Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) (12 page)

W
hen Locke got to the lobby, Maddox was waiting with the clerk, leaning on the desk.

“Well?” Maddox asked. “Did you wake the old boy up?”

“The old boy’s not in the room,” Locke said.

“Maybe he went back to the whorehouse,” the lawman said. “I better get over there and see if he’s causing any more trouble.”

“He didn’t cause trouble the first time,” Locke said, “but go ahead, suit yourself.”

“What are you gonna do?”

“I’ll check the other saloons in town.”

“There’s three more,” Maddox said, “but none as big as Lucky Lil’s.”

“I just hope he stayed away from there,” Locke said. “That fella he cold-cocked is there with his friends.”

“I’ll check there, too,” Maddox said.

“Okay, thanks.”

“Come by my office in a little while,” Maddox said, “and we’ll see who found him.”

“Thanks.”

Locke didn’t have long to look. The first saloon he stopped in was a little place called Little Annie’s. Idly, he wondered why all the saloons in town seemed to be named after women.

Cooper was sitting at a table in the all but empty saloon, staring down at a glass of whiskey. There was only one other man in the place, and he had his head down on the table, much the way Locke had first found Cooper in Turnback Creek.

Locke walked over and sat down opposite Cooper.

“Hey, John,” Cooper said without looking up.

“Coop.”

“In case you’re wonderin’,” the older man said, “this is the first one I ordered.”

“You didn’t drink it.”

“No.”

“Not yet?”

Cooper looked up from the drink and at his friend. “No, not at all. I was going to, though. I thought I could come out, have one, and go back to the room, and you’d never know.”

“So, what stopped you?”

Cooper reached down and pushed the whiskey over to Locke’s side of the table.

“I knew if I drank this one, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”

“That’s good, Coop,” Locke said. “That’s real good.”

“Yeah.”

Both men stared at the whiskey, and then Locke picked it up, carried it over to the other occupied table, and put it down next to the slumbering man. It would be a nice surprise for him when he woke up.

“I heard some commotion,” Cooper said when Locke returned.

“Yeah, that was me,” Locke said. “Come on, I’ll tell you about it on the way back to the hotel …”

Locke finished his story before they reached the hotel.

“Jesus,” Cooper said. “We’re sittin’ ducks here.”

“Yeah, we are,” Locke said. “Whether they were after the payroll or just reputation hunting, we are.”

“Maybe we ought to camp outside of town, wait for the train up the tracks some. That clerk can send a message for them to stop and unload the gold there.”

“Nah,” Locke said. “Out in the middle of nowhere, we’d have less cover than we do here. By the way, let’s stop at the sheriff’s office.”

“What for?” Cooper asked. “You said you weren’t in trouble.”

“He’s out looking for you, too,” Locke said. “Thought you might be causing more trouble at the whorehouse.”

“Hey, that wasn’t my fault!”

“I told him that. Let’s just put his mind at ease, huh?”

They changed direction and headed for the lawman’s office.

When they entered, they saw Maddox sitting behind his desk, drinking coffee.

“You found him,” he said.

“Yeah, at Little Annie’s.”

“Figured you’d find him,” Maddox said, “when I saw he wasn’t at Pretty Polly’s or at Lucky Lil’s.”

“Why are all the places here named after women?” Cooper asked.

“Are they?” Maddox replied. “Yeah, I guess they are. I hadn’t ever noticed before. What’re you boys gonna do now?”

“Turn in,” Locke said. “Might be safer just to stay in our room.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Maddox said. “You might want to set yerself up some kind of warning system, though. Just in case somebody else gets it into their head to come at you.”

“That’s good advice, Sheriff,” Locke said. “We’ll take it. Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” Maddox said. “Word I get on the train is that it’ll be here tomorrow evening. You plannin’ on movin’ right out?”

“No,” Locke said. “We made other arrangements.”

He told Maddox about renting the livery for the night and spending the night there with the gold.

“I’ll come by from time to time to check on you,” Maddox said when Locke was done.

“Fine,” Locke said. “We’ll move out at first light the next morning.”

“You’ll be on your own, then.”

“Figured we were on our own now,” Locke said. “Obliged to you for taking an interest.”

“Just tryin’ to keep things quiet in my town.”

Locke and Cooper both wished the man a good night and left.

When they got to their room, they were removing their boots when Cooper asked, “You ever wonder how the sheriff knew that the payroll shipment was gonna be in gold?”

“Yeah,” Locke said. “I wondered that right off.”

Cooper looked at Locke over his shoulder. “Think he might be plannin’ somethin’?” he asked. “Maybe he sent those two after you.”

“Could be,” Locke said. “I just figured from the start that we’d suspect everybody.”

“That sounds like a good way to figure.”

T
hey set some warning signs around the room—a pitcher on the window sill, a chair in front of the door—and then turned in. The night went by uneventfully, and Locke awoke before Cooper. He just wasn’t used to going to bed that early. His eyes popped open even more when the sun started creeping in through the window. He got out of bed without waking Cooper, got dressed, and crept out the door. He decided to see if there was anyplace in town he could get an early breakfast.

In the lobby, he found the same young clerk from the night before and asked him about breakfast.

“Our dining room won’t be open for half an hour,” the man said, “but there’s a place around the corner that would be open now. It’s small, but the food’s good.”

“Thanks, I’ll try that. If my friend comes down, would you tell him where I am?”

“Certainly.”

Locke nodded and went out the door.

There was a knock on the door of the general store, which wasn’t ready to open for another hour yet. Cal Nieves, who opened every morning, went to the door and found Del Morgan there.

“What’s goin’ on, Del?” Nieves said.

“Did you hear what happened last night?” Morgan asked. “Somebody tried to kill John Locke.”

“Where did that happen?”

“Lucky Lil’s,” Morgan said. “The way I heard it, one of the girls, Katy, was paid to take Locke upstairs, and then two men with guns broke in and tried to kill him.”

“What happened?”

“They killed Katy, he killed them. He’s the only one who walked away from it.”

“Do you think it was about the payroll?”

“I don’t know,” Morgan said. “It might just be someone who recognized him and wanted to make a name for themselves.”

“Any idea who the men were?”

“Strangers.”

Nieves and Morgan both leaned against the counter, deep in thought.

“Del, are you thinkin’ we should move our timetable up?” Nieves finally asked.

“I don’t see how we can,” Morgan said. “We can’t do nothin’ until the payroll actually gets here.”

“I can’t help thinkin’ it would have been good for us if Locke had been killed,” Nieves said. “Then we’d only have that old marshal to deal with.”

“Well, it didn’t happen, so we’ll never know what would have happened if Locke was killed.”

“Unless somebody kills him.”

Morgan stood up straight. “I ain’t no murderer, Cal.”

“Del,” Nieves said, “this was your idea. Do you really think we’re gonna be able to take that payroll from these two men without shots bein’ fired? Without somebody getting killed?”

“I thought if they saw they were outnumbered, they’d give it up.”

“These men don’t have reputations for giving up,” Nieves pointed out. “You and me convinced the others to go along with that, Del. We can’t just give it up.”

“I don’t want to give it up.”

“Then you better be ready to kill somebody.”

“Not in cold blood!” Morgan said. “I ain’t about to ambush somebody or back-shoot them.”

“But if you have to shoot to kill to get the payroll?”

Morgan hesitated, then said, “If it comes to that, I will.”

D
ale Cooper appeared at the café around the corner from the hotel while Locke was eating his breakfast.

“Mornin’,” he said, sitting across from him. When the waiter came over, he pointed at Locke’s plate of steak and eggs. “I’ll have the same.”

“Comin’ up, sir.”

“You slept well,” Locke said.

“I slept the sleep of the just,” Cooper said. “Resisting that whiskey was good for me last night.”

“And it helped that no one tried to kill us.”

“That’s always helpful.”

“Any ideas about what we should do today?” Cooper asked.

“Yeah, I had one,” Locke said. “I think we should stay together and stay in one place today.”

“Like where?”

“The train station.”

Cooper shrugged. “That’s good for me. We’ll sit around, talk, smoke, maybe you’ll even think up an answer to the question I asked you.”

“What question?”

“The one about what you’d do with all that gold.”

Locke put his fork down and sat back. “I told you, I don’t think about stuff like that,” Locke said. “I’m happy with who I am, Coop. That much money would change me.”

“Change,” Cooper said, shaking his head. “I sure could use some change about now.”

The waiter came and put a plate of steak and eggs in front of him, then withdrew.

“It doesn’t do any good to think like that,” Locke said. “You want to change your life, deliver this gold, and then go do it.”

“Easy for you to say,” Cooper replied. “You’re young.”

“I’m younger than you,” Locke said, “but that doesn’t make me a young man.”

“Oh, yeah? Gimme back ten years—the last ten years—and I’ll show you what I’d do with it.”

“Do something with the next ten, Coop,” Locke said. “That makes more sense.”

“Yeah,” Cooper said. “Maybe …”

They ate the rest of their breakfast in silence, Cooper cleaning his plate like a man who had never had a drinking problem.

“I guess we should check out of the hotel and take our gear to the train station,” Cooper said when he was done. “Along with the buckboard.”

“Yeah,” Locke said.” We can go right from there to the livery.”

“I was thinkin’,” Cooper said. “We got to get on the trail sometime, why not just do it? Stayin’ in town one more night, that just gives somebody another chance to try for us—whatever their reason.”

Locke thought a moment, then nodded. “You might be right about that—unless the train comes in after dark.”

“We can find that out when we get over there.”

“All right, let’s check out, then get the buckboard and our horses from the livery. We can tell Mr. Milty what we’re planning and that we’ll pay him something even if we don’t use the livery.”

“We can also find out if his kid delivered our message.”

“Right.”

They paid their bill and left the café. As they were aproaching the hotel, they saw young Frank Milty waiting out front.

“Mr. Locke, Mr. Cooper,” Frank said as they reached him. “I delivered your note.”

“And?” Cooper asked.

“I got one in return.”

He took a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over. In return, Locke gave him the rest of his money.

“Thanks, Frank,” he said. “You did a good job.”

“If you need me again, just let me know,” the young boy said.

“We’ll do that.”

The boy nodded and ran off, to do whatever it was boys his age did with their money.

“What’s it say?” Locke asked.

“Crowell says Molly is out at the creek already. He’s gonna send someone out to tell her what’s going on. He says he thinks she’ll just stay there and wait for us.” He passed the note to Locke. “Says she likes bein’ alone.”

“Poor George,” Locke said, scanning the note. “He’s so in love with her it’s painful to watch.”

“Think she knows?”

Locke folded the note and tucked it into his pocket. “She knows. A woman always knows.”

“That sounds like you’re speaking from personal experience, John. Some woman break your heart?”

“More than one, my friend,” Locke said. “More than one …”

Hoke Benson and his men were staying at a hotel on the other side of town, a cheap, rundown place with no name.

“We coulda stayed at a better place,” Eli Jordan complained as they met in the lobby. Hoke had his own room, but Eli and Bob Bailey shared one.

“Go ahead,” Hoke said.

“You won’t let us use any of the first payroll money,” Eli complained.

“We don’t wanna be flashin’ any money, Eli,” Hoke said. “After we hit the second payroll, we’ll put some distance between us and this place, and you can spend all the money you want.”

“I can’t wait.”

“Where’s Bailey?”

“He went over to the station like you tol’ him,” Eli said. “He should be right here.”

Right on cue, Bailey walked through the front door.

“What’s goin’ on with Locke and Cooper?” Hoke asked.

“It looks like they checked out of their hotel. They got their buckboard and horses from the livery and took everything over to the station with them.”

“They’re gonna leave right from the train station, soon as they get the payroll.”

“How do you know that?” Bailey asked.

“I’m figurin’ that, Bob,” Hoke said. “I don’t know that for sure, but that’s the way it looks.”

“So, what do we do?” Eli said.

“We gotta be ready to leave at any time,” Hoke said. “We’ll have to talk to Rome and Turpin.”

“We really need those guys?” Eli asked.

“You want to go against Cooper and Locke just the three of us?” Hoke asked.

“No, but do we have to cut them in for an equal share?” Eli complained.

“Actually,” Hoke said, “no.”

Eddie Rome looked out the window of his hotel. In quality, it was about halfway between the Gold Nugget, where Locke was staying, and the no-name where Hoke Benson was staying. As far as location, it was in the center of town. Rome was able to see Locke and Cooper on their way to the livery, and he saw Bob Bailey walking to the station. He also saw Locke and Cooper taking their buckboard and horses to the station.

When he met his partner, Turpin, in the hotel dining room for breakfast, he said, “Somethin’s happenin’.”

“Like what?”

“Bacon and eggs,” Rome said to the waiter. “Locke and Cooper collected their stuff from the livery and took it to the train station. I think they’re gonna leave town as soon as they get the payroll.”

“Think Hoke knows?”

“He knows.”

“So, what do we do?”

“We wait,” Rome said. “Hoke’ll send Eli over to tell us what to do.”

“Eddie.”

“Yeah?” Rome sat back to allow the waiter to put down his plate.

“You’re smarter than Hoke, ain’tcha?”

“Sure I am,” Rome said.

“Then why are we lettin’ him tell us what to do?” Turpin asked.

“Because it was his idea.”

“So?”

“So, we let him do all the work and all the plannin’, and then we take the money from him and the others.”

“And kill ’em?”

“Of course,” Rome said. “Why would we leave them alive to come after us?”

“I just wanted to make sure,” Turpin said.