And yet everything became neutralized for the heartbeats it took for her eyes to take in the sight of her man. Bare-chested. Muscular, struggling against his bonds. Sweaty.
Kate thought, That is one fine looking buckaroo!
Then the wave of noise and stink and the tension crashed over her, shattering that moment. She remembered things. She paused on a ramp, separated from J.D.'s plight by the rowdy rabble below.
She said, "Well well well. A fine mess you've gotten yourself into."
J.D. said, "Sure am glad to see you, hon. There's some kind of mechanism over on that platform you're standing on that brings the ramp out to here. That's the only way they could have hooked me up like this. If you—"
Kate said, "You asshole. The last time you saw me, you suckered me with a strip of rawhide, you son of a bitch."
"Well, I'm sure glad you broke free!"
"I'll bet you are. It wasn't easy talking Iron Heart into turning me loose. Men! Iron head is more like it!"
"Look, honey, I know that I've done some pretty dumb things in my life and this caper goes straight to the top of the list. But be reasonable, will ya? I just didn't want to see you get hurt."
Kate pointedly observed the metal sheet he was shackled to. She indicated the crazed zombies swarming beneath his feet.
She said, "Didn't want to see me get hurt? Seems kind of ironic now, don't it?"
"I guess so. Kate honey, I—"
"Don't you Kate honey me. And by the way, Jehoram Delfonso. I told Iron Heart your real name."
A look of new horror crossed J.D.'s face.
"You didn't!"
"I did."
He blinked that away.
"Okay. Okay look, we'll talk about that later. Seriously, hon. This is no time for a family quarrel."
"J.D., I want you to promise me that you'll never do anything like that again."
"I promise."
"And admit that you've got a sucker punch coming for what you did."
"Okay, okay. I've got a sucker punch coming. Now be a good wife and find those controls and save my life, for cryin' out loud."
"Oh relax. I see the box right here. Uh oh. There are two levers."
"Two levers? That means one of those levers extends out the ramp, the other releases my shackles." J.D. glanced down at the mob of restless zombies and he added, "Be real careful about which lever you pull." Then he saw something over Kate's shoulder and he said, "Oh, shit."
The muzzle of a gun pressed against the small of Kate's back.
Colonel Hitchcock sniggered so close to her ear, his fetid breath made her blood run cold.
"You will drop the gun, Mrs. Blaze. And step away from the controls."
Kate said, "Oh, hell." She dropped her six-shooter and said to J.D., "Looks like you're not the only bonehead in this family. I thought this dickwad was dead."
J.D. lost his enthusiasm but she could see by the resolute thrust of his jaw that he hadn't given up. He never would, not even with his last dying breath. Her husband was that sort of man.
He said, "I reckon we're all entitled to a screw-up once in a while."
Kate stepped away from the box from which jutted the two metal levers. She faced Hitchcock.
The Colonel had lost his florid color, most likely accounted for by the bloodied patch of torn material high up on his left arm. He stood steadily on his feet, though, with no wavering of the pistol he aimed at her.
He said, "I'm going to enjoy this. Dickwad, eh? You bitch. You've had a disrespectful, foul mouth since the moment you walked into my office. Well, now you're going to pay."
Kate said, "You go to hell. I should have gunned you down the moment I saw you."
Hitchcock's glazed eyes lewdly undressed her.
"I am going to hell. There's no reason why I shouldn't fry in the eternal fires of damnation for the sins I've committed. But you know what? With nothing to lose, I might as well have my fun. And you know what, bitch? I'm going to have my fun with you. But first, I'm going to release your man from those shackles. Yes. Yes! I want you to witness zombies devouring him and while that happens, my dear Mrs. Blaze, I'll be fucking you."
Kate snarled, "I'll die before you get a piece of me."
Hitchcock licked his blubbery lips.
"Fine with me. I'll fuck you whether you're breathing or not. But first, let's attend to your husband."
It was happening all at once...
Surging zombies. Escalating clamor of frenzied hunger.
Kate gauging the distance between herself and the Colonel. She would try but her only payoff would be a bullet in her gut and a lingering, agonizing death while a sadist did things to her.
J.D. struggled mightily against his shackles but there was no way he could free himself. His eyes caught hers. She saw the resignation in his eyes.
She cried out, "I love you, J.D."
Before he could reply, the Colonel laughed.
Keeping Kate covered with his pistol, Hitchcock reached out with his free hand for a lever on the control box.
Chapter 21
Blue Feather bolted onto the platform as if catapulted out of nowhere. The young Indian woman charged full-force at the Colonel, one slim but muscular shoulder held forward, her face a grim mask of hatred and determination.
Hitchcock gasped in startled surprise. Releasing the lever, he tracked his revolver toward her but she came on too fast. He only had time for the realization of what was about to happen.
"Nooooo!" he screamed, half pleading, half in denial.
Blue Feather plowed into him with enough force to send the Colonel toppling over the edge of the platform.
His fat, uniformed body disappeared beneath flesh-gnawing zombies that descended upon him, fighting each other for the tastier portions. His horrified outcry became shrill squeals of pain that did not sound human.
Kate picked up her six-shooter. She reloaded.
"Much obliged," she told the girl. "I remember you from the Colonel's office."
J.D. called over from his shackles, "Her name is Blue Feather. Thanks, miss. Mighty glad you decided to take a hand!"
Blue Feather glared in disgust over the edge of the platform.
The Colonel's squealing had given way to the moist gobbling of the hideous beings feasting on fresh kill.
"I have wanted to kill that man for a long time."
J.D. called over, "Tell my wife, that's Kate, which lever to pull to get me out of this gol-dang contraption so's I don't end up like the Colonel."
As if awakened from a trance, Blue Feather regarded the box and its two levers.
"But I don't know! I know nothing of this!"
Kate said, "I do. Colonel Dickwad was about to use the lever on the left to kill my husband. Let's hope that means the lever on the right is the one we want."
J.D. croaked, "Yeah, let's."
She yanked the lever on the right.
With a jarring shudder, a ramp extended itself from beneath the platform to create a walkway that bridged the platform and the steel sheet that held J.D.
Kate yanked the other lever.
J.D.'s shackles fell away. He ran across the ramp to join them.
Blue Feather spoke hurriedly: "We must leave here! Quickly!"
They emerged from the doorway in the side of the hillside, leaving behind the sights and sounds of the zombies growing mad again for more flesh.
Then the world erupted into a loud, booming, earth-shaking series of explosions that shredded the night with cataclysmic violence. With a mighty sigh, the low hill that had been The Starlight Mine collapsed in upon itself.
Dust spat out of the doorway in the mountain as if from a coughing mouth as the entire mine caved in, burying the pathetic creatures inside it under thousands of tons of immovable rock and earth.
Iron Heart, materializing from the settling fine mist of dust, jogged over to join them from the direction of the shaft entrance and the dynamite shed.
Kate said, "The man of the hour!" She s
tarted to open her arms to give him a welcoming embrace of gratitude.
Iron Heart instead approached Blue Feather. They exchanged a hug of mutual affection; not a lingering lovers' embrace but rather two survivors, grateful to see each other alive.
Iron Heart explained.
"Blue Feather is my wife's sister."
She rested her head wearily upon his shoulder. There was an uncommon silence in the aftermath of bombastic destruction. J.D.'s black stallion wandered over to their small group.
J.D. studied the settling remains of the collapsed hill.
"Those poor devils, whatever they were, are buried for good this time. Good work, Iron Heart. It had to be done."
They heard galloping hoof beats receding in the distance.
Iron Heart growled, sounding like an angry bear.
"Count Vlad! He escape! My wife and child—no one!—safe until he destroyed!"
J.D. mounted his stallion on the run.
"I'll see what I can do."
The last thing he heard, before becoming enveloped by the cool desert night and the pounding of his stallion's hooves, was Kate calling after him.
"Get him, J.D.!"
It figured that the Count would have a horse that could eat up distance, and he had a considerable start.
J.D. bent over low in the saddle, stroking the stallion's mane, whispering encouragement into the horse's ear.
The trail started to climb where it continued after the castle. J.D. knew this country. The terrain would continue rising sharply until abruptly flattening out into a tabletop mesa. If the Count held his lead and made it that far he would have a chance of escape across the open Sonoran desert no matter how good a horse J.D.'s stallion happened to be.
The Count became vaguely visible on the trail ahead, thanks to the moonlight.
J.D. kept whispering to his horse. "That's it, boy. Close the distance. Let's get 'em!"
They began gaining as the trail grew even steeper, racing past towering Saguaro cactus, ancient "plants" of the desert that towered sixty feet high along the base of the steep rise leading up to the plateau. The cacti, said to have a life span of 200 years or more, lined the dusty trail like giant sentinels.
J.D. was closing in enough to make out the Count up ahead, furiously whipping his horse to coax from it more speed.
J.D. whispered, "That's it, boy. Just a little more. Right! We've got ‘em!"
They gained the plateau together, their horses hurtling along side by side.
J.D. launched himself from his saddle, sailing into the Count. They toppled from the horses and went sprawling to the ground.
J.D. was first to regain his footing.
The Count stood. His haughty demeanor was gone. He was disheveled. Out of breath. Standing with his back only inches from the precipice of the cliff. He realized his precarious position, but J.D. gave him no time to react.
He said, "Tell everyone in Hell I said hello."
He crossed a right to the Count's chin. The blow knocked Vlad back on his heels. J.D. followed through by popping him with a left, then stabbing another left to the mouth, finishing with a hard right cross.
He would always remember the venomous hissing the Count made when he went over.
The hissing ceased abruptly, interrupted by a strange skewering sound.
J.D., with his gun at the ready, went to the lip of the precipice. He peered over the edge. He holstered his gun.
Count Vlad's corpse was impaled on the tallest Saguaro cactus at the base of the cliff.
Epilogue
Morning sunshine bathed the motley collection of buildings that was Yonder with a freshness that, seen from the veranda of the hotel, bespoke the newness of a fine day.
No one had gotten much sleep the night before. Lieutenant Pearson arrived at the mine with a squad of men. Iron Heart had contacted a runner from his tribe who got word to the fort while Iron Heart went about dynamiting the mine shaft.
This morning, J.D. stood in the shade with Kate, his arm around her waist. She'd taken a long bath that morning and the scent of lavender soap clung to her, tantalizing his nostrils.
Kate sighed. "A beautiful morning."
"Nowhere near as lovely as you, darlin'."
She nudged him in the ribs with an elbow.
"Pshaw. Nothing stops you from being a romantic, does it, big man?"
"Not when you're around."
In the brief time they'd managed to share alone after the excitement of last night, they'd managed to make love twice.
From across the street, they were hailed by Lieutenant Pearson. He and Iron Heart crossed the street to join them.
Pearson said, "'Morning, folks." He doffed his hat gallantly in Kate's direction. "You're looking pretty as an acre of sunflowers this morning, ma'am."
She curved her warm body closer to her husband. Anyone could see that this woman had been recently satisfied.
"Why, thank you, Lieutenant." She gazed up at J.D. "There's a reason for everything, you know."
Pearson said, "I'm having the orderly tear apart the Colonel's private files. Those people in the stage coach. The cattle mutilations. Those were times when a small number of 'mine workers' would escape and go on a rampage until the Count's men tracked them down and, uh, disposed of them. The Count could keep it quiet because he had Colonel Hitchcock in his back pocket. The mine was going great guns thanks to free labor. There's probably hundreds of thousands of dollars socked away in God knows how many banks back East."
J.D. asked, "What about Blue Feather?"
Iron Heart said, "She safe. Colonel put her brother in brig."
Pearson said, "It was a trumped up charge so he could get favors out of Blue Feather in exchange for her brother's release. I'm discovering this wasn't the first time Hitchcock did something like that. It's a disgrace."
Kate said, "Iron Heart, you no longer need to hold vigil over the graves. It is good to see you living life again."
Iron Heart said, "Wife and child safe with ancestors. Count Vlad dead. The lords of death move on."
J.D. said, "I'm all for living. But I sure would like to know how the hell the Count pulled off what he done. I mean, dead people that ain't dead? Workin' a mine and making him rich? That's a brain-bender is what that is."
Kate eyed the horizon. The high desert beyond the town was an endless vista of prairie with mountains in the distance.
"We may never know. The Count was dealing in the dark arts. Sorcery. Necromancy. He was messing with things that shouldn't be messed with. Life and death. That's God's domain. Man ain't got no business tampering there."
"He said something about learning it in Haiti from a feller named Count Samedi."
Pearson grimaced. “He was talking about voodoo. But I think he was lying. That zombie mess wasn’t nothing but old fashioned hocus pocus. Mass hypnosis. Maybe it was drugs made them crazy, slipped to them without the Indians knowing it. That’s how the voodoo boys work it down in Haiti from what I've read. We’ll figure out how he managed it soon enough. Iron Heart and Blue Feather can help us there, since they bought into it. Vlad would need the help of Colonel Hitchcock, but he had that plain enough.”
J.D. tugged an earlobe.
“So you’re saying those mine workers weren’t zombies at all?”
Pearson nodded. “That kind of talk was to scare off people from prying.”
Kate wore a thoughtful expression. “Didn’t scare us off, but you could be right. Poor devils. They were victims of the Count same as old Percy MacNeil.”
Pearson said, "I've wired Sheriff Foster in Whiskey Bend. He's been in touch with the MacNeil family following the death of their daughter, Holly. Snap Foster asked me to tell you that a reward has been wired for you two in care of him, and will be waiting for you when you get to Whiskey Bend. I daresay the family may add to that after they learn of your role in solving Percy MacNeil's murder."
Iron Heart cleared his throat.
"Why you save best for last, Lieutenan
t?" He eased back his vest, revealing a star pinned to his chest over his heart. "Me lawman!"
J.D. said, "Well, congratulations! After what I saw of you in action last night, I know they could not find a better man for the job."
Pearson said, "We've just come from meeting with the town fathers. Everyone respects Iron Heart for his sense of commitment and, after last night, there's no doubting his bravery."
Iron Heart agreed with a stern nod, patting the six-gun he wore at his hip.
"Iron Heart keep peace, you bet."
Kate said, "And if this country is going to grow into anything like what our founding fathers intended, the sooner we all start working together for our common good and future, the better."
Shouted oaths erupted from the direction of the saloon. The shattering of glass. Someone had taken a haymaker to the jaw that carried enough punch to send him flying, wide-armed, through the saloon's front plate glass window and into the street. The fellow picked himself up and flung himself back into the fray, whereupon more cussing and the breaking of furniture could be heard.
Iron Heart, "Me go. Keep the peace."
J.D. said, "Uh. Iron Heart. Before you go. Uh, Kate told me about you knowing my real name and, well—"
The new sheriff paused only long enough to indicate Kate.
"She say it big joke. I tell no one.
He stalked off toward the saloon.
J.D. said to Kate, "Big joke. Ha ha."
Pearson tipped his hat to them.
"I'll be riding back to the fort. I'll keep dredging up the Colonel's misdeeds until our outpost looks good again in the eyes of local folks and Washington."
They watched him ride out of town.
J.D. had not removed his arm from around Kate's waist. The lavender scent of her continued to titillate his senses.
But the time had come. They were more or less alone. Folks passing on the boardwalk paid them no mind.
J.D. stuck out his chin.
"Okay, hon. It's time to settle accounts. I snookered you proper last night and you haven't said a word about it since we finished the fireworks. Go on. Take a swing. Give it your best shot. I owe you that."
"Oh no, you don't," said Kate. "That was a sucker punch you got me with and it's a sucker punch I aim to pay you back with."
Blaze! Western Series: Six Adult Western Novels Page 58
