“What?” exclaimed Jackie. “Then you are an ex-con?”
Bart looked triumphant, even as his partner’s hand stole to the .45 long-barreled pistol riding in his holster. It was a movement not lost on Archer.
“What did they have you busting rocks for?” Bart asked.
“Breaking the law.”
Bart’s triumphant expression vanished and his hand, too, went to his gun, as Jackie, looking confused, took a step back.
“I’ll ask you one more time and one more time only,” Bart said.
“The law said I stole something.”
“What was that?”
“A car.”
Bart snapped, “Shit, they don’t send a man to no Carderock Prison for stealing a damn car. You lying to me, boy. I won’t have it.”
“This was a special car.”
“What kind of special car?”
“It was the car belonging to the mayor of the town I was passing through.”
“Okay, but still.”
“And his daughter was in the car with me.”
Jeb guffawed, but Bart didn’t look pleased.
“You kidnapped the mayor’s daughter?”
“No, she was there voluntarily.”
“Oh really?”
“Well, she had her suitcase with her, with all her worldly possessions in it. Fact was, she didn’t want to spend her life in some Podunk town, and I was her ticket out. But we didn’t have a ride, so we borrowed—”
“You said you stole it,” interjected Bart.
“No, I said the law said I stole it. The daughter was the one who took the car. And since it belonged to her father, I don’t see how that could be stealing. We were going to drop it off in the next town over and take the train. Things didn’t work out that way.”
“What happened then?”
“They caught up to us before we could get on the train, and the mayor got his daughter to say things about me and what happened that weren’t true. And that got me sent to Carderock for a spell.”
Bart rubbed his cheek while Archer glanced at Jackie to see her staring at him with hurt eyes.
Bart said, “Well, that ain’t why we’re here. The fact is, Mr. Hank Pittleman was killed and we’re here to tell Miss Tuttle.”
“Why her?” asked Archer.
“Because they were friends.” Something glinted in Bart’s eyes. “Hey now, where you staying?”
Archer had wondered when the lawman would get around to that.
Jackie answered for him. “He’s staying at the Derby, same as Hank.”
Bart wheeled around on Archer. “Oh, you are, are you?”
“Oh, for God’s sake, Bart,” said Jackie, who had finally settled down and dried her eyes. “He didn’t kill Hank any more than I did. Hank hired the man. With him gone, so is Archer’s job. How does that make sense?”
Bart’s gleeful look faded. “Is that a fact?”
“That’s a fact,” confirmed Archer.
“Have you told Marjorie yet?” asked Jackie sharply.
When Archer looked at her, he could tell the woman’s mind was going a hundred miles an hour.
“We just found the body,” said Bart. “Maid walked in on him and almost lost her damn breakfast in the process. You know it’s a hike out to their place, but we’ll get there. Wanted to come by and tell you since you’re closer.”
Jackie nodded and managed a brief smile. “Well, I appreciate that, I truly do.”
Archer was having a hard time following all this but waited until the lawmen, who each gave him a stern, suspicious look, had departed.
Jackie sat down and looked vacantly across the room, while Archer went to the window to confirm the law was actually leaving him alone. For now.
He sat down opposite the woman and said, “Can you explain something to me?”
“What’s that, Archer?” she said wearily.
“The law knows about you and Pittleman?”
“Yes. So?”
“Just strikes me as a little odd. And the fact that they’d come here first and tell you before even letting his widow know.”
“Well, like Bart said, I’m a lot closer. It’s nearly an hour out to Marjorie’s.”
“Is this not a God-fearing place?”
“Come again?”
“I mean that people just accept the fact that you and Pittleman have this…arrangement and they’re all good with it? Having met his missus, I know that she knows about you, which strikes me as even odder.”
“Oh, that,” said Jackie. “Well, I saved their marriage, in a way. I guess folks appreciate that. Maybe even Marjorie.”
Archer could tell by the way that she said this last part, the woman didn’t fully believe it.
“In what way would that be?” he said, looking at her funny.
“Hank would have left her for sure if it weren’t for me. Everybody knows that.”
“I’m not following any of this. So just slow it down and let me have it. Take your time. I want to