Betsy’s eyes slid closed. They were here because of what she’d written. No wonder Joel was so angry.
“You think this is bad?” Josiah asked. “Things are better now than they’ve been in years.”
“I understand the difficulties,” Detective Cleveland said, “but the people of Missouri, and in fact people from around the nation, do not understand. After reading Miss Huckabee’s compelling account of a deputy named Pickett, we have to ask if that’s an accurate reflection of the behavior of Deputy Puckett.”
“No,” Betsy said. “Deputy Pickett only exists on paper.”
“There are remarkable similarities,” Detective Cleveland said. “Enough to catch notice of people who knew Deputy Puckett in Texas.”
The Fort Worth paper? Betsy wanted to crawl beneath her cot and never come out again.
“It’s not Deputy Puckett,” she said. “If you spend any time with him, you’ll realize—”
“But you did spend time with him, and we’ve read your description.”
She knew she was in trouble when even her rotten big brother looked worried.
“They shouldn’t believe everything they read,” she said.
“Our mistake was that we didn’t check into his past before hiring him. It appears that Deputy Puckett was reprimanded for dishonoring a lady. He didn’t come to Pine Gap by choice. He was run out of Texas.”
The room tilted. Betsy’s bones jarred as she dropped too hard into a chair. Joel and another lady? The thought made her sick. Was Joel capable of taking advantage of a woman?
“I’m sure there’s a mistake,” she said.
“No mistake. He confessed to being relieved of duty on those charges. What we need to know is whether he’s offended again.”
They were watching her, and she didn’t have the fortitude to hide her devastation. Could it be true of Joel? If womanizing was his aim, he was fishing with the right bait—his brooding looks, his commanding presence, how he poured on the charm for the convenience of tying her to a tree and leaving her. Twice now he’d taken liberties—well, at the jail he couldn’t be blamed entirely—but Betsy thought she was someone special, that she’d broken through his general dislike of women and proved herself an acceptable example of womanhood. Was it a ruse? What kind of man enjoyed playing games like that?
A proud, arrogant man. A man who pretended to eschew feminine company in order to avoid suspicion. A man who had no intention of staying, so he ate his seed corn and didn’t worry about the next season.
Was that the kind of man she’d fallen in love with?
“If my sister has nothing else to say on the matter, then I advise you’uns to go.” Josiah held the door open.
She knew she should respond, should stop making a fool of herself and finish the conversation, but she lacked the will. Every bit of strength had been drained out of her, along with her confidence that she knew Joel Puckett.
Her mind in a whirl, she barely noticed as the door closed. Hadn’t she wondered from the onset why he’d take such a thankless position? The way he talked about Texas and how he loved it, hadn’t Betsy questioned him about why he’d left? If he was discharged, there had to be witnesses. Surely he wouldn’t lose his job based on a groundless accusation. Had he forced his attentions on a lady? She clutched at her stomach. It was too awful to consider. What would cause him to do such a despicable thing?
Josiah squatted before her. “Stop and think, Betsy. Does that sound like the man you know?”
“I don’t want it to be him,” she said. “How can I decide what is true when I can’t stand to know?”
“You can stand it. You must stand it,” he said. “You’re a smart girl. You can think through this. Is it true or not?”
Did it matter? Joel would never speak to her again, either way. But Josiah was right. She had to know the truth. Still hugging her waist, Betsy began to list the evidence. “He misses home, acts like he regrets leaving. I don’t think he left by choice.”
Josiah nodded. “Good. Keep talking.”
“He said from the beginning that I couldn’t use his name in the paper. He didn’t want stories about him to get back to Texas.”
Josiah winced, but he kept his voice steady. “If it’s true, you need to know. Think through everything.”
“And then there’s how he acted when he first came. He told me to stay away from him. I told him I wasn’t worried about my reputation, but he said he didn’t want his reputation to suffer.”
“Then I’d say that Deputy Puckett has had a run-in with scandal. The question is, was he guilty?”
But she couldn’t think in those terms, because with accusations that horrid, he’d never be freed from suspicion.
Chapter 36
“You’ve got my attention.” Joel’s ears rang, he was listening so close. Kill a Bald Knobber? Why would Scott do that? “Come on inside, and let’s hear what you have to say for yourself.”