Chapter 6

Casting the footprint by wax was going to take a while, so Jarrod didn't plan on seeing it until the next day. In the meantime, he did some work he needed to do at the office while his handy brothers played cards in the outer office and Jarrod's secretary Esther tried her best to do her work without being driven crazy.

It was late in the day, just before the Barkley men started for home, that a runner from the telegraph office came by and delivered Jarrod a response to the telegram he sent to his San Francisco secretary earlier in the day. Nick and Heath hovered while Jarrod read the telegraph. Esther just sat at her desk and waited for instructions.

"Imwald," Jarrod said. "Isaac Imwald was the name of the man in San Francisco with the large feet."

"We need to track him down," Nick said.

"I asked Angie to contact Pinkerton about that, so it's already underway," Jarrod said. "She just didn't have any information yet. Esther," Jarrod turned toward his secretary. "You should go on home now. I don't want you out after dark, not tonight."

Esther took her reticule out of her desk drawer and stood up, saying, "Thank you, Mr. Barkley. I don't particularly want to be out."

"Shall I walk you home?" Heath offered.

Esther smiled. "No, thank you, I don't live but a few blocks away, and there will be plenty of people out. I'll be fine. Good night. I'll see you tomorrow, Mr. Barkley."

"Well," Jarrod said, "if we're going to make it home before dark, we'd better get going too."

They did make it home before darkness hit. Nick and Heath chatted a little on the way, but Jarrod just kept ruminating and remembering – or at least trying to remember – everything about Isaac Imwald. One heckuva big man in every way, Jarrod remembered. He had to have been at least 6' 7" and weighed nearly 300 pounds. He hardly looked like a man who would be a contract killer. Contract killers liked to blend in with the crowd, and Imwald stood way above it too much. And while he did not do the killing Jarrod defended him on, Jarrod remembered still believing in his heart of hearts that the man would and did kill for a living. He remembered telling himself at the time that he would probably be seeing Imwald again.

But if he had been around Stockton, wouldn't someone have noticed him? Surely they would have - those footprints at the Kyles place made it clear that someone of Imwald's size had been around. Maybe they hadn't gone into town, at least not in the daylight, so they hadn't really been seen. After all, the killings in town had been done at night.

Jarrod shook all those thoughts out of his head as they rode into the stable yard and gave their horses over to the Ciego for care. When they went into the house, the three men were greeted eagerly – worriedly – by their mother and sister.

"You didn't have any trouble in town today," Victoria asked for confirmation.

"We're fine," Nick said. "Found out a few things, but nobody's been arrested yet, so I'd rather you two stay here on property tomorrow."

"I need to go into the church on Saturday," Audra said. "I've promised to help get it cleaned up for services on Sunday."

"Let's wait and see on that," Jarrod said. "I'm sure Rev. Johnson can round up one of the ladies already in town to help if need be. He'll understand why we think the two of you might be vulnerable because of me and Heath."

The men filled the women in on where things stood with the investigation in town and what their own plans were for the next day. Both Victoria and Audra nodded as they heard them out. "I'm glad you're sticking together," Victoria said.

"Just as long as they don't drive Esther crazy," Jarrod said.

"We were well-behaved," Nick defended himself.

"And quiet," Heath added.

"With any luck we'll be out and about checking on things anyway," Jarrod said. "Those footprint castings should be ready, and maybe I'll have something from San Francisco on this Imwald guy."

"I just hope there aren't any more killings to look into," Heath said.

"How is Mrs. Ashby?" Audra asked. Even though the woman had withdrawn her offer of property for the new orphanage building, Audra still cared about her.

"We haven't talked to her," Jarrod said. "The sheriff probably did this afternoon. But we did see her at the Stockton House, having lunch with a woman none of us knew."

"What did she look like?"

"Dark, beautiful in a hard kind of way," Jarrod said. "Maybe a little younger than Nick in age. Does that sound like anyone you know?"

Audra thought about it. "No, not really. Does she sound familiar to you, Mother?"

Victoria shook her head. "No."

"Does Mrs. Ashby have any out of town relatives you know of who might have come in?" Jarrod asked.

"Not that I know of," Audra said. "Mrs. Ashby didn't come to the trial, you know. I'm surprised you saw her at the Stockton House. She hasn't been seen out and about very much."

"She might get out more now that the whole Kyles family is out of the picture," Nick mused.

"But the truth about her husband came out and it will stay out," Victoria said. "That has to be very, very difficult for Mrs. Ashby." Then Victoria had thought of something and said it out loud. "You said the sheriff was talking to Mrs. Ashby. You don't think she knows anything about the killings, do you?"

"Knowing Mrs. Ashby, I doubt it," Jarrod said, "but she might know something without knowing she knows it. And if this mystery woman is her companion for now, I'm sure the sheriff will be talking to her too. The whole picture should at least be a little clearer tomorrow."

XXXXXXXX

"The woman staying with Mrs. Ashby is named Mrs. Claudia Rivers," the sheriff told the Barkley men in the morning. "She's from Sacramento."

"Sacramento," Jarrod said thoughtfully.

"That's where Mike Chang said the trouble around here is coming from," Nick said.

The sheriff nodded. "I have a wire in to the sheriff up there, to see what he knows about her."

"I'll wire Pinkerton," Jarrod said. "They can dig deeper than the sheriff has the time or the budget to."

"And just because Chang thinks the trouble is coming from Sacramento, it doesn't mean it is," Nick said.

"No, it doesn't," the sheriff said, "but we didn't have any more bodies turn up overnight. We checked your bullets and casings against those we found at the Kyles place and you boys are in the clear. Not that I thought you were implicated in the first place."

"It's nice to have the physical evidence though," Jarrod said. "Did you find out anything else from Mrs. Ashby?"

"Yeah, I found out she's not going to say much of anything until she gets a lawyer, and that Mrs. Rivers is connecting her with one in Sacramento," the sheriff said.

"Who?" Jarrod asked.

"I don't know yet. I expect we won't know until he contacts me and says he's representing her."

"Sheriff, did you get any notion that Mrs. Ashby might have known what her husband was doing all along?" Nick asked.

"Not really," the sheriff said. "I didn't get a notion that she did or she didn't. That Mrs. Rivers was hovering close and Mrs. Ashby was clamming up tight."

"If she's getting a lawyer she must be expecting trouble."

"I'm sure she is," Jarrod said, "whether she was involved or not or knows anything or not about her husband's doings or what's going on now. She's doing what I'd have advised her to do under the circumstances. Get a lawyer. But I sure would like to know what connection this Mrs. Rivers has to her, or to anything else."

"You're suspicious," the sheriff said.

"I think right now I'd be suspicious of any stranger in town," Jarrod said.

"I can't check them all out."

"No, of course not, but the lady attached to Mrs. Ashby and Isaac Imwald with the big feet are worth checking out, so Pinkerton will be checking them both," Jarrod said.

"Speaking of big feet," the sheriff said and went to his safe. He opened it and took out two hardened wax molds that he brought to his desk.

He set them down there, and Jarrod and his brothers looked closely at them. They definitely were bigger than any boot they had seen before – except that they were very similar to the one Jarrod recalled Isaac Imwald's were like, especially the right boot. Jarrod didn't touch it, but he pointed. "There – the outer right boot print. It's not much, but it's slanted a little compared to the left. When this fella took his step, his right foot on the outside didn't sink into the ground as much as his left foot did."

"Meaning he could be lacking toes," the sheriff said.

"He could be," Jarrod said. "We're just not going to know for sure until we find Isaac Imwald."

"Or we find whoever belongs to these footprints," Heath said.

"We're burying the Kylses this afternoon, near Korby in the town cemetery," the sheriff said. "No fanfare, and the county will take over the farm as soon as we can get a court order."

"Selling it in the condition it's in is gonna be a chore," Nick said.

"You want it?" the sheriff asked.

Nick raised his hand in a "stop" motion, pursed his lips and shook his head.

"If the overdue taxes aren't bad, someone will buy it," Jarrod said. "And hopefully clean it up and getting it running properly."

"That's a concern for later," the sheriff said.