(Part 1)
(Part 2)
(Part 3)
About forty yards from the first set of buildings, two male figures hung by their necks on high poles, drooping limply in the heat, the stench of death still hanging about them. Rose looked ill but grit her teeth against whatever reaction may have been brewing beneath her calm demeanor. Marion, less disciplined, turned away from the awful sight, gagging. Kateri and Abie remained impassive. Across the parched, drying bodies fluttered their tattered clothing. A few birds still picked relentlessly at the face of the fresher corpse. As the women passed, Kateri pointed at the red letters painted across the chests of each. MURDER read the word on the older corpse.
“It appears they label the criminals as a warning, or a deterrent, I guess,” Rose swallowed hard. “Well, murder is a capital offense, so it makes some kind of grotesque sense at least.”
A chance breeze stirred the clothes on the second body. JAYWALKING was clearly visible on his chest. Even in the blazing sun, the four women felt the blood in their veins run ice cold. Abie crossed herself again. “What!” Marion blurted, though she still wouldn’t look on the bodies too long. “So every crime is punishable by death. No wonder this town is so well-behaved.” She planted her feet as the group moved forward. “No. Let’s go report to Plant. See if he has any other jobs that don’t require us going into a bizarre hellscape like this one.”
“If that is indeed what they do, it is despicable,” Abie said. “We must uncover the truth.”
There was a brief silence as Abie and Marion stared at one another. Marion broke first. “I don’t like it,” she grumbled. “This place is damn unsettling.”
They continued their walk into the townsite. Nothing seemed amiss. Basic stores surrounded a pleasant town center with a communal garden and a wide well. The sheriff’s office was nestled next to the General Store across from the only marked Hotel along this main strip. A few other buildings lay behind these main businesses, and down the wide side streets further into town, they could see private houses.
“We had better just talk to the Sheriff,” Abie said, stepping lightly up the wooden stairs. A dusty figure sitting on a chair greeted her.
“Afternoon, ladies,” he nodded and spat something into the dirt to their right. “Sheriff’s not in, if that’s why you’re here.” He turned a young, though filthy, face toward them, squinting in the slowly descending sun.
“Do you know when he will be back?” Abie asked politely. “We have come to ask him some questions.”
“Sheriff won’t like that,” the young man mused. “Why ya’ll here?”
“She just told you,” Kateri moved onto the wooden steps too. “Is it possible for you to fetch him here?”
“Na-uh.” More squinting. “I’m Deputy Greene, and tis my job to keep the office locked til Sheriff comes back.”
“Well maybe you can answer some questions then, Deputy,” Kateri nodded at him. “Seeing how you’re the law around here.”
“I am at that,” Greene spat again.
“We represent the government,” Kateri said carefully. “Word has gotten out about your town’s impeccable behavior, how the crime rate has dropped to zero. There’s some folks higher up that are mighty interested in how you accomplished that.”
Greene thought for a moment. “Dunno. People are just nicer here.”
Abie shifted, her dislike for Greene rising every moment. “Who doles out the punishments here?”
A shrug.
“What offenses are punishable?” Abie tried again.
“We got a few deputies and the Sheriff,” Greene said, seeming to ignore her.
“How many deputies?” Marion asked, moving to stand by Abie.
“Well there’s me, Deputy Bradley, and Deputy Black.”
“Do they live around here?” Marion continued.
“I live out yonder,” he nodded toward the western side of town. “Bradley lives at the south end of town. Not sure about Deputy Black. He just—”
The door next to Deputy Greene was jerked open suddenly and a rotund man in a stretched leather vest with a gleaming star pinned to it appeared. The deputy nearly swallowed his dip. “Sheriff!”
“At ease, Greene. Can I help you ladies with something?”
“Yes, good afternoon, Sheriff Brown. We represent the government,” Kateri started her spiel again. “Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about the frankly miraculous numbers your town is posting as its crime rate?”
“Please step into my office,” Brown didn’t smile, but welcomed them into the building. They stepped in out of the sunlight, the shade a welcome relief for their tired eyes. They stood in a narrow antechamber of sorts. Through a doorway to their left they could see rows of empty jail cells. Dust drifted, mostly unstirred, in the light that filtered in through the iron bars at the windows. The Sheriff led them to the right where his large desk, cabinets, and an American flag marked his ‘office.’ He walked unhurriedly to the desk, opened a drawer, and took out a bottle followed by a set of shot glasses. “Can I offer you some of the good stuff?” a small smile. The four women didn’t turn him down.
General
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