The Deaf Man is Listening

Chapter 1

Jarrod checked his watch when he realized everything around him was dark except the one lamp lit on his desk. It was going on ten o'clock at night. On these summer nights when the sun set late, he could really lose track of time. He scowled. No wonder he was falling asleep.

All day long on this brief – brief, whoever gave that name to something it was not? Writing and rewriting appellate briefs was getting harder and harder to do as the years wore on. They just seemed to have to be longer and longer as the cases got more and more complicated.

Jarrod couldn't write anymore or even read what he had written. This was going to be the end of it. He was exhausted.

He got up, took his gunbelt, coat and hat from the hat tree behind his desk and put them on. Moving around made him realize he was hungry and had missed dinner at home by a long shot. He looked out his window. The Empire Saloon across the street was still open. Maybe Harry would have a sandwich left for him.

The saloon was busy and noisy. Two card games were going on at tables in the back. The girls were in constant motion, serving tables. Men were laughing. Harry was pouring drink after drink.

Jarrod found room at the bar and caught Harry's attention fairly quickly. "You look awful," Harry greeted him.

Jarrod laughed. "You'd look beautiful if you had something I could eat."

"Maisie!" Harry called to one of the girls coming toward the bar.

She was blonde, new, looking pretty tired herself.

"Go fetch Mr. Barkley a sandwich out of the ice box," Harry said.

She gave Jarrod a smile and went into the back room.

Harry asked, "What are you drinking?"

"Whiskey, just one shot," Jarrod said. "I want to be able to stay in the saddle all the way home."

Harry poured him one. "You've been writing all day, haven't you?"

"It shows, huh?"

"Your eyes keep wanting to shut."

Jarrod laughed. The blonde girl was returning with a sandwich on a plate, which she put down in front of Jarrod.

Jarrod thanked her and took the first bite of his sandwich – and at the same time heard his name somewhere in the background. He looked around but didn't know anyone he saw. But then he heard his name a couple more times – someone talking about him, not to him. He couldn't track down who was talking.

Harry said quietly, "The Barkleys have been part of the conversation tonight. A few of the Bishop hands are here."

"I don't know them," Jarrod said. "Are they here often?"

"Yeah, often during the day when they come into town for some reason. A couple of nights a week too. They're not too happy Bishop lost that case to you."

"Bishop isn't too happy either," Jarrod said. "He appealed. That's what I've been working on. You haven't seen Bishop himself in here, have you?"

"No, he doesn't usually come in here, just their hands. I've seen his daughter around town now and then, but not that much."

Jarrod kept eating his sandwich. "I'm gonna eat and run anyway, Harry. I have another long day coming tomorrow."

"Just you be careful heading out," Harry said. "I don't think any of these guys are anything but talk, but a couple of them aren't happy. Figuring they might lose their jobs with Bishop not getting that orchard land."

"Why does everybody want our orchard land?" Jarrod mused out loud. "They're not gonna lose their jobs if they're permanent hires."

"I'm not sure if they are or not."

"Well, they wouldn't be in here playing poker if they were just temporary peach pickers, and if they lost their jobs they could come pick peaches for us instead."

Harry smiled a little.

"What?" Jarrod asked, suspicious of the smile.

"They think you ask too many questions when you do the hiring," Harry said.

"So Nick tells me," Jarrod said, "until I hired that Defenderdoofer fella who Nick was convinced was a Jonah, and then he had me asking questions again."

With a tired grumble, Jarrod quickly finished his sandwich and whiskey and headed on out.

His horse was at the livery stable, nearly a two block walk away. The street was not busy at this hour but Jarrod kept a look over his shoulder now and then just to be sure none of the Bishop men were following him. They weren't.

Still, once inside the stable Jarrod looked around carefully before getting his horse saddled. He'd been jumped in the livery before only to wake up beaten up. He didn't want to have any problems tonight.

But there weren't any. In a few minutes, he was riding home and got there without any interference.

It was dark in the house except for the lights on the stairs and the embers of the fire in the living room. Everyone had gone to bed, and that's where Jarrod went without any detour to anywhere else but the WC. He went to bed and before he knew it, the sun was rising through his east-facing window and he was awake again.

Why was it, that the more tired you were, the faster morning seemed to come?

He was late for breakfast too. Everyone was already eating when he bid them good morning and sat down at the table. Nick poured him coffee right away. "Late night last night, huh?" Nick asked.

"Working on the brief in the Bishop case," Jarrod said. "Got it done, though. I left it for Esther to retype the pages that need it. It'll be ready for me to messenger up to Sacramento by later today or tomorrow."

Nick said, "Are you still sure Bishop's gonna obey that injunction you got to keep him off the land while the court in Sacramento decides the appeal?"

"Bishop won't use the land," Jarrod said. "You can pick those peaches if they're ready."

"I don't trust Bishop not to take a shot at somebody."

"Send guards with the pickers, or just let it all sit there until you can't leave the peaches anymore or we get a decision from the appellate courts."

"And then they'll take it to the Supreme Court."

"Which will turn the case down," Jarrod said. "There's no jurisdiction for them in this case, no federal question and no state diversity. Just a good old fashioned local land dispute for the State of California to decide."

"All that takes time."

"Do what you need to do, Nick. I'll get Bishop through the court if he violates the injunction."

"You have another case coming up, don't you?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod nodded as he sipped coffee. "In three weeks in San Francisco, but it's a business dispute and I expect it'll settle at the last minute like they all do."

"You're so busy these days, we hardly see anything of you," Audra said.

"I plan to spend Saturday and Sunday in the comfort of home this week," Jarrod said.

"If something else doesn't come up," Heath said.

"How'd you like to herd some horses from the east range to the south ridge with us on Saturday?" Nick asked.

Jarrod said, "Yes, I will be happy to help you herd those horses, unless something else comes up."

XXXXXX

The "something else" appeared just as soon as Jarrod rode into town later that morning. He had planned to work on getting his San Francisco case organized in case it didn't settle, but he scarcely made it out of the livery stable before Sheriff Madden stopped him in the street.

The sheriff had that frown he wore when there was a problem, and the first thing out of his mouth was, "You're not gonna like this."

Not a hello. Not any other greeting. Just you're not gonna like this.

"All right, let's have it," Jarrod said.

"I have one of Jed Bishop's men in my jail," Sheriff Madden said. "A man named Dan Lynch."

"Lynch," Jarrod said, thinking. "I don't know him. Why do you have him and why should that be something I don't like?"

"I picked him up last night for drunk and disorderly, but when I went to see to his horse, I found he had three sticks of dynamite in his saddlebags."

That was startling. It made Jarrod flinch, "You've got to be kidding! But what does that have to do with me?"

"Lynch says he was told by his boss to use it on that property you two went to court over."

Now Jarrod's flinch doubled in size. "What? Bishop's under an injunction, and we're at the appeals court now over that! Why would Jed Bishop have anybody blow up those trees now?"

"I don't know," the sheriff said. "I was just about to go over to the Bishop place and talk to him. Their lawyer isn't in town, is he?"

"No," Jarrod said. "It's David Jorney and he's out of Sacramento."

"Well, I'd talk to him if he was here, but since he's not, it's gonna have to be Jed Bishop I talk to. I'm gonna head out there and deliver Lynch with me, but if Lynch is right – if Bishop ordered him to blow up those trees…"

Jarrod understood, but said, "If Bishop ordered him to do it, he'll deny it all over the place. And if he did order it, it would be the stupidest move I ever heard and he'd know now he'd never get away with it."

"What would blowing up the trees get him, Jarrod?"

"I can't think of a thing. But you know Bishop. He does things for spite sometimes that only come back and bite him later."

"Well, I wanted you to know what was going on. Maybe you'd want Nick to post a few men on that land for a couple days, just in case."

"Yeah, I recommended he do that anyway," Jarrod said thoughtfully. "And I'm gonna wire Jorney about it, if you haven't already."

"I haven't. I'll leave it to you."

Jarrod shook his head and just said, "Crazy."

"I guess Bishop doesn't think he's gonna win that appeal and wants his revenge ahead of time."

"Which is the next stupidest thing I ever heard," Jarrod said. "Why spend the money on the appeal and then blow up the problem? If I were gonna do it, I'd wait and see in case I did win the appeal."

"But you wouldn't be doing it."

"No, I would not. I'm not that stupid."