Blackjack

62

“Daphne.”

I pulled her hands from my neck, but she remained tense and continued to fight with me.

“Daphne,” I said, struggling with her tense arms. “Daphne, it’s okay, it’s me.”

She stared at me for a moment, then slowly relaxed, letting go. The fearful expression on her face slowly softened when she realized she was not in danger.

“It’s okay,” I said. “It’s me, Everett. You’re just having a bad dream.”

She remained staring at me then she softened some more and recessed back into the bed.

“Everett...”

“I’m here,” I said.

She looked around and shook her head a little.

“My gosh,” she said. “I’m sorry...”

“It’s okay,” I said. “You were obviously having a nightmare.”

She nodded.

“You all right?” I said.

“Yes,” she said. “Oh my God... Ugh... someone was after me, I don’t know who... It was Bill, I think. I was being chased through the woods... and... I don’t, can’t remember everything, but... so awful... I was running, but I could not move quickly, you know, and I could not get away, then I was caught, he caught me, Bill caught me, and then you woke me up, thank God.”

“I was right there with you,” I said. “I woke in a bit of a fret myself.”

She held her head.

“I drank your whiskey,” she said. “I... I’m afraid I am not much of a drinker.”

“Probably need some water?”

She sat up some and nodded, and I poured her a glass of water.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Your dream,” I said, “was not without some kind of foreshadowing, it seems.”

“How so, Everett?”

I put on my shirt and buttoned it as she waited for me to answer her.

“It’s Bill Black,” I said.

“Yes?”

“He escaped last night.”

She blinked at me a few times.

“What?”

I nodded.

“My God,” she said, sitting up with a shocked look on her face. “What? How on earth... my God.”

I sat in the corner chair and slipped on my boots.

“He’s out and on the loose,” I said. “Got out with Truitt Shirley.”

“The man he was on the run with before?”

“Yep.”

“My gosh. I just can’t believe it.”

“It happened,” I said.

“How do you— How did you find out?”

“Deputy was by here just now.”

“My God... what now?”

“Catch him.”

Daphne’s eyes were wide.

“I... what should I do?”

“You?” I said. “You don’t do anything.”

“But... I... I’m frightened.”

“Nothing for you to be frightened about.”

“But... I am, I...”

Her eyes darted around the room, as if she was thinking intently about something or imagining how he might get in or where she might hide.

“You need not be,” I said.

She looked down and stared at the floor, shaking her head.

“This is not good,” she said.

“No,” I said. “It’s not.”

“It all seems so cruel,” she said, almost as if she were talking to herself.

“Murder is cruel,” I said.

She pulled her knees up to her chest and looked at me as I continued to dress.

“How did he escape?”

“Not real sure,” I said.

“My God...” she said.

“We have some kind of idea... but the fact is, however he got out, whenever he got out, he’s out.”

She gathered the sheet and sat to the edge of the bed holding the fabric in front of her nakedness.

“Everett... I’m...”

“What?”

“Just scared is all.”

“Why should you be scared?”

“I... I don’t know.”

“This has nothing to do with you, Daphne,” I said. “He’s out and he’s running.”

She stared at the floor long and hard, then looked up to me. Her eyes were wet.

“You must be careful,” she said.

She looked like a spooked child holding the sheet in front of her.

“You don’t need to worry about anything.”

“But I do...”

“Don’t. Besides, I always am careful,” I said. “Part of my job description.”

Like every morning, out of habit and correctness, I checked the cylinder of my Colt, then put it back in my holster and strapped the belt around my hip.

“You saw what he did to that man that witnessed him murdering that poor woman,” she said. “He almost killed him right before our eyes.”

“I did.”

“He’s an animal,” she said.

“This is what I do, Daphne,” I said. “What I have to do. It’s my job to enforce the law. And it is against the law for a criminal to break out of jail where they have been incarcerated for a crime they have been charged and convicted of.”

“But he’s different, Everett,” she said. “Very different.”

“I thought you and Pritchard were on his side. Thought he was an innocent man?”

“We were... until this witness came forward and described what he did. Now my insecurities about what I thought might be real, could be real, are very real... I am scared to know the man I was once engaged to be married to is a cold-blooded vicious murderer. How could I have been so blind?”

“Not about being blind,” I said. “People have good in them and people have bad in them, and in some people the bad... takes over and wins out.”

“You believe that?”

“I do,” I said.

I tied my bandanna around my neck, then picked up my eight-gauge.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know why, but I’m just so fearful.”

“No reason to be sorry,” I said. “But there is nothing for you to be concerned with, just go back and stay put in your room.”

“No,” she said. “I don’t want to go back there, not right now.”

“Stay here, then.”

“I... I don’t want to be alone,” she said. “He’s a dangerous man.”

I broke open the double barrel, confirmed there was a shell in each cylinder as I left them, then snapped it shut.

“So am I,” I said.

She got to her feet and let the sheet fall to the floor and stood naked in front of me. Then she moved to me and put her arms around my neck and kissed me.

“I like that,” she said.