The laughter slowly died until silence filled the porch. A few of the ruffians traded glances with each other, but Thomas kept his eyes riveted on the biggest one of the group and clenched hishands into fists. One wrong word about Jessalyn, and he’d knock the man cold.
“Then how come we’ve never seen you around the place?” This from the person against the post that Isaac searched for weapons.
“If you ask me, a woman don’t need to be single to have some fun. Sometimes them married one’s the best.”
Fists still clenched, Thomas spun to face the short man who’d just fought being searched, and knocked the lewd smile off his face.
“Did you see what he done, Sheriff? I think Griggs will want to press charges.”
Isaac slapped a pair of handcuffs on the man he recognized as the one who’d made a show of taking a prostitute upstairs at The Penny several nights ago. Then he turned the womanizer toward the stairs and led him onto the road where Thomas waited with the other three troublemakers. He’d already made one trip to the jail with the first two hellions, since he and Thomas alone couldn’t haul six men down the road in a single trip.
“Griggs didn’t do nothing to get punched for.” The womanizer seemed intent on running his mouth. “‘Specially not standin’ there unarmed an’ all.”
“What a shame my handcuffs are already being used,” Isaac muttered. All of them. He’d had to get his two extra pair when he went to the jail. The town of Eagle Harbor, with its one lawman and four sets of handcuffs, wasn’t exactly set up to handle six men being hauled to jail at once. “Come on, now. Down the stairs. You’ve got a nice little cell waiting for you.”
“Virgil there’s got a point.” The short, slender man who’d insulted Jessalyn looked over his shoulder at Thomas. “He ain’t the law. I want to press charges.”
“He’s the law as soon as I deputize him.” Still holding Virgil by the handcuffs, Isaac took the slender man by the shoulder and started them down North Street. A quick glance behind him revealed Thomas followed with the last two men.
“You can’t just up and make anyone a lawman on a whim.”
Did Virgil think all this talking was going to accomplish something?
“Sure I can.” He might not be able to pay Thomas, but he had the authority to swear a man in as a deputy and give him a badge. He glanced behind him at Thomas once more, the man’s shadow looming large in the night. He was handling his two ruffians as easily as though they were his youngest daughter’s age. Sure wouldn’t hurt to have a man as stocky as him around to help.
Sure wouldn’t hurt to have anyone at all to help. In fact, after tonight, he didn’t have a choice about scrounging help from somewhere. These loggers might say they were just having fun, but there’d been nothing fun intended when they’d dragged him out of the bar after he’d broken up a fight between two of them.
A chill slithered down his back. It had almost been as though the loggers waited for him to come into the bar before they started fighting. Had they set a trap for him? Something that would allow a group of men to stop fighting amongst themselves and turn instantly on him?
Why?
The only crime committed of late had been the theft of Mrs. Ranulfson’s jewelry. And while the town banker’s wife was determined to get her missing baubles back, that hardly seemed like reason enough for a group of lumberjacks to pummel him.Even if one of them had taken the jewelry, why draw more attention to himself with an unnecessary brawl?
That scenario simply didn’t make sense. Were these loggers planning something big, and this fight was supposed to distract him? Or at least make him fearful enough that he ignored their illegal activities?
Isaac shook his head. He’d probably never know for certain what the men had been attempting to accomplish tonight, but one thing he did know—he’d be bloody and unconscious had Thomas not rushed across the road to help him.
“Want to be a deputy for the Eagle Harbor Sheriff’s Office?” He called back to the towering man.
Thomas’s wide shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “Why not? Don’t have much else to do.”
“I still think Griggs should press charges,” Virgil mumbled.
“Try it. See how far you get.” Isaac pushed him and the other man up the steps into the brightly lit, if small, sheriff’s office. “You’re headed straight toward the back there.”
He steered Virgil and the other lout toward the massive iron door at the back of the room. He could lock them in a cell for tonight, but without more evidence of wrongdoing, he’d have to let the lot of them go on the morrow.
Which felt about the same as giving a pack of wolves license to prowl Eagle Harbor during the annual Thimbleberry Festival.
He led them into the corridor that housed the jail and past the first tiny cell, already full with the two ruffians he’d dragged in earlier. The drunkard lay sleeping on the cell’s single cot, and hunched in the corner, the large man who’d approached him earlier with his fists drawn now sat glowering, his gaze so dark and menacing a chill traveled down Isaac’s spine. Thank God Thomas had come to help, because the man in the cell wouldn’t have gone easy with the beating.
“This one here.” Isaac gave Griggs a little push into the second cell, then stepped aside while Virgil followed. He locked the door behind them, then handed the keys to Thomas to lock his own two prisoners inside the final jail cell.
“Just a minute there.” Virgil clasped the iron bars and peered at him.
“No.” Isaac barely stopped himself from rolling his eyes. “Griggs can’t press charges against Thomas. I’m deputizing him first thing tomorrow.”
“Maybe second thing.” One of the men near Thomas slurred. “Man needs to get himself a new pair of trousers first.”
