Free Love & Marry by L.K. Campbell

back down in the rocker. “I just can’t understand who would do this,” Daisy said. “There wasn’t anyone here last night except you, my husband, the stagehands and me. My housekeeper lives down the road a piece, and she went home right after we cleaned up the supper dishes.” Daisy paused and looked Annabelle up and down. “You don’t look like the kind of person who would murder somebody—not with a knife anyway.”
    While taking the seat next to Daisy, she pondered whether to tell the woman the truth or wait until Marshal Johnson and Sheriff Tuttle questioned her. She twisted the wedding band she still wore on her left hand.
    “You’re awfully young and pretty to be walking around in black mourning clothes,” Daisy said. “How long have you been a widow?”
    Annabelle lowered her eyes. “Not long. My husband was an older man and in poor health when we married,” she said.
    “Oh, I see,” Daisy said. “Not that it’s any of my business, but you should take off the mourning dress. There are plenty of good, strapping young men out here looking for wives. The men outnumber the women, you know.”
    She knew that Daisy meant well but becoming someone’s wife again wasn’t on her agenda for the near future. At the moment, she was more concerned with figuring out how to take care of herself. She switched the subject to the matter at hand.
    “Daisy, how easy would it be for someone to come on the property after dark without anyone knowing it?” she asked.
    “Well, that depends on which direction they were coming from,” Daisy said. “And they would have to leave their horse or wagon somewhere down the road and sneak up on foot. The stagehands sometimes sit up late playing poker, but I think they turned in early last night.”
    “Did you see Mr. Kelly go outside?”
    Daisy straightened in the chair. “Right after supper and the strangest thing was that he took that valise with him. Why would a man go outside at night with his valise?”
    “And did you see him come back into house?”
    Her brow furrowed. “No, I didn’t. But you were out in the bathhouse around that same time. Did you hear or see anything?”
    “I—”
    The screen door flew open. Daisy’s husband came out and called to the men, “Duke, Billy, come give the undertaker a hand.” He turned and looked at Annabelle. “Mrs. Miles, the Marshal has some questions for you. He’s waiting for you in the parlor.”
    She stood on shaky legs. She’d never been questioned by the law for any reason, much less as a witness in a murder case. This trip to see her aunt was turning out less than grand. She hoped this wasn’t a harbinger of things to come.
    Both the marshal and the sheriff awaited her in the small parlor.
    “Ma’am, I’m U.S. Marshal Luke Johnson,” he said. “This is Sheriff Tuttle of Lake Andes.”
    He motioned for her to take a seat on the dark green, velvet-upholstered settee. The Sheriff sat in the wingback chair next to the sofa while the Marshal leaned against the mantelpiece with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
    “Mr. Hansen said that you might have some information about the victim,” Sheriff Tuttle said.
    For some reason, she felt as if she couldn’t get her breath. Why was she so nervous ? All she had to do was tell them what she knew.
    “Yes,” she said after a moment. “Last night, after supper, I went out to the bathhouse. I saw Mr. Kelly talking with another man. I had a feeling that their business was private, so I didn’t make my presence known.”
    Annabelle turned and looked at Marshal Johnson. The formidable lawman stared at her in way that made her slightly uncomfortable, but she continued with her story.
    “I heard them talking about a diamond mine, and Mr. Kelly handed over what looked like a large sum of money in exchange for a pouch containing a handful of diamonds—maybe a dozen—and a deed to the mine.”
    Marshal Johnson’s eyes widened. “Wait a minute, sheriff. Before the