by Ember Pierce
“You can’t do that.”
* * *
“Sure, I can. There was never any official agreement, so I can stick interest on what you owe anytime. And interest multiplies; it runs up quickly.
* * *
“Pretty soon, you will owe me what your ranch is worth. If I have to take you to court to collect, I will. You won’t get away with owing me money.
* * *
“You may have forgotten how much you owe, but I haven’t. I have it written down and I keep very accurate records.”
* * *
“I’m sure you do, and I’m sure you have the debts recorded down to the penny.”
* * *
O’hara gave an ugly, gleeful smile.
* * *
“Yes, I do. All the debts are recorded very neatly. I know exactly how much I’m owed.
* * *
“And I’m getting fed up with you. It’s time you began paying. I want it all. Not penny-ante payments.”
* * *
Kristian shook his head. “I can’t pay it all today.”
* * *
“Then you have a big problem. I can go to court and demand the money. You have no defense. You asked for loans and I gave them to you, and now I want my money back.
* * *
“All of it. If the judge rules for me, and he will, then you will have to sell something to pay the debt.”
* * *
Kristian was silent for a moment. If a judge ruled he was in debt to O’hara, then O’hara had the legal right to demand items from the ranch be sold off until the debt was paid.
* * *
He was sure of the details of debtor’s laws. He thought the debtor had some legal say in what was put up for auction but did not have total control of it.
* * *
O’hara could probably demand the sale of some of the ranch’s best horses. Or he could just claim the horses as payment for the debt.
* * *
Kristian could not let that happen. O’hara could gut the farm.
* * *
“What is your game, O’hara?” Kristian asked. “You loaned me the money and you were always ready to loan it to me.
* * *
“At times, you even came looking to provide a loan. The times I deferred, initially, you almost insisted I take your money.
* * *
“You said I might win at the poker tables and clear off all my debt. You were always there, pushing money on me. And you never changed any interest.
* * *
“But you weren’t doing me any favors. You knew I would lose and get deeper in debt. Did you plan on getting the ranch in a legal debt court?
* * *
“What was your plan? What did you hope to get from this?”
* * *
O’hara smiled. He reached into his coat pocket and brought out a cigar, sticking one end between his teeth.
* * *
Very slowly and deliberately, he struck a match and moved the flame to the tobacco. He puffed on the cigar as gray smoke flew into the air.
* * *
“I don’t always plan to be in this two-bit, hick town. I like the coast. I think the best place to live would be in San Francisco. Live by the bay.
* * *
“And live in a fine house, and live comfortably. Go to sleep at night while hearing the crashing waves on the California coast. Might buy a casino and run it,” O’hara said.
* * *
“You dream big.”
* * *
He blew out more smoke and dropped his voice. It was hard and cold. “Yes, I dream big, and it’s about to come to pass. I have wanted this for a long time.”
* * *
“And my debt is part of your dream?”
* * *
O’hara gave a wide smile. “Yes, it is. I’ve planned this for years. I have made a great deal of money in this town—some of it thanks to my grandfather, who did have a knack for making money.
* * *
“I will give him that. And I’ve added to it. San Francisco is an expensive place to live, though. I need even more, and I know where I can get it. But I do need a little help.”
* * *
“Not from me, you don’t. I’m not going to help you.”
* * *
“Yes, you will.”
* * *
“You’re not having dreams. You’re having nightmares, O’hara. I was a part of them for a while, but I’m getting out.”
* * *
O’hara shook his head. “No, there will be no gunplay. And you won’t even have to do much. Just open a door. My dream involves the local bank.
* * *
“From time to time, money is shipped through this town. Wells Fargo stores it for a night here before they take to the Temple Bluff Silver Mines to pay the miners.
* * *
“I will know when the shipment comes in. We go in at night and get the money. You use your talent. It will be quick, fast and bloodless.
* * *
“Nobody will get hurt, because no one will be in the bank.”
* * *
“So, that’s what this was about. Get me into enough debt that I have to help you.”
* * *
“Yes. I figure you have no choice. No one will know you were ever involved. You use your talent for me, and after you can stay in this town.
* * *
“You don’t want to lose your precious farm and that new wife of yours. I, however, will be long gone, gone to San Francisco.
* * *
“So everyone will rightly suspect that I was the robber, and everybody will be looking for me. You will be in the clear.
* * *
“But you might take a few hundred or so for yourself. Or a few thousand. Nobody will know.”
* * *
“I will know. I’m not helping you.”
* * *
O’hara replied with a guttural voice, “Don’t go righteous on me. You’re a long way from the man who caught that outlaw a few years ago.
* * *
“You’re a man in the gutter now. People have to help you up. That’s what drinking does to you. Affects your balance, so you fall in the mud, and it affects your ethics.
* * *
“But help me this once, and I will be out of your life forever. And you can forget about all of this and start a new life with your bride. She will never have to know.”
* * *
Kristian shook his head. “You never forgot about my ‘talent,’ as you call it. I had even almost forgotten about it.”
* * *
“You were very impressive, and I do mean impressive. A man who likes money would never forget a talent like that. You could have used it and gotten yourself rich.
* * *
“I think you were too dull of mind to understand the possibilities you had. I had to wait until the right time. As I said, I have money but I do need a bit more.
* * *
“When that Wells Fargo stage comes in, I figure the bank will have close to thirty thousand dollars in it, or more, that night. It might be as much as fifty thousand.
* * *
“And I have a very fast horse ready after I get the money. I already have a little house I can use as a headquarters in San Francisco as I establish myself as a businessman.”
* * *
“How do you know when the Wells Fargo stage will come in? It won’t be announced at company headquarters.”
* * *
“No, it won’t, but the vice-president of the bank is a friend of mine. I have loaned him a little money, too, interest free.
* * *
“He will know when the Wells Fargo stage will be coming in. The three of us will go in that night and collect the money, and then you can go home if stealing bothers your soul. The vice president and I will stay.”
* * *
“And split the proceeds.”
* * *
O’hara gave a nasty laugh. “Oh, no. I don�
��t plan on splitting anything. I’ve worked too long and too hard for this.”
* * *
Kristian shook his head. “I’m not helping you. I’m not helping you rob a bank or, especially, I’m not helping you kill someone.
* * *
“Why don’t I just go to the vice-president now and tell him your plans?”
* * *
“Go right ahead. He wouldn’t believe you. I have not only loaned him money, I have become a friend and confidant of Mr. Dan Fellows.
* * *
“He’s the vice-president. He thinks I’m a good friend of his. The salt of the earth.”
* * *
“I thought that at one time, too, and I’m still not helping you.”
* * *
“You are going to have no choice. I’m charging interest on your debt to me, which is already considerable. And that interest will mount up quickly.
* * *
“If you stay resistant, I will go to court and pick your farm clean. I can come close to bankrupting you.
* * *
“Your family and your farm will never recover. How would you and your wife like to camp out on the ground after everything is taken from you?”
* * *
“I don’t owe you that much.”
* * *
“You will when the interest is calculated. I keep very good figures, Kristian. Very good. Of course, they may not be honest figures, but they are detailed.
* * *
“And there is nobody to deny the figures are accurate. Can you tell the judge exactly how much you owe me?”
* * *
Kristian felt like someone had punched him in the stomach. He even groaned. The answer was no, he couldn’t.
* * *
He had been drinking a lot when he received some of the loans and… he couldn’t remember.
* * *
“But my associate can. He helped me write down the figures. He had a head for figures, for that matter. He will testify exactly how much you owe me—and it’s a lot.”
* * *
“Since he’s an associate of yours, I don’t think his testimony would have much credibility in court.”
* * *
“But he will get on that witness chair and swear he is telling the truth. And he will have all those papers with your name on it and all those figures.
* * *
“Besides, no one will take the witness chair and swear under oath those figures are not true. As you said yourself, you don’t know how much money you owe, so you can’t contradict him.
* * *
“If you push me to the wall, I can make an immense amount of trouble for you, and your family, and your horses, and anything else you have.
* * *
“And maybe that pretty little mail-order bride you have might decide to go back east because of all the trouble her husband is causing for her. That would certainly be understandable.”
* * *
“You seem to have planned everything, down to every detail.”
* * *
O’hara nodded. “I have. I’ve thought of everything. Planned it over and over. Mulled it over. Thought of every possible action.
* * *
“I know when the stage will come in. The money will be in my hands by midnight. I have a horse who can travel fast.
* * *
‘And there are several towns along the way where I will ditch him at the livery stable and buy another one. I have already made the arrangements.
* * *
“All I have to do is send a telegram and the horse will be ready for me. I will be in San Francisco in record time.
* * *
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Most people never get such a chance but I have and I’m going to take advantage of it.”
* * *
“I won’t help.”
* * *
“Yes, you will. I need you for the robbery. Just think about it. When I get ready to take you to court, you’ll help me.
* * *
“I had hoped you’d be so drunk by now that you wouldn’t mind robbing the bank. That would have been the easier way. But you will come around.
* * *
“You’ll help me, or you’ll have nothing left at the ranch of yours. I’ll give you a little time to think about it. But not much time.”
* * *
“What if I pay off my debt?”
* * *
“With the debt you have amassed? Good luck trying.” He laughed and kept laughing for a while.
* * *
“Kristian, you have a lot to think about. Maybe you need a drink to help. Can I loan you some money for a bottle?”
* * *
He laughed again.
21
Bonny paced back and forth in the kitchen, unable to settle her jittery soul.
* * *
After her discovery that the money in the cookie jar was gone, she had gone to bed, crying herself to sleep while Kristian snored beside her.
* * *
They hadn’t spoken before he’d left for the day, nor before he went to town for his shift at the livery. He’d mumbled something at her about eating with his parents, and then he was gone.
* * *
She felt terrible about the way they had left things. He’d dropped a huge amount of information in her lap, and then gone to bed with the simple directive that she shouldn’t worry.
* * *
Not worry, when she knew that her husband was in trouble?
* * *
From the amount she was pacing, she was going to wear a groove in the floor. What could she do now, though, except wait for Kristian to get home from work?
* * *
Chances were that he would come in exhausted again and use that as an excuse to go straight to bed so they didn’t have to talk.
* * *
Tears brimmed in her eyes, threatening to spill as the thoughts in her head swirled faster. What if Kristian decided to divorce her and send her back to Philadelphia?
* * *
She couldn’t bear the thought of having to go back to her old life. ‘Back’ wasn’t a word she wanted to think about or to hear.
* * *
She wanted to move forward, and she needed to figure out a way to do that—fast.
* * *
Where was Kristian? She paused in her pacing and looked toward the door, as if her hope that he would come in right at that minute would actually make him return.
* * *
She wondered if he was still angry with her. That seemed like a possibility, but she hoped that she was wrong.
* * *
Maybe she could bake him something by way of apology, but… if she was honest with herself, she didn’t think she could settle down long enough to actually put anything together.
* * *
And the thought of waiting for something to bake seemed impossible.
* * *
There had to be something she could do. If she had just been able to catch him before he had gone in to his shift for the livery, she might have been able to say some of the things that she needed to say.
* * *
The worry that she had for him, the worry that she had ruined something critical to their marriage, burned in her chest.
* * *
“Where are you, Kristian?” Bonny whispered as she went to pull open the door once again. The night was still black as pitch, and her stomach tightened.
* * *