“What?”
“The weapon.” He pulled gloves from his pocket and reached into the fallen pile of mannequins near the spot where she’d discovered Jennie.
He carefully lifted something out.
It was a cane, a Victorian walking cane with a snarling wolf for a handle.
“Grab the light,” he told her.
She did, shining it on the cane. On the handle, almost as if the snarling wolf had just bitten flesh, was a bloodstain.
“I imagine that’s going to be Jennie’s blood,” he said tersely. “You could have been hit a hell of a lot harder.”
“Yes, and like the doctor said, I’m very lucky I wasn’t.” She sighed impatiently. “Are you going to get that to a lab?”
He took out his cell. He spoke briefly but she could tell that he was speaking to Liam Newsome. “Yeah, I’ll be here until you send someone,” he said, and hung up.
“Newsome isn’t coming himself?” she asked.
“Newsome is still at the morgue with the body we found this morning,” he told her.
She felt dizzy and fought the sensation. Concussion. She had to be careful.
“You found someone—in the mine shaft?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to talk about it earlier. Not until we knew you were okay. You didn’t need anything else to worry about.”
“Who...who was it?”
“Caleb Hough, the rancher. His throat had been slit.”
Jane stood watching him. “Sloan, can all of this be related? A skull here, the bones...Jennie and me being knocked out in the theater? These may be entirely separate. No one was killed here.”
“Jennie is in a coma, still unconscious. Maybe one or both of you was meant to die.”
She was almost afraid to tell him about the guns. She had to, she knew. “Sloan, I stopped the duel today—”
“Yes, yes, I heard about it,” he said. “I’m told you gave the day a whole new meaning.”
“I stopped it because of Sage McCormick—and I stopped it because I was afraid someone had tampered with one of the guns. Which, as far as I can tell, turned out to be true.”
He stiffened and scowled. She hadn’t thought he could look any more like a powder keg about to blow, but he managed it.
“You know this? You found cartridges that weren’t blank?”
She felt her cheeks burn. “I’m not a hundred percent sure, but the cartridges in the two guns were different.”
“Where are the guns now?”
“On my bed.”
“No, they’re not.”
“I left them on my bed!”
“I went into your room when I arrived, when I was looking for you,” he said. “There are no guns on your bed.”
Lock your door. Jennie had told her to do that.
And she hadn’t.
“I still have the bullets,” she told him.
“You do?”
“Unless someone ransacked my whole room. They’re in the toe of one of my boots.”
He still looked as if he could bite those bullets in half.
“I know you’re worried about me, but you’ll have a heart attack if you don’t control your temper,” she said mildly.
He stared at her, incredulous, but he didn’t have a chance to respond. Chet called down the stairs. “Sloan? You okay?”
“Fine, Chet. Stay there, will you? I’m waiting for the county crime-scene people.”
“Yes, sir.”
But behind Chet, Henri had a different opinion on the matter. He came running downstairs. “Sloan, what are you doing? This is one of our two biggest nights of the year! You’re going to have crime-scene people in the theater now?”
“Henri, someone viciously smashed in the head of your stage manager with a cane—and then used it on a federal agent. On Jane. You’re damned right I’m having crime-scene people down here!” Sloan informed him.
Henri was at the foot of the stairs now. He shook his head. “What are you talking about? This place is a mess! Jennie must’ve fallen—the mannequins, look at them! They’ve all fallen over. Nothing evil was done here, it’s just—” He paused, turning to Jane. “Oh, Jane, I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t mean to sound as if I don’t care, I’m just running around like a crazy man. And now...you’re saying this was done on purpose?” he asked.
“Yes, Henri, someone purposely bashed Jennie and then Jane. So crime-scene people will be coming down here. You’re lucky I don’t close the whole theater. But while we’re on the subject... No more duels, no hangings, nothing violent—even as playacting.”
“But the outlaws were supposed to come riding into town tomorrow, shooting it all up!” Henri protested.
“Think of something else. No guns, no knives, no ropes, nothing.”
“I’m the mayor, Sloan. I can fire you!”
“Fire me, but the county is coming in, and the county can trump you, Henri, and you know it,” Sloan said. “Henri, did you hear me? Jennie is really hurt. She’s in the hospital, in a coma.”
Henri went silent and hung his head.