Deadly Is the Night

by Dusty Richards

  Bonnie sends her love to you and we pray that you and Elizabeth are doing well.

  Have any answers let me know?

  JD and Bonnie Byrnes

  “Is it bad news?” Monica asked him.

  “Bad enough. His foreman, Ortega Morales, was shot by rustlers in Mexico by that bastard Buster Weeks’s border bunch. He’s recovering and they’ve got the cattle back, but he expects more trouble.”

  “What must you do?”

  “I guess go see when I am sure she is all right.”

  “And I suppose they can shoot you then?”

  “Monica, I need to lead these people.”

  “I know that. Toby came by going to town and asked if I thought you’d be here later. I told him I had no damn idea.”

  “You must have been real upset to swear at him?”

  “Yes. The doctor was here and examining her and I had no idea what was happening.”

  “This thing that happened to her? Ever happen to you before?”

  “Yes, and it’s not any fun, I can tell you. Liz really wanted the child. Me, I didn’t care and it turned out well for me that I lost mine.”

  “I do know how badly she wanted one. This will be a blow to her.”

  * * *

  Monica left the kitchen crying. How heartfelt that tough woman could get amazed him—she really cared about Liz and her feelings. How did he comfort her? Damned if he knew.

  He went in the living room to read the Miner last issues.

  His ranch foreman, Raphael, knocked on the back door. Chet came back and opened the door.

  “How is your wife?”

  “Fine. Come in. She is sleeping. How are you?”

  “Fine.” Then his man laughed and unbuttoned his wool coat. “All the women are wondering how she is doing? They are burning candles at our shrine for her.”

  “It must be working.”

  “Good. They all love her so. I will tell them not to worry.”

  “Is anything else wrong?”

  “No. Everything is going well. How about you?”

  “Rustlers shot my foreman at Diablo. He’s mending, but it sounds like I better ride south and check it all out. He’s a tough guy but you mess with those bandits long enough one of them will shoot you.”

  Raphael agreed. “One of them even shot you?”

  “They did once and I was lucky. Well, someone needs to check it out. She gets better I’ll go south and find out what I can do about them.”

  “I have some good men that know that country.”

  “I am certain. JD has some, too. But thanks for thinking about me.”

  “I consider you my friend and you know that. If there is anything I can do, call on me.”

  “Yes, I will. Everyone good in the crew?”

  “Everyone is fine. That girl Lisa you found with the rustlers who married Miguel is a real leader of the women. She has them sewing clothes for the children. Your wife provided the material, thread, scissors, needles, and buttons.”

  “I saw her leading them older women at the fiesta.”

  “She is not bossy. They will do anything she wants them to do. I think she was a real good thing to come here.”

  “Yes, she has been. I better go see how my wife is doing.”

  “Tell her we all are praying for her.”

  “I will. Gracias. I will let you know when I plan to leave.”

  His wife was awake when he got back upstairs. Her dark eyes wet, she stared at the ceiling from under the covers.

  “Liz, I am so sorry I wasn’t here.”

  He settled on the bed beside her. “I know how much you wanted it.”

  “Oh, Chet, there was no way—nothing I could do to keep it in me.”

  “You didn’t do it. That was God’s thing. No one can change whatever the plan he has for us. You can’t do anything but suffer the consequences. It was not to be. I consider you the neatest wife and person a man could have. I wanted nothing to happen to you. How do you feel?”

  “Weary. Thanks, I love you, too, and I so wanted a child.”

  “I know that well. We will strive ahead. Monica has taken this as hard as you have.”

  She nodded that she knew.

  “Anything I can do for you to make you comfortable?”

  “Hold me for a while. I will clear my mind of this tragedy somehow.”

  “We need to get on with our life. You are important to me. Raphael told me you are helping the women make some nice clothes for the ranch kids.”

  “I want them to be proud. They are learning to read and write. Maybe they can’t afford new clothes, but they can make them. Even the little ones smile and beam wearing new clothing. Lisa asked for my help and we laid out a plan. Those women know how to work hard. You know that from the way they work our events. Let’s get up. I need to stop hiding. I am your wife and very proud of that, so I must get on with my life.”

  “You strong enough?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll wait for you. I don’t want you getting dizzy going down the stairs.”

  She shook her finger at him. “I am fine.”

  “That’s all I ask.”

  She dressed quickly, brushed her hair, and led him downstairs. Monica met and hugged her. “Are you all right?”

  “I am fine. I think I am hungry.”

  “Supper will be ready in a short while.”

  “I can help.”

  “Why don’t you—”

  “Monica, I am getting on with my life. Chet, go read your newspapers.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Their conversation going away sounded like a mother-daughter argument.

  He read the papers. Nothing stuck out. She came out and asked about JD’s letter.

  Carefully he explained to her what he had read.

  “It said he was going to recover?”

  “Yes.”

  “I suppose you need to go see about it?”

  He agreed.

  “You and him were close working in the Force together?”

  “Yes, Ortega is a hard worker. They have repaid me all the money I loaned him, and he and his family have a working ranch now.”

  “When will you have to leave?”

  “If you are well, in two days.”

  She nodded. “I will be fine. A little defeated but I will be well.”

  “I will send word to Jesus and Spencer that we leave at midnight Wednesday.”

  “Fine. Supper is about ready.” She dropped her voice. “Monica is better.”

  He rose and hugged her. “Thanks.”

  The time flew, and with things close to wrapped up Liz saw him off under the stars at the stage depot. The others were hugging and kissing good-bye. Both of the other women came over and spoke to her as the men loaded their saddles and war bags in the back rack.

  Chet waved at his wife and climbed aboard facing the back. Jesus took a place beside him and Spencer rode in the backseat. In a clatter of hooves, with driver Pike Moore shouting at his teams, they went rocking off to Hayden’s Ferry.

  “Your wife doing fine living in town?” Chet asked Jesus.

  “She says at first it was different, but she says she really likes her privacy now she has it. The lady next door walks to the store with her. The merchants treat her very politely. And she attends church twice a week. So far she says it is fine.”

  “How about your lady?” he asked Spencer.

  “We had a long talk the past two days. She promised to give us some more time. She really likes your wife. When she learned about what happened to her, she asked if we should go see her. Then she changed her mind and said you were there and she didn’t need us.”

  “You think she will find her a place in your life?”

  “I really hope so. But who knows—her life with me is not wild partying and raising hell with men.”

  “A woman has to decide, I guess, whether she wants a real life and family or just a good time.”

  “I’ve been around seve
ral crazy women of the night. She doesn’t act like that even when we’re alone. But I guess they act like other women, too, when they aren’t raising hell. I’d say she hasn’t found a track to run on in her life so far.”

  “Good luck.”

  Jesus chuckled. “Yeah, mine never wanted to marry me and now she says she really likes it.”

  “Good for you. Chet, is your wife okay?”

  “Disappointed. But she comes up fighting. It bothered her the whole time she was not pregnant. Now she lost it she’s slipped back some in her disappointment. But we have each other. I have two sons. She really wanted one. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens next.”

  “I can’t believe your story how she came to you to buy a gold horse and ended up marrying you.”

  Jesus shook his head and laughed. “It happened. I was there. But the best part was her wading in the Santa Cruz River and him afterwards drying her feet and she thought he was like Jesus and the apostles before the Last Supper.”

  “How was that?”

  “She asked if she could wade in that small river. I said yes. There she was, pretty as any woman I ever knew in the golden sunlight, shafts coming down through the giant cottonwood leaves, her kicking water and wading around like a ballerina. I was in such awe and she came out saying that I sure had lots of patience to put up with her foolishness. I had gotten a towel to dry her feet so she could put her socks and boots back on. That was all.”

  “Man, I could see her doing that. Well tell me—” They hit a large bump and had to regain their seats. “Then what happened?”

  “She asked me to bathe her. That was hard but it didn’t seem out of order to her. She later said, “I know I was bold but I wanted you to see me as I was.” Later we danced the night away and then took my bedroll and made love in the hay. I can’t forget the night every time I am around hay.”

  “Did you commit to her anything?”

  Chet shook his face. “We said we’d write. I was on the go and no letters followed me I guess. I thought she had gone back to her hacienda for good. When I got back to Tubac she’d written two letters to me. Boy I was elated. She had a plan to have guards take her to the border. Could I pick her up there? I said I’d send Jesus to go get her, and Ortega’s wife Maria told me I had to go get her myself. If it was her and I’d sent some guy to go get her, she’d have gone back home.”

  “Were you married right off?”

  “No, she had a large hacienda she had left her brother-in-law to run. But she wanted to see if we were really made for each other. So in time we were married in her church.”

  “Tell him about her husband,” Jesus said.

  “Three years before we met, some bandits came to the hacienda and knocked on the door. He went to answer it and they gunned him down. She met two of them on the stairs and gunned them down and shot the third one coming back in the house stepping over her husband’s bloody body.”

  “That is tough. She really had things hard and was strong enough to win.”

  Chet stretched his tight back muscles. “In the first place her husband kidnapped her from a dance and then took off. Married her in a small Catholic chapel and took her back as his wife to his hacienda.”

  “I’d say she was used to short courtships.”

  “She told me later that she worried I’d think badly about her boldness, but she feared she would lose me forever in the short time we would be together that day and night.”

  “You are a lucky guy. You pulled up roots in Texas and came here and haven’t had a bad day yet.”

  “The day I got shot I thought was going to be my last day.”

  “I’ve never been shot. But I never have been in law enforcement, either.”

  “It will damn sure make you a lot more cautious.”

  “I bet so. I need to talk to JD’s wife—her name is Bonnie, right?”

  “She will tell you she does not miss the fast life and will even tell Rebecca that, too, if you think it will help.”

  “I don’t want to lose her, but I fear she may go back. There’s lots she’s never told me, and I fear about her past.”

  “You want some time off?” Chet asked.

  “No. I am who I am. I wanted this job and that is how I’ll earn my living until you get tired of me. I am not going back to construction or being a cowboy unless I have to. With this job I can afford to support her. It might not be enough for her, but we won’t starve.”

  “Good luck,” Chet said, grateful that Spencer was staying with them.

  They reached Hayden’s Ferry, caught a meal, and reloaded on the southbound Tucson coach. They made Papago Wells and later in the night, Tucson. Chet got them all rooms and made plans to meet them for breakfast. Then he fell into bed and was asleep fast.

  CHAPTER 2

  His coffee the next morning in Tucson tasted good and the huevos rancheros with fresh pork sausage filled the gap in his belly. “I want to talk to my attorney, here, Russell Craft, about Buster Weeks and his gang. See what he knows about his activity while we are here. Lawyers hear a lot others don’t get to. You two can rest or see the town. We can meet for lunch at Jesus’s cousin’s café. All right?”

  “Sure. Or we can go down to the barrio and maybe learn something, too,” Jesus said.

  “Good idea. Tomorrow we can go to Tubac and see if the Force is there. The women will be there, and they will have horses for us to ride over the hills to Diablo if the men are not there.”

  Chet found Russell at his office, and he greeted Chet with a smile and handshake. “I don’t see much of you anymore?”

  “I have been building a stage line from Gallup, New Mexico, to the Colorado River.”

  “I read you had some problems up there. That parallels the route planned for the railroad.”

  “Yes, it does. Too many problems starting up, but we’ve solved them for now. We are using buckboards now for the mail, but in a short while it will be a stage line.”

  “That train may never get there at the rate it’s building track.”

  “You are right. Things are about at a standstill.”

  “What can I do for you?”

  “I am having old problems return. My foreman on the Diablo was recently shot by some of Buster Weeks’s so-called employees from across the border. What do you know about him and his dealings?”

  “Not very much. There are some Arizona warrants out for his arrest, but he pays officials well enough in Mexico to remain at large.”

  “They foreclosed on his ranches above Oracle?”

  “Yes. And he was not in good shape financially when he lost his hold on that place. Old Man Clanton’s hold on the beef markets for the army and the Indians in this area is very strong, and you have the only other large cattle sales Clanton doesn’t have in the territory.”

  “I never understood why the government does business with him, but he must have connections. He also knows how hard the Navajo Agency is to get to, to deliver cattle to from down here, and besides that they have four delivery points to serve up there, not just one.”

  “Oh, I’ve never heard a bad word about your deal. In fact, it runs so smoothly you actually scare people off who would love to have it.”

  “Good. That’s the plan. My brother-in-law Sarge Polanski is a real hand at cattle delivery.”

  “Must be. As for Weeks and those two ranches, two banks split those ranches of his.

  Arizona First has one; the Tucson Territorial Bank has the north one.”

  “Any idea what they would have to have for them?”

  “Not much. Bankers don’t like cactus spines in their boots. You know what I mean?”

  “Yes. Price them. I’ll be back. Get a guaranteed list of the cattle, horses, any assets owned, and the private land in each. I might be interested if I could make them work.”

  “No problem. That might be fun. I’ll try to get you low dollar. You will be back when?”

  “I hope in a week, but however long it takes, it takes.
I’d like to get this Weeks’s rustling stopped so ranchers can go on with their business and not get shot at.”

  “I understand that nephew of yours is really shaping that place up.”

  “He really has taken an interest in it.”

  “I met them at a social thing here in town. He has a very lovely wife.”

  “Her name is Bonnie.”

  “Yes, I remember. Well, he must really work hard. They don’t attend many things up here.”

  “He takes his job real seriously. Thanks for your time. I was in town and wanted to drop by. And know that I am very serious about considering those two places.”

  “Next time you come by I’ll know all about them. Good luck with Buster and his deal.”

  They shook hands, and Chet left to arrange for a buckboard ride down to Tubac.

  After lunch Chet and his men took the hired buckboard, loaded down with their gear, for the Morales Ranch at Tubac. The stock dogs welcomed them when they arrived and two of the men’s wives hurried to greet them. No sign of Roamer or the others.

  He hugged and kissed both women on their cheeks and thanked them for the warm welcome.

  “We always are so glad to see you. We can fix some food in a hurry. I imagine you are tired. How is your lovely Spanish wife Elizabeth,” Bronc’s wife, Consuela, asked.

  “Doing well when I left her.”

  “Oh, she is so pretty.”

  He soon learned that his three-man team had gone to check on a smuggling of gold bars operation coming across the border, so that federal agency in charge could get the matter under control. Gold ore could be imported to be smelted with no taxes, but on gold bars there was a U.S. tariff in place.

  The Morales women fixed them lunch and Chet said they’d go to see about JD and Bonnie in the morning if the men were not back. Both of the wives were friendly and as usual glad to see them. Jose’s wife, Ricky, had a new baby and Chet told them about his loss. They said to tell Liz they would pray for her and understood her sorrow.

  Chet could see that even with Maria gone, the place was still running well.