The lawman looked skeptical.
David couldn’t blame him. He found it hard to believe his own words. Nothing made sense. He had plenty of cases to keep him busy. Business cases. Deeds, wills, contracts, and land plats were stacked on his desk awaiting attention. They were all clean, uncomplicated, predictable cases. But this…
“Mr. Alexander?” Her soft voice reached him as he opened the door.
“Yes?”
“Can you get me out?” She paused. “Coalie needs me.”
David inhaled deeply. He was crazy to take her on as a client. This whole night had been crazy. David hoped he was still sleeping. If he was lucky, he’d wake up soon and realize this had all been a fascinating dream.
Chapter Two
Returning to his office after lunch, still somewhat distracted by his thoughts on the case he was hoping to build, David nearly stumbled over something lodged in the doorway.
“Ouch!” The grunt of pain came from the dirty bundle curled up on the threshold. A wooden box full of soiled rags, brushes, and boot black sat beside it.
“What the devil…?” David looked down.
A face appeared. It belonged to Coalie.
“What are you doing out here?” David said, bending down to help the child to his feet. Unlocking the door, David ushered Coalie inside the room, just as Greeley, too long confined, scrambled through the open door in a blur of orange stripes. “I’ll have the stove going in a minute. You need something hot to drink.” David turned his attention to the stove. Coalie hovered near the door, wooden box in hand.
David stoked the embers, then added more coal. “Come on in and get warm. You can tell me what you were doing on my doorstep.” David shrugged off the new coat he’d purchased at the mercantile after leaving the jail.
“I was waitin’ for ya.” Coalie inched forward, closer to the stove, and set his shoeshine box down. “I seen ya goin’ in and outta the saloons all mornin’.”
David filled the coffee pot and set it on the stove. A few drops of water trailed down the side and sizzled on the iron surface. “I thought I caught a glimpse of you trailing me.” David pulled his leather desk chair closer to the warmth, then shoved the straight-backed visitor’s chair in Coalie’s direction. “I lost you at the funeral home.”
“Ya didn’t lose me, exactly. I came back here to wait for ya.” Coalie paused. “Don’t like dead bodies. They give me the willies.”
David nodded in complete understanding. His first clue. David scratched the boy off his mental list of suspects. Coalie couldn’t have murdered Arnie by himself, and with his fear of the dead, it was unlikely that he’d helped someone else.
“Can’t say that I blame you,” David agreed. He didn’t care for funeral parlors much himself. He hadn’t liked questioning the undertaker or inspecting the gaping slash across Arnie Mason’s throat.
“Did ya get Tessa outta the jail yet?” Coalie sat down.
“Not yet.”
“Then what’d ya do in the saloon?” Coalie got up and sniffed the air around David’s chair. “Ya don’t smell like old Clayburn. Ya don’t smell drunk.” He said the words warily.
“I asked questions,” David admitted.
“Anybody can do that,” Coalie told him. “It’s gettin’ the answers that matters.”
Greeley meowed loudly outside the door. David got up and let him in. The cat padded around the floor, weaving his way around David’s legs. David bent to pick him up. “You don’t seem to have a high opinion of my abilities,” he commented, petting the ugly orange cat. “Why did you come to my office to get me last night?”
“Heard it was yer job, gettin’ people outta jail,” the boy replied matter-of-factly. “When I saw who it was on Tessa’s bed, I come runnin’. I figured she’d need help.”
David eyed Coalie with new awareness. He was wise beyond his years. Too wise. “I think you’re absolutely right.” David set the orange tom on the floor. Greeley brushed against his ankles, then headed back to his favorite spot on the windowsill in the spare bedroom.
“Then we got us a deal?” Coalie gazed up at him. “Ya gonna help her?”
“First I want to know what Tessa Roarke is to you. Is she your sister? Is your last name Roarke, too?”
Coalie thought for a moment. “Nah. My name’s Donegal. Coalie Donegal.”
“Is Tessa your mother?”