"This Man Thatacus Murphy"

by Cynthia Love

Copyright ©2004
ISBN: 0-87714-915-1 eBook edition
ISBN: 0-87714-342-0 PB edition

This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

THE AUTHOR

Cynthia Love was born, raised, and still lives in Largo, FL. She dreams of traveling abroad and someday marrying a man with a thick Italian accent. Presently, she lives with her two teenaged daughters, Mary and Sarah, who are beautiful, talented, and radiant with charisma. She also lives with twin calico cats that are neither beautiful nor radiant; mostly they are narrow-minded and bigoted. Frequently they try to prevent Cynthia from writing a masterpiece of love and adventure by jumping onto the computer keyboard and tripping the lose-all-150-pages-you've-just-typed button. Cynthia also loves gardening and every item on the taco Bell menu.

THE BOOK

Sheriff Thatacus Murphy would rather deal with a jail full of drunks, would rather fist-fight Big Buck, and would rather be the innocent victim of someone else's vendetta than deal with the beautiful Katie Thomas. Ever since she arrived in town, stages got robbed, snakes appeared out of nowhere, and knife-wielding lunatics grabbed young boys by the scruff. If by some crazy event Katie wasn't convicted of felony and murder by the circuit-judge, Murphy would personally cart her lovely little self over to the stage depot and ship her out on the next outbound coach.

Katie knew she was innocent of robbing the stage, even if she couldn't remember the event in a clear-like fashion. But she knew she wasn't the type of girl to kill people for money. She wasn't some black thundercloud like some folk thought she was - some folks by the name of Sheriff Thatacus Murphy that she could mention but she wouldn't. But how in the blue-eyed world was she going to convince the sheriff that she was innocent when the men who started this whole hullabaloo in the first place break her out of jail?

Excerpt

Not being able to think of a more miserable circumstance than sitting in the sheriff's company while Todd spun yarns of her childhood misadventures, Katie kept her eyes cast downward and handed the bowl of stew to Murphy. She would make her escape as soon as a polite-hour permitted. No doubt Todd's stories convinced the sheriff Katie Thomas possessed an outlaw nature, and truly, she'd been a spirited girl, but Todd made her out to be exceptionally so. She'd never meant to steal Ned Taylor's horse. Well, she meant to, but not criminally. If Ned had taken Katie home when she'd asked him to, she wouldn't have had to draw a pistol and take his slow and dopey horse away from him in the first place.

Katie would not defend herself in front of the sheriff, however, as it would appear over-sensitive on her part. So, she ate in silence and smiled at Todd when he referred to the time their mother sat Katie down to explain the ladies do not use darning needles as weapons. Even when boys like Joey MacNamara stole a ladies' half-dollar she received for her birthday.

She'd be wearing prison strips by dessert-time!

Katie mentioned how sufferable the climate seemed north of Chicago, as it was blistering in Chicago this time of year and the temperature seemed to be much less sweltering (except in this dining room with two set of eyebrows raised at her run-on-sentence) in Victor City.

The sheriff looked as if he detected Katie's desire to change the conversation, and he did by saying, "Marvin found Darryl's body out by Gulch Pass today. He must have been hit by one of the first bullets in the stage hold-up."

Now there was some polite dinner conversation! Katie frowned and stared at the potato on her plate.

"His heart had a hole clean through the middle of it," Murphy went on. "Whoever shot him was an expert marksman." When Katie glanced at Murphy, he chewed his food and stared back at her with those distrustful eyes.

"Now that's just a shame," Todd replied, pausing his fork in midair and looking at Katie. "Do you remember anything about Darryl? He would have been riding shotgun." Todd placed his fork on the plate. "Darryl was a tall fellow with sandy-blonde hair and was broad through the chest. Mighty brave and loyal and trustworthy was Darryl Jones, may God bless his soul."

"I didn't shoot Darryl Jones, Sheriff," Katie told him and then watched Todd frown.

"Why would you have to tell Murphy that? Of course you didn't shoot Darryl." Todd looked at the sheriff. "Did you think she shot Darryl?"

Murphy finished chewing the meat in his mouth. He took his time wiping his lips with the cloth napkin and said, "I never once thought you shot Darryl Jones."

She was relieved to hear it since Katie lost track of whom the sheriff thought she'd murdered.

He sat back in his chair and folded the napkin to return it to his lap. "Darryl was shot at from a long distance away. You were in the stagecoach."

Katie asked, "How do you know someone shot Darryl from far away?"

"Because his body is right over at the undertaker's office and I had a look-see for myself. The bullet didn't come out the back of him; it's still in his heart." He leaned an elbow against the table and looked directly at Katie. "Therefore, he was shot at a long distance away."

"Now that makes sense," Todd said, filling his mouth with bread.

Katie agreed, "Yes, perfectly." She stood, then. "I'm going to get the dessert."

"You haven't eaten your dinner," Murphy stated, staring at her plate.

She shrugged. "I lost my appetite."

"I'll help you," he told her, getting to his feet.

Todd looked so pleased that Katie didn't object. When she walked into the kitchen, she let the swinging door fly at Murphy, helping its propulsion by kicking it with her toe. He caught it with his forearm and followed her into the room.

"Aren't you worried I'll pull a darning needle on you?"

"I think I can defend myself. Knife?"

"Please."

Murphy handed the long-handled blade to Katie and leaned on the table to watch her cut the blueberry pie into eight pieces. "So you were a live coal growing up?" He crossed his arms over his chest and watched her closely.

"Live coal?" Crinkling her nose, she studied the pie. "I was not a live coal." She scooped a slice of pie onto a small plate and handed it to him. "Todd stretched those stories."

Murphy took the plate. "I've never known Todd to stretch stores." He put a clean fork on the plate. "I find it interesting that you didn't tell him about our conversation yesterday in my office."

Katie stopped scooping to glower at the sheriff. "What is so interesting about that?"

"That you haven't told him."

She sighed and sliced the pie again. "If Todd thought I was in real trouble with the law, he would fret."

"I've never known Todd to fret."

"Then I guess you don't know as much as you think you do."

Murphy smiled and said nothing. His eyes remained alert though, like Katie's every word and every move meant something to him. Honestly, the man didn't need to lock anyone up; he could just follow them around town until they confessed to everything and anything!

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