“It’s a good rifle. Used by both sides, but primarily by the South because England would sell to them. I saw a lot of these when I was in Andersonville. Most of the guards carried an Enfield. I wasn’t expecting the sheriff to have one of these.”
“What does it mean?” She returned the Springfield to the rack.
“Probably nothing. He could have picked it up on the battlefield or been issued it. After the Springfield, the Enfield was the most popular rifle.”
“Can you tell the difference between a minié fired from one rifle compared to the other?”
“Wouldn’t that be a fine thing, but no.”
“I thought every man in Falls Hollow fought for the Union, but maybe Carter didn’t. It could be how he came by the Enfield.”
“Maybe, but I don’t think it matters to Josey Pye which rifle killed him.” He set the Enfield back on the rack. “We need to go now. I think we’ve pushed our luck far enough.”
Nodding, Laurel preceded him out the door. Neither noticed that the rifles had not been returned to their original positions on the rack.
Carter did, though. The first thing to catch the sheriff’s eye when he returned to his office was that his glass and bottle were still sitting out. He didn’t recall leaving them there, but what the hell. He poured himself a drink and indulged in the hair of the dog as he sat back—and came bolt upright when his gaze shifted to the gun rack. He swore under his breath, and then because it didn’t make him feel one whit better, he threw the shot glass at the far wall, where it shattered in a satisfying manner.
32
Call hitched Artemis to the back of the buckboard and sat beside Laurel on the way back to the station. “Just to make sure you go straight home,” he said, and he was only half kidding.
“Why did you follow me?”
“I didn’t as much follow as go after you. You see the difference?” As far as he was concerned, he was not splitting hairs. “I didn’t know what trouble you were going to get yourself into, especially in that getup.”
“Getup? Did you truly just say that?”
“I did.” He paused, sensing he’d stepped into deep water. “Does it matter that I regretted it as soon as the words were out of my mouth?”
She snorted. “Not much.”
“It bothered me some that you made yourself up so fine for the likes of him.”
“When you’re in a hole, Call, the first thing you need to do is stop digging.”
“Right.”
“I wasn’t looking for trouble,” she said. “I was looking for that Springfield. I didn’t think you’d talked to the sheriff yet so I made it my business.”
“Even after I told you not to do that.”
Laurel made a show of breathing in and expelling that air slowly so he couldn’t possibly miss the fact that shewas out of sorts with him. “Even after that. Maybe you hadn’t noticed, but I have a mind of my own.”
“Oh, I noticed. Hard not to. You take a thing in your head and marry it for life.”
Frowning, Laurel looked at him sideways. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“You know damn well.”
And she did. She couldn’t very well take back the words she’d said to him when he told her he intended to stick.I believe you believe it.She had cut him bone deep and the wound hadn’t healed. “I meant it at the time, Call.”
“I know. Unlike you, Laurel, I take you at your word.”
“Do you intend to keep throwing everything I say back at me?”
“I think I do, yes.”
His honesty stung, but she took it on the chin as deserved. “When I said I meant it at the time, you were supposed to understand that I don’t think the same way now. Contrary to what you believe, I don’t always marry an idea for life. Didn’t I say I’d vote for you for sheriff if I could? I thought you’d hear that as acknowledgment that I believed you were going to stay around. What did you hear if you didn’t hear that?”
