“I thought so too. I found two people who’d been there when Revis killed the woman’s husband and they heard Revis threatening Leah. So I took the two to the woman but she wouldn’t listen, just kept screaming about Leah. There wasn’t anything I could do about her so I took the two men around town and let them tell everyone in Sweetbriar the truth about Leah.”
With a nod, Mac agreed. “Sounds sensible to me. So what’s wrong with your wife?”
Wesley sat on top of a cracker barrel. “Leah has more courage than anyone,” he repeated. “In Virginia she used to tell me off about every two days and later I was shot and she put her own life in jeopardy to save me, who she kept saying she didn’t like very much. Of course she didn’t mean that. Leah’s crazy about me,” he added quickly. “Nothing ever seemed too much for her, but this woman screaming at her has changed Leah. All she does now is chores and sit at that blasted loom of hers. And the least little thing makes her cry.”
“Is she breedin’?” Mac asked. “Women get funny at that time.”
“I don’t think so. I’ve asked her twenty times what’s wrong and she just cries and says she’ll never be respectable now.”
“I guess you told her about the two men, didn’t you?”
“Sure,” Wes answered. “I even brought them to the house, but Leah said their word didn’t matter because the woman thought Leah’d killed her husband. Everybody in Sweetbriar knew about Revis’s robberies and I told a few women about how Leah joined the gang because I was wounded and they believed me. Nobody in town is against Leah except that one crazy old woman, but Leah just plain won’t believe me. She won’t come to town, won’t see anybody but Kimberly and Bud and Cal.”
There was quiet in the store for a few minutes, only the rain beating down on the roof.
“I never did like those Hayneses,” Doll said quietly.
For a moment Mac looked startled, and it was awhile before he spoke. “You ever think maybe somebody’s payin’ this woman to keep to her story about Leah?”
“Paying her? To lie about Leah? Why?” Wesley was bewildered. “What could anyone gain by making the town think Leah’s a murderess?”
Mac walked out from behind the counter. “I know what you’ve told the townspeople about this Revis and I know you only told ’em because of Leah, but I think you left out a lot.”
Wesley set his jaw. “Maybe you ought to tell me what I didn’t say.”
“Maybe you didn’t hear,” Mac continued, “but about four years ago several of us men went into the woods and cleared out the whole nest of robbers. It was…successful, but Lyttle Tucker and Ottis Waters were killed. It wasn’t long before the nest was filled again, only this time all the women of Sweetbriar marched on us and said they’d leave us if we went after the robbers.” There was anger in Mac’s eyes. “Sometimes the women of this town don’t rightly act like women should.”
“I liked it better when my woman disobeyed me,” Wesley said sullenly. “If I’d wanted somebody who obeyed me I’d have married Kimberly.”
“Linnet don’t even know how to obey,” Mac snapped. “Sometimes I think she stays up nights thinkin’ up ways to do what I don’t want her to do.”
“Leah used to do that but—.”
“’Fore you two get so hot for your women you have to run home to ’em for a little lovin’, why don’t we get back to the Haynes woman and her callin’ Mrs. Wesley a murderer?”
Mac ignored Doll’s first remark. “The Hayneses ain’t been here long and we’ve had some trouble with ’em, with stealin’ and the like. This woman that accused Leah was a Haynes before she married and now that she’s a widow she’s livin’ with ’em.”
He paused. “A few of us men speculated some on how come that den of robbers is always filled and they always seem to have new leaders ever’ few years. Even if you kill the leader, a new one comes back real soon. There ain’t been no robberies since this Revis was killed, but I’m expectin’ any day to hear of one.”
Wesley was cautious. “How do you explain the leaders being replaced?”
“There’s somebody behind all the robberies, somebody that don’t live in the woods that’s plannin’ them all.”
“And who is he?” Wes asked quietly.
“How the hell would I know?” Mac snapped. “You think he’d be free if I knew who he was?”
Doll turned around in his chair to look at Wesley. “Mac,” he said slowly, “t
hat boy knows more’n he’s tellin’.” With that he turned back around.
Mac gave Wesley a hard look. “That true? You in here fishin’ to see what we know?”
Wesley began to get angry. “I’d never heard that the men of Sweetbriar had ever cleared out the robbers.”
“You think we hear about other people’s misery and just sit on our asses doin’ nothin’ about it? Is that the kind of people you think we are? I lost Lyttle Tucker in that fight and he was one of the best friends I ever had.”
Doll came out of his chair. “Goddamn you, Macalister! I thought that once you got some gray hairs you’d calm down. But you ain’t. You’re just as hotheaded now as you always was. I don’t know how that sweet little Lynna puts up with you.”