Slocum and the Trick Shot Artist

by Jake Logan

  Without a word, Abernathy nodded and motioned for Slocum to precede him on his way out of the room. It wasn’t much of a surprise when Slocum refused that offer and Abernathy calmly put his back to the room and stepped outside.

  As Slocum moved in to follow, Olivia came along as well. “John,” she said. “Let me explain.”

  “No,” he said in a clipped tone. “I don’t want to hear one more goddamn word from you.”

  She fell silent and let both of them go on without her.

  20

  Slocum’s plan was simple. He meant to take Abernathy to the Cat’s Eye in the Chinese district and hope Haresh was still in the vicinity, ready to back him up. He didn’t know where Abernathy’s rifleman partner was, which meant he could be anywhere. And since he could be anywhere at any given time, he was practically not a factor. It never did anyone a lick of good to try and plan around a wild card. Slocum would play to whatever advantages he had, rely on his skill, and hope for the best. There would be some luck involved, but he was used to that.

  As soon as they got within sight of the Cat’s Eye, Abernathy became suspicious. “How did you know I have business in this part of town?”

  Slocum stopped and turned to face him. He was practically in the middle of the street, so if Haresh was in the area, he would have to see him. “Olivia told me. What do you think?”

  “If you are trying to lure me somewhere, I wouldn’t advise it. Justin may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he’s survived by being able to—” Abernathy was cut short when a shot erupted from Slocum’s left to send a bullet whipping through the air between the two men.

  Slocum drew his Colt and rushed for cover. He wound up behind a post that supported the awning of a store advertising exotic spices from the mysterious Orient. “Your boy’s lost his touch, Abernathy!” he shouted.

  But the older man was seeking cover as well. Another shot blasted through the air, shattering a window behind him. “That’s not Justin!” Abernathy hollered. “Whoever it is, he’s shooting at me, damn it!”

  Sure enough, when Slocum peeked around the post, he saw more glass shattering in a window behind the spot where Abernathy had dived behind a water trough. Another shooter cut loose, and when Slocum traced the shots to their source, he found Haresh standing in front of a tea shop. The bigger man had shifted his aim toward Justin, who stood at the mouth of an alley about seventy yards from Slocum and Abernathy. The large man was a piss-poor shot, but at least he’d forced the first rifleman to cease fire for the moment.

  “Keep me covered, Haresh!” Slocum shouted.

  The big man nodded once and then was spun around by a shot that clipped him in the shoulder.

  The buildings in the Chinese district closed in to create narrow streets that twisted at odd angles. Justin pressed himself against one of the buildings that formed the alley. “That was a warning,” he shouted. “And it’s the only one you’re gonna get!”

  “Justin!” Abernathy bellowed. “Get away from here before this gets any worse!”

  “It’s already as worse as it’s gonna get! It’s over, Ferril! It’s been over since you got that crazy idea to do that cockamamie scheme of yours.”

  “So you get us all killed here? That’s your solution?”

  “It was gonna happen sooner or later,” Justin replied as people ran back and forth in front of him to try and clear a path for the gunfire. “You may not get all that gold you keep going on about, but that won’t stop me from gettin’ rich! Thanks to all the lawmen you gunned down, you got a price on your head big enough to set me up for the rest of my life!”

  “I won’t allow you to walk away after double-crossing me,” Abernathy warned.

  Without hesitating, Justin sighted along the top of his rifle and fired a shot that caught Abernathy in the chest. “You ain’t got anything more to say about it,” he said while the older man dropped.

  By now, Slocum had inched toward Abernathy’s blind side while Haresh crossed the street to make his way toward the alley. Justin was about to say something else when he caught sight of Haresh and snapped his rifle toward him for a quick shot. Rather than dive for cover, Haresh let out a wild scream and charged at him while firing every last bullet from his cylinder.

  Justin was so rattled by the sight of Haresh coming at him like a crazed rhino that the single shot he squeezed off sailed well above the row of storefronts in front of him. Having emptied his gun, Haresh tossed the weapon and pulled a knife from a scabbard that hung at his side. On his hip, the knife looked like one carried by just about anyone for hunting or anything else. Now that it was drawn, the blade looked more like a machete. Only a man as big as Haresh could have swung it without breaking stride.

  Still rattled by the sight of the big man, Justin didn’t attempt anything fancy. He barely had enough time before Haresh got to him. Aiming low, he took a shot that a blind man could have made. His bullet carved a path through Haresh’s leg, and when the bigger man took his next step, he dropped to one knee and let out a pained groan. Justin drew his pistol and rushed over to wrap one arm around Haresh’s neck. Holding him up like a shield, he pointed the gun at his head and roared, “Toss that pistol, Slocum! This never was yer fight to start with!”

  “I made it mine,” Slocum replied. “And I aim to finish it.”

  “Yeah? Do that and this savage dies first.”

  “Savage?” Haresh roared.

  Justin pounded his foot against the fresh wound in the big man’s leg. “Shut yer hole, savage!”

  Slocum studied the angles and didn’t like what he found. Haresh was so large that Justin had more cover than if he’d ducked behind damn near anything else in the vicinity apart from one of the buildings. Slocum’s only targets were a sliver of one of Justin’s arms and less than a quarter of his head as he peeked around his human shield. Considering the distance between him and his target, Slocum figured his odds of hitting Justin without spilling Haresh’s blood stood at no better than ten percent.

  Those odds were halved when Justin nervously tucked himself a bit farther behind Haresh.

  “We’re not the only men that will be coming after you,” Slocum said. “Now that you’ve tipped your hand, every lawman and vigilante for miles around will be on your trail. Let that man go before this gets any worse.”

  “Ain’t no more to bargain with,” Justin replied. “Me and this savage here are leaving town. Anyone follows me and they’ll die a few seconds after this one here. I earned my keep putting men down from a distance. I ain’t worried about getting away from—”

  A single shot cracked through the air.

  Justin’s head snapped back and his arm fell limp to his side, allowing the pistol to slide from his grasp.

  Haresh was left standing by himself. After taking a moment to catch his breath, he bent down and picked up the other man’s gun.

  From what Slocum could see, that single shot had traveled along Justin’s arm like a rock skimming across the top of still water, tearing the limb up badly enough to keep him from maintaining a grip on his weapon. From there, it punched through Justin’s neck and exploded out the back of his head.

  “Thank you, John,” Haresh said.

  “Wasn’t me.” Turning around, Slocum found the man who’d fired that shot. Even more impressive, Abernathy had done it while lying on his side and bleeding from the wound that he’d gotten at the start of the commotion.

  Slocum walked over to Abernathy. The older man was pale and no longer had the strength to lift his .44. “Didn’t . . . mean for this . . . to get so bloody,” Abernathy said.

  Kneeling down to him, Slocum said, “It’s over now.”

  “You . . . must think I’m a . . . terrible person.”

  “Doesn’t matter what I think anymore.”

  “No. S-Suppose not. Is your friend hurt?” />
  “Doesn’t look like it.”

  Abernathy managed half of one nod. “This . . . got out of hand. That’s all.”

  “Yeah. It sure did.”

  Abernathy’s eyes glazed over and fixed upon a point well beyond Slocum. “Damn. I never . . . never got to . . . California.”

  The old man’s body went limp and people began closing in around the gruesome spectacle. Haresh shoved his way through to arrive at Slocum’s side carrying Justin’s rifle.

  “That other one’s dead?” Slocum asked.

  “Most definitely.” Looking down at Abernathy as if the old man were still in the circus, Haresh asked, “Was he talking to you?”

  “Yeah. Something about wanting to go to California.”

  “What for?”

  Slocum shrugged and stood up. “Hell if I know.”

  “So what were they looking for here in town?”

  “Don’t know.”

  Now Haresh looked over at Slocum as if he were the display. “Don’t you care to know these things?”

  “The job I took was to track down the men who killed Sheriff Cass and the rest of those lawmen to make certain they paid for their crimes. No man can pay more than what these two did here today.”

  “That one back there said he was out to collect a reward for his partner’s capture.”

  More people were coming out of the woodwork, gaping at the bloody spectacle of the two dead men. Slocum sighed. “Near as I can tell, the one with the rifle shot the lawmen while Abernathy stood up front trying to further his own ends. As to what those ends were, I couldn’t tell you. I’ve seen plenty of men die, and every last one had a world of history behind them. More often than not, they don’t answer for every last sin they committed and rarely finish every task they started. When their time comes, it’s all over. The reaper don’t give a damn how many irons you had in the fire.”

  Slocum and Haresh stood there, looking down at Abernathy as if they could read one last page of the old man’s story by staring at him long enough.

  They would have to settle for the legends Abernathy left behind.

  As for Justin, the only one interested in him was the undertaker, who’d scurried out of his shop to take his measurements.

  Watch for

  SLOCUM AND THE GOLDEN GALS

  403rd novel in the exciting SLOCUM series

  from Jove

  Coming in August!