Chapter Eighteen
Late October — Mid-Morning
Sam was on his way into town for his meeting with one of the local sheriffs. Since Bellevue was rapidly growing into a city, the town had been split into five large districts and Sam had made it his habit to meet up with all of the local lawmen regularly, including any marshals coming through.
His network of informants had grown significantly and Sam took every opportunity to converse with them about possible cases that could pertain to Elizabeth’s murder. With his background as a former lawman, all of them were happy to assist him in his search for the suspects.
All of them—apart from Clayton Briggs.
It was unfortunate, because the crime rate in Briggs’ district was noticeably higher than in the other areas around town, and Sam would have liked nothing more than to cooperate with him on those cases.
Unfortunately, Briggs wasn’t interested at all.
He’d even kicked Sam out of his office the last time he’d tried to talk to him.
Due to the obvious hostility that man displayed, Sam had started to gather information about Sheriff Briggs.
It was mostly out of curiosity, but something deep in his gut told him that it wasn’t just that.
No man reacted the way Briggs did toward him without some kind of motive or reason, though Sam couldn’t fathom what that could be.
He’d only met Briggs when he’d visited him in his office a couple of weeks ago for the first time.
“Brown!” Sheriff Sampson called out to him from the table near the window as soon as Sam stepped foot into the busy saloon.
John Sampson, a dark-blond, tall man in his late thirties, happened to be the son of the old man whose barn had recently burned down.
Though the case had fallen into the jurisdiction of Briggs’ district, Sheriff Sampson wasn’t pleased with the way his colleague had handled the investigation on his father’s property.
Not surprisingly, Sam and John had found a common interest in finding out more about Briggs and his background.
“How are things at the ranch? How’s married life treating ya?” John asked with a friendly smile, slowly pushing a glass of beer toward Sam.
“Good! Thanks!” Sam replied with a wide grin.
It wasn’t what John was implying, but Sam was happy with how things were.
He took a sip from his beer and looked around.
Despite the early hour, the space was filled with quite a lot of people already.
Most of them were travelers coming through, but there were also trappers, tradesmen, and those looking to get hired.
“Did you find out anything about what happened to your father’s ranch?” he asked. John shook his head, his face instantly scowling.
“Briggs won’t tell me anything, even though I’ve asked him numerous times to forward me the paperwork,” John said with a grunt. “That man is needlessly difficult about everything!”
“Don’t I know it,” Sam said with a slow nod. “But I thought with you being the son, he’d be a bit more cooperative.” John snorted at that.
“I’m not holding my breath,” he said, pulling out a few rolled-up sheets of paper from his inner pocket. “Which brings me to my own investigation.” He unrolled the documents and pushed the small stack toward Sam. Then he gestured to the bartender to bring two more beers.
“Tell me everything,” Sam said, as he looked at the pages, which contained reports and background information about Clayton Briggs, even before he’d been sworn in as a sheriff.
“Apparently, that man had a bit of a shady past,” John said. “Which makes it strange that he was ever able to obtain any sheriff’s position in the first place.”
“Shady? How so?” Sam asked, staring at a recent assessment report of Briggs’ job achievements. His eyebrows shot up when he saw how bad his ratings were.
“There are no records about where he came from,” John explained.
“Not even a birth certificate or a single school report. Nothing. It seems that man appeared out of thin air, which is very strange. Ask any of the other sheriffs in town and nearby areas—all of them can be traced all the way back to their forefathers. But not Briggs. He’s a ghost! ”
Sam agreed that that was suspicious. A sheriff’s background was important to rule out any form of corruption and possible links to criminal organizations.
“From what I’ve heard, Briggs has been bouncing around several different locations all over the territory, which isn’t normal for someone like us,” John said matter-of-factly. “Sheriffs don’t just switch towns over and over again or cross state lines. That just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Sam said with a headshake. “And not having a traceable background is very strange indeed.”
“The most obvious part in all of this is the fact that crime actually rose wherever Briggs moved to,” John continued. “Every time he moved to a new place, crime followed him. Tell me that isn’t suspicious!”
Sam leaned back in his chair and combed his fingers through his hair.
“Thank you for telling me all of this,” he told John.
“It means that we have to keep our eyes and ears open about Briggs. I know that he’s got it out for me—for no real reason, might I add—but I don’t trust him or his behavior.
He should at least work with you on your father’s case, but he doesn’t.
Something just doesn’t add up, and I can’t shake the feeling that there is more to it. ”
“Well, keep the papers, just in case. Add them to the collection you already have,” John said with a nod.
The barkeeper brought them another round of beer and the men talked about several new cases that had happened in and around town within recent days, though none of them sounded useful to Sam. By the time both of them left the saloon, it was already early afternoon.
“Thank you for all your help,” Sam said to John, shaking his hand.
“Anytime! Same goes for you! You’ve been a bigger help than Briggs,” John replied. “Let’s meet up again soon. I like our little meetings.” Sam smiled at him with a nod.
They parted ways and Sam rode back to the ranch. John was becoming more of a friend to him. It was a good feeling to know that he had such great connections.
***
Back at the ranch, Sam rode straight to the barn. He was rubbing down Black Shadow, feeling relaxed and good about the meeting.
“How was your day?” Sadie’s voice sounded right behind him, startling Sam. He turned around to her and she looked at him with an innocent face.
“It was great,” he said with a warm smile. “John is a good man and very forthcoming. It’s a pleasure talking to him.”
“John is very nice,” Sadie confirmed, as she slipped Black Shadow a carrot. “We grew up together and he’s like a brother to me.” Sam nodded.
“Where is Ruby?” he asked, not really worried.
“Ellen and the teacher are with her,” Sadie supplied. “Ellen is as eager to learn how to teach as Ruby is to learn. It’s actually really funny to watch. Ruby is very smart.” Sam nodded. He liked hearing that. “Hattie came by to visit her while you were gone.”
Sam raised his eyebrows as he went to rub down the stallion’s other side.
“She did?” he asked curiously. “How nice of her. But she didn’t stay?”
“It was only a short visit,” Sadie explained. “Hattie said that she had to leave early, because she expected her ladies from church to come by this afternoon.”
“Ah, yes,” Sam remembered with a soft smile. “She meets them regularly during the week. Sometimes there were almost twenty of them.” He also remembered the flirty looks some of those women had given him, but he didn’t tell Sadie about that.
“There is something that came up during our conversation,” Sadie continued. Sam got the impression that she hesitated. “I’d like to talk to you about that.”
“Sure,” he said casually, not really thinking anything of it.
“First, you have to promise me not to get angry,” Sadie said with a worried expression on her face. She was wringing her hands, clearly nervous.
Sam paused. He stepped back toward the other side of the stallion so he could look her straight in the eyes.
“I promise I won’t get angry as long as you tell me whatever it is that’s worrying you so much,” he declared.
“I want to have Ruby baptized,” Sadie blurted out. “This Sunday. We can invite the whole town and make a big celebration of it. It’ll also solidify our bond as a family, so Walter will hopefully stay away from us.”
Sam stared at her with his jaw slack. He’d expected anything else—not this.
“Sunday?” he asked, his mind racing.
“Hattie and I talked about it today,” Sadie continued tentatively. “She told me that Ruby was still not baptized and we are in agreement that she absolutely has to be. She should have been years ago, but…”
“I was against it,” Sam interrupted her calmly on the outside, though very tense on the inside. “I am still against it.” Sadie’s eyes went wide with horror.
“What? No!” She stared at him in shock. “I can’t really believe that you would do that to your child! Her soul needs to be cleansed so that she can go to heaven and be with our Lord!” Sam inhaled sharply.
“So He can take her too?” he snapped.
They stared at each other in silence for a moment, speechlessly.
“God will not take Ruby!” Sadie finally said. “That’s not what God does!”
“I’m sorry to tell you that you are wrong,” Sam said to Sadie as he walked past her out of the stall.
Sadie followed hot on his heels. “God does take people away whenever He feels like it. He makes us worship Him and then He tears our life apart as if it means nothing. God will not take Ruby,” he said with a cold nod, “because I won’t let her get baptized, so that He won’t have a claim on her. ”
Sadie gasped loudly and her hand flew to her mouth.
Sam couldn’t believe that he was having this conversation right there and then, and even though he’d promised not to get angry, he struggled to keep the rising fury down.
“What on Earth are you talking about?” Sadie asked in obvious bewilderment.
“Don’t you know that not baptizing a child will have her soul in limbo?
If she were to die, her soul could never find her way back and she would be lost forever!
Do you really want that for her?” Her voice was getting more and more agitated and when Sam spun around to look at her, he saw that she had tears in her eyes.
“Don’t talk about dying! I want her to live!” he half-yelled at her. It was as if a dam had broken inside of him. Sadie wiped a stray tear from her face, but before she could reply, Sam couldn’t hold it back any longer and it came rushing out of him like a torrent.
“Why would you even talk to my mother-in-law about this? It’s none of your business what Ruby is or isn’t!
” he said angrily. “And to want to invite the whole town… No! The way things are right now, I don’t want a bunch of strangers swarming all over the place, putting you and Ruby in even more danger! The answer is no!”
“This is my property!” Sadie yelled at him. “I can do whatever I want on my ranch—if you want to play that game! If I want to invite the whole town, I will!”
Sam was seething. His heart beat all the way into his throat and the throbbing in his temples was almost painful. How had such a pleasant afternoon turned so sour so quickly?
He spun around with a growl and marched out of the barn with long strides.
Sam was so furious in that moment, he was tempted to take his daughter and leave.
Or to pay Hattie a visit and really tell her what he really thought about her meddling.
How was he supposed to prepare for something like this at such short notice?
“Please, Sam! Do it for Ruby’s sake,” Sadie pleaded with him. “I think Ruby would love it! There would be lots of people bringing her lots of gifts and presents, celebrating her…”
Sam suddenly stopped in his tracks. Sadie almost crashed into him from behind.
Sunday. It would fall on October twenty-seventh.
The realization of what that date represented was more painful than anything he’d been prepared for. It almost brought him to his knees.
“There will be no celebration on Sunday,” Sam said firmly but with a croaky voice. It was barely audible, and when Sadie’s face appeared in his field of vision, hesitantly looking up at him, he could barely bring himself to look at her.
“I won’t celebrate the day Elizabeth died.”