“Oh,” Shaye said.
“What’s that mean?” James asked. “I mean, I know what it means for the signal not to get through, but what’s it mean to us?”
“Well…” Cotton said. “your pa and I think that the gang may have killed Sheriff Coffey before they left Highbinder.”
“And maybe they disabled the telegraph key?” James asked. “Or maybe that’s all they did.”
“I sure hope you’re right, James,” Cotton said.
“Whataya think, Pa?” James asked.
“If Jeb Collier’s got Vic Delay riding with him,” Shaye said, “that man just looks for reasons to kill people.”
“Is he a fast gun, Pa?” James asked.
“More than a fast gun, James,” Shaye said. “He’s a killer. He likes it.”
“I bet Thomas can take him,” James said. He turned to Cotton and added, “Thomas is fast and he hits what he shoots at every time.” There was pride in James’s tone.
“Thanks, James,” Thomas said, “but I ain’t so high on tryin’ my hand with a fella like that.”
“Smart man,” Shaye said. “You gotta look to avoid gunfights, not get into them.”
“You ever avoid a gunfight, Pa?” James asked. “I mean, in your younger years?”
“Every chance I got, boy,” Shaye said. “Every chance I got.”
49
Shaye and Cotton left Thomas and James at the café and walked to City Hall.
“You know what these people are like, don’t you?” Cotton asked.
“Oh yes,” Shaye said. “They’re the same in every town. They think because you have a badge on your chest you’re used to being a target.”
“They’re paying you to do a job and you better do it without complaining,” Cotton said.
“And don’t ask for more help.”
“Well,” Cotton said, “today we’re gonna ask. I don’t know what good it will do, except that after the fact we might be able to say, ‘I told you so.’”
They reached the building and entered.
“The bank manager, Brown,” Shaye said, “he’ll be against us already.”
“There are four other people on the town council,” Cotton said. “I’ll have to talk directly to them.”
They went up the stairs to the second floor and Cotton led the way to a closed door.
“This is where they meet,” he said. “They should all be inside already.”
“Want me to come in with you?” Shaye offered.
“Why don’t we start with you out here?” Cotton asked. “This part is really my job, isn’t it?”
Shaye nodded and said, “And you’re welcome to it.”
“What’s this town council meetin’ supposed to be about?” James asked Thomas as they left the café.
“Cotton wants to try to hire new deputies.”
“I thought he had the power to do that?” James asked. “He gave us badges, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, but we’re not gettin’ paid,” Thomas said. “He needs more money to pay more deputies and that has to be approved by the town council.”
“And why wouldn’t they?”
“Because they’re politicians,” Thomas said. “It’s their job to say no.”
They crossed the street and started walking toward the sheriff’s office and City Hall.
“The five of us can probably handle things,” James said. “Don’t you think, Thomas?”
“I think there’s safety in numbers, James,” Thomas said. “That’s why Collier’s comin’ here with eight men and that’s why we could always use more.”
“But if we don’t get them,” James argued, “we can handle it. I know we can.”
“Well,” Thomas replied, “I did say you’re the smart one, James, so I guess I’ll take your word for it.”
But there is smart, Thomas thought, and there is naïve. He thought James had a bit of each.
Occasionally, Shaye could hear raised voices from inside the meeting room, but he was never able to make out any words. Eventually, when the door to the meeting room opened, Shaye expected Cotton to ask him to come in. Instead, the sheriff stepped into the hall and pulled the door closed behind him.
“You look frustrated,” Shaye said.
“Then I feel the way I look,” Cotton said. “To a man—and the only woman on the council—they feel that the bank would be able to handle any robbery attempts.”
“So no money for more deputies?”
“No money,” Cotton said, “but they commended me for being able to get three new deputies for free.”
“So what if we took off our badges?” Shaye asked. “Would they give you money to hire more deputies then?”
“No. They stood their ground and the mayor stood with them.”
“And I’ll bet bank manager Edmund Brown had a lot to do with it too,” Shaye said.
“Oh yeah,” Cotton said. “He had a lot to say. They also suggested that if I felt like I couldn’t handle the job I should step down.”
“Maybe you should,” Shaye said.
“What would that accomplish?”
“They sure wouldn’t be able to hire a new sheriff in time,” Shaye said. “That would teach them a lesson.”
Cotton shook his head.
“That would leave the town defenseless,” he said. “I couldn’t take my frustration out on the people of this town.”
“Go around and try to recruit volunteers to stand with you, Riley,” Shaye said, “and then decide whether or not you can take it out on them.”
Cotton looked at the closed door and, for a moment, they could both hear laughter from behind it.
“Let’s get out of here,” Cotton said. “I can’t think here.”
“Can’t blame you for that,” Shaye said and followed the sheriff down the steps and out of the building.
“I guess it’s up to us,” Cotton said some time later as the two men leaned on the bar at Bo Hart’s Saloon. “That is, if you’re still willing to help.”
“I can’t very well leave town knowing that you and your deputy would have to face the gang alone.”
“It’s our job, not yours,” Cotton said.
“That may be,” Shaye said, “but my sons and I are here and we know what’s going to happen. We can’t just walk away.”
“Integrity.”
“What?”
“You have integrity, all three of you,” Cotton said. “It’s rare to find that, these days.”
“If that’s true, it’s a shame,” Shaye said, “but I don’t think it’s integrity…it’s just common sense.”
“I can’t believe this is all going to happen because of Belinda.”
“If that was the case, you could just send her out of town,” Shaye said.
“You mean…run her out of town?”
“That’s what I mean,” Shaye said, “then when Collier gets here and realizes she’s not here…but that’s not the case, Riley. They know about the bank now. If they get here and Belinda’s not here, they’ll just hit the bank.”
Cotton nursed a glass of whiskey, then asked the bartender for a second. Shaye was holding a half-finished beer.
“You got money in that bank?” he asked suddenly.
“What? Well, yeah, I do,” Cotton said.
“Is there another bank in town?”
“Used to be, but eventually everyone just moved their money to this one.”
“So anybody in this town or in the surrounding area who has money in a bank has it in that bank?”
“Yup.”
“Well,” Shaye said, “I guess there’s one thing you could do right away.”
“What’s that?”
“Get your money out of that bank and stick in under your mattress.”
50
Belinda Davis had heard Riley Cotton telling his wife how the deputies were going to split up their shifts to make their rounds of the town, and how the next day they were going to start taking turns on the roof of City Hall again. The only name she was really interested in was James Shaye’s. She had seen the way the youngest of Dan Shaye’s sons looked at her the day they met and she knew he was the weak link among the Shaye men. Thomas was the one she would have been interested in if she was simply looking for a man, but she didn’t think she’d be able to control him any more than she would his father. Both of those men seemed immune to her charms, which was quite a new experience for her.