by Jake Logan
“But there wasn’t anything the three could do about it. Like I said, they didn’t like the odds for a fight. And the way every living soul on the stagecoach had been wiped out took some of the starch out of Bannock and company.
“The gang wore masks, hiding their faces. A band that big and that deadly should’ve been known to one of the three outlaws, but they’d never heard of them and had no idea who they were. If they’d known of them, they wouldn’t have come within fifty miles of the pass. The way that the gang worked showed they were sure hands at this business, and had done it many times before.
“After making sure that all the victims were dead, the main body of the gang rode off with the cash box, riding east, back out of the pass. They left behind three men to get rid of the evidence. The trio loaded all the bodies in the coach. Two of them got up on the coach and drove away, with their horses tied behind. The third rode alongside. They went west, deeper into the pass.
“By now, Bannock and his friends were starting to get over their fear, and were working up a pretty good mad about the payday which, as they saw it, had been snatched away from them. That the rest of the gang was gone and showed no signs of returning didn’t hurt either. Bannock and the others rode out of where they’d been hiding, after the stagecoach. They were careful to keep pretty far back, out of sight, and they kept their eyes and ears open just in case the rest of the gang should decide to come back.
“The stagecoach halted at a lonely stretch of mountain road, where there was about a thousand-foot drop-off. The outlaws ran it off the cliff, horses and all. Then they rolled some big rocks over the side, starting a landslide which buried the wreckage. Searchers later went up and down that road many times, passing that spot without seeing what was buried far below at the bottom of the cliff. It wasn’t until months later that rainfall caused a rock slide which uncovered it, allowing the prospectors to find it.
“Their job done, the three masked men mounted up and started east, back the way they came. They hadn’t gone very far when they rode into the guns of Bannock and his boys, laying in wait for them. They were shot dead.
“Earlier, the masked men had made a painstaking search of the victims, going through their bags and clothes, picking them clean of their valuables. The cash box had been the gang’s target, but those who stayed behind to clean up made sure they did just that. Their scavengings made up a tidy sum for Bannock, Lloyd, and Gordo, who took them off their dead bodies.
“One of them had a jeweled brooch, which he’d taken off the girl from St. Louis, the mining engineer’s fiancée. It had a blue stone, a sapphire, an old family heirloom. Bannock came across it while searching his man’s body. He pocketed it without telling either of the others. They were busy doing their own plundering. They left the bodies in the road, where they had fallen.
“They were a lot closer to the eastern side of the pass than the west, close enough to reach the flat and hole up before first light. They hadn’t robbed the stage, there were no witnesses, so they didn’t have to light out of the territory after all. And there was that cash box too. Maybe they could get a lead on that loot and cut some of it out for their own. So, that’s what they did—go east, back out of the pass, and go to cover.
“Now, I’m guessing at what happened next, but it makes sense in light of the facts. When the stagecoach failed to arrive at its next stop on the far side of the hills, search parties went out, but they found no trace of the men killed by Bannock and his boys. When they’d failed to rendezvous with the rest of the gang, the others must have gone back out looking for them. It must’ve given them quite a start, knowing that what they thought was a perfect crime was known to someone else, someone who might start dogging them.
“In any case, they got rid of the bodies, so the searchers never found them.
“Bannock and friends drifted around, working the nearby towns to get a line on the gang. They were all three booze hounds, and Bannock and Gordo were loud-mouths, especially when they’d had a skinful, which was most of the time. So it wasn’t too long before one of them said something out of turn, and it got back to the wrong people. Suddenly, somebody was dogging them.
“Bannock had a lick of sense more than his two friends, so one day without warning he up and left them. They didn’t know where he was or why he’d gone. Now, neither of them trusted the other, and when it was obvious that Bannock wasn’t coming back, they split up.
“It could be that Bannock was setting up his ex-partners, because it wasn’t long after that that Gordo Mapes killed. Then it was Brett Lloyd’s turn. The mountain gang was getting its own back.
“Bannock was a lot of things, but he wasn’t yellow, not where greed was concerned. He was still trying to get a line on that stolen cash box. He’d learned enough to know to look here, in Bender. He didn’t know that he’d walked into the snake pit.
“He rode into town on Wednesday. On Thursday night, he was at the House of Seven Sisters, boozing and whoring it up. Am I right, Maud?”
Maud shrugged. “I don’t talk about my gentlemen callers, but under the circumstances, I’ll make an exception. Especially since he’s dead?”
“He’s dead,” Slocum said. “That night he was at your place, he was lushing it up, bragging his big brags, and playing the big man. I didn’t have to be there to know, because I knew him, and I knew that’s how he behaved around women. He gave that blue stone to Dolores, to impress her.”
“She wasn’t that impressed,” Maud said. “She thought it was a fake. We all did. A sapphire that big... it couldn’t be real.”
“That’s what Bannock thought, or you couldn’t have pried it away from him with anything short of dynamite. Funny, he was risking his life to get a lead on that cash box, when all the time he was walking around with a valuable star sapphire in his pocket.”
“Hysterical,” Maud said dryly.
“The next day, Friday, Bannock was caught out of town. I don’t know what he was doing there. Maybe he was lured away, or maybe he was doing some snooping when he was taken. Either way, he was taken by—what’d you say his name was, Deptford?”
“Dutton,” said Wessel.
“Dutton,” Slocum repeated. “Here’s where there was a change in the pattern. Gordo and Lloyd died fast. Bannock was taken alive and tortured. Dutton wanted to know where the blue stone was.
“I don’t know how the gang had learned of the brooch, but I can guess. Nedda told them. She was one of them all along, planted in Maud’s house as a spy.”
“Nedda a spy? You’re crazy,” Maud scoffed.
“Look around here and tell me who’s the crazy one,” Slocum said. “Having a spy in your house makes perfect sense. Only men of means are allowed inside those doors. Bankers, ranchers, miners, drummers ... They do plenty of talking, especially when they’ve had a few and they’re trying to impress the ladies. You can overhear lots of things that’d be useful to the gang, like when payroll shipments are being made, or valuable cargo is being freighted across the pass, or when a promoter is traveling through with a wad of cash, traveling alone. I wonder how many left your house to set out on their way and were never seen again.”
“Too bad you weren’t one of them,” she said.
“It wasn’t for lack of trying on Nedda’s part, but that comes later. She was perfectly placed. Who’d pay attention to her? Yet she was always there, in the background, changing sheets or carrying away glasses, her chores as drudge giving her free run of the house at all times.
“When she saw Bannock flash that blue stone, she knew what it meant. The girl from St. Louis’s family had put out a circular describing her and her belongings at the time she’d turned up missing, including a description of the jewelry. That circular went out to all law enforcement agencies in the territory. Hix would’ve gotten one. The gang put out the word to keep a lookout for the missing jewel. If it should turn up, they’d know that whoever had it had taken it from their murdered compadres in the pass.
“And then t
he blue stone turned up, right in the gang’s hometown. Nedda got word about it to her secret masters. The next day, Dutton got Bannock. Bannock was tortured to find out what he knew about the gang, and who else he’d told. He hadn’t told anyone, but Dutton didn’t believe that, and kept on working on him.
“Then I came along, and Dutton went out. I learned what I’ve told you from Bannock. I’d already learned some of it, and guessed some more, but that helped fill in a lot of the blanks. Not long after finishing his story, Bannock died.
“Bannock’s chest and—well, you know—had been worked on pretty thoroughly with a hot knife, but his face was mostly untouched. That gave me an idea. I couldn’t bring Bannock in the way he was, not without raising questions I wasn’t ready to answer. I dragged him over to the fire and laid him across it. The burning hid what had been done to him. His head was untouched. I buried Dutton in a shallow grave and covered it over with rocks, so the coyotes wouldn’t dig him up too soon. I wrapped Bannock in a blanket and tied him across the back of his horse. I covered up the fire pit and the other signs that somebody had been at the site. I rode out, with Bannock and Dutton’s horse in tow. When I was far enough away, I let Dutton’s horse go.
“That was Saturday. I’d stayed the night at the site, to get things squared away. I rode into town, to the marshal’s office, to claim the reward on Bannock. I claimed that he’d gone for his gun, only I’d shot first, and that he had fallen across the fire and gotten burned. Nobody doubted my story, not openly. There was a price on Bannock’s head, he was wanted dead or alive. The only ones who’d reason to doubt me were the gang members.
“As we now know, Hix was one of them, but he never let on while I put in my claim for the reward. I couldn’t be sure of him, or you, Wessel.
“I knew that the blue stone had been given to Dolores. Bannock had told me before he died. I went to Maud’s house that night, and sure enough, Dolores was wearing the sapphire. I played it cagey, watching to see who else might be dogging the jewel, or me. I made like I was one of the boys, drinking and laughing it up.”
“You played your role too well. You got stinking drunk,” Maud said.
“I may have been a mite over-enthusiastic, but I wasn’t as drunk as I looked.”
“Sure.”
“By then, the wheels were already turning. Nedda had her orders. I paid no attention to her. In a roomful of beautiful women, who watches the scullery maid? My mistake. Nedda already had her orders, and was waiting for the chance to act on them.
“That chance came when I got ready to go upstairs with Dolores.”
Maud, skeptical, said, “What were you going to do, question her?”
“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to mix a little business with pleasure,” Slocum said. “Again, my mistake.
“Nedda went upstairs ahead of me. I didn’t see her go, because I wasn’t looking for her, and I’ll bet nobody else saw her go either. If they did, they wouldn’t think twice about it, figuring she was just carrying out some routine chore.
“She hid inside the darkened room, waiting. Dolores and I came along. She went into the room first, to light the lamp on the bureau. Nedda stabbed her with the knife, killing her instantly. Dolores died without a sound, or if she made one I didn’t hear it. I stumbled into the room. Nedda clubbed me with something, laying me out. I don’t know what she hit me with, but I’ve got a big lump on the back of my head and it hurts.”
Maud said, “One of the brass candlesticks wasn’t in its usual place in the parlor today. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but ...”
“A candlestick. Is that all? It felt like a tomahawk.”
“I think I’ll have it gilded.”
“Nedda lit the lamp on the bureau. She lifted Dolores onto the bed and laid her out, tearing off the necklace. That’s what left the mark on Dolores’s throat. She made sure to take off my gun belt and hang it on the chair, out of reach, for later. She hauled me across the room and wrestled me into the bed, beside Dolores. She’s a big husky farm girl and could do it. You’ve gotten a good look at her handiwork tonight.
“She tilted the mirror on top of the bureau with the lamp behind it so it would reflect plenty of light on the scene, so she could take a last long look and make sure that everything was just so. When it was all to her liking, she turned out the lamp, peeked into the hall to make sure that the coast was clear, and went outside, closing the door behind her. Then she went back downstairs, as little noticed as she had been when she went up, and went back to her chores.
“She knew that I’d paid to stay the night, so Dolores’s room would be undisturbed until daybreak. If I’d managed to come around before then, I’m sure she had some plan set to finish me off. When I still hadn’t come around by first light, she decided to set the ball rolling herself. It was easy. She just opened up the room and started howling.
“The rest you know,” Slocum said.
20
Wessel said, “Why’d Pierce and Nedda have a falling-out?”
Slocum shrugged. “My getting away must’ve spooked Pierce. He didn’t know how much I knew. As long as there was a chance I might get away, he and all the gang were in danger. Being of a suspicious turn of mind, and naturally suspecting everybody else of being as crooked as him, he might’ve thought that my getting away was no accident, that Nedda might have crossed him and warned me as part of some plot of her own.
“Then, when two of his men turned up shotgunned to death on Maud’s front porch, Pierce must’ve really got worried. He didn’t know who did it: me, Maud, Nedda, or somebody else who was moving against him. And now that I think on it, it’s my guess that Pierce sent those two to get rid of you, Maud, like he sent the others after Nedda.”
“Why me? I’m no threat to him,” Maud said.
“Pierce didn’t know that. He couldn’t be sure that you weren’t in it with Nedda, or if Nedda had said something accidentally or even on purpose that would’ve let you know what was really going on. Or even if you’d seen something, some clue, that would have helped you add it all up and come out with the right answer.
“Or maybe he’s just the kind that believes that dead men—and women—tell no tales.”
“Then Pierce is the head of the gang?”
“Why not? He and his riders lead a double life. He’s a rancher and they’re his hands. It’s all legal and on the up-and-up and nobody suspects a thing. Only, I did some checking, and found out that the few livestock that Pierce sends to market wouldn’t pay the county tax on his spread for a month. No, the gang poses as cowboys, until they get word of a gold shipment or some other likely prospects going out through the pass. Then they show their true colors as night-riders, do their robbing and killing, make the evidence disappear, and get back to the ranch before first light. The ranch is the perfect hideout. It doesn’t even look like a hideout,” Slocum said.
Wessel said, “That’s about how it looks to me, except I’m not so sure that Pierce is the head of the gang, not the way Hix was talking right there at the last. He bragged up somebody he called the Big Boss. Not Pierce, he said. It was somebody else, somebody that nobody would ever guess.”
“Did he say who it was?”
“No, but it wasn’t just idle talk. He had no reason for shucking me, since he was going to kill me.”
“Hmmm, maybe I shot him too soon.”
“Not by me, you didn’t!”
“We can leave the problem of who’s the gang leader for later. Our main woe is Pierce and his riders,” Slocum said. “They’ve been hurt tonight, but they’ve still got the guns and the numbers.”
“What do you suggest?” said Wessel.
“Me, I’d rather kill than run,” Slocum said. “I’m tired of freezing my butt off in the out-of-doors. Besides, the gang’s hurting and there’ll never be a better time to hit them.”
“After Hix, I’m not sure who I can trust,” Wessel said.
“Hix was trying to kill you, so I figure I can trust you. And I co
uld’ve killed you and didn’t, so you can trust me.”
“The two of us, against Pierce’s crowd?”
“Three,” said Maud. The others looked at her.
“It’s not like I have a choice,” she said. “If they catch up with me, I’m dead. I’d rather get them first. I can shoot. Ask him,” she said, indicating Slocum. He nodded.
Wessel was doubtful. “Three against the whole gang. It’s still bad odds.”
“Maybe we can even them up somehow,” Slocum said.
“How?”
Maud said, “What about the other deputies?”
“They’re the very men I can’t trust,” Wessel said.
“Nucky’s the brother of Dutton, the man you killed, Slocum. And Stringfellow’s a great friend of Hix.”
“What about the townsfolk?”
“Again, how would you know who to trust? Some of the citizens might be secretly in league with the gang, and betray us at the worst possible moment.”
Slocum said, “I know where we can get a whole passel of ornery, up-on-their-hind-legs-and-fighting citizens, with every one of them guaranteed to hate Pierce’s guts and give no quarter.”
Wessel said, “Who?”
“You’ve got a jailhouse full of them.”
Wessel thought about it for a moment, then chuckled. “You know, it just might work.”
“It better,” Slocum said. “Okay, Marshal, just to show I trust you, you can load your gun now.”
“Thanks.” Wessel took bullets from their holders on his holster, feeding them into chambered cylinders of his revolver.
“I hope you’ve got plenty of ammunition, because you’re gonna need it,” Slocum said.
Maud said, “What about me?”
“Marshal,” Slocum said, “I’m sure you wouldn’t mind stepping outside like a gentleman for a minute so Maud and I could have a private word.”
Wessel held his now-loaded gun thoughtfully, weighing the heft of it, not pointing it at anything. “I’m not so sure.”