Long Shadows

by James, Terry

  ‘All right, folks, now you know who I am I want you to go about your business. And somebody fetch the undertaker, and a doctor.’ Behind him, he heard the sheriff working to persuade Swain and Radley to go inside. ‘There’s nothing more to see.’

  A few low grunts marked the crowd’s slow departure, no one wanted to miss the already heated argument between Ros and her brother.

  ‘What was I supposed to do, Matt?’ Ros snapped. ‘May was lying dead on the ground. Pa’s dead. Bill’s dead. And then you … you stand there looking and sounding like Billy the Kid.’

  Matt broke away. Despite challenging Swain, he seemed loath to continue a fight with his irate sister. Jake admired the boy for his self-control, especially knowing how mad he himself had been when Ros stormed into the fray.

  ‘Marshal, there’s no need for the undertaker. We’ll be taking Maybelle’s body home with us.’ Matt said, his anger still evident in the flush mottling his cheeks. ‘Unless you’ve got a problem with that.’

  Jake heard the challenge, but he didn’t see any conviction in the kid’s eyes. To tell the truth, he looked scared to death. And why wouldn’t he? He was just a boy, sixteen at the outside. Radley was a killer. Not to mention his sister being a madwoman.

  ‘Easy, son. I’m just trying to help.’

  Ros pushed between them, dwarfed by the height of both men, and squinted up at him. ‘Really? By standing idly by while a woman was murdered, then letting a man like Radley go loose?’

  She walked away, forcing him to follow. Luckily, for Matt, he sidestepped in time to avoid being floored as Jake pushed through him.

  ‘Ros! Don’t walk away from me. We’re not finished.’

  ‘Yes, we are,’ she sang over her shoulder.

  Grabbing the back of her coat, he yanked her around. ‘Not until you tell me what you thought you were doing walking into the middle of a gunfight. Then, instead of trying to break it up, you challenge a killer to a showdown. You’re crazy.’

  ‘So, I’m crazy. Are you finished?’

  ‘No.’ He grabbed her elbow, yanking her hand from her pocket and holding it high. ‘What about this? Your fingers are as stiff as a new glove. If he’d pulled his gun, you’d be dead right now. Didn’t I teach you anything? You never start a fight you can’t win.’

  He tightened his grip and the pressure reignited her spark.

  ‘I didn’t ask for your help. Let me go and leave me alone, you—’

  ‘Sis!’ Matt gripped her other arm. ‘You’re causing a scene. Let’s go.’

  ‘Not until—’

  ‘Now,’ he insisted.

  Jake smiled at the look of surprise that stalled her argument, but his amusement was short-lived.

  ‘When did you start giving me orders, little brother o’ mine?’ she asked softly.

  ‘When you lost your mind – and your manners. The marshal’s right. What you did was crazy, and arguing about it won’t change anything.’ He nodded to Jake to let her go, holding her elbow while she composed herself, then ignored her and addressed Jake. ‘I’ll have my foreman Colly come fetch my sister-in-law’s body, if that’s all right with you.’

  ‘That’s fine, son. As for your sister, see if you can’t do something about that temper.’

  A grin brightened Matt’s strained demeanour. ‘Don’t push your luck, Marshal. If I remember right, she actually never starts a fight she can’t win and she’s probably crazy enough to shoot you.’

  Ros reined in her indignation as she walked beside Matt, struggling to keep up with his long strides. She resented his resolute scowl, fixed firmly on the ground.

  ‘I’m not sorry, Matt,’ she said, stumbling to keep pace with him. ‘What was I supposed to do, let you get yourself killed?’

  A muscle flexed in his jaw but his mouth remained tight. His silence only made Ros more determined to continue the argument.

  ‘Why are you so mad? Just tell me. Get it out in the open.’

  He didn’t look at her. ‘Where have you been? Why didn’t you send word? And what did you think you were doing back there?’ He growled in frustration. ‘What you did was…reckless. The marshal was right. Maybe you should try listening to him.’

  She gasped despite her best efforts to let him say his piece.

  ‘Oh, just forget it,’ he mumbled, edging away from her. ‘I forgot you never listen to anybody, do you? That’s why you left in the first place.’

  His words smarted like a slap in the face and she gripped his elbow more roughly than she intended. He stopped dead and for the first time, he met her head on, anger tensing every muscle in his pale face. It aged him and shocked some sense into her. She had known being home was going to be hard, but looking at a mirror image of their father, a man she’d destroyed by her selfishness, was going to kill her a little every day – if she let it.

  ‘Matt, say what’s on your mind.’ Her tone was unnecessarily harsh. ‘Life’s too short for keeping ugly things inside.’

  ‘You’re right, life is too short. Too short for a lot of things.’ He closed his eyes and inhaled, obviously composing himself. ‘I’m barely seventeen years old and over the past few weeks I’ve lost my pa, my brother and my sister-in-law, the people who raised me. Don’t walk back into my life if you’re just gonna get yourself killed. It’s not fair.’

  She hadn’t expected him to be so brutally honest. It humbled her.

  ‘All right, I deserved that, but let’s not fight. You went to a lot of trouble to get me back here, I thought you’d be happy to see me.’

  A flicker in his eyes betrayed his vulnerability. Luckily, anything he’d been about to say was lost when a door opened nearby. They both looked round at the man who emerged wearing grey pants and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

  He hurried forward, stopping short despite the appearance of being eager to greet her. ‘Ros? I don’t believe it.’

  ‘Hello, Tom. Is Ava still here?’ Matt asked.

  ‘She went back to the hotel.’

  Matt stepped aside, already moving away as he continued. ‘I’m sure you two have got a lot to talk about. I’ll be back later.’

  Ros let him go. Knowing her own temper, and guessing Matt took after her, it was better to let him cool off at his own pace. She smoothed her hair and turned her attention to Tom. ‘Hello. How are you?’

  A frown dulled his expression. ‘Never mind me. You look like hell.’

  ‘With the stiffness and the pain when you try to move your fingers….’ Doctor Thomas Bailey flexed each of her fingers in turn. ‘It’s hard to say for sure, but I’d say at worst you’ve broken every bone in your hand. At best it’s just a bad swelling.’

  She couldn’t contain a smile. ‘Let’s hope for that then.’

  He stopped his examination and looked into her face. ‘It’s good to see you. A surprise, but a good one. Looks as though Matt was right not to give up on you. He never believed you were dead, even after we got word you were.’

  ‘He didn’t?’

  ‘Everybody else gave you up years ago, but not him. Even I wasn’t sure. Still, after what happened nobody would have blamed you for starting a new life. You could have dropped off the face of the earth, done anything, gone anywhere.’

  Ros struggled for something to say. She’d disappointed so many people.

  ‘That was a long time ago. I put it behind me the day I rode out of here. I didn’t come back to dredge up the past.’

  He looked pensive as he picked up a length of bandage from a tray on the table. ‘You haven’t changed if you don’t think that’s exactly what your being back is going to do.’

  Silence separated them as he unwound and rewound a dressing. Despite her brave words, the past was charging back with a vengeance.

  ‘Tom, what’s been happening? I see a personal in a newspaper, so I come back and walk into a gunfight between my baby brother and a hired killer. And what was Maybelle doing going after Emmett with a gun?’

  ‘Maybelle?’

/>   ‘She’s dead. She tried to kill Emmett.’

  Tom staggered. ‘I can’t believe it. Ava said she was finding it hard, but … it’s an ugly business. Since your pa died and then Bill …’ For a moment, words failed him. ‘It’s Swain’s doing. He turned up a few months ago, a rich man, started trying to take over the town. He bought out a small farm here and there, then ranches, stores, the hotel. He owns mostly everything now except for—’

  ‘The Circle Double L. Son of a—’ She glanced sheepishly at him. ‘Sorry, Tom. I’ve been keeping mixed company lately, although I think that particular slip of the tongue comes from a time I can’t actually remember.’

  ‘How much time?’ He asked with obvious interest.

  ‘I don’t know, about six months – a year maybe.’

  He nodded as though he understood. ‘I read in a journal that sometimes that happens with a serious head wound, that the events nearest in time to the accident that caused the amnesia get lost.’

  ‘You mean I’ll never remember?’ she asked. ‘There’s no cure?’

  He shrugged. ‘Nobody can say for sure. Something intense might spur your memory, I guess. Going back to the L, seeing Emmett again … you’re right, he is a …’ He paused to let her fill in the rest. ‘Have you spoken to Matt about what’s been happening?’

  She picked at a thread on her sleeve. ‘He seems very independent. Why don’t you fill me in?’

  Tom started clearing away his instruments. It was a habit, something she remembered he did to avoid awkward situations. Ros followed him, standing firmly in his path when he tried to sidestep past her.

  ‘Matt was just a kid when I left. I need to know what kind of man he’s grown into. Is he a troublemaker, or did I just see him reach his limit today? Where does he stand in all this?’

  ‘He’s a fine young man. Where he stands is difficult to say now Bill and May are gone.’

  He shrugged as though the silence would answer for him. Instead, his reluctance to give her the details infuriated her, coming on top of everything else.

  ‘You might as well come out with it. What about Matt? I still know you well enough to recognize when you’re not telling me something you think might upset me.’

  A half-hearted chuckle confirmed her fears. ‘Matt’s close as a brother to me. Him and Ava come over to dinner once a month and we talk. Before the killing started, I’d say Matt was the most likely to give Swain what he wanted.’

  ‘The Circle Double L? You’ve got to be joking,’ she scoffed.

  ‘Bill and Maybelle lived for that ranch and what it stands for, but Matt takes after you. He’s got other dreams, other priorities, especially now.’

  ‘Priorities? Such as?’ she asked, trying to keep impatience from her tone. ‘And who’s Ava?’

  Tom’s eyes twinkled with mischief. ‘I think he should be the one to bring you up to date, but you’ll like Ava. As for Matt, he’s a good kid. He’s a lot like you.’ He hesitated. ‘A lot like Emmett too.’

  A wall of silence descended between them.

  ‘You promised you’d never mention that,’ she said after a lengthy pause. ‘My pa never admitted Emmett was his son.’

  He’d never denied it either, just said there was no proof. Of course, Emmett had told a different story when she caught up with him, and the thousand dollar bank draft he had in her father’s name.…

  ‘There was no proof. None,’ she said, choosing to forget the rest.

  Tom nodded. ‘Well, you might want to consider it. I think that possibility is the only thing that’s been keeping Matt alive. Emmett doesn’t seem to have any stomach for killing the only person in the West family who’s treated him like anything other than a cur.’

  ‘That’s not true. I left my family to look for him. I sacrificed everything.’ Her voice cracked. ‘Look, I don’t want to talk about the past. Matt brought me back here for a reason and I’m not going to over-think it. I just want to go home. Be a family again.’

  CHAPTER 9

  Standing in the sheriff’s office, Jake poured himself coffee. It was lukewarm and weak and he shuddered as he gulped it down.

  ‘You look a mite upset, Jake,’ Riley observed.

  ‘I guess you could say that.’ Jake didn’t trust himself to elaborate.

  ‘Can’t say I blame you. I’m not sure how I feel about that whole situation myself.’

  Jake’s illusions dissolved, although he couldn’t bring himself to ask the obvious. Instead, he waited, cup touching his lips, eyes narrowed, his frayed temper ready to go either way.

  ‘She’s quite a woman, Matt’s sister. Phewee. Imagine a little lady like that challenging Radley to a gunfight. That’s something to tell your grandkids about.’ He wagged a twisted finger at Jake. ‘Put you in the middle of a bad situation though, didn’t she?’

  Despair at the sheriff’s near-sightedness rendered Jake speechless. First, there was a crazy, gun-toting woman. Now, he had to contend with an old friend who, for some unknown reason, had brought him face to face with a dangerous past and probably couldn’t find his own backside with both hands. He hadn’t thought his disbelief could sink any lower, but it had, and he almost dropped his cup before he could return it to the stove.

  Taking a minute to compose himself, he swallowed the bitter aftertaste of coffee, determined not to let Riley’s ignorance continue. ‘Actually, Riley, I wasn’t thinking about her. To tell the truth, I’m more riled by what you’ve done than what she did.’

  Riley stopped smiling. ‘Me? What have I done?’

  ‘Well, I was kinda hopin’ to keep the fact that I’m a marshal to myself, take a quiet look around and maybe find out what’s going on from the inside. You pretty much blew that idea sky high.’

  ‘I didn’t have much choice after your lady-friend started making threats.’

  ‘Nice try, Riley, but she doesn’t know who I am or who I was before, remember? My secret’s safe with her. Swain’s the one who worries me, nearly as much as you do.’

  Coloured flooded Riley’s already ruddy cheeks. ‘Now, wait a minute, what’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘You preached to me about the past not always being a good place to revisit and then you pitch me face to face with the first man I ever sent to prison.’

  ‘What?’ Riley seemed genuinely surprised.

  ‘Don’t you know who Emmett Swain is, or should I say, was?’

  ‘Some fella who had a falling out with a man in town a few years ago and left to make his fortune is all I heard.’

  ‘Let me put it into some kind of order for you. Jay Langerud – Parley Jones – and Emmett Swain, who you’d probably know by his alias, Jim West.’

  ‘Jim West! You mean Swain is…?’

  Jake nodded. ‘That’s right. The man who nearly, but apparently not quite, paid the price for Jay Langerud’s new life as Jake Rudd, lawman.’

  ‘Well, isn’t that a coincidence, him calling himself West and now he’s hell bent on destroying a family with that name.’ The sheriff paled as quickly as he coloured up. ‘Jake, boy, I’m sorry. I didn’t know, I swear. I thought West was still locked up.’ He sighed. ‘Do you think he busted out?’

  ‘I haven’t heard anything about it if he did. Probably got himself a good attorney. The judge said at the time my written testimony wasn’t much to put him away with, considering my own past.’

  Riley pondered a moment. ‘Kind of changes things a bit though, don’t it? A man who knows Swain, how he thinks, could be mighty useful to this town. I knew if anybody could straighten this mess out, you’d be the man. You’re tough but fair, you shoot from the hip and—’

  Jake held up his hand, silencing the sheriff before his own infamy made him feel physically sick coming so close on the back of the bad coffee. ‘It’s a good story. You’ve done a lot to improve it over the years,’ he said, drily. ‘The plain fact is, I’m nothing but a man with a price on his head now. I wrote and resigned as a US marshal more ‘n a month ago.’

&nb
sp; ‘You did what? You’re the best lawman in these parts.’

  Jake gave a non-committal shrug, uncomfortable with the details of his own reputation. When the chips were down, he did what he had to. Anything else was hearsay and make-believe. But as the sheriff concentrated on toying with a pencil stub, Jake decided there was no point trying to enlighten him.

  For a few seconds, neither of them said a word. The silence seemed to bother Riley more than it did Jake and finally, after a lot of huffing and puffing, he exploded.

  ‘Well, whether you’re official or not, you’re in this with the rest of us now.’ He pushed back in his chair, balancing precariously before he kicked his legs up onto the desk. ‘Yes, sir, you’re here for the duration, like it or not. If Swain does recognize you, there’s nowhere you’ll be able to go without looking over your shoulder twenty-four hours a day.’

  ‘I disappeared once before.’

  ‘Mmm, maybe, but I’ve got a feeling.…’

  Jake braced himself, sure a pause could only mean trouble. ‘You might as well come out with it,’ he said, after a few seconds of waiting to find out what new calamity awaited him.

  ‘Well …’ Another infuriating hesitation followed. ‘I’m retiring next week. Found myself a friendly widow and decided to settle down to a quiet life. Nobody else wants this job. That’ll pretty much make you the only law around here.’

  A hammer blow couldn’t have hit Jake any harder. The last thing he wanted was to get caught up, maybe even killed, when he was so close to folding his hand. A dozen violent scenarios filled his mind, from wringing the sheriff’s neck to shooting him dead. Only their long friendship kept his hands pinned at his sides.

  Finally, he unclenched his jaw enough to speak. ‘Why didn’t you just come straight out and tell me that’s what you were up to?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Jake. You promised me five years and that’s what you’ve given me, but I hoped you’d change your mind about quitting. I heard about your resignation, but this town needs somebody like you. I’m no match for the mercenaries Swain’s hiring, especially if he’s who you say he is. Bill West tried standing up to them and he got a bullet in his back. Young Matt’s a good k—’ He almost fell off his chair when Jake strode to the door. ‘Hey, where are you going?’