Sweet Talking Lawman (5 page)

Heather opened his office
door and waved silently as she released the dog into the room as his phone
rang.  He tossed her a grateful grin and lifted the phone to his ear as
she backed out and pulled the door closed behind her.

“Hello Mayor Shiver. 
Yes, it was a busy night and that’s what I need to talk to you about.” 
Rafe broke the news as gently as he knew how and tried his best to be
understanding and patient, but when the man on the other end of the line
demanded that his brother be released immediately, his patience broke. 
“Listen, Ralph.  I know that you find this hard to believe and probably
embarrassing as well, but we had a tip and set up a stake out and…”  He
paused and listened for a moment.  “Otis entered the house through a
window and was in the woman’s bedroom with a knife in his hand and his pants
opened.  Fortunately, we were prepared and the woman he thought would be
there had been replaced by an armed female deputy.”  He paused again
before he continued.  “There just really isn’t much room for doubt, I
assure you.”  Another brief pause.  “Of course you can come see him
and bring his lawyer, but I don’t think he’ll fight too hard with all the
evidence we have against him.  DNA?  As a matter of fact we do, he
peed all over the floor when my deputy greeted him with her hand gun in his
face.  I don’t think there’ll be any shortage of DNA.  His
fingerprints are on the knife and of course, we have his clothes to take DNA
from.”

Frustration and impatience
swirled around his personal space as he replaced the phone receiver into its
cradle.  He’d known that Ralph Shiver would feel he could throw his weight
around, but as sheriff, Rafe wasn’t about to turn Otis Shiver back out to prey
on the women of his county.  He picked the phone up again and spoke to
Beth.  “Get the District Attorney on the phone for me, and when Mayor
Shiver and his lawyer get here, stall them for as long as you can.”

In the outer office, her
brows arched.  “I’m supposed to stall them?”

“Yeah, I want the DA here
when they go in the back to see Otis.  Make sure…”

“By whatever means
necessary?” she asked, not allowing him to finish his sentence.

“Whatever means necessary.”
He grinned as he nodded, even knowing she couldn’t see him.  “I know how
creative your mind can be.”

Beth chortled softly. 
“I’ll take that as a compliment and I’m sending Levi on in.”

Rafe was smiling as he hung
the phone up again.  A light tap on the door preceded Levi pushing it
open.  He grinned at Rafe.  “I see you figured out who we got down
there in lock-up.”

“Why the hell did I have to
wait this long to find out?”

Rafe’s bark was worse than
his bite and Levi knew it.  His easy grin never faltered.  “Who, in
this department, can you name that would want to tell you?”

Rafe swore softly. 
“Well, Ralph and his lawyer are on their way over here and I’ve told Beth to
stall them until the DA gets here.  Since you couldn’t make yourself tell
me it was the mayor’s brother in lock-up, you can help Beth with that little
chore.”  The phone on his desk rang and he answered it.  After only a
few words exchanged, he hung up and pushed his chair back.  “I’ll be down
in lock-up waiting for the DA.  He’s on his way.  When he gets here,
I’ll let Beth know she can send Ralph and his lawyer down and you, my friend,
can show them the way.”

“Dammit, Rafe, you know I
can’t stand that man!”  Levi started pleading his case, but stopped when
Rafe lifted one hand, palm up toward him.

“Don’t whine, Levi, it’s not
manly.”  He and Spur exited the door in the back wall of his office,
leaving Levi to join Beth in the outer office.

Two hours later, he watched
through a one way mirror as the DA secured Otis Shiver’s signature on a
confession.  The threat of a trial with witnesses and DNA evidence had
swung the mayor to their side and he’d talked his brother into accepting a plea
bargain of a slightly shortened sentence and the assurance from Archie Spitzer
that the story wouldn’t run on the front page but one time.

Rafe smiled.  He liked
it when things worked out so well.  Rapist off the street, confession
signed, no expensive trial.  Yeah, he enjoyed his job.  Absently he
scratched the big dog’s head and then sighed loudly.  “Come on,
dawg.  Let’s go see if we can find something to eat.”

He found Levi and the
Montgomerys sitting at a booth in The Tepee, the local cafe.  He slipped
into the seat next to Levi.  “Have you heard if Rance Howell’s remembered
any more about his accident?”

Levi took a bite of his
mashed potatoes and gravy.  “No, why?”

Rafe shrugged his broad
shoulders.  “Just seems strange to me.  He’s been trainin’ horses for
so many years, it just don’t seem likely that he’d have a colt out in the woods
unless he knew it was ready for rough terrain.  And if the colt was
spooky, I know Rance reads a horse better than anyone alive.  He’d have
been aware of what the horse was gonna do, before the horse was.”

Krystal Montgomery
nodded.  “I thought the same thing.  I can’t imagine Rance freezing
in the saddle and letting himself get rolled on like that.  He’s the best
horseman I’ve ever seen.”

Levi took another bite. 
“Did you ask him about it?”

Rafe nodded, and then placed
his order when the waitress brought a glass of iced tea to the table for
him.  When she left, he took a sip from the frosty glass before he
shrugged.  “He was still out cold when Bob and Gibby found him.”

John Montgomery shook his big
head negatively.  “Seemed like a hell of a spill for him to survive,
considering the horse didn’t.”

Rafe agreed.  “From the
insurance report, the colt fell another thirty feet or so among fallen trees
and stumps.  If Rance hadn’t hung up against that tree he’d have gone over
into that sink hole, too.  Bob said he didn’t go down and retrieve the
tack from the horse ‘till the next day, but from just lookin’, he knew it was
dead from the fall.”

Everyone in town knew Spur
and he was granted privileges equal to those of any service dog, so he lay
quietly on the floor next to Rafe’s feet.  He sat up for a minute, licked
his muzzle and looked at Rafe expectantly and then dropped his eyes to the
steak in the plate.  “Leave it.”  The man spoke softly and the animal
laid his head back down on his big paws.

While the humans ate, the dog
rested silently, knowing that when they went outside again, he’d be given his
share.  Today it would be the bone of the huge T-bone steak on John
Montgomery’s plate.

The law enforcement officers
indulged in the usual shop and trash talk that accompanied meals shared
together, until Rafe looked up and spotted his baby sister and her family
coming in the door.  They exchanged a brief greeting and when he had
finished eating he walked to the table where Jenny and her family had set
down.  He pulled up a chair and sat down after bestowing a quick kiss to
her cheek and shaking Russ’s big hand.  He gave Spur the hand signal to
lie down again.  The dog obeyed, but kept his eyes fixed on the carry-out
bag that Rafe placed on the edge of the table.  Their little girl, Macie,
squealed and reached for her uncle.  Grinning he lifted her from the high
chair and into his arms.  Her short blond curls bounced with joy at being
in her uncle’s lap.  She immediately turned and began trying to remove the
badge embroidered on his shirt front.  Failing to get it off with her
small hands, she decided maybe she could succeed with her front teeth.  She
ignored the grown-ups talking, concentrating only on the emblem on the front of
his uniform.

“We heard you got the rapist
last night.  Good job.”  Jenny’s smile beamed with pride.  “I
knew it was just a matter of time.”

He shrugged.  “We had a
share of luck, too.”

“Macie, don’t drool all over
Uncle Rafe’s shirt.”  Her scolding was ignored by the little girl and the
man wearing the shirt.  As far as he was concerned, the child could do no
wrong.

Jenny’s eyes darted up to
his.  “Did you hear that Mesa’s coming home?”

He nodded.  “Never
thought that’d happen,” he responded dryly.

“She’s always loved her Uncle
Rance.  She can’t stand to think of him living the rest of his life in
some nursing home while her mama ruins everything he worked so hard to keep in
the family.”  Jenny placed a few French fries on a napkin in front of the
high chair and returned Macie to her seat.

“Even if she has to fight
Shirley to keep it?  Never thought that day would come.  In fact, the
last time I talked to her, she swore she’d never come back here, because of her
mother.”  Rafe quipped.  He knew it would be a fight, too.  He’d
been hearing about some of the money Shirley was spending since Rance’s
accident.  She’d told anyone who’d listen that she wasn’t getting saddled
with taking care of her brother-in-law.  He would be better off in a
nursing home.  She had finally managed to quit drinking and had apparently
been seeing Ralph Shiver.  It seemed her taste in men hadn’t changed
drastically.  She’d only gone from slimy to scaly.

“Are you the one who told her
what Shirley was plannin’ for Rance?”  He asked, knowing the answer before
he saw the anger in her eyes.

“Yes, I am.  She had a
right to know.  Especially now.”  Jenny was distracted by her son,
Rusty.  Between six and seven, Rusty considered himself almost
grown.  He picked up his knife, intending to cut his meat, until his
mother swept it from his hand.  She smiled at her husband.  “Would
you help him out, please?”  She looked at her disappointed child. 
“When we’re eating out, it’s better if you let your dad help, okay?  It’s
safer to practice at home.”

“Why, especially now?” Rafe
asked.

“Well, it’s.....knowing Rance
needs her is enough, okay?”  Her voice held an edge that he wasn’t used to
hearing.

Rafe shrugged.  “Whatever.” 
He looked across at his brother-in-law.  “I’m off this week-end.  Are
you still hayin’?”

Russ nodded.  “As long
as the weather holds.  If it rains, I can always use your help with that
back bedroom that Jenny wants turned into an office.”

“Studio.  Not an
office.  It’ll be where I can keep all of my art and craft projects. 
Someplace where the kids don’t go.”  Jenny corrected him.

Rafe chuckled.  “So, you
want me to bring over the padlock and hasp?  That’s the only way you’ll
keep these two curtain climbers out of it.”

“Hey,” Rusty cut in, grinning
at his uncle.  “I ain’t no curtain climber!”

Rafe kissed his sister’s
cheek again, and the top of Macie’s head.  Then he pushed back his chair
and stood up.  He shook hands with Russ and with Rusty and returned to his
office.

He wondered why Jenny had
censored her answer earlier.  It wasn’t at all like Jenny to bite her
tongue.  She knew something she wasn’t telling him.  Oh well, he
reminded himself again, Mesa returning home didn’t have anything to do with him. 
He’d better make sure he kept that in mind.  He shuffled the papers he was
looking at and tried to concentrate.  It was hopeless.  He walked out
to where he usually found Beth at her desk.  It had been cleaned off and
she was gone.  He glanced down at his watch and was surprised to realize
how late it was.  If he hurried home, he’d have just enough time to put
that sorrel colt in the round pen for a short session before it got dark. 
He kissed his lips together to summon Spur and headed home.

After the excitement of the
prior week, he was grateful that the next week was uneventful.  He’d even
thought about slipping into Liberty to see Lynn, a woman he visited on
occasions, but decided against it.  Lately, all his interest in women
seemed to revolve around Mesa coming home again.

Over the previous weekend,
Rafe had worked alongside his brother-in-law loading baled hay and storing it
in the barn.  His labor was his way of paying for the hay he’d eventually
haul to his own barn to feed his six horses through the winter.  He’d even
talked Levi into contributing some time.

Levi had taken an interest in
team roping and until he found the horse he wanted, he was using Rafe’s old
gelding, Hammer.  Rafe figured mounting him on Hammer was one of the
easiest ways to teach Levi how to be a heeler.  Hammer had been at it for
over twenty years and was certainly better than any human teacher.  Rafe
had roped off Hammer when he was still in school, Jenny had learned on Hammer,
Russ had learned on Hammer, and even the teenaged Mesa had become a pretty good
heeler riding the old bay gelding.

Now, during breaks and warm
up time in the arena, Rusty was learning to ride on Hammer, but Rafe was
keeping an eye on a POA mare that was probably going to be for sale soon. 
Her present rider’s father was looking for a Quarter Horse to replace the
smaller mare his son was outgrowing, and Rafe figured he’d get the little mare
and Rusty could start learning to throw a rope off her.  Hammer was
getting too old to pull double duty.

He went to every team roping
he could manage when he wasn’t on duty.  His father and his Uncle John had
either roped steers or calves and he knew that Uci had enjoyed going with them,
so he insisted that she go along with him unless it was too hot or too cold.

He knew that at the roping
events, she saw some of her family from the reservation that she wouldn’t see
otherwise.  It was important that she maintain contact, even though she
insisted they were all getting old and boring.  Rafe kept assuring her
that he was keeping his eyes open for a new Grandfather so she wouldn’t be
alone in her old age.