Deadly Is the Night (12 page)

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Authors: Dusty Richards

BOOK: Deadly Is the Night
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“Let's go see her,” Doc said.
He spoke to her and checked her heartbeat with his stethoscope. Unplugging his right ear he nodded. “What is her name?”
“Cary.”
“Cary, can you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Cary, you are safe. Hadley is on his way to jail.”
“How?”
“Cary, I am Marshal Chet Byrnes. You parents asked me to find you.”
“Oh, God bless them. I didn't know if anyone would worry about me. He had me so doped up I didn't know where or who I was.” She began to cry. “It has been the worst time of my life. Two other men raped me and then told him they wouldn't pay what he wanted, that it was too much.”
“You know their names?”
“Arnold is one. Lake is another.”
At the names, the doctor added, “I bet it is Aaron Arnold, he owns a cathouse. Tyron Lake is another shady character hangs around, he's a gambler, too.”
“Those men both raped me.”
“Cary, you'd have to testify in court that they did that?”
“I would do it.” She gritted her teeth and fists. “Where is Hadley?”
“On his way to jail up in Benson by now.”
“Good. I did not deserve any of this.” She began to weep.
Doc's wife came to sit on the bed and comfort her. “Darling, your worst fears are over. This man will have them punished.”
“But I have nothing. No clothes. Nothing.”
“Ma'am, when the stores open would you take her and get her some clothes so she can travel? A rickshaw would take you to a dress shop. She will need two dresses, shoes, the rest. I will pay for it.”
“That's very nice of you. I could do that.”
“Get a new dress for yourself.”
“I couldn't do that.”
“I insist.”
Before he left her, Chet went over his plans of how they'd take her home as soon as he had both men arrested for her rape. She solemnly nodded and he kissed her forehead. “Things will be all right.”
Cary smiled, her eyes shining in the light of the lamps.
Next he and Miguel went to sleep upstairs in some empty bedrooms. Chet woke in a few hours and found Miguel waiting downstairs.
“You get any sleep?”
“I am fine.”
Before they went for breakfast he learned she was sleeping, and Doc's wife said she was going to be all right when the final effect of the laudanum wore off.
At the meal in the one-counter café, the two had eggs, bacon, and soda biscuits with a bowl of flour gravy and good coffee. Chet was hungry and enjoying it all. Miguel even smiled.
“You ever have a case like this before?”
“Similar. But most women don't want to testify. It can be a brutal thing when the defense lawyer tries to make her out as little more than a
puta
in the courtroom.”
Miguel nodded that he understood.
“There may be a way to stop that. If Hadley would sign a confession that they did that to her, then the prosecutor would have something more than her testimony. If the men knew that, they might make a deal to plead guilty and save them some prison time. It might work.”
“Would Hadley sign it?”
“I think he can be convinced. All the crimes are on his head, and he can't afford a fancy lawyer.”
“Who are these other men?”
“I don't know them. But we will before dark. I need to find the town marshal, Virgil Earp. He will know them.”
They found Virgil in the Alhambra Saloon. He smiled and nodded when Chet spoke to him.
“Good to see you. What can I do for you, Marshal?”
“This is Miguel. He rides with me. Miguel, Virgil Earp.”
“Glad to meet you, sir.”
“My pleasure. I know you aren't here to drink.”
“No. I want to arrest Aaron Arnold and Tyron Lake.”
“What for?”
“The rape of a young woman being sold into the white slavery.”
“Wow. That is serious.”
“Where can I find them?”
“Heaven on Earth Whore House is two blocks over. Arnold keeps some thugs on his payroll. Be careful there. Lake is sleeping with a doxie in the Belle Hotel at this hour. I could take you over to the hotel so you can arrest him, and we can put him in a cell in the city judge's office until you get Arnold.”
“I would appreciate that.”
“I'll be back,” Virgil said over his shoulder to his brother and some others.
They walked the blocks to the hotel.
“Lake is in what room?”
“Two-oh-four.”
Virgil asked the desk clerk for a key to save kicking in a door, and the young man kindly obliged.
They marched upstairs. At the room, Virgil said quietly, “Draw your guns.”
He unlocked it and it swung open. Chet pointed his gun at the startled man who sat up in bed. The naked woman with him screamed.
“U.S. Marshal Byrnes. Tyron Lake, you are under arrest for rape of a minor and dealing in white slavery. Make one wrong move and I will shoot you. Get up and get dressed.”
“You can't—”
Miguel jerked him out of bed by the arm. “He said get dressed or go naked.”
Then Miguel picked up the short-barreled Colt on the nightstand and shoved it in his waistband, holding his own in Lake's belly.
“All right. All right.”
“What am I going to do?” the woman asked, shielding her body with a sheet.
“How the hell should I know? They can't prove a damn thing on me. My lawyer will get me out in a few hours.”
“You are going to jail in Tucson. Tell him to go there.”
“Huh?”
“You heard me. Get your shoes on.”
“Earp, he can't do this to me. You stop him right now.”
“I can't do a thing but cooperate with the federal law.”
“You're going to pay for this. All of you.”
“Handcuff him and check around for other weapons. We don't want her shooting at us on the way to that cell.”
“Get Leon Newburg over to the county jail, he'll get me out on bond,” Lake told her.
Chet didn't bother to tell them that he wasn't using county facilities to house Lake. They hustled him out and in fifteen minutes he was locked in the single cell at the city judge's office. Lake was screaming his head off.
Virgil, outside the cell, softly said, “If you are not quiet, I will chain you up and gag you.”
“You can't do that—” But Lake shut up.
“I'll be back for him after I arrest Arnold.”
Virgil nodded. “He will be here. I can come along if you want.”
“We can handle it. Thanks.”
Virgil nodded. “Good luck, then, is all I can say.”
Miguel went to check on Jesus's return and was to meet Chet on a corner a block from the house of ill repute. It was after twelve and the Tucson stage should be there if Jesus caught it.
Fifteen minutes later, Miguel met him there alone.
“The driver told me he couldn't catch the night stage. There were no seats. They had an armed guard riding shotgun.”
“Well, Arnold has bouncers working for him. They may try to block his arrest. Get ready to catch hell.”
His man nodded. “I'm backing you. I am sure we can do it.”
They walked up the wide stairs to the veranda of the house. Chet knocked on the door, and a black domestic teen maid invited them in.
“How may I's help you?”
“We need to speak to Aaron Arnold.”
“I am so sorry but he be asleep and does not want to be disturbed.”
“I am a U.S. marshal. Show me his room.”
“Oh, I can't do that, sir.”
“What room is his?”
Miguel had his gun out.
“Show us.” Chet shoved her toward the stairs.
She tried to retreat in wide-eyed fear.
“Show us the room he sleeps in.”
“Don't shoot me.”
“Keep going to his door.” He waved her on.
She was shaking and he feared she might faint, but instead the young maid led the way. The parlor was empty and she was taking fast steps until they reached the second floor.
“Now where?”
Trembling, the girl pointed at a door and fell to her knees weeping. Chet nodded at Miguel and told him to smash it open with his boot. It required a second try. As the door flew open, Chet fired a shot into the ceiling. “Hands high or die!”
In the boiling gun smoke, a man with a hairy chest sat up in bed with his hands high. The woman next to him was screaming into a pillow for him not to try anything.
“I am U.S. Marshal Chet Byrnes. You are under arrest for the rape of a minor and white slavery.”
“You must be crazy—”
“No. Get up and get dressed, or go to jail in your underwear. I don't care. Get him out of bed and be careful. He may have a gun handy.”
Someone was coming up the stairs. Chet could hear his approach. “Watch him.”
Chet came out the door and met the half-dressed man holding a pistol in his fist. “Drop the gun.”
The man didn't. Chet shot. The shock-faced man went rolling backward down the stairs in a cloud of black powder and sprawled out at the bottom. Two more men appeared.
In that cloud of gun smoke, gun cocked, he ordered them to raise their hands. Chet then asked Miguel, “Is he dressed?”
“We're coming.” Miguel brought Arnold out cuffed and carrying his shoes.
“Arnold, one trick and I'll shoot you.”
“Get my lawyer down to the courthouse,” Arnold shouted to the robed women onlookers. “Do it right now.”
They went past the wounded guard who had not moved since his fall.
“Don't do nothing,” he said to his henchmen. “This sumbitch will shoot me.”
“What should we do?”
“I told you. Get my lawyer to the county courthouse.”
Chet and Miguel swept him out onto the porch.
“Keep walking,” Chet told his prisoner.
Arnold walked barefooted ahead of them. Miguel was watching behind them.
“This is not the way to the courthouse,” Arnold complained.
“We aren't going there. We're going to Tucson where you can't buy your way out.”
“Who are you? You son of a bitch.”
“I am the man that's going to slam you into jail for rape and white slavery. Better see all of Tombstone you want right now. It will look different when you get out of prison in twenty years.”
As they walked toward the cell holding Lake, they saw Jesus coming toward them on a buckboard. Jesus made the driver stop and then got off.
“Well you found a ride but you still missed all the fun.” Chet laughed.
“Sorry there were no seats for me. I owe Frank Herman here a ten-dollar fare?”
“I can pay that.” He dug the money out.
“Who's he?” the rancher driver asked with a toss of his head.
“Aaron Arnold under arrest for raping a teen and white slavery.”
“Hmm. You think you can get him tried here?”
“No. But in Tucson I can. You have another buckboard to take them to Tucson?”
“I can get another to do it.”
“How much?”
“Twenty bucks apiece.”
“How long to get ready?”
“An hour. Where will I meet you?”
“City hall. We have another prisoner there, him, and a third one in the Benson jail. Plus our gear.”
“I've got a big rig and four horses for forty bucks.”
“Sounds better to me. Get them.”
“You expecting any gunplay?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“First people we shoot will be the prisoners.”
“Good idea. I need to go get that outfit. I'll be back.”
Chet paid him the ten-dollar fee for Jesus. “Thanks. See you at the city hall.”
Jesus explained about the stage. “They had a shotgun guard plus six passengers coming back from Benson last night. No room for me, so I hired Hank there to bring me back.”
“Good idea. We have Lake at the city judge's cell. Aaron here had an armed guard that I shot. But we want to move fast now. You two put him in the cell and I'll meet you there. I may buy Cary a stage ticket to Tucson and have her meet us there when she can travel. The doctor's wife took her to get some clothes and shoes. I better go fix on that.”
Jesus and Miguel took the prisoner to the cell while Chet cut back for the doctor's house.
Cary and Doc's wife were back and the doctor's wife was fixing her hair.
“Cary, we have Hadley, Lake, and Arnold in custody and must take them to Tucson. I hired a wagon to take them up there. I will get you a ticket on the stage to Tucson and either I or one of my men will meet you at the stage station there. Can you do that? Ride the stage by yourself to there?”
“I will ride with her,” Doc's wife said.
“Sorry I don't know your name, but if you'd do that, I'd gladly pay you and for your ticket.”
“My name is Della, and no, you have done enough. You are a brave man doing what you did for her.”
“Della, your ticket both going and back will be paid for.”
“I have read about things you've done for other people. If Arizona had more men like you we'd be a state already.”
“That's why I do them.”
“I understand that. We will be in Tucson in the morning. One more thing? I understand you have a wife?” Della asked. “Does she have an address where I can write her? I want to thank her, too, for letting you do these things.”

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