“The letter?”
“The letter Bobby Lee had me send,” Minnie explained. “I saw it. It is in the middle drawer of the sheriff’s desk. I read it too, and it is exactly the way Bobby Lee told us. The letter tells what day, what time, and where the train was to be robbed. And in the letter, he asks the sheriff to be waiting in the express car with his deputies.”
“Lord, Minnie, you weren’t prowling around in Wallace’s desk, were you? What if he had caught you?”
“I wasn’t exactly prowling,” Minnie said. “The sheriff got called away for a moment and he left the middle drawer of his desk open. I saw the letter in the drawer so, while he was gone, I read it.”
Nabors hit his fist in his hand. “I knew he was lying,” he said. “He stood right up there in court, under oath, and swore that he had never received that letter. I knew then, he was lying.”
“What do we do with it now?” Minnie asked.
“Do with it? Minnie, you didn’t take it from his desk, did you?”
“No,” Minnie said. “I thought about it, but what good would that have done? That wouldn’t prove that he had ever gotten it.”
“You’re right,” Nabors said. He sighed. “This is frustrating. We now know for sure that he got the letter, but how are we going to prove it?”
“We’ve got to arrange for someone else to see the letter, someone the judge will trust. But I don’t have any idea who that might be.”
“I have an idea who it could be,” Nabors said.
“Who?”
“Marvin Cutler.”
“The newspaper editor?” Minnie replied. “Are you serious? You read his articles. He has it in for Bobby Lee.”
“No he doesn’t,” Nabors said. “Not really. Like I said before, he is just a newspaperman. Why, he would jump at the chance to do a story like this, and the very fact that his previous stories seemed to be against Bobby Lee would just make him that much more credible. Yes, sir, if we can arrange for Marvin to see that letter, there is no doubt in my mind but that the judge will listen to him, and believe him.”
“If there really is a letter, then yes, I would do the story,” the newspaperman said. “As a member of the noble profession of the press, it is my duty to see to it that truth is told and justice prevails.”
Doc Baker laughed. “You aren’t running for office, Marvin,” he said. “All we want to know is, will you do the story?”
“Yes. It would be a great story,” Cutler replied. “And it might give me the opportunity to undo what damage I may have done by being so quick to judge.”
“Good. Then all we have to do is give you the letter,” Nabors said.
Cutler shook his head. “No,” he said. “I can’t take the letter from you.”
“Why not? How else are you going to write about it, if you don’t see the letter?”
“I have to see the letter in the sheriff’s possession,” Cutler said. “Otherwise, there would be no proof that it wasn’t a plant.”
“Are you accusing us of trying to plant evidence?” Doc Baker asked sternly.
Cutler held up his hand, palm out. “Heavens, no, my dear fellow,” he said. “I am merely saying that, for the integrity of the story, I must personally see that the letter is in the sheriff’s hands.”
“How are you going to do that?” Minnie asked.
“Did you say you saw it in the middle drawer of his desk?”
“Yes.”
“Then, somehow, I am going to have to get it from his desk.”
“Do you have any idea how you are going to do that?” Nabors asked.
“Nothing comes to mind.”
“Perhaps we can arrange a diversion,” Doc Baker said. “Something that will pull the sheriff and his deputies away from the jail.”
“Yes,” Cutler said. “Yes, that would be a very good idea.”
“You go on back to your office,” Doc Baker said. “Let the three of us put our heads together. I’m sure we will come up with something.”
“Very well. Get word to me when you have an idea,” Cutler said. Standing, he started toward the door, but Minnie called out to him.
“Mr. Cutler?”
“Yes?”
“Where did you get that story about the two new riverboats in St. Louis?”
“What story is that, my dear?”
The newspaper was still lying on the table, and Minnie showed him the story.
“Oh,” Cutler said. He smiled proudly. “My dear, disabuse yourself of any idea that because we are in a remote part of the United States that we are unable to report on the latest news from anywhere in the world. I’ll have you
