Page 59

Men bringing good news don't organize it first.

Wyatt came around the feed shed, pulling off his gloves. Cash led his horse in from the near field and handed the reins to a ranch hand without taking his eyes off the Bronco. Josie appeared in the barn door behind me, a box of IV lines against her chest.

Hutchins got out with his Stetson low and a notebook tucked under one arm.

"Mr. Calloway," he said. Full name rules without the name. Working voice. "Need a word."

"Here."

His eyes went once around the group. "Privately would be preferable."

"No," I said.

Josie had gone still behind my shoulder. I felt it without looking.

Hutchins considered, then nodded. "All right."

He opened the notebook.

"At approximately one this morning, Derek Kane reported being assaulted in the back lot behind the Rusty Spur. Split lip. Bruising along the jaw. The injuries were photographed at the time he made the complaint, and he signed a statement identifying you as the person who struck him."

Wind moved a scatter of straw across the apron.

Nothing in me moved with it.

Hutchins continued at his one speed. "Two patrons inside the establishment reported hearing shouting in the back lot. Neither saw the altercation, but Ollie Prewitt states he saw your truck pulling out of the alley at approximately one-ten."

"Ollie Prewitt?" Cash said.

He said it like Hutchins had cited a horse.

The sheriff looked at him over the top of his notebook. "Mr. Prewitt gave a signed statement."

"Ollie Prewitt couldn't give you the correct day of the week with a calendar and two guesses."

"Cash," Wyatt said.

Not a correction. A request for room.

Cash shut his mouth. His face did not improve.

Wyatt stepped forward, lawyer-flat already. "You have a complainant with a split lip, no direct witness to the assault, two people who heard an unidentified man shouting, and a claimed vehicle sighting made after dark by a witness whose reliability I expect you're familiar with. Do you have physical evidence placing Boone in that alley?"

"I'm laying out what I have."

"That wasn't my question."

"No physical evidence has been processed yet."

"Has the Rusty Spur provided exterior camera footage?"

"There are no working cameras covering the back lot."

"Road cameras?"

"None on Main."

"Then you have an accusation."