The Boxcar Blues by Jeff Egerton

the rest of the
way and stay out of sight.”
    “ OK, how about you,
Slim?”
    “ On your way back you can
drop me by the trestle. I reckon I’ll spend the night with the boys
in the jungle, then light out in the morning.”
    Twenty minutes later Curly thanked both of
the men who’d helped him, then began his trek through an alfalfa
field while listening for a train whistle that would tell him where
the nearest railroad tracks were. By now he was sleepy and wanted
to lay down for a few hours rest, but he felt like his first
priority was to find Catwalk so he could help him as he ran from
the incredible injustice that they faced.

CHAPTER NINE
    Curly had been walking for an hour when he
heard the welcomed wail of a train whistle. Maxine had told him
that to get to the hay farm he had to follow the tracks until they
rounded a bend outside of Junction City and then to take the next
road for three miles north to the farm. He also realized that Jones
knew that he and Cat were used to traveling by rail so he’d be
conducting his search along the rail lines. Because of this Curly
followed the tracks from a distance, about half a mile or so south
of them.
    He suspected that Catwalk would be avoiding
the tracks, to dodge anyone searching for him, but he also thought
he’d make his way to the hay farm because that was his best bet for
getting out of the area without being seen.
    In the moonlight Curly saw the silhouette of
a water tank in the distance. Because these were gathering places
for men hopping trains, it would also be a focal point for a search
party. He decided he’d best stay away from the water tank. He saw a
wooded area a mile or so away north of the tracks. He also saw two
cars heading down the dirt road that paralleled the tracks. He
wondered if they held people who were looking for him and Catwalk,
or were they field workers getting an early start on the next
day.
    He walked toward the wooded area, praying
that he’d somehow find his friend there and they could make it to
the hay farm without crossing paths with any of Jones’ posse.
    Alton Jones returned to the Sheriff’s Office
at day break the next morning. He and the men he’d deputized had
been searching the local area all night but had not seen the boys,
nor had they talked to anyone who’d seen them. This wasn’t
surprising since most of the search had been nothing but haphazard
driving from one place to another with no real plan for the search
in place. For most of the night Larry and the two men Jones had
grabbed at the diner, slept in the car, with the windows wide
open.
    Even though he was dead tired, his anger was
still apparent when he confronted Sheriff Tyler. The sheriff
listened to his deputy’s tirade, then thought about the situation.
He’d learned long ago that most of what Jones said was an effort to
prove his point, rather than what had actually happened. Without
saying so he decided the best thing for him to do was to get Jones
out of his hair so he could start his own investigation into the
Puckett woman’s murder. Knowing Jones’ chances of finding the two
boys were slim at best, he told Alton, “You can get some sleep if
you want to, then continue your search but check in here this
afternoon.”
    After Jones left to continue his search,
Sheriff Wendell Tyler walked down to Doc Cooper’s house and
confronted him while he was feeding his chickens, “Mornin’ Doc. Say
when you’re finished feeding your flock I need you to follow me out
to the Puckett place. My deputy tells me she was murdered yesterday
and I’d like you to bring the body back here. We’ll use the jail as
a morgue.”
    “ Murdered?”
    “ Yep, that’s what Alton
said.”
    “ Any idea who did
it?”
    Sheriff Tyler stroked his chin while
choosing his words. “Well, nothing definite yet.”
    “ OK, give me a moment to
get my bag.”
    “ Take your time, Doc. She
ain’t goin’ anywhere.”
    After Doc Cooper had left for the jail with
Maxine’s body lying