by John Davage
Six-Guns at Solace
When Meg Thornton becomes caught up in a bank raid, she is horrified to discover that one of the raiders is her brother, Clay, who has been on the run since killing the barman in their home town. Clay has fallen in with the notorious Pike gang, and Eli Pike will kill Meg if he finds out she was a witness to the raid.
Can Clay extricate himself, and the girl he’s fallen for, from the gang before Eli discovers there’s a living witness to dispose of?
As an added complication, Meg is engaged to Solace’s deputy sheriff, Tom Walsh, who has no idea that Meg has a brother, let alone one who is a fugitive from the law. In a possible showdown, Meg could end up with a dead brother or a dead fiancé – or both.
By the same author
Unsigned Avenger
Killer Chase
Showdown in Jeopardy
Genesis Gunplay
Six-Guns at Solace
John Davage
ROBERT HALE
© John Davage 2018
First published in Great Britain 2018
ISBN 978-0-7198-2675-7
The Crowood Press
The Stable Block
Crowood Lane
Ramsbury
Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR
www.bhwesterns.com
Robert Hale is an imprint of The Crowood Press
The right of John Davage to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Prologue
He was just a kid, but a kid gone bad. It happened sometimes, they said later, after the unthinkable had happened. But Mat Thornton’s boy, to do a thing like that? Who would have believed it? But there were witnesses, too many for there to be any doubt. Sometimes it took just one impulsive act, one crazy slip, to change the course of a man’s life, they said.
Clay was drunk, no question about it. It may have been only ten in the morning, but the short, stocky sixteen-year-old was already having trouble staying on his feet as he started to make his way across the Lucky Dollar saloon, heading for the stairs. His head was beginning to hurt, but the stirring in his loins needed urgent attention. And he knew precisely where to find pleasurable relief, and with whom. Dolly, the plump little green-eyed, red-headed saloon girl, knew exactly how to satisfy his carnal needs, as he had discovered to his delight on more than one occasion.
A handful of onlookers watched him with some amusement as he put his foot on the first stair.
‘Hold on there, Clay!’ George Martin, the owner of Adam’s Creek’s only saloon, put a hand on Clay’s shoulder to slow down the young man’s progress. ‘Now where d’you reckon you’re going?’
‘Mm? What?’ Clay tried to focus on the other man.
George Martin turned and frowned at the barkeep. ‘I’ve told you, Joe. No hard liquor for this kid. He can’t hold it. Then, when he partakes of the pleasures of one of my girls, he gets rough, and they don’t like it.’
The barkeep gave an apologetic shrug as he wiped a glass. ‘Kid’s kinda persuasive, George,’ he said, choosing to omit the fact that Clay had slipped him a five-dollar tip to serve him – some of the money Clay had won in a poker game with three of the saloon’s early drinkers. Clay may not have been able to hold his liquor but he was an accomplished poker player, and had been since about the age of fourteen. A natural, he had been called by one card sharp who had been passing through the town and had lost twenty dollars to the kid before getting his measure. Whether or not Clay was a natural cheat as well was open to question, but so far he’d never been challenged.
An inane smile spread across Clay’s face as he looked at the saloon owner, and his words were slurred. ‘Gonna get me some lovin’, George.’ He pointed to the top of the stairs. ‘Gonna see Dolly for a. . . .’
His voice trailed off as he saw the expression on George’s face.
George sighed. ‘Nope, I reckon not, Clay,’ he said. ‘So you just turn yourself around and make your way home, there’s a good kid. Maybe stop off at Cora’s eating house for some good strong coffee on the way. Help to sober you up a mite.’
‘Aw, hell . . .’ Clay began.
‘A fine, god-fearing man, your pa,’ George said. ‘Can’t say I’ve ever known him take advantage of the female company here. And I don’t reckon he’d thank me for allowing his son to make use of the – ’ he looked round at the handful of other early drinkers in the bar and smiled – ‘facilities as often as you do.’
There was a general chorus of chuckles, and Clay suddenly became aware that he was the centre of attention. And he didn’t like it. He frowned, peered round at the grinning faces, and his own cheeks, already flushed from the drink, turned crimson with his growing humiliation. He pulled away from George’s restraining grasp, marched across the room and, grabbing a man from the nearest table, backhanded him.
‘Quit your laughin’!’ he snarled.
The man fell back against the table, which gave under his weight, and he hit the floor amongst splintered wood and broken glass.
‘That’s enough!’ shouted George, and made to grab Clay’s arm.
He wasn’t fast enough.
Clay reached out, pulled George’s .45 from its holster and waved it in front of him.
‘Anybody else think I’m a joke?’ he yelled. He fired a shot into the ceiling, shattering a glass chandelier.
‘Anybody?’ He rubbed an old knife scar over his left eye, something he was inclined to do whenever he was agitated. His glazed eyes circled the room. ‘Come on, anybody else feel like laughin’?’
Smiles disappeared from faces, and George Martin backed away. An ominous silence fell over the room as some of the patrons edged their way towards the batwings, ready for a fast exit, whilst others froze in their chairs.
‘Now take it easy, Clay,’ George said, holding up a hand in front of him and breathing heavily. ‘This is plain dumb. You ain’t thinking straight. You know you ain’t used to handling guns. Your pa’s never let you . . .’
‘Never mind my pa!’ Clay snapped, trying to salvage some of his pride. ‘Quit talkin’ about my pa!’ He glanced around with a glassy expression, the Peacemaker moving back and forth in front of him. It felt heavy in his hand, but it filled him with a sense of authority, a sense of power. ‘My pa ain’t here to say anythin’. So, anybody who reckons I can’t handle a six-gun an’ feels like testin’ me – well, go ahead!’
For several moments nobody shifted. Then Clay heard a sudden movement behind him and swung round to see Joe, the barkeep, lifting a shotgun over the bar.
Later, Clay would have no recollection of firing the Peacemaker, no memory of pulling the trigger, but there was a sudden explosion – and a surprised expression appeared on the barkeep’s face as a crimson stain spread across the front of his shirt.
Gasps of horror and astonishment echoed around the room as Clay stared down at the smoking gun in his hand as the barkeep’s legs corkscrewed under him and he fell forwards on his face.
‘Jeeze, I . . . I didn’t mean . . .’ Clay began, a mixture of dismay and terror filling his whole being. ‘It went off before. . . .’ He began rubbing his forehead violently.
A man vau
lted over the bar and disappeared as he stooped over the barkeep’s slumped form. After a moment he reappeared, his features pale. ‘Joe’s . . . dead,’ he said.
A dozen pairs of accusing eyes turned towards Clay.
‘It was an accident!’ he yelled. ‘For Chris’ sakes, I didn’t mean. . . .’ His voice trailed away.
‘Somebody fetch the sheriff,’ George said, his words devoid of emotion as he looked at the sixteen-year-old.
‘No!’ Clay shouted, suddenly jerked back into life – suddenly sobered up by the turn of events. ‘Nobody moves!’
His thoughts whirled and his head began to pound. He tried to think, suddenly confronted with the unpalatable options. What now? Lower his gun and face the consequences of a foolhardy albeit unlucky shooting? The result of which could be a hanging, or at the very least a life in Yuma prison?
Or go on the run?
Clay could feel his innards turning to liquid as he wrestled with the dilemma, but he tried to maintain some level of control – tried to steady his voice and his nerves.
‘I’m leavin’,’ he said. ‘An’ . . . an’ nobody moves or tries to come after me unless they want to end up like Joe. You listenin’, all of you? Nobody moves, you hear?’
George Martin shook his head, a sad expression on his face. ‘You thought this through, Clay?’ he said. ‘Right now it’s just a case of a crazy, drunk kid accidentally shooting my barkeep. That’s all it is. But leave here now, and you’re a killer on the run, the target of posses and bounty hunters. You want that? Now, let me get the sheriff and try to explain. Maybe I can . . .’
‘No!’ Clay cut in. ‘I ain’t riskin’ jail, or worse still, a hangin’ . . .’
George shrugged. ‘I guess it’s your decision, kid. But it’s a bad one.’
‘That’s right, it’s my decision,’ Clay said, swaying on his feet. ‘So everybody stays ’xactly where they are!’
He began backing away towards the batwings, his heartbeat thumping in his ears, beads of sweat prickling his forehead. Those men who had moved nearer the doors eased back to allow Clay through, none prepared to challenge him. Faces watched him – shocked, confused faces, staring at this kid who’d suddenly turned killer. Everybody knew he was wild, getting into fights, tom-catting with saloon girls, but killing?
Clay made it into the street. Once outside, he stuffed the six-gun into his belt and ran for his horse. Pulling himself into the saddle, he glanced up and down the street. It was surprisingly empty, the town almost too quiet for that time of day. The single shot seemed to have done little to disturb the lethargy of the mid-morning in the little town. He glanced back at the saloon. Nobody was attempting to follow him.
Seconds later, he was riding away like a man pursued by the devil.
‘That brother of yours should’ve been back an hour ago.’
Matthew Thornton came into the kitchen of the small farmhouse, five miles north of the town of Adam’s Creek. The bleached sun behind his thin, stooped figure threw his shadow across the doorway. Lines of anxiety were etched into his forehead, and there was a bone-weary look of exasperation in his pale blue eyes. He was a tall, spare man, not an ounce of fat on his work-ravaged body. Fifty years old, but with the look of a man ten years older. Grey stubble, grey hair, grey pallor. Matthew Thornton knew he was a dying man, it hadn’t needed Doc Brown to tell him that. Even so, he greeted each day with a mixture of hope and despair where his wayward son was concerned.
‘Darn it, Meg,’ he said. ‘He only had to pick up a few things from the mercantile and come straight home. Can’t I even trust him to do a simple thing like that?’
His seventeen-year-old daughter sighed and put down the washcloth she’d been using at the sink. She dried her hands on her apron before untying it and dropping it on to a chair.
‘I’ll go and look for him, Pa,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry. You sit awhile, you’re tired. There’s fresh coffee in the pot.’
Matthew sat down at the table and shook his head despairingly. He picked up the coffee pot to pour some of the steaming liquid into a mug but seemed to lose interest in it at the last minute, replacing it on the table.
‘Chances are he’ll be in the Lucky Dollar, playing poker with a bunch of the no-hopers who congregate there as soon as the place is open. Probably using the money I gave him for the mercantile as a stake. I’ve begged him to stay out of that place, but he stopped doing what I asked a long time ago.’
‘It’s not your fault, Pa,’ Meg said.
‘Maybe I should go,’ he said, breathing hard. ‘I . . . I just don’t like you going into that place, Meg. Some of the women are . . . well. . . .’
‘I know what some of the unfortunate women there have to do, Pa, I’m not a child.’ Meg smiled and put an arm round his shoulder. ‘I’ll be fine, don’t worry.’ She was a tall girl with the same chestnut-coloured hair and green eyes of her dead mother. Sometimes she could see her father looking at her with moist eyes, and she knew that her growing likeness to his wife moved him deeply.
He was a virtuous, upright man of high morals, and he had tried to bring up his two children with similar values during the nine years since his wife had died of the fever. But now, his own health failing, Meg knew he was near to conceding defeat with his son.
Clay was always arguing and brawling and getting into fist fights – and on one memorable occasion a year back, had got himself into a knife fight which had left its mark on his forehead in a sickle-moon-shaped scar. Not that he had learned his lesson.
She poured her father a cup of coffee. ‘Just take it easy, Pa,’ she said.
He nodded. ‘I’ll be OK.’ He put a hand on her arm. ‘Listen, Meg. If . . . when anything happens to me. . . .’
‘Pa!’ Meg tried to stop him, but he shook his head.
‘Let me finish, girl. You’re not stupid, you know I’m dying. And when I’m gone, I want you to go and live with your ma’s sister and her husband in Solace. They know the . . . situation with me. I wrote them some time back. They’ve said they’d be plum proud to have you live with them, maybe help out at the mercantile which your Uncle Chester owns.’ He frowned. ‘Not sure how they’d feel about taking on Clay, but maybe . . .’ His voice trailed off.
Meg moved towards the door. ‘Stop worrying, Pa. Things will take care of themselves. Just rest now. I’ll take the buckboard. I shan’t be long.’
‘All right, but take care,’ Matthew said, his voice drained to a near whisper. ‘Get George Martin to give you a hand with the young varmint if necessary. Why George lets Clay drink there when I’ve begged him to turn the boy away I don’t know.’
‘Mr Martin may not be there,’ Meg said. ‘And you know how persuasive my little brother can be.’
‘That’s true,’ Matthew agreed, ruefully. ‘He could sweet talk the barkeep round. Joe Brewer’s a soft touch.’
She smoothed down the front of her jeans, took a Stetson from a hook by the door, and stepped out into the late morning sun.
Already the heat was building. By noon the humidity would drench her with sweat. A thunderstorm was needed, but the sky was cloudless, the ground dry and hard. Minutes later, sitting straight-backed on the seat of the buckboard, she set off on the narrow twisting trail that led to town.
Meg was three miles from Adam’s Creek when she saw a cloud of dust, signalling the approach of a fast-moving rider.
‘Clay,’ she muttered to herself. ‘And in a hurry. Well, at least he’s got the good sense to realize he’s late back.’
But minutes later, as he brought his horse to a halt alongside the buckboard, she could see from the expression on his face that something was badly wrong.
‘Clay?’ she said. ‘What is it?’
The words tumbled from his mouth as he tried to explain what had happened at the saloon. ‘It was an accident, Meg! Jeeze, I didn’t mean to . . . I mean everythin’ happened so fast, an’. . . .’
‘Whoa! Slow down,’ Meg said. ‘What happened so fast?’
‘Gun!’ Meg felt the blood drain from her face.
‘It wasn’t meant . . . I . . . he’s dead, Meg, Jeeze, he’s dead!’
‘Who? Who’s dead? Clay, I don’t understand.’ Meg put a hand on his arm, panic rising in her breast. ‘Just calm down and tell me exactly what happened.’
Clay swallowed and began to rub the knife scar on his forehead. ‘Joe Brewer, the barkeep,’ he said. ‘I . . . I killed him.’
It was only then that Meg noticed the six-gun stuffed into the waistband of his jeans. ‘Wh-where did you get . . . that?’ Her brother never carried a six-gun, she knew that.
‘It’s George Martin’s gun,’ he said. ‘I took it from him.’ He looked over his shoulder, raw panic in his eyes. ‘Meg, I’ve got to get away. They’ll be formin’ a posse by now. They’ll be comin’ after me.’
‘No!’ Meg said. ‘You mustn’t! You can’t run away from this, Clay. For once in your life you’ve got to stay and face the consequences. Pa will help you to straighten things out, and. . . .’
‘I ain’t stayin’, Meg,’ he cut in. ‘I ain’t gonna be hanged or go to jail. I just ain’t.’
‘You’re going to live the life of a fugitive?’ Meg said. ‘For the next I-don’t-know-how-many years? But that’s crazy!’
‘There ain’t no alternative.’
Meg tried to collect her thoughts, seeing that her brother was determined to take his chances. ‘But . . . do you have money?’
He nodded. ‘I’ve got the money Pa gave me for the things from the mercantile, plus what I won at cards. Best part of forty dollars. Guess I’ll have to use that to tide me over.’
‘But, Clay, I still don’t understand what happened at the saloon.’
‘You’ll find out soon enough,’ he replied. ‘Word’ll get around faster than a prairie fire.’ He looked over his shoulder again, a bleak expression on his face. ‘I’ve got to go.’ He reached across and kissed his sister on the cheek. ‘Tell Pa . . . I’m sorry. Sorry for everythin’. . . .’