Page 82 of Inventions of the Heart

“Len Beedle is out at your ranch right now?” Irving looked like a hungry wolf. “We’ve got wanted posters for him. He’s a known killer. A couple for Parker, too. Who else is out there riding the hoot owl trail?”

Jarvis’s eyes narrowed with calculation. “I’ll tell you names, but I want your word there’ll be no hanging. And no kidnapping and horse thieving charges, either.”

“Maybe, if you write it all down and sign it, you can avoid the murder charge. But no judge is going to let you all the way off of kidnapping and horse thieving. But they might not give you a life sentence if you write out your confession fast, before your two saddle partners get their version of the story down.”

“Sure, I’ll write it.” He looked past Michelle, worried as a man could be. “I’m sorry you’re hurt, ma’am.”

Jarvis was a while writing his story, and everyone stayed and watched him.

Michelle sniffed, her arms crossed. Her eye mostly swollen shut. “You’re sure you’re not going to let him confess and apologize so sweetly that you swing open the jail doors and set him free, right, Sheriff?”

“That’s right, ma’am.”

The two lawmen stood together reading the confession, slightly turned away from Jarvis and not paying attention. Zane eased around them on one side and Michelle on the other. Zane’s hand snaked through the bars, grabbed Jarvis by the front of his shirt, and yanked him hard. His head struck the bars with a dull thud.

Zane said with quiet menace, “You’d better hope they lock you up tight. If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you on sight.”

With no real plans to kill anyone, Zane took some pleasure in watching the color drain out of Jarvis’s battered face.

Michelle took the opportunity of his being so close to punch him in the eye.

Jarvis started to howl.

Zane and Michelle stepped back.

The lawmen looked up at the noise, then went back to reading.

Zane wasn’t one bit convinced that these two savvy men hadn’t noticed the little exchange between the Hart family and Jarvis Benteen.

Satisfied with the confession, the four of them went into the front office just as the front door swung open and six US Marshals came in.

Jarvis was on the road to Sacramento long before he figuredout his two saddle partners weren’t going to be coming in to tell tales against him.

All six marshals, seven counting Irving, said they’d be back as fast as they could ride, with a few more marshals, to clean up the varmints at Horace Benteen’s ranch. In Jarvis’s confession, a few more notorious men were identified.

Horace Benteen himself had to be arrested, too, and for that, they had to find him.

It was all settled, and Michelle still had time to contact the California Ironworks and order a traction engine.

At this rate, all that gold wasn’t even going to make him rich, unless you counted being loaded down with machines as wealthy. Frankly, Zane didn’t count it.

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