Free Dorothy Garlock - [Dolan Brothers] by With Heart Page B

with hair as red as mine.” Kathleen finished for him and got to her feet. Looking up at him made her uncomfortable. “I’ve heard it a million times. You’re the sheriff.”
    “How’d ya guess?” He hooked his thumbs in the pockets of his trousers and looked steadily at her.
    Sheriff A. B. Carroll was a heavyset man with a big neck, broad shoulders, and short arms and legs. The hair beneath the brim of his Stetson was brown, the thick mustache on his upper lip brown sprinkled with gray. The bulge in his jaw, Kathleen suspected, was a plug of chewing tobacco. He wore his importance on his chest along with his badge. She decided then and there that she wasn’t going to like him.
    “It wasn’t hard to figure it out. The star means that you’re either the sheriff or from the Star Ice Company. We got ice yesterday.”
    “Smart-mouthed, just like Ell said.”
    “Speaking of your deputy, are all women treated with such lecherous behavior when they go to the county sheriff’s office?”
    “Those who ask for it.”
    “And who is to be the judge of that?”
    “I am. When I’m not there, my deputy is.”
    “I’d like to remind you, Sheriff, that your salary and that of your ill-bred deputy, and the office you occupy are paid for by the taxpayers of this county, and they are entitled to be treated with civility.”
    “You’ve not paid taxes here. What are
you
yippin’ about?”
    “Hello, A. B., I thought I heard your voice out here.” Adelaide had come quietly into the office.
    “Hello, Adelaide. I think you’ve got yourself a little hot-tempered chili pepper here. She just got into a fight out on the street. You know that I can’t have a woman, man either, brawlin’ in public. Doc says it ain’t a good image for the town.”
    “Wait a gosh-darn minute,” Kathleen sputtered. “That man grabbed me. I had to defend myself.”
    “They disagree. It’s two against one.”
    “The two you’re referring to are the men who attempted to hijack me out on the highway the day I arrived here. They also took my money and would have gotten away with it if Johnny Henry hadn’t come along when he did. I’ll sign a complaint against them.”
    “Here we’ve got two sides again,” the sheriff said patiently. He turned and addressed his remarks to Adelaide. “Webb and Krome, the men this woman is accusing, told me that they had stopped to help her get her car out of the ditch. She offered to pay them. They took the money, but when Henry came along she accused them of stealing it. Now, I know that Webb and Krome aren’t good upstanding citizens; but I know them, and I don’t know her from a bale of hay. Why should I put two men in jail on her say-so?”
    Kathleen swallowed down the knot of anger in her throat and forced herself to speak calmly.
    “This has nothing to do with Adelaide, Sheriff Carroll. I’m the one involved here. I’m the one accusing your friends, Webb and Krome. My name is Miss Dolan, not
her,
not
she,
and not
that woman.
I’ll thank you to remember it and address your remarks to me.”
    The sheriff sighed. “I’m just trying to get along here. I’ve got to satisfy everyone in this county, not just one newcomer who more than likely won’t be here this time next year.”
    “Oh, I’ll be here, Sheriff. I’m not one to tuck tail and run when the going gets rough. I’ve been told that it’s the red hair. I’m not sure about that, but I do know that I’m stubborn, I’m determined, and I know when right is right. I don’t back down even when the law in town fails to do its job.”
    “All right,” the sheriff said harshly. “This town is not paradise, miss. It’s just like any other town. Folks here are like folks everywhere—some are pretty decent, others so rotten they stink to high heaven. We’ve got some saints and some snakes. We do what we have to do to put up with ’em. My advice to you is to do the same.”
    Johnny had opened the screen door and stepped inside while the