Chapter 5

Jarrod felt like he was about to be arrested. Every set of eyes in the place was suddenly on him, and he wasn't exactly sure what to do. But Quinn held the gate open to him, and Jarrod went through and straight to the bench, where the judge still stood.

Judge Farnham reached a hand down toward Jarrod. Jarrod took it, trembling to beat the band.

"It's good to see you, Mr. Barkley," the judge said quietly. "I've heard about your situation and I understand you won't be practicing law, at least for a while, but I just wanted you to know that if you do return to my courtroom, I'll be very pleased to see you."

"Thank you, your honor. I'm just here to watch today," Jarrod said.

"It's a dull little case, I'm afraid," the judge said. "Do you want to be picked for the jury?"

"Oh, no," Jarrod said quickly. "I'm not ready for that. I'd be incompetent to be a juror."

The judge laughed. "Not hardly, Mr. Barkley, but I don't suspect we'll have any trouble seating a jury today. This will be a fast case and everybody knows it, just a quick dollar for anybody who serves on the jury. Go, have a seat, and feel free to come see me in chambers anytime if I can help you get readjusted to the legal community."

Jarrod didn't know what to say. He just said, "Thank you, your honor."

XXXXXXXX

The trial lasted all of four hours, and Jarrod left with his head spinning. He and Heath took lunch at the Stockton House, but he was so quiet Heath didn't think he ought to talk at all. Jarrod looked like he was considering everything he'd just seen, and he was having a hard time doing it.

But just before their food came, Jarrod finally said, "You know, when I was Dakota, I used to think that I might have escaped from prison."

Heath raised an eyebrow.

"I really did," Jarrod said. "It turns out that when you don't know who you are, you don't know what you are either."

"Guess that might explain why you were a might shy about going to this trial today," Heath said.

Jarrod nodded. "Down deep, maybe I was afraid I'd get arrested while I was there." He chuckled. "Ridiculous."

"No, not really," Heath said. "I reckon I might have felt the same way in your shoes. But I think you can quit worrying about it now."

Jarrod nodded.

"That doesn't help you answer the big question, though, does it?" Heath asked. "Did it bring you any closer to deciding if you want to be a lawyer again or not?"

"No, it didn't," Jarrod said. "I know Mother would like me to be a lawyer again."

"Maybe, but she wouldn't want you to rush the decision. We'd all want you to be sure."

"That's gonna take some time," Jarrod said. "Making the decision, and then doing the work if I decide I want to get back into the law."

"You're the only one rushing you," Heath said. "Don't go rebuilding Jarrod Barkley too fast. Dakota might not like it."

Jarrod nodded. "You have a point."

As they left the Stockton House, Jarrod spotted the prosecutor from the trial across the street, and he stopped to watch him for a moment. Heath followed his gaze. "Phil Archer," Heath said.

"Yeah," Jarrod said. "What is it with him? Is he naturally that unpleasant, or is it just about me?"

"A little bit of both, I think," Heath said. "His career stalled at the Assistant DA level. You worked your way up from that years ago. If you're thinking about trying to make peace with the man, I wouldn't bother. He's probably downright happy you lost your memory."

"Looks like Jarrod Barkley made more enemies than Dakota did," Jarrod said.

"Jarrod Barkley had more time to do it in, and it just came with the job. If you hadn't made some enemies, you wouldn't have been doing your job very well."

Jarrod still ruminated on Phil Archer, all the way home. After he cleaned up and came down to join the family for drinks before dinner, he was still thinking about the man. He didn't even see he was pouring himself scotch instead of his new regular whiskey. Everyone else noticed and smiled. Jarrod still didn't notice as he came over, sipping his drink, and sat down in his "thinking chair."

"Phil Archer," he said.

"Ran into him today, did you?" Nick said.

"In court," Jarrod said. "Fill in my history with him for me, would you? Something about the man just made my skin crawl, and I know he has issues with me."

"Well, I think he makes everyone's skin crawl," Victoria said. "I think he's been jealous of you because he never made the career you made for yourself. I think it's really because he's always been so unpleasant he didn't make the friends he needed to make, but I also think he's blamed you."

"You took it to him in a few cases over the years, too," Audra said.

"How so?" Jarrod asked.

"You defended a few people he prosecuted and got them off," Heath said. "Including me."

Jarrod was surprised Heath hadn't mentioned that before now, and it showed.

Heath went on. "Archer was prosecuting me for killing a woman's husband. Her name was Liberty Keane and I'd known her before I came here. You proved it was Libby who did it. Archer didn't take kindly to you showing him up. I was awful glad you cleared me, but I'm afraid I was more concerned because Libby was killed trying to get away."

"I didn't kill her, did I?" Jarrod asked.

Heath shook his head. "No, you weren't carrying a gun. The sheriff killed her. I never felt any bad feeling over any of it though, not against you or the sheriff or even Archer. Libby brought it all on herself. I just felt bad about that."

Jarrod took a deep breath and sat back in the chair. He looked deeply bothered about what Heath had just told him.

"Jarrod," Heath said.

Jarrod looked up at him.

"Being a lawyer was never easy on you. You got into some pretty nasty situations. You ought know that, while you think about getting back into that profession or not."

"And you got into some of those nasty situations with me," Jarrod figured.

Victoria nodded. "Sometimes. What you should understand right now is that even if what you had to do was hard on any of us, we understood, and in the long run we backed you up."

"We always backed you up, Jarrod, even if it took us a while to do it," Nick said. "Every single time."

"Just remember that," Heath said.

"And we've always been proud of what you did," Audra said.

Jarrod sighed. "I suspect Mr. Archer might be a bit jealous of that, too." He sipped his drink.

Nick and Heath looked at each other and smiled a bit. Nick said, "I think maybe you ought to quit thinking about Archer for now, Jarrod."

"Hm?" Jarrod asked, noticing that Nick was smiling.

Heath said, "You haven't even noticed you're drinking scotch, have you?"

Jarrod looked at his glass. "No, I guess not. Thinking so much about the trial today and Archer, I didn't realize I poured from the wrong carafe."

"You didn't," Nick said with a bigger grin. "Scotch was always your drink. You just poured it without thinking about it."

"Huh," Jarrod said and laughed a little bit. "Some old habits I guess we never really break. We've got more of this, don't we?"

Nick nearly fell on the floor laughing, "Yeah, you kept a stash but you hid it all, and I'll lay odds you don't remember where you put it!"

Jarrod ended up laughing with everyone else. "I can afford to buy more!"