“Keep Alice warm and undisturbed until I come fetch her. And Idomean undisturbed.”
“Okay, Sheriff.”
“You know where Ed Peterson is?”
“Yeah. He’s inside the store. He was doing some Christmas shopping.”
“Okay. Tell him I’ll call him this afternoon about his car.”
Charles Banyan watched Eli walk Horace to the sheriff’s office, which was at the opposite end of town from the covered bridge. Goldie slowly came up to stand beside him, and both watched as Eli and Horace passed by. Eli glanced at both of them but didn’t say anything.
“That’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen,” the mayor conceded, referring to the sheriff’s actions.
“He’s got a pair. I’ll give ‘im that,” Goldie agreed.
“What was Eli saying to him out there? I couldn’t hear.”
“Me, neither,” she said, now moving past him and continuing down the sidewalk toward Miller’s.
“I, uh, I-I hope this unfortunate incident won’t impact your article about how special Sparkledove is at Christmas,” Banyan called.
“Relax, Mayor,” Goldie replied over her shoulder. “Shit happens.”
Banyan looked at her, surprised, having never heard the expression before or a woman being so blunt. But he got the gist and was visibly relieved.
Within another two minutes, Goldie had walked down to the side street where she’d seen Paul McCaw disappear. She spotted him stowing his rifle in his parked Chevy flatbed pickup. His brother Saul was there too. The bed of the pickup was filled with cut Christmas trees. Goldie and Stu Frey approached the brothers at the same time, coming from different directions.
“I saw what you were ready to do,” Stu began.
“Oh, hey, Stu,” Paul said straight-faced.
“Me, too,” Goldie confirmed.
“Hey Goldie, Stu,” Saul acknowledged, equally deadpan. “We got trees for the Boy Scouts to sell. Then we’re gettin’ jerky.”
“You wouldn’t really have shot Horace, would you?” Goldie asked.
“If I thought he was going to shoot the sheriff? Dead as a doornail,” Paul replied.
“It’s the mountain code,” Saul explained.
“The mountain code?” she asked.
“Ya can’t shoot an unarmed man,” Saul said. “No matter what.”
“Well, Alice was unarmed!” Goldie reminded. “Why didn’t you stop him from shootin’ at her?”
“Wives is different,” Paul justified.
“Oh, good lord,” Stu said, rolling his eyes.
Goldie looked at the brothers, then expelled a reconciling breath. “Well—in your own weird way, you were tryin’ to help. So…” she reached out and patted the dirty arm of Paul’s coat.
“You’re a good man.”
Paul’s expression didn’t change, but he stood up straighter and his chest puffed outward a little with pride.
“That’s me,” he agreed. “A silent sentinel on a mission to do good.”
