protecting me."
"I couldn't stop a witness from telling the truth, even if the witness was your wife," Jarrod said. "You took your shot at me last night and you're lucky the sheriff didn't throw you in jail. Now get out of here before I go get him and he throws you out of town."
Shane glared, but he walked away.
Sandra slumped. "Thank you, Jarrod."
Jarrod took her by the arm. "Let's get inside."
A.K.'s was just opening up, and A.K. was at the door. He saw what had just happened in the street, though he did not hear what anyone said. He glared at Shane walking away, then shifted his gaze to Sandra. "Are you all right?"
"Yes," she said. "I had to go out to get some things. I didn't see him on the street before I went out, so I went on out. I'm sorry."
"Sandra, I was coming to have a word with you," Jarrod said. "Is it all right if I come into the bar?" He asked by looking from A.K. to Sandra and back to A.K.
"If you want to talk to him," A.K. said to Sandra.
Sandra didn't look eager, but she nodded. They all went into the saloon.
Jarrod asked to speak to Sandra privately. A.K. looked to her to see what she wanted. Sandra nodded, as Jarrod figured she would. If he wanted to talk frankly about what happened ten years earlier, she would not want to be overheard.
They went up to her room together. It was just a room with a bed, a dresser, a wardrobe, two chairs – nothing big and nothing special. "Do you want to sit down?" Sandra asked as Jarrod closed the door behind them.
"Not really," Jarrod said, "but you certainly may."
She didn't.
Jarrod looked hard at her. "We need to sort this out. I need you to answer some questions that have been bothering me."
Sandra shifted a little, looking away. "What questions?"
"I believed you told the truth on the stand ten years ago."
"I did tell the truth."
"But your testimony sent your husband to prison. At the time, I thought you were defending yourself, but I spent a lot of time thinking last night. Ten years ago I thought there was more going on than I was able to find out about because neither you nor Buster was talking. Like why Roman Taliaferro was killed in the first place."
Sandra turned away from him, pushing her hands in the air as if to push him away. "Jarrod, you'd better go."
"No," Jarrod said, "you'd better tell me everything I need to know, because Buster isn't going to just go away. Buster is mad, mad enough to punch me in the face in the street with my brothers and a lot of other men around watching. And don't tell me you didn't hear about what he said. He's certain you and I were having an affair and we conspired to put him in prison to get him out of the way. He's said it out loud, and he'll keep saying it out loud. Why is he so sure about that, Sandra? Is that why Taliaferro is dead?"
"What?" Sandra whirled on him.
"We never learned why Roman Taliaferro was murdered," Jarrod said. "The only thing we ever decided was that Buster killed him, and a jury decided that. I was never convinced that either one of you killed him, but right now I'm starting to doubt everything I believed ten years ago. I want the truth, Sandra. The truth, not just what you testified to in court, because frankly, I'm beginning to think you lied."
"I told the truth!" Sandra said. "I found Buster with Roman's body! I hadn't been in there before I found him there! Buster was lying about me being in there before him! He was lying to save his skin! I testified to defend myself!"
"Do you think Buster killed Taliaferro?"
Sandra backed off a little. "I didn't see him do it. I only found him with the body. That's what I testified to because that's what I saw."
"Then who did kill him, Sandra?"
"I don't know! I never knew! He was just dead when I got there and Buster was with him! Buster gave you and the jury some cockandbull story about me having been there before him, but that was a lie! Buster was lying, not me!"
Jarrod eased up. Sandra was reiterating everything she had said before, but Jarrod had questions about everything now. "Sandra, why was Taliaferro killed?"
"What?" she asked.
"Assume for a minute the jury was right, that Buster did kill Taliaferro," Jarrod said, more softly now. "Why did he do it? What do you know about that? Taliaferro wasn't just somebody who bought some tools from Buster, was he?"
Sandra stuttered for a moment.
"Sandra, tell me the truth and tell me all of it," Jarrod said, more sternly. "Who was Taliaferro to you and Buster? If Buster killed him, why did he do it?"
Sandra sighed and sank down into a chair. "Roman was a nice man. He did buy tools from Buster, that's how we met him, but there was more."
"Between you and him?" Jarrod asked.
Sandra nodded. "We – knew each other for a few weeks. Buster didn't know, but he found out. I was meeting Roman at a shack he was camping out in down by Brady's creek, where it cuts west toward the river. Buster found out."
"Did Buster kill him?"
"I don't know, Jarrod," Sandra nodded. "I told the truth. I found Buster with Roman at that shack where Roman was camped out."
"How did you know to go there?"
"I followed Buster. He didn't know I was following him, but we had argued and I knew he was going to go after Roman. When I got there, Buster was there and Roman was dead, but – "
"But what?"
"Buster started yelling at me that I had been there before and I killed Roman, but Jarrod, I swear I didn't, but I couldn't testify Buster did because I didn't see it happen and Jarrod – " She looked up at him. "I told Roman it was over between us when Buster found out about us. For all I know, Roman killed himself. It could have happened that way. I just don't know how it happened. I just know I found Buster there and I hadn't been there earlier that day like Buster said."
"And you never confessed to anyone that you'd been having the affair with Taliaferro?"
Sandra shook her head. "No."
"Not even the prosecutor?"
"No."
"Why? Because you wanted Buster to be found guilty?"
Sandra looked up at him. "Because I didn't want Roman's murder to be pinned on me. I didn't kill him."
All of that answered the question as to who Taliaferro really was to the Shanes, and why Sandra testified as she did, but why didn't Buster tell him about Sandra's affair with Taliaferro when Jarrod was defending him? That might have gotten him off. Juries had a tendency to do that – let a man off who murdered his wife's lover. Unless Buster was just too proud to let the world know his wife was unfaithful to him and thought it would be enough to get him off to say she had been there before him. He'd let people think what they would, but he wouldn't confirm it.
Jarrod got up and left without another word, but the new information was just stirring up new questions inside him – and he still had to deal somehow with Shane screaming around town that he had gotten his client sent to prison so he could have at his wife. Luckily, he didn't run into Shane. He didn't want to. His thinking was still coming together.
He walked some more. He thought some more. And by the time he got home that evening – and his family glared at him for leaving early without telling them – he had made a decision. He looked at his brothers and admitted, "I need your help."
