Chapter 8

"Is he still in the office?" Nick asked, in a normal voice.

Esther responded normally. "No. He said he was going to the Empire. I told him Mr. Barkley wasn't well and probably couldn't take him on, but he still wanted to talk about it."

Jarrod looked like he was trying to hear what they were saying. Of course he could hear them, but Esther didn't know that.

Nick played along and spoke loudly to his older brother. "Lynch has gone to the Empire! I'm gonna go over and talk to him! He's not gonna want to yell at you at the Empire!"

That made Jarrod smile a little, and he nodded.

"Where do you want to go from here?" Nick asked.

Jarrod hesitated, then said quietly, "Gold Eagle."

Nick nodded and went straight out the door.

Heath said, loudly, "I can get a drink and do some asking around with you."

Jarrod looked vacant for a moment, but then nodded.

"Mr. Barkley, do you want me to do anything?" Esther asked her boss, loudly.

Jarrod hesitated a moment before he said, "Mind the office, please."

Esther smiled, and went out.

As soon as she was gone, Jarrod said normally, "I hate leading her on like this. She's probably gonna be so mad at me she'll quit."

"Not when you explain everything," Sheriff Madden said. "It sounds like I might have to have another talk with Lynch if you can't, Jarrod."

"Why don't you give Nick a few minutes at the Empire," Jarrod said. "See if Lynch will tell him anything. Heath and I will go to the Gold Eagle. I could use a – " He was going to say "drink," but he remembered what the doctor said and he remembered his ruse. He just said, "Another cup of coffee."

"Don't run yourself down too much," the sheriff said. "You just had nasty head injury, a real one, you know."

"I know," Jarrod said. "And I won't go on too long with it. After we hear what Nick has to say once he's seen Lynch, and if that doesn't start anything or nothing at the Gold Eagle does, we'll head home and I'll get some rest. After I see the doctor again."

The sheriff looked at Heath. "You'll make sure he does that."

Heath nodded. "I'll make sure."

XXXXX

Nick didn't know Dan Lynch himself, and there were several men in the Empire he didn't know, so he went straight to the bar. "Back again?" Harry asked him.

"I'm looking for Dan Lynch," Nick said. "He said he'd be here."

Harry nodded toward a table far in the back. "He came in a few minutes ago and went straight back there. He's working on one drink, but I'm not gonna give him enough to get into trouble like he did the other night. You want a whiskey?"

Nick nodded, and Harry poured him one. Nick carried it over to the table where Dan Lynch sat alone. Lynch looked up at him with what looked almost like fear.

"I'm Nick Barkley, Jarrod Barkley's brother," Nick said. "He can't talk to you right now, but I can. All right I sit down?"

Lynch looked very uncomfortable about that for a moment, but then he nodded.

Nick sat. "I'm no lawyer, but right now I'm working for my brother so I can keep anything you say quiet. What did you want to see him about?"

Lynch hesitated, looking around the room a little, looking worried. "I'd rather talk to the lawyer," he said.

"You can't," Nick said. "He was attacked last night and he can't hear or think straight today."

"So people say," Lynch said, and then he softened his voice and made a decision that was obvious even to Nick. "I left my job this morning. Bishop – Bishop has been lying to everybody. I did have that dynamite because he wanted me to blow up the orchard, but he denied it to the sheriff. I want to see the lawyer because – I don't know what else to do."

"Did Bishop threaten you?" Nick asked.

"I don't even talk to him," Lynch said. "The foreman gives me orders, but I don't trust Bishop, not one bit. I didn't even tell anybody at the ranch I was leaving. I just left without even picking up my pay."

"Has anybody from the ranch followed you in here?" Nick asked.

"Not that I seen yet," Lynch said. "I don't know what to do. I'm set to be their faill guy and I don't know what they'll do to me. I was hoping the lawyer could help me."

Nick thought for a bit and then said, "Do you know who attacked my brother last night?"

"No, I don't," Lynch said. "I don't keep track of who goes where from the Bishop place, least of all Mr. Bishop. But I got my ideas."

"You think he might have come in here himself?"

"I don't know. It ain't like him to do something like hurting Mr. Barkley himself. It's more likely he got somebody to do it for him. Maybe the foreman."

"You think he might be behind what happened to my brother though."

Lynch hesitated. "I need to talk to the lawyer."

Nick said, "I think you better talk to the sheriff. I'll go over with you. You let me know if you see anybody from the Bishop place in the street. We'll talk to the sheriff and figure out what to do."

Lynch downed his drink and said, "I'd really like to see the lawyer."

"I'll make sure you see him, but the condition he's in, he might not be much help to you," Nick said.

They got up and went out into the street. Nick noticed Lynch was keeping his head down, like he was hiding, but he did look up once or twice on the way to the sheriff's office. They went inside, finding the sheriff alone again. He looked them both over and said, "Lynch. What's going on?"

"I wanted to see the lawyer," Lynch said.

"Why don't you talk to me first?" the sheriff asked.

Nick said, "Jarrod and Heath went to the Gold Eagle?"

"Yeah," the sheriff confirmed.

"I'll go get them," Nick said and went out.

Nick wasn't sure Lynch would even stay at the sheriff's office, much less talk to the sheriff, so he hurried over to the Gold Eagle and went right in. He found Heath at the bar, Jarrod at a table not far from the front door with one pretty young barmaid smiling at him and another heading that way with the coffee pot. "Here you are, Mr. Barkley!" he heard her yell as she poured more coffee.

Jarrod looked up when he saw Nick come in, but Nick went straight over to Heath at the bar. When Jarrod pulled his pad out of his handkerchief pocket and started writing into it, the girls left him. Nick and Heath came over to him and sat down with him.

Nick got a look at what Jarrod had written down. On this particular page he saw some letters that didn't go together, but he wasn't about to ask about it here. Jarrod quickly downed his cup of coffee and got up, saying quietly, "Sheriff."

Heath took time to pay the bartender as Jarrod went out, Nick sticking close to him this time. Heath took a careful look around the saloon, taking note of who he knew and didn't know, just as he had when they first came in. He wasn't sure, but he thought a man he didn't know might have been in here at first, but was gone now.

Heath stayed to the rear as he and his brothers went back to the sheriff's office. He looked around the street as they walked wordlessly back to see Sheriff Madden.

When they went into the office, they found Lynch still in there, pacing, talking, saying something about Bishop that Jarrod pretended he didn't hear. Jarrod eased himself down into the empty chair in front of the sheriff's desk.

"Jarrod!" the sheriff yelled. "Lynch wants to talk to you!"

Jarrod looked a little confused. "I can't – " he said in a normal voice and then looked at Lynch. "I can't help you right now."

"I think maybe you can," the sheriff said loudly. "Or more likely he can help you."

Jarrod just nodded slowly, and took his pad out of his pocket. "Loud," he said. "I can't hear."

Lynch took a deep breath and yelled, "I think Jed Bishop set you up!"