Chapter 4
Heath led the sheriff, one deputy, Dr. Merar and Mr. Beckett the undertaker to the side of the Kyles house, where he and his brothers had left Jake and his sons. The bodies were still there. All the men stopped, staring. Dr. Merar said, "Dear God in heaven – "
The sheriff said, "Heath. Take a good look. Has anything changed since you found them?"
Heath moved forward, walking slowly among the bodies. He sensed movement nearby, stopped and turned fast – but it was only vultures in the trees, waiting for the humans to leave. Heath finished looking and came back to the men who waited for him.
"The vultures have had at them more, but that's all," Heath said.
"Doc, have a look," the sheriff said.
The men waited while Dr. Merar carefully moved from Jake Kyles, to Emmet, to Alan, looking at each one carefully. He knew darned well what he was looking at, with the back of their heads blown away, their eyes picked out and insects setting in. They had been here like this for a while.
When he finished looking, Dr. Merar came back. "I don't think this happened today. Yesterday probably, certainly no earlier than the day before."
"Heath, did you or your brothers go into the house?" the sheriff asked.
"No," Heath said. "We saw the vultures and found the Kyleses right off, so we just headed to town to find you."
"You didn't touch anything?"
"No."
The sheriff sighed. "All right. Mr. Beckett, why don't you and Doc Merar get these bodies together and in the wagon while Heath and I look around inside the house? Danny, I want you to look around out back there and on the other side of the house, see if you find anything. If there are any tracks out here, they're pretty well wiped out, but if you see anything you think might help, you make note of it."
Danny, the deputy, nodded and headed around toward the back of the house. Heath followed the sheriff around to the front and into the house. It was a complete mess, as expected, but both men knew that probably had more to do with the way the Kyleses lived their lives and not with the way they died. Dirty dishes were in the sink. On the table were dishes with foul-smelling food still on them.
"Looks like they got interrupted eating," Heath said, "and it looks like dinner, not breakfast."
"The doc's guess of yesterday is looking accurate," the sheriff said. "I don't know how we're gonna find anything in all this mess, but look around and see if you see anything having to do with opium or the Tong or anything like that."
Heath nodded and started looking, as did the sheriff. An hour later, they were shaking their heads at each other. "I'm not finding anything," Heath said. "If there was anything here that connected the Kyleses to the opium business, it's probably been taken."
"Yeah," the sheriff said. "They'd take anything they thought connected to opium."
Danny came in from outside, saying, "Sheriff, the doc found some spent shell casings under the bodies when he moved them, and the chicken coop's been broken into. All the chickens are gone."
"Did you find anything in the coop?" the sheriff asked.
"Footprints," Danny said.
The sheriff said, "Let's have a look."
The sheriff led the way outside but kept Heath and Danny out of the coop. "I went in there to look around," Danny said and pointed at some footprints. "Those there are mine – but those – " He pointed at some other prints. "Those aren't mine. They're too big."
"They don't belong to any of the Kyleses either," Heath said. "The three of them beat me up in our stable, and I remember the size of their prints darned well. They didn't have feet as big as that."
The sheriff raised an eyebrow at Heath. "They beat you up?"
"Trying to get me not to testify," Heath said.
"Why didn't you tell me that?"
"Jarrod and I talked about it. We were thinking we'd wait until after the trial and then after the hanging. Then we thought we might come to some kind of understanding with Jake and his boys – that's why we came out here this morning."
"Oh, Heath," the sheriff sighed. "You realize you just put you and your brothers on the suspect list."
"We'll come right off again when you check those shell casings against our guns, sheriff," Heath said. "And Jarrod and Nick have big feet, but not as big as that one set of prints there."
"Yeah, those are the prints of a pretty big man," the sheriff agreed.
"This other set, and the other over here," Danny pointed to. "They're more my size but thinner. I can get some wax out here and make some casts. We can match them against the Kyleses' boots and see which ones we can eliminate, but I'll bet anything the big ones belong to a stranger."
"You and I are gonna stay right here and keep looking around," the sheriff said. "We need to check this chicken coop good. The owner of those big prints was looking for something. But we'll wait until we can get the tracks casted. Heath, the doc and Mr. Beckett are ready to go. Why don't you head back to town with them and send two more deputies out here with some wax? You best stick to your brothers when you find them."
Heath nodded. "That was just about what I was gonna ask to do."
"Get Henry to get the three of you to fire your guns into a grain bag, collect the bullets and the shell casings, just to eliminate you three in this."
Heath nodded again. "All right."
The sheriff looked up and saw Dr. Merar and Mr. Beckett, ready to go and waiting by the wagon that now held the bodies of Jake Kyles and his boys. "You go on. We'll be out here a while."
Heath left them and joined Dr. Merar and Mr. Beckett. He told them the plan, and in only a minute, they were all on their way back to town.
XXXXXXX
Jarrod finished tracking down the Chinese contacts he wanted to, but they didn't give him any information at all. They didn't even exonerate themselves by saying they had no information. They just kept quiet, shook their heads and walked away.
"You'd think they'd at least deny they were involved," Nick said.
"They're afraid somebody from the Tong is watching," Jarrod said. "They did exactly what they'd do to keep both the Tong and the law off their backs, but later – if there is anything – they'll find a way of getting it to me."
"That's the way it usually works for you?"
"If there's anything there. Come on. Let's go over to the sheriff's office and tell Henry what Mike Chang said."
Henry was there in the office, alone. He shook his head when Jarrod asked if any of the other deputies had found out anything. Jarrod filled him in on what Chang had said about the orders on this coming from Sacramento.
"And he doesn't think the Tong is doing the killing," Jarrod finished up. "I think he's right. The Tong are distributors, and it's the suppliers who are cleaning up after themselves. And they're white."
Henry nodded seriously. "Maybe we'll know more when the sheriff gets back from the Kyles place. If the Tong was behind killing Jake and his boys, it'll show. It they weren't, that supports Chang's idea."
"We oughtta get something to eat, Jarrod," Nick said. "Heath and the sheriff are gonna be a while, and we gotta think about where we're gonna look next."
"Bring me back a sandwich, will you?" Henry asked. "I need to stay here in case anything comes up."
Jarrod and Nick headed over to Harry's saloon and soon sat at a table in the back with sandwiches and beer. They talked. They thought. They looked at everyone who came in and wondered if they were looking at killers.
Jarrod finally said, "I have a couple white contacts I should check in with after Heath gets back. I want to hear what they found out at the Kyles place before we jump back into asking questions."
"You know, there's one person we haven't even mentioned that maybe we oughtta be talking about," Nick said. "And I don't like saying it at all – "
"You don't need to," Jarrod said quietly. "I've thought about it. Mrs. Ashby."
Nick nodded. "Are you ruling it out?"
"Well, I can't talk to her, that's for sure," Jarrod said. "She'd spit in my face before she'd say one word to me. And from the way she dropped that promise to the orphanage because of me – the way she treated Audra – I don't think she'd talk to any one of the Barkleys right now."
"She might talk to Heath. He at least tried to nail Korby for her husband's murder."
"But I made him back down on the stand. No, if anybody talks to Mrs. Ashby, it should be Fred. And he ought to. We don't really know if she knew what her husband was up to all along, do we?"
"What if Fred's not willing to do it?"
"Well, let's just cross that bridge if we come to it. Right now, let's eat, let's get a sandwich for Henry, and let's get Heath back here with us before we do anything else."
