On the Run?

Chapter 1

There were a few of his clients that Jarrod Barkley did not personally like. Some of his more wealthy clients liked to throw their weight around and could be very difficult about taking his advice, actions that often got them into more trouble than the trouble they called him in on in the first place. It was frustrating to work with people like that, but when he could help clean up a mess that might have been mostly of his client's doing, Jarrod felt gratified, especially when anyone else hurt in the fray was calmed and all parties went on to better things.

There were one or two clients who always made trouble worse, simply because they seemed to like it. Andrew Bliss was one of those clients. Bliss – Jarrod always had to laugh at the name. If anyone in the Stockton area was less fitting to his name, Jarrod didn't know who it was. Bliss didn't like bliss. Bliss liked chaos. Jarrod had only caught him in one or two lies through the years, lies he made straight as soon as he was caught, but even when the told the truth, he never entered into a business deal that went smoothly. He always wanted Jarrod to sue somebody and probably would have done all his business that way, but years ago the locals had decided they would not go for it and if Bliss wanted to do business with them, he was going to have to give up his "business by lawsuit" philosophy. Jarrod had managed to help the locals cool him down on that way of life, but you still had to approach every first meeting on an issue by talking Bliss down out of his outrage. Otherwise, you couldn't even get enough sense out of the man to understand what was going on.

Jarrod often thought about dumping him as a client, and when he found the message pushed under his office door that Bliss wanted to see him, he pretty much decided that if the chore he wanted done now was as wild as his chores usually were, he was going to make this his last chore for Bliss. Jarrod had just come in. It was early and even his secretary hadn't arrived, but the note said to come as soon as possible to talk to him about an out-of-town trial. Jarrod muttered to himself, pocketed the message, and went right back out the door, thinking and growling inside so much that he didn't remember he hadn't left a message for his secretary saying where he was going until he was halfway to Bliss's ranch about five miles north of town.

He didn't know how much he was going to regret forgetting to leave that message.

XXXXXXXX

At the end of a long day, the Barkleys had gathered for their time together before dinner. It was getting close to seven when they normally ate, but Jarrod was not home yet so they were planning to delay a little longer. The chat had been idle. The day had been about as plain a day as it could have been. There were no cattle drives in the offing for Nick and Heath, no big fund raisers for the orphanage or any other cause planned for Victoria or Audra. It was just a quiet time, that didn't last.

The knock on the door drew Silas in from the dining room where he was readying the table. Everyone looked up to see who was there – and everyone, including Silas, was a little alarmed to see the sheriff, his hat in his hands. "Good evening, Silas," Sheriff Madden said. "May I come in?"

"Sheriff?" Victoria called, signaling Silas to let him enter.

Silas opened the door further and then closed it behind the sheriff when he came in and went to the living room. Silas went back to his duties in the dining room, but wondered what was going on. As usual, he figured he'd hear about it if the family felt he needed to.

"Fred, what brings you out this late?" Nick asked.

Sheriff Madden looked unhappy. "Trouble, Nick. Andrew Bliss has been killed."

"What?" Victoria said.

"Is Jarrod here?" the sheriff asked.

"No, we were waiting for him," Victoria said. "He went into town very early this morning."

Nobody liked the scowl on Fred Madden's face. "I know he was there, but I haven't been able to find him this afternoon."

Now they were genuinely worried.

The sheriff went on. "He was seen heading out to Andrew Bliss's place early today. Bliss's houseman was the only one around and he let Jarrod in, but then he went out to get some eggs from the hen house. He says he heard Jarrod and Bliss arguing loudly, and then he heard Jarrod ride off in a hurry."

"Fred, you can't possibly think – " Nick started.

The sheriff kept talking right over him. "It wasn't but a few minutes later that John Pitch rode up."

"The telegrapher?" Heath asked. "What would he be doing out there?"

"I talked to John," the sheriff said. "He said he'd gotten an urgent telegram for Bliss from Modesto and he was delivering it himself because he didn't have a runner available and his backup was there to cover the wire but he wouldn't have anything to do with Bliss. John saw Jarrod heading out when he got to Bliss's place. Bliss's houseman says he saw John go in and not three minutes later he came running out, yelling that Bliss was dead."

Concern started rising through the room.

The sheriff went on. "Bliss's houseman – his name is Earl Johnson – he ran in and John ran back in with him, and Bliss was dead on the floor with his head bashed in, looks like with a bookend from his desk. A planter was shattered on the floor, too, like somebody knocked it over or something. Earl stayed there while John came and got me, and that's what I found when I got out there. Have you heard from Jarrod at all today?"

They all knew what he was thinking, their concern made more frightening because they knew Bliss was not one of Jarrod's favorite clients. Victoria shook her head. "No, we haven't heard a word from him or seen him."

"Sheriff, you can't possibly think it was Jarrod who killed Mr. Bliss!" Audra was the first to say it out loud.

The sheriff hesitated. "Of course not, but this isn't shaping up right. Earl heard Jarrod and Bliss arguing, then Jarrod took off, then John arrived and found Bliss dead. Those three men are the only ones who were around this morning. All of Bliss's hands were out in the field. So I have three men who could have been involved with Bliss's killing, and Jarrod's the last one Earl heard talking to Bliss and they were arguing. And then Jarrod rode away fast and hasn't been heard from since."

The way he put it sounded so completely damning that even Jarrod's family began to wonder what was going on. Heath asked, "Have you sent out a posse?"

Sheriff Madden nodded. "I did, but I haven't heard back. It's too dark tonight and we really have no way of tracking him on that busy road, so I'm not optimistic. That wire John was delivering was from Modesto. Now, if Jarrod had some business he was arguing with Bliss about, it might have been down Modesto way, but Pitch said he thought Jarrod was heading north. I mean, it could be Jarrod just took off for Modesto or somewhere else for Bliss and didn't have a thing to do with Bliss's killing. I just can't know until I find him. So I sent posses both ways but I thought maybe you boys might want to head north. You can turn the posse around if you find it, if you don't need them. I'm hoping you'll be the ones to find Jarrod."

"But you can't be sure where he went," Victoria said.

"No. Jarrod could be anywhere," the sheriff said. "We just can't know anything until we hear from him or somebody finds him. And I'm sorry, but right now, he's one of my three suspects, and he's the main one."

"You should have come to us earlier," Nick muttered. "We could have gotten a better start."

"I know, Nick, but I've been with Pitch and Johnson and looking for Jarrod in town and organizing posses and sending telegrams all day trying to get this straight, and I didn't want to come worry you if I was gonna find Jarrod somewhere today. It just isn't working out that way."

"Jarrod wouldn't murder anybody," Audra said. "He couldn't."

Nick and Heath looked at each other, both of them seeing the same thing in their mind's eye. The street in Rimfire a few months earlier. Audra had been away while all that was happening, and it hadn't been discussed around here much at all since it happened. But both Nick and Heath knew too well that given the right provocation, Jarrod could murder.

They just refused to believe he would murder Andrew Bliss. "Did you check to see if he'd gone to San Francisco?" Heath asked.

The sheriff nodded. "I wired his office right away. His secretary hasn't seen him. She said she'd have his house checked, but she hasn't gotten back to me yet."

"Did you arrest John or Earl?" Nick asked.

"No, I've got no cause to," Sheriff Madden said. He sighed. "If Jarrod turns up or the posse finds him, I'm probably going to have to bring him in. I'm counting on you to let me know if you hear from him or if you head out and find him. I know this is terrible, coming on the heels of everything else that went on lately, and I'm sorrier about it than I can tell you. I'm sick about it. But I have to do what I have to do."

"Of course you do," Victoria said, "and if we hear from Jarrod, we'll let him know he needs to come home and see you about all this."

"We better head for Lodi now," Nick said. "We gotta get Jarrod back here as soon as we can."

Everyone looked at him. He was saying out loud what no one really wanted to say – that they would bring Jarrod in even if it was to face a murder charge.

"The last time Jarrod did some work for Bliss, he went up to Lodi to do it," Victoria said. "But Fred, I'm sure we'll hear from him any time now. I'm sure we'll get this all straightened out quickly. We'll wait until after dinner to see if Jarrod turns up – he's often late. If he doesn't come in, Nick, Heath, go after him after you eat."

The sheriff nodded. The Jarrod they all knew would come in on his own if he knew he was wanted here. Or at least the Jarrod they thought they knew would.

"Why wouldn't he have sent us a message before he left town, or at least left a message for us with his secretary?" Audra asked.

Sheriff Madden said, "I've been wondering, too, because his secretary didn't have anything from him. She didn't even know he'd gone to see Bliss."

The questions were almost overwhelming. Where was he? Why had he left so suddenly and quickly if he was not involved in Bliss's death? Why hadn't he contacted them all day?

Right now, there weren't any answers to any of that.