Outlaw Mountain

Keeping one eye on the road, Joa

Joa

Joa

Once at the hospital, Joa

Free at last, Joa

Garrity’s Funeral Home had once been a massive old house on G Street. It was situated only a few blocks from Jessie Monroe’s Golden Agers Nursing Home, and only a few more blocks from where Alice Monroe Rogers and her brothers and sisters had played hide-and-seek as children.

Joa

With her copy of the wedding picture folded into a small square in her hand, Joa

“Yes.”

“Second door on the right,” he directed. “But the visitation is almost over,” he added. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of it or not, but there’s been another tragedy in the family today. As a result, most family members had to leave earlier than expected. There are only a few stragglers left.”

The man’s politely unspoken message was clear: It’s over, lady. All the important people are gone already, so don’t hang around and waste my time.

“That’s fine,” Joa

She walked into the room. Like the lobby, the small, chapel-like room was plushly carpeted. An open casket, eerily lit, sat at the front. Glancing around the room, Joa

Walking silently, Joa

It was such a simple, moving gesture, that Joa

Knowing the man known as Farley Adams still thought himself alone, Joa

As soon as he saw her, Joa

“All right,” he said. “It’s no use. I can’t run anymore. You’ve got me. Go ahead and get it over with.”

“It’s all right, Mr. Becker,” Joa

“But you called me Becker,” he objected. “You must know all about me then?”

“And about your son,” Joa

Becker dropped into one of the rows of seats and covered his face with his hands. “If you could find me this easily, they will, too. I knew better than to go to the funeral, but I thought I could take a chance on coming here. There were so few people. Nobody recognized me-except you. I know it’s all my fault. That’s why Alice is dead. The people who are looking for me must have thought she would lead them to me, although I don’t know how they found out.”

“They didn’t,” Joa

“They didn’t?” Joa

“Yes,” Joa

“Ross Jenkins? But why?”

“For money,” Joa

“Clete would never do such a thing;” Becker declared. “I le thought the world of his mother. In fact, I’m surprised he wasn’t here tonight. I was hoping to get a chance to tell him sorry I am.”

For the first time Joa

“Clete? No. What happened to him? The stress was probably too much.”

“It wasn’t stress,” Joa

“Did Ross do that, too? I knew Ross and Susan didn’t get along with Clete, but I never thought they’d do something so-”

“How did you first meet Alice Rogers?” Joa

“I suppose you’ve figured out about the Witness Protection thing,” Becker ventured.

“Yes. Nobody told us for sure, but we’ve pretty well pieced it together.”

‘Well, I couldn’t stand it. It was too confining-a jail with no bars on the walls, but a prison nonetheless. When I couldn’t take it any longer, I split. I was on my way through Tombstone headed God knows where-Mexico, probably-when I heard Clete complaining that he couldn’t get anybody to come help him patch his roof. I offered to help out. I ended up hanging around town doing odd jobs. It was summer, so the rents were cheap. Clete introduced me to Alice because she needed some work done, too. So I started doing handyman jobs for her, but it turned out we liked each other-really hit it off. One thing to led another, and before long-well, you know how it goes. Some people thought Alice was cantankerous, and maybe she was. But she also had an independent streak. I liked that about her.”