The Riverman:

Monroe County Sheriff Portiphar "Port" Kiernan moved inside of the side door of the single story ranch, one of several newer homes in town that had been built specifically for veterans coming home from the war. It didn't seem as if that had only been about twelve years ago that Suzette and he had moved in, freshly married and ready to begin their life together.

He had gotten a job at Boyton Mill selling insurance for his brother-in-law, and the money was about the only thing that justified the forty minute drive, one way. They were still pretty young back then, and the idea of what was to come at least had a few interesting prospects.

Some of those events from then to now seemed almost conspicuous, which Port knew would never be. Maybe more like a plot from some dime-novel, as some gentlemen who really didn't belong here had suddenly shown up to start off something that also shouldn't have been. Suze had inadvertently interfered with those plans, merely by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. These gentlemen were neither gentle nor timid, which was to say that the former sheriff, Sheriff Tiggs, was damn well aware of who had done it--and he may have even likely knew why. Corruption was not something one really considered in a county like Monroe, which was large, but didn't have buy a single city and a few scattered small towns to boast about. They were near fifty miles south of St. Louis, which is where one might more suspect that sort of thing. Still, that road-house near the county line came to fruition under Ben Tiggs.

It was the death of his wife, Suzette, which had near directly led to him becoming sheriff.

Tyler Loman had never been to Monroe County, not even on a visit, before he had decided that it was out of the way enough for him to be able to set himself up for whatever pickin's might be had. Port was not sure what he had been thinking at the time, though he likely would have done well enough, if allowed to his own vices. Ben Tiggs sure as hell didn't intend to stop him, whether out of fear or the fact that Loman was paying him off. The Peccadilloes Roadhouse started attracted a pretty bad element, from gamblers to gentleman that preferred to pay for private time. Drugs was another consideration that never really got the time to set in deep before Port had ran up against Ben Tiggs for the office of county sheriff.

It surely wasn't a landslide, as most were not even aware that Port's military time had been as a military policeman. There was also the fact that Loman, of course, was backing his boy. Loman had even sent on over one of his associates to calmly, and mostly politely, suggest that he might should bow-out of the race. Port suggested that he might should "bow-out" of his way. There had already been enough incidents, aside from its already colorful reputation, for the townsfolk to consider a change. Loman had done what he might, but when it was all said and done, Portiphar Kiernan was the new county sheriff.

Tyler Loman had trimmed back on some of the more obvious illegal activities, which is to say that he put a little space between himself and the brothel, and he moved the seat, if not the heart, of his drug peddlers out of the Roadhouse as well. Loman had figured that Port would not get too aggressive busting up poker-hands and assuring that the ladies that were in attendance were actually patrons, and not Loman employees trying to stir up business in the elsewheres of Loman's personal interests. Afterall, Port only had a five man force, and everyone of them was known to Loman and his crew.

His power to deputize and recruit was another consideration that apparently had not crossed Loman's mind. It was his old Army buddy Shay Bennett that did most of the damage, though convincing Gus Manley to open up about his own dealings with Loman surely if where the tide had done turned, and Port's small jailhouse was starting to run pretty thick with cheap turkeys in expensive suits. It was Port's major cause that lent, eventually, to an indictment against Loman for some real time. Yet it was what had occurred in the process that was coming back to haunt Sheriff Kiernan's office now.

That was not to say that Port had entirely neglected whatever else had come to his office's attention so much as he had focused his own attention upon assuring himself that Tyler Loman got off to where he needed to be. Port had taken to keeping his own files of cases that yet held any clear and obvious explanation, one of which had come washing down river that very morning.

He was pretty damn sure that the body of the gal that had been fished out of the river was likely li'l Nancy Watts. She surely was not so little anymore, but it was what else was obvious that was disturbing Port now. She was only nine years old when she had suddenly disappeared. The Watts kith and kin ran fairly deep in Monroe County, but mostly in-as that the two brothers seemed to be in some sort of contest to see who could make the most babies. Cale Watts was alright, though he really didn't have much more to his name than his younger brother Dell. Port had went to school with Cale, and knew Dell well enough for the time. He had to admit to a certain bias that he had held, which suggested that maybe li'l Nancy may not have been so gone as Dell preferred folk to believe.

What had been made abundantly clear this morning was that Nancy had been kept, and she had been kept poorly. Port did not care to think what she may have been suffering through all that time of seven years to his own neglect. He had taken to keeping books of his own, which focused on six unresolved cases. In at least four of those, Port had a strong theory as to what had went wrong, though he lacked sufficient proof to make an arrest. Nancy Watts had somewhat fell into that number as well, which was to say that Port was keeping an eye up for anything that may relate back to anyone of them. Nancy Watts was not on the top of that small pile.

He had to admit to himself that if it were not for the fact that she was Dell Watts' girl, he may have invested more into at least proving what he thought at the time. Martha Green, formerly Martha Watts, had some something to do with what he had thought. Matthew Green was a whole other sort of man than Martha's daddy had been, which did her quite a bit of good, yet certainly could not change it all. Matt and Martha were doing alright now, but there had been some tough times that didn't really involved the normal sort of issues that married couples came along honestly.  Martha had herself a wee bit of a breakdown, which is to say that the only one that she ever did any harm to was herself. Where most men that Port knew would have likely been done with her long before, and no one would have put it to his slight, Matt went the extra mile.

She had went up to the Callihan Hospital, near Boyton Mill, for a time, after trying to do herself in. It was then that Port got to know a little more about Dell Watts' personal affairs, as Matt had come into his office and wanted to have him arrested. Port would have liked nothing more than to do just that, aside from the fact that he could not legally. Still, Port had paid a call upon Dell, with a social worker in tow, as Martha was not his only girl-child. It was not long after that that Li'l Nancy suddenly disappeared. He had set his deputy, Joey Vincent, onto figuring out just where she may have wound up.

It was also near then that Port had a sit down, and long heart to heart with Gus Manley about Tyler Loman's business. He had to pull Joey to take Loman down, and li'l Nancy Watts sort of got lost in the process... Well, stayed lost rather, until this very morning.

He had a case of a disappearing wife, and two husbands. All were unrelated, to one another as well as to the disappearance of Nancy Watts. Abby Dillard was in her early thirties, and what suspicious circumstances seemed to suggest was that she had ran off with another younger fellow. Suggestion is not proof. Billy Conners was likely to have gone a similar route, and Fess Newton was old and could have just wandered off. Cammie Hollis was another big ol' question mark, though she could likely have ran off with Kenny Watts. (Will Hollis was less than enthused by her choices in men, and Kenny Watts was hardly even that when they both disappeared). Dell Watts really didn't seem to give a damn about what had happened to one of his boys, he had seven other sons to work and pay for the privilege of their mother and sisters cooking and housekeeping.) Cammie was seventeen when she came up missing, and much of her clothing and personal things went missing as well. It seemed fairly clear that she had not left against her own volition, but that had yet to be proven beyond a shadow of a doubt-- so he kept her on his books.

Patrick Donaghue was the only other case that didn't bear any implications that what may have happened to him was not more a matter of choice than something worse. Pat had went off upriver to do some fishing, and his wife Connie had called in when he had not come back home that night. It didn't take near so long to find him as it did li'l Nancy Watts. The county coroner had ruled his death, most likely to be, an accident. Sam Vernon was not exactly a forensic ace, but he had plenty enough trauma experience for the county to give him the job. The head wound, he ruled, was consistent with a fall. As the only other injuries could just as likely been from his body being ran down stream, in between the time when he fell in and the bump on his head to the time that he actually died was not immediate.

Port had no good reason to associate Pat Donaghue and Nancy Watts, save that they were both fished out of the river. Both had come up missing near the same time as well... Doc Vernon could have been wrong, but there was no just-cause to make that sort of claim. Pat was already long gone and buried up on Carlyle Hill. That didn't take him out of Port's little black book of events which had no definite explanation. Martin Jessup was actually a better qualified man to be doing what he was doing than ol' Doc Vernon.

Officially, Joey Vincent was back on the case, with Shay. Both were told to report to him directly, and there was just no damn way that Port was going to let it go until he knew. Joey had made some damn foolish comment about whether Port was concerned that Nancy Watts might cost him in the next election, which cost Joey an ass-chewing about doing his damn job and let the election be damned. Temper was one thing, but the truth of what he had said was another. Dell Watts was dead himself now. He had went to his grave with folk carrying the suspicion that he may have had some hand in what had happened to his baby-girl. Port really didn't suspect him any longer. Doc Jessup would likely give him some more to work with in the morning, but the evidence still favored the worst mistake that he had made in his law enforcement career.

And he still had plenty enough time to make it right.

Uley