Scarlet Sunset, Silver Nights

by Leigh Greenwood

  “You’re not taking Pamela anywhere,” Gaddy announced. He had set quietly for the last hour, said nothing to anyone, but he came to his feet now, between the marshall and his horse, his rifle in his right arm.

  “Now look, son, you don’t want to get into the same trouble as your cousin.”

  “You can’t arrest me for protecting Pamela. She’s no suspect.”

  “Thanks, Gaddy,” Pamela said, “but there’s no reason for you to get mixed up in this mess.”

  “Yes, there is. I believe what Slade says even if you don’t. I think Dave killed Uncle Josh.”

  “He has no proof, son.”

  “He’s got just as much proof against Dave as you got against him,” Gaddy replied, “and you tried to take him to jail.”

  “That’s not quite what happened.”

  “It sure looked that way to me.”

  “It doesn’t really matter how things look to any of us,” Pamela interrupted. “Nobody has enough facts to prove anything. I may never know who killed Dad.”

  “Dave did it, I tell you,” Gaddy insisted. “Slade said so. He’ll find the proof. He said he would, and Slade keeps every promise he makes.”

  “That’s right,” Pamela said, “he does.”

  “We need to be going,” the marshall said. “I don’t like the idea of the drunks gaping at you when we ride in.”

  “I told you, she ain’t going to nowhere.”

  “It’s all right, Gaddy. I have to go with the marshall.”

  Then I’m going with you.”

  “Did you ever stop to realize that if Dave is guilty, I’m going to need a new foreman. I rather had you in mind for the job.”

  Gaddy acted a lot like a wild bronco had just kicked him between the eyes.

  “You’d have to be in charge of the whole ranch. You might as well start learning how to run it now. You tell Dave that while I’m gone, you’re the boss.”

  Gaddy looked so stunned Pamela was quite satisfied with her gambit, and she rode off with the marshall. But her ability to judge character was at fault again. Gaddy did dwell enraptured on the vision of himself as the universally admired and respected foreman of the Bar Double-B, the prop of his cousin and her ineffectual husband, his advice sought by all, his very name enough to cause hardened criminals to seek sanctuary many hundreds of miles away. But no matter how wondrous the dream or how much he longed for it to be a reality, Gaddy knew that in truth Pamela thought he had Mesquite beans for brains. She was just trying to flatter him so he’d stay safely at the ranch.

  “She won’t listen to me, but I know who she will listen to,” Gaddy said to himself as he set off for his horse at a run. “I know where he’s hiding. And that’s more than you know. Cousin Pamela.”

  “Why are you taking me into town?” Pamela asked the marshall.

  “I already told you.”

  “It was a good story for the others, but not for me. You have no grounds to arrest me and you know it. No authority either. You think Slade’s going to try to rescue me. You plan to catch him then.”

  The marshall had the courtesy to blush. “If that’s what you think, then why are you going with me?”

  “Slade doesn’t want me left alone. He said I was the only thing standing between the killer and his getting the ranch. He’s kept a constant watch over me from the beginning. Well, if I’m in town in your custody. I’ll be safe. He won’t have to worry about me. He will be free to find the evidence he needs. Then he will come after me. And he will come. You’ll see.”

  “She wouldn’t listen to me,” Gaddy was telling Slade. “She insisted upon going with the marshall.”

  “Then at least she’s safe,” Slade answered.

  “But what about Dave?”

  “What about him?”

  “He didn’t go back with the boys.”

  “What?”

  “I stopped by camp before I came here. They ain’t seen Dave nor Sid since the dustup at the river. And Jody swears he heard them ride off. You think they’ve gone to stir up Mongo’s men to come after you?”

  “Those men are without a boss. I doubt there’ll be a half dozen of them left come morning.”

  “Then what’s Dave up to?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s got to have something to do with Pamela. Mount up. We’ve got some riding to do.”

  The hammerhead tried to take a bite out of him, and Slade struck him sharply across the muzzle. “I don’t have time to play. You keep your mind on business. You can pretend you’re a mountain lion all day tomorrow.”

  Men closed in on them from all sides. Pamela knew a moment of fear, but when she recognized Dave Bagshot, she knew only confusion. She refused to leave the marshall, but a man she didn’t know led the marshall’s horse away, and she found herself alone with Dave.

  “Why did you do that?”

  “You didn’t think we were going to let him arrest you, did you? The whole Bar Double-B outfit would have come with me if it had been necessary.”

  Pamela was irritated, but she was also pleased that her crew felt so strongly about her freedom. “I don’t suppose there was any way for you to know, but I wanted to go with the marshall. Well, never mind. The harm’s done now. Where’s Gaddy?”

  “Don’t know. Last time I saw him, he was in camp.” There was a pause. “Why?”

  “I just thought he might be with you. He tried to stop us when I left. I thought maybe he had told you where I was.”

  “I don’t need help from Gaddy,” Dave replied, and the edge on his voice made Pamela glad Gaddy hadn’t found her foreman. If he had told Dave he was the boss while Pamela was gone, there would certainly have been trouble. “Unlike Slade, I think he’s nothing but a green kid. You’re going to have to get rid of him.”

  “You know I can’t send him away. He’s my cousin. Where would he go? Besides, Slade seems to know just what to do with him.”

  “Well, Slade won’t be here anymore, and I don’t like the kid.”

  Pamela had been riding just a little in front of Dave. She jerked around to face him. “Slade is coming back. He’s going to find out who murdered my father. We’re going to be married.”

  “Pamela, I know how you feel about that man, but you’ve got to face the fact that he’s a killer.”

  “He is not,” Pamela denied hotly.

  “He killed those men in Texas, he probably killed your father, and he killed Mongo Shepherd.”

  “No.”

  “He is rather handsome. I can see how a woman could fall for him, but he’s nothing but a smooth-talking gunslinger.”

  “He’s not, and if you call him a killer one more time you can draw your pay immediately. He’s going to be my husband, and I refuse to allow you to talk about him that way.”

  “If he isn’t on his way to Montana before morning, and I’m sure he’s halfway to the Colorado border by now, he’s not going to come out of those hills alive.”

  “He wouldn’t leave….”

  “Mongo’s men are looking for him right now,” Dave continued as if Pamela hadn’t spoken. “And first thing in the morning, I’m going to set every man I can spare on his trail.”

  “I forbid you to …”

  “And after I tell the other ranchers how he killed Mongo in cold blood, I’m sure they’ll send us some of their men as well.”

  “Listen to me!” Pamela raged. She was so mad she could hardly control her voice. “Slade is not guilty of murdering anybody, and I forbid you to send any of my crew after him. And if you hear of any of the ranchers doing so, you come tell me immediately. In fact,” she said, calming down enough so she wasn’t shouting, “I think I’ll visit each one of them myself. I have to go into town anyway to explain this rescue mission to Marshall Alcott.”

  “You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said, have you?” Dave asked.

  Pamela was startled. She had never heard Dave use that tone of voice to anyone, but certainly not to her.

  “I listened, but I disag
ree.”

  “You still think he’s innocent?”

  “I know he is. You ought to know me we’ll enough to know I wouldn’t marry a man who would do any of the things Slade’s accused of doing.”

  “I heard you tell the marshall you were a terrible judge of character. You’re wrong about Slade, too, but you seem determined to marry him anyway. I can’t let you do that. I wouldn’t be worthy of the trust your father put in me if I did.”

  “You have nothing to say about whom I marry,” Pamela said in imperious tones which did full justice to Slade’s accusation of snobbery. “I don’t know what my father said to make you think you had the right to approve or disapprove of my actions, any of my actions, but let me inform you right now that my choice of husband does not require anybody’s approval. Good Lord, I wouldn’t even allow my father to tell me who to marry. If I had, I’d have ended up married to Mongo.”

  “A woman should never be allowed her head when it comes to choosing a husband. She should always accept the judgment of the men of her family.”

  “Well I don’t have any family, or any men in it except Gaddy, so it doesn’t matter what they would have said. I’m going to marry Slade.”

  “I won’t let you.”

  “What did you say?” Pamela demanded. She stopped and turned back to face Dave.

  “I said I won’t let you.”

  “You can’t stop me.”

  “But I can.” Dave took the bridle of her horse and started forward. Pamela pulled hard on the reins, but Dave’s hold on the bridle was stronger.

  “What do you think you’re doing? Let go of my horse.”

  “I’m going to take you to one of the line cabins. We’re going to stay there until they find Slade. After he’s dead, we’re going to be married.”

  Pamela was speechless.

  “I’m not likely to be such an easy husband as Mongo would have been. I don’t like my women to get to thinking they’re more important than they are, but I won’t beat you. Not unless you try to run away.”

  “You’re out of your mind. You’re already married.”

  “Belva’s my half sister,” Dave explained. “She needed some place to stay while she waited for her baby. I knew Josh would never allow her to stay here if he knew the truth, so I told him she was my wife.”

  The truth?”

  “The father of that goddamned little bastard won’t marry her.”

  “This is not happening to me. It can’t be,” Pamela muttered, hoping the sound of her voice would wake her from a bad dream.

  “You’ll have nothing to complain of,” Dave assured her. I’m not as good looking as Slade or Mongo, but I won’t run around on you. And I’m a good cowman. I’ll make this place into the biggest ranch in Arizona. I always told Josh he ought to get rid of those other ranchers, take the whole basin for himself, but he was too squeamish, said he had enough land to suit him. I don’t. I won’t rest until the Bar Double-B range covers every acre from here to Maravillas.”

  The weight of Dave’s guilt hit Pamela like a physical blow. “You murdered my father,” she said, her voice hoarse with shock. “Slade was right all along, and I was too stupid to see it.”

  “There’s no way Slade Morgan or anybody else can prove I killed your father.” But he didn’t say it like a virtuous man protesting his innocence. He said it like a man who didn’t care what she thought.

  “And you killed Mongo or had him killed.”

  “Slade killed Mongo. Jud Noble told you he saw Slade leaving Mongo’s wagon. But I don’t have any sympathy for him. His kind doesn’t belong here. We’ll take his herd and sell it in the fall.”

  “You’re lying, Dave Bagshot. You’ve been planning to steal Dad’s ranch all along. You were smart enough to use Mongo’s attempt to overrun the range as a cover. You killed Dad and you killed Mongo. Now you plan to marry me and eliminate the ranchers one by one until you control everything.”

  “What would be so terrible if that were true?” Dave asked, and suddenly the calmness of his pale blue eyes made Pamela shiver with apprehension. “You’re going to be the richest woman in Arizona. I won’t mind spending money on you. As long as I run the ranch, you can buy all the dresses and have all the servants you want.”

  “I’m not going to marry you,” Pamela declared. “How could you think I would marry my Dad’s killer?”

  “I didn’t kill your father.”

  But Pamela didn’t believe him. She had never really looked at Dave. He had been around forever, and she had just taken him for granted. But now that she did, she could see in him the man who would plot for years, even a man who would shoot himself in the leg so everyone would think Mongo was responsible. Come to think of it, no one had ever seen that wound. Only Belva, and she’d been scared ever since that night. Dave probably hadn’t been shot at all, just pretended to be wounded so he could cause trouble and blame it on Slade.

  Now he was meticulously going over everything that had happened, explaining why Slade had to be responsible for killing her father and Mongo, why she would thank him someday for what he was doing now, why she would be so much better off married to him than to Slade.

  “I’m not going to marry you,” she said, suddenly, explosively. “And if you ever touch me, I’ll kill you.” Simultaneously, Pamela struck at Dave with her crop and drove her spurs into her horse’s side. Dave had relaxed his grip on the bridle, and the unexpected lash of the crop across his cheek and shoulder caught him by surprise. A second blow across his mount’s nose caused his horse to rear. While he was fighting to retain his seat in the saddle, Pamela’s mount galloped across the desert.

  Pamela’s horse was faster than Dave’s. It also had more stamina, but she had two disadvantages. She didn’t know the terrain as well as he did, and the darkness obscured the few landmarks she did know.

  In just a few moments Pamela was lost.

  Taylor Alcott didn’t know why he should feel so uncomfortable about riding with these men, but there was something about the atmosphere he didn’t like. Serves you right for getting mixed up in something outside your jurisdiction, he told himself. You should have stayed in Maravillas and let Junie Sykes bring you your beer. You’re too old, and supposedly too smart, to go looking for trouble. Enough of it turns up at your front door as it is.

  “You boys don’t have to accompany me any further,” the marshall said to his companions. “I’m convinced I can’t arrest Miss White. Never meant to do more than use her to draw Slade Morgan in.”

  “The boss said we wasn’t to leave your side for nothing,” Sid said.

  The marshall didn’t know the other man. He was grinning, and the marshall didn’t like what he saw.

  “Why don’t you go ahead and tell him,” the grinning man said to Sid. “It’ll be fun to watch him squirm.” The man laughed like he knew a joke the marshall didn’t, but judging from his expression, it wasn’t a nice joke.

  “Shut up, Reese. You know Dave will kill anybody who breathes a word.”

  “Who’s going to tell him? The marshall here?” He laughed again. “How’s he going to talk with six feet of dirt in his face.”

  “You goddamned fool,” Sid said angrily. He turned in his saddle, but Reese’s gun was drawn before he had completed the half-circle.

  “If you got anything else to say, you’d better think on it first,” Reese said. Pure meanness gleamed in his eyes. “I don’t mind an extra killing.”

  “What’s the point of killing me?” the marshall asked. He was careful to keep his hands on the reins.

  “You know too much. And you might guess the rest.”

  “You mean I might guess that Dave murdered Josh White to get him out of the way, used Mongo Shepherd to start a range war so he could kill some of the other ranchers, and then killed Mongo and blamed it on Slade?”

  “I told you he knew everything,” Reese said.

  “He didn’t know shit before you opened your goddamned mouth,” Sid shouted and went for his gun
.

  Reese shot him through the heart.

  “Now, it’s your turn, marshall.”

  “Not yet,” a voice from the darkness called out.

  Reese whirled to face his unseen adversary, but before he could determine the direction of the voice, the night exploded with a burst of gunfire.

  Reese fell to the ground screaming in agony. Slade had put a bullet across the top of each wrist and notched his earlobes. Reese would go to the gallows wearing the sign of a coward.

  “Sure am glad to see you,” the marshall said as Slade and Gaddy emerged from the dark.

  “Thought you might be,” Slade said jumping down from the saddle. With quick, sure movements, he bound the groaning Reese securely.

  “For God’s sake, have mercy,” Reese begged. “You can’t tie my wrists after you shot them to ribbons.”

  “Watch him, Gaddy, and if he makes even one move, shoot him between the eyes,” Slade said as he got back in the saddle. “Here,” he said to the marshall as he tossed him the dead man’s gun and rifle. “We’ve got to find Pamela.”

  “You trust me?”

  “Do you think I killed anybody?”

  “Not in Arizona.”

  “That’s all I ask,” Slade said and spurred his hammerhead sharply in the side. The marshall had to hurry to catch up with him. The dun was a businesslike horse when he put his mind to it.

  “Look, kid,” Reese said as soon as the sound of the galloping hooves died away. “I’ve got money. Lots of it in my saddle bags. You can have it all if you’ll help me get away from here.”

  Gaddy glared at him for a moment. Then he knelt down and pulled off Reese’s boots. Next he pulled off his socks.

  “What the hell…”

  “I’m going to ask you some questions. And if I don’t like your answers, I’m going to shoot off your toes,” Gaddy explained as he pointed the gun at Reese’s big toe. “I figure it’ll be a short conversation.”

  Chapter 23

  Even though she was desperate to get away from Dave, Pamela knew it was too dangerous to gallop a horse in the dark. She slowed to a trot, but pursuing hoofbeats still sounded behind her and she spurred her mount forward again. But caution made her slow down just a few minutes later. Her horse would almost certainly go down if she didn’t. A fall in the dark could kill both of them.