Chapter Seventeen Days Later

As Heather is looking out across the street towards Maggie’s, two horses one tied to the other’s saddle horn go running by the general store’s window. It appears they are heading for the livery stable.

She yells out “Randy, come quick, I think the sheriff’s horse just went by without a rider.”

Randy hurries to the window quickly from the back room tripping over boxes on the floor. He sees the rear ends of two horses going by. He runs out the front hoping to get a better look.

Sam, the livery stable manager, watches the horses heading for home. He stops both of them when they come near the front entrance. He ties the sheriff’s horse to the hitching post out front. Then he takes the one tied to the saddle and places her into a stall. He gives her a couple of hand fulls of hay and makes sure the water bucket is full.

He wants to treat the sheriff’s horse in the same manner; however he would like to see if he can find out why the horses came back riderless. Sam sees a large spot of blood on the back of the saddle and more on the left saddle fender. Something happened to the sheriff on the trail. What could it have been? He takes the saddle off the horse and places it on the hitching rail, then moves the horse into another stall and gives it the same treatment he gave the first one.

Randy Beecham moves towards the livery stable.

“Sam, what do you think happened?”

“I have no idea, Randy. All I know is these two horses have come back home without the sheriff. Come and look at the blood on the saddle.

As Randy looks over the saddle a small crowd begins to form around the livery stable.