“I don’t know about this,” James still said, shaking his head.
“This is the way we do things out here, Inspector,” Virgil told him. “We handle them ourselves.”
“You don’t have a badge on, Mr. Earp,” James said. “It will be very difficult for me to explain this to my chief.”
“So wait until it’s all over,” Virgil said, “and then let me explain it to him. I’m used to having to justify my own decisions.”
“I have my pistol on me,” the inspector said. “I could stay and—”
“They won’t try anything if you stay here, Inspector,” Clint said. “There has to be no badges around. They don’t mind witnesses, but no badges.”
“That’s true,” Virgil said.
“Why witnesses?”
“That’s what they’ll want,” Clint said, “witnesses to the fact that they killed Virgil Earp . . .”
“Not to mention the Gunsmith,” Virgil finished.
Reluctantly the inspector stood up.
“I am only agreeing to this because I want this killer,” he said. “The way that girl was cut up . . . well, it was a damn shame.”
“We’re agreed on that,” Clint said.
“Do you have any idea how long this will take?” the inspector asked.
“My guess is they won’t want to leave it too long,” Clint said. “They’ll want to get it done and then get out of town.”
“So . . . tonight?”
“That would be quick,” Virgil said. “If they’re watching us, they’ve seen you come over to us. Now they’ll want to be sure there are no policemen around when they do come after us.”
“My best guess would be tomorrow,” Clint said. “They’ll probably leave us sitting here tonight, thinking we might become . . . antsy.”
“Nervous?” the inspector asked.
“No, Inspector,” Virgil said, “I don’t think they think we’ll get nervous.”
“No, no,” the inspector said, “of course not. Er, sorry. I’m sure you’ve been through this so many times before it’s become second nature.”
Clint and Virgil exchanged a glance, decided not to comment on the statement. If the inspector thought it was easy for them to kill another human being, let him.
“I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing here,” the inspector said.
“None of us will know that for sure until later,” Clint said, “and maybe not even then.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
Link Holman watched the inspector walk away from Clint Adams and Virgil Earp, then signaled his brother and Derek Morrell to back up. They got off Philadelphia Street and onto a side street.
“Now what?” Morrell asked.
“Not today.”
“What? But we’re all ready.”
“Yeah, and so are they,” Link said.
“What makes you say that?” Dave asked.
“Well, look at them,” Link said. “They’re just sittin’ there. They’re waitin’ for us.”
“But do they know it’s us they’re waitin’ for?” Morrell asked.
“What may be more important,” Link said, “is did they tell that policeman about us?”
“Jesus,” Dave said, “if they did, and he comes back with a bunch of men—”
“You think he’s gonna try to arrest us?” Morrell asked.
Link hesitated before answering.
“You saw them sittin’ there together, right? I think Adams and Earp talked the police into lettin’ them handle everythin’.”
“So then he ain’t comin’ back with more men,” Dave said. “ ‘Cause if he is, we gotta get outta town, Link.”
“No,” Link said, “I think as far as the police go, we’re okay.”
“And what about Adams and Earp?” Morrell asked.
“I think they wanna handle it the way they would have in Dodge or Tombstone or Wichita,” Link said, “and not the way it would be handled in a new, growing city like Colton.”
“In the street?” Morrell asked.
“With guns,” Link said. “I don’t know about the street, but with guns.”
“We can do that,” Morrell said.
“Yeah, but not today,” Link said. “We’re gonna make them wait.”
“So where do we spend the night?” Dave asked.
“We split up and find a place,” Link said. “Then we get back together in the mornin’.”
“Where?” Morrell asked.
“That’s what we’re gonna decide,” Link said, “but let’s get away from here.”
As the inspector walked away, Virgil said, “That went better than I expected.”
“Me, too,” Clint said. “I didn’t think he’d just walk away.”
“Guess we’ll have to see if he stays away,” Virgil said. “Ya know, we just had a pretty public meetin’ with a member of the police department.”
“I know where you’re going,” Clint said. “This isn’t going to work, now. They’re not going to come walking right up to us.”
“We’re gonna have to find them,” Virgil said. “Only they won’t be comin’ back to the boardinghouse, so where do we look?”
“How many employees does your brother have besides Kate?”
“Kate’s not an employee, she’s a partner.”
“Oh, right.”
“Don’t make that mistake in front of her,” Virgil warned him.
“I won’t. Anyway, I think they have a girl who cleans and then they have another one—Regina—who cooks.”
“We should talk to them, see if they saw or heard anything about these men.”
“Okay,” Virgil said. “Kate or James can tell us where to find them. We can take one each.”
“Virgil,” Clint said, “maybe we should stick together. We don’t want anything to happen like it did back in Tombstone.”
Virgil looked down at his crippled arm.
“I appreciate the thought behind that, Clint, but I can still take care of myself,” he said.
“I know that,” Clint said, “I just thought we’d both be safer from ambush if we stuck together.”
Virgil thought a moment, then said, “Okay, then. Let’s get back to the boardinghouse . . . together.”
Inspector James walked away from his “meeting” with Clint Adams and Virgil Earp with second thoughts. If he let this turn into another O.K. Corral, he was going to have a lot of explaining to do to his boss.
He had two or three men he counted heavily on, men he could trust. He was going to have to have a meeting with them as soon as possible.
THIRTY-NINE
Inspector James stared at the three men he’d called into his office.
“You three are the only men in this department I trust implicitly.”
“Huh?” one of them said.
“I trust you,” James said. “To do what you’re supposed to do.”
“Yessir.”
“Do any of you know Virgil Earp?”
“Yes, sir,” one said.
“Sir,” a second one chimed in.
“Good,” James said. “He is sitting in front of the Hotel Colton with another man. That man is Clint Adams.”
“The Gunsmith?” one of them asked, eyes wide.
“That’s right,” James said. “I want the three of you to get over there, watch them, and don’t let them see you. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” one said.
“What are we watching for, sir?” another asked.
“Trouble,” James said. “I’m expecting three men to try to kill them. I don’t want Virgil Earp or the Gunsmith to get killed in Colton. We would never live it down.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And don’t wear your uniforms,” James said. “Get changed, and get over there as soon as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Anything that doesn’t look right, one of you come back and report to me.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now go!”
The three men cha
nged from their uniforms and hurried over to the Hotel Colton. When they got there, they saw three chairs in front of the hotel, but nobody was sitting in them.
“This don’t look right,” the first of them said.
“Better get back to headquarters and tell the inspector,” the second said. “We’ll stay here. Maybe they’ll come back.”
“And maybe it’s all over,” the third man said.
They all looked at one another and had the same thought. Hopefully, they wouldn’t get blamed for anything.
When James saw Kate lead Clint and Virgil into his office, he sat back.
“Come to rescue me again?”
“New plan,” Clint said. “We need to talk to the women who work for you.”
“Regina and Alice?”
“I know where Regina lives,” Kate said to James, “but you hired Alice recently.”
“Regina just cooks, and Alice cleans,” James said. “What can they know?”
“That’s what we want to find out,” Virgil said.
“Well, okay.” James shuffled some papers, then wrote down an address and handed it to Virgil. “Alice is just a kid. She lives with her parents. She comes in twice a week, has almost no contact with our guests.”
“Has she been in since your three guests came?” Clint asked.
“No.”
Clint looked at Virgil, who said, “It may not make any sense to talk with her, but Regina . . .”
“Yes, she’s cooked breakfast for them,” Kate said, “talked to them. Heard them talking amongst themselves. She might know something.”
“Who does she live with?” Clint asked.
“She has five kids.”
“No man?” Clint asked.
“No.”
“What’s her address?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I can take you there.”
“Let’s go, then,” Clint said.
“James?” she said.
“I’ll stay here,” James said. “You go.”
“Okay,” Virgil said to Kate. “Lead the way.”
As they approached the small house Regina lived in with her family, they saw five small figures sitting on the front step. As they got closer, Clint could see that these were her children. They were all apparently girls, although the older girl seemed to be holding an infant in her arms.
They walked up to the children, who all stared up at them with wide eyes.
“Melissa,” Kate said to the older girl, who appeared to be about eleven or twelve, “where’s your mama?”
“She’s inside.”
“What is she doin’?”
The girl shrugged.
“Why are you out here with your sisters?”
“Mama has a visitor,” she said. “She don’t like us to be inside when she got a visitor.”
Clint looked at Virgil.
“You think?” he asked.
“Could be.”
“Kate,” Clint said, “take all the children across the way,”
“To where?” she asked.
“Just away from the house.”
“All right, girls,” Kate said, “come with me.” She herded the children across the street and away from the house. Clint and Virgil both drew their guns.
“I’ll go around to the back,” Clint said. “See if you can get the front door open.”
Virgil nodded. Clint moved around to the side of the house, but before he could get to the back he looked in a window and stopped. There was a black woman on a bed, naked, on her belly, her face pushed down into her pillow. The white man straddling her was driving his penis in and out of her from behind. Clint was surprised the woman was quiet, but that was probably for the benefit of her kids. He wondered, though, why she wasn’t suffocating with her face in the pillow like that.
At that moment all three of them heard something from the front of the house. Apparently, the flimsy shack had a good front door, and Virgil had been unable to force it without making some kind of noise.
The man’s head jerked around. Clint saw his face. But did not recognize him.
Through the window Clint heard the woman say, “Who dat? Dat my kids?”
The man didn’t answer. He got off the bed and grabbed his gun, moved toward the bedroom door, which was also closed. If Virgil came through that door, he’d be dead before he knew it.
Clint smashed out the window, pointed his gun into the room, and said, “Hold it!”
The naked man turned his head toward the window, then brought the gun around. At that moment the bedroom door crashed open. The black girl had screamed at the sound of breaking glass, and she screamed again when the door slammed open.
Clint fired once. The bullet hit the man in the chest, driving him backward until the back of his legs hit the bed. He fell over on top of the girl, who kept right on screaming.
FORTY
“She says he never forced himself on her,” Virgil told Clint later. “Says she wanted him to come to her house with her. She says he was nice to her.”
They had taken Regina from the bedroom—after letting her get dressed—and put her in the other room with her kids. Kate stayed there with her. Clint and Virgil were in the bedroom with the body.
“She say his name?” Clint asked.
Virgil nodded.
“She says his name was Dave.”
“Okay, so he’s one of the guests at the boardinghouse,” Clint said. “Where are the other two?”
“And why did they split up?” Virgil asked. Then he looked at Clint. “Makes them harder to find.”
“Maybe the other two,” Clint said. “Turns out this one was easy to find.”
“What about the law?” Virgil asked.
Clint studied the body.
“No,” Clint said. “Let’s keep this quiet for now.”
“What does that get us?”
“Tomorrow morning there’ll be two men wondering where this one went.”
“So what do we do with the body?”
“Well, let’s get it out of here so these kids don’t have a body in their home. We can take it out the back door.”
“And take it where?”
“You tell me, you live here,” Clint said. “Where’s a good place to stash a body for a while?”
“Probably an abandoned barn.”
“You got one in mind?”
“Yeah, not too far from here, but we’ll need a horse, or a buckboard.”
“Buckboard,” Clint said. “A body tied to the back of a horse is too noticeable. We can hide it better in a buckboard.”
“Okay, then,” Virgil said, “first we need a buckboard. I know where to get one.”
“Pull it up to the back of the house,” Clint said. “We’ll wrap the body in this sheet. It’s all bloody anyway.”
“Right,” Virgil said. “I’ll meet you in the back.”
Virgil left to get a buckboard, and Clint went into the other room, where the women and the children were.
“Is he dead?” Regina asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?” she asked. “He waren’t rapin’ me, mister. I axed him to come here.”
“He and his friends are outlaws, Regina,” Clint said. “We wanted to talk to him, but he grabbed his gun. I didn’t have a choice.”
“What’s rapin’?” one of her daughters asked.
“Hesh up!” Regina said.
“Actually, we came here to talk to you.”
“To me? What about?”
“About them. We wanted to know what you heard them talking about, if anything.”
“Dey didn’t talk in fron’ of me,” she said. “Dave’s the only one talked ta me.”
“What did he say?”
“You know,” she said, “things ta get me into bed.”
“Whose bed, Mama?” another daughter asked.
“I said hesh!”
“You tol’ Lulu Belle to hesh, not me.”
“Well, now I wants you all to hesh.”
<
br /> “Did Dave tell you what he and his friends were doing in Colton, Regina?”
“He tol’ me one of dem other mens was his brother,” she said. “He tol’ me de other one was a gunfighter.”
“Derek? Or Link?”
“Link is de brother.”
“And he never told you why they were here?”
“No. He jes’ come here to be wit’ me.”
“Did he . . . pay you to let him come here?” Kate asked.
“No,” she said. “I ain’t no whore, Miss Kate.”
“I know that, Regina,” Kate said. “I’m sorry.”
“What we gon’ do now?” Regina asked. “Is I gon’ be arrested?”
“No, no,” Clint said. “We’re going to take the body away and you won’t have to worry about this, Regina. I promise.”
Regina looked at Kate.
“You can trust Mr. Adams, Regina,” she said. “And Mr. Earp. They’ll take care of everything.”
Regina, sitting with her kids gathered around her, looked up at Clint and said, “I thanks you, Mr. Adams.”
“That’s okay, Regina,” Clint said, “I’m sorry this had to happen.” He looked at Kate. “You wait here with her. I’ll go and wait for Virgil. When he gets here, we’ll take the body away.”
“All right,” Kate said. “I’ll just wait here until you’re done.”
Clint nodded, then went outside to wait for Virgil.
FORTY-ONE
Clint was waiting out back when Virgil pulled up in the buckboard. Together they went inside, rolled the body up in the sheet, and transferred it to the buckboard. Clint went back in to talk to Kate.
“Why don’t you help Regina clean up, and then we’ll see you back at the house.”
“Okay, Clint,” she said. “Come on, Regina, let’s feed your kids, and then clean up.”
Clint left them to it. He went outside and climbed up onto the buckboard with Virgil.
Link Holman and Derek Morrell had not yet split up when they spotted Virgil Earp driving down the street in a buckboard.
“What’s he up to?” Morrell wondered aloud.
“I don’t know,” Link said. “Why don’t we find out?”
Virgil Earp, Private Detective Page 10
