Cassandra Austin (15 page)

“What the hell are you doing in here?” Terris grumbled as he joined him. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than we got to.”

Stedwell grinned, unperturbed by his partner’s tone. “Look at all these pictures. There must be fifty of them, and they’re all the same girl.” He lifted one and handed it to Terris. “Cally, this one says. The sheriff’s got it bad.”

“So what?”

“So let’s use it. Fancy can’t keep his attention. Let’s use the girl to lure him out of town. Help me find a love letter.”

Terris looked disgusted.

“Come on,” Stedwell urged, “I need a sample of her writing.”

But twenty minutes later, when they had failed to turn up anything, Terris declared his intention to leave. Stedwell reluctantly agreed. Surely if the girl had ever written to her lover, the note would have been here someplace. He would have to be creative, and hope the sheriff hadn’t seen enough of her writing to know the difference.

Andrew thanked the telegraph operator. He walked back toward his office trying not to feel discouraged. It was early yet to expect an answer from anyone to whom he had sent Francine’s picture. He just couldn’t shake the feeling that she and Milton were tied to the escapees. He had nothing he could call proof.

At the office, another applicant for deputy would be waiting. He fervently hoped this one would be qualified. He and Bill were spread too thin.

*   *   *

“Let me go over this one more time,” Val said.

Terris groaned but Stedwell only looked up from his work at the table and grinned. “Where did you get this paper, anyway?”

“Fancy,” Val answered absently.

Stedwell raised it to his nose and sniffed. “Hmmm.”

Val cleared his throat. “Just after dark, we’ll find a boy to deliver that note to Haywood. When Haywood heads out to the farm to help his lover, Stedwell will be waiting for him. Disarm him, knock him out, wing him, whatever, just get him back to his house.”

“Gotcha,” Stedwell said, ending the note with a flourish.

“Fancy will have distracted the deputy—”

“Scared to have her around Haywood, ain’t ya, Milton?” Terris interrupted.

“Her job,” Val went on, ignoring the safecracker, “will be to keep the deputy busy until it’s time to get him to the sheriff’s backyard to catch Haywood.

“Meanwhile, I’ll stand guard while you, Terris, break into the bank’s safe and lift the money. I’ll cover your back until you can stash the money at Haywood’s and hightail it. Understood?”

“I never liked this plan, Milton. Haywood lives, and we leave broke.”

“That twenty-five dollars from Haywood will get you away from here, and you’ll leave free,” Milton argued.

“Small change, and I should get a
third
of what you got for that place.”

“Terris.” Milton used his most threatening tone.
“You can’t stay here or at the hotel for free. I told you that. And need I remind you there are
four
of us working together here? If you want to forget Stedwell’s sister, remember how you got out of jail!”

Milton continued to glare at Terris, hoping his last words would put Stedwell on his side. He regretted ever getting mixed up with this one. He didn’t trust him.

When he thought the man was close to backing down, he added, “And don’t try taking any of the money out of the bag. If it isn’t all accounted for, they’ll start looking for accomplices. If their questions lead to any of us, we’ll bring you down as well, Terris.”

“It looks like I’m taking the biggest risk.”

Stedwell spoke up, “You wanted revenge for the years we spent in prison as much as I did.”

Milton cleared his throat. “As I was saying. As soon as both of you are away, I’ll shout for help and claim to have stopped the thief.” He glared at Terris. “You’ll be gone. I’ll be here. That sounds pretty damned risky to me.”

“You know, Parker,” Terris said to his former cell mate, never taking his eyes off Val Milton. “I just figured out what this gambler expects to get out of this. He’s hoping for a reward from the bank. One he won’t have to share.”

The air almost crackled with tension. Val had no idea how to defuse it. He had risked so much to come this far, and all his plans depended on the safecracker’s cooperation.

It was Stedwell who broke the silence. “You’ll still get your revenge, Wade,” he said quietly. “Val’s
helped us, and he hasn’t needed to. If all he wanted was a reward, he could have turned us in long ago.”

Terris grumbled but seemed to relax. Val tried not to show his relief. “This is the last time we’ll get to talk,” he said after a moment. “I’ll meet Terris at the bank. Are there any questions?”

“Well, I have one last comment.”

Val and Stedwell eyed Terris warily.

“If anything goes wrong, I mean anything, I’ll kill Haywood.”

“Nothing will go wrong,” Val assured him hastily. “Let’s see that note.”

Ten minutes later, with the note tucked carefully into his coat pocket, Val left the Antlers. He was glad to get away from his co-conspirators. He would be more than glad when this was over and those two bastards were back behind bars.

Last night he had hidden a carpetbag full of newspaper in the alley behind the bank. He wanted to make certain it was still there, but it was too dangerous. He couldn’t be seen nosing around the bank’s back door mere hours before it was robbed. That kind of thing was too easy for witnesses to remember.

The matching carpetbag was still in his room, which reminded him of his need to pack. He was leaving tonight, alone perhaps, because he was still uncertain about Fancy. Her loyalty to her brother made him afraid to mention his double cross. When he called for the deputy to stop the thief, he planned to have the carpetbag full of the bank’s money in his hand and both Stedwell and Terris still on the scene. That just might not sit well with the forger’s sister.

He would miss her, he was certain of that. He wondered
if she was in her room this time of day. He wondered if they could have one last tumble without his giving himself away. Fancy was very perceptive. He found himself walking a little faster. She was also very lusty. For a moment he even wondered if she might be worth more than the money. But only for a moment.

The sun had set but Andrew was still in his office. He knew he should go home. He turned over another Wanted poster and tried another series of sketches. He felt certain that Stedwell, and probably Terris as well, were nearby. He had been drawing their faces from his old Wanted posters, adding several different styles of hair and beards. None of his drawings looked like anyone he had seen in town.

Andrew finally set the sketches aside. It was a big town with plenty of places for a person to hide. And as yet he had no proof. All he had was a young woman who might have been Stedwell’s last visitor asking questions about the bank, and a gambler who might have given him a forged IOU. Pretty thin. Way too thin to make any guesses as to their next move.

He stood up and was about to extinguish the lamp when the door opened. He greeted the young boy who entered. “Hi, Taylor. What are you doing out this late in the day?”

Taylor shuffled his feet as if he had been caught in mischief. “I weren’t doin’ nothin’ bad, just runnin’ around. Anyhow, I’m supposed to give you this note.” He handed a piece of expensive writing paper to Andrew.

“Where did you get this?”

“I’m supposed to tell you a girl gave it to me.”

Andrew raised his eyebrows at the boy. “And who did give it to you?”

“A lady.”

Andrew held back a laugh. He tossed the boy a coin and unfolded the paper as the boy turned to leave. A glance at the bottom stopped him cold. “Taylor, wait!”

As the boy turned around, Andrew tried to think fast. Someone was trying to lure him out of town using Cally as bait. She might already be in danger. But perhaps they planned to ambush him on the way to her rescue or merely get him away from town. “Taylor, do you know where the DuBois farm is?”

“Yes sir.” The boy nodded enthusiastically. “Mikey’s pa sent me and Mikey out there once to buy a pie since Mikey ain’t got no ma to make ‘um.”

“Could you go out there now?”

“It’s almost dark.”

“Damn. Of course, you’re right. I’ll get Bill. You go on home.”

“Is someone gonna hurt Miss DuBois?”

“I don’t think so, Taylor. Just go on home now, all right?”

Taylor was obviously hurt that he wasn’t included in some adventure. Andrew regretted even suggesting it. Of course he couldn’t send a child into possible danger, even if it hadn’t been getting dark. It had been a momentary lapse, and it bothered him. He thanked the boy again and escorted him out the door.

Andrew extinguished the light and grabbed his coat. Was the note designed to lure him into a trap or simply away from town? The bank seemed the most logical possibility. He would send Bill out to check on Cally, and he would keep a close eye on the bank.

At Bill’s door he waited impatiently for his deputy to answer his knock. Finally his wife came to the door. “Mrs. Edmonds, I need to see Bill.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, stepping out on the porch. “He’s not here.”

“Where can I find him?”

“I’m not sure. A woman came and got him just a few minutes ago. She seemed very concerned about something and said she couldn’t find you.”

Andrew ignored the hint of accusation in her voice. “Did you know this woman? Can you describe her?”

“Well, she was blond, very well dressed. Say, you don’t think Bill and she are…” She nearly glared at Andrew.

“I doubt it, Mrs. Edmonds. If he comes home, would you tell him I’m looking for him?” Andrew turned to go.

“What do you mean,
if
he comes home?”

“When,” Andrew said, backing down the walk. “When he comes home.” Andrew turned and made a hasty retreat. “Women,” he muttered under his breath. He would try the hotel to see if Francine was there. She was almost certainly the one who had come for Bill.

Mr. Ossman sent the tall, thin boy up to check Francine’s room and watched Andrew curiously.
“Trouble, Sheriff?” he asked after a few minutes.

“Nothing of concern,” Andrew said, hoping to stop any gossip before it started. He knew his own agitation was becoming more and more difficult to hide the longer he waited for the boy. He had to fight the urge to head straight out to Cally. What if he was wrong about the bank and stayed in town to guard it while someone hurt Cally?

Finally the boy appeared at the top of the stairs. “She ain’t there, Sheriff,” he said. “I knocked and knocked. You want I should get a key?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. Thank you for your trouble.”

Andrew took a quick look in the dining room before he left the hotel, even though that had been the first place he had looked when he came in. Where would Francine take Bill to keep him out of the way? Where would Bill allow himself to be led? Concern for his deputy’s welfare was added to his worry about Cally.

On the boardwalk, he took a deep breath of the cool evening air. He had to think calmly. His hunch was still that they planned to hit the bank. His hunches were usually good. With that in mind, he slipped into the shadows of an alley. He needed to catch the thieves in the act, not scare them away.

Taylor didn’t go straight home. He went straight to Mikey’s house. A pebble tossed against a certain windowpane brought his friend out as always.

“What’s up?” whispered Mikey as he sat down
beside Taylor in the shadow of the outhouse and pulled on his shoes.

“You ‘member that Miss DuBois what baked the pies?” At his friend’s nod he continued, “She’s in trouble, and we can save her.”

M
ikey stared at Taylor for a long moment. Finally he whispered, “How?”

“Come on. I’ll tell you as we go. We gotta stay away from the road.” They started through town, disregarding property lines, and Taylor told his friend his story. “I was coming to see if you wanted to help me catch a bat to put in my sister’s room when this real pretty lady stopped me on the street. She gave me a nickel to take a note to Sheriff Haywood. I figured this was great ‘cause the sheriff would be good for at least a penny, too.

“Anyhow, I give him the note like she says, but when he sees it, he calls me back. For a minute there, I thought he was gonna send me out to Miss DuBois’ farm, but I slipped up and mentioned it was getting dark.” Taylor shook his head, still unable to believe he had made such a mistake. How much would the sheriff have given him to run an errand like that? Besides, it would have been real deputy work!

“What did the note say?” Mikey asked.

Taylor giggled, and Mikey had to nudge him twice
before he would tell him. Finally Taylor cleared his throat and recited it in his best high-pitched girl’s voice. “My dearest Andrew, come to the farm as soon as possible. I need your help. Please hurry, my darling.”

Both boys were almost immobilized by fits of laughter. “Please hurry, my darling,” they each repeated.

Taylor finished, “It was signed, Cally.”

Mikey quit laughing. “Miss DuBois didn’t write that.”

“How do you know?”

“‘Cause of what Pa told me. He said she oughta been in school even ahead of your sister, but her old man never let her go. I don’t reckon she knows anythin’, specially not readin’ an writin’.”

The boys trudged on in silence. It was dark enough now to make walking difficult, but when they stepped into the shade of the trees that lined the little creek, it was darker still.

“Shouldn’t we follow the creek to the road?” Mikey whispered. “That’d be the easiest place to cross.”

“We have to stay away from the road,” Taylor reminded him.

“Why?”

“Shhh. Just ‘cause. Besides, I know a way.” They made slow progress along the eroded bank until Taylor stopped. “See those three rocks? We can use them to cross the creek.”

Mikey squinted. “I can’t hardly see ‘em. I’ll fall in.”

“It ain’t deep enough to drown in anyhow,” said Taylor, starting across.

“How’ll I explain my wet clothes?” Taylor didn’t respond, and with a shrug Mikey started reluctantly after his friend. Taylor waited at the largest rock in the middle to give Mikey a hand. Once across, the boys scrambled up the bank.

At the edge of the trees they paused again. Taylor pointed. “See that tree there against the sky? That’s on a hill by her house. There’s a grave out there so we can’t go near it bein’ it’s dark, but it means we’re close to her place.”

Mikey nodded and followed his friend. “What are we gonna tell her?” he asked.

Taylor paused for a moment. He looked at his friend’s face, white in the pale moonlight. “We’ll tell her the sheriff sent us out here after he got the note she didn’t write.”

Royal heard the little boys’ chatter from some distance away and alerted Cally. By the time they knocked on her door, Cally was up and dressed in her Pa’s pants and shirt and had a lamp lit on her little table. A dog standing on either side of her, she yanked the door open and demanded, “What are you doing here?”

She had clearly startled them, but she had meant to. Not all little boys were nice, and if these two were here to bother her, she would make sure they thought twice before doing it again.

They stood, openmouthed, looking at each other for a moment. Finally the taller of the two spoke. “Sheriff Haywood sent us.”

Cally grabbed both boys by their collars and dragged them into the house, closing the door behind them. “Tell me exactly what he said.”

The one that had spoken before stuttered a moment. “He…he got this note, see.”

“Only it wasn’t from you,” piped up the other.

“He sent me, I mean us, to check on you,” finished the first. They looked at each other and nodded.

“He sent two little boys out here to check on me?” Cally had been deeply insulted. How helpless did Andrew think she was?

“Well, not exactly,” the shorter one confessed slowly.

“But he would have,” the other broke in, nudging his companion in the ribs, “only it was dark.”

“But we didn’t care.”

Cally looked at the boys. They were watching her expectantly, not at all like bullies who had come to torment her. “Do I know you?” she asked finally.

“I’m Taylor,” came a quick reply. “This here’s Mikey. His pa sent us out for a pie once.”

“It was awful good. You got any now?” This question earned Mikey another sharp nudge in the ribs.

“There’s something funny going on here,” Cally said, opening her door. “You can tell me every detail while we go into town.” They looked slightly dismayed by this pronouncement, but they followed obediently.

Cally put the boys up on Jewel, and, with Royal at her side, led the mule toward town. The boys talked as they rode. It became apparent rather quickly that they hadn’t been sent by Andrew by any stretch of
the imagination but weren’t going to admit it. Cally let it pass.

They had gotten no farther than the creek when Royal alerted them of someone’s presence. Cally motioned the boys to get down while Royal stood in front of her bristling and growling.

“Call off the dog,” a man shouted. A stranger stepped out from behind a tree, gun in hand. “Call him off, or I’ll shoot him.”

“Hush, Royal,” Cally said. With her hand behind her back, she tried to motion the boys away, hoping they would run for cover.

“Now, I’ve seen that dog before,” the man said. He sounded threatening but maybe a little scared too. Cally didn’t take her eyes off him, wishing he would step into the moonlight so she could see his face. She couldn’t hear the boys and hoped that meant they were gone.

“Don’t you dare hurt my dog,” she said, trying to keep his attention on her.

The man shook his head. “I won’t unless I have to. See, I was waiting for a friend of yours, but it seems he didn’t care for my note. Still, I can’t have you blundering into him in town, so you can just come with me.” He used the gun to motion her forward.

Cally took one step in the direction he indicated then dived out of the way, yelling, “Get him, Royal!”

The dog leaped forward, sinking his teeth into the man’s arm. The man’s yell mingled with the sound of a gunshot. Cally screamed, afraid for her dog, but Royal was still holding on, growling.

Suddenly both boys ran from the trees, kicking at
the man’s legs, yelling like savages. Cally jumped to her feet and, reaching around the dog and boys, grabbed the man’s gun.

“Run now, run!” she yelled at the boys. “I’ve got his gun.” The boys scrambled away from the man but didn’t go far.

The man yelled, “Call off the damn dog!”

“Royal!” she snapped. The dog reluctantly let go.

“Damn dog! I’m going to bleed to death.” He took a handkerchief from his pocket and tried to tie it around his arm. “Come help me with this.”

“You got another gun?” Cally asked, glad now for the darkness that kept her from seeing his blood. She had to get away quickly before just the knowledge that he
was
bleeding made her faint.

“Now, little girl, if I had another gun, do you think that dog would still be alive?”

Royal growled deep in his throat.

“We gonna tie him up?” asked Taylor.

Cally stumbled toward Jewel, who had stood placidly during all the excitement. She held her face in her hands a second, fighting off dizziness. “I don’t have any rope,” she murmured.

“These’ll work,” the boy said.

Cally turned to see him holding something toward her, but it was too dark to see what it was.

“You got yours too, don’t ya, Mikey?”

“We always carry ‘em,” the smaller boy said, “on account ‘a us being deputies in training.”

Cally took the object from the boy. A slingshot. Mikey had produced one from his pocket as well, and Taylor helped him take the leather strap off the wooden handle.

Royal growled and brought Cally’s attention back to the man in time to see him edging away. “Hold it!” She pointed his pistol at him again, and he stopped. “You’re right,” she said, trading the whole slingshot for the strap the boys offered.

“Don’t try nothin’,” she warned, setting the pistol on the ground next to Royal so the man wouldn’t be tempted to try to get it. She tied his hands behind his back, and with the second strap, tied his legs together just above his boots.

“That’ll hold him,” said Mikey. “You want us should stay here and point that gun at him?”

“You can’t let them do that, lady,” the man said, clearly dismayed at the turn of events.

Cally retrieved the gun. “You boys better go straight home. Can you walk? I’ll need Jewel to get to town fast so I can warn the sheriff. I think this man was waiting for him.”

“You could ride his horse.” Taylor pointed at a horse nearly hidden in the trees.

Cally considered only a moment. The horse would be faster, but she wasn’t used to horses. “You boys can ride it if you want.” She couldn’t wait around to see what they did. “Royal, stay!” she commanded and swung onto Jewel’s back. She could hear the man yelling at her and her dog’s menacing growl as she splashed across the creek and rode for town.

Haywood saw the flicker of a match through the bank window and left the shadows of the doorway across the street. He made his way quickly to the alley that ran behind the bank. As he flattened himself against the back of the saloon and listened for footsteps
behind him, he tried to gauge what his best position would be. He wished, not for the first time, that he had been able to find Bill. He wished even more that he knew for sure that Cally was all right.

He tried to brush any thoughts of her from his mind. He had to be alert. Gun in hand he crept closer to the back door of the bank and blended into the shadows across the way.

He didn’t have to wait long. Two men stepped cautiously from the bank, and he made his move. “Stop right where you are,” he demanded.

The man in front turned and fired. Andrew felt a sting high in his chest then an alarming weakness spread through his body. He fired a shot toward the retreating figure, but his arm wouldn’t respond to his attempt to aim. Terris. He was sure of it. And the other? He was just as sure he had seen him slip back into the bank. He thought it was Milton, though he would have expected Stedwell.

Andrew took a cautious step toward the bank, and the alley came up hard to meet him. He tried to rise and succeeded only in turning himself onto his back. He groaned more in frustration than pain.

And quite inexplicably Cally was there. “What are you doing here?” he found himself asking, though surely there was something much more urgent he should say.

“I saw you go down the alley as I came into town,” Cally choked out. “Then I heard the shot. Oh, Andrew, you’re hurt so bad.”

Cally had to stop the flow of blood. She knew Andrew was trying to say something, but that awful buzzing had started in her ears. She was terribly afraid
she would faint. She had all the familiar symptoms— the buzzing, the cold sweat, the darkness at the edge of her vision.

No! She just couldn’t faint, she told herself. She had to save Andrew. She groaned aloud as she pressed a handkerchief against the wound. At least against his shoulder where she thought the wound was. She didn’t dare take a closer look.

When Milton saw Haywood go down, he stepped through the bank’s back door into the alley. The girl was preoccupied with the sheriff. Val had seconds to escape. He took one step, and his chance was gone. He could hear voices, lots of them, approaching the alley. He was about to be caught standing over the wounded sheriff holding a carpetbag full of the bank’s money! He saw one chance to save himself. He drew his gun and rushed forward, dropping the bag beside the sheriff just as the first of the townspeople rounded the corner.

“I got him!” he yelled. “I saw him coming out of the bank, right there!” It wasn’t hard to sound panicky. “I tried, I really tried to get him to stop, but he wouldn’t. I had to shoot him.”

The deputy and the banker were both making their way to the front of the crowd, followed closely by the doctor. The banker virtually stepped over the sheriff in an effort to get to the carpetbag. He yanked it open and staggered at the sight of the money.

Andrew heard Milton’s accusation but it was so incredible it took him a second to make sense of it.
Suddenly Cally moved away from him. Did she believe he had robbed the bank?

Bill’s face appeared instead of hers, only to be replaced just as quickly by that of Dr. Briggs. He had to tell them. Terris and Milton had come out of the bank. Terris had shot him and escaped. Milton was lying. He tried to tell them but his mouth was too dry when he opened it to speak. He tried again but a whispered, “Terris,” was all that made it past his lips before he passed out.

When Cally saw the doctor coming, she ran to grab him, to bring him to help Andrew. As soon as she was positive that he would help her man, she stumbled to the ground and tucked her head between her knees. Almost immediately, she felt the black haze receding to be replaced by a sick feeling in her stomach.

She didn’t want to faint in the middle of this crowd. She wouldn’t know what happened to Andrew. She lifted her head to try to see what went on and the buzzing started again. She was ready to tuck her head down again when the doctor directed two men to lift Andrew. They were taking him away! Her vision cleared quickly, and she scrambled to her feet to follow, feeling only slightly light-headed.

Fancy found herself pushed some distance away from the center of the action. The deputy had abandoned her at the sound of the shot, and she had not been able to keep up. From what she could pick out of the confused conversation, it was Sheriff Haywood who had been shot. Evidently Parker had been unable
to detain him. Well, it wouldn’t be the first time her brother had screwed up. Had the sheriff shot him? Was he lying dead somewhere? And Val? Where was he?