“I’ll try not to,”‘ Kathy said. “How about Mrs. Wilkie first?”
“You think Ivy would understand?”
“I’m sure she would.”
“Then send in the redhead,” Rhodes said. “If I can face that, I can face anything.”
Mrs. Wilkie was not pleased. “I just do not understand, Sheriff, how a man such as you could risk his life on such a venture,” she said. “I’m sure there was good reason, but. .” She paused, waiting for Rhodes to explain himself.
“Line of duty, Mrs. Wilkie,” he said, tight-lipped.
“Of course, of course. I understand. But this Daniels woman. .”
Rhodes looked abashed. “She’s a very nice person,” he said.
“Very nice, naturally.” Mrs. Wilkie shook her orange head. “But is she the right woman for an officer of the law? A man of importance in the county? I would think. .”
Rhodes cut her off. “We’re not engaged or anything, Mrs. Wilkie. I think she feels sorry for me. You know, a lone man raising his daughter with no one to help him. I’m sure that’s all it is.”
“H-a-r-u-m-p-h!” was Mrs. Wilkie’s only comment. She turned and walked stiffly from the room. Rhodes figured he’d lost another vote.
He didn’t feel so bad about it when Ivy came in, however. She walked over to the bed and kissed his cheek. “I wasn’t aware that you knew Mrs. Wilkie so well,” she said.
“I believe she had the same sentiments about you,” Rhodes said. “Let’s just say that she may have been trying at one time to rumor herself into some kind of relationship with me. It didn’t work, but I think she may have believed it would-eventually.”
“Maybe I should try the same thing,” Ivy said.
“You wouldn’t need that kind of tactic,” Rhodes said. “It would be a lot easier for you. Was that you in the chair last night?”
“Yes,” Ivy said. “I thought. .” She didn’t finish her statement, but Rhodes got the idea.
“I’m glad it was,” he said. “I’d much rather it have been you than Mrs. Wilkie, for lots of reasons. Sit down again, and I’ll give you a few hundred of them.”
She walked over and sat in the chair, while Rhodes started telling her what he had to say.
When Ivy Daniels left Rhodes’s hospital room an hour later, Rhodes was pretty sure that there was a kind of understanding between them. Neither one had mentioned marriage, or anything about a permanent kind of relationship, but they both recognized the attraction and each knew that the other felt that what was between them would soon develop into something serious-and probably lasting. They knew that they would have time for talking later, and they suspected that they would be talking to one another for quite some time to come.
Rhodes leaned back against the hospital bed and rested. His ribs hurt now, and he wondered if he had, unaware of it, been given some sort of painkiller that was now wearing off. He thought about Ivy for a minute, and then he thought about what he would have to do in the light of what Johnny had told him. He didn’t doubt that Johnny had been telling the truth, which meant that he would have to rearrange the puzzle in his head one more time. Pieces that had seemed to fit in one position would have to be placed somewhere else, and he would have to be careful not to force them in where they didn’t belong.
It was too bad that Johnny was so hotheaded, that he let his emotions rule his logical side. If he’d only trusted Rhodes to see that he got a fair trial, he might be alive now. But Rhodes had thought him guilty. Would that have affected his treatment of his prisoner? If he was honest with himself, Rhodes had to admit that he wasn’t sure. Convinced that he had the right man, how hard would he have worked to develop evidence in his favor? Maybe not hard enough. In a way, it was hard to blame Johnny for running.
Now the puzzle that had come together for him when Larry Bell had mentioned knowing Jeanne Clinton in high school would have to be scrapped. Well, it had been close, but close didn’t count in this game. It could get you killed, but it didn’t count. He’d have Johnny on his mind for a long, long time.
Unless Johnny had been lying. It was a possibility, even if it wasn’t very likely. Rhodes reached for the phone on the nightstand beside his bed and dialed the number of the jail.
Chapter 18
Hack answered, as always. Things were going along just fine, he told Rhodes, except for one little problem. “You remember them hippies?” Hack asked.
Rhodes remembered them.
“Well, we got us one. Hair down to his tailbone. Braided kinda nice, though, like Willie Nelson wears his. Beard, too.”
“You mean. .” Rhodes started to ask.
“No, I don’t mean the beard’s braided. I just mean he has one. Could braid it, I guess. It’s pretty long. Uses a piece of rope instead of a belt. Don’t even own a shirt, I guess.”
Hack paused. Rhodes knew he’d come to the point any minute now and didn’t try to hurry him.
“Seems like he was lettin’ cattle out of the pastures all up and down Highway 11. Some of ‘em went in other pastures, but a lot of ‘em just wandered up and down the road. Some of ‘em wandered up and down the middle of the road.”
“Any wrecks?” Rhodes asked.
“Two,” Hack said, “but not bad ones. Killed the cows, of course.”
“Of course,” Rhodes agreed. In any contest between a cow and an automobile, the cow almost always lost, though the cars were often demolished. Sometimes the passengers died, but apparently not in these cases. “So what’s the problem?”
“‘You ever try to round up three or four hundred cows and get ‘em separated and back to their rightful owners?”
“Three or four hundred?” Rhodes didn’t think he’d heard right.
“Three or four hundred,” Hack repeated. “I guess you wouldn’t be up to herdin’ cows in your condition, would you?”
“Not hardly,” Rhodes said. “He must have been busy.”
“Said he didn’t think cows would like bein’ penned up. Thought he’d give ‘em their freedom. He hit every gate he could find for a long way down the road.”
“How does he like being penned up?” Rhodes asked.
“Not worth a damn,” Hack said. “But he might as well get used to it. Criminal mischief, I’d call it. He may not see the light for a while.”
“Billy Joe still there to keep him company?”
“Well, now that you mention it, no,” Hack said. “County judge found out about him and made us let him go. Said we didn’t have no charges on him and we’d be up the old creek if the ACLU ever found it out. What’s the ACLU?”
“Don’t worry about it,”‘ Rhodes said. “I doubt we’ll be bothered by them. Listen, Hack, there’s something you’ve got to do.”
“Just say the word, I’ll do it.”
“Get over to Johnny’s house and look around for a.30-.30. If there’s one there, take it back to the jail and take the butt plate off, if it has one. Soon as you get it done, give me a call at the hospital.”
“Won’t take long, Sheriff,” Hack said. “Gimme about an hour.”
“I won’t be going anywhere for a while,” Rhodes said. “Just take your time.”
Rhodes had hardly hung up the phone before it rang again. He said hello and then heard the deep voice of Ralph Claymore.
“I hear you got the fella that killed Jeanne,” Claymore said. “Mighty fine work, I have to say, even if I’m running against you. And you can be sure that I won’t bring up a thing about it being one of your own deputies that did it. When I said I’d run a clean campaign, I meant it. I want you to know that.” Rhodes held the phone silently. “Rhodes? You there, Rhodes?” Claymore asked.
“I’m here,” Rhodes said, finally. “Who told you that I caught the man that killed Jeanne?”
“What do you mean, who told me?” Claymore said. “It’s all over town. Everybody knows about it.”
“Well, everybody just might be wrong,” Rhodes said. “I never told anyone that. They just assumed it.”