Dead Trouble

by Jake Douglas

‘Uh-huh.’ Spain continued to watch Cutler’s face. ‘You don’t seem to have much luck with the fellers from north of the river, Deke. This is twice now.’

  Deke nodded, returning Spain’s searching gaze.

  ‘Yeah. I recognized two of them. Didn’t at first, but when I took a good look after they were dead, I saw who they were – Salty Shaw and that old hellion they called Twist. You recollect him, Durango? He’d use women on a raid and then twist their necks….’ He watched his partner closely now, waiting.

  Spain was very tense.

  ‘Can’t be, Deke,’ he said very slowly. ‘Neither Twist nor Salty. They were both killed down on the Rio. Hell, you knew that, didn’t you?’

  ‘Thought I did. I knew there was something queer about ’em. But they must be twins to the others, one even going by the name of Salty – we buried ’em out there.’

  Spain said nothing, just stared.

  Deke shrugged. ‘Must’ve been mistaken, I guess.’

  ‘You must’ve. Why don’t you go on up to the house? Karen’ll make you some coffee. Or there’s whiskey in the sideboy if you feel the need for something stronger.’

  ‘Yeah, I’ll do that. Where’s Hal Tripp and Ringo, by the way?’

  Spain frowned. ‘Out chousing mavericks. Why?’

  ‘Nothing. Just that Dutch Pete said he thought he saw them riding into a draw across in the Territory.’

  ‘Well, could be. If they figured there were some mavericks worth going after.’

  ‘Kinda dangerous, ain’t it?’

  Spain shrugged. ‘I don’t like the boys doing it but if it’s gonna pay off, why not chance it?’

  ‘I’d want danger money.’

  ‘Hell, I don’t send ’em over. It’s their own choice, so no extra pay. Satisfied?’ Spain’s voice was tight, his face almost belligerent, challenging.

  Deke nodded and walked towards the house without speaking, carrying his rifle in his left hand. His right wrist and forearm were a little sore but he was mighty pleased – a couple of weeks back and he’d have been in pure agony. Or lying dead out in the hills.

  Karen was solicitous when he told her about the outlaws jumping him – and how he’d thought he recognized them.

  ‘Must’ve been mistaken, though. Durango said both those fellers were killed down on the Rio when he was still in the Rangers. He said he even shared in the reward because it was put up by cattlemen who’d lost women to that pair; made him eligible to claim, it being private money.’

  Karen seemed uncomfortable and avoided looking at him, finding some dishes to re-wash so that her back was to Deke.

  ‘I suppose when men are living wild like that, all dirty and bearded, it’s hard to be sure of their identity.’

  ‘Guess you’re right.’ Deke sipped his coffee, laced with Spain’s whiskey.’It was a long time ago. I recollect now Durango used part of that bounty for our deposit on this place.’

  ‘Yes, I seem to recall. Deke, you look a lot fitter now. I’m glad for you. I was afraid for a time that you might not recover for many months.’

  ‘It’s been plenty long enough.’ He knew she was deliberately changing the subject but he went along with her and soon they were talking about the days before she had married Durango and she even admitted that for a time she thought Deke was going to ask for her hand first.

  He smiled ruefully.

  ‘Won’t say it didn’t cross my mind,’ he admitted, cursing the slight flush he felt rising in his gaunt face. ‘But I could see the way you two looked at each other …’

  She turned from the clay sink, face sober.

  ‘But you didn’t notice the way I – looked – at you?’

  He felt that tightening in his belly at her words.

  ‘I guess I didn’t.’

  He let it go at that and he saw some disappointment on her face. What the hell was this? He had considered asking Karen to marry him once, but figured she would say ‘no’ because he still had almost a year to serve in the Rangers, whereas Durango was already out and offering her a home on the Red River …

  Now – was she letting him know she might have preferred – him…?

  He thrust the thought from him. She was married now to Spain, his partner in Shoestring. Whatever might have been was long gone and couldn’t be regained – or wouldn’t be. His personal code wouldn’t allow it, no matter what….

  But he felt it was a rising complication and one he could well do without. But … one he might have to deal with.

  The candle on the end of Spain’s scarred desk in the ranch office flickered and Cutler glanced up from his study of one of the account books.

  He stiffened when he saw the door was ajar and then Karen Spain slid into the room, closing the door softly behind her. She wore a gown over her nightdress and there was a scarf tied around her hair. She didn’t seem surprised to find Cutler at the desk, ranch books open before him.

  ‘You only had to ask if you wanted to see the accounts, Deke.’ She sounded a trifle stiff.

  ‘I did. Weeks ago. Durango’s been fobbing me off one way and another and I got lost in building myself up and let it slide.’ He stood and looked down at her as she approached. ‘Then tonight my arm was giving me a little trouble, disturbing my sleep, just enough to wake me a few times. I heard horses being saddled at the corrals, saw Durango and Tripp ride out. I kind of thought Ringo might be with them, but I guess his wound was giving him trouble.’

  She held his gaze, face sober, then sighed and sat down in a chair opposite the desk.

  ‘How did you know about that?’

  ‘Overheard him one night I was in the barn trying to straighten out my arm.’

  ‘You … do get around, Deke. I suppose being a Ranger all those years, it’s hard not to snoop.’ She said it tight-lipped, her gaze cool.

  ‘Wasn’t snooping, Karen. Quite a bit of night-riding being done from here, it seems.’

  ‘Durango arranges … deals, and sometimes they’re best done at night.’

  ‘Over in the Territory?’

  She hesitated, teeth tugging at her bottom lip.

  ‘Why not ask him when he comes back, Deke? He’ll explain – if he wants to.’

  He nodded. ‘That’s just it. There seems to be a helluva lot that’s not being explained to me. I have the feeling I arrived before Durango wanted me here. He hasn’t exactly put out the welcome mat. If he’s dealing with outlaws, as I suspect—’

  ‘Suspect! You’ve never really stopped being a Ranger have you?’ She sounded bitter. But he said nothing and eventually she added: ‘Durango nearly drove me mad when we were first married. He couldn’t stop acting like a Ranger, poking his nose into everyone’s business, warning them about breaking the law. It almost got him killed a couple of times until I put my foot down – hard. Then he seemed to realize that all that law business was behind him now and he had to keep it there. He was a rancher now, in near-lawless country, and he had to adapt to that. If it meant shaving the edge of the law, now and then, up here that was – acceptable.’

  Cutler was seated behind the desk now and he watched her closely, saw that this was something she had apparently wanted to get off her chest for some time.

  ‘You convinced him of that?’

  Her eyes blazed.

  ‘He convinced himself! I just wanted him to feel more at … ease! ‘She steadied her breathing. ‘We had a lot of arguments, Deke – some about you – and things weren’t so rosy for a long time. Then, when he started to lose cattle and fences were torn down and there were outlaws trailing through here – Shoestring land, I mean – he suddenly saw that he had to bend to the Red River way of life – or quit. Or, worse, be killed.’

  Deke tapped the books.

  ‘Well, I can’t make head nor tail of these. I’d just about decided Durango had fixed things that way to bamboozle the banks. Now I’m sure of it.’

  She coloured some, toyed with the robe’s tie.

  ‘Deke, you’d best ask Durango for any
more details. I’ve probably said too much already. It’s not really my business.’

  ‘Well, I’d say you played a big part in Durango’s decision, whatever it was.’

  She frowned.

  ‘Why do you say … that?’

  ‘There’s the piano – the floor and wall rugs – the furniture. All had to be shipped from back East if I don’t miss my guess. Glass in every window. Hell, Karen, that’s almost unheard of even in some of the bigger towns!’

  Karen’s face was angry now.

  ‘D’you think I haven’t earned those things? Those small … comforts? You have absolutely no idea of what it’s like for a woman out here! I’m not some farm girl who’s used to hard living and could easily adapt! You know damn well I come from a good family and – well, I didn’t listen to them, of course, but they warned me I would find it – difficult. And they were right! I had some dreadful times early in our marriage. I – I really don’t know how I coped.’

  ‘But then Durango showed you there could be some rewards, huh?’

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t sound so damn … smug! I know I was spoilt before Durango swept me off my feet and – I was terrified, Deke! Living way out here kept me in a constant state of terror and worry! Indians, drunken, half-crazy outlaws turning up on the doorstep night and day. I was left here so much … alone!’

  He nodded in understanding. ‘Yeah, it must’ve been tough for you, Karen. I guess you thought you had to do all you could to change things. But did you have to push Durango into bending the law? Something he’d risked his life to uphold for all those years? No wonder he never seems happy.’

  She stood swiftly, hands clasped and twisting the cord in front of her.

  ‘You’re trying to make me feel guilty!’

  ‘Yes, I am. Durango Spain was one of the finest Rangers ever and he taught me all I know and it saved my neck many a time – but basic to it all, was his code: don’t bend the law unless it’s to end some lawlessness; don’t sell out for a dollar or a thousand dollars; live by your Ranger’s oath no matter what. That way you’ll keep your pride. I’ve tried to do that and I’m damn sure Durango did, too. Until …’

  She was flushed deep red now and there was a glint of moisture in her eyes.

  ‘I know, damn you I know all that! It was one of the things I admired about Durango – and you! But – I was at my wit’s end, Deke! I felt as if I was falling apart! Durango was working desperate hours, killing himself and getting nowhere and we were losing our marriage …’

  ‘Yeah, well, I guess it wouldn’t be hard to start looking around for an easy way out when things were that bad.’

  ‘You – you understand that?’ She sounded surprised.

  ‘Guess so, Karen, I can’t judge you. I just wish Durango hadn’t taken that step across the line—’

  ‘Oh, Deke, it’s not a big step! Just a few small … arrangements now and again. Just about everyone up here does it. Durango says they have to or they won’t survive. The outlaws will simply wipe them out.’

  He knew that wasn’t true: if everyone was involved doing deals with the outlaws, there wouldn’t be any need to wipe anyone out.

  ‘D’you know where he’s gone now?’

  ‘He and Hal are meeting some men. It’s to do with allowing them to drive some steers across our land. Down in the west pasture there’s a lot of flatrock and trees beyond the rocks.’

  ‘Hard to track,’ opined Deke, half-aloud.

  ‘It’s close to a secret canyon or valley across the river where the outlaws hold their cattle until they can get rid of them. Deke, Durango’s not involved in the actual rustling.’

  ‘If he lets stolen stock cross his land and does nothing about it, he’s a rustler, Karen.’

  Her eyes pinched down.

  ‘Damn you, Deke! Don’t you turn on him! Please don’t! I – don’t think he could take that …’

  She stood directly in his path as he started for the door. He could smell her bath soap on her and he stepped back.

  ‘I’ve told you how things are, Deke,’ she said steadily. ‘I don’t care if you believe me or not – but – please be careful. Durango’s been under a lot of strain lately. Give him a break! Please! He’s had it hard up here and – it can be a dangerous land, this Red River.’

  He said nothing, took her shoulders lightly between his hands and stood her to one side. Then he hurried out into the night.

  Shortly after, she heard him riding his grey out of the ranch yard. She bit her lip, hands clasped, crying silently.

  She had known that Cutler would find out soon enough that Durango was dealing with the outlaws. All she had tried to do was to ease him into acceptance of the idea.

  But now she was afraid she had made a mistake. Deke Cutler was still a Ranger, whether he wore a badge or not. He was a hard, decent man and she knew he had been hurt by the knowledge that Durango Spain, a man he had looked up to for many years, had feet of clay.

  What she was afraid of now was, just what Deke was going to do about it.

  CHAPTER 7

  OUTLAW TERRITORY

  Cutler knew he would never find any hidden canyons in the dark – maybe not even in full daylight, come to that – but he had a general direction and worked from the west pasture.

  He crossed the river and found the large area of flatrock with the clump of dark trees looming against the stars beyond. The rifle came noiselessly out of the scabbard and he worked the lever swiftly, yet quietly, sliding a cartridge into the breech. He lowered the hammer which had cocked with the lever action, shucked another .44/40 cartridge from his bullet belt and pushed it through the loading gate in the brass side-plate of the rifle. That gave him a full magazine, plus an extra one already in the breech. The old Ranger caution was still working – one extra shot could make the difference between living and dying.

  Riding out, he had been thinking about Karen: he hadn’t allowed himself to think about her much since her marriage to Durango Spain. Maybe some folk would say he had been too slow, or had left his moves too late, but the fact was he deliberately hadn’t made any moves at all or given any sign of how he felt about her. Spain was courting her and Deke hadn’t come along until later. In his book and by his code, that gave Spain first claim. She had agreed to marry Durango and had married him. That was an end to any thoughts of romance between Karen and Cutler as far as he was concerned.

  Now he found himself feeling sorry for her: he savvied how she must have felt, coming from a rich family in Denver, winding up on the Red River, without a single one of the comforts she was accustomed to. It would seem no great deal to someone in Karen’s position for Spain to make ‘arrangements’ with law-breakers: she had tried to rationalize it by saying Spain wasn’t a rustler, but after taking the first bribe to look the other way while rustled beef was driven across his land he was no less an outlaw than the thieves themselves in Deke’s book. But if that was Durango’s only involvement – and Deke hoped like hell it was – then there was a chance he could get him out before he found himself dragged in any deeper.

  At least it explained Durango’s cool, disappointing welcome: he hadn’t been expecting Deke after hearing rumours of his death and maybe he was fooling himself, but Cutler liked to think that Durango had been trying to protect him by not taking him into his confidence and involving him in any suspect deals. That would be like the old Durango Spain he had known and admired for over ten years.

  But that didn’t mean the men Spain was meeting tonight would have any such inclinations. They might see him only as a Ranger: ‘Once a Ranger, always a Ranger – and never a man!’, was the credo of some of these hardbitten outlaws – and so they would as soon see him dead to be on the safe side as to accept him as Spain’s partner in any deal they had made.

  ‘Hold it, you! Who the hell are you?’

  The voice came out of darkness as thick as a blanket in an airless cellar, but Deke thought the owner was somewhere in those trees.

  He reined up, s
till holding the rifle across his thigh one-handed, thumb easing back the hammer, finger curled around the trigger and bringing it back at the same time. Now all he had to do was lift his thumb from the hammer spur and it would fall and fire the cartridge in the breech. It was an old gunfighter’s trick, shaving a split second, and he had used it on two previous occasions successfully.

  He was ready to try a third time if necessary.

  ‘I asked who the hell you are, mister!’ the impatient voice snapped and Deke heard the ratchet of a cocking gun hammer. ‘You got about two seconds to say!’

  ‘Looking for Durango Spain.’

  ‘Never heard of him!’ Deke didn’t say anything and after a short silence the hidden man snapped: ‘Why?’

  ‘If you don’t know him, it don’t matter.’

  ‘Smart-mouth son of a bitch! You’d be Cutler, is my guess.’ Deke didn’t say one way or the other. ‘Goddamnit, answer me! I got my gun trained on you!’

  Deke rowelled with his spurs abruptly, falling loosely across his horse’s neck as it leaped forward, swinging the rifle out to one side and shooting one-handed into the darkness of the trees. He didn’t hold out much hope of finding a target but it would distract the man in there.

  He heard the bullet slap against a tree trunk and saw a vague whiteness that likely was a piece of bark torn away. He thought he heard the tail end of a startled curse but couldn’t be sure with the echoing gunshot – followed swiftly by one from the guard. But the man had fired in uncontrolled reaction and his shot was wild.

  By that time, Deke had a fresh shell in the breach and was thundering into the line of trees, using knees to guide the grey, although it had popped enough mavericks out of brush-choked draws and on timberline slopes to instinctively start dodging and weaving. A gun hammered again and Deke saw the flash to his left and slightly ahead. He lifted the rifle as he reared up in the saddle and fired.

  He could just make out the man falling in there and then he heard the swish of a low-swinging branch. He ducked flat but not quite fast enough. It raked his back and thrust him sideways in the saddle. The horse stumbled as it swerved with the unexpected transfer of weight and cannoned off a tree, adding to the momentum of Cutler’s falling body.