keep the secret. We’d made a pact. When I learned that he’d told Norma, I accosted him on the street.” He described a volatile encounter in an alleyway. “I was livid.”
Thatcher sat forward and placed his forearms on his thighs. “You were livid. What about Croft?”
“Smug. He said I was naïve to think that he wouldn’t have held some collateral for doing me such a huge favor. I told him that Norma was using it to pressure me into marriage. He agreed that people would become suspicious if she and I married too soon, and that Norma should be made to understand that. He offered to speak to her on my behalf, but I told him I would handle it. I…I hadn’t gotten around to it.”
Thatcher looked over at Bill, who, like him, appeared to have realized the significance of Bernie Croft’s offer to impress understanding upon Norma Blanchard.
Bill stood and pulled Driscoll out of his chair. “Just so we understand one another, Gabe. If Daisy gets well, you’ll stand trial and be judged by a jury of your peers. If she succumbs, you won’t live to see trial.”
Driscoll jerked his arm free. “There’s gratitude for you. I saved your wife’s life, and you repay me by issuing threats? First him,” he said, looking at Thatcher with scorn, “now you. Isn’t it against the law to threaten a suspect in your custody? Doesn’t that violate a lawman’s code of ethics?”
“I don’t give a damn.” Bill hauled off and slammed his fist into Gabe’s face. He fell backward and landed on the floor, out cold.
There was one knock on the front door before Scotty pushed it open and walked in. He looked down at Driscoll. “What happened?”
“He was trying to escape,” Bill said. “When you get him back to the jail, put him in shackles, too. What about our mayor?”
“That’s what I came to tell you. I know where he’s at.”
* * *
“What I think? We ought to go into town and check on her.”
“We heard you the first dozen times you said that.”
Corrine gave Irv a malevolent squint. “Well, apparently you ain’t listening, old man. Miss Laurel said if she didn’t come tomorrow, which was yesterday, she’d come the next day, which is today.”
“Day ain’t over, is it?”
Ernie looked up at the sun. “Noon or better. But she has a point, Irv.”
“Aw, you’re just horny. You’d agree with anything she said,” Irv grumbled, shooting a glower toward Corrine.
“You said yourself you was scared Miss Laurel would come to grief,” she said. “Didn’t he say that, Ernie?”
Ernie tugged on his long earlobe. “Seems I do recollect—”
“I remember sayin’ it,” Irv snapped. “And I still hold to it. But you,” he said to Corrine, “agreed that we should lay low till we got the all clear. Laurel wouldn’t want us to show ourselves till it was safe. We’ve got no idea what all went on last night. I doubt much did on account of that storm. But still…”
Corrine stood and dusted off her seat. “Well, you can sit here till you become a fossil like in them rocks over yonder. I’m going.” She marched off toward Irv’s truck, which they’d camouflaged with cedar boughs.
“How are you going to get there?” he called after her. “You can’t drive.”
She started pulling the cedar branches off the truck and slinging them aside. “I can drive good enough. Ernie’s been teaching me.”
Irv turned an accusatory look on his friend. Ernie guiltily raised his bony shoulders. “In my spare time.”
“Hell’s bells.” Irv started after Corrine. “I’ll drive us.” Over his shoulder, he said to Ernie, “You stay and guard the place. Don’t do no cooking till we get back and keep those firearms within your reach.”
“Y’all be careful.”
* * *
Bill instructed Scotty to return Driscoll to the jail, leave a man there to guard him, then to bring a carload of deputies to Lefty’s.
He also ordered Scotty not to leave town without obtaining an arrest warrant for Mayor Bernard Croft. Looking dubious, Scotty asked how the sheriff planned on arranging that. “I’m calling the judge now.”
Scotty left with Driscoll, who had regained consciousness. His shouted protests over being treated inhumanely were ignored.
Bill placed a call. Thatcher overheard him threatening a judge to expose both his bribe-taking and the mistress he kept in Stephenville if he didn’t have the warrant ready by the time Scotty got to the courthouse to pick it up.
After completing the call, Bill went upstairs to check on Mrs. Amos. He didn’t stay long.