“But you never liked me,” replied the Judge. “You said this town didn’t need a judge.”
“Not exactly. I don’t care about you one way or another, but a town needs both a Sheriff and a Judge—everybody knows that! Where’s your stuff?”
“In the bushes up the road—if it’s still there, that is.”
“Where’s the rest?”
“That’s it,” he said. “It’s all I own now… But what if I wasn’t here and we never saw each other again?”
“Where else would you be besides in your cabin up here?” she said. “I figured we would run into you sooner or later, and sooner it was.”
“How would you know about the cabin? I’ve never told anyone.”
“Your secretary, the one who wrote all of the checks for your bills for years, including a mortgage payment on the cabin you just told me you didn’t have. Now turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
“Wait, I thought we...”
She pointed to the families staring coldly at the scene in front of them.
“Is this the man?” she asked them.
“Yes, ma’am,” said the little girl. “He’s the one who wouldn’t give us any fish.”
“He shot this man, and I’ll make sure he’s punished for it,” said Kate, wondering if they saw more than that.
She opened the back door of the truck and helped Judge Lowry get inside.
“Ma’am,” asked one of the fathers. “What about the body?”
“Leave it,” she said, as she drove away.
* * * *
“Let’s pick up your stuff, Judge—all of it,” Kate said, driving back up the road.
“When do I get these cuffs off?” he asked.
“When we get to your place, and not a second before… Imagine how happy the townsfolk will be when you and I host a meal for everyone with all the provisions I’m sure you have in there!”
“Take a right on the second dirt road coming up. Then it’s the third cabin on the left. There’s a turnaround just beyond it for the trailer… And just so we’re on the same page, who was the right guy?”
“Not you,” she replied, stopping right in front of his soon-to-be-empty cabin. “I’ll keep your pistol, and you can ride up front,” she told him, taking his handcuffs off and helping him empty his cabin of anything valuable, now belonging to her citizens.
“Go on! Get out of here, loudmouth!” called out his neighbor next door.
“You will be doing me a big favor, Kate, if you put two bullets into his house before we leave.”
“Stick to the plan,” she said, acting put out. But if it were her the neighbor was talking to, she would have emptied an entire magazine in his general direction.
“We’ll need one story, simple and believable, and an election in the next week,” Kate told the Judge. “And one more thing—don’t ever lie to me again!”
* * * * * * *
Chapter Four
Weston, Colorado
Kate pulled straight up to the jailhouse, with three deputies coming out to greet them.
One look into the open driver’s-side window had them confused and reaching for their weapons.
“Easy, boys,” said Kate, telling the Judge to stay in the truck.
“There was a terrible accident,” she said, forcing tears down her cheeks but maintaining the confidence and composure she would need, moving forward. “The Sheriff was fishing when it happened. He took that inflatable tube he always used and went out in the middle of the lake. I was watching him with my binoculars, and he just disappeared—the whole tube. The Judge and I both saw it.”
She paused, thinking the whole thing sounded like a badly thought-out made-up story that was out now, for better or worse.
“We were told by Sheriff Johnson to shoot on site if we saw Judge Lowry in town again,” said the lead deputy.
“I know he said that. We all met this morning, the three of us. It’s why he and I went out to the lake in the first place—to meet with the Judge and see if we could fix the problem and balance this town out again.”
“It was better before all this mess,” the deputy agreed, “but where’s his body?”
“Drowned. He went under and never came back up,” she said with conviction, like a true widow. “So, unless you feel like diving Lake Trinidad, he’ll be buried under water.”
“What about the post—the Sheriff position, I mean, and our jobs? We’ve got a few prisoners here since you left town. Is the Judge going to fire us for bringing him in the other day?”
“Hold the prisoners until I get the whole story and tell your families not to worry. I’ll see to it you all keep your jobs,” she said, almost smiling as the three deputies looked relieved and apparently bought her story hook, line and sinker. “By the way, we will be having an election within the next week for Sheriff; I’m expecting your votes,” she said like a boss, walking out the door. “Let’s get you over to the Courthouse,” she said to Judge Lowry.
“Did they buy the story?” he asked, not sure they would.
“Like a house on fire,” she said, smiling for the first time today.
“What about James?” asked the Judge.
“It doesn’t matter. After the election, he works for me,” she said.
“And me?” he asked.
