“He’s right, Dan,” Elijah said, backing him up.
“No. He’s wrong. You both are. Now I appreciate your help. I do. But there is still a process involved in law. People have rights. They are innocent until proven guilty. If we had taken the same approach before the event, we would have been crucified for making a leap of judgment and saying it was this man without evidence. I need evidence.”
“You have evidence. A hundred years of it!” Benjamin yelled. “This event has been a godsend for them as now they can take back whatever they want without anyone stopping them. Hell, they even have you protecting them. Man, it doesn’t get much easier than that. But let me tell you something, sheriff. You go dragging that man before a judge and he walks, people in this town are liable to burn this station to the ground. They don’t give a shit which tribe did it. All they see is you taking no action.”
“I am taking action. In fact, I have a good mind to arrest your man.”
“For what?”
“Murder. I heard what Paco said. That one of his people was killed in cold blood by one of yours.”
“Really? Or maybe that was because they were trying to resist arrest.”
“I’ve told you.” Dan waved a finger at him. “The militia are not the ones responsible for arresting anyone. That is what our deputies are here to do. You work with us.”
“Most of your deputies and the local police are gone. And I imagine in a week or two, even more will have left. Then what will you do? Let me guess, deputize us? Give us badges? Then swear us in and give us permission to do your job? You’re a moron. Did you bag this asshole? No. My guys did.”
“All right. All right. Let’s take a step back, shall we?” Elijah said.
Elijah could see this was spiraling out of control real fast. The only way this worked was if they didn’t lose their cool. The last thing they needed was to be pushed out from the position they’d obtained. At some point, they would step over the line and do as they pleased but until then it required tact, timing, picking their fights and this was not one of them. “We are on the same team. I can respect what you are saying, sheriff, I can, but you need to understand that we are the ones putting our necks on the line every time we go out there. We can’t wait around for your guys to show up. This occurred in Redway. Here in Eureka, it might have been a different story. Now I don’t know what happened out there on that road. But I do know that while there is a dead Native American out there, there are also three of our men that haven’t returned home. So you’ll have to forgive the captain for the outburst as the men mean a lot to him.”
“As do mine,” Wilder said.
“Good.”
“However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that this event should have never occurred. Until we have determined which tribe, if there even is a tribe responsible, we cannot…”
“Oh, there you go again,” Benjamin said as he poured out hot water into his cup. “Honestly, do you think locals, gangs, looters would do this? C’mon, sheriff, you can’t be so naïve. Do you even know why they scalped people in the past? Huh?”
“I don’t give a damn.”
“Well, you should if you want to investigate this. Which is laughable because it’s not like they are going to admit to it. So what kind of evidence do you need to determine this? Catching them in the act? A witness? What do you need?”
Dan rose from his desk and went over to the window to look out at the commotion down below. He said nothing but it was clear he was chewing it over. “And if you were to handle this matter. How would you go about it?”
And there it was. The sheriff was looking for a way out. A plausible means of making this all go away. Benjamin eyed Elijah and a smile flickered on his face.
“Well, we would bring the matter to the people. Let them decide what his fate should be. But I think you know what that is.”
“So you murder him. He’s only one of many. Was it him? No. Yes. Maybe. What next? A firing squad? Gallows? What is this, the 1800s?” Wilder turned and looked at them. “That is vigilante justice. This is how lynch mobs take over. Not how a police department in modern times operates. I will not allow that to happen. As long as I’m sheriff, we will conduct ourselves in a manner that upholds the rule of innocent until proven guilty.”
“That’s not in the Constitution.”
“No, it’s not. Not explicitly, but the presumption of innocence of a person accused of a crime has been held up and falls in line with the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments.” He stabbed a finger at the floor and glared. “Captain, if you are going to come into my office and question law and order, you damn well better believe I will question what you know about the amendments. Because if I remember rightly, the first day you stepped into this office you said you weren’t here to step on anyone’s toes, and that your militia existed to uphold the principles of the elected, and defend the rights and protections of citizens defined by the founding fathers in the U.S. Constitution. Well, Paco has rights, and if you won’t defend them, I will.”
He glared at them both, making it clear he wasn’t going to make this easy.
“This is not over. Not
