Deadly Is the Night

by Dusty Richards

  “You ladies all right?”

  Della nodded.

  “I had a telegram sent to your folks that you were all right, Cary.”

  Cary looked pleased over all they’d done for her. “Thanks. I am sure my folks have been worried.”

  “I had a wire sent to my wife, too.”

  “We already ordered. The waitress is bringing you some food and sarsaparilla,” Jesus explained to him.

  “Do we have beds?”

  “Yes. At the Congress Hotel.”

  Della said, “I am going to stay an extra day if she needs me.”

  “Thanks, Della. She can use the security.”

  “This food sure looks great,” he told the waitress.

  “Oh, señor, you always say that.”

  “It’s always good.”

  He thought how really good it had been as he fell across the bed and went to sleep in his clothing.

  CHAPTER 13

  First light the next morning Chet woke uncertain of where he was. A hotel in Tucson. The prisoners were in jail. His head pounded with a headache. He felt like he’d been run over by a wagon and team, but he got up, straightened up his clothes, and hitched on his gun belt. Another day, another dollar. He’d much rather been home for this one.

  His men and both women were in the lobby waiting for him.

  “We going to the restaurant around the corner?”

  “Let’s go to Sue’s,” Della said. “She has a good place to eat. Doc and I eat there whenever we are here.”

  They agreed and went a block farther. The coffee was good, the platter of breakfast man-size, and they thanked Della for the suggestion.

  “What will happen next?” she asked.

  “We need to wait for the grand jury to meet. They will direct the prosecutor what to do next.”

  Chet bought a newspaper and laughed.

  Tombstone businessman claims his competition lied about him and he was arrested by mistake. Aaron Arnold, through his attorney, John Freeze, says an over-zealous U.S. marshal busted into his home, shot his butler, and hauled him off without an attorney to the Pima County jail not allowing him any bail. Judge Gail Kimble ruled that all three men turned over to the county sheriff were too large a risk to release on bond.

  Lawyers for the defendants are taking the decision to the Arizona Supreme Court.

  “They won’t hear from them for six months,” Chet said, shaking his head. “Did that bouncer look like a butler to you, Miguel?”

  “No, but he had a gun.”

  Chet smiled. “I like the businessman feature the best.”

  They went back to the hotel. The prosecuting attorney came by and went over the evidence. He told them they were calling in the prospective grand jury members and court would be held sometime soon.

  “We all have things to do. Cary has not been home in some time. Della is staying here to help her but does need to get home. My men and I have jobs to do and family.”

  “I will call you all in the next two days.”

  “Good.” He wired Liz he was tied up for another day or so with a grand jury appearance.

  Court was finally called and he and everyone made their appearances. A couple members of the grand jury asked Chet if he thought the rape of Cary made them a part of the white slave trade charges.

  “I believe they accepted being part of that criminal offense by raping her as a test whether to buy her or not and not reporting his offer to sell her.”

  “Do you think she was merely a prostitute and going to profit for doing it?”

  “No. When Hadley sold her to me, she was naked and unconscious from laudanum. A state that he kept her in after he kidnapped her from her family’s home near Hayden’s Ferry about one week earlier.”

  “Mr. Byrnes, how did you get involved in this? Couldn’t local authorities have handled it?”

  “Local authorities offered them no help, so Claude Cannon and his wife drove from Hayden’s Ferry to my ranch at Preskitt Valley to ask for my help in finding their daughter. I said I would try to find her. They had caught something that was said about Tombstone, so we started there. I made it known that I would buy her and was led to Hadley who sold her to me for two hundred dollars.

  “We took her to the doctor. When she recovered she told us those other two men sampled her body, in Hadley’s hope, to buy her. That to me was guilty proof by association. They never reported the crime. They used an innocent girl’s body for their own purposes as a test whether to buy her or not. That makes me angry. She could have been my daughter or yours.”

  “Thank you.”

  He left the jury room.

  A newspaper reporter followed him out of the courthouse. “Sir, do you consider your apprehension of these three men unusual for a federal marshal, stepping into territorial law and arresting them?”

  “No.”

  “But, sir, aren’t there county sheriff officers to handle such matters?”

  “When outlaws cross county lines, they can avoid apprehension in the next county. A young woman was kidnapped in Maricopa County and taken to Cochise County by her kidnapper. There her kidnapper became involved in white slavery trade and two men tested her for that purchase. Those three men would have slid by the law enforcement in both counties had my deputies and I not apprehended them.”

  “Will they be tried in federal court or territorial court?”

  “That is up to the prosecution. I merely arrested them.”

  “I understand you own several ranches across the territory. Why are you involved in enforcing the law?”

  “Arizona will never reach statehood without showing America we are not a criminal hole for all such men as those I arrested here to hide in. I am for statehood and will do anything to move us there.”

  The reporter had to half run to keep up beside him as he wrote his notes. “Sheriff Behan of Cochise County says two of these men were illegally arrested in his jurisdiction. That they both are prominent businessmen and pillars of the community.”

  “Maybe he needs a new set of glasses.”

  “You don’t agree with his assessment of Mr. Lake and Mr. Arnold?”

  “I don’t. Lake is a gambler by profession. Arnold owns a whorehouse. If we attempt to build statehood on those kinds of businesses, Arizona will never become one.”

  “Both are legal legitimate enterprises.”

  “I did not arrest them for that. By their treatment of that girl, as someone to buy, they broke the federal law that prohibits white slavery.”

  “Why?”

  “They were involved in the crime. They are as guilty as Hadley was who kidnapped her and then offered her for sale to them.”

  “Both those men have hired high-price lawyers to defend them.”

  “That’s legal.”

  “You don’t object to that?”

  “Not under the law for their defense.”

  “But you insist they are guilty.”

  “A jury of twelve men, presided over by a judge, will decide that.”

  “But you, personally, decided they were guilty.”

  “That is why I arrested them. And I consider them the scum of the earth for what they did to that girl.”

  “They have witnesses they say will show she’s a wayward woman.”

  “Under federal laws you cannot sell any woman, wayward or not. The girl was kidnapped and he tried to sell her to three men I know about, Lake, Arnold, and me. The other two never reported him to Sheriff Behan about what he tried to do with her. That is what a law-abiding citizen would have done—reported the crime. They raped her and considered buying her from Hadley. They are accomplices to the crime and the prosecutor will prove it to a jury. Now I have more important things to do than argue with you.”

  “One more question?”

  “Hurry.”

  “Why did you not put them in the Cochise County jail?”

  “Look up the number of prisoners that have escaped from that jail.”

  “You are sa
ying the sheriff of that county lets them out?”

  “That or he has a poor system of locks on his cells. Good day.”

  He could already hear the Tucson newsboys hawking the next morning’s paper. U.S. Marshal says Sheriff Behan lets criminals out of his jail.

  His crew was in the café seated at a private table in the back.

  “How did it go?” Jesus asked.

  “I told them what I thought and they cold-faced me. How did you all do?”

  Cary shook her head. “I thought the same thing. But I did not cry. They asked me if I ever worked in a house of ill repute. I told them I did not. Why would they ask me that?”

  “Cary, I am sorry, but if the defense can make the jury believe you have done that, then they can get your testimony downgraded. But the law reads that anyone involved in selling people, it does not matter who they are, it is a crime.”

  “Della told me their raping me might not hold up if they have witnesses. But you say it doesn’t matter about my role, that it was a crime to sell me.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I want them punished.”

  “So do we. That’s why we are still here instead of home with our families. Right, Della?”

  “Yes, sir. We all are here because we have a cause to prove.”

  The men nodded. “What will the judge do?”

  “He promised no bail. That means they can’t run for the border. When the grand jury decides their fate, we will know the next thing we must do.”

  “What about you, Miguel?”

  “I am learning all about these legal proceedings.”

  “It gets complicated. Prosecutor Jacob is supposed to send us word here when the jury decides what the charges will be.”

  Jesus jumped in with news for Chet. “Elizabeth sent you a telegram. She is coming down here to help you.”

  “Tonight?” Chet asked.

  “She left last night so she will get here tomorrow.”

  “So, Della, you will get your wish to meet my wife.”

  She smiled. “I heard that earlier. Cary and I both are excited to meet her.”

  Cary nodded.

  “I hope the grand jury does their deliberation this afternoon.”

  “Will we all have to testify again?” Miguel asked.

  “Yes, they may try them separately. No telling.”

  “Spencer found us here. He is getting some supplies and will be back to talk to you later,” Jesus said.

  “How is he doing?”

  “Says there is lots to do. But he looks happy about his marriage.”

  “That sounds good.”

  “With the help Frisco sent from Mexico, he says he is learning more Spanish to be able to talk to his kids.”

  Miguel chuckled. “He has a long ways to go.”

  Chet smiled and drank some of the fresh coffee the waitress brought him. “You have to crawl to walk.”

  Miguel agreed.

  “I am curious,” Della said. “What will you do next after this trial business is over?”

  “Go home, put my boots up, and rest.”

  “These two men tell me you get cases like this all the time. You and Jesus last found another woman kidnapped that the local law denied she was taken?”

  “We also went to Utah twice.”

  “Do you keep records of all this?”

  “No.”

  “You should. Someone needs to write a book about all your work so your children and people will know all the generous things you have done for the people of this territory.”

  “I’d be happy with statehood for Arizona.”

  “Amen.”

  Spencer returned. He hugged Chet. “Good to see you, boss man. The ranch headquarters is moving slow. The lumber is there and we do have a plan. In sixty days I promised Lucinda a bunkhouse completed enough to live in. It may be close. She is a darling and really helping me a lot. Best thing that ever happened.”

  Chet didn’t tell him the woman, Rebecca, did not leave Preskitt on the tickets he bought her to go back home but was housekeeping there for a widowed man named Chandler and his two children. Chandler had some mining interest at Crown King and had more money than a deputy marshal. Luckily, Spencer now had himself a wife and that was a better sounding deal anyway.

  Spencer left them after an hour’s visit to drive his wagon of supplies back to the ranch. Things sounded like they were moving along well up there.

  They received no word from the grand jury and went back to the hotel. Chet took a bath and shaved in his room. With his wife coming the wait would not seem so long. He met her when the stage arrived. They hugged and kissed. He had her luggage delivered to the hotel, tipped the deliverer, and they joined his growing circle at the café owned by Jesus’s cousins, for supper.

  The prosecutor, Jacob, came by and they talked in private. “The trial will start very shortly, and I believe all three will plead guilty to the white slavery charge. That is a federal trial and they can get from five to ten years at Leavenworth, Kansas, or the Ohio Federal Penitentiary, since Arizona has not built the state prison at Yuma and they’d have to serve time at some county jail here on bread and water and road-building in chains.”

  “You think they will plead guilty then?” Chet asked.

  “I think you put the fear of God in their hearts that you were going to succeed in getting them convicted even if they proved Cary was a harlot. I don’t believe that is the case, but that was their purpose from the get-go to get them off. But under the white slave law even a prostitute can’t be sold, so by pleading guilty and admitting, they will get lesser years.”

  “Let me ask Cary what she thinks first?”

  He drew her apart and told her they could save a long trial and get them behind bars for several years.

  “They will go to jail?”

  “Yes. Federal jail.”

  “I would appreciate not testifying. But I promised you I would even when you told me how bad it would be for me.”

  “We have won. Considering the high-price lawyers they hired we have won. They could not sell anyone into slavery or be an accessory to that and not face the trial and conviction.”

  “How did you figure that out?”

  “I had that in mind when you woke up and you told me what they did to you.”

  “Thanks. Your wife is beautiful.”

  “She can help you. It is her way.”

  “She offered to help me. I may go back to Hayden’s Ferry even after all this happened to me, but I really appreciate her offer to find me a new life.”

  “We can work that out later if you need help. I must tell the prosecutor that his plan will work for you.”

  Jacob thanked him. “Sentencing will be at eight a.m.”

  Chet promised him they would stay to hear the punishment.

  With his wife in tow they all sat in the courtroom and rose when Judge Kimble arrived. When all were seated, Kimble asked each prisoner to rise, and individually asked each if they were innocent or guilty of breaking the law concerning white slavery. They pled guilty.

  “The crime you are charged with is a dire one. Many of America’s finest men died fighting so that this rule became the law of the land. The law says no man shall enslave any one, black or white, and anyone breaking the law, including accomplices, and found guilty will serve up to fifteen years for violating that law. You three have admitted you broke this law. I accept your plea and sentence each of you to ten years but no less than six for good behavior.”

  A woman wailed and Chet thought she was Arnold’s wife. Two lawyers tried to object to the length of sentences.

  “Your objection is out of order. Their sentences will stand. Their destination to federal confinement is being decided in Washington, D.C.”

  “Your honor, may they have a few days’ bail to settle their businesses?”

  “Absolutely not. I consider them as severe risks of running away, and such action is not a practice in federal court after a guilty plea. Court is dism
issed.”

  Chet hugged Liz, Della, and a teary-eyed Cary. His men were smiling. Jacob and his two assistants shook his hand and congratulated him.

  “Supper tonight at the fancy restaurant where the banker took us.”

  “Can we go like we are?” Della asked.

  Jesus squeezed her arm. “They will take his money I am certain.”

  She laughed. It didn’t matter; Liz, Cary, and Della went shopping anyway. He knew that Liz wanted to help Cary all she could, and they were going shopping for warm clothes for the girl to wear home.

  They were at the Mexican café eating lunch when the Chief U.S. Marshal Bruce Cline came to find him. The man had been out of town on government business and never had met Chet in person.

  After Cline explained his absence, he told Chet how pleasing the convictions were to the service. This had been a very hard law to prove in the past, but his accomplishment would make more cases work for prosecutors.

  Then he showed him three letters.

  Chet read them quickly. There was a murderer, or a gang, killing ranchers across the state for their valuables. They struck mainly isolated ranches where the crime was cold by the time anyone found the victims.

  “After I get home, I will investigate the matter.”

  “Thanks. Your Force works well, too. Keep the letters; they may help you.”

  “What did he ask you to do?” Liz asked.

  “Here are the letters. Maybe you have an idea.”

  “I don’t have to read them. My husband has a new assignment.”

  He kissed her forehead. “I guess so. Let the men read them.”

  “More work for you?” Della asked.

  “Yes. U.S. marshals must find the jurors and set up courtrooms. They do little but serve federal warrants. My job is to support local sheriffs and work on cases that cross county lines. I don’t draw a salary. They pay my deputies, not me. But I keep working at it in the hope that, in the end, Arizona will become a state.”

  Della nodded.

  Liz hugged his arm. “Can we go home tomorrow?”

  “We can send everyone home. Cary can go with the men and meet her family at the Ferry. We will put Della on a stage home and you and I can go by and look at Apache Springs if you want.”

  Jesus interrupted them. “One of us rides with you two. That’s the rules.”