‘You can come along, Cliff, but I won’t stand for you getting into a life and death situation. That little girl needs you.’
‘I know,’ Cliff agreed. ‘But I can be useful in other ways.’
They kept up a hard pace for the first two miles and then slowed the horses for a breather. It gave Locke a moment to fill Cliff in on what he intended.
‘What if a wire from the governor won’t stop the proceedings?’ Cliff wanted to know.
‘Brett has some important contacts. He helped the Treasury department with a huge counterfeit operation a month or so before he met Desiree. No matter who is in office, the Treasury department will have some clout with the attorney general and support Brett’s request.’
‘I reckon cousin Brett will do like he did with those moonshiners a while back and pin on his old badge.’
‘If necessary. We know the US Marshal’s office will support his authority.’ Locke shook his head. ‘It might mean taking him with us, but we’ll do whatever is necessary to stop the hanging.’
‘Wyatt surely wouldn’t kill a man in cold blood, Mr Valeron. How can they figure to get away with this?’
‘The cable didn’t tell us much. Wyatt went with some guy to Paradise and ended up in a gunfight. I read a little about that place in the Denver paper a while back. It’s not a town; it’s a corporation, a massive mining operation, where they have built their own settlement. The only law is in the hands of the owner of the place.’
‘Then he might not care what the governor or anyone else has to say.’
‘No business wants to alienate the federal government or governor of their own state. Too many ways that sort of action can come back to cripple the company. With a request for a circuit judge to rule on the case, it should hold off any verdict until we can get people up there. Once we know what we’re up against, we’ll figure a way to deal with the situation.’
Cliff had no chance to ask more questions. Locke touched his horse with his heels and they reverted back to a ground-eating lope.
Parker Sayles burst through Gaskell’s door without bothering to knock. Ward frowned at his entrance and gestured to the next room.
‘I have a reception girl sitting outside, Parker,’ he growled. ‘You’re supposed to let her announce you. It’s hard enough for me to find things her simple mind can handle.’
The company lawyer and acting judge didn’t slow his step until he reached Gaskell’s desk. Then he threw down a sheet of paper.
‘What’s this?’
‘A cease and desist order from the governor’s office!’ Parker cried. ‘Want to know what else arrived?’ He didn’t wait for an answer, but slammed down a second message. ‘This!’
Gaskell frowned at the writing for a moment, then his eyes bugged at the words. ‘What the Sam Hill?’
‘That’s right!’ Parker lamented. ‘It’s a request from the President to await the assignment of an impartial judge before we proceed with our case against Wyatt Valeron.’ He threw his hands up into the air. ‘The President of the United States, for crying out loud!’
‘Who the hell is this guy?’ Gaskell wanted to know. ‘How does a gunman get the governor and the President both to take up for him?’
‘I asked around before I brought you the news. Benny Janks says Wyatt and some other Valeron busted up a ranch swindle near Denver a year or so back. Then, some months ago, they also took down a crooked slaughterhouse and rustling operation outside of the city. The Valeron family has more influence than we ever imagined.’
Gaskell considered their mine foreman’s information. Benny was a working fool, one who had worked around Denver for a good many years. Obviously, he was a man Syrus Decker should have talked to . . . before he braced Wyatt Valeron and tried to kill him.
‘Calm down, Parker,’ he said, his mind mulling over solutions. ‘I know how to deal with this.’
‘A real judge will see what is going on!’ Parker wailed. ‘The beatings, the unexplained deaths, the use of contracted girls as concubines for our enforcers or at the saloon. We are gonna be closed down in about five minutes flat. We have to. . . .’
‘Stop your whining like a stepped-on pup, Parker!’ Gaskell demanded, his booming voice putting an immediate end to the lawyer’s hysterical wailing. ‘Close your mouth for two minutes and I’ll tell you how we can put an end to this crisis.’
‘What? How?’ he wanted to know.
Gaskell quickly explained what he had in mind. Then, seeing the ex-lawyer had returned to a small degree of sanity, completed the plan by adding, ‘That ought to satisfy both the governor and the President.’ He snorted his contempt with an emphatic, ‘Amen! The end!’
Parker’s frightful mien slowly transformed to a glowing delight. Practically giddy, he almost jumped up and down. ‘Yes, yes! That will do it!’ He snatched up the two telegraph messages. ‘I’ll get those cables sent off right away!’
‘And Parker?’
The man stopped before leaving and looked back. ‘Yes?’
‘Next time, stop and let Jane announce you. I need for her to do something besides sit and fiddle with her hair, nails or reading the latest copy of her Harper’s Bazaar magazine.’
‘Sure, Ward,’ he said, smiling. ‘Whatever you want.’
Gaskell watched him disappear, shook his head and uttered a sigh of relief. That had been a close call. Who would have imagined . . . the President! What kind of pull could the Valeron family have to not only sic the governor on him, but the country’s most powerful man?
Jane appeared at his office doorway. ‘It’s boring, Ward, and a few minutes past noon. Are you taking me to lunch today?’
Gaskell looked at the clock on the wall. ‘Yeah, sure, dumpling. Let me finish this last bit of work and I’ll be ready.’
She flashed him a bright smile. ‘OK, I’ll just fluff up my hair a little and wash up.’
Gaskell watched her whirl about and mince away like a water sprite. He knew Jane was looking for more than a passing job to fulfill her contract. The liberties he had taken with her were widely known throughout Paradise. In fact, several of his top men had… companions. It kept the men happy, offered some of the more adaptable contracted girls far less work, and added to the overall harmony of the town. As for Jane, she had not been shy about her intentions. She had used her charm and beauty to beguile him from the moment she arrived. However, it had become more serious than he had first intended. She had even mentioned how, if she were to become pregnant, she would expect him to marry her.
He tossed aside his pencil and closed the journal. A possible disaster had been averted. He would be out a couple of good workers, but Van Stokes was bound to send a few more warm bodies in the next week or two. Until then, some of the other workers would have to fill in for the two kids.
Standing up, he smoothed his suit jacket and ran a hand over his rather sparse black hair. He kept a hat by the door, never appearing outside of his office without it. He looked younger than his thirty-six years with a hat. Those seeing his receding hairline automatically thought of him as being a few years older. With Jane being the ripe age of twenty-two, he was too old for her. Of course, wealth and power was the great equalizer. It separated a man like him from the average bend, bow, and grunt laborer. He would take the woman he wanted and only the most ignorant of fools would ever complain about his choice.
Brett Valeron handled the job of sheriff in town, so he was at the jail when his brother arrived. Jared had ridden hard and fast to reach Valeron, knowing the rescue party needed to get to Cheyenne on time to catch the train going to Denver. Seeing Brett idly sitting in the chair out front of his office, Jared suspected something had changed. He pulled up and stopped at the hitching rail.
‘Where’s Dad?’ was the first question he directed at his brother.
‘He and Cliff are over at the store, picking up a few things for Mom and the new nanny,’ Brett replied. ‘A few more minutes and you’d have met them on their way home.’
‘What’s happened?’ Jared displayed confusion. ‘You don’t look ready to ride.’
‘No need,’ Brett replied. ‘Wyatt is a free man.’
Jared climbed down from his horse, wrapped the reins around the hitch-rail, and followed as Brett led the way into his office. He sat down behind his desk as Jared waited for an explanation.
‘It appears, Jer, either our telegraph messages or common sense changed the minds of those in power at Paradise,’ Brett began. ‘A couple hours after Pa and I fired off wires to the Colorado governor and the Treasury department, I received this cable.’
He lifted up a sheet of paper and read it aloud.
‘After a thorough interview of witnesses, it has been determined that Wyatt Valeron acted in self-defense. No charges are to be filed. There will be no trial concerning the death of Syrus Decker. Pertaining to Mr Valeron’s reason for being in Paradise, the matter has also been resolved. The payment for contracts of the children in question has been accepted. It is the policy of Paradise Land and Mining to ensure the fair treatment of all of its employees, whether contracted or not.’
Brett laid the sheet of paper back down and said, ‘It is signed by Ward Gaskell, sole proprietor of the PLM Corporation.’
Jared sighed his relief. ‘Well, guess I made the trip for nothing.’
‘Possibly,’ Brett replied, seeming to withhold judgment.
Jared reached out and picked up the telegraph message, read it for himself, then held it up to his nose. ‘Hum, did you take a whiff of this, Brett? Smells like day-old fish.’
Brett shrugged. ‘They let Wyatt go. They let the kids out of their contracts, which is why Wyatt was there. It would seem to be a win-win for both Wyatt and his client.’
‘I’m waiting for . . .’ Jared said expectantly. ‘What don’t we like?’
Brett accommodated his cognitive state. ‘I see a few unanswered questions.’
‘Go ahead,’ Jared urged.
‘The first message was from a guy named Mackavoy. It said Wyatt had accompanied him to reclaim his kids. Next thing, he is asking for a lawyer to defend Wyatt in a murder trial. We rush to get the support of government officials for an impartial judge and suddenly they are talking to witnesses?’
‘Right.’ Jared joined his logic. ‘Any halfway competent lawman would check into the circumstances and talk to witnesses before any kind of charges were made.’
‘Exactly.’
‘And,’ Jared continued, ‘notice the wire states the contracts were resolved? I doubt you inquired about the issue of any contracts in your telegrams? Begs the question: what did those contracts have to do with Wyatt being charged with murder?’
‘Rumors get around,’ Brett told him. ‘A couple weeks ago, I spoke to a man who had come to America’s shores a few months back. He stopped by to get directions to our mining operation. Seems his brother hired on to work for Faro and he’d come to the States to hopefully join him. Anyway, he mentioned a joker in London who was offering to pay the passage for those who couldn’t afford the fare. In return for the price of a ticket, the person had to agree to sign a contract to work for five years.’
‘Indentures all over again,’ Jared declared. ‘That’s against the law.’
‘Right,’ Brett agreed, ‘However, an honest and legal contract is outside the scope of the Amendment. A lawyer can argue it is only a standard, yet binding, agreement between employer and a new employee.’
‘Only if it’s a contract a person can get out of for a fair amount of work or payment,’ Jared countered.
‘There’s the crux of the matter, Jer. What if the contracts are cast in stone?’
‘You seem to know more about this than me, my well-informed brother. Spill it.’
‘Desiree and I took a trip to Denver a couple months before the baby came. She does enjoy music and there was a music troupe performing at the Tabor Grand Theater. While in the city, I stopped over to visit with Sergeant Fielding.’ He displayed a sly grin. ‘You remember him, of course, from the days of when you and Shane were hanging around at the slaughterhouse outside of the city.’
‘That joke has long since worn out,’ Jared complained. ‘Never want to be strung up like a side of beef again . . . not ever.’
‘Anyway,’ Brett returned to the story, ‘Sergeant Fielding said some guy arrived at the station and said he had escaped from the mines. He was seeking a lawyer who could represent him in court. It had to do with one of these contracts. According to him, the men, women and children working at Paradise were driven under the whip – literally. And if one of those contract people wanted something to eat or drink beyond what was provided by the company, the cost was so high it quickly added days to their contract. He also told Fielding how a good many people had died from beatings, and a couple had even been shot down in cold blood by the enforcers – the lawmen of sorts who keep everyone in line.’
‘So what happened to the man and the case?’
‘He disappeared the next day. When Sergeant Fielding sent an inquiry to Paradise, they replied the man had broken his contract and fled. They claimed to have no idea where he had gone.’
‘Do you believe it?’
Brett shrugged. ‘If I were a betting man, I’d wager the guy’s body is buried in an unmarked grave somewhere.’
‘Didn’t Fielding look into it?’ Jared asked.
‘Paradise isn’t a town, it’s a job site, a reputable business firm about thirty miles outside the city boundaries. It houses over a hundred people and has stores, a barbershop, saloons, cafés, even a hotel. But it is all owned by the same big corporation. It would be like a lawman coming to investigate our treatment of the miners, sawmill employees, or the cowpunchers up at the ranch.’
‘Except we don’t hold them prisoner because of a piece of paper.’
‘It gets better,’ Brett went on. ‘They also employ convicted men and women from nearby jails, asylums, or even prison. It saves the state or institution the price of housing those people and provides practically free labor for Paradise.’
‘I’m beginning to think Paradise is not the right name for this place,’ Jared said. ‘It might ought to be called Purgatory.’
‘I expect we will hear from Wyatt in a day or two. If I know him, and things are as bad as it sounds at that place, he is going to want something done.’
Jared frowned. ‘This could be none of our business, Brett. I mean, we’re not empowered to look into the shady dealings of a mining company.’
Brett grinned. ‘Now I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop from you.’
That brought a chuckle from Jared. ‘OK,’ he admitted. ‘I believe I’ll stick around town and wait to hear what Wyatt has to say.’
‘I’ll tell Desiree to set an extra plate at the dinner table tonight.’
Chapter Four
Wyatt stuck with Mackavoy until he and his children boarded the train going east. As soon as it left the station, he walked down to the police station. Sergeant Fielding was at his desk and had a vacant chair waiting.
‘Figured you’d darken our doorway as soon as you arrived in town,’ he said, rising to offer his hand and smiling. ‘Seems you Valerons always manage to get in the middle of any difficulty that comes our way.’
‘We do tend to have a knack for finding trouble,’ Wyatt admitted, taking his hand in a firm shake.
‘Tell me what you’ve learned about this latest caper.’
Wyatt laughed. ‘You make it sound as if our family seeks out evil deeds on purpose.’
‘Well, you have been known to stick your nose into about any beehive you come upon,’ Fielding said. ‘I admit, this is something new. Usually you are out to tame a town or put down a feud between two factions. This? A company the size of Paradise?’ He shook his head. ‘My boy, that’s walking barefoot through a field of cacti blindfolded.’
Wyatt agreed. ‘If not for my family having some compelling contacts, I’d have wound up pricked and jabbed to death by the thorns. The tr
ial was going to be a sham – no defense, no witnesses, only the headman’s lackey pronouncing sentence. Good thing the guy running the telegraph office allowed Mackavoy to send word to you.’
‘I’m told most of the people running the stores, saloon, livery and such are hired employees. We’ve learned about one or two who have quit in the past because they didn’t care for the treatment of the workers. Even though it meant leaving a good paying job behind, those who have left were adamant they wouldn’t testify against Gaskell.’
‘Let me guess – they feared they might disappear if any kind of investigation got started?’
‘Gaskell has a long reach and a lot of money. If it hadn’t been for your pa being in good with the governor, he might not have gotten any support from his office.’
‘Money does talk loud and clear to politicians,’ Wyatt remarked. ‘Often means the difference in winning or losing an election.’
Fielding ran a hand through his hair, showing his frustration. ‘Problem is, Wyatt, we don’t have a lot of influence or jurisdiction up that way. The place is a business, a mining operation. Even the US Marshals don’t usually look into complaints by contracted employees or miners. It’s the reason why so many miners have joined or formed unions to protect themselves from being exploited or having to work in an unsafe environment.’
‘That leaves only the federal government, and we’d need proof that those contracts are a violation of the Constitution.’
‘You’ve nailed it.’ Fielding grunted. ‘And that kind of investigation would take months, and you would have to have a dozen or so people lined up to testify. It’s a sorry, no-win situation.’
‘What about the deaths, the beatings, the mistreatment of the prisoners or the coercion of women into harlotry?’
‘Harlotry?’ the sergeant frowned. ‘You mean prostitution?’
‘One of the saloon girls admitted to me that she had been forced into service. It was that or be given to one of their enforcers. A few of the contracted girls had even produced children while fulfilling their contracts.’
Valerons--Beyond the Law! Page 4
