Vengeance Creek: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

9

Shaye got back to the sheriff’s office well before Thomas. He knew he could ask his son what had happened at the Road House Saloon the night before, but if Thomas was going to places like that and not telling anyone, there had to be a reason. He’d leave it to James to find out what that reason was.

Thomas entered the office and walked right to the stove to put on a pot of coffee, which they kept going all day.

“How did it go?”

Thomas turned and looked at his father. “You ought to know,” he said. “You watched the whole time.”

“Just watching your back, Thomas,” Shaye said. “It doesn’t mean I don’t trust you, it just means that I like to keep my deputies alive.”

“If it was a deputy who wasn’t your son, would you feel the same?” Thomas asked.

“Exactly the same.”

“Then fine,” the younger man said. “Then we don’t have a problem, do we?”

“I never thought we did,” Shaye said. “So what did you find out about the stranger?”

“Strangers,” Thomas said. “There’s two of them, and they’re just…drifting, or so this one says.”

“You get their names?”

“Yes.” He gave the names to his father, who reached for his stack of wanted flyers. “Cardwell said there was no paper on either of them.”

“He’s probably right,” Shaye said, “if he gave you their real names.”

“Well, if he gave me phony names, then we can only go by the likeness of the posters,” Thomas said. “That means I should look through them.”

“Be my guest.”

Thomas sat opposite his father and pulled the stack of flyers into his lap. “Where’s James?”

“He said he had to run an errand.”

Thomas smirked. “At the bank, I’ll bet.”

“You’re probably right.”

While going through the flyers Thomas asked, “You gonna talk to the mayor?”

“About what?”

“About his daughter and James.”

“Thomas,” Shaye said, “has James even talked to the girl beyond bank business?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Then I don’t think there’s a relationship there worth talkin’ to the mayor about, do you?”

“No, sir,” Thomas said, “I guess you’re right.”

The water on the stove began to boil, so Shaye went over to drop the coffee in while Thomas continued to go through the flyers.

James knew that Al Baker lived right above the Road House. There was a stairway on the side of the building leading up to a door, which James first knocked on, then pounded on.

“All right, all right!” an annoyed voice came from inside. “I’m comin’!”

The door swung open and Al Baker squinted out at James from beneath heavy, puffy eyelids.

“What the hell—”

“Deputy Shaye, Mr. Baker,” James said. “That’s James Shaye.”

“Whataya want?”

“Just a few questions about last night,” James said. “Can I come in?”

“Nothin’ happened last night,” Baker said. “I never even called for the law.”

“Somethin’ happened between my brother and two men,” James said. “I want to know what that was.”

“Why don’t you ask your brother?”

“Because I’m askin’ you.”

Baker scowled and said, “Okay, come on in.”

He backed away from the door to let James enter. Baker lived in one large room, and in the corner was a bed with a naked blond woman asleep. She was lying with her back to the men, and James caught himself admiring her shapely backside before he caught himself and looked away.

“I won’t keep you long,” he said to Baker, trying to hide the fact that he was flustered.

“That’s just one of the girls,” Baker said, scratching his head. He was wearing a pair of soiled long johns, and the room itself matched him. James wondered if the man ever cleaned it, but from the smell, he doubted it. He didn’t know how any woman could stand it. “Does she bother you? I can cover her up.”

“I just want you to tell me what happened last night.”

Briefly, Baker told James about Thomas’s run-in with one man, and how the other man had stepped in to defuse the situation.

“I tried to tell them your brother was a deputy, but he stopped me,” Baker said.

“He wasn’t wearin’ his badge?”

“No,” Baker said, “he never wears it when he comes in.”

James tried to remember if his brother was wearing his badge when he saw him, but couldn’t.

“Al…” the woman called plaintively from the bed.

James looked over as the woman rolled onto her back, revealing her large breasts. She reached down between her thighs and started to scratch herself.

“I’m comin’, sweetie,” Baker said. “Are we done, Deputy?”

James averted his eyes once again, but could hear the woman’s nails on her skin. He started for the door.

“What did the two men do after Thomas and I were gone?” he asked Baker, standing outside with the door open.

“They just had a few more beers and then left,” Baker said with a shrug. “See? Nothin’ really happened.”

“Okay, Mr. Baker,” James said, then thought of one more question. “How many times a week does my brother come into your place, without his badge?”

Baker shrugged and said, “A couple, sometimes three. Not more than that.”

“Had there ever been trouble before?”

“No,” Baker said. “Mostly he nurses one beer and then leaves.”

“Okay, thanks.”

From inside they both heard the woman called, “Alllllll!”

“Gotta go,” Baker said, and closed the door.

James hurried down the stairs because he didn’t want to hear what was going on in that room.