Chuck twisted to glower over his shoulder and began bellowing, “Pierce! Where’s my wife? What have you done with her?” He tried to shove past the deputy, who luckily was young and fit and barely staggered. The deputy cranked Chuck’s arm to the pain point and pinned him back in place against the Buick.
“He’s gone round the bend, Sheriff,” I said, letting worry leak into my voice. “He’s crazy! We were driving through town andnext thing I know, Chuck’s chasing us and hitting my truck from behind. You saw him, right?”
“I did.” Tomlinson spread his glare between Chuck, Micah, and me.
“No weapons, sir,” the deputy reported, swinging Chuck around to face us.
“Of course I don’t have weapons!” Chuck snapped. “All I want is my wife. That… that… thieving, wife-stealing, Injun-loving Pierce. He drove right past me with my Peggy in the passenger seat. I want my wifenow!”
“She’s not your property,” I told him, fighting down any hint of a grin. “If she wanted to ride with me, she could. But it’s all in your head. Peggy wasn’t anywhere near my truck. You’re hallucinating.”
“You go get her, Tomlinson.” Chuck’s face was bright red as he pointed a shaking finger at the pickup. “Getmy wifeout ofhis truck.She’s in there.”
I sighed, trying to sound like I was humoring a madman. “Sheriff, the man’s nuts. Come on, you can take a look.” I beckoned, turned my back on him, and set off toward my pickup.
For a second, I wondered if the sheriff would order me to stop, but he told the deputy, “Hang onto Chuck,” holstered his gun, and jogged a couple of steps to catch up.
As we reached the truck, I said, “Here, have a look.” I opened the driver’s door and waved into the cab, hoping Micah had done a good job of hiding the outfit. No reason Tomlinson should check too closely down there. You couldn’t fit a grown woman under the seat. “No Peggy in here, no Peggy in the truck bed, and with Chuck on our tail, no way I could’ve stopped to let her out along the road. I had no idea that was his problem. I thought he was just trying to kill me.”
Tomlinson scanned the interior, harrumphed, and swung my door shut. I had a tarp bundled in the load bed and he pulled thecanvas aside to reveal nothing but some wood chips and a couple of shovels. “You sure you didn’t do something to set him off?”
“Me just breathing in the same town as Peggy sets him off. I don’t know. Crue was messing with his hair, holding it up like a ponytail. Maybe Chuck thought that was Peggy’s hair he saw.”
“Seems odd, a grown man with long hair like that.”
“A couple of the Indians I knew in the service hated shaving theirs. Said it turned them into the Army’s killing machines. Maybe Crue was like that. Grew it long afterward, to forget the war.”
I was laying it on thick because Micah’s service was his ticket to Tomlinson’s good side. Tomlinson tugged his hat straighter. “Maybe.”
“Doesn’t excuse Chuck trying to run us off the road. He hit my goddamned bumper at high speed. If I wasn’t a good driver, he could’ve killed us.”
“Hmph.” Tomlinson peered at the deep dents in my bumper. When we turned and walked back, he strode shoulder to shoulder with me. “No sign of Peggy,” the sheriff told Chuck. “Maybe you got confused by Crue’s long hair.”
Chuck’s face went red. “You think I can’t tell my own wife from that dirty bum?”
I said, “At least he’d treat Peggy better than you do.” Yeah, stirring the pot, but the worse Chuck acted, the more tired of him Tomlinson got.
Chuck bellowed and lunged at me, swinging his fists. I dodged sideways, Tomlison grabbed for Chuck, and one of the raging man’s punches landed smack on the sheriff’s face. Tomlinson fell back with a shout, landing on his ass, and the deputy tackled Chuck to the ground.
I leaped to help the deputy subdue Chuck and pin his arms behind his back to cuff him, with a side order of rubbing Chuck’sface in the gravel.Take that,I thought, forcing his head down, but when the deputy muttered, “Got him. Back off,” I did.
Micah hurried over to Tomlinson. “Sheriff, are you all right?”
“I thin’ he broke ’y dose.” The sheriff sat up, holding a hand to his face.
“Need a handkerchief? It’s clean.” I pulled mine out of my pocket and offered it.
“Tha’gs.” Tomlinson took the hankie from me and pressed it carefully to the blood streaming down his upper lip. “Daggit.” He struggled to his feet. “Deputy. Arrest him. Assaul’ on an ossisser.”
“It was an accident,” Chuck protested as the deputy hauled him roughly to his feet. “I didn’t mean to hityou. It’s all a mistake.”
“Yeah, yours,” I muttered.
The sheriff sniffed heavily, winced, and then said, “Attempted murder too, with the way you hit Lee’s truck.”
“Because he imagined his wife was in it,” I pointed out. “He was trying to murder Peggy.”
If looks could’ve killed, Chuck would’ve incinerated me right there.
