The Lawman's Bride (21 page)

“That’s why he’s so mad now. I don’t have the money. He said if I didn’t work it off he’d hurt you…or Amanda. I played along. He has a plan and he’ll send word when I’m to do my part.”

She seemed so detached from what she was saying, as though there wasn’t anything of importance at stake. He knew different. “What’s his plan?”

“It’s a cattleman he’s had in his sights. He knows exactly how much the man is worth, where his cash is, his weaknesses, and then he sends me in as the setup.”

“What’s your part?”

“I’ll tell you, but I want you to go along with it, Clay.”

“Why?”

“I want to catch Garrett at it. I want him to know I set him up. I want to see his face and know I had the last word.” She moved forward, almost reached for him, then drew her hands back. “I know you don’t owe me anything. Not after the way I lied to you and pretended to be someone I’m not. You probably don’t think you can trust me, but I’m not trying to get out of anything, I swear to you.

“I’ll pay my time just like I deserve. You can watch me so that I don’t try to leave. You can assign your deputies to watch me. I’m going to play along just like I’m his pawn again. As soon as I hear from him I’ll get word to you. And when Garrett comes to exact his blackmail, you’ll catch him red-handed.

“If I’m going to sit in a jail cell for years, I want to know that he had to face the fact that he didn’t own me after all.”

Finally a flicker of emotion crossed her features. Enough for him to know how important this was, enough to sense her desperation. Clay couldn’t think about her locked in a jail cell. But even though her position in all this wasn’t her fault, he was angry. Why his town? Why him?

“If I
was
to go along with this…how does it work?”

“I keep the gentleman company, skillfully reel him in.”

Clay didn’t like the idea at all. “Seduce him?”

“I invite him to my hotel room. Leave the door unlocked.”

Not one damned bit.

“I get naked—”

“The hell you will.”

“Okay, I’m
supposed
to get naked, and then I signal Garrett by turning the light off and on, then opening the window. Garrett barges in with a witness. The mark has to hide his indiscretion from his wife and family, so he pays through the nose. We take the cash and disappear.”

Clay scratched his chin. “I suppose I could be right here waiting for him.”

“Yes.”

“Have a couple o’ deputies in the next room.”

“Yes.”

“You would have all your clothes on.”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t a bad plan at all. But he stared at her, feeling like he’d never even met her before. “This is crazy. Are you using me, too? Is this what Sunday was all about? Softening me up to help you?”

Her expression couldn’t have shown more shock if he’d grabbed her by the neck and squeezed. She placed a hand on her breast as though it was caving in.

Without another word he crossed the room, picked up his hat and left.

Chapter Seventeen

C
lay stabled his horse and strode the block and a half to the jail. Across the street the bricklayers had finished and hammers rang as carpenters worked on the roof.

It was perfectly believable that Sophie had been there the night of the fire. The blaze could have started in any number of ways. A spark from the stove, a cigarette tossed by a careless passerby. He’d even considered the possibility that DeWeise had a partner or friend who’d lit it as a distraction. That would have been a pretty risky thing to do. Stupid, considering DeWeise would have cooked in there if Sophie hadn’t let him out.

It made more sense that someone had picked the lock to get in earlier, then turned around to free the man from a horrible death. Why would she lie about that?

Why not? Apparently she’d been lying about a lot of things for a good many years, and she’d lied through her teeth since she’d met him.

When he really applied his mind to the facts about Sophie, they all came together to form a kind of warped logic, however. If she had come to Newton to start over, she would have been forced to make up a suitable background and create enough references to get her by. Then one lie led to another until she’d been buried under a mountain of them.

It was perfectly conceivable that she’d be ashamed of what had happened to her, of what Garrett had turned her into. The way she’d told him, the look on her face testified to her humiliation. If Clay had let himself believe all of it at once, he couldn’t have let Garrett draw another breath. Clay might be a lawman but he was flesh and blood, human, fallible. Mad as hell.

She’d been right to stop him from acting on his gut reaction. Without proof of the man’s identity or of his crimes Clay could have killed him and been arrested himself. He had to take a step back, as impossible as that seemed, and do his job. He couldn’t shake the nagging doubt that this might be another of her well-substantiated lies.

After entering the stifling building, he left the door standing wide open. There was a large envelope lying on his desk. He read his name and ripped it open to unfold a stack of posters.

He studied ink drawings which had been duplicated on a printing press. The names were the same as those he’d read on the telegrams. Clay pulled those from his pocket and compared.

The poster from Denver was a drawing depicting a bald man with a mustache. When Clay covered the top of the man’s head with another paper, the eyes were Monte Morgan’s. Sophie’s claim hadn’t really surprised him. He’d had a gut reaction to the man the first time he’d seen him. He just wished he’d been more convinced before he’d seen this proof.

Gabriella Dumont was another matter. He’d never suspected Sophie was anything other than who she claimed to be. Yes, there had been little things that he’d excused or overlooked now that he thought of it, but swallowing all of this at once was difficult. The artist had drawn the young woman as a beauty. The dark eyes were difficult to conceal, but her hair was different. Clay laid the pictures out on the floor and took a couple steps back to glance at them from another perspective.

Recognition was unmistakable. Without a doubt Gabriella Dumont was Sophie Hollis. Fugitive from the law.

Confidence shark.

Accomplice to murder.

Was he once again falling for a story? Had she been a willing partner? Her lack of emotion when she shared those things that she’d supposedly endured made her seem cold or insincere…or what? Definitely detached. Was that how she survived? How she kept her heart and her head from being torn apart? How did he know for sure she hadn’t been a willing partner in those crimes? She could be playing a part in a long line of cons. But to what purpose?

If she’d wanted to convince Clay of a lie, she was an accomplished actress. She could have feigned a display of emotion to draw his pity. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t asked for or expected any sympathy.

But he credited himself with being a good judge of character, and he’d never had the least suspicion she wasn’t who she claimed. She’d matter-of-factly wanted to tell him those things—first so he wouldn’t be shocked or disappointed in her lack of innocence, and later because she thought she needed to protect him and Amanda.

Amanda did need protection, that was for sure. Clay could take care of himself.

The proof was right in front of him; he had to believe this final story. But what was he going to do about it? Arrest them both and let them be taken back to Colorado for trial? He wouldn’t have any control over the situation, and she could be sentenced and…hung. He’d seen men hung, and it was a disturbing practice. His imagination wanted to soar and picture Sophie with a noose lowering around her neck, but he banished those dark thoughts from his head.

Sophie had revealed Garrett for what he was. She’d given Clay everything he needed to set up the man. Catching him red-handed in one of his schemes would be rewarding. If Clay wanted to do that, how much more must Sophie want to see it happen?

Judging by the dates on some of those papers, she’d been a child when Garrett had gotten her in his clutches. Would a judge and jury see that she’d been too young and too afraid, that she’d feared for her life if she hadn’t gone along?

He would check into her story of making restitution in several of those cases. That would go a long way to show her good intent.

Clay hadn’t wanted to believe her involvement because he’d fallen for her. He couldn’t deny her confession and this proof, but he couldn’t arrest Garrett without arresting her, too. He imagined putting her in a cell himself, and his gut clenched.

He couldn’t let either of them go free, but neither could he risk the chance that she might fall into Garrett’s clutches again. She’d have no choice but to go back to what she’d been before.

He was being ripped in two different directions. His thoughts had jumped around so much he didn’t know what was logic anymore. Guilty and playing him? Innocent and needing him? Neither. Both. It all came down to the fact that he
wanted
to believe her. He had to.

She had a crazy plan. A plan to catch Garrett red-handed. If Clay caught him in a crime right here in his town, he’d have more authority to influence Sophie’s fate before the law.

And Sophie could prove herself by helping trap the man. Maybe her assistance would keep her from being tried and convicted in Colorado.

Clay picked up the posters, buried them along with the telegrams in his desk drawer and headed back out.

What choice did he have really? He loved her. He would never look at the world or meet a day without wanting to share it with Sophie. He would go along with her plan. Now he had telegrams of his own to send.

Sophie was going to try the same tactic with Amanda that she’d used with Clay. Proof. She feared the girl would refuse to speak with her, but she sent a note with a young boy and waited at a table inside the front window of Almira Wheeler’s cozy pastry shop where tea was served of an evening.

She remembered the schedule well enough to know Amanda would be finished with her duties for the day. At six the blonde stepped through the doorway and glanced around.

Sophie waved to her, and, without a smile, Amanda joined her at a table.

“Thank you for coming. I didn’t know if you would.”

Amanda didn’t say anything. She looked uncomfortable being there and didn’t meet Sophie’s eyes.

“I guess you were just curious about what I wanted.”

Amanda’s gaze finally rose, and Sophie recognized hurt and betrayal. “I’m hoping you want to apologize.”

Sophie took a breath. “All I ask is that you listen.” She took posters from her reticule and flattened them out on the tabletop. “I know you don’t want to believe me. I understand. Garrett is convincing and can be as charming and attentive as he needs to be. But this is him.”

She pointed to the wanted papers she’d received that day. “And this is me.”

Amanda looked from the drawings to Sophie’s face with disbelief.

“I’m not going to ask you to forgive me or beg you to understand and be my friend. I’m pleading with you to spare yourself any further danger.”

She gave Amanda a brief explanation of how she’d come to know Garrett and the way he’d controlled her. Amanda needed to know enough so that she would believe he was dangerous and that her safety was at risk.

Amanda’s expression showed that the explanation was sinking in and making sense. She raised her fingers to her temple and rubbed as though the thought process gave her a headache. “This is so hard to believe.”

“I know. All I want is for you to be safe, and you’re not safe while he’s still here.”

“So you traveled with Monte? Ever since you were how old?”

“About eleven or twelve,” Sophie answered.

“He took care of you?”

“I ate well, had nice clothing, studied with tutors if that’s what you mean. He never behaved like a parent. I was like a dog trained to fight or a horse raised to win races. I was like a pet who made money for him.”

Amanda was obviously taking it all in. “Are you turning yourself in so that he’ll be caught?” she asked.

Maybe down deep Amanda had suspected that Sophie was telling the truth, but she hadn’t been able to accept it. “I’ve already confessed everything to the marshal,” Sophie told her. “I want to set a trap to catch Garrett, but you have to be gone. You can travel free, and Mr. Webb knows you’ve been waiting to go to your cousin Winnie when her baby comes. He’ll accommodate you taking a leave to see your family. I know he will.”

“I’ve been hoping to hear something any day,” Amanda said, the subject distracting her.

“You didn’t go early because you couldn’t afford to lose the pay.” Sophie took an envelope from her reticule. “Take this. Don’t worry, it’s not stolen, it’s the money I earned giving dance lessons. You’ve sent most of your pay home, and I’ve been saving mine. I won’t need it where I’m going.”

Amanda frowned and then recognition dawned. She blinked in surprise. “You’re going to
jail?
”

“I’ll be okay.”

Amanda stared at the envelope. Tears welled in her eyes. “This is all true, Sophie? You weren’t trying to get Monte for yourself?”

“His name isn’t Monte,” she replied. “You don’t have any reason to trust that I wouldn’t do something like that to you. But he has an evil heart and you have to trust me on that for your own good. I’ve wanted nothing more than to get away from him since I was twelve years old.” She covered Amanda’s hand on the table. “I don’t think you’ll be seeing him because we made a deal, but if you do, you mustn’t tell him you know anything or that I told you.”

“I’m going to talk with Mr. Webb as soon as I get back to the Arcade,” Amanda said. “I’ll get my ticket and be out of here by tomorrow.”

Sophie felt as though a boulder had been lifted away from her.

Amanda raised her hand to squeeze Sophie’s. “I’m sorry I got so angry.”

Sophie shook her head. “No apologies. I would have been thinking the same way if I’d been in your place. Don’t sell yourself short, Amanda. You’re going to meet someone deserving of you.”