by Jake Logan
The marshal looked at her pretty face. “No,” he said. “This here’s America, and this here’s my territory. I make the rules.”
Slocum refrained from reminding him that he was only a cog in a very large legal machine.
“And?” demanded Miss Swan.
“I’ll give you my decision tomorrow afternoon.”
Miss Alice Swan stood abruptly, nearly knocking the bench over in the process. Saying, “Tomorrow, then,” she let herself out. The door slammed behind her.
“Thanks, Pete,” Slocum said after a moment. “For givin’ him the benefit of the doubt, I mean.” He thumbed back his hat. “Sure wish I knew what brought this on.”
The marshal nodded and muttered something about wishes and horses that Slocum didn’t understand, and then he stood up. Slocum followed suit.
“You put the money back?” Pete asked.
“Into your business account.”
“Right. See you tomorrow. And by the way, if we decide to keep him and go to trial, half that reward’s yours.”
Slocum grunted. “Don’t make me feel no better.”
“I know how you feel, buddy,” said Pete, sneering toward the door. “I know how you feel.”
By the time Slocum emerged from the marshal’s office, Miss Alice Swan was nowhere in sight, so he headed on down toward Katie’s place. He was hungry, on top of everything else. He’d had only half a sandwich, after all.
He wondered about Teddy. Had they taken him something, brought it to his cell? And then he had some harsh words with himself. Don’t you go gettin’ soft on me, he thought. He’s a murderer. Don’t you forget it.
He kept walking till he came to the edge of town, the place where the trees started, although they were still sparse. As he turned in at Katie’s walk, things seemed more settled. He didn’t know why, but they just did. The thought crossed his mind that maybe it was his proximity to Katie’s presence, but there were too many thoughts today, too much confusing information.
And Slocum was a man who didn’t like to be confused. Not for an instant.
4
While Alice Swan, although troubled, slept in comfort in her hotel room, and Slocum spent his night with the lovely Miss Katie, Teddy Cutler was not so fortunate.
Why wouldn’t anybody listen to him? What had he done to land himself in jail like this? And when was somebody going to come and talk some sense into these boys?
He paced and he paced, but he couldn’t come up with a decent reason for being here in the first place. All he did was ride his horse into town. And this was beyond him. Hell, they hadn’t even bothered to tell him what he was charged with!
Finally, after very nearly wearing a path into the brick floor of his cell, he slouched down on his cot, still confused as ever. He leaned back, twisting until he could get a glimpse of the big clock in the front office. It read twelve thirty-four.
He had a long wait until tomorrow.
Come to think of it, he couldn’t even remember when he’d first met Slocum. Good ol’ Slocum, for God’s sake!
Teddy cursed beneath his breath, then tried to make himself comfortable. But there was no position that brought him any relief whatsoever from the questions that gnawed at him.
The lovely Miss Alice Swan dozed fitfully in her room at the hotel. They wouldn’t let Cutler go, they couldn’t! First off, they’d spoil her perfect record, and second, it just plain wasn’t legal, so far as she could figure.
Teddy Cutler had killed three people, and he had to pay. Period. No matter what sort of mental mishmash he’d come up with to try and wriggle out of it. She was certain of it, certain that they’d all burn in hell if they let him go. Well, with the exception of her, of course. She had been practically on her way to the marshal’s office—after tracking Teddy for eight long months—when they were stopped by that blasted Slocum character!
In her sleep, she grimaced. She was a lot tougher than she looked on the outside. And she’d be damned if she’d let anybody—even the famous John Slocum!—steal a bounty out from under her!
The next morning found Slocum in Miss Katie’s kitchen, having a cup of coffee while he waited for his eggs and flapjacks. The clock on the wall told him it was a little past ten, but he was in no hurry. Marshal Pete had said he’d make his decision in twenty-four hours, so he figured he had about four hours to fill up before then.
Finally, Kate slid his breakfast plate before him: eggs, pancakes with syrup, crisp bacon, and steaming, crisp hash browns. It was more than he’d expected! “Whoa, Katie!” he exclaimed. “You didn’t have to go to so much trouble for me!”
She sat down next to him. “Ain’t no trouble,” she said, trailing a finger up his arm. “Not when it’s for you.”
Now Slocum was grateful, but nervous. Katie had been a good match for him all these years, but he wasn’t ready to settle down, not by a long shot. And he didn’t care for feeling like he was being railroaded into it!
“Now, Katie,” he began between bites of her pancakes. “The trail is callin’ me already.”
She smiled. “Bet you won’t answer it till you’ve finished those flapjacks, at least.”
Slocum chuckled. “You’ve got that right, honey.”
She leaned back in her chair and picked up a piece of her bacon, nibbling at it. “You always gonna have itchy feet, Slocum?”
“You askin’ if I’m ever gonna settle down?”
“That’s it.”
“Well,” he said, and paused to swallow a bite of eggs. “It depends. If you’re askin’ me for now, the answer is no, never. Gonna wander till I die. But ask me another time, I might tell you different.” He shrugged. “Sorry I can’t tell you somethin’ more firm.”
She leaned in toward the table, and picked up her fork. “Well, I s’pose if you can’t, you can’t.”
Disappointment rang heavy in her voice, but Slocum didn’t say anything else. He was afraid he’d just stir up more trouble, and trouble wasn’t something he wanted with Katie. Not now, not ever.
“How’re things goin’ at the marshal’s office?” she asked him, abruptly changing the subject. It couldn’t have come at a better time.
“So-so,” he said. “Pete allowed as how he might just let Teddy go, the circumstances bein’ so odd and all, but he didn’t make no promises. Not till this afternoon anyhow.”
“And you have that woman bounty hunter to deal with, too.”
“Yeah,” he replied, taking a bite of his eggs. “Whatshername. Alice Somethin’. Don’t trust her no farther than I could throw her.”
“Why?”
“She’s a female bounty hunter, for one thing. And she’s just too . . . I dunno. Too something. Like she’s practiced to be perfect too much, y’know?”
Katie said, “I think so. She pretty?”
Now, that was a cougar of a question just waiting to bite him in the butt! He stalled a moment by chewing too long, then gulping coffee. “Don’t rightly know. I mean, she has blond hair and she was wearing a blue—no, mayhap it was green—dress. Anyhow, blue or green. And she looked and acted, I dunno, Southern, I guess. But outside of that, I couldn’t tell you.”
Katie wouldn’t let go of it. She asked, “Southern, like from South America? Was she Mexican?”
Slocum allowed himself a laugh. “No, more like the American South.”
“Oh,” said Katie, just as Mary, one of the girls, entered the room all aflutter and asked Katie where something or other was. Katie excused herself, and that was the end of it.
Thank God.
Teddy had thought and thought on it all night, and he still couldn’t recall where he and Slocum had first met. Which was odd, because Teddy prided himself on having a first-class memory. Things seemed to be changing, though. Like when that pretty little gal, Miss Alice Swan, approached him yesterday, asking for directions, and he could’ve sworn on his grandma’s grave that he recognized her! He didn’t know from where or when, but he knew her, all right, even though she acted like
he was a total stranger to her, and all she wanted was directions to “an eating establishment.”
He still didn’t know why they were making him stay here. They’d had a doctor come to see him this morning, a doctor who asked a lot of questions, most of which didn’t make any sense, and didn’t once tap his knees with a little hammer or look down his throat. Some crazy kind of doctor, he was.
Mostly, he just talked. And it wasn’t medical stuff either. It was mostly questions. Like, how did he know Slocum (a subject he was still pondering on), and how did he get to Phoenix, and where was his horse stabled? And then the questions got even crazier!
Where was he on March seventh? Damned if he knew. Who paid attention to calendars when they were ridin’ the trail?
Had he ever carried a Smith & Wesson pistol? He didn’t think so. And he was pretty sure he’d recall if he had. The few he’d seen were so long-barreled it’d take a half hour to pull ’em free of your holster.
Had he recently suffered a serious bodily injury? Like, did he hit his head on anything, or had he been struck unconscious? No, he was pretty sure he’d recall somethin’ like that. Well, there was a time, when he was about nine or ten, that the neighborhood bully, Big Billy Bester, had knocked him out for a four-hour stretch during recess. When he woke up, school was closed and everybody was gone except for Miss Gates, the schoolmarm, and his mother, who’d been rushed in from their farm.
In case he died, he supposed.
He’d been arrested in the company of the famous bounty hunter, Slocum, the doctor told him. Of course, he already knew about Slocum, but the famous part was new to him. “Famous bounty hunter?” he said, and shook his head. “The things folks don’t tell you!”
The doctor cocked one eyebrow. “Slocum didn’t tell you he was a bounty hunter?”
Teddy laughed. “He didn’t say nothin’ about bein’ famous neither! Can you beat that?”
After a few more questions, the doctor left Teddy alone. The clock on the outer office wall said it was a few minutes past noon. Which meant it was about an hour till Slocum would show up. Well, maybe they’d break up the time by having his lunch delivered.
He hoped.
Slocum arrived at the marshal’s office at one on the dot—and with Miss Alice Swan directly on his heels.
Alice had a smug expression on her pretty little face, and Slocum was considering smacking it off when Marshal Pete opened his door and invited them into his office. Slocum couldn’t read his face, but he sure could tell what was on Alice’s mind. She practically had both hands out for that reward. Slocum hoped she was wrong, wrong, wrong.
He’d been doing some thinking, too. And he’d decided that anybody deserved a chance to straighten up and fly right.
Especially Teddy.
After all, Teddy had those whatchacall things, those “mitigating circumstances.” After yesterday, Slocum wholeheartedly believed this to be true. Seemed it made no difference to Miss Alice Swan, though, because her opening comment, once they got in the office and got sat down opposite Marshal Pete, was, “I assume you have my money ready, Marshal?”
Slocum slouched in his chair, and shook his head, sighing. God, she was a mercenary bitch!
But Pete surprised them both by saying, “No, I’m afraid I don’t, Miss Swan. Slocum, Miss Swan, I been up half the night frettin’ about this thing, over ’n over again.”
Alice growled under her breath while Slocum cocked his head, riveted on Pete’s next words.
“Slocum,” Pete said, “I’m releasin’ him into your custody. We had the doc over, Miss Swan, and he couldn’t break his story. He even slipped him some laudanum, and it didn’t make no difference. Slocum, I want you to ride with him for six months, and keep your eyes open.”
“Six months?” Slocum protested.
“That’s what I said. Where you go, he goes. No exceptions. And at the end of six months, you bring him back here to check in. If I’m convinced at that time that he’s tellin’ the truth and he really don’t remember, then I’ll get those charges dropped. Otherwise, he’s going back into custody until the day he dies. You all right with all that, Slocum?”
Slocum nodded. He guessed he had to be, to save Teddy.
Alice Swan, who had been silent while the terms of Teddy’s release were spelled out, suddenly leaned forward and pounded her fist on the desk. “I protest!” she announced.
“Good for you, Miss Swan,” Sheriff Pete said, nodding. “Howsoever, it ain’t gonna do you no good.” Then, with no fanfare, Pete stood up. Slocum followed suit. Miss Swan glowered at them both. Slocum decided he couldn’t really blame her, but that disgusted expression wiped all the pretty off her face.
The pretty didn’t come back until they had both followed Pete outside, to the main office. Pete signaled to one of the deputies, who rose from his desk and paperwork to go back into the cell block.
He appeared again in short order, dragging Teddy Cutler behind him.
“Quit squirmin’!” the deputy barked. “I already told you, it ain’t nothin’ bad!” And then, with one huge effort, the deputy hauled back and yanked a reluctant Teddy practically off his feet and to the foreground.
Teddy raised his eyes slowly, then recognized his visitors. His face lit up. “Hello, Miss Swan, Slocum! You finally manage to talk some sense into these folk?”
Neither had a chance to respond, because Pete, grabbing Teddy’s arm, said, “Wantcha t’come on back to my office, Teddy. Got a deal to talk over with you. You come too, Slocum. Miss Swan, thank you for comin’ by.”
He looked toward the deputy, who waited behind Teddy. “Thanks, Harley. Believe you can get back to your paperwork now.”
5
Miss Alice Swan watched the marshal and Teddy, followed by Slocum, go into the marshal’s office, then close the door behind them. She was fit to be tied over the whole damned affair. Not only had they snatched her bounty away, but they’d broken her ongoing record—well, ongoing until this day, that was—for the most consecutive arrests by a female bounty hunter ever.
She was proud of that record. In some towns, she ate out on it. Not Phoenix, though.
She let herself out, then spat on their sidewalk. Crazy damned rubes! Damned cheap crazy rubes! Back home, in Santa Fe, they wouldn’t have let this . . . this travesty of justice happen! Good God! Even in Texas this wouldn’t have happened!
And she ought to know. She was from Texas, born and raised in El Paso. And the law had some bark on it back home!
Grumbling beneath her breath, she stalked back to her hotel, where she could have some peace and quiet while she thought what to do next.
Pete finished his talk to Teddy, and Teddy was confused, to say the least. He got the part where he was in Slocum’s custody—although he couldn’t figure why. He got that he was supposed to stay with Slocum for six months, then check in here again, at the marshal’s office. And on and on and on.
At last, the marshal finished. “You got all that, Teddy?”
Teddy nodded. “Can I ask a question?”
The marshal nodded. Slocum hadn’t said a word since they entered the office.
Teddy looked straight into the marshal’s eyes. “Why? What’d I do?”
A pained expression crossed the marshal’s face before he said, “Can’t say, Teddy.”
Teddy twisted toward Slocum. “Will somebody tell me what’s goin’ on around here? Slocum?”
But the big man did nothing except shrug his shoulders.
Resolutely, Teddy crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “This don’t make no sense.”
But the marshal shook his head. “Makes all the sense in the world, Teddy, iffen you got the whole story. Which you ain’t gonna get until six months from now, if I got anything to do with it.” He slid a look at Slocum, who nodded, but made a face.
And Teddy thought, I’m not gonna get an answer out of him either, dammit! He said, “Will ya tell me then? In six months, I mean.”
“Said I would
,” replied the marshal. “You agree to all the terms an’ conditions I just set forth?”
Teddy would have agreed to sell his best friend for crackers—if he could remember having a best friend, that was—to get the heck out of this place. And so he nodded and said, “Yes. I do, sir.” And hoped to the saints that he looked credible when he said it.
Apparently he did, because the marshal skidded his chair back and stood up. “Six months, Slocum,” he said. “Or a damn good reason. And you stay in the Territory. Can’t be responsible for anythin’ that happens outside the Arizona borders.”
“You oughta pay me for this, Pete,” Teddy heard Slocum grumble.
“Plannin’ on it,” the marshal said, “in a sorta sideways way. Got a whole file of papers for fellers wanted right here in the Territory. Take your druthers.”
The marshal opened the door, and Slocum and Teddy, still puzzled, followed him out into the other room, where the marshal asked in a booming voice, “Who’s got the file? The current one.”
A short fellow two desks away from them held up a hand. “I do,” he said, and began searching through a pile of papers. Eventually, he handed it over to the marshal, who in turn handed it to Slocum. “You can take it. I got copies in the files, over there.” He nodded toward the wall, where four filing cabinets stood.
Slocum said, “Thanks, Pete,” and tucked the file under his arm. “Let’s go, Teddy.”
Teddy nodded. He was more than ready to leave.
Slocum, with Teddy tagging despondently at his heels, headed straight for Katie’s place. He didn’t know if the kid had eaten, but he figured that Katie’d have something on the stove besides coffee. She usually did.
He knew the other gals’d be glad for Teddy’s company, too, though he wanted to have a word with Teddy before he turned him loose in there. Slocum figured he’d pay for Teddy for the first two, no, three, times, but after that he was on his own. Those gals were hungry for business, now that the town was rising up.