IV.
They don't head straight to Paul Martin's place. Adam needs to move to be able to think properly, and they agree that it's better for him to walk the streets than to drive Pa to distraction by pacing the doctor's small examination room. Only after Adam declares he's thought everything sufficiently through do they go back.
They find Joe in the same condition as before, still feverish and struggling for every shallow breath.
Pa is sitting next to the bed, hands folded in his lap, eyes fixed on Joe. He appears calm and peaceful at first, but then Hoss sees how Pa's fingers are gripping each other white-knuckled, as if he wants to break bones. His head shoots up as he hears them enter; he bestows on Adam a glare that would make a lesser man wither, then sets his eye on Hoss.
"What have you two done?"
Hoss blinks. He hasn't done anything but gone to keep an eye on Adam, as requested.
It's Adam who answers Pa. "Nothing," he says a tad too innocently. "Just talked to a few people, trying to get a clearer picture."
"Trying to get a clearer picture? You call that trying to get a clearer picture?" Pa makes a wild gesture with his hand, as if he wants to point to something he suddenly realizes is not there. "Do you have the slightest notion that 'a few people' might give your 'trying to get a clearer picture' a different name?"
Adam frowns. "I don't—Why are you so angry?"
"I am not angry. I am…alarmed."
It turns out a couple of people have come to Pa to complain in the past quarter of an hour or so: the sheriff, Sam from the Bucket of Blood, and Carole Miller on behalf of her father, for whom she's also asked the doctor to come. Apparently Mr. Miller's encounter with Hoss and Adam irritated him so much that he suffered something close to a seizure.
"You have to stop this," Pa says. "What on earth were you thinking? Hasn't the man gone through enough already?"
"I didn't mean to annoy him. I just wanted to gather first-hand information, just ask some simple questions. There was no reason for him to react so…irrational."
"Carole said you practically accused him of…being somehow involved…"
"I didn't accuse him of anything. Hoss, did I accuse him? Tell Pa I only asked a question."
This is new. Adam usually doesn't feel the need to be backed up, he rather fights his case alone.
And because this is so rare an occurrence, Hoss is tempted to comply with Adam's request. But he never goes against his own convictions, so he bites his lips and squints and shuffles from one foot to the other. "Shucks, Adam, yeah, you only asked a question all right—but that there question was just as good as an accusation."
Adam looks betrayed—as if he really thinks he just asked a question. Which Hoss doesn't buy, because usually Adam knows pretty well how his words are perceived…well, most of the time anyway. There are times when what Adam means and what people make of what he says are two completely different things—if they understand him at all. But Horace Miller is an educated man like Adam; he has no problem understanding him, and Hoss won't believe for a second that Adam didn't intend everything that resonated in his last question to Mr. Miller. Adam can look as wounded as he wants, but nope—Hoss ain't buying it.
"He must have misunderstood me," Adam says nonetheless. And then, in a tone too neutral to not be deliberate, "I wonder why."
Predictably, Pa bites. "You are not insinuating that Horace Miller has anything to do with the ambush?" Pa's voice rises. It's interesting how much being at odds with Adam revives him. Maybe it's because it gives him something else to think of than fretting over Joe.
"I'm not insinuating anything. I'm just asking questions." And now Adam can't keep the smugness out of his face anymore. "If anything, I'm offering…alternatives."
"Young man…" Pa stabs his right pointer towards Adam. "Don't you try and play word games with me. And don't you go around offering 'alternatives' for which you have no proof."
Adam grits his teeth. His jaw must be hurting something fierce by now at the rate he bites down to rein his temper, and Hoss knows it's not even because Pa doesn't believe him this time. Young man…Adam hates that—and Pa knows it perfectly well.
"But Pa," Adam says after a moment of grinding teeth, "if Miller had nothing to hide, why would he react the way he did?"
"Because he was outraged at the insolence of being accused of mur—of, of…shooting Joe." Pa turns to Joe as if to make sure he's still with them. He takes the wet cloth from Joe's forehead, checks for fever, soaks the rag in the basin on the nightstand, drains it, and places it back. Then he shifts his gaze back to Adam. "Out of the blue, without any reason, even though the actual culprit is already under arrest and all evidence speaks against him." He shakes his head. "I'd be outraged, too."
"Not all evidence speaks against Will—" Adam starts, but Pa interrupts.
"It's only his own word speaking in his favor—and your gut feeling, nothing else. Why do you believe Will Kettler, of whom you know next to nothing, more than Horace Miller, a business friend you've known for years?"
Adam purses his lips. He closes his eyes, and his hand goes up, thumb and forefinger already forming the tongs that are going to pinch the bridge of his nose, but then he sighs and drops his arm. "I don't know," he says. "I don't really know. It's just too plain and easy to be true; and no one ever went beyond the obvious. But life rarely is so easy, is it? And no one actually saw Will shoot; all we have is Miller's testimony. It all relies on his word."
"The word of an eyewitness, Adam."
"The word of one man. Against the word of another man. Why do you insist on holding Miller's word over Will Kettler's? Because we've known the first for years, and the latter for a scant few weeks? Is time really the criterion for trust?"
"Of course it is. People we know, we trust. Particularly if they have proved to be trustworthy, as Horace has—or else we wouldn't do business with him, right? Strangers need to earn our trust, and so far, Will Kettler has done nothing to achieve that."
"But that's…private, Pa. That isn't the law, that isn't the way justice works. Before the law, everyone is equal. Before the law, everyone is a stranger."
"Then let the law handle this, Adam. It's only three more days till the trial, and then Kettler will be judged without bias."
"He will be judged based on the evidence Roy provides and the testimony of Horace Miller. Which all speaks in his disfavor. He will go to prison for a long time or even hang. If Joe—" He catches himself in time before he blurts out the unspeakable.
Pa hears it anyway. "Your brother will live."
"Yeah, Joe's gonna be all right," Hoss says before Adam can deliver the "you don't know that" that's written so plainly on his face.
As if to prove that he's still here and fighting, Joe chooses that moment to toss his head and moan—the first movement or sound he's made in hours. Pa picks the cloth from Joe's brow and wipes his face, and Adam comes and sits down on the bedside, wets another rag and hands it to Pa. He squeezes Pa's arm, then bends over Joe and strokes his little brother's wet curls out of his face. "Hold on, little buddy," he says softly. "It's time you wake up. Pa needs to sleep; and Hoss is starving without Hop Sing's pot roasts. And I…well, don't tell the others, but I actually miss your hyena laugh."
There's a moment of peaceful quiet. Joe seems to lean into Adam's touch, Pa whispers, "I think he's breathing easier already," and then they all listen to Joe's breathing; and it is easier, and it's clear as day for Hoss that now all will be well.
Absently, Adam pats Joe's hair for a while. Hoss wonders if he's aware he's slicking the wet locks back almost in the way that always makes Pa holler at Joe to undo that "riverboat gambler hair style"; if he's aware he's still having his hand on Joe's head at all. 'Cause Adam's mind clearly is somewhere else. You can actually see how the wheels are turning in his head, how he weighs this and considers that, and eventually comes to a conclusion.
"You are right," he says suddenly, patting Pa's arm once. "I need proof for Will's innocence."
Pa looks up. "Adam, what…?"
"I need something I can give the judge. And I've got to get it as quick as I can."
"But how'll you get your proof?" Hoss asks. " You've done talked to everyone, what else can you do?"
Adam smiles. "Yes, that's what I think, too. It's almost impossible to prove Will's innocence. It might be easier to prove the actual culprit's guilt."
"And how're you gonna do that?"
Pa raises his finger. "You will not harass Horace Miller again, Adam."
"I won't. I'll actually apologize to him." Adam stands up. "And then I'm going to set a trap. The shooter is still out there, and if what I think is right, then the story isn't about Joe at all."
"You don't think he wanted to shoot Carole, do you?"
"No, of course not. I think he wanted to shoot Joe all right, but not because he had something against Joe. He only had something against Joe and Carole going out."
"Which points towards Will Kettler," Pa puts in.
But Adam is undeterred. "And towards…others," he says.
Joe moans again, and Pa turns around and softly shushes him.
Adam grabs Hoss's arm and tugs at him. "Come on, Hoss, let's talk outside. Little Brother here needs his quiet."
Pa looks up, puzzled, but they are out of the room before he can say anything.
Once in the doctor's antechamber, Adam speaks up again. "Listen, Hoss, I'll need you for this. I'm going to ask Carole out, to the theatre tomorrow night. If the shooter is who I think he is, he won't waste the opportunity."
"You want to bait him? Adam, are you plumb loco? If you're right, then the shooter will be lying in wait for you, and he'll get you like he got Joe."
"No, he won't."
Hoss blinks. Sometimes Adam's stubbornness makes him speechless.
"He won't because you'll stop him."
"Me?"
"You. You will follow us, keeping a good eye on the bushes at the street, and when the killer shows up you'll catch him before he can shoot."
"You're crazy. He'll kill you."
"Not if it's Will Kettler, sitting in jail." He smirks. "Or do you finally believe me?"
Hoss groans. "You're getting yourself killed," he insists, just in case Older Brother didn't understand it the first time.
"I'll be careful. I won't be caught unaware like Joe. I know something might happen, and I'll be able to react if necessary. Besides, you'll be there. I trust you to watch my back."
"Adam, you can't do that. It's too dangerous."
"Not with you at my back. Hoss, it's the only way. If I don't do this, an innocent man might go to prison for a long time."
Hoss shakes his head, opens his mouth to object again, but then Adam comes with the inevitable, the one thing that he knows will turn the tide to his favor.
"I'll do it anyway, with or without your help," he says. "Your choice."
"Darn, Adam," Hoss admits defeat. But then he finds he's got his own trump up his sleeve. "You'll never talk Mr. Miller around to let Carole go out with you anyway. You've heard him."
Adam taps his finger against his nose, then he smiles. "No, actually I think it's going to be easier than you think, Hoss."
ooOoo