Magnificent Guns of Seneca 6 (15 page)

Jem pushed her aside and started toward the wagon.
 
"Stay here, Anna," he said.

"Where you going?"

"Get inside!"

The bank's front door burst open and two men came running into the street.
 
The bigger one was waving a shotgun in the air, screaming, "Back up!
 
Get back or get shot!"
 
The second man ran up behind him carrying a sack full of money against his chest, giggling hysterically as he ran.
 

The men raced around the side of the wagon as Bill Doolin snapped the reins and said, "Get in!
 
Get in!"
 

Jem pulled out his Colt Defeaters and shouted, "Stop right there!"
 
He was too far away.
 
Doolin cracked the destriers across the back so loud it sounded like tree branches snapping in half and the animals took off.
 
Dust and dirt flung from the wagon's wheels as the destriers peeled down the street, charging as hard as they could to get away from the bite of Doolin's straps.
 
Doolin looked down in surprise at the man standing in the street, blocking his path.
 

Jem lifted his gun and aimed it at Doolin, but just as he did it, the man ducked low in the forward carry to use its front panel as a shield.
 
The destriers were closing fast on Jem and Anna screamed for him to get out of the way.
 
Jem lowered his pistols and fired, making the first destrier's head explode like a melon.
 
The wagon careened and pivoted as the animal fell and got tangled with its running partner, both of them crashing against the vehicle behind them.
 
Bill Doolin tumbled over the forward carry and spilled onto the ground, rolling in the dust.
 

Calvin Dunn kicked the wagon's side door open and came out with his shotgun hoisted square at the lawman's chest.
 
"You meddling son of a bitch."

Jem watched George Dunn come out behind his brother, still holding the sack of money.
 
The smaller man's eyes were wide and bulging, making him look like some kind of muscular insect.
 
He stayed close behind his brother as they walked toward Jem.
 
"Now, we're gonna walk right out this front gate and you ain't gonna do nothing stupid, gold star.
 
Don't make me shoot you, because I
will
shoot you.
 
You don't want no trouble.
 
There's two of us and one of you."

Jem shrugged and fired.
 
Loose coins spilled forth from the sack George Dunn was carrying like he was a slot machine that just came up three strawberries.
 
Calvin turned to look at the smoking hole in the money sack in disbelief and then up at his brother.
 
"Are you…oh my God…are you hit, George?"

George muttered something incomprehensible before he collapsed against his brother.
 
Calvin grabbed him by the arm, trying to keep him upright.
 
"George!" he shouted, shaking him roughly back and forth, shrieking his brother's name.
 
He looked back at Jem and snarled, "You son of a bitch!"
   

"Lay down your gun," Jem said.

Calvin Dunn roared and lifted his shotgun, just as Jem's gun barked.
 
A bullet cracked Dunn's forehead and he fell on top of his brother in a disjointed scatter of twitching limbs and loose coins.
 
 

Bill Doolin watched it all while he was still on the ground.
 
He cried out in horror as both Dunns fell and scrambled to his feet, charging headfirst into the nearest crowd.
 
His hands latched onto something small and squirming that screamed when he ripped it from its mother's hands.
 
Doolin pressed the baby against his chest as he ripped a knife from his pocket and shouted, "Get back or I'll cut this little throat!"

Doolin kept the knife at the ready as he backed into Lulu's Department store.
 
It took two strong men to keep the little girl's mother from going in after him.
 

Anna Willow raced into the street and bent over the Dunn's bodies.
 
"They're both dead," she gasped.
 

Jem stepped over George Dunn's arm and headed after Doolin.
 

"This one was unarmed, Jem!
 
What the hell did you do?"

The Lulu clerk burst through the front door and cried out, "He's gonna kill that baby if he don't get a ride out of here!"

"Why did you shoot him?" Anna shouted.
 

Jem shoved her aside, "Get the hell out of the way, Anna!"
 
He raised his gun at the department store's door and started up the stairs.
 

A terrified shriek of pain rang out from inside that stopped Jem cold.
 

Bill Doolin called out from inside, "That was just a
little
cut, Sheriff.
 
Move another inch closer and I'll start sawing parts of her off."

***

"Women, they're all screwy!"
 
Fred Walters cackled as he walked back to the gate and looked up at the wagon holding the preacher and Bob Ford.
 
"Welcome to Seneca 6," he said.
 
"State your business."

The preacher fingered his white collar and said, "I come on a mission from the Lord, gate keeper."

Fred Walters squinted at him, "We ain't got that kind of money in these parts, padre."

"I'm not looking for money," the preacher snapped.
 
"I'm here looking for information about missing girls."

Walters looked at Bob Ford and said, "What about you, baldie?"
  

Before Bob could speak, the preacher said, "He's my assistant.
 
We come under the banner of the church, sir.
 
Will you let us in or not?"

Fred Walters punched a few numbers into his clipboard and shrugged.
 
"I guess I should.
 
The last person I turned away was a dentist and the very next day I got an abscessed tooth.
 
My daughter said it served me right.
 
Reckon you could do worse."

The preacher squinted knowingly.
 
Fred Walters activated the security code on the gate and the electrical field in front of them dissolved.
 
The preacher snapped his reins and the carriage's wheels began to turn just as Bill Doolin backed up his wagon against the side of the bank.
 

"Nice little town, here," Bob Ford said.

"Bigger than most of the other settlements and twice as corrupt.
 
I heard all kinds of stories about the Sheriff and Mayor working in cahoots to bamboozle people outta their money.
 
It's a dangerous thing when power and greed come together, Mr. Ford.
 
A dangerous thing indeed."

"I can think of something worse, sir," Bob Ford said.
 
He pointed down the street as George and Calvin Dunn came around the side of the wagon with a scattergun big enough to take down a building.
 
"Daring and desperation."

"Hey!" the preacher shouted.
 
He spun in his seat to look for the gatekeeper, but the old man had already returned to his shack.
 
"Son of a bitch," he muttered.
 
"Here, you better take this."
 

Bob looked down at the Colt Devastator and said, "What do I need to take that for?"

"Because you're the goldurn gunslinger, ain't you?"

Bob pushed the gun away and said, "I never claimed that.
 
This ain't my fight."

The preacher's eyes narrowed, "There's women and children all over the place out here, boy.
 
What if something happens to them?"

"That's for the sheriff to deal with!"

"The sheriff in this town ain't worth a squirt of piss, you lily-livered coward, now take this goddamn smokewagon and go do some business with it before I beat you to death!"

Bob recoiled from the anger in the man's voice and the preacher gritted his teeth in frustration.
 
He took a quick breath and said, "I meant, please take this, Mr. Ford.
 
I'm of no use holding it, and we may need it."

There was a bang in front of them as a woman barged out of the doctor's office carrying a watering can.
 
The man following her had a gold star pinned to his left breast and the moment Bob Ford saw him he let out a little squeak like someone had grabbed him by the gooseberries.
 
"It can't be," he whispered.
 
Bob Ford whirled around and grabbed the gun out of the preacher's hand.
 

Ford leapt down from the passenger seat and scrambled in the dirt to run away.
 
The preacher turned to call out for him, but by then, the sheriff was already heading toward trouble.
 
He downed a charging destrier-drawn wagon as calmly as if he were shooting tin cans on a fence.
 
When the two bank robbers came at him, trying to stare him down, he didn't hesitate.
 
He dropped them and kept going.
 

That's him,
the preacher thought.
 
That's just the man I've been looking for all this time.

***

The sheriff was standing at the department store's door with his face pressed against it.
 
“The store's surrounded, so the only way out of this is to just give up.
 
As long as the baby's safe, you'll get a fair trial.
 
I promise.”

“Same way you gave George Dunn a fair trial, Sheriff?" Bill Doolin shouted through the door.
 
"He weren't even armed and you shot him down like a dog!"

Jem took off his hat and wiped his face.
 
He took a deep breath and said, “Listen, it's not like you have any other choice, here.”

“I got
this
,” Doolin said.
 
Suddenly, a high-pitched child’s scream rang out from inside the store.
 
“Now you listen to me, you son of a bitch!
 
That ain’t nothing compared to what I’ll do next if you don’t get me a destrier and give me clear passage!”

Jem pounded his fist against the door in outrage, "You hurt that baby and I'll feed you to wild hogs one piece at a time!"

The child screamed again, enough that the child's mother screamed out and collapsed to the street, her face swollen from crying.
 
The preacher shoved his way through the crowd of people gathered around the store and shouted, "Sheriff!
 
Sheriff!
 
Let me through.
 
I can help!
 
Sheriff, let me come up there."

Jem turned around and looked at the man as he forced his way to the bottom of the store's steps.
 
"What can you do?"