That Night at the Palace (14 page)

Jesse climbed up on the tailgate next to Cherokee.

The old soldier looked down the street at Cliff and Jewel who were heading away, “Where’s your pardner goin’?”

“He and Jewel are goin’ down to McMillan’s. She hangs out with us some. We wanted to get her out of here. Her mom was the woman Mr. Crawford was meetin’ in the alley.”

The old man nodded. “I know her. Irwin Stoker’s girl.”

“Well, did you see the guy that got out of that Plymouth over there?”

“Naw, I saw you tryin’ to talk to that other girl.”

Jesse shrugged.

“Kid, I’ve fought Apaches, Comanches, Mexican bandits, and Spanish soldiers, but there ain’t nothin’ like a woman to put a shiver up a man’s spine.”

Ignoring this, Jesse continued. “He walked across the street with his girls and into Anna-Ruth’s. I think they live over on Sumac.”

Cherokee looked across the street. Crawford was at the shop window looking out.

“He’s lookin’ at ya.”

Jesse looked over his shoulder at the shop. Crawford was standing at the window looking at the two of them.

“He knows you suspect he did somethin’. You boys stay away from that man.”

Crawford walked out of the shop, crossed the street, and got into his car. As he walked, he kept his eye on Jesse and the old Indian fighter. When he pulled away, he drove past them, staring.

“We will, Cherokee.”

#

ELZA, TEXAS POLICE STATION

Sunday November 16, 1941

Jesse was sitting on an iron cot. He was scared, but he felt somewhat reassured by some of the things Jefferson had said as they drove over. Despite Corporal McKinney’s protests, Jefferson had told Jesse that he wasn’t under arrest and that Jefferson knew full well that Jesse hadn’t killed Cliff. Jesse’s parents had made it difficult, and they needed to question him in private.

Across from Jesse sat Brewster McKinney and the Chief on a couple of chairs they had to bring up from the office. Jefferson was embarrassed that there were no chairs up there, but he had never had a need for one. He’d never questioned a prisoner before. Drunks usually slept it off and went free the next morning. Everybody else stayed the night and then got to ride down to Rusk where the judge either fined them or put them on a road gang.

In fact, first thing in the morning, Jefferson had to take a prisoner down to see the judge. When they brought Jesse up, Jefferson had suddenly realized that Irwin Stoker was still in one of the two cells. Thank goodness he had a slop bucket, or the poor man would have soiled himself. The Chief sent him to sit downstairs to wait while they talked to Jesse. Jefferson didn’t worry much about Irwin leaving or running off. Stoker knew he was headed to the county farm. If he ran off, he’d just end up on the farm a lot longer.

Fortunately, Gemma had followed in her car. Jefferson asked her to run up to the diner in Jacksonville for hamburgers. He told her that she couldn’t stay while they questioned Jesse, but she was welcome to stay as long as she wanted to once they were done. If she ran to Jacksonville, it would give her something to do, and it would be a big favor to him.

When she left, McKinney began to laugh. “You got some gall, Chief.”

Jefferson looked at him, confused.

“You just dragged her boyfriend down to the jail in connection with a murder, and you ask her to go get you a hamburger.”

Jefferson cringed. He really hadn’t thought about it that way. Actually all he was thinking about was if the town council was going to pay him back for five hamburgers, fries, and shakes.

“Jesse,” the Chief began, “like I said before, I know you didn’t kill Cliff, but we need to know what happened last night.”

“Sure, Chief,” Jesse replied, still frightened.

“Why did y’all go out to the bridge?”

“Just to talk, you know. We’ve been going out there since we were kids.”

“When was the last time you were out there?” Brewster asked.

“I don’t know, a few months, maybe a year.”

“Why last night?”

“Cliff wanted to talk.”

“About why you attacked him?”

Jesse froze.

“Look, I just flew off the handle, that’s all.”

“The Chief said that it took three men to drag you off him. That doesn’t sound like someone flying off the handle to me. It sounds like someone who really wanted to hurt a man.”

“Why, Jesse?” The Chief piped in. “Why’d you start hittin’ Cliff?”

“Look, Chief, that didn’t have nothin’ to do with Cliff gettin’ killed.”

“How do you know?” asked Brewster.

“I just know it was about some stuff that happened a long time ago.”

“Something that happened the last time I was here?”

Jesse looked wide-eyed at Brewster. His heart was pounding, “No.”

“You’re lyin’, Jesse.”

Jefferson looked at Brewster as the Ranger studied the boy’s face.

“That girl’s his daughter, isn’t she? The guy on the tracks, that girl who went for burgers is his daughter.”

“Yeah, but that’s got nothin’ to do with Cliff.”

Brewster sat back in his chair, still studying the boy’s face.

“Are you in love with that other girl? The one Cliff got pregnant?”

“What? No. Jeez, no. She’s just our friend, that’s all.”

“But Jesse, that’s what you got everybody in town thinkin’ after last night,” Jefferson explained. “Let’s face it, it makes sense that you’d attack ‘im if you were in love with her.”

“Jefferson, you know I’m not in love with Jewel. Hell, the whole town’s bettin’ on whether me and Gemma get engaged before I go to A&M.”

“Then how come you got mad when you found out he got Jewel pregnant?”

“He didn’t get her pregnant,” Jesse said softly.

“You sure thought so last night.”

Jesse looked at the door to the stairs.

“Can Mr. Stoker hear us?”

“I doubt it,” Jefferson said, glancing back at the door.

“Would you mind closing that door? He doesn’t need to hear this.”

Jefferson looked at Brewster, who motioned with his head, and Jefferson went to the door leading to the stairway, shut it, and returned to his chair.

“The reason Cliff and I were on the bridge last night,” Jesse began, “was that he wanted me to know she’s been seein’ some fellow up in Jacksonville. I haven’t talked to her in a while on account of I’ve been spending so much time with Gemma. Her pa doesn’t know about the fellow either. A few weeks ago she and Cliff went out to the bridge to talk. She told ‘im about the guy she’s been goin’ with. It started to get dark, and Cliff took her home and old Irwin saw her gettin’ out of Cliff’s car. He ain’t seen her with any other guys, so when he found out about the baby he went gunnin’ for Cliff.”

Brewster sighed. “That explains why you were on the bridge, but it doesn’t explain why you attacked him.”

Jesse sat silent with his head down. He knew that he couldn’t tell them the truth, but he wasn’t getting out of this without telling them something. Jesse swallowed. This was no longer about fear. This was a memory he had long tried to suppress. “Because we promised her mother.”

“Her mother?” Jefferson asked with a wrinkled brow.

“Yeah.”

Brewster looked at Jefferson for more information.

“The girl’s ma, Mrs. Stoker, ran off with some carnival people a few years back.”

“We saw her before she left. She was all upset. She said that she had to go and she knew me and Cliff ran around a lot with Jewel. You remember Chief, it was that summer you helped us steal Mr.
McAlister’s watermelons.”

“I remember, Jesse,” Jefferson said sympathetically, seeing that the kid was near tears.

“She made us promise to look after Jewel. Mr. Stoker used to hit Mrs. Stoker some. I don’t know if he ever hit Jewel, but we promised to take care of her, you know, just in case. Over the years she had become kind of like a sister. You take care of your sister. When I thought Cliff…” Jesse paused, tears swelling in his eyes, “well, I lost it.”

Brewster and Jefferson looked at each other, and finally Brewster offered, “Let’s take a break for a while. That girl should be back soon with the burgers.”

Jefferson was relieved. He had a lot of things going on in his head, and he didn’t know how to sort any of it.

The two lawmen stood. “Relax, Jesse. I’ll send Gemma up with some supper in a bit.”

Jefferson and Brewster came through the hall to the front of the station from the staircase in the back. Irwin Stoker was sitting at Jefferson’s desk.

Jefferson had, again, forgotten all about him. “I’m sorry, Irwin. I shouldn’t have left you here all this time. Why don’t you go on home? I’ll come get you in the morning, and we’ll go to Rusk and see Judge Buckner.”

“Is he gonna put me on the road crew?”

“I suspect so. Damn, Irwin, if you hadn’t shot off that gun I might have got him to let you off with a few days in the county jail, but you know Nehemiah Buckner ain’t gonna’ let that go without at least a couple of weeks on the crew. And you’re gonna have to pay Able McCormack for that chandelier you shot out.”

“Now, Chief, that wasn’t my fault. I wouldn’t of shot that chandelier if that kid upstairs hadn’t of hit my shotgun.”

“Good God, Irwin. If Jesse hadn’t done that you’d be headed to the chair down in Huntsville right this minute.”

“Okay, tell Able I’ll pay for it when I get off the road crew,” the man said as he headed toward the door. “Hey, Chief, did that kid up there kill Clifford Tidwell?

“We don’t know yet, Irwin.”

“Well if you find out that he did, tell him thanks for me,” the older man said as he walked out the door.

Jefferson just scowled as he sat down behind his desk. He wasn’t used to days like this.

“What do you think, Corporal?” Jefferson asked as Brewster sat in the opposite chair.

“He’s lyin’.”

Jefferson’s eyes opened wide, “You think he made that up about Mrs. Stoker?”

“No. They made a promise to look after that girl,” Brewster answered as he processed, “but there’s more to it. He didn’t tell us everything. Somethin’ doesn’t make sense.”

Brewster started thinking, “That gal ran off with a carnival, you said?”

“Yeah, we think she was runnin’ around with one of those carnival workers.”

“If a woman came up to you and said that she was going to run off with another man and leave her husband and daughter, would you feel a lot of sympathy and make a promise to look after her kid?”

Jefferson thought about it a moment, “Well, when you put it that way, I don’t know that I would.”

“I don’t know how it is here, but where I came from nobody has anything nice to say about a woman who runs off on her family. Those are the women people gossip about.”

“It’s the same way here. She was the subject of a lot of talk at the domino hall.”

“So she’s leaving her husband and daughter, and just before she goes she asked these two boys to look after her daughter, and these kids, some five years later, feel obligated. There’s somethin’ more to this story. I could see it if she was dyin’ or somethin’.” Brewster paused in thought. “Did anyone ever hear from that woman again?”

“I don’t think so. I think Stoker gave up lookin’ for her after a week or so.”

“How do you know she ran off with a carnie?”

Jefferson paused, partially in thought, but also because he realized Brewster was onto something. “Cliff Tidwell told me he saw her sneakin’ off with one of the carnival boys.”

The two men sat looking at each other.

“How long ago did this happen?”

“It was that summer you were here, the same summer that Peterson Crawford got hit by that train.”

“That woman’s dead. Those boys were with her as she died and promised to look after her daughter. When this boy found out that the other one got the girl pregnant he went off on his buddy. Chief, we have three murders, and that kid upstairs is in the middle of all of it.”

“Three?”

“That woman didn’t run off with a carnival, and that Crawford fellow didn’t get killed by a train.”

#

ELZA, TEXAS

July 1, 1936

Jesse, Cliff, and Jewel walked past the end of Main Street and turned onto Texas State Highway 84, Cliff leading.

“Now will you tell us where we’re goin’?” Jewel asked with a tone of frustration.

“Boy, I suggest we take a little walk, and the two of you get all bent out of shape.”

“You didn’t suggest anything,” Jesse told him. “You said, ‘Come with me, I’ve got an idea,’ which usually means that we’re gonna end up hoeing a watermelon patch.”

“You two get into a little trouble, and you’d think it was the end of the world.”

“I’ve got blisters on top of blisters, thanks to you,” Jewel argued. “Now where are we goin’?”

Cliff just smiled and remained silent as he crossed the highway and walked into the wide gravel parking area in front of Washington’s Feed Store. Jesse and Jewel hesitated and looked at one another, but like always, they followed as he walked around the back of the building and stopped with his arms crossed.

The area behind the feed store, for longer than the three kids had been alive, had been a catchall for farm implements, tools, vehicles, and various junk items that had accumulated over the years. Like merchants in small towns throughout the country during the Great Depression years, Nickel Washington sold a great deal of his inventory on credit. Unfortunately, many of his customers, like thousands upon thousands around the country, were unable to pay. Most customers tried to find ways to make it right, many working out installment plans, which Nickel always accepted although he didn’t particularly like it. Still, it was better to get something than nothing. A few offered something as collateral, or in many cases, as payment. Usually this meant getting a worn out tractor or a dull plow blade, or in one particularly annoying case, a mule that was so old that he died not two weeks after Nickel took ownership.

Anything that was in good enough condition to use, Nickel would sell just as soon as he could find a buyer or hold until the customer had the cash to pay off his bill. Naturally, though, much of the “collateral” was nothing more than junk that sat rusting in the weeds.