'I should help you,' d Tess said.
'Will you please go type! We can handle this,' Kristin said.
Tess nodded and walked to her desk and typewriter. She dusted fragments
of glass from her chair and blew it from her papers and rolled a blank
sheet into her typewriter. She stared at it for just one second, then
her fingers began to fly. She had a lot to say. A hell of a lot. Time
moved quickly.
Kristin and Shannon moved around the room competently, and their
presence didn't disturb Tess in the least. She was just getting to the
part where Jeremiah and David had admitted their involvement with yon
Heusen when she heard a shout in the street.
The three of them froze. The shout came again. 'Tess! Tess Stuart! We
know you're in there! And you're under arrest.'
'Under arrest!' Tess gasped.
Then she heard Jamie respond from beyond the window, his voice harsh and
firm as he met the threat.
'It's the sheriff, I think!' Shannon said, peeking around a broken
window.
Tess joined her beside the window, and nodded. 'She's under arrest for
what?' Jamie demanded.
'Slander and murder.'
'Murder!'
'She killed two of Mr. von Heusen's men. She tricked them out into the
open fields. I've witnesses to that effect.
Then she shot them down cold.'
Jamie let loose with a flaming oath. Then he was striding out to meet
the sheriff face to face. Tess gripped the window frame.
'This is bull, and you know it. Von Heusen set you up to this. You're
just a hired gun, like any other of his thugs.'
'You shut your mouth, Slater. You're under arrest, too.'
'For what?'
'Conspiracy to commit murder.'
'Well, I'll tell you what, Sheriff, you just try to take me in .' ' Tess
was never quite sure what propelled her, but before anyone could stop
her, she was racing out to the street, streaking toward Jamie. She
caught his arm and faced the sheriff, furious.
'Don't you even think it! Don't you even try to drag him down into the
mud and mire that you've created with von Heusen! Arrest me if you want
to so damn badly' -- 'Tess, damn you!' Jamie swore, swinging her around
behind him.
'What the hell are you doing out here? I told you' -- 'Slater, shut up,'
came a new voice.
It was von Heusen. He came striding out from the saloon, his pale eyes
shimmering with hatred, his white hair touched by the breeze.
'Miss. Stuart,' he said, addressing Tess, 'you are ever valiant. But I
can't wait to hang this Reb. I just can't wait.'
'You aren't ever going to hang me, yon Heusen,' Jamie said.
'And you aren't ever going to have that property for the railroad.'
Von Heusen's brows shot up.
'So you know. You're quite a detective.'
