teach her to sew. I’d love to…” She kept rambling, but Matt stopped listening. He’d never understand why women talked so much.
When Carrie paused to catch her breath, he excused himself with a tip of his hat and headed for the sheriff’s office. He pushed through the door and saw Dan looking cantankerous. Matt didn’t bother to sit. His gut told him there had been trouble and he’d be making calls this morning. “What happened?”
The deputy made a show of rolling his eyes, then he clapped his hand over his heart in a display worthy of the actor playing Romeo. “It was terrible, Mr. Deputy. Just terrrrible!”
Matt grimaced. “This has to involve Jasper.”
“Yep.”
“The Peters kid again?”
“Nope.”
Matt propped his hips on his desk. “Spit it out.”
“You’re not going to believe it.”
“Try me.”
“One of Scottie’s girls did some shopping in Jasper’s store yesterday. Only she didn’t buy anything. She just looked.” Dan threw up his hands in mock horror. “She touched a hairbrush. Jasper says he can’t sell it because it’s tainted.”
“That’s silly.”
“It gets sillier.” Dan rocked forward in his chair. “I know this girl. Her name’s Katy. She cleans the saloon because it’s the only work she can get. Her husband died, and she wants to go back to Indiana. She’s saving for train fare.”
A ticket to Indiana wasn’t cheap, but Matt knew the stationmaster. Maybe he could get the girl a bargain. He went to the potbelly stove in the corner and poured himself coffee from an enamel pot. “What does Jasper want?”
“For us to arrest her.”
“On what charge?”
“He didn’t say, and I didn’t ask.” Dan shook his head. “I figured you’d have better luck with him.”
“Thanks,” Matt said drily.
His friend flashed a grin. “That’s what you get for being new around here.”
“It’s been two months.”
“I’ve got seniority. That means I don’t have to deal with Jasper and you do.”
Matt swallowed the dregs of the coffee, then put down the cup. “As my mama used to say, there’s no time like the present.”
As he headed for the door, Dan called after him. “Good luck. You’ll need it.”
With the sun in his eyes, Matt walked the four blocks to Jasper’s store. Merchants opened their doors and bid him good morning. Wagons rattled by and drivers nodded in greeting. In the time he’d been in Cheyenne, he’d made a point of getting to know people. They talked to him. They trusted him. To stop the rash of violence, he’d need those eyes and ears on every corner.
As he approached Jasper’s shop, Matt passed the display window where he saw wares from back east. Jasper changed the merchandise often, and today Matt saw women’s hats, lace gloves and hankies. No wonder Katy had stopped to browse. Matt went inside and sauntered down the aisle, taking in the assortment of whatnot. The clutter irritated him, but Sarah would have been enchanted by the pretty things.
“Good morning, Deputy.”
Matt turned to the counter where he saw Jasper. What the shopkeeper lacked in height, he made up for in fancy clothing. Today he was wearing a green-and-yellow plaid vest, a starched shirt and a fancy tie. A mustache hid his upper lip, and wire spectacles sat on his pointy nose. With his hair slicked behind his too-small ears, he reminded Matt of a rat. “Good morning, Jasper.”
“It’s about time you got here.”
“You’re my first call of the day.” Matt spoke amiably, but the sniping annoyed him. The clock had just struck nine. Jasper’s store had been open for three minutes. Annoyed or not, Matt resolved to be polite. “I hear you’ve got a complaint.”
“I do.”
“Tell me about it.”
“One of Fife’s girls came in here and touched things. She left marks on them.”
Matt kept his face blank. “What kind of marks?”
“Smudges.”
If the girl had done real damage, he could have asked her to pay for it—or paid for it for her—and been done with the entire mess. Instead he had to reason with Jasper about smudges. “Could you wipe them off?”
The man reared back. “I don’t think you understand.”
Matt hid a grimace. “Maybe not.”
“She besmirched my property!”
Matt had arrested a lot of people for a lot of crimes, but besmirching wasn’t on that list. Did he explain to Jasper that nothing had been damaged? Did he fib and tell him he’d speak with Katy? What Matt wanted to do—call Jasper a two-faced hypocrite—wouldn’t solve the problem. The man had a lot of nerve to accuse a cleaning girl of “besmirching” when he himself had visited prostitutes and possibly bribed Ben Hawks to cover it up. If Matt’s hunch was correct, Jasper had done other things, too. He’d been one of the riders who busted out the windows at the Silver Slipper.
Annoyed, Matt tapped the counter. “Let me see the brush set.”
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