Wild Winds

by Janelle Taylor

  As she ate a light meal of ham biscuits, fruit, and coffee, she was reminded of the time she had done the same with him while en route to Prescott. His arousing smile and laugh, those arresting golden brown eyes, the touch of his hands on her, and the tender way he made love to her kept assailing her senses and memory.

  After the barely touched food was put away, Maggie realized her right thumb and forefinger were rubbing the empty spot on her left hand where the gold circle was had been, left behind at the hotel for Hawk. She wondered what he would think when it was given to him, if he returned to Tombstone. She asked herself if she had actly too swiftly and impulsively. Should she have given him the benefit of doubt and waited for him to return and explain those heartrending mysteries? As a detective, she was influenced by evidence, and certain facts answered no. Yet how could he fake the sincerity of his words, the tender way his hands played sweet music over her body? Wouldn’t her astute senses perceive emotional deception? Not if she was totally enchanted by him, she reasoned, which she had been.

  Soon, foothills and snaking ravines appeared; vegetation lessened for a while except for sage and cacti; rocks were countless, as were doves; coyotes foraged and antelope grazed.

  After passing the Chiricahua Mountains and crossing the San Simon Valley and River, they entered New Mexico where the topography altered to mostly flatland with mountains to their left and right miles away. Grass, tall sotol in bloom, and yellow wildflowers flourished in abundance on otherwise uncluttered land. It was what easterners called “the great open spaces.”

  As a new moon obscured the Chihuahuan Desert landscape, Maggie ignored the lowered light of a hanging lantern near the car’s front, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep; but only succeeded in sporadic dozing.

  After sunrise, Maggie noticed that the train was heading directly for rugged brown mountains which were kissed with morning haze. Seemingly thousands of white yuccas and red ocotillos were scattered across the ever-greening landscape. A strong wind kept the plants and bushes in rapid motion, as if it were running wild and free. She sighted trees, large ones, and knew an ample water source loomed ahead.

  Soon, the train left the elevated section and slowed as it descended into the Mesilla Valley and entered Las Cruces on the Rio Grande River.

  As she deboarded, Maggie gazed at the towering and rugged Organ Mountains with their sharp spires in a cinnamon shade, visible despite the bluish white haze drifting over them. She heard bells ringing in what she was told was the St. Genevieve Church. She saw irrigated fields in clearings of mesquite and tornillo trees where corn, pumpkins, chiles, beans, and other crops were grown in the fertile location edging the great river.

  She entered the depot and purchased a ticket for the next leg of her journey, the end of the line at Socorro. While she waited for departure, she purchased breakfast at a nearby cafe where ristras of chile peppers hung here and there, partly for drying and partly for decoration. Afterward, she walked Blaze for exercise, then let the roan drink and graze.

  By eight o’clock, she was en route on a northbound train, unaware that trouble was lurking ahead before the day ended …

  A tired Hawk dismounted at the Tombstone sheriff’s office, eager to be rid of his prisoner and to see his beloved wife. As he tethered Diablo’s reins to the hitching post, he glanced down the street at the hotel and wondered if Maggie had sighted him and her heart was pounding with elation as was his. He had missed her something fierce and could hardly wait to embrace and kiss her. He wanted to spend the entire day and night showing and telling her how much he loved her before they took off to capture Ben. He wanted to complete their work so they could go home and begin a wonderful life together. He hauled a sullen, hostile, and bound Pete Barber from his own saddle and shoved him onto the boardwalk.

  When the local lawman opened the door, his gaze widened in amazement. “I’ll be darned, Reynolds; you caught the bastard.”

  “Yep, but he didn’t make it easy for me. I’ve hardly been out of my saddle more than a few hours since I took off after him. I guess he got tired and butt-sore, too, because I found him grabbing a nap in some rocks over in the Santa Ritas. I’m hoping you’ve got a sturdy cell waiting for him.”

  “Yep, right beside his scraggly bunch. I’ll send word to the judge we got ‘em all so he can get ready to try and sentence the lot of them.”

  As Pete was being locked up, Hawk said, “As soon as you’re finished with them here for that train robbery, I want them railed over to San Antonio to stand trial for murdering my family last December. I have to admit, it • was tough bringing them in alive after what they did to my parents and brother. I was sorely tempted to force them into a showdown to punish the sorry varmints. But as a U.S. marshal, I’m sworn to uphold the law and seek justice, not revenge. I had to work to restrain myself, especially with Pete there. This is one time—no, two—he won’t elude justice and punishment. If I have any say-so in the matter, they’ll all swing from ropes.”

  “I agree” the sheriff said. “Then they won’t be able to harm anybody else … so it doesn’t slip my mind, let me tell you now that before she left town, Miss Malone said we’re to notify her through her agency in St. Louis if she’s needed to testify at the trial here.”

  Hawk stared at him for a moment in bewilderment and dread, then asked, “What do you mean? You saying she’s gone?”

  “Yep, yesterday sometime. Said she had to get on with her work elsewhere since yours together was finished.”

  Hawk’s alarm and confusion increased. “Is that all she said to you?”

  The sheriff chuckled. “She told me about your marriage ruse; that was mighty clever of you two to pose as a couple to throw off suspicion. She did seem mighty interested in Berk Barber.”

  “What do you mean?” Hawk asked the same question again.

  “She wanted to know his description in case she ran across him. She didn’t want to tangle with him after helping to snag his brother. Lucky for her, I had one of Berk’s old posters I showed her. You remember when they were floating around for a while on that rustling charge?”

  Hawk’s heart lurched in his chest as he surmised her reaction. She must have asked about Berk, viewed the poster, then added up two and two and gotten the wrong answer. But why would one omission on his part set her off so strongly against him? Why would she say they weren’t legally married and take off like a wild wind? “I remember them, but I doubt she’ll be crossing paths with him. Where was she heading?”

  “Don’t know; she didn’t say, and I didn’t ask. I guess she figured your pursuit would take a while and she had important things to do.”

  Hawk didn’t want to arouse the man’s curiosity about a personal problem between them, so he nodded and smiled. For certain, he had to locate her fast and learn what had happened to upset her. “I have one more task to carry out,” he told the sheriff, “so stall their trials if you need us to come back and testify. I’ll leave a note where I can be reached.” He rapidly wrote down his superior’s name and handed it to the sheriff. “I’ll be riding out quick as I can. Guard them boys good; I don’t want to go chasing after them again.”

  “They’ll be safe here; I got plenty of extra guards on duty.”

  At the telegraph office and after he sent a report to his superior on his progress, Hawk showed his marshal’s badge and asked the key operator about any telegrams Maggie had sent or received during his absence.

  “You know the rules and law, sir,” the man replied. “We can’t reveal the contents of telegrams to and from other people, not without permission from the head office and a court order. You’ll have to ask your wife about them. I will tell you this much: she received two telegrams on Wednesday—one from St. Louis and one from Tucson— and she sent one to Tucson early yesterday morning and one to St. Louis around midday.”

  Even at Hawk’s urgings, the slender man firmly refused to divulge those messages, which he was certain hadn’t made sense to the man, as they were probably in s
ome type of code. At least he now knew she had been in touch with Newl Carver and Howard Carlton. If she had told her boss they weren’t married—as with the sheriff—and she was leaving Tombstone alone, he doubted that Carlton would divulge any information about her plans to a stranger, that is, if she had reported them to her boss. It would be futile to contact the man. But there was another person he could go see for clues …

  He hurried to the hotel to see if Maggie had left him a message, and was relieved when the desk clerk handed him an envelope. His joy vanished after he opened it to find her wedding ring and deputy’s badge. He took the inclusion of those two items and the exclusion of a note as bad signs, and his apprehension and worry mounted by the minute.

  The desk clerk volunteered that Maggie had left by horseback and too late to catch the last train to Benson from Fairbank. He also told Hawk that a young man had visited her earlier that morning.

  Hawk was relieved when the description didn’t match Ben Carver’s, nor Berk Barber’s. So who, he pondered, came to see her? What was said to spook her into secretive flight? What was in those messages sent to and from Newl and her boss? Where had she gone and why? Why hadn’t she waited for him or left him a letter of explanation? Why had she returned the ring and badge? Trepidation consumed him as he thought of her being on the road alone.

  He rushed to a mercantile store to purchase trail supplies. The owner’s wife recognized him and told of Maggie’s two visits yesterday. He wondered why she’d sent her clothes and the “absolutely exquisite and so romantic” photographs to the ranch if she wasn’t planning on going there later. Something didn’t add up, he told himself, unless she made a misleading and distressing discovery after mailing the items.

  Then a horrible thought flooded his mind. What if she had been abducted as a hostage to be exchanged for Pete Barber? What if whomever kidnapped her forced her to make it appear as if she left willingly, and she believed he would take her strange behavior as clues to her jeopardy? No, he reasoned, she had been alone during her preparations to flee him. If she’d only gotten news about Ben which demanded immediate action, she wouldn’t have handled matters with him as she had. It was clear she was eluding him for some unknown and serious reason …

  After making as swift a ride as possible along a well-used road, Hawk dismounted before a large brown house in Tucson. He guided Diablo to a water trough behind it where the animal could rest, drink, and eat feed, which he poured from a sack into a metal container laying nearby. He approached the front. In less than a minute, a lovely woman responded to his knock and looked at him with an expectant blue gaze that reminded him of his wife’s, though Maggie didn’t resemble her mother.

  “Yes, may I help you, sir?” Catherine inquired, having heard the stranger’s arrival and observed his actions from several windows.

  Go slow and easy. “Is your husband home, Mrs. Carver?”

  “Didn’t they tell you at the club he’s out of town today on business?”

  Hawk held his hat between his thumb and fingers. “I didn’t ask for him there, ma’am; this is a private matter; it’s about your daughter.”

  Catherine’s face paled and she trembled. Her voice quavered as she asked, “Is Maggie injured? Please tell me she isn’t …” She could not bring herself to utter the word, dead.

  Hawk quickly shook his head. “No, ma’am, she isn’t hurt.” He watched the lovely woman close her eyes and take a deep breath of relief before she looked at him again. “But I have to find and help her fast before she does get hurt or gets into worse trouble than she’s already in.” You have to mislead her or she won’t tell you anything.

  An anxious Catherine eyed the handsome man who was clad in black garments and wearing holsters secured to his thighs. “I don’t understand, sir. Who are you? What do you want from me? Where is Maggie?”

  “That’s what I came to ask you, ma’am. After an exchange of telegrams between her and your husband yesterday, she took off alone while I was out chasing and capturing Pete Barber.”

  “You didn’t tell me who you are, sir, and what you want with her.”

  “I’m United States Marshal Hawk Reynolds, ma’am, and we’ve been working together on Ben Carver’s case since her arrival in Arizona.” He saw the woman’s look of shock at those revelations. “As hard as it will be for you and his father to accept the bitter truth, Ben Carver is guilty of that robbery in Prescott and guilty of committing other crimes elsewhere. I don’t know why Maggie took off alone while I was chasing Barber, but she could be in danger if she confronts Ben by herself or runs across Barber’s brother who’s as mean as they come. You see, ma’am, I appointed Maggie as my deputy to give her the authority to help me make those arrests and to protect her during our work together.”

  “You’re telling me that my daughter is a deputy marshal now and she’s working with you on resolving that matter?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I know everything, Mrs. Carver, about your husband persuading her to aid Ben’s escape from prison and to try to prove he was innocent. I’m afraid all we’ve done is prove he’s guilty. I’m sure she’s gone to confront and arrest him, so please tell me where I can find them.” He saw her expression alter to one of suspicion and alarm.

  “Are you trying to trick me into telling you we’re involved in crimes?”

  “No, ma’am, I only want to get to Maggie to help her. You see, Mrs. Carver, I love your daughter and she loves me. In fact, we’re husband and wife; we got married in Benson recently.” At Catherine’s look of astonishment, then disbelief, Hawk withdrew the marriage certificate and showed it to her, along with his badge. “She didn’t reveal this news in a telegram because she was afraid it would panic your husband into coaxing Ben into hiding from us, and she also wanted to tell you the good news in person. I wish you and I weren’t meeting under these grim circumstances, but that can’t be avoided. I wish we didn’t have to be the ones to arrest your stepson, but we have to do our duties. I don’t know what provoked her to take off alone, unless she was afraid Ben wouldn’t stay put much longer and she couldn’t risk leaving me a message somebody might read. She’s a skilled detective, ma’am, and is good at self-defense, but I doubt she’s ever gone up against violent men like these before. You have to help me find her and keep her out of trouble by returning Ben to prison.”

  “Ben would never harm Maggie.”

  “Trust me, Mrs. Carver, he’s dangerous and desperate. He doesn’t know Maggie, so she means nothing to him, especially if she’s out to send him back to prison, where he knows he belongs. Besides Ben’s threat to her, she’s on the trail alone where she could meet up with Barber’s brother or other dangers. If you love her as much as I do, help me save her.”

  “What will happen to Maggie after you find her? You’re a marshal and you know what she did. Will she be arrested and sent to prison?”

  “No, ma’am. You see, I had permission from the authorities to bust Ben out of prison so he’d lead me to the others and the stolen money. Maggie took care of that first part for me; at least that’s what I’ve already reported to my superior. The government thinks she’s been partnered with me the entire time, so I’m the one who can protect her, with your help. There is one problem for you: after Mr. Carver returns home, you can’t tell him I was here or you revealed Ben’s location to me. If you do, he’ll warn Ben to flee before I can reach him. If Maggie’s already with him, there’s no guessing what a furious Ben might do to her for revenge.”

  Catherine’s heart pounded in dread. “Of course I love my daughter; she’s my only child. But you’re asking me to deceive my husband.”

  “Only for a few days, ma’am, then—”

  Frantic, Catherine interrupted, “Newl would never forgive me for betraying him and for endangering his son.”

  “You have to make a choice, ma’am: you have to sacrifice a guilty Ben or an innocent Maggie. I know you and your husband helped Ben because you believed in him, but he doesn’t deserve your loyalty, especially n
ot at Maggie’s expense. If we all work together and hold silent, nobody has to learn about Mr. Carver asking Maggie to break the law.”

  “Does that mean you won’t tell the authorities about him convincing Maggie to rescue Ben?”

  “That’s right, so he won’t be in trouble if he doesn’t talk. To protect you, Maggie, and himself, surely he’ll agree. He’ll have to accept the fact his son is guilty and he can’t help Ben elude justice. I know this decision is difficult, ma’am, but time is precious; she’s already a day ahead of me.”

  Catherine turned her back to Hawk as she deliberated her dilemma. She must protect her daughter and husband—and the child within her body, a fact she had just learned today and hadn’t yet shared with Newl. Her new son-in-law was right: Ben had deceived them and didn’t deserve their loyalty, and certainly not at such a great price. Surely their baby’s impending birth would soften the crushing blow to Newl when he lost Ben.

  Catherine faced Hawk, grimaced in resignation, and said, “I’ll tell you what you need to know.” Afterward, she gave him a smile and added, “Tell Maggie how happy I am about her marriage. You seem to truly love and care about her. I’m glad she’s going to quit that dangerous job and settle down. It’s wonderful to meet you, Hawk, despite it being under these trying conditions.”

  “It’s an honor and a pleasure to meet you, ma’am; you’re as smart and special as she said you are. I promise I’ll take good care of Maggie. I have a large ranch near San Antonio; that’s where we’ll be living as soon as we get this trouble settled. She told me about the ranch she lived on near Fort Worth with you and Mr. Malone, so she’s excited about ours. I have to get moving, so we’ll tell you more later.”