Chapter 6: Sage Brush Killers

Hoyt was sitting on the side of the bed when Janie, Elsie and Elvie came into the room to start filling the tub with his bath water. Each of them had a bucket of boiling hot water fresh off the stove.

He was naked, and pulled the bed covers over his legs and around his waist. He’d been naked with women before he met Janie. But now, he has Janie and two more women wanting to be with him at the same time.

Before they left the room, Hoyt twisted his body around to speak to Janie.

“Janie, will you bring my saddlebags in here when you come back?”

“Sure, Hoyt. We’ll be back shortly with more hot water, then we’ll pump some water to cool your bath, but I’ll bring your saddlebags right back.”

When she returned, she placed his saddlebags on his lap and Hoyt reached up to pull her down to sit beside him on the bed.

“While I was tracking a killer across Colorado, I came upon a man and woman which the same killer I was tracking, had shot and killed, just to take their wagon and team. I buried them beside the trail and put up a little cross. That was all I could do for them, but I couldn’t just go off and leave them laying there. Before I left, I found some letters scattered on the ground and gathered them up. I didn’t take time to look at them, but I’m sure that man and woman have kinfolk somewhere. I want you, your momma, Elvie and Elsie to read these letters and write to the ones who sent them, telling them what I just told you. If any of them write back and want to visit the grave, or even move the bodies to another place, I can tell them right where they’re buried.”

“OH Hoyt! That is such a sad story, but I’m so proud of you. Of course we’ll read the letters and try to get in touch with any kin the couple may have had.”

Janie turned to kneel on the floor beside the bed. She reached up to put her arms around his chest. Kneeling between his legs, she pulled herself up to press her body against his hairy chest, holding him tight.

Elsie and Elvie came into the room, each carrying two buckets of water. They saw Janie hugging Hoyt and hurried to pour the water in the tub. Elvie closed the door – they too wanted to hug him. Pulling their dresses over their heads, both sisters crawled onto the bed behind Hoyt, pressing their naked breasts to his broad back.

Hoyt felt the young breasts pressing against his naked back for the first time in his life and tried to look over his shoulder. The girls pulled him back to lie on the bed. When they did, Janie stood beside the bed to pull her dress over her head and join them.

“Hoyt, you just lay there and rest while we do all the work. Elvie, Elsie, and I are going to love you now, and make you feel better, before we bathe you,” she told him as she threw her leg over his naked waist to sit on his legs.

“Ooooo, that makes me feel so good in my belly, just seeing you take Hoyt’s cock like that,” Elvie told her.

“If you think it feels good watching, just wait until you get it,” Janie told her.

Hoyt’s three women took turns pleasuring themselves as he lay there, smiling up at them. Each of them tried hard to stifle moans as one by one, they lay on his hairy chest and pressed their naked breasts against him.

It was late the next morning before the three women awakened from their long night of romping naked in bed, taking turns as Hoyt lay on his back and let them ride. They dressed and brought more hot water in, to warm his bath.

For seventeen days, Hoyt stayed close to the house with his women. After two weeks, he wasn’t sure if he was still recovering, or needed to return to Phoenix to get some rest. He was in the barn with Billy the last three days, repairing his gear and packing for his next trip.

The morning he left, he’d said his goodbyes in the house and was in the barn early, lowering the packsaddle onto his packhorse and saddling Chelley. Before mounting, he turned to see his three women standing behind him ... naked. Two hours later, he rode out, leaving the three of them rolled up naked together in a blanket, on a pile of hay.

Six days later, he rode into Phoenix to meet with Marshal Walker.

“Hoyt, before we send you across the border into Mexico, we have one right here in Maricopa County, that we need you to handle for us. This shouldn’t take long, it’s only a few miles from here.”

“Tell me what you have and where it is. I’ll head that way today before I unpack my horses.”

“There was a stagecoach holdup just west of here last week. There were two men and two women passengers inside the stagecoach, with a driver, and his son riding shotgun. None of them have been seen or heard from since.”

“Were the robbers on horseback?”

“We rode for miles, before we picked up the tracks of some horses. We tracked six horses to within a mile or two of the county line.”

“Six horses and there were six people on the stagecoach?”

“That’s what we couldn’t figure out either. But I don’t have the men to stay on that case, since we’re so strung out.”

“Had to be more horses somewhere, or a wagon, unless the passengers robbed the stage. If you’ll have one of your men show me the place where the robbery took place, I’ll leave now.”

“They burned the stage ... Just head west on main street and you’ll come to it about five miles out.”

“If you have the papers on that other case handy, I’ll take it with me, so I can read about it too while I’m snooping around out there.”

“Here’s the complete package on it. You’ll see the brothers’ names and what all they’ve been charged with. You better not be seen with that marshal’s badge over there across the border, or the Federales will make a big fuss out of it and may even lock you up.”

On his way out of Phoenix, Hoyt saw the stage depot and stopped to check inside to see if anyone could give him any clues to help, once he arrived at the burned stagecoach.

“Well, Deputy, here’s a list of the passengers ... And here’s the names of the stage driver and his man riding shotgun. As you can see, the stage driver had his son riding shotgun, but we can verify that both of them have been with the stage lines for over three years. They’re good folks and well thought of. They even have kin living around here.”

“Do you have anything more on the four passengers that’s not on this list?”

“It seems that the men were here in Phoenix for a month before purchasing tickets to Yuma. When they purchased tickets, they all had the same last names, so I assumed they were maybe brothers, traveling with their wives.”

“Anything else you can think of that may help me when I get out there?”

“You’re not going to find much when you get there. I’ve been out there myself and the place has been wiped clean, as far as I walked. Not a footprint, hoofprint, wagon track, or anything else around there.”

“Tell me about the women. What did they look like and how were they dressed?”

“Both were were wearing black veils when they boarded the stage, as if they were in mourning ... Couldn’t tell much about their faces. They did look kinda young, I mean with what I could tell about their upper bodies, if you know what I mean. The two men reminded me of gamblers, as well as they were outfitted in black suits, fancy shirts, with high-dollar hats and boots.”

“You’ve been a real help ... You mentioned the men dressed as gamblers, did you check to see if they had been gambling while they stayed here for a month before leaving?”

“No. Never thought of checking back on them like that. There’s three gambling halls down the street. You’ll pass right by them. You could check with them on your way out.”

“Thanks, I’ll do that ... I forgot to ask. Was there any money or gold on that stage?”

“Well of course there was! We have a contract to deliver all the paper money, silver and gold coins to the banks here in Arizona. There was a big Army Payroll headed over to Yuma on that stage. Now, all of that’s missing with no hope of ever recovering any of it.”

“Thanks for your trouble. If you think of anything else, tell Marshall Walker. I’ll be back through here before long.”

Hoyt had mounted Chelley and started down the street when the man ran out of the stage depot and hollered at him.

He turned Chelley back and rode up to where the man stood on the steps.

“I forgot to tell you ... One of the men walked with a limp, like one leg was shorter than the other. Don’t know if that’ll help you any, but I just thought you oughta know.”

“Thanks again. That may help me if I’m able to track down the passengers and the driver.”

“Like I done told you, you ain’t gonna find a thing in the way of tracks around that burned out stage.”

“We’ll see,” Hoyt told him and turned Chelley west once more. He looked back to see the man scratching his head as he walked back inside.

Hoyt stopped in front of the first gambling hall he came to and tied Chelley to the rail. Looking up and down the dirt street, he saw The Gold Nugget across the street, and down three stores. Looking down the street on this side, he spotted The Silver Dollar Saloon, before he turned to enter The Mother Lode Saloon & Gambling Hall.

Hoyt walked over to the bar and motioned for the barkeeper. “What’ll it be Mister.”

“I’m a Special Deputy with the Marshal’s Service and I’ve been brought in to investigate the stage robbery near here. I was just wondering if you or anyone here may have seen any of the passengers who were on that stage, here in your place before the day of the robbery?”

“Well, Deputy, we’ve done told the other Marshals all we know about that stage robbery ... though there wasn’t a lot to tell.”

“I’d sure be obliged if you’d tell me what little you told the others.”

“The only time I saw the two men they said was on that stage, was one night when they came in to have a few drinks. They met two more men dressed in fine suits, and gambled for a while before they got into a fuss-fight. I sent My Man over there with a message to hold it down or leave. One of the men said something to My Man, and he dropped him in his tracks with a fist to his jaw. The other three gathered their friend up and carried him out. My Man told me that the man jumped up with the quick tongue and told him to go to hell ... and he slugged the bastard. That was it – we never saw any of them again.”

“You said two men, met two more men before they went back to gamble. Did it look like they knew the men?”

“From the way they shook hands and laughed, I felt like they must know each other.”

“Did any of the men walk with a limp?”

“You know ... now that you mention it, one of the men did walk like he had one leg shorter’n the other.”

Hoyt walked out of The Mother Lode, and stopped to rub Chelley on his nose and pat his neck, before crossing the street to enter The Gold Nugget.

This place was busy. They had two bartenders, with three girls carrying drinks to the gambling tables. Hoyt stepped up to the bar and sat on a stool, just looking the place over.

“You may not know it, but you’re not allowed to wear a gun inside this place,” the bartender told him, as he wiped the bar in front of Hoyt. He pulled out his badge and the man looked at him for a few seconds before speaking.

“Don’t reckon I’ve seen you in here before, Deputy.”

“Never been in here before, is the reason. I was brought in to investigate the stage robbery west of town a week or so ago. Just stopped in to see if you or anyone here may have seen any of the passengers who were on that stage, before they left that day.”

“It would be hard to miss the two men who they claim was on that stage. They dressed like they had plenty of money and they bought drinks for everyone, once or twice a night, when they came in.”

“Did they ever bring a woman in with them?”

“All the time. But hardly ever was it the same women. They would come in and have a few drinks, gamble a little and leave with a different woman almost each night.”

“Did you notice if either of them walked with a limp?”

“Now that I think of it, one of the men did walk with a limp a few times when he came in. Then one night, he came in and walked without a limp. I looked at his boots, and damn if he didn’t have one heel made taller than the other one.”

Hoyt walked back across the street at an angle and entered The Silver Dollar. Before he reached the bar, a big man walked up to him and told him he’d have to check his gun at the door.

Hoyt pulled his vest back to show his badge and the man looked him over, up and down, before speaking.

“Don’t reckon I’ve seen you before, Deputy. You new in town?”

“Just got here today. I was brought in to investigate the stage robbery west of here.”

“From all the talk that’s going on about it in here since it happened, you ain’t gonna find much out there.”

“Maybe not, but I haven’t been out there yet ... Can you tell me if any of the passengers who were said to be on the stage, ever came in here before the day the stage left?”

“Most every day, the two fancy dressed men came in. Almost as if they wanted to be seen, it looked to me like. But then, I get paid to notice folks like that and watch them close to see if they’re up to something ... you know like cheating at cards...”

“Were they cheating at cards?”

“Not that I ever saw, they weren’t. They sure were different from any gamblers I ever saw before though.”

“How’s that?”

“They never gambled with big money, just small bets and never won enough to buy all the drinks they bought for others.”

“Did they bring their women in with them?”

“Some nights ... Then some nights they hooked up with a couple of women and left soon after they got here.”

“Do you know where the men were staying while they were here in Phoenix?”

“Down at the Angel Bar Hotel, at the end of the street.”

After walking back up the street to get Chelley and his packhorse, Hoyt led his horses down the street to the hotel.

“Yes Sir, did you need a room?” The man asked as Hoyt stepped up to the desk.

“No, I need to ask you a few questions about some guests you had staying here before the stage robbery west of town.”

“Are you with the law?”

“I’m a Special Deputy with The Marshal’s Service,” Hoyt said, showing his badge.

“Sure, Deputy, how can I help you?”

“Can you tell me who the men were that was said to be on the stage when it was robbed?”

“I’ve already given the Marshal their names, but I have them right here.”

Hoyt looked at the names, which were the same as the stage lines had them listed.

“Is there anything you can tell me about the men or women with them, that you noticed?”

“Well, the two women who came in here with them most of the time, were young. Maybe twenty to twenty-five and the men looked to be ten years older. The women were dressed in fine clothes, as were the men all the time.”

“Did you ever notice that one man had a limp?”

“No, but I did notice that one of them had an extra tall boot heel on his left boot.”

Hoyt thanked the man and left; headed west.

The only thing he could come up with, was someone on that stagecoach was in on the holdup. Who, and how many of them, made him wonder that much more.

When he arrived at the burned out stagecoach he tied Chelley and his packhorse back away from the area. He knew there had been many people here by the boot prints. Some of them just out of curiosity, from the way it looked.

By the length of the charred tongue on the coach, he knew it had to be a six-horse hitch pulling the coach. But where did the horses go? He didn’t think to ask that question, and no one, not even the Marshal had mentioned that the six-horse team was missing.

No matter where he looked, there were bootprints. He knew, that if he was going to find anything, he would have to look farther out away from the burned coach.

Leading his packhorse, he rode Chelley straight west on the trail until he saw a few, older hoofprints. Since they weren’t hoofprints of a saddle horse, he followed them. At first, there were only two sets, then there were four. As he kept tracking them, he saw where two more horses had joined the others. Then, there were those six, and now six saddle horses on the same trail.

After tracking the horses for miles, he came to a barbed wire fence. Following the fence, he rode for more than a mile before he saw any horses inside the fence. There were six horses grazing together on sunburned grass and a few sagebrush with green leaves.

He tied Chelley to a fence post and bent to step through the fence, then walked out to check the horses. They were skittish at first, but he kept talking to them, holding out his upturned hat – and two of them finally came to him. Patting his neck, he ran his hand down the first horse’s neck, back to his left foreleg. He lifted the horse’s hoof and checked the shoe.

The shoe was old and worn and the horse looked to have been re-shod with the same shoe more than once from the way the shoe was worn down. He could tell by the horseshoe nails that they weren’t that old and the hoof had been nailed many times. Someone was trying to save money on horseshoes at the risk of the horse’s hooves. This old shoe was at least a size 3, maybe even a 4, when it was new. Chelley carries a size 2 shoe and he’s a big horse, but not a draft-horse. Buck carried a size 2 and he was a big horse too.

Hoyt checked two more horses that let him put a hand on them. The shoes on the horses were about the same – old and worn from miles and miles of pulling a load. Each of the four horses he checked, carried the marks of a horse collar on their shoulders, which in Hoyt’s mind – along with the shoes, proved them to be the team from the stagecoach.

When he turned to walk back toward the fence he saw a young man sitting on a horse next to Chelley. The man was watching Hoyt as he walked closer and closer.

He saw the man reaching for his gun and yelled at him, “U.S. Marshal here! You pull that gun and you’ll die on that horse!”

The man dropped his hand, then spoke. “Those are my horses, what’re you doing out there with them anyway. You’re on private land.”

“Mister, I’ve already told you that I’m a U.S. Marshal. I’ve been tracking those same horses for miles, and when I saw them, I wanted to check them out. You say they’re your horses – are you a horse trader, or do you use them for driving cattle?”

“I do both. I herd a few head of cattle and I trade for horses now and then.”

“How long have you owned these six horses?”

“Oh, about six months or so, I reckon. I don’t remember the date I bought them.”

“I just told you that I’ve been tracking these same six horses for miles. You better come up with a better story that that.”

“Well, I could be mistaken. I trade for horses all the time and I may have been wrong about this bunch.”

“Do you have a bill of sale for them?”

“I do somewhere, but I’d have to find it and bring it to you.”

“What’s your name?”

“William Hargrove.”

“William, why don’t we take a ride back over to your house and you can show me the bill of sale.”

“I don’t have time right now, Marshal. I need to ride into town and do some business.”

“That’s alright too. I was about to ride back into town myself and see Marshal Walker. We can both go see him now.”

“Look, Marshal ... I was lying about them horses being mine. They belong to my boss and I just work for him.”

“How long has he owned them ... and you better get your lies straight the first time, or tell me the truth.”

“To tell you truth about it, I didn’t know we had them in this pasture until now ... And my name’s William Banks, my boss’s name is William Hargrove.”

“I’m going to trust you, William. But if I have to come after you later, you’re going to jail after I rough your ass up for lying to me. Now, tell me, do you know a man by the name of Jason Hargrove?”

“I do. He’s my boss’s brother.”

“Does he have a son by the name of Jack Hargrove?”

“Yes, he does. Both of them work for the stage lines.”

“Have you seen them in the past week or so?”

“No, come to think of it, I ain’t seen neither of them in a while. But then they’re gone a lot too.”

“Is your boss married?”

“No.”

“Does he have any sons or daughters?”

“He has two daughters.”

“Old ... young... ?”

“About your age, maybe a little younger.”

“Do they live with him on the ranch?”

“Yes they do.”

“Have you seen them lately?”

“No, not in a week or so. Why do you ask about them?”

“Just asking questions to help me solve a case I’m working on. Tell me, is your boss on the ranch now?”

“No, he had to make a trip to Yuma, he said. Been gone over a week.”

“Do you think he may have taken his daughters with him?”

“No, I know they were here the day after he left, because they had company.”

“Who was the company, do you know?”

“Just some of their Mexican friends who come visit them a lot.”

“Did they leave with their friends?”

“No, I saw them the next day in the barn. They were going riding, they said.”

“You didn’t go look for them when they didn’t come back?”

“Boss told me to stay away from them, the last time I went looking for them when they didn’t come home at dark.”

“Did you see them when they came home?”

“Did I ever! I was in the barn when they come in on their horses. They were with their cousin, Jack and all three of them were drunker ‘n hell and half naked. I stayed hid until they staggered out of the barn, laughing like crazy folks. The girls kept trying to cover their naked asses and tits, with Jack trying to pull their clothes off before they got to the house.”

“Was that the last time you saw them?”

“Yeah, I suppose it was ... I know it was now, because I said something to the Mexican cook about the the girls and she told me they were staying in town with some friends.”

“William, we can do this either of two ways. You can ride with me without being handcuffed to your saddle, or you can ride with me with handcuffs on.”

“I’ll ride with you. I ain’t got nothing to hide. You tell me what to do and I’ll even help you. I lied to you before ‘cause I was just trying to help the man I work for.”

“William, was that the first time you saw Hargrove’s daughters drunk with their cousin?”

They had been riding back toward the burned out stage, as Hoyt kept asking questions. He had to wonder about young Jack Hargrove being with those girls. He was supposed to be riding shotgun on the stage when it was robbed.

“No, they got together anytime Mr. Hargrove turned his back and Jack wasn’t on a stage run. I’ve seen them in the barn naked together many times before and kept my mouth shut ... I ain’t gonna lie to you about it, I got some pussy from both of them girls one night when they come home drunk and asked me if I wanted some pussy. Hell, I may me a dumb-ass ol’ cowboy, but I ain’t so dumb as to turn down pussy from those two girls. I gotta tell you, they look damn good naked and they love to fuck.”

“Did you ever see them with other boys or men?”

“I sure did. Not long ago either. They wanted me to hitch up the buggy to the two buggy horses so they could go visit a friend in town. I did, and forgot all about it until I rode over to the west side of the ranch to check on that old piece-ass windmill. There they were, naked as the day they were born in that stock tank under the windmill. There was two men in there with them. I stayed hid and watched them until they got through taking turns fucking each other, then the men dressed in fancy clothes and rode their horses toward town. The sisters – Clara and Loria, are their names – anyway, they stayed in that stock tank for the longest and I wondered why until I saw two Mexican boys about their ages ride up, strip naked and get in there with them.”

“Have you ever seen the two Mexicans before?”

“Many times, but that was the only time I saw them naked with the girls in daylight. I saw them again about a week later in the barn. Those girls love to fuck in the barn, I’m telling you.”

“The Mexicans were regular visitors, I take it?”

“At least once a week, when they knew when the old man was in town for his weekly meeting.”

“What weekly meeting did he attend? Do you know?”

They had ridden back to the stagecoach, and Hoyt turned Chelley south, toward the border.

“Well, he always told the house help that he had a weekly meeting with the Bible class. But I was in town one night and saw him come out of Miss Pinkston’s house.

“Who is she?”

“She runs a whorehouse on the edge of town.”

“Did you ever see him there again?”

“Every time I was in town on his meeting night, I saw him there. I stayed out of sight, cause I knew he would fire me if he knew I’d seen him there.”

“Who else do you know from the ranch who went there?”

“Clara and Loria.”

Hoyt rode in silence for a mile or more as he tried to make some pieces fit together.

“Were they with anyone when they went in?”

“The same two fancy dressed men I told you about. Then, one night, I saw them with those men, and the two young Mexican men I told you about.”

“Were you spying on them, to see them so many times?”

“No, I was seeing a woman about twice my age, who lived across a empty yard from Miss Pinkston’s, and we would lay in her bedroom upstairs and watch out her window, as the men would come in, fuck the whores and leave. There was a few times we saw Clara and Loria with two women. That was just before they left this last time and didn’t return ... I’m telling you, I never even thought about women doing the things those four women did to each other.”

“Did you know the two women?”

“I don’t know them, but they’re the same two young Mexican women who would come see the sisters at the ranch while the old man was gone.”

Hoyt was able to pick up short skips of the trail Marshal Walker had told him about. There had been many other horses through here, along with the Marshal and his deputies. He found where the Marshal and his men had turned back. He kept going on the same trail until he found where the six horses had stopped.

“Hold my reins, and stay on your horse, William. I’ll try to find where these horses went from here and if they were joined by other riders.”

Walking a wide circle through the sage brush and scrub trees, Hoyt did come upon another trail. This one led from the direction where he’d left Chelley and William. There were six saddle horses and they were going south. To the border, he figured.

“How far is it from Phoenix to Nogales?” he asked William as he mounted Chelley.

“Bout a hundred seventy-five to a hundred eighty miles, just guessing.”

“I’m going south. You can ride with me or you can go back to Hargrove’s ranch.”

“I’ll ride with you if it don’t matter to you. I probably won’t have anything left to go back to anyway, the way this thing is looking.”

They rode south the rest of the day, then made camp near a small waterhole. There had been tracks of saddle horses all the way south. Six horses, Hoyt had counted. The same six saddle horses he had tracked to the fenced pasture on Hargrove’s land where he found the six-horse hitch from the stage.

He tried to put the pieces together in his mind as they sat drinking coffee. Those six riders had to come back to the stagecoach after taking the horses to Hargrove’s land, then, for whatever reason, they rode south. Not together at first, but they did meet later.

The next morning, they were on the trail of the six horses, as soon as they had light to see the tracks.

“How’d you ever learn to track like this? I’ve seen you pick out a saddle horse from a workhorse. Then you pointed out that two horses were carrying women and four were carrying men, who weighed more. I don’t see how you ever keep all that straight in your head.”

“Just things I’ve picked up over the years, working on a ranch over south of St. Johns. We had a lot of range land that was nothing but sagebrush, about like this we’re riding through. Some of the land we grazed, was used by other ranchers too and I had to gather our cattle up, and separate them from the others. I had to learn the tracks of bulls from steers, and the steers from cows – the other ranch hands’ horses from ours, and then, track all our horses by the shoes we used.”

“You did your own shoeing?”

“Had to. Didn’t have time to go to town each time a horse threw a shoe.”

“If I could track like you do, I’d try to get me a job with the Marshal’s Service.”

“If you mean it, I could say a few words in your favor to Marshal Walker. They’re shorthanded but you’d still have to start out at the bottom. The way you’re picking up this tracking, you could become a deputy in a year, maybe less.”

“Do it, Hoyt ... Man, I’d be obliged to you forever if you did.”