The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  He’d learned of Potter’s murder from Alice Mellin, and had followed a trail of tracks away from the murder sight all the way down the backside of the mountain to where they’d found the old man.

  By the time they’d carried his body back to Denver City, it was dark. He knew that Letty had ridden away from her home, supposedly after her husband’s killer. It was his opinion that she would be the next victim.

  The next morning, he’d deputized a couple of down-on-their-luck prospectors and tried to pick up the trail from the old man’s cabin. They followed it until they rode into a valley and came upon a large herd of elk. Upon their arrival, the herd bolted. Whatever tracks had been left by horses and men were gone, trampled beneath the hooves of the massive herd. After trying for some time to pick up the trail, they were forced to give up and rode back to Denver City.

  The last thing Hamm ever expected to see was this woman tying up her horse in front of his office. He walked out with bravado, eyed the dog sniffing his boots, and then looked up at Robert Lee, who was quietly sitting on his horse. The fact that the man hadn’t dismounted seemed strange, but Hamm let the thought slide, and shifted his focus to Letty.

  Her clothes were stained with blood and dirt, and the smell of wood smoke was strong about her. He thought she stumbled as she reached toward the saddle to untie an old flour sack, but then he changed his mind when she grabbed it firmly and turned around. He tried to meet her gaze, but couldn’t get past the guilt of coming back to Denver City without her or her husband’s killer.

  “Miz. Potter, I’m right sorry for your loss.”

  Letty didn’t comment. Instead, she turned the sack upside down, dumping the contents at the sheriff’s feet.

  The charred bones clattered as they fell onto the wood planks, while the skull took an odd roll, coming to stop at the toes of his boots.

  “Godallmighty!” Hamm cried, and jumped back as if he’d been burned. “What in hell have you done?”

  “Brought back my husband’s killer. I’m done with him. You can do what you will.”

  She dropped the sack, whistled at her dog, and mounted her horse.

  “Wait! Where do you think you’re going?” Hamm yelled.

  Letty looked up the mountain where the roof of her house was barely visible. Her eyes filled with tears, then spilled over, running silently down her face.

  “I reckon I’m going home, now,” she said.

  The crowd was deadly silent. Hamm didn’t know what to think. The bones had their own truth to tell, but he didn’t have enough facts to let this all go.

  He was reaching for his pistol when he heard a distinct and familiar click. Robert Lee was holding a gun aimed at his chest.

  “Don’t even think it,” Robert Lee said softly. “Miz Letty… you head on home now. I’ll be along soon.”

  Letty didn’t acknowledge that she’d heard him, but she did ride away.

  Hamm was furious. This didn’t look good, him letting a woman like her ride in and dump bones at his feet without some explanation. Then, having her hired gunslinger pull a weapon on him in front of all these people set his teeth on edge.

  “I don’t care if you’d got two guns trained on me. I need some answers,” he said, then pointed at the skull. “There’s a hole in this here skull.”

  “That would be where Miz Potter shot her husband’s killer,” Robert Lee said.

  There was a collective gasp from the crowd of people as they all moved closer for a better look.

  “Well, then,” Hamm sputtered. “If she shot the man, then how did his body get burned?”

  “That would be because she set him on fire.”

  All the color in Hamm’s face went south. His mouth was moving, but he couldn’t get the air to form words.

  “Who is he?” someone shouted.

  Robert Lee fixed the sheriff with a hard, angry stare.

  “Ask the sheriff, here,” Robert Lee said. “He’s the one who let him go free.”

  Hamm reeled as if he’d been punched in the gut. He stared down at the pitiful pile of bones, unable to believe what he was seeing.

  “What’s he talking about?” a woman cried.

  Hamm sputtered, then took a deep breath and quickly shifted the blame.

  “Don’t look at me,” he said loudly. “It weren’t me who said to let him go. It was that judge… Judge Joshua Dean. He wouldn’t even let me keep the man over for trial. He just walked in my office and ordered me to let the man go.”

  Unaware of the history behind the story, the same woman called out again.

  “Let who go?” she asked.

  Hamm bit his lip.

  Robert Lee pointed with the barrel of his gun.

  “George Mellin, and that there’s what’s left of him. He killed Eulis Potter, an unarmed man, standing in his own yard. Miz Potter didn’t do anything but get justice for her man.” He started to holster his pistol, then thought better of it and added. “One more thing. If I hear one unkind word said about that woman, I will take it real personal… you hear? There aren’t many men, let alone a lone woman, who could do what she just did. She rode the saddle for nigh on to twenty straight hours, riding hard through the dark in unfamiliar land, with one shot in a rifle she didn’t know how to reload. That’s the kind of woman a man would lay down his life for… which is what Eulis Potter did. It don’t matter whether you agree with her method. She just did what was right.”

  Hamm was speechless, but the crowd was not. By the time Robert Lee had ridden out of sight, the story of Letty Potter’s prowess had spread through half the town.

  Letty didn’t know and didn’t care. The easy part of her life was over. The hard part was learning how to live without Eulis at her side.

  Katie Samuels was playing in the dirt near the front steps when she heard someone coming up the trail. She saw the horse, recognized the riders, and went running into the house.

  “Mama Alice, Mama Alice… Miz Letty and Robert Lee are back!”

  “Thank you lord,” Alice cried, and wiped her hands on the front of her apron as she ran from the house. But when she saw Letty’s face and the condition of her clothes, she was almost afraid to ask what she’d done.

  “Letty… Letty… thank God you’re home,” Alice said, as Letty slid off the horse.

  The reins slid out of Letty’s hands to fall dangling to the ground. Robert Lee grabbed her around the waist, steadying her stride before she fell.

  Alice gasped and put a hand to her mouth. Her eyes were wide—questioning.

  Robert Lee shook his head slightly as he tightened his grip on Letty.

  “Come on now, Letty. Let me help you in the house. You made it this far. Just a little bit farther to go.”

  Letty swayed against him, then looked up. When she saw Alice, their gazes locked.

  “Where is he?” Letty asked.

  Alice sighed and bit her lip.

  “I laid him out in his coffin in the living room floor. A man is digging his grave right now. I’m right glad you made it back in time to see him put to rest. Did you catch who did it? Did you learn his name?”

  Letty hadn’t thought past revenge for Eulis, but this was going to be a thing Alice would have to learn to bear.

  “Yes, I know his name,” Letty said.

  Alice waited.

  Letty looked down at her boots, then back up at Alice.

  “It was George… your husband… and I’m right sorry to tell you that I killed him dead.”

  Alice’s face flushed, and then turned pale as a sheet as she covered her mouth to keep from screaming. Overwhelmed with guilt for what had happened, she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around Letty’s legs.

  “Lord, God… I am so blessed sorry. It’s my fault. I should never have stayed and put you and your family in this danger.”

  “Get up,” Letty said. “It’s not your fault Eulis is dead. George killed him, not you. It’s something that happened, and it’s something we will get past.”

&nbs
p; Then Letty looked past Alice to the front door. He was on the other side of those walls—waiting for her to tell him goodbye.

  Robert Lee felt sick. He didn’t think Letty would survive this. She hadn’t eaten or slept in days. Now, the thought that she was going to have to face her husband’s funeral seemed a torture she shouldn’t have to endure.

  “Letty?”

  “I can do this,” she said softly, and started up the steps.

  “At least let me—”

  Letty stopped, then spoke without looking back.

  “I need to do this alone.”

  Alice sat down on the front steps and covered her face with her apron.

  Katie slid beneath Mama Alice’s arm and hid her face in her lap.

  Robert Lee didn’t move.

  T-Bone laid down near the steps.

  Letty walked into the house and quietly closed the door behind her.

  No one moved.

  A pair of butterflies flitted through the morning sunlight, landing briefly on the porch rail, before flying off in search of blossoms from which to feed. An eagle appeared just above the treetops north of the house, sending a flock of feeding birds to take flight.

  Between one heartbeat and the next, Robert Lee heard the sound, and at first, thought it was the wind in the trees, only there was no wind. It rose in pitch with the rhythm of his pulse until the pain in the sound pierced his soul. Hearing her grieve like this was almost more than he could bear.

  “Ah God,” he whispered.

  T-Bone cocked an ear toward the door, his nose quivering. When Letty began to sob in earnest, the pup lifted his head and began to howl.

  Robert Lee wanted to howl, too. Instead, he held the reins of Letty’s horse while she went about the business of dealing with a broken heart.

  Ashes To Ashes

  They dug the grave at the back of the house, in the clearing near the trees, only a few yards from Baby Mary. A steady stream of people had been coming since daylight, filling the yard to wait for the services to start. They didn’t all know Eulis Potter, but they’d heard about what his widow had done to avenge his death. They wanted to see the woman with ice in her veins.

  The women arrived bringing food to feed the gathering afterward, giving them an excuse to go into the fine house. They’d expected more in the way of luxurious furnishings, but still found enough to foster envy. Few of them had ever spoken to the infamous Letty Potter, although they all knew who she was. Today was their chance for a first hand view of Denver City’s richest woman.

  Alice and Letty had shared a moment when they’d embraced in mutual grief, then Alice had washed Letty’s hair, bathed her as if she’d been a child, dressed her in a clean, simple dress and coaxed her into sitting in a chair beside Eulis’ coffin. People filed by to pay their respects, and to get an up-close look at the woman who was now his widow.

  Letty saw none of it—heard none of it—felt none of it. Not the touches of condolence, or the words of sympathy—not even the curious looks. She was gratefully, blessedly numb. It wasn’t until Robert Lee appeared that she was pulled back to the reality of what had yet to be done.

  Robert Lee didn’t speak, but when a small man with a weathered face began nailing the lid on Eulis’ coffin, she grabbed him by the hand. With every blow of the hammer, Letty’s grip tightened. By the time the man was done, Robert Lee could no longer feel his fingers.

  The men who worked in the Potter mine walked single file into the living room, murmuring their uneasy condolences to a woman most of them feared. When Robert Lee gave them a nod, they shouldered Eulis’ coffin and started out the door.

  Robert Lee leaned down and whispered in Letty’s ear.

  “It’s time to go now. Will you let me walk with you, ma’am?”

  Letty looked up.

  “Robert Lee?”

  “Yes, ma’am. We need to go now.”

  “Oh. Yes. Of course,” she said.

  He helped her up and kept a firm grip on her elbow as he escorted her out the door.

  She fell into step behind the coffin without notice of the crowd watching her pass, or of the people who fell into step behind her.

  She was remembering the days back in Lizard Flats when she’d demanded a nightly bath in hot water that Eulis had to carry up to her room—and the night he’d turned himself into a preacher and baptized her in a moss-covered watering trough down at the livery.

  All the months they’d traveled through the territories on the Amen Trail, preaching and singing, marrying and burying, using the false identity of a dead man.

  The nights they’d spent alone on the prairie—and the morning they woke up in the middle of a buffalo herd, certain that was the day they were going to die.

  The fear she’d felt when they got snowed in at the abandoned cabin, convinced that Eulis was going to die from smallpox—facing down a starving wolf, then killing it with a stick of firewood.

  The day she’d discovered the hidden gold mine behind a wall in the cabin, and the shock, then delight on Eulis’ face, knowing that their lives were forever going to change.

  Everything was a jumble in her mind—all the times they’d laughed, and all the times they’d fought, and the days she’d wept in frustration, and the times he was always there to hold her hand.

  As they were lowering his coffin in the grave, she was remembering the tenderness in his voice when they’d exchanged wedding vows, and the first time they’d made love.

  He’d treated her—a fifty-cent whore—like something special—until she’d begun to believe that she was.

  He’d been everything she’d ever wanted. Their time together had been far too brief, but she knew if she had it to do over again, she wouldn’t change a thing—except the way she’d dealt with George Mellin.

  She would never have taken a bullwhip to him. She would have shot him where he stood. Then Eulis would still be alive, and she wouldn’t be wishing she could join him in that grave.

  With the absence of a preacher, Dr. Warren had offered to read a passage from the bible. Letty didn’t hear a word of what was said.

  In her mind, she was watching Eulis preaching over Baby Mary’s grave, hearing the sorrow in his voice as he gave the final prayer, then watching as he began filling up the hole, letting the dirt fall gently on top of the little box until he was done.

  Someone squeezed her hand. She looked up. It was Robert Lee. She frowned. He’d been at Baby Mary’s service, too. He’d made the cross they’d put on her grave, and here he was again. Eulis had been so certain this man was good. It seemed that he’d been right.

  “Mrs. Potter?”

  She shivered as Dr. Warren laid a hand on her arm.

  “Here, ma’am, please hold out your hands. It would be proper if you drop the first handful.”

  Assailed by the musty smell of damp earth, the scent of green wood, and the stench of death awaiting her blessing, she shivered as he dropped a handful of dirt into her hands. Then she opened her fingers, watching as it fell downward, only to splatter on top of the green wood like raindrops.

  One after the other, the mourners filed past, picking up a handful of earth from the pile, then dropping it into the grave, as she had done.

  She stood without moving until they had all passed, then watched as the rest of the earth was shoveled back into the hole. Once they were done, Robert Lee led her back to the house. Alice had set up a chair for her near the fireplace in the parlor. She put a plate of food in her lap, and then frowned when Letty handed it back to her without comment.

  Alice leaned down until she was eye to eye with Letty, then lowered her voice to an angry whisper.

  “You can’t die with him, so don’t bother to try. Trust me, Missy. I know.”

  Letty blinked. Their gazes locked, first in understanding, then with tears.

  Alice squeezed Letty’s hands and kissed her briefly on the forehead.

  “This, too, shall pass,” she said softly, and walked away, carrying the plate Letty
had refused.

  The food that had been brought to the home quickly disappeared as the hungry horde descended on the makeshift tables that had been set up outside. They ate their way through two hours of food and gossip, and then convinced that they’d seen all of the drama to be had that day, went back down the mountain the same way they’d come up.

  Robert Lee had a self-appointed mission of his own. Until Letty Potter came to herself, he was going to make certain she had a life and a business to come back to. He didn’t have to convince the hired hands to go back to work. To a man, they showed up at the mine the next day and fell to working as if they owned the place themselves. Part of it had to do with their pride in working for a woman like Letty Potter, and the other part had to do with their fear of her, and how she dealt with being crossed. Nobody wanted to make her mad, and nobody wanted to see her cry. It was a good arrangement for all involved.

  A week into Letty’s self-imposed isolation, her long-awaited furniture from back East finally arrived. Five wagons full of everything from furniture to linens to silverware, and she could have cared less. Letty was sitting on a small stool at the bedroom window. Katie came running up the stairs calling her name. She frowned, angry at being disturbed.

  From where she was sitting, she could see the freshly turned earth mounded over Eulis’ grave. In the back of her mind, she knew he would be disgusted with the way she was acting. She could almost hear him telling her to get up and get over it. Even though she knew that withdrawing from life was not helping her situation, she couldn’t find a reason to care.

  “Letty! Letty! Mama Alice said for you to come down quick!”

  Letty turned toward the door.

  “Why?”

  “Our furniture! It’s here! It’s here!”

  Two things struck Letty. The first was that little Katie, who’d suffered a loss much worse than Letty’s, was already willing to give her allegiance to another woman, and the second was that she’d claimed this house as her own.