Chapter 8

Jarrod did not take the family car to San Francisco. There was not enough time to get it connected to the train, so Jarrod took a seat in first class and tried to sleep. His sleep was off and on. His dreams were cluttered and made little sense. He was half awake when the conductor came through an announced they were arriving at San Francisco.

Still in the dark. Jarrod checked his watch to see it would probably be more than another hour before the sun came up, which meant it would be another two hours after that before he could look for Davis at the Pinkerton office. Soon he was detraining and catching a hack to his home. Once there, he unpacked the few things he'd brought – mostly toiletries and other personal items and clothing – and made himself some coffee and breakfast.

And thought about what he wanted to say to Davis this morning. A couple thoughts came to him about matters he hadn't discussed with Davis in depth yet. He wondered if he should do that today.

He decided to wait and see how things played out. At shortly after 8 am, Jarrod went into the Pinkerton office and met with Phil Davis in his private office.

Jarrod started by explaining everything that Heath had found out in Lonesome Camp. Davis listened carefully and then said something surprising. "Are you sure you can trust this Heath? I mean, you hardly know him, and he claims to be your brother. Are you sure you're not being set up?"

Jarrod flinched inwardly. Doubts went flying through his mind, enough to make him go pale for a moment, but he thought it out. "Yes, I trust him," Jarrod said. "He gave us a lot of information that helped us deal with our uncle."

"You didn't have us check him out when he showed up."

"I checked him out myself," Jarrod said. "I have contacts near Strawberry, where he comes from – and I remember myself about my father going to Strawberry, when it was, what was happening when he came back." Jarrod shook his head. "Put it together with the fact that Heath is the spitting image of my father – yes, I trust him. But while we're at it, you might as well look into something else for me. A man named Huddleston."

"Huddleston?"

"Heath says that before he knew his father was Tom Barkley, he signed on with a railroad representative to be some muscle, and he was there when my father was killed. Heath says this guy Huddleston did the killing, but he didn't know any more about him. Maybe you can check that out."

Davis got up. "Maybe we already started."

He left the room to talk to his secretary and then came right back in.

"When your father was killed, you had us look into it, remember?"

"You didn't find much, as I recall – " Jarrod said, and then he recalled and lit up. "You found some names of men involved. I don't remember any of them, and you didn't find my uncle's name in there. Heath gave us that."

Davis's secretary came in and handed him a file, then went out again.

Davis opened the file. "I want to look at those names again. They might tell us more now than they did before." He looked at papers, then turned them over, then stopped and read one more closely. "Did this Heath have a last name other than Barkley?"

"Thompson maybe," Jarrod said. "That was his mother's name."

"Yep, there it is, Thompson," Davis said. "Just Thompson, no first name. It didn't mean anything before now."

"How about Huddleston?" Jarrod asked.

"There's a Huddleston too, and a few other names, all last names, no first names," Davis said, and handed the list to Jarrod.

Jarrod remembered seeing it only a month or two earlier, before Heath came. At the time, none of the names meant anything to him. Now, only Thompson and Huddleston did. "Can you do anything more with this now?"

"I can try, but I don't think you want it to be my priority," Davis said.

"No," Jarrod said. "I need Barkley Sierra to be your priority, and what involvement my uncle may have with it beyond the shares he just bought. Just to let you know, I'm having my brothers check with other shareholders in Stockton and I intend to see other shareholders here in San Francisco, to get their proxies. If there might be trouble in Lonesome Camp, I want to be ready for it and maybe head it off before it happens. Which brings up another name – Dion O'Doul."

"Who's that?" Davis asked.

"Someone Heath already knew. He's up in Lonesome Camp and said he's there to organize the workers. Heath knew him from the Strawberry mines when he worked there but he didn't know what the man might have been up to since then."

"All right," Davis said. "I'll see what we can find on him. And Jarrod – if we find out something you don't know on this Heath fellow – "

"If you're still concerned he might not be what he says he is, I think you don't need to be. He's proven himself to us already."

"But if there is something?"

Jarrod had trouble swallowing that. "If he turns up in your investigations, tell me what you find out. Leave the evaluation up to me. But I don't think you'll be finding out anything we don't already know – nothing pertinent, anyway. I'm certain he is who he says who he is, Phil. I'm certain he's my half-brother."

Jarrod left the Pinkerton offices, heading for the offices of the men he wanted proxies from. Each step of the way, he found himself starting to doubt. Davis had planted doubt about Heath in his mind. He didn't like that at all. He didn't like thinking he could not trust Heath.

But as he walked on, he thought and considered and weighed what he knew, and more steps made him realize he did trust Heath more than the doubt Davis had planted in him. He decided. He trusted Heath Barkley. The doubt quit plaguing him.

XXXXX

Nick and Heath headed for town fairly early and met with the men Jarrod had told them to meet with. They all looked suspicious, especially when looking at Heath, and they did not seem to ease off much when Nick assured him this was his half-brother. None would commit to giving Jarrod their proxy. They wanted to talk to Jarrod first. Nick and Heath stopped by the telegraph offices and sent off one short message to Jarrod in San Francisco: no promises.

"Don't let it bother you, those fat business characters all looking at you like you have two heads," Nick said as he and Heath rode home.

"Just as long as you don't think I have two heads," Heath said. "And Jarrod doesn't."

"They wouldn't have promised me the proxies even if I'd gone alone," Nick said. "If they trust anybody, it's Jarrod. He spends more time with them."

"Jarrod's got one foot in one place and the other in another, doesn't he?"

"What do you mean?"

"He knows his way around the board room, but he knows his way around the ranch, too."

"He can pull his weight either place," Nick said. "The courtroom suits him best, though. He likes being a lawyer. Me? Give me the big open anytime."

"I like that better too," Heath said.

"Good, because we're gonna go right back to it. We got a drive coming up pretty fast. I wanna make sure you know how I'll handle it."

"And how I fit into it?"

"For now, you're a drover like the rest of them," Nick said. "I'll bring you up the way our father brought me up. That'll take a little time but I'm betting you're a faster learner than I was."

Heath chuckled. "What makes you think that?"

And Nick laughed too. "I never did care about learning those big words Jarrod throws around. I can't even pronounce most of them."

"Well, you're right about that," Heath said. "I always did like learning. I just never had the chance to do a lot of it."

"Well, today, you're gonna do more learning about how the Barkley ranch is run. You're not gonna stay a drover like the rest of them. You're a Barkley. You're gonna be a Barkley."

"That's fine with me," Heath said.

XXXXXX

Jarrod didn't have any more luck getting commitments for proxies than Nick and Heath did, but at least he got to the men he wanted to alert about the situation. By midafternoon, he was in his office tending to the mail his secretary left for him. He was about to leave for home when Davis came in.

"I didn't expect you this fast," Jarrod said. "Do you have something?"

Davis nodded. "Something. You better sit down."