Read Online Caliber Detective Agency - Box Set - Case Files 1-6 by Donald Wells - Free Book Online

mirror as she recalled the shooting, while grinning like a Cheshire cat.

CALIBER DETECTIVE AGENCY – CASE FILE #5
    D allas, Texas, 1884
    Deputy Jake Caliber walked along with Sheriff Bob Carter as they made their rounds along the busy city streets. When he agreed to become a lawman, Jake had been shocked to learn that Carter had fourteen other deputies.
    Carter explained to him that Dallas was growing at an incredible rate and needed yet more officers. The city’s population had lately passed the ten thousand mark and the crime rate was growing along with it.
    Squabbling neighbors, horse thievery and other robberies were happening all the time and the newly named, Police Department of Dallas, had to grow along with it.
    As they walked along, Jake asked his boss a question.
    “If you got so many deputies why were you alone the other night?”
    “That’s a good question. Timmons was supposed to be on duty, but he sent word that he was ill, and before I could get anyone to take his place, those four men arrived.”
    “Do you trust Timmons?”
    “I did, but I’ll tell you somethin’, I’m not sure I still do. The men who robbed that bank got away with over sixty-thousand dollars from the railway’s payroll. That kind of money can buy a lot of friends.”
    “Those men will be back. I know that you think that Bo Clayton might be their leader, but even so, I’d expect varmints like bank robbers to leave him to rot.”
    “They’re probably afraid he’ll start talkin’ and tell us their names.”
    “Then why not simply kill him and shut him up? They’re capable of it; they killed the bank teller and a customer during the robbery, didn’t they?”
    “Yup, that’s true, so why do you think they want to break him out?”
    “Maybe he’s more than a leader to them; maybe he’s kin, at least to one of them.”
    The sheriff stopped walking and stared at Jake.
    “You got a knack for this work boy. Now, come to think of it, Clayton does have two brothers, they’re known to be honest men, ranchers, but maybe they’re in the gang too.”
    “It’s somethin’ to think about.” Jake said.
    ***
    W hen they got back to the jail, they found three of the other deputies there. They looked worried and passed around a piece of paper.
    “What you boys got there?” Sheriff Carter said.
    One of the deputies, a tall man with deep-set eyes named Jim Harrow, handed Carter the paper, and Jake watched as Carter fell back into his chair.
    “What is it?” Jake said.
    “They took Emma.” Carter said. “Clayton’s gang took my wife.”
    “You’ll get her back in one piece if you let me go.” Bo Clayton cried out from his cell. “Just open this door and they’ll set her free.”
    The tall deputy spoke again, as he gestured at Jake.
    “Tell him the rest, sheriff,”
    Sheriff Carter looked up at Jake with sorrowful eyes.
    “It’s Eva, Jake, she was visitin’ Emma when they came; they took her too.”
    Jake blinked several times. “What?”
    “My boys got your girl.” Clayton said. “Now let me go and I promise that you’ll see her again, otherwise...”
    Jake spoke to Sheriff Carter.
    “We have to go and get them back, or we’ll never see them again.”
    “We don’t know where they are son.”
    Jake tossed his head toward the cells. “He does.”
    Carter stared at Jake for long seconds, and then he took out his pocket watch and looked at the picture of his wife that he kept in it. A moment later, he looked up at the other three deputies as he held up the note.
    “Where’d this come from?”
    “It was in his cell,” Harrow said. “Someone passed it through the bars on the window.”
    “But that window is twelve feet off the ground.”
    “Yeah, but the roof of the haberdashery is right behind it; they probably tossed it in from there.”
    Carter looked over at Jake.
    “What you were sayin’ before, I think you’re right. If all they wanted was to keep him quiet, they could have shot him through the