Read Online Texas Iron by Robert J. Randisi - Free Book Online Page B

brothers and said, “We’ll talk to Doc Leader.”
    “But Sam,” Jubal said, “Pa wouldn’t—”
    “Thanks for your help, Sheriff,” Sam said, cutting Jubal off. To his brothers he said, “Let’s go.”
    He went to the door, opened it and walked out. Evan and Jubal exchanged a glance, then gathered their things and went outside.
     Sam was standing on the boardwalk, waiting for them.
    “What was that all about?” Jubal demanded.
    “Take it easy.”
    “Take it easy? You heard the things he was saying about Pa.”
    “I heard them.”
    “So?”
    “There’s no point in arguing with the sheriff, Jubal,” Sam said. “He didn’t have anything to do with it.”
    “How do we know that?”
    “I mean, he isn’t the one who came to the conclusion.”
    “He’s a sheriff.”
    “But,” Evan said, “the doctor is the one who would come to the conclusion about the manner of death—isn’t that what you’re
     getting at, Sam?”
    “That’s it.”
    “Then let’s talk to Doc Leader,” Evan said.
    “And after that,” Sam added, “Dude Miller. After all, it was Dude who sent the telegram.”
    They walked to where they all remembered Doc Leader’s office as being, above the general store—and it was still there.
    They stopped at the stairway that went up the side of the building and Sam said, “Same damned stairway.”
    “How does he get up and down it every day, if he’s as old as you figured?” Evan wondered.
    “Well, maybe I overstated it,” Sam said, “but he’s gotta be at least in his sixties.”
    “Why are we standing down here guessing?” Jubal asked.
    “Good point, little brother,” Sam said.
    “Don’t call me that!” Jubal said. “I don’t like the sound of it.”
    “Sure, Jube,” Sam said, “whatever you say.”
    Sam felt his brother’s anger. Jubal was still fuming at having been cut off in the sheriff’s office.
    They ascended the steps, not enjoying the creaking sound they made.
    “When we go back down,” Evan said, “I suggest we go one at a time.”
    When they reached the door Sam knocked and waited. When the door opened there was a short man in his sixties standing there,
     squinting up at Sam and shading his eyes against the sun with hands stained from years of nicotine.
    “Still smoking, huh, Doc?” Sam asked. “For a sawbones, that ain’t exactly smart.”
    “Jesus,” Leader said, “I hate that word, sawbones. What the hell are you doing here, Sam McCall?”
    “We’re all here, Doc,” Sam said.
    Leader leaned out to spot Evan and Jubal and said, “So you are.”
    “Can we come in? We’ve got some things to talk about, haven’t we?”
    Leader scowled and said, “I suppose we have. Yeah, come in, all of you.”
    They entered the office and the doctor closed the door behind them. The office looked the same to Sam, with furnishings as
     ancient as the doctor himself.
    “I suppose you’re here about Joshua and Miriam.”
    “That’s right, Doc,” Sam said.
    The doctor turned his head and looked directly at Jubal.
    “Jubal, you’ve grown.”
    Jubal said to the room at large, “Why is everyone saying that?”
    “Well,” the doctor said, looking at them each in turn, “what do you want to know?”
    “Doc,” Sam said, “we want to know how our Ma and Pa died.”
    “I suspect you’ve already heard that from Sheriff Kelly.”
    “We want to hear it from you.”
    “All right,” Doc Leader said, “near as I can figure, Joshua shot Miriam, and then turned the gun on himself.”
    “That’s a lie!” Jubal said.
    “Easy, boy,” Sam said.
    “It can’t be true, Sam,” Evan said. “Pa wouldn’t do that.”
    “And when’s the last time you saw Pa, or talked to him?” Sam asked.
    “Well…seven years or so—”
    “And more for me,” Sam said, “and how do we know how he might have changed between now and then?”
    “You boys have a lot of gall,” Doc Leader said.
    “What do you mean, Doc?”
    “Your Ma and Pa were proud as hell of