Outlaw's Reckoning (9 page)

Clint didn't particularly like to just wait and see, especially when dealing with someone who was such a wild card.

As Clint rode to the fork in the road that he and Matt had agreed upon as their meeting place, he was actually surprised to spot a man on horseback waiting just off to the side of the trail. Clint approached carefully and was ready to draw his Colt at a moment's notice.

Matt sat with his hands folded over the saddle horn. He had a rifle hanging from the side of his saddle, but didn't make a move for it. He didn't make a move whatsoever, even after Clint rode up to him and reined Eclipse to a stop.

“What's the matter, Adams?” Matt asked. “You look surprised to see me.”

“I am.”

“Why? Am I in the wrong spot?”

“You're in the right spot,” Clint replied. “That's what surprises me.”

Mat shifted in place and looked toward the town. “Did you bring the law with you?”

Clint waited before responding to that question. His pause was put to use in much the same way he might study someone sitting across from him at a poker game. Matt didn't seem overly anxious. He didn't squirm in his seat. He barely even made a move. He just sat by and waited to see what Clint was going to say next.

“The law's not with me,” Clint said. After a moment, he added, “Now you look surprised.”

“Actually, I am. I figured you for the sort who would hand me over to the law once that widow got her money back.”

“If you were expecting that from me, why would you be waiting here?”

Matt shrugged and took a slow look around. “Because I ain't about to duck what's headed my way no more. If the law's gonna get me, then they're gonna get me. Fighting only prolongs the running in between.”

“That's very enlightened.”

“I don't know what that means, as such, but I'll take it as a compliment.”

Clint couldn't help but chuckle under his breath. Out of all the things he'd been expecting, sharing a few easy jokes with the admitted outlaw wasn't one of them.

“That widow did get her money, right?” Matt asked.

“She sure did.”

“And you think she'll do the right thing with it this time?”

Clint nodded. “She didn't do anything wrong the first time. Her only mistake was letting Henry know where she kept it.”

Shaking his head, Matt grumbled, “Maybe it wasn't a good idea to let her keep it. All it takes is one slip and she's in for a world of trouble.”

“There's more good to be done with her keeping the money than in her being without it. Besides, she seems like a smart woman. She'll do just fine.”

Matt was still shaking his head as he nervously put the town behind him.

“You did a good thing back there,” Clint said.

“Yeah, well I tried. I got a long ways to go before I'm done.”

“In that case, do you think you could use a partner?”

Matt looked over at Clint and waited as if he expected Clint to laugh or take back his offer. When neither of those things happened, Matt shifted so he was facing forward in his saddle and flicked the reins. He didn't say a word either way when Eclipse fell into step beside him.

Clint's first reason for wanting to go along with Matt was to make certain he didn't double back and make a try for the money he'd left behind. Then, as he settled into the easy rhythm of Eclipse's steps and the cool night air washed over his face, Clint realized the error in that assumption.

If Matt had wanted the money so badly, he wouldn't have handed it over to Kay Hasselman. The look on Kay's face, along with the question she'd started to ask back at her house, told Clint that she'd recognized something about Matt's face despite the bandanna he'd been wearing. That chipped away at what little doubt there was in Clint's mind that Matt had been the one to give her the money.

Once that fact had settled inside him, Clint was left with plenty more to think about. Fortunately, it seemed the ride in the night air had had its soothing effect on Matt as well.

“Where'd all that money come from, Matt?” Clint asked.

Matt nodded to himself and replied, “I was wondering when you'd get back around to that.”

Clint kept his eyes right where they'd been when he'd asked the question and didn't bother repeating it.

After a few more seconds, Matt said, “I've collected plenty of money over the years. Damn near all of it's got blood on it.”

“And you decided to give some of it back?”

“No. I decided to give all of it back.”

At first, Clint thought he'd misunderstood. Then, he looked for any sign that Matt might be lying. Even though there wasn't much light, Clint could see enough of Matt's face to spot the casual expression and the calm way he held himself under scrutiny. Most guilty men couldn't pull that off so well.

“Why would you give it back?” Clint asked.

“I'd think you'd know the answer to that.”

“I know how I'd answer it, but I'm not the sort who'd collect a fortune in blood money, either.”

“Fair enough,” Matt said with a shrug. “I been breakin' the law since before I ever knew what a law was. It came easy to me. Plenty of things came easy to me. Things like stealing, lying, cheating . . . even killing. All of it became easier the more I did it.

“My uncle was a farmer and he always taught us kids to work hard and reap the rewards. I thought work was for assholes and that I could take what I wanted. Sometimes when I look back on it, I wish someone would have been able to stop me back in those days.”

Matt shifted in his saddle as sounds of shouting and thundering hooves echoed in the distance. Clint took a look back there, but didn't see anything. By this time, Matt had already lost interest.

“They're headed away from us,” Matt said. “They won't even get close.”

“So you rode on the wrong side of the law,” Clint said. “How long did that last?”

Laughing to himself, Matt replied, “Long enough for me to pull together more money than my uncle or anyone else in my family would ever see.”

“When did you decide to change your ways?”

“About a year ago, when I nearly swung from the wrong end of a noose.”

“I bet that's a hell of a story,” Clint said.

“Not really. I was caught dead to rights by a posse who got the drop on me and strung me up from a tall tree. They was reading me the list of my crimes and then addressed me by name to see if I had any last words to say. The only thing was, the name they used wasn't mine.”

Seeing the puzzled look on Clint's face, Matt nodded and said, “I know just how you feel. I didn't know what to make of it, either. The man leading the posse took a reward notice from his pocket, held it up to my face and nearly spit his teeth out when he saw the man in the picture wasn't me.”

“Who was it?”

“The hell if I know. He looked damn close, but there was a scar or two that didn't match up. The color of the eyes was different, too. I got some whores to thank for that one, since they told whoever writes up them notices the color of this other fella's eyes.”

“Women do have a long memory for that sort of thing,” Clint mused.

“They sure as hell do, God bless 'em.”

There were some more shouts from the direction of Birdie's Pass, which caught Clint's ear. Matt heard them as well and gave his reins a snap to speed his horse up a bit. Clint tagged along, genuinely impressed by the other man's perfectly calm demeanor.

“So the posse just let you go?” Clint asked. “I've never heard of such a thing.”

“Neither have I. But they let me go, gave me an apology and even offered to buy me my fill of whiskey when I got back in town to make up for all the running they made me do. They must've been too damned embarrassed to think about why I ran from 'em or didn't try to beg my way out of it when I was caught. Whoever that other fella is, I hope he can run faster than me.”

Matt grinned and looked up at the stars. “Anyway, they put me in jail for a bit on account of the chase I gave 'em and so they wouldn't look like a bunch of fools to the folks paying their salaries and then they let me go. I had a change of heart after serving that time. I had a second chance, almost like them preachers talk about. I don't know whether it was God or just some awfully good luck, but I decided not to spit in the face of it. The more I thought it over, the worse I felt about all the things I done in my life.”

“So you decided to make it up?”

“I can't ever make it up, but I can try to settle a few scores here and there.”

“I'd say Kay Hasselman and her son are settled for a while,” Clint said.

But Matt slowly shook his head. “They got money, sure, but that boy don't have a father. That lady don't have a husband. I got that man killed and there ain't nothing I can do about it.”

There really wasn't much Clint could say to that. It seemed that Matt already had a good enough handle on the situation and had followed through on trying to make up for it.

“What do you mean you got that man killed?” Clint asked.

“Jed rode with me plenty of times and I coaxed him to come along again. When we got chased off of that job, Jed fell behind and I left him there to save my own skin. That money I gave to his widow was every bit of what we stole on that job. Every last cent.”

“So what's your plan?” Clint asked. “Are you going to ride around handing out money?”

“I only got so much money, but that's not what all folks need.”

“Sounds like you've got an awful lot of people you need to visit. Do you even know where to find them all?”

Matt thought that over and shook his head. “Nope.”

“Then who gets help and who doesn't?”

“You seem to help a lot of folks, Adams. How do you decide who the lucky ones are?”

This time, Clint took a moment to think. “You know something? I don't know. I just lend a hand wherever I can.”

“I got a little more direction than that, but we seem to be on the same page.”

“How much longer do you have to go before this job of yours is done?”

“It may never get done, but I'll do my best. That's all I got left to do.”

Matt seemed to know where the posse was going before they did. While riding alongside the other man, Clint watched behind him to see if he could spot the lawmen riding in the dark. They were easy enough to pick out simply because a few of them were carrying torches to light their way through some of the trees that Clint had sent them into with his directions to the sheriff. Even without those torches, however, any man with a set of ears could have heard the commotion coming from the posse.

By midnight, Matt had steered around to the west and eventually to the southwest. When Clint spotted the flickering lights of a few windows in the distance, he raced in front of Matt and signaled for him to stop.

“What's wrong?” Matt asked.

Clint had a tired edge in his voice as he said, “We're going in circles. Do you even have a notion of where you're headed?”

“Hey, you're the one who wanted to draw all the attention. I wanted to go in and do the fake robbery quick enough to be done before the law showed their faces.”

“And you didn't think the law would be after you?” Clint asked.

“They'd be after us sooner or later after a few shots were fired.”

It was hard for Clint to argue with that one, so he just waved the argument off. “Do you have any idea where you're going?”

“Of course. The town's name is Lohrens.”

Clint squinted as that name rang a few bells in his head. Finally, he looked down at a sign that Eclipse was standing near and read the letters painted on it. There were only seven letters on that sign and they spelled Lohrens.

“I suppose you had this planned?” Clint asked sarcastically.

Matt nodded. “Every outlaw worth his name has a plan.”

“Most known outlaws get hung.”

“Only if the posse can find them,” Matt replied while pointing a finger at Clint for emphasis. “Ain't it great how things work out?”

It was obvious that Matt was waking up more and more as the night dragged on. Clint, on the other hand, was about to slump in his saddle from being so tired. Since all he wanted at that moment was a bed under him, Clint snapped Eclipse's reins and rode into town.

Matt came along with him, grinning smugly the entire way.

They stopped at the first hotel they could find, rented two rooms and put the horses up in a stable across the street. Once Clint saw his bed, he didn't much care if he ever saw Matt Fraley again.

A woman knocked on Clint's door to bring up a few extra blankets. She explained something about the windows being broken or cracked and that the room would get colder as the night dragged on. Clint wasn't able to pay too much attention to her, simply because he was so damn tired. The moment she left the room, he dropped onto the bed and fell asleep.

Those extra blankets remained in a folded pile at the foot of the bed.

The next morning, Clint awoke at roughly the same time as the sun crested the horizon. He pulled on his boots and a clean shirt before heading outside and taking a closer look at the town. The previous night, Lohrens was just a few rows of dark buildings arranged along a couple of streets. Now that the fog had cleared from his eyes, Clint could make out more than a few other details.

The first detail he was after was where he could find a lawman. A few quick questions pointed him toward a narrow old storefront one street away that had a gold star painted on its front window. A shingle hanging next to the door read: MARSHAL LIND.