Forty Dead Men Page 10

  Gee Dub was unsure how to react. “That isn’t justice, Ma.”

  “I don’t care about justice. I care about you.”

  He blinked, taken aback by Alafair’s extraordinary statement. “I don’t know what scares me more…that I might hang or that my own ma doesn’t care if I am a murderer. But I am not going to turn tail like a whipped cur. Besides, maybe it isn’t as bad as you think. Maybe Scott just wants to question me.”

  “Gee Dub…”

  “Where is Holly, Ma?’

  She blinked at the unexpected question. “She’s still asleep. You rode back here together. Can’t Holly vouch for your whereabouts?”

  “I didn’t come across her on the road until early this morning. She doesn’t know anything.”

  “Listen, son, don’t turn yourself in.”

  “I’m not waiting until they hunt me down. Makes me look even more guilty.”

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying don’t turn yourself in today, at least. Wait until we know more about what happened.”

  He didn’t respond. For a moment he gazed at her out of dark eyes that gave nothing away, then his lips turned up in half a smile. “Did the mockingbird dive at you when you came looking for me?”

  Alafair’s eyes widened. “What? No, I didn’t see any bird.”

  No, Gee Dub wouldn’t think so. The mother bird recognized a kindred spirit when she saw one.

  ***

  Alafair’s plan was to make Gee Dub swear to stay in his room until she had a chance to find Shaw in the field and bring him home. Between the two of them, she was certain that they could come up with a plan to get Gee Dub out of harm’s way. She did not doubt that Shaw would feel the same as she did, no matter what odd notions of duty over family that Gee Dub had picked up in Europe.

  She didn’t get the chance to find out. She had just headed back to the house to fetch her coat and warn Holly when she was met on the path. Scott had gotten rid of Gundry somehow and come back to the farm as quickly as he could.

  They both stopped in the middle of the path and eyed one another warily.

  “Where is he, Alafair?”

  “He isn’t here, Scott.”

  “Alafair, I just talked to Miz Thornberry up to the house and she told me that he found her on the road to Council Hill and brought her home this morning.”

  “That don’t prove that he went to Council Hill. He went looking for Holly. He’s got tender feelings for that gal, you know that.” She was thinking fast, now. “Maybe she did get to Council Hill after all, Scott, and Gee Dub came across her on her way back here.” Alafair liked Holly, but she wouldn’t hesitate to divert suspicion to her for Gee Dub’s sake.

  The comment almost made Scott smile. If one of his own boys were in this situation, he was quite sure his wife, Hattie, would throw anyone on Earth to the wolves if she thought it would protect him. “Alafair, I just want to talk to him. Gee Dub can speak for himself.”

  “He didn’t do it, Scott, you know that. Besides, I can’t let you go hunting around here on the farm without you have a warrant.”

  “Where is Shaw?’

  Alafair bit her lip, full of resentment. Scott intended to play his trump card. Man over woman. She did not appreciate his trying to put her in her place. “It’s the middle of the day. He’s out in the field somewhere.”

  “Well, I’ll just have a talk with him…” He bit off his sentence and looked past her, an expression of surprise on his face.

  She did not need to turn around to know that Gee Dub had come out of the toolshed and was walking toward them. They had been standing close enough to the back window of the shed for him to hear what was going on.

  Alafair begged Scott to wait to take him until they could find Shaw. Anything to delay the inevitable. But Gee Dub nixed that idea. “Let’s get it over with,” he said.

  The three of them walked back to the house together and Alafair watched from the drive as Gee Dub climbed into the Paige next to Scott and they drove away without a backward glance. She felt unreasonable anger at Holly for innocently telling Scott that Gee Dub was here, and unreasonable anger at Gee Dub for turning himself in without a by-your-leave. As for Scott, she wondered if she would ever be able to forgive him.

  But she burned with hatred for the late Daniel Johnson. Whoever killed the despicable piece of garbage was doing God’s work. And yet, if she was going to save her son, Alafair was going to have to find out who the killer was before the law did. Because if it was Gee Dub after all, she would try to find some way to destroy the evidence. She turned back toward the bunk room, determined to hide Gee Dub’s rifle in the hayloft.

  Chapter Fifteen

  March 1919

  Gee Dub thought that being in jail wasn’t bad at all. He had a warm bed and three squares a day and didn’t have to think about anything. It was rather nice to sit there and stare at the wall and wait for events to unfold without his having to do anything. The cold snap of the previous week was over and there was a definite feeling of spring in the air. The wind had changed direction and a fresh, warm breeze was wafting in through the open window above his cell.

  Of course it didn’t hurt that the jailers were his father’s cousin Scott and his soon-to-be brother-in-law Trent Calder. Since three of his sisters lived in town, he could count on a parade of comforts throughout the day. Alice brought him fresh biscuits for breakfast and a lavender-scented quilt and down pillow. When Ruth came by at noon with a sumptuous repast in a basket for dinner, Trent unlocked the cell and the three of them ate fried chicken, cornbread, and cream pie around Trent’s desk in the front office. Martha and her husband, Streeter, dropped in around suppertime with rice and ham gravy and more pie and sat with him in his cell to eat and talk about topics unrelated to Gee Dub’s situation. Major Streeter McCoy had not yet been mustered out of the Army, but he had been transferred from Washington City to Oklahoma City a couple of months earlier, so he did manage to get home most weekends.

  All in all, it was pleasant, at the moment at least, and Gee Dub determined he was going to enjoy it while he could. Scott had told him that Marshal Amos Gundry planned to come back to Boynton on the afternoon train tomorrow, when Gee Dub would be transferred into his custody for the trip back to Muskogee. Gee Dub wasn’t looking forward to riding the train while handcuffed to a marshal, but he tried not to think about that right now.

  Martha and Streeter were still sitting in the cell with him when Alafair and Shaw showed up and brought the children with them. The cell and the hallway were crammed with his relations, all asking him questions and giving him advice. He tried to remain civil, for the children’s sake. His nine-year-old cousin Chase Kemp seemed delighted to be related to an outlaw, but Gee Dub’s three youngest sisters were distressed to see him in jail.

  The crowd of people in the confined space reminded him too much of the trenches. He could tell that his mother was aware of his discomfort and he gave her a pleading look.

  “Come on, then, you lot,” Alafair said. “Y’all are sucking up all the air in here and Gee Dub is about to smother.”

  Martha and Streeter ushered the children out, leaving the parents to say goodnight.

  “Mama and me will be back first thing tomorrow, son,” Shaw said, “and Lawyer Meriwether will be with us.”

  Gee Dub responded with an absent nod and turned to Alafair. “Why didn’t Holly come, Ma? Is she still at the house?”

  Alafair and Shaw exchanged a glance. “She said she didn’t want to impose on the family visit, son. She wants you to know she’s thinking of you and that she’ll see you tomorrow morning before the marshal gets here.”

  “Take care of Holly, Mama. Don’t blame her for any of this. It’s none of it her fault.”

  Trent gently maneuvered Shaw and Alafair out of the cell and locked the door behind them. Alafair turned and gripped the bars. “Son, we
’ll talk in the morning. You listen to me, Gee Dub, we’ll figure this out, don’t you worry.”

  ***

  Trent saw the jailhouse visitors out, leaving the door between the cells and the office open. As soon as the crowd of Tuckers left the room, Moretti slipped in behind them and leaned against the wall.

  Gee Dub came up off his cot like a shot and would have burst through the bars if he had been able. “Private, where in hell have you been?” Before Moretti could answer, Gee Dub spent a few moments exhausting the colorful new vocabulary he had picked up in France. When he wound down, Moretti removed his flat cap.

  “Sorry, Lieutenant,” he said, careful not to get within grabbing distance. “I figured I can’t stay out at your folks’ farm anymore, so I moved into town. I’ve been waiting out front for your family to leave before I came in to see you. There sure are a lot of them!”

  “Do you know what happened down in Council Hill?”

  “Of course I do, Mr. Tucker. I was right there with you, remember?

  “Did you kill that man, Moretti? Tell me.”

  Moretti’s blinked. ”You’ve been having those blackouts again? I thought you were rid of those.”

  Gee Dub took a breath and lowered himself onto the cot. “I thought so too. I was doing better after I got back to the States. If I had any blackouts while I was at Fort Benning before I got mustered out, I wasn’t aware of it and nobody told me about it.”

  Now that he was not in immediate danger of being strangled, Moretti moved up closer to the bars. “None of those boys down in Georgia were apt to get shot any minute. Nor you, either.”

  Gee Dub clicked his tongue. “I hate to think I need Army life in order to be sane; somebody telling me where to be and knowing what I’m supposed to do every minute. Seems like since I got home I’m either off in a fantasy or on war footing. And since Holly talked to that rat bastard, I’ve been worse than ever.”

  “Mr. Tucker, maybe you’d better tell the sheriff everything.”

  “Not unless I have to. If I can keep her name out of it, if I can wiggle around this, that’s what I’ll do.”

  “You want me to talk to your family?”

  “Hell, no, not yet. That’s just one more thing I’d have to deal with, and to no good end.”

  “You’ll never be convicted of murder if I have anything to say about it, sir.”

  Gee Dub gave his young visitor a speculative once-over. “Are you going to confess?” His voice was heavy with irony.

  Moretti laughed. “Well, I hope it doesn’t come to that, sir. I will go with you on the train to Muskogee, though, if you want me to.”

  “I doubt if the marshal will let me bring my retinue along on the trip.”

  “I’ll be discreet, Lieutenant. I’ll sit behind him. He won’t even know I’m there.”

  ***

  Holly had no choice but to go with the family to see Gee Dub off. With her injured feet, there was no other way she could get to town. She rode in the back of a hay wagon, seated on old quilts along with the three youngest Tucker girls. The sun had barely cleared the horizon when they left the house.

  When they got to town, they found that the rest of the clan had arrived before them. The five grown daughters, the odd son-in-law, the nephew, and various grandchildren were milling around on the boardwalk when Shaw pulled up in front of the jailhouse.

  “Scott won’t let us in, Daddy.” Martha McCoy was indignant. “He said we had to wait for y’all.”

  Shaw handed the reins to Alafair and climbed down from the driver’s seat. “I don’t blame him, honey. When the marshal gets here he’s going to think we’re staging a jailbreak as it is. Y’all wait here while I find out what’s going on.”

  Alafair and the girls dismounted from the wagon when Shaw went inside, but Holly stayed seated, apart from the chattering activity on the sidewalk, wishing she were away from here and yet desperate to figure out a way to speak to Gee Dub alone before the marshal took him away. Her problem was solved for her when Shaw reappeared.

  “Scott says we can go in and talk to Gee one and two at a time, but we can’t all go in at once. Holly, Gee Dub wants to see you first, since you didn’t come with us yesterday.”

  ***

  Gee Dub got right to the point. “Are you going to stick around until this thing is resolved, Holly?”

  She was standing a few feet back from the bars. It was as close as Scott would let her approach Gee Dub’s cell. Her plan to speak to him on her own was thwarted by Scott’s presence. He clearly had no intention of allowing any collusion. Holly blinked at Gee Dub’s blunt question. “Of course I am.”

  His dark-eyed gaze was riveted on her face. “I’d just as soon you didn’t. There is no reason in the world for you to get any more mixed up in this than you have already. I wish you’d let me give you some money so you could get out of Oklahoma.”

  Holly shot a glance at Scott, standing at her shoulder. He did not look back. He simply gazed into space with crossed arms and a stolid expression. “I imagine I will probably be called as a witness, Gee Dub,” she said. “Besides, I want to do whatever I can to help.”

  His fingers curled around the bars. “You just remember what we talked about.”

  Scott did not let that comment pass. “Wait a minute…”

  Gee Dub hastened to reassure him. “Nothing sinister, Scott. I want her to go home, is all. I told her she don’t belong here.” He looked back at Holly. “I’m not kidding, now. You promised me, remember?”

  Holly found herself blinking away tears. “I remember what we talked about. Please don’t worry about me, Gee Dub. Please don’t worry.”

  ***

  After Holly left, a mere quarter hour passed before Scott came back into the cell room. He closed the door to the outer office and approached Gee Dub’s cell. Gee Dub took a step back, not afraid of Scott, but not eager to face whatever was coming next.

  “Gundry’s here,” Scott said.

  Gee Dub nodded, resigned, and leaned over to pick up his jacket off the cot.

  Scott released an audible breath. “I don’t know what kind of tale you and Miz Thornberry have cooked up between you, but I suggest you don’t volunteer any more information without Lawyer Meriwether present. I do not want to turn you over to Gundry, Gee Dub. You are kin and it goes against the grain to serve you up like a nice steak. Besides, your ma can hardly bring herself to look at me as it is.”

  That made Gee Dub smile. “I appreciate it, Scott, but I don’t hold it against you. You’ve got to do your job.”

  “Gee Dub, why are you protecting her?”

  The question should not have been unexpected, but Gee Dub took a moment to reply. “What makes you think I’m protecting somebody?”

  “’Cause I don’t think you killed that man.”

  “That’s good to hear. Do you have some reason for that opinion, other than confidence in my moral fiber?”

  “You are acting mighty strange, boy. I’d think you’d be eager to defend yourself, but you’re not talking. I’ve known you all your life and I know what kind of man you are. But you’ve been to war and that can change a man. Yes, you might have done it. But whoever killed Johnson shot him at real close range. Almost like he put the weapon right on the man’s chest before he fired. You wouldn’t have had to do it that way. You could have shot him from a mile away. I’ve seen you shoot, son. You don’t miss.”

  Gee Dub did not respond, but he did not disagree, either. It wouldn’t have done any good. Everyone in his family knew he was a prodigy when it came to firearms and always had been. In the Army he had made such high scores in marksmanship that he had been tapped to train recruits in riflery right out of Officer Candidate School.

  “It is that gal, isn’t it?” Scott said. “You’re trying to protect Miz Thornberry. I can see that you’re sweet on her. So what happened, G
ee Dub? Was it her? Did she go to Council Hill that day? She could have killed him. Even a little critter like her, even somebody who had never shot a rifle could have put a gun to his heart and pulled the trigger.”

  Gee Dub knew that Scott was goading him. “Look, Scott, that isn’t going to work. Holly didn’t kill anybody. Where would she get a rifle, anyway?”

  “Maybe it was Johnson’s rifle and she took it with her after she shot him. By the way, you own a Springfield. I remember when your daddy bought it for you. I asked Shaw to bring it in and save me having to get a warrant to search the farm, but he says he can’t find it. Where’d you stash it, Gee Dub? I’d just as soon not tear through Shaw’s place trying to find it.”

  “I didn’t stash it anywhere,” Gee Dub said. “It ought to be on the rack above the door in my room, where it always is. Dad knows where I keep it.”

  “You think Shaw just don’t want to turn it in? That doesn’t sound like him.”

  Gee Dub made a sound that could have been taken for an ironic laugh. “Dad wouldn’t. If I were you I’d ask Mama about it.”

  The idea of confronting Alafair made Scott grimace. “Why in blazes don’t you just tell me what happened?”

  “I don’t know who killed Johnson, Scott, I promise.”

  Scott’s voice dripped with frustration. “I think you know a lot more than you’re telling.”

  Now Gee Dub did laugh. “Now, that’s where you’re wrong, Scott.”

  ***

  Only Scott Tucker, Alafair, Shaw, and Lawyer Meriwether accompanied Gundry as he walked his handcuffed prisoner to the railway station. Scott had had to negotiate with Marshal Gundry even for that small concession. Gundry was wary of anyone who might be tempted to slip a file or a derringer into a felon’s pocket while he wasn’t looking. Even though Scott had warned them to keep their distance, the rest of the family trailed along behind. Gundry kept glancing over his shoulder as though they were a mob ready to bonk him on the head and flee up into the hills with his prisoner. Alafair couldn’t help but reflect that if the extended Tucker family had never moved to Oklahoma, if they still lived in the Ozarks where she was born, that is exactly what would probably happen. Sometimes living in civilization and adhering to the rule of law had its disadvantages.