A Stranger in Town
Page 27
“I’ve made a lot of enemies in my life,” Smoke told her. “And some of them would do anything they could to get at me. And anyone who knows me also knows that the thing I fear most is the idea that you might be hurt because of me.”
Smoke had also taught Sally how to use a gun, and she was an excellent student. She once demonstrated her skill with a pistol by entering a shooting contest with a young woman by the name of Phoebe Ann Mosey. The two women matched each other shot for shot, thrilling the audience with their skill until, at the very last shot, Miss Mosey put a bullet half an inch closer to the center bull’s-eye than did Sally. It wasn’t until then that Sally learned the professional name of her opponent. It was Annie Oakley.
Sally pulled her pistol from the holster and held it beside her.
As the buckboard rounded the curve, a man jumped out into to road in front of her. His action startled the team of horses, and they reared up, causing Sally to have to pull back on the reins to get them back under control.
Sally had not been surprised by the man’s sudden appearance, nor was the fact that he was holding a pistol in his hand unexpected.
“Is this a holdup attempt?” Sally asked. “If so, I have very little money. As you can see by the bundles in the back, I have been shopping, and I took only enough money for the purchases.”
“Nah, this ain’t no holdup,” the man said. “You’re Smoke Jensen’s wife, ain’t ya?”
“I’m proud to say that I am.”
The man smiled, showing crooked, and tobacco-stained teeth. “Then it don’t matter none whether you’ve got ’ny money or not, ’cause that ain’t what I’m after.”
“What are you after?” Sally asked.
“I’m after some payback,” the man said.
“Payback?”
“The name is Templeton. Adam Templeton. Does that name mean anythin’ to you?”
“Would you be related to Deekus Templeton?”
“Yeah. What do you know about ’im?”
“I know that he took as hostage a very sweet young girl named Lucy Woodward and held her for ransom.”
“Yeah, he was my brother. I was in prison when your man killed him.”
“Actually, it wasn’t Smoke who killed him. It was a young man by the name of Malcolm Puddle.”
“It don’t make no never-mind who it was—Jensen was there, ’n as far as I’m concerned, it’s the same thing as him killin’ my brother.”
“Why did you stop me?”
“Why, I thought you knew, Missy. I plan to kill you. I figure me killin’ you will get even with him.”
“Will you allow me to step down from the buckboard before you shoot me?” Sally asked.
Templeton was surprised by Sally’s strange reaction: not so much the question itself as the tone of her voice. She was showing absolutely no fear or nervousness.
“What do you want to climb down for?”
“I bought some material for a dress I’m going to make,” Sally said, “and I wouldn’t want to take a chance that I might bleed on it.”
Templeton laughed. “You’re one strange woman, do you know that? What the hell difference will it make to you whether you bleed on it or not? You ain’t goin’ to be makin’ no damn dress, on account of because you’re a-goin’ to be dead.”
“May I climb down?”
“Yeah, sure, go ahead.”
Holding her pistol in the folds of her dress, Sally climbed down from the buckboard, then turned to face Templeton.
“Mr. Templeton, if you would put your gun away and ride off now, I won’t kill you,” Sally said. Again the tone of her voice was conversational.
“What? Are you crazy? I’m the one holdin’ the gun here. Now say your prayers.”
Suddenly, and totally unexpectedly, Sally raised her pistol and fired, the bullet plunging into Templeton’s chest. He got a look of total shock on his face, dropped his pistol, then, as his eyes rolled up in his head, collapsed onto the road.
Cautiously, Sally walked over to look down at him.
Templeton was dead.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM W. JOHNSTONE was the author of over 220 USA Today and New York Times bestselling series, including The First Mountain Man, MacCallister, Eagles, Savage Texas, Matt Jensen, The Last Mountain Man, The Family Jensen, and The Kerrigans: A Texas Dynasty, as well as the stand-alone thrillers Suicide Mission, The Bleeding Edge, Home Invasion, Stand Your Ground, and Tyranny.
Visit his website at www.williamjohnstone.net.