Chapter 18

It was nearly midnight when the special got back to Waypoint.

They had dropped Rosa Morales in Dorado Springs. Malik, Lonegan, and Theresa Walker had taken her home to her parents, who immediately dropped to their knees, hugging their daughter in tearful joy, and giving heartfelt, thankful prayers.

At Waypoint, while Lonegan went to fetch the undertaker, Healy and Theresa Walker were to accompany Juanita Gutierrez home. However, the girl’s mother, along with Stella Norman, was already walking toward the station as the train pulled in. Neither Malik nor Cowboy’s brothers lingered for that reunion, but immediately walked off toward the Hannah’s bakery, a block north of the depot.

The entrance to the stairway leading to the store’s second floor apartment was at street level, at the side of the building. A bell pull was attached to the door frame and Malik tugged it twice. The tingling bell could be heard from above.

It was Hannah Isely who descended the stairs and opened the door. The moment she saw Malik, her worried face became stricken. Her eyes moved quickly over Sage and Juniper, and back to Malik. “Where--” she began.

Malik reached out and grasped her hands. He said, “Let’s go upstairs, Hannah.”

The stairs were narrow, so Malik could only assist by keeping a hand on Hannah’s elbow as he climbed the steps behind her. Matilda was waiting at the door at the top of the staircase, wringing her hands.

As Malik came up to the landing, he said, firmly, “Let’s sit down, ladies.”

They both chose to sit down at the four-place kitchen table. Malik pulled out the chair between them, but went down on one knee, so his head was slightly lower than theirs. Juniper and Sage stood behind him.

Malik reached across the table and grasped one hand of each woman, who seemed to be holding their breath. He looked into Matilda’s eyes, took an audible breath and, without preamble, said, softly, “Cowboy’s dead, Tilda. He was shot in the chest and died only a minute later.” Matilda’s free hand came up to her mouth as if it could catch her breath. Her eyes stared blankly at Malik.

Hannah was immediately out of her chair and, kneeling herself, wrapped her arms around her daughter.

Malik continued, “Juniper and I were by his side before he died. It was clear he was in pain, but his last thoughts were about you. He gripped my hand and he whispered, ‘Watch over Tilda.’” Matilda’s face pinched up and she squeezed tears out of her eyes, shaking her head in denial. There were tears streaming down Hannah’s face, too.

Malik gripped both of her hands between his own. “I’m sorry, Matilda, I’m just so sorry,” he gasped, leaning his forehead against her shoulder. “I should have known. It was my fault,” he sobbed.

That was the tableau for some minutes: Matilda in the chair, her mother kneeling beside her on one side with her arms wrapped around her, the daughter’s head bent to her mother’s. On the other side, Malik knelt, gripping the young widow’s hand in desperate supplication, his bent head pressed to her shoulder. All three were lost in their grief.

At last, Matilda withdrew a hand from Malik’s grip and placed it on his head, pushing it back so she could see his face. She drew a deep, shuddering breath, then said, “Enough, Emil. When were you ever able to tell Cowboy to do something he, himself, didn’t intend to do? He knew his own heart and could not be dissuaded. We both know that; it was his strength.”

Malik looked up at her, withdrew his hands, and sat back on his heels. He pulled a crumpled white kerchief from his pocket and wiped his eyes and blew his nose. Then he looked at Matilda and just shook his head slowly, his eyes moist and sorrowful.

Matilda asked, “Was that all he said?”

“Well, he ... he said something about naming a boy. Are you, uh ... are you with child, Tilda?”

Matilda slowly nodded her head, fresh tears streaming down her face.

“Well, he said, if it was a boy, to name him after your father.”

Incongruously, for a few seconds, a smile contrasted with Matilda’s tears, as she nodded her head in acknowledgment.

Malik left his knees and sat directly on the floor, his back to a wall, his knees drawn up. Juniper went to hug the two women. Sage sat down on the floor next to Malik.

Sage whispered, “The world doesn’t seem like a real place, anymore.”

Malik leaned over and put his arm around the younger man. “I know what you mean. Cowboy was such a big part of things. My mind keeps insisting that things aren’t right, that they need to go back to how they were.”

Hannah cleared her throat and asked, “Emil, the man that shot Cowboy...?”

“Juniper killed him. He was a very bad man. Doyle was his name. He killed Joshua Trent and old Noah Williams. Gunderson and Banks, too, not that those two didn’t deserve it. Same with some men he killed up in McCabe County, early this morning.

“Gunderson, Banks, and the men up in McCabe were all working with Doyle. And he’d ordered other deaths, too, including Bill Edwards. He’d also kidnapped a dozen or more women over the past year or two, sold them as prostitutes in Mexico, I imagine. God knows where they are. But Cowboy rescued three of them today. One was a girl of only fourteen.”

He paused, looking at the floor and shaking his head. He looked up at Hannah. “Doyle was also the boss of the men who killed Aspen and Standing Horse, and Fred Urban, and that little girl on the depot platform.” He sighed, again shaking his head. “We were all desperate to stop him. All of us were taking chances, it’s just that Cowboy...” Malik’s voice choked off.

The doorbell jingled. Juniper said, “I’ll go.”

A minute later, the clatter on the steps revealed Jacob Baylor, Andy, and Christina, followed by Lonegan. Lonegan approached Malik while the others, carrying coffee and tea carafes, went to the two women at the kitchen table. Baylor kissed both women on the cheek, then remained with his arm around Hannah while Christina embraced Matilda.

Lonegan crouched by Malik. He whispered, “We need to talk.”

Malik pushed himself to his feet and followed Lonegan out onto the stairway landing.

Malik asked, “Did you tell--”

“No, we didn’t have to. Half the town’s been up, waitin’ for word. Tom Palmer was at the depot. Your man, uh, Val Garcia, was with him. Then the Rademachers showed up, and the man from over at the Isabella, and what’s his name, your Limey manager at the Inn. So the word’s out.” Then he added, “But there’s a problem.”

“What now?”

“The undertaker says he can’t embalm Cowboy’s body. The bullet tore up his insides and went out his back. The embalming fluid won’t, um,” Lonegan shook his head, “ah, what did he say? Well, in any event, the embalming fluid can’t get to all the places it needs to and it’ll leak out where it has,” he explained, uncertainty in his tone. “He says he can’t stop it. The body won’t keep but a few hours. He’s got it on ice, for now. But, if Matilda and them want to see him, it might be best tonight.”

“Damn. Ah, well. Give ‘em a minute with Jacob and ... Say, does it look like Jacob and Hannah might be a little more than just business colleagues? Come to think of it, I’ve been hearing about him taking meals over here. And that makes me realize something else: I found out just today that Matilda’s pregnant. Cowboy seems to have been keeping things from me. And here I am, unable to get after him for it. Maybe he was taking the easy way out, running into that bullet.”

Lonegan gently squeezed Malik’s shoulder. “That’s the spirit. Cowboy was too full of life for ours to be less because of this.”

“Ah, you’re right. He’d want us grinning. He’d be telling one of his stories. I’m going to miss that, that...” Malik voice choked off, again, and Lonegan put an arm around his shoulder.

Cowboy was buried at Ranch Home. Matilda said he had always felt more at home on the Malik Ranch than he did the Tsosie family ranch in the Flat Grass Valley. The Malik Ranch was where he had grown up and it was where he returned as often as he could. He did love the Flat Grass Valley, Matilda explained, but his heart strings were tied to the Leander Hills, the Rio Isabella, Lake Manuela, and the forests and prairies that Valerian Malik had so admired. Plus, she admitted, it would keep his grave closer to her and the child she was carrying.

As it happened -- what with the growing population at Ranch Home -- Hannah, Matilda, Cowboy, and, not so surprisingly, Jacob Baylor, had only recently discussed the possibility of opening a bakery at Ranch Home, which Matilda would manage. She and Cowboy had talked about building a house there. Jacob and Hannah, as part of the plan, thought they might become business partners and build a proper bakery in Waypoint at a better location, away from the railroad tracks -- next to Baylor’s store, in fact.