Hard Justice

by Mike McNeff

  “I’ve heard the news of the death of our father and brothers. My heart hurts.”

  “It’s a hard thing.”

  “I am filled with the memories of father’s warm heart and the love of our brothers. They accepted me as family as soon as we became brothers.”

  “As your family did me.”

  “We have come through many good summers and some hard winters.”

  “And we still remain brothers.”

  “That will be for all time, Fire Hawk. You are looking for the men who killed them.” Black Feather was making a statement, not asking a question.

  “I’ve found many of them but four rode here. They went to Indian Jack’s ranch, stole his horses and killed him. They took his daughters, too.”

  “We found his daughters and the men who killed Jack.”

  Jasper looked at Black Feather. “How are the daughters?”

  “Soft Rain is dead. Moon On The Water and Butterfly Wing were violated and tortured. They are ruined.”

  Jasper looked at the ground. He loved his brother and his people but their attitude towards raped women bothered him. “Will you ban them and send them into the wilderness?”

  “It is our way. We will banish them after they have their justice, as you say.”

  “I’ll take them with me.”

  Black Feather considered his brother’s statement. “Will you take them as wives?”

  “You know I have a wife. One is enough. I’ll employ them until they decide what they want to do. I have to care for our father’s ranch now, too. They’ll be a great help.”

  “Maybe that might be good, but they are Jack’s daughters and like him in many ways.”

  “I know, but remember who I’m married to. I can handle them.”

  Black Feather laughed. “I guess you like trouble because there’s no trouble like a strong minded woman and you are talking about adding two more!”

  “What about the men?”

  Black Feather’s face turned to stone. “We killed one. We have the others. I was riding to check on Jack so I can relate their full crime to the council lodge.”

  “Jack was shot many times. I asked the spirits to take him according to custom.”

  “Thank you, brother. After we eat we’ll ride to our village.”

  The two men rode slowly, recounting their younger days and remembering their happiness with Pa and the brothers. They talked of the hunting, fishing trips and campfires they all shared. Black Feather told of the contest he and the brothers had to see who could swing the farthest onto the river with a rope that hung on a giant oak next to the bank.

  “I remember Caleb trying to swing out, but he was so young and skinny, he couldn’t get enough movement from the rope. He wouldn’t give up, swinging time after time until his arms and hands failed him. Though not strong in his body, Caleb’s heart had the strength of a bear.”

  Jasper heard Black Feather swallow hard and looked over to see rivulets of tears. They rode the rest of the way in companionable silence.

  Bart Moore sat on his horse just outside the Kentville town limits. One of the governor’s men came by the gang’s cabin and told Bart his uncle wanted to see him. When Bart asked what his uncle wanted, the man only answered the governor wasn’t happy about something.

  The nervous stomping of the hooves of his horse echoed the churning in Bart’s gut. He always felt like a failure in his uncle eyes. Uncle Cornell was a no nonsense man. At times he could be down-right mean. Those times brought back the awful ghost of his father.

  The memory of his father drove his emotions to the highest levels and to the lowest like a demented yo-yo. Bart winced at the thought of the beatings his used to give him in his early years. The words his father spewed out as his arm swung the strap up and down hurt nearly as much as the beating. But when he turned eleven, his father took an interest in him. Taught him how to cheat at cards, how to drink, how to steal, how to shoot and other things his father said were useful in life. Getting this attention and to be liked by his father thrilled young Bart…until he turned thirteen.

  On the night of his thirteenth birthday he shared a hotel room with his father on Bourbon Street. Father took him for a steak dinner and bought him his first drink. In the steamy, hot New Orleans night, a drowsy Bart stripped off his clothes and drifted off thinking his life was going turn out okay. He woke from a hazy sleep when his father and another man came into the room. Both men were drunk. His father lit a lamp while the other man yanked off the sheet and Bart jumped up, embarrassed and trying to cover his privates.

  The stranger gave Bart a good looking over. “Yeah, he’ll do nicely.” He handed Bart’s father a wad of money.

  Both men came towards him.

  Bart instinctively backed away, but they grabbed him and pushed him onto the bed. His father held him down while the other man pulled his hips up and got in between his legs.

  “Pap, don’t let him hurt me!”

  “It’s okay, Bart. Just relax. You’ll get twenty bucks when this is over.”

  Bart started to scream as the man pushed himself into Bart’s bunghole, but his father covered his mouth. Bart gritted his teeth while tears poured from his eyes in anger, humiliation and betrayal. Time went gone to the end of the universe and back before the man finally satisfied himself.

  Tortured relief swept through Bart now that no more hands touched him. He was hurt, but he turned to look at his father and the man talking quietly. A rampant fury filled his chest. He pulled the Arkansas Toothpick he kept under his pillow for protection, sprang from the bed and drove the knife into his father’s back. At the same time he pulled his father’s pistol.

  His rapist was slow to react and Bart shot him twice in the chest. The man dropped in a heap.

  Bart walked to the rapist and their eyes met. Bart shot him in the crotch, then watched blood soak through the cloth and start to cover the floor like an incoming tide.

  He turned to his father who squirmed on the floor trying to reach the knife in his back. “You sold me, you son of a bitch.” Bart aimed the gun and shot his father twice in the face. He stood for a long moment staring at his father’s mangled visage.

  Yelling outside and banging on the door jacked him out of his haze. Grabbing his clothes and the bloodstained wad of bills the rapist had given his father, he climbed out of the window. Making his way along a series of roofs he found a drain pipe and shimmied down, collapsing in an alley from the pain in his bunghole. He knew he was bleeding but nothing could be done about it at the moment. He crawled to a stack of barrels, hiding behind them while he dressed. He eventually made it to a Creole witch who fixed him up with surprising compassion. He decided to let her live.

  Then he headed West to look for his mother. He knew her brother took her to one of the territories when Bart and his father left her. He also knew his uncle was some kind of big shot. It took a while, but he found them.

  The coming meeting with his uncle whisked the memory away. His uncle, the governor of the territory, was the most powerful and important man he had ever known. He desperately wanted the man to like him. Bart steeled himself, half- heartedly spurring his horse to trot down the ridge to the governor’s office. He stopped in front of one of the governor’s men.

  “’Bout time you got here,” the man said as Moore climbed the steps to the porch. “The ol’ man is like a caged mountain lion.”

  Bart swallowed hard and stepped through the door.

  “Get in here, Bart!” His uncle called from across the foyer.

  Bart walked into the office.

  “Close the door.”

  He pushed the door shut.

  “What in the hell have you done?”

  An endless list of crimes flashed through his mind. “I ain’t done nothin’,” Bart sputtered.

  “Nothing! You call murder and rape nothing!”

  “There ain’t no proof I done such things.”

  The governor grabbed papers off his desk. “No? How about
a statement from an outlaw by the name of Rich Delton who says he was there and it was all your idea. The Cassidy County judge is considering issuing a warrant for your arrest. ”

  Bart felt blood draining from his face but his mouth sneered. “Rich Delton is an idiot and liar.”

  “Oh, really? And just how do you know this Rich Delton?”

  Bart swallowed the lump in his throat but made no reply.

  “Damn, if you weren’t my sister’s son I’d hang you myself.”

  “Uncle…”

  “Shut up! If you want to live you listen to me and do exactly as I say.” Uncle Cornell handed him a map. “You go out to my ranch and get a bed at the bunk house. Tell the new foreman I said to hire you on. Tell ‘em your name is John Smith. You work and stay on that ranch until I tell you to move. You don’t say anything except ‘yes, sir,’ ‘no, sir,’ and ‘thank you, sir.’ You got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “You better because word is Jasper Lee is looking for you. The men you killed were his father and brothers.”

  A jolt of fear shot through Bart’s spine.

  “He shot a Johnny Stewart and two other cowboys,” Uncle Cornell continued. “He would’ve killed Delton, too, but the Lowell Town marshal stopped him.”

  Bart stood mute, fumbling with his hat. “Get out of here!” The governor growled.

  The ride back to the cabin left plenty of time for fear to smolder into anger and anger to flame into loathing.

  He’s upset over a rape?! No one gave a damn about me getting raped! And murder…he has no idea how many trusting idiots I’ve killed. Bart straightened himself in the saddle and pushed his chest out. I’ve left bodies from New Orleans to here. I took everything they owned and no one knows…no one knows. Those three men and the girl were nothin’. If that old son of a bitch don’t watch it, I’ll show him who’s the most powerful man around here!

  He dug his spurs into his horse and galloped to the cabin.

  Cornell Norris sat at his desk twirling a pencil as he contemplated the acts of his nephew. He worried about the affect they may have on his goals.

  He’d sacrificed, risked, fought, cheated and killed to get control of everything around him...the land, the money, the governorship…and then there’s Bart…a crazy, uncontrollable liability.

  Cornell loved his sister. If she hadn’t protected him when they were kids he would’ve ended up as bad as Bart. But she did protect him and she paid hell for it. He couldn’t forget that...wouldn’t forget it, no matter what. We deserve better than what we got as kids and I’m going to see we get it.

  Cornell figured when he became senator he’d have enough money to woo the most politically connected single woman in Washington D.C. and start building his political base to make a run for president. When he became president nothing could stop him from becoming the richest and most powerful man in the country.

  … but Bart may just be too much of a problem.

  The description of the murders in the report, especially the murder of the girl, were just too horrendous. If word got out connecting Bart to those deaths it would ruin Cornell. Ruin any chance of him being US Senator. Ruin any chance of wooing a politically connected woman. Ruin any chance at giving his sister a better life. He would do whatever he needed to do to keep a lid on this.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MOST ALL OF THE RESIDENTS of Cassidy County attended the meeting to appoint a new sheriff. Micah looked around for Gale but she wasn’t there. He hoped she would come to the meeting and approve of Jasper’s appointment. Micah knew only Gale could convince Jasper to accept.

  “Quiet down! Quiet down! This here meetin’ will come to order!” Bill Newlin, the chairman of the county commission called out.

  An unsettled quiet filled the room.

  “Okay, thank you. We’re here today to appoint a new sheriff. This appointment will be temporary until we hold an election. Because of the urgency of the situation we’re going to take nominations from the group here today and the commissioners will appoint one of those nominated.”

  The door opened and Micah turned to see if his hope had been fulfilled.

  Gale stepped inside.

  He rose to his feet. “Mr. Chairman, I have a nomination.”

  “Go ahead, Micah.”

  “I nominate Jasper Lee.”

  The room filled with murmurs and muffled exclamations.

  “Order! Order! Is Jasper here?” Bill asked.

  “No he ain’t,” someone said.

  “Well, I don’t think it’s right to nominate someone who ain’t here,” Bill commented. “He can’t speak for himself.”

  “I can speak for him,” Gale almost whispered.

  “Wait a minute!” Horace Baily called out. “Jasper Lee is a violent man and a known killer. We can’t have him as sheriff!”

  Micah could feel the blood flush to his face. “Horace, you weren’t here during the cattle wars. All you’ve heard about Jasper is part rumor and part legend. Jasper fought in the War Between the States and came back a decorated cavalry officer. He found his family’s ranches and those of his neighbors in jeopardy from marauding ex-soldiers from both sides who raided ranches committing murder and rape while stealing ranch lands and cattle. He organized the ranchers to fight back. That’s how the cattle wars began. They lasted for seven months, off and on. The wars ended largely because of Jasper’s pursuit of the criminals and his reputation for no quarter frightened most of them off.”

  “That’s the part I don’t understand. I hear tell he killed more men than was needed.”

  “Depends on your point of view. In my opinion Jasper did what he had to do. We all did for that matter.”

  “Well, I hope it don’t happen again.”

  Micah didn’t answer right away as several unpleasant pictures flew through his mind. Then a long breath escaped through his teeth. “We can always hope. Jasper is the only one among us who had the guts to go after the killers who committed the worst crime in this county for a long time. From all accounts he’s taking care of business we all should be doin’. You got no right sayin’ he’s a bad man.”

  Horace pointed his finger at Micah. “That don’t mean...”

  “My husband is not a bad man!” Gale’s voice rang clear and true. “He can be a hard man, I’ll give you that, but this is hard country. Times come when we have need of hard men.

  “There’s not a person in this room that can call Jasper a cheat, a fraud, or a thief. When many of you needed help, he came to you. I can’t recall a time when he turned down any one of you that asked for his help and there’s that many again that he helped without your asking. Landsakes, Horace, when you took sick he worked day and night on both our ranches until you got well! If it hadn’t been for him you’d a lost your ranch. And now you say bad things about him! Not a one of you can say Jasper’s not a man of his word and y’all know if he’s appointed sheriff, he’ll be fair and honest.”

  Jessica Dolan, Claire’s mother, stood. “We received word from the marshal in Lowell Town that Jasper found and buried Claire. I went to her grave. Jasper was careful to make it a fitting, resting place for our beautiful girl. A bad man doesn’t do things like that. As you all know my husband’s wounds prevent him from being here but he urges the commission to appoint Jasper as the sheriff of this county.”

  “Do ya think he’d accept the appointment, Gale?” Bill asked.

  “I don’t rightly know. He has his own thoughts about the law and justice. But if you appoint him, I’ll talk to him. No promises, mind you, but I’ll speak my piece.”

  “Mr. Chairman,” Micah called. “It’s my suggestion, unless there’s other nominations, you appoint Jasper Lee, Sheriff of Cassidy County startin’ back when Carl Williams was killed. He’s already brought several of those criminals to justice. I believe he should have our blessing for what he’s done and for his hunt for the rest of them.”

  The chairman looked around the room. “Are there any other nominations?�
�

  No one spoke.

  The Chairman smacked his gavel on the table. “The nominations are closed. Those commissioners in favor of appointing Jasper Lee as Sheriff of Cassidy County, say aye.”

  The vote was unanimous.

  “Those commissioners in favor of allowing Gale Lee to accept the appointment on behalf of Jasper Lee, say aye.”

  The vote was unanimous again.

  “Is this legal?” someone shouted.

  “How in the heck do I know?” Bill answered. “I ain’t no lawyer but we don’t have the time to dicker. Until further notice Jasper Lee is the sheriff of this county and that’s that.”

  The chairman waved and after a deep breath to steady herself, Gale walked forward. She held her head high and was happy she wore a dress so no one could see her shaking knees.

  She stood in front of the council. She wasn’t nervous about the people in the meeting, but thoughts about Jasper’s reaction made her heart pound like a horse’s galloping hooves.

  “Gale Lee, do you firmly believe Jasper Lee will accept this appointment?”

  “Yes.” After I talk to him.

  The Chairman nodded. “Please raise your right hand. Does Jasper Lee solemnly swear to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States and enforce its laws and the laws of this territory?”

  “He does.”

  “I hereby appoint Jasper Lee Sheriff of Cassidy County as of the death of Sheriff Carl Williams.“ He handed Gale the sheriff’s badge and banged the gavel. “This meetin’ is adjourned.”

  Gale stood still looking at the badge in her hand. Lord, what have I done. Memories of Jasper’s comments about law and justice percolated through her mind. She closed her fingers around the badge, swallowing hard.

  A hand fell gently on her shoulder. “You all right, Gale?”

  She turned and looked at Micah. “I think I’ve created the greatest test of Jasper’s love I could ever conceive.”

  “I don’t think anything could shake his love for you. Until this tragedy he’s stayed close to home, workin’ hard for you and the kids.”