Between Hell and Texas

by Ralph Cotton

  “Excuse me just a second,” said Lematte. As the townsmen drifted away, leaving only the deputies and Gains Bouchard and his drovers, Lematte turned from Dawson and called out to two men who were dragging Snead out of the street. “As soon as that bum is able to ride,” said Lematte, “stick him on a horse and run him out of here.”

  Turning back to Dawson, Lematte said, “I hope you never thought that I had anything to do with what happened to you in the Silver Seven.”

  “The thought never entered my mind,” Dawson said with a trace of sarcasm.

  “Good,” said Lematte. “I’d like for you and me to be friends, Dawson.”

  “What about that money?” said Dawson.

  Lematte stared at him for a moment, seeing that he wasn’t going to let up on the subject. “All right, Dawson,” he said. “It just happens that someone found a handful of dollars in the street the night after you left here. I counted it and it came to exactly four hundred and eighty dollars. If you say it’s yours, feel free to pick it up at my office.” He nodded toward the sheriff’s office down the street, where a large wooden star hung above the door.

  “I will,” said Dawson.

  “But I meant what I told you,” said Lematte. “I do want us to be friends. There’s a lot we could do for this town, working side by side, Dawson.”

  “I doubt it,” said Dawson. He glanced around at the faces of Bouchard and his drovers, giving Bouchard a look that said everything was under control.

  Gains Bouchard jerked his head toward the saloon, saying to his men, “Come on, boys, I’m going to set us all up a drink.” He said to Dawson as he and his men moved toward the Silver Seven Saloon, “Crayton, you’ve got one coming too, soon as you can join us.”

  “Obliged, Mister Bouchard,” said Dawson.

  “Don’t turn me down without even thinking about it,” Lematte said to Dawson.

  “I already have turned you down,” Dawson replied.

  “But surely there’s something I can do to change your mind, Dawson,” Lematte coaxed.

  “I’ll be by to pick up my money,” said Dawson. He started to turn away. But he stopped abruptly at the sight of Suzzette standing on the boardwalk out front of the saloon. Their eyes met and Suzzette offered a slight smile.

  Lematte saw the way they looked at one another and said quickly, “Dawson, that’s Suzzette…one of my new girls. I bet you and she would hit it right off. She’s a Texas gal. Quite a looker if I might say so.”

  “Suzzette…” Dawson murmured almost to himself, still surprised at seeing her in Somos Santos.

  “That’s right, Suzzette,” said Lematte, misreading the look on Dawson’s face. “Go on over and say howdy to her.” He grinned and called out to Suzzette, “Sweetheart, I’ve got somebody here I want you to meet. Why don’t you take him upstairs and pour him a private drink.”

  Cray Dawson just looked at Lematte, speechless.

  Lematte slapped him on the back, saying, “Well, go on, Dawson. What are you waiting for? This one is on the house. Call it an offer of friendship from me to you.” He leaned closer to Dawson and said, “And don’t worry about your money; it’ll be waiting for you at my office. Come get it when you please.”

  Cray Dawson walked to the boardwalk slowly, not taking his eyes off of Suzzette.

  Beside Lematte, Karl Nolly said, “Sheriff, I don’t like this a bit. These two act like they know one another.”

  “Maybe that’s good,” Lematte replied in a lowered voice. “This whore might have come along at just the right time. Snoop around some. If you find out there’s anything between them, let me know first.”

  “What are you thinking, Sheriff?” asked Nolly.

  “You saw what was going here,” said Lematte, “the way Bouchard and the Double D boys were ready to back Dawson’s play? We can’t afford to have all of them against us, not if we’re going to run this town the way we want to.” He dropped the cigar to the ground and crushed it under his boot heel. “They’ve all just about worn out their welcome with me.”

  “Cleveland Ellis and Moon Braden said they’re both itching to take Dawson on,” said Nolly. “Think we ought to sic them on him, see if they might get lucky?”

  “Sic them on him,” said Lematte. “Just make sure he doesn’t see that it’s us standing behind them.”

  Chapter 12

  Inside the Silver Seven Saloon, Gains Bouchard and his cowhands stood with their drinks in hand and watched Suzzette Sherley lead Cray Dawson up the stairs and through the door to her room at the end of the hall. Sandy Edelman raised his drink toward Dawson in acknowledgment, but Dawson never gave him a glance. “Well”—Edelman grinned—“I reckon he’s got his head on right. I wouldn’t be paying no mind to nothing else either if that little gal had me by the reins, leading me to the barn.” He and the others laughed and threw back their drinks.

  “Give him a few minutes,” said Gains Bouchard. “He’ll be down here picking pillow feathers out of his hair.”

  Upstairs, Cray Dawson closed the door to Suzzette’s room and turned, facing her. “Oh, Cray!” she cried out, throwing herself against him in an embrace.

  Dawson returned her greeting, but after a moment had to tactfully hold her back at arm’s length. “Suzzette, it’s good to see you,” he said. “I never expected I’d see you in Somos Santos.” Glancing around the room, he said, “But I see you didn’t quit the business after all.”

  “No,” Suzzette sniffled, touching a dainty kerchief to her eye. “My circumstances took a bad turn right after you left Eagle Pass. I couldn’t quit…at least not right then. But now I’ve got to quit. I’m getting desperate.”

  “I don’t like seeing you work for Martin Lematte,” said Dawson, letting her last few words slip past him. “I think he’s a dirty dealer.” Then he stopped and backtracked over what she had said. “Desperate? How do you mean?” he asked.

  She hesitated, studying his eyes, as if wondering whether or not to tell him. But then she let out a sigh, saying, “Cray, I’m going to have a baby.”

  Dawson looked stunned. “A baby?” A short tense silence set in. Then Dawson said, “But how do you know? It hasn’t been long enough to—”

  “Cray, it’s not your child,” Suzzette said, interrupting him. “I was afraid I might be pregnant when you and I were together. But I wasn’t certain yet. Now I am.” Her hand touched her stomach idly.

  “My goodness, Suzzette,” Dawson said quietly. “You can’t go on doing this.” He gestured around the room.

  “I know,” she answered quietly. “But right now there’s nothing else I can do. I’m setting aside all the money I can get my hands on. I can’t have this baby in the street.”

  Looking into her eyes, Dawson had to ask himself if this was the reason she’d wanted to stay with him. Had she only been turning to him for help? Had he stayed with her much longer would she have told him this was his child? He brushed the questions aside. It made no difference what she might have done, or why she did it. This was the only way she had known to deal with her situation. He couldn’t blame her. She had been as honest as she knew how to be. The fact was, she had seen him through a tough time. Now that she needed his help, he had to make the offer.

  “You won’t have your baby in the streets, Suzzette, I promise you,” he said, wanting to hold her, to comfort her, but knowing it might not be a good idea.

  “Cray,” she said softly, “I didn’t come here to cause you any trouble. I heard what you said out there a while ago…that you have a woman living with you. I don’t want to interfere.”

  “Suzzette, you’re not interfering,” he said. “I am living with someone. But that has nothing to do with this. I’ll help you find a place to live. I’ll help you through this. But you’ve got to leave here right now. You can’t be doing this in your condition.”

  “I’m not getting on the bed with anybody,” said Suzzette. “Lematte pays me to oversee the other girls. The deal is, unless it’s a special customer or one t
hat I choose to be with, I don’t have to service anybody. So far I’ve been lucky. I’ve kept myself busy and stayed out of Lematte’s way. But I know that, sooner or later, he’ll require more of me.”

  “Then we’ve got to get you out of here,” said Dawson, “the sooner the better. I’ll see about getting you in at a boarding house.”

  Suzzette reached out and placed a hand on his cheek, saying quietly, “Cray, no boarding house is going to take me in. If they did, I’d soon be the only guest there.” She offered a sad smile. “Don’t forget what I am. I’m a whore. The world isn’t going to change what it thinks of me just because I’m carrying a baby. To them it’s nothing but a bastard child.”

  “Don’t talk that way about yourself and your baby,” said Dawson.

  But she continued, saying, “Most folks would wonder why I didn’t pay some blackleg doctor to gouge this baby out of me.”

  “Stop it, Suzzette!” Dawson said. “I won’t listen to you talk that way.”

  “Cray, I’m just being honest about it,” Suzzette said. “The fact is I started to get rid of it when I first found out. But I couldn’t. Something just told me not to…that this baby was meant to get here. So it looks like I’m going to have it. The rest I’ll have to figure out as I go along.”

  “That’s right,” said Dawson. “And I’ll help you figure things out, until you get back on your feet.”

  “Thanks, Crayton,” Suzzette said, stepping forward, putting her arms around him again, this time resting her head against his shoulder. “It’s good to know I’ve got a friend here.”

  This time Dawson didn’t resist. He held her and stroked his hand down her hair. “Don’t mention it, Suzzette,” he said. “I’m here for you, just like you were for me…for as long as it takes.”

  They stood in silence for a moment, then Suzzette said, “Cray, this woman you’re living with…is she someone you met after you left me in Eagle Pass?”

  “No,” said Dawson, “I knew her before. But I never mentioned her because there was nothing between us then. It’s only, when I came here she and I decided to—”

  “Shhh,” Suzzette said, cutting him off. “I’m not asking for any explanations. I just wanted to know if she came along after me.”

  “I knew her before,” Dawson said quietly. “This is not something I had planned. It just happened.”

  “Has she replaced the woman you told me about, the one who died?” Suzzette asked.

  Dawson had to think about it before answering. It was a question he had asked himself lately, but not one that he had yet answered for himself. “I don’t know, Suzzette. She’s a good woman…so are you. But it’s still not the same.” He held her against him, thinking it over.

  “No one can replace Rosa,” she whispered.

  Dawson stiffened. “How did you know that name? I never told you her name.”

  “Yes, you did, Crayton,” Suzzette said. “You told me her name a dozen times…while you slept and I held your face to my breasts and took care of you. You called her name throughout the night.” She sighed. “So, you see, I knew I was up against a lot, trying to win you over.”

  “I’m sorry, Suzzette,” he whispered, drawing her even closer against him. “I don’t know what makes life play itself out the way it does. I just wish I had more to say in how things happen.”

  Another silence passed, then Suzzette whispered, “Are you going to have any more trouble with Henry Snead or any of Lematte’s men?”

  “I hope not,” said Dawson. “What happened with Snead is something I couldn’t afford to let pass. Lematte’s men came snooping around where I’m staying. I had to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. I hope that will be the end of things.”

  “I hope so too,” said Suzzette. She moved back enough to look up into his eyes. “If I hear anything from Lematte or his deputies, I’ll tell you right away.”

  “Thanks,” said Dawson. “But I’m hoping you won’t be here much longer.” He considered something for a moment, then asked, “Will you be all right here for a couple of days?”

  She smiled. “I’ll be all right here for a while. Don’t worry about me. I’m good at looking out for myself.”

  “I know,” said Dawson, “But I’m going to find you a place, somewhere for you to rest and take it easy until after the baby’s born. Then maybe you can go get some other kind of work. Maybe even go back east if you have to, where nobody knows how you made your living.”

  “Somewhere where I’ll be respectable?” Suzzette asked with a tired smile.

  “Somewhere where you and your child can live in peace is all I meant,” Dawson said.

  “I know what you meant, Crayton,” said Suzzette, “and I appreciate it.”

  “I’ll be back for you, Suzzette,” he said. “I promise.”

  “I believe you,” she replied. “I’ll be waiting.”

  At the bar Gains Bouchard and his men looked up from their whiskey in surprise, seeing Cray Dawson come down the stairs only a few minutes after he’d followed Suzzette up, hand-in-hand, into her room. “Looks like Cray Dawson must be a man with lots on his mind if he can’t settle in with that little dove for the rest of the evening,” Sandy Edelman commented quietly to Gains Bouchard.

  Shooting a guarded glance along the bar at Stanley Grubs, Jimmie Turner, and Mike Cassidy, Bouchard replied privately to his foreman, “Keep your comments to yourself, Sandy. You know how these boys can get started teasing a man and not know when to let up.”

  Arriving at the bar, Dawson saw the questioning looks on the drovers’ faces, but he offered them no explanation. Before any of the drovers could make a remark, Bouchard shoved a whiskey bottle along the bar in front of him and said, “Here, fill you a glass from a Double D bottle.”

  “Obliged,” said Dawson. He motioned for the bartender to set him up a shot glass. Then he filled it from the bottle and took a drink. “I appreciate you boys riding herd on Lematte’s deputies out there.”

  “Don’t mention it,” said Bouchard, a grin forming beneath his thick mustache. “I’d give a twenty-dollar gold piece to see the whole thing over again.” He looked Dawson up and down with close appraisal. “Although, I have to say, you do look plumb tuckered out.” He nodded at the whiskey glass in Dawson’s hand. “Better drink up, get some energy back.”

  Smiling, Sandy Edelman cut in, “Yeah, in case any more of the sheriff’s deputies decide to take you on.”

  Dawson sipped his whiskey. “I’m hoping that’ll be all I hear out of that bunch. I don’t want any trouble with them.”

  Bouchard winced. “For a man who doesn’t want trouble, you sure manage to keep a bunch of it on your trail.”

  “This thing with Snead couldn’t be helped,” said Dawson. “The longer I put it off, the more of these thugs I would have had to deal with.”

  Bouchard looked at Edelman, then back at Dawson. Lowering his voice he said, “It might interest you to know that the town councilmen are looking for somebody to stand up against Lematte and run him and his men out of town.”

  Dawson nodded. “That figures. They vote this man in, now they can’t wait until the next election to vote him out. They want to go against their own laws.”

  “I know what you mean,” said Bouchard. “I get the same bad taste in my mouth from it. They asked me to do something, but I turned them down. After them seeing what happened out there today between you and Deputy Snead, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if our honorable councilmen come sneaking around, asking you for help.”

  “Well, they can ask all they want,” said Dawson. “But if they’re not going to abide by their own law, I’m not going to strap on a gun for them.”

  “That’s good to hear,” said Bouchard, raising his glass toward Dawson in a short salute, “coming from a man with a big gun reputation. Usually a man gets known as a gunman, he begins to think of himself as above the law.”

  “Not me,” Dawson said. He finished his drink and looked along the bar at the other dr
overs, who stood watching him. “I thank all of you for being out there today.”

  The drovers nodded as one. “Don’t mention it,” said Edelman.

  Dawson set his glass on the bar, then said privately to Gains Bouchard, “The woman I went upstairs with?”

  “Yeah, what about her?” Bouchard asked.

  “Do me a favor…pass the word around for everybody to leave her alone?”

  “Leave her alone?” Bouchard mused. “Dawson, you are asking one hell of a lot. Everybody here has been interested in her ever since the two of you climbed the stairs together.”

  “Will you do this for me?” Dawson asked.

  Bouchard grinned, then asked, “What’s wrong, Crayton, have you gone and fell head over heels for that young fancy woman?”

  “No,” said Dawson, “it’s not like that at all. But I have my reasons. Will you help out?”

  “All right,” said Bouchard, “I’ll try to keep my boys away from her. But I have to do it my own way.”

  “Thanks,” said Dawson. “Looks like I owe you twice for today.”

  Bouchard grinned again. “You don’t owe me nothing, Crayton Dawson; you never did.”

  Dawson left the saloon with a touch of his hat brim, taking a quick glance up at the door to Suzzette’s room. Once he’d left the saloon, Gains Bouchard stood leaning on an elbow, looking across the saloon in contemplation as he worked on a lump of chewing tobacco in his jaw. Down the bar, Mike Cassidy tossed back the rest of his drink and said, “Boys, it’s time I get up them stairs and take up where Dawson left off. If you smell smoke that’ll just be wallpaper burning.”

  Cassidy stepped back from the bar and started toward the stairs. But as he passed Gains Bouchard, he felt a big hand snatch him by the back of his shirt and pull him back. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “Hell, you heard me, Boss!” said Cassidy. “I’m going upstairs and dust my shirttail!”

  “No you ain’t,” said Bouchard flatly. “Go back over there and have another drink.”

  “Whoa, hold on now, Boss,” said Cassidy, getting an edge to him. “I’ll ride to hell and back for you and never bat an eye over it…but you don’t tell me who I can and can’t bed myself down with.”