The girls giggled at something Jasper said, and Jasper gave him a look that seemed to say What can you do? Silly girls, that was what the whole lot of them were. While he’d been amused by Jasper’s antics and stories, he was about sick to death of the constant prattling about dances and fashions and hats coming from the women. Mary was a much more sensible girl, and while most of their conversation had been about his case, he appreciated that she wasn’t afraid to spar with him. She took him on directly and didn’t hide behind giggles and frantic playing with her fan.
Just then, he caught a glimpse of her looking at him. Those bright eyes were hot enough to melt a man’s soul.
“What’s the story with you and Miss Stone?” Jasper gave him a playful nudge, then walked away from the crowd, indicating he should follow him.
Now, that was a complication he wasn’t sure he could answer fully. “I wish I could tell you. She’s...”
He’d liked to have said that she was just a case, but that would have made him a liar. Why couldn’t Mary have a hooked nose, bad teeth and an equally sour disposition?
“Is it part of a case you’re working on?”
At least in that he could be frank with his old friend. “Yes, but it’s becoming more complicated than that.”
Looming above them was a hillside littered with the remains of trees that had been taken for the mines and town. “Come on. You’re going to love the view.”
They climbed for a while, and Will appreciated the silence amid the scrape of their boots against rock, the occasional heavy breath blown out at the exertion and the twittering of the ladies below.
Will paused to rest. “You realize that we’re putting on an exhibition for them, don’t you?”
Jasper’s only response was a wide grin. He climbed a bit higher, until he’d reached the crest of the hill. It took several more minutes for Will to catch up before they were both seated at the top.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Jasper gestured at the expanse of the valley before them.
At this spot, they could see the sprawl of the town. Some said that nearly thirty thousand people lived there, rivaling the size of Denver. From this vantage point, Will would have to agree. Though the smokestacks from the smelters nearest them billowed thick, dark clouds, Leadville was indeed an impressive sight.
To the south lay some lakes, barely visible from this spot, but Will had seen it from other places along the way. The mountainside east of them was bare save for the skeletal images of mine shaft after mine shaft, the source of the town’s riches.
The contrast of beauty with the booming town and mines reminded Will of Mary. How could someone as wonderful as she get mixed up with someone like Ben?
He looked to the base of the hill, chuckling at the irony of calling something at such a high elevation a hill, and noted that while many of the girls waited at the bottom, not one had ventured up. He scanned the crowd for Mary, but didn’t see her among Jasper’s admirers.
“Don’t worry. They won’t follow. They’re too intent on keeping their dresses fresh.” Jasper’s trademark grin lit up his face. “A man’s got to escape his admirers every once and a while.”
Will couldn’t help his belly laugh. Good old Jasper.
Jasper walked over to a rock and sat on it. “Those women make me crazy. Sure, it’s nice to be so flattered, and my family has more dinner invitations than we know what to do with, but it’d be even nicer to have a real conversation with a person that didn’t involve money.”
The conspiratorial look Jasper gave him was all too familiar.
“And your plan is?”
A hummingbird whizzed by them. The sound of its wings against the air echoed the imaginary whirling of Jasper’s mind.
“Tell me about the case. Let me help.”
Will had been the one to teach Jasper how to fire a gun. To defend himself against others in a fight. Jasper had thrived on the energy of it all. Had he not been his father’s only child and counted on to carry on the family business, Jasper would have followed him into law enforcement, Will was sure.
“Your father would kill me.”
“He doesn’t have to know.”
The smooth tone to Jasper’s voice made Will shake his head. “How many ladies have you kissed with that line?”
Jasper grinned. “Enough to know it works.”
Unfortunately for Jasper, Will was no lady. “Father or no, I can’t have you a part of this.”
“Why?” Jasper jumped down from the rock. “Because you lost your badge? I don’t have a badge, either. That’s what makes this perfect.”
The air whooshed from Will’s lungs. “You knew? But you’ve been so...”
Jasper picked up a rock and chucked it down the hillside as if he was skipping it across a lake. “You had to have been set up. I figure, whatever you’re up to here in Leadville, it’s about clearing your name. And I aim to do what it takes to help you.”
He hadn’t expected such ease of acceptance, not when everyone in Century City treated him like a criminal himself. The breeze picked up, and Will turned to see dark clouds moving in behind them.
“They still want to charge me. Still might, if George Bishop has anything to say about it. The robbers got away with several thousand dollars. He’s out for blood, and if mine’s all he can get, then he’ll take it.”
His friend fell in beside him, his voice taking on a more serious tone. “All the more reason to help you. I know you, Will. There’s not a dishonest bone in your body. You did all you could, and more.”
He wished it were that simple. “You weren’t there. The truth is, I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong person, and because of it, a bank was robbed,
