A Longer Fall (Gunnie Rose #2)(17)

“You looked like you were going to bite someone,” he whispered.

“Sorry,” I muttered. I made my face relax and go vacant.

“Much better. Now you look lack-witted.” We were approaching a short, stout man with a badge pinned to his coat. His face was full of a large, white mustache. The sheriff was giving instructions to a small group of men. He ended by saying, “And the sooner we get all this cleared up, the sooner the railroad crew can repair the tracks, and the sooner trains can come in and out.”

After a few comments, all the men dispersed.

“Yes, sir?” The sheriff turned to us, looking us up and down. Eli earned his deep suspicion because of the grigori vest. The sheriff looked at me with more favor, so the clothes were paying off. I introduced us, and the sheriff waited to hear what we wanted.

“My wife was going to be receiving a chest, arriving on this train,” Eli said. “It contained a wedding gift from my family. And two of our family friends are in the hospital in your town. We would like to check on their baggage. Is there a place where it’s all gathered?”

The sheriff looked real tired. He didn’t care that we were newlyweds, that we had injured family.

“Luggage and gifts aren’t important, considering the people who’ve died,” I said. “We’re doing what we can, Sheriff. Anything is better than hanging around the hospital.”

That struck the right note. The white-mustached man straightened his back, and after a glance around at the debris and the empty slope where the line of dead had lain, he said, “I’m Clyde Lathrop, sheriff of this county, Mr. and Mrs. Savarov. Do you know which car the chest was in?”

“It was in a car with a group of guards,” Eli said. “My brother told me the guards were in a passenger car, not a freight car.”

“Oh. Oh, my goodness.” The sheriff looked unhappy. “Well, the account we got, there was such a gun crew in one of the derailed cars, and most of the people in the crew are dead or in the hospital. In fact, just an hour ago, we found one of them in the field over there, with a very suspicious injury. There was a smashed crate beside him.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I don’t understand. An injury not caused by the… derailment?”

“No, ma’am.”

I can’t tell you how strange it felt to be a “ma’am.”

Sheriff Lathrop continued, “I’m pretty sure he was murdered. I’m real sorry to tell you this, but maybe that crate was a temptation to someone who took advantage of the chaos.”

“Oh, no,” I said. I leaned heavily against Eli. That was easy, because I was just as tired as the sheriff. I tried to make tears come to my eyes as I looked up at Eli, but I could not make that happen. “We have to find out what happened to the poor man, and to the crate. I’m afraid your brother will take it personal, if we can’t retrieve…”

“It was a family piece,” Eli told Clyde Lathrop. “We’re very anxious to track it, if that’s possible. And of course, we want to claim the poor man’s body for burial.”

“Mr. Savarov, everything we’ve gathered together from the wreck is in that tent yonder, now that the injured have all been moved,” Sheriff Lathrop said. “The crates and boxes and so on are on one side, the personal luggage on the other. You are welcome to look. I don’t believe there’s anything that would shock your missus.” The sheriff cut his eyes toward me significantly.

I had to bite the inside of my mouth to keep my face still.

“Thank you, sir,” Eli said.

“If you don’t find what you’re looking for, you may feel free to look among the wreckage. But Mrs. Savarov should remain here if you do so. And the dead have all been taken to the funeral homes in town.”

“Again, thank you for your advice, Sheriff.” Eli nodded gravely and we started over to the tent that had formerly housed the wounded. Now it was the salvaged goods depot.

If I had truly been a gently bred lady, there were still some things that would have distressed me… maybe. There was blood on some of the items that had been retrieved, and of course blood had dripped on the ground from the injured. Now it had dried on the trampled grass. No way to get rid of that until the tent came down and there was rain.

I bravely pretended I didn’t see it. I didn’t want to come all over faint. I held a hand to my forehead, palm out, to mask the awful sight.

“Would you stop it,” Eli hissed. “I can see you’re trying not to laugh.”

“Yes, my manly protector,” I said. I didn’t dare look up.

I wasn’t laughing after ten minutes’ hard searching. No chest. I hadn’t believed it would be here. No one would murder Jake and then leave the booty to be carried to the lost-and-found. But we had to look.

Jake would have used his gun if he hadn’t believed the person approaching him was a friend. That idea popped into my head, crystal clear.

“He did the best any crew leader could do,” I said.

“Don’t you think I should go look over the wreckage?” Eli said. I could hear that encouraging note in his voice that said he really wanted to do that. And I could also tell he knew the fact that I couldn’t go with him would be real irritating to me.

“That might be a good thing to do,” I said. “Sweetheart.” I tacked that on since we were newlyweds. Eli squeezed my arm a little too hard.