Smoke Jensen, the Beginning

by William W. Johnstone

  “I don’t understand. Why should we mind being seen with you?”

  “I told you my name is Sue, but I’m better known as Chicago Sue.” The woman smiled again. “That isn’t my real name, of course. But women in my profession rarely give their real names.”

  “Oh.” Emmett blushed just a little.

  “So you can see why you might not want to embarrass yourself by being seen with me. If you wish to withdraw your invitation to sit with you, I will understand and think no ill of you because of it.”

  “Don’t be silly, Miss Sue. The invitation stands.” Emmett held the chair as Sue sat at the table, then he raised his hand to signal for a waiter.

  “Yes, sir?” the waiter asked, arriving at the table. The expression on his face as he saw Sue indicated that he knew who she was and that he didn’t approve of her being there.

  “Coffee for the lady.”

  “Sir, as you are new in town, perhaps you don’t know who she is. Are you sure . . .”

  “That I want coffee for the lady? Yes, I’m quite sure. Please bring it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come,” Sue said.

  “Don’t be silly. You are welcome at our table. But I am curious. Why did you come?”

  “The man you shot, Mr. Cox, beat up one of the young ladies in my employ recently. I had him arrested, and he swore that he would extract revenge. I can’t be sure that is the only reason he returned to Dallas, but neither can I discount it. At any rate, thanks to you, I no longer have to be afraid of him.”

  “Does Fancy Lil work for you?” Kirby asked impatiently.

  Sue gasped. “What? What do you know about Fancy Lil?”

  “We know nothing about her,” Emmett replied quickly. He smiled and shook his head. “I don’t know what got into him for even asking such a thing.”

  “I know she is beautiful,” Kirby said. “I heard someone in the saloon yesterday say that her face was so beautiful it would launch a thousand ships. I don’t know what that means, but she must be some kind of beautiful for a man to say a crazy thing like that.”

  “Yes, Lil is a beautiful young woman, but then all my girls are . . . or they wouldn’t be working for me.”

  Kirby smiled. “I’d sure like to see what she looks like.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” Emmett said resolutely. “And we don’t have time for such things.”

  “Anyway, it wouldn’t be possible for you to see her now,” Sue said. “She’s away on a trip. I’m not sure when she’ll be back.”

  “They asked about me?” Janey frowned.

  “Not about you. The young one . . .”

  “My brother.”

  “He asked about Fancy Lil. And he only asked because he heard someone talking about you in the Yellow Dog. Apparently, someone said that you were so beautiful that your face would launch a thousand ships.” Sue laughed. “Now, who do you think would say such a thing?”

  “Sounds like Dr. Dunaway.”

  “Of course, it’s Dr. Dunaway. Apparently your brother was fascinated by the idea, and wanted to see someone whose face could do such a thing.”

  “What did you tell them?”

  “I told them that you were away on a trip.”

  Janey twisted her hands in her lap. “Oh, Sue, what if they come here and see me?”

  “I don’t think they will. Your father strikes me as a bit of a prude.”

  Despite her concern, Janey laughed. “Yes, he is a prude.”

  “Do you really think your father would come to a place like this?”

  “No, I don’t think he would. But Kirby might.”

  CHAPTER 10

  “I may not be here the next time you come,” Janey said.

  “What?” Big Ben raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at her lying beside him.

  The cover came up only to her waist, leaving the rest of her bare body revealed to him. A bar of light slipped in around the edge of the drawn shade, falling upon her right breast and making it gleam in the light.

  Ben frowned. “What do you mean you might not be here? Where would you be?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Janey, that doesn’t make sense.” Since she’d told him her real name, he insisted on using it when they were together. “I mean, how can you say you aren’t going to be here, but not have any idea where you will be?”

  “It’s just that I can’t stay here any longer. I can’t take the chance. They might find me.”

  “You can’t take a chance on who finding you? Janey, are you in trouble with the law? If you are, I can afford a lawyer. Hell, I can afford an entire army of lawyers. I don’t care what you did. I know I can get you out of it.”

  “No, it isn’t that. I’m not in trouble with the law. It’s my pa and my brother that I’m afraid of.”

  “Why are you afraid of them?”

  “Ben, do you really think I want them to know that I wound up doing what I do?”

  “I don’t think of you in that way.”

  “Of course you do. How else can you think of me?”

  “I can think of you as my wife.”

  Janey sat up in bed and looked at Ben with a surprised expression on her face. “What?” her voice was so weak that she could barely be heard.

  “I said you could be my wife.”

  Marshal Wallace found the Jensens in the hotel dining room. “If you two will come down to the bank, I’ll see to it that you get your reward money. As it turns out, in addition to the five-hundred-dollar reward for Emerson Cox, there was another two hundred dollars bein’ offered for Clarence Haggart. So the total comes to seven hundred dollars. That’s a pretty good sum of money.”

  “Yes, sir, it is,” Emmett said. “I wouldn’t have killed the man for the money, but neither I nor my boy had any choice in the matter. What’s done is done, and I have no regrets at taking the money.”

  Ben Conyers parked the surrey in front of the bank, and set the brake. “Wait here, I’ve got some business in the bank, but it’ll only take a couple minutes,” he said with a smile. “Then we’ll go out to Live Oaks Ranch.”

  “Where is Live Oaks?” Janey asked.

  “It’s just north of Fort Worth. One hundred and twenty thousand acres of the finest land in Texas. You’re going to love it there.”

  “I know that I will.” She watched Ben tie off the team, then walk into the bank.

  One hundred and twenty thousand acres, he had said. She remembered making the vow never to be the wife of a farmer, but when she’d made that vow she was thinking about the forty acres she had lived on with her family.

  The family that she no longer had.

  As she was sitting in the carriage she saw the marshal approaching. She knew that, technically, Chicago Sue was violating a city ordinance by running a house of “entertainment,” but she knew, too, that the ordinance was aimed at the rowdy, bawdy houses, more than it was at the Palace Princess Emporium, which actually passed itself off as a private club. Fights, stabbings, and even occasional shootings occurred in the bawdy houses. Such a thing had never occurred at the Palace Princess Emporium, and because of that, neither the marshal, nor any of his deputies, had ever made an official visit.

  The marshal stopped at the corner and looked back as if waiting for someone. Appearing from behind the building, two other men joined him.

  Recognition dawned and Janey drew a quick, alarmed breath. Her pa and brother were headed right past the surrey! No way they would not see her! She looked around in panic. What could she do?

  “Marshal Wallace?” someone shouted.

  Marshal Wallace held out his hand to stop her pa and her brother, then he turned his attention to the man who had called out to him. So did Emmett and Kirby.

  At that moment, Ben came out of the bank, smiling up at Janey. “We’re all set.”

  “Ben, it’s them!” Janey hissed.

  “What? It’s who? What are you talking about?”

 
“Those two men down there with Marshal Wallace. That’s my pa and my brother.”

  “Have they seen you yet?”

  “No.”

  “Come back into the bank with me until they’re gone. No, wait, they might be going to the bank.” Looking around, he saw the Elite Dress Shoppe and smiled. “Come.” He pulled her from the surrey. “We’ll go into the dress shop. It’s for sure and certain they won’t be going there.”

  He lifted her down, then put himself between her and the men. “Stay in front of me and keep your head down.”

  Although it was only a few steps from the surrey to the dress shop, Janey held her breath and clenched her fists, waiting to hear her name called. She breathed a sigh of relief when they went inside.

  “Yes, can I help you?” a female clerk asked.

  “Do you have any ready-made dresses? Not everyday work dresses, mind you. I want something fine and beautiful, for a beautiful lady.”

  “Indeed we do, sir,” the clerk replied.

  “Good, then help her find something, would you? And you can take your time.”

  In the bank, the chief teller counted out seven hundred dollars and handed the money to Emmett. Emmett turned and gave half the money to Kirby.

  “That is a great deal of money to be carrying with you,” the bank president said. “I would be very happy to open an account for you.”

  Emmett nodded. “Thank you, but we won’t be staying in town long enough to have an account. We’ll be moving on today.”

  “I don’t know where you are bound, but if you are looking for a good place to settle down, you won’t find any place any better than Dallas.”

  “I’m sure Dallas is a nice town. But my son and I have itchy feet. I’ve seen the Atlantic Ocean. Now I have a hankering to see the Pacific.”

  The bank president didn’t understand. “Why? Once you’ve seen one ocean, you’ve seen them all.”

  “The boy hasn’t seen either ocean,” Emmett said.

  As his pa and the banker were talking, Kirby saw a newspaper lying on a table in the middle of the bank, and he walked over to glance at it.

  MISSOURI BUSHWHACKER

  TO BE TRIED IN SALCEDO

  Elmer Gleason Rode with

  Bloody Bill Anderson

  Elmer Gleason, who is one of the most malevolent men ever to come out of the late war, has been captured in Salcedo. It is said that when he rode with Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson he kept a string of ears severed from the heads of his victims, be they man, woman, or child.

  Although those who followed their conscience to fight for the South have been paroled, the villains who rode with Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson can never be forgiven. The trespasses of such men are so great that only He, who is the final arbitrator of the transgressions of those who have made their temporary journey upon this mortal coil, will be able to grant them final remission and absolution of their sins.

  Trial for Elmer Gleason will commence on the 28th instant.

  “Pa?” Kirby asked when they left the bank a few minutes later. “How long would it take for us to get to Salcedo?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know where Salcedo is or how far it is from here. Why do you ask?”

  “We need to go there.”

  “We need to go to Salcedo? Why?”

  “A friend of mine is in trouble there.”

  Emmett frowned impatiently. “What friend? And how come you’re just now tellin’ me this?”

  “I didn’t know about it until just now. I saw it in the paper while we was in the bank. We need to be there by the twenty-eighth of this month.”

  “You saw in the paper that you have a friend in trouble in Salcedo, and we have to be there by the twenty-eighth? What happens if we don’t get there by the twenty-eighth?”

  “It’s more ’n likely, Elmer will get hung.”

  “All right. Who is Elmer?”

  Kirby figured it was now or never. “Pa, there’s somethin’ me ’n you need to talk about.”

  “I’m sure there is.” Emmett waited . . . impatiently.

  “Well, I reckon it’s about as good a time as any to tell you.” Kirby took a deep breath. “Pa, the fella I killed yesterday . . . wasn’t the first man I ever killed. I’ve been in some battles, quite a few of ’em, only there wasn’t none of ’em big battles like the kind you fought.”

  Without expanding on his own role in the battles, he told of riding with Asa Briggs and being in fights at such places as Clark’s Mill, Hartville, Pilot Knob, Glasgow, Lexington, and Newtonia.

  “I was at Baxter Springs, too,” Kirby said. “That’s why I was a little hesitant about us goin’ there. I was afraid someone might recognize me.”

  Emmett was shocked. “Boy, answer me, and I want you to tell me the truth. Did you burn any private houses or kill any innocent people?”

  “No, Pa, we didn’t. I will say that the Ghost Riders, that’s what those of us who rode with Briggs called ourselves, from time to time joined up with Quantrill for some of the battles. And I’ve heard of some of the things he done, but Briggs was real particular about not killin’ innocent people. And none of that ever happened on those few times Asa Briggs teamed up with Quantrill. Fact is, I don’t think I woulda stayed with him if he had done anything like that.”

  “What you just told me has something to do with your friend Elmer?”

  “Yes, sir. His name is Elmer Gleason, ’n he rode some with Quantrill and some with Bloody Bill Anderson. Then, toward the end, he rode with Asa Briggs, ’n that’s when he become my friend. But now they got him on trial at Salcedo, on account of he rode with Quantrill and Anderson.”

  Emmett gave it some thought. “You say you want to go to Salcedo. What do you plan to do?”

  “I’m not sure. But if we can figure out how to do it, I’d like to rescue him.”

  “It would mean violatin’ the law.”

  “That might be true, Pa. But there’s also such a thing as honor, ain’t there? Seems to me, if I didn’t try to save my friend, that would violate my honor.”

  Emmett looked at Kirby for a long moment, then nodded and put his hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re right. There is such a thing as honor. But, I’ve got a feelin’ you ain’t told me ever’thing.”

  ‘No, sir. I reckon I ain’t.”

  “Is it about your ma and your sister?”

  “Yes, sir. You asked me why I wanted to kill Angus Shardeen, and what I told you about him killin’ Kenny ’n his family and Merlin ’n his family is true, but that ain’t the all of it. Ma didn’t die in her sleep like I told you. She was killed by the Jayhawkers. Angus Shardeen is the one that shot her.”

  “Him in particular? Or one of his men?”

  “It was him in particular, Pa, ’cause I seen him do it. I didn’t have no gun or nothin’, so there wasn’t nothin’ I could do. The only reason I joined up with Asa Briggs was ’cause I wanted to go after Shardeen. I wanted to find him and kill him. But we never found him. That’s why I say that if I find him, I’m goin’ to kill ’im.”

  “Seems reasonable to me,” Emmett said. “We’ll just add his name to the list of Potter, Stratton, Casey, and Richards.”

  “Oh, and Pa, about the funeral for Ma? I lied to you about that, too. I told you that folks come from all over, but the truth is that the only funeral was the one that me ’n Janey give her. It was Janey that dressed her in her best dress, and I’m the one that dug the grave. Janey cleaned out the feedin’ trough, the one that was used for the milk cows, and that’s what we put Ma in. I’m sorry we didn’t have somethin’ a lot more fine for her.”

  Emmett nodded. “You know, I have a feelin’ that your ma probably appreciated that a lot more ’n she would have if a whole lot of folks had showed up for it.”

  “Yes, sir. I kinda hope that’s the way it is.”

  “What about Janey? Did she actually run off like you said?”

  “Yes, sir, she did. But I can’t hardly blame her. The same men tha
t killed Ma used Janey, Pa. They used her bad. She left home right after we buried Ma.”

  “With the gamblin’ fella?”

  Kirby nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  “When you started tellin’ the story, I thought it might be somethin’ like that. I reckon now I don’t hold it ag’in her so much that she left as I did. I reckon she felt like she had a good enough reason.”

  She might have had a good reason to leave, but she didn’t have a good reason to take all their money with her, Kirby thought, but he didn’t share that with his pa.

  “I wonder where she is now?” Emmett asked. “I wonder if she is alive?”

  “Oh, it’s beautiful!” Janey was looking at herself in the mirror at the dress shop as she tried on one of the dresses.

  Ben sat in a nearby chair. “Would you like it?”

  “Oh, Ben, no. I mean yes, of course I like it. But I can’t let you buy this for me.”

  “Why not? It isn’t like I can’t afford it.”

  “That’s not the point.”

  “Of course it’s the point. You like it, and I like seeing it on you.” He looked at the clerk. “We’ll take it.”

  “Wonderful. I’ll just go get the ledger book and the cash box.”

  “They’re gone,” Ben said quietly after the clerk left.

  Janey turned toward him. “How do you know?”

  “I saw them leave the bank and walk down to the Lone Star Hotel. As soon as I pay the clerk, we’ll leave town in the opposite direction.”

  “Oh, Ben, are you sure it will be safe? I don’t know what I would do if they actually saw me.”

  “How long has it been since either of them saw you?”

  “It’s been four years since Pa last saw me, and three years since Kirby saw me.”

  “What were you wearing, then?”

  “What? I don’t know. Some sort of plain cotton dress, I think.”

  “Nothing like this,” he said, taking in the dress she was wearing with a wave of his hand.

  Janey looked down at the beautiful dress. “No, nothing like this.”