Never Alone
Chapter Nine
The Widow McKinley watched as Heath did his best not to pace the floor. The hour was growing late and the fact that Nick nor Jarrod, or any of the men with them, were back was making the man very uptight and nervous. It might not have been so bad, but for the past twenty minutes Heath felt as if something was dreadfully wrong and he didn't know what it was. Knowing something, having something to deal with, he could handle; this not knowing anything was driving him up a wall.
It seemed like an eternity rolled by, before Heath, who had finally stopped walking and was now standing by the window again. The rain was coming so hard that when the riders came in all he could tell was that Nick was with them, though he was sure Jarrod was one of the other riders. He hoped he was right. Grabbing his coat, Heath opened the door and ran out into the downpour and into the barn.
He breathed a sigh of relief to see Jarrod and Nick, along with the deputies, but his heart stopped when he saw what he knew to be a body wrapped up in a blanket and didn't see his brother's niece. The men all knew what Heath was thinking, though it was Jarrod who spoke up first as he removed the corpse off the horse after asking Nick to keep a hold of the box of evidence he'd found as they were walking through what was left of the guest house. It had been hidden behind the woodstove, behind a few loose bricks. "It's not my niece. Let's get inside, and I'll explain." No one argued as they hurried back through the rain and into the main house.
Mrs. McKinley, who looked like she was going to have heart failure, heard the same words out of Jarrod's mouth. Once she'd led him to the back room where he laid the body, he returned to the living room where his brothers, Julies and Mrs. McKinley waited for an explanation. Jarrod sat down on the couch opposite of Nick and explained. "I don't know how, but Miss Saunders not only found about my niece, but found out what I had come up with…searching the guest house at night when we'd have the cover of darkness to help protect us. She and Sheriff Greene met us on our way to the ranch. She insisted on my niece doing her best to tell me the places where Whispering Pines thought the evidence was hit and insisted on switching places with her." He gave everyone in the room a look that asked them if they knew what was coming.
"Are you saying your niece is with the sheriff and that's Miss Saunders?" Nick pointed towards the back room.
"Yes, Miss Saunders offered to come with us to the Barnes ranch. She looked enough like Whispering Pines to fool anybody in the dark. It gave us the opportunity to search the place and still protect our only reliable witness."
"Why would she offer to do such a thing?" asked Nick.
Jarrod leaned back on the couch. "This Town's had enough of Anderson and his men. I met Miss Saunders in at the doctor's surgery. It's sad, but the woman was dying. She wanted to do this. Thankfully it means both Whispering Pines, the only living reliable witness, and this evidence is safe." I figured we'd be lucky to search the house. I…" he sighed and then continued, "I just wish, once I came to, I'd been able to save Miss Saunders. As it was, one look in the direction she laid and I knew all I could do was to get myself out of there."
The whole time Jarrod was talking, Nick was trying to find a way to open the box in his hands. He held the item up and asked, disgust in his voice, "How can you be sure this holds any real evidence? There's no way to even open it." He might not know a lot about the law, but he knew you couldn't take an unopened box into court and just claim it proved another man's guilt.
"It's the box Whispering Pine described before leaving with the sheriff." Jarrod told him as the Widow McKinley handed him a glass of the best wine she had in her house. Okay, it wasn't what Jarrod would normally drink, but he wasn't going to be impolite and refuse. As the good woman gave the others their drinks, they did the same as Jarrod, drank it to be polite.
"So," Julies looked at the Barkley brothers and the other men in the room, "Any of you feel like picking a lock?" That brought a few smiles to their faces though it was Heath that held out his hands. After all, thanks to his uncle's cruelty while he was growing up, Heath had learned to pick a number of door locks. He was sure he could handle picking the box's lock.
Jarrod was a bit surprised to see it was Heath offering to pick the lock, but who was he to argue? If his blonde haired brother could get the box open, they'd have what they needed to put Anderson behind bars, if not on a gallows. He handed the box to Nick, who turned around and handed it to Heath.
Pulling a small file out of his pocket, Heath went to work. Every man in the room kept an eye on him as he worked to get the box open. The seconds that rolled by seem to go on for an eternity and before Heath opened the box, they were all holding their breath.
"Well, well, look what we have here." Heath lopsided grin jumped onto his face as he handed Jarrod some legal looking papers, one of which he recognized as papers Mr. McKinley had been looking for before the ranch was hit the first time, "Maybe, you can do something with those before Anderson has a chance to make another attack on this place."
Jarrod shook his head as he looked through the papers. Sure, there was enough evidence to take Anderson to court, but with the rain coming down as hard as ever, maybe worse, they couldn't get them to the sheriff tonight.
There was another problem, one that he quickly pointed out to the men, lest they should think the ordeal was over. "Whoever knocked me out, whoever knocked everyone with us out got the fake evidence. I checked. Anderson will hit this ranch by tomorrow morning at the latest. I'd bet my reputation on it. There's no time to get this to the law. The best we can do is hide it again and then, after the attack, hope enough of us have survived to get it to the law."
He didn't like it, he could tell his brothers and the others didn't like it. It didn't matter though. Like it or not, they had a fight coming their way, and it was just around the corner.