Winston Cooper leaned back in his chair. Gramps had been happy to collect his penny as a Captain in the State Militia, but now the time had come to pay the piper. He’d been called to duty, training new volunteers. He couldn’t be ordered to leave the county, but his assigned station was in Ashfork, about as far north as you could go without crossing the county line.
The sound of hooves, a horse being ridden at a gallop, came through the front windows. Winston stood. People weren’t supposed to do that, not this close to city center. The sound of hooves stopped, to be replaced by a horse’s heavy breathing. Pauses suggested the horse was helping itself to the water trough.
“They’re dead! They’re all dead!” a man shouted as he dashed up the two stairs leading to he office. “Oh, God! It’s terrible. It’s unbelievable!”
Deputy Schroeder joined Winston in standing. The shouting man dashed through the doors, coming to a stop as he tried to figure out where to go next.
“Easy there,” Winston said. “Have a seat, have some water — you look like you need it — and tell us what the problem is.” He hoped that line would work. Gramps had done a certain amount of training, how to be a good Associate Sheriff when Gramps was absent, but this looked to be a bit out of line.
The man swallowed a mug of water and finally slowed down.
“I’m Winston Cooper, Associate Sheriff. And you would be?”
“Chester Roberts. I’m a field hand for the Matthews ranch. We had a cow stray, section of fence went down, so I was sent out looking for it. I was going to stop at the Chadwick house; Chadwick has enough water to raise feed for cows, and we buy from him. He must be dead. Him and his family. Their house was all smashed to pieces. No idea what happened, but there was blood all over the place. So I rode here, fast as I could in this weather without killing the horse, to get help. You’re the Sheriff, you need to arrest the killers.”
“That’s me, all right,” Winston said. “Back a half step. The bodies. Could you tell how they were killed?”
“No bodies,” Chester said. “There was just blood everywhere. Never seen so much in my life. And the house was smashed to bits.”
