Governor Crounse chuckled. “Indeed you may, my dear.” He watched her as she poured. “I must say, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on.”
Jenny brought the cup of coffee to the governor and handed it to him with a smile. “My goodness, Governor, if you flatter everyone that way, it’s no wonder you got elected.”
“Oh, but I mean it, my dear. I mean every word. You are—”
The door to the private reception room was suddenly thrown open, interrupting the governor’s statement. Four men rushed inside, three had pistols in their hands, and the fourth was carrying a camera.
“Here, what is the meaning of this?” the governor asked angrily. “Do you know who I am?”
“Oh, yes, Governor, we know exactly who you are. Now suppose you just go over there, have a seat on the sofa, and don’t make any trouble.”
“Who are you? What is all this about?”
“If both of you do exactly what we say, no one will be hurt. We just want a picture, that’s all.”
“A picture?” the governor asked, confused by the odd request.
“A picture, yes. Miss,” the armed spokesman said to Jenny. “I want you to take off all your clothes and go sit with the governor. We want a picture of you, naked, beside him.”
“No! That will ruin me!” the governor said.
“I will do no such thing,” Jenny replied indignantly.
“Oh, you will be photographed naked with the governor,” the spokesman said. “Whether you are dead or alive when we take the picture makes no difference to us. The effect will be the same. You can take your clothes off yourself, or I’ll shoot you and we’ll strip your dead body.”
“You had better do what they say, Jenny,” the governor said. “I have a feeling these men have been sent by my political enemies, and I’ve no doubt but that they will do just as they say.”
“Well now, Governor, you are smarter than I thought you were.” The armed intruder grinned.
Frightened, Jenny removed her clothes, then sat on the sofa beside the governor. The photographer took a picture, and a moment later, two of the sheriff’s deputies were brought into the room. Seeing Jenny nude, with the governor, was all they needed to bring a charge of prostitution against her.
Luke was lying on his bunk with his hands laced behind his head, looking up at the ceiling, when Proxmire and another deputy came into the cell area with a young woman.
Proxmire opened the door to the cell next to Luke. “All right, Miss, in there.”
Luke sat up with a start. “Wait a minute! What are you doing? You can’t put a lady in this cell.”
“She ain’t no lady, she’s a whore,” the deputy with Proxmire growled.
“She is a female. And you can’t put women in jail with men. They have to have their own facilities. That is the law.”
“Hah! Since when did you become a lawyer?” Proxmire asked.
“You don’t have to be a lawyer to know that.”
“We ain’t got no cell just for women, so she’s goin’ to have to stay here for a while.” Proxmire closed the door on the cell, locked it, and he and the other deputy returned to the front of the jail.
The woman sat down on her bunk, leaned her elbows on her knees, and dropped her head in her hands.
“I’m sorry about this,” Luke said. “It’s not right, them bringing you in here.”
She looked up at him. “Thank you for speaking up for me.”
“I’m only doing what’s right, Miss McCoy.”
“Have we met?”
“No, we haven’t. But I’ve wanted to meet you for some time now. I just wish it could have been under better circumstances, for both of us.”
“I’m not a whore, by the way.”
“No, ma’am. I know you aren’t.” Luke stuck his hand through the bars that separated their cells. “I’m Luke Shardeen. I own a ranch just north of town.”
Jenny crossed her cell and shook his hand. “Luke Shardeen. Yes, I know who you are. You own Two Crowns. I read about your case in the paper. Everyone I know says that they don’t believe you are guilty.”
“I’m not. Oh, I killed Gates, all right, but he and Sheriff Ferrell were trying to hold me up.”
“What are you doing putting this poor girl in jail?” a woman demanded. “You let her out this very instant, or I will go to the newspaper with the name of everyone who has visited the Social Club in the last six months. Do you understand what I’m saying, Deputy Proxmire? Everyone!”
“I can’t let her out until the judge says I can,” Proxmire replied.
“Really? Would that be the same Judge Briggs who was with,” Adele took a piece of paper from her pocket and started reading from it, “Sandra, Sara Sue, Kate, and Ella Mae?”
“Uh, all right, I’ll let her out. But she has to be present for her hearing tomorrow, and if she ain’t, I’ll hold you responsible.”
“She’ll be there.”
Proxmire returned to the cell area and unlocked Jenny’s cell.
“Looks like you’re getting out,” Luke said. “I’m glad.”
“I hope everything goes well for you, Mr. Shardeen,” Jenny said as Proxmire opened the door. “Good night.”
“Good night.”
Proxmire escorted Jenny to the front. “You just make sure you have her there for the hearing tomorrow,” he demanded as Adele left with Jenny.
“I told you, you had no business bringing her here,” Luke called out after hearing the door closed behind them.
“I don’t need you tellin’ me what is, and what isn’t my business,” Proxmire replied with a low growling snarl.
“Your honor, Jenny McCoy is not a prostitute,” Adele said at the closed hearing the next day.
“Does she, or does she not work for you?” Judge Briggs asked.
“Yes.”
“And do you run a house of prostitution?”
“I run the Colorado Social Club.”
“Which is a whorehouse.”
“I don’t like to think of it in quite those terms.”
“Regardless of how you like to think about it, it is a whorehouse. And if you deny that, I will lock you up for perjury.”
“All right I admit, Your Honor, that I do have, uh, ladies of that profession in my employment. But Mrs. McCoy certainly isn’t one of them. Her only function is that of a hostess, not as a prostitute.”
“But you do employ prostitutes?”
“You know that I do, Your Honor. I might even add that you have, let us say, personal knowledge of that fact.”
Briggs cleared his throat and rapped his gavel on the bench. “I am not the one on trial, Miss Summers. Jenny McCoy is on trial. Unless you want me to extend the charges to you as well.”
“No, Your Honor.”
“Then we will continue the hearing, and you will add nothing except your responses to my questions.”
“Very well, Your Honor.”
“Would you say that Jenny McCoy is a hostess in your establishment?”
“Yes, that is exactly what she is. She is a hostess and nothing more. She is guilty of nothing.”
“That’s where you are wrong, Miss Summers. Mrs. McCoy was soliciting to provide sexual acts for money. Maybe she wasn’t soliciting for herself, but she certainly was for others. And the penalty for solicitation for prostitution is the same as it is for prostitution itself.”
