by Nerys Leigh
~ ~ ~
It was astounding how much difference a few hours could make. Even though she’d only just learned the very basics in how to shoot and fight, Kitty already felt more confident.
If only she’d known these things during her time in the orphanage and after she left and had to survive on her own. Her life would have been so much easier.
Still, God had kept her safe and brought her to this point. And now, against all the odds, she was learning to be a Pinkerton agent. She would be fighting crime. If anyone had told her that would happen, she’d have thought them out of their minds. Although she would have been too afraid to tell them so.
She glanced at Ben beside her as they walked back towards the camp. None of it would have happened if it hadn’t been for him.
Did he know how much he’d done for her in the short time they’d been together? Did she have the courage to tell him? Maybe she should do it now, before her newfound bravery deserted her. Maybe it would even get her closer to the meaning of his not right now answer, which she was still wondering about.
“Ben?”
“Hmm?”
“I, um, I just wanted to say…”
“Mr. and Mrs. Riley.” Mr. Hall strode towards them. “Mr. Webster wants to talk to you. He’s in his tent.”
Ben nodded. “We’ll go over there now.” He looked at Kitty once Mr. Hall had gone. “What was it you were saying?”
Sighing internally, she shook her head. “It wasn’t important. I’ll tell you later.”
Except she was fairly sure she wouldn’t.
They found Mr. Webster in his tent, sitting at his desk with a collection of tiny bones arrayed on a cloth in front of him. He held a lens to his eye to examine one.
“You wanted to speak with us?” Ben said as they entered.
He lowered the lens and placed the bone carefully down onto the cloth. “Yes. I’d like to know how much longer you’re going to be here. Your presence is distracting my workers.”
From what Kitty had seen, their presence was barely affecting the men at all. And it certainly wasn’t keeping them from their work. But of course she didn’t say so.
“I don’t have an answer to that,” Ben replied. “We’ll leave when we’ve found the skull and who stole it.”
Mr. Webster frowned. “Well then, what progress have you made in doing that?”
She let her gaze wander around the tent while Ben related everything they’d done so far, omitting any mention of their suspicions about Mr. Hall. Ben still wasn’t convinced he wasn’t behind the theft, even though he hadn’t been the one who’d lured them to the gully the day before. Ben didn’t want to alert him to their suspicions too soon.
She hadn’t been into Mr. Webster’s tent since the day they’d arrived and it appeared just as it had that day.
Although…
“Just get it done,” Mr. Webster snapped. “I want you out of my camp as soon as possible.”
“Yes, sir,” Ben said through gritted teeth.
He took her elbow and guided her out.
“You’d think he didn’t want us to find his precious skull,” he grumbled as they walked away from Mr. Webster’s tent. When she didn’t reply, he said, “Kitten? Something wrong? Apart from our cantankerous host, that is.”
“Hmm?” She looked up at him. “Oh, no, nothing’s wrong. I’m just… no nothing’s wrong.”
She was fairly sure nothing was actually wrong. Whatever had changed in Mr. Webster’s tent, and why it bothered her, would come to her eventually.
Chapter Fourteen
“The bed was higher!”
Ben jerked awake with a start.
He squinted between heavy eyelids at Kitty lying on her back on her cot. “Wha’?”
She rolled onto her side to face him. “The bed was higher. In Mr. Webster’s tent.”
A remarkably large yawn gripped him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“His bed. It was higher yesterday than it was when we went in there the day we arrived. By a good five inches.”
“So?” What time was it anyway? It was light outside, but that just meant it was after six. He drew the line at anything before seven.
“So it was just about the height to fit a Trachodon skull-sized crate beneath.” She raised her eyebrows pointedly.
Finally, his sleep-addled brain caught up. “They brought the skull back into the camp.”
“And hid it beneath his bed.”
He stared at her as that sank in, and then sat up. “It’s hidden under his bed?”
She sat up with him. “It must be.”
“I can’t believe it was right there, just feet away from us.” How could he have missed that?
“Should we go and check?”
Was he losing his touch? No, everyone would have missed that. Everyone except Kitty.
“Yes. Yes!” Throwing his blanket back, he scrambled to his feet. His still-slumbering body protested and he stretched his arms above his head in an attempt to wake up his muscles. “We have to get over there before he can move it again.”
Grabbing his clothing from his trunk, he turned his back to give Kitty privacy.
“Why would Mr. Webster steal his own skull though?” she said as they dressed. “That makes no sense. It already belongs to him, doesn’t it?”
Ben paused in the process of buttoning up his shirt to think, but nothing came to him. “I have no idea, but if it’s there we can confront him and get the truth.”
At a touch on his back, he turned to find her dressed and standing behind him. “What if I’m wrong? There could be other reasons why his bed is higher. Maybe his broke and he had to change it. Maybe he…”
Ben gently took her shoulders, holding her gaze. “Stop doubting yourself. You have excellent instincts; believe them.”
She drew in a deep breath and nodded. “All right.”
He smiled. “That’s the spirit.”
Goodness, but she was beautiful, even this early in the morning. Whatever time it was.
He tilted his head down to press a kiss to her forehead. “Good morning, Kitten. Let’s go solve your first case.”
~ ~ ~
They hurried through the camp towards Webster’s tent.
Truthfully, there was no pressing need to get there quickly, but Ben would feel happier once they’d done their job and the skull was secured.
“But Mr. Rollins said he saw Mr. Hall return from the abandoned mine, not Mr. Webster,” Kitty said as they walked.
“He must have mistaken Webster for Hall in the dark. They’re roughly the same height.”
“And I still don’t understand why he’d steal his own skull,” she went on. “It makes no sense.”
“We’ll ask him when we get there.”
She was silent for a few more paces. “I don’t like it when things don’t make sense.”
He smiled at that. “Then I will do everything I can to make sure it all makes sense by the end.”
At the thought of the end of their investigation, his smile faded. He didn’t want it to be the end, because that would mean the end of his time with Kitty. He’d spent years working mostly alone, but thinking of working on a case without her was the first time he’d ever felt lonely.
He didn’t announce their presence when they reached Webster’s tent. He was as mystified as Kitty as to why the dig’s boss would be hiding the skull, but he didn’t want to risk the man trying to escape. It was too early to have to run after him.
He threw back the flap and marched inside. “Webster…”
He stopped. The tent was deserted.
“The bed is back down again,” Kitty said behind him.
It looked exactly the same to him as it had the previous two times they’d been in there, but he didn’t doubt her. Her talent for noticing things he didn’t was remarkable.
He pushed back the covers draped over the edge of the bed and lifted the cot to look underneath. Drag marks the same size as those they�
��d seen in the abandoned mine marked the place where the crate had been.
There were also marks at the other end of the bed and for a moment Ben wondered if Webster had stolen something else, until he noticed the crate beyond the end of the bed that definitely hadn’t been there the previous evening. He might not have had his wife’s observational skills, but he did notice some things.
“This one balanced out the bed,” Kitty said, walking over to the crate, “so it was even on both ends.” She gave the crate an experimental push. “It’s empty.”
“What’s going on?”
Both of them spun round at Edwin Hall’s voice. He stood at the entrance to the tent.
“Do you know where Webster is?” Ben demanded.
“He left early, took one of the wagons. Said he was going into town for supplies.”
“Did he have a wooden crate with him?”
Hall frowned. “I don’t know. I didn’t actually see him leave. Why?”
Ben debated about what to tell him. Despite there being no real evidence now that Hall was involved, Ben still wasn’t sure of his innocence.
Although the truth was, he still didn’t know if there had even been a theft. “We think he took the skull with him.”
Hall’s gaze darted to the bed. “You think Louis took the skull? Why would he do that?”
“We don’t know, but apparently he stole it, hid it, then almost killed us trying to scare us away from searching for it. Which route would he take? We need to go after him.”
Hall pursed his lips then nodded as if he’d made a decision. “I’ll go with you. We’ll take the buckboard.”
Ben hesitated. His instincts told him not to trust Hall, but they needed to catch Webster before he reached Evanston and they lost him. Ben didn’t know the area, and without someone to guide them he wasn’t at all sure they could find him in time.
“All right,” he said finally. “But I’m driving.”
Chapter Fifteen
“Remember what I taught you.” Ben nodded at the bulge in Kitty’s skirt where the gun he’d given her rested in her pocket. “Keep your breathing steady, raise your arm…”
She took his hand and his heart skipped a beat. It was the first time she had taken his hand. Always before it had been him taking hers.
“I know,” she said. “I remember. Stop worrying about me.”
He couldn’t help worrying about her. “Just… if there’s any fighting or shooting, get somewhere safe. Don’t try to help me. If Webster was willing to throw boulders at us to scare us away, there’s no telling what he’ll do when we catch him.”
She opened her mouth to reply.
“And yes,” he said, before she could, “I know that you’re strong and that as a Pinkerton agent you’ll be facing danger. But right now I need you to be safe.”
She glanced at Hall where he was hitching the horse to the buckboard and lowered her voice. “Thank you for caring about me. You’re the first person who ever has.”
Every time she said something like that, it felt as if she was reaching into Ben’s chest and grasping his heart. He wished he could make her stay at the camp. If anything happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
“Are you sure there’s nothing I can do to convince you not to come?”
She smiled a little and shook her head. “Not a thing.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he kissed her forehead and prayed for her safety. Of all the times she would find the courage to assert herself, he wished it hadn’t been now.
“I’m ready,” Hall said.
With a sigh, Ben released his wife. “All right, let’s get this done.”
He took the driver’s seat, with Kitty sitting beside him. Hall settled himself in the back.
Ben half expected him to take them the wrong way, or do something else to sabotage their pursuit, but in less than an hour they spotted Webster’s wagon on the road ahead of them. Maybe he was mistaken about Hall after all.
Webster came to a halt as they rode up alongside him. “Something wrong back at the camp?”
Ben set the brake and nodded to the crate-shaped mound hidden beneath a tarpaulin in the back of the wagon. “What’s under there?”
Webster’s gaze flicked between the three of them. “Just a crate of the latest finds. Since I was going into town anyway, I thought I’d get them shipped to Mr. Fink.”
“Mind if I take a look?”
Webster’s eyes moved to Hall. “What’s this all about?”
“Just let him take a look, Louis,” Hall replied. “We can wrap this all up right now.”
Webster stared at him for a few moments before looking back at Ben. “Go ahead.”
Ben climbed down from the buckboard and walked over to Webster’s wagon. Reaching over the side, he pulled the tarpaulin free to reveal a dirt-spattered wooden crate.
He leaned forward to get a better look at the address label that had been pasted to the side.
It began Mr. Edwin Hall.
Hand darting to his revolver, he spun around at the same time as Kitty gasped. His heart hit his throat at the sight of Hall standing in the buckboard, holding a pistol to her temple.
“Just put the gun into the wagon and move away,” Hall ordered.
In Ben’s experience, bad things tended to happen when he relinquished his gun. But this time, he had no option.
His eyes on Kitty, he pulled his revolver free, placed it beside the crate, and stepped back, raising his hands. “If you harm her in any way, I will kill you.”
Hall ignored him. “Tie him to the wheel.”
Webster climbed down from his seat, took a length of rope from the back of the wagon, and tied Ben’s hands together behind him. Then he directed Ben to sit with his back to the wheel and bound his hands to it.
“What are you doing here?” Webster glanced back at Hall as he secured Ben to the spokes. “We agreed I’d take the skull and send it.”
“They worked it out,” Hall replied. “Somehow they knew you had the crate in your tent. They’d have either gone after you or got you when you got back anyway.”
How could Ben have been so stupid? He’d known in his gut that Hall was guilty. Here he was telling Kitty to follow her instincts, and he’d ignored his own. If they survived, it was a mistake he’d never make again.
With Ben tied to the wheel, Hall moved his pistol from Kitty’s head and motioned for her to get down from the buckboard.
“So you brought them to me?” Webster said, incredulous. “What are we supposed to do now?”
“I had no choice. At least there’s no one around here.” He motioned at the deserted landscape around them and jumped down after Kitty. “Go sit beside your husband, Mrs. Riley.” She’d taken a couple of steps when he suddenly said, “Hold on a minute.”
She looked back at him.
He motioned to her with his pistol. “Turn around.”
When she obeyed, he stepped in close behind her.
Ben sat forward with a growl, straining against his bonds as Hall ran his hands slowly down Kitty’s sides. If he’d been free, he would have pounded the man into the ground.
Hall’s hands stopped at her hips and he felt for the opening to the pocket in her skirt, finally pulling her gun free with a smirk. “Not as harmless as you look, are you?”
Whirling round, she slapped his face hard enough to send him staggering to one side.
Ben’s jaw dropped.
Her point made, she marched over to sit beside him.
After a few seconds of stunned inaction, Webster crouched to tie her to the wheel behind her.
Ben snapped his mouth shut. Despite the circumstances, he had the oddest urge to smile. His Kitten certainly was learning to use her claws, and he couldn’t have been prouder.
“What are we going to do with them now?” Webster said as he straightened. He ran a hand through his thinning hair. “I was so close. Why did you even bring them to me? You didn’t have to bring them right to me!”
<
br /> Hall slipped his pistol back into its holster and placed their guns onto the seat of the wagon. “Calm down. They would have come after you anyway. At least this way we can control what happens next.”
“Calm down? Calm down?!” Webster jabbed a finger towards Ben and Kitty. “They know it’s me now. This will destroy my career! No one will work with me after this. That’s if I’m not thrown into jail for almost killing two Pinkertons in that gully.”
“I told you that was a bad idea.”
“I only meant to scare them.” Webster appeared almost apologetic as he looked at Kitty and Ben. “I swear I didn’t mean for those rocks to land so close. I was only trying to frighten you.”
“No problem,” Ben replied. No need to provoke the men who had them tied up.
He felt Kitty move beside him and the arm pressed against his shifted a little. He glanced at her, but her attention was on Webster and Hall.
Hall waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “So get another career.”
Webster looked as though he’d suggested jumping from the nearest cliff. “Get another career? Get another career? Do you have any idea what I’ve invested into paleontology? This is my life! I can’t just ‘get another career’.”
Kitty’s elbow jabbed into Ben’s side. Again he looked at her, but she was still watching the argument between their captors.
“You know what?” Hall said. “I don’t really care about your career.”
“Well you should care, because once Fink finds out, he’ll claim that skull. That was our agreement, that he would fund half the expenses and in return he’d get any finds he wanted. After I’d studied and documented them and got credit for any new scientific knowledge, of course. He’ll claim he’s entitled to it.”
Hall narrowed his eyes. “Now wait a minute. You promised me thirty percent in exchange for not telling anyone. I want that money.”
“Then what are we going to do about them?” Webster again pointed at Ben and Kitty.
Hall looked at the two of them, his expression calculating. “They can’t tell anyone if they don’t get back to town.”
A cold feeling of dread crawled down Ben’s spine.
