Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
The sound of people talking and laughing drifted in through the window. Josiah had been staring at the ceiling for close to half an hour now, seeing the rest of his life play out in his mind's eye and he couldn’t find a single thing to hate.
Violet was napping beside him, her naked body warm against his side. He looked down at her and smiled before placing a soft kiss on her forehead.
How his life had gotten to this point was beyond him. Tragedy had followed him to Silver Falls, but the woman in his arms had brought him chaos, then total bliss. He couldn’t help but think it was too good to be true.
When someone knocked on the door, he rolled his eyes. Surely things couldn’t go bad so quickly.
Violet stirred at his side and lifted her head. “Who could that be?”
“I’d hate to think.”
The sheriff saying, “open up,” made them both groan.
“Not again,” Violet said, sitting up.
“Just a minute,” Josiah yelled before rolling off the bed and crossing the room to where he’d dropped his pants. He slipped them on as Violet hurriedly put her skirt and blouse back on.
When they were both decent, he opened the door.
Just like last time, the sheriff wasn’t alone, but seeing Bonnie standing behind the man sent his mind in a different direction than it had been heading. Maybe this wasn’t about him at all. Had Archie taken a turn for the worse?
He glanced at Violet when she stepped up beside him and put a hand on her shoulder when she asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” the sheriff said. “Everything is finally right.” He glanced at him, seeing them only half dressed and motioned down the hall with a tilt of his head. “You two finish getting dressed and meet me at the jail.”
He didn’t wait for a response and they both looked at Bonnie. Her wide grin told them everything was okay and after she walked off without a word, Josiah shut the door and searched for his boots.
Neither said a word as they finished dressing, nor when they hurried to the jail.
Once inside the building, Violet gasped. The two men who had been running Edwin’s store were occupying the jail cells and neither of them looked happy.
“You arrested them?” Violet asked as he shut the door behind them.
“I did.” The sheriff took his seat behind his desk and nodded at the chairs in front of it. “Take a seat. This might take a while.”
Josiah motioned for Bonnie, who was still there, to take the vacant seat beside Violet and stood with his back to the wall beside the door. He stared at the men in the cells who were glaring at the sheriff.
“What’s going on?” he asked, directing the question at the sheriff.
“Well, for starters,” the man said, “You’re no longer a suspect in Edwin’s murder. You are free to leave town whenever you please.”
Violet turned her head to look at him, a tiny smile gracing her face. When she turned back to the sheriff, she said, “Did the lady who accused him finally tell the truth?”
“No.” The sheriff looked at Bonnie. “Your friend did something the rest of us were unwilling to do.”
The sheriff went into detail about how Bonnie had taken it upon herself to do what the rest of them wouldn’t.
She headed to the undertakers and shaved the corpse to find that freckle the saloon whores claimed he had.
She didn’t find the freckle, but it was such a tiny thing to even consider, it wasn’t enough to prove the man they’d found dead in the mercantile was Edwin or not, but she did bring him some curious information.
“Those two,” the sheriff said, nodding at the men in the cells, “Had a wagon full of merchandise and a bag full of money when I went to question them again.
“They claimed to be associates of Edwin’s, but when I saw them cleaning out the store, I questioned them about it.
They claimed Edwin owed them and their associates a large sum of money and they were just taking what was theirs.
It was enough for me to wonder if they hadn’t killed Edwin so, I had them brought here and thrown into the cells. ”
“I didn’t kill him!” the shorter of the two men shouted. “How many times do I have to say it?”
“He probably ran off,” the other said.
“Then who is the man the undertaker has?”
Violet’s question left the two men looking at each other before they shrugged in unison. “Hell if I know,” the taller of the two said. “We thought it was Edwin, too.”
Something about the look in their eyes told him they might know who it was, but neither was going to say.
The sheriff tapped his knuckles on the table to get their attention and asked, “Can you prove it isn’t?”
The man shrugged again. “Maybe.”
“You’re looking at a murder charge, fellas. I think I’d try to remember anything you could to prove that man at the undertakers isn’t Edwin Wright.”
The shortest of the two looked at the other before glancing at the sheriff. He blurted out, “Edwin got stabbed in the leg not long ago. He should have a scar from it.”
A flurry of activity sent them all in different directions and when they all congregated back at the sheriff’s office, Josiah knew half of their problems were all solved.
According to the town doctor, Edwin had come in a few weeks ago with a bad cut on his leg. He’d stitched him up and sent him on his way and another search of the corpse told them he had no such scar.
The man they’d thought was Edwin, wasn’t, and with half his face blown off, it was likely they’d never know who he was or why he’d been in the mercantile, shot to death, so the real question now was—where was Edwin?
“I knew it!” Violet’s heart was racing so fast she had trouble catching her breath.
Everyone was talking at once, the main question being, where was Edwin? The idea he faked his own death was thrown around and with the money he owed the two men behind the cell bars, maybe he had, but, “None of this makes any sense.”
She realized she’d said it out loud when the sheriff looked her way.
“Most murders don’t.”
“I know that,” she said. “I meant Edwin’s insistence on marrying me.” She glanced at Josiah. “Why would he have tried so hard to get me to marry him?”
Before Josiah could say anything, the shortest man behind the bars said, “He wanted your store.”
They all turned to look at him. He grinned, his rotten teeth making him look even more untrustworthy than he had before. “He owed our boss a lot of money.”
“Your boss?” The sheriff said.
The taller of the two men looked at the other and said, “Shut up, Jake.”
“Why?” Jake said. “We’re already in jail. What more can they do?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Hang us for murder, maybe?”
Jake’s face went stark white before he went to his bunk and sat down.
The sheriff asked the men so many questions after that, she was tired of hearing his voice, but Jake finally gave it all away.
With Edwin marrying her, it would have given him access to Campbell’s Mercantile and the money it brought in.
He’d promised them a cut of the profits, just like they had at his store.
She listened to them talk about her and her family’s store and felt the loss, even though he hadn’t taken a penny from them. What would they have done had he’d turned against them like that?
It doesn’t matter, she thought. He’ll never get his hands on her family's business. The fact he was willing to be so underhanded and steal them blind made the food she’d shared with Josiah sour in her stomach.
She glanced over at him. He was still leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked so strong and capable. There was no way he’d let someone take advantage of them like that.
He glanced down at her. Their eyes met and something in his gaze warmed her clean to her toes.
She didn’t hear much of the conversation after that, but when the sheriff finally told them all to go home, that they were free to head back to Silver Falls, she followed him outside to the sidewalk, their entire future before them.
Bonnie gave her a wink before heading back to the doctor's office where Archie still lay recuperating. The townsfolk were all headed home now that the sun was going down and seeing the lights in the windows of the hotel made her pulse leap.
“Come on,” Josiah said, grabbing her hand.
She interlaced her fingers with his, happiness making her smile so big her face hurt, but it fell away when he turned them in the opposite direction of the hotel. “Where are we going?”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
She followed beside him quietly, her hand held tight in his own. When he stopped in front of a house beside the church, she looked at him questionably as he knocked on the front door.
A man who didn’t look much older than Josiah answered. He smiled at them both before asking, “Can I help you?”
“I hope so,” Josiah answered. “Are you Caleb Morris?”
The man looked at them both before straitening. “I am.”
“Good.” Josiah glanced at her before giving her hand another squeeze. “Because we’d like to get married. Right now.”
The smile that curved her lips at his words, she knew, would never come off.