Chapter 16

Nick and Heath took Jarrod to the Stockton House for some breakfast, continuing the deaf and stupid ruse much to the pity and growing annoyance of everyone around them. The shouting at him to get him to hear was getting bothersome now. Heath heard someone in the restaurant murmur that they needed to take Jarrod home and keep him away from civilized company. Jarrod didn't seem to have heard it, and Heath was glad Nick hadn't.

Eggs were ordered and arrived. Heath opened Jarrod's napkin and decided he would tuck it into his collar like he himself used to do before he learned Barkley manners. It would make it look like he needed more protection for his clothes, but even better, Jarrod ripped it out with a resentful grunt and put it on his lap. "All right, all right," Heath said, but not loudly.

"What?" Jarrod asked more loudly.

"Whatever you want!" Heath said, almost yelling.

Pity and annoyance went all around the room.

While they waited for their food to come, Jarrod took his key out of his pocket and examined it slowly. Heath saw that some people were noticing it. Just to draw more attention to it, when the food came Heath said loudly, "Why don't you put that away?!"

People did notice as Jarrod put the key back in his pocket.

They ate, taking their time, taking so long that practically all of the breakfast crowd had left by the time they did. Nick thanked the waitress profusely and left a big tip, then followed Heath and Jarrod out to the street.

It was a busy morning and only a few people paid them any attention at all. "Where are we going?" Heath asked directly into Jarrod's ear.

"Office," Jarrod replied.

They went to his building and inside, keeping quiet until they entered his office. Esther came out from the inner office when they did, saying, "I saw you approach. How are you doing, Mr. Barkley?"

"Fine," Jarrod said. "If my ruse doesn't work today, I'll be all healed up tomorrow. Have you seen anything?"

"No, but a messenger came by." She pointed to a letter on her desk. "It's from Mr. Jorney."

"Bishop's attorney," Jarrod said, and picked up the letter and read it. "Well, it's true, Jorney has gotten permission from the appeals court and withdrawn from Bishop's case."

"You need permission for that?" Nick asked.

Jarrod nodded. "You don't necessarily have to explain why and these requests are almost always granted."

"So Bishop hasn't filed a brief up there," Heath said.

"No," Jarrod said, "but it's likely he'll ask for an extension so he can hire another lawyer."

"Do you want to send any response to that letter?" Esther asked.

"Not until tomorrow when I'm sensible again," Jarrod said. "I'll be in and be my old self by eleven, regardless of what I'm able to find out today. But don't tell anyone I'm expected. Just tell them I'm still struggling with my injury or words to that effect."

Esther nodded. "All right."

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

"Let's go to the livery," Jarrod said. "I want to nose around that spot where I found the key again. With that wide open main door, somebody might see me do it. Then we'll head for the Empire and stay there for a while. Nick, if there's a poker game going, why don't you join it? Put me at another table and Heath, you stick closer to the bar."

"And you'll fiddle with the key you're carrying?" Nick asked.

"I'll fiddle with the key," Jarrod said. "If anyone asks, you're just following doctor's orders to make sure I don't fall over and can make it home all right – and you don't know what the key goes to or why I'm fiddling with it. Nobody will know it's mine and not the one I found in the livery stable."

"Then we listen to what other people are saying," Heath said.

"And I listen too, and make notes that look like nothing," Jarrod said. "And if none of that works, we go home and try to think of something else."

"Will you check in here again before you go home, Mr. Barkley?" Esther asked.

Jarrod nodded. "In the meantime, if anything comes up or you notice anything, you go straight to the sheriff about it."

Esther nodded again.

"All right," Jarrod said. "Let's get the show on the road."

XXXXXX

T.J. Dyce was at the livery again, still wary, still nervous, watching Jarrod as he poked around in the floor where he had found the key the sheriff still had in his possession. "Why is he doing that?" T. J. asked Nick quietly.

Nick said, quietly, "I don't know. We're just letting him do what he wants to do today, but he goes home tonight if the doctor lets him. We're not gonna go chasing around whatever ghosts he thinks he's seeing for much longer."

Jarrod found nothing else but didn't expect to. This was all for show. A couple men who came in watched curiously for a moment, and Heath noticed a few others looking in from the street. After a few minutes, Jarrod stood up straight and patted his horse on the rump.

"T.J., did you give Jingo a rubdown or anything this morning or last night?" Nick asked.

"This morning, I gave him a good brushing and combing, and he's had plenty of feed and water," T.J. said.

"We'll be taking him out this evening. I think the doc's gonna give the okay for Jarrod to go home."

"I feel bad for all of you," T.J. said, shaking his head. "Maybe he'll do better once he's home."

"We all hope so," Nick said.

Jarrod turned and went out of the livery without a word. Nick and Heath followed along, Heath staying by his side and Nick bringing up the rear, looking around, watching for whatever might look odd, but nothing really did. It was a little after eleven when they went into the Empire saloon.

Jarrod headed straight for an empty table next to a card game that had started up. Carl Wheeler was in the game and gave Jarrod casual glance. "Hello, Jarrod," he said in a normal voice.

Jarrod acted as if he hadn't heard. Nick sat down at an empty spot at the table as one of the other men there – a fellow Nick recognized as the owner of a small spread on the other side of Stockton but whose name he could not remember at the moment – said quietly, "I guess you haven't heard, Carl."

"Heard what?" Wheeler asked.

The three other men at the table all looked at Nick. Nick said, "Jarrod got attacked the other night. Hit on the head. He doesn't hear right and he doesn't think right yet."

"Well, what's he doing here then?" Carl asked.

"The doc's been keeping him in town in case he keels over," Nick said, "but so far he hasn't. We're just following him around. We'll probably be taking him home this evening."

"Is he gonna be all right?" Carl asked.

"We think so, but if you want him to hear you, you have to yell at him and he may or may not get what you're trying to say. Deal me in the next hand?"

"He's all right being in here, isn't he?" Carl asked.

"Yeah, he's fine," Nick said. "We're just following along wherever he wants to go and right now – "

"Coffee!" Jarrod yelled toward Heath at the bar.

"Right now he wants coffee," Nick said.

Jarrod took his key out and started examining it. Carl was the one at the table who was most interested in what he was doing. "What's so interesting about that key?"

Nick took advantage of the opening. "We found it in the livery yesterday, near where he was hit. It's not his. We don't know what it goes to. We're still trying to find out."

"You figure whoever hit him lost it?" Carl asked.

"Maybe," Nick said. "Anybody know anybody who's missing a key?"

The other men at the table shook their heads. Carl began to deal.

Jarrod heard everything Carl said, but the talk at that table quickly quieted down as the cards were played. Maisie, Harry's saloon girl, brought Jarrod a cup of coffee. At the bar, Heath sipped a cup for himself, and Harry shook his head.

"Not any better, huh?" Harry asked.

Heath said, "Not yet, not hearing or thinking any better anyway. But we'll take him home today if the doc says we can. As long as he doesn't fall over, I expect the doc will say we can."

Harry said very quietly, "If you're still interested in Bishop's men, I saw them go into the mercantile a few minutes ago. If they act like they usually do, they'll be over here when they're finished over there."

"We're just gonna do whatever Jarrod wants to do," Heath said, and glancing Jarrod's way said, "Right now he just wants to drink coffee and look at that key."

"Is it his?"

Heath shrugged.

"Where did it come from?"

Heath said, "He picked it up out of the dirt and straw in the livery stable."

There was activity at the door as Heath finished his sentence, and four men came in. "Bishop's," Harry said quietly.

Heath looked at them, didn't know them. The four of them sat down at a table that put Jarrod between them and the card game. Heath saw Jarrod look up at them, and then Nick looked up Heath's way. Heath gave a small nod toward the newcomers.

Jarrod noticed but then looked back down at his key. Maisie came over to wait on Bishop's men, and when she left they started talking quietly among themselves. Jarrod figured they knew his "predicament," because they began talking quietly about him, figuring they couldn't be heard by him or anyone else in the room.

But Jarrod heard. He took his pad and pencil out of his pocket, laid his key down on it and began to trace the key. Bishop's men noticed. They said a few other things only Jarrod heard. He made some idle markings in his pad and for a good fifteen minutes, this sort of thing went on while Bishop's men ate and drank.

And Nick lost money at poker. When he got up to leave the game, Jarrod pocketed his pad and pencil and headed for the door.

"Whoa, Pappy!" Nick called, but Jarrod kept walking. Nick and Heath had to run out of the bar after him.

"Oh, man, Jarrod's really out of it!" Carl Wheeler said.

A few of Bishop's men shook their heads about it, but outside, Nick and Heath caught up with Jarrod and stopped him, thinking for a minute that maybe the ruse had gone on so long they hadn't noticed he was really in trouble.

But Jarrod was smiling when they stopped him, and he quietly said, "Got it. Let's go see Fred."