Let's Save All the Lawyers

Chapter 1

Heath finished loading the barrels into the buckboard just as Silas returned from his errands at the bank. "I'm sorry it took me so long, Mr. Heath," Silas said. "There was a long line at the bank, but it's lucky people were putting money in and not taking it out."

"That's okay, Silas," Heath said. "Everything's loaded up now. You can take it on home. I'll go meet Jarrod at the train depot,"

"I can wait with you if you want me to," Silas said. "In case Mr. Jarrod has some bags or such he needs taken home. You only brought his mount in. And maybe you might want an extra person with you on the road with everything going on."

"That's all right, Silas. I'll fill Jarrod in on everything and we'll be careful. Nick is anxious for this stuff to get home, so you'd better get it to him before he grumbles so hard he starts an earthquake."

"Mr. Nick can be his own earthquake," Silas said, climbing up into the buckboard. "He'll wonder when you'll be getting back."

"That depends on whether Jarrod needs to go to his office and for how long," Heath said. "Just tell Nick we'll get there when Jarrod can get there. With the trouble we've been having around town, I don't want him traveling alone. Nick understands that."

"I hope Mr. Jarrod does," Silas said, took the reins and got the buckboard moving toward home.

Heath watched until Silas turned the corner and went out of sight. He had time to stop for a drink at the Empire, and he wanted to find out what the latest was about the things that were happening in town, because he'd have to fill Jarrod in. Jarrod was a lawyer, and what was happening around town was something that had happened to a lawyer.

Heath didn't know if Jarrod knew about it or not, but someone had taken a shot at Phil Archer a couple days ago. Archer was hardly loveable and Sheriff Madden hadn't had any luck in finding out who would shoot at him – too many people could be suspects. Heath hadn't seen anything of Archer, but for some reason Sheriff Madden thought it was a good idea that all the lawyers in town take precautions and be more vigilant than usual. The sheriff had come out to the ranch last night to talk to the Barkleys about talking to Jarrod when he got home.

When he got to the Empire, Heath found the place pretty empty. Harry at the bar greeted him, and Heath stepped up and asked for a beer. "What do you hear lately, Harry?" Heath asked as Harry poured the beer and served it.

"Nothing new," Harry said. "I saw Archer come in this morning so nobody bothered him at home or on the way in. Maybe this whole thing was just one time."

"That would be good," Heath said. "Jarrod's coming in today. I'd hate to think somebody had it in for lawyers in general."

"You're meeting him at the depot?"

"Yeah, I'll ride home with him. I don't expect there'll be a problem."

"Well, keep your eyes and ears open, because you never know."

Heath finished off his beer and heard the train whistle as he came out to the street. He hurried onto the depot and to the platform. Jarrod had just climbed down out of the family car that the train had left on the siding, and he was making his way across the rails, carrying only his briefcase. Jarrod seldom had luggage when he was coming from San Francisco, since he had clothes at his home there, but he always had a briefcase. He had been gone for nearly three months this time, owing to a very big case he'd been working on. Heath could tell it had been a hard job, because Jarrod looked several pounds thinner.

"So, you've been working too hard and not eating enough," was the first thing Heath said as he reached to shake his brother's hand.

Jarrod gave a weary laugh as he shook hands. "Silas will take care of that second little problem for me, and I don't plan to do any work at all for at least two weeks."

"Two weeks? What are you gonna do with yourself?"

They began to walk together toward the street. "Oh," Jarrod said, "read a book or two, take a good long walk or two in the hills – maybe even go skinny-dipping in the creek."

"Whoa!" Heath laughed. "You really are planning to ease up, aren't you?"

"It was a very hard case, Heath."

Heath wondered if he should ask, but he did. "Did you win it?"

"It was something of a draw," Jarrod said. "The jury dismissed the more serious charges but came back guilty on the lesser ones."

"You gonna appeal?"

"No, my client thinks he got lucky, so he'll just take the light sentence he got, do his time, and start over again after he's out in a month."

"You need to go by the office?" Heath asked.

Jarrod shook his head. "Got a wire from my secretary that everything was locked down for me to take a vacation, so I don't need to. Let's go home and let me get some of Silas's good cooking in me. My belt is buckled two notches tighter so my pants don't fall off."

Heath laughed.

They reached the livery and the horses. The liveryman helped them saddle up. Jarrod fastened his briefcase to the saddle and mounted up at the same time Heath did.

"Is there anything interesting going on around here?" Jarrod asked as they started down the street.

"Funny you should ask," Heath said, and as they rode, he filled Jarrod in.

XXXXX

Victoria and Audra gave Jarrod a greeting full of hugs and kisses, and Heath took lunch with them before he left to get back to work out in the field with Nick. Jarrod lingered at the table with his mother and sister over coffee, and he kept complimenting Silas over the food.

"Just glad to have you home, Mr. Jarrod," Silas said as he poured more hot coffee.

"Glad to be here," Jarrod said.

Victoria said, "You haven't said much about how your case went."

Jarrod sipped his coffee. "Well, there's not much to say. Horace was acquitted of the more serious charges but he'll do some jail time on the lesser ones. All in all, he was happy with the result."

"Were you?" Audra asked.

"I'm pretty happy the jury agreed with me where they did, but I know Horace was not guilty of any of those charges, and I wish I could have gotten him acquitted of everything."

"Why isn't he appealing if he was innocent?"

"He's a politician. He doesn't want to keep the case in the public eye. He'll spend a month in jail on minor charges and everyone will forget about it – or so he hopes. Whether they really will or not, I don't know."

"Corruption charges are always so controversial," Victoria said. "Sometimes it seems like the court of public opinion tries the case and convicts or acquits the defendant before the jury ever gets to it."

"True," Jarrod said unhappily. "Heath filled me in on what's happened around here with Phil Archer. He told me someone took a shot at him, but he missed and he hasn't tried again."

"Are you worried about that?" Audra asked.

"No, not yet," Jarrod said. "A lot of people get mad at Phil. I can see one of them wanting to scare him but not hit him."

"In the meantime, I hope you'll be careful," Victoria said.

"I haven't been around here to make anybody mad," Jarrod said, "but I will be careful. What else is going on?"

He knew he was giving his sister an opening to go on and on about things he didn't necessarily care about, but as Audra perked up and started talking, he still smiled. It was good to hear about unimportant trivia – unimportant to him but important to his little sister. Those little matters would drive the big ones out of his head, and he was glad to get rid of them.

XXXXXX

"So, you finally got Jarrod back home, did you?" was Nick's greeting when Heath showed up at the herd.

"Safe and sound," Heath said. "I told him about Archer. He's not too worried about it. Plans to be on vacation for a while."

"Maybe we can talk Jarrod into coming into town with us to play a little poker Friday night, if he's not worried, seeing as he's on vacation." Nick sneered a little at the word "vacation." He really didn't believe in them. If Jarrod wasn't doing legal work, he should be out here helping them.

Heath chuckled, reading Nick's mind. "He'll be out here with us working before long, as soon as he gets some pounds on him from Silas's cooking. He's skinny as a rail."

"Well, then, soon as he gets some food into him, we'll get him out here and put the muscles back on. He's probably gotten pretty flabby sitting in court all day. We'll work him hard."

Heath laughed again. "Nick, you are one merciless pit boss."

"It's good to be the pit boss," Nick said with a wicked grin.

XXXXXXX

"Poker sounds good," Jarrod agreed when Heath approached the subject while they were having drinks before dinner.

Nick was still upstairs cleaning up, but Victoria and Audra were seated on the settee. Heath and Jarrod remained standing. Heath poured himself some whiskey while Jarrod diddled a little on the piano with one hand, holding his scotch with the other.

"Did Horace remember to pay you before they took him off to jail?" Victoria asked.

"I got paid up front on that one, Mother, every single cent," Jarrod said. Sometimes he would take a case and be paid some up front but wait on the remainder until the case was over. But then, most of his clients were not as wealthy as Horace Kane was. On a case like this, Jarrod often wondered if his fee was being paid out of dirty money, but he honestly believed that Horace was innocent of all the charges and had no dirty money to pay him out of. He frowned, wishing again he had gotten the man off completely.

Victoria saw the frown and figured it was from the Kane case. "I'm sorry I brought it up, Jarrod. You're on vacation now. I won't bring it up again."

Jarrod smiled and wandered back over to his "thinking chair" near the fireplace. He sat.

Heath said, "Nick is planning for you to work with us a bit and build those muscles back up."

"You are very thin," Audra said.

"Don't worry, a couple weeks of Silas's cooking and I'll be portly," Jarrod said.

"Then we'll work it off of you," Nick said as he came in, finally cleaned up and freshly shaved. He headed for the refreshment table and poured himself some whiskey. "I got a working vacation planned for you, Big Brother."

"Maybe some," Jarrod said. "I plan to play the next two weeks by ear, and then I'll have to get back to my office in Stockton. A lawyer's work is never done."

"That's 'a woman's work'," Audra said.

"It applies to lawyers, too," Jarrod said.

"You wanted to be a lawyer," Victoria reminded him.

Jarrod smiled. "I have no complaints, Mother. You had a good idea when you sent me to law school. And I had a good idea when I agreed to go."