Rocky Mountain Oasis (21 page)

An hour later, Sky decided the time had come to question Lee Chang. Jason accompanied him as he entered the Joss house. The Joss house, a two-story building on the south end of Main Street, served the Chinese as a combined saloon, gambling hall, boarding house, and temple. The bottom floor consisted of a kitchen, a living-dining room, two bedrooms, and the large gambling room. The upper portion of the building housed the Chinese temple. Sky didn’t know any white man who had ever been permitted to enter the temple area.

The dingy interior of the building writhed with smoke, and debris littered every surface, evidence of the previous night’s party.

Taking a moment to let his eyes adjust to the dim light, Sky composed his thoughts. The last thing he wanted to start was a racial war. There already existed enough tension between the Chinese and the white faction of the town, without letting this situation go down that road too.

One thing was clear, and it bothered him—these assailants had had a gun, so why hadn’t they simply shot Fraser in the first place? He had been stabbed repeatedly before being killed, as though someone were trying to prolong the torture. Obviously, Fraser had been sleeping in bed when attacked, so why hadn’t the criminals simply shot him?
A bizarre crime.
Sky had never seen another like it.

And what about the safe in the back room? Why wasn’t it tampered with? Sky knew from some of his previous conversations with Fraser that he had quite a substantial sum in that safe. He had been saving to send his daughter to a finishing school back east. Maybe the killer hadn’t known this fact? Still, wouldn’t he have at least checked? Maybe he had been interrupted?

Accustomed to the dim interior now, Sky could see Chang sitting at his usual table in the back of the room. With a gesture of his hand Sky instructed Jason to stay in the doorway, where he would have an excellent view of the whole room. Walking purposefully toward Chang, Sky made a mental note of the position of each of Chang’s four body guards. The men sat strategically around the perimeter of the room so that if you looked directly at one, the other three remained out of sight.

“Morning, Chang,” Sky said politely. “I assume you’ve heard about Fraser?”

Chang pulled his pipe from his mouth and nodded. Raising an overflowing tankard, he took a deep draught. Then, smacking his lips he squinted up at Sky. “Can I help you?”

Sky cut to the chase. “Where were you last night after nine o’clock?”

With a grin Chang glanced around at his companions. “He wants to know where I was last night.”

Everyone in the room chuckled but Sky and Jason.

His face turning suddenly serious, Chang answered, “I was here, Mr. Jordan.” His hand swept around the untidy room. “Here, enjoying a wonderful celebration.”

“What were you celebrating?”

Sky saw Chang’s eyes flicker before he answered, “My wife had a birthday.” He replaced the stem of his pipe in his mouth, drawing deeply.

Sky’s eyes narrowed. Jenny Chang had told him it was her birthday a couple of weeks back when she had picked berries with Brooke. So what had the celebration really been about? A noisy cover for a brutal murder? Fraser’s store was just across the alley from his room at Jed’s, and he hadn’t heard a sound coming from the Mercantile. Surely sometime during his struggle with his assailants Fraser had yelled for help.
If the festivities—and the storm— hadn’t been so loud, I would have heard him call for help
.

Sky considered his options, hands held readily at his side.
Glad I told Jason to stay by the door.
He needed to bring Chang in for questioning.

Whether he was guilty or not, it appeared he was trying to hide something.

He could come back with more men to make the arrest, but Chang might be gone by then. On the other hand, Chang had four men strategically located throughout the room—all of them armed. Sky momentarily wished he was wearing his own gun, but since he had given up law he had quit wearing it. His only weapon was the knife strapped to his hip.

One other thing worried him. Jason. He
was
wearing a gun. His cousin made no effort to hide his dislike of anyone of Chinese descent and Sky feared he might use this situation as an opportunity to carry out his vendetta against them. Especially Chang, whom he blamed for the death of his mother. Sky didn’t want anyone innocent getting shot for moving too quickly or at the wrong time.

Suddenly deciding that the direct approach best suited the situation, Sky, his voice loud and clear, said, “Chang, you’re under arrest.” Just as he’d anticipated, Chang’s four henchmen scrambled to their feet. But Chang held up one fleshy hand, palm out, tapping the air twice.

“For what am I under arrest, Mr. Jordan?”

“You are trying to hide something, Mr. Chang. I am not saying you are guilty of murder, but you lied to me about the reason for the celebration last night. I know it was not your wife’s birthday yesterday.”

Angry, Chang’s eyes narrowed, his mouth hardening into a firm line. His smoking pipe, held in a tight-fisted grip, shook perceptibly. “You are right, Mr. Jordan. But we were unable to have the celebration on her actual birthday, so we had it a little late. Better late than never. You know how the saying goes.” He tried to smile casually, his voice surprisingly controlled despite the anger that radiated from his eyes.

Sky hesitated. Chang might be telling the truth; he couldn’t let his dislike of the man cloud his good reasoning. “All right, I’ll check into it. But don’t go anywhere, Chang. You are not to leave town until your name is cleared. Do you understand?”

Chang’s eyes darkened, but he nodded in affirmation.

Brooke’s hands shook as she and Jenny Chang sewed Fraser’s body into a large piece of black denim. They worked in the front room of Jed’s boarding house.
I’ll never see this room in the same light again.
She felt nauseated and light-headed, but she kept sewing. They were almost done now, but she could still see the poor man’s battered body as it had been when Sky and Jed carried him in on a blanket. A shudder ran through her.
How could anyone do such a thing to another human being?
And Percival had been involved in this somehow.

She felt edgy and jumped at even the slightest noise, making Jenny look at her oddly.

Jenny Chang had been very quiet as they worked side by side. Her dark eyes, though sorrowful, did not shed a tear. She merely pressed on steadily, doing the work that needed to be done.

Brooke was the first to break the silence. “Did you know him well, Jenny?” Chagrined, she noted that her voice trembled when she spoke.

“Mistah Fraser?” A sad smile softened Jenny’s face. “He good man. He always kind to me.”

“How long had he lived here?”

“Long time. Lee and I, we come twenty-three years ago. He here before us.”

“Does he have any family?”

“His wife die. He have a daughter. She come to visit him sometimes.”

“Where does she live?”

“She staying in Lewiston with a Judge Rand. She go to school there. She fifteen, I think.”

Brooke immediately felt her heart go out to this young girl. She herself had been fifteen when her parents and sister had been killed. Memories rushed in on a surge of emotion and Brooke gasped, choking back a flood of tears. The memories added on top of this morning’s terror proved too much for her.

Turning, she fled back to her room, throwing herself across the bed, sobs wracking her body. She jumped up again just as suddenly and threw the door’s deadbolt into place.

Backing toward the bed she sat down with her back to the wall and her arms wrapped around her knees. She had begun to feel safe with Sky, but she should have known better. Somehow God had it in for her, and she didn’t think she would ever feel safe again.

She scrubbed angrily at the tears coursing down her face. It seemed all she did lately was cry.

Sky paused to let his eyes adjust to the bright outdoor light as he exited the Joss house. He stood for a moment, hands resting on hips, staring up and down the street, trying to decide what to do next. Sunlight glistened off the quickly melting snow as he turned to Jason. “I hate to send you down to Lewiston with no more information than we have, but if we are going to get this thing solved, we are going to need some outside assistance.”

Jason’s face clearly portrayed his anger. “I’ll tell you how to solve this thing. We both know who is responsible. We should just take him out.” He nodded back in the direction of the Joss house and Lee Chang.

His eyes never leaving Jason’s face, Sky replied in a measured voice, “And if we took the law into our own hands we would be no better than him. If it
was
him that did it.” He paused, one hand rubbing over his unshaven jaw. “Brooke saw a man in the alley last night.” He pulled a paper from his vest pocket and handed it to Jason. “I wrote down his description. See what you can find out about him.”

Jason nodded.

Another thought hit Sky, and he gave Jason a sympathetic look. “You’ll have to find Fraser’s daughter, Alice. She is staying with the Rand family in Lewiston. We’ll bring the body down as soon as we can, probably tomorrow, maybe Saturday, but she should be told as soon as possible.” Sky didn’t envy Jason the terrible responsibility.

“Should we send a telegram?”

“I thought of that, but I don’t know. I thought it seemed a little cold and impersonal. But...” Sky shrugged. “What do you think?”

Jason thought for only a moment. “You’re right. I’ll tell her when I get there.” The look on his face showed that he did not look forward to the task. Sky let one hand fall to rest on his cousin’s shoulder, amazement filling him once again at Jason’s ability to about-face in his temperament so quickly. He had been coldly angry only moments ago and now he felt tender sympathy to the point of having to blink back tears.

Sky prayed the Lord would use this situation to reach him as they walked down the street toward Jed’s boarding house. Bill Currey, leading three fresh horses, met them just in front of the boarding house. Sky noticed that his hands shook badly as he handed the reins of the lead horse over to Jason. Bill had brought extra horses so Jason could swap his saddle from one animal to the next when the horse he rode tired out. Without a rider, even though the animal had to trail behind, it soon got its wind back. In this way, a man could almost cut his traveling time in half.

Jason nodded. “Thanks, Bill.”

“Sure. For ol’ Fraser I’d do just ‘bout—” He stopped short, rubbing shaky hands across his face. “I need me a drink.”

Jason clapped him on the shoulder before he mounted the saddle. “You’ll be glad you stayed away from the booze when this is over, Bill. It’s going to be the trial of the century, and you’ll want to be able to remember everything that happened.”

Bill gave a snort and waved him off with a quavery hand.

Jason threw Sky a grin as he swung into the saddle. And Sky reminded, “You’re going to have to exercise some self-control yourself these next couple of days.”

The smile left Jason’s face and he stared in thoughtfulness at the pommel of the saddle for a moment. Then, the leads of the two extra horses in one hand, he nodded in Sky’s direction and urged his mount forward.

As Sky watched Jason ride out of town, he caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned. Jed propelled an obviously terrified Chinaman down the sodden, muddy street in front of him. The young man held his hands wide at shoulder height, palms out, as Jed kept poking him in the ribs with a mean-looking 44 caliber, long-barreled pistol.

“What’s going on, Jed?”

“Thought you should see this here fella fer a minute. Carle was skirtin’ out at the edge o’ town like you said when he come upon him trying to hide hisself behind a bush. Take a look at this here,” he drawled. He pulled the man’s shirt away from his body. “That’s blood if ever I saw it.”

Sky let his eyes drop from studying the face of the terrified young man to the large brown patch of crusted shirt that Jed held out. Anger surged through him at the sight of the blood. The thought that this could be the man who had done such a despicable thing to Fraser clenched his fists at his sides. He took a deep breath to calm himself and forced his hands to relax. Jed calmly held the gun on the trembling youth, waiting for Sky’s response.