“I’ll only be a minute,” Singer said.
Laurel shut the window where she’d been standing and closed the curtains. “I’ll send one of the Booker boys around with clothes for Mr. Pye. You can’t bury him in what’s been cut away.”
“No, Miss Morrison,” said Beckley. “Wouldn’t be right or respectful.” His gaze shifted to Call. “I guess you’ll be talking to the sheriff now.”
“Why would you say that?”
Beckley shrugged. “I thought I heard him say that he wanted to know what the doctor learned.”
“Did he say that?” Call frowned as though thinking back to yesterday’s conversation with the sheriff. “I don’t recollect that he showed much interest.”
“You don’t know him like I do. He hasn’t had something like this to sink his teeth into for a long time. A robbery. Now a murder. He’s interested. Just real quiet about it.”
“Real quiet” was not how Call would have described Rayleigh Carter’s demeanor. To his way of thinking, “indifferent” and “unresponsive” were more accurate. Both of those were telling of the sheriff’s confidence in job security. “Then I’ll be sure to speak to him.”
Satisfied, Beckley nodded. “You’ll send one of your boys right around, Miss Morrison? I want to get Mr. Pye in the ground today.”
Laurel grimaced slightly but answered that he would have clothes for Mr. Pye that afternoon. She was grateful for the doctor’s return just then and walked past Mr. Beckley to join Singer. “Mr. Landry? Are you ready to go?”
Call didn’t hesitate. He wanted to leave before the undertaker asked for assistance with the coffin and digging the grave. Beckley had no shame. The money Call had already provided was plenty enough for the undertaker to hire help with both those things. He plucked the pencil from behind his ear and gave it and the notebook to the doctor. “Good day, Mr. Beckley. We’ll show ourselves out.”
***
Laurel handed over the reins to Call when she climbed in. “Your turn. You know what you want to do.”
He did. It was bewildering to him how Laurel could know his mind about some things and be so completelythickheaded about others. Shaking his head at the puzzle of it, he took the reins without a word.
“Why are we going back this way?” Singer asked when Call turned the buckboard onto a side street and then down the alley behind the buildings on the main street.
It was Laurel who answered. “Mr. Landry wants to avoid the sheriff’s office. If Sheriff Carter saw us on our way to Mr. Beckley’s, he wasn’t moved to cross the street to hear what you had to say, but now that we’re leaving, he might very well stop us.”
“Let him hear it from Beckley,” said Call. “The undertaker was hanging on your every word.”
“Why wouldn’t the sheriff want to hear everything directly from the horse’s mouth as it were?”
“The kindest way to put it,” said Laurel, “is that he’s indolent. I told Mr. Landry early on that no one really wanted the position when it became available. He ran unopposed and no one’s expressed interest in running against him.”
“Maybe I will,” said Call.
Laurel leaned forward on the bench so she could see past the doctor and get a good look at Call. His profile told her nothing at all about how serious he was. She sat back, frustrated.
Call said, “Since we left Beckley, I’ve been thinking there might be another reason for Carter’s lack of involvement besides laziness.”
“Oh?” asked Singer. “And what is that?”
Call shook his head. “It’s premature. And only conjecture. I’d rather not say.”
“Mr. Stonechurch told me you would play your cards close.”
Chuckling, Call said, “So he asked you to find out about my progress. Why am I not surprised?”
“He’s a careful man. He wants this resolved with as little notice as possible.”
“I understand. The robbery’s made the company vulnerable. I imagine it’s no different for him since heisthecompany. Assure him that I have been as discreet as it’s possible to be and that is why I haven’t communicated more. Maybe that will set his mind at ease. You don’t have to be convinced, Doctor. You just have to do it.”
Singer nodded. “I will, of course. I will also inform him that you’ve taken great risks in your pursuit of recovering the stolen payroll.” When Call looked at him with one eyebrow cocked in question, he said, “That insane climb you made to the top of the falls.”
“Oh, that.”
