Chapter 2

Elizabeth was looking even better now that she was showing. The same happened with her first two babies. The life growing inside her just seemed to make her glow with love and life. The mares were looking just as good and my grulla showed them his affection for them. I watched him on many occasions walk to one of his mares and just lean his neck on theirs. You could hear him nicker as he moved through his herd. He bowed his neck and pranced like a proud papa.I was coming out of the barn when I saw the single rider approaching. His approach wasn’t hurried and he sat tall. I walked at a smooth speed to the house and let Elizabeth know that a rider was coming.

“Who is it?” She asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t recognize the horse or the outfit.”That reply caused Elizabeth to go back into the house and set up a Winchester that was near one of the windows. She was sliding shells into the receiver as she watched the man slowly approach. When he reached the gate at the entrance he called out.

“Hello the house! Can I ride up?”

“Keep your hands in sight and come ahead,” I replied.The stranger undid the latch on the gate, rode in, latched the gate and continued to the house. He kept the reins in one hand and had the other hand on the pommel. When he got to the house he stopped.

“How can I help you?” I asked.

“Well sir, I’m looking for the sheriff.”

“He’s back in town. I haven’t been the sheriff in years.”The man looked at me like that was news. He readjusted his place in the saddle and removed his hat to scratch his bushy, black head of hair.

“I was told in town, that you were the man to talk to.”

“Well, someone is taking you for a ride. I was sheriff four years ago and I’ve been the deputy a few times when the sheriff was not in town.”

“Or when he’s dead?”That caused me to pause and got the little hairs on the back of my neck to stand up a bit.

“Yeah. A cattle outfit came to town and killed the sheriff. The mayor asked me to fill in as deputy until the outfit left town. I was there about a week.”

“And you killed a few men.”

“Nope. I didn’t kill anybody. A fella from the outfit shot a gambler. The gambler killed the fella with a derringer in his sleeve. One of the outfit then killed the gambler and the sheriff when he tried to calm things. The bartender killed that fella with a shotgun from behind the bar. After that the mayor sent for me and I was there the next evening.”

“And you didn’t shoot or kill anyone?”

“Nope. Only drew my gun once when a member of the outfit braced me after I stopped him from beating on a man a lot smaller than him.”

“You drew on him and didn’t shoot him?”

“That’s right. I don’t enjoy shooting people. I enjoy killing them even less. Now suppose you tell me why you want to know all this?”

“One of the men that got killed was my cousin.”

“Let me guess, Wes Sugar?”

“That’s right. I’m Jeremiah Sugar.”

“Well Wes was the man I arrested for beating on the smaller man. He was locked in the jail when he was shot and killed.”

“Who did it?”

“I never found out before I left town and came back here. The mayor said he would find out, so I let it go.”

“When my brother and cousins got to town they said that no one had found the killer.”

“Have you seen the jail?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know where your brother was shot?”

“In the face.”

“Right. So in order to get shot in the face, Wes would have to have stood on the bed and the killer would have had to been on a horse. After the shooting, no one saw a man running or riding away from the side of the jail. We thought the fella Wes had beat might have been the man but we never found him. Fella’s name is Jack Riley. I’m told he’s a bad man but I never met him. While I was dealing with Wes, the Doc took care of Riley and let him go. I never saw him or talked to him.”The man looked at me and I could see the doubts in his eyes.

“What did the mayor do?”

“I have no idea. Once they said they would handle it, I quit worrying about it and left town. You’ll need to ask the mayor or the new sheriff.”

“Can’t.”

“Why not?”

“They’re both dead.”

“How?”

“We killed ‘em. When they told us the man who killed Wes had got away, we killed ‘m both.”

“You killed Claude Du Bois?”

“I just said that. Which one was he, the mayor or the sheriff?”

“The mayor and a good friend.”

“Well mister, I don’t much give a damn. But since you were the sheriff and let the killer get away, I’m afraid that I’m gonna have to kill you too.”

“There’s no reason to do that.”

“Reason enough. You didn’t get him, so I’m gonna get you.”He began to reach for his pistol.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.”

“Why, you ain’t got no gun. What you gonna shoot me with, harsh words?”His hand touched the grip of the pistol and there was the loud sound of a rifle shot from the house and the rider flew backwards off the horse and onto the ground. Elizabeth had put one in his chest from the window. She came walking out with the rifle at the ready but the man didn’t move. His horse hadn’t shied away and stood firm, telling me that he’d been trained to deal with gun shots. Not a good sign in my mind.

“You OK?” I asked my perfect wife.

“Yup. I waited as long as I thought was safe for you. Did I hear right? Did he say Claude and the new sheriff are dead?”

“That’s what he said. How’s the kids?”

“Hanna is crying. John is fine.”I walked back into the house and picked up my little girl and rocked her in my arms until she stopped her crying. Elizabeth was in her rocker with John on her lap. We sat in silence after Hanna calmed down. Then I spoke my mind.

“Elizabeth, the way I see it is we have two choices. We wait for the rest of the Sugars to come to check on Jeremiah or I can load him up on his horse and take him to town and see what’s going on.”

“Not the best of options. We’re due to head to town for supplies in a couple of days, so we don’t have enough for a long battle. And if they come on their terms, we could be surprised and caught out in the open.”

“And if I ride into town, I could ride into five, ten, fifteen men.”

“Well, let’s have supper and talk it out. If he came straight out here and went back to town he would be expected back until noon tomorrow or later.”Elizabeth made our supper and then nursed Hanna while I went to the corral and called my grulla in with a loud whistle. He came running with his herd of mares. Once they were in the corral, I closed the gate behind them and let them into the stable for their hay and water. The grulla sensed something. When he got to the stable, his nose picked up the smell of gunpowder and he pricked his ears up and got a bit jittery.

“It’s OK,” I said as I stroked his neck. “Everything is fine.”He nickered and blew a couple of time and nuzzled me. I think he was worried about me. Good horse.Back in the house I sat at the table and Elizabeth rocked as we talked.

“I figure that if I go into town, I can ride in quietly and drop Jeremiah off at the undertakers and get the story from him. The Sugars don’t know what I look like so they shouldn’t be aware of me until I let them know. Then I can look around real fast and count their numbers before taking any action. If there’s too many, I can sneak back out and come back to board up.”We talked a little more before Elizabeth asked me if I wanted to take advantage of a fat woman. We put the children to bed and then proceeded to spend an hour or so making love. I had to be careful because of her nursing I couldn’t squeeze her teats too hard ... unless I was suckling myself.

I got up early and went to the stable. The grulla was down in his stall. I felt bad getting him up but I also knew that if he’d been sleeping laying down that he’d be raring to go. He must have sensed something was coming up as, like most horses, he usually slept standing, except for about once a week when he would sleep lying down.The sound of the stable door woke him. He got to his feet and shook out his black mane and looked at me.

“Yeah, we got a job to do,” I said as I brushed the straw and manure off of him. The first thing I did was put Sugars saddle on his horse and then get Jeremiah across the saddle, tying his hands and feet together.The grulla was next and I brushed him down again before putting the blanket on him. I saddled him and took him out to the house along with the other horse. I went in to find Elizabeth was waiting with a cup of coffee and a hug and kiss.

“You come back safe; my babies need a daddy.”

“Yes ma’am. Whatever you say ma’am.”Finishing my coffee, I smiled and turned for the door only to receive a swift kick in the slats. God, I love that woman.Outside, I stroked the grulla’s neck a few times before mounting and riding off with the other horse’s reins tied to the back of my saddle. I had a silly thought as I was approaching the gate. I’d often wondered if the grulla could jump the fence. That would be a bad idea this morning with the other horse along. It was still dark and although I was pretty sure that he could clear it, I didn’t want to take the chance today.The gate was unlatched and latched and we were on our way. The grulla must have felt something was up because I had to rein him back so he wouldn’t try to run the whole way to town with the other horse in tow. Even so, we got to town almost an hour faster than normal. The other horse was starting to froth from the exertion.I walked us around the back of the buildings and down to the undertakers shop. When we arrived, I dismounted and quietly knocked on the back door. He opened the door and looked at me with total surprise.

“Chris! What the hell are you doing here? The Sugars have been looking for you.”

“Well, one of them found me. He went for his gun and got shot for his efforts. I got his body out here.”

“Let’s get him inside and you too. You don’t need to be seen.”He helped me carry the body into the back of his shop.

“Before he got shot, Jeremiah said that Claude and the new sheriff had been killed. Is that true?”

“It is.”

“How many of them are there?”

“There were seven or eight, now there’s one less I guess.”

“What can you tell me about them?”

“They are all bullies. They are violent. They’ve walked down the street and just beat someone at random.”

“Who was the sheriff?”

“Dale Robertson. He was one of the cattle outfit. He went to Claude and asked if he could apply as sheriff since ours had been killed. Claude and Ed talked to him and hired him. He was pretty good. A lot like Jeremy. He wasn’t quick to draw a gun, tried to talk people out of trouble. He left a wife and son behind him.”

“Where could I find these tough men at this time of the morning?”

“Probably at the saloon. They’ve been taking up the time of all the saloon girls.”

“Thanks.”I was going to tell him to save me a good box but that seemed like I would be expecting bad times ahead for myself. I mounted the grulla and rode out to behind the saloon. As I approached the back door, a big man came out in his long johns. He had shaggy black hair and his dick in his hand. He started walking towards the ditch out behind the saloon where everyone went to do their business instead of an outhouse.Getting off the grulla, I walked towards the ditch as well.

“Morning.”

“Fuck off.”That told me a lot. I walked to the ditch and opened my pants to piss. I was relieving myself when he came up and slapped me. I almost lost my balance but caught myself before I fell into the ditch. He laughed like me almost falling in the ditch was funny to him. Unknown to me, the grulla had followed me out to the ditch. When the fella slapped me, the sound was loud and the grulla walked in and gave the man a shove with his neck.The big guy fell into the ditch and by the time he was done struggling he was caked in piss and shit.

“I’m gonna kill that horse!” The big man swore.

“No you ain’t. You hit me and my horse didn’t like it. He hit you back.”

“Are you trying to be smart?”

“Nope, just telling you like it is. You mess with me; you mess with my horse. He’s like family.”

“Well get ready for a family funeral. As soon as I get my gun, I’m gonna put a bullet in his damn head.”

“That wouldn’t be a good idea. You’d have to go through me first.”

“That’s your call. It don’t matter to me.”

“It should matter to you. I’m the deputy sheriff.”He froze.

“The deputy sheriff?”

“Yup. Name’s Chris O’Dell. You one of the fellas that killed the mayor and the sheriff?”

“Yeah. And you’re going to join them for not getting our brother’s killer.”He paused as a thought came to him.

“Wait. We sent Jeremiah out to take care of you.”

“He didn’t. I just brought him in to the undertaker. He’s over there now. His horse and rig are tied up behind the undertaker’s shop.”

“You killed Jeremiah?”

“He was at my place, pulled his gun, and he’s dead. So it would seem that way.”

“This’ll be your end mister.”

“Are you threatening me? I am a deputy sheriff.”

“I don’t care if you’re the King of England. You’re a dead man.”I drew my pistol and pointed it at his chest.

“Do you want to come with me to the jail or to the undertaker?”He didn’t answer right away so I pulled the hammer back and raised my eyebrows, “Your choice and I might mention that it’s more of a choice than Jeremiah gave me.”

“Where’s the jail?”

“You don’t know? I thought you boys had been over there to see the set up and figure how Wes got killed,” I paused to let him think. “Go that way.”I tilted my head in the direction and he looked at me.

“Can’t I get my clothes?”

“Nope. Your family can bring your outfit.”

“They’ll bring it all right,” he said, chuckling at his own joke.We walked around the right side of the saloon and then up towards the street. The jail was across the street and a few doors down from the saloon. There weren’t many people on the street at this time of the morning and we didn’t really draw any attention. That fact made me wonder what the hell kind of town this had become when a man, holding a gun on a man, in his long johns, covered in shit, and being followed by a large grulla stallion, drew no attention.I stepped up on the boardwalk and tested the handle to the jail. The door was unlocked so I opened the door and used the pistol to prod the big man to move ahead of me. He walked in and I saw a dark stain on the floor of the office. Dale Robertson had been shot while he sat at his desk. He didn’t even get a fair chance to fight back.I was getting more and more angry by the minute. I opened the drawer that had the cell door keys when I was sheriff and they were still there. I opened the cell and the big man entered with me closing and locking it right behind him.