by Mark Gannon
From our spot we could hear him alternate between cursing the horse and trying to coax it closer. The cursing was much more prevalent than the coaxing. As we watched the dun raced out of a corner and ducked as Frank threw a loop. This was too much for Frank as he threw the rope on the ground and sent out a cussing on the dun that was more creative than I gave Frank credit for. He must be practicing.
When I quit laughing I turned to Judy and said, “This may be a great opportunity. We can mosey up the road and pretend we are here to help Frank catch that horse. At the same time we can get a look into the ranch yard. Who knows, with some creative horse chasing maybe I can get up close to the barn and take a look inside.”
As we rolled to a stop beside Frank’s pickup he spotted us. His demeanor took a dramatic change from defeated cowboy to one with hope. He hollered to us as we climbed the fence, “I sure am glad to see you. I’ve been chasing that damn block-head around this pasture for the better part of twenty minutes. I can’t get him in to a corner and if I do he ducks my loop and scoots away. My feet are starting to blister from walking in these boots.”
When Frank came close he asked, “Since when do you two run together? Is something going on that I don’t know about.” Judy and I exchanged a look. Was there something going on? Damned if I know. I pulled Frank in close so I could talk without raising my voice. After explaining the situation Frank caught on real fast. “Good thing I was up here. This will give you a good excuse to get closer. Do you really think Nancy and her guy are here at Larson’s? You know it won’t surprise me. I always thought Larson was a bad sort.”
With a little planning we were ready to start our pretend horse catching. The problem was the dun horse. Horses are just naturally curious and when Frank quit chasing him and we all quit paying attention to him he walked up to see what was going on. Pretty hard to chase him to the other end of the pasture if he walks up and joins the group. Horses hate fast moves. Their natural reaction is flight. With a horse coming up like this I would normally talk soft and move slow. Instead I grabbed at the dun and pretended to stumble at the same time. It worked and the dun headed for the other end of the pasture.
“Now let me get behind that shed at that end of the pasture before you move up on him. From there they won’t be able to see me from the house.” With that I set off. It was a beautiful summer evening. The sun was close to setting and the temperature had dropped. In the dry air of western South Dakota the heat of day doesn’t hold and cool evenings and nights are made for sleeping. Another great thing about the Spearfish area was the lack of insects.
Down at the bottom of the valley near my house and the ditch irrigation the mosquitoes are a bother. Up on the mountain where Larson’s ranch was located there was no standing water and because of that no bugs. The whippoorwills were cooing in the calm night air. But I wasn’t fooled. The usual late evening thunderhead was sliding around the corner of Crow Peak. The wind was about to freshen and that little dark cloud would race down the front of the mountain.
I tried to act natural (whatever that is) when trying to catch a horse. For once I had thought ahead and slipped my pistol in my waistband. How visible is a gun tucked inside your belt? It sure made me feel extra conspicuous. I hardly ever carry a gun. It also gave me some confidence. If Slick was shooting at me this time I could shoot back.
When I reached the far corner of the pasture I looked around and saw the house was blocked from view. I stepped over the fence and went up beside the shed. My nerves were strung tight to the breaking point. It had been a long stressful day and sneaking up on someone that was armed and dangerous was not helping me relax. My plan was to see if I could spot Nancy or Slick and then head back to Frank and Judy. Then we would get out of the area and call the cops.
I stopped at the corner of the shed and inched my eye to peek around when I heard a whoop and holler from behind me. My blood froze for a second until I realized it was Frank. He was making a show and drawing attention to himself and away from me. A quick look around the yard revealed no car belonging to Nancy. But it did show me a hedge that ran up the side of the house.
Smart or not, I wasn’t passing up the opportunity to move in closer to the house. Frank was still whooping and hollering down in the pasture providing cover and I used it. The end of the house had a window on either side of the two story rock fireplace in the living room. With evening just darkening the sky the interior lights weren’t on yet.
Peering into the gloom of the house I saw movement at the front window overlooking the driveway and pasture. As my heart started to race wondering if I had found one of the robbers the light shifted and I saw it was Larson. He turned and said something to a person behind him out of my line of sight.
Do I dare move out of the protection of the hedge so I could see inside? I inched forward and could see someone’s hand as they motioned to Larson. Leaning forward some more didn’t help as the person moved back further into the house. Now I couldn’t stop myself. I did what I thought was a slithering quick dart to the corner of the house. The windows were open and I could hear muffled voices coming from in the house. “…damn fool.” That must have been Larson talking about Frank. With my pulse racing I edged closer to the window.
The thunder was converging on the house with the false menace of a coward dog barking. It was sure to dissipate before any significant moisture hit the ground. But it also covered my movement. I slipped up to the corner of a window and listened once more. The first drops of the thunder shower plopped big and fat on the lawn hitting so hard they actually bounced.
It was hard to hear the voices over the storm and my racing blood pounding in my ears. I could hear Nancy’s voice “...hope he catches that cowboy. He’s caused enough problems for us today.” Yes that was Nancy. They were here! Now I needed to hustle back to Frank and Judy. Cowboy? Who did she mean? She was talking about Frank catching the horse wasn’t she?
It dawned on me that the cowboy she was talking about was me. I turned to dash back to the safety of cover and slipped on the freshly wet grass. As I raised myself up to plunge forward I saw a pair of tan shark skin cowboy boots with blue top stitching next to my face. Following the boots up the jeans my eyes next ran into the barrel of a gun. And following the hand and arm holding the gun lead to Slick’s smiling face.
“I told you we’d meet up again. I didn’t think it would be this soon. I’m really glad you stopped by.” With that he reached down and jerked my gun out of my waistband. “Now stand up slowly and head for the house. And don’t worry about your friends, Nancy and I will go down and take care of them as soon as we have you tied up nice and tight.”
What had I done now? Why didn’t I just call the police and let them know about Slick and Larson? I brought Judy and Frank into danger right along with myself. Slick wanted to kill me in the basement. Would he kill me now? Would he kill Judy and Frank?
What about John? When John got home Greta was going to tell him all about this and he was going to check on us when we didn’t get back. I was dragging all my best friends into danger. What the hell was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking. That was the problem. I sized up Slick trying to gauge my opportunity to attack. Once again I noticed how easily he handled his gun. Those close set dark eyes never wavered and never blinked. He kept a respectful distance with no chance to make a grab for the gun. This might end badly, very badly.
The rain was coming down hard and thick with flashes of lightning cracking all around. Poor unsuspecting Frank and Judy were still in the pasture making noise and getting wet. We were approaching the back door and my chances of getting away were rapidly vanishing. I knew once I was in the house Slick would have help and my chances of escape would be gone. I needed to make a move now.
As I opened the back door I moved slowly to let Slick’s momentum catch up to me. As the distance between us narrowed I jerked hard and fast on the door trying to smack Slick in the face or arm. The man was faster than any running back I had ever tried to take down.
He swiveled and side stepped the door. I turned trying to grab his arm as he was off balance. I was slow. Way too slow. The gun barrel crashed down on my head and everything went black.
Chapter 31
Into the Night
I struggled out of the dark to a splitting headache. Trying to raise my hand to my head didn’t work. My hands were tied together behind my back and my legs were tied together also. I was laying on the carpet in the large living room of Larson’s ranch house.
From my limited view with my face pressed into the floor I could see Judy and Frank both tied to chairs. They were both drenched from playing make believe horse catchers in the rain. Frank had a nasty welt on the side of his face. My guess is he tried disagreeing with Slick. Judy was watching me as I came to. I wanted to believe she had a look of concern on her face but that was possibly an effect of the lighting.
Past Frank and Judy were the bad guys. Only my list of bad guys was not accurate. Slick was talking to Larson and pointing his gun in that loose manner of his that was very deceiving. “It’s about time to fly us out of here Billy boy. Are you going to behave?”
Larson spat back at him, “I’m not flying you anywhere. What are you going to do – shoot me? I won’t be a very good pilot if I’m wounded.”
“That’s a good point Bill. But what say we take the pretty young lady here with us. And if you don’t behave we shoot her instead of you. Maybe once in the leg right now just so you know I mean business.”
Larson’s tone changed immediately. “No. Hold on Slick. I’ll fly you. Just leave these people out of it.” Larson readily believed Slick’s offer to shoot someone. That did not give me any comfort level. Slick looked like he was thinking it over but it was Nancy who made the decisions.
“I think we’ll do just like you said Slick. A little insurance policy to make sure our friend Bill behaves himself.” With that Nancy moved toward Judy and started untying her from the chair.
“Don’t take Judy. Take me instead.” I needed to think of a reason real fast. “If you take a woman captive the police are going to hunt for you ten times as hard.”
Nancy said, “Nice try Mitch. But I don’t think putting a bullet or two in you or carrot top over there is going to bother Billy boy at all. He’s made it pretty clear he’s not fond of either one of you. No, I think Judy gets to go on a free air flight. Besides I have one or two things to settle with Judy. She has been snooty to me ever since I went to work in your stinking little bank.”
“Okay we take the girl. Now why don’t you three go on out and warm up that bird while I have a little visit with these two.” Slick was anxious to use that gun of his and I didn’t think I wanted to visit with him at all.
Some more iron jumped into Nancy’s voice, “No Slick. Like I said earlier today, unless we get pushed into a corner we leave people alive. So you come along with us right now and leave these boys alone.” Slick didn’t like it but for some reason he did what Nancy said, sort of. Those tan shark boots were making an impression on me but not the way I wanted. He made sure to step over to me and give me several boot kicks in the ribs and a parting kick in the face.
“You caused me a lot of problems today sonny boy. This is a little payback. If we ever meet up without someone saving your butt you are going to be a dead man.” With that Slick trailed behind Nancy who had her own gun on Larson and Judy.
My head was woozy from that last kick. On top of the gun laid alongside my head earlier I wasn’t quite all there. As I went under for the second time that evening my head was screaming. ‘Take me not Judy.’
Coming up out of the darkness one more time I was looking at a different scene. It was the same living room but instead of being on the floor I was laid out on the couch and my hands and legs weren’t tied anymore. I noticed this because I was able to reach up and touch my face to feel the swelling from Slick’s goodbye. The knot on my head felt worse once I thought about it.
Greta was leaning over me saying, “… coming around now. Hey, Mitch, you with us?” I fought a little harder to clear my head. “Take it easy. Everything is under control.”
I slurred trying to talk around my swollen lips, “Judy? Is Judy okay?” Greta looked over to John who was sitting beside Frank. John nodded his head with some kind of go ahead. “Judy is still missing Mitch. The police are trying to track the helicopter now. They’ll find them. She will be all right.” Greta was saying all the right things but I didn’t believe her. Judy had come with me into a dangerous situation. And now she was in serious trouble.
Sheriff Rawlins came into focus and waved his hand in front of my eyes trying to judge my awareness. “Mitch, are you able to answer some questions?” From the look on his face he decided no. “I think we are going to either send you to the hospital or send you home with your friends. There’s probably nothing you can tell me that Frank hasn’t covered already. We’ll get your story in the morning.” Looking around I saw another couple of County Mounties in the room.
“You have to go after her. What are you doing here? You need to be chasing them down.” At least that is what I thought I said. It came out a little mumbled. Rawlins gave me one more look and nodded at John to come get me.
As John hauled me out to my pickup still parked down the lane, I kept trying to go back and make Sheriff Rawlins see my point. After a blow on the head your strength is not one hundred percent. John led me stumbling to my truck and shoved me in the passenger side. “You just sit there and I’ll take you up to my place so somebody can watch you tonight.” My body gave out from the effort of getting that far and I collapsed back. The next thing I knew John and Frank were helping me out of my pickup and into John’s house.
Chapter 32
Finding Judy
John sat me down in his family room. The boys were still up and John filled them in on the latest happenings. I started to doze off and John told the kids, “Make sure he stays awake. He has had a couple of whacks to his head and going to sleep is not good for him. So you have permission to bug Mitch if he starts to doze off.” The kids loved this and poked me regularly for a short while until the new game grew old – like five minutes. When the boys quit bugging me Frank took over. John set out a six pack of Frank’s favorite beer. This was great with Frank. All he had to do was keep me awake while he got to sip beer and talk.
Greta set to work trying to track Larson’s cell phone. No luck. Then she tried Judy’s cell phone. Still no luck. “I’m sure the police are doing the same thing. I thought I would try it myself so we could see what direction they are traveling. Poor Judy. First the experience at the bank and being locked away. And now she’s kidnapped and who knows what is going to happen to her.”
As long as I sat still my head felt okay. “Greta you need to keep trying. If there is any way to track them we need to find it.”
“If they are flying low this may only pick them up in certain open areas. If I keep running the scan it may catch them. If it is only one hit we will know what direction they headed.” Greta was intent on the computer screen. “I feel so bad for Judy. She’s out there flying low in the dark and in order to keep the pilot flying they have a gun on her. She’s just having a crappy day.”
I agreed wholeheartedly. It was possible for me to both empathize and sympathize. I started to shake my head in agreement and stopped right away as the motion sent a wave of nausea through me. My head felt like a watermelon tossed from a high building just as it hit the street. On top of that I was dozing off now and then.
As my head snapped forward from going to sleep the pain would shoot in and wake me up again. It was a vicious circle. Frank was enjoying watching me while sipping a beer. He could make fun of me and I wasn’t up to fighting back. But I fixed him. I lost my stomach all over his shoes. I guess I really had a concussion.
“I’ve got a hit! I’ve got a hit! We’ll catch those bastards yet.” Greta was screaming at the top her lungs.
John was right with her. “Where is it Greta?
“Southern hills toward Edgemont. One hundred miles south of us. One hundred miles of flying in the dark through the mountains. Wow! They have to be desperate. Why do they have to be that way with Judy along?”
“I’ll call the sheriff and let him know.” John was right on it.
Sitting around waiting for the sheriff to check this out was not my idea. “Does anybody want to go with me? With a helicopter they won’t be going much further. We can make it to the south end of the Hills in two hours.”
I started to get up. Frank just gave me a light push and I fell right back into the chair. “You aren’t going anywhere. Even a dumb cowboy like me knows that ain’t happening.” I was all set to argue but I knew from that little exertion I wasn’t going to make it on my own. A feeling of helplessness and despair whelmed up inside of me. Judy was in trouble because of me and I couldn’t do a thing to help. I tried turning to John to plead my case. He just shook his head no.
From then on it was a long wait. Eventually we all fell asleep or dozed on and off. Even Frank with the huge beer cooler to raid eventually fell asleep on the couch. No matter how worried you are about someone your body wears out and needs some rest. I woke up sitting in a recliner with a light blanket draped over me and people hollering all around me. “Sheriff Rawlins just called.” Greta was yelling. “They found the helicopter. Judy is all right. Did everybody hear? Judy is all right.”
It was a long time until we heard much of the rest of the story. When I finally got moving on Sunday I went to the hospital to visit Charlie and Ned. Charlie was sitting up in bed when I got to his room. “I hear they chased those sons of bitches all the way to Edgemont. It’s great that they found Judy okay. But I really hoped they would catch those robbers.