The Shining Badge (26 page)

“It’s a lie.”

Greenberg waited for her to go on, and when she did not, he snapped, “Well, you have to say more than that!”

“I don’t argue with liars, Mr. Greenberg. If you want the facts, read the report. My clerk will give it to you.”

Greenberg began to fire questions at her, and Jenny answered them. Finally he said, “Whatever made you think you could be a sheriff anyway? Women weren’t made to do things like that. Why don’t you get a husband? Be like the rest of these southern women—stay barefoot and pregnant.”

Jenny angrily rose up. “I’ll show you the door.”

“Wait a minute—”

Jenny reached down and got the man’s arm and pulled him to his feet. He was a very small man, and she saw his face flush with anger. Turning him around, she gave him a slight push and said, “Do you need help getting through that door?”

Greenberg began to shout, and at that moment Billy Moon appeared. “You need some help, Sheriff?”

“Show Mr. Greenberg out, Billy.”

“Right this way, Mr. Greenberg.” Billy reached out and clamped his meat hook of a hand on Greenberg’s arm. He turned and towed the reporter away, and when Greenberg started shouting invectives, he simply increased the pressure on his arm.

“Ow, you’re breaking my arm!”

“I know it’s hard for you Yankees to be polite, but I’d
suggest you lower your voice or I’ll break more than your arm.” He gave the arm an extra few pounds of pressure, and Greenberg turned pale and began to whimper. “You’re hurting me!”

Billy ignored this. He took him to the door, opened it, and pushed him out, closing it behind him.

“Nice fellow,” Ruby said. “You’re going to get a bad story in his paper.”

“I doubt if many people read that.”

“Well, if you want some bad news, I just got word that the budget’s been slashed again. The county commission had an uncalled meeting. That means they just got together, drank whiskey, and made decisions.”

“What grounds did they have for slashing the budget?”

“They said you’re not making any headway against the bootleggers.”

Jenny sadly looked down. “Well, there’s some truth to that.”

“You haven’t been in office very long. It’ll come.”

Jenny shook her head and made no answer. She said nothing for the rest of the day, except for remarks about official business, and at noon Luke Dixon came by. He took one look at her and said, “Come on, birthday girl, let me buy you lunch.”

“I’m not hungry, Luke.”

“Well, you can listen to me eat, then.”

Jenny could not help but smile. “All right. I’ll do that.”

The two went to the Elite Café and sat down, and Jenny found out that she was hungry after all. “I can’t eat much,” she said. “Clay and his daughter are coming over for supper tonight. Missouri and Hannah will fix enough for an army. Why don’t you come too, Luke?”

“Can’t do it. I’m going out of town. Going to the capital.”

“What for?”

“Meeting with the feds. See what’s being done to eliminate
the export of moonshine from our fair state. Maybe it will be helpful to you.”

“I’m about to give up. It seems like I’m getting nowhere.”

Dixon put his hand on her arm. “You know what? The sun came up again this morning.”

Jennifer was surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I was shocked. I took one look at it and said, ‘You son of a gun, you did it again!’ ”

“You’re crazy, Luke. The sun comes up every morning.”

“That’s right, and you’ve got a whole new day tomorrow that hasn’t been touched yet.”

“You’re trying to cheer me up, aren’t you?”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.” Luke talked for some time, and finally he said, “You know, Jenny, bad things happen to everybody. They happen to me, but I go back and try to think of some good things that God’s done for me.”

“I’m sure that you’re better off.”

Dixon sipped his coffee, then shook his head. “They say we’re made of ninety-five percent water. It seems like we’d slosh when we walk, but that’s wrong. I think we’re ninety-five percent memories.”

Jenny listened to Luke for another fifteen minutes and finally smiled. “You’re good for what ails me, Luke, but really the problem won’t go away. I’ve about decided to resign.”

Luke stared at her with alarm. “You can’t do that, Jenny!”

“I think it’d be better for everyone.”

“Better for Judge Hightower and for his cronies. Better for the bootleggers. But the people that elected you—would it be better for them?”

“But I’m not doing any good.”

“Promise me this,” Luke said earnestly. “Don’t do anything hastily.”

“All right. I won’t. Thanks for the lunch.”

“Anytime.” Luke took her hand. He held it for a moment, squeezing it slightly, then smiled. “You’re on a low limb right now, but it’ll get better.”

****

“That was a fine supper, wasn’t it?” Clay said. He had come over with Jamie, and the birthday supper had been outstanding. There wasn’t much money for presents, but from her family there was a beautifully decorated chocolate cake and a matching muff and hat. Clay had given her a hand-carved nameplate for her desk, and Jamie had drawn a special birthday picture.

Afterward, Clay and Jenny had gone out to sit on the front porch, while Kat was inside playing house with Jamie. The crickets made a symphony circling the house, and overhead the full moon beamed down with silver rays. Jenny had said little during the meal, but now she knew she had to talk. “Clay, I’m thinking about resigning.”

Clay did not answer for a time, and she finally asked rather sharply, “Did you hear what I said?”

“I don’t think you mean that.”

“But, Clay, I can’t do it!”

“You’re doing a good job. You’re new is all.”

Jenny was feeling rather sorry for herself. From time to time she fell into this mood, and she knew it and hated herself for it. It was a defensive mechanism, and finally she began saying angrily, “It’s easy enough for you to talk! All you do is stay in the house and take care of one little girl! Anybody could do that! But this job is hard.”

“It’s not as hard as my job.” He turned suddenly to face her and seized the edge of her chair and swung it around. “Listen to me. You can’t quit.” There was a hard edge to his voice, like a bell clanging out a deadly tiding, and Jenny could not move. She had never seen him like this. There was something almost dangerous about him. It was not that she was afraid for herself, but she saw that he was a man who could not be ignored. She listened as he told her almost roughly how she had a chance to do something good, and finally he said, “You
told me once you thought God had put you in this. Have you asked Him about resigning?”

Instantly, Jenny lowered her head. “No, I haven’t,” she whispered.

“If He put you on the job, I think you’d better stay there. I don’t know much about God myself, but I know if He gave me something to do, I’d stick with it until I couldn’t move.”

Jenny did not speak for a moment, and then finally she said, “Clay, I feel so helpless. You know all about this kind of thing. Will you help me? Will you put on a uniform and a badge?”

Clay hesitated, then shook his head. “No, I won’t. My first priority is Jamie. I can’t do both.”

Jenny got up. She felt angry, and she did not know if it was at herself or at Clay Varek. “Good night, Clay,” she said frostily. Turning, she went into the house and went straight up to her room. Varek stood on the porch, and for a moment he was tempted to call her back. But then he settled back and shook his head, his jaw clenched. “I’ve got all I can do to take care of Jamie. That’s all there is to it.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Kat Has Her Say

The sun was high in the sky as Kat moved along the dusty road headed for home. In her left hand she carried an old flour sack bulging with crawdads, and, from time to time, she would pause, set the sack down, and glance inside.

“Oh, you’re gonna be good eatin’!” Reaching inside, she picked up a large crawdad, more than four inches long, and held it by its hard shell. She put her forefinger carefully in front of him, and when he pinched her, she squealed and jerked away. “You’re gonna be good eatin’ tonight, so just make up your mind to that.” Dropping the crustacean back into the bag, she tied a knot in the top and began to sing as she approached the house:

The song pleased her, and she sang it again as she skirted the side of the house and went around to the kitchen, where she found Hannah peeling potatoes on the back porch.

“Look what I got, Hannah.” Untying the sack, she went over and pulled it open. “Ain’t they fine?”

“Don’t say
ain’t.
Kat, your grammar has gotten terrible since we moved here.” Hannah looked down at the crawdads, and then her mouth puckered as if she had bit into a green persimmon. “I don’t see how anybody eats those nasty things!”

“Well, the way Clint fixes them, they’re good,” Kat said. “He calls it crawfish
étouffée.
”

“Well, you and Clint will have to settle that. I’m not cooking a bunch of bugs.”

“Okay. Me and Clint will do it.” Turning, Kat left the porch, and going out to the spring house, she dumped the crawdads in a large bucket and poured some water in. “That’ll keep you fresh,” she said, nodding with satisfaction. “But I’m eatin’ you for supper tonight and that’s all she wrote.”

She heard voices coming from the barn and knew that it was Jenny and her father. Kat had no scruples against eavesdropping, so she stepped up next to the barn and put her ear to the large crack between the boards to hear more easily. Jenny was upset. Kat could tell by the sound of her voice.

“I just can’t do it any longer, Dad. I just can’t!”

“I know it’s hard, Jenny, but you knew it would be.”

“I didn’t know it would be
this
hard.”

“You’re just upset about losing Kermit.”

“Well, I am, but it’s more than that.”

A silence followed for a moment, and then Kat heard her father say softly, “I know how tough it’s been, but I’ve been so proud of you, daughter.”

“Oh, Dad, I haven’t really done anything except to get a man killed.”

“You didn’t get him killed. He was killed doing his duty, and that’s something any officer faces. Why, you face it yourself, Jenny.”

“It’s different when it’s somebody else.”

“I remember during the war. We had an officer, a lieutenant, named Jamison. He had all kinds of courage himself, but he just couldn’t order men to go in under fire. He finally had to be replaced. I think they made a clerk of him in the quartermaster department. He wasn’t afraid of risking his own life, but he just couldn’t do it to others.”

“That’s exactly the way I feel, Dad, and I know you’re going to say that I ought to keep on. You never wanted me to quit at anything.”

Kat remained absolutely silent listening as her father and Jenny spoke. She had been aware for some time that Jenny was acting strangely. Kat herself had thought it would be wonderful to be able to wear a uniform and a gun and drive around in a police car and make people do what you wanted. Now, however, she was seeing a side of Jenny she had not known existed. Jenny had always put up such a tough front that Kat had never suspected she had these fears, but as the conversation went on, she began to see that her sister was actually afraid and this disturbed her.

“If only I had someone I could really
trust,
Dad!”

“You’ve got Billy Moon.”

“Yes, and Billy’s great, but he’s only one man. You know what I think?”

“What’s that, Jenny?”

“If Clay would help I think I’d be all right. He’s been on a big-time Chicago police force. He doesn’t talk about it much, but I know he was a good policeman. When we went to pick up the votes during the election, there were some hard people there, but they just backed down when Clay stepped up.”

“You talked to him about coming on as a deputy?”

“Yes, I have, but he says it’s all he can do to take care of Jamie.”

“I suppose that is a big job.”

Kat heard no more, for she picked up her bucket of crawdads and tiptoed away, making as little sound as possible.
Stashing the bucket in the shade of the house, she trotted out of the yard, and as soon as she was out of sight of the house, she said aloud, “Well, Jenny needs help, and Clay is the one who can do it!”

****

Clay stepped through the gate inside the fenced coop he had built to keep the chickens in and looked over his small flock. They were not a very attractive bunch, for he had picked up odds and ends of different kinds. Some of the birds were white, others were black, and some were speckled. They clucked and gathered around him as he tossed some feed out and watched as they scrambled around clucking noisily. “Eat up! For one of you this is your last meal on the earth. Got to have supper tonight and fried chicken is
it.
”

His attention was captured when he heard someone call his name, and he turned to see Kat Winslow trotting up to the house. She was wearing a pair of faded overalls with patches on the knees and was barefooted. A battered straw hat perched on her head rather precariously, and her tawny hair fell over her forehead when she yanked it off and came to stand before him. She had gray eyes that were almost green at times but now seemed almost blue. “Hello, Kat. What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you, Clay.”

“That sounds serious.”

“It is, but you go ahead and finish what you’re doing.”

Clay turned and glanced at the chickens. “It’s a matter of life and death, Kat. Jamie and I are going to have chicken tonight, and I’m wondering which one of these to pick.”