“I’ll send a telegram in the morning to see if the Pinkerton detective has arrived in St. Louis, and make my plans accordingly.”
* * *
Ruth was sipping on brandy in her library waiting for Frank. She invited him to pour himself a drink and join her in front of the fire. Once Frank took a seat, he related his conversation with the judge.
“You’re certain he has no idea that woman is staying with you in Black Hawk?” Ruth asked.
“I told him I lost Leigh’s trail in St. Louis, and he said he was leaving to meet the Pinkerton detective there.”
Ruth pursed her lips in disapproval. “He told me he was going to hire that Pinkerton man. I told him if the girl wanted to come back, she would of her own accord.”
“It doesn’t look like he’s going to give up searching for her anytime soon. If that detective doesn’t find anything in St. Louis, I’m not certain that will put an end to his search. He seems determined,” Frank said.
“You’d think after his heart attack he’d stop all of this foolishness. It seems his infatuation has only increased. That woman is all he talks about. Honestly, I’ll be happy if he does go to St. Louis for a while. I’m sick and tired of hearing him lament over her. I told him she probably found a younger man and is long gone by now.”
“I suggested the same thing, but he refuses to believe that is possible.”
Ruth couldn’t help but smile at the irony of the situation. “In a way, that is exactly what happened. She certainly developed a fondness for you rather quickly and left him without a thought.”
Frank chuckled, and held his brandy glass in the air. “I am a younger man.”
Ruth nodded. “You’re not in danger of losing your heart, are you, Frank? I don’t intend to besmirch Mrs. King, but I do think she was only interested in my brother for his money, and the kind of lifestyle he could provide. She saw a life full of riches, and if he didn’t live much longer, she’d be set up as the wealthy widow and have her pick of any man she wanted. I don’t want you to get duped by her. You know, women can be quite deceitful if the circumstances warrant.”
“You don’t have to worry about me, Ruth. I’m not like the judge, and as we discussed, when I tire of her, I’ll give her the gold so she can set herself up somewhere far away from here.”
Ruth eyed him for a full minute before she nodded. “Good.”
Frank grinned at her. “What about you, Ruth?”
She gave him a quizzical look. “What about me?”
“Do you ever think of finding a younger man?”
Ruth couldn’t say she was surprised by his audacity. Actually, she liked that about Frank. “Do you have someone in mind?”
“You’re an attractive woman, Ruth, with many good years ahead of you. I don’t think an older man could keep up with you.”
Ruth inclined her head at that statement. “You are right about that. My husband couldn’t keep up with me. But a younger man who would be interested in me would only be interested in my wealth.”
“Would that be so terrible, if you both enjoyed what life had to offer?”
Ruth didn’t respond. She thought Frank might be toying with her, and she was too smart to fall into a trap of his making. Younger women might succumb easily to his charms, but she was older and wiser. Still, there was a part of her that enjoyed his flirting. “Are you flirting with me, Frank?”
Frank winked at her. “Yes, ma’am, I am. You’re a beautiful woman, Ruth. Money or not, a man would be lucky to have you on his arm.”
Ruth inclined her head at the compliment. “That’s one of the problems with wealth, Frank. An affluent woman can never be certain a man wants her and not her money.”
They sipped their brandy in silence, and when Frank asked if he could refill her glass, she agreed. She had other matters to discuss with him. “I went to the Grand Crystal Hall tonight to hear Emma Langtry. Are you related?”
“She’s my eldest sister. I saw her at the restaurant with my other sisters tonight.”
“So there’s bad blood between all of you?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’m afraid Morgan LeMasters has turned my whole family against me.”
“What a shame. Your sister is very talented, and she is quite an imposing figure of a woman. It was a most enjoyable evening. Have you heard her sing?”
“Not since we were kids. She was always singing back then.” Frank had never really paid attention to Emma’s singing. He couldn’t believe a woman would be paid to sing, but he figured it was a probably a good thing she could earn money with her voice since he never expected her to find a husband who could tolerate her outspoken manner. She had never been one to hold back her thoughts. He could never charm Emma like he could Addie and Rose.
“Some friends of mine heard her sing in Paris, and they said she was quite a sensation. It sounds like she is on her way to becoming a prosperous young woman.”
Frank arched his brow in surprise. “Really? A woman can make a lot of money singing songs?”
Ruth laughed at his doubting expression. “They can if they have her talent. She’s traveled all over Europe and performed for royalty. The man who manages her tours is a well-known pianist in his own right, and from what I’ve heard, he’s also an excellent businessman.”
“I find it surprising,” Frank admitted.
“Don’t you know that culture is coming to the West, Frank? That is why I invested as a silent partner in the Grand Crystal Hall. We will have theater troupes and stars like your sister coming here from all over the world to perform.”
Ruth was always surprising Frank with her business acumen. “I didn’t know you owned part of that operation. I haven’t been there.”
“I don’t advertise my investments. My partners are the operators, and they are making a tidy profit. Gambling is almost as profitable as gold.”
“Is gambling the only entertainment in that fine establishment?”
Ruth finished her brandy. “Are you asking if we have girls serving the drinks?”
Frank tossed back his brandy and chuckled. “Yes, ma’am, that’s exactly what I’m asking.”
“Yes, there are girls serving drinks and they also dance with the customers. I understand my partners are hiring the prettiest girls they can find. Judging by the profits from whiskey, I’d say they are doing a fine job. We also have private dining rooms on the second floor, and while I haven’t had dinner there yet, I understand they serve some of the best steaks in the West.”
“Then we will have to go to dinner there tomorrow.”
“That would be lovely.” Ruth didn’t often get out at night, and it would be nice to go to the Grand Crystal Hall when no one was expecting her. Even though she preferred to be a silent partner, she still wanted to see how her partners operated the business day to day. “When do you plan to return to Black Hawk? I don’t imagine it’s too safe leaving Mrs. King alone for long.”
“I took her to Whispering Pines. She’s staying at the hotel there. No one knows her, and I told her I’d be back in a couple of days.” Frank wanted to meet up with his gang, but when he rode into town and saw wanted posters on Dutch, Reb, and Deke in the window of the saloon, he knew he should forgo meeting them. The posters stated there was a thousand-dollar bounty for each man involved in the Denver bank robbery. While Sheriff Trent and Marshal Holt might suspect that he’d planned the robbery, they couldn’t prove it. The bank president was shot, but he’d survived. Frank figured the man could testify against his gang, but they had nothing on him. The sheriff and the marshal had no way of knowing one of the men they were looking for was dead. Reb had been killed by two outlaws, Win Taggart and Joe Culpepper.
After the bank robbery, Frank had met up with his gang outside of Whispering Pines to split the money, and as chance would have it, Culpepper and Taggart happened on them in the middle of the night and took them by surprise. Culpepper and Taggart had taken the loot from the bank robbery, and killed Reb in the process.
Co
rbin Jeffers was the only member of the gang who didn’t have his mug on a wanted poster. He’d been waiting at the back of the bank with the horses, so no one got a look at him. With a bounty on his gang, Frank didn’t want to go anywhere near them if they got caught. He couldn’t afford to be implicated in that robbery now that the judge had all previous charges against him dropped. With Ruth’s gold mine, he had a more profitable way to make money than rustling and robbing banks. He planned to get rich off of Ruth’s gold. Once he had enough money to take him anywhere he wanted to go, he’d do the one thing he’d wanted to do for as long as he could remember: kill Morgan LeMasters.
Chapter Four
New Mexico Territory
Corbin Jeffers walked into Rustler’s Saloon, along with his friend, Harper Ellis. He spotted Deke Sullivan and Dutch Malloy sitting at the back of the room and headed in that direction.
“Look who I found walking into the hotel,” Corbin said when he reached the table.
Dutch held out his hand. “Harper, good to see you.” Dutch had known Harper for over ten years, but he hadn’t seen him in a couple of years. He pointed to a chair, and said, “Have a seat.”
Deke shook hands next. “Where have you been keeping yourself?”
“I’ve been up in Denver visiting my sister for a spell. Made enough money off my last job to hold me over for a while. But it was starting to run low, so I thought I might ride on down to Mexico and try to find some horses rustled from Calhoun’s spread. He’s offering to pay a fine reward, and I wanted to get out of Colorado. It’s just too dang cold.”
“I know what you mean. The older I get, the less I like the snow,” Dutch said. “Have a drink with us to warm your old bones.” He raised a hand for the saloon girl. When she turned his way, he said, “Bring us another bottle and two more glasses.”
Harper settled back in his chair. “Whiskey sounds good right now.”
“How is your sister and her kids? Did her no-account husband ever come back?” Dutch asked.
Harper shook his head. “No, sir, he didn’t. He’d better hope I never run into him. My sister and those kids have it rough. I do what I can to help them out, but it’s tough on her with four kids to raise by herself. She takes in laundry, does some sewing for women, and just about anything else she can to feed those kids. She always asks about you, Dutch.”
“Your sister is a sweet little thing, and pretty too. I never could figure a man running out on her,” Dutch said.
“She’s still a handsome woman, but I don’t reckon no fellow wants to take on a woman with four kids. She’s twelve years younger than me, and she still looks like she’s a young girl.”
“Just how old are you, Harper?” Dutch asked. “You’ve got a head full of white hair now, and it wasn’t that long ago, it was black.”
Harper ran his hand through his hair and chuckled. “I’m almost fifty.”
“Dang, you are getting old,” Corbin said.
When the laughter died down, Harper leaned close to Dutch and said, “I stopped here thinking I might find you boys.”
“Why are you looking for us?” Dutch asked, thinking Harper might need their help on a job.
Harper reached in his coat pocket and pulled out some papers. Once he unfolded them, he glanced around to make certain they had some privacy. Seeing no gawkers were sitting nearby, he placed three posters on the table.
The three men leaned over and looked at the posters. Staring back at them were rough drawings of Dutch, Deke, and Reb on wanted posters. There was a bounty of a thousand dollars for each man, wanted for bank robbery, attempted murder, and rustling.
Dutch gulped back a shot of whiskey. “Where did you get these, Harper?”
“Denver. I had a feeling you boys would be holed up here, and I wanted you to know about this.”
Harper folded the posters when the waitress brought the fresh bottle of whiskey. Dutch was quiet as he poured drinks all around.
When the waitress walked away, Harper said, “I’ve known you a long time, Dutch, and this poster said you are wanted for attempted murder. You’re not a man who has ever killed anyone, or been accused of attempted murder as far as I know.”
“You’re right, Harper, I’ve never killed anyone, and I didn’t this time. Deke didn’t either. It was Reb who shot that fellow, and Reb’s dead. You remember Reb?”
“Yeah, I remember him. Who shot him?”
“Two hombres by the name of Culpepper and Taggart. You ever heard of them?” Dutch asked.
“I know of them. Killers,” Harper stated matter-of-factly. “How come they shot Reb?”
“We was hiding out in an old shack near Whispering Pines, and they got the drop on us in the middle of the night. They were planning on hightailing it outta there with everything we had, and Reb went for his gun,” Deke said.
Harper gave Dutch a hard look. Dutch said he didn’t kill anyone, but he didn’t say they hadn’t robbed a bank. “Did those two hombres take the loot from the bank robbery?”
“Yep.” Dutch didn’t hesitate to tell Harper the truth. He’d known Harper a long time, and even though he wasn’t an outlaw in the usual sense of the word, he trusted him. Harper rustled, but he rustled cattle and horses that had already been stolen and taken into Mexico. Ranchers hired Harper to find their property and return what was stolen by any means necessary. Harper was never wanted by the law, and he was respected by both outlaws and law-abiding citizens. Most of the time Harper worked alone unless the job was too large; then he hired men he trusted. No one asked questions about what he had to do on the other side of the border to return the property to the rightful owner. Everyone knew Harper was a man who could keep his mouth shut, and mind his own business. Dutch had often thought if he’d been smart, he would have partnered up with Harper years ago.
“So you boys did all of the work, and Culpepper and Taggart benefited.”
“That’s about the size of it,” Deke said.
“We’ve been waiting here to meet up with Frank Langtry,” Dutch said.
Harper shook his head at Dutch. “You mean to tell me you boys are riding with Langtry?”
“Yeah, we rustled with Frank on LeMasters’s land. Darn near got us lynched,” Dutch said.
“Dang, Dutch, I thought you were smarter than to ride with that no-account son of a gun. And you have to be plumb loco to rustle on Morgan LeMasters’s land. I hear he’s as mean as a rattler when you cross him,” Harper said.
“I wish I had been smart enough not to listen to Frank. And you’re right about LeMasters. He had the ropes around our necks, but we lucked out when Frank’s sister happened by. She talked LeMasters into taking us to jail.”
“How’d you get out of that mess?” Harper asked.
“It’s a long story, but there was a stagecoach accident, and Frank had been riding inside the coach with his sister. Anyhow, he got the upper hand on LeMasters, and we got away.”
“So you didn’t learn your lesson, and went in with him on this bank robbery?” Harper could hardly believe what he was hearing.
“Yeah, we thought we was going to make a killing,” Deke said.
“You’re gonna make a killing all right, but it’ll more than likely be your own. You don’t see a poster on Langtry, do you?” Harper tapped the folder posters with his forefinger. “Frank will always take care of himself. And where was Frank while you boys were robbing the bank?”
“Frank had the robbery planned out so he wasn’t inside the bank. He was the one who created a diversion while we were inside the bank,” Deke replied.
“You boys got the raw end of this deal,” Harper said.
“Yeah, and we sure can’t hole up here any longer waiting on Frank.” Dutch pounded his fist on top of the poster that held his likeness. “Now that these posters are everywhere, we’ll have bounty hunters running us to ground.”
“What’d you hear in Denver about the robbery?” Deke asked Harper.
“I heard two women got shot along with the
bank president. The president lived and so did one of the women.”
“We thought Frank might be in jail and that was the reason he’s hasn’t made it here,” Corbin said.
Harper shook his head. “Nope. I heard he’s going to work at the gold mine owned by that rich woman in town.”
“The one with that house on the hill?” Corbin asked.
“That’s the one. My sister tells me that woman has more money that Croesus.”
“She’s related to Judge Stevens. Frank married the judge’s daughter, and she was the one who died in the robbery.”
“Reb killed a woman?” Harper asked.
“No, the bank president shot at Reb, but instead of hitting Reb, his bullets went through the window. The girl was hit and died on the spot.”
“My sister said two women were shot,” Harper said.
“The other one was Frank’s girlfriend,” Deke said.
Harper was trying to follow the story. “Let me get this straight. Frank was outside the bank with his wife and his girlfriend at the time of the robbery?”
Dutch laughed at Harper’s confused expression. “That’s right. Frank took up with the judge’s girlfriend before his wife was killed. The judge didn’t know what was going on right under his nose.”
Harper shook his head. “This is some story. Frank always was one sorry human being. I heard the judge had a heart attack.”
“Is he dead?”
“No, he survived,” Harper said.
“Frank was supposed to be here a few days ago. We were beginning to think they figured out the robbery and arrested him,” Deke said.
“He’s probably in Black Hawk at that gold mine.” Harper looked at each man. “And I reckon since his mug ain’t on a wanted poster, he’ll steer clear of you boys.”
“Frank said he was in tight with that rich woman. She’s probably giving him all the money he needs,” Corbin said.
“Yeah, and here we are with no more money, and our faces on wanted posters,” Deke said.
Christmas in Whispering Pines Page 5
