As Kitty approached the town, the sounds of the festivities grew louder. The brass band was playing ‘Oh! Susannah’ and the crowds could be heard cheering.
Kitty angled her pinto off to the right of town, choosing the farthest street out. Figuring that most of the townspeople would be in the center of town, she might not be noticed if she approached from the side streets and gradually melted into the throngs of celebrating citizens, if need be. That would mean risking being recognized, but she had no choice. She had to do what she had to do and any risk was worth taking. If luck was with her, she may not have to expose herself at all.
She was pretty sure of what Kip Dalton’s plan would be. He had already purchased himself a room at the hotel that overlooked the square where the governor would be officiating.
As she was about to enter the street, she dismounted. She rubbed the pinto’s nose and wiped away a bit of the moisture. She poured some water from her canteen into a scarf and swabbed out the horse’s mouth and nose. It wasn’t much she could do for the pinto right now, but it would have to do until she returned. That is, if she returned. Then she found a cottonwood tree just before town that gave ample shade. There was a patch of green grass around it for the pinto to graze a bit.
She tied the horse to a shooter jutting up around the tree trunk and set off to make her way into the heart of town.
She slipped behind the first row of buildings, which were mostly residential with small backyards. She made her way toward the center of the street and then back across the yards between houses. All seemed quiet and she didn’t see anyone moving about. A few dogs took notice and barked at her, but nothing of consequence happened.
Steadily, she made her way across street after street getting closer and closer to the heart of downtown.
With each step forward the sound of the brass band and the roar of the crowd became louder and louder. By the time she had reached the rear of the buildings along main street, the roar of the crowd, the booming bass of the drums, the blare of the trumpets and trombones, were at a deafening crescendo.
As she crept carefully along the back of the buildings to avoid being seen by anyone who might be looking out the windows or lookouts placed on rooftops keeping a watch for anything that might prove danger to the governor, she heard the soft neighing and stamping of a tethered horse hidden in the brush behind the hotel.
She thought she saw a splotch of black through the branches. Carefully, she crawled out into the brush. Sabre was hitched to a branch. She was sure now. Kip Dalton was in the hotel and he was waiting his chance to assassinate the governor.
Alongside the big stallion, two men in black suits lay on the ground. They had been pistol whipped unconscious and trussed up; hands behind their backs and legs doubled up and tied to their hands, with rope from Sabre’s saddle. This was clearly Kip’s handiwork, for she had seen it before. She had even commented to Kip, in a joking way, that he was so good at it.
These two men were probably security officers that had been watching the rear of the hotel. That would explain the relative ease Kitty had had in approaching the hotel without detection.
She left the two unconscious guards where they were; trusting that it would be awhile before they came to and tried to wriggle free. She slipped out of the brush and crept quietly toward the back door of the hotel.
The door was locked from the inside. Obviously the hotel had been locked down. The resident occupants of the hotel had probably been screened as non-threatening, by virtue of their prior stay in the hotel and recognized as law abiding tenants. The lockdown probably went into effect to keep anyone else from entering or leaving the building. Guards had then been put around the perimeter to make sure the establishment was secure.
Kitty reasoned that Kip had used his prior residency as a cover to establish himself as a member of the community. Once he was fully accepted, he had found it necessary to take out the guards that were protecting the building. He would need to have them out of the way in order to make an escape after he had accomplished what he had set out to do.
The locked door posed a big problem. To try to smash the lock or force the door open was not an option. The noise would give her presence away.
She took a step back from the building so she could get a look at the upper floors. The only other way into the building would be through a window. They were probably locked too and anyone inside any of the rooms would see her for sure and give the alarm. The safest way into the hotel would have to be with a key.
She darted back into the brush where the two guards lay trussed. She knelt beside one of them and started to go through his pockets, hoping against hope that at least one of the guards would have a key to the hotel door.
The first guard she searched had nothing on him, but his wallet and credentials. They verified him as a government staff official.
The other guard started to come to, just as Kitty turned to start searching him. She had just searched the man’s jacket, when he stirred and groaned.
“Oh, how I hate doing this,” she thought to herself. She drew her pistol. “Oh, Kip, you’re so good at this,” she heard herself say just before she gritted her teeth and whacked the guard in the head, one more time. He slumped back to the ground, totally unconscious again.
Kitty hurriedly slid her hands along the guard’s body, searching for pockets. The left trouser pocket revealed two sets of keys. One ring held many keys. These were probably the keys that he always carried for himself. The other ring held only three keys and they looked like a matched set. With any luck, she had hit pay dirt.
With her heart pounding and her hands trembling, she scooted back away from the bound guards, arose to her feet and ran back to the door.
The first key she tried didn’t fit at all. The second key, easily slid into the lock. Her heart leaped with anticipation. She tried to twist it in the opening, but it didn’t budge.
Darn! She pulled it out and sought out the third key. Her shaking hands could hardly guide the key into the opening, but when she finally managed it, the key turned and the latch slid open.
With a sigh of relief, she opened the door a hair, just enough to peek through the crack to view inside.
There was a long corridor that ran toward the front of the hotel. There was a closed door at the other end that probably led to the main lobby.
Just inside the door to the left was a bare wooden stairway that led upstairs at the rear of the hotel. This was probably an access stairway for hotel employees and perhaps an emergency escape route in case of fire.
There didn’t appear to be any guards in that part of the hotel, but Kitty didn’t know what may lie behind the door at the top of the stairs. She crept through the doorway, into the corridor. She closed the door behind her and relocked it with the key.
Carefully and softly, she crept up the stairway. The boards beneath her feet creaked as she made her way up. The noise was just enough that if anyone was near the door on the other side, her approach would be heard. With each step, she expected the door to be flung open and she would be trapped.
The trek up the stairs proved uneventful and when she was finally standing behind the door, she swallowed hard, braced her feet and holding her six-gun at the ready, reached out and turned the doorknob. Sweat beaded on her forehead.
She flung the door open wide with a sudden burst, ready for the worst and stepped into the corridor on the other side, taking a crouching stance with both hands outstretched, holding her shooter pushed straight out in front of her. Nothing! Nothing happened. No one was in sight! She was standing all alone at the end of the corridor. She heaved a sigh of relief, dropped her left hand from the pistol and relaxed just a bit, to relieve the tension in her shoulders, but otherwise, she remained tense and alert.
There were three closed doors on the left side of the hallway. Three rooms before the opening for the stairway leading down into the lobby. There were two more rooms on the other side of the stairwell. To her right were six closed doors. These six rooms
fronted the building. Beyond them, she could hear the band and the roar of the crowd from the street below.
With the festivities taking place directly across from the hotel, Kitty was pretty sure that Kip Dalton would have secured a center room, where he could get a good shot at the governor. But which room had he chosen? With six rooms on that side there were two middle rooms.
She quickly, cat footed along the corridor to the third door. She slid up close to it and pressed her ear against it. She heard the sound of a feminine voice and that of a man’s.
Kitty doubted that Kip would have anyone with him while he had his chore to do. She quickly dismissed this room and shuffled on to the next door.
Again, she put her ear to the door. This time she heard no one on the other side. The blare of the band outside and the sound of a cheering crowd was all she could hear.
She tapped the barrel of her pistol against the door. She said, softly but just loud enough. “Kip! It’s Kitty! I know you’re in there. Let me in.”
Chapter Twenty Five
The Return of Wildcat Kitty and the Cyclone Kid Page 32