Chapter Thirteen
HALE FOUND SHERIFFWright in his office, a stack of paperwork piled in front of him.
“I need to ask you about something, but I don’t want to interrupt your work.” Hale gestured at the papers. If Wright was anything like him, he needed a span of uninterrupted time to get such mundane tasks accomplished.
“Please interrupt it.” Wright tossed the pen he held onto the desk and gestured at the empty chair nearby. “How is the boardinghouse business?”
“Busy,” Hale said as he sat down. “Which we’re grateful for. I overheard a conversation recently and wanted to see what you knew.” It was a white lie, but Hale felt uncomfortable sharing everything Isabella had told him. Besides, all he needed was a little more information.
“I imagine you hear all sorts of interesting conversations,” Wright said, lacing his hands behind his head.
“You wouldn’t believe some of them. But this one is something I hope you’d know more about, and you can tell me whether we ought to be concerned.”
Wright leaned forward in his chair, dropping his elbows to the desk.
“A few men by the name Sutter, up in Wyoming Territory, apparently made it their work to relieve men—and businesses—of means of their wealth. I was wondering if you knew anythingabout it. Particularly whether we should worry about them heading this way.” Unless Isabella’s family had escaped prison, the latter wasn’t a concern at all, but he needed an excuse to explain his interest in the topic.
“Sutter,” Wright repeated, quiet for a moment as he considered Hale’s question. “It sounds familiar.”
The sheriff stood and moved toward the posters on the wall. Hale turned in his chair to watch as Wright examined a few of the sketches.
“Not Sutter, but close.” He unpinned the sheet of paper and handed it to Hale. “The Sutcliffe gang was out of Wyoming Territory, mostly northwest of Cheyenne. I had a letter that went with it . . .”
Hale studied the sketch and description as Wright searched through the papers on his desk. If he squinted, the image could have resembled Isabella, although she hadn’t mentioned that one of her brothers had escaped capture.
“Here it is.” Wright extracted the letter and skimmed through it. “Three men were apprehended in a shoot-out at a new shipping company in some small town. They’re all related, were found guilty for stealing from a number of businesses, and are now in prison. One of them confessed to hoarding some of the stolen money at a cabin and keeping the rest at a bank in Cheyenne.” Wright whistled. “That’s an interesting choice for an outlaw. The money from the bank was recovered, but they searched the cabin and found nothing. There’s a fourth man who escaped, name unknown, destination unknown. Description on the poster.” Wright set the letter down. “That’s not much to go on, but there’s nothing to indicate that one man will find his way here. You can reassure your guests.”
Hale handed the poster back to Wright. “I’ll do that. Thank you for your help.” He stood and paused, one question still on his mind. “Was anyone hurt?”
“Doesn’t say,” Wright said. “Although the judge wouldn’t have hesitated to add murder to the charges if anyone was killed. Looks like they got lucky.”
Hale nodded, uncertain how to indicate he was asking about one of the thieves. “Thank you. I’ll leave you to your paperwork.”
Outside, he walked back toward the boardinghouse, barely seeing the people and places he passed. Why hadn’t Isabella mentioned another brother? Or was she unaware that one of them had escaped?
One thing was for certain. Isabella’s father hadn’t been acting out of concern for people down on their luck. Either Isabella had been deceived herself, which was what he’d suspected before, or she was doing an excellent job at deceiving him.
He didn’t want to believe the latter. It felt too impossible. But he’d be a fool if he didn’t consider the possibility. After all, the best confidence men worked in a way that made them seem the least likely to ever lead you to believe something false.
And if that was the case, Hale wasn’t certain his heart would ever recover from such a betrayal.
