Chapter 11

Jarrod took his pad out of his pocket.

Jarrod opened up his pad. "These notes won't mean a thing to anybody but me, so I better explain them just in case."

Nick understood. In case something went bad and Jarrod wasn't able to explain them himself.

Jarrod showed him the notes he had just taken in the Empire. "I could hear the men at the table, the ones I pointed out to you and said 'Bishop.'"

"They were his men?"

"I'm pretty sure," Jarrod said. "One of them said he didn't know why 'the boss' was so worried about me, and another told him to 'shut up about it.'"

"But they didn't use Bishop's name," Nick said.

"No, they just said 'the boss.' If you go back over there before you go to the hotel, you can quietly ask Harry if he knows them. He'll probably know for sure."

"What do those notes actually say?" Nick asked.

Jarrod smiled a little. "The letters are a code to me – the C stands for Bishop because C comes after B in the alphabet. The dollar signs mean I think the men talking work for Bishop."

"And the swinging doors? The saloon's?"

"They swing shut pretty quickly," Jarrod said. "That tells me the men shut themselves up pretty quickly."

"Which means what?"

"It could mean they know what he's up to, or it could mean they're concerned because they don't know. It means there is something going on with Bishop and it involves me. It means he's involved with me getting hurt."

"What about all that other stuff you have written in there?"

"Meaningless," Jarrod said. "Ignore it, but if you see the letter C in my notes, it means Bishop. When you see a letter, always look for a name that begins with the letter before the one I wrote down. And if you see a picture, think about the second thing the picture is showing you – like doors but doors that swing shut fast."

Nick gave a sigh. He was not the thinker Jarrod was, and he was concerned that some future picture Jarrod drew would mean something he couldn't figure out.

Jarrod knew that. "Just try not to think too hard about what I put into a picture. What's the first thing that comes to mind when you see it? Well, discard that and go with the second thing."

Nick thought about it. "Doors means doors. Then – what's different about saloon doors? Is that what you mean?"

Jarrod nodded. "That's the way to go with my notes."

"That might be too complicated for me."

"No, it's not," Jarrod said with a little smile. "You're smarter than you think you are." Then he sighed and put the pad away. He was getting more tired.

"Let's get you to bed," Dr. Merar said.

"I'll go talk to Harry," Nick said and went out.

Jarrod needed to rest a bit before doing more to get into bed. His head hurt and he was moving slowly, up on his feet then sitting down again. He was still dressed when Nick returned in only a few minutes.

"You were right," Nick said. "They were Bishop's men, and Harry said they left only a minute after we did."

Jarrod shook his head, but just once. It hurt. "I don't get that man. It doesn't make any sense for him to have it in for me, and it makes even less sense if it's just Tyler."

"Unless Bishop is just out to get you out of spite," Nick said. "Because his lawyer dropped him."

"He probably does blame me for that, if it happened, but killing me for it? He has absolutely nothing to gain by killing me, and his men don't have anything to gain in knowing about it."

"Well, for what it's worth, Jed Bishop not making sense doesn't surprise me," Dr. Merar said. "And you know darned well that the men working under you hear things and hear bits of things and think they know things that maybe they don't."

"What do you know about Bishop?" Jarrod asked.

"I can't reveal any confidences," Dr. Merar said, "but I don't think it's a confidential thing that he is a very spiteful man. If something doesn't go the way he wants it to, he takes it out on somebody else, whether it makes any sense or not."

"Doctor, I'm thinking it might have been Bishop's foreman who attacked me," Jarrod said. "Do you think that's possible?"

"I don't know the foreman. I don't know how he'd react if his boss told him to do that."

"I'll bet he wouldn't have any trouble doing it if the money was good," Nick said.

"Well," Jarrod said. "Bishop's men know I'm over here for the night, so Bishop will know and I'll bet Tyler will too. If either of them are worried about me – if there's an 'it' his men are itchy about – my decoying myself might actually work."

"Does the sheriff know you're here for the night?" Dr. Merar asked.

"He knows I plan to be, but probably not this soon. I thought I'd feel up to being up and about more this evening, but I just don't have it in me."

"I'll go tell him on the way to the hotel," Nick said. "Doc, if Heath comes here, send him over to the Stockton House. I'll fill him in on what we're doing."

"What do you want me to do now, Jarrod?" Dr. Merar asked.

"Has Iva gone to her sister's?" Jarrod asked.

"Yes."

"Do you usually stay in the office late, or is it about time for you to head to your rooms?"

The doctor checked his watch. It was past well past six now. "I usually pack it in for the evening about now, but if I have someone in the sick room I'll be in the office an hour or two longer."

"Then act normally," Jarrod said. "Go to your office. Nick, go see the sheriff and then the hotel. Just as soon as it gets dark, come over here."

"It's starting to cloud up out there," Nick said. "Dark may come early."

"It'll come what it comes," Jarrod said.

"Whenever it comes, why don't you come to the back door, give four knocks, and I'll let you in?" Dr. Merar said.

"Then you can head to your rooms with Heath and Nick will stay with me, and we'll wait," Jarrod said.

"You can't be sure whoever is after you is gonna wait until dark to do it," Nick said.

"Ask Fred to go slow around here on his rounds until dark," Jarrod said. "Then he can move on faster. That'll set the trap."

"As long as nobody sees me and Heath slip out the back of the hotel," Nick said.

"As long as," Jarrod said, "but I feel like I can count on you two to be careful and sneaky. And in the meantime, Doc – will you keep your revolver handy?"

"I'd lend you one, but I don't recommend it," Dr. Merar said. "If you drift off and get awakened too suddenly, you might make a mistake."

"I was thinking the same thing," Jarrod said.

"Then I guess we're set," Nick said. "I'll go talk to Fred and get a room at the hotel. You'll send Heath over there if he comes here, and he and I will see you at the back door after dark, Doc."

Dr. Merar nodded, and Jarrod said, "We're set."

XXXXXXX

Something the men didn't know was that someone was watching when Nick took Jarrod to the doctor's office, then left without him, came back again and left without him again. They hadn't given her a thought at all over the last few hours, but Esther was thinking about them.

It wasn't unusual for her to be at the office after six o'clock. Today she felt even more that she should be there, and now, watching Jarrod go into the doctor's office but not come out, she started to worry even more than she was already worrying. Had he gotten worse? Is that why the doctor was taking him back in?

And what should she do about it? She liked her boss – she liked him a lot. She wasn't foolish enough to think they would ever be anything other than lawyer and secretary, but that didn't keep her from genuinely caring about the man. When she saw Nick go into the Stockton House, she started to be frightened. She felt like she ought to go over to Dr. Merar's and see how Jarrod was, see if he needed anything from her, but then on the other hand she felt like maybe it wasn't her place to get into his personal business.

Esther didn't really know what to do. She was still standing at the window wondering what to do when she saw Heath come into town, go into the Empire and quickly come out again, then go into the doctor's office and quickly come out again. When he took his horse off in the direction of the livery, then came back on foot and went into the Stockton House, she knew something was going on with her boss.

He must have gotten worse if they took him back to the doctor and he was staying there while his brothers went into the hotel. Esther made up her mind, locked up the office and went straight to Dr. Merar's.