Ethan got to the jail next day and was shocked at what he found there.

He'd seen the inmate slumped in the cell and had unlocked the door to go wake him up. When he failed to roust, he checked his vitals and discovered the man was dead. He stepped outside and saw Charlie and Dakota talking near the horse trough.

"Get inside her…"

They joined him with quizzical looks.

"What is it boss?"

Ethan looked over at Dakota and gestured to the cell.

"Man brought in last night is dead…how'd that happen?"

Dakota looked perplexed.

"I don't know…he looked to be asleep when I left. What about you Charlie?"

"Saw him asleep, not dead."

Ethan just looked at both men trusting that they told him the truth as they knew it but the man looked as if he'd been dead a few hours. He'd felt cool to the touch and his skin had started hardening.

"Doc didn't check him out," Dakota said, "Maybe we should have fetched him."

Ethan had made the decision not to check in town until this morning with what had happened. He'd left Bella and Amelia at their ranch and then took the children straight home as it had been very late. Now he wondered if he'd done right.

"I swear Ethan he didn't look like he was dying…"

Ethan sighed.

"I believe you but…someone better fetch Doc Carter to take a look at him," he said, "Maybe something got missed."

Dakota frowned.

"Maybe Burke and Trevor hit him too hard," he said, "They had roughed him up a bit."

"It was just vandalism wasn't it?"

Dakota nodded.

"But you know how Axelrod and the others feel about anything that targets their stores…Darrin's given them what they wanted with those security men."

Ethan knew that even though he'd had his objections to their presence and now two of them, the most recent arrivals had been connected with a death.

"Who watched over him all night?"

Charlie spoke up.

"I did…but I left to go respond to a disturbance from Tiny's place for a while. Office looked the same when I got back."

"Got a name on him?"

Charlie shook his head.

"Didn't see his face on a poster or anything. Course that doesn't mean much."

Ethan digested this while Dakota went to get the doctor. People didn't die in his jail cell very often. Not to say that there hadn't been marshals who'd had quite a few men turn up dead in lockup but they were long gone.

"Didn't recognize him…he's not local."

"Probably a drifter," Charlie said, "The two security men just said they saw him near where there'd been vandalism. Didn't catch him at it…"

"How do they know he did it?"

Charlie shrugged.

"He was the only one in the vicinity and it was fresh."

That didn't make much difference to Ethan. The man could have just been passing by at the wrong time…maybe he'd seen something and could have been a witness. The real vandal could still be out there and for all he knew it could have been either Burke or Trevor.

"I need to talk to them."

"I don't know if Darrin will let you…"

"He's not going to have a choice in it," Ethan said, "It's my job."

"Burke's at Axelrod's store," Charlie said, "Better get to him before Darrin shows up."

Ethan nodded and headed out of the office.

Amelia woke up smiling. She'd had a goodnight sleep which she didn't take for granted anymore. But if she'd been dreaming again, she'd woken without any memory of it. She got out of bed and got dressed to go check on the horses.

She ran into Bella who was talking to a couple of the women.

"You are heading into town?"

Amelia nodded.

"Martha wants to work on the planning," she said, "I don't know why she needs my help. She doesn't take advice well."

Bella sighed.

"You've got something she wants," she said, "I think she had her designs on the marshal."

Amelia knew that, had known that when she first arrived back in Paradise. But she knew that she'd still loved him. Something she'd tried to get away from and then realized she couldn't run anymore.

"Look it's just business," she said, "Founder's Day is an important holiday…even if it feels like the Wyatts are turning it into something much different."

Bella chuckled.

"Martha seems to have embraced that but she just wants something from Ethan…"

"It's none of my business," Amelia said, "I know how I feel about him and that's enough for me. I can't give him what I'm not able."

Bella shook her head.

"You're just thinking about it too much."

Amelia just looked at her, shaking her head.

"I'm not…I'm just being realistic," she said, "I'm really working hard at this…"

"Too hard…it shouldn't be much work at all."

Amelia sighed.

"You know what I mean…"

Bella smiled.

"I know that Ethan loves you," she said, "I didn't know if he'd ever be able to care about a woman like that. He was always all about being the gunfighter…never anything serious with a lady…course I wasn't a lady."

"I love him too…as much as I can feel anything right now. But I try not to think about what happened and it intrudes anyway."

"Did you tell him that?"

Amelia shook her head.

"I don't think it'll fix anything," she said, "and it won't change anything."

"It might…if you try it," Bella said, "You're a young woman. You still have a lot of life ahead of you. You can't let anything hold you back from what you want."

Amelia heard her words but it was harder to put them into practice. She'd tried a lot and so far…there were times she almost felt like herself again and others…when she still felt like running. She didn't want to run away from a man she'd come back to but sometimes she had to will herself to remember that she was back in Paradise and not someplace else months ago.

"You worried about those men coming after you still?"

Amelia had worried about that months ago when it had just happened but she hadn't seen them anywhere since then. She figured at this point they'd moved on and were no doubt still terrorizing people abusing their authority because someone ordered them to do so.

"No…that man the other night in the barn…he made me wonder because he knew so much…"

"Might have just run into those two men at some point, heard about it…"

Amelia didn't know if she quite believed that but this man's actions and words didn't mean that the two men who hurt her were anywhere around.

Bella walked with her to the barn.

"You know Ethan will kill them if they show up and try anything."

Amelia paused.

"That's what scares me sometimes…I don't want him to do something that could get him killed or locked away."

Ethan watched as Doc Carter checked the dead man out in the jail cell. Dakota had summoned him and he'd come over right away.

He'd been busy checking him out, peppering anyone nearby with questions about what they'd done and what they'd seen but didn't receive much useful information.

"He was left alone for a spell," Doc Carter asked, "How long was that?"

Ethan watched Dakota and Charlie look at each other.

"Not too long…we had to respond to a disturbance and that took about an hour…maybe longer."

Doc Carter stood up and looked at the three of them.

"He died of a blow to the head, I reckon," he said, "a pretty severe one…you can see it in the rear of the head…bone's pretty thick there too and still…"

Charlie cleared his throat.

"Well he was treated a bit roughly by these two armed men…before he was put in the cell."

Doc Carter sighed.

"The two I saw here earlier right?"

Ethan nodded.

"Why you asking these questions…?"

Doc Carter looked carefully at him.

"I suspect you already know why Ethan," he said, "The man died in your custody while waiting to be picked up for trial. The guards might have hit him earlier and it took him a while to die."

Dakota shook his head.

"He didn't act like he was hit in the head," he said, "He was banged up but he looked alert when I saw him."

"He's not alert now Dakota, he's dead."

Ethan sensed that Doc Carter wasn't happy with what happened to the young man. Neither was he…he'd not even been in town when this happened and the man was already dead.

"Did anyone else slip in the office and see him?"

Dakota and Charlie looked at each other.

"We were gone that time," he said, "and I had a ring of keys in my desk…if someone knew to look there, it's possible."

Ethan clenched his jaw. Damn, that meant that someone could have come in the office, unlocked the cell and killed the young man. But if that were the case, who? The town wasn't exactly crawling with suspects.

Unless…Burke and Trevor had returned to finish the guy off. But that didn't make much sense at all…they had caught him up, roughed him up and then put him in the jail cell. After that they'd just walked away so what was the motive to return and commit murder?

He still had no idea what happened earlier or even the name's man and where he was from. He had to find that information out soon because that might provide clues as to what happened and who killed him.

He knew he'd have to question the guards again and he knew Darrin would try to stop him from doing that. But now that he had a suspicious death on his hands, he would do what he had to do to find out the truth of what had happened.

Martha walked in just then looking a bit upset.

"What's this I hear about a man dying in jail?"

Ethan rubbed the back of his neck.

"The young man two of your father's security men caught last night," he said, "This morning he was dead."

Martha shrugged.

"I'm sure it's just one of those things," she said, "Could have happened anywhere."

Ethan shook his head.

"I don't think so…I think someone murdered him and I'm going to find out who."

With that, he walked out of the office and went to find Burke and Trevor fast before Darrin got wind of it and tried to hide them.