Heart of a Texan (20 page)

He didn’t like going behind his men’s backs, but if they were guilty, he wasn’t going to get any straight answers. He needed evidence before he could make an accusation or ask the sheriff to make an arrest. If his own men were involved, it was because he’d paid so little attention to his ranch and depended so heavily on Russ that he didn’t know what was going on.

The bunkhouse had been built to accommodate a dozen men to a degree of comfort unique in the county. Ten bunks were lined up against the wall with each man having his own space. Trunks, bedrolls, and saddlebags containing personal property were stowed under beds or on racks built into the wall. Boots were placed alongside bunks while chaps and coats were hung on pegs. Other items could be stored in the small chests of drawers that Nate had supplied for each man. Russ had used the space for the last two bunks to set up a table so the men could eat their meals in the bunkhouse. That should have been a sign to Nate that something wasn’t right. Cowhands never wanted to eat in the bunkhouse, and cooks didn’t want to go to the trouble of carrying food and dishes to a second location.

Not knowing who occupied which bunk, Nate started with the first one on his right. He found the hood in saddlebags under the bed. He found the second hood inside a bedroll. By the time he finished, he had found seven hoods. Every member of his crew, except the three boys he’d hired, was involved in the attack on Roberta’s farm. Cold fury consumed him. What kind of men were they to have been involved in killing two innocent men and the attempt to kill Roberta? And how could he have let himself become so consumed by his search for Laveau that he hadn’t known something was wrong?

He guessed that he, too, was supposed to die, which would free Russ to claim the freshly branded calves. Nate’s will left everything to be divided among the surviving members of the Night Riders. By the time one of them could have arrived to take over the ranch, Russ would have had plenty of time to leave with the calves.

Webb had left, but Grady was waiting for him outside the bunkhouse. “I found the masks,” Nate told him. “From now on be very careful what you do or say. Tell Webb to do the same. I’m not sure these men would stop at killing. Don’t say anything to Benny. The less he knows, the better. I’m going to take Roberta into town. I’ll be back with the sheriff as soon as I can.”

“I can’t believe it,” Blossom said, when Nate explained why he’d brought Roberta to stay with her. “Russ has busted his butt to take care of that ranch. He didn’t think anybody around here was good enough to work for you, so he hired men from outside the county. Everybody knows he was beside himself with worry when you were shot.”

Nate didn’t tell her about the masks. Roberta had been so angry when he told her that she was ready to go after Russ herself. It had taken all of his persuasive abilities to convince her to stay with Blossom while he and the sheriff went after Russ and the other men.

“It appears he’s a better actor than anyone would have suspected,” Nate told Blossom, “but there’s no doubt about the branded calves.”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“First, make sure Roberta is safe. There’s more to this than stealing a few calves, even a few hundred. I can replace calves, but no one can replace Roberta.”

Blossom put her arm over Roberta’s shoulder. “I’ll make sure she’s safe. I’m just surprised you didn’t take her to Prudence.”

“He was afraid she wouldn’t let me out again.” Roberta didn’t look at Nate. “She’s sure our relationship is improper.”

“So get married, and she’ll have nothing to complain about,” Blossom advised.

“All in good time,” Nate told her.

“Do you know where to find this man you say Russ is working for?” Blossom asked.

“No. Once we get an official arrest warrant, I’ll offer a reward big enough to have every man in Texas on his trail.”

It was less trouble enlisting the sheriff’s help than it had been to convince Roberta to stay safely tucked away in Blossom’s room.

“Are you telling me your own men have been doing this, and you knew nothing about it?” the sheriff asked, stunned and angry.

“I’m not proud of that, but I’m not about to deny it.”

“You say you just found out today?”

“This morning.”

“And you’ve got proof?”

“I’ve found seven masks in the bunkhouse. I also found several just weaned calves bearing a fresh brand that doesn’t belong to anyone in the county.”

“I’m glad you’ve got something more than
intuition
to go on this time,” the sheriff said once Nate explained the situation. “Give me half an hour to round up some deputies, and I’ll be ready to go.”

The half hour went slowly for Nate. He had little to do besides think of how decisions he’d made led up to this moment. It wasn’t merely because Laveau was responsible for Caleb’s death. It wasn’t just because his parents had favored Caleb over him. It was
really
because he’d let other people’s actions devalue himself in his own eyes. As a consequence, he’d let his life turn into a pursuit that had little to do with him. He had to stop letting the past control his life. He didn’t have to forgive or forget, but had to break its hold. He had thought it didn’t really matter whether he lived or died as long as Laveau paid for what he’d done.

But Laveau’s death wouldn’t bring Caleb back, and he now had the best reason in the world to want to live: Roberta. He could hardly wait until she became his wife. Laveau could cheat half of the country if he wanted, but as long as he stayed out of Texas, Nate planned to stay home. He had a ranch to run and an inheritance to build for the children he hoped to have. But most of all, he wanted to spend every moment possible with Roberta. He wanted to wake up with her in the morning, sit across the table from her at meals, share the events of the day, plan the rest of their lives together. He’d wasted too much time struggling against what he couldn’t change, trying to justify what didn’t need justification. He wouldn’t do that anymore.

The ride to the ranch was uncomfortable. The sheriff didn’t stop needling Nate about the culprits being his own men. Nor did he think much of Nate’s plan to confront Russ with the evidence of his crime in hopes he would implicate Laveau in the murders.

“Russ is not fool enough to stick his head in a noose just because you want it there.”

“He won’t hang for branding calves he hasn’t stolen, but he will hang for killing two men and attempting to kill a woman.”

“Hell, we could hang him just for trying to kill Roberta.”

“Be sure you tell him that.”

Grady was waiting when they returned. “They’re not back yet.”

“This is a waste of time,” the sheriff complained. “They’ll see us and make a run for it.”

“Not if you hide in the barn.”

“I’ll let you know when the crew gets here.”

The deputies weren’t happy about having to hide, but Nate told them Russ would probably come straight to the house. “The only time I’ve had this many men here was a meeting of the ranchers. If he sees all of you, he’ll know something is wrong.”

The men grumbled, but the sheriff told them to stop acting like children and do what they were told. Much to Nate’s surprise, they did.

The sheriff spent the next twenty minutes taking a tour of the house, complimenting Nate on leaving the place as he’d found it, and telling him the previous owner was a much better rancher than Nate would ever be. He topped it off by telling Nate he’d done his best to help someone else buy the ranch. Nate was almost relieved when Russ entered the house. His foreman pulled up short when he saw the sheriff.

“Is something wrong?” Russ asked.

“Are all the men back?” Nate responded.

“Yeah. They just finished putting their horses in the corral, so I came to tell Benny to take their supper out to them.” When Nate was home, Russ ate in the house so they could talk about the ranch.

“The sheriff wants to talk with the men, to ask them if they’ve seen anything unusual recently.”

“Like what?”

“I’ll let the sheriff explain what he’s looking for.”

“I can save you the trouble,” he told the sheriff. “We haven’t seen anybody or anything we haven’t seen just about every day for the last year.”

“I’d rather talk to the men myself,” the sheriff said. “You never know when something I say might trigger a memory of some detail that hadn’t seemed important at the time.”

Russ tried to convince the sheriff that talking to the men was useless, but he didn’t appear to suspect anything was wrong.

The crew looked surprised when Nate entered the bunkhouse. The flare-up of tension was tangible when the sheriff followed. It didn’t ease when Russ entered last. Nate had never been one to make snap judgments about people before he knew anything about them, but he knew right away that these weren’t the kind of men he wanted working for him. He could see it in the way their bodies stiffened, in the way their eyes cut to where they’d left their guns, but there was also a look about them that said they were rough men, old enough to have charted their own courses in life. He was astounded by the number of weapons. Each man appeared to have one or two guns in addition to that many rifles. Why would a law-abiding cowhand need so many weapons?

He wouldn’t.

“The sheriff is trying to find out who’s responsible for the attacks on Roberta Tryon’s farm,” Nate told the men. “He wants to ask some questions about what you may have seen or heard in the past weeks. Give him any help you can.”

Nate left to bring the deputies to the bunkhouse, but Webb rode up just then. From the boy’s grim expression, Nate knew he’d found something incriminating.

As soon as Webb could dismount where he wasn’t visible from the bunkhouse windows, he told Nate, “I found where they’ve been doing the branding.” He reached for his bedroll, which looked uncharacteristically rigid, and pulled out a branding iron. “I found this lying behind a rock. They didn’t even bother to hide it well.”

Having gotten a look at the men in Russ’s crew, Nate knew he couldn’t expect them to sit still while the deputies filed in one at a time. The chances were good that he wouldn’t get more than two deputies inside before one of the men went for his gun. In such a confined space, someone was bound to be killed. He made a quick change of plans. The sheriff had brought six men. Nate figured he and two men could get inside before any shooting started. Counting the sheriff, that would be four inside the bunkhouse. He would place the other men, plus Webb and Grady, at six windows. At a signal from Nate, they would knock out a pane and take aim at one specific cowhand with orders to shoot if the man went for a gun. With four men inside the bunkhouse and six outside, Nate hoped to avoid a shoot-out.

It took longer than he wanted to explain his plan and position the deputies. He hoped the sheriff had been able to allay any suspicion that something was about to happen.

With one last look to make sure everyone was in place, Nate opened the bunkhouse door. Two deputies followed so quickly one stumbled over Nate’s heel. They were only just in time. “Now!” Nate shouted as one of the cowhands went for a rifle leaning against the wall.

To the accompaniment of glass from six broken windows crashing to the bunkhouse floor, Nate put a bullet in the wall next to the rifle. The concussion in the confines of the bunkhouse was deafening.

“We’re being attacked!” Russ shouted. “Go for your guns!”

A bullet into the floor at Russ’s feet stopped him in his tracks. He looked at Nate in shocked amazement. “What the hell is going on?”

“The sheriff is here to arrest you and these men,” Nate stated. “All of you move to the center of the room.” Despite the rifles at the windows, Nate wanted the men away from their weapons. They were slow to move from their bunks, but when the sheriff grabbed one by the collar and threw him into the middle of the bunkhouse, the others followed reluctantly. Keeping the men tightly bunched, Nate called the deputies inside. Moments later they had a rifle trained on each cowhand.

“Arrest us for what?” Russ asked. “We haven’t done anything.”

Nate had hung the branding iron from his belt in the back. He reached around and brought it forward. “I’ve seen the cows you’ve been branding with this iron. I can take the sheriff to the location of your fire.”

“I’ve never seen that branding iron,” Russ said, “and neither have my men.”

Nate wondered if Russ realized he’d said
my
men rather than
your
men. “The fire is on my land, the iron was found on my land, and the cows are on my land. I’m certain when I write the cattlemen’s association I’ll find this brand isn’t registered in my name.”

“You can’t arrest us for rustling,” one of the men said. “We ain’t taken any cows. If you make a count, you’ll find they’re all here.”

“You can’t prove we branded those calves,” Russ objected.

Nate waited until Russ realized what he’d said. “How did you know it was calves that were branded? I purposely said cows.”

Russ scrambled to cover his mistake. “Cows are already branded. Covering an old brand or working it into a new one is nearly impossible. It would be much easier to brand calves.”

“But nearly impossible to brand them as soon as they were weaned unless you were around them every day.”

Several men glanced toward Russ, but he wasn’t giving anything away.

“I was angry about the branding,” Nate continued, “but it’s being responsible for the deaths of Robert Tryon and Carlin that will hang all of you.”

For a moment, Nate wasn’t sure that having all the weapons on his side was going to keep the men under control. They shouted denials as well as threats, but in the end, it was staring down the barrels of ten rifles that brought them under control.

“We didn’t have nothing to do with that,” one of the men stated. “You can’t prove nothing.”

Nate directed two of the deputies to put down their weapons and begin a systematic search of the room. It was clear, even before the deputies found the first mask, that the crew knew what they were looking for. When the fifth masked turned up, one of the cowhands turned to Russ. “He hired us to trample crops and set the barn on fire, and that’s all we did. We didn’t have nothing to do with shooting that old man and that kid.”

The others were eager to agree, but Nate didn’t speak until the seventh mask was found—Russ’s mask. He turned to the sheriff. “Do you think we have enough evidence to hang them?”

“Rustling, destroying crops, burning a barn and a house, two murders and one attempted murder. Hell, I don’t need no judge. That’s enough to hang them right here, and nobody will say nothing except good riddance.”

Russ spoke up. “We did everything except the murders.”

“Who did?” the sheriff asked. “What’s his name? What does he look like?”

“I never got a good look at him. He only came here at night. He gave me a name, but I’m sure it’s made up.”

“What was it?” Nate asked.

“Gilbert Travis. He didn’t sound like nobody named Gilbert. He sounded foreign.”

“Laveau diViere had a Spanish mother and a French father,” Nate told the sheriff. “Gilbert Travis is the name he gave Roberta when she found him outside her house.”

“Where can I find this diViere?” the sheriff asked Russ.

“I don’t know. Whenever he was here, he’d tell me when we were to meet the next time. If he came some other time, I’d find a note inside the barn door.”

“How did he pay you?”

When Russ was slow to answer, Nate had a sudden inspiration. “He didn’t pay you at all, did he? The lure he held out was having free access to my cattle once I was dead.”

Russ’s silence was an admission that Nate had guessed correctly. “He gave me the branding iron and registered it in my name.”

Poor fool, Nate thought to himself. He was certain Laveau had registered the brand in his own name. After Nate’s death, Laveau would have had Russ arrested for rustling and ended up with the calves himself.

“I’m arresting all of you,” the sheriff said. “A judge will decide your punishment. Don’t do nothing stupid like trying to get away. I’m ordering the deputies to shoot first and worry about whether you’re guilty later.”

It took some time to get all the men on their horses with their hands tied to their saddle horns. Russ was the last to mount up.

“Why did you do it?” Nate asked. “I paid you more than any foreman in the county. I let you run this place like it was yours.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Nate knew he had the answer.