The Heart's Pursuit

by Robin Lee Hatcher

  “I’ll help you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  The last thing in the world Silver wanted to do was help bury this boy’s parents or the outlaw who was dead somewhere behind her, but it had to be done. She refused to let Jared do it alone. They were equally hot, tired, and exhausted. “We’ll get it done faster with two of us.”

  “Are you sure? It won’t be pleasant.”

  “I’m sure.”

  Jared nodded as he put his hand on the boy’s shoulder and looked down at him. There was great kindness in his voice when he said, “Show me where the shovel is, son.”

  Dean nodded as the tears started to fall again. Then the pair of them walked toward the barn.

  Silver drew in a deep breath as she looked at the open door of the house. Just get on with it. If that poor little boy could be in there with his dead parents, you can stand whatever you find.

  She tried to take a step forward, but she couldn’t seem to make her foot move. It felt like the bottom of her boot was nailed to the ground.

  All right, then. If she wasn’t ready to go into the house, she could start with the hoodlum in the shallow ravine. He must have been an evil man to be part of this attack on an innocent family. She needn’t feel the least remorse at his passing. There were a couple of blankets hanging on the line off to one side of the house. She would get one of them and wrap the body in it. Then Dean wouldn’t have to see him again.

  After retrieving the blanket, she moved toward the gully, her shoulders stiff, her steps slow but determined. She saw a black boot first. Then two of them. One leg lay at an odd angle. Next she saw the shirt and flesh covered in blood, turned almost black by this time. She had to stop for a moment to steel herself again before taking the final step that brought her to the edge of the rise. The man’s head came into view, his face turned partially away from her. She was thankful for that. She didn’t think she—

  He groaned.

  A small shriek escaped her lips, and she covered her mouth with one hand. He wasn’t dead!

  His eyes opened, glazed with pain, not seeming to see her.

  She took another tentative step toward the man, and only then did she recognize him. “Bob?”

  She began to shake. Shake so hard her knees wouldn’t hold her. She dropped to the ground.

  Bob groaned again. “Water,” he whispered between dry, cracked lips. “Please.”

  She’d found him. He was gut shot and dying, from the look of him, but she had found him. The search was over.

  “Water.”

  Silver pushed herself to her feet again and hurried to the pump, where she filled a bucket with water and returned as quickly as possible. When she offered Bob a drink with the ladle, he took hold of her hand with both of his, guiding the bowl of the ladle to his lips. She wanted to jerk away from his touch, but a shred of compassion kept her from doing so.

  “Thanks,” he mumbled, his head dropping back to the ground, eyes closed.

  “Bob, what happened here?”

  He looked at her again, and this time he seemed to see her. His eyes widened in shock. “Silver?”

  “Yes, it’s me.”

  He stared at her. “How did you find me?”

  “It doesn’t matter. What matters is, do you have the money you took from Father? Do you have Mother’s jewels?”

  “Carlton . . . Is he dead?”

  Silver shook her head. “He’s gone. We didn’t see him. It looks like he killed the man and woman who lived here.”

  He made a sound that was half laugh, half groan. “And then he . . . left me to die too. Without a . . . a backward glance. Just . . . like him.”

  “Maybe we can get a doctor. Maybe—”

  “No use. I’m . . . done for.”

  Was it completely callous, even heartless to ask a dying man a second time about the money? Though it felt like it, she did it anyway. “The money, Bob. Do you have it?”

  He coughed, choked, pressed a hand against the wound in his belly. At last, in a raspy voice, he answered. “What was left of it . . . was in my . . . saddlebags. If . . . if Carlton’s gone, so’s . . . the money.”

  Hope wrestled with despair. Not all the money was gone, which was good news, but whatever money and jewels were left were now with a man she didn’t know on his way to a destination she didn’t know either. A man who had killed a young boy’s parents and left his friend to die in the heat of the sun.

  Jared’s voice intruded on her thoughts. “Silver?”

  She turned and watched his approach.

  “What are you—” He broke off suddenly as his gaze fell on the man beside her.

  Silver stood. “It’s Bob,” she whispered. “He’s alive.”

  “Bob? You mean Bob Cassidy?”

  She nodded. “He needs a doctor.”

  Jared knelt beside Bob and examined the wound. When he looked up, he shook his head, silently telling her no doctor could make a difference. She’d known it already.

  “Should we try to carry him inside? It’s so hot out here.”

  Before Jared could answer her question, a soft sigh escaped Bob’s lips and his right hand slid from his belly to the ground at his side. There was no corresponding intake of air.

  Bob Cassidy, the man she’d once meant to marry, was dead.

  Jared saw how shaken Silver was, and he wondered if she harbored stronger feelings for Mr. Cassidy than she’d admitted to him. Or maybe it was the shock of thinking she would find a body down in this shallow ravine and instead finding Bob Cassidy, still breathing. Whatever the reason for her fragile state, he thought it best for her to rest awhile. He would tend to the bodies without her help.

  He drew her up and escorted her to the barn. He expected some resistance when he told her to sit in the shade and not move until he told her to. For a change, she didn’t argue. Jared called for the boy and asked him to stay with Silver.

  It took time for Jared to dig three graves on one side of the barn where the ground was softer. The graves weren’t deep, but they were deep enough. And with each shovelful of dirt he threw out of the holes, his thoughts churned.

  It was nothing short of a miracle that their path had crossed with Bob Cassidy’s. Jared hadn’t thought they would ever find the man. Not in his wildest dreams had he believed it was possible. He hadn’t even been looking for Cassidy and Carlton. All he’d been focused on was getting to Virginia City and finding the murderer of his family.

  Stumbling upon Cassidy had left Jared with plenty of questions too. Where and why had Bob Cassidy and Matt Carlton gotten off the train? What had caused the man called Carlton to kill Dean’s parents? This was obviously a poor homestead. It couldn’t have been for money.

  More important, what should Jared do with the boy when he and Silver moved on? How far were they from the next town? What would Silver want to do now that her search for Bob Cassidy was over?

  Pausing over that one, Jared admitted to himself he would miss her if she went back to Twin Springs. All those times he’d wished he could be rid of her, all those times he’d threatened to do just that, and now he hoped she would stay. Hoped she would continue on with him a little longer. The discovery surprised him, as few things did.

  Finally, the graves were ready. Jared leaned the shovel against the barn and went for the first body. He wrapped Bob in the blanket that Silver must have dropped. Then he lifted the body and slung it over his shoulder, carrying the dead man to the prepared burial plot.

  Then it was time to take care of the boy’s parents. Jared made sure Silver and Dean were still sitting in the shade. They were. He headed for the house. He found the boy’s father facedown on the floor of the bedroom, just inside the doorway. Jared stepped over the body and glanced toward the bed. In an instant, he went cold all over.

  The woman’s hair had been shorn. Like Katrina’s. Like Felicity’s. Like all the other victims’ he’d come across. And he knew. The man he’d sought all these years—the man without a name or solid des
cription beyond a scar on his collarbone—was a gambler going by the name of Matt Carlton.

  Everything inside of him screamed for him to run out, get on his horse, and ride like the wind after the killer. He was mere hours behind Carlton, but Carlton couldn’t know that. He wouldn’t be looking out for Jared. His defenses would be down. This was Jared’s chance. The best one he’d ever had.

  He drew a deep breath. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t do that to Silver. He couldn’t ride out and leave her behind. Or the boy either. Nor could he keep this discovery to himself. Silver must be told. He’d kept enough things from her. It was time to put all his cards on the table.

  With care, he wrapped Mrs. Forest in a blanket and carried her to one of the graves. He repeated the action with Mr. Forest. Then he shoveled the dirt back over the bodies. As if knowing the deed was done, Silver and Dean came around the corner of the barn, Silver holding the boy’s hand.

  Jared dropped the shovel. “We should get going. We have a lot of ground to cover. We need to take the boy to the sheriff in Elko.”

  “We should say something.” Silver motioned toward the three graves. “We should pray for them.”

  “Prayers won’t help them now.”

  “No, but they might help us,” she answered softly.

  That gave him pause. He looked to the boy and then back at Silver. He saw the understanding in her eyes, saw her acknowledge his hesitation and then silently ask him to join them anyway. Taking a breath, he nodded.

  His mother had known her Bible forward and backward. Many of his memories were of her on her knees in prayer. He’d been there too. It shamed him, all of a sudden, how far astray he had wandered from the teachings of his youth.

  Still holding Dean’s hand, Silver closed her eyes and began to pray. What she said didn’t matter much to Jared, didn’t really penetrate his conscious thought. But something about the way she prayed brought light to a place inside Jared’s chest that had been shut up in darkness for many years.

  CHAPTER 21

  After gathering Dean’s belongings and adding what food was available that would travel well to their stores, they put Dean on the packhorse and headed west again.

  That night, after Dean had fallen asleep, Jared asked Silver to step away from the campfire so they might talk in private. She expected he was about to suggest she get on the train at the earliest opportunity and return to Colorado. Bob Cassidy was dead, and Matt Carlton had taken what was left of her father’s money and jewels. What were her chances of finding him when she didn’t know him? Slim at best.

  But that wasn’t what Jared had to say to her. Instead he told her everything he now knew about Matt Carlton, and the horror of his story made her forget to be angry with him for lying to her.

  “I don’t know why Carlton and Cassidy got off the train,” Jared said. “They should’ve been in Virginia City already. Maybe Carlton just wanted to kill again. Doesn’t matter, really. I’ve got a name. I’ll find him now. I’ll bring him to justice. See him hang.”

  Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of it before? It was so obvious. “There’s a reward offered for his capture, isn’t there?”

  “Possibly. Several years back, the husband of one of Carlton’s victims in Texas told me he’d pay handsomely if I brought his wife’s killer to justice. But I’ve been out of touch with Mr. Harrison a long time now. He may not even live in Texas any longer. There’s no guarantee of collecting a bounty.”

  “But there’s a chance.”

  Jared nodded. “A chance. Why?”

  “I’m going to help you find and bring him in.”

  He immediately stiffened. “No.”

  “You wouldn’t know who he is if it wasn’t for me. I’m the reason you were tracking Bob Cassidy, and Bob is the reason you know about Matt Carlton. I deserve some of that reward.”

  Jared scowled. “It’s too dangerous. Weren’t you listening? Didn’t I explain well enough what Carlton did to those women?”

  “It’s no more dangerous now than when we didn’t know who he was. We were still tracking him, even if you didn’t know it.”

  “Maybe it isn’t more dangerous, but it feels like it.”

  “I won’t be sent back, Jared. I have to continue on. I have to, for my father’s sake.”

  He stared at her in silence for a long time before saying, “We’d better get some sleep. We can talk about this more after we see the sheriff in Elko.”

  Silver moved toward her bedroll without further argument. He wouldn’t change her mind, no matter what he said. She would stay with Jared. She would help bring in Matt Carlton. She would collect part of the reward, if there was one, and if not, at least she might recover some of the money and jewelry.

  Jared hadn’t known anyone who could frustrate and confuse him the way Silver Matlock could. He would have to be crazy to let her continue on with him. It wasn’t good for anybody, letting her get to him the way she did. He needed to focus on finding and capturing Matt Carlton. That needed to be his only concern.

  “You’re goin’ after the man who killed my ma and pa, aren’t ya?”

  Jared swiveled on the heel of his boot.

  Dean Forest stood a few feet away. “I heard you talkin’ to the lady. You know who done it, and you’re goin’ after him.”

  He decided the boy deserved the truth every bit as much as Silver had. “I’ve been on his trail for a long time. He’s killed before.”

  “You the law?”

  “No.”

  “Bounty hunter?”

  Jared nodded.

  “I’m goin’ with ya.”

  “Sorry, son. I’ve got my hands full as it is.”

  “I ain’t your son.” Dean stepped forward, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “And I ain’t stayin’ in Elko. You leave me there, I’ll come after you on my own. I gotta right t’ see him swing for what he done.”

  It was a little like seeing himself. He hadn’t been as young as Dean when he’d found his family murdered, but he recognized the emotions in the boy’s dark eyes. He recognized the desire for revenge, the need for justice. He’d felt it all before. He’d been living with it for years.

  “Maybe you do have that right,” he replied, “but you’re not going along.”

  The boy shot him one more angry look, then turned away. “You just try’n stop me.”

  CHAPTER 22

  Silver held on to Dean’s hand as Jared talked to the Elko sheriff.

  The man, with grizzled jaw and stringy hair, leaned back in his chair. “I reckon Lucas Feldt would take the boy in. He’s got himself a mighty big ranch and can always use a hand with the chores. His missus is kinda sickly and not much help around the place no more. Don’t know how long he’d be willing to keep him, though.” He rubbed the dayold whiskers on his chin. “How’d you say you come by him, Mr. Newman?”

  “His folks died,” Jared answered. “We found him all alone on their small farm.”

  “Where you say you’re headed?”

  “I didn’t.”

  The sheriff eyed the double holsters. “Don’t wanna tell me, huh? You got any reason for that?”

  “Don’t mind telling you. We’re headed for Virginia City.”

  The sheriff’s gaze shifted to Silver, then to Dean. “Mighty hot crossin’ on horseback. Most folks take the train these days. You and the missus oughta think about takin’ the next train through.” He leaned forward, placing his elbows on his desk. “How’d your folks die, boy?”

  Dean shook his head.

  “Can’t you talk?” When Dean didn’t reply, the sheriff looked at Jared again. “Not gonna be easy finding anyone to take in a dumb mute. Even Lucas Feldt’s not likely t’ want him if’n he can’t talk.”

  Silver bristled. She’d like to give the man a piece of her mind.

  “Why don’t you folks take yourselves over to Maddie’s across the street. She sets out a right good meal. I’ll check around an’ see what I can come up with for the boy. He d
on’t look too strong. Kinda thin, if you ask me. And if he don’t talk . . .” He shook his head.

  Silver clasped Dean’s hand all the harder as she pulled him with her outside. Another second in there, and she would have given in to her temper.

  As soon as Jared joined them on the boardwalk, she turned on him. “You can’t mean to leave Dean with that horrid man or anyone he could find. They’d just be looking for a spare field hand. Hasn’t he been through enough?”

  Squinting, Jared looked up at the noon sun. He rocked back on his heels, then rolled forward again. Finally, he glanced down at Dean. “You still mean to try to follow us if we leave here without you?”

  The boy nodded.

  “Then I suppose we’re wasting time talking to the sheriff. You can stay with us for now. Just remember, it’s temporary.”

  Silver sensed the decision hadn’t been easy for Jared. But his heart was tender enough for him to agree with her, and it made her want to hug him. She resisted the urge.

  “Let’s get something to eat and be on our way,” Jared said. “The sooner we get to Virginia City, the sooner this will be over.”

  I must be out of my mind.

  It wasn’t the first time Jared had thought he was a fool, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. Especially now. Not only had he been traveling with a woman while trailing a cold-blooded killer, but now he’d taken on a scrawny, frightened kid.

  They ate a quick and inexpensive meal at the restaurant, then rode their horses, Dean back on the packhorse, to the train station.

  Jared stepped up to the ticket window. “I’m looking for a man who might’ve caught a train west in the last day or two. He’s not from around here. Just passing through. Tall, dark blond hair, blue eyes. Have you seen him? It’s important that I find him.” He glanced through the open station doors where Silver and Dean waited on horseback, hoping the clerk would assume it was a family matter.

  “Sorry. No strangers out of here this past week. Just local folks.”

  Jared tugged at his hat brim. “Thanks.”