by Chad Cull
It was almost mid morning when Parmalee and his trail weary posse ambled into town and dispersed. The Sheriff had brought Stacy Merritt and Zeke Austin in with them and had jailed them for harboring and protecting a fugitive. He really had nothing to hold them on, but his hope was that he could flush Carlin out by coming to their aid. He had just settled them in to their cells when the front door opened. Parmalee’s jaw dropped as Jenna Holt and Jace Carlin entered. He drew his pistol instinctively and aimed it at Carlin.
“You won’t need that gun, Will,” Jace said calmly. “There’s been a mistake made, here and Mrs. Holt is going to clear it all up.” He shoved her roughly and she stumbled forward toward the tall lawman.
Parmalee caught her with his left hand and prevented her from falling. He kept his weapon pointed at Carlin’s chest.
She turned. Her eyes flashed angrily at Carlin. “You can’t get away with pushing me around!” She blustered.
“Tell him, Jenna,” Jace ordered. “Tell him who really killed Duncan.”
She settled down and her scowl brightened to a smirking smile. “He did, Will.” She pointed at Jace. “Just like I told you before. I saw him do it.”
“Unbuckle your gunbelt, Jace,” Parmalee ordered calmly.
“Wait a minute, there, Will,” Jace pleaded. “If that were true, would I have come here?” He didn’t wait for an answer. He continued. “Yesterday, she hired me to kill her husband. She offered to give my ranch back to me.” He glared at Jenna. “I never should have agreed to it, but I wanted my home back.”
“Then, you’re admitting that you killed him?” Parmalee said
“No. I couldn’t do it. I could never shoot anyone down from ambush. I know that now.”
“You knew that too, didn’t you?” He directed it to Jenna. “So you had a backup plan. You had someone else do the job and you blamed it on me.”
“That sounds a bit far fetched,” Will said flatly without looking at Jenna. There was a sly gleam in her eye that said, ‘I told you so.’ He remembered her warning him that nobody would believe a hired killer. It angered Carlin more and it was meant to.
“I came to you,Will, Because I thought you were a fair man. That you would hear me out and at least consider the truth. We used to be friends. Remember?”
“Yeah, I remember. And yes, we used to be friends. But that was before you went crazy and started killing people.” Then to Jenna he said, “You go on and go home. I’ll take care of Mister Carlin.”
“Will, you can’t let her go just like that,” Jace started to protest.
“As I said before, Jace,” Parmalee’s voice took a harder edge. “Unbuckle your gun belt and let it drop.” He eared back the hammer of his Colt and it clicked at full cock.
Carlin’s eyes turned dark and cold. His hand drifted above his holstered sixshooter. His fingers curled.
“Don’t try it, Jace,” Will warned. “You’ll never make it.”
Carlin braced himself. Feet spread shoulder width apart.
“Jace! Don’t do it! He’ll kill you!”
Carlin was jolted out of his concentration. He jerked his head toward the voice and for the first time realized that Stacy Merritt and Zeke Austin were behind bars. “What are they doing in there?” Jace demanded.
“Aiding and abetting a fugitive,” Will answered.
“That’s crazy,” Jace said. “They didn’t know anything about this.” Then he ordered defiantly, “Let them out!”
Will half grinned. “I will. Just as soon as you go inside and take their place. Now, what’s it going to be? You going to give up your gun like I told you.”
Jace glanced back to his friends in the cell. Stacy said, “Oh, Jace.....”
Carlin thought about it for a moment. Seconds ticked by in silence. Then, he let out a breath and his body seemed to relax. His fingers moved away from his gun. Slowly he reached for his gunbelt buckle, let it loose and let the entire rig of gun and holster fall heavily to the floor.
“Now step back and let the lady pass,” Parmalee brandished the muzzle of his weapon and nodded to Jenna.
Jenna glanced at Will and nodded. She lifted her long skirt an inch above the floor and started for the door. As she passed Carlin, she paused and flashed a smile of victory. Jace felt a sinking in his stomach and he clenched his jaw in anger and frustration as he watched her leave and close the door behind her.
The day had dragged on slowly. Jace Carlin brooded in his cell. How could he have been so stupid to think that all he had to do was to tell the truth and Jenna would be behind bars instead of himself? How could he have misjudged Will Parmalee so much? Or was it really himself that he had misjudged. Perhaps, he was no more than a hired killer whose word was no longer any good.
He had alternately been pacing the small area of his cell and occasionally throwing himself on the musty mattress of his bunk, trying to think things through; trying to come up with a solution to his predicament. He could think of nothing. He could hope for nothing. He had told Stacy Merritt and Zeke Austin to go home and not to try anything foolish, like trying to break him out of jail.
Now as he lay on the meager mattress staring up at the barred window of his cell, he watched the waning afternoon sunlight fade into dusk. Dark shadows invaded his tiny prison and he felt even more alone and abandoned.
He lay there alone in the darkness listening to the street sounds slowly diminish and replaced with the night sound of crickets, locusts, and peepers. He could hear the clink of a tin plate and utensils as the deputy on duty sat behind the desk and worked away at his supper. Carlin’s own supper sat cooling on the floor just inside the door of his jail cell.
He heard the front door open and a shuffling of steps across the wood flooring. “What brings you out here, Mister Shaw,” Jace heard the deputy say. He jerked himself erect and peered through the gloom into the better lit area of the office.
“I’m here to see the prisoner,” Shaw said gruffly and reaching for the key ring lying on the desk top. “Alone!” He stated. “Go for a walk. Come back in an hour.”
“I...I don’t think I’m supposed to do that Mister Shaw,” the deputy started to protest. “I know you used to be Sheriff and all, but I don’t know if Will’s gonna like it.”
“Will’s not going to know anything about it,” Shaw said.
“But...but.. What if he finds out about it?”
“Then he can deal with me. You’ve got nothing to worry about. Now get out of here!.” His voice went from gruff irritation to commanding authority and he shuffled unsteadily toward the cell. He was just turning the key when he heard the deputy closing the office door behind him.
The cell door swung open wide and the old man stepped through. What little light was left, glinted off the corner of one lens of his spectacles. He glared down at Carlin, who was now sitting up on the bunk. He said nothing. His face was gray and placid.
“What do you want?” Carlin growled with bitterness.
The old man remained silent for a moment. Then he said flatly, “I’m letting you go.”
“Letting me go?” Carlin almost laughed. “You’re not a sheriff anymore. You can’t let me go.”
“Get up and get out!” The old man ordered.
“Just like that?” Jace said. “Then what? Somebody shoots me escaping? Oh, no. I think I’ll just sit tight.”
“There’s a horse out back. You go out the back door, get on it, ride out and don’t come back. No one’s gonna be waiting to shoot you down.”
“I’m supposed to believe that?”
“If you don’t, you’ll wind up dancing at the end of a rope. Doesn’t seem to me you have much chance but to believe me.”
“Why should you help me?”
“I don’t want to,” the old man said. “It’s Jenna I’m helping.God knows she doesn’t deserve it, but she’s the only daughter I have left.”
“She had someone kill Duncan,” Jace said. He said it as veri
fication that the old man knew that to be true.
“Yes,” Shaw said. “That’s why I can’t let you hang for something you didn’t do.”
“You’ve got to tell Will Parmalee,” Jace said.
The old man shook his head. “That wouldn’t do any good.”
“Why not?”
“Just get out of here,” the old lawman said despondently. “Get as far away from all of this, that you can, and don’t come back.”
Jace had been pushing the black dun that Russ Shaw had left him, hard for at least a half hour. Remembering how he had mistreated another horse, he slowed the dun to a walk, letting him cool down a bit before bringing him to a halt and dismounted. He loosened the the saddle cinch and let the animal blow. He pulled some tuffs of grass and rubbed the dun down briskly. Once the horse was breathing easily, Carlin took the reins and led the horse on into the darkness.
Russ Shaw had been true to his word. He had not set up any ambush to shoot Jace down while escaping. Carlin had ridden away uneventfully and hopefully unseen. At least he had not detected any followers on his back trail. The moon was full and he could see quite well for this time of night.
While Shaw had been straight with him, Jace had not reciprocated. He had not ridden away from Contention Springs to never return, but had, instead, headed for the Rafter H. There was no way he could leave without clearing his name and Jenna Holt was the only one who could do that. He had to try one more time to get the truth out of her.
He was still walking the black horse when he neared the top of the ridge above the Rafter H ranch house. He picketed the horse just below the skyline and crept forward in the grass until he could look down on the ranch buildings below.
All was still down there, save for a few horses moving about the larger corral behind the barn. Other than that, there was no movement. The bunkhouse was in complete darkness and there didn’t seem to be any guards about. The ranch house was dark also except for a light in an upstairs window.
Keeping low and to the shadows, Carlin backed away from the ridge, circled to the west and descended the bank to the flat land below. He approached the ranch house from the rear and crept to a first floor window. He tried it. It was locked. He moved to the left and found another window. This too was locked. He crept around the corner of the house and tried a side window. He was in luck. It moved within the sash as he pushed up on the lower pane. It creaked upward and he slowed his movements, trying not to let the window sound louder. The window was half way up, when Carlin froze in place. A chill of fear swept over him as he felt the hard steel of a gun barrel press deep into the back of his neck. “Hold it right there, cowboy.” He recognized the voice of Red Lacy. “Now back away slowly and head for the front door. You want to get inside? You might as well use the door.”
Jace refrained from saying anything. He did as he was told and moved toward the front of the house. Lacy kept close behind him and never let up on the pressure of the pistol against his captive’s neck.
When they reached the front door, Jace realized that Riley was also with Lacy. While Lacy continued to hold the gun, Riley stepped around them and pounded on the the door. “Mrs. Holt!” He shouted while continuing to bang the wooden panel. “Open up! It’s important!”
After a few moments of continual knocking the door latch clicked from inside and the door swung open just enough to see Jenna Holt standing there in nightgown and robe. She held a lighted kerosene lamp in her left hand. “What is it?” She asked, but didn’t have to be told when lacy shoved Carlin forward in front of the opening for her to see. He eyes widened with surprise and she stepped back letting the door swing wider open.
“Seems you’ve got a visitor,” Lacy said as he shoved Carlin inside and pushed him to the floor. Jace fell flat on his stomach and rolled over pushing himself to a half sitting position. Riley stepped forward and kicked at him; his boot clipping Carlin just under the chin and driving him backward and crashing into a small table. It fell over and the legs broke as Jace fell into it. He lay in the rubble on his back. Stunned. His jaw throbbing with searing pain and his head clouding with wisps of darkness.
Jenna came forward, still carrying the lamp. “That’s enough of that, Riley. Let him be. Jace groaned and rolled over on his side. Broken pieces of the table slid out from under him.
“Get him on his feet!” A deep voice commanded from across the room.
Jace felt himself being pulled to his feet. He was too hurt to struggle as Riley and Lacy stood him him up and held him on rubbery legs that couldn’t seem to find the floor. Carlin’s head lolled against his chest and he tried to raise it. God, it hurt! The best he could do was to roll his eyes upward in their sockets. As the haze began to clear and his vision returned. At first, there was nothing but a blur before him, but as his eyes strained to focus, he saw. the man standing on the stairway steps, looking down at him. But was it a man? Or was it a ghost? Or was it just his imagination? Or a bad memory?
He jerked his head off his chest, ignoring the pain. The vision was clear now and Carlin’s face twisted into a mask of confusion.
“Surprised to see me, Carlin?” The man said and continued descending the steps. He was tucking in his shirttails and his shirt was open at the top revealing the top of his long johns. “When you shoot a man, make sure he’s dead, before you leave him behind to die in the snow.”
“Drago!” Carlin muttered in disbelief.
“Yes, Al Drago,” the man answered stepping down off the bottom step and standing before Jace. He was buttoning his shirt with his left hand. His right hand hung limp at his side. A large scar covered the inside and outside of his hand where Carlin’s bullet had passed through, that day on the snow covered mountain.
Jace glanced from Drago to Jenna. “I suppose it’s been you and Drago all along.” There was a smug half smile on her face. “You’re so dumb, Jace.” She chided. “It took you this long to figure it all out.” Then she added. “But then again, you were always stupid. You were stupid enough to pass me over for Alice. Sweet, nice Alice,” she said. “It was always Alice this and Alice that. Everyone wanted Alice. No one wanted me. Not even Drago, but we needed each other. Two of a kind, you might say.”
Drago smiled.
“There was Duncan,” Jace said.
“Duncan?” She scoffed. “He wanted Alice too. He always hated you for that, Jace. When Alice married you, Duncan only took me as a consolation prize.” She turned and walked to the dining room table and put the lamp down.
She turned and walked back to face Carlin. “I hated all of you,” she said bitterly. “I got even with Alice and now I’ve gotten even with Duncan.”
Jace could hardly believe what he was hearing. “You sent Drago and his pals out to burn me out.” He had to put it into words. He had to hear himself say it.
“And I suppose, you had Drago kill Duncan too?”
Drago chuckled. “Now how could I do that?” He half lifted his worthless hand. “I can’t use a rifle anymore.”
“Then who did? Your goons here?” He tried to twist toward his captors, but Lacy and Riley held him tight.
Drago shook his head from side to side and laughed. “You’d be surprised,” he said.
An uncomfortable suspicion began to grow inside Carlin’s brain. No! It couldn’t be, he thought to himself. Then as if asking for verification, Jace said, “I suppose none of you killed Randy Poole either?”
“Give the man a big cigar,” Drago chided. “Maybe he’s not so stupid after all,”he said to Jenna.