Chapter 7

Eddy went back to the jail and made sure that the prisoners were properly taken care of. There was a problem of crowding, but none of the other prisoners were willing to be in the same cell as the Chinese giant. Finally, everybody was sorted out and the handcuffs were removed. Eddy sent the temporary deputies home with his thanks and the request that they all come back at 1:00 PM tomorrow. He had something important to discuss with them, but he needed to get to Bill's parents' house before they found out about his death from some other source.

By now, it was after midnight, but Eddy felt that it was important for him to go by and personally give the word of Bill's death to his parents. He really hated to do the job; nevertheless, he hurried to the Thomas' house and knocked on the door.

Mr. Thomas came to the door and immediately recognized Eddy. The first thing he said was, "Shit! How bad is Billy hurt?"

"Mr. Thomas, I hate to have to tell you this, but Bill died this evening while helping to apprehend a gang of criminals. You know how I felt about Bill, he was my best friend. Oh, shit, now I'm crying!"

"Come in, son. I know how Billy felt about you. He was always talking about you and how he wished he was as brave as you. We just knew this was going to happen one day, but it was what Billy wanted to do. We don't blame you, so don't you go blaming yourself. Now you go home and get some rest. You look like you need it. I'll tell Billy's mother. She'll take it better coming from me. Good night."

"Good night, sir, and thank you!"

Eddy made his way home and collapsed in his bed. Martha woke up and saw him crying. "Oh my God! Something has happened to Bill! He's dead isn't he?" Eddy nodded and Martha wrapped him in her arms and mourned with him.

The next morning, Eddy ate a somber breakfast and went to the jail to check on the prisoners. He found them as they should be and he told them that he would be back within an hour. He went from the jail to Mr. Wang's house. He knocked on the door and asked to speak to Mr. Wang.

Wang Fu showed up quickly and invited Eddy into his house. "Mr. Wang, please excuse me for not being as polite as I should be, but I have many things to do today and I need your help. I have 12 men in my jail and I need you to tell me which ones are innocent and which ones are gang members. How quickly can you come to the Jail?"

"I can come with you right now. You rescued my granddaughter last night and she told me that your friend was killed. Please accept my condolences, we Chinese rarely find someone who is willing to die for us."

"Bill was a lawman doing his duty. He believed as I do that the law is for everybody and everybody should get equal protection from it. But, thank you for your good wishes. Can we go now?"

They left for the jail and Wang Fu looked over the prisoners. Eddy couldn't understand the words, but he could understand the scorn and disgust in Wang Fu's voice as he berated the 11 men in the three cells. Finally he pointed to the three cells and said, "These fools were all customers of the brothel and not members of the gang. Please let them out of the cells and the Chinese community will handle them. That man is one of the criminals!" with that pronouncement, he marched regally out of the jail.

Eddy turned the 11 innocents out and sent them home. He arranged for some breakfast for the giant and then went to see the district attorney. The DA was not very helpful; he sympathized with Eddy's grief over the loss of Bill, but said that there was nothing that he could do. Under the current laws of California, the Chinese giant had done nothing to warrant his arrest. Since running a bordello was not illegal and that was all they could prove that he did, Eddy had to release him. Sorry, but that's the was it was.

Eddy went to see Mr. Wang and reported the conversation with the DA. Mr. Wang told Eddy to release the giant to some "friends" who would come by later that morning. Eddy agreed and left.

Six Chinese "friends" of the giant showed up to collect him shortly after Eddy returned to the jail. The giant didn't look very happy, but had to leave when Eddy pointed a gun at him. Eddy later found out that the giant had met with an unfortunate "accident." His ears and penis had somehow wound up in his lunch. He was sent back to his people in San Francisco as an object lesson and no more was ever heard from that particular gang.

Eddy went home to lunch and, when he got back to the jail, all six temporary deputies were waiting for him. Eddy thanked them for their efforts the previous night and paid them each $2.50 for their working time. He then announced, "Men, I need two deputies on a permanent basis. The pay is $75 a month and the job starts today for the two who sign up. Are any of you interested?"

Three of the men were married, so they begged off out of concern for their families. Another wanted to try his luck in the gold fields, so that left two candidates. They both agreed to give the job a try, so Eddy sent the others home and swore in the two recruits. He said that he wanted to try having one on the day shift and one at night. That way, he could have the office covered during the day while he was out. He planned for the two deputies to switch shifts every week.

The two new deputies, Tom Abernathy and Zack Wilson, started out with a thorough indoctrination into the paperwork they would be doing. Eddy showed them around the nooks and crannies of the jail and explained the various duties of the daytime deputy.

It was getting late in the afternoon by now, so Eddy sent them out to pick up some sandwiches for supper for all three before they started working the night shift routine. He asked them to stop by his house and tell Martha that he would be getting in late that evening and not to wait supper.

While they ate their sandwiches and drank coffee, Eddy told them about the two tours around the business district he wanted the night shift deputy to make and explained about the sleeping arrangements. They started the first tour a little early, so Eddy could introduce the new deputies to as many of the businessmen as they could find still working that late. He figured to pick up the ones they missed during a day shift walkabout.

The first tour took about twice as long as it usually did because he had each new man learn to try the doors to be sure that they were locked. That, plus the introductions of the new men made it nearly midnight before Eddy got home that night. He was exhausted and just plopped into bed with a mumbled apology to Martha.

Eddy got up for breakfast the next morning still tired from the hectic action and disappointments of the last few days. He told the family of hiring the new deputies and the bitter news he got from the DA. This put something of a damper on the conversation, but the boys told of their successes with the hauling operation. Martha reported that Alice was progressing well and putting on the weight that every baby should. Mary laid a bombshell: she was seeing Silas Warren on a regular basis. She still dropped by to see Aaron on occasion, but he had announced that he was actively looking for a Jewish wife, so Mary was making an effort not to interfere with that.

Eddy had Zack and Tom flip a coin to see who would be the first day shifter. Zack won and chose the night shift, so Eddy sent him home. Eddy closed the office and took Tom with him to meet some of the businessmen they had missed the night before. It was in the afternoon that they were walking up the main business street when a man ran toward them. He was being chased by a man shouting, "STOP, THIEF!" Tom deftly put out his foot and tripped the man as he ran by; he made his first arrest that day! The grateful shop owner recovered the stolen items and Tom proudly marched his prisoner to jail.

During the following week, Eddy was glad that he had the deputies, because he spent boring hours in court while the lawyers haggled over the fate of the protection racketeers. Finally, it was Eddy's turn to testify. He gave a straight-forward account of the incident and was cross-examined by the defense. The lawyer kept emphasizing how Eddy had blown off the right hand of one of the defendant's after he was wounded and lying on the floor. Eddy couldn't take it any longer and blurted out, "What the shit was I supposed to do? He was pointing a pistol at me. Should I have shot him in the head, instead?" This caused an uproar of laughter from the jury and the audience. The judge banged his gavel for order, but was seen to have a small smile, himself.

Three days later, the men were sentenced to 20 years, each, in prison. One got hard labor, but the one handed man just got regular time. The judge didn't know of a way for him to serve a hard labor sentence—you couldn't swing a sledge hammer making little rocks out of big ones if you had only one hand! Eddy left the court, satisfied that justice had been served.

The rest of the month went along in a routine manner. The two deputies occasionally brought in a drunk to sleep it off and they had to break up a rare fight, but the city was the quietest it had been in some years and the city council chalked it up to Eddy's hard work.

April was coming in like a fish! The rain was a little late that year, but made up for it with enthusiasm. The boys suffered through a spell of having the roads so muddy that they had to cut the size of the load on the wagons just so the oxen could move at all. This resulted in some delivery penalties which really pissed them off. However, they had gotten so far ahead with the bonus that they were not hurting financially, just emotionally. The rain eventually stopped; the weather returned to normal and the boys returned to their usually sunny emotional state.