***
Sheriff Perkins met us when we rode up to the small town jail and helped us lead the prisoners into the single cell. It was much cooler inside, the sun not penetrating the room's thick walls.
"Looks like a big day for you and your men," the sheriff said as he led the recalcitrant prisoners toward the cell. They were a sorry trio. Kevin favored his arm, the father looked almost weary and Miss Sinclair's posture was ramrod straight.
I nodded. The money we'd receive for all four members of the Sinclair family would be a tidy sum, well worth the months of hunting across half the Territory, as well as the long ride home. It would also bring justice to those killed, including my father. I wanted to know these culprits would swing for their disregard for innocent lives.
"Know when the circuit judge will be coming by next?" I asked, hoping it was soon.
"Tomorrow." He held up his hand stopping Miss Sinclair. "You don't have to sit in there with the others."
She turned to face the sheriff, eyebrows raised.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because she's free to go."
"Free to go? Why the hell is she free to go?" I ran my hand over my beard.
"Her brother said she was innocent. Isn't that right, Kevin?"
I glanced at her brother, a man I didn't trust one lick.
"Yes, Sheriff, she's innocent."
"She had the money box in the wagon with her," I countered.
"She had nothing to do with any of it," Harlan Sinclair said. In his fifties, he was weather worn and gray. He didn't seem to be an overly affectionate parent, his words less to save his daughter and more about fact.
"Are you saying she was a patsy?" I asked, stunned.
"Hey!" Miss Sinclair piped up.
Harlan nodded. Yeah, no love lost there. The woman's father had used her to commit crimes. Whether she knew about it was the question. "Yup."
"See?" the sheriff asked. "Look, I've known Piper all her life. She wasn't involved in this. Now those two," he pointed to the Sinclair men, "those two are guilty as charged. Just have to wait for the circuit judge to rule. As for Piper, she's free to go."
Miss Sinclair smiled at the man's words.
I held up a hand. "Now hold on here. You can't just let her go!" Miss Sinclair's smile faltered. "The witness said a woman was part of the group that not only robbed the stage, but murdered innocent people. I'm not letting her escape while we wait for the circuit judge."
"Her family said she was innocent, and I'm a character witness." The sheriff closed and locked the cell door, Miss Sinclair on one side, her family on the other. "If you don't want her to escape, then you can keep her until morning when the judge arrives. I expect around ten."
"You can't be serious," I said, my voice dark. I looked to the other three men in my group. All three shook their heads and stepped back, murmuring about I should just let her go, but I couldn't.
I sighed. A prisoner was a prisoner, even if she wore a dress, and had pert breasts, and freckles. She might look innocent and the sheriff might think she's innocent, but I would wait for the circuit judge to decide tomorrow. I'd searched too hard and too long to let her get away now.
How hard could it be to guard one woman overnight? I'd frisked her earlier so I wasn't in danger of her shooting me if she got the notion.
The man put his hands on his hips and gave me his lawman stare. "I'm very serious."
I sighed once again. "Fine. I'll watch her until the judge arrives tomorrow. Where the hell do you expect me to keep her? My hotel room?"
PIPER
The idea of spending the evening in the hotel was more appealing than the alternative of a lumpy, dirty mattress in a cell with my father and Kevin. However, spending the night in the hotel with the bounty hunter was something else entirely. I had been relieved when Kevin and my father had both proclaimed me innocent and the sheriff provided a solid character reference, but did Mr. Easton believe any of them? No!
I was free to go, per the sheriff, but the bounty hunter intended to keep me hostage until the circuit judge came in the morning. He obviously didn't like me, which made me frown. I'd done nothing to the man and he'd made me out to be an accomplice to murder! Even the sheriff couldn't make him change his mind. He hadn't said so out loud, but it was more than obvious, by his job alone, that he did not stand for anyone on the wrong side of the law.