Vengeance Creek

by Robert J. Randisi

  James was still in the office, kneeling over the prone body of Nancy Timmerman.

  “They’re dead,” Thomas said. “They’re all dead.”

  “Nancy’s dead,” James said, looking at his brother.

  “James,” Thomas said, “we know that. We have to be ready for the others outside. And we have to find Cardwell and whoever else was in here.”

  James stared at his brother, then said, “You better look out the front.”

  “I barred the back door,” Thomas said. “Come on.”

  James looked down at Nancy again. Thomas reached down and grabbed his brother’s arm. “Come on!”

  He dragged his brother to the front of the bank in time to see four men charging the door.

  “Do we wait for them?” James asked.

  “Let’s step out and greet them,” Thomas said. “That’ll surprise them.”

  James looked back at the bodies of all the employees. He was ready to take some lives.

  “Let’s do it.”

  Shaye watched from behind the water trough as the robbers gathered and made their plans. There was nothing he could do about it. He was almost out of bullets, having taken the last of them from his belt, and loaded his gun for the last time. If the men charged him, he was done. If they charged the bank, he could fire six shots in defense of his sons, but that was it.

  He knew James and Thomas must be inside the bank by now. Since there were no shots, whichever robbers had been inside must have left. He hoped his boys were smart enough to stay inside.

  As he thought that, he saw four of the men step into the street, guns in hand, and charge the bank.

  A second later the front door of the bank opened and Thomas and James stepped out.

  “Goddamn it!” Shaye said, and pointed his gun.

  When Thomas and James stepped through the bank doors, the four rushing robbers stopped short, confused. They hadn’t expected the outnumbered deputies to come out and meet them. The moment of hesitation cost them.

  “Let’s go!” Samuels shouted, but it was too late.

  As the four men began running again, Dan Shaye dragged himself out from behind the horse trough and fired at them. His first shot caught Larkin in the side, spinning him around and depositing him on the ground. His second shot finished the man.

  Thomas fired once and the bullet went straight into Ed Hurley’s heart.

  James and Bill Raymond fired simultaneously. Raymond’s bullet went wide and smashed a window on the door behind James, while the deputy’s bullet hit Raymond in the shoulder, completely stopping his forward progress. It was Thomas who finished him with another heart shot.

  Three of the bank robbers were now dead in the street, and the fourth, Joe Samuels, dropped his gun and put his hands in the air.

  “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot! I give up!”

  James aimed his gun at the man and would have shot him if Thomas hadn’t grabbed his arm.

  “We need one of them alive, James,” he said.

  James’s hand trembled, he wanted so badly to fire.

  “Besides,” Thomas said, pushing his brother’s arm down, “he didn’t kill her.”

  James hesitated, looked at Thomas and said, “Yeah.” He holstered his gun.

  “Go and get the doc, James,” Thomas said. “We need him for Pa.”

  “But Nancy—”

  “Nancy’s dead,” Thomas said. “Pa ain’t…yet.”

  “Yeah,” James said. “Yeah.”

  He took off running down the street toward the doctor’s office.

  Thomas turned and saw several men—town fathers, all of them—running toward him with an assortment of handguns and rifles.

  “Can we help, Deputy?” one of them asked.

  “Now?” Thomas asked them. “It’s all over and now you want to know if you can help?”

  “Hey, we—uh, we had to get our guns, and, uh—” another stammered, but Thomas cut him off.

  “Two of you go and take my—take the sheriff to his office. He’s been hit.”

  “Right.”

  “The rest of you collect the guns from the street,” Thomas said. “I’ll take the prisoner and put him in a cell.”

  “What about the bank?” another man asked.

  “The money’s gone,” Thomas said, “and there’s no one left alive in there.”

  The remaining men—town fathers, merchants, men who had helped to build the town and run it—exchanged glances, and then one of them asked, “The money’s gone?”

  24

  When Sean Davis reached the place he’d left the horses, they were gone. That’s when he had the first inkling that he might be in trouble. He never could have explained to the other men why he had only two horses—how could he now explain he had none? Then, when he heard all the shooting, he turned and ran back toward the bank. When he got there, he saw that the others had taken the worst of the gun battle with the lawmen, and he knew he had to get out of there. He had to get out of town, and for that he needed a horse.

  He stopped wondering who had taken his two horses—his and Ben Cardwell’s—and went to find himself just one.

  Thomas came out of the cell block, and found his father with his pants down, lying on his desk, and the doctor leaning over him. James was leaning against the wall across the room, his arms folded across his chest, staring at nothing.

  “Thomas—” Shaye said, but he was interrupted when the door opened and Mayor Timmerman walked in.

  “Shaye!” the mayor shouted. “What are you doing about finding the men who robbed the bank?”

  “Mayor—” James said, but stopped when the mayor looked at him.

  “Mayor, have you been inside the bank?” Thomas asked.

  “No,” Timmerman said, “I came right here when I heard it had been robbed.”

  “Are you concerned about your daughter’s welfare?”

  “Of course I am,” Timmerman said, “but I’m the mayor, I have to be concerned for the town—”

  “Mayor…” Thomas said.

  “What is it, Deputy?”

  Thomas looked over at his father, who, with pain etched on his face, nodded for him to go ahead.

  “Let’s take a walk over to the bank,” Thomas said.

  “I want to talk to the sheriff.”

  Thomas took the mayor’s arm. The bigger man appeared surprised by the contact.

  “My father took a bullet tryin’ to save the bank from bein’ robbed,” Thomas said. “The doctor is workin’ on him. You can talk to him later, after we’ve gone over to the bank.”

  “Well…all right, then,” Timmerman said. “I’ve got to find out how much was taken, anyway. Baxter can tell me that.”

  “Mr. Baxter is dead,” Thomas said, leading the mayor to the door. “He was killed during the robbery. In fact, Mayor, everyone in the bank was killed.”

  “What?”

  Thomas opened the door and ushered the man out of the office.

  “That sonofabitch!” James said. “He’s more worried about the money than he is about his daughter.”

  “How is his daughter?” Doc Simpson asked without looking at James. “Are they gonna need me at the bank after I finish stitchin’ up your pa?”

  “Didn’t you hear what my brother said, Doc?” James said. “They were killed. Everyone who worked in the bank was killed.”

  Now the doctor did look at James. “Everyone?”

  “Yes.”

  “You mean….”

  “Yes,” James said. “Nancy Timmerman was killed too.”

  The doctor held James’s eyes for a moment, then bent back to the task at hand.

  “I should go over in any case,” he said. “After all, I’m also the coroner.”

  “Suit yourself, Doc,” James said. “Just finish sewing my pa up first.”

  “That’s what I intend to do, Deputy.”

  By the time Sean Davis had stolen a horse, he realized what had happened. Cardwell had double-crossed him. He and Jacks had
taken the horses and left town with the money. Cardwell had never intended to give him a share, just like he didn’t intend to give the others any. He was just as disposable to Ben Cardwell as those other men.

  Jesus, Cardwell and Jacks would probably have killed him if he’d met them with the horses, like they had planned.

  As Davis rode out of town he vowed that Cardwell was not going to get away with this. And he wasn’t going to get away with all the money either.

  Ben Cardwell and Simon Jacks stopped riding about a mile out of town, turned and looked back.

  “Doesn’t look like anyone’s comin’ after us yet,” Jacks said.

  “It’s gonna take them a while to even realize we were there and gone,” Cardwell said. “There are no witnesses in the bank, and my guess is those Shaye lawmen took care of Davis and the others.”

  “You better hope they did,” Jacks said, “or they’ll be after us, as well as the law.”

  “Whoever comes after us,” Cardwell said, turning in his saddle, “it ain’t gonna be for a while.”

  They each had two money bags slung over their saddles.

  “Maybe we should split up,” Jacks said. “We got two bags each.”

  “We ain’t splittin’ up,” Cardwell said. “There ain’t the same amount of money in these bags, Jacks.”

  Jacks turned around in his saddle and looked at Cardwell. “You think I’d try to cheat you, Ben?”

  Cardwell smiled and said, “I just don’t want no mistakes made, is all, Simon.”

  “We better ride, then,” Jacks said. “Let’s put some miles between us and that bank. That town’s gonna be up in arms when they find all them dead people.”

  “They weren’t exactly up in arms when we was robbin’ the bank and killin’ them people.”

  “Well, there’s still Shaye and his deputies,” Jacks said. “Remember, they hunted down the Langer gang and killed most of them.”

  “A gang leaves a clear trail, Simon,” Cardwell said. “We’re just two men, and we’re gonna split up after we divvy the money. Besides, the way you tell it, that was personal. Ain’t nothin’ personal about this bank robbery.”

  “Considerin’ what Dan Shaye and his sons did to the Langer gang,” Simon Jacks said, “I guess we better hope you’re right.”

  25

  “James!”

  Shaye looked at his son’s back while James stared into the cell block at the surviving bank robber.

  “Yeah, Pa?”

  “Stop thinkin’ about her, son,” Shaye said. “It ain’t gonna bring her back.”

  James turned his head and looked over his shoulder at his father. “I know that, Pa.”

  “Close that door and come over here so we can talk.”

  James did as he was told, closing the door to the cell block and then walking over to the desk. His father was sitting in his office chair, leaning over to one side to keep weight off his injured hip. He was wearing only his shirt, and was naked from the waist down. The doctor had cut his pants off him, and they were useless.

  “James, I hate to give you an errand like this, but I need you to go home and get me a pair of pants. I can’t talk to the mayor and the townspeople like this.”

  “That’s okay, Pa,” James said. “I need somethin’ to do, anyway.”

  Shaye had painfully donned a fresh pair of trousers by the time Thomas returned with not only the mayor, but other members of the town council. James had resumed his position leaning against the far wall with his arms folded.

  Timmerman’s face was ashen, and he was not the spokesman for the group, which was odd. Instead, the owner of the general store, Al Donovan, took the lead.

  “Sheriff,” Donovan said, “we need to know what you’re going to do about catching these men.”

  “We killed three of them, Al,” Shaye said, “and we have a fourth in a cell. We don’t know how many there were, all told, and we don’t know how many were in the bank. We do, however, have a good idea who two of them were.”

  He explained to Donovan—and the rest of the council—about Ben Cardwell and Sean Davis coming to town and registering at the hotel.

  “Why didn’t you arrest them when they arrived?” Donovan asked.

  “I can’t arrest two men for bein’ strangers, Al,” Shaye said.

  “You should gave done something!” Mayor Timmerman said.

  “We did, Mr. Mayor,” Shaye said. “We watched them.”

  “Apparently,” Donovan said, “you didn’t watch them long enough.”

  “I don’t see that I can argue with that, Al.”

  “Mr. Donovan,” Thomas said, “my pa took a bullet tryin’ to stop this robbery.”

  Donovan looked at Thomas. “We appreciate that fact, Deputy,” he said, “we really do, but we need to know what’s going to be done now!”

  “I’m going to interrogate the prisoner,” Shaye said, “find out how many men were involved. He should be able to tell us who was in the bank, and then we’ll know who killed all those people.” Shaye looked at Timmerman, intending to ask him a question, but thought better of it and addressed himself to Donovan once again. “Do we know how much money they got?”

  “Not yet,” Donovan said.

  Shaye shifted painfully in his chair. “We’re gonna be puttin’ together a posse, Al. I assume we can count on you and the other members of the council?”

  “Uh, well, we’re merchants, Sheriff, not gunmen. We wouldn’t be much help to you.”

  “There’s strength in numbers,” Shaye said.

  “I’m sure you can find some young men from town who’ll volunteer for a posse.”

  “I guess we’ll see,” Shaye said.

  “Besides,” Donovan said, “how do you intend to ride with that wound?”

  “I’ll be leadin’ the posse, Mr. Donovan,” Thomas said before Shaye could answer.

  “You?” Donovan asked. Behind him, Timmerman snorted.

  “Do you have a problem with that, Mayor?” Thomas asked.

  “No offense, Deputy, but we hired your pa to be sheriff, largely because we wanted the man who had successfully hunted down the Langer gang.”

  “Thomas is the one who caught Ethan Langer, Mayor,” Shaye said. “He’s very capable of leadin’ a posse.”

  “And I’ll be ridin’ along too,” James chimed in.

  “Both of my sons are good, experienced deputies, gentlemen,” Shaye said. “You have no worries on that account.”

  “Well, fine then,” Donovan said.

  “I want to talk to the man in the cell,” Mayor Timmerman said.

  “I’m afraid I can’t allow that, Mayor.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because you’re not the law.”

  “I’m a lawyer,” Timmerman said. “The man deserves to see a lawyer.”

  Everyone stared at Timmerman, including his colleagues on the council.

  “Mayor,” Shaye said, “are you tellin’ me that you want to represent one of the men from the gang who killed your daughter?”

  Timmerman’s eyebrows shot up and his face, so pale before, suddenly suffused with blood.

  “Good God, no!”

  “Well then, you can’t see him,” Shaye said. “The best thing for you to do now is go and take care of your daughter, and be with your family. As for the rest of you, just go on about your business and let us get on with ours.”

  “Sheriff,” Donovan said, “you can’t—”

  “This way out, gents,” Thomas said.

  “I’ll get the door,” James said, pushing away from the wall. He opened the door and stood there like a doorman.

  “All right,” Donovan said, “but keep us informed about what you’re doing, Sheriff.”

  “Don’t worry, Al,” Shaye said. “You’ll be the first to know—all of you.”

  Thomas ushered the town council out of the office and James closed the door behind them.

  “Ow,” Shaye said as he struggled to his feet.

  “Pa, what
are you doin’?” Thomas asked.

  “Like I said,” he answered, “I’m gonna talk to the prisoner.”

  “Are you sure you want to do that?” Thomas asked.

  “Can you walk?” James asked.

  “I may not be able to ride, but I think I can walk,” Shaye said. He took a couple of steps, didn’t fall down, and said, “See?”

  “We’ll come in with you,” Thomas said.

  “No,” Shaye said. “You boys go out and ask around, see what you can find out.”

  “What are we supposed to ask?” James questioned.

  “See if anyone saw anything,” Shaye said. “There had to be a man somewhere watching the horses the gang meant to use in their getaway. Also, somebody might have seen the men from the bank after they went out the back way. Go to the livery, the hotels, just ask around and find out whatever you can. The smallest detail might be helpful.”

  “All right, Pa,” Thomas said. “But be careful with the prisoner. You’re not steady on your feet.”

  “I’m not goin’ into the cell, Thomas,” Shaye said. “Just meet me back here in a couple of hours and we’ll compare notes.”

  “When do we start lookin’ for posse members?” Thomas asked.

  “Do it now, while you’re askin’ questions.”

  “How many, Pa?” James asked.

  “I don’t know,” Shaye said. “I’ll know better after I talk with the prisoner.”

  “You think he’ll tell you anythin’?” James asked.

  Shaye looked at his sons and said, “I think he better.”

  26

  Dan Shaye tested his legs out before entering the cell block. When he was finally sure he wouldn’t fall over, he entered, leaving his gun belt on his desk.

  The prisoner was lying on his back staring at the ceiling.

  “Why don’t we start with your name?” Shaye said.

  The man didn’t answer.

  “You know,” Shaye said, “your friends killed everyone who worked at the bank. That’s a lot of murders, and you’re on the hook for every one of them.”

  That got his attention.

  “I didn’t kill nobody.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Shaye said, “because you’re the one we caught.”