Page 67 of A Soft Kiss in Summer
“You’reassuminga freckle is enough to convince the sheriff.”
“Well, if it isn’t, I’ll think of something else.I’ll go find that preacher if I have to knock on every door in this town and ask every person I see.”
“I don’t want you doing all that, Violet.It’s too much.”
“It might be, but if I don’t prove you didn’t kill Edwin, who will?”
The front door opened as she spoke, and the sheriff grinned as she looked over her shoulder at him.“Are you a Pinkerton Detective now, Mrs.Lincoln?”
Mrs.Lincoln?
It was the first time anyone had ever addressed her as such and the euphoria it left behind was enough for her to ignore the smug tone in the sheriff's voice.
She recapped what she’d told Josiah, and the sheriff was as skeptical as Josiah had been.It took nearly twenty minutes of arguing to convince him to send someone over to the undertakers to check it out.
Josiah got her attention again and told her to head back to the hotel.Thinking of the last time they were there, she blushed, especially when she looked at his naked chest.He still didn’t have a shirt on.“I’ll go grab your boots and a clean shirt and bring them back to you.Do you need anything else?”
“Just for you to be safe, so stop running around town and go get some rest.Have you eaten at all since this morning?”
No, she hadn’t.She agreed to do so and gave him another kiss before leaving, but she had more important things to do than eat.She had to find that preacher and find him now.
Josiah watched Violet leave, followed by the sheriff, before returning to his cot.He laid down and stared at the ceiling like he’d been doing since getting thrown into the cell.
His worry had only grown throughout the day.The deputies had thought he was asleep earlier, and he’d overheard their whispered conversation.They wanted him strung up and hanged.The sooner the better.It wasn’t even for Edwin and the justice a murdered man deserved.No, it was for the excitement.The men working for the sheriff weren’t the type of men who needed to be deputies.
Their enthusiasm gave him a whole new set of worries.What would happen to Violet if he hanged for a murder he didn’t commit?Would she be able to make it back home safely?
He needed to get word back to Silver Falls and have Tanner come fetch her.Or at least stay in town to watch over her if she refused to leave until all of this was over, which he feared she would do.She was too determined to clear his name to leave, but he could still send for Tanner.
Maybe he could help Violet in some way.If Edwin was indeed not the man at the undertakers, as Violet so adamantly declared, then where was he?Why was the man found in the mercantile wearing his clothes and have his belongings?
Was it possible Edwin had faked his own death?And if so, why?Was it because of the men the sheriff claimed were doing back door deals with Edwin behind the mercantile?
Who were they, and how did they play into all of this?
Was whatever they’d been up to enough to make Edwin want to disappear?
He seemed desperate enough.The way he pursued Violet and tried so hard to get her to marry him told him he was desperate about something.The “why” was the important part.They needed a motive for his behavior to sort out the rest, which was hard to do behind bars.
He glanced at the lone deputy in the office.His feet were propped on the desk, his hat pulled down over his eyes.Napping, if he had to guess.
Climbing to his feet, he approached the bars and said, “I need to get word back home.Can you send a telegram to Silver Falls for me?”
The man blew out a long breath.Not asleep, then.He was slow to move, but finally lifted his hat from his face and lowered his feet to the floor.When he met his gaze, he looked irritated at being interrupted.
“You have money to pay for a telegram?”
“Yes.”
The deputy shuffled around on the desk and finally picked up a pad of paper and a pencil and carried it across the room to him.Josiah jotted down his message for Tanner and handed it back before fishing the money for the telegram out of his pocket.
When the man left, he went back to his cot.He’d have another talk with the sheriff when he returned and ask him about the men Edwin was hanging around with.
In the meantime, he hoped Violet had done as he suggested and went back to the hotel, but something told him she hadn’t.She was too determined to clear his name and he couldn’t help but fall a little bit in love with her for that.
No one had ever fought for him.Not even Ruth when her family protested her marrying a lawman.She’d just agreed to it without their blessing, which left a really sour taste in his mouth once she’d died.
They blamed him for her death, and it was his fault, in part.But she’d been too trusting, and it had been her downfall.And his.
