by Abe Dancer
The Border Search
Jack Finch sets out on a long, forlorn ride to find the man who killed his young wife.
Unknown to Jack, Dawson Cayne, the man who committed the senseless murder, was working for a revengeful bitter old man, and that included taking out Jack as well.
Whilst recovering from a gunshot wound in a border sanatorium, Connie Kettle makes an appearance, and Jack quickly realizes there is more to his life than trailing a killer. But Cayne wants to prolong the torment, attempting to make Jack pay a dreadful price for a crime he didn’t even commit.
When the paths of the two men cross on the Arizona–Mexico border, innocent people are drawn into the conflict, some paying with their lives. Jack considers riding away, but too much is involved. He has to confront the never-ending torment, and finally meet the killer on terms that should only favour a ruthless, contract gunman.
By the same author
Ironhead
The Landbreakers
The Frightened Valley
Borderline
Death Song
Shot Gold
Puncher’s Creek
Hog-Tied
Freighter’s Way
Brevet Ridge
The Bull Chop
Wolf Hole
Rio Bonito
Trailing Wing
Three Trails
Teal’s Gold
Blue Wells
Sparrow’s Gun
The Guilty Hour
Blackwater
Writing as Caleb Rand
Glass Law
The Evil Star
Run Wild
The Black Road
Wolf Meat
Yellow Dog
Cold Guns
Big Greasewood
Blood Legs
The Goose Moon
Miller’s Ride
The Rosado Gang
The Iron Roads
Lizard Wells
Hoke John’s Land
Wild Meddow
Buzzard Point
Silver Track
Rising Red
Cody’s Fight
Buzzard Point
Calveron’s Chase
Stearn’s Break
The Applejack Men
Bonachon Blood
The Border Search
Abe Dancer
ROBERT HALE
© Abe Dancer 2017
First published in Great Britain 2017
ISBN 978-0-7198-2238-4
The Crowood Press
The Stable Block
Crowood Lane
Ramsbury
Marlborough
Wiltshire SN8 2HR
www.bhwesterns.com
Robert Hale is an imprint of The Crowood Press
The right of Abe Dancer to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
CHAPTER 1
Jack Finch watched as a scrap of furry mouse scampered to safety beneath the feet of his bayo mare. A moment later, he lifted his gaze and looked south across the barren landscape.
‘Let’s walk on,’ he said, squinting towards the border, the shimmer of distant sun-bleached adobes.
Nearly an hour later a high-noon sun was getting to him, making him tired and scratchy. As he rode into Cerro Cubacho a pair of scrub goats bleated, ran nervously for the shelter of a pole corral. A drowsing campesino flicked a toe at a sniffing dog, pushed a finger at the brim of his sombrero. But Jack didn’t see much else move and making a sound of encouragement he nudged his mount towards one of the nearest hitch rails.
‘Señor,’ the barkeep acknowledged, his voice flat and expressionless as Jack entered the low-built, rudimentary cantina.
Jack eyed the jar of pickled eggs, the bowl of chili on the counter in front of him.
‘Whiskey. Whatever you’ve got that passes for it,’ he said.
Jack carefully lifted the brimming glass and took a sip, at the same time glancing at the men who were seated at a corner table. They looked like Mexicans, getting drunk. One of them was young and laughing loudly. He wore a range hat, and his boots sported jingly spurs, with which he seemed happy to be making a noise.
A nerve twitched in Jack’s cheek. This was the bar where the man who had told him about his wife’s murderer had stood. Maybe he had similarly crooked an arm, even spooned an egg from the jar. Jack turned back to the barkeep.
‘They drink in here all the time?’ he asked.
The barkeep made a half-smile, gave a slight shake of the head.
‘No. I don’t think so. Then they all look the same to me.’
Jack nodded, considered returning a look of mild amusement.
‘I’m looking for someone,’ he said. ‘A stranger, like me. Perhaps you can recall him? I know he took a drink here recently.’
‘He was here until yesterday.’
‘Do you know where he is now? Where he went?’
‘If it’s the gringo, he’s on his way back from Sonata.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘That’s where the horses are an’ he went to buy one. Besides, he’s got a room that’s paid up for a few more days. You a friend o’ his?’
‘Give me the bottle of bug juice while I consider,’ Jack said.
Four or five drinks later Jack left the cantina for the beanery he’d noted when tying up. He ate beefsteak and biscuits, drank strong coffee. It seemed likely that he was only hours away from facing the man he’d been hunting down for so many months. There’d be no impulsive killing though, no summary execution. The hurt and anger was too deep for that. As he swallowed the acrid brew shadows lengthened in the street. First dark was approaching, and with tightening nerves he made his way back to the cantina.
Jack deliberately, carefully, snapped a $10 gold coin on to the counter.
‘So, I’ll be waiting in the gringo’s room,’ he suggested to the barkeep.
The man sniffed, picked up the coin and deftly secreted it.
‘If you didn’t know it, his name’s Cayne,’ he said.
‘Well, I want to surprise him,’ Jack said in mock conspiracy. ‘Might take me a nap, even.’ A minute later he was looking around one of two small annexed rooms at the rear of the cantina. He came up with nothing except a single sheet of newsprint slipped under a half-bottle of tequila. He unfolded the page, moving to a dusty window for more light.
It was a picture from the front of an old Tucson Messenger; a group of children waving flags at a summer street party. Jack was among them; he recognized himself standing with two other boys, but that was about all.
‘Where the hell did you get this? Are you one of these two?’ Jack muttered to the silent walls. ‘Did you know me? I don’t remember. None of us were more’n knee high. What’s going on?’
Try as he might, Jack couldn’t put a face to the name: Cayne. But he wasn’t really interested in knowing more personal stuff about a man he was close to killing.
He replaced the spent cartridge in his Colt, rolled the chamber with his thumb. It was dusk now and the room light was fading fast. His edginess increased and he moved a bamboo chair around the small floor space, setting it between a narrow back door and the window. He sat with his back to the wall, took a few deep breaths and rested his Colt along the top of his right leg.
As the room darkened all sounds seemed to be closing in, becoming more significant; a hoof clopped in the hard-packed dirt of the street; the borracho’s jingle-bob spurs sounded above the other voices in the bar. Jack wondered if Cayne had already arrived. He twisted around, lifted the edge of a makeshift curtain and looked out of the window. The moon was in its third quarter and if anyone approached close, he would see them quite clearly. Although he’d neve
r seen the man before he was certain he’d know the face when he saw it.
Jack cursed silently, tensed his body at a sound beyond the inner door. He moved the Colt up, waited silently until there was a tentative knock.
‘Señor. He’s here . . in the livery,’ the barkeep said.
Cautiously, Jack drew the door open. He stood back, levelled his Colt.
‘Step in and make a light,’ he said.
A match flared and outlined the uneasy Mexican.
‘He’s brought back a horse. He’ll maybe be a while.’
‘How do I get to the livery?’ Jack asked him.
‘You’ll see it. It’s across the street . . . almost. Whatever you’re set to do, do it there. My business here is bad enough.’
The match died and in the darkness Jack tapped the man’s bony shoulder with the long barrel of the Colt. ‘If you’re thinking of giving this man Cayne any sort of warning, remember it’s my money you’ve already tucked away. Next time it might be a bullet. Comprendes? Now, open this door,’ he added, turning the barkeep around.
‘Sí señor.’
Jack stepped into the moonlight. He waited until the door closed behind him, then moved quickly to the corner of the building and through to the front street, until he was in a doorway almost opposite the livery.
A lamp deep inside the building lit a grass-strewn dirt floor, two horses in stalls and a shambling, bulky figure who was talking to someone off in the shadows.
Jack holstered his Colt, wiped the palm of his hand and pulled the gun again. As he was about to cross the street a man reeled into the doorway in front of him. Jack cursed, took a short step sideways.
‘What do you want?’ the drunk rasped. ‘Waitin’ up on a man.’
‘I don’t want anything. Just keep quiet,’ Jack snapped, shoving him aside. The man grabbed at Jack’s gun hand for support and Jack had to hit him hard in the back of his neck. The man collapsed and Jack kneed him to the ground, back into the doorway.
When Jack looked up he saw that across the street the livery man had heard the scuffle and was looking directly his way.
Pushing his Colt back down into his holster Jack hastily crossed the street. He wanted to get in quick before the man thought about what was happening; he didn’t want him to say anything.
‘Evenin’,’ he said, coming up with something the man could respond to. ‘I saw you inside, talking to someone.’
‘Me talkin’? Oh sure, yeah. He’s back in the stalls, rubbin’ his horse down.’
‘Keep your eye on the street. There’s drunks abroad and they’re looking for trouble,’ Jack said tersely. He went straight on into the livery, but very alert, loosening his Colt. There were no sounds except one of the horses snorting, the other farting in response. Under the lantern’s yellow light he drew back the Colt’s hammer, halting beside an empty stall when a stick cracked under his boot. The horses took it in turns to nicker at his approach.
Jack glanced into each of the empty stalls, moving slowly into the gloom beyond the lamp’s beams. Thoughtful, he stopped and held his breath, listening intently.
He heard nothing; at the same time he felt a draught of cool air brush his face. He walked forward, peering beyond the open back door. The stockyards, under a mantle of pale silvery light, appeared empty.
‘It was him,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘And if he’s hiding in there, he’s close to being dead,’ he added, noting a long stock shed at the rear of the empty yards.
His skin felt cold, shivery, as he scanned the cattle chutes, climbing through a pole fence into a second yard, through to a third on his way to the shed.
His eyes grew accustomed to the darkness between the close rails of the pens and he could see a hanging assortment of ropes and straps. It was where they slaughtered cattle they couldn’t sell: the buzzard baits and runt calves. A sweet, musty smell of animal odours infused every square inch of the ground, and Jack couldn’t help thinking it wasn’t a place you would want to be at high noon.
He felt a churn of his vitals, hoped the chile would stay down. Then he cursed vehemently as he recalled Annie, her small face drained of life, hideously disfigured by one big bullet hole. Her slaughter was little different from that meted out to worthless cattle.
‘Getting past me’s going to be the most difficult thing you ever done, feller,’ Jack said into the silence. ‘And staying alive’s not an option.’ He angrily confronted the darkness, listened for a moment, looked charily at mesquite piled high against the corral rails.
‘You’ve somehow doubled back, you son of a bitch. I must’ve passed you,’ he added, seeing that the iron sliding-bolt was still securing the shed door. Having searched the whole yard he turned and ran to the front of the building again, where he confronted the liveryman, who was, obviously nervously, waiting for his return.
‘He came back,’ Jack stated breathlessly.
‘You talkin’ about the man Cayne, señor?’
‘You know I am, goddamnit! Where the hell did he go?’
‘Towards the cantina.’
‘Front or back?’
‘Front, I think.’
Jack was thinking; if Cayne had entered the cantina, there was no reason to go in any other way than from the front. The man knew full well where his adversary was, where he was coming from. You’d go straight to your room, collect your pouch and anything else lying around, then hightail it, I guess. In the darkness, most likely set up a bushwhack, and not too far away, were Jack’s next thoughts.
Facing the outside of Cayne’s door, Jack prepared himself to snatch and drag it open. Then, for the shortest time, his mind realized the things he should have considered a moment or two earlier.
He knows I’ve followed him from the livery to the cantina. He’s probably watched from the shadows and trailed me around to the rear of the building, Jack thought. He’ll have the drop on me as I confront the back door to his room. Yeah, the bushwhack – and earlier than I’d expected. Jack was making a low curse at the inevitability of what was going to happen next when the steel muzzle pressed hard into the base of his neck.
‘Drop your gun,’ Cayne said.
With almost uncontrollable frustration Jack was ready to ignore the command. But the sharp snap of an action being set brought back reason, and he let his own Colt slip to the ground.
‘That’s good,’ the man breathed. ‘Stayin’ alive has become an option after all.’
Out of the corner of an eye, Jack dimly saw the man’s head, his broad shoulders.
‘Move any more an’ you’ll get your face whipped,’ Cayne said. ‘What’s your interest in me?’
‘You killed my wife,’ Jack muttered. ‘That good enough?’
There was a quick intake of breath, then a long moment’s silence. ‘Then you’ll be the one I meant to kill,’ Cayne said. ‘You remember Will Morgan an’ Bean Decker? They were friends o’ yours.’
Jack now realized who those figures were who had been standing either side of him in the picture.
‘And my wife was some sort of collateral damage? Is that it?’ he rasped. ‘So what happened to Will and Bean?’ Jack guessed it would be the same fate as his Annie’s. But he still had no idea what it all meant, how it all tied in.
‘Swimmin’ downstream in the Gila. There certainly ain’t goin’ to be no reunion,’ Cayne said. ‘But in the here an’ now, the man I’ve been lookin’ for’s come lookin’ for me. Is this serendipity or what?’
‘I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, mister. What is this?’ Jack asked.
‘Don’t raise your voice,’ Cayne replied abruptly, jabbing the barrel of the Colt. ‘That pair o’ young turkeys said more or less the same as you. That innocence . . . pretendin’ an’ all. You remember San Simon?’
Thinking it might set him up for a move, Jack let his shoulders relax a little.
‘San Simon? Up on the border?’ he replied.
‘Yeah. Where my cousin cashed in.’
&nbs
p; ‘That’s tough. But I don’t know you or your brother from Adam,’ Jack protested.
The gun barrel lifted to touch his ear and a chilly shiver passed between his shoulder blades and down the middle of his back.
‘This’ll make it all three o’ you. Or four, the way you’d have seen it,’ Cayne said. ‘You can go sleep with the other catfish tonight,’ he added needlessly.
The message to react had reached Jack’s muscles. He was primed for a fast turn, his fingertips set for a swift upward movement. In a simultaneous, affecting blur, he’d seen the image of a white calico dress fluttering among waves of yellow corn, the pale hands of his wife, clutching out at nothing.
‘Why don’t you. . . ?’ he started. It was a desperate attempt to slow Cayne for a fraction of a second, give the man’s mind something to consider before pulling the trigger.
Jack had already started his calculated move when someone else’s voice filled the moment.
‘Hey, you two? Que esto?’
Jack felt the intense pressure of Cayne’s gun barrel withdraw. There was more shouting and he whirled around, moved away from the door as it swung open. The cantina’s barkeep stepped through. He was holding a lantern up against the darkness.
‘He was here?’ he asked of Jack. ‘Señor Cayne was here?’
‘Yes, goddamn it. He got around me at the livery . . . was just about to blow my head apart.’ Jack swung round and stared at the group of men who had closed in from the street, now moving closer. ‘Where the hell is he?’ he grated. ‘One of you saw him . . . where he went.’
The barkeep shook his head. ‘No one sees or says much around here, señor. Trouble don’t usually come with one hand.’
Jack looked closer at the men, whose expressions and intentions were unreadable in the darkness. He picked up his Colt, seeing that Cayne wasn’t able to get a clear shot at him, and stepped around the Mexican to glance into the empty, rented store room. He saw the newspaper picture of himself with Will Morgan and Bean Decker.
Five minutes later Jack was out front of the cantina, quartering the street and the low buildings.
