Beneath the Tombstone (The Tombstone Series) (22 page)

“Nope,
Big Jack. Sorry,” the man outside the window responded.

“Now
Jeremiah,” the big prisoner lectured, “if you had a guest coming to your house
and he had no pillow to sleep on, what would you do?”

“Tell
him he’s lucky to have a mattress and a blanket,” the man replied with a dry
smile.

Big
Jack laughed out loud, and Jason had to join in. “Hey, I’ll be fine without a
pillow,” he spoke to the two men gratefully. “The mattress and blanket was more
than I expected.”

“You
betch’a
,” Big Jack responded.

“Yeah,
no problem,” the guy at the window said then, as he turned to leave, he added,
“If you need anything else just let me…” He cut himself off short, realizing he
was committing to more favors. “No, don’t let me,” he corrected. “Harass
somebody else.”

Both
Jason and Big Jack chuckled as the man left, shaking his head and mumbling
something about, “mattresses and blankets and pillows,” and such.

“Well,
you missed supper,” Big Jack said like he was sorry.

“Awe,
that’s okay,” Jason yawned as he lay down on the mattress and pulled the
blanket up to his head. “I just need a good night’s sleep.” Maybe it’d help
clear his head. Soon, darkness settled in his mind as he faded off to sleep.

 The
hallway that ran the length of the cells began to light up with the first hint
of the coming sun. Morning had never looked so beautiful… and so unwelcome.
Morning meant the long night was over, but it also meant that Jason was too
late to feed the horses and clean stalls back at the ranch. What would Tyler’s
reaction be? All Jason could do was hope the short tempered cowboy wasn’t up at
the shack, this very moment, tossing his things out into the dirt.

Sometime
later, when morning was in full effect, Jason heard a chirpy voice coming down
the row of cells, greeting each prisoner along the way. That voice sounded
familiar. He sat up in bed.

“Will
you marry me, Miss Jenny?” one of the prisoners, a few cells down from Jason,
called out.

“Now
Jim,” she lectured, “how many times do I have to tell you that you
gotta
straighten your life out first?”

“In
that case, I just became fully rehabilitated,” the man jested, and Jenny
chuckled at his joke.

Moments
later, she came to a stop at the window above Jason and peered in at a
slumbering Big Jack. Thinking the giant was the only occupant of the room, she
turned to leave.

“Hey,”
Jason whispered loudly as he flung the blanket off. “Hey, don’t leave.”

Jenny
turned back and squinted down at the bottom of the cell. “Oh, hi there,” Jenny
said kindly. “You must be new,” she added then froze as he stumbled to his
feet. “Jason?” she asked, astonished. “They locked you up? But the sheriff said
he let you go,” she said, sounding confused. “Lack of evidence.”

“Oh,
he was right about that,” Jason scoffed. “He is lacking in evidence as well as
other things, such as intelligence and honesty… but he didn’t let me go,” he
added with a sigh. “In his little mind, I’m somehow guilty of kidnapping my own
wife.” That bit of news seemed to come as a surprise to Jenny. “Locking me up
with Big Jack was his idea of speech therapy,” Jason chuckled. “What he didn’t
take into account was the fact that Big Jack seems to be a huge fan of mine.”

His
chuckle ended abruptly as a look came over Jenny’s face. Her surprise seemed to
be morphing into… was that anger he saw in her eyes?

“That
sheriff,” Jenny muttered to herself as she shook her head before pointing her
iced coffee, straw first, at Jason’s nose. “This time he has gone too far!”

It
seemed that Jason had an ally. “I need help,” he said quietly.

“You
can count me in,” Jenny spoke with an affirmative nod.

“I
need you to contact someone for me,” Jason instructed. “The girl who came in
with me when you and I first met… when we did the drawings – remember her? She
almost ran over you.”

“Oh
yes,” Jenny said with a smile. “You mean Susan.”

“Yes,
um, that – that
is
her,” Jason responded in surprise. “You have a good
memory.” He paused, giving himself a moment to recover before going on. “I
don’t have her number memorized, and the sheriff took my phone,” Jason said in
an agitated voice. “But I can give you directions to her house.”

“Oh,
that won’t be necessary,” Jenny chirped. “I have her number. My memory’s
actually not that great,” she added. “I remember her name because she dropped
by a few days ago and invited me to church.”

Jason
laughed. “Why am I not surprised?” he asked. That sounded like good ole’ Susan
– though this was the first time that he was actually glad she invited someone
to church.

“I’ll
call her and see if we can arrange a little visit,” Jenny spoke with a
confident nod then paused, seeming to contemplate something. “I do believe I’ll
take her up on the offer to go to church.”

“Nothing
would make her happier,” Jason said with a smile. As she turned to leave, he
stopped her with one last question. “Anything on the prints yet?”

“Nope,”
she replied. “No match yet.”

“No
match?” Jason asked confused. “What do you mean?” No match – that meant… “You
found some prints on Misty’s necklace?” he asked excitedly.

“Oh,”
Jenny said like she wanted to slap herself. “Everything that happened yesterday
and I thought you’d already left but yes, yes we got some prints off of your
wife’s necklace!”

Jason
wanted to give a victorious yell… but Big Jack didn’t like yelling. Jason was
on the giant’s good side and wanted to keep it that way, so he just clenched
his fist and gave it a triumphant shake. “Please, come let me know when you get
a match,” he requested.

“I
will,” Jenny promised. With that, the sound of her retreating footsteps began
echoing down the hall. Jason lay back down on his foam mattress and tossed and
turned as the time passed by at a painfully slow pace.

The
sounds of jail house activity began to float down the hall. Soon breakfast was
served. Jason sat up and received the trays through the small open slot below
the window. One tray had just plain-ole’ bacon and eggs on it, but the other
was laden down with all different sorts of delicacies. From pancakes to
biscuits and gravy – it was all there.

Big
Jack got up, quietly took the simpler tray and was about to eat when Jason
pointed at the other tray. “Why does this one have more food on it?” he asked.

“The
cook does that for all the new prisoners,” Big Jack answered. “Sort of welcome
present.”

Jason
looked down at the food. It looked delicious, but something in the big man’s
words had turned his stomach upside down. “I can’t eat it,” Jason said flatly.

“Why’s
that?” Big Jack asked like he really didn’t care.

“Because
I don’t
want
to be welcomed,” Jason stressed. “Eating my welcome present
would be accepting that I belong here.”

“May
as well accept it,” came the gloomy reply. “I have.” Apparently, Big Jack was
not a morning person.

“I
will not accept defeat,” Jason explained in no uncertain terms.

“So
you’re not going to eat your welcome breakfast?” Big Jack asked, the first
signs of hope seeping into his voice.

“I
will not,” Jason responded, his voice filled with determination.

There
was a brief pause as Big Jack studied Jason’s plate of food. “Can I have it?”
he asked in anticipation.

“Sure,”
Jason answered, handing him the tray.

“Want
mine?” Big Jack offered. “It’s not a welcome meal… just food.”

Jason
paused for a moment’s contemplation before giving his head a nod. “Yeah, I
guess so,” he said. No harm in that… just as long as it wasn’t welcome food.

A
happy Big Jack switched the plates and dug in. Jason sat down on his mattress
with his bacon and eggs. Big Jack gobbled down his huge meal before Jason was
halfway through with his little one. Giving a contented sigh, the giant arose,
rubbed his full belly and returned to bed.

About
the time that Jason was finishing his food, he heard footsteps approaching once
again. Excitedly, he crawled to his feet and looked out the cell window. It was
Susan and Jenny.

“Jason,”
Susan exclaimed when she saw him, like she had been told he was locked up but
seeing it was still a shock.

“Hey
Susan,” Jason greeted. “They say the search is over for Misty’s kidnappers,” he
said in a matter-of-fact way. “The sheriff seems to think so, anyways.”

“Yeah,
Jenny told me,” Susan replied in a perplexed voice. “Does the sheriff really
think you kidnaped my sister?”

“If
he doesn’t, he’s sure gone to great lengths to convince me otherwise,” Jason
scoffed. “They even had one of the real kidnappers locked up. I picked him out
of a line up, and the sheriff claimed he had an air tight alibi. Turned him
lose.”

Jenny
bobbed her head back a little as she asked, “The ugly one?”

“Yeah,”
Jason replied. “Why?”

“Victor
didn’t turn him lose,” Jenny explained. “He turned him over.”

“Over?”
Jason asked.

“Yes,
to the FBI,” Jenny explained. “A big kidnapping case like this, they’re taking
lead. All the stuff we get, we turn over to them – sharing information.” She
studied Jason. “Supposed to be, anyways. I doubt they know about the sheriff’s
glitch with you, though.”

“He
can’t keep it under wraps forever,” Jason said with a satisfied smile. “As soon
as the story of what he has done gets out, so will I.”

Jenny
smiled, acknowledging that would probably be the case before she spoke. “Look,
I’m running those prints as we speak, so I’m going to leave
y’all
alone.” She paused for a moment then directed her attention to Susan. “If you
see Sheriff Victor coming, act like you talking to one of the other prisoners.
He seems to be a little extra touchy about Jason.” She looked at the window
several cells down and lowered her voice as she added, “Just don’t act like
you’re talking to Jim over there. If you say a word to him, he’ll likely
propose.”

As
Jenny walked away Susan smiled half-heartedly, like she wasn’t sure if the sketch
artist had been serious. She turned to Jason with a questioning look in her eye.

“She
means it,” Jason assured her. “He will. Proposed marriage to her first thing
this morning.”

“That
doesn’t mean he’d ask me,” Susan argued defensively.

“Why
not?” Jason asked. “If a man’s been locked up for very long at all, he’ll…”
That was going to come out sounding like an insult.

“Jason
Hathaway,” Susan lectured as she pointed her finger at him. “You were going to
say that a man behind bars would settle for any woman – even me – weren’t you?”

“I
didn’t mean it like that,” Jason tried to explain, unsure as to whether she was
really mad or not.

Susan
relaxed and gave Jason a weak smile, letting him know that she, at least, saw a
little bit of humor in it.

After
a few moments of silence, he came to the point. “Look, I need you to do me a
huge favor.” Susan didn’t seem to be all ears, but Jason began laying out his
request anyways. “Can you go out to where I’ve been training and tell a man
named Tyler that I’m in jail? Tell him that’s why I didn’t come back last
night. Tell him I didn’t quit.”

“Yeah,
sure,” Susan said. “I can do that.” It was then that Jason noticed a deep worry
in her eyes. “How you
gonna
get there?” he asked.
“You’ve never been. You didn’t even seem surprised that I’m training to climb.
Did you already know that?”

“Um,
yeah, I think so,” Susan replied, still distracted. “Heard it somewhere.”
Apparently, there was only one way Susan was going to get past whatever was
bothering her… talk about it.

“What’s
wrong?” Jason asked, hoping it wasn’t serious and the explanation wasn’t
lengthy.

“Nothing,”
Susan sighed. That word coming from a woman’s mouth always made Jason flinch.
In a woman’s world “nothing” seemed to be code for something that was about to
drive them insane. Susan sighed again before she went on. “It’s just that
something really weird happened last night. Well, not
really
weird but
weird anyways, I don’t know. It was just weir… strange.” She sighed. “Um,
Denton called me. Said I was going to be sorry for whatever he thinks I’ve done
to him.” She raked back the hair on one side of her head with her fingers as
she stared blankly into Jason’s cell.

“He’s
said that at least a thousand times, right?” Jason asked, unsure as to why she
was making such a big deal out of a common occurrence.

“Right,
right,” Susan agreed then paused for a second. “But this time was different,”
she said, and her voice quivered. “There was something evil in his voice. It
was like he had something; something I either wanted or needed… maybe both. I
don’t know. Maybe I just read too much into it.”

“Yeah,
probably so,” Jason said, but now he was not totally convinced. She was clearly
shaken, and it had him shaken… and he wasn’t even sure why.

Susan
sighed and rubbed her eyes. Jason had never seen her act like this before. She
seemed to have something else she needed to tell him – something that she
didn’t want to tell him. His anxiety grew until, finally, he could stand it no
more. In a voice that reveled he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer,
Jason asked, “What is it Susan? What’s really wrong?”

A
look of shame came over her. A tear trickled down her cheek. Finally, she began
to talk. “There is, um…” she paused and wiped the tear away, trying to compose
herself. “There’s something you should know about Denton,” she said in a shaky
voice. She let out another sigh – wiped her eyes again… finally she just said
it, “Since the time I met him, he’s had a thing for Misty.”

“Who
has?” Jason asked, perplexed. Surely there was a third person in her story she
had forgotten to name.

“Denton,”
she said as hollowness filled her voice.

Jason’s
head began spinning. He felt his legs go weak. “You – you, you’ve always
known?” he stammered, unsure of why she’d marry someone who was not totally
devoted her.