Blackjack

63

When I knocked on the door Virgil was already up and dressed. He answered the door in his stocking feet and holding a cup of coffee as he looked back and forth between Daphne and me.

“Bill Black is on the loose,” I said. “Truitt, too.”

Virgil reacted almost as if he had expected the news, but Allie came up behind him, throwing open the door wider, with a shocked look on her face.

“What?” she said. “Are you serious?”

“I am, Allie,” I said.

“Be right with you, Everett,” Virgil said, then drifted back into the house, leaving Allie standing in her sleeping gown with a look of complete disbelief on her face.

“Be all right for Daphne to stay here with you, Allie, until we get this settled, until she feels safe.”

“Why, of course,” Allie said.

“I’m so sorry, Allie,” Daphne said. “I hope this is not an inconvenience.”

“My God, are you serious? Come in this house this instant,” Allie said as she practically jerked Daphne over the threshold. “Of course it’s no inconvenience. What kind of silly comment is that? You poor, poor dear.”

When I followed Allie and Daphne into the house, Virgil was coming back up the hall, carrying his gun belt and boots.

I quickly explained to Virgil all I knew about the escape, which prompted Allie to expound.

“This is just awful,” she said. “How could Sheriff Chastain and his deputies let something like this happen?”

“They did nothing,” Virgil said.

“Letting the killers go is not nothing.”

“They got out, Allie, they escaped, you heard Everett,” Virgil said as he sat on the piano bench and put on one of his boots. “They were not let out.”

“It’s lackadaisical and unprofessional, to say the least.”

“Before you go accusing the sheriff’s department, Allie,” Virgil said as he pulled on his second boot, “why not let us sort this out and do our job.”

“Yes, Virgil,” she said politely. “I am not insensitive, I know you will protect us.”

Allie turned to Daphne.

“He will,” she said. “Everett, too. That’s what they do.”

Daphne smiled a weak smile and nodded a little.

“Regardless, it’s awful,” Allie said with a twist of her brow as if she had the need to snuff out her previous admonishments. “And now the whole town is unsafe.”

“Before, you were sure as all hell Boston Bill Black was innocent,” Virgil said as he got to his feet.

“That was before,” Allie said.

Virgil picked up his gun belt.

“Now you’re condemning the law enforcement as being just awful and leaving citizens unsafe.”

Virgil strapped on his gun belt.

“Well, that was before he was proven guilty, Virgil,” she said. “Now all I can think about is that there are murderers on the loose.”

“Well,” Virgil said as he pulled his Colt from his belt, checked the rounds, then snapped closed the loading gate. “Try not to think about it, Allie.”

Daphne lowered her head, stifling tears.

“Oh, you poor thing,” Allie said, pushing Daphne’s hair from her eyes. “I know how you feel.”

Allie sat her down on the sofa and held her hand, then looked up to Virgil.

“I feel just like Ms. Daphne here, Virgil,” Allie said, then looked back to Virgil. “And... thank you, Virgil.”

“For what?”

“Well... I think at times the unrest of my constitution adds up and sorts its way out as being ungrateful, but you need to know that is simply just not the case. This is just unnerving.”

“I know, Allie,” Virgil said as he put on his hat.

Allie looked to Daphne and smiled as she rubbed her hand between hers.

“It is going to be okay, Virgil and Everett know how to handle this.”

“Thank you,” Daphne said.

“We will do what we can,” Virgil said.

He kissed Allie on the cheek and walked out the door. I turned to follow...

“Everett?” Daphne said as she got to her feet and came close to me by the door. “I would feel just mortified if something were to happen to you.”

“Don’t think I would feel good about that proposition, either,” I said.

She reached up and pulled my head down to meet hers and kissed me.

“Oh, my,” Allie said softly, and almost to herself.