Death in the Desert Read online

  “I can keep watch, too,” Emily said.

  “I know you can, sweetie,” Clint said, “but I really need you to stay away from the windows.”

  She folded her arms indignantly and said, “Hmph.”

  Clint looked at Kathy.

  “I’ll keep her away from the windows,” Kathy assured him.

  “Okay,” Clint said. “I’m going to go out the back and see if I can locate those men again.”

  “Are you gonna go against them?”

  “I’m going to see if I can determine without a doubt how many of them there are,” Clint said. “Maybe we can stay hidden long enough for them to pack up and move out.”

  “You’re not going to try to stop them?”

  “That’s not my job, Kathy,” Clint said.

  “But . . . you can’t just let them take everything,” she argued. “What if they decide to go through my house? Take my valuables?”

  “What valuables do you have?” Clint asked. “I can go get them for you.”

  “Well . . . just everything,” she said. “everything in the house. That house is all I have, Clint.”

  “They’re not going to take your house,” Clint said.

  “B-But you can’t just stand by while they loot the town,” she said.

  “Look,” Clint said, “first let me scout around and find out how many men we’re actually dealing with. Then we can talk about what to do.”

  “Yes,” she said, “well, all right. Okay.”

  “Emily,” Clint said, “I’ll be back soon. You do what Kathy tells you to do.”

  “All right.”

  “And stay away from the windows, you hear?”

  “I hear.”

  Clint went to the door, looked back at the two of them one more time, then left the suite.

  EIGHTEEN

  Clint slipped out the back door of the hotel, made his way to Kathy’s part of town, keeping to the shadows as it got dark. As he got there, he saw two men outside the house he’d put the body in. They were talking to each other, very animated. Then the door opened and a third man came out—the supervisor. Clint moved closer so he could hear what they were saying . . .

  • • •

  “Somebody plugged him once,” the supervisor said.

  “We didn’t hear no shot,” one of the others said.

  “Too far away,” the boss said. Clint was still waiting to hear his name. He didn’t have to wait much longer.

  “Steve, what’s goin’ on?” the second man said. “Who killed Kenny?”

  “I don’t know,” Steve said.

  “Well,” the first man said, “somebody’s in town with us—somebody we ain’t seen yet. I don’t like it.”

  “Neither do I,” Steve said. “We’ve gotta find him, though.”

  “We need more men to search the whole town,” one of them said.

  “Find Chris, Billy,” Steve said. “Me and Ned are gonna keep searching around here. You two start in another part of town.”

  “We need more men,” Billy said again.

  “I’ll send for ’em,” Steve said. “But let’s get started first.”

  “Okay,” Billy said. “What about the little girl?”

  “What about her?” Steve asked.

  “Well, we know she’s in town,” Billy said. “We seen her. Maybe she’s seen whoever killed Kenny.”

  “Yeah, well, if you find ’er, you can ask ’er,” Steve said. “Now get goin’.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Billy said. He left, walking away from where Clint was hiding so he didn’t have to move.

  “Okay,” Steve said, “you start on that side of the street, I’ll take this side. Check all the houses. Start with that big one. I think it used to be a boardinghouse.”

  “Yeah, okay.”

  “If you find anybody, don’t kill ’im. We’ll have to find out who he is or what he wants. Or them.”

  “You think there’s another gang in town?” Ned asked.

  “I don’t know. But we’re gonna find out.”

  The two men split up. Clint left his hiding place and ran back to the boardinghouse. He wanted to get inside before Ned got there. Ned was going to give him some answers.

  NINETEEN

  Clint heard the front door open and close, heard the man’s footsteps. He wanted to get the drop on him so he wouldn’t have to kill him before questioning him.

  Clint waited in the kitchen while the man went through the rest of the house. He was starting to think he’d picked the wrong room to hide in. What if Ned decided not to look in the kitchen?

  However, several minutes later he heard Ned’s footsteps as he approached the kitchen. Clint flattened himself against the wall and took out his gun.

  The swinging kitchen door opened and Ned entered. Clint immediately stuck his gun barrel into the small of the man’s back.

  “Just take it easy,” he said. “Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “You killed Kenny,” Ned said.

  “I did,” Clint said. “Right here, in fact. He didn’t give me much choice.”

  “Y-You gonna kill me?”

  “I don’t plan to,” Clint said, taking Ned’s gun from his holster. “Not unless you make me.”

  “Whataya want?”

  “Just to talk,” Clint said. “Have a seat.”

  The man walked to the kitchen table and sat down tentatively, as if he didn’t believe Clint and was expecting to be shot.

  “Who are you fellas?” Clint asked.

  “Whataya wanna know for?”

  “Your name’s Ned. Ned what?”

  “Potter.”

  “And who’s Steve, your boss?”

  “Steve Harwick.”

  “I never heard of him. Where’s he from?”

  “From here. We’re all from here.”

  “Who else?”

  “Billy, Kenny—but you killed Kenny.”

  “Who else?”

  “Chris.”

  “Who else?”

  “That’s it,” Ned said, “Five of us.”

  “I heard Steve say he could get more men,” Clint said. “From where?”

  Ned eyed Clint’s gun before answering.

  “The telegraph office,” he said. “Steve knows how to operate the key. He can send for more men.”

  So the key was still operational. That might have been good news, but for now it was bad.

  “So all of you lived here,” Clint said. “When the disease drove everyone out, you came back to loot the town. Is that right?”

  “Yeah,” Ned said. “It was Steve’s idea. He said it wasn’t illegal because the town was abandoned. You know, like a ghost town.”

  “Well, I don’t know about that exactly,” Clint said. “I don’t know if ghost towns have to be . . . declared somehow. But I don’t know that Steve is right about this being legal. Somehow, though, I don’t think he’d care—or that you’d care.”

  “Hey,” Ned said, “who are you anyway? And why ain’t you sick?”

  “My name is Clint Adams,” he said, “and I suspect I’m not sick for the same reason you’re not. Somehow I’m immune. Or I just haven’t gotten sick yet. I’ve only been here for a couple of days.”

  “Clint Adams?” Ned said. “The—Gunsmith?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Jesus,” Ned said, scooting his chair back a bit, as if he was thinking about running. “W-Who sent you here?”

  “Nobody,” Clint said. “I just happened to ride in.”

  “A coincidence?”

  Clint made a face. He hated that word, but said, “Yes.”

  “And now you plan to stop us?” Ned asked.

  “Actually,” Clint said, “I don’t care if you loot the town. I just don’t want you to�
�”

  “You’ve seen the girl,” Ned said.

  “Yes. I don’t want you to hurt her.”

  “We don’t intend to hurt her,” Ned said. “We knew she was here, and we left her alone.”

  “Rather than help her?”

  “Steve said we were better off leaving her be,” Ned said. “Let her fend for herself. He said that would be helpin’ her.”

  “Where do you and your friends spend the night?”

  “We operate out of the stockyards,” Ned said. “We just sleep in the stables.”

  “Are there parts of town you still haven’t yet looted?” Clint asked.

  “Plenty,” Ned said, “but Steve said we’d work about week, and then leave with what we have.”

  “How will you transport the loot?”

  “Steve will send for more men with wagons.”

  “How many more men does he have?”

  “Maybe half a dozen,” Ned said. “He hasn’t really told us everything.”

  With half a dozen more, that would make ten altogether. Clint had to try to disable that key before Steve could send a telegraph message.

  “Okay,” Clint said.

  “Okay . . . what? Are you gonna kill me now? Like you did Kenny?”

  “I told you, your friend Kenny didn’t give me any choice,” Clint said. “What about you? You going to give me a choice, Ned?”

  “Huh? Oh, yeah, sure,” Ned said. “I don’t wanna get killed.”

  “Then you’ll do what I say?”

  “Sure, sure. Um, whataya want me to do?”

  TWENTY

  Clint stopped just down the street from the telegraph office. He checked out the street, up and down, not wanting to run into Steve at the telegraph office. Once he was sure he was clear, he made his way down to the office and went inside.

  Nothing had changed since he was there last with Emily. The place was still littered with flimsy yellow slips of paper. What he didn’t know was whether or not Steve had already been there to send for more men. But he made sure if it hadn’t happened already, it wouldn’t happen at all. He hated to use the butt of his pistol, but he did so, and smashed the key to bits. Nobody would be sending any messages from this time on.

  Clint got out of the telegraph office quickly, and made his way over to the Magnolia Hotel. As he approached it, he looked up and saw someone duck back from the window quickly, allowing the curtain to swing closed.

  Damn it.

  • • •

  Clint let himself into the honeymoon suite and found Emily sitting in a chair with her hands folded in her lap, looking very innocent.

  “Don’t look so innocent,” he said to her. “I saw you at the window.”

  Her eyes widened and she said, “It wasn’t me.”

  “Emily—”

  “It wasn’t her,” Kathy said from across the room, “it was me.”

  “You?”

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was just trying to keep an eye out, like you said.”

  “You have to be more careful, Kathy,” Clint said. “If somebody sees a curtain swinging, it can give us away.”

  “I know,” she said, “I’m sorry.”

  “All right, never mind,” he said.

  “Do you want something to eat?” she asked.

  “No, I’m not hungry.”

  “Did you find out anything?”

  “I found out . . . a bit,” he said, hesitating and looking at Emily.

  “You might as well talk in front of her,” she said. “Emily has a right to know what’s going on. After all, she saw you shoot that man.”

  “Ka-blam!” Emily said, making a gun of her hand.

  “Shooting a man is not funny, Emily,” Clint said.

  She lowered her hand and her chin.

  “So, what did you find out?”

  He told her about finding Ned in her house, and what he did to the telegraph key.

  “But won’t we need that key?” she asked.

  “I don’t know how to operate a telegraph key, do you?” he asked.

  “Well, no . . .”

  “And I don’t want them using it, so . . .”

  “What about that other man?” she asked. “Ned? Did you kill him and leave his body in my house?”

  “No,” Clint said, “I didn’t kill him, and I didn’t leave him in your house. I took him to the other house—where I left the other man’s body—and left him tied up.”

  “Why that house?”

  “Because they already found Kenny’s body,” Clint said. “So it may be a while before they find Ned. Besides, I put him in a closet.”

  “So what do we do now?” she asked.

  “Well, I damaged the telegraph key, but I don’t know if the boss, Steve, already sent a message or not. If he did, then I have to take care of these four men before six more show up.”

  “And how will you do that?”

  “The easiest way to do it would be one at a time.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  In the morning Clint once again left Kathy and Emily at the Magnolia after a cold breakfast together. He went downstairs and left by the back door. With Ned tied up in a closet, he had three men to deal with. If he could isolate them and take them out one at a time, that would be ideal. If he had to face all three at once . . . well, he’d hate for it to come to that, since he had no idea of how good they were with their guns.

  But before he could determine any of that, he had to find them again.

  • • •

  “Whataya mean, he’s gone?” Billy asked. “Gone where?”

  “I don’t know,” Steve said. “He went to check on the rooming house, and I ain’t seen him since.”

  “So he’s dead, too?” Chris asked.

  “We don’t know that,” Steve said. “Maybe he’s still out there lookin’. Maybe he slept somewhere else.”

  “Why would he do that?” Chris asked. “We all been sleepin’ in that barn.”

  They were in a small saloon not far from the stockyards, sitting at a table with a bottle of whiskey in front of them, and four glasses—only three of which had the amber liquid in them. They were washing down their breakfast of beef jerky.

  “So now we gotta go out and look for Ned?”

  “You two do that,” Steve said. “And stay together.”

  “What about you?”

  “I’m gonna go send another telegram.”

  “I thought you sent for help already,” Chris said.

  “I did,” Steve said, “but maybe we need more. We’ll meet back here in half an hour.”

  “Okay,” Billy said.

  They all finished their drinks, then left the bottle on the table and walked out of the saloon together. In front they split up.

  • • •

  Clint went back to the stockyards to try to pick up the trail again, but none of the men were there. He looked around, keeping out of sight as much as possible, and finally decided to go back to the area where the boardinghouse was. He wanted to see if Ned was still tied up in the closet. If he wasn’t, that meant there were four men out there searching for him.

  • • •

  Steve Harwick walked into the telegraph office and immediately noticed the condition of the key. Smashed. Well, that cinched it. Somebody was in town, and was hoping to isolate them. At least he got one message out, and before long, there’d be six more men joining them in the search. He just wished he knew how many men they were dealing with.

  Then he thought about the little girl. It might do them some good to have her in hand. If it came to it, they could use her as a hostage.

  He left the telegraph office and went in search of the little girl.

  • • •

  Billy and Chris searched for Ned, and neither of them was very happy.r />
  “I don’t like this,” Chris said. “Somebody’s pickin’ us off one by one.”

  “That’s why you and me are stayin’ together,” Billy said. “Ain’t nobody pickin’ us off.”

  “You can say that again!” Chris agreed.

  Billy put his hand on his gun and said, “Ain’t nobody gettin’ close to us!”

  Chris touched his own gun and added, “Not without gettin’ their heads blown off!”

  TWENTY-TWO

  Clint spotted the two men at the south end of town, where he himself had not spent much time—which was actually the reason he decided to look there. There were businesses up and down the street, but the buildings here were older, some of them in disrepair.

  He decided rather than bracing the two men, he’d tail them close enough to eavesdrop on them. Maybe he could collect some information that way.

  • • •

  Clint heard the two men bitching about being picked off, and promising each other they’d stay together. Nothing very interesting, but then the subject changed to their boss.

  “What about Steve?” Chris asked.

  “Steve Harwick can take care of hisself, believe me,” Billy said. “Maybe he don’t got the big reputation, but I seen him handle a gun. He’s fast! I seen him outdraw three men one time.”

  “Three?”

  “Killed ’em all.”

  “Damn. That’s the kinda thing that does build a rep. Why ain’t he got one?”

  “’Cause he don’t care about that stuff,” Billy said. “He cares about makin’ money, though, which is why he come up with this plan.”

  “This part of town ain’t so good,” Chris said. “We ain’t gonna work this end, are we?”

  “That’s up to Steve, but I doubt it,” Billy said. “It would take too much time, and it sure don’t look like it’d be worth it.”

  “Then what would Ned be doin’ here?” Chris argued. “Why we lookin’ here?”

  “Because we gotta look everywhere, that’s why,” Billy said. “Ain’t no point in not findin’ him just ’cause we decided not to look here. Come on, it ain’t gonna take that long.”