Slocum and the Cow Camp Killers

by Jake Logan

  He put his knee on the bed and she lay down. When he kissed her large dark nipples, she shuddered as if cold and wrapped her long arms around his body to pull him down on top of her.

  “I like a man who knows what he wants.” She spread her legs apart and nodded for him to go ahead. He felt for her clit and kissed her. In response to his teasing and kissing, she wiggled some and then began to cry.

  “Am I hurting you?”

  “No. No. I’m just so happy you came back. I’m fine—” She sobbed, clutching him tight as he inserted his rising erection through her gates. With a gasp, she arched her neck and head back and raised her butt up for more of him. Then with a soft, “Yes,” she settled into helping him forget the whole damn day.

  17

  The steaks tasted good, much later under the lamplight. Since Hannah was wearing nothing but a wash-worn robe, Slocum could look across the table and see her deep cleavage. She smiled lots in between bites of food.

  “I’m still here,” she said and shook her curly blond hair as if she didn’t believe all this was happening.

  “Don’t fly away,” he teased.

  “Now, Slocum, I ain’t going to leave you, my friend. You’re too damn much fun. If I thought half my customers would be as great in bed as you are, I’d haul my butt up to Miss Criscoe’s Parlor house and start work up there.”

  “I don’t figure you were cut out to be a lady of the night. You have a nice garden out back, raise lots of things, keep a nice tidy house. There is a right guy somewhere on this earth that would give his eyeteeth to have you in his bed, feet and all.”

  “But where?”

  “How about looking for him at a church?”

  “I ain’t never tried that.” She looked taken aback. “I figured they’d shun me, and I never dared go in one since I was a little girl.”

  “Find one where you feel comfortable. Church women can’t stand for nice women to live alone.”

  “Me, nice?”

  “You don’t chew. You don’t drink. I think you way undersell yourself.”

  “My knees are weak just dreading it.”

  “Just be a little hard to get.” He’d looked at the piece of steak on his fork. “Men like that.”

  “I may make a damn fool of myself.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve never seen you do that.”

  “You don’t know me.”

  “Inside or out?”

  Her face turned red. “I mean I can be a real bitch.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t let it ruin your life or the one you’re building on.”

  “If I do all this—what will I find?”

  He picked up his coffee cup and paused. “A person good enough to share his life with you.”

  “Are you interested? I mean in me.”

  “I’m a man on the run. My past chases me. I can’t remain long in one place.”

  She closed her eyes and nodded. “I figured so. But I’d take you.”

  “I’m no bargain. I’ll have to head west in a short while. Rensler’s man said earlier his boss would head for Cheyenne next. So after I find Hudson, I’ll need to go out there, I guess.”

  She put down her fork, rose, and leaned over the table. He put down his cup, rose up and over enough, and kissed her on the mouth.

  Then she went for more coffee. “Well, you sure make me believe I’m someone.” She wet her lips. “I can’t hardly believe it will work.”

  They spent the night in each other’s arms and she woke sometime in the early morning. Kissed him good-bye and said for him to come by the café for breakfast before he left. He went back to sleep and still woke up before the sun came up. He took a sponge bath, shaved, and saddled his horse. He had forgotten what time he was supposed to meet Joe Day. Hell, no matter, he’d still be there at the livery early enough.

  After his breakfast, Hannah went out into the alley and kissed him good-bye. “You be careful. That island is a kinda tough place where some outlaws hang out.”

  “Hell, I’m riding with the federal law out there.”

  “They shoot them too.”

  He laughed and spanked her as she stepped away. “I should be back tonight.”

  “I’ll fix something that will hold until then.”

  He swung on the bay horse and headed for the livery. Day should be there to meet him by this time.

  The lawman had not made it yet when Slocum arrived, so he hitched his horse and sat on the bench out in front to wait on him. Main Street began to blossom with traffic. Freight wagons, delivery wagons, a well-dressed man drove up to the livery in a doctor’s rig and left his horse to be put up.

  “That the other doc here?” Slocum asked the swamper who was unhitching the horse.

  “Naw, he’s the banker. Alfred Newton the Third.” Then he took the light-footed horse to put him away inside.

  Joe arrived and they rode out together for the road west.

  “You get some sleep last night?” Joe asked.

  “Some.”

  “I couldn’t hardly sleep. Thinking about that damn Rensler’s man McDonald shooting at us and Rensler running away.”

  “Rensler takes good care of himself,” Slocum said. “I think he worked for that Ward bunch when he was running that deal down in the Territory, and they never expected us to come looking for him out here.”

  “They’d do to be investigated some, even if a U. S. senator does own them,” Joe said. “That Pritchard, telling me he’d have my job is a threat. I may be the one who has his job when it’s all over.”

  “I hope we find his sister today and learn all she knows about Randle Hudson and his plans.”

  “You going on to look for Rensler out west after that?”

  “He had two good men executed who discovered his butcher camp and tried to stop him. They were both shot in the back of the head. Another cowboy and I found their grave and dug them up. He don’t deserve any mercy in my book. Like this Randle Hudson and his brother, who is in a Texas jail by now. They were riffraff floated down into Texas. Had avoided Parker’s men for several years. They shot my friend for a few dollars in a robbery-murder and left like scalded dogs.”

  “I can say one thing after yesterday—I’d ride with you to the ends of the earth. You need to stay here and we can team up. Why, the two of us could round up enough wanted guys to make a good living.”

  “Thanks for your confidence. I hope we get word about Randle this morning. I never knew they even had a sister until I arrested Ulysses down in the Territory. When I got that news I headed up here. You know the rest.”

  “You think about staying around. We’d make a good team.”

  “Your cow stay in?”

  “Oh, damn, I hope so. Or my wife will be hard to live with.”

  They both laughed.

  The rickety long wooden bridge across the Platte River to the Wood’s Island made Slocum wonder if it might collapse under a heavy load. The tall trees on the island had escaped the tongue of prairie fires over the years. Several had been cut down but still some huge trees towered over them.

  Slocum stopped a woman wrapped in a blanket coming down the road. Though not Indian, her hair was matted and her face unwashed.

  “Ma’ am?” he asked, “You know Penelope Granger?”

  With her front teeth missing, she grinned big. “You want me?”

  Then she opened the blanket and exposed herself from her flat, shrunken breasts to her black-haired crotch. “Me better than her.”

  “No, ma’am. I’ll find her.” He checked the bay horse and Day began to laugh.

  “She wants you.”

  “Sorry, she ain’t getting me either,” Slocum said. “Let’s ride. She ain’t all there.”

  Once free of the crazy woman and down the sandy ruts a ways, Day shook his head at Slocum. “She’s nuts.”

  There were some painted Indian tepees with small, darkeyed Indian children wearing only tops playing around them.

  “You can tell what they are anyway,�
�� Day pointed out to him.

  “Indians don’t worry much about clothes.” Slocum was twisting in the saddle, looking around for a white residence. He spotted some smoke coming from a campfire and saw a canvas fly stretched for a shade between some trees.

  A woman bent over tending a fire straightened up, and Slocum saw that she was pregnant. Her large belly tented out her dress in front. He rode over, dismounted, and took off his hat to approach her.

  “Penelope Granger?”

  “Yes.” She blinked at what he wanted from her.

  “My name is Slocum.” He didn’t want her to know Ulysses was in jail. “Are your brothers here?”

  “No.” She shook her head. “They ain’t in Nebraska. Last I heard from them, they were working on a railroad down in the Territory.”

  “Penelope—”

  She corrected him and nodded to Day. “They call me Lupe.”

  “You know a few weeks ago they shot and robbed a man down in Texas?”

  Her dark eyes looked at him suspiciously. “They said they was in a shooting scrap with a man down there who tried to steal one of their horses. Said they caught him red-handed.”

  “I’m sorry, but they robbed and shot a family man for a few dollars.”

  With a frown of disbelief, she shook her head. “Well, they sure ain’t here. You can see that—”

  She ran over and swept up a baby still in diapers away from her cooking pots. “You can’t touch them, dear. You’ll get burned.” Holding him in front of her large belly she shook her head. “I can’t help you.”

  “Tell him if he comes here, he better give himself up.” Day said.

  “Won’t do no good,” she said, about ready to cry.

  “Anything we can do for you, ma’am?” Slocum asked.

  “Yes, get this kicking mule inside my belly out of me.” She set the baby down and wiped the tears away.

  He tipped his hat and they rode off.

  “You still reckon he’s coming here?” Day asked once they were out of her hearing.

  “Hell, yes, and we found her. But I doubt he was here today or she’d’ve been more nervous.”

  Day agreed and they headed back to Ogallala. Another day wasted, but Slocum had located Hudson’s sister and seen the conditions she lived under. Made a man wonder how some folks got by.

  He and Day parted at the livery. The lawman shook his hand. “Any way I can help, you let me know.” Then he rode off.

  Slocum rented his horse for another day, cancelled his room, and collected the refund at the hotel—finally, after recalling how Lea had paid it up. Then with his war bag from the room, he rode out to Hannah’s place. He could put his horse, Bay, on a long tether. There was plenty of grass there.

  He found Hannah hoeing in her garden in the late afternoon. Busy cutting off small weeds growing in her rich black soil with the hoe, she looked well qualified to handle it. She paused and leaned on the handle.

  “I thought you’d be late getting back. Was he down there?”

  “I don’t think so. The sister is powerful pregnant and looked uncomfortable, busy cooking. Of course they told her they simply had a gunfight in Texas.”

  “Well, let’s go see if my stew is worth anything.”

  “I’ll tie Bay up and join you shortly.”

  “I’m just proud you came by one more time. I feel so relaxed with you, I can’t even explain it. Serenity. Is that the word? You don’t put any pressure on me and I can’t hardly wait till you get back here.”

  He undid the girth and took the saddle and blanket off the gelding. She stepped in and kissed him. “I was going to be all cleaned up when you got back here—late.”

  “Now I’m early.”

  “We can talk later. See you at the house.” She winked mischievously at him and went off whistling “Sweet Betsy from Pike.”

  With his horse tied out, he packed his gear to Hannah’s front porch. He could see her sponging off in the kitchen corner. Her white skin shone in the shafts of light coming in through the four-pane window. Lots of woman standing there. When he stepped inside, she turned demurely away from him.

  “See, I am used to being alone here. No shame, I guess.”

  “The scenery is nice.” He drank some water from a dipper on the water pail.

  “Plenty of it anyway.”

  “There you go again. You are a pretty, well-proportioned woman.”

  “Good. I’ll tell myself that more often.”

  “It might help. Wait, I hear a horse coming. I’ll go outside and see who it is, and you can get dressed.”

  “Yes,” she agreed and he went out the door, closing it behind himself.

  It was Day who rode up on his hard-breathing horse. “Like to never found you. Her husband, Granger, came and looked me up an hour or so ago. He asked to split the reward on your man, Hudson.”

  “He out there?”

  “All he asked was for him to get half the reward if he showed us where he was at.”

  “Fine with me.” Slocum heard the door open behind his back.

  “Hannah, this is Marshal Day, the man I told you about.”

  “Good day, sir.”

  “Same to you, ma’am. Granger acts like Hudson might flee anytime.”

  “That’s fine with me. Where do we meet him at?”

  “At the small store above the island.”

  “I better get my horse. Hannah—”

  “I heard enough. Go get him. Supper can wait.”

  “I may be real late.”

  She dismissed his concern. “No problem. You be careful.”

  He shouldered his saddle and headed for the bay. This might be the chance he needed to have Randle Hudson arrested or buried. The pad and saddle on his horse, he drew up the girths. Hannah stepped in and kissed him hard, then stepped back.

  She looked hard at the ground. “Don’t get hurt. I’m going to pray for you.”

  “Cheer up. He’s not that tough an outlaw.”

  “I can still worry about you.”

  “Thanks.” He swung into the saddle and nodded to her. Then he followed Day, who started off. The trip up there would take a few hours and it would be dark by then. No matter, Day had taken lots of trouble to find Slocum about this matter. His extra effort impressed him as they trotted their horses.

  “How did you find me?” Slocum asked, riding beside him.

  Day shook his head. “It wasn’t easy. But I have my sources.”

  Slocum laughed. “Sorry, I didn’t feel like it was necessary to tell you where I was at.”

  “I didn’t intend to let this guy get away from you.”

  Slocum nodded and thanked him.

  The sun was setting and the last half hour of glaring bloody light was shining on the shack of a store. Day nodded to Slocum as they approached the slab-sided structure.

  “Maybe we can get something to eat inside,” Slocum offered.

  “If it isn’t in a can, don’t eat it.” The man shook his head.

  “How about peaches?”

  “Fine. The couple who runs it is sure not clean. That’s Granger with his horse.” Slocum saw a horse out by some pens and someone under a floppy brimmed hat that looked to be in bad shape.

  “About time you got up here,” the unshaven man said.

  “I told you I had to find Slocum,” Day said, stepping down.

  The man in his thirties, dressed in filthy clothes, stuck out his hand. “You bring the money?”

  “When we have him, we’ll pay you.” Day looked over at Slocum for his consent.

  Slocum nodded. “Is Hudson at your place?”

  “I risked my gawdamn life even coming here. Pay me.”

  “Listen, Granger, I’m not paying a damn thing until you show me Hudson.”

  “He’ll kill me in a minute if he knows I’m snitching on him.”

  “Where’s he at?” Slocum ignored the man’s whining.

  “When do I get my reward?”

  “When you show us where
he is. I’m not paying nothing until I see him.”

  “How do I know you’ll pay me?”

  “Daylight’s about gone.” Day said. “Tell us or the deal’s off.”

  “All right, all right. He’s staying in a camp on the west end of the island.”

  “Who’s with him?” Day demanded.

  “A breed and some fuzzy-faced kid.”

  “Draw us a map in the dirt,” Slocum said, concerned about the dimming light.

  “Cross the bridge, turn right. Their camp is at the west end of the island.”

  Looking around their surroundings to be certain they were alone, Slocum asked him, “How will we know it’s his?”

  “He’s the only one at the end of the trail.”

  Still unsure about their informer, he turned to Day. “Let’s ride.”

  “Don’t tell him I sent you.”

  Slocum shook his head and mounted his horse.

  “You owe me,” he said after them.

  Neither man said another word. They crossed the rickety bridge, which sounded hollow under their horses’ hooves. Slocum wondered if this was his final time to have to trap Hudson. All this based on the scruffy Granger’s word—a person he wouldn’t trust in most cases as being completely truthful.

  The twilight soon sank to near darkness. Not familiar with the area, they rode slow on the winding trail through the willows and under the canopy. At last they dismounted and went on foot. Day carried a sawed-off shotgun.

  On the gentle night wind Slocum could smell cottonwood smoke. The particular scent had a wine to it he knew well and disliked. They hitched their horses and with stealth crept up on the camp.

  “He’ll run if he gets the chance,” Slocum warned Day.

  The lawman nodded and held the short shotgun barrel up.

  Slocum listened to the faint conversation. Then someone said, “Randle.”

  With a satisfied nod, they stepped up, and Slocum could make out three figures sitting in the orange firelight. No doubt they sat waiting for something to cook, their interest centered on a carcass on a crude spit.

  “What is it?” Randle jumped up.