Chapter 8: Plans

The Emporium was across the street and down a half block. An older, somewhere in his sixties man, hurried to greet them as they entered. "Jesse, come right in. Please buy something. Business is so bad even the shoplifters have started to go elsewhere. I'm so close to closing my doors forever you would not believe it."

"Saul, ever since I first started to come in here you have been about ready to close your doors forever. You sold me my first new pair of boots on credit when I was fourteen and my first Stetson a year later. You will close your doors at the same time as the second coming of Christ."

"Jesse, don't you talk to this poor man like that. Running a business, even a small business like this is no easy task." Marie did not like the way Jesse talked to this old man.

"Where did you find such a rarity as this beautiful one? She is as a rose in the desert surrounded by cactus, this one. Brains, beauty and spirit."

"Rose in the desert my ass. You meant a rose in the middle of a bunch of pricks. I know you Saul Feldman. Take your bull down the road or I'll tell Miriam you have been hitting on the female customers." Jesse looked down at the old man affectionately.

"Well, just so he doesn't start hitting on the male customers I'll let the old capon try to crow like a rooster," came a female voice from the back of the store. An attractive woman in her late fifties came out and hugged Jesse.

"You get more beautiful every time I see you, Miriam," Leave this old fart and run off with me," Jesse greeted her.

She looked at Marie, assessing her closely, "And who is this, Jesse? She is gorgeous." Miriam made "gorgeous" sound like a nasal "gaw-juss."

"You're from the "Bronx?" Marie exclaimed.

"I thought I heard a touch of upper Manhattan in your voice." Miriam smiled and told her in a confidential voice, "Yeah, Bronx all the way until this wild and adventurous madcap Jew swept me off my feet and brought me out here to the wild, wild west where he said the cowboys and native Indians all feared the Kosher Kid." She looked affectionately at her slightly shorter husband.

"Miriam, these two nice people came in here to buy something. Please let them spend their money." Saul's face betrayed the greedy sound of his words as he smiled at his wife.

Jesse got down to business. "Saul, do you have any of those white arctic snow suits left? Marie and I may be spending time outside in the cold. I want us protected."

"In a forty-eight extra long, I only have the one in your size. It comes in mottled white camouflage only." Saul turned to his wife, "Miriam, show this young lady the white snow suites. Make certain she is fitted properly."

"But ... but... ," Marie tried to protest as Miriam led her away toward the back of the store. She looked at Jesse and shrugged.

"Okay," Saul got down to business. "What is going on around here, Jesse? You shot cops from New York City that the FBI wanted to arrest. You came in here with a beautiful girl that can only be the one those cops were looking for. Give."

"Oh man, I don't know where to start. You know one of that bunch killed Harold when I sent him out to watch things at my place." Jesse's voice took on a mean edge. "I don't know what the whole thing is about, but I intend to find out." He looked down at the floor and shook his head, "You remember all those old tales about a Spanish gold mine? Well, there is more to it than we thought."

Saul interrupted with an impatient gesture, "Jesse, Colorado has more lost gold mine stories than an old woman has complaints. Get to the point."

"Well, it seems there was supposed to be a cache of gold buried up on my ranch back in the early to mid eighteen hundreds, the Reyes expedition. The gold may have been mined locally. I have a map on a piece of very old parchment. It shows a cave where the gold is supposed to be." He stopped and stared hard at his friend, "We found the cave."

"So? And what about the gold?" The mocking grin on Saul's face said he did not believe Jesse found any gold,

"We did not have time to go looking for any gold. I had to get back to do the milking and other chores." Jesse saw Saul's grin, "Well, you know me, chores always come first," he said in a defensive voice.

"Well, at least you haven't gone gold crazy." The old man peered hard up into Jesse's eyes. "Okay, tell me the rest. You left something out. Like why you described the map as being on old parchment, rather than an old map on parchment, for instance. So tell the rest of the story." He folded his arms and waited.

Jesse took a deep breath and continued, "The damned map was printed with a laser printer. The thing looks real as hell and we even found the cave it showed. We know that much is real. So why go to that much trouble unless you want authentic? Supposed two hundred year old laser printed treasure maps are not quite authentic. I think there is a hidden message on that parchment or a map in invisible ink or something. On the other hand, with what I have learned about Marie's dad, it might be some sort of big con he started and then died before he could finish it.

"He was my captain and a damned fine officer. Yesterday I learned he was on the run from the law and joined the army to get away. Even there he had a couple of cons going on." Jesse looked Saul straight in the eyes and said, "Right now about the only two people in this world I trust are you and Miriam."

"What about me, Jesse?" Marie asked in a hurt voice. She had come back and stood listening to the two men talk.

"Don't take this wrong, but I don't know you. You can't build a lifetime of trust in just a couple of days. All I know about you is what you have told me. How much of it is true? I have no way of knowing. Right now I can tell you I won't harm you or try to cheat you. But do you know if what I just said is true?

"Yes," she exploded. "I go with what I feel inside, and that is to trust you."

"Before you get too carried away, remember what you told me about your father. You knew him a long time." Jesse felt like he was talking into a great void with no one listening.

He relented slightly, "I do trust you a little. I trusted you not to shoot me with my own piece. But Marie, before I place my whole trust in you I have to know you a lot better. You want pretty words, head back to the east coast. You will get nothing but straight talk from me. Okay?"

Reluctantly, she nodded her head yes. Suddenly, she blurted out, "If it would do any good I would burn that damned map and everything to do with it. I finally met a real man and he won't trust me." She stopped, startled at her own words and slapped her hand to her mouth as if top stop the words from coming out, the words she had already spoken.

"Trust her, Jesse, trust her. I feel she has a good heart." Miriam placed an arm around Marie's shoulders and hugged.

Saul broke the thick silence. "I got a suit in your size. What else you need, boy?" He gave Jesse a look of sympathy.

"I want a fifty-caliber sniper quality rifle, a night scope and three boxes of precision ammo. Also give me a thirty-two caliber short brush rifle and a twenty-two caliber nine shot revolver on a small frame for her hand. We'll need three boxes each for both of those weapons." He stopped and thought, "You still have that ten to thirty power sniper scope?"

"You going to war?" Saul looked at his friend, worried at the answer. "We do have the law around here."

"I'm not going to the war, Saul. The war is coming to me. Right now I want to make certain I'm on the winning side. Now what do you have that comes close to a sniper's rifle?"

"Jesse, what are you looking for? I got an ought six that is accurate up to five hundred yards, then the slug drifts out of the dead zone. I can let you have it for one eighty, tax included." Jesse realized his friend was offering him the gun at cost.

"Damn it Saul, when I was a kid heading for trouble you sold me my first twenty-two. You charged me full price and made me pay it off, no excuses. You do me the same today as you did then. Besides, I want something dead nuts for at least a half mile, say fifty caliber, seven shot clip, bolt action. What you got along those lines?"

"Jesse, you know what you are asking for?" Saul looked at him like he had gone crazy. "You want a mamzer you can blow a hole in a tank with it?"

"Saul, you do not go bear hunting with a fly swatter." Jesse smiled quietly at his friend, "What have you got?"

A reluctant Saul told him, "I got a used Barrett fifty caliber I bought off a down on his luck ranch hand last year. It had twenty bullets in three clips. It has no pedigree so I never listed it on my inventory. Now he said it was accurate for about one thousand yards. But you know how those guys lie. It is maybe what you want?"

Restraining his anxious feeling as best he could, Jesse told him in a tense voice, "Let me see it." If the piece was in decent shape it was just what the doctor ordered.

He followed Saul to the back of the store and waited while the gun vault was unlocked. Saul brought the rifle, wrapped in a heavy blanket; he laid the bundle on the back counter and with a show of reluctance unwrapped it. At the very first sight, Jesse knew he was looking at an old friend. Going by outward appearances, it seemed to be in perfect condition. With an almost reverence he lifted the rifle to his shoulder and sighted at an imaginary target. "I'll take it. How much?"

"Two thousand dollars for all your purchases. Give me whatever you have with you and I'll put the rest on your bill."

"Throw in two boxes of whatever ammo you have for the big boy and we'll call it three thousand dollars cash. That Barrett will bring three thousand on the open market in good used condition, even without any paperwork. This baby has barely been test fired."

"You have three thousand with you?" Saul asked.

"I got a little found money from selling some beef and pork." Jesse grinned and added, "Three big ones okay with you?"

Saul nodded his agreement. "You act like you are familiar with that gun. You ever shoot one before?"

"Old friend, that ranch hand had no idea what he had. He must have stolen it someplace. I have made head shots at one thousand yards with another one just like this one. Up to a mile and a half anything you hit is gone. At over a mile and a half the trajectory degrades fast."

Saul looked at him and asked carefully, "Ah head shots at a half mile away from the target? What did you do in the army? You never talk about your army days."

"I was a sniper," Jesse told him flatly. "I was damned good at what I did. I hope I still have what it takes. Until this is all over I intend to be careful, real damned careful."

Jesse turned toward the other side of the store where Marie and Miriam were talking. "We have to get going. We'll see you when we get back to town. You need anything just give me a call."

He gathered up their purchases except for the clothing, told Marie, "Pay the man," and walked toward the front door. Marie grabbed up the rest and followed.