Swift Creek (The Drifter Book 1)

by Thomas Hall

  He leaned back on the small bed, crossed his legs and closed his eyes. He didn’t think he would sleep, but he found it easier to think that way.

  The door swung open and Kade looked up.

  A boy walked in. He was out of breath. He wasn’t older than ten, but already had the wiry height of a teenager. The boy came in uninvited, he crossed the room and dropped a heavy cloth sack on the Sheriff’s desk.

  “It’s all here,” the boy said.

  The Sheriff nodded. “Did anyone see you?”

  “No sir.”

  “Good lad. Here…” he handed the boy something, but Kade couldn’t see what it was, neither could he see what was in the bag. “Nice work.”

  The boy pocketed whatever the Sheriff had given him and then backed out of the room, bowing like an altar boy as he went. The Sheriff went back to reading his magazine and the door closed behind the boy.

  Minutes passed.

  “You awake?” the Sheriff said.

  Kade opened his eyes, but said nothing.

  “Got you and your partners gun here,” he said, holding up the bag. “Fine pieces.”

  Kade didn’t respond.

  “You think you’ve got the measure of me, don’t you son?” the Sheriff said.

  Kade sat up.

  “Think I’m some lazy drunk who let Travis walk into town and take the place, don’t you?”

  Kade didn’t trust himself to speak.

  The Sheriff laughed and it turned into a cough. “Guess you’re right about that. Not much an old timer like me can do when an army wants to take over.”

  “An army?”

  “Figure of speech,” the Sheriff said, waving his hand. He was starting to go red in the face.

  Kade nodded.

  “Thing is, I been around a lot longer than you, seen a lot of communities rise and fall. It’s not easy surviving these days.”

  Kade knew that well enough. He nodded again.

  “Someone like Travis, he can take a place down if he wants to. A town loses a lot of lives when that happens, do you hear what I’m saying?”

  “I hear you,” Kade said.

  “So you can understand why I’m not chomping at the bit to help you?”

  “You’re afraid,” Kade said.

  The Sheriff smiled and then laughed again. “Damn right I’m afraid son. I’m afraid that a lot of people gonna get killed. I’m afraid that this town won’t last.”

  Kade shrugged. “Travis needs to be stopped.”

  “Oh, no argument from me there. The question is, are you the man to stop him?”

  The conversation had taken an unexpected turn.

  “I hear you lost your girl?” the Sheriff said.

  “She wasn’t mine,” Kade said.

  “Aye, well, be that as it may, you’re looking for revenge, ain’t ya?”

  “What if I am?”

  “Revenge ain’t pretty son,” the Sheriff says. “Seen a lot less destroy a town. If revenge is all you’re here for then you can swing in the morning.”

  “What about my trial?”

  The corners of the Sheriff’s mouth turned up beneath his whiskers, but didn’t quite become a smile. “You and me both know there isn’t gonna be a trial.”

  Kade nodded.

  The Sheriff continued to watch him while Kade stared at the wall behind the old man.

  “She wanted to save the town,” Kade said.

  “Your girl?”

  Kade nodded, wishing that she had been his girl, even if it had only been for a night. “Travis has her sister, but she wasn’t looking for revenge. She loved Swift Creek, even if it didn’t love her back.”

  “Seems like she wouldn’t want you to burn the place down.”

  Kade shook his head. “No, she wouldn’t.”

  Kade wasn’t sure whether he wanted to save the town, but the Sheriff was making it easier to believe that he could. There might be other people like him who were too scared to stand up to Travis. People who would make the town better if given a chance.

  “If it comes down to letting him go or saving the town…” Kade said. “I don’t know what I’d do.”

  “It’ll be a hard decision, but it’s not likely to come to that, is it?”

  Kade could think of a hundred scenarios where it would come down to exactly that, but he kept his mouth shut.

  “If I let you out of here that’s all I can do,” the Sheriff said. “I don’t have anyone who’s loyal to me, I don’t have anything other than the guns you left behind.”

  Kade nodded.

  “You’ll be on your own.”

  Kade nodded again.

  They were close to reaching an agreement, he could feel it.

  “If you let me out, I’ll do everything I can to save Swift Creek,” Kade said. “It’s what she would have wanted.”

  The Sheriff nodded but didn’t move for a moment. The old man seemed to study him, to look for cracks in his story. Was he lying? Kade couldn’t even tell himself now.

  “Okay,” the Sheriff said. “Okay.” He stood up and pulled the keys from the loop of his belt. He turned towards Jareth. “He speak for you too?”

  “Yes sir,” Jareth said.

  The Sheriff unlocked the cell doors and Kade stepped out. Not quite a free man, but close enough. He took his guns from the bag and inspected them to make sure they weren’t damaged. Then he slipped them back into their holsters.

  “You’ll find him at his house,” the Sheriff said. “You know where that is?”

  Jareth replied. “Yes sir.”

  The Sheriff smiled and that was the last that Kade saw of him.

  Kade left the Sheriff’s office with Jareth behind him. Heck and another horse were waiting outside. He climbed into the saddle and turned back to see that the Sheriff had closed the door behind him and was gone.

  CHAPTER 15

  THE SUN WAS BEGINNING TO RISE. A THIN mist hung in the air around them and the only sound was the horse’s hoofs clopping on the compacted dirt. Neither Kade nor Jareth spoke.

  He saw flickering candle light in the windows and shadows moving around.

  Swift Creek wasn’t rotten, but some of the people were. He had to believe that there were enough of the good guys left to make it worth saving. If he didn’t then he would be better off riding out into the desert and forgetting that the place even existed.

  He could do it too.

  He’d abandoned better places than this when the heat got too much to handle.

  He had a clear idea that he might be riding to his own death for the sake of the memory of a woman who had never loved him. There weren’t many people that Kade was willing to die for.

  “You doing okay?” Jareth said.

  Kade looked over, the other man seemed tired and out of sorts, he could only imagine that he appeared much worse. “Thinking,” Kade said.

  “Ouch,” Jareth said.

  Kade nodded, not in the mood for banter. Jareth turned away and they continued in silence until they reached the stone wall that surrounded Travis’ mansion.

  “This is it then?” Kade said.

  Jareth nodded. “No lights on, you sure they’re home?”

  “Sheriff said they would be.”

  “Maybe he left town?” Jareth said. Neither of them dismounted.

  “And gone where?” Kade said. As much as he would have liked to believe that he’d sent Travis running, he didn’t seem the type. He was confident in his overwhelming strength to stand and fight.

  “What’s that?” Jareth said.

  Kade looked past the gate and up to the grey building. There was movement around the front door; someone struck a match and applied it to the end of a cigarette.

  “Guess they are home.”

  Kade nodded.

  They climbed off their horses and checked their weapons.

  “This is it,” Kade said.

  “It is,” Jareth agreed.

  “You sure you want to do this?”

  “Nope. Lo
oking like I don’t have much choice though.”

  “You could run. Plenty of other towns out there.”

  “And leave you to get all the glory? I don’t think so.”

  Kade nodded. He was beginning to accept that Jareth wasn’t going to betray him, but it still felt wrong to lead him into danger. He didn’t trust many people enough to watch his back.

  “Let’s get it over with then,” Kade said.

  “After you,” Jareth said.

  They nodded to one another and then Kade stuck out his hand. Jareth looked at it for a moment, as if he was unfamiliar with the custom. Then he shook it.

  “For Madeline?” Jareth said.

  Kade nodded. “For Madeline.”

  A large tree grew next to the wall and its branches hung over the side. The two men climbed it and dropped onto the grass beyond.

  Kade led Jareth towards the house. The only sound he could hear was the whisper of their movement through the grass.

  They stopped again in a small copse which afforded them some shelter and a better view of the house. There were three people standing at the front door. There were also three men circling the building.

  “What do you think?” Jareth whispered. “We could take them out from here?”

  “Then we end up letting everyone in the house know we’re here. There’ll be more people inside.”

  “So what then?”

  Kade rubbed his jaw, a day worth of stubble scratched his hand.

  “Kade?”

  “We’ll go in around the side,” Kade said. “Have you got a knife?”

  “Of course,” Jareth said. He patted his back, wearing it in the same place as Kade, on his belt, sheathed and down his trousers.

  “If you need to kill anyone use that, no guns, understand?”

  Jareth nodded and holstered his pistol.

  Kade did the same. “Are you ready?”

  “Let’s get it over with,” Jareth said.

  Kade stood up and led Jareth around the building. The long grass kept them hidden.

  When they reached the side of the building they stopped and watched the guards circle it.

  The side was exposed for sixty seconds out of every five minutes. To be on the safe side, they should assume it was more like forty-five. It didn’t give them much time to run the fifty or so metres to the window and get inside the house.

  “If he catches us, slit his throat,” Kade said.

  Jareth nodded.

  They watched.

  The guard disappeared.

  They ran towards the window.

  By the time they reached the house, Kade had no idea how much time was left.

  “Help me up,” he hissed.

  Jareth laced his fingers together and Kade pushed himself up. There was a gap at the bottom of the window which he could get his fingers through and lift. He pushed off Jareth’s hand and fell into the room beyond. As soon as he’d picked himself up, he reached out and pulled Jareth up after him.

  The room was in darkness. They crouched by the window until they heard the guard outside walking towards them. Kade held his breath, waited and finally relaxed once the man had passed.

  They’d done it, they were inside, now it was time for the difficult part.

  Outside the room there was a corridor, with doors running along the left-hand side. They followed it in the direction Kade believed would lead them to the entrance hall.

  They found a man standing by the front door with his back to them. Kade held up a hand and Jareth stopped beside him.

  The man didn’t turn to look at them, he was watching something out the window, but neither of them could see what it was.

  Kade drummed his fingers on the handle of his gun. A house this grand was likely to have another staircase.

  He turned to look at Jareth for inspiration.

  Jareth shook his head.

  Kade turned away from him and back towards the man who had turned away from the window and was looking back at him.

  The figure at the door wasn’t a man at all and he couldn’t figure out why he’d thought it was.

  A tall, elegant woman walked across the foyer. Her heels clapping on the polished wood floor.

  “Are you there?” she said.

  Kade felt his blood turn to ice. She couldn’t see him in the dark, it wasn’t possible.

  “Kade?” she said.

  He felt Jareth shift beside him.

  “You don’t have to be afraid,” she said. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  If they moved to get away from her then she would see them. If she kept talking, then someone else might hear and come to investigate.

  “I’ve been waiting for you,” she said.

  He took a deep breath and hoped he wouldn’t regret what he was about to do. “Help with what?” he said. His fingers tightened around the knife handle, his leg muscles tensed. If she started screaming, he thought he would leap up and slash her throat.

  “Help you kill my husband of course,” she said.

  Kade turned to Jareth who looked as confused as he felt. Neither of them moved but that didn’t matter now, he had spoken and she knew exactly where they were.

  She finished walking across the hall and stopped in front of them.

  Kade and Jareth stood up.

  “We need to talk,” she said. Her voice was a whisper, but it increased the sense of exposure that he felt in the strange house.

  Kade nodded.

  “Follow me,” she said. “There’s a room where we won’t be disturbed.”

  She led them back the way they had come. Kade followed her and Jareth followed him.

  He didn’t let go of his knife. There was every chance that she was leading them into a trap. If Travis already knew that they were there, then he might be waiting wherever she was taking them.

  She opened a door at the end of the corridor and went inside. Kade and Jareth waited outside while she lit a lamp.

  “Come in,” she said, “before somebody sees you.”

  Kade gingerly stepped into the room, looking around to make sure there was no one else there. It was empty.

  “Take a seat,” she said. She positioned herself by the window. The curtains were drawn so no one would be able to see in. Kade felt uncomfortable with his back to the door, so he took a seat to her right and Jareth to her left.

  She set the lantern in the middle of the table. It wasn’t bright but after hours in the darkness it hurt Kade’s eyes to look at it for long.

  “I expected to see you sooner,” she said.

  Kade stopped himself from continuing her conversation. There wasn’t time for pleasantries, and he wasn’t sure that she deserved them anyway. “What’s going on here?” he said. “Who are you?”

  She smiled a familiar smile and Kade knew the answer, even before it had left her lips. “My name’s Annie. Madeline’s sister. Travis is my husband.”

  Kade said nothing.

  “They told you there was someone on the inside?” Annie said.

  Kade looked at Jareth and frowned.

  “You thought it was him?” she said.

  “Tell me what’s going on,” Kade said.

  “When Travis came to Swift Creek he took me for his wife. It was supposed to keep my family safe, but I can see that it was a mistake to think I could control him.”

  “You’re Madeline’s sister?” Kade said, still unable to get his head around the idea.

  “Yes,” Annie said. “Are you usually this dim? I can’t understand what she saw in you. Maddie was such a smart girl.”

  Kade shook the insult away and filed the thought that Madeline had liked him for future reference.

  “I want to help you,” she said. “Can I trust you?”

  If the setting had been different then Kade might have laughed at the absurdity of the comment.

  “I’m not like my sister, I won’t put my life at risk to help. I have to know I can trust you.”

  “Your life’s already at risk,
” Kade said. “What happens if someone finds us here?”

  She shrugged. “I can still raise the alarm if you would prefer to do it that way?”

  “No, don’t do that,” Kade said. He nodded. “Okay. You can trust me. What do we need to do?”

  Kade followed Annie and Jareth walked behind him. He kept his knife in his hand but his fingers itched to grip his revolver. Although he’d been in knife fights before, he never felt as comfortable as when he could shoot something.

  She led them through the house to the stairs at the back. They were wooden and unpainted, dull in comparison to the ornate entrance.

  None of them spoke.

  It would have been easy to forget why he was there, what he was doing this for. The fire that had burned brightly, and got him this far, was guttering out. He wanted it to be over, and a part of him realised that the easiest way to make that happen was to forget about Travis and the things he’d done.

  They stopped at the end of the corridor and Annie turned back to them.

  “There’s two guards outside our room,” she said.

  Kade raised his knife. It was twelve inches long, and might have been called a sword by some people, people who didn’t know about knives. It had a point that was sharp enough to pierce human flesh and a serrated side that could cut through bone. He could imagine it slicing into Travis’ throat.

  “No!” Annie said, her eyes wide with alarm. For a moment Kade thought she had tricked him. “Let me get rid of them, then you can go in.”

  “How are you going to get rid of them?” Kade said. He was suspicious of the woman and beginning to regret his decision to trust her. He only had her word to go on that she was Madeline’s sister.

  “Watch and learn,” she said.

  Kade didn’t try to stop her walking away from him. He watched her go around the corner and saw the two men stand to attention as she approached them.

  “Good evening gentlemen,” she said.

  “Hello Ma’am,” they said together.

  They parted to let her through but she stopped in front of them. “You both look exhausted. Why don’t you take a break?”