by Tony Masero
‘They were five of them, senor,’ she began.
I bade her be seated but she refused and continued to stand alone in the middle of the room wracked with tremors as she told it to me.
‘My man, Gonzalez, he was happy. He was pleased with the day; we had just eaten our breakfast and were content. I believe he had some things to tell you. It must have been good news as he was so happy. The men came without warning; they made no sound but burst through the door and were in the room. Gonzalez, he is quick, you know that, senor. His pistol was out of reach hanging on the peg but he had his machete in his hand almost immediately but they were ready for that. Three of them were on him instantly, he stood no chance.’
‘Do you know what he had to tell me?’
She shook her head, ‘This I do not know, he has not told me.’
I said for her to continue.
‘They did things then that I am frightened to tell you, senor,’ she paused and seemed to gasp for air as if she could not fill her lungs. I waited patiently and she drew herself up and continued. ‘First they beat him. It was a bad beating; he was tied with his back to the hot stove so that it burned him. I could smell the flesh and the shirt smoldering on his back. Such an awful smell. Whilst he was pinned so, they would hit him with a fire iron as if he were a piñata at a child’s party and they laughed while they did this. It was a pleasure to them to make him suffer so. I think these are animals, these people.’
She sucked air again and a shiver ran through her body, ‘I begged them to stop, to give my Gonzalez relief but they only turned on me and struck me also. I cannot say how long this torture went on for him because I was knocked so that I was unconscious for a while. But when I came to my senses again they had begun with the last of their cruel acts. One, a man with white hair that I could see hanging over his collar under the mask, he took up Gonzalez’s machete.’
She sagged on her feet at the memory and I went to help her but she waved me away.
‘They began to cut on him with the machete. And this one, the one with the white hair, he enjoyed this I could tell. It was a pleasure to him over and above the beating they had already delivered. They began with the hands. It was in the way you prepare a rabbit, first the hands and feet and then they tried to pull the skin from his body but this was too hard and they gave up in the end. I think by this time my man could function no more. He was there but he was not there, if you will understand me, senor? Then they cut off his head. It was not easy for them and took a long time. There was much blood.’
She froze then and stood there unsteadily and watched me as I clenched my fist and felt the cold of ice run up my spine and my face harden into stone.
‘They have told me to carry this head to you wrapped in a bag. But this I could not bring myself to do. Forgive me, senor, but this I could not do.’ Her voice faded away and I could see she was barely hanging onto her sanity.
‘Your courage,’ I said. ‘Is a thing beyond belief, Consuela. Do not concern yourself. These men shall pay with their lives for this atrocity, I promise you.’
‘It is not a thing I wish,’ she said. ‘I would just like my man back with me again. Those devils are lost already, they are without souls and they have already perished in the eyes of God.’
She crossed herself solemnly, drawing a deep breath as she did so.
I tried to put my arm about her but she withdrew and did not want to be touched.
‘I will send Lefevre back with you, he shall see you are safe and that Gonzalez is taken care of.’
‘I would like a priest for him and although he was not a holy man I would like a place in the church cemetery and a mass said for his soul.’
‘It shall be so,’ I promised. ‘Did they harm you, other than this?’ I pointed at my own jaw in echo of the bruising on her face.
She shrugged, ‘It was a small thing but they abused me, I think it was two of them. They held me over a table and did it from behind. Why, I do not know, I am not a beautiful woman and am old now. There can have been little pleasure in lifting an old woman’s skirts.’
‘Do you need medical attention? I can have a doctor look you over.’
‘I thank you but this is nothing, senor. I will go now, I have told you all there is to tell.’
I watched her leave on shaky feet refusing any kind of help, and I promised myself that this bravely stoic woman would be well taken care of and not want for anything for the rest of her days. To see such stalwart courage demands respect and it only enforced my desire to have these creatures brought to book.
I did not know it but Annie May had been listening at the door and heard everything. When Lefevre had followed Consuela out she confronted me with tears streaming down her face and a harrowed and drawn look about her.
‘How can you?’ she blurted out. ‘How can you have anything to do with such men? Is this what you have done all these years? Been a part of such things?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘Never.’
‘This is the father of my child!’ she wailed, staring at me hard. It was getting apparent that the stress of my shooting and of the months of careful watchfulness had taken their toll. Where once I had had a cheerful and beautiful wife now I had a drawn wraith of a neurotic woman willing to lay everything at my door. It was irrational and there was no answering such accusations.
‘It was not me who did that to Gonzalez,’ I boomed, as much distressed as she was.
She writhed as if just being near me was a disgusting and distasteful thing. ‘What was I thinking?’ she sobbed. ‘My God! I married you, made love and let you touch me with hands that are covered with blood.’
‘You’ve got it all wrong, Annie May. Get a grip, this was not my doing but there is something or somebody evil out there and they intend us only harm.’
‘Why? Why?’ she begged.
‘It is a message,’ I said. ‘They are sending me a message. If they can get that close to me then they are telling me nobody is safe.’
‘Oh, Callie!’ she gasped, rushing from the room to get our daughter.
What can you say at such times?
~*~
Kennedy found the man.
He was a braggart and a drunken fool.
I was thankful when Kennedy came for me, it was a relief to get out of the house. The atmosphere was becoming intolerably oppressive with Annie May’s accusations. Perhaps that’s why I reacted like I did when they brought me to the man. That and the fresh horrors of Gonzalez’s ghastly death.
Tommy Doolen, was an Irish immigrant and one more often drunk than sober. He still had a strong brogue and jittered nervously when I appeared. Kennedy had Lefevre holding him captive but he needn’t have bothered, the fellow was so disturbed he could not have run if he had wanted to. They had him in a barn at the back of Kennedy’s place. A large gloomy structure with the only light coming from a solitary oil lamp, set up rather precariously on a bale of straw.
Already, I noted, a dark stain marked the inside of Tommy’s trouser leg. The fellow had wet himself in his fear.
‘Pissed your pants, Tommy,’ I said. ‘Now why would you do that? Are you incontinent?’
‘I’m a-feared,’ said Tommy through quivering lips.
‘So you should be,’ I assured him. ‘They tell me you have said some things.’
‘Wh…. What things? Mister Tallen, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Oh, you do, indeed you do,’ said Kennedy.
Tommy Doolen was a round-faced fellow, with ruddy cheeks that were flushed with a ruby glow and furry black heavy eyebrows that appeared to meet in the middle. They lay like great caterpillars on his forehead and right now they writhed and rippled in constant movement across his brow seeming as desirous as he to escape.
‘I swear it,’ he begged. ‘I’ve said nuttin’, nuttin’ at all.’
‘Didn’t you tell everyone at the Golden Slipper that you had brought down Tallen’s man Gonzalez?’ asked Kennedy.
‘What!’
he burst out. ‘What lyin’ focker told you that? D’ere’s no way I could have said such a t’ing.’
‘The man behind you heard it,’ said Kennedy in a calm cool voice.
Tommy looked cautiously over his shoulder and saw Lefevre standing there, paring his fingernails with a curved tipped Bowie knife. Lefevre grinned at the Irishman slowly.
‘No, no sir,’ bleated Tommy. ‘You must have heard it wrong. Never, I could never do that.’
Kennedy pressed on, ‘You were in your cups, Tommy. With a sudden windfall pocketful of money to spend on the drink. You know how you are once you get a bellyful on you, there’s no stopping that dribbling mouth of yours. You can’t help yourself; you just have to spill it out. Now, I want you to tell Mister Tallen what you said.’
‘I swear….’ He started to say but I hit him with a slap across the face and that brought him up sharply.
‘I will not mess with you, Tommy. This is it, you realize? Your next word better be truthful.’
He looked at me with a rueful and challenging expression and I could see the fool still did not believe me.
‘Sit down,’ I said, pushing him onto a barrel top. ‘Tell me who it was that set about Gonzalez.’
‘Sir, sir,’ he begged. ‘How can I tell you if I don’t know.’
I was tired, my wounds ached and the stress of bearing up with Annie May was running through me. I snatched the knife from Lefevre’s hand, swung it around and buried it deep in Tommy’s thigh.
‘Spit it out, you little bastard!’ I shouted into his face.
He howled and his eyes went round as he looked from the blade sticking in his upper thigh then up to me and back down again. It was an expression of disbelief although I knew now he would take me seriously.
‘Take it out!’ he bellowed. ‘Lord sweet Jasus! Why the fock did you do dat?’
I punched him hard in the face. My enmity was total and it was hard to keep from hitting him time after time. ‘Tell me!’ I said.
‘Alright, alright,’ he babbled, his nose dribbling blood and both hands clutching around the steel in his leg. ‘I’ll say it. Don’t touch me again, I’ll tell youse.’
From the corner of my eye I could see both Kennedy and Lefevre watching me with looks of surprise. I have to say I was thinking to myself, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
‘It was five of Ace’s crew, they had me holding horses that’s all. I was to keep watch for them. I played no part in their shenanigans, I swear it,’ Tommy confessed. ‘You know dem all, Lowell, Bennie, Carl, Matlock and Buster. Dey was the one’s but don’t you tell dem I told you so. You tell dem and I’m a dead man.’
I knew them, I certainly did. They were five of Ace’s wilder sorts and Lowell was the one with a long tail of gray hair that hung down his back. He was the one used the machete. We’d see how he’d like a taste of some cold steel, I promised myself that.
‘Where will I find them?’ I asked.
‘Back room of the Golden Slipper,’ Tommy babbled. ‘But you won’t say it was me, will you?’
‘Keep him here,’ I ordered without looking at the other two.
‘Take Lefevre,’ Kennedy advised, knowing full well what I intended to do.
‘I don’t need Lefevre for this,’ I said.
‘But, Smoke….’ said Kennedy.
‘No!’ I snapped. ‘Do as I say. Stay here with this piece of dogs breath, I’ll do this alone.’
‘You won’t, will you Mister Tallen?’ whined Tommy. ‘You won’t say anything about me?’
I knew full well it wouldn’t take them two minutes to guess who’d spilled the beans so it was an easy promise to make.
‘You won’t get a mention,’ I said. ‘See to his leg.’
Then I was out of there and heading for town and the Golden Slipper saloon. Maybe Annie May was right after all, there was blood on my hands and there would be more to follow. It was something she would never understand though. The course was already mapped out, might have been made from the moment of my birth. I don’t know. Only one thing I did know and I was focused on that. Gonzalez had been my man, one of mine and by the values of the day his life had to be paid for.
~*~
Logically, yes it was crazy.
I was still limping on one leg; I had taken two in the back and one in the side. They were healed but sore as hell and the internal stuff ached all the time. There was no way I had total mobility, so going in on my own seemed like a dumb thing to do. But, aside from the anger I had to prove something. I had to show whomever it was out there that I hadn’t slowed down despite all the wounds and that I was still a force to be reckoned with. That is, if I wanted to keep all I had worked for.
You don’t win the game by weakening when the going gets tough. That’s what old Left-Eye had told me and he sure proved that in the Pen. Trouble was there was no accounting for Lady Luck and just when the old man had made it out, the Lady took a hand and he was blown away. Still, you have to try or you might as well sit on the porch and rock away your days with a corncob pipe and jug by your side. And that wasn’t my style.
I checked my gun, put a live one under the hammer and made like I was casual even though my heart was pumping like a steel-driven hammer.
Tying off the pony at the hitching rail seemed like working through treacle and hoisting my gimpy leg up onto the boardwalk was an effort. I shuffle-bumped my way up to the louvered swing doors and the black hole of the saloon interior waiting beyond.
The pistol was out and down by my side and at least the barrel felt reassuring pressed up against that bum leg. The double swing doors squeaked as I pushed them open and a few customers in the gloom glanced my direction as I walked inside.
Then it went quiet when they all recognized me.
I didn’t stop, I was on a mission now and I just did my best to walk as firmly as possible across the bar room and over to the backroom door. The place seemed full of eyes and they all watched me make my way along the length of the bar.
‘Help you….’ faltered the bartender but I didn’t look in his direction and he shut up right quick.
When I hit the door to the back room, I slammed it back hard and with the gun held up, cocked and ready I stepped inside.
‘First sucker that moves gets one where it hurts.’
Chapter Five
I needn’t have bothered with the shock tactics, they all froze and went as still as waxworks.
The whole five card deck were there as promised, gathered around a green baize card table with bottles and glasses in front of them. Bennie, Carl, Matlock, Buster and facing me across the table, the white-haired Lowell. It was him I pointed the pistol at.
‘All of you, I want left hand only taking those guns out and holding them up high by the fingertips.’
Not a single expression showed on their faces, a couple looked squinty-eyed but the others went as flat as pancakes.
Carl and Buster were of the squinty-eyed variety and trying to look mean. Carl was a florid, fair headed squat fellow and Buster his opposite. Big shouldered and dark haired with shoulder length locks and a shovel-cut beard. Bennie and Matlock were more self-contained, both tall and slender men with Matlock in a leather jacket and I knew he carried a long bladed knife by his side. Bennie was the convivial type, usually with a fixed grin on his broad face but right now he was as poker-faced as a frying pan. Lowell was the one who didn’t care and showed his emotions with a feral sneer. Almost an albino, he had a ferret face and long thin unshaven jaw speckled with three days of white grizzle.
Slowly they all raised their pistols and held them up high by the butt between thumb and forefinger.
‘That’s it,’ I said. ‘Keep them there.’
‘What you want here?’ asked Lowell in a low voice.
‘You and me has to have words,’ I answered, keeping my gun level and directed straight between his eyes so he had good view of the dark hole and the death it carried.
‘Who me?’ asked Lowell. ‘What have I go
t to say to you?’
I kicked the door shut behind me with my heel. Which was a bad move as I almost lost my balance on the bum leg. Matlock made a move as I stumbled and I sent a bullet whistling past his ear to deter him from making further efforts in the direction of his knife.
‘Don’t be stupid,’ I said as he gave up and raised his hands in the air sending me a mean glowering look as he did so. ‘Five left,’ I said, waving the gun to and fro. ‘Just enough, one for each of you.’
‘You aiming on shooting us?’ asked Lowell.
There was not a hint of fear in his voice. He was one of those men who would go the limit, life or death, it meant little to him as he had given up all sense of self-worth a long time ago and this acquired hate of himself extended to all living creatures around him.
‘You paid my friend Gonzalez a visit,’ I said. ‘Beat him bad and cut off his head. Then you took on his woman, who by the way has more balls than the pair of you that raped her. You are a heap of scum,’ I twisted my lip in disgust. ‘And I’m pretty sure I’d know where to come if I needed a Sharp’s rifle for a little sniping too. Bennie, you’re good like that, ain’t you? Backshooter from long range I recall, was it you put four slugs in me?’
Bennie compressed his lips and shook his head as if he didn’t know what I was talking about.
‘I’m getting kinda tired holding this six-shooter up the air,’ complained Lowell. ‘You mind if I put it down.’
‘No, sir, not at all,’ I said. ‘Here, I’ll help you.’
Then I shot him straight in the forehead.
They all jumped at the sight of the back of Lowell’s head racketing across the room behind, his tail of white hair a blood soaked squirrel that made a soggy mess when it slapped against the wall. Lowell’s body hovered a moment on the chair, rocking backwards and forwards and then slowly the whole set slid over backwards and crashed to the floor.