by Jon Sharpe
After that she lay still. Fargo closed his eyes again and was about to doze off when a twig snapped. He heard it as clear as anything. He raised his head and saw that Sam had heard it, too, and was tense with apprehension. Putting a finger to his lips, he slid his arm out from under her and edged to the top.
The woods seemed undisturbed but something, or someone, had stepped on that twig. Fargo watched and waited but nothing showed and after a few minutes he slid back down. “Get dressed.”
“Who was it?”
“I don’t even know if it was a who.”
“I’m glad you’re with me. I don’t know as I could take this if I were by myself. I’ve always thought of myself as brave, but this—”
Fargo put his finger to her lips. “Get dressed,” he repeated, and hurriedly donned his buckskins, boots and hat.
Sam was slower but only because she had so many buttons and more garments. “I’m ready,” she finally whispered.
The woods appeared peaceful. Fargo reached down and said, “Grab my wrist.” When she did, he hauled her up beside him and then over the top of the bank. Still holding on to her, he crouched and moved along the bank and into a stand of cottonwoods. Hunkering next to a trunk, he said quietly, “From here on out we don’t take chances. You stay close. We don’t make noise if we can help it. When I stop, you stop. If I drop flat, you drop flat. Savvy?”
“I love it when you’re forceful.”
Fargo could have slapped her. He took hold of her shoulders and they locked eyes. “No more games. Emmett and Charles are dead and I don’t care to join them.”
“I was only joking.”
“No more. We’re being hunted. We stay sharp or we’re dead.”
“You really believe that? About being hunted, I mean?”
“The only way whoever hired those killers can be sure of claiming the inheritance is if the rest of you are dead.”
“But no one can be sure unless they find the chest.”
“It ups their odds.”
“I suppose. And later, if they don’t find the chest, they can contest the will in court as the sole surviving heir.”
“I don’t give a damn about why they want us dead,” Fargo said. “It’s enough that they do. And I don’t die easy.”
Sam started to reply but Fargo hushed her with a gesture. He thought he’d heard something. He probed the shadows dappling the green but saw nothing out of the ordinary. “You’ll do as I say?”
“We have an accord,” Sam said, and grinned.
Over the next several hours they spent every minute searching. They paralleled the creek until they came to a tree with a red patch of paint, marking the boundary of the search area. They crisscrossed the woods. They poked into thickets and under leaves and moved logs.
By the position of the sun it was about two in the afternoon when Fargo came to the base of a low bluff. It offered shade and concealment, and he sat and put his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. “We’re not getting anywhere.”
“Don’t give up. We have until six tomorrow morning.” Sam placed a hand at the small of her back and wearily sank beside him. “By then I’ll be so sore and tired, I’ll hardly be able to move.”
“You’ll need to sleep eventually.”
“Not if I can help it. I intend to stay up all night searching, if it comes to that.”
“In the dark we’d need torches.” Fargo didn’t add that it would make them easy targets.
“I wish Father had given us clues. He’s asking the impossible. There’s too much ground to cover and most of it wooded.”
Fargo had a thought. “Maybe he made it so hard because he didn’t want any of you to find the damn chest.”
Sam pursed her lips. “You know, that would be just like him. He hated us enough. A cruel jest on his part. Yes, he would like that very much.” She sighed. “What really rankles is that if none of us find the thing, the entire estate goes to charity.” Sam caught herself. “Not that I have anything against giving money to the poor. To the contrary. I’ve done it myself. But Father never did. He used to say that the poor deserved their fate, that if they had any drive and any grit, they wouldn’t be poor to begin with.”
“Like I said before, nice gent, your father.”
“No, Skye. He was anything but. He was mean and hurtful and despicable at times. A fluke of fate turned him from a loving father into a monster.”
They both stiffened at the sudden snap and crackle of brush. Out of it came two figures, their dresses showing wear and tear, their shoes sprinkled with dust and dirt.
“Sam!” Charlotte exclaimed, and smiled. She nudged Amanda and the pair came over. “I take it you’re not having any better luck than we are?”
Samantha shook her head.
“I swear, we’ve covered every square foot,” Charlotte said, and her cousin nodded. “I thought that all we had to do was find a spot where someone had dug but it’s not that simple.”
“Charlotte, brace yourself,” Sam said softly.
“Why?”
“Charles is dead.”
Charlotte took a step back and paled. “No. Not him.” Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. “How did it happen?”
“He was stabbed to death.”
“God no.”
To Fargo her shock seemed genuine. But some people were good actors and she might be one.
“That’s not all.” Sam told her about Cletus Brun. Both Charlotte and Amanda glanced at Fargo but neither said anything until Sam was done.
“Then Tom is on his own?” Charlotte smiled. “Good. It serves him right. Of all of us, I want Tom to win the least.”
Amanda asked, “What about Roland? Have you seen any sign of him?”
“No.”
“Neither have we,” Charlotte said. “I hope he’s all right.” She looked at her sister and at Fargo and bit her lower lip.
“What?” Sam prompted.
“I’ve had a lot of time to think and I was wondering—” Charlotte stopped. “No, you probably wouldn’t agree.”
“Agree to what? Speak up.”
Charlotte swept an arm at the ring of forest. “I don’t like these woods. They’re spooky. I’ll like them even less once the sun goes down. If we haven’t found the chest by then, I was wondering if you would want to join forces?”
“You always were afraid of the dark.”
“Fine. Poke fun at me. I just thought it would be safer for all of us if we were together.” Charlotte started to turn.
“Hold on. I wasn’t poking fun. It makes sense. But why wait until nightfall? Why not stick together from here on out and if we find the chest we agree to split the inheritance between us?”
“You mean that?” Charlotte asked hopefully.
“As you say, there’s safety in numbers. I’m sure Fargo agrees. Don’t you, Skye?”
Fargo was about to answer when a rifle barrel poked out of the trees.
18
Fargo had been watching the woods the whole time. He saw the barrel the instant it appeared and he acted in the same heartbeat. “Get down!” he bellowed, and flung himself flat even as he pulled Samantha with him. The rifle thundered. He heard a thwack and twisted toward Sam, thinking she had been shot. But she hadn’t.
Amanda had been hit in the back of the head. The slug ruptured her face, taking part of her nose and cheek with it. She was still on her feet but her eyes were empty of life and her legs starting to give way.
“Amanda!” Charlotte cried. She was riveted in horror and dismay.
“Down, damn it!” Fargo lunged, wrapped an arm around her ankles, and yanked at the very moment that the rifle belched lead and smoke a second time.
The killer missed.
Fargo had Sam on one side and Charlotte on the other. They couldn’t stay there; they were too exposed. “Run!” he commanded, and since he couldn’t count on them to obey, he grabbed both and raced around the bluff, pulling them. Sam matched him but Charlotte dug in her heels
.
“Amanda! I can’t leave her!”
“She’s dead!” Fargo pulled harder. They would be dead, too, if they didn’t find cover, and quickly. He rounded the bluff as another shot struck a tree and flew another twenty feet, veering back and forth to make it harder for the shooter to hit them. The next instant they plunged into heavy cover.
The vegetation was so dense that Fargo doubted the killer could see them but he wasn’t taking chances. A spruce flanked by high weeds offered haven. He flattened and tugged the women down beside him.
“Amanda,” Charlotte said, and sobbed.
“Quiet.” Fargo let go and raised his head high enough to see over the weeds. There was no sign of pursuit but it could be the shooter was too smart to show him or her self.
“What do we do?” Sam whispered. “We can’t fight a rifle with our bare hands.”
Fargo was all too aware of that. He looked around for a downed tree limb or a fist-sized rock.
“Why did they shoot Amanda?” Sam wondered. “Why not Charlotte or me? Amanda can’t inherent anything.”
“Maybe they’re toying with us,” Fargo speculated. “Or maybe they were aiming at Charlotte or you and Amanda stepped into their sights.” He hadn’t been paying attention to what Amanda was doing.
“We must report this,” Charlotte said, tears moistening her cheeks. “We must get to the hunting lodge and send word to the sheriff.”
“I agree,” Sam said.
Fargo rose up for another look around. He couldn’t see much for all the trees. The lodge had to be a quarter of a mile away, maybe more. Reaching it would take some doing.
“Well?” Charlotte prompted.
Fargo squatted. “It could be that’s what they want us to do. Panic and run for the lodge and right into their guns.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I’m a good guesser.”
Sam said, “Our other option is to stay put. The shots were bound to be heard. Pickleman will come. Or maybe Roland or Tom.”
“If they’re still alive,” Fargo said.
Charlotte hissed in anger. “First Emmett and then Charles and now Amanda. I want to find the vermin who killed them. I want to see them suffer for what they’ve done.”
“It’s a pity we weren’t allowed weapons,” Sam said.
Fargo had never missed his Colt and Henry more. This was why he never went anywhere without them. In times of danger a gun was a man’s best friend.
“Do we try for the lodge or not?” Charlotte asked.
“We try,” Fargo replied. “But we do it my way.” He lowered onto his belly and crabbed backward. “Do as I do. And from here on out no talking unless I say it’s safe.”
The sisters mimicked him. Charlotte’s dress snagged on a rock and she started to swear but stopped at a sharp gesture from Fargo. He was a ghost compared to them. He glided along making very little sound; they made a lot. It didn’t help that their dresses kept catching on the brush, or that Charlotte kept swatting at a fly.
Fargo halted after only a hundred feet. “We’re making it too easy for them,” he whispered.
“What are you talking about?” Charlotte asked.
Samantha understood. “I can’t help it. I try to be quiet but I don’t have much practice at it.”
“We should wait for dark,” Fargo proposed.
“And leave poor Amanda lying back there for the coyotes to eat?” Charlotte shook her head. “I should say not.”
“They’ll feed on you, too, if we’re not more careful.”
“Look. It’s not that far to the lodge. All we have to do is reach it and we’re safe.” Charlotte began to rise and jerked her arm away when Fargo went to stop her. “I’m tired of skulking about. Let’s run for it and to hell with the assassins.”
From out of nowhere streaked a knife. Spinning end over end, it struck Charlotte in the chest with a sickening thuck. The blade buried itself to the hilt. She cried out and clutched it.
“No!” Fargo said.
Charlotte wrenched on the knife. It came out—and so did a fountain of scarlet, spurting like water from a hose. She gasped and tottered and bleated, “God, not me, too.” With that she toppled.
“Charlotte!” Samantha scrambled to scoop her sister into her arms but Fargo was quicker. He scooped Sam into his and darted in among a cluster of pines. She fought him but he held fast, saying into her ear, “Do you want to wind up like her?”
Sam went limp. She sobbed and covered her mouth and then pressed her face to him and cried.
Fargo let her. The pines protected them for the moment. He was sorry about Charlotte but she had been too stubborn for her own good. Her death meant Tom or Roland had hired the brother and sister killers. Or did it? The pair had killed Anders. The pair had killed Cletus Brun, Tom’s partner in the hunt. That made it unlikely Tom had hired them. Which left one person, the one he never would have suspected, the one he had liked from the start since they had so much in common. “I’ll be damned.”
“What?” Sam asked through her tears.
“Nothing.” Fargo figured she had endured enough in the past few minutes. The revelation could wait.
Sam sat up. She sniffled and wiped her sleeve across her face. “Do you think they’re still out there?”
“At least one of them is.”
“I bet you could make it to the lodge without me to slow you down.”
“No.”
“I don’t want you to die on my account.”
“This isn’t about you,” Fargo told her. “It’s not about your brothers or your sister or the chest your father buried. It hasn’t been since the steamboat.”
“Then what?” Sam asked in puzzlement.
“It’s about me. Those bastards tried to kill me on the Yancy. That made it personal. You could say you want to be shed of me as your partner right this second and I wouldn’t leave. I’m not going anywhere until I’ve paid them back.”
“An eye for an eye—is that your creed?”
“You’re goddamn right it is.” Fargo was growing angrier the more he talked. Reining in his temper, he finished with, “I’m in this to the end whether you want me to be or not.”
Her hand found his. “I couldn’t make it without you.”
Off in the woods something moved. Fargo caught a glimpse. He doubted it was a deer. Putting a finger to his lips, he backed away and motioned for her to follow.
For one of the few times since Fargo met her, fright showed in Samantha’s eyes. She had lost two brothers and seen her sister killed and she knew she might be next. He didn’t blame her for being scared.
It was cat and mouse and they were the mice. Fargo could never be sure they had given their stalker the slip. He stayed low, always hugging the shadows, always staying close to trees and thickets so the assassin wouldn’t have a clear shot or be able to throw another knife.
They had been at it for nearly ten minutes when Fargo drew up short. Up ahead the undergrowth moved. Either the killer had circled around in front of them or it was an animal. But he was wrong.
Out of the vegetation came Tom Clyborn. He was searching the ground and hadn’t seen them. He was so close that when he did, he gave a start and blurted, “Sam! Fargo! Why didn’t you say something?”
Fargo seized Tom’s forearm and forcibly pulled him down. Tom resisted and opened his mouth to object but Fargo clamped his other hand over it. “One of the killers is after us. Keep still and keep your voice down.”
Tom desisted. When Fargo removed his hand he whispered, “You’re being stalked?”
Sam nodded.
“I haven’t seen hide nor hair of anyone since I left you earlier. Have you seen any of the others?”
“Charlotte and Amanda,” Sam said, and sorrowfully informed him, “They’re both dead.”
“Charlotte too?” Tom bowed his head. “Damn it. Now there are only three of us left.”
“So far as we know.”
“Eh? Oh. You mean Roland mig
ht be dead, too?” Tom gazed about. “Where’s the killer? Which one is it, Fargo? The man or the woman you told us about?”
“It could be either. Or both.”
“I hope it’s the woman. She’ll be easier to fight.”
Fargo remembered how skilled the mystery woman was with a knife and how she hopped around like a jackrabbit. “I wouldn’t count on that if I were you. They’re both good at what they do.”
“What’s your plan?”
Sam said, “We’re trying to reach the hunting lodge. Pickleman needs to be told, and whether he wants to or not, I’m getting word to the sheriff and we’re ending this stupid hunt once and for all. The will be damned.”
“Damn Father, you mean,” Tom said. “This is all his fault. Him and his hate for us.”
Fargo broke in with, “We must keep on the move.”
“Lead the way,” Tom said. “I don’t have any idea where the lodge is.”
Fargo nodded and went to start off when an idea struck him. He scanned the forest and said half to himself, “It might work.”
“What might?” Sam asked.
“I thought we are heading for the lodge?” Tom said.
“The killer might not know you’re with us,” Fargo explained. “If the two of you go on alone, he might think it’s your sister and me.”
“What about you?” Tom wanted to know.
“I’ll climb a tree. When I see who it is, I’ll stalk them like they’ve been stalking us. When I’m close I’ll jump them and kill them and the two of you will be safe.”
“I like it,” Sam said.
“I don’t,” Tom declared. “What if you don’t spot them? What if they catch on that you’re stalking them and jump you instead? Or what if they decide to kill us before you jump them?” He shook his head. “There’s too much that can go wrong.”
“None of us might not reach the hunting lodge if we don’t do something.”
“I’ll take my chances. I say we stick together.”
“Please, Tom,” Sam said. “You’re being stubborn.”
“You’re damn right I am. My life is at stake.”
“I trust Skye, Tom. He’s doing all he can to keep us alive.”
“So it’s Skye, is it?” Tom smirked. “If you want to trust him, go right ahead. But don’t expect me to.”
