Elmore Leonard - Escape from Five Shadows

That pointed to a third man. I asked Mac if the identity of the forger was established at the trial. He recalled that it had not even been brought up. He also told me that Manring had worked for him once before, though had denied it at the trial. Could Manring have procured a blank bill of sale at that time? Yes, but that had been three years ago, Mac stated. Only six months before the trial, he had purchased new stationery and forms. The bill of sale was of the new batch.

Now, so far we have established that there must be a third man. But, who?

Probably anyone who worked for McLaughlin could have come by a blank bill of sale. He admitted that. But again, we eliminated three-quarters of his hands on the basis of not being able to write at all. So it must be a man who wrote well enough himself to copy another so exactly. Still, a man who worked for McLaughlin.

His bookkeeper? No, Mac said. He kept his own books since firing Roy Avery. McLaughlin looked at me and I looked at him and that, Karla, was how it happened. You see, McLaughlin always tended his own paper work until deciding a man of his holdings should have a bookkeeper of his own. (It took him twenty years to decide this.) So he hired Avery, who lasted two months. He did nothing dishonest, then. But Mac didn’t care for him in general and when he fired him they had an argument over the justice of it.

If the identity of the forger had been investigated at the trial, Mr. Avery’s name would already appear in the record. That is how obvious it was his doing. Being obvious, Roy Avery of course left Prescott at the time the two men were apprehended. But-and it is questionable whether this is evidence of nerve or imbecility-Mr. Avery returned to Prescott upon learning there had been no mention of him made at the trial. Hence, he was arrested right here in Prescott, McLaughlin having agreed to proffer charges.

Yesterday morning Roy Avery signed a statement admitting his part in the case. He stated that his dealings were with Earl Manring only, that he had never met a Corey Bowen, had never even heard of him until the trial.

As far as he knew, Manring had planned to take the cattle alone. If Bowen helped him, Avery stated, then he was fairly certain Bowen was working at what he believed to be an honest job. Avery reasoned it this way: if Bowen knew it was rustled stock, he would have demanded a close to equal share in the profit. Knowing Manring, Avery said, Manring would never have agreed to that. Therefore, since Bowen did go along, Avery believes he was drawing nothing more than trail wages. We must compliment Mr. Avery on a piece of uncommonly sound reasoning.

This morning, Karla, I filed a motion for a new trial. The date has not yet been set, but I think your friend has a much better than average chance of winning an acquittal. And I generally do not make predictions.

Incidentally, the court record stated that neither of the two men had been arrested previously. However that meant only that the Prescott sheriff’s office did not have a wanted dodger on either of them. Tracing Manring’s past seemed almost impossible to begin with and after a wire to the Tucson authorities, and receiving a negative reply, I gave up on him. However I was able to find out something about Bowen.

His last job was with a cattle company headquartered in the San Rafael valley. But before that he seemed to have spent most of his time mining. His record showed his first job had been with the Moctezuma people in Bisbee. I wired them and found out he had lived there most of his life. His father had been a mine foreman with Moctezuma and Bowen worked for him on and off, sometimes going up into the hills alone to try his own luck, until the father was killed in a mine shaft cave-in. Shortly after that, Bowen left Bisbee. He worked for a horse trader about two years then joined the San Rafael cattle outfit. His mother had passed away some time before the father and as far as I can discover, your friend has no other kin in the territory.

Girl, if all this sounds overly quick and simple, put it out of your head. I have been working harder at my “spare-time job” than at my regular practice or for Hatch and Hodges. It is fortunate, Karla, that you have a pretty face (even if your father does claim you are half boy), or you never would have talked me into this.

I expect to be in Willcox some time next month and look forward to seeing your mother and sisters. If I have time, I will stop by Pinaleño on the way back.

With love,

Your Uncle Lyall

“Your Uncle Lyall,” Demery repeated, looking up at Karla. “I hope he isn’t claiming kinship from my side of the family.”

Karla was still smiling. “And you said he’d be wasting his time.”

“He hasn’t proved anything, Karla.”

“He has for me.”

“And now you’ll want to go up and tell your friend about it.”

“I have to take the mail anyway.”

“Not today, you won’t. It’d be dark before you got back.”

They were in the main room, standing near the roll-top desk and now Karla glanced toward the open door. “I might have time.”

Demery shook his head. “It’d be dark before you even started back.”

“Well…I’ll go in the morning then.”

“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” her father reminded her. “They don’t work on Sunday. So how’re you going to get to him?”

“That’s something you can’t plan,” Karla said. “A way just happens.”

“Sis, even with your sunny outlook, how do you think it’s going to just happen?”

“It happened the other day.”

“You were lucky. Tomorrow they’ll be standing in front of the barracks smoking, your friend one of them. Or maybe he’ll be inside.”

“If I don’t see him tomorrow,” Karla said, “then the next day. One more day isn’t going to matter now that he’s as good as out.”

“You’re taking a lot for granted. Lyall still has to prove his innocence.”

“He will.”

“You’re sure of that.”

“Pa, when something that looks almost impossible to start with all of a sudden turns possible and everything falls into place as if all you have to do is wish and it happens, then you know it’s going to turn out all right.”

“You figured that out all by yourself?”

“It makes sense.”

“Do you know that your talking to him, even though he might be innocent-”

“Might be!”

“Listen to me. Your talking to him like that, even though he might be innocent, is against the law. You know that, don’t you?”

“Sending an innocent man to jail is against the law, too, if you all of a sudden want to be ethical about it.”

“Karla, if I told you not to see him, but wait for Lyall to do something…would you listen to me?”

“Of course I’d listen to you.”

“But you’d go ahead and try to see him.”

“It’s only fair. If you were in prison, and were going to get out, wouldn’t you want to know about it?”

“You’re taking things for granted again,” Demery reminded her.

“You just want to argue,” Karla said.

Demery shook his head. “I’m glad I don’t have your sweet faith in human nature.”

“Some men,” Karla said pointedly, “have to put on a big front of not believing in anything-hoping, I don’t know why, that everybody will think they’re very smart.”

“You’re some keen observer.”

“If we had time, I’d tell you some other things.”

“I guess you would,” Demery said. “Listen, I’ll tell you something now. I’ll bet you four bits you don’t talk to him tomorrow or the next day.”

“You sound pretty sure of yourself.”

“I’m just playing law of averages, Sis.”

“Make it a dollar,” Karla said, “and you’ve got a bet.”