Sharpshooter

by Dusty Richards

  “You said you may go back up on the strip again?”

  “When it warms up we probably will. There was a serious murder case growing cold up there. But I doubt anyone can ever solve it.”

  “The family they killed?”

  “Right. So little to go on but they didn’t deserve to die.”

  “Chet, I knew it bothered you but there are things you simply can’t solve in this world.”

  “I know, but I damn sure hate it when it happens to me.”

  “I moved here because I saw an opportunity to become a successful merchant. Not to give up on my marriage. I guess I put too much of my time in on the business, getting it started. My first wife took our kids and left me. I was lost. I thought I’d been a good husband. No matter, she thought she was being punished to live in this outpost. I know Preskitt had much more going on than many places back East. But she left me.

  “You brought Kathrin down from Utah. After her bad experience, she was very afraid of any man but you. You saved her from the fate of ending her life in a brothel, and you never asked her for anything. That affected her because she felt she owed you her life. She was a very good businesswoman—a meticulous bookkeeper, and she guided me in recovering bad accounts, too. I asked her to marry me. She refused. I knew her obligation was pinned on her desire to repay you for saving her.”

  “I didn’t need to be repaid.”

  “No, I knew that and I finally got her convinced I was serious. I didn’t blame her, as bad off as she was up there, and you would not take a penny for doing that. We married and have two wonderful children. Next week my two teenage children are coming to live with us. Their mother is going to prison for selling property she did not own.

  “My boy asked me in a letter, do you have any customers who are cowboys? I told him yes and I knew you have two sons close to his age.”

  “Rocky moved with his parents back to Flagstaff. But if he likes horses and animals he and Adam may make friends. He lives at Camp Verde.”

  “Well, thanks. We will see how things go. Kathrin is excited. I am, too, but wish they were coming under better circumstances. A good friend wrote me what was happening and I hired a lawyer back there to get custody of them. But I want you to know I appreciate the things you have done for the Territory and the county. As well as for your business.”

  “Ben, thanks. You have helped me since the start. Hug Kathrin for me and thank her. When you do something like that you never know if you did the right thing. Obviously, I did that right.”

  “Very right.”

  He left the busy mercantile and joined Vic, who had the team and buckboard waiting at Doc Jones’s office. He spoke to him and decided his wife was still inside. He entered the empty waiting room and could hear someone crying.

  “Now, Lisa, stop crying. If it had been a fit baby you could have carried it. Not every seed makes a tree in life. Some, not ready for life, pass on.”

  “Oh, I am just so upset—”

  Chet opened the door and said, “I am not. I still have you.”

  “Doc says I lost one.”

  “You may lose more. But, my dear, you won’t lose me.”

  “I’m sorry for crying. I just wanted one so bad for both of us.”

  “She will be fine, Chet. Losing a fetus is always hard. But she’s young and healthy and she will have more.”

  “Let’s go home.” He hugged and kissed her until she smiled, and they thanked the doc and left for home.

  It snowed again before November was out. Great wet snows that made ranchers smile and melted off in a week. Hay requests began to come in and Chet wasn’t sure how many tons of hay Toby sold but plenty went by the ranch house, and then his haulers would spend a night at the ranch before driving home, saying their job would never be done with all the orders Toby had to fill.

  * * *

  Chet, Lisa, and Billy Bob took the buckboard and went to the Verde on one of those sunny, warm days. Most of the ice and snow were gone off the north slope and wagon tracks had cut through any snow on the rocky surface. They emerged out of the shadowy canyon in the brilliant sunshine and drove on down to Tom’s house.

  Lisa wanted a list of all the helpers, family members, and children for her Christmas list, and Lisa and Millie went to work on it in the kitchen while Chet and Tom talked in the living room.

  “Rumor is, a guy sold you a map to the ruby mine?”

  Chet, seated on the leather couch across from him, nodded. “I have a map to somewhere. Man swears it will take us right there. I don’t know. Next spring, we’ll go back.”

  “I hope it is as big as the last one.”

  “I doubt that. Everything quiet down here?”

  “I don’t have a problem to speak about. My blacksmith people want to make more barbwire. They say we can make a profit off it. They found a used boiler that is for sale and they say they can build two more machines for next to nothing.”

  “How much to set it all up?”

  “Twenty-five hundred.”

  “Do it.”

  “They will be excited. Thanks.”

  “Tell them not to slight building more windmills. The ranch foremen say the extra water tanks really spread out range cattle to graze the whole range.”

  “I can handle that.”

  “What else?”

  “Nothing here, Chet. I went to Flagstaff one day to see the roadbed they built to make folks think the train will be there in no time and talked to Cole. He has that stage line running slick as a gut. Spencer has the telegraph wire singing. They want a second wire strung and want him to do it.”

  “I guess he will ask me for more time off.”

  “He likes being a ranch foreman but he can make a damn sight more money building telegraph lines.”

  “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it. But thanks for the tip.”

  “Anything else?”

  “No. Toby is the hay king of northern Arizona.”

  “That is no kidding. Hay comes through here all the time. But Robert has hay and I have plenty. I guess he may make record sales if we keep having snow. Has that girl had her baby yet?”

  “No. But she’s close.”

  “They stopped here and stayed at the big house for the night. Billy Bob is making you a hand, isn’t he?”

  “You didn’t think he would?”

  “That boy was country dumb when he first came here. This isn’t that same boy. He was so efficient about Josey’s needs when he brought her by here. What she needed, he handled, and that he was doing it shocked me. You made something out of him, that is for sure.”

  “I like him. He’s going to make a good hand.”

  “Cole has all that junk gone and the area around their headquarters looks like a park. You know, cleaning that up assures people he is running a first-class company. His fares sales are up thirty percent. He got a letter from the post office in DC saying how much they appreciate the job he did straightening that mess up. And Wells Fargo has doubled their shipments already.

  “Plus Salty has shut down the highway robbers overnight.”

  “Good man for the job. Cole knew that when he talked about the job. Tom, he was your discovery and we both lost him.”

  “Oh. He is a super smart guy.”

  Chet, Lisa, and Billy Bob went on back home after lunch. She was talking about the Christmas party and Chet was thinking about the long trip back to the strip and what he’d find up there in the spring. Really, he wanted those young people’s murder case solved but nothing pointed him to it being solved.

  A week later, on a cloudy, cold December day that threatened to perhaps snow some more, two riders drew up in the yard. They had a packhorse and their bedding tied on the back of their saddles. Chet noticed them coming under the gate bar and he went back through the kitchen to see if they wanted to talk to him.

  One of the men pointed toward the stairs and Chet went to the back hall to meet them.

  He opened the door and greeted them.


  “Mr. Byrnes, I understand you met my late brother, Michael Meadows.” The cowboy was in his early twenties and had long, blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. “My name is Jamie Meadows. My pard is his wife’s brother, Hines Ball.”

  “Hang up your coats, come inside, and we can talk. I had no way to contact you. They told us you helped them, but we never heard your names. Julie, please make us some fresh coffee. This is Jamie and Hines. Have a seat. I am anxious to talk to you two. We went back up there.”

  “Mr. Lincoln wrote me a letter that you really tried to find the killers. We both appreciate your efforts and we are lost on what we can do next about it.”

  “That’s why you came here?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Jamie told you we have tried to solve the hideous crime of their deaths—I’m sorry, I get choked up. My sis and I were close. We came over here to ask if you knew anything at all about who did it.” Hines blew his nose hard and mopped his tears in his kerchief.

  “It will be a tough crime to solve. No bodies. No close detective work looking for evidence. We found a common pocketknife in the sheet on the bed, and the bloodstains on it told me they’d tortured her. I am sorry but there was no denying that. But who held the knife, we have no idea.”

  “Did you interview any of that gang everyone says is behind the crimes up there?”

  “No. We never found them on our second trip back there.”

  “You reckon they split up after they did that?” Jamie asked.

  “I have no idea. But that might be the case.” Lisa came in the room.

  “Lisa, this is Michael Meadows’s brother, Jamie, and Jeanie’s brother, Hines Ball.”

  “Oh, it is good to meet you. Neither Chet nor I knew your names, or we would have contacted you two.”

  “They came to see if we knew anything to help them. Lisa went up there with us and she’s as disappointed as I am that we couldn’t link anything to some suspects.”

  Both men stood and shook her hand across the table.

  “Nice to meet you. We ranch over east,” Jamie said. “We’re not as large as you are. We met your foreman Fred Taylor on your big Wagon Wheel ranch and he told us that you’d talk to us.”

  “Fred is a hard-worked young man. His boss is working on the telegraph line to get it working again.”

  “Yes, he amazed us, telling us you found him two years ago.”

  “Fred was living in the alleys then. He’s a smart young man and he is tough.”

  “Oh yes, sir. But he told us you would help us. We decided we’d ride over. These long trips sure take time.”

  “I bet you two have calluses.” Chet chuckled.

  “Let me show you a letter the undersheriff wrote me about them investigating the crime.”

  Lisa shook her head in disgust. “The sheriff must be illiterate. His staff wrote us a letter and signed it ‘Yavapai Sheriff Department.’”

  They laughed.

  Chet read it.

  Dear Mr. Meadows:

  In regards to your letter inquiring about a supposed multiple murder on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I find I cannot find any use in sending a deputy over to the strip to investigate the deaths since I have no death certificates or recorded record of their death. So I am sorry but I cannot justify the expenses of such a useless, unsolvable situation. If you have evidence or witnesses of this crime, bring them to our office in Prescott and we will interview them, weigh the evidence, and decide whether it is sufficient to face a grand jury.

  John D. Boyd

  Undersheriff of Yavapai County,

  Arizona Territory

  “This letter shows how well run our law is in the Territory.”

  “Collecting property taxes is more important to the sheriff than enforcing the law.” Hines shook his head.

  Chet agreed. “They will obviously be of no help in solving this crime.”

  “What should we do next?”

  “Did Michael ever find the ruby mine?” Chet asked.

  “That was what he was looking for,” said Hines. “He told us in the last letter, he thought he’d tracked down an old Spanish mine.”

  “My expedition last year found a cave and recovered a lot of rubies that the Spaniards had gathered and stored in this cave. But we never found the mine. We told Michael we’d not come back to look for it and wished him good luck. You two have any idea where it is?”

  Both men shook their heads.

  “We were at the ranch after you were there the first time. Michael said he had a deal that would put us all into ranching.”

  “He never showed you any rubies?”

  “No. But he said he was onto something and figured he’d have more to say in his next letter.”

  “You never got another letter?”

  “No, not from him. We got a letter from Mr. Lincoln informing us they had been murdered and were buried.”

  “Nothing else he could do—just bury them.”

  “Right. We appreciate all he did. Hines and I wondered if you were going back.”

  “I plan to really look harder in the late spring. You can freeze to death up there in winter.”

  “Would Hines and I bother you, going along with you?”

  “No. Safety in numbers, isn’t there?”

  “Well, Hines and I would sure be pleased to ride with a man who has arrested more men than I can count.”

  “That’s right, Mr. Byrnes.”

  “Chet will do. I will let you two know when we get closer. You may ride along with us.”

  “Whew. Thanks.”

  “Either of you have a first name for this Logan?”

  “I think Claude, but I am not certain. What are your plans?”

  “I have a U.S. Marshal badge and I will request what they have on him.”

  “That might help.”

  “Yes, any clue will help.”

  “Chet? I think the girls about have lunch ready.”

  “Oh, we didn’t come here to mooch a meal.”

  “This is not mooching. You are welcome to spend the night and don’t worry, we do have enough to cover the cost,” Lisa said with a big smile.

  “That sure is generous. Thanks.”

  “Hey, you two are very welcome here.”

  “There is hot water to wash up on the back porch,” Natalie said.

  After washing up, Jamie shook his head at the table set for lunch, filled with the hot dishes the girls had set out for them.

  “This is pretty impressive, ma’am,” Jamie said to Lisa.

  “Grass does not grow under their feet.”

  “I see that.”

  They took their places and Chet said grace.

  The bowls were circled and the visitors looked amazed at what there was to eat.

  “If you have time I’d love to see the maps of your ranch. I have heard so much about them.”

  “Fine. We have one for each ranch.”

  Hines laughed as he passed the meat tray of cooked beef. “I can draw mine on a postage stamp.”

  Chet nodded. “You have to have a place to start.”

  “Have you considered that North Rim?”

  “To ranch? No. It is so poorly watered, for one thing. Where would you drive them to market?”

  “Maybe grow camels there?” Jamie asked.

  Chet laughed. “I might could grow them there. Today I have all the ranches I need.”

  “You ever hear of the Bar Ten Ranch?”

  “No.” Chet passed the butter for the homemade sliced bread to Hines.

  “It is maybe twenty sections and goes clear down to the Apache reservation.”

  “Is it for sale?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do they want for it?”

  “I was afraid to ask.” Hines’s words made the others laugh.

  “Any idea?”

  “Is it stocked with longhorns?”

  “No, it has had English breed bulls for a long time.”

  “Any idea how many mothe
r cows?”

  “Fifteen hundred, they say.”

  “That count real?”

  Hines nodded. “Jamie and I usually get to work roundup for them and they have lots of cows and calves.”

  “Where does he sell them?”

  “He paid the tribe for letting him drive them across the Apache reservation, sold them down in the mining district, and shipped the rest on the train to Texas, I guess.”

  “Is it as good a ranch as Wagon Wheel?”

  “Range-wise it might be better. But no one has a headquarters like that Wagon Wheel place. Well, this isn’t bad, either. But from the back of a horse I’d say it was really good.”

  “Why is he selling it?”

  “A year ago, he married a Texas woman who owns a fancy place south of Fort Worth. I think she wants to go home.”

  Lisa smiled.

  “So neither of you heard his price?”

  Jamie shrugged. “I heard he’d take two hundred fifty thousand.”

  Chet sat back in the chair and shook his head. “You serious?”

  Hines nodded. Now that Jamie had mentioned the price, he remembered that that was what he had heard also.

  “Lisa, please send word to Vance. I need to talk to him.”

  She told Julie to have his foreman come to the house.

  “Would you two take on the job of being foremen?”

  “I have a better idea. Make my dad, Thurman Meadows, the foreman. He’s fifty years old and healthy. Let us be the jingle bob foremen.”

  Hines moved to the edge of his chair. “We’d like to have Thurman to help us and teach us all we need to know.”

  Jamie nodded.

  “Would he take the job?”

  “Chet, he’ll make you a great foreman.”

  By this time, Vance had come into the room and listened quietly.

  “Keep it all under your hat. I am going over there to Holbrook and try to buy it. Vance, send someone to town and tell Bo to bring his suitcase out here; we need to look at a ranch in the eastern part of the Territory.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That word needs to be left quiet. Oh, and meet Jamie and Hines. They ranch out of Holbrook.”

  They rose and shook his hand with a friendly smile and nod.