Chapter 3

Esther poked her head into Jarrod's office at the end of her workday. "Mr. Barkley, I'm going home. Is there anything you need before I go?"

"No, Esther, thank you," Jarrod said. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Esther hesitated for a moment, but then turned and went out.

Jarrod was still buried in books and papers and didn't stop writing and turning pages for so long he had even forgotten to check to see what time it was. Now with thoughts on the San Francisco case swirling through his mind, he didn't notice it was getting dark again until the light from his window had faded so much it was getting tough to read. He checked his watch to find it was past nine.

He moaned to himself. Nick and Heath were probably going to turn up, because it was already too late to make it home in time for dinner. He started putting things away and decided maybe he could catch them at home before they came after him.

Jarrod got up, put on his gunbelt, jacket and hat, and left his building. His horse was in the livery and he headed that way. The main door was closed but the smaller entrance door was partly open. Jarrod started to step in -

And that was the last he knew before he was opening his eyes in a strange room but with familiar faces around him – his mother, his sister, both brothers, and Dr. Merar.

"Jarrod?"

He heard his name. He thought he saw Dr. Merar's mouth move, but the sound came from so very far away. "Wha - ?" he said, and his own voice sounded like it was coming from another room.

"Can you hear me, Jarrod?"

"What - ?"

He blinked. He saw his family members looking at each other uncomfortably.

"Jarrod, you've suffered a bad head injury," Dr. Merar said. "Do you understand me?"

Jarrod blinked and tried to get up.

"No, don't try to move," Dr. Merar said. "You were attacked and someone hit you very hard on the side of the head. Do you understand?"

"I can't hear you," Jarrod said.

Dr. Merar tried talking louder. "Do you hear me now?"

"Some," Jarrod said. Then his head clanged. He reached and found it bandaged. "Hurts – "

Dr. Merar said something to the family that Jarrod couldn't hear, but he saw his mother nod. They all looked terribly worried.

Then they were all leaving, all except Audra, who smiled at him and took his hand and said something he couldn't hear. That's when it dawned on him – dear God, am I deaf?

Dr. Merar had taken Victoria, Nick and Heath out into the waiting area of his office. "He suffered a bad blow, but he does have some hearing," Dr. Merar said. "And he clearly sees us and has some sense of what's going on. The hearing loss may be temporary. I'd like him to stay here at least until tomorrow afternoon to see how he progresses."

Nick looked out the window with a sigh. It was nearing one in the morning. The town was quiet. "If I ever get my hands on whoever did this…" Nick muttered.

"The sheriff has already been out there looking and asking questions, Nick," Victoria said, "but it's the middle of the night now."

Nick looked at Heath and said, "It has to be Bishop."

"Maybe," Heath said, "but we best not bank on that yet. Let's see what the sheriff comes up with."

"Why don't the two of you go over to the hotel and get rooms for us, for Audra and me together," Victoria said. "I'm pretty sure the doctor isn't going to want us haunting his office and is going to want Jarrod to get some rest."

Sheriff Madden came in just as she finished her suggestion. He looked tired and unhappy.

"Have you found out anything, Fred?" Nick asked.

Sheriff Madden shook his head. "I checked with Harry at the Empire. None of Bishop's men has been in since early afternoon, and I went out to talk to Jed. His foreman swears Jed was there all night and so were all of the hands. It looks like somebody else did this."

"Unless Bishop and his foreman are lying," Nick said.

"Yeah," the sheriff said. "How's Jarrod?"

Dr. Merar said, "He's awake but not hearing very well. That could pass fairly quickly. If it does and there are no other permanent injuries, he's come out of this a very lucky man."

"We'll be staying in town, Fred," Victoria said. "We'll be over here in the morning and see when we can take Jarrod home."

"I'll start asking more questions first thing tomorrow," Sheriff Madden said.

Dr. Merar said, "In the meantime, I'll give Jarrod a little laudanum for the pain and he'll sleep. Don't worry, I won't give him much."

"Why don't you go get us those hotel rooms at the Stockton House?" Victoria said to Nick and Heath.

Nick said, "Yeah," and he and Heath went out.

The sheriff said, "Doc, I'll check back here in the morning too. Tell Jarrod I'll find out what happened."

The sheriff left, and Victoria and Dr. Merar went back into the sick room where Audra was still holding Jarrod's hand. He was still awake, but his face was contorted in pain.

Audra said, "He still can't hear – "

But Jarrod immediately said, roughly, "He can hear, at least a little."

They all nearly jumped. Dr. Merar said, "How well can you hear?"

"Not normally, but it's getting better," Jarrod said.

Victoria and Audra smiled with relief.

And then Jarrod said, "But don't tell anyone else – except Nick and Heath and the sheriff."

"Why?" Victoria asked.

Jarrod said, "Because when my thinking really clears up, I'm going to need to know more about what happened." A headache seared over him again, and he tensed up all over. Still, he went on. "I need to hear what a deaf man hears."

"What?" Audra asked.

Jarrod swallowed, tensing even more. Swallowing made his head hurt.

"All right, all right," Dr. Merar said. "All this can wait until morning. I'm going to give you some laudanum for the pain, Jarrod."

"I'd rather you didn't," Jarrod said.

"You need to sleep," the doctor said. "I won't give you much. Just enough to ease the pain a bit."

"We'll be at the hotel all night, Jarrod," Victoria said, "and in the morning we can talk more about this."

"All right," Jarrod conceded, and then he opened his eyes and smiled. "Don't worry. I'm beginning to think more clearly, and the hearing loss is easing off too. But just let the rest of the world think I'm deaf and a little whacked out, for now."

"All right," Victoria agreed with a sigh.

Audra squeezed Jarrod's hand and let go. Jarrod gave her a smile, and a weak wink.

XXXXX

It wasn't until they had checked in at the hotel and gone to their rooms that Victoria pulled Nick and Heath aside and told them what Jarrod had said and planned.

And Nick said, "What?"

Heath, very seriously, said, "Are you sure he really is all right?"

"He seems to be," Victoria said, "but believe me, we're going to go over all this with him in the morning."

"Why does he want to do this?" Nick asked.

Audra said, "He said something about hearing what a deaf man hears."

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean, but if he hears something, he'd better not keep it to himself," Nick said. "Don't you let him do that."

"Oh, I won't," Victoria said. "We're going to get as complete an explanation as we can from him, or I'm not going to agree to it."

"You know," Heath said, "he doesn't talk about it, but didn't he do some intelligence work during the war?"

"What's your point?" Nick asked.

"That maybe he knows exactly how to do what he wants to do," Heath said.

"But we don't have any way of knowing that," Audra said.

"We will once we get a full explanation of this plan of his," Victoria said. "But for now, let's just be grateful he's not hurt as badly as he might have been. And let's get a good night's sleep."

"We're probably gonna need it," Nick muttered as he and Heath left the room the women were sharing and went off to the one they got together.

"Heath's right," Audra said to her mother. "Jarrod might know exactly what he's doing."

"Or he might really still be a little scatter-brained," Victoria said, very seriously. Then she sighed. "We'll know in the morning."