Chapter Two

They arrived in Lone Tree a little after seven and both were starved, especially Cody. It was already dark, but they headed over to the sheriff's office just in case he was still there.

And he was. Lying on the jail cell floor. His throat slit. Apparently with the carving knife that lie next to him.

Both riders went outside and lost their meager lunches in the bushes nearby.

They headed back into the office and the gruesome task that lay before them.

"Well he was married." Cody said after some time had passed and the initial shock of finding the sheriff murdered had worn off.

"How do you know that? We never even met the man before."

"The ring on his left hand."

"Oh." Was all she could say. Married. Just a few short hours ago Cody had been talking marriage and this man had been married. What if someday Cody ended up like this? She just couldn't bear the thought.

"Lou, honey, don't cry. It'll be alright. We'll get this all straightened out. Do you want to go back and I'll stay here? You can send Jimmy, Buck or even Teaspoon back. You don't have to deal with this if you don't want to."

"It's not that. I'll stay. It's just…just…oh, Cody, I just couldn't bear it if something like this ever happened to you."

He gathered her into his arms and held her while sobs racked her body. He whispered in soothing tones that nothing like that was going to happen to him, all the while stroking her back.

When she finally calmed down enough and realized what a fool she was making of herself, she apologized to him.

"Lou, there's no reason to apologize. It's been a long day and no one should ever have to deal with something like this." He said, indicating the sheriff. "Listen, there's not much more we can do here tonight and there's definitely nothing we can do for him, 'cept maybe cover him with a blanket. Let's pull the shades, lock up the door and contact the undertaker in the mornin'. We're still gonna have to figure out who did this, but we'll do some askin' around tomorrow. Maybe we'll get lucky and get some leads. But right now we still need to get a place to sleep tonight. Even though we haven't eaten yet, under the circumstances I think food is out of the question. I can't believe I just said that." He added, to try and lighten the mood a bit.

And it worked. Lou smiled up at him.

They entered the hotel and booked two rooms, but at the rate they were charging they were both sorry they didn't share a room. Maybe tomorrow they could move into the jail cells to sleep, but tonight that was impossible with the body of the sheriff still there.

They each said their goodnights and Cody sealed his with a kiss, then they both went to their separate rooms.

An hour later, Lou lay wide-awake thinking about all that had transpired that day. When the day started she had high hopes for the day, but never in her worst nightmare would she have thought it would have ended the way it did, finding the sheriff dead and now having to find his killer. She kept wondering how someone could do something so vile to him. And why not just shoot him and be done with it? Why was his throat slit, and with a kitchen carving knife? It just didn't make sense. And what of his wife? Wouldn't she be missing him by now or was it not unusual for him to stay at the jail some nights?

Questions and thoughts kept racing through her mind, not only about the sheriff, but about her and Cody as well. Could she really go through with a relationship with him when she wasn't being entirely truthful with him? He had admitted his celibate state to her and yet she had kept silent about Wicks' assault on her. Why? All at once she had her answer - she couldn't bear to see the disappointment on his face when she told him. So instead she chose to stay silent, lying to him. But in this case, she reasoned, wasn't withholding the truth better than hurting him and risk having him blame her for what had happened to her?

Lou was confused and didn't know what to do about the situation. She didn't want to risk losing Cody and their newfound relationship, but if she went ahead with it and they ended up marrying wouldn't he notice she wasn't an innocent on their wedding night?

And then there was the crying. She couldn't believe she had broke down and cried in front of him. She tried so hard never to cry, especially in front of someone else. But seeing the sheriff like that and fearing something like that ever happening to Cody was just too much for her.

Before she knew it she found herself standing outside Cody's room knocking on his door.

Instantly alert for danger, Cody pulled his gun from the holster hanging on his bedpost and he crept towards the door. "Who's there?" He demanded.

A small voice from the other side replied, "It's me, Cody. It's Lou."

He quickly pulled open the door and let her inside.

"Is everything alright? Are you alright?" He asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I think. Oh, Cody, do you think you could just hold me for awhile?"

"Sure, Lou." They both crawled under the covers and held each other as if they were holding onto each other for dear life. And in a way they were.

Not knowing what the future may hold for either one of them, except that they wanted to be together, made them cling tighter to one another.

"Cody."

"Hmm." He said as he absently stroked her short hair.

"I know you don't want to do anything 'til we're married, but could I stay here with you tonight? Will you just hold me through the night?" She asked, uncertainty wavering in her voice. Scared that he'd say no, but hoping beyond hope that he'd say yes.

"Anything for you, Lou. Always."

He sighed in relief. He, himself, had been having trouble sleeping thinking about his budding new love with Lou, something he'd never imagined would happen. He was still thinking about her reaction earlier this afternoon, how her mood had changed so quickly and it puzzled him.

Lou soon fell asleep with her head on his chest and he cradled her close to his heart. He felt blessed for the opportunity to offer her comfort when she needed it. It wasn't long before he drifted off to sleep as well, languishing in feel of her next to him. A body could definitely get used to this. He had no idea how he was ever going to go back to sleeping in separate bunks when they arrived back home. And keeping their love a secret was something he just wasn't willing to do. He was in love with Louise McCloud and there wasn't a soul out there that would be in the dark about their true relationship.

Dawn shown brightly on the sleeping couple and Lou was the first to stir. A growling in her stomach completely woke her up and Cody wasn't long behind her. They smiled at each other and Cody broke the silence by saying, "Good morning, beautiful." And he lightly kissed her forehead.

"Morning, handsome." The awkwardness Lou feared would be there in the morning after they had spent the night in each other's arms just wasn't there. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to wake up with him beside her. Yes, she could definitely get used to this.

Cody yawned and stretched and she took the opportunity to snuggle even more closely next to him.

He lightly rested his arms around her and asked, "Should we get breakfast before we start the day?"

"Now there's the Cody I know and love." She teased.

"Well we are gonna have a big day ahead of us with trying to find the sheriff's murderer. I sure hope they have an undertaker nearby." He said absent-mindedly.

They each slowly rose and dressed for the day, reluctant to leave their haven for the real world.

But life went on, and they forced themselves to leave the confines of their room for the small dining room of the hotel.

After Cody ordered the largest breakfast she'd ever seen him eat before, she placed her order and they waited for the waitress to return with their food.

He reached across the table and took her hand. She meekly protested his action by saying, "Cody, I'm supposed to be a boy. A Pony Express rider. What are people gonna think?"

"I don't really care what they think, Lou. I'm in love with you and I want the world to know it. 'Sides, nobody knows who we are yet so we're safe for now." He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed it gently.

Soon the waitress was back with their food and they dug in heartily.

When breakfast was over and he paid the bill, they headed out into the sunshine in search of the undertaker. It wasn't long before they found him, drunk at a table in the corner of the local saloon.

After they succeeded in waking him and told them the fate of the sheriff, he ordered some coffee to sober up and asked Lou and Cody to join him to fill him in on the details.

When they finished with their tale, the undertaker named Bill Wheaton just shook his head in sorrow. He explained Forrest Jackson had been their sheriff for the past 12 years and he would be sadly missed.

When Lou asked about Sheriff Jackson's wife, Mr. Wheaton began acting odd, clearly wanting to avoid the subject of the woman. He related that she was a real harridan, constantly nagging at poor Forrest about quitting his job. She always avoided town as much as possible, preferring to keep to herself. She wouldn't even attend the town functions, leaving it to Sheriff Jackson to attend the festivities alone. After all it was his job to keep the peace in the town, not hers, and she didn't want anything to do with it.

Cody and Lou both made a mental note of the information on Mrs. Jackson. Not knowing if it would be helpful in their investigation or not.

Once the undertaker had finished his third cup of coffee and feeling somewhat sober, the trio headed over to the sheriff's office. As Cody began to unlock the door, he noticed it had already been unlocked. As they walked in, pistols at the ready, the sight that greeted them was not at all what they were expecting.

Sheriff Jackson was laid out in new clothes, bathed and lying on a cot in one of the cells with the door open. His death wound had been wrapped with bandages and all the blood had been cleaned up from the floor. The carving knife was nowhere to be found.

"Did you two do this?" The undertaker asked.

"No. When we left him last night he was on the floor, blood was everywhere. Mr. Wheaton, someone came in here between last night and this morning and cleaned it all up. And the weapon's missing. It was a carving knife about this long." Cody indicated the length of the knife with his fingers.

"I don't understand. Why would someone do this, and how'd they get in? We locked the door before we left last night. And where's the blanket we covered him up with last night? That's gone, too." Lou said to no one in particular. She walked over to where the sheriff's body lay and right away noticed something peculiar. His wedding ring was missing. "Cody, come here. Look. It's gone."

Even more confused than they were before this all began, they let the undertaker do his job. After Mr. Wheaton took his measurements and started to take his leave, Cody asked where Mrs. Jackson could be found. He gave directions to the house. "But you won't find her there this time of day. She'll be doing volunteer work over at the church. She does every day. The only time she leaves her house is for the sanctuary of the church"

"You seem to know an awful lot about the whereabouts of the sheriff's wife." Lou piped in. Not realizing the accusatory tone she had used, the undertaker took offense.

"Now listen here, I don't know what you two are really doing here, but my business is my own. Mrs. Jackson is known all around town for her work with the church. She's the most sainted woman around in three territories. This is surely gonna crush her and she's not gonna need two young upstarts poking their noses in where they don't belong."

Lou tried to make amends with Mr. Wheaton by saying, "I didn't mean to offend you, sir. But we were sworn in back in Sweetwater as deputies. We came here to help out the sheriff, but with the way things are now it's gonna fall on us to figure this whole thing out. All we're askin' for is a little cooperation on your part. If you don't want to give it, that's fine. We'll just have to find someone else to help us out. However, if you were to help us out and tell us what we need to know, I'm sure they'd be some great recognition in it for you when this is all over with."

Drawing himself up to his full height at the thought of some recognition in town as someone other than just the undertaker, he rethought his earlier comments. "Well I s'pose I could help you out some. What'd you need to know?"

Clearly impressed with the way Lou handled Wheaton, Cody formed an even greater respect for her abilities.

"Well right now we just need to get some facts and sort them all out. Find out if the sheriff had any enemies other than the obvious ones. And then we need to try to figure out who broke in here last night and why they cleaned up the body. Could it have been the killer? But then why wouldn't he have cleaned up after himself in the first place? Why risk coming back here and maybe getting caught in the act? It just doesn't make sense."

"Lou, if you don't watch it the Pinkertons are gonna be recruiting you." Cody only half-teased her.

She just smiled at him.

Speaking to the undertaker she said, "Why don't we meet back at your office after dinnertime? We'll probably have more questions than answers, but we can go over them with you and see what we can come up with."

After Wheaton left, Cody asked Lou, "So what do you want to do first, sheriff?"

"Ah, Cody, cut it out. I don't know what I'm doing here anymore than you do. It just makes sense to find out as much as we can about the sheriff and take it from there. The pieces should all start falling together sooner or later." She shrugged.

"It's just I didn't know you had it in you to do something like this. Everytime I turn around you keep amazing me. I guess I never realized before how clever you are. Now before you take that the wrong way, all I mean is that in our jobs all we ever really have to do is ride safe and hard, outrun the Indians and shoot straight. It doesn't take much brainpower. What I'm trying to say is you're really smart, Lou. To come up with a plan and figure out where to go from here takes some smarts. I'm really proud of you."

"Thanks, Cody, that really means a lot to me."