In the Arms of an Angel (Brides of the West Series Book Ten)

by Rita Hestand

  "I guess I'm gonna have to challenge him." Les told him.

  "The minute he sees us he's gonna draw on us. He'll know we been trackin' him."

  Les looked at Swanson, "What you don't want to go up against him?"

  Swanson hem-hawed. "It's that little Rosa…I kind of like her, Les. Funny thing is, she likes me too. I don't want to go and get myself killed…"

  "Alright, then let me play it out. You can go with me and meet Rosa and I'll take him." Les told him.

  "I hate to put it off on you. I just soon give up the money and forget it Les. I'm getting tired of this business."

  Les studied him. "You weren't too tired to track him down here."

  "I know…but things have changed."

  "In a week?" Les raised a brow.

  "It happened to you, didn't it?"

  "Yeah, it did…"

  "You're quittin'?" Les asked him.

  "Yeah, I’m quittin'." Swanson stared at him helplessly. "It just ain't worth it anymore."

  "Sit down Swanson, I got something I want to talk to you about." Les told him.

  Their room at the hotel was small and dingy, but it had two beds and a table to sit at. It was enough for two men.

  "Well, ain't you gonna go git him?"

  "Yeah, but I got something to tell you first." He told him to sit down at the table.

  "You are sure you are quitting?" Les asked him. "You'll give up the money and everything else?"

  "I'm sure…I don't want no part of it. I think I got a chance to be happy down here, Les. A man my age don't find that often. I want to take it."

  "Can I trust you Swanson?" Les asked, watching every more he made. "I need my gun back."

  Swanson went to his bed and dug out the gun from his saddle bag. Handing it to Les he glanced at him. "What are you fixing to do?"

  Les eyed him closely. Could he trust Swanson or was this some kind of set up? For some reason riding with Swanson alone, he had gotten to know the man better and he really didn't want to take him in.

  "Well, what is it?"

  "I'm going to take Bird." Les said flat out.

  "Well I figured that."

  "You sure you don't want your share of the money?"

  "If you don't draw on me, I'll go away and you'll never see me again." Swanson promised.

  "I can't figure you Swanson, why the sudden change?" Les put his gun on and kept his eye on Swanson.

  "Mexico is a place you can get lost in, Les. Rosa…she's got a little place, south of town…"

  Les leaned back in the chair. He had his gun ready, in case Swanson wasn't serious.

  "I'm a Texas Ranger, Swanson."

  Swanson crooked his head. "You foolin' me?"

  "Nope. I'm not fooling you. I'm here to take Bird in and collect the rest of the money and take it back."

  "You mean you had part of it all along?"

  "No, the authorities have it now." Les bowed his head, and checked his gun. "I figure Colby is dead, if he's not, he won't be worth much, but I'll check on him when I go back. I gotta check this Dobbs character and I'll probably let the army do what they have to do about him, he's responsible for setting this up with Bird. He's guilty and needs to be stopped. What I want to know from you, is anyone else in on this robbery?"

  Swanson sat stone quiet for a moment. He fumbled with his hand on the table, watching Les load his gun. "Yeah, there's someone else."

  Swanson confessed everything and Les nodded. "I tell you what I'll do, Swanson. I'll let you disappear down here, tell them you are dead. You take another name and don't come back over the border and I won't turn you in…"

  Swanson stared at him. "Why would you do that?"

  "I been at this ten years, Swanson. I'm a pretty good judge of character. I'm also damned good at my job. I've never let anyone do what you are talking about doing. But…you going back would serve no purpose. And personally, I liked to see you make it." Les smiled at him now. "One thing, there is something else. You'd have to testify against Bird, Dobbs and the rest. Can you do that?"

  "You mean that?"

  "I mean it."

  "I'll do it, if it means I don't have to go to jail."

  "That's what it means. You would have to come back for the trial. Just two things. Don't get in my way, and don't come back over the border. We got a deal?"

  "You damned right we do!" Swanson held out his hand to shake on it.

  "Good luck to you…and I really mean that."

  Swanson nodded. "Can I ask you something?"

  "Sure," Les stood up and grabbed his hat.

  "Why?"

  "You told me something very important. And despite that I’m good at my job. I would never have tied that fella in with it. That's gonna get rid of a really bad one. Now I've got to get him. And I hear he's awful good with a gun. I can take Bird, but I'm not sure about the other one."

  "You want help?"

  "Nope, you sit tight. And take care of yourself, try to stay out of trouble. Get a job or something." Les laughed at him now.

  Swanson eyed him with new understanding, "Thanks Les and good luck to you!"

  "I'll need it."

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Mexican music played loudly from the cantina as Les walked in. It was packed with people and the smoke was thick. A couple of dance hall girls came up to him but he shook his head.

  He watched for a long while before he made his move. He spotted Bird easily.

  Bird was a tall thin man, who dressed like a dude and took pride in his appearance. His blond hair glistened in the dim light. His brown eyes shifted as he eyed his cards and his fellow players.

  Les saw him immediately. He watched him for the longest before going over to the table.

  The stench of whiskey, beer, and tobacco made it hard to breathe as he made his way over. There was wall to wall people, drunks, gamblers, no goods.

  Bird was holding a winning hand at the poker table.

  He came to stand behind him. "I'd throw that hand in, Bird." Les told him. Watching the people at the table as he spoke. No one seemed to want to interfere.

  Bird jumped up and stared at Les. "What the hell are you doin' here?"

  "You don't sound very happy to see me Bird. I'm offended. I'm looking for the money. You spent it all yet?"

  "No…not yet. I think I got cheated…"

  "You did. I wasn't sure you could count, Bird." Les smiled.

  "Well come on, let's go outside and talk about it. We don't want to interrupt these gentlemen's game, do we?" Bird offered folding his winning hand and moving away from the table slowly. No one seemed to mind that he folded and left the game.

  Les waited for him to lead.

  He followed Bird outside, waiting to see if he was going to try to talk his way out of it, or try something.

  As soon as they got outside Bird turned on Les, "Where's all the others?"

  "Well let's see now, Junior's is dead, Colby got snake bit, don't know what happened to Swanson. Last I heard he was looking for you…"

  "So it's just you?" Bird snarled.

  "Looks that way, doesn't it?"

  "How'd you find me?" Bird asked eyeing Les closely.

  "Wasn't that hard." Les told him. "Now, where's the money?"

  "I got it up in my room at the hotel on the corner." He told him. "But, I gotta tell you I don't have that much left. I had to give Dobbs his share."

  "Fine, let's go get it." Les encouraged. "How much did you pay Dobbs?"

  "Ten thousand."

  Les nodded. "That leaves thirty thousand. Not much for the chances we took, is it?"

  "There was only forty thousand in there. What happened to the rest Les?" Bird's gaze narrowed on him and his gun.

  "I guess there's no reason to keep it secret now, I'm a Ranger, Bird."

  "A ranger. A Texas Ranger?" Bird's brow went up in shock.

  "That's right. I turned half of it in, and baited you with the other half Bird. I knew you'd go get it. We been lookin' for your bunc
h for a long time. We're nearly through rounding you up. What's left of you."

  "There's only ten thousand left, Les…"

  Les' gaze narrowed on him now. "What happened to the other twenty?"

  Bird seemed nervous suddenly.

  "I had bills to pay…" Bird told him.

  "Uh huh, now let's go get the ten then." Les said without hesitation.

  "Eighty thousand dollars and I only have ten of it left." Bird hollered.

  "Can't retire on that, now can you?"

  "That was just a joke. I knew somebody would find me." Bird said.

  When they got to the room. Bird fidgeted for several moments with the key, he was stalling and Les was watching his every move. His room was even dumpier than the one he and Swanson shared. Les glanced around and saw cockroaches crawling up and down the walls.

  "Hurry up Bird. I don't want to stay in this roach infested place any longer than I have to. So where is it?"

  Bird went to the closet and pulled out the money bag…."This is all I got."

  Les stared at the sack. "You disappointed me Bird, I thought you were better than that."

  Bird reached in the bag for the money and pulled out a gun. He pointed it at Les and pulled the trigger.

  Les tackled him as the bullet went into the wall.

  He took the gun away from him and whipped out a pair of cuffs from his pocket. It didn't take him long to have Bird under control. He was glad he didn't have to shoot it out with Bird, because Bird was good.

  "I let a damn Texas Ranger take me." Bird hollered.

  "You're gonna hang Bird." Les told him.

  "Hang, for stealin'?" Bird asked.

  "No, for killing." Les told him. "Let's go."

  "Who did I kill?"

  "Well, let's see," Les rubbed his chin. "A couple of stagecoach drivers, a bank clerk, and a woman bystander. That enough for you? Colby too."

  "Colby? I didn't kill him. You can't prove it."

  "Don't bet on it, now let's move."

  As they walked out into the lobby of the hotel, everyone was staring at them. Bird protested his guilt, but Les just drug him along.

  The ride back was slow and Les felt pretty good except he wasn't through yet. He had one more arrest to make. He'd let the army take care of Dobbs after he informed them. But the last one, was going to be hard to take and he knew it.

  As they camped Bird eyed him, trying to figure a way to get loose.

  "You know, one of your first mistakes was not counting that money." Les told him as he roasted a sage hen over a fire.

  Bird shot him an impudent glance. "I didn't figure on you bein' a Ranger. And who would have thought of taking half the money and leavin' the other half."

  "You know you haven't asked me how Colby got bit." Les chuckled.

  "You said he was snake bit. How does any man get bit? He was careless."

  "No, that's not true. Not exactly."

  "What do ya mean?"

  "I mean you put those snakes down there, didn't you?" Les looked at him. "You wanted whoever came for the money to get bit. It would look like an accident. I gotta admit, you were actually getting smarter about how you killed. That really cinched it for me, Bird. When you start planning on murdering someone, it's time to stop you. And I just have."

  Bird looked stricken.

  "Last time I checked, Colby's leg was all different colors and swollen up bad. I'd be surprised if he makes it."

  "I figured one of you would die from the rotten rope…" Bird cussed under his breath.

  "You did that too?"

  "Not much to that, I just saw that it was nearly rotted and left it." Bird told him. "I figured you'd be dumb enough to try it."

  "Well, Colby did fall, but that didn't kill him."

  After they ate, Les laid down after securing Bird to a tree with a rope. "Get some sleep. We still got a lot of riding to do."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Two weeks later Les was reporting in at the Ranger station in Waco. He's followed up with his information on Dobbs with the army. Bird was in jail awaiting trial and there was only one more to catch.

  "Les, you did good on this job, for a one man job. I guess you're pretty proud." The Captain asked. "I was skeptical that one man would be enough."

  "No faith in me?"

  "Has nothing to do with that. But sometimes these undercover jobs don't pan out well. Usually we only use one man and sometimes that man gets killed."

  "I'm not done yet."

  "No, I know you aren't. We had an inquiry about you not long ago, to find out if you were a ranger. Naturally, since you were working under cover, we gave a false report that you did not work for the Texas Rangers."

  Les nodded, he figured Tatum would check that out.

  "I can send some deputies with you, to arrest him if you want me to." The captain told him. "Might make it a whole lot easier."

  Les leaned back in the chair and shook his head. "I've caught a lot of outlaws in my time. But this is one I want personally. I hate it when a lawman goes bad. And who would have thought Bird would be blackmailed by a Sheriff? That was pretty clever of him."

  "Tatum is good with the gun Les. I'd feel better if I sent a couple of deputies with you for this."

  "No use getting us all shot up. I started this assignment alone, I want to finish it that way, I need that reward money, Captain, it's important to me. If I live through this, I have plans to settle down and run a spread of my own. If I don't make it, send in the entire regiment or go get the army, but get this man."

  "That I can promise. You know Dobbs was arrested. He'd tried to get away, but his girlfriend turned him in. But you haven't said much about this Swanson character. What happened?"

  "Captain, can I speak off record?"

  "Or course."

  "Some outlaws never see the error of their ways. Some like Bird, not only steal they murder, for no apparent reason. I could tell you that Swanson got away, and I lost him down in Mexico. But since I'm going to be hanging up my badge soon, I want to tell you this now. I let him go. He'll be here to testify against Bird about the killings and the robbery. I'll see to that personally. Something happened to him down there, Captain. He finally saw that what he was doing wasn't right and he wanted to right it all. I made him a deal, if he'd testify against Bird, and Dobbs. He didn't know about Tatum. According to what Bird told me Tatum simply saw a chance to make some money out of the holdup himself and took it. He let Bird out of jail for twenty-thousand dollars, and promised not to go after him. Swanson, he just wants to live. And I told him he couldn't come back across the border except to testify of course. He was fine with that."

  "That's good to know. And I appreciate you telling me the truth of the matter. We do see a lot of the good and the bad in this business, and it is uplifting when we can turn someone around. His testimony is crucial to hang Bird and Dobbs."

  "That's the way I saw it. Swanson wasn't a killer, and he was decent about things, most of the time. And I'll have completed my assignment once I bring Tatum in. And the rest of the money."

  "I can't believe Bird would pay him twenty thousand."

  "Bird knew he'd swing if he didn't. Looks like he's going to swing anyway."

  "One thing I want to warn you about, Tatum maybe thinking that you buried that money somewhere. We haven't let on to any authorities that the money has mostly been returned. We didn't want to make such a statement until we had it all, because there might be questions since twenty thousand is still missing. But Tatum doesn't know what you've been doing, that Bird is here, that we got the money. He'll be looking for that money…Les. I got a feeling, he was going to try to double-cross all of them and take the money himself."

  "I wouldn't doubt that, he has the brains for it."

  "Do you think you can take Tatum, cause you know he won't turn himself in."

  "I'm gonna try." Les sighed and got up to leave. "If I make it, I'll be turning in my badge. If I don't, give this to Mrs. Anna Prescott, will you?"
He handed the Captain a letter.

  The Captain took it. "Where do I find her?"

  "South of Sweet Water, north of Plainville."

  "I'll take care of it, Les." He shook hands once more and watched him leave.

  As Les came out of the Ranger's office that morning he was feeling pretty good about the arrest he'd made, but he still had a job to finish and that laid on his mind.

  What made him feel so good was the reward he'd collected from Bird and Dobbs. The army offered $1000 on information leading to the payroll holdup, and the good citizens of Sweet Water offered another $1000 for the bank money. All but twenty thousand had been safely returned.

  He had two missions now, catch the culprit that had snatched the twenty thousand and find a capable doctor to help Anna.

  He had collected the reward from the army, now he needed to contact a reputable doctor to handle Anna's case.

  Looking up a surgeon in Dallas he made an appointment.

  When he went in to see Dr. Graham he wasn't sure how to proceed, but he was hoping the good doctor could help him on that.

  "What can I do for you, Mr. Harper?" The doctor asked as they shook hands and Les took a seat in front of the big desk.

  "It's not for me doc. There's a woman, Mrs. Anna Prescott. She was injured in a buggy accident. paralyzed from the waist down. She tells me she can get this fixed for about $1000. I aim to see she gets that chance."

  The doctor was a middle aged man with blonde-gray hair and piercing blue eyes. He listened carefully to Les' story and nodded.

  "Well, of course without seeing her personally, I'm not sure exactly what we are talking about, but yes, there is a good chance I can handle it. When can you bring her in?"

  "Well you see that's the thing. I don't want her to know where it came from. She'd be eternally grateful and I don't want that gratitude. I just want you to fix her problem. So we'd have to arrange this secretly."

  "You'll pardon me, but why wouldn't you want her to know….?"

  "I'm a Texas Ranger, the chances of me staying alive are like fifty-fifty. I could get killed tomorrow, doc. I love her, but the kind of work I do…it's risky at best." Les told him. "She deserves a long and full life, and happiness. I want her to have those things."