Someone Like You (Night Riders) (38 page)

“He could be anywhere in there,” Broc said.

“Or in another building.”

“Do you think he left the buggy here to throw us off?”

“He had time. He knows I’m not going to leave until I find him and Luis. I’m sure he’s trying to make certain he’s in the best possible position to get what he wants.” While they talked, they dismounted and made their way into the building through a door that had been left ajar. Two sets of footprints were clearly visible in the dust and dirt. It worried him that there weren’t three. He had detected the faint odor of chloroform in Maria’s room.

“How’s Laveau going to do that?” Broc asked.

“I don’t know, but I expect I’ll be very unhappy when I find out. Let’s split up. I don’t want Laveau to be able to keep his eye on both of us. Besides, I don’t know what Dolores’s
role in this might be.” Dolores had a selfish streak so deeply ingrained, she couldn’t be depended upon to go along with any plan if she decided another was more to her advantage.

Rafe followed the footprints in the dust. The bottom floor of the building was shallow and the prints soon led up a set of wooden steps to a second floor. Following the prints, Rafe was led to a third floor and then a fourth. Laveau was leading them to a part of the building where the flooring gave way to a narrow walkway over a grid of supports extending down to the first level. Many of the floorboards were half rotten.

Dolores stood about fifty feet ahead. Laveau had moved onto a narrow suspended walkway. He held an apparently unconscious Luis in his arms. There was nothing but air between him and the floor more than fifty feet below.

“Come closer,” Laveau said. “I don’t like to bargain with a man I can’t see clearly.”

Sunlight poured in where the tin roof had been blown away. Laveau and Dolores stood in the sunlight, Rafe in the shadows. He approached slowly, his brain working feverishly.

“Let me make some things clear so there won’t be any misunderstandings,” Laveau said. “The boy is unconscious. I used chloroform. I couldn’t take a chance on his waking up and upsetting my balance. You want to shoot me, but you won’t because I would carry the boy with me to his death. You want to wrestle him from my arms, but you won’t because that would cause us both to fall. Of course that wouldn’t happen because I’d throw the boy at you. Not something a loving brother would want to consider.”

“Cut the chatter and tell me what you want,” Rafe demanded.

“You always were a man of few words and even less patience. I want a great deal of money to restore your brother to you unharmed.”

“How can I be sure you’ll return Luis?”

Laveau shook his head slowly. “I have nothing against the boy, nor am I a child murderer. It’s you I dislike.”

“Get to the point.”

“I want fifty thousand dollars.”

“There isn’t that much money in Cíbola.”

“I’m prepared to be patient.”

“It would take days, possibly weeks, to raise that much money. I’d have to sell all my steers, possibly some land.”

Laveau’s expression hardened into one of dislike. “That’s your problem. Don’t bore me with the details.”

Rafe wasn’t going to leave Laveau alone with Luis for the time it would take him to raise the money. He’d been watching the boy for signs that he might be regaining consciousness. He needed to find some way to outmaneuver Laveau before Luis woke up. Dolores gave him an idea of how to do it.

“The money is for me,” Dolores said to Rafe. “I could barely survive on the miserable allowance Warren left me when I was living at the ranch. After you threw me out, I’d have been destitute if Laveau hadn’t come to my aid.”

“If you think Laveau is going to give you any money, you’re not as smart as I thought.”

“He’s going to marry me,” Dolores said with a mocking smile. “We’re going to take Luis with us.”

Rafe was relieved to see a look of disgust mingled with anger on Laveau’s face. “Why should I pay you any money if you’re going to take Luis with you?” Rafe asked.

“I’ll let you see him,” Dolores said, “more often than
you
let
me
see him.”

Apparently Dolores liked the image of herself as a devoted and loving mother. Rafe didn’t understand why this was important to her since she spent so little time with Luis, but he intended to exploit her fantasy.

“Laveau dislikes children,” Rafe told Dolores.

“He only said that to fool you.”

“The only person he’s fooled is you. Laveau doesn’t care about anything but money. He gets his share from the family ranch each year, yet he’s wanted in Texas for theft and cattle rustling. He’s in California only because he thinks there’s some way to get money from me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“Look, I’ll make a deal with you.”

“No deal. I was distraught when you made me leave the ranch. I wouldn’t have thought of asking for so much money by myself. You never should have thrown me out of the house.”

“I admit that was a mistake.”

“I’m a good mother. I love my son.”

“That’s why I’m going to give the money to you. You can move back to the ranch. I’m going back to Texas. Once I make arrangements to have the money transferred to you, you won’t have to see me again. Take Luis back to Cíbola with you until you have the money.”

“Don’t believe a word he says,” Laveau said to Dolores. “He’s a liar.”

“No, he’s not.”

Rafe had been concentrating so hard on finding a way to rescue Luis, he hadn’t realized Maria had found them. It took a conscious effort not to turn toward her.

“Rafe told us the first night he arrived that he intended to go back to Texas as soon as he could,” Maria said to Dolores.

“You’re lying,” Laveau said.

“Why should I lie? I don’t stand to gain anything.”

“You’re in love with Rafe. Any fool can see that.”

“If I were, it wouldn’t make any difference. My place is with my sister and Luis at the ranch. I’d be a fool to accept an offer of marriage that would require me to move to Texas as the wife of a common ranch hand.”

Dolores turned to Laveau. “Give me Luis. There’s no need to hide now that Rafe is going to give me the money.”

“You can’t be fool enough to believe them,” Laveau protested. “If you take Luis and go back to the hotel, what reason does he have to give you anything?”

“I heard you say Laveau wants to marry you,” Maria said to her sister. “Has he actually proposed?”

Rafe didn’t know how Maria had keyed into what he was trying to do so quickly, but his ploy was better coming from Maria. Dolores had little reason to trust him, but she’d been depending on Maria for ten years.

“Not yet, but he’s going to.”

“That’s a lot of money, much more than most men would ever see in a lifetime. He’d have a lot more for himself if he didn’t have to share it with a wife and stepson,” Maria said.

Rafe thought he saw Luis’s eyelids flutter. Just as he thought he might be mistaken, Luis moved in Laveau’s arms. He was waking up.

“It would be easier if Rafe gives the money to you,” Maria said to her sister. “Then you won’t have to wait for Laveau to transfer it to you. I don’t know about such things, but wouldn’t you have to pay some taxes on it? You could end up with a lot less than fifty thousand.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Laveau said to Dolores. “She’s trying to play on your fears.”

“My sister wouldn’t lie to me,” Dolores insisted.

“Anyone would lie for fifty thousand dollars.”

Laveau’s words fell like lead weights into the silence of the building. Rafe could practically see the thoughts forming in Dolores’s mind.

“Would you lie to me for that much money?” Dolores asked Laveau.

“Never. I’m the one who took you in after Rafe threw you out. You know I want to marry you.”

“I don’t know how I would have gotten through the last weeks without you.” Dolores favored Laveau with a brilliant smile. “But Maria is right. It would be easier if Rafe gave the money directly to me.”

Rafe wasn’t sure Dolores was strong enough to carry a sleeping Luis, but he was certain she couldn’t handle Luis if he was struggling to get away. Laveau backed away from Dolores.

“The only way either of us will get any money out of Rafe is to keep the boy until he hands over the cash.”

“What do you mean
either of us
?” Dolores’s suspicions were fully aroused. “You said I would get all the money, that you didn’t want any of it.”

“I just meant that the only way either of us can force the money out of Rafe is to keep the brat.”

“Is that any way for a stepfather to refer to a stepson?” Maria asked.

“Let me have Luis.” Dolores held out her arms.

Laveau showed signs of losing control of his temper as the situation escalated. “I’m not letting go of him until Rafe gives me the money.”

“He’s giving it to me, not you,” Dolores declared. “Now let me have Luis.”

“Get your hands off the boy.”

Rafe was surprised Laveau hadn’t gained a better understanding of Dolores during the weeks she’d lived with him. Once she got something in her mind, she was as tenacious as she was selfish. Her sudden attack shocked Laveau so much he lost his grip on Luis and the boy’s feet dropped to the planks. There wasn’t much space on the narrow walk. Fearful of what might happen, Rafe started forward at a run. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Broc start forward from where he’d been hiding in the shadows.

As Laveau and Dolores fought, Luis broke free. Unable to go toward Rafe because Laveau and Dolores blocked his path, he started in the opposite direction. In their struggle, Laveau pushed Dolores into one of the timbers that attached the walkway to rafters overhead. Using the timber as leverage, Dolores launched herself at Laveau. The rotting timber broke under the force and a section of the walkway
between them and Luis crashed to the floor more than fifty feet below.

A groggy and disoriented Luis was left suspended on a teetering section of walkway.

“You stupid bitch!” Laveau screamed. “You’ve ruined everything.” He pulled a knife from inside his coat and stabbed Dolores. Then running the short distance to the main floor, he knocked Maria down when she tried to stop him, and raced for the stairs. Rafe could have intercepted him, but he had to reach Luis before the creaking walkway collapsed.

The inside of the building reminded Rafe of the inside of a tobacco barn he’d seen in North Carolina on his way to Texas after the war. The farmer had created a crisscrossing network of beams and trusses to support the poles of curing tobacco leaves. By using the stabilizing trusses, the farmer could climb to any part of the barn. If the beams and trusses in this building were strong enough to support his weight, that was how he planned to reach Luis.

If they weren’t, he could fall to the floor below.

Rafe had helped Maria to her feet by the time Broc reached them.

“See if you can help Dolores,” he said to Broc. “I’m going after Luis.”

“What about Laveau?”

“We can worry about him later. Luis,” Rafe called to the boy, “don’t move. I’m coming after you.”

The boy was still groggy, but he was alert enough to know the portion of walkway that remained was sagging under his weight.

As a child, Rafe could remember frequently scampering across a log that spanned a creek near the house, but he’d never crossed rotting beams fifty feet above a building floor. A tumble into the creek didn’t compare to a fall here.

He tested the timber nearest the walkway but didn’t like
the way it felt under him. He tested the next one over with the same result. The first one that felt solid under his feet was thirty feet away from the walkway.

Keeping his footing on the twelve-inch beam wasn’t a problem. Looking down without getting dizzy was. He held his arms out like a tightrope walker and, focusing on the massive support beam about twenty feet away, walked with slow and deliberate steps. He wasn’t sure he breathed until he reached the beam. Wrapping his arms around the beam, he stepped from one timber to the next. He had to do this twice more before he could reach the portion of the walkway where Luis waited.

He’d never thought he suffered from vertigo, but every step of the way he had to fight dizziness and the feeling he was about to fall. At one point, he was afraid he would have to get down on his knees and crawl, but he couldn’t bring Luis back if he were on his hands and knees. He refused to look down, refused to let himself think of the fall, refused to give in to the fear that pounded on the outer limits of his mind. Luis depended on him. He couldn’t fail.

Once he reached the beam that supported the crumbling piece of walkway on which Luis was perched, he was faced with another problem. He couldn’t step onto the walkway to reach Luis. It wouldn’t support any additional weight. Luis would have to crawl over to him. He could see the fear in the boy’s eyes. He gripped the walkway so hard that his knuckles had turned white.

“It’s okay,” Rafe said, hoping to reassure Luis. “All you have to do is crawl over to me and take my hand.” He wrapped one arm around the beam, leaned over, and reached out for Luis.

The boy didn’t move.

“I know you’re scared,” Rafe said, “but all you have to do is take my hand.”

“I can’t let go.” The swaying of the walkway under him had terrified the child so badly, his body had frozen.

“I’m not going to leave until you’re standing on this beam with me. Now let go and start crawling very slowly toward me.”

Rafe could see Luis’s fingers gradually loosen their grip on the walkway. The shift in weight when the boy started to crawl toward him caused the walkway to sway still more. Luis froze.

“I know it’s frightening,” Rafe said, “but it’s just swaying back and forth because your weight shifts when you crawl. The sooner you reach me, the sooner I can take you back to Maria.”

“That man killed Mama.”

“He didn’t kill her.”

“I saw him stick a knife in her.”

“Maria and Broc are looking after your mother. As soon as you come to me, I’ll take you to her.”

“Mama didn’t want me. She just wanted the money.”

“Your mother does want you. Laveau is an evil man. He made her say things she didn’t mean. Now don’t think about that anymore. Just concentrate on coming to me. Maria and I love you as much as your mother does.”