Chapter 6

I was ushered into the bedroom and shook hands with the man propped up on the pillows. “Howdy, Mr. Chambers. I got word that you wanted to see me. What can I do for you?”

“Well, the first thing you can do is to call me John. I cannot get over the feeling that anybody who calls me Mr. Chambers is out to cheat me.” The smile made it obvious that he was joking. “Mr. McSwain, I have a problem that dovetails with one of your problems. We both want Asa Fletcher dead. I am sure that you know why I can’t get out of this bed and what happened on the day that I got injured. Well, Asa Fletcher was the bastard what was leading the three bastards what raped the two women I love. I want him dead! I want all three of them bastards dead!”

As soon as he said Asa Fletcher, I knew that I was interested. What I didn’t know was just what John Chambers wanted from me. His next few sentences told me all that I needed to know. Now I had a good excuse to hunt down Asa Fletcher that the law would cheer.

“Mr. Chambers ... er ... John, I aim to get rid of Asa Fletcher as soon as I can find him. I did not know that he was back in Cheyenne. I will blow his fucking head into next month as soon as I can catch sight of him.

“Oh, please call me Bart.”

“No, no, Bart, please do not do it that way. I want Fletcher to suffer as much as my daughter has suffered from his cruelty. Please kill him as slowly as you can so that he will suffer some to make up to what he has done to other people.

“You know that Joan will never get married now that she has been raped. No man will have her because she is damaged goods. You know that is the way things are, I know it, and Joan knows it. It galls me something terrible that Asa Fletcher ruined an innocent girl’s life and went away laughing about it. I want you to fix that problem.”

“John, I will get to work on finding Asa Fletcher as soon as I get back to Cheyenne. Somebody around there must know where to find him. I ain’t the world’s best detective, but a little money in the right place will tell a person anything he wants to know. The problem is that I may not have enough money to do the job quickly. I will probably have to work at the bounty hunting business until I do have enough money.”

“Do not worry about money, Bart. I have more money than I know what to do with. I will pay you $200 a month to hunt for Fletcher, and I will provide you with the money you need to find him. When can you start?”

“I will start as soon as I get back to Cheyenne. Can you give me $100 to get the ball rolling?”

“Hell, I will pay you the first $200 today and give you $500 to use to buy the information you want. Just hang in there a minute, and I will give you the money. HONEY, please come in here.” His shout was a little vague because both of the women showed up.

“Bart, this here is Mary, my wife, and Joan, my daughter. Mary, please get me $700 from the cash box. Bart has agreed to do the hunting that I can no longer do.”

The grin on Mary’s face would have lit up half the county if it had been dark. She rushed out to fetch the money. Meanwhile, Joan also smiled at me, and said, “Mr. McSwain, you cannot imagine how much this means to me!”

“First of all, please ma’am, call me Bart. That is what all of my friends call me, and I certainly want you for a friend.”

Mary had just returned with the cash box to count out the money. She heard my last remark to Joan, and she laughed. John laughed, too, and Joan blushed.

I quickly said, “Oh, my Lord, that did not come out exactly the way I meant for it to. Please do not think that I was being forward or disrespectful.”

Joan said, “Bart, I would be pleased to be your friend, and I hope that our friendship can extend beyond this job that you have taken on.”

Joan was a nice looking young woman, and any man would have been slobbering after her were it not for the indecent trick that Asa Fletcher had pulled on her. Well, I was not currently in the market for a wife, but I certainly would not turn Joan down if it came to that.

John said, “Joan is right, Bart. We would all be honored if you would allow us to call you our friend.”

I was completely taken aback, but I managed to stumble through an agreement on that sentiment.

It was now close to dinner time, so Mary asked me if I would be willing to stay for the midday meal. As I have said before, I may be dumb, but I ain’t stupid. I agreed immediately, and that turned out to be my induction into the Chambers family. It was a wonderful meal—not as fancy as I had been used to at The Cheyenne Social Club, but just as tasty and certainly as filling. Hell, a man could get fat real quick eating like that every day, and I told Mary so. She blushed, but she did not say anything.

I stayed with the Chambers family through the worst heat of the day before riding back to Cheyenne. I am sure that my horse appreciated that as much as I did, though he didn’t say anything. I had a little time before supper, so I went to the saloon inside The Cheyenne Social Club to ask what the bartender might have heard about Asa Fletcher. “Ed, you know that I have this disagreement going with Asa Fletcher, and now I have been hired by John Chambers to run him down. Do you have any ideas that I might find useful. I am willing to pay for information that leads me to him.”

“Sorry, Bart, I ain’t heard anything recent. Except for that to do with the Chambers family a month or so ago, I would not even know that Fletcher was back around here. In any case, I will make sure that you know if I hear anything.”

“Thanks, Ed. Take this as a down payment.” I gave him a half-eagle ($5), a lot of money at the time, and ordered a Mexican beer.

I nursed it while I talked to a few other people in the saloon at the time, but nobody knew anything. I made sure to say that I would pay for useful information on Asa Fletcher’s whereabouts, and I expected that word to get around town fast. There was no way to keep Fletcher from knowing about it, but he had to know that I was looking for him for reasons besides the Chambers episode.

After supper, I started making the rounds of other saloons in Cheyenne, and there were plenty of those. My conversations with the bartenders was pretty much the same as the one I had with Ed, and, unfortunately, the result was the same. However, I figured the $100 I passed out around town would eventually pay off if I was just patient enough.

I spent three days going from saloon to saloon without getting any information that was worth being concerned about, and I was really pissed off. I couldn’t think of anything else to do for now and the frustration was mounting. I talked to Marshal Brady on the subject, and he was just as angry at Asa Fletcher for what he had done as I was. The Chambers family was well known in and around Cheyenne, and the people all felt the same way. I knew that I would eventually hear something if I just kept pushing, but the frustration was still worrying at me.

I wondered if John Chambers might have any ideas, so I rode out to the ranch to consult with him. He was not feeling well on that day, and Mary asked that I put off disturbing him. It was not a wasted trip because I spent a little over three hours visiting with Joan, and only a part of that time was chaperoned by Mary.

Mary was just concerned about her daughter’s reputation, but it suddenly must have dawned on her that Joan no longer had a reputation to protect. Anyway, Joan and I sat in the shade on the veranda, and Mary went back in the house to look after John after about an hour. Joan and I did nothing to have caused Mary any concern. We just sat in rocking chairs and talked about trivial matters until it was time for me to return to Cheyenne. At least, I had promoted a good dinner out of my trip. Also, I enjoyed talking to Joan so much that I had no reason to consider that my trip had been wasted.