Chapter 9: "The Sheriff"

In the fifteen years since he had helped railroad his best friend into prison, Johnny Wilkins never got a good night's sleep. When the guilt he was caring had became too much for him to handle, he started drinking. And the drinking cost him his marriage.

When his wife Liz, left him, taking their son Scott, with her, he found himself all alone and began to wonder what it had all been for?

In the devil's bargain he had made, Johnny had secured his future. He owned his home and even old Doc Harris could never take that away from him. Jack had been killed answering a domestic dispute about eight years after Ethan went to prison. And true to his word, old Doc Harris saw to it that Johnny was elected sheriff. But without his family, he didn't even care about the job that he used to love. He really didn't care about anything any more.

He forced himself to stop drinking, but it was too late, Liz refused to take him back. He guessed she'd finally had enough. Deep inside, he couldn't blame her. He had made her life a living hell.

Johnny had never told her the truth. Hell, he'd never told anyone the truth. He was too ashamed to. Keeping it bottled up inside him like a cancer had torn him apart and his guilt had just grown stronger and stronger with every passing day. Finally, early one morning, he found himself sitting of his living room holding his service revolver pointed at his head with one round in the chamber.

He hadn't slept at all the night before; his mind filled with the faces of the friend he had betrayed, his wife and the sixteen-year-old son that he didn't even know.

But he hadn't pulled the trigger that morning even though he wanted to. It was a blur to him now. He remembered having his finger on the trigger and slowly squeezing it. But at the last moment, something made him point the gun upwards just as the hammer fell. The round missed him, instead leaving a hole in his ceiling.

With the sound of the gun firing still ringing in his ears, Johnny realized that it wasn't to late to make things right. He had no illusions about ever getting his wife and son back, but perhaps there was still something he could do to make things right for Ethan!

The next day Johnny called the D.A., Roger Foster and asked him to come to his office so Johnny could talk to him.

When Foster got there and Johnny told the man about the knife and that he had been sitting on evidence for fifteen years, the D.A. became enraged. Foster was a narrow minded, spiteful man who had been elected on a 'Tough On Crime' platform and the idea of having to let a convicted murder free didn't sit well with him. While not the smartest lawyer in the world, he did know that if it ever got out that the sheriff and former sheriff had conspired to send an innocent man to jail, every case the two lawmen worked would be appealed and he would spend the rest of his term in court.

He looked Johnny straight in the eyes and said, "What the hell are you bringing this up for at this late date?" Without even waiting for an answer he continued, "Get rid of it! I'll be damned if I am going to spend the rest of my career in court fighting the appeals of every jailhouse lawyer you and that idiot uncle of yours put away! Do you understand me?" With that, the man stomped out of Johnny's office. Johnny just smiled as he unlocked a drawer in his desk and carefully placed the knife in it. He was hoping that was what the man might say.