Chapter 6

As soon as they went into the Empire saloon, Jarrod headed for a table that wasn't too far from the front door but was close to men at two other tables. The men had been talking but stopped when Heath helped Jarrod sit down at the other table. They looked at him, they looked at Heath.

"Stay here," Heath said loudly in Jarrod's ear, and Jarrod nodded.

Nick headed straight to the bar and Heath joined him. "Coffee for Jarrod," Nick was saying in a normal voice, "but I'll take a whiskey."

"Me too," Heath said in a normal voice.

Harry nodded toward Maisie at the end of the bar, who went back into the kitchen for some coffee for Jarrod. Harry poured whiskey for Nick and Heath, asking, "How's he doing?"

"He can't hear real well," Heath said, making sure he was speaking normally but loud enough for others nearby to hear him. "If you want him to hear you, you have to yell at him, but his head is still a little scrambled so don't be surprised if he doesn't really know what you're saying."

"Wow," Harry said. "Who did this to him?"

"We don't know yet," Nick said in a similar voice.

A few men at a table not far from Jarrod started talking quietly. Nick and Heath couldn't hear them, but Jarrod could. He acted oblivious, but he was digesting what he heard.

Maisie took a cup of coffee to Jarrod and set it before him, but she was keeping a slight, awkward distance. Jarrod gave a genuine smile to the coffee cup, said, "Coffee!" happily and started drinking.

Maisie moved away. Heath gave her a smile as he brought his whiskey over to the table and sat down beside Jarrod. "Happy now?" Heath asked loudly.

Jarrod said, "Happy."

Still at the bar, Nick said to Harry, "Dr. Merar wouldn't let him have any coffee over at his office. Maybe he'll get some of his head back together now."

The men at the other tables grew quiet again and Heath realized they weren't going to talk if he was within earshot. Heath downed his whiskey fast and got up, saying loudly to Jarrod, "I'm gonna get another drink. Do you want anything to eat?"

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

Heath went back over to the bar. He could hear the quiet talking resume at other tables. Harry had moved to serve someone at the other end.

Nick said very quietly to Heath, "Men only talking because they think Jarrod can't hear them over there and we can't hear them over here."

"I know," Heath said, and then called to Harry. "Harry! Pour me another?"

Harry came back to them and poured more whiskey into Heath's shot glass, saying, "Maybe you ought to be taking Jarrod home."

Nick said, "We will, but we want to get him moving around first. We want to be close to the doc's office in case he keels over in the next couple hours."

Harry asked, "Is he stuck like this for good?"

"We don't know," Nick said.

Harry shook his head.

Heath said, "Harry, if you hear anything about this, let the sheriff know, huh? And us if we're around."

"Coffee!" Jarrod suddenly said loudly. He had finished his first cup.

And suddenly he took his pad out and wrote something in it. The men at the other tables grew quiet.

Noticing both, Heath went over to Jarrod and looked at what he had written in his pad. Letters that didn't mean anything. A dollar sign or two. A little drawing of a coffee cup. Heath shook his head, and as he went back to the bar, he said absently to the men at the next table, "He must really want coffee. He's drawing coffee cups."

"He's really bad off, isn't he?" a man Heath did not know said quietly to him.

"Looks like it," Heath said.

"Man, that's sad," another man said.

"Yeah," Heath said.

Heath went back to the bar and stood beside Nick. "I reckon we ought to get out of here when he finishes that next cup of coffee."

"Where are you gonna go?" Harry asked. "To his office?"

"Already been there," Nick said, loud enough for others to hear. "We're just letting him go where he wants and we follow along."

"Can he tell you what he wants?"

"Kind of. We left his office, he looked over here and said 'coffee.' We got the message."

The men at the table beside Jarrod's got up and left while Nick and Heath were finishing their whiskey. Nick and Heath went to the table where Jarrod sat. He was halfway through his second cup of coffee.

"Are you hungry, Jarrod?" Nick asked.

But not loud enough. Jarrod ignored him and sipped more coffee.

Nick bent closer when Jarrod put the cup down and spoke louder. "Jarrod!"

Jarrod looked up.

"Are you hungry?" Nick asked slowly and loudly.

Jarrod gave a little shake of his head, put his pad and pencil back in his pocket, and finished his coffee with a gulp. He got up, said, "Sheriff," fairly loudly, and headed for the door.

Heath was beside him again. Bringing up the rear, Nick looked toward the bar and said, "So long, Harry!"

Outside, there were too many people around to talk honestly. Jarrod stumbled a little and Heath caught him, not sure if it was a real stumble or Jarrod acting the part but he got Jarrod righted again and they headed to the sheriff's office.

Sheriff Madden was inside, posting wanted posters on his wall, when they came in. The first thing he said was, "There's nobody else here."

"Good," Jarrod said and sat down. He rubbed his forehead, just above the bandage.

"How are you doing?" Nick asked.

"Head hurts a little," Jarrod said.

"Did you hear anything at the Empire?" Heath asked.

"No," Jarrod said. "I just thought about things and decided I'd better go to the livery and see if it makes me remember anything. Have you been over there checking it out, Fred?

The sheriff nodded. "Last night with a lantern after we got you to the doctor's office, and again this morning in the light. I didn't find a thing, not even whatever it was you got hit with."

"Which means whoever hit me carried it off with him someplace else."

"The doc said whatever it was, it was heavy, and you were hit more than once. I looked all around and I saw lots of heavy stuff, but none of it had blood on it."

Jarrod thought for moment – hard to do with his head hurting, but he did it. "Fred, why don't you take us over there. If anybody asks, say it was your idea to see if it helps me get my head back together?"

"All right."

"Before we go, though, take me through it. Who found me and when?"

The sheriff said, "Jack Tamlin came in on the ten o'clock train and was going to get his horse, about ten minutes after. He found you, came and got me, and we carried you to Dr. Merar's. Your brothers turned up a few minutes later."

"Did Jack see anybody else there?"

"No. Do you remember what time you went over there?"

"The sun had gone down. I remember checking my watch before I left the office and it was past nine. It's hard to believe nobody came in there to find me before Jack did."

"I can't believe whoever hit you didn't kill you," Nick said.

"Maybe whoever hit him thought he had killed him," Heath said.

"That's possible," the sheriff said. "Jack thought you were dead, and at first, so did I."

Jarrod scowled more, thinking more. "There wasn't anybody else in the livery? You remember, like T.J. Dyce was there when Heath ran into that trouble over Charlie Whitehorse?"

"I don't know," the sheriff said. "When I realized you were alive, we got you out of there fast. I didn't go looking."

"Did you ask Jack if he saw or heard anyone? Have you talked to him today or anybody who was minding the livery last night?"

"I talked to Jack last night, but not today," Sheriff Madden said. "Jack didn't see or hear anyone last night, but he said he was so anxious to get me and get back to you that he just didn't pay attention. Do you remember anybody being in there?

"I don't even remember me being in there," Jarrod said.

"You don't remember anything about being hit?"

"Not a thing," Jarrod said. "Let's go over to the livery. I want you to show us where you found me."

"Do you want me to send for Jack?"

"No, not yet. You verified he got off the ten o'clock train?"

"Yes, I verified it," the sheriff said. "If you went in there and got hit not long after nine, then he's not the one who hit you."

"I still think Jed Bishop has to be involved in this, or somebody who works for him," Nick said.

"I thought that too, after that business with Dan Lynch and the dynamite, but Bishop and his foreman swear nobody from there was in town last night."

"They could be lying," Heath said.

"But for Bishop to try to kill me or have me killed would be as stupid as dynamiting the orchard," Jarrod said. He got up slowly. "Let's go on over to the livery, and remember, Fred, I'm hard of hearing and not thinking straight, so treat me like that while we're out in public, and just in case, when we're in the livery, we're in public even if we don't see or hear anybody else."

"All right, but I'm not sure this plan of yours is gonna get you anything," the sheriff said.

"If it doesn't, I can get well in a day or two," Jarrod said. "Let's go."