The Whippoorwill Trilogy

by Sharon Sala

  Until the arrival of Letty’s fancy cookstove, they were still cooking in the parlor, but the hand-made table and benches made serving meals much easier.

  “Good morning, Alice,” Letty said, as she came striding into the room.

  Alice smiled and then glanced at Katie, who was playing beneath a window on the east side of the room.

  Sunbeams danced around her in the new light of day, making it appear as if she were surrounded in gold dust. It seemed an appropriate sight in this place where gold was worshiped more highly than God.

  But Letty knew different. She was rich—richer than even her wildest dreams—and yet she could not buy respectability. Most of the time she didn’t care, but once in a while it might have been nice to know she wasn’t constantly being judged and found wanting. She’d been so conscious of living a life that was not proper, that she didn’t realize most of the dislike from the citizens of Denver City was based from jealousy, not a lack of respect. However, the world within these walls was where she felt safe, and she took none of it for granted.

  “Morning, Letty,” Alice said. “Breakfast is ’bout ready. I made some flapjacks, but it’s the last of our flour.”

  “If you’ll make a list, I’ll see about filling it later this morning.”

  Alice glanced toward Katie again, before returning to her cooking.

  Letty saw the look and was happy. Taking in this child had been the saving of both Alice and Katie. They were getting strength from each other’s presence.

  “I’m going to the outhouse,” Letty said. “Be right back.”

  “Okay,” Alice said.

  Letty strode out of the house with purpose, enjoying the early sunlight and the fact that the long-sodden earth was finally beginning to firm. She side-stepped a couple of puddles at the door to the outhouse and then went inside and quickly did her business.

  When she came out, she saw Eulis leading his horse from the shed. He’d already saddled him up, and was moving toward the back porch, obviously led by the scent of Alice’s flapjacks.

  When he saw Letty coming across the yard, he tied the horse to a porch post and started toward her.

  T-Bone was lying on the bottom steps, but when he saw Letty emerge from the outhouse, he jumped up to follow Eulis.

  Letty smiled at the sight of her two favorite males, and was thinking what to do with her day when the first shot rang out.

  T-Bone yelped, tucked his tail between his legs, and ran for the porch.

  Letty saw the shock on Eulis’ face, then the blooming stain of red appearing on the front of his shirt.

  She screamed out his name and started running.

  Halfway there, another shot rang out, hitting him in the arm. When she was less than ten yards from where he stood, the third shot burned past her head and hit Eulis right above the knee.

  His leg buckled as he was reaching for Letty.

  Letty kept screaming his name as she watched him drop. Within seconds, she threw herself across his body in a futile effort to protect him, while scanning the boundary of the trees.

  Eulis clutched her arm.

  She looked down, and in that moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. The tears in his eyes were startling. She’d never seen Eulis cry. His lips were moving, but he wasn’t making any sounds.

  “Eulis! Eulis! Don’t you die,” Letty cried. “Don’t you die on me!”

  He blinked—so slow that she thought he’d never open his eyelids again—then he looked straight into her eyes. Her face was the last thing he saw.

  Letty heard the breath leave his body, and wanted to go with him. This wasn’t right! It wasn’t fair! Just when she’d found a good man to love he was taken away.

  She lowered her head, and for a moment, they were touching, cheek to cheek. She could feel the stubble of whiskers on his face as the shock of it finally sunk in. She rocked back on her heels, threw back her head, and screamed.

  The back door flew open. Alice emerged on the run, took one look at the scene before her and gasped. There was a huge hole in Eulis’ chest. She didn’t have to feel for his pulse to know he was dead. And she knew that, as good a man as Eulis Potter had been, there was nothing more to be done for him. It was Letty who was still in danger.

  Alice dashed off the porch, grabbing Letty by the arm.

  “Get up, Letty, get up! We’ve got to get inside!”

  Letty wouldn’t stop screaming, and she wouldn’t let go.

  Alice glanced nervously toward the trees and tightened her grip on Letty’s arm.

  “They’ll kill you, too! Let go, let go!”

  Unprepared for Alice’s strength, Letty felt herself being pulled backward. Before she knew it, she was on her knees and being dragged toward the porch.

  “Stop, oh God… please stop! I can’t leave him there!”

  Alice turned, her face twisted into a fierce grimace as she screamed back at the woman who’d saved her life.

  “He’s dead! He’s dead just like my baby, and there’s nothing that can be done. Get up, damn it! Don’t make me have to bury the both of you!”

  Alice pulled again, and this time Letty went, stumbling and crying as they ran. Once they were inside, Alice slammed the door shut behind them and dragged her into a corner.

  “Katie! Come away from the windows,” Alice cried.

  The little girl ran to Alice and hid her face against Alice’s breasts.

  “Lord, oh Lord,” Alice muttered, as she stood between Letty and the door.

  An hour passed while Eulis’ blood ran out of his body, soaking into the dirt beside the back steps.

  Letty cried until her throat was so raw she couldn’t swallow. It wasn’t until Alice knelt beside her and put a wet rag on her face that she began to regain a sense of herself. The pain in her chest was so great that it hurt to breathe, but breathe she still did.

  “There now, there now,” Alice murmured as she wiped the hot tears from Letty’s face.

  Letty shuddered. She couldn’t think, but she could feel. She looked down at her hands, and the front of her clothes. They were stained with Eulis’ blood. A hot, sweeping flush swept through her, from her gut to her head, but it wasn’t pain she was feeling, it was rage. Someone had taken away what had been good and gentle in her life. She shoved Alice’s hands away from her face.

  “Help me up.”

  Alice did so, but was far more nervous around this Letty than the one who’d been grieving. When Letty strode out of the room and headed upstairs, Alice quickly followed, with Katie at her heels.

  “What are you doing?” Alice asked.

  “I’m getting the rifle.”

  Alice wrung her hands. “You’d better tell the sheriff to—”

  Letty’s gaze was cold as she looked at Alice.

  “You tell the sheriff whatever you want. I’m going after the man who killed my husband.”

  Alice clasped a hand to her heart.

  “Letty… dear… you can’t! That’s too dangerous for a woman!”

  Letty turned on her then. Her eyes were swimming in tears, but her gaze never wavered.

  “He would do it for me. Pack me some food. I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

  Alice’s face crumpled as she began to wail.

  “You’ll die! You’ll die, too, and then what will become of Katie and me?”

  “I’m not the one who’s going to die next,” she said.

  The cold, still tone of Letty’s voice made Alice shudder. She was beginning to understand the true depth of this woman’s strength. She ran downstairs to pack up the uneaten food, and when Letty came down, she handed it to her without a word. Letty carried it outside and packed it into the saddlebags that were on Eulis’ horse.

  T-Bone came slinking around the corner of the house, whining his own brand of sorrow.

  Letty glanced down.

  “You comin’ with me?” she asked.

  T-Bone whined, but stood at her side as she checked the rifle. It was loaded. Even
though she still wasn’t sure how to load it, she added her extra ammunition to the other saddlebag, and mounted up. Alice was standing on the porch.

  “There’s money under my bed to buy food. I’ll be back before you get it eaten up,” Letty said.

  “You’d better be,” Alice muttered, then pointed to Eulis.

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “Bury him,” Letty said, and turned the horse’s head, then rode toward the trees.

  The ground was still soft enough that whoever had been hiding out there would have had to leave tracks. She felt no fear as she rode, confident that, whoever had fired the shots could have stormed the house at any time. Since they had not, she took it to mean they were gone. But it didn’t matter. They could run, but there was nowhere to hide from her rage.

  Robert Lee had ridden shotgun into town with a wagon-load of ore, but they’d gotten stuck twice before pulling out of the valley. He’d made the decision that they’d begun mining too soon, so after delivering the wagon to the smelter, he’d told the men not to come back for a couple of days until the ground had time to dry out some more.

  He had signed off on the wagon, and was on his way outside to find Eulis and give him the news, when a man he knew only as Cecil walked into the smelter office.

  Cecil saw Robert Lee and quickly took off his hat.

  “Hello there, Robert Lee. Sorry to hear about your boss. He was a right good man.”

  Robert Lee froze, staring at the man as if he’d lost his mind.

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Cecil stared back in shock and then looked away.

  “Say, I’m sorry. I reckoned that you already knew.”

  Robert Lee grabbed him by the shoulders.

  “I said… what the hell are you talking about?”

  Cecil pulled out of Robert Lee’s grasp and took a quick step backward.

  “Eulis Potter was gunned down in his own yard this morning. The woman who works for them came into town to get the sheriff.”

  Robert Lee felt his blood run cold. He tried to form the words, but it seemed they just wouldn’t come. It wasn’t until Cecil started to walk away that he finally asked.

  “What about Letty? What about Mrs. Potter?”

  Cecil shrugged.

  “Can’t say what happened to her.”

  Robert Lee’s mind went blank. He walked out of the smelter office, got on his horse, and rode down Main Street, then headed up the road to their house. The road was too steep for his horse to run, but he wouldn’t let himself panic. Surely, if Letty had been a victim, Alice would have mentioned that, as well.

  When he finally got to the house and dismounted, his legs were shaking so hard he could barely stand up. He moved up the steps, took a deep breath and then walked in the front door without knocking, calling out Letty’s name as he went.

  Alice came running from the back of the house with her hand to her heart, fearing that the killer had returned. When she realized it was Robert Lee, she began to cry with relief.

  “Thank God that it’s you,” she said, and sobbed anew.

  “Is it true? Is Eulis dead?”

  “Yes, dear God, it was awful,” she said, and covered her face with her apron.

  Robert Lee grabbed her by the shoulders—his voice so tight with fear he could barely make himself heard.

  “Letty… did they shoot Letty, too?”

  Alice dropped her apron as she shook her head.

  “Lord no, but I thought they might. She threw herself on top of Eulis. I could tell he was gone, but I couldn’t get her off. She kept screaming and screaming and—”

  The thought of her anguish was like a knife to his heart.

  “Where is she?” he asked, looking up to the second floor. “Is she in her room?”

  Alice started crying again.

  “If only she was!” Alice said.

  Robert Lee frowned.

  “Then where is she?”

  “She went after him,” Alice said. “Made me pack up some food for her while she went to get the rifle. I tried to stop her, but she rode off like a madwoman.”

  Fear struck Robert Lee anew.

  “Sweet Jesus! Which way did she go?”

  Alice pointed into the trees at the back of the house.

  “The shots came from back there. She rode into the trees with T-Bone. I haven’t seen her since.”

  Robert Lee felt sick.

  “How long ago?”

  “Three or four hours, maybe more. I’ve lost track of time.”

  He swore softly, then strode out of the house, untied his horse, and mounted on the run. He saw the dark stain of blood in the earth as he circled the house, then looked past it to the sight of Letty’s tracks. He couldn’t allow himself to consider the dead when there was still a life that might be saved.

  George Mellin had been staking out the Potter house ever since his release from jail. The first time he’d seen his wife come out of the back door of the house, he thought he was dreaming. It wasn’t until he’d seen her several more times that he realized she was living there. He didn’t know how it had happened, but the fact that she was living in luxury in that big, fine house while he was forced to make cold camp alone in the woods, only added to his anger.

  He’d seen Letty Potter coming and going many times. It had given him a sense of power to know that he could kill her and be done with it at any time. But that didn’t seem like payback enough. If she died, then she wouldn’t suffer, and he wanted her to suffer.

  It had finally dawned on him that the best way to hurt Letty Potter was to take away the thing she loved best, which he knew was her man. He’d had to deal with their damned dog nosing around his camp, and more than once awakened to discover that the dog had carried something off. Thanks to that dog, he didn’t even have a hat anymore.

  He’d started to shoot the pup, and then realized he couldn’t shoot it without alerting the Potters to his presence. After that, he’d tried to catch it, but failed miserably. It would be a simple matter to slit its throat, but he hadn’t been able to get close enough to grab him.

  So, he’d watched the house for the perfect moment, waiting until both Eulis and Letty were outside at the same time, because he wanted the bitch to watch her husband die. He wanted her on her knees, the same way she’d done to him, and today, it had happened.

  He’d been up since before dawn. When he saw Eulis Potter emerge from the house and go toward the horse shed, he stood up. The dog knew he was out there, but he’d been in the vicinity for so long now that the dog took his presence for granted. For that reason, no alarm was sounded.

  He’d waited impatiently, willing Letty Potter to come out before her husband left for the mines. He’d been disappointed before, but something told him today was the day.

  When he saw her come out of the house and walk to the outhouse, it had been all he could do not to shout. At last he was going to get his revenge.

  He waited impatiently, his hands shaking as he kept the rifle to his shoulder. He watched her come out, and when she started toward the house and her man was still nowhere in sight, he began to panic.

  “No, no,” he muttered. “Come on, damn it. Get your lazy ass out of that shed.”

  Then Eulis appeared, leading his horse.

  At that point, George knew everything he’d planned was going to happen—now. He shifted the butt of the rifle firmly against his shoulder, squinting carefully as he looked down the sight. He couldn’t see Letty’s face, but he knew she was smiling. He could tell by the look on her husband’s face.

  When Eulis started toward her, he held his breath and tightened his grip on the trigger. One pull. That was all it would take, and yet he waited. Not yet. Not yet.

  When the rifle fired, George was almost as surprised as Eulis Potter looked. He saw the blood stain blossoming at the front of the man’s chest. For a few seconds, he was so taken with what he’d done that he didn’t move. But then Eulis didn’t fall, an
d in a fit of panic, he began to reload the rifle.

  Seconds later, he took aim again, but in his haste, missed the broad shape of Eulis’ chest and hit him in the arm. He reloaded again without conscious thought, and fired without taking aim. The third shot hit Eulis in the leg.

  After Potter fell, George lowered his rifle, and watched.

  Letty Potter was screaming. The pain in her voice was what he’d wanted to hear. For a few moments, he watched, taking great satisfaction in seeing her grief. It was the payback he’d promised himself she would get for whipping him in the street like a dog.

  It wasn’t until he’d seen Alice running out of the house that he’d come out of his trance. Alice’s vehemence in getting Letty to safety fostered the notion of shooting her, too, but then he changed his mind. He’d gotten out of jail once with no punishment. He didn’t relish staying around to test his luck a second time.

  While Alice was dragging Letty up the back steps, he turned and ran. His cold camp was a half mile down the backside of the mountain. He had nothing to his name but what he’d managed to steal after he’d been released, so it didn’t take long to pack it all up. There was an old man working a small mine about a quarter a mile further down the mountain. He had a horse. George needed a horse. It would be a simple enough matter to take it.

  To The Death

  If it hadn’t been for T-Bone, Letty might have ridden right past the place where the killer had staked them out. But when the dog suddenly stopped and began to run in small circles behind a thicket of undergrowth, she dismounted and knelt.

  There was a torn piece of a shirt caught in some thorns. She grabbed it and shoved it in her pocket. The soil behind the trees had been disturbed, where it appeared someone had been standing, as well as a large amount of footprints around the area. From the depth of the tracks behind the trees, it appeared the killer had been watching them for some time.

  She stood abruptly and looked toward the house. The skin crawled on the back of her neck when she realized there was a clear view of the back porch. That’s when she saw Eulis’ body. The killer hadn’t given him a chance.