the heck, he thought. Those skeletons have been there for years. They have nothing to do with the shooting of the Indians. They certainly have nothing to do with the murder of Shine Barrow. He realized that as long as they could share their secret, he’d have an excuse to come back and help Mary Jane explore the cave.
He felt like a romantic fledgling when he talked to Mary Jane. “There’s more than one room in that cave,” Ty said. “Did you see the torch flicker when we walked past the back wall?”
“I saw that,” she answered and took his hand again as she moved right in front of him. “What should we do, Ty?”
In the moonlight, he could see her eyes sparkling. “I don’t think we should do anything right now. I’ve got to ride to Utopia first thing in the morning and investigate Banker Thornberry’s shooting. I suspect it has something to do with him slipping out of Shirley McGee’s house, but who knows? It could have been someone he cheated in a business deal. Everyone knows Thornberry wouldn’t cut you any slack. As soon as I can get back, I’ll be here with some rope and lanterns. Then, you and I will go exploring.”
“I knew I could trust you, Ty,” Mary Jane said as she turned his hand loose and threw her arms around his neck. She kissed him three or four times on the cheek. A burning blush of passion sparked. Ty flushed hot with desire, but before he could pull her to him, she danced away. “I knew I could trust you,” she said again as she jumped from the rock and started toward the house. “I won’t tell a soul, not even Ma, until you tell me it’s okay.”
After Mary Jane was gone, Ty sat on the flat rock in front of the cave. He had a feeling he was making the biggest mistake he’d ever made—and he had made a few in his day—but he couldn’t help himself. Mary Jane had set the hook and reeled him in without even realizing it.
If Dade ever finds out what I’ve done, I’ll be about as welcome in Bandera County as an egg-sucking dog, Ty thought.
Ty didn’t sleep much that night. Before he turned in, he told Dade he’d ride out at first light. “I have to get back to investigate Banker Thornberry’s murder,” he said. Dade nodded in agreement, indicating that he understood. He told Ty that he’d ride on into Utopia after he was finished at the Barrow’s.
Long after he’d rolled up in his blanket on the front porch, Ty was still thinking about Mary Jane.
Chapter 5
Ty was saddled and on the trail long before daylight. He hadn’t wanted to see Mary Jane before he left. He was afraid one of them would spill the beans, and after what he had done, he couldn’t face Dade in the light of day. He felt a tenacious loyalty to both his badge and Dade, especially Dade. They had been friends for many years. They had helped each other out of some awfully bad scrapes. Right now he needed time and space to think, so he’d left Tant behind to fend for himself. His strong feelings for both Sarah and Mary Jane had him confused and on edge.
Ty rode straight to the bank. He saw the teller, Cornelius, coming out the door, locking it behind him. It was only one o’clock. Cornelius had on a slouch hat and a black frock, much too hot for the weather.
Too early to be closing, Ty thought. Then he realized that Cornelius must be on his way to Banker Thornberry’s burying.
Cornelius was a handsome man, about thirty-five or so. He sported a neat brown beard and a swooping mustache that rode up and down on his top lip as he spoke. “Well, Ranger Holt, I guess there’s a lot you don’t know … The school burned down last night, and Miss Beachem, the schoolmarm, was murdered. And … Sarah Thompson has been kidnapped.” Mr. Cornelius kept walking.
“Whoa, Cornelius,” Ty said as he tied Blaze to a hitch rack in front of the bank. “What do you mean Sarah Thompson has been kidnapped?”
“Exactly what I said. Last night, someone set fire to the schoolhouse. While everyone was up there fighting the fire, the no-good scalawag slipped down to Miss Beachem’s house and cut her throat from ear to ear. What a waste.”
“What about Sarah?” Ty demanded.
“Gone. What more can I tell you?”
“You can tell me a lot more, and you’d better do it quick.”
“All I know,” Cornelius muttered, “is that this morning, when her mother went to see why she hadn’t come in to breakfast, she found her gone. Mrs. Thompson said Sarah’s bed had not been slept in. That’s all I know, Ty Holt … except that if you’d been here tending to business, maybe none of this would have happened.”
Ty took a step toward the teller, then decided he’d better leave well enough alone and keep his mouth shut, at least until he knew a little more about what had happened. Five years of being a ranger in Utopia and this is the first time anything like this has happened, Ty thought as he watched Cornelius walk off in the direction of Waresville Cemetery. In the last five years there hasn’t even been one murder, unless you count Bob Haby breaking Jim Snyder’s neck in a fight after Snyder sold Haby a foundered horse. And now I have three murders and a kidnapping … all in two days, Ty thought. And that’s only if you don’t count the three Indians. Untying Blaze, Ty stepped back into his saddle and quickly rode to the Thompson place.
Loss Thompson was a sickly man who did odd jobs whenever he could. A fall off a windmill when he was a young man had left him with a bad back. He wasn’t lazy. Everyone knew he worked whenever he could. He had a heart as big as anyone Ty had ever met. Ty recalled that last year, the Thompsons had given half a butchered calf to a family whose house had burned. Mrs. Thompson was a big woman with a wonderful sense of humor who laughed and giggled at almost anything.
The Thompsons are what people call good folks on hard times, Ty thought. Mrs. Thompson took in washing and ironing when she could get the work. Sarah was happy like her mother and kind like her daddy. She was pretty, maybe a little too thin, with long, dark hair and brown eyes that laughed when she did. Sarah and Ty had been close friends from the first day the Thompsons had moved from Missouri to Utopia. Everyone in town expected them to marry someday. Ty and Sarah expected that to happen, too, even though they had never talked about it. Ty figured that when the time was right, they would know it, and they’d get churched.
Sarah played the piano. She taught music three days a week to some of the young girls at the school and played the organ on Sundays at the Baptist church. Few things made Ty happier than to listen to Sarah play “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
No one was at the Thompson’s, so Ty popped the reins and headed back to the school. He knew everyone would either be at the burned-out school building or the cemetery, and he decided he’d better stay away from the burial if everyone was as mad at him as Cornelius seemed to be.
There were ten or so men keeping an eye on the charred remains of the schoolhouse, making sure the fire didn’t get a chance to start up again. When Ty rode close, he was surprised to find nothing left of the two-story building except a pile of black and smoldering char. Matt Franklin was leaning on a shovel and looked up as Ty rode around where the frame structure had stood.
“Not much left,” Matt said. “Someone started it for sure.”
“Why do you say that?” Ty asked. “Maybe it just caught on fire.” Ty slid from the back of his horse. Dog grunted and fell in the shade of a tree away from the smoke that hung in the air.
“No, it was done on purpose,” Matt assured him. “When I got here, it was burning good on both ends of the first floor.”
“There were wood stoves on both ends of the building,” Ty observed.
“Sure, but school’s out for haying,” Matt reminded Ty. “No one’s been in there this week, and as hot as it was yesterday—see what I mean?”
“You’re probably right, Matt, but why would anyone want to burn down the school? What do you think, maybe some kid who was mad at one of the teachers?” Ty suggested as he walked around the rubble, poking in the