Death in the Desert (6 page)

“Change of plans,” Clint said as he entered the house.

“Jesus, Clint!” Kathy said. “I almost shot you. What's going on?”

“The dead man's friends are looking for him,” Clint said, “and they're going to kill anyone they find alive in town.”

“So what are we gonna do?”

“We have to move.”

“Leave my house?” she said. “If I'd wanted to do that, I would've left already.”

“It's temporary,” he said, “just until I can take care of these men.”

“How many are there?” she asked.

“Four, so far,” he said. “Look, where's Emily?”

“Upstairs.”

“Get her down here, and pack some food. You two have to go into hiding.”

“For how long?”

“As long as it takes me to handle the looters.”

“But where can we go?” she asked. “Those men are searching the whole town, right?”

“Right,” Clint said, “but since the man I killed found you, I have to assume they will, too. They'll be coming to this area. We just have to get away from here—now!”

“Okay!” Kathy said. “I'll get Emily.”

While Kathy went upstairs, Clint walked over and looked out the front windows, then moved to the back of the house and looked out the windows there.

Kathy came down with Emily, who was asking questions.

“Where are we goin', Clint?” Emily called out.

“Not sure, little girl,” he said as he returned to the living room, “but we have to leave here, just for a little while.”

“I'll get some food,” Kathy said, and went to the kitchen.

Clint looked out the front windows again, decided that they better go out the back.

“Okay,” he said to Emily, “come on.” He took her hand and led her to the kitchen. Kathy was finishing up, sliding some cold chicken into a burlap bag.

“We're going out the back,” Clint said, grabbing the sack from her. “Hold on to Emily and stay close.”

“Right.” Kathy had Emily in one hand and her rifle in the other.

He went out the back door, holding his hand out to stop them. When he saw that the coast was clear, he waved them out.

“We're going to move fast.”

“But . . . to where?”

“Just away from here,” Clint said. “Then we'll figure out where to go.”

They ran to the house next door, where Clint had hidden the body, then to the house after that. Then Clint saw two of the men from the stockyard stable.

“Down!” he said.

They all ducked as the two men walked by.

“Can't you take care of them?” Kathy whispered.

“Not while you and Emily are here,” Clint said. “I don't want to take the chance of a stray bullet.”

“But I can shoot—” Kathy said.

“You have to protect Emily.”

“Right. So where are we going?”

“Someplace they've already been,” he said.

“And where's that?”

Clint looked at Emily.

“Emily, where did you see the men before?”

“A few places,” she said.

“Just tell me one.”

“They were in the Magnolia,” the child said. “I hid from them.”

Clint looked at Kathy.

“The Magnolia Hotel,” she said. “Just off of Main Street.”

“Okay, then,” Clint said. “Lead us to the Magnolia Hotel.”

“This way,” Kathy said.

They had to duck out of sight one more time, this time from a single man. After he went past, they continued on to the Magnolia Hotel. They went in the front door without being seen.

“Shouldn't we close the doors?” Kathy asked.

“No,” Clint said, “they may have noticed that the doors were open. If we close them, they'll know somebody's inside.”

“So we're going to leave the hotel unlocked while we're in here?”

“We'll put you in a room and you can lock that door.”

“All right.”

Clint went to the front desk, got behind, inspected the keys, and then chose one. He held it up to Kathy and said, “The honeymoon suite okay? It's probably the biggest room in the hotel.”

“Sounds good to me.”

The Magnolia was a large hotel, fashioned after a Southern mansion, three stories high. The honeymoon suite was on the third floor. They walked up.

“Wow!” Emily said. “What a pretty room.”

Although it was a “honeymoon suite,” and both a man and a woman would be using it, the room was decorated all in pink and was wall-to-wall frills.

Clint walked to one of two windows and looked out. The suite looked out over the main street.

“This is a fine view of this part of town,” Clint said, “both ways, and the rooftops across the street.”

“You want me to keep watch?” Kathy asked.

“I want you to stay away from the window,” Clint said. “Every so often, though, have a peek outside and see what's going on. If you hear any noise, take a look. And keep Emily away from the window.”

“I can keep watch, too,” Emily said.

“I know you can, sweetie,” Clint said, “but I really need you to stay away from the windows.”

She folded her arms indignantly and said, “Hmph.”

Clint looked at Kathy.

“I'll keep her away from the windows,” Kathy assured him.

“Okay,” Clint said. “I'm going to go out the back and see if I can locate those men again.”

“Are you gonna go against them?”

“I'm going to see if I can determine without a doubt how many of them there are,” Clint said. “Maybe we can stay hidden long enough for them to pack up and move out.”

“You're not going to try to stop them?”

“That's not my job, Kathy,” Clint said.

“But . . . you can't just let them take everything,” she argued. “What if they decide to go through my house? Take my valuables?”

“What valuables do you have?” Clint asked. “I can go get them for you.”

“Well . . . just everything,” she said. “everything in the house. That house is all I have, Clint.”

“They're not going to take your house,” Clint said.

“B-But you can't just stand by while they loot the town,” she said.

“Look,” Clint said, “first let me scout around and find out how many men we're actually dealing with. Then we can talk about what to do.”

“Yes,” she said, “well, all right. Okay.”

“Emily,” Clint said, “I'll be back soon. You do what Kathy tells you to do.”

“All right.”

“And stay away from the windows, you hear?”

“I hear.”

Clint went to the door, looked back at the two of them one more time, then left the suite.

Clint slipped out the back door of the hotel, made his way to Kathy's part of town, keeping to the shadows as it got dark. As he got there, he saw two men outside the house he'd put the body in. They were talking to each other, very animated. Then the door opened and a third man came out—the supervisor. Clint moved closer so he could hear what they were saying . . .

“Somebody plugged him once,” the supervisor said.

“We didn't hear no shot,” one of the others said.

“Too far away,” the boss said. Clint was still waiting to hear his name. He didn't have to wait much longer.

“Steve, what's goin' on?” the second man said. “Who killed Kenny?”

“I don't know,” Steve said.

“Well,” the first man said, “somebody's in town with us—somebody we ain't seen yet. I don't like it.”

“Neither do I,” Steve said. “We've gotta find him, though.”

“We need more men to search the whole town,” one of them said.

“Find Chris, Billy,” Steve said. “Me and Ned are gonna keep searching around here. You two start in another part of town.”

“We need more men,” Billy said again.

“I'll send for 'em,” Steve said. “But let's get started first.”

“Okay,” Billy said. “What about the little girl?”

“What about her?” Steve asked.

“Well, we know she's in town,” Billy said. “We seen her. Maybe she's seen whoever killed Kenny.”

“Yeah, well, if you find 'er, you can ask 'er,” Steve said. “Now get goin'.”

“Yeah, okay,” Billy said. He left, walking away from where Clint was hiding so he didn't have to move.

“Okay,” Steve said, “you start on that side of the street, I'll take this side. Check all the houses. Start with that big one. I think it used to be a boardinghouse.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“If you find anybody, don't kill 'im. We'll have to find out who he is or what he wants. Or them.”

“You think there's another gang in town?” Ned asked.

“I don't know. But we're gonna find out.”

The two men split up. Clint left his hiding place and ran back to the boardinghouse. He wanted to get inside before Ned got there. Ned was going to give him some answers.

Clint heard the front door open and close, heard the man's footsteps. He wanted to get the drop on him so he wouldn't have to kill him before questioning him.

Clint waited in the kitchen while the man went through the rest of the house. He was starting to think he'd picked the wrong room to hide in. What if Ned decided not to look in the kitchen?

However, several minutes later he heard Ned's footsteps as he approached the kitchen. Clint flattened himself against the wall and took out his gun.

The swinging kitchen door opened and Ned entered. Clint immediately stuck his gun barrel into the small of the man's back.

“Just take it easy,” he said. “Don't do anything stupid.”

“You killed Kenny,” Ned said.

“I did,” Clint said. “Right here, in fact. He didn't give me much choice.”

“Y-You gonna kill me?”

“I don't plan to,” Clint said, taking Ned's gun from his holster. “Not unless you make me.”

“Whataya want?”

“Just to talk,” Clint said. “Have a seat.”

The man walked to the kitchen table and sat down tentatively, as if he didn't believe Clint and was expecting to be shot.

“Who are you fellas?” Clint asked.

“Whataya wanna know for?”

“Your name's Ned. Ned what?”

“Potter.”

“And who's Steve, your boss?”

“Steve Harwick.”

“I never heard of him. Where's he from?”

“From here. We're all from here.”

“Who else?”

“Billy, Kenny—but you killed Kenny.”

“Who else?”

“Chris.”

“Who else?”

“That's it,” Ned said, “Five of us.”

“I heard Steve say he could get more men,” Clint said. “From where?”

Ned eyed Clint's gun before answering.

“The telegraph office,” he said. “Steve knows how to operate the key. He can send for more men.”

So the key was still operational. That might have been good news, but for now it was bad.

“So all of you lived here,” Clint said. “When the disease drove everyone out, you came back to loot the town. Is that right?”

“Yeah,” Ned said. “It was Steve's idea. He said it wasn't illegal because the town was abandoned. You know, like a ghost town.”

“Well, I don't know about that exactly,” Clint said. “I don't know if ghost towns have to be . . . declared somehow. But I don't know that Steve is right about this being legal. Somehow, though, I don't think he'd care—or that you'd care.”

“Hey,” Ned said, “who are you anyway? And why ain't you sick?”

“My name is Clint Adams,” he said, “and I suspect I'm not sick for the same reason you're not. Somehow I'm immune. Or I just haven't gotten sick yet. I've only been here for a couple of days.”

“Clint Adams?” Ned said. “The—Gunsmith?”

“That's right.”

“Jesus,” Ned said, scooting his chair back a bit, as if he was thinking about running. “W-Who sent you here?”

“Nobody,” Clint said. “I just happened to ride in.”

“A coincidence?”

Clint made a face. He hated that word, but said, “Yes.”

“And now you plan to stop us?” Ned asked.

“Actually,” Clint said, “I don't care if you loot the town. I just don't want you to—”

“You've seen the girl,” Ned said.

“Yes. I don't want you to hurt her.”

“We don't intend to hurt her,” Ned said. “We knew she was here, and we left her alone.”

“Rather than help her?”

“Steve said we were better off leaving her be,” Ned said. “Let her fend for herself. He said that would be helpin' her.”

“Where do you and your friends spend the night?”

“We operate out of the stockyards,” Ned said. “We just sleep in the stables.”

“Are there parts of town you still haven't yet looted?” Clint asked.

“Plenty,” Ned said, “but Steve said we'd work about week, and then leave with what we have.”

“How will you transport the loot?”

“Steve will send for more men with wagons.”

“How many more men does he have?”

“Maybe half a dozen,” Ned said. “He hasn't really told us everything.”

With half a dozen more, that would make ten altogether. Clint had to try to disable that key before Steve could send a telegraph message.

“Okay,” Clint said.

“Okay . . . what? Are you gonna kill me now? Like you did Kenny?”

“I told you, your friend Kenny didn't give me any choice,” Clint said. “What about you? You going to give me a choice, Ned?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sure,” Ned said. “I don't wanna get killed.”

“Then you'll do what I say?”

“Sure, sure. Um, whataya want me to do?”