But back then, he’d still had time. He’d been in his late thirties. Still a young man.
Henry picked up a.357 and slipped six bullets into the cylinder. After Ruth, he’d found his second wife, Gwen. Even though Gwen had been a poor unwed mother of questionable parentage, he’d married her for several reasons. She obviously wasn’t barren, as he’d suspected of Ruth, and she was so beautiful she made him ache. She and her daughter had been so grateful to him, and so easy to mold into what he wanted. But in the end, his stepdaughter had disappointed him bitterly, and the one thing he wanted most from Gwen, she had failed to give him. After years of marriage, she hadn’t given him a legitimate heir.
Henry spun the cylinder then looked down at the revolver in his hand. With the barrel of the pistol, he pushed the box of linseed rags closer to the space heater. He didn’t want anyone to clean up the mess after he was gone. The song he’d been waiting to hear crackled through the speakers, and he cranked up the eight-track player as Johnny sang about falling into a burning ring of fire.
His eyes got a little misty when he thought of his life and the people he would leave behind. It was a damn shame he wouldn’t be around to see the looks on their faces when they discovered what he’d done.
Chapter One
“Death comes, as it must, to all men, and with it the inevitable separation from loved ones,” Reverend Tippet droned in his flat solemn tone. “We will miss Henry Shaw, beloved husband, father, and prominent member of our community.” The reverend paused and glanced about the large group gathered to bid their final farewell. “Henry would be pleased to see so many friends here today.”
Henry Shaw would have taken one look at the line of cars backed up to the gated entrance of Salvation Cemetery, and he would have regarded the respectable turnout as somewhat less than his due. Until he’d been voted out of office last year in favor of that yellow-dog Democrat George Tanasee, he’d been mayor of Truly, Idaho for over twenty-four years.