Finding Mr. Morrell wasn’t too difficult. He was at Mrs. Garner’s diner, leaning on a wall near the door and keeping an eye on the breakfast customers. Lina glanced around the small dining room. Not a soul here looked ready to start a fight or run without paying for his food. Then again, she doubted breakfast was generally a rowdy time in Perseverance.
“Good morning, Mr. Morrell,” she said with a smile.
He looked up at her and immediately stood up straight. “Morning, Mrs. Rodgers. You . . . ah . . . coming in for some breakfast?”
“Oh, no, I ate at home. I thought I might stop by and say hello to Mrs. Garner, but she appears to be very busy at the moment.” Lina waved to Mrs. Garner, who had looked up from the table she was serving. She waved back before scurrying back to what Lina presumed was her kitchen.
“She does a good business here. Only place in town, save for the boardinghouse but their food is barely edible most days,” Mr. Morrell said.
Finding a way to ask him was going to be the most difficult part. Lina thought for a moment, and then asked, “Do you see much trouble here?”
“At Mrs. Garner’s? Not too much lately. Sometimes in the evenings close to her closing time, but folks are getting more respectable here day by day.”
“That’s good to know. I’m sure it’s reassuring to Mrs. Garner to have you here though.” Lina shot Mr. Morrell a smile, and he grinned in return.
“Thank you, ma’am. That’s awfully kind of you to say.”
Lina studied his face. He had to be about her age, maybe a year or so younger. “Have you been working for the sheriff for very long?”
“Nearly a year now.” Mr. Morrell tilted his chin up as if he were proud of his work.
“I know he’s glad to have men he can rely on, like you.” Lina figured a little flattery wouldn’t hurt her cause. “He started to tell me about one time last fall, when you all had some outlaws surrounded up in the mountains.”
“Grayson?” Mr. Morrell asked. When Lina nodded, he said, “I’ll never forget that. Those were the most dangerous men I’d ever been around.”
“Hawk didn’t get to finish the story.” Lina paused. “Would you tell me what happened? I’m absolutely dying to know how it ended.”
Mr. Morrell grinned as if he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather do. “Well, we had them cornered up at Horsethief Pass. Hawk yelled a few times for them to surrender. A couple hours go by, and we don’t hear a peep—till the leader himself, Joseph Grayson, comes out, with his rifle raised up high in the air and asks to talk. Jackson and Garland and the others, they thought it was a trap, and to be honest, ma’am, I sure thought so too. But Hawk thought different. That took some guts, him going over there unarmed to talk to the man.”
Lina’s breath caught in her throat. She shouldn’t have expected any less, not from Hawk.
“So Hawk and this Grayson fella, they sat and talked for some time. Then Hawk came out and just as he started back across the road, one of our men, a real twitchy one named Yount—he’s done and gone up to join the Army at Fort Garland now—he thought one of Grayson’s men was going to shoot, so he shot first. You can imagine what happened after that. They shot back, and we shot, and while Hawk made it back unharmed, Grayson and a bunch of his men didn’t survive.”
“It’s a miracle none of you were hurt,” Lina said.
“We had the upper ground,” Morrell replied. “Well, they grazed Jackson real good, but other than that, we all walked out of there just fine.”
“I wonder what Hawk and the outlaw discussed.” Lina hoped her words sounded like a musing.
“I asked him after, just ‘cause I was curious about what an outlaw might have to say. He said they talked about his surrender, what he might be facing if he gave up then.”
Lina’s heart ached at the thought. Her father would have given up everything. He’d really had no choice—die up in the mountains or face death by hanging down below. “I wonder if he had a family,” she said. “Someone he might have mentioned to Hawk. Only because I can’t see a man discussing something so final without a thought for his family,” she added quickly.
But Mr. Morrell didn’t seem startled at all by her thoughts. “I sure know I’d be talking about it if it was me. But Hawk sure didn’t say anything about it if he did.”
Lina’s heart sank. She dug her fingers into her skirts. She was no further along than she had been before she’d talked to Mr. Morrell. All she knew now was who shot first, and how long they’d waited up at the Pass.
How long they’d waited . . .
It was so obvious Lina had a hard time keeping her thoughts from her face. “Thank you so much for telling me the rest of the story, Mr. Morrell. I suppose I ought to get on to the mercantile.”
And before Billy Morrell could wish her goodbye, Lina was out the door and striding toward the livery.
Horsethief Pass was the answer all along.
