Chapter Twenty-Two
Stevensville Sheriff’s Office
Five days before Christmas
Luke hadn’t slept a wink last night, so he left his home early to ride to the office in town to go over the papers once again.
This time, he wanted to focus on descriptions of possible gang members, as well as trying to link the different crime locations to the abandoned house in the woods.
Maybe he’d find a missing link in there somewhere.
It was so early, daylight had barely broken, but he wasn’t surprised when Caleb joined him on his ride halfway.
“Couldn’t sleep, either?” Caleb asked him as he steered his black horse next to Luke’s.
Luke glanced over to his deputy, who looked just as tired as he felt. “No. My brain wouldn’t stop spinning.”
“Same here,” Caleb said with a serious expression. “Last night was a lot!”
Luke nodded. The possible implications were overwhelming, to say the least.
“I didn’t expect to find out that this Phineas would still be looking for Madelaine and the children, while at the same time he could be the leader of a gang, who might be responsible for several murders over the last few years.
” Caleb glanced poignantly at Luke, hinting at the very murder case pertaining to Luke’s previous family.
“I can’t even wrap my head around that!”
“Did you know that Phineas is Madelaine’s cousin?” Luke said, watching Caleb’s eyes grow as big as saucers.
“What? Wait… What?” Several emotions rushed across Caleb’s face—surprise, shock, bewilderment—until he looked up at Luke with his mouth agape. “So, Phineas is Madelaine’s and the kids’ cousin, and he could be the murdering gang leader we’ve been looking for?”
Luke nodded, a little apprehensively. Although he had come to the exact same conclusion, it didn’t feel good. He didn’t want to relate his new wife and those children to such a despicable man.
“It took everything in me not to jump out yesterday and arrest that man on the spot,” Luke said. “I couldn’t bear listening to that crook, and to think that Madelaine had to deal with that skunk made me even angrier.”
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t!” Caleb exclaimed. “I’m only one other guy, and how many of them were there? I couldn’t even count them all! I have no idea how we’re supposed to capture them all. We’ll need a whole army to arrest this gang!”
Luke nodded, thinking about what Caleb had just said. “Maybe that is exactly what we should do,” he mused, as he remembered the group of men standing behind him in the saloon that night.
“Do what?” Caleb asked, looking straight at Luke, whose face lit up.
“Get an army together!” Luke said.
His deputy looked slightly perplexed, but then his expression changed to a half-smile as the wheels in his head kept turning. “There were plenty of strong young men at the fairground yesterday.”
“We should get as many people together as we can, maybe we can even get other sheriffs and deputies from surrounding towns involved, if they’re suffering the same problems.”
Both men urged their horses to a faster gait, and they arrived at the office long before the stores opened. Lighting the fireplace, they got right to work.
They agreed that a secret meeting would be the best possible way to inform as many townspeople as they could all at once, since it would also give them a better idea about how many of these folks would be willing to join them in their fight against the gang.
Caleb suggested the church as a great location, where they could gather as many people as possible, without raising too much suspicion. Luke agreed.
They came up with a list of important townspeople they wanted to involve, and they also included the folks whose families and ranches had been attacked over the last few years.
Even before the town awakened, Caleb went straight to the church to ask the priest for permission to use it for the meeting.
Upon his return to the office shortly thereafter, Caleb reported that the clergyman was apparently “all in”.
This opened the door to everything else, and Luke felt deep gratitude.
As soon as the stores opened up, Caleb went to the post office to send out telegrams to as many lawmen as he could reach, while Luke took it upon himself to contact several important town officials personally.
By late morning, both men had been to several locations in Stevensville—including the fairgrounds—telling the locals to come to church that night for a secret meeting, after everything was closed down.
Word spread quickly, and by the time Luke and Caleb had spoken to more people than they could count, it was almost time to go to the meeting.
Caleb left to go to the church while Luke stayed behind near the horse barn.
He waited until he was certain that they’d left.
This meeting could only be held in secret if the apparent horse thieves had gone to their hiding spot in the woods.
It had gotten dark hours before, and Luke was exhausted, but he couldn’t relax just yet. This was one of the most important things he had ever done during his time as the sheriff in this town.
As he rode toward the gloomy church building, it looked completely deserted. There was no horse or carriage in sight.
This didn’t look promising.
Stepping toward the back door, Luke was almost surprised to be greeted by the priest himself, who welcomed him with open arms—quite literally—when he silently rushed him inside the presbytery, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Luke felt a little awkward and thought that he needed to say something, to apologize for his absence, but the clergyman didn’t give him enough time, anyways. Instead, he lit a small candle and guided Luke through the sanctuary, leading toward the nave.
Luke was nervous and agitated. He didn’t know what to expect. He worried that nobody had come to this meeting and that the entire church would be empty.
It wasn’t.
When the priest stepped in front of the altar, he held his candle up high, and the single flame illuminated the large room enough for Luke to see.
The church was packed—one might say up to the rafters. Luke saw faces tightly lined up in all of the pews, in the aisle, and along the outside walls on both sides, all the way to the big entrance door. People sat there waiting in the dark without making a single hushed sound.
Luke was overcome by such gratitude and awe he almost choked. He had not expected this. Speechless, he looked around, deeply moved as he nodded to several people in the crowd.
“So! What is this secret meeting about?” an older gentleman somewhere in the middle asked with a half-whisper. “I’m late for my supper!” Quiet laughter and snickering went through the rows, and the initial tension was broken.
“Thank you all for coming,” Luke began solemnly. “I appreciate every single one of you.” Then he turned to the priest. “We can light some candles, it’s safe now.”
“What does that mean?” a woman exclaimed. “Were we not safe before?”
While only very few candles were lit, Luke began to explain the current situation.
Given that most of the townsfolk knew about the persistent problem with the raiding horse thieves and murders in the region, he didn’t find much resistance.
Everybody was keen to help and to better the situation for the good of all of Stevensville and its surrounding residents.
“We followed a group last night,” Luke explained. “We suspect them to be the gang members involved with the main criminal activity around here. Some of them are taking part in the horse auction, and these horses might be the ones that were stolen during the last attack near the Fallon Ranch.”
“Scumbags! We need to stop them!” someone yelled, clearly outraged. Others joined in.
“How do we do that, if there are so many of them?” another worried-sounding woman asked. “We can’t go after them like a wild mob with pitchforks and pickaxes!”
“Why not?” a younger man asked as he stood up from his place in the middle of the seating area, looking around. “Why the heck not? They don’t deserve to be treated kindly!”
Several voices piped up, all talking over each other. Some were on the woman’s side, but most were in agreement with the young man.
“We need to raise an army to bring them down!” another one yelled. “I’m in! Sign me up, Sheriff!”
“Whenever you need me, Sheriff! Just let me know where and when!” someone else exclaimed.
“Hallelujah!” came from somewhere in the back. “May the Lord bless all these fine young men!” That comment earned overall agreement from the entire gathering.
And just like that, Luke watched in awe as numerous men, young and old, stood up or raised their hands to confirm their commitment to help. Looking at the overall number, he was more than impressed by the willingness of these people to step in.
“Yeah! When are we going after them?” a person in the back yelled.
“We should get them the day before the horse auction,” Caleb said as he stepped next to Luke. “We can’t risk them disappearing after that.”
“That would be the day after the dance.” Luke nodded, then he spoke to the congregation again.
“I needed to see if we had all of your support first. Now that it’s confirmed, we will come up with a well-thought-out plan on how to proceed.
We might have additional support from several other lawmen in the territory as well.
If it’s all right with Father David, everybody who will join us on the night when we go to capture these criminals should come back here around noon on the day before the horse auction. ”
A large part of the people agreed, once again.
As quiet as these people had been on Luke’s arrival, the louder they were when they left.
Apparently, most of them parked their horses and carriages inside and behind surrounding buildings.
Caleb had done a great job in instilling in them that this was a secret meeting, but on their way out, a lot of them voiced their opinions and outrage about the news that the horse thieves were still around.
Regardless, it was reassuring that Luke had almost the whole town behind him to capture this gang. He was already working out the details for their plan before he swung himself back into his saddle.
By the time Luke reached the house, his mind felt elated, but his body was tired.
“We shouldn’t tell our wives about any of this,” Luke said then. “They’ll only worry too much.” Caleb was too tired to argue and yawned as he nodded.
“Agreed,” was all he said.
When they both stepped into the house and saw that Evelyn had already gone home, Caleb called it a night and left, too.
Luke walked back into the living room, where Madelaine and the two little children were curled up on a big blanket in front of the fireplace. It was a peaceful scene, and they were all seemingly fast asleep in their chosen spot. Luke put another log on the fire and smiled down at them.
Looking around, he noticed how clean and spotless the house was. Madelaine must have worked all day on getting this place ready for Christmas. Somehow, this filled him with warmth and true appreciation.
Not wanting to wake them, Luke grabbed another blanket, hung it over the back of a nearby chair, and draped it over them. Then, he sat down next to them. He would stay for a little while before carrying them to bed.
Listening to the crackling fire, his body relaxed, and he didn’t even think about it when he bent over to give each of the children a small kiss on their heads and placed one tender kiss on Madelaine’s forehead.
It felt so natural to him that he laid down right next to her and stretched out his long legs.
His mind wandered back to the church and how amazing he had felt to see all those people there. He also remembered the priest’s exuberant expression when he’d seen him walk in after all those years. Luke used to love the place because it had always filled him with peace.
Maybe God had never abandoned him after all. Maybe God had always been there for him, all this time. Brought Madelaine and the children into his life to heal his broken heart, and him back to church.
He curled around Madelaine, inhaled her sweet scent, and before he knew it, he was fast asleep, too.