Dying Wish

by J. R. Roberts

“I don’t know what to tell you, Clint,” she replied with a shrug. “If you don’t trust me now, there’s nothing more I can do.”

  “It’s not a matter of trust. All I ask is that you tell me everything I might need to know.”

  “Abner might have stashed money somewhere or maybe the Nagle brothers just think he did. Boris might still be mad at what I did to him with that shovel. Wilson’s just plain crazy. That’s what I know.”

  “Where’s Coldwater Rock again?”

  “Southwest of here.”

  After a bit of hesitation, Clint nodded. “All right then. Like I said, we’ll ride south from here and then cut west. Hopefully, that’ll be enough to steer clear of the Nagles and their hired guns.”

  When Clint walked over to Eclipse, he heard Olivia keeping pace directly behind him. She tapped him on the shoulder and waited for him to turn around before speaking.

  “You’re not the only one that’s ever been betrayed, you know,” she said. “I’ve been lied to, cheated, and threatened with everything from being robbed to being killed. Some men would see a woman dead if they didn’t get a friendly enough smile or if she dared to keep her legs crossed when he wanted them open. That,” she said while pulling her skirts aside to reveal the derringer strapped to her right knee, “is why I keep this where I can always get to it. Always.”

  Clint knew about the derringer. He’d even known when she’d shifted it to another spot when she knew her leg wasn’t exactly going to be covered. He also knew she didn’t need to show him that gun. “It’s good to see there’s no secrets,” he told her.

  “And I’m glad you’re such a cautious man,” she replied. “That’s why I’m so grateful you’re with me now.”

  So far, Clint hadn’t had much of a reason to think Olivia was lying to him. He was glad that he still felt that way now. Even so, he knew better than to strike any possibility from his mind when lives were being threatened. Still, Olivia might have been a card cheat, but she struck him as trustworthy.

  Of course, a man couldn’t be too careful.

  THIRTY-EIGHT

  They rode south for a good portion of the day. For the first few hours, it was a struggle for Clint to keep his eyes open. Olivia’s coffee had helped in that regard, but feeling the crisp morning air in his face as he put Eclipse through his paces truly woke him up.

  It seemed the Darley Arabian was feeling better as well. Not only was he quicker to build up speed, but his legs pounded against the ground with less trepidation than before. Whether it was the shoe Ross had made or the time the stallion had been given to heal, Eclipse was chomping at the bit again.

  Clint knew better than to give in to the horse’s instinct to gallop when he saw so much open trail in front of him. Even Clint could feel that instinct when he thought about beating the Nagles to their destination. Fortunately, Clint and Olivia had a major factor still in their favor: The Nagles didn’t know what their destination was. If they did, they wouldn’t have taken so long to get there. Despite that fact, Clint wasn’t about to rush when that might cause him to run straight into the Nagles’ sights.

  The land beneath them began to shift from flat, rocky terrain to rolling, sandy hills that looked like an enormous quilt frozen in mid-ruffle. One of the higher swells was directly ahead and when they reached it, Clint and Olivia pulled back on their reins.

  “There’s the Rio Grande,” Clint said.

  Olivia looked to the west and shielded her eyes from the sun. “Coldwater Rock shouldn’t be much farther. I’d say a few miles or so.”

  “You don’t sound very certain.”

  “I’ve only been there a few times. And that was back when I was a little girl. I remember more about the water on my feet and the shapes of the clouds than I do about where I actually was.”

  “What do you remember?”

  Olivia smiled fondly and looked up as if she was seeing those same shapes in the sky that had been there when she still had her hair in pigtails. “One summer, we were supposed to visit Abner. You see, he liked coming down here because he only had a few sisters left and they both lived in Coldwater Rock. Well, we couldn’t go for some reason or another and I was upset. I wouldn’t stop crying until my father showed me on a map how far away this was from home. Whenever Abner would go away, I would look at that spot on the map.”

  “That’s a sweet story,” Clint said, “Let’s hope your father wasn’t just pointing to some random spot along the Rio Grande to shut you up.”

  The smile remained on Olivia’s face the way mud remained after being thrown against a wall. “Nice, Clint. Really nice. Next time I’ll just keep my memories to myself.”

  Clint chuckled and pointed to the west. “So we just need to ride that way until we reach this town of yours.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And what happens if there’s nothing there?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked with genuine anger written across her face.

  “No offense meant, Olivia,” Clint was quick to say. “It’s just that a kid’s memory isn’t exactly the most reliable thing.”

  “It’s more than just a memory. I kept that map, and Abner showed me the same spot a few times. The last time I was here, he even showed me a bend in the river that marked where his house was.”

  “Really? That’s a pretty important landmark. How long were you going to keep that under your hat?”

  Olivia blinked and shook her head as if she was about to sneeze. “Actually,” she said, “I just remembered that right now.” She furrowed her brow and stared straight ahead. The concentration in her eyes made it clear that she wasn’t exactly focused on anything Clint could see. “It was a kink in the river,” she finally told him.

  “A kink?”

  Olivia nodded. “That’s how I saw it. Abner called it a boot heel.”

  “What’s it look like?” Clint asked.

  After thinking for another few seconds, Olivia lifted one finger and traced a line in the air. “Like that. At least, that’s what it looked like on the map.”

  “So it took a sharp turn toward the north, ran a little ways, and dipped back south again?”

  “Yes,” Olivia said proudly. “Yes, that’s it. Does that help?”

  “It sure does.”

  “Do you think we’ll be able to see it?”

  “Yeah,” Clint said as he pointed toward the river in the distance. “We just might.”

  THIRTY-NINE

  The Rio Grande sparkled with reflected sunlight, making the entire watery stretch look more like rough glass than a river. Although no river was too straight for too long, Clint and Olivia didn’t have any trouble whatsoever in spotting the distinctive pattern of the Rio Grande as it turned and ran toward them a little ways, and then veered back around and down to turn once again along its previous course.

  From their vantage on higher ground, the shape of the pattern looked like a large boot heel. On a map, the line might have looked more like a kink in a blue thread.

  Seeing the boot heel and getting to it were two very different things. Once they were off the top of the hills, Clint and Olivia nearly lost sight of the distinctive shape. Since there was no town to catch their attention, both of them thought they’d latched onto the wrong boot heel.

  Once they’d covered the next few miles, Olivia regained some of her confidence.

  “There,” she said while leaning forward and pointing at the river. “I see it.”

  Clint squinted and shook his head. “I don’t see anything.”

  “It’s all looking familiar now. Trust me. I can see the place. There’s not a lot left, but I can see it.”

  Shrugging, Clint said, “All right. Lead the way.”

  Olivia was more than happy to do just that. She snapped the reins and almost left Eclipse in her dust. Fortunately, the Darley Arabian had worked himself up to something close to full speed throughout the course of the day and Clint was willing to stretch his legs a bit more.

&n
bsp; Since they were headed in the right direction anyway, Clint was willing to follow Olivia whether he saw anything or not. In fact, since she took the lead, it freed him up to let his eyes wander along the horizon for any trace of the Nagles and their newly acquired partners.

  As far as Clint could tell, he and Olivia were alone. Then again, he didn’t allow himself to get too comfortable either. There were plenty of twists in the trail and several places where a small group of men could hide. It was no mistake that outlaws preferred going south when they wanted to escape from the law. Still, Clint wasn’t going to give in to the tricky terrain by letting his guard down.

  “You see it, Clint?” Olivia shouted from her saddle.

  The question was almost lost amid the thunder of the two horses’ hooves, but her enthusiasm pushed her words through the air well enough.

  Clint hadn’t spotted much of anything so far, and he was about to tell her that when he looked ahead. Before he could give the response that was on the tip of his tongue, he squinted and leaned forward. “I think I do see something,” he said. “Looks like an old mining camp or something.”

  “It’s Coldwater Rock,” she shouted back to him. “I know it!”

  When he saw her snap her reins, Clint shouted, “Slow down!”

  “Come on, Clint! That’s the place! I’ll race you there.”

  Cursing under his breath, Clint snapped his own reins and felt an immediate burst of speed from Eclipse. He came alongside Olivia’s tan mare, and stayed there just long enough for him to reach out and wave before grabbing the reins from her hand.

  “I said slow down!” he ordered.

  She pulled back on her reins, but didn’t look happy about it. When she’d slowed to a trot, Olivia asked, “What’s wrong with you? I thought you trusted me to get you here.”

  “I do,” Clint replied. “And that might be the place. We also might still have four gunmen tracking us.”

  “Have you seen them?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean they’re not around. Just take a moment and think before you go charging in like a damn fool!”

  Olivia looked ahead and then back at Clint. Then, she pulled back on her reins even more. “You’re right, Clint. Sorry about that. I guess I just got a little excited.”

  “It’s fine. Now, are you certain that’s the place? It doesn’t look like more than a few old buildings.”

  “It never was much more than that. Whenever I used to visit Abner here, I remember we had to go to a trading post for food and supplies. That was one of the first times I ever saw a real Indian.”

  Looking at the way Olivia’s face brightened when she spoke, Clint couldn’t help but smile. “You really have a lot of fond memories about your uncle, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I never saw him too much, but it was always good when I did. That’s why I figure the least I can do for him now is see to it that he winds up where he wants to be.”

  “That’s fair enough.” Shifting his eyes to the trail ahead, Clint added, “It’s not much farther before we get to that settlement. There’s also not many ways for someone to ride in on us once we’re there.”

  “What about that rise over there?” Olivia asked.

  Clint looked toward the steep hill that she’d spotted. It wasn’t very imposing, but the rise was capped by several clusters of jagged rocks that sat upon the crest like a crown. “Yeah,” he said. “That’s the one spot that has me worried. If there’s an ambush to be made, it’ll be from there.”

  “Should we wait to see if the Nagles jump us first?”

  “No. If they do decide to make a run at us, we’ll see them coming. Things are a lot easier if you’re prepared for the worst. Just don’t make it any easier for the worst to happen.”

  “All right,” Olivia said anxiously. “How long should we wait?”

  “Let’s go there now, but not so fast. There’s the chance that they might already be there.”

  “I doubt that. I barely even knew where to find this place until I remembered that kink in the river.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Clint said grudgingly. “Riding alongside someone who’d come this far out on a hunch doesn’t set well.”

  “You’re not much of a gambler, are you?” she asked.

  “You’re only one out of two in our bets,” he reminded her.

  “Care to make it best two out of three?”

  FORTY

  Coldwater Rock couldn’t have been a more appropriate name for the place Clint and Olivia found themselves in. The settlement was along the river where there were most definitely rocks. Scooping a hand into the Rio Grande, Clint was pleased to find the water to be refreshingly cool. Eclipse was actually more grateful for that.

  Other than those few things, there wasn’t much.

  Clint stood with his hands on his hips and watched Olivia walk around the three buildings situated near the bank of the Rio Grande. “You’re certain this is the place?” he asked. “There’s nothing marking this as anything more than a camp.”

  “This is it,” she replied with certainty. Olivia closed her eyes and took a few more steps without so much as stumbling over one of the rocks strewn along the ground. “I can almost smell the smoke from Abner’s fire.”

  “Looks like there was plenty of smoke around here,” Clint said as he ran his fingers along the charred side of the nearest building. “And plenty of fire as well.”

  Olivia opened her eyes and looked around again. This time, she saw more of what was there instead of what she’d remembered. “There was a fire. Looks like this whole place might have burned down.”

  “It was a long time ago,” Clint said. “Most of this wood looks like it rotted after it was burned.” Stepping inside the broken frame of the building, Clint took a quick look around. “This place is empty. That means it was probably abandoned even before it was burned.”

  “What a shame. This was such a quiet, happy place.”

  “For you maybe. I can’t tell much from what’s left, but this looks like a spot that was set up to do a job. There wasn’t any store and I don’t see anything that looks like a mill or even a waterwheel. That over there,” he said while nodding toward a narrow, crumbling frame, “looks like it might have been a stable. It’s barely big enough for four horses.”

  The longer Olivia looked around, the less she resembled the little girl she’d been the last time she’d walked along that path. Soon, it was obvious that she was seeing the same empty, broken buildings that Clint saw. “Abner’s house was this one,” she said as she raised a tired finger to point at the farthest structure.

  Clint studied the terrain surrounding the abandoned settlement. The land was still just as quiet as the buildings. Satisfied with the calmness in the air, Clint rested his hand on his Colt and walked forward. The moment he saw Olivia start to move, Clint said, “Stay put. Let me take a look around first.”

  Although she was anxious to get into the remains of the house, Olivia stood her ground and let Clint go in.

  There wasn’t much for him to see. Like the other buildings, the roof had already been burned away, collapsed, or been swept up by the elements. More than likely, it was a combination of all three. The floor was relatively sturdy, but creaked as if it was in pain every time Clint set a boot down on it.

  There had been at least two rooms in the place. The walls were mostly rubble, but there could have been another one sectioning off a third room. Either way, there couldn’t have been much room inside that house. All he found inside were some things that had been washed up when the river had swelled, and a small animal’s carcass in one corner.

  “Come on in, Olivia,” Clint shouted.

  She was inside in a matter of seconds. Despite the condition of the place, she looked around with a fond smile on her face and a few tears in her eyes. “This is it all right. I only wish it was how I remembered it.”

  “Nothing hardly ever stays the way we remember,” Clint said. “That’s the nice thing about memories.” />
  “It doesn’t feel nice right now.”

  Just then, Clint realized that Olivia had taken the clay jar from her saddlebag. She held it in the crook of her arm as she wandered through the remains of the house. It didn’t take her long to see it all.

  “This is where I used to sleep,” she said fondly as she stopped in one corner. “Even when I was a girl, I knew this was a pantry. Still, Abner used to fill it up with blankets and pillows so I could sleep in there. He said it was my own little bird’s nest.”

  Clint felt more and more uncomfortable the longer they remained in the house. It was the sort of feeling someone would get if they stepped in front of a loaded cannon and stayed there to enjoy the scenery. That unsettled feeling in his gut paid off when he caught sight of two horses breaking from the crowned ridge he’d spotted earlier.

  “I hate to cut this short, but I think those brothers have found this place as well,” Clint said.

  Olivia was kneeling in the space that had been Abner’s pantry and was pressing her hand to the floor.

  “Yep,” Clint said as he looked out the window. “The other two are circling around on the east side.”

  “I’m not letting them chase us away from here,” Olivia said. “Not after we’ve come this far.”

  “I agree. We should have enough time to scatter the ashes before their horses meet up here, but we can’t dawdle for very long.” When he turned around to check on her, Clint found Olivia digging her fingers between the floorboards. “What are you doing? There’s no time for this.”

  “There was something else in my letter,” she explained. “It was just some little thing that I thought was in there to make sure I knew the message was from Abner.”

  “Olivia…they’re riding awfully fast.”

  “It said for me to be sure and check the nest for eggs.”

  “We really don’t have time for—”

  Clint stopped when he heard the crack of splintering wood. He saw Olivia pull one of the boards up from the floor and hold it out to him triumphantly.