Seb set his pen aside and stood. “Your honor, the prosecution has agreed to accept the not-guilty pleas of the defense on the initial charges brought by Marshal Mackey, and to accept the guilty pleas of the defense on the assault charges brought by the Territory of Montana. The defendants have also agreed to waive their right to a jury trial and request your honor’s indulgence in passing sentencing as soon as possible.”
Mackey watched the courtroom erupt in another round of murmurs, only to grow quiet just as quickly when Judge Forester scowled at them. “There’ll be no more of that in this courtroom. I want silence during these proceedings. Church mouse pissing on cotton silence, or, by God, I’ll throw everyone out of here!”
When total silence resumed, Judge Forester look at the defendants. “On your feet, the both of you.”
Grant quickly got to his feet while it took a nudge from the guard’s Winchester stock to get him to stand.
With both defendants and attorneys standing, Judge Forester began. “Mr. Grant, I find you to be one of the most deplorable human beings ever to have been brought before me in over forty years of practicing law. I believe you are guilty of poisoning your employer, stealing from the company you controlled, and of inviting a criminal element into Dover Station for your own aggrandizement. However, I can’t convict a man on what I believe, only what the prosecution can prove. Your counsel has provided a detailed brief explaining why Mr. Brenner’s confession is unreliable at best and was, at worst, coerced during his incarceration. Therefore, while I am personally convinced of your guilt, I must reluctantly find you not guilty of those charges.”
Mackey’s hands balled into fists. The old bastard on the bench had lost his nerve after all.
“However,” Judge Forester continued, “I find the territory’s additional assault charges against you have much more merit. Alfred Brenner, you are hereby found guilty of assault and sentenced to no less than five years of incarceration in the territorial jail. Any infraction during your incarceration will add an additional five years to your sentence up to a maximum of twenty-five years. Given your mercurial disposition, I am confident you will undoubtedly spend the rest of your life behind bars.”
Brenner’s shackles rattled as he tried to flip the heavy table over. The deputy behind him slammed the butt of his Winchester deep into Brenner’s right kidney, causing the big man to buckle and drop down into his seat.”
The judge turned his attention to Grant, who had not budged an inch despite Brenner’s outburst. “James Grant, I find you guilty of both assault charges that the prosecution has brought against you. However, you have already suffered greatly as a result of your actions. You have limited use of your arm, thanks to Marshal Mackey’s bullet, have been held in miserable conditions for months, and have lost every position you have held in Dover Station. You are sentenced to time served and released under the following conditions.”
He held up a single stubby finger. “First, you are hereby forbidden from holding any elected or appointed office in this territory for the remainder of your natural life. This order will be carried over into statehood should that blessed event occur.”
Another digit popped up. “Second, you are forbidden from holding any position of managerial responsibility in any corporation doing business in the territory and eventual state of Montana. That includes any position on any board of directors. Third and finally, you are hereby ordered to pay a fine of fifteen thousand dollars to the court to cover the costs of your incarceration and travel here to Montana.”
Grant had to steady himself on the table before he fell over.
“Your honor,” Rhoades protested. “Such a fine would practically bankrupt my client. While we appreciate the court’s generosity in sentencing, we ask that it reconsider such an onerous amount of money.”
But Judge Forester would not be moved. “Your client’s been suckling from the Dover Station teat for quite some time, counselor. He’s probably stolen twice that amount. Now, I might not be able to hang him based on the evidence brought before me here today, but I can make sure he walks out of here a shell of the man he used to be.”
The judge cleared his throat and regained his composure. “Of course, you have the right to appeal my ruling, at which time I will order these men remanded to the custody of the federal marshals, who will be more than happy to confine these men until we set a trial date. Probably sometime next year.”
Rhoades began to protest, but a glare from Judge Forester froze him in place.
Rhoades swallowed hard before saying, “We will not be appealing the decision, your honor.”
“Wise decision,” Forester said. “The marshals will take Mr. Brenner into custody. Grant, you’re free to go. Court adjourned.”
Without banging a gavel, the judge simply got up and stepped down from the bench. Lynch stepped forward and once more bellowed, “All rise.”
By then, Al Brenner had regained enough strength to fire an elbow into the guard’s stomach. The blow doubled the guard over as Brenner brought down his shackled hands on the back of the deputy’s neck, knocking him to the floor.
Rhoades was knocked out of the way, and the gallery erupted into a sea of chaos. Mackey saw Pappy and Katherine were still seated as he and Lynch scrambled to subdue Brenner.
The second guard rushed to help his partner, but Grant sat down and pushed his chair back, blocking his way just long enough for Brenner to swing his shackled hands like a club. Fist and chains rocked the second deputy’s head and sent him flat on his back.
Lynch slid across the table and drove his boot into the back of Brenner’s left knee, causing the big man to buckle. The deputy wrapped a thick arm under Brenner’s jaw and wrenched his neck backward.
Mackey yanked Grant out of the chair and threw him to the floor to get him out of the way.
Just as Brenner was about to smash Lynch in the head with his shackles, Mackey kicked Brenner in the groin with all of his strength.
The fight went out of Brenner, and Lynch rode the big man down, pinning his face to the courtroom floor. More deputies surrounded them, some carrying more shackles to help secure the prisoner better.
Mackey let the men go to work and found Grant struggling to get to his feet. Mackey grabbed him by the arm and yanked him to his feet just as Rigg had one leg over the railing to help his employer.
“Get back,” Mackey warned him.
Rigg remained where he was. “Mr. Grant’s a free man, Aaron. Let him go.”
“There’s still a few things we need to tend to before we just let him go,” Mackey said. “We’ll spring him as soon as we can. Until then, you wait.”
Rigg clearly did not like that idea.
Mackey hoped he disliked it so much that he tried to do something about it.
“It’s fine, Nathan,” Grant said as Mackey pulled him behind the crowd bringing Brenner back to jail. “Head over to the Hotel Helena. I’ll meet you there as soon as I’m free.”
Mackey pulled Grant’s chains tight enough to make the prisoner cry out, though it was drowned out by the shouts and curses Brenner was causing. “Why’d you pick the Hotel Helena to meet?”
“Because I hear it’s the finest hotel in town.” Grant smirked. “And attracts all the best clientele. Never know who you might run into or what might happen, especially after a few drinks in celebration of my freedom.”
Mackey pushed the prisoner through the doorway where Lynch held the door open. “This here’s a tunnel that leads back to the jail across the street. We use it for prisoners we figure might have some friends who’d try to break them out.” He looked down the steps at the bellowing Brenner, who still yelled despite being hog-tied with shackles.
Mackey waited until the group was out of the way before he threw Grant down the stairs.
Lynch quickly pulled the door shut to mask Grant’s screams.
“Looks like he slipped,” Lynch said. “Shame.”
Mackey liked the way Lynch thought. “Guess I must’ve lost
my grip on him in all this excitement.”
“Guess so.” Lynch looked down at Grant, moaning and feebly trying to roll onto his knees at the base of the stairs. “Hope the poor man isn’t hurt. Him being this close to freedom and all.”
Lynch went back out into the courtroom as Mackey went down the steps to help the prisoner to his feet. “A man can hope.”
Mackey pulled Grant upright and slammed him against the stone wall of the tunnel.
“You can’t rough me up like this,” Grant panted. “I’m free to go. The judge said as much himself. The same judge you and Rice paid to kill me.” He laughed through bloody teeth. “No one likes a sore loser, Aaron.”
Mackey grabbed his collar, pulled him off the wall, and slammed him against it. “You’re not going anywhere until I know you understand that your days of killing people and ruining their lives are over. Once we let you out of these chains, no matter where you go in this territory, you’ll always be a convicted criminal. That’ll follow you wherever you go.”
“Convicted on a phony charge by a drunken judge and a thug with a badge.” Grant spat a mouthful of blood onto the tunnel floor. “When statehood comes, I’ll just get the new governor to commute my sentence. Or the next one after him. You think you ended me today?” Grant laughed. “All you did was make me a folk hero. Hell, by the time all is said and done, maybe I’ll have a few phony titles after my name like you’ve got.”
Mackey punched him in the gut, which doubled Grant in half. Mackey would not let him fall and eased him back upright.
“Unless you want a lot worse to happen to you before I let you go, you’re going to do one last thing for me.”
“Go to hell!” Grant yelled, his voice echoing in the long, stone tunnel.
But when he flinched when Mackey brought his hand back to hit him again, the marshal knew he finally had him cowed.
“When I take you back to the jail,” Mackey continued, “you’re going to send word to Rigg and his men to clear out of the hotel and move somewhere else. If I see you or any of Rigg’s men anywhere near that hotel, I’ll start shooting out of self-interest. Do I make myself absolutely clear?”
Grant laughed. His teeth still bore a trace of blood. “Rigg really has you scared, doesn’t he? I didn’t believe it at first when he told me you two had a past. I figured he was just another hired gun full of hot air looking for a payday. I honestly thought nothing on God’s green earth could scare the great Aaron Mackey. But it looks like I was wrong.” He laughed again. “If he has you shaking, then he’s worth every cent. I can’t wait to hear the story of why you’re so scared of him.”
Mackey grabbed him by the throat with his left hand and squeezed as he said, “The only story you need to hear is the one that ends with you leaving me and mine alone. You stay the hell out of Dover Station. You leave Montana as soon as you can, or I promise I’ll plant you here.”
“It’s a free country, Marshal,” Grant strained to speak through Mackey’s grip on his throat, “and I’m a free man. I can live wherever I chose. What’s to stop me from picking Dover Station?”
Mackey released him again with a shove. “Listen to some of those stories Rigg tells you about me around a bottle of brandy tonight. You might think differently after that.”
Mackey snatched Grant by the collar and walked him down the long tunnel beneath Broadway to the jail. A couple of deputies called out to him from the other end of the tunnel, and Mackey told them to come ahead.
They took hold of Grant and marched him back to the jail. The convict gave him a bloody sneer over his shoulder before the deputies jerked him by the chain and pulled him forward.
Mackey stood in the tunnel, alone while he listened for the echoes of the men and prisoners to die away. The few moments of solitude helped him put his mind in order as the events of the day sank in. He had gotten almost everything he had wanted. Brenner would be locked up for close to ten years or more after today. Grant was free, but his life was ruined in Montana. Judge Forester had proven to be a man of his word and a crafty one at that.
Mackey knew he should have felt happy, but he could not shake the feeling of dread that had settled over him the moment Forester had made his ruling. It was as if a part of him had just died while something new within him struggled to life.
He did not want to admit it, but his life had changed because his pursuit of Grant had finally come to an end. He remembered having read Melville’s The Whale when he had been at West Point, which made him wonder if he had become so obsessed with chasing Grant that actually bringing him to justice was no longer its own reward?
No, he decided. That was not it. He had seen men in the army who had allowed the love of the chase to cloud their judgment in the field. Men who had been too taken with the moment to question themselves or their decisions.
Mackey knew this was something else. A feeling that an old part of his life was fading into the fog of the past while a new life was coming into view.
A feeling that told him he would have to ride through a maelstrom before he reached that new life that beckoned him. A storm stirred up in some way by James Grant and Nathan Rigg.
He only hoped he would weather this storm better than Captain Ahab had.
He set the dark feeling aside and began walking through the tunnel toward the jail.
CHAPTER 14
Mackey was in the middle of watching his deputies muster Grant out of chains when one of the junior deputies came rushing into the jail to find him.
“Marshal Mackey.” The boy was so out of breath, he could barely stand. “Judge Forester wants you in his chambers. Immediately, if not sooner. His very words, sir. Not mine.”
Mackey immediately thought Rigg must be up to something, maybe some kind of bid to free Brenner. “Is he in trouble?”
“No, sir. He’s fine. He just said he needs you in his chambers immediately.”
Mackey saw he did not have much of a choice, so he walked outside and climbed into Adair’s saddle. Although the courthouse was just across the street from the jail, he decided to ride instead of walk. He was new in this town, and impressions were important if he was to have their respect. He knew the black Arabian mare always made a distinct impression on strangers. Besides, he was a cavalryman, and no cavalryman worth his salt walked when he could ride.
He brought Adair about and let her move at her own pace through the guarded gate of the prison and across Broadway to the courthouse. Yes, the judge had sent word for him to hurry, but he had never been of the mind to put the heels to Adair’s flanks unless it was necessary. That was why he had always gotten the best out of her when he needed her most. The horse knew that if Mackey was urging her on, there was a good reason.
A request from an eccentric judge did not qualify as a good reason to Aaron Mackey.
The street was still filled with spectators gathering to discuss what they had heard and seen in the courtroom. He knew from experience that most of them would get it wrong, of course, and by nightfall, several different accounts of the same event would have spread throughout Helena’s drawing rooms, dining halls, and saloons. The morning papers might contradict some of what they had heard from their neighbors, friends, and acquaintances, but gossips rarely allowed facts to get in the way of a juicy story.
Mackey rode Adair into the stable at the rear of the courthouse, where the black liveryman ducked his head to him as he took the reins from him as he climbed down from the saddle. “I’ll look her over and give her a good rubdown if she needs it, sir.”
But Mackey had something else on his mind. “Why’d you do that just now?”
The liveryman looked confused. “Do what, sir?”
“Duck your head like that when you came outside?”
The liveryman seemed startled by the question. “No cause, sir. Just something I do.”
“What’s your name?”
“Name’s Charles,” he said with pride. “That’s always been enough of a name for me, so I don’t have a last
one.”
“Don’t ever duck your head to anyone ever again, Charles. Not to me. Not to anyone who comes here. They’re no better than you. You’re the man who takes care of their horses. That’s an important job. Act like it.”
“Yes, sir,” he said with a bit of newfound pride in his voice. “I believe you’re right.”
“Don’t forget it. And don’t let them forget it, either. Anyone gives you trouble, you come see me.”
“I will, sir. And thank you.”
“You can thank me by keeping Adair here separated from the rest of the horses in there. She’s doesn’t get along well with other animals, especially mares.” He was glad she did not mind Charles holding her reins. “She seems to have taken to you, though.”
The liveryman patted her neck. “I have a special way with animals, sir. Always have. Comes in handy for a liveryman.”
He watched Charles lead Adair into the livery.
Mackey turned and walked up the back stairs of the courthouse. He had no idea why he had felt compelled to tell Charles not to duck his head. He had no idea if what he had just told him would make a difference, but he felt it still needed saying.
When he reached the judge’s chambers, Mackey was surprised that the front desk was empty, but he could hear voices coming from Forester’s office. Not only voices, but something that sounded like it might be laughter.
Now he was really beginning to worry.
Mackey pushed through the gate and slowly walked back toward the judge’s office. None of this fit with the man he had come to know as Adam Forester.
When he walked into the chambers, he immediately saw the reason for the laughter.
He saw Billy and Joshua holding small glasses of something that looked like champagne. Pappy was there, too, decked out in a red, white, and blue sash across his morning coat, a top hat tucked under his left arm.
And Katherine was standing next to Judge Forester. She was still wearing the same beautiful pink dress and broad-brimmed hat she had worn in court, only now she had pinned a matching veil to it.
The Dark Sunrise Page 11
