Chapter Three

They found the sheriff's wife right where Wheaton had said, at the church. She was kneeling at a pew praying.

Not wanting to interrupt her prayers, Lou and Cody waited until she was finished.

When she sat back, they approached her.

"Mrs. Jackson, ma'am?" Cody asked, hat in hand.

"Yes?" Came the shaky reply.

The sweetest looking woman looked up at them. She sat, hands folded in her lap, smiling.

Cody took a seat next to her and Lou remained standing. She was going to let Cody take care of the questioning and break the news of her husband.

"Mrs. Jackson, my name's Billy Cody. I'm a deputy that was sent her to help your husband." He paused and continued on. "About your husband, ma'am, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but he was killed last night."

When no reaction came from her, he repeated the information about her husband. Finally she looked at Cody and replied, "I know."

"You know? But how?" Lou questioned her.

The widow shot her a disapproving look and directed her answer to Cody. "I found him, last night. I…I cleaned him up and laid him out for the undertaker. I didn't know what else to do."

"It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong." Cody consoled her. "What did you do with the knife?"

"Knife? There wasn't a knife."

"Yes, there was. It was lying right on the floor next to him. Are you saying when you found him it wasn't there?"

"I didn't see a knife."

"What about his ring?" Lou asked.

Taking an instant dislike to Lou, Mrs. Jackson refused to answer.

After a moment Cody prodded the widow about the ring. "I took it." She sobbed. She reached into the folds of her skirt and withdrew the ring they had earlier seen on the sheriff. "I wanted to keep it. To remember him by." She smiled at Cody. "You're such a nice young man. Thank you for coming to tell me about Forrest. It means so much to me. I don't know how I'll go on from here."

"Do you have any family, any children?" Lou asked.

The widow ignored the question until Cody repeated it.

"No, we never were blessed with children."

"Will you be alright by yourself?" Lou found herself asking.

Mrs. Jackson stiffened and again refused to answer Lou.

Clearly confused by the widow's reaction to her, Lou tried a different tactic. "Ma'am, did your husband have any enemies, anyone you can think of that would want to do this to him?"

All at once she exploded at Lou. "How dare you talk to me, you little hussy. All dressed up as man, hiding who you really are. And in the house of God. How dare you." The widow hissed at her.

Taken back that the widow had easily seen through her disguise, Lou was almost at a loss of words. Almost. But the words that came to her mind were indeed not fit for the house of God. So she kept her mouth shut. Instead she shot Cody a pleading look to get her out of there.

He took her cue and excused them both, leaving the widow alone.

Once they were outside the church and alone, Lou let it all out.

"How can she do that to me? How'd she see through my disguise so easily? And how dare I talk to her? How dare she talk to me that way. I didn't do anything to her. For goodness sakes, all I'm trying to do is help the woman!" She stamped her foot in the dirt.

Cody waited until Lou was done with her little tirade before taking her in his arms and held her close. He stroked her back up and down trying to calm her. It wasn't long before Lou had tears trailing down her cheeks and in an attempt to hide them she buried her face even deeper into his jacket.

"Honey, are you cryin'?" He finally asked.

She shook her head no, but her sniffling gave her away.

Ignoring her little lie, Cody led her back to the hotel and up to his room. He sat her down on the bed and knelt on the floor in front of her.

"Listen, Lou, I know what the Widow Jackson said to you hurt you, but don't listen to her. You are who you are and that's that. What she thinks and says doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is that I love you just the way you are, no matter what. Nothing's goin' ever change that." He cupped her chin within his hand, forcing her to look at him. The weak smile she gave him warmed his heart, but broke it at the same time. Knowing she was hurting was eating him alive.

Lou sighed loudly. "Ah, I'm sorry, Cody. I can't believe I'm crying again. I never cry. I make a point of not crying. And here I am crying again for the second time in two days."

Silently Cody wondered if the real reason she was crying after all this time was because she finally had someone to lean on. The thought warmed him because he knew he was that person and she trusted him enough to let go of her emotions.

"It's alright, Lou. My shirt will dry." His attempt at humor with her paid off and she gave a little laugh.

Quickly switching off her emotions and to another subject, Lou brought up the widow's strange behavior. "Cody, why do you suppose when Widow Jackson found her husband the first thing she does is clean him up and clean up the floor? Why wouldn't she go find the doctor to come help? And how on earth did she find the strength to lift him onto the cell cot from the floor? She had to have had some help."

Cody just smiled at her.

"What?" She asked, a little irritated because she thought he wasn't listening.

"That's the Lou I remember."

"Cody, I'm serious. Think about it, she had to have help, I know the sheriff had to weigh more than her. I know she's not exactly a tiny woman, but to lift a completely limp person from the floor up to a cot? I'm not buying it. It would have taken two people to do that. And what about the knife? She claims it wasn't there, but it was clearly there when you and I were there. It had to have been there when she found him. She's lying. I just know it."

"Lou, slow down. We'll figure it out…or I should say you'll figure it out. You seem to be half-way there already."

"How do you figure that?"

"Well you already figured out she's lying, now we just have to figure out why and who it was that helped her move the body."

"Why don't we go question the doctor? Maybe she did go to him for help when she found her husband and he was the one that helped her move him."

"Good thinkin', Lou. You've already figured out we can't quite believe anything Widow Jackson tells us. And with the way she feels towards you, we probably won't be getting any straight answers out of her anyhow."

She hooked her arm into his and said, "But Cody, she likes you." And she grinned.

"No, I'm sorry I didn't know about Sheriff Jackson and I haven't seen Edna in a coupla days." Doc Small told them.

"Edna?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, that's Mrs. Jackson. So he had his throat cut you say?"

"Mmm hmm." Lou murmured.

"Shame, just a pure shame. He was a good man. Is there anything else I can help you with, Miss, uh, I'm sorry I don't think I got your name."

"McCloud." Lou was stunned. Once again someone had figured out she was a girl. It was a darned good thing they hadn't told anyone they were Pony Express riders or she'd quickly find herself without a job.

"I'm just curious, does your sheriff always hire women for deputies?"

"If a body can do the job, what does it matter whether they're man or woman?" She countered, clearly getting irritated by the man.

The doctor cleared his throat at that, but said nothing, surprised that the girl was standing up for herself.

"Well, thank you for your time, doc." Cody said, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible and avoid another 'situation' with Lou.

"Just one more thing before we go." Lou said. "Did the sheriff and Edna have any children?"

"No. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, just curious. Thanks again." And with that Cody and Lou took their leave.

Once outside the doctor's office, Cody asked her, "Why do you keep asking about children?"

Lou shrugged. "Don't know. Just a feeling I've got. Maybe I'm just trying to catch the widow in another lie. I'm just not really sure. What I want to know is how it's so obvious I'm a girl underneath all these clothes. Two people have already made note of it." The next part she whispered to him, "And what happens if they find out I really ride for the Express? Teaspoon would surely have to fire me if word got out a girl was riding for him."

"Well I'll just have to make an honest woman out of you and marry you." And he squeezed her hand.

"Cody, will you be serious? I don't want to lose my job." Seeing the wounded look on his face, she realized what she said and apologized. "Cody, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that how it sounded."

"It's alright, Lou. I know you didn't. But would it really be so bad if we got married someday?"

"Goodness, no, Cody. There's nothing I'd like better." And it was true. Being married to him would be wonderful, but working up the nerve to tell him about what Wicks did to her was something else entirely. Quickly pushing thoughts of Simon Wicks from her mind she said, "I guess I just don't want to lose my job either, especially because I'm a girl. It's so unfair they won't hire girls. We can do the job just as well as any man."

"You don't have to convince me, Lou. You're the best rider we've got, there's no question about it. Next to me of course." And he puffed out his chest.

"Cody, you crack me up. You really do. How you can take a serious situation and turn it into something funny is really something. I'm just glad you can do it because I sure could use a laugh now and then."

"Anything for the fair lady." He removed his hat and bowed low in front of her.

She laughed.

'Mission accomplished.' Cody thought to himself. From now on out, he was going to make it his mission in life to make Lou's life easier and if a little humor was the way to do it then all the better because humor was his specialty.