Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
There were clouds in the sky, thick and gray, when she stepped out onto the sidewalk. The day matched her mood. She’d had a restless night's sleep and her disposition hadn’t improved any while she’d dressed.
She started for the doctor's office but paused when she noticed a line of people going into the mercantile and people coming out with goods. Edwin didn’t have any other kinfolk that she knew of, so was someone actually running the store or were people just stealing merchandise?
Changing course, she headed for the store and waited as people filled inside, then pushed her way through.
The only way to describe the scene inside the building was chaos. There were people everywhere. Granted, the store had been closed for the better part of two days now, so were people just taking what they wanted?
She made her way toward the front and came up short when she saw two men behind the counter. They didn’t look like the sort of men who would run a mercantile. They looked—rough. As if they were your run-of-the-mill trail bums who didn’t call any one place home for longer than a day or two.
The taller of the two noticed her and gave her a gummy grin. He was missing a few teeth and the ones he had were black with decay.
“What can I help you with, pretty lady?”
She glanced at the woman beside her before giving him her attention again. “Who are you?”
He raised a brow. “I’m the owner of this here establishment.”
She scoffed. “Since when?”
His smile looked more predatory than friendly. “Since Edwin passed.”
“And how do you know him?”
His smile fell away. “You sure do have a lot of questions.”
“Oh, well, I’m just curious. I’ve known Edwin for years and he doesn’t have any other relatives that live in town.”
“We was friends,” he said. He nodded to his companion, who was taking money from a gray-haired old lady. “Me and Jake there have known Edwin for a while now.”
“So…you just took his store when someone killed him?” Were these men responsible for Edwin’s death?
It’s not Edwin, she reminded herself.
Something was going on here and it all smelled rotten to her. She turned and left without waiting for an answer from him. He probably wouldn’t have given her one, anyway.
She stopped on the sidewalk and looked back into the window, studying the two men behind the counter. They looked vaguely familiar.
Were these the men she’d seen Edwin talking to the morning she’d come to talk to him? Were they the same ones the sheriff mentioned to Josiah that were seen doing secretive back-door deals behind the mercantile?
She blew out a breath when none of the answers appeared and stared across the road toward the jail. Knowing Josiah was in there, uncomfortable, and unable to move around freely, left her so unsettled, she wasn’t sure she’d ever shake it.
Standing there and taking in the town, she noticed something sticking up in the air behind the jailhouse, a few men on top of the structure. It was made of wood and it took long minutes to make out what it was. When she finally did, her heart skipped a beat.
Gallows, her mind whispered. The moment she thought of the word, she heard the hammers. Her heart sank a moment later. Was that a permanent structure behind the jail she’d failed to notice, or were they building it for Josiah?
Tears burned the back of her eyes and she jumped from the sidewalk, nearly getting hit by a passing wagon in her haste, and ran toward the jail.
He didn’t know who the men shoring up the gallows behind the jail were, but he’d never seen them inside the jail before. Did they work for the sheriff? Or were these just every day citizens fixing to take things into their own hands?
He’d seen it happen more times than he could count. Outraged citizens taking the law into their hands before you had time to get an accused man before a judge.
When the townsfolk outnumbered the law men, it was hard to control them and small towns were even worse because most didn’t have a full-time judge on hand, like this town.
Would they wait for the circuit judge to come around, or would they take matters into their own hands, despite what the sheriff and his deputies did?
Was he going to hang for killing Edwin, even though he never laid a hand on the man?
So many memories of men shouting they were innocent came to mind as he watched those men hammer new nails into the posts, holding the beam across the top of the gallows together. How many of them truly were innocent?
Would that be him in the near future? Standing up there with a noose around his neck, shouting his innocence to a crowd of people who didn’t want to hear it?
He didn’t get time to contemplate it more as the front door slammed open so hard it hit the wall. He turned, eyes wide, as he stared at Violet. He smiled when he saw her, the last time she’d entered his jailhouse, much the same way coming to mind.
It seemed like ages ago since then. She’d been running from Edwin. Now, he was accused of killing the man.
She slammed the door back shut, ignoring the deputy who was sitting at the sheriff’s desk, and hurried across the room toward him. He knew the moment she saw the gallows out the window behind him. Her eyes closed, her shoulders drooping.
“This is all wrong, Josiah.”
“I know.”
She looked up at him, despair evident in her eyes. “Why are they shoring up the gallows?” He didn’t say anything, but didn’t have to. She could see the answer in his eyes. “Are they going to hang you?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t want to lie, but hated admitting the obvious. Leaving her in the dark about these things might make it worse off for her.
He glanced at the deputy, who was trying not to listen to their conversation, and lowered his voice when he said, “Sometimes things don’t go as they should, Violet, so you need to prepare yourself for that.”
“What does that mean?”
He glanced at the deputy again. “It means, if the people of this town want me to hang, then chances are I will.”
“But the sheriff can’t just decide to hang you.”
“No, but the townsfolk may.”
It took her a few moments to realize what he was saying. She blew out a breath. “Can they do that?”
“Not legally, but I’ve seen it done. The citizens in any given town always outnumber the lawmen and sometimes there isn’t anything you can do to stop them.”
“But you didn’t kill Edwin.”
Her eyes grew glassy and the words her grandfather had spoken, telling him Violet had been sweet on him since the day he’d ridden into Silver Falls, came to mind. How would she react if they did hang him?
He didn’t want her to even have to witness it, which was why he would beg Tanner to get her out of town before it happened. If he showed up. He wasn’t even sure the deputy sent the telegram. He could have pocketed the money and tossed his note into the trash for all he knew.
“Hey,” he said, cupping a finger under her chin to lift her head. “Don’t worry about me. Everything will work out fine.”
“How can you say that?”
He gave her a smile he didn’t feel and said, “Because the alternative is too depressing to think about.”
She reached through the bars and cupped his face before leaning up on her toes and kissed him. It wasn’t the deep, soul-stealing kisses she’d given him before, but it was enough. It lifted some of the dread he’d been feeling and erased the sense of doom hanging over his head.
When she finally broke the kiss, she sighed. “I guess I don’t really have the right to do that anymore.”
“Why is that?”
She met his gave and gave him a sad smile. “You’re not my husband. I can’t just go around kissing you whenever I want.”
The reminder that Amos was a fraud and hadn’t really performed a legal wedding ceremony for them, along with the look on her face, made something tight in his chest clench.
He’d fought the pull towards her, the fake marriage he knew she’d wanted despite the fact it wasn’t real, and once he finally gave in and accepted it all, the news that they weren’t really married left him a bit numb.
What was he supposed to do now? Carry on as he’d done before? Swearing off women and relationships and live his life alone and bored out of his mind?
Or take a chance on life instead of running from it. To go find a real preacher and marry her all proper like.
The sheriff walked into the jail before he could contemplate it more. The look on his face wasn’t pleasant. The deputy on duty stood and moved away from the desk when the sheriff started toward it and when the man sat and blew out a breath, he could see how tired he looked.
Elkin wasn’t nearly as large as Durango, but compared to Silver Falls, it was every bit as populated. He could only imagine what sort of things the man had to deal with on a daily basis.
When the sheriff looked his way, his eyes lifting to the window in his cell and the gallows beyond it, he blew out a tired breath and shook his head before looking at his deputy.
“Go out there and get those idiots off the gallows. I don’t want the sight of them out there stirring up trouble we don’t need. ”
They all watched the deputy leave. When the door shut, the sheriff looked at them. “The circuit judge isn’t due until the end of next month.”
The statement was innocent enough, but the look in his eyes told him everything he wasn’t saying when he glanced out that window to the gallows at his back.
He might not be alive to even have to worry about proving himself innocent. The townsfolk might make that decision for him.
Her stomach soured at the sheriff's words. Would the people in this town really hang Josiah for a murder he didn’t even commit?