Halliday 1

by Adam Brady

  “Let her go,” he said simply.

  Henley opened his hand, and the woman stepped back and pushed her hair out of her eyes.

  He looked over his shoulder at Halliday and then he turned to his wife again.

  “I’m nowhere near finished with you,” he hissed. “You’ll find that out. I’ll be back for you, and soon. Either I’ll tame you, or I’ll see you dead. You’re still my goddamn wife.”

  He kicked the horse into a run, and when it shot out of the alley, someone on the boardwalk recognized him.

  “Look who’s leavin’ town, pards! See? He’s got his belongin’s all packed up in that bag.”

  “More likely it’s our belongin’s,” someone answered, and suddenly a crowd was gathering.

  Henley saw the signs and slapped the reins.

  Buck Halliday was sitting at the bar and Julie was standing behind it to refill his glass when the judge walked through the batwings, moving with the energy and purpose of a much younger man.

  Several townsmen clustered just outside the batwing doors but seemed unwilling to cross the threshold.

  “Mrs. Henley,” the judge greeted Julie, and then he fetched up at the bar beside Halliday.

  “I’ll get straight to the point,” he told Halliday.

  “Good idea, Judge. I’ve a hankerin’ for some peace and quiet.”

  “Mr. Halliday, I’ve had a long talk with my niece and some of the city fathers. There’s still lots to do here in Shimmer Creek, and we figure you’re the man for the job.”

  “My job for you is done, Judge,” Halliday told him flatly.

  “I’m talking about something else,” the judge said. “We think there could be a permanent position here for you. Without Henley draining us dry, this town is all set to grow into something prosperous and decent ... but it has to have some law.”

  Halliday gave no sign that he heard.

  The judge seemed annoyed by Julie’s presence. He turned a little away from her and lowered his voice.

  “Do you understand what I’m saying, Mr. Halliday? We’re asking you to be our sheriff.”

  Halliday was looking straight at Julie, and she was the one who answered for him.

  “You’re too late, Judge.”

  “Oh?” Cowper asked absently, still concentrating his attention on Halliday. “You’ve decided to leave?”

  “He’s decided to stay and work for me,” Julie told him.

  “You mean you are taking over the saloon, Mrs. Henley?” Cowper asked.

  “Yes. And I’ve hired Buck to help me run it.”

  Cowper could not hide his disappointment as he stepped back from the bar.

  “That’s regrettable,” he muttered, still keeping his eyes on Halliday, “but I suppose I have only myself to blame. I should’ve trusted your judgment all along instead of trying to tell you how to handle something I knew so little about. Anyway, I want you to know this town is beholden, and no one could be more grateful than me, Mr. Halliday.”

  Cowper extended his hand, and Halliday gripped it.

  “Like I said,” Halliday told him, “I’ve been paid for what I did. But it’s nice to hear what you just said. It’s mighty unusual for a feller in my line of work to hear that kind of praise after the job is done. There’s always lots of glad-handin’ beforehand, but folks have a tendency to turn kinda frosty when they don’t need you no more.”

  The judge nodded Julie’s way and added, “I wish you luck, Mr. Halliday, and the sheriff’s job is still there if you happen to change your mind. All you have to do is let me know.”

  “Thanks,” Halliday said as the judge headed for the door.

  Over the batwings, he could see Cowper in conversation with the men waiting on the boardwalk. After a few minutes, the bunch moved away.

  Julie pushed another drink across the counter and said, “It’s gettin’ late, Buck. I’ll fix a room for you upstairs.”

  Halliday shook his head.

  “The rooming house suits me just fine.”

  “Why? Now that everything’s settled—”

  “You don’t believe that anymore than I do. He’ll be back.”

  “Of course he won’t. When he said those things, he was just tryin’ to cover his shame.”

  “He’ll ride back in a day or so and I want to be ready for him and whoever he brings with him. I want no complications until this thing with your husband is settled once and for all.”

  Julie filled her glass and emptied it just as quickly.

  “What time in the mornin’, boss?” Halliday asked quietly.

  “I’ll open up when it suits me.”

  “I’ll check in at nine o’clock then,” Halliday told her, closing the doors on his way out.

  When he was back in his room, he shrugged out of his shirt and examined the nick Henley’s bullet had left along his shoulder. He filled the basin and cleaned the graze. Then he found the whiskey bottle and splashed a little of the reddish-brown liquid into the palm of his hand and wiped his hand over the raw skin.

  He winced as he replaced the cork in the bottle. Then he thought better of it and took a long swallow.

  He was tired and certain that Henley would not be back so soon. This was one time when even the lovely Julie Henley was no competition for a good night’s sleep.

  Beth Cowper was waiting on the front porch when her uncle returned. As soon as she saw the disappointment in his face, she said, “Something has gone wrong, hasn’t it?”

  “Mr. Halliday has other plans, Beth,” the old man said gently.

  “He’s leaving?”

  “No.”

  “What then?” Beth asked.

  Cowper did not answer until he had splashed whiskey into a glass and had taken two fortifying sips. Then he said, “Jason Henley has left town, and Julie Henley has taken over the running of the saloon. Halliday is going to work for her.”

  Beth was shocked.

  “But she’s ... she’s ...”

  “I know,” Cowper said. “And maybe Halliday knows it, too. Anyway, it’s not for us to judge, Beth. They have their own lives to lead. The thing is, though, Mr. Halliday will still be in our town. That in itself gives me a great deal of hope for the future. We’ll just have to manage as best we can without his services.”

  While he talked, Cowper studied his niece and knew she was no longer listening to him. He paused for awhile, and then said;

  “He’s done us all a fine service, Beth, but the fact still remains that he is no more than a hired gun. He will never belong to any one place or any one woman. One day, he will tire of this town and he will simply get on his horse and go.”

  Beth looked up angrily and snapped;

  “What Buck Halliday chooses to do is no concern of mine! Good night, Uncle. It’s late and I’m going to bed.”

  “Good night, Beth,” Cowper said, and watched her flounce out of the room.

  When her door closed harder than it usually did, he dropped into a chair.

  It might be a relief to know that his sweet and innocent niece would not be getting any closer to a man like Buck Halliday, but the judge knew that he would be losing her before long to some man. She was a grown woman with many fine qualities, although probably a little too independent for most men’s taste.

  When the time came, the house was going to seem empty.

  Cowper’s head drooped. He felt suddenly old and—what was the word he wanted ...?

  Expendable.

  Seven – Waiting for the Man

  Jason Henley rode all night. Staying awake when the world was in darkness was no problem to a man who had been running a saloon, but the long hours in the saddle left him stiff and sore.

  The sun was just starting to appear when he approached the long stretch of desert serviced by a weekly stage run which made the round trip between Shimmer Creek and Layton.

  Henley was planning to wait for the stage that would be heading for Shimmer Creek—the one that would be carrying Ben Crowe. He wanted to make sure
that the gunman knew the deal to kill Buck Halliday still stood, despite the dramatic changes at Shimmer Creek.

  He came stiffly out of the saddle and led his horse into the weak shade provided by the spindly trees that struggled to survive on the edge of the desert, and then he sank to the ground and pulled off his boots so that he could work the cramp out of his feet.

  A faint scraping noise came from somewhere behind him, and he rose on his haunches and grabbed at his holster. That was when he remembered that he had no gun.

  Sweat broke out on his forehead as he scanned the empty landscape. It seemed that the noise must have come from the shallow arroyo—there was no other place of concealment. Maybe it was just a Gila monster or a snake.

  Henley had just about decided that the noise was nothing of any importance when Tom Bassett led his horse out of the arroyo, with Ben Albert behind him.

  They seemed to hesitate when they saw Henley, but they finally dismounted and came over to him.

  “You weak-livered bums ran out on me!” Henley snapped.

  “Seems like you’re doin’ some runnin’ of your own, Mr. Henley,” Bassett growled. “’Less maybe you just come out here for a change of scenery.”

  Henley scowled back at him but let it go at that.

  “Halliday ran me out of town,” he explained. “If there’d been the three of us, we might’ve been able to stop him, but I couldn’t do it on my own.”

  “Not likely,” Albert said bluntly. “The three of us wouldn’t have been enough to go up against Halliday. Look what he did to the others that you had on your payroll.”

  “He’s only one man,” Henley growled.

  “Try tellin’ that to him,” Albert muttered, scratching idly at the dirt with a sharp-edged pebble.

  His eyes were on the desert, and it was clear from his expression that he was looking at something he did not like. Years before, he had barely lived through a similar crossing, and the agony of it still burned into his memory.

  Ever since the day he had staggered onto the trail where he was rescued, he had never been able to think of sand without remembering how it had felt to be covered in a skin of raw blisters and so crazy with thirst that he tried to drink his own sweat.

  Henley studied each of the men in turn for a moment before he barked, “What’s done is done. I know that, but I’d still like to know what the hell happened to you two back at Shimmer Creek. I sent you to find Lee and Luke, and you didn’t come back. Halliday turned up at the saloon instead. If I’d had some warning—”

  “Halliday was in Cowper’s home when we got there,” Albert told him. “He’d just gunned down Lee and Luke for roughin’ up the judge and his niece. When we showed up, he made us drag Lee and Luke outside, and then he told us to get outta town. Tom bucked him at the last minute, and you can see what he got for his trouble. I don’t want no part of Halliday, not today, not next week, not ever.”

  Henley scowled and then turned to Bassett.

  “What’s your version of all this?”

  Bassett fingered his swollen jaw, and said, “Just about the same, I guess. Only that I might’ve had a better chance against Halliday if I’d had somebody to back me up.”

  Albert wiped his palms down his dusty pants and looked at each of them in turn.

  “A man that tangles with Halliday is askin’ for everythin’ he gets, Tom. Hell, you didn’t stand a chance. Neither of us did, not even together. He don’t lose out ... never.”

  “We could’ve got him once and for all,” Bassett insisted, “but you just sat back and wouldn’t lift a finger.”

  “There was nothin’ I could do. Hell, he had his gun out, and anybody could see it was loco to go for him—anybody but you, that is. What you done was plain foolish, and I ain’t a fool.”

  Bassett turned his head and hawked. Henley noticed that he was favoring his right side and one ear was swollen to almost twice its usual size.

  “Well,” Henley said, “whatever you fellers have to say about it, Halliday ain’t makin’ me leave. I’ve worked too hard to get my hands on that town, and I’m going back, just as soon as Crowe turns up. I’m going to see Halliday dead. After that, I aim to teach that wife of mine a lesson she won’t forget.”

  “You really mean to go back there, do you?” Bassett asked.

  “Ain’t that what I just said?” Henley snapped. “Ben Crowe is the fastest gun that ever came out of the Platte River country. He’s also mean as a snake, and he takes pride in bein’ the top man wherever he goes. I’m payin’ him plenty to take Halliday out. Ben won’t let me down, not like some.”

  Bassett nodded his head gravely, and then he turned to Albert.

  “What do you say, Ben? You still ridin’ with us or not?”

  Albert shook his head vigorously.

  “I sure as hell ain’t. I seen way too much of Halliday already, and I don’t know nothin’ about Crowe except that any man’s a fool who takes on Halliday. If you want to have Halliday beatin’ up on you again, that’s your business. Just as soon as the sun goes down, I’m pushing on to Layton.”

  “You’re that scared of Halliday?” Bassett said heavily.

  “You damn betcha I am, an’ I don’t mind admittin’ it. And if Halliday didn’t scramble your brains so bad you can’t see sense, you’ll be comin’ right along with me. In Layt—”

  “Shut up, damn you!” Henley roared. “Ain’t nobody running out on me again. You’re both goin’ back to Shimmer Creek with me, and we’re going to see that Ben Crowe gets his chance at Halliday. I want that town to see Halliday go down. It’s the only way to bring those fools back into line.”

  Albert wiped a line of sweat from his face and shook his head. “No, Henley, I’m all through with this. You had nine men backin’ you against Halliday, and we all saw what happened. He cut them to ribbons. Can’t you get it through your head? Throwin’ a scare into a bunch of storekeepers is one thing ... Halliday’s somethin’ else.”

  Henley looked up at the cloudless sky.

  It was Bassett who responded to Albert’s outburst.

  “I’ll lay it out nice and simple, Ben,” he said. “Either you throw in with us, or you can walk to Layton, ’cause I’ll be takin’ that horse of yours.”

  Albert looked from Bassett to Henley like a cornered animal.

  “Tom,” he said, “you can’t say I let you down at Shimmer Creek. You just took on somethin’ that was too big for you. All I can say is you’re damn lucky that Halliday let you live. The best thing you can do is forget all about it—we could have us a real nice time down along the border. What do you say to that?”

  Henley stooped down and picked up a large, flat rock. Bassett saw his move and kept Albert talking.

  “You got a hankerin’ for Mexico, huh?”

  “I sure do. All that spicy food and hot women. Everything’s cheap down there, Tom. Why, it hardly costs—”

  Henley hit him just behind the right ear. Albert let out a grunt and fell flat. There was no sign of movement, but Henley bent down and hit him again. Blood began to flow from the shattered skull, and a line of ants appeared from nowhere as if they had been waiting for a man to leak a little his blood.

  “He was nothing but a coward,” Henley said as he looked up to see Bassett’s reaction to what he had done.

  “Don’t bother me none,” Bassett said with a shrug. “I told you how he let me down.”

  Henley nodded.

  “I’m going to remember how you stood by me today, Tom,” Henley said. “You won’t be sorry.”

  Bassett nodded and proceeded to drag Albert’s body away by the heels, dumping it in the arroyo and kicking dirt from the bank on top of it.

  Julie Henley hired two men to look after the saloon, and they were sweeping and scrubbing while she took stock of the finances in the upstairs office.

  She was overjoyed to discover that her husband had stocked up with enough whiskey to last out a long, hot summer.

  She had found his little sneak g
un and a couple of crumpled banknotes in the room. There also was a badly dented tin box, but it was empty and she assumed that her husband had cleaned it out.

  Maybe there was little cash on hand, but things looked good, especially with Buck Halliday beside her. She was sure that he would not remain so standoffish for long, and she considered that it was well worth waiting for a man like that.

  Humming to herself, she locked the room behind her and went down the stairs.

  She was pleased to find that everything was back in shape and Josh Harper was all set up behind the bar, waiting for the day’s first customers.

  “Has Mr. Halliday been in yet, Josh?” Julie asked with a pleasant smile.

  “No, Mrs. Henley,” the new barkeep answered. “Ain’t seen hide nor hair of him.”

  “When he comes in, tell him I want to see him, will you?” Julie said, and after another look around the quiet saloon, she went upstairs again, this time to her own room.

  She opened the windows and looked down on the street with all the affection of a proud new owner. To make things even better, she spotted Halliday heading for the business block.

  She had her head out the window and was ready to wave and call his name when she saw him tip his hat to none other than Beth Cowper.

  “Damn!” Julie whispered as she stepped back from the window.

  She went to her bed and straightened the pillows and the coverlet, but then found herself back at the window.

  Halliday was still there, talking amiably with Beth and her uncle.

  Even from a distance, she could see that the meeting was friendly from all sides.

  Finally, she slammed the window down, but she could not bring herself to turn away. Then she saw Halliday reach inside his shirt and bring out a bulky package, which he handed to the judge.

  From the way the judge opened a corner of the package and put it quickly inside his coat, Julie was suddenly certain that Halliday had just handed the old man a great deal of money.

  In one quick moment of realization, Julie knew who had emptied that tin box in the office.