Turnback Creek (Widowmaker) Read online

  “We didn’t mean to hurt nobody, Marshal,” one of them called out.

  “I know that,” Cooper said. “It was just end-of-the-trail hijinks that got outta hand. But somebody did get hurt, and I got to take you in.”

  To Locke, all five cowboys now looked scared. Three of them were barely twenty, and they seemed to be looking to the two older men for guidance.

  “Are we gonna go to jail?” one of the younger ones asked. “I can’t go to jail, Marshal.”

  “That’s not for me to decide, boy,” Cooper said. “Just drop your guns to the ground, and we’ll walk over to the jail.”

  The youngster who was afraid of going to jail said to his compadre, “Ned, I can’t go to jail.”

  “Take it easy, Harve—”

  But young Harve panicked, and he went for his gun. The situation still could have been handled, in Locke’s view, but Cooper reacted. He cleanly outdrew the boy and shot him dead when he probably didn’t have to. In hindsight, Locke saw the boy freeze as Cooper’s gun cleared leather so quickly. It could have ended there, but Cooper pulled the trigger, and then everybody was shooting, including Locke …

  “I killed some of those cowboys, too, Coop,” Locke reminded his friend now.

  “Yeah, you did,” Cooper said. “But I fired the first shot. The town council didn’t want a lawman who was trigger-happy, who had started drinkin’—”

  “Nobody knew that.”

  “Somebody did,” Cooper said.

  “I feel bad that I didn’t,” Locke said. “We’re friends. I should have known something was wrong.”

  “Not your fault, John,” Cooper said. “After they took my badge away, I just crawled into a bottle, and I only come out a few months ago. I heard about this job and thought, this is my chance. I can make some money and get back some of my self-respect, maybe get some of my reputation back.”

  “Then that’s what we’ll do, Dale,” Locke said. “We’ll do all of it.”

  “Not with me shootin’ this way.”

  “Look,” Locke said, “let’s take a break, get some coffee, and talk about what we’re going to do tomorrow. After that, if you want to come back out here and shoot some more, I’m with you.”

  Cooper looked at Locke. “You been holdin’ back,” he accused.

  “Coop—”

  “Ain’tcha?”

  “I’m no sharpshooter, Coop,” Locke said, shaking his head, “but I can hit what I shoot at.”

  “Wait.”

  Cooper set up four cans and two bottles, then returned to where Locke was standing.

  “Hit all six, and then we’ll go and have coffee.”

  Locke took a deep breath, then drew his gun—not for speed but just to get it out—and fired six measured shots. All six cans and bottles went flying or shattered.

  “I’ll buy,” Cooper said.

  SEVENTEEN

  Cooper cooled off some over coffee at the café.

  “Let me tell you something,” Locke told him. “The Dale Cooper I saw yesterday couldn’t have gotten his gun out of his holster without shooting his foot off. Give yourself another couple of days off the whiskey, and you’ll probably be fine.”

  “You might be right,” Cooper said, and Locke thought at that point the man might let up on himself some.

  “I have an idea about moving the gold,” he said, changing the subject.

  “Let’s hear it.”

  “Once we collect the gold from the train in Kingdom Junction, we’re going to have to camp one night between here and there.”

  “So?”

  “So, I think we should bypass this town the next day and head straight up the mountain.”

  “I’m sure Molly’s gonna want to see her gold.”

  “Then she can meet us somewhere and take a look at it,” Locke said. “Crowell said we’re going to have to cross the creek to get to the mountain, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Do you know where the actual creek is?”

  “Outside of town a few miles,” Cooper replied, “between here and the mountain.”

  “Fine,” Locke said. “Then she can meet us there, inspect her gold shipment, and we can get moving. That way, nobody gets a chance to try for us right here in town.”

  Cooper gave it some thought, then said, “All right, I like it. What about the law?”

  “What about him?”

  “Should we let him in on our plans?”

  “I know you were a lawman for a long time, Coop,” Locke said, “but I don’t trust this one.”

  “Why not?”

  “He feels … wrong.”

  “Well,” Cooper said, “I don’t like goin’ around the law, but I’ll trust your judgment. So, we just tell Molly?”

  “Right,” Locke said.

  “What about Crowell?”

  “No. Let’s keep control of who knows what we’re doing.”

  “What if she tells him?”

  “We’ll have to stress the importance of not telling anyone,” Locke said. “I think she’ll understand. She’s a smart woman.”

  “She’s a smart woman,” Cooper said, “with eyes for you.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Hey,” the ex-marshal said. “Even an old drunk can see that.”

  “I’m not here to find a woman, Coop.”

  “You could do worse.”

  “I’ve been alone a long time,” Locke said, “and I intend to stay that way. I like it.”

  Cooper regarded his friend across the table. “You never found a woman you wanted to settle down with? In all these years?”

  “I’m as settled as I’m ever going to be in Las Vegas,” Locke said. “I got a nice little place there, and I’m not looking to share it with anyone else. I’m comfortable.”

  “That’s sad.”

  “Why sad?” Locke asked. “Have you got a woman?”

  “No.”

  “Ever had a woman?”

  “No, but I was a lawman for a lot of years, like you said,” Cooper answered. “That’s no life for a woman.”

  “Well, my life is certainly no life for a woman, either,” Locke said. “So, I guess we’re just destined to stay old bachelors.” Cooper lifted his coffee cup, and Locke followed. They clinked them, and Locke said, “Here’s to old bachelors.”

  They drained their coffee cups, set them down, and Cooper said, “Now, let’s go shoot some more.”

  EIGHTEEN

  When they left the café, they decided to go right to Molly’s office to discuss their plan. She was there alone, without Crowell, which allowed them to talk freely after she greeted them, and they exchanged pleasantries about the dinner the night before.

  “It’s a good thing we don’t eat like that every day,” Cooper said, touching his stomach.

  “Don’t either of you have a … wife to cook for you?” she asked, looking at Locke.

  “Uh, no,” he said, thinking about what Cooper had said. “I’ve never been married.”

  “I never have, either,” Cooper said, but Molly wasn’t listening to him. She was obviously more interested in what Locke had to say.

  “No woman waiting for you where you live?” she asked Locke.

  “Um, no,” he said, feeling uncomfortable. “We want to discuss something with you, Molly … about the gold.”

  “I see.” She seemed amused at his discomfort. She sat back in her chair. “All right, gentlemen, what’s on your minds? I know you came here to tell me something.”

  Locke allowed Cooper to explain their plan. He was, after all, the lead man on this job.

  She listened intently, nodding but not saying a word until Cooper was finished.

  “I like it,” she said. “In fact, I wholeheartedly agree with it. I’ll meet you Sunday afternoon at Turnback Creek. Do you think you can be there by three in the afternoon?”

  Locke looked at Cooper, because he was the one who knew how far away Kingdom Junction was.

  “I thi
nk it would be hard to pinpoint our arrival that much,” Cooper said, “but we should be able to make it by afternoon.”

  “Very well, then.”

  “There’s one more thing,” Locke said.

  “What’s that?”

  “We don’t think anyone else should know about this,” he said. “Just the three of us.

  “Not the sheriff?”

  “Especially not the sheriff,” Locke said. He explained how he got a bad feeling from the man.

  “I think you’re right,” she said. “He didn’t do much about finding the men who grabbed my first payroll. We probably can’t count on him for any kind of help.”

  “And let’s not give him any unnecessary information,” Locke said. “That way, if something happens, we won’t have to view him with any suspicion. If only the three of us know, then nothing can go wrong.”

  “All right,” she said. “We leave the sheriff out of the loop. But I have to tell George.”

  “Why?” Locke asked. “Why do you have to?”

  She stared at him for a minute, then said, “I don’t know. I usually discuss everything with him.”

  “Well, maybe not this,” Locke said.

  She sat forward. “Are you telling me you suspect George—”

  “I don’t suspect him of anything,” Locke said. “We’re just trying to keep down the number of people who know what we’re doing. What if he let something slip by accident? Perhaps in the saloon?”

  “You’ll hardly ever find George in a saloon,” she said, “but I can see what you mean.”

  “We’re responsible for this gold, Molly,” Cooper said. “We feel we have the right to make some … requests.”

  “Or demands,” she said. She bit her lip for a moment. “All right, I’ll keep George in the dark.”

  “Is there any problem with you riding from here to the creek alone?” Locke asked.

  She smiled and said, “No. I’m an accomplished rider, John, and I’m not the nervous type. I’ll be able to ride out there, and if I get there before you do, I can make camp and wait. I don’t mind spending some time alone.”

  “That’s good,” Cooper said.

  “Well,” Locke said, moving toward the door, “we still have some preparations to make.”

  “You have a line of credit at the general store,” she said. “Just tell Herman Hollaway that you work for me.”

  “Thanks,” Cooper said. “We’ll do that.”

  “Let me walk you out.” She went out the front door with them, then tugged on Locke’s sleeve before he could leave. “Could I talk to you a moment?”

  Locke looked to Cooper for help, but the ex-marshal simply said, “I’ll meet you at the store.”

  Cooper stepped down and walked away as Locke turned to face Molly Shillstone.

  “I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner at my house again tonight,” she said. “This time without George and the marshal?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Molly.”

  “Why not?”

  “We have to get an early start in the morning,” he said. “The kind of meal we had last night tends to make a man … lazy. In my business, lazy means dead.”

  “Well, maybe just drinks, then?”

  “Uh, I don’t think—”

  “Mr. Locke,” she asked, “do I make you nervous?”

  Locke stared at her for a moment, her smooth skin and pretty eyes, and said, “Yes, you do, Mrs. Shillstone.”

  “All right, then,” she said. “Why don’t you just meet me for breakfast in the morning?”

  “We’ll be getting up at first light.”

  “Meet me at the café,” she said. “Bring the marshal. I just want to see you off.”

  “All right,” he said. “The café, first light.”

  “And when you both get back from delivering the gold,” she said, “we can talk about why I make you nervous.”

  Locke touched the brim of his hat and followed in Cooper’s wake.

  When he caught up to Cooper, his friend said, “I told you.”

  “Told me what?”

  “She’s got her eye on you.”

  “Nothing’s going to happen, Coop.”

  “Why not? She’s a mighty fine-lookin’ woman.”

  “I told you,” Locke said. “I’m not looking for a woman, fine-looking or otherwise.”

  “Not even just for the night?”

  “Spending just one night with a woman like that wouldn’t be smart,” Locke said. “If that was what I wanted, I’d go to a saloon.”

  “Not in this town,” Cooper said, shaking his head. “Believe me, I’ve seen the girls who work the saloons here. Not in this town.”

  Molly Shillstone knew she’d done a silly thing, inviting John Locke to her house. She didn’t need to get mixed up with a man right now—especially not a man like him.

  But there was something about John Locke. He was unlike any of the men in Turnback Creek—unlike any other man she’d ever met, in fact. It had been a while since she’d been with a real man, and the men who chased after her here in town, especially George Crowell, did not fit that description.

  She stood on her porch, watching Locke and Cooper until they were out of sight, hugging herself against the chill in the air. No, it wasn’t smart at all to show interest in Locke. From this point on, their relationship would be strictly business. That was the only way this whole thing was going to come out the way she wanted it to.

  She turned and went back inside the house, closing the door firmly behind her.

  NINETEEN

  Robert Bailey met Hoke Benson and Eli Jordan at the livery stable, where they had saddled their horses and his.

  “Well?” Hoke asked.

  “They went back to shootin’,” Bailey said. “Had some coffee at the café, talked to Molly Shillstone for a while, went to Hollaway’s store, and then went back to shootin’.”

  “All right,” Hoke said. “Mount up.”

  The plan was for the three of them to be in Kingdom Junction already when Cooper and Locke arrived. Hoke still hadn’t decided where they would hit the payroll—at the railhead or on the trail—but he wanted to get a look at the layout before he decided.

  “What about more men?” Bailey asked.

  “I got a telegram back from the Junction,” Hoke said. “There’ll be two more men waitin’ there for us.”

  “Do we know ’em?” Eli asked.

  “I know ’em,” Hoke said. “That’s all that matters.”

  The three of them climbed astride their horses and started out of town. As they passed the hotel, they could hear the sound of gunfire emanating from behind it.

  “A confident man don’t have to practice with a gun,” he told his two partners. “The fact that they’re back there shootin’ is good for us. They’re both over the hill, boys.”

  “Maybe we didn’t need to split the payroll with two other men, then,” Eli said.

  “There’s plenty to go around,” Hoke said. “Let’s not start second-guessing ourselves. We’ll stick to the plan.”

  “And what’s the rest of the plan?” Bailey asked.

  “I haven’t decided yet,” Hoke said. “But when I do, we’ll stick to it.”

  TWENTY

  Locke and Cooper didn’t go back to shooting until they availed themselves of the line of credit Molly had arranged for them at the general store. After they outfitted themselves and made arrangements to pick up their supplies the next morning, they returned to their makeshift shooting gallery. Cooper seemed more relaxed and shot better, although not perfectly.

  Holstering his gun, he said, “Maybe those days are gone. Maybe I need specs.”

  “Hey,” Locke said, “even Hickok had eye problems.”

  Cooper finished reloading his gun and holstered it. “Like you said before,” he commented, “maybe I’ll shoot better the further I get from the bottle.”

  “How about some food?” Locke asked.

  “You know
,” Cooper said, “just because I’m not drinkin’ doesn’t mean you can’t go over to the saloon for a beer.”

  “I usually stick to one beer a day,” Locke said.

  “You used to drink a lot more than that, if I remember correctly,” Cooper said.

  “We have a lot more in common than you know, Coop,” Locke told his friend.

  “Like what?”

  “Maybe when we’re on the mountain, I’ll tell you all about Tombstone.”

  They started walking down the alley back to the street.

  “I heard you wore a badge in Tombstone,” Cooper said. “It surprised me. You never were the type to wear a badge.”

  “That was the only time.”

  “Never again?”

  “I never have since then,” Locke said, “and I don’t expect to again. It wasn’t for me.”

  “The law isn’t for everyone,” Cooper said.

  “You were always a great lawman, Coop.”

  “Yeah,” Cooper said, “until Ellsworth.”

  “You know,” Locke said, “Tombstone and Ellsworth are in our past. We should just keep moving forward.”

  “I don’t know that I have much of a future left to me, John,” Cooper said. “The West I knew is all but gone. Progress is not something I’m real comfortable with.”

  “Can’t say I’m crazy about it, either,” Locke said, “but what other choices do we have?”

  Cooper hesitated, then said, “Maybe we can talk about that up on the mountain, too.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  Locke and Cooper decided to put off eating. Cooper wanted to go back to his room for a while, and Locke had a sneaking suspicion the man wanted to see his landlady. Remembering that he still had to check out of the hotel and move his things to Mrs. Helms’s rooming house, Locke told Cooper he’d be right along.

  When Locke reached the rooming house and Mrs. Helms let him in, she said, “The marshal is having a nap.”

  “I’ll be very quiet,” he told her.

  He took his things and put them in the room next to Cooper’s, then found her waiting for him when he came back down.

  “How did you do it?” she asked him.