Chapter Twenty-Six
Sam was awoken by a soft hand stroking through his long hair. His head shot up from the edge of the bed, where he was sitting next to it on a chair. He had to blink several times to chase away the last remnants of his fitful sleep.
It was still very early, but the sky was already starting to change colors. Pale hues of purple and pink filtered in through the half-open curtains.
“I didn’t mean to startle you,” Sadie said with a soft voice. She smiled at him and Sam could do nothing but stare at the beautiful woman.
“How are you feeling?” he asked, gently lifting up the palms of her hands and ever so carefully pushing the sleeves up her forearms. There were angry red marks all across it. Sam was hurting for her, but Sadie shrugged.
“It’s still a little painful, but it’s not bad. I can handle it,” she reassured him. “When you’ve grown up on a horse ranch, you learn how to deal with pain.”
“You are tougher than most men I know,” Sam replied with a soft smile.
Ruby stirred but didn’t wake up yet. Just like her father, she’d refused to sleep in her own bed the night before.
“How did you find me?” Sadie whispered meekly and not at all strong. Sam could see that she was putting on a brave fa?ade for him.
“I saw Walter’s gelding when we went to the back of the building,” he explained calmly. “That poor horse stands out like a sore thumb with all its whip marks crisscrossing its backside. I instantly knew that you’d be there.”
Sadie nodded with a heavy sigh.
“What’s going to happen now?” she asked tentatively. “I mean with Walter and Briggs. Did you put them both in jail?” Sam nodded.
“John had the authority to do so. He locked them both up—in Briggs’ own office.
I’ll have to ride into town this morning to deliver a statement, then a judge will decide what will happen to them and if there’ll be a trial or not.
But with all the eyewitnesses we have just for what they did to you yesterday, I’m confident that they will be prosecuted just for assault alone.
” Sadie nodded, releasing a relieved sigh.
“Let’s hope that that will be it,” she said. “I’m tired of all the drama and chaos with Walter and all the crimes lately.”
“Me, too,” Sam agreed, gently lifting her hand to his mouth, brushing a soft kiss across her knuckles. The gesture came naturally to him and he didn’t even realize that he was doing it until he saw Sadie’s pink cheeks. He quietly cleared his throat.
“Anyhow,” he said, carefully releasing her hand.
“Hopefully, we can tie Briggs and even your uncle to these crimes somehow. Like the situation with Ellen’s robbery and his supposed survey.
That’s all very suspicious, and maybe there were more incidents like this one.
We’ve contacted all of the local sheriffs in the area to meet up at Sampson’s office.
The more we can get together to work on this, the better it will be.
Apparently, Briggs has a past. Maybe we can use that to our advantage. ”
Sadie still looked very tired.
“Why don’t you sleep some more?” Sam said, brushing a soft brown curl out of her face. “Maybe I can convince Louise to bring you your breakfast to bed?”
Sadie shook her head, but she did snuggle deeper into her pillow.
“I’m fine. I can get up and walk around normally,” she told him. “But maybe I can nap for a bit longer until Ruby wakes me.” Sam smiled at his daughter.
“Then I’ll let you both sleep,” he said, as he quietly got up from his chair and leaned over to give Sadie a little kiss on the forehead.
“Take it easy today. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
” Sam walked over to the window and closed the curtains all the way before he walked out of the room, carefully closing the door behind him.
Leaving them like this today was an entirely different feeling.
For the first time, he wasn’t worried and he cherished it, though he would go and make sure that Daniel was all right, before he’d ride into town to finalize Walter’s and Briggs’ fate.
Sam felt optimistic that things would be taken care of the right way.
***
Southern Bellevue District Court
Four Hours Later
“Do you see this, judge?” Briggs whined, pointing at his nasty black eye. It was almost swollen shut. Sam didn’t want to feel pleased about his handywork, but he did. Especially after what Briggs had done to Sadie.
Sam and several other sheriffs and witnesses sat in the court room, listening to Briggs lamenting his case.
The judge was an older man looking to be in his late fifties with a white beard and piercing gray eyes.
Sam thought that he showed way too much interest in what Briggs and Walter were telling him. There was no neutrality whatsoever.
“I was conducting a normal investigation when that man attacked me!” Briggs exclaimed, pointing his stubby finger directly at Sam. The judge’s head spun around and his harsh gaze landed upon Sam as if he was the culprit.
“I want to file charges against him!” Briggs shouted, and Sam noticed the judge's tiny nod when he heard that. Something wasn’t right here.
“My wife was beaten with a whip!” Sam called out as he jumped off his bench. “There are several witnesses that saw the bruises and injuries on her arms!” The other men sitting on the benches with him made confirming noises.
“Sit down!” the judge yelled at him, grabbing his gavel. “Do not interrupt my hearing!” The judge’s nostrils flared and his eyes almost flashed when he glared at Sam.
Sam’s frustration reached new heights. How could it be that a judge didn’t even recognize the true victim in a crime?
“She committed no crime to be treated that way!” Sam shouted, unwilling to sit back down, even though John next to him tried to pull his arm. “She’s got bruises all over her arms and hands!”
“Order!” the judge yelled, slamming the gavel onto the sounding block. “If you don’t stop interrupting my proceedings, I will remove you from the court room and have you arrested!” he told Sam, pointing the gavel at him.
Sam sat back down, but he was seething. They’d been listening to Briggs and Walter for hours now, but not once had the judge asked about Sadie.
“Since when can a sheriff take it upon themselves to torture innocent residents?” Sam mumbled under his breath, but still loud enough for the judge to hear. “That’s outrageous!”
“Order!” the judge yelled, slamming his gavel onto the sounding block again.
When Sam looked over to where Walter was sitting, Sam saw him smirk. His niece had been injured and he smiled at that? Sam was about to jump across the benches and punch him too.
“I think I’ve heard all the evidence I need,” the judge announced.
“What are you talking about?” Sam yelled, jumping up again. “You haven’t asked any questions about my wife yet!”
“Order!” The gavel went down again. The judge ignored Sam’s outburst and turned to Walter and Briggs.
“Since you were unlawfully detained before your trial, you are both free to go,” the judge said matter-of-factly.
Briggs grinned from ear to ear and Walter clapped his hands together as if he’d won a prize. Sam wanted to scream.
“As for the accusations brought against you, I shall review the reports and we’ll deal with it appropriately during your trials,” the judge said sternly. “I will also take into account your charge against Mr. Brown,” he said with a final hit of his gavel, before he got up and left the room.
Sam was utterly perplexed. He wasn’t at all sure what he’d just witnessed. During his entire career, he’d never seen such a thing before.
What made matters worse was the fact that the other sheriffs he was sitting with showed the same confusion.
Seeing Walter and Briggs leave with smiles on their faces made him furious. His sentiment was shared by most of the others as they slowly filed out of the court room. Out in the hallway, Sam saw Walter stand at the other end of it, threateningly waving his finger at him.
“You won’t get away with it!” Walter yelled over to them, though Sam was fairly certain that Walter was yelling at him.
“That ranch is mine! I won’t allow you to steal it from me!
Once I get my hands on it, I’ll make sure you are kicked out and homeless in the streets!
” Briggs laughed at that. Then, Walter and Briggs both disappeared around a corner.
Sam was speechless. The audacity!
A short while later, when they all got back together for their meeting in John Sampson’s office, the overall mood was dark and not all enthusiastic. The question arose: who this new judge was nobody had seen before.
“We need more information about Briggs,” John said, clearly annoyed. “The way he treated Sadie should have been enough to keep him in jail until his trial.”
“Yeah, he was caught in the act,” another sheriff from a northern district confirmed. “I’ve never heard of a judge letting someone like that go free. What is he thinking? That Briggs will show up for his own trial?” The overall consensus was negative.
“I feel the same way about Walter,” Sam said. “Sadie is his niece, yet he did nothing to prevent Briggs from harming her. That’s sick!”
Everything was like a nightmare Sam couldn’t wake up from.
Having to sit in the office while the men discussed their options, Sam grew more and more restless. That Briggs and Walter were out there gallivanting around town made him nervous.
“I need to go!” Sam finally said, jumping up from his chair. “I need to get back home and watch over my wife and daughter! Who knows what these two will try next?” Everybody agreed. “Please, just keep me posted about whatever you decide.”
John walked him to the door.
“We won’t let this slide,” he assured Sam as he put his hand on Sam’s shoulder. “Briggs is a stain on our profession and he can’t get away with what he’s done to Sadie.”
“Thank you, John,” Sam replied with a grateful nod. “You are a good friend.”
They shook hands, then Sam hurried to get back home.
During his whole ride, his mind was playing tricks on him, as he imagined Sadie and Ruby both gone again. Or worse.
Sam was devastated that the relaxed feeling he’d had just this morning had vanished completely. He pushed Black Shadow as hard as he could. All he could think about was to get back to his family.
Sam couldn’t believe it when he saw Walter’s gelding standing there in front of his house. He jumped off his stallion even before he came to a stand.
Running up the steps to the front door, it suddenly swung open and Sam came face to face with Walter, who was seemingly storming out of the house in that moment.
“I’m leaving! I’m leaving!” Walter yelled, then stopped in his tracks. His eyes widened in shock, then he pushed past Sam to get away, but Sam’s reflex grabbed onto the back of his jacket and pulled him back.
“Let him go,” Daniel said from just inside the foyer.
Quickly assessing the situation, Sam saw Daniel coming after Walter with his rifle firmly placed against his shoulder. He was ready to shoot.
Meanwhile, Walter was surprisingly agile and actually managed to struggle free from Sam’s grip. Spinning around to him, Walter’s eyes glared like flying daggers.
“You!” he said with a menacing expression on his face.
“I can’t wait to kick you out of this house myself!
You have ruined everything since the day you and your spawn arrived at my ranch!
” Sam stepped toward him with a growl. Walter backed away, but still didn’t leave immediately.
Not even as Daniel stepped through the door, pointing the rifle directly at him.
“You will never get your hands on this place!” Sam told Walter through gritted teeth. “This is my home now, so you’ll have to come through me first!”
Walter scoffed at that.
“Oh, really? A washed-up sheriff who can’t even protect his wife from being taken?” he said with a mean grin. Sam stepped toward him, making Walter rush backward down the steps, almost falling on his backside.
Sam knew what Walter was doing, and he fought with everything in him not to fall for that man’s bait and lose his control.
If he did, he couldn’t guarantee that Walter would walk away alive.
What happened to Sadie was not Sam’s fault but theirs—Walter’s and Briggs’.
He wouldn’t allow Walter to twist it around.
“You are useless!” Walter continued to goad Sam. “What good of a husband are you if you can’t even keep a roof over your head? Because this ranch is mine and you will all be homeless when I kick you excuse of a man and the rest of your family out!”
“I won’t let this legacy be stained by a ruthless criminal!” Sam retorted. “Because that’s what you are! A dirty criminal! Now, get off our property!”
Walter’s face crunched up into the angriest scowl. Calling him a criminal seemed to be the one thing that riled Walter up the most. It emboldened him so much that he actually walked up to Sam and put his finger up to his face.
“I would be very careful with what you say to me,” Walter said strangely quietly while baring his teeth at Sam.
“I know extremely powerful people in this town and it wouldn’t cost me anything to have your precious little daughter killed on a whim.
Exactly like your wife.” He spat to the side, then stormed off the porch.
Sam was so in shock, he took too long to process the information.
By the time he realized what he’d just heard, Walter was already on his horse, riding off down the road. Sam wanted to run after him, but after what Sam had witnessed just this morning, he decided not to hunt Walter down just then.
Exactly like your wife…
Did that mean that Walter had ordered the attack? That didn’t make sense, because Sam hadn’t known Walter back then. There was no way that Walter could have been involved with Elizabeth’s murder.
But why did his gut tell him otherwise?