Shaye looked at his boys and then at the lawman. Finally, he looked around, saw that although the number of diners had thinned out, they were still the center of attention.
Maybe he should have noticed this from the beginning as well.
Shaye had seen the old Tarver place the first time he’d come to Winchester, tracking Dolph Jordan. Sheriff Kennedy had helped him take Jordan in, but before heading back to Texas with his prisoner, Shaye had seen the run-down ranch and thought it was the kind of place he could take Mary and the boys to. Later, once he’d returned to Epitaph, he’d forgotten about the place—until last year. Once he decided that he and the boys should stop carrying stars, he remembered the vacant Tarver ranch outside of Winchester, Wyoming. When he brought the boys here, he became so enamored with the idea of fixing up the old ranch that he hadn’t seen or felt what they did when they first rode into town.
Now, sitting in the cafe with the boys and the sheriff, waiting for the answers to his telegrams, he realized what a mistake he’d made. But maybe it was too late, because if it turned out that Belinda Davis’s baby was Matthew’s, they were going to have to have someplace to bring her and the baby, a home for the child to grow up in, someplace that was not so close to the painful memories of Epitaph.
So much depended on what happened with Belinda Davis—and on whether or not it turned out he was a grandfather.
6
“I’m tired of waitin’,” James said.
Sheriff Kennedy had left them and they had ordered another pot of coffee. They were almost to the bottom of that pot and Shaye was talking about ordering still another.
“I can’t drink any more coffee, Pa,” Thomas said.
“Ah…neither can I,” Shaye admitted. “Okay, let’s pay the check and get out of here.”
Thomas and James stopped on the boardwalk outside the cafe to wait for their father. While they were waiting, they both saw the clerk from the telegraph office crossing the street toward them.
“Hey,” Thomas said as the man started to go by them, “is that the reply for Dan Shaye?”
“Yes, sir,” the man said, “he wanted me to bring it right over to him.”
“That’s okay,” Thomas said, “we’ll take it.”
“But he said—”
“It’s okay,” James said. “We’re his sons.”
“Oh…o-okay.” The clerk handed the telegram to Thomas, turned, and went back across the street.
“You boys ready?” Shaye said, coming out behind them.
Thomas turned to Shaye, holding the telegram.
“You got an answer, Pa.”
Shaye took the yellow piece of paper from his son and unfolded it.
“What’s it say?” James asked.
“Just an answer from Mayor Garnett,” Shaye said. “He says he’ll check on the girl and get back to me later today.”
“Damn,” James said. “So what do we do now?”
“We stay in town and wait.”
“We’re gonna make people nervous, Pa,” Thomas said.
“That’s too bad,” Shaye said, refolding the telegram and putting it in his shirt pocket. “Boys, I’m sorry I’ve been so blind about this town.”
“That’s okay, Pa,” Thomas said. “We know how you feel about the ranch, about wearin’ a badge again.”
“I tell you what we’re going to do,” Shaye said. “Let’s get outfitted to hit the trail.”
“We going to Pearl River Junction?”
“I figure we’re going to have to go, one way or another,” Shaye said. “If she’s not still there, it’s the last place we know she was. Maybe somebody there will be able to tell us where she went. We’ll know better when we hear from Garnett again. Meanwhile, let’s go over to the general store and get some supplies.”
They stepped down from the boardwalk together into the street and started across.
From the window of the sheriff’s office, Deputy Canton watched as the Shayes left the cafe and crossed the street.
“Looks like they got an answer,” he said over his shoulder to Sheriff Kennedy.
“Lyle, get away from the window.”
Canton turned and looked at the sheriff.
“Don’t you think I should follow them, see where they’re goin’?” he asked. “What they’re gonna do?”
“I think you should leave them alone,” Kennedy said. “I think we should all just leave them alone. They haven’t done a thing wrong since they got here.”
Canton gave Kennedy a funny look.
“Look, Lyle,” the sheriff said, sitting back in his chair, “you want to follow them? Be my guest.”
“Really?”
“Don’t talk to them unless they talk to you,” Kennedy instructed. “Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And try not to be obvious, Lyle,” Kennedy said.
“I won’t be,” Canton said, “I promise.”
The eager young deputy was out the door before Kennedy could ask him if he knew what the word “obvious” meant.
7
“What are you lookin’ at?” James asked Thomas.
They were in the general store and Thomas was standing at the front window, looking out.
“The deputy,” Thomas said. “He followed us here. He’s across the street.”
They both turned and looked at their father, who was standing at the counter.
“Think Pa saw him?” James asked.
“If I saw him, Pa saw him,” Thomas said. “Doesn’t matter, I guess. He’s not gonna do anythin’.”
“Think the sheriff sent him?”
“No,” Thomas said. “I think Pa and the sheriff have an understandin’. The deputy’s on his own.”
“You boys lookin’ at the deputy?” Shaye asked, coming over to join them.
“Yeah, Pa,” James said. “You want me to go talk to him?”
“No,” Shaye said, “let him be.”
“Are we finished here, Pa?” Thomas asked.
“They’re holding our order for us,” Shaye said. “Let’s go back to the telegraph office and see if anything else has come in.”
The three of them walked down the street to the office with the deputy behind them.
Mayor Ben Carter opened the door to the sheriff’s office and marched right in.
“Mornin’, Ben,” Kennedy said.
“The Shayes are in town, Adam,” Carter said brusquely. “Have you seen them?”
“Saw them and spoke to them.”
“What do they want?”
“To be left alone, I guess.”
“No, I mean—”
“I know what you mean, Ben,” the lawman said. “Why don’t you sit down? I’ll pour you a cup of coffee.”
“I don’t want to sit down,” the mayor said and then promptly sat down. Kennedy went to the coffeepot,
