Dorothy Garlock (11 page)

“Sorry. I forget that your legs aren't as long as mine.” Thad stopped and put his arms around her. She leaned against him, welcomed his strength and wound her arms around him. He was so dearly familiar. She felt safe and protected in his arms.

“Hey, now. Am I such an ugly fellow, that it takes something like this to get the prettiest girl in town to put her arms around me? ”

“Stop teasing, Thad Taylor.” Jill buried her face in the curve of his neck.

“I'm not teasin 'about some of it.”

“Just give me a minute.”

“Darlin', take all the time you want.”

“Oh, you! ”She pulled away to look up at him, expecting to see a teasing grin on his face, but it was cold sober. “I'm all right now.”

Back at the hotel, he stopped at the steps leading to the porch. With his hands on her shoulders he looked down into her face.

“Stay in the lobby with Elmer and his wife. I'll go down and talk to the sheriff and be back as soon as I know something.”

“Thad, it's so… awful. She was murdered, wasn't she? ”

“We don't know that, honey. But I don't think that what we saw came from a graveyard.”

“You'll come back? ”

“As soon as I can. Go on in. Don't say anything to anyone until we find out more about it.” He hugged her to him, then held her away so that he could look into her face. “I hate to leave you, but I'd better go on down to the jail and tell the sheriff.”

“I'll be all right. Go and do what you have to do.”

“That's my girl.” He framed her face with his hands, placed a brotherly kiss on her forehead, then gently pushed her up the steps and onto the porch.

Thad waited until Jill was inside the lobby before he headed down the street toward the town jail, where he expected to find the sheriff, or a deputy. The dog trailed along behind him.

Ira Page was a man who took his job seriously. Being sheriff of Rainwater County was not an easy assignment, although on this Sunday night it was relatively quiet. His jail consisted of three cells that usually held three or four prisoners each. Tonight, two of the cells held two men each. All four men had been drunk and rowdy and would be released in the morning. In the third cell was a knife-wielding half-breed Cherokee Indian with scars on his face from numerous barroom brawls. He had cut the thumb off a cardplayer he thought was cheating him.

The Cherokee was a dangerous man with a fondness for knives and was quite proficient with them. He was back in the cell block ranting and bragging about being a friend of Charles Floyd, the notorious outlaw more commonly known as Pretty Boy.

If true, the prisoner's friendship with Pretty Boy didn't impress Page. A short, thick-chested man with iron-gray hair, the sheriff observed the letter of the law. If his brother had been brawling in the pool hall, he'd be in jail. His dear old mother would be in jail if she had sliced off a man's thumb on the mere suspicion that he was cheating during a card game.

Page closed the door to the cell block to shut out, to a degree, the racket made by the prisoner and seated himself behind his desk. With his booted feet propped on the corner, his hat pulled low over his forehead, he dozed. That was the way Thad found him when he opened the door and came into the office.

The only move Sheriff Page made was to tilt his head slightly and silently eye the big, dark-haired man who filled the doorway.

“Are you the sheriff? ”

“The badge says so. Who're you? ”

“Thad Taylor. I'm helping out at the hotel.”

“Hadn't heard Justine had took on anybody since she brought in that little gal from Missouri to help run things. What's on your mind? If it's not important, hold it till morning. I need a nap.”

“I'd consider this more important than a nap.” Thad's voice was tight.

“Well, spill it.”

“Mrs. Byers's niece and I were walking out south of town. About halfway between town and that first pumping well, my dog — she isn't really mine, just a stray that got attached to me because I fed her — came back from up the road with something in her mouth. It was part of a human arm with a hand on the end of it. From the look of it, I'd say it was a woman's hand.”

“The hell you say! ”The sheriff's feet hit the floor.

“It had been chewed on a bit, but it looked to me like the bone had been sawed. It wasn't a jagged break.”

“Where is it? ”

“Beside the road, right where the dog dropped it.”

“How long ago? ”

“Came here from there after I took Miss Jones to the hotel.”

“Have you told this to anyone? ”

“Not a soul. I told Miss Jones not to say anything.”

“Good. Something like this could cause a stampede of curiosity seekers out there.” He picked up the telephone. “Clara, get me Deputy Franklin.” After a minute, he said, “Hello, Gus. How long will it take for you to get over here? No, there's no emergency. I just need to do something. All right. Five minutes.” The sheriff hung up the phone and took his gun belt from a peg on the wall behind the desk. “Anything that's said on that phone is all over town before you can say doodle-dee-squat, ”he warned as he strapped on the belt.

“I know. That's why I didn't phone.”

“Glad you didn't. Where're you from, Taylor? ”

“Missouri originally. Been working down near Tulsa.”

“You working for anyone up here? ”

“Not yet. Haven't been here but a couple of days.”

“What brought you here? ”

“You're asking a lot of questions, Sheriff.”

“I don't know you, mister. I need to know who I'm dealing with.”

“You'll not be dealing with me on anything after I show you what the dog found. But as long as you asked, I'll tell you what brought me to Rainwater. My family and the Jones family live side by side back in Missouri. At her father's request, I came here to make sure Jill Jones had arrived safely and settled in with her aunt. Her brother will be along in a day or two.”

“Good assignment, if you ask me. I've seen the young miss. She's pretty as a covey of quail.”

“Yes, she is. She's shaken up over what we saw.”

The sheriff took a gas lantern and a powerful battery-powered flashlight from a closet.

“That the dog outside the door? ”

“That's her.”

“We'll take her with us. Here's Gus.”

The young deputy wasn't very tall but was powerfully built. His features were heavy and coarse, but large blue eyes softened the bluntness of his face. He wore a red bandanna about his neck, a black Stetson hat and cowboy boots.

“What's up, Ira? ”The deputy eyed Thad.

“Probably nothing. If that fellow back there gives you any trouble, throw a bucket of water on him.” The sheriff went out the door and Thad followed.

After several attempts to coax the dog into the touring car parked behind the jail, Thad picked her up, got into the backseat and held her between his spread knees. The sheriff took the dark back streets to the edge of town, then turned on the road going south.

“Tell me when to stop, ”he called back to Thad.

Thad looked back to judge the distance from town. “Stop here, ”he said a little later. “The dog and I will walk.”

The car's headlights forged a path in the darkness. Fertile ran on ahead, happy to be out of the car. Thad trotted along behind her, sure she would head for what she considered a tasty meal. He was right, and he grabbed the hair on the back of her neck before she could pick it up. He held her and waited for the sheriff to stop the car and get out.

Leaving the motor running and the lights on, Sheriff Page came with the flashlight to squat down for a close look at what was lying on the ground.

“Hell and damnation! ”He picked up a small stick and turned the hand over. “Mother of Christ! Looks like someone cut the arm off with a handsaw. But I won't know for sure until the doc sees it.”

“I hope you have something to wrap it in. I'm sure as hell not going to carry it back.”

The sheriff went to the car and returned with a newspaper and the gas lantern. With a stick he rolled the hand over onto the paper and wrapped it up.

“Now let's see if we can find the rest of her.”

Thad released the dog and trailed along behind her with the lantern. The sheriff followed in the car. A hundred yards from where they had picked up the hand, Fertile, roaming a dozen feet back from the hard-packed road, began digging in a sand dune. When a bare foot emerged, Thad held her back.

“Here, ”he shouted. “Bring a shovel.”

Thirty minutes later, they had uncovered two legs, both cut off at the knee and again at the upper thigh, one forearm with a hand attached, two upper arms and a woman's naked torso, the breasts removed. Swallowing repeatedly in an attempt to keep from emptying the contents of their stomachs, the two sweating men, one digging with the shovel, the other with a piece of tin from the sheriff's car, dug until the mound was leveled.

All the body parts were accounted for, with the exception of the woman's breasts and her head.

“Dear God! What kind of a man would do this? ”Shaken, the sheriff turned his back on the eerie scene. The body parts laid out in the lamplight were such a gory sight that Thad, no longer able to control his heaving stomach, went a distance away and threw up.

“I've no experience in this sort of thing, Sheriff. I just couldn't hold it a minute longer.”

“Can't blame you, son. I thank you for the help.” Sheriff Page picked up the small spade they had been using. “I've seen a lot of dead bodies during my twenty years as a lawman, but nothing like this.”

“How long do you think she's been here? ”

“Not long. Another day and the smell would be a lot worse. I've got to go back to town and get the doc and the hearse. I need you to stay here until I get back.”

“It isn't something I want to do, but I see the need for it.”

“I'll be back as soon as I can. Turn off the lamp. I'll leave you the flashlight. We don't want a carload of drunks stopping to see what's going on. I'll honk the horn a couple of times before I get here and you can flash the light.”

Thad watched the sheriff back the car into the ditch, turn around and head for town. He welcomed the darkness. It had seemed obscene to him to expose the poor naked body to the light from the lantern. With the dog close to him, he moved back from the road and watched the car's taillight disappear.

There was something evil in this town, or if not in town, close by. A man who would do such a thing to a woman had to be crazy mean. The remains Thad was guarding were those of a young woman, somewhere near Jill's age. It would take a monster, totally without human feelings, to use a saw and cut up a woman. Somewhere nearby there was probably a bloody mess and the missing head.

Thad looked toward town. As soon as the sheriff returned, he'd hotfoot it back to the hotel and stick close to Jill, Radna and Justine until the sick son-of-a-bitch who murdered the woman was found. When Joe got here, maybe he could persuade Jill to go back home. It was unlikely, though, that the stubborn little cuss would leave her aunt. Which meant that he would be staying here with her. Which also meant that he'd have to do something to earn some money. He didn't want his living expenses to eat up the money he had saved to buy the land he and Joe had their eyes on.

Who would have thought the skinny little spitfire he had teased all her life would grow up to be such a beauty? He had had the socks knocked nearly off him when he saw her on that street corner, fists flying, spitting like a cornered cat. Four, maybe five years ago, she had been just a cute kid, always full of sass. That was why it had been so much fun to tease her.

She was no longer a kid. Being with her seemed to knock his common sense out of kilter. Hellfire! He didn't know how to act around her. Treating her like the kid he used to know back in Missouri didn't work. He'd said things to her that he was ashamed of now.

Jill was a Jones, with the Joneses 'work ethic, grit and honesty. The incident in the woods when she was fifteen had been a shock to her, as it had been to all of them, but she had bounced back to near normal within a few weeks. Since that time he'd had a protective feeling toward her as he would have had for a kid sister and had been worried about her when they heard she was here in this hell-raising town.

Keeping his mind on Jill so he wouldn't think of the pitiful pile of human flesh behind him, Thad wondered what Jill would have done if he had kissed her tonight. It sure as hell wouldn't have been a brotherly kiss. What he was feeling for her wasn't brotherly at all. It was what a man feels when he likes a woman, a lot.

Without being aware of it, a smile spread across his lips just thinking about how surprised she'd have been. When it happened, and he was sure it would, he'd have to guard his shins. She knew where to kick so that it would hurt. She was all woman! Thad's insides felt warm and melting just thinking about kissing her. Christ Almighty! His heart was thumping and goose bumps were climbing up his arm.

Headlights appeared down the road. Thad got up and, holding on to the dog, moved back from the road until the car had passed. He had no way of measuring time. It seemed hours since the sheriff had left. The night suddenly was terribly dark. A rain cloud was forming in the southwest. It was eerie sitting out here on the prairie alone with a corpse.

When two sets of car lights appeared on the road, Thad got to his feet. He had no guarantee it was the sheriff's car. God, he hoped it was. He sure didn't want to have to explain to a carload of roustabouts why he was a mile from town with the cut-up body of a woman. Drunk, they might hang him and ask questions later.

The lead car slowed as it approached and tooted the horn. When Thad was sure it was the sheriff, he stepped out and signaled with the flashlight. The other car, a long dark hearse, pulled up behind the sheriff. Thad was introduced to the doctor, a stooped old man with gray hair who was also the coroner, and to the undertaker, who was the owner of the funeral parlor and furniture store.

“Unless you want me to stay, Sheriff, I'm heading back to town.”

“We shouldn't be too long here if you want to wait for a ride.”

“Thanks, but I need a walk to clear my head.”