Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) (14 page)

T
hey continued on despite the rain, as it came down in a sort of mist rather than a downpour. But eventually they had to stop because of darkness. When they made camp, the rain had let up, so they were able to build a fire and make some coffee. They made a meal of dry beef jerky and canned peaches.

“I’m sorry if you don’t agree with what we did back there,” Cooper said from across the fire.

“Forget it,” Locke said. “It’s the first action you’ve seen like that in a while, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Cooper said. “First in a while.” They sat in silence for a moment. “I did okay, though, didn’t I?”

“You did better than okay, Coop,” Locke said. “You were as steady as a rock.”

“Was I?” Cooper asked. “Not inside. I could use a drink.”

“We didn’t bring any whiskey.”

Cooper looked away.

“Coop, did you bring a bottle?”

Cooper hesitated, then said, “In my saddlebag.”

Locke thought about getting the bottle and smashing it, then decided not to. Might be better for Cooper to be resisting it. “Have a cigarette instead.”

“Think I will.”

Locke watched the man roll a cigarette with steady hands, then light it with a twig from the fire.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Locke offered.

“I’ll turn in after this cigarette.”

Locke had another cup of coffee, noticed that Cooper was staring into the fire, breaking a cardinal rule. If anyone had hit them at that moment, Cooper would have had no night vision for several minutes—long enough to get them both killed. He’d have to remind the man when he woke him not to look into the fire.

Cooper flicked the remainder of his cigarette into the fire and got to his feet with a groan. “Wake me whenever you like,” he said. “I haven’t stood watch in a long time, either. I’m lookin’ forward to it.”

“It has been a long time, hasn’t it?” Locke said.

Cooper rolled himself up in his bedroll underneath the buckboard in case it rained again. He was keeping his slicker between himself and the wet ground in the hopes of staying dry while he slept.

Locke turned to the fire and prepared another pot of coffee.

Hoke Benson and his men were back in Kingdom Junction when it started to rain.

“Rome, you come with me,” Hoke said. “The rest of you, get to your hotel rooms. We’ll be leaving at first light.”

“We’re letting them get ahead of us,” Eli said.

“We know where they’re goin’, Eli,” Hoke said. “It’s no secret, after all.”

“What about a drink?” Turpin said.

“Hotel,” Rome said. “No drinkin’ tonight, Roy.”

“Right.”

Hoke gave the reins of his horse to Bailey, as did Rome, and the two men walked away together.

Hoke and Rome went to Lucky Lil’s and got a beer each.

“They worked well together,” Rome said. “That ain’t good news.”

“They’re supposed to be past it,” Hoke said. “The old man’s a drunk.”

“He didn’t look like a drunk to me,” Rome said.

“No, he didn’t. That’s why we need more men. Do you know anyone who’d be interested?”

“Plenty of ’em, once they hear about the gold.”

“What if they don’t hear about the gold?”

Rome swallowed some beer and asked, “Whaddaya mean?”

“What if we just hire a few more guns?”

“And not cut them in for equal shares?”

“Right.”

“And how do we keep them from knowing about the gold?” Rome asked.

Hoke stared at Rome. “We don’t tell them.”

“What if they want to know what Locke and Cooper are delivering?” the other man asked.

“They’re just being hired for a job, that’s it,” Hoke said. “We’ll pay them well, but they’re hired help.”

“Like me?”

“You’re gettin’ an equal share, Rome,” Hoke said.

“All right,” Rome said. “I’ll get … two more men?”

“Yeah, two,” Hoke said. “We need them tonight. Have them meet us at the livery at first light.”

“Okay,” Rome said. He looked around the room. “I see a couple here I can ask.”

“I’m turnin’ in,” Hoke said. “You see who you can recruit and I’ll see you in the mornin’.”

“Right.”

Hoke left the saloon, and Rome went to get another beer.

L
ocke and Cooper got an early start the next morning. When Locke had awakened Cooper for his turn on watch he made himself tell his friend about looking into the fire …

“I know that, John,” Cooper said, irritably. “I haven’t completely lost my mind.”

“It’s just that … earlier last night you were—”

“I was what?”

“Looking into the fire.”

“Was I?” Cooper paused to think. “Well, all right. I’ll be sure not to while I’m on watch. Satisfied?”

“Okay,” Locke said. “Okay.”

When Cooper woke Locke in the morning he handed him a fresh cup of coffee.

“Sorry I snapped at you this morning,” he said. “You’re right, I was lookin’ into the fire. Won’t happen again.”

“Thanks for the coffee …”

Hoke arrived at the livery and found six men waiting for him there. Eli nervously pulled him aside.

“Who are these other two?” he asked.

“Just hired guns, Eli.”

“They gettin’ an equal share?”

“No,” Hoke said, “and shut up about it.”

They returned to the other men, and Rome said, “Hoke, this is Joe Bently and Stan Sharp.”

Two men, tall and lean, in their forties. To Hoke Benson, they were just extra guns. He forgot their names moments later.

“Fine,” Hoke said. “Let’s just mount up and get going. We’re probably going to have to take them on the mountain now.”

“They’re hauling a heavy load,” Eli said. “Why not catch up to them and take them before then?”

“They’ll reach the mountain before we can reach them,” Hoke said. “There’s no point in pushing the horses.”

“What’s so heavy about a mining payroll?” Sharp wanted to know.

Hoke gave Eli a hard look and said, “Nothing. Forget it. Let’s just get mounted and move out.”

Locke and Cooper made good time and were only two hours late—plus two days—meeting Molly Shillstone by Turnback Creek, where she was camped. She was wearing men’s clothes—shirt, jeans, boots, and a hat—but she looked very elegant nonetheless.

“How about some coffee?” she asked as they dismounted.

“Sorry we’re late,” Cooper said. “We got hit on the trail, and the rain slowed us down.”

“Wait, wait,” Molly said, handing them each a cup of coffee. “Somebody tried for my gold already?”

Cooper told her the story of the five men on the road, then added the two in Kingdom Junction who tried for Locke.

“And you killed them all?”

“Yes.”

“I’m impressed,” she said. “Good job.” She looked at Locke. “I guess I hired the right men for the job, after all.”

“I guess so,” Locke said.

“Will you be camping here overnight?” she asked.

“That’s up to Marshal Cooper,” Locke told her. “He’s still in charge of this job.”

“We’ve still got an hour or two of daylight,” Cooper started. “We really should keep—”

“I’m staying here tonight and heading back in the morning,” Molly said, interrupting. “I really could use the company. I’ve been here for two days alone. I like being alone, but now I’m done with it.”

Cooper looked over at Locke, who simply shrugged. “Well, all right,” Cooper said, “but you have to do the cooking.”

Molly smiled, looked over at Locke, and said, “Agreed.”

She prepared bacon and beans, which was a feast compared with the jerky they’d been eating. They sat around the fire as it started to get dark and ate. Behind them, they could hear the creek running.

Molly wanted to hear more about the men who tried to steal the gold, and Locke left it to Cooper to tell her—and he did so, with a flourish. He made the gun battle sound much more dangerous than it was. In truth, he and Locke had so outclassed the four men that they didn’t have a chance. It sounded to Locke as if his old friend had enjoyed gunning them down.

When Cooper turned in—out in the open, because the rain seemed to have let up for a while—Molly poured Locke another cup of coffee and sat across the fire from him.

“Marshal Cooper sounds as if the events of yesterday excited him,” she said.

“I’m afraid they did.”

“You didn’t find it exciting?”

He looked across the fire at her. “I don’t find anything particularly exciting about killing men, Mrs. Shillstone,” he replied.

“Never?” she asked. “You never have?”

“No.”

“A man of your reputation?”

“What do you know about my reputation?” he asked.

“Well … only what I’ve heard.”

“That I’m a cold-blooded killer?” he asked. “Have you ever heard that about me?”

“Well …”

“Maybe you have,” he said, not waiting for her to find an answer. “Maybe that’s been said about me, but a reputation is not a man, Molly. It hardly ever describes a man at all, not truly.”

After a moment, she said, “I’m sorry. I was just trying to make conversation. I was stupid—”

“Never mind,” Locke said. “It doesn’t matter. At this point in my life, it doesn’t make much difference. I’ve had to play the cards I was dealt for so many years …”

“Why do men do that?”

“What?”

“Use gambling terms to describe their lives?”

“Do we?”

“Yes, you do,” she said. “All of you. My father did it all the time, and he wasn’t even a gambler.”

“Wasn’t he?” he asked. “Aren’t you?”

“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe he was, and maybe I am, but if so, then we only ever bet on sure things.”

“Ah,” Locke said, “but the first thing you learn as a gambler is that there’s no such thing as a sure thing.”

“Mines,” she said.

“What?”

She stood up and looked toward the mountain. “My father knew from a look, a smell, that a mine was a sure thing,” she said, “and he taught me how to do it.” She pointed. “This mine was a sure thing from the beginning, and it still is.”

“As long as you can pay your men,” Locke said.

“That’s right.”

“And if you can’t?”

She turned and came back to the fire, hunkered down by it, and looked across at him. “I’ll lose it.”

“Why?”

“I have notes to pay,” she said. “If I can’t pay them, the bank will take the mine.”

“Who knows that?”

She shrugged. “Me, George, the bank … and now you.”

“No one else?”

“No one else should,” she said. “Why are you asking?”

“Just making conversation.”

“You think someone is stealing my payroll to make me miss my loan payments?”

“I don’t know, Molly,” he said. “It’s a possibility, I guess.”

She sat back on her haunches and gave it some thought.

“I never considered …” she said with wonder. “I thought it was just robbers after the money, and now the gold. But maybe what you’re saying makes sense …”

“I don’t know if it does or doesn’t, Molly,” Locke replied. “Like I said, I was just talking.”

“No, no,” she said. “You’re making sense—this makes sense.” She got to her feet, started to pace. “This makes perfect sense. Son of a bitch! Why didn’t I see this before?”

“Molly,” Locke said, standing up, “calm down. This is your business, not mine. I don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.”

“But maybe you do, don’t you see?” she asked.

He took hold of her shoulders to stop her from pacing. “I’m just saying, don’t go off half cocked,” he told her. “Think about this awhile before you do anything too foolish.”

“Foolish?” she asked. “What makes you think I’m going to do anything foolish?”

“The look on your face,” he said. “I’ve seen it before, mostly on men—and mostly just before they went and did something that got them killed.”

She stared at him for a few moments, then nodded and said, “Yes, all right, you’re right. I can see that.” He dropped his hands, and she stepped back, out of his reach. “I’ll give it some more thought. I’m, uh, going to turn in now.”

“I’m standing first watch,” he said. “I’ll wake Coop in four hours.”

“What about me?” she asked. “I can stand watch.”

“No,” he said. “This is what we do. You just get some sleep.”

“All right,” she said. “All right.”

He could see that her mind was still whirling and doubted that she would get right to sleep. He was shocked that something he’d said idly—with no information or knowledge at all to back it up—would have caused such a reaction in her.

But now that the thought was planted, he wondered who she was thinking might be behind something like that? According to her, it could only have been someone from the bank or George Crowell. Loyal George, who worked with her father for so long, and now with her, but who was also in love with her and wasn’t getting any of that love back.

Locke wondered what the morning would bring. What would Molly decide to do about this? Maybe he could persuade her not to do anything until he got back. The least he could do after putting the thought in her head was to back whatever play she wanted to make. Also, they needed her alive to pay them the rest of their money when they got back, as she had only paid them half up front.

That’s what he’d tell her when she woke up—that it would be bad business to get killed before they came back.