Fired Up

by Mary Connealy

Finally Dare said, “We talked about that at the time.”

  Vince nodded. “I’ve looked around your house since then.”

  A sound at the diner window turned Dare around to see Paul looking out. He didn’t want the kid to overhear. “Let’s walk over there.”

  All four men strode toward Dare’s burned-down hulk of a house.

  “Look at the kitchen. Those walls are still standing.” Vince headed for that side first. “The cookstove almost looks like it blocked the fire, and that wouldn’t be true if the stove was the source of it.”

  Dare walked ahead, faster than the others. Then he stopped to stare at that kitchen wall. “And the stovepipe . . . look at it.”

  The round metal poked out through the blackened wall. “A spark might get out around the pipe and start a fire, but then this wall would’ve burned first, and it didn’t.”

  Luke jabbed a finger at the stones still intact in the midst of the burnt ruins. “Your fireplace might’ve caused it. It’s more in the middle of the house.”

  Shaking his head, Vince kept moving, circling toward the front door. “I happened to look out my bedroom window and saw flames reflected in the window of the general store. I came running fast. I was here before the whole house was engulfed. This door was blazing. The fire had spread by then, but this was at the center of it.”

  “Right below the window I’d’ve climbed out,” Dare said.

  “And look how completely burned it is right here, practically down to fine ash.”

  It twisted Dare’s stomach to look at the destruction—one of only two means he’d had to escape—except whoever struck the match didn’t know about the attic access in his bedroom ceiling.

  “The fire was white-hot outside my bedroom. I tried to get out that way first. The chimney could’ve started that, although I was real sure the fire had died all the way down. But that doesn’t explain the front door.”

  “Then I ran around back, thinking I could get in and get upstairs and the stairway was burning, but there was unburned space between the stairs and the front door.”

  Dare didn’t ask Vince if he was sure. Vince would’ve said so if he wasn’t. “My front door is real close to the stairway. If there was unburned wood between them, the fire had to start in two places, and it hadn’t been burning that long or they’d have turned into one big fire.”

  “Which says to me,” Vince said, crossing his arms as he studied the building, “that someone used kerosene to get both fires big and hot real fast.”

  “So I couldn’t get out,” Dare added quietly.

  Dare, Vince, Luke, and Jonas stood there staring as the cool wind scattered blackened ash and whipped the scent of burnt wood in the air.

  “Who did it?” Dare asked.

  Vince shrugged.

  “You’ve been checking everything else out—how about figuring the answer to that?”

  “I’ve got a few ideas, but I don’t know if I believe any of ’em.”

  “Let’s hear it.” Dare didn’t like thinking someone wanted him dead. He’d helped a lot of folks in this town. It didn’t seem real neighborly.

  “Lana Bullard comes to mind,” Vince said after a long pause.

  A chill raced down Dare’s spine as he remembered how strange she’d acted when she thought her baby had died.

  Rubbing his hand over his mustache, Dare said, “Might be her. But a lot of men in this town would be mighty angry with me if I got her arrested and she couldn’t cook anymore.”

  “What about Paul, Glynna’s boy?” Vince’s question was met with such utter silence, Dare wondered if maybe he’d gone deaf. “Have you noticed he’s wearing a six-gun these days?”

  Dare thought of the hate in the boy’s eyes. He thought of how devastated Glynna would be if it was true. “He’s so young . . .”

  Vince scowled. “That gun he’s wearing shoots the same whether he’s fifteen or fifty.”

  “We saw some mighty mean kids in Andersonville,” Luke reminded them all. “Plenty of ’em eager to throw in with the Raiders.”

  “A boy living with a brute could learn to hate any man who looked at his ma too long. And, Dare, I’ve seen you take some long looks at Glynna.” Jonas was quiet about it, but his voice rang with conviction.

  “Sounds like you know something about it, Jonas,” Dare said.

  “I do.” Jonas glanced at the house. “Tina doesn’t know this, and I trust none of you to tell her, but we didn’t have the same pa. Her name isn’t really Cahill. That’s my pa’s name, but she was too young to realize that when Ma and her father died. I suspect that’s part of why we look so different. My pa died when I was about ten years old. Ma remarried. Then both Ma and her new husband died when Tina was still real young. But he had plenty of time to knock Ma and me around, and I had plenty of time to work up a grudge. I ran away from home three times. The third time I didn’t come back. I was riding the outlaw trail when I was fourteen, the year my ma died. Tina was three.

  “I heard Ma was dead and figured her husband had murdered her. I was so twisted up inside, I rode for home planning to kill him. All I could think was I should’ve done it sooner—” Jonas stopped abruptly, shook his head, and said, “Her husband had shot her and been hung for it long before I came home. Tina was already settled with Aunt Iphigenia. She was my pa’s sister and no relation to Tina at all, but Aunt Iphigenia was the only family around and she did her duty. Made sure everyone knew what a sacrifice it was, too. Iphigenia was an upright woman. Too rigid, but a sight more decent than me. Iphigenia knew what I was, and she told me not to come back. I rode off to my gang and stopped in from time to time despite my aunt’s objections. Then I got dragged into the War Between the States. I found God in a muddy trench during one of those endless battles.”

  With a humorless laugh, Jonas said, “The war saved my life. Doesn’t seem fair when it killed so many. A young’un can be mighty mean, and an abusive pa can drive a boy to terrible things. I don’t see that in Paul, though. He hadn’t put up with Greer that long.”

  “He said he wished he’d killed his own father,” Dare said. “He said that right after he punched me and threatened to kill me for standing too close to Glynna.”

  “Standing too close?” Luke asked.

  “Yes, nothing more,” Dare snapped. Not that time. Later there’d been more. “That’s what he punched me for. I probably deserved it.”

  Vince chuckled and slapped Dare on the back—on the side that’d been sewn up. It didn’t hurt anymore. But it did make him wonder. He’d come close to death more than once lately. “There’s no way an avalanche could be brought down deliberately, is there?” Dare asked.

  All his friends exchanged looks. Finally, Luke said, “Sure it could. Paul was out there at the ranch. Did he have a chance to do it?”

  Dare tried to remember. “I think he did go outside for quite a spell. Never thought about it, except I wondered if the house bothered him, reminded him of Greer.”

  “How would he do it?”

  Luke shrugged. “Loosen the boulders, prop ’em up with sticks, and then kick the braces away.”

  “He was at the bottom of the canyon with us.”

  “There could be ropes hanging down to yank.” Jonas narrowed his eyes. “I wasn’t looking for anything like that. A rope I think I’d’ve noticed, but a dangling root might not have looked like it was put there on purpose, and the wagon was close enough to the sides of that narrow canyon that he could’ve reached a root and yanked it.”

  “If we think the avalanche was man-made, then how about Lana Bullard?” Luke said. “She’s a lot more familiar with that area than Paul. I checked her house once right after Bullard died. She was gone, but I never looked again. She could’ve come back. Her cabin isn’t visible from my place. She’d’ve had a lot of time to set that avalanche up. She knew we were friends, Dare. She had to reckon you’d be out to visit sometime. She could have been working on it for weeks.”

  “You said you have several ideas,
Vince. Several is more than two.” Dare frowned. “Nice to know you can think up a long list of folks who want me dead.”

  “You had a supply of morphine. There are men around who got addicted during the war and they might want to take your supply.”

  “Steal the drugs maybe, but why kill me?” Dare thought of a few men who’d come in with unexplained aches and pains, wanting laudanum mainly, but a couple of them had asked for morphine specifically. He’d refused them and talked with them about living without the drug. They’d never seemed dangerous before, but maybe he’d misjudged how desperate they were.

  “To cover their tracks?” Vince suggested. “If it’s someone here in Broken Wheel, they’d probably have to quit the country if they stole and got caught. But a fire destroying a house would barely raise an eyebrow. Things like that happen. And no one is likely to notice bottles of morphine gone out of a burned-out building.”

  “Is that it?” Dare glowered at Vince. “Anyone else who might try and kill me?”

  “Well—” Vince began.

  “No.” Dare cut him off. “Enough. We’ve got suspects aplenty and no way to find proof on any of them.” Dare had very few ideas. All he could honestly think of was to keep a sharp lookout. “It seems like if it’s Lana, she’d’ve tried again by now. So what do we do, post a guard?”

  “We have been.” Vince’s managing ways, behind Dare’s back, were irritating.

  “What?”

  “Jonas and I took shifts watching the whole time Elias Foster was sick at your place. And we intend to keep doing it.”

  “They didn’t tell me until the day we went out to Gil’s,” Luke said a little sheepishly. “Then I got sick and I reckon I pressured you harder than I might’ve otherwise to stay out at my house. My men have stood guard there every night. Vince told Red Wolf and me at the same time. He’s planning to come tonight and take a turn himself.”

  “Red Wolf’s coming into town?” Dare couldn’t believe it.

  “He’ll stay in the woods outside of town, but he figures he owes you. And Red Wolf doesn’t like anyone killing his medicine man.”

  Vince might be too busy running things to care if Dare was upset, but Luke and Jonas realized it.

  “You’ve posted a watch on my house all this time and never told me?”

  “You were with that boy night and day.” Vince crossed his arms, stubborn as always. “What good would it have done to tell you about a suspicion we had, when you couldn’t get away hardly to eat, let alone take a turn on sentry duty?”

  Dare decided fighting was a waste of time right now. He went back to the suspect list. “The only reason for Lana to do it is if she’s plumb loco. Which she is.” Dare had seen her eyes. Madness.

  Nodding, Vince went on, “So she might’ve set off that avalanche and then been stopped when you went out to the Kiowa village. The fire hit almost as soon as you got back. We decided not to give her a chance to burn your new house down. But we’ve seen no sign of her trying anything.”

  “And if it was Paul . . . and we believe the avalanche was an accident,” Luke said, sounding skeptical, “then he might’ve had a moment of fury and done such a thing but not be likely to do it again.”

  “And if it’s someone after the morphine,” Vince said, “then you just got a new shipment in. There was no sense attacking you when you had nothing to steal. Plus, a morphine thief might’ve found a supply from somewhere else to tide him over for a while.”

  Dare was opening his mouth to respond to that when Ruthy dashed out of the diner, shouting.

  “Dare, come quick! Janny cut herself. It’s bad!”

  Dare was running before he had time to think.

  But as he sprinted toward his next patient, his brain started working. He was tired of there always being sick and injured people everywhere he turned. Of course, that was one of the hazards of being a doctor, and Lord knew he didn’t mind helping them.

  That wasn’t the point. He was sick of being a liar. But how was he ever supposed to become a rancher if people kept needing him to doctor them?

  He was fed up with the people in this town getting sick. They’d better get healthy and stay healthy so Dare could get on with starting his new career.

  Chapter 14

  There was blood everywhere. An artery severed maybe? The hand was so coated he couldn’t see for sure.

  Dare rushed to the little girl, pushing himself between Glynna and Tina, who were trying to stop the bleeding with a dish towel. He swept her into his arms. “I’m taking her to my house. It’s quicker than bringing all the medical supplies over here.”

  He was already running by the time he reached the back door of the diner. Entering his house, he put her down on the bed he used for an examining table and grabbed a clean cloth.

  Glynna was a step behind him. Vince next. No one else came.

  “I told them to stay out.” Vince read Dare’s mind. “They’re ready to help if you need it, though.”

  Dare dabbed at the blood on Janny’s wrist. There was a deep slash, but the blood had no pulse. Shuddering with relief, he said, “She hasn’t cut an artery.”

  But the little girl had come close.

  Glynna let a tiny moan of fear escape as if she hadn’t even considered that. “It happened so fast. Janny was drying dishes and she picked up a butcher knife. It slipped.”

  “Get me hot water, Vince. Glynna, my doctor bag is by the front door.” Dare gave a few more orders as he explored the wound. He looked at Janny’s tear-soaked eyes. The little one was crying silently. He hated that she was so quiet.

  “We’ll take care of you, honey.” A closer look at the wound told Dare the cut was deep on her palm and fingers besides her wrist. Praying for God to guide his hands, he said to the child, “It’s okay to say it hurts.”

  She gave him a nod but remained silent.

  The basin of hot water appeared at his side. Everything he’d demanded was delivered faster than he could get ready for it. “We’re going to need to sew this up.”

  Whimpering, Janny tugged at his tight grip.

  “Hold still, please.” Dare fought to remain calm as he saw the artery blue and pulsing, the skin cut open to within a hairsbreadth. One false move on Dare’s part might damage the vital artery and there might be no way to save the little girl’s life short of amputating her hand. He wanted to beg the little one to stay very still until this mean cut was closed. But begging wasn’t the way a doctor behaved. A doctor took charge. He gave orders. That was the way to comfort a patient and he knew it, but he was having trouble not babying the sweet child.

  The muscle was damaged, and Dare couldn’t sew that up and her skin both. It would leave stitches inside her, which would later become infected. He’d fix the muscle and let the skin close on its own. It’d be an ugly scar. Janny might blame him for that, but the muscle was a lot more important than the skin.

  Thoughts of the war and the brutality of amputation made Dare sick to his stomach. He turned his thoughts to what needed to be done right now. “Get the sutures ready.”

  Glynna already stood across from him with his doctor bag open. She had what he wanted in front of him so fast it was startling. The needle was threaded.

  “Vince, soak the needle and thread in whiskey. There’s some in the cupboard there. Get a small bowl and let it soak while I work on the wound, then hold the needle to a flame.” Dare’s stomach clenched as he drew the skin gently closed on her flayed wrist. “You have to hold very still, Janny.”

  The door slammed open. Paul charged in. “I saw blood all over the kitchen.”

  A frightened cry from Janny was the first loud noise she’d made.

  Paul rushed to the bedside, jostling Dare’s grip on Janny’s wrist.

  “No, Paul. Stop. Be careful.”

  Janny’s crying rose to a wail. She tugged against Dare’s grip.

  “Paul, watch out.” Glynna’s frightened voice upset Janny even more. The child threw herself toward Glynna, who grapp
led to keep her still while Dare kept an iron grip on her wrist.

  The boy was white with fear. Dare couldn’t blame the kid, but there was no time to calm him down.

  Looking hard at Vince, Dare said, “Get him out and keep him out. Then I need you back. Get Jonas and Luke to hold him.”

  “No! Let me stay!” Paul clawed at Dare as Vince got hold of the boy.

  Janny squealed and jerked her hand. The move was so rough that Dare was afraid she’d deepened her cut by that last fraction of an inch.

  Vince dragged the shouting boy away. The door slammed shut, muffling the sound of the boy’s protests. Janny’s wrenching sobs shook her body, and she struggled against Dare’s hold.

  “You’ve got to stay still, honey.” Glynna dropped to the bed and took Janny’s right hand while Dare controlled her damaged left.

  “No!” Janny rolled toward Glynna. “Stop! I don’t want him to stab me with a needle. Get him away, Mama!”

  Glynna wrestled Janny back. Dare grabbed the little girl’s arm at the elbow, desperate to keep her from further injury. Her thrashing set the blood flowing faster.

  “Let me go!” Janny’s cries grew louder, her resistance more desperate.

  He didn’t dare let the little one fight any longer.

  Vince came charging back in.

  Tina Cahill was hard on his heels. “Let me help.”

  Dare said, “Vince, laudanum.”

  “No, I don’t want her drugged.” Glynna had been calm, but she reacted strongly to his ordering of laudanum.

  “Mama, stop him. No!” Janny screamed. Her whole body heaved against Dare’s grip.

  “Hold her legs, Tina,” Dare said. “We’ve got to keep her still.”

  Tina rushed to obey Dare. She looked sick to hold down the frantic little girl, but she didn’t hesitate for a second.

  “Please,” Glynna begged, “let me try to calm her down without laudanum. Give me a chance to—”

  “Help me,” Dare snapped. He looked Glynna square in the eye. “You do what I say when I say it or I’ll have Vince throw you out just like he did your son. I need her calm or she might—” Dare couldn’t say Janny might lose her hand. He couldn’t terrify the girl any more than she already was.