Peacemaker (The Flash Gold Chronicles, #3) (8 page)

“
Victims?”

“
There are female pirates.
Maybe one of them got a throat cut and the killer left that same
fake talisman.”

His eyebrows drew together, and Kali guessed
he had not considered that possibility. It did seem unlikely. Those
thieving bandits had tried to kidnap her, and they’d killed at
least one person and probably stolen gold from countless
others.

Kali shrugged. “Or maybe we’ll find they’re
keeping a bear on board for mauling people.”

“
If they are responsible
for the murders, that’ll make things simple.” Cedar jerked a thumb
over his shoulder, at the hilt of his sword.

“
You seem almost as
determined to find this murderer as you are to deal with Cudgel,”
Kali said.

Cedar said nothing.

“
Do the girls mean
something to you?” Kali asked. “There’s not even a bounty out for
the murderer yet.”

“
I don’t like seeing women
killed.”

“
Just in general—a notion
with which I agree, by the way—or because…? Is it
personal?”

Cedar gave her a sharp look. “What do you
mean?”

“
I thought maybe there was
something similar in these murders to that one in San Francisco.
Something that’s haunting you.”

His gaze shifted away, back toward the trail
and the top of the ridge. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Kali considered him for a
long moment. She
wanted
to pry, she admitted it, but it was for a good
reason. If she got the story out of him, she could fight for him,
tell this Pinkerton fellow what really happened the next time he
wandered into her shop.

“
There,” Cedar
whispered.

With all the trees blocking the view, it
took a moment for Kali to figure out what he was pointing at. Then
she spotted it, the wood of the airship hull among the greens and
browns of the forest. From her vantage point, she couldn’t tell if
they’d crashed or if they’d managed to land it somehow.

Clangs started up, someone hammering
metal.

“
Can they fix that fan out
here?” Cedar whispered.

“
Not unless they happen to
have a spare case and assembly. I guess that’s a possibility.
They’d know there aren’t any shops that supply airship parts up
here.”

“
Are there anywhere?
Airships aren’t that common, even down south.”

“
I’m ordering my parts
from a place in San Francisco, and I’ve heard New York has an
entire warehouse dedicated to aeronautic supplies.” Kali sighed
longingly, imagining what such a place might look like.

“
Is that where you want to
go for your honeymoon?” Cedar asked.

Kali twitched an eyebrow.
“I haven’t planned that trip yet. Lately, I haven’t even been able
to get a man to come back for a second date, despite what
I
thought was an
enjoyable evening at the dance hall, even if some stepping on toes
was involved.” She thought he’d enjoyed himself too. He’d laughed
and even tried to be witty, in his dry terse way. And she’d made it
clear she was available for additional evenings together when he
could break away from bounty hunting. The way he’d massaged her
shoulders earlier made her think he still had romantic inklings,
but why the scarcity if that was the case?

“
Sometimes men get busy,”
Cedar said.

“
I’ve noticed most people
are only busy for things they consider an onerous task.”

“
Kali, it’s not like that.
It’s…” He looked away, not toward the camp or anything dangerous in
the area that could have claimed his focus. Just away.

Kali swallowed. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter.
I’m not looking to get married any time soon. I want to see the
world and not be beholden to anyone or have a litter of hungry
young’uns dangling from my…uhm, self.” Even with the correction,
she blushed. She hadn’t known any proper ladies growing up, but she
had a feeling discussing teats with men was probably considered
uncouth in most circles.

A hint of a smirk touched Cedar’s lips, but
he didn’t say anything.

Kali cleared her throat and pointed to the
airship. “Should we get close or wait until dark to scout
about?”

Cedar lifted his eyes toward the sky.
“That’s hours from now. This is a pesky time of year for stealthily
sneaking about.”

“
Come in December. You can
sneak in the dark twenty-four hours a day then.”

“
Yes, I caught the tail
end of winter. It’s also hard to be stealthy when your teeth are
chattering and your bal—bear cubs are hiding in their
dens.”

“
I didn’t realize bear
cubs—” Kali snorted at his substitution; that was worse than her
fumble, “—played a role in one’s scouting abilities.

“
A robust man is a man
confident in his skills.”

Kali grinned. It was a silly conversation,
but it reminded her how much she appreciated having him around. A
lump formed in her throat, and she swallowed, trying to force it
down. They had more important things to focus on now.

Cedar pointed at a man walking into the
woods and unbuttoning his fly. “I’m going to grab that one for
questioning,” he whispered.

Kali barely managed a quick, “Be careful,”
before he slid out and took a circuitous route toward the
pirate.

On her knees, Kali braced her Winchester on
the log, found the pirate, and put him in her sights in case he
gave Cedar trouble. She tried to keep an eye on the ship and the
camp as well, counting people when they walked into view. The trees
made it hard to get an estimate, but she guessed there were at
least twenty crew members. It would be hard to acquire the ship for
herself with that many pirates loitering about.

Though Cedar might prefer night for skulking
about, he did fine sneaking up on the fellow—indeed, even knowing
roughly where he was, Kali had trouble keeping track of him. As
their target was buttoning his pants, Cedar stepped out from behind
a tree and placed a knife blade against the man’s throat. The
pirate’s hand darted for a holster on his belt only to find it
empty. Cedar had already removed the pistol. He showed it to the
pirate, then stuffed it into his own belt.

Cedar said something to his prisoner, and
they started walking, angling away from the ship and Kali as well.
She waited, expecting him to circle about and join her, but he
didn’t. She was about to stand up and find him when a second pirate
walked into the woods, a rifle propped against his shoulder. He
faced her, his gaze skimming the forest. Kali sank lower so only
her eyes poked above the log.

It was too soon for anyone to miss the man
who had gone to pee, so she guessed this was a guard the captain
had sent out. The pirates had to know that people would come after
them in droves if word got out that their ship had gone down. Kali
doubted that old man on the river was the first miner they had
robbed.

A falcon on the hunt screeched overhead. The
dampness of the moss beneath Kali’s knees was starting to seep
through her overalls. She wondered where Cedar had taken the other
fellow. And why hadn’t he come to get her, so she could listen in
and ask questions too?

The guard finally turned his gaze in another
direction, and Kali scooted backward, retracing their route to the
ridge.

A shadow stirred on the periphery of Kali’s
vision. She jerked the rifle in that direction, her finger ready on
the trigger.

Nobody was there.

A strip of moss dangling from a branch
stirred slightly. Her eyes narrowed. She licked her finger and
stuck it in the air. If there was a breeze, it was too faint to do
much. Maybe someone had bumped that moss. Cedar? No, he would have
had to cross through her field of vision to get to that side of
her.

Kali continued to back down the trail. She
watched that piece of the woods for several slow steps, but nothing
else moved. In a nearby tree, a pair of squirrels chattered as they
chased each other about. If there had been something dangerous,
they would have been hiding.

When Kali reached the ridge, the sound of
voices drifted to her ear. She picked her way through foliage and
around stumps to find Cedar standing over his captured pirate, the
pistol pointed at the man’s head. Cedar looked at her when she
approached, but his face was hard to read. Kali assumed a peeved
expression to let him know she expected to be involved with
important things. He gave her a quick nod, but quickly focused
again on his prisoner.

“
Why’d you have this in
your loot room?” Cedar asked, displaying one of the bead-and-hide
patches.

“
Never seen it before.”
The pirate spat on the ground. “Told you I don’t know
nothing.”

Cedar grabbed him by the front of the shirt
and jammed the pistol against the man’s throat. “If you don’t know
nothing, then there’s no point in me keeping you alive,” he
growled, voice savage, eyes like ice from the bluest depths of a
glacier. The prisoner’s surly demeanor vanished.

The fierce, cold mien chilled Kali, and she
wondered if Cedar had known he would have to get tough and that was
why he hadn’t invited her to the interrogation. Maybe he didn’t
want her to see him questioning someone. Too bad. This was a
pirate, someone who had tried to capture her and would have
received a share of the reward for turning her over to gangsters.
And, if the pirates had killed that old man’s partner, they were
murderers as well as kidnappers.

“
I don’t have anything to
do with it, I swear,” the man whispered, his eyes crossing to stare
at the pistol barrel.

Kali straightened, staring intently at the
man. This might be the lead they’d hoped for.

“
With what?” Cedar
demanded, prodding the pistol against the man’s Adam’s
apple.

The pirate gagged and sputtered. “The
girls,” he managed. “That was all Sparwood. Nobody here’s into
that. We don’t murder, least not if we can help it, and nobody’s
raping and torturing girls and then cutting them up. He was a sick
bastard. That’s why the captain sent him walking.”

The admission of rape and torture made Kali
grip the nearest tree for support. She focused on the harsh, thick
ridges of its bark beneath her palm and tried not to picture that
girl—Vixen—being tormented before finally being killed. And she
tried not to think about the fact that that grisly killing had
happened less than a mile from the cave where she was always out
working, all alone….

“
This Sparwood acts
alone?” Cedar was asking, and Kali realized she’d missed part of
the conversation.

“
No one would want to
spend time with that monster.” The pirate did an admirable job of
shuddering for someone with a pistol jammed into his throat. “He’s
mean as a rabid badger, but worse’n an animal. Takes real pleasure
in hurting folks, especially…” His eyeballs swiveled to lock onto
Kali.

Though his significant stare made her squirm
inside, Kali lifted her chin and crossed her arms over her chest.
She wasn’t about to let some scruffy pirate believe she was
worried.

“
Where is he now if he’s
not with your ship?” Cedar asked.

“
Captain put him off just
north of Dawson. Figure he’s in the city by now.”

“
What’s he look
like?”

The pirate licked his lips and eyed the
trees. Did he think this Sparwood might be about and come take
revenge if he was betrayed? The pirate lowered his voice. “Big man,
bigger’n you, with a chest like a whiskey barrel. Bushy black hair
and beard. Beady dark eyes. I seen him get shot once and not even
feel it.”

Cedar looked at Kali, his eyebrows lifted as
if to ask if she had any questions of her own.

“
Why does he leave the
beadwork?” Kali asked.

The pirate checked Cedar’s face, wondering
if he had to respond to some girl’s questions maybe. Cedar’s glower
deepened, and the pirate shrank into himself. While Kali found
Cedar handsome, she had to admit he could assume a fearsome mien
when he wanted to. The scar, in particular, gave him a grim, deadly
serious visage when he wasn’t smiling.

“
So the Injuns get
blamed,” the pirate whispered with another glance at
Kali.

“
I see,” Cedar said. He
hid his thoughts well, but Kali knew he was irked to have fallen
for the ruse.

“
Why does he cut them up?”
Kali asked, trying to imagine what manner of tool a man might use
to leave those parallel gashes in a person’s flesh.

“
So people will think
animals or angry spirits did it,” the pirate said. “And it’s
working for him, too, last I heard. Ain’t no lawmen pointing a
finger at him.”

“
Yet,” Kali said. “What’d
you say his full name is?”

“
I don’t know
it.”

Cedar leaned closer to the pirate, and his
words were so soft Kali almost missed them. “You sure that’s the
truth?”

The pirate nodded vigorously.

“
It doesn’t matter,” Kali
said. “There are plenty of wanted posters that don’t have full
names on them. The Mounties can just stick up another
one.”

“
No,” Cedar said. “We’ll
take care of this animal before they have time to print one up. And
before he has time to kill again.”

His grip had tightened on the pirate’s
shirt, and the man swatted at the hands cutting off his air supply.
Cedar didn’t even seem to see him. His eyes were hard but focused
inward, and he barely seemed to notice the pirate in his grip.
After what Kali had heard, she couldn’t blame him.