...A nerve alongside Osgood’s mouth jerked. “I uphold the laws of the land, Mr. O’Doud, and the rights of its citizens. My job is to preserve the peace and protect the folks who live in Black Crossing. Nothing more and nothing less. When I arrived yesterday, I found a situation that looked to step over the edge of justice. I corrected the situation. That’s all.”
O’Doud’s face reddened. He started from his chair, changed his mind and sat again. Jensen had risen with him, his left hand going to his coat pocket, but O’Doud made a slight negative motion of his head. Jensen subsided, watching Osgood with the unblinking eyes of a predatory bird.
A buzzard, Osgood thought wryly. One who wore a gun at his boss’s table.
Mrs. Fane poured coffee into his cup, the lip of the pot rattling slightly on the rim. Although she wasn’t touching him, he had heard her indrawn breath and felt her body tense. A subtle indication he’d overstepped his bounds, perchance? He could have added that O’Doud’s actions went beyond decency as well, but remembered in time that he was sitting at the man’s dinner table and eating his food.
“Are you saying I was wrong with what I did?” O’Doud asked.
“Yes, sir. I reckon that’s what I’m saying.” He looked up at Mrs. Fane. “This is good berry pie, ma’am. Never had this kind before. What is it?”
“Huckleberry,” she murmured.
“Well, that’s plain enough.” O’Doud’s thin lips pinched a smile. “You should know the law better than I, I suppose. Seemed a good idea at the time. Discourage the rash of stealing we’ve had around here. I don’t expect Gilpatrick was the only one out to steal his employer blind.”
“I didn’t know Isaac worked for you, Daddy,” Selah said.
“Yes. For a while. I know he charmed you, Selah, but when I found him to be both a liar and a thief, I fired him. Believe me when I say we’re better off without his kind in our fine town.”
A glass slipped from Mrs. Fane’s hand, shattering on the hardwood floor and making everyone start.
“Ione!” Selah exclaimed. “Now look what you’ve done.”
“That was one of a set,” O’Doud said coldly. “I shall take the cost of it out of your wages.”
“Sorry.” Mrs. Fane knelt, began collecting the shards. Her hands, Osgood saw, were shaking harder now.
“Putting a man’s body on display smacks of vigilante justice.” Osgood spoke to O’Doud, although his glance included Jensen. He calculated the note of disapproval in his words would draw attention away from the distraught housekeeper. “A dangerous thing to get started. Better to follow the letter of the law.”
He watched as Mrs. Fane reached blindly for a jagged bit of glass. Blood started from a cut, although the woman seemed not to notice.
O’Doud shrugged. “Well, then, after this, I’ll depend on to you to take care of such things.”
“That’s what I’m here for.” But Osgood’s response was absentminded. Selah had called the woman Ione. An unusual name. Too unusual to be a coincidence. That was Mrs. Gilpatrick’s name. What was she doing here?