Rocky Mountain Oasis (31 page)

Brooke looked surprised. “You could forgive a man who treated you that way?”

Again she shook her head. “Not me only. I haf to haf Jesus’ help.”

“I don’t want to forgive them.”

Jenny nodded. “First thing first. You want to find peace? You need Jesus. You not find long peace any place else.” Jenny gestured toward the house. “You haf Bible?”

Brooke nodded.

“Come. I show you Jesus’ heart.” Jenny headed toward the house. Brooke followed, carefully carrying the half-filled bowl of fresh eggs.

18

Late in the afternoon, when all the Chinamen but the last had been questioned, still not one of them had come clean. The posse brought out Ping. He admitted that he and three others had gone into Fraser’s store on the night of the murder, and while he made a small purchase to distract the merchant one of the others had lifted the lock on the front window. Then later that night, after the town had become sufficiently noisy to hide the sounds of a struggle, they had gone into the store through the unlocked window and killed Fraser.

A threatening murmur rose from the crowd, but John Bymaster held up his hand for silence and continued with the questioning. “And what was this purchase you made?” he asked, pacing in front of the witness, his fingers steepled.

“A string tie.” He pointed toward his neck with a rather unsteady hand.

John pulled a string tie from a bag handed to him by Jed. “And, is this that tie?”

“Yes.”

“Let the court know that I, myself, went to this man’s shanty this morning and found this—” He held the bolo aloft as he spoke. Turning back to the witness, he said, “What was the celebration about on the night of the murder? From all appearances it would seem that every Chinaman who participated in that affair on the night of September the ninth is guilty of being a co-conspirator to a murder.”

“No.” Ping shook his head. “People were told that celebration was in honor of Mrs. Chang. A late birthday gathering. Only ones who knew about Mr. Fraser were us who kill him.”

John paced in front of the witness for a minute, rubbing his upper lip. Relief rippled through the crowd when they heard that only a few men had known about the real reason for the celebration that night.

“Now, I must ask you, why did you commit this crime?” John moved on to a new line of questioning.

The Chinaman fidgeted with his hands in his lap. “We get pay.”

“Someone paid you to commit this crime?”

Ping nodded.

“And who did that?”

He spoke without hesitation. “Lee Chang.” His voice was sure and steady, and Sky sensed he was telling the truth.

All eyes in the group turned to the cluster of men seated under the tree.

Lee Chang, hands tied behind him, stared back at them, his red, opium- deprived eyes cold and calculating. Sky saw no remorse there. Could the man really be that hard?

Sky wondered what the man who had been in the alley that night might have to do with this. Who was he? Certainly not Trace Johnson. What was he doing there?

Lee Chang was recalled to the stand. He sat, leaning forward uncomfortably to keep his bound hands from pressing painfully into the back of the wooden chair.

“Did you pay these men to murder Fraser?” asked John.

Chang did not answer. His stare locked on Bymaster, never wavering. There was a long pause as the two men eyed one another. After several more questions to which Chang only responded with a blank stare, it became apparent he was not going to say anything, and the judge called for a short recess.

The crowd had not had a break since lunch. They stood to stretch and take turns with the dipper at a barrel of drinking water.

Sky approached Bymaster. “Would you mind if I asked Chang a couple of questions?” he asked quietly.

Bymaster ran a tired hand over his face. “Fine with me. What do you know about this situation?”

Sky told him everything he knew from the story of the bogus gold to his friendship with Fraser. He told about Brooke seeing another man in the alley between Jed’s boarding house and the Mercantile on the night of the murder.

“I’m sure Ping is telling the truth now,” Sky said. “When we first arrested him, he denied any involvement, but he had blood all over his shirt. I had some tests run on it, but they couldn’t say for sure whether it was human or not—only that it belonged to a mammal. So that doesn’t help us much. Ping’s description of the attack would explain how the blood got there.”

Sky suppressed a shudder as he imagined what Fraser must have gone through. “Still,” Sky rubbed his chin, “I don’t think Ping is giving us the whole story. He probably doesn’t know the whole story. Somehow I think that there is someone else in the mix. Someone who knows Chang.”

“Well, he won’t talk to me, so you might as well try.”

Once Chang was back on the stand Sky didn’t waste any time getting to the point. “Chang, did someone pay you to hire men to kill Fraser?”

Chang blinked and looked away. It was the first breach that the crowd had seen in his armor all day long.

Sky repeated the question, but Chang was back to his routine blank stare.

Undaunted, Sky went on, “On the night of the murder, my wife and I stayed in the boarding house next door to Fraser’s Mercantile. My wife happened to look out on the alley between the two buildings and saw a man who is not from around here. Do you know anything about that?”

Chang blinked again but still said nothing.

“Long, graying hair. Full, long beard. Do you know the man?” He threw out the description of Trace Johnson to see what kind of reaction he might get.

This brought another blink from Chang, and Sky thought he saw a puzzled look cross Chang’s face. Still, he refused to answer.

“How about a small man wearing lots of jewelry? Did you ever know a man who looked like that?” Sky described the man Trace Johnson was tracking as well as he could with the little information he had.

Chang’s face tightened and he paled, but no answer was forthcoming.

Sky tried another tactic. “Tell me why the safe in the back room of the store wasn’t even touched. Were you leaving it there for someone else to break into after Fraser was taken care of?”

Chang licked his lips, then spat on the ground at Sky’s feet in contempt.

He was not going to answer any questions.

The sun sank low on the horizon. None of the posse nor the prisoners had eaten, so the court was called to a close until an hour after sunrise the next day. The prisoners were taken back to the jail, and the tired posse began to make dinner preparations and sleeping arrangements.

Sky bid Jed and Jason a good night and started to head for home, but a sudden thought occurred to him, and he turned back to Jason.

“Jason, how are you doing with all this?”

He shrugged. “I’ll be fine as long as that man gets what he deserves.”

Sky didn’t have to ask to whom he was referring. “And what does he deserve, Jason?”

“He deserves to die!” The words sounded harsh, and Sky saw Jason flinch even as the sentiment left his mouth.

“So do we all, Jason. So do we all. But I know you know that. Good night.” Turning, Sky rode off into the dusky evening.

When Jenny and Brooke got back to the house, Rachel was not there. Brooke set the bowl of eggs on the table and retrieved Sky’s Bible from next to the bed.

As they sat at the table, Jenny opened the book and turned the pages. She paused to stare at the ceiling. “Give me minute. I think how to say in English.” She tapped her temple in demonstration.

Brooke folded her hands and waited.

Finally Jenny spoke. “There many stories in Bible about bad men and women who find salvation in Jesus, but I not show you all them now. You say you afraid that you are too bad a person for Jesus to forgive, but I not think that your big problem. I think you love darkness.”

Brooke blinked at her.

“I read, you listen.” She went on. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, That whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” Jenny’s finger moved from word to word. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. —John 3: 14-21.”

Jenny stopped reading. Tears streamed down Brooke’s cheeks.

“Come to light, Brooke. Come to light. You do bad things, so haf all people. The Bible say
whoever
believe. That mean anyone, no matter how bad. Jesus forgive you, but you let go of the darkness. Let God shine His light in your heart and clean out all the sin. You afraid of condemnation, yet you condemn yourself every day. Yes, God show us our sin, and that not feel good, but it so much better than darkness. Come, Brooke, you pray with me?”

She was ready. The darkness around her felt heavy and thick, and she was ready to let go. To step out into the glorious light of God’s forgiveness. To accept the fact that, yes, she was a terrible person. She didn’t understand yet how it all worked, but she had finally come to the place where she didn’t need to understand, she would simply trust.

Nodding, she clasped Jenny’s hands.

“Just pray. Tell Jesus what is in heart.”

Brooke bowed her head. “Lord Jesus, I have sinned a great deal in my life and I know I have hurt You by those sins. I believe that You died in my place, and that You rose again so I can have life. It seems like I should have to do more, Lord. But the Bible says all I have to do is believe in Jesus and I do. Please forgive me for all the wrong I have ever done and have mercy on me. I want to change, Lord. I want to serve You and to learn to do what is right. I want to live in the light, Lord. Help me to live in the light. Amen.”

Suddenly a great burden lifted from Brooke’s shoulders. She couldn’t have explained what felt different; she just knew without a doubt that something had changed. She felt light and carefree, and a great joy welled in her heart.

She lifted her head to find Jenny smiling at her from her side of the table. As one, the women stood and embraced one another.

Just then they heard footsteps on the porch, and Rachel and Sean entered the house. Brooke turned from Jenny and enfolded her startled mother-in-law in her arms. “Oh, thank you for telling me how Jesus saved you. For letting me see that you weren’t already perfect when you gave your life to Him. I needed to hear that.”

When Rachel pulled back slightly and looked at her, not quite comprehending what was going on, Brooke’s smile nearly split her face. “Jenny has just helped me to give my life to Jesus.”

“Oh, Brooke!” Rachel gasped as she pulled the girl back into the hug. “We prayed that you would understand how much you needed God. But we didn’t know how soon our prayers would be answered. Praise God!”

Over Rachel’s shoulder Brooke could see Sean’s smile but was surprised to also see tears running down his cheeks. Pulling away from Rachel, she turned to him, “What’s wrong?”

“Not a thing, young lady.” He drew her into his own embrace. “Not a blessed thing in all the world.”

Jason lay on the bed in his room at the boarding house staring up at the ceiling, his hands laced behind his head. It wasn’t like him to stay to himself. In fact, several men had invited him to “share coffee and swap stories” with them around their fire, but he didn’t feel like company tonight. His mind was on the words he had spoken to Sky about Chang.

He deserves to die...die...die...
. The words echoed over and over in his mind.
He deserves to die...die...die...
.