Bannerman the Enforcer 2

by Kirk Hamilton

  “Hang on, Yancey,” Cato said. “Don’t be too blamed hasty ... Maybe we should see what the young lady’s like. She may not be a butterfly at all!”

  “You’re right,” the Commandant said flatly. “Miss Johansen is no socialite and I doubt very much if she has those—ah— pretensions.”

  Yancey shrugged. “All right. But Lester Dukes is on a tour of duty, with only limited time at his disposal. It’d have to be something important for him to see her.”

  “Murder, robbery and arson ... D’you think he might find those things of sufficient import, Mr. Bannerman?”

  Yancey arched his eyebrows and nodded slowly. “I reckon so. But crimes like that could be more in your line, or the Rangers’ ... ”

  “Sit down, gentlemen,” the army man said, waving them to chairs. “Before introducing you to Miss Johansen, I’ll give you the background to her story.”

  Cato and Yancey listened in silence while the officer told them about Sven Johansen’s murder, as he and his men had reconstructed it after hauling the Swede’s body from the river.

  “We know the names of the men he had working for him,” the Commandant continued. “We’ve found out they’re wanted in southern Texas by the Rangers and by half a dozen local lawmen ... Seems they went back to the Johansen spread, tortured Mrs. Johansen until she wrote a letter of authority so they could cash that bank draft for twenty-one thousand dollars.” He sighed, looking grim. “Mrs. Johansen lived long enough to tell her story then died of burns—those murderers fired the ranch house before they fled.”

  Yancey said alertly, “They cashed the draft?”

  The Commandant nodded. “From what they told Mrs. Johansen, we know they headed for the Territory.”

  “And this girl from back East?”

  “Johansen’s daughter, Anya. Apparently she’s been away at some fancy school in Philadelphia.” He sighed. “Some homecoming!” He looked from one to the other. “Well, gentlemen? Can you get the young lady to the governor?”

  “Yes,” said Yancey at once and the Commandant went to the door, spoke briefly with the orderly in the outer office then returned to sit down at his desk again. “I’ve sent for her. You can see for yourself just what she’s like, gentlemen.”

  “What does she want the governor to do?” demanded Yancey. “Surely this is a case for the Rangers.”

  “We have no jurisdiction in the Indian Territory, nor have the Rangers. And besides—well, you’ll see.” He sat back and lit a cigar.

  Cato and Yancey exchanged glances and sat back to wait. Presently, the orderly ushered in Anya Johansen and they all got to their feet. Cato unconsciously pulled the torn collar of his shirt close about his throat and stretched to his full height, ramrod straight. Yancey stood with the easy grace that seemed to come naturally to him, his gray eyes taking in the girl’s trim figure.

  He was surprised at her height: she must have been within an inch of Cato’s height. She had a smooth, glowing skin with high color in her broad cheeks, straw-colored hair and vivid blue eyes that looked disinterestedly at Yancey and Cato. Her mouth was wide and sensuous. Her clothes were of good quality but not flashy and she walked easily across the small room, aware of her body but not flaunting it. The Commandant made the introductions, adding:

  “These gentlemen work for Governor Dukes and have kindly consented to escort you to Dallas to see him, ma’am.”

  Yancey was surprised when the girl offered him her hand and he felt the firmness of her grip. As was to be expected, when she shook hands with Cato, he lifted her fingers to his lips and kissed them lightly, bowing a little.

  “A pleasure, ma’am,” he smiled, but the smile froze when she pulled her hand from his grasp, obviously not responding to his attempt at gallantry.

  She stood before Yancey and Cato and looked from one man to the other, eyes flashing. “You have been fighting,” she accused flatly.

  “Well, it’s kind of a long story, Miss Johansen,” Yancey began but the girl cut him short with an impatient gesture. “It is of no interest to me. When do we leave for Dallas? I wish to see Governor Dukes as soon as possible.”

  “Mr. Cato and Mr. Bannerman are planning to leave Fort Worth by sundown today, ma’am,” the Commandant put in abruptly, looking levelly at the enforcers. “Isn’t that correct, gentlemen?”

  Yancey and Cato nodded heavily.

  “Good. I will pack my things and have them taken to the stage depot,” Anya said, starting for the door.

  “Wait on there, Miss Johansen,” Yancey said, taking a step forward but stopping as the girl turned to face him coolly. “Yes? Is there something else?”

  “Well as I was saying to the Commandant, I don’t quite understand why you want to see Governor Dukes ... I mean, the army and the Rangers have tracked the wanted men to the Indian Territory. Only federal marshals have jurisdiction there.”

  “I am aware of that, Mr. Bannerman. But I’ve no wish to wait weeks for U.S. Marshals to get their special warrants. I’ve heard that Governor Dukes is a just man and I want him to take a personal interest in my case. There’s a great deal I wish to tell Governor Dukes, Mr. Bannerman. A great deal.” She nodded curtly to no one in particular. “Good day. I will be at the stage depot before departure time.”

  Belatedly, the three men started forward to open the door for her, but Anya swept out and closed the door behind her, almost in their faces. Cato pursed his lips and Yancey frowned, blowing out his cheeks slightly. The Commandant gave a smile of undisguised relief.

  “Gentlemen, Miss Johansen is now officially your responsibility ... I wish you good day. My adjutant will give you an estimate of the damage caused in the fight in the saloon ... ” Yancey and Cato looked unhappy as they slowly left the office.

  Chapter Three – Special Mission

  It was only about forty miles from Fort Worth to Dallas but Yancey figured he had never undertaken a tougher journey in his life. And he was a man who had done a deal of wandering since quitting the Bannerman financial empire in San Francisco a couple of years earlier. To take his mind off the jolting coach trip and to have an excuse not to meet the cool, penetrating gaze of Anya Johansen, he stared out the window, not taking in the passing scenery but thinking about his father and brother and sister back in ’Frisco ...

  Old Curtis Bannerman had built up his empire the hard way, in the old frontier days using fists and muscle and guns where necessary. He hammered down his rivals, playing square if they did, but not hesitating to resort to dirty tricks and occasional lawlessness if his rivals did the same. Old ‘C.B.’ as he was known, was a tough old hombre and he was just as hard on his own family as any adversary in the financial field when he established himself on the coast. Mattie, his daughter, was the keeper of the elaborate house on top of Nob Hill and she was just as efficient at her job as C.B. was at his. The old man knew this, too, but he would never admit it within her hearing, though he accepted compliments about her efficiency readily enough and with a pride that he couldn’t always disguise. Chuck, the eldest son, had taken a job in the Bannerman business and handled most of his father’s land deals, travelling the length and breadth of the country.

  Chuck had a good business head on his shoulders but he also had one weakness: gambling. It had been Chuck’s gambling that had indirectly been responsible for Yancey working as a special agent for Governor Dukes ... Chuck had been in debt in ’Frisco to a gambler who, as it happened, had also been a partner of a political enemy of Dukes, a man called J. J. Magnus. It had been Yancey’s involvement in the case, where he had had to use his qualifications as a lawyer to save Chuck from a trumped-up murder charge, that had impressed Dukes with the young man’s worth. He was even more impressed when Yancey and Cato prevented Magnus and his paid assassin, Hawke Venters, from blowing up the governor’s special train as it crossed a trestle bridge over Halo Creek, south of Austin.

  But if Governor Dukes respected Yancey’s talents enough to offer him the job as his special enforcer, ‘C.B.�
� was singularly unimpressed. This surprised many people, but not Yancey himself. He and his father had never hit it off very well and their relationship was even less cordial since Yancey had completed his schooling at law and then refused a soft and secure position high up in the Bannerman financial empire. Yancey had tried to explain to his father that the prospect of days of legal drudgery and nights of equally dreary dinner parties did not appeal to him. He had tried to make C.B. see that he wanted an outdoor life, that he would be more than content to take a lesser position in one of the many Bannerman land holdings out on the frontier. He would gladly ply the riverboat trade or get into the cattle industry, but all at a ‘working’ level, where he could meet and live with ‘real’ people, the folk who were pushing the frontiers back, building a different kind of empire to the one C.B. knew.

  A few years was all that Yancey had wanted. Then he would think about coming in as a company man, applying his legal talents. But C.B. would have none of it. He saw Yancey’s attitude as just another gesture of defiance. The only choice he offered his youngest son was to join Bannermans or get out. Yancey could be as stubborn and as hotheaded as his father, and he had chosen to get out and make his own way in life. He had no regrets, except that he would have liked to have kept relations with C.B. on a better footing.

  He envied Anya Johansen her relationship with her parents. Obviously it had been affectionate on both sides and, behind her icy determination to avenge their deaths, Yancey could detect some of the inner grief she was suffering. He also figured there was a stubbornness there that would not allow her to rest until she had got her revenge.

  Vaguely, starting to doze as Cato was doing beside him in the swaying coach, Yancey wondered if Anya would take off into the Indian Territory alone, on the trail of the killers, if Dukes refused to help her. It wouldn’t surprise him at all; he figured she would be stubborn and gutsy enough to give anything a try.

  ~*~

  Katherine Dukes slowly closed the door of her father’s hotel suite behind her and looked rather quizzically at Yancey and Cato where they waited in the hall. She was a tall girl in her early twenties, and she moved gracefully across to the two men, smiling as she so often did.

  “Well, I’d say that’s one very determined young woman in there with father,” Kate said quietly. “She managed to have me leave almost as easily as she did you two.”

  “She’s a handful,” Yancey agreed.

  “A beautiful handful,” Cato amended with a grin.

  Kate smiled faintly but there was a small crease of worry between her eyes. “I hope she doesn’t get father too stirred up. The doctor, isn’t very happy about him doing all this travelling, his heart being what it is.”

  “Hasn’t had another attack, has he?” Yancey asked, concerned.

  Kate shook her head. “No. But worry and emotional strain don’t help the condition. And I can’t shake the feeling that Anya Johansen is going to cause all of us a lot of worry in the near future.” She smiled fleetingly. “But I must try not to be selfish. The poor girl has had a dreadful experience.”

  “She certainly isn’t going to let things lie,” said Yancey. “If the governor can’t help her, I wouldn’t be surprised if she went straight to the President.”

  Presently, Anya Johansen opened the door and said that the governor wanted to see them. Her tone was still cool and impersonal.

  Lester Dukes looked grim as they went through to the inner room. But Kate was quick to note the grayish tinge in his face. Anya closed the door after them and joined the group. Kate hurried to her father’s side but he irritably pushed her aside with a, “Don’t fuss, Kate!”

  “I won’t fuss, Papa, but you’ll have to have some of your medicine. Remember what Dr. Boles said?”

  Dukes made a helpless gesture as Kate poured from a brown medicine bottle into a glass, added water from a pitcher and mixed the contents with a spoon. Dukes swallowed and grimaced, reaching out immediately for a half orange which he sucked hungrily.

  “Tastes like swamp water,” he told the others casually and set down the orange, looking at Yancey and Cato. “This young lady has told me her story and pointed out that we can’t expect people to settle in Texas if there’s no guarantee that the government can protect them.”

  Yancey glanced in Anya’s direction. “She kind of made that point on the journey from Fort Worth, sir.”

  “It is a valid point.”

  “You can only do what the State legislature allows you to do, Papa,” Kate pointed out, looking soberly at Anya, who was staring at the floor.

  The governor said, “There are times when the law is inadequate. There are inevitably delays in contacting Federal Marshals and swearing special warrants. Given time, the killers could easily hide themselves so completely that we could never track them down. As it is, a month has gone by and the trail may well be cold.” He flicked his gaze to Yancey and Cato. “Gentlemen, you have recently returned from an unofficial sortie into the Territory. Because of your exploits there, you made a useful friend in Half-Ear, the Comanche warrior. Isn’t that so?”

  “Well, yeah, he was kind of grateful because we set him free from the Satterlees,” Yancey agreed slowly. “And he did say he would help me if ever I needed his aid ... Guess I’m ahead of you, sir. You want Johnny and I to go back into the Nations and try to track down those killers?”

  Dukes looked at him levelly.

  “I know you can do it, Yancey, if anyone can. It’s a cold trail, but there may be some things working in your favor. For instance, the fact that the men were riding stolen horses, carrying the Johansen brand—the distinctive Viking helmet. That could well be as good as a signpost. And four men with that much money between them won’t go unnoticed ... In fact, they left a trail a blind man could follow from Fort Worth to the boundary of the Nations.”

  “Be a little different inside the Territory,” Cato pointed out. “Won’t get many fellers talking to strangers there. Fact, a stranger who asked too many questions would likely buy himself an unmarked grave.”

  Dukes nodded slowly. “I know all that, John. Just as I know that you and Yancey can be just as tough and deadly as any man who ever rode into the Indian Nations to escape the law.” He slammed a thin blue-veined hand down on the wide arm of his chair and Kate moved forward swiftly, placing a hand gently on his shoulder, warning him silently not to get too worked-up. Dukes visibly fought to control his emotions. “But we’ve got to show these—these murdering thieves that they can’t come into Texas, robbing, raping and killing, and then sneak back into No Man’s Land for security, knowing the law prevents us taking action except on a federal level ... Well, Yancey? What’s your answer?”

  “We’ll go, Governor,” Yancey said calmly, getting a nod of agreement from Cato. “We realize that you can’t give us protection—but we’re not asking for any.” He turned to look at the silent Anya. He said deliberately, “I just hope we can restore Miss Johansen’s faith in the country of her adoption.”

  Cato formed his lips in a soundless whistle. Kate regarded Yancey proudly. But Anya said, simply, coldly, “I want revenge. That’s all.”

  There was an awkward silence. Then the governor said quietly, “Not justice?”

  “I can expect none, in this lawless land.” She turned to Yancey. “Let us be very honest in this, Mr. Bannerman. I need your help but dare not trust anybody, except myself.”

  Cato started forward, but Yancey put out a restraining hand.

  “Guess you just have to take Johnny and me on trust, miss.”

  She shook her head. “That’s why I have to travel along with you.”

  They all stared at her. Surprisingly, it was Cato, the ladies’ man, who protested first.

  “The Nations is no place for a gal!” he said, scandalized. “Then I shall travel as a boy,” retorted Anya. She bowed stiffly to the governor, turned and swept out of the room.

  ~*~

  In response to a knock, Yancey Bannerman opened the door of hi
s hotel room and showed some surprise when he saw Kate Dukes standing there. He drew her in and she asked where Cato was.

  Yancey grinned. “He reckons it’s going to be a long time between women, so … ” He shrugged and Kate nodded. But she did not smile. Carefully, she closed the door.

  “Yancey, I’ve just been talking to Papa. He says you want him to spread the word that you and Cato are outlaws, that you’ve stolen an army payroll and are heading into the Nations to escape the law.”

  Yancey nodded. “Figured it would give us some sort of cover. The girl can pose as my kid brother—as she insists on coming with us.”

  Kate said urgently, “Yancey, is it wise to make it known that you’re still carrying the gold from the robbery? Doesn’t that increase the risks you’ll run? I mean, if the outlaws in the Nations hear of it, they’ll try to get the gold from you, surely!”

  “That’s the general idea.” Yancey grinned, trying to relieve her anxiety. “The gold is bait for our trap.”

  Kate moved closer to him and laid her hands on his chest, not looking into his eyes. “I know I’m silly to say this, but—be careful, Yancey. You’re very precious to me.”

  “I know, honey. And you’re precious to me so I’ll be making darned sure I get back in one piece.”

  “And don’t let that—that Swedish girl get uppity with you! The idea—dressing as a man!”

  “Jealous, honey?” he grinned down at her.

  “No, I am not! How can you even think that? Honest, Yancey Bannerman—”

  He let her say no more but covered her mouth with his. After an instant she clung to him and they kissed passionately.

  During the months he had known Kate, affection had grown into something stronger between them. Marriage seemed to be out of the question, because of the dangerous nature of Yancey’s work. Also, Kate had a responsibility to her indomitable but ailing father, a widower living on borrowed time.

  Meantime, Yancey and Kate loved one another, drawing comfort from each other’s strength.