Despite looking a bit confused by Sol’s stammering, Dennis maintained his polite air. ‘‘You could always come back tomorrow after you’ve had a chance to rest.’’
‘‘Actually, I think I’ll do that. I have some other business to take care of while I’m in town. Do you know where I might be able to find the offices for the Jessup Mining Company?’’
Dennis’ eyes widened a bit at the mention of what was obviously a competitor. ‘‘If you would like to come in and talk business now, I’d be more than happy to reopen for a bit.’’
‘‘Oh, well, that business is separate from the business I meant to talk to you about. Since you’re on your way out, I could handle one and then come back tomorrow to talk to you about the other.’’
Sol knew his line of manure wasn’t very convincing. Dennis must have been either a trusting soul or he really wanted to go home, because he gave up on digging his keys from his pocket and shifted his walking stick back to his right hand. ‘‘The Jessup offices are, I believe, four or five streets that way,’’ he said while using his walking stick to point. ‘‘Make a left when you see the Chinese tailor and keep walking. You won’t be able to miss it. The Jessup offices take up all three floors of a fairly large building.’’
‘‘I appreciate your help and I’ll catch up with you tomorrow,’’ Sol said.
It seemed the earnest first half of Sol’s statement wasn’t marred by the lie that was tacked onto the end, because Dennis accepted them both without question. ‘‘Nice meeting you and I’ll be sure to clear an appointment for you in the morning. What was your name again?’’
But Sol had already left. He heard the question, but had made it far enough away for him to keep from making up a name on the spot. Since another question didn’t follow, Sol knew he’d escaped Dennis well enough. After that, it was a simple matter of following the instructions he’d been given.
Chapter 21
At times, when he’d had a moment to think about such things after working in the silver mine or sitting in his room back in Warren, Sol had thought about how much fun it would be to just pick up and ride away to some new place. Now that he’d made that jump, Sol couldn’t help but wonder why he hadn’t made it sooner. Then again, he’d jumped in a different direction than he would have expected back in those tired moments after work.
Rather than walk the unfamiliar streets and soak up the unfamiliar sights and sounds, Sol kept his head down and his eyes in motion. He didn’t savor the things he hadn’t seen before. Instead, he watched for anyone who looked at him for too long or groups of men who kept pace with him for any longer than they should have.
Plenty of men he saw were armed. That was nothing new.
Plenty of folks glanced his way. That was nothing new, either.
The way Sol looked back at all those folks was new. It felt like a new suit of clothes that he’d been forced to wear. It itched in spots and fit perfectly in others. It also made him act differently, the way a formal suit made a man act differently than when he was wearing his favorite pair of jeans and an old shirt.
Like it or not, Sol wore his new suit and couldn’t just take it off at the end of the day. It wasn’t a second skin. It was his only skin.
The Jessup Mining Company could be seen as soon as Sol rounded the next corner. There was no way for him to miss the large building that stood out from all the others huddled around it. Unlike many of its stucco-coated neighbors, the Jessup building looked as if it had been plucked from New York City and dropped down onto the New Mexico street. It didn’t fit in with the rest and obviously wasn’t about to try and change any time soon.
Sol approached the building, but stopped when he was across the street from it. Now that he was there, he didn’t know quite what to do. His hand brushed against his new pistol, but the only target he had was the large building itself. As attractive as the notion of shooting holes in some of those windows might have been, Sol knew better than to draw his gun and start firing like some kid with his nose out of joint.
When he spotted the figure on the corner across from him, Sol thought he might have just been given the target he’d been looking for. The figure kept still until he knew he’d been spotted. Then the figure turned toward Sol and began stalking straight toward him. Sol’s first impulse was to look around and make certain he wasn’t being set up for an ambush. The last thing he needed was to ruin this plan by announcing his presence at the wrong time. When Sol looked back to the figure, however, he couldn’t find him.
Sol twitched to look at something moving toward him from a slightly different angle, but it was already too late. The other man was upon him and shoving Sol against a building.
Night hadn’t quite fallen yet, but the sun was at such a drastic angle that half the town was in shadow and the other half was bathed in light. That bright light sliced in just right so the shadows seemed even blacker. When Sol landed in one of those shadows, he thought he’d knocked his head against the wall hard enough to temporarily blind him.
‘‘What in the blazes are you doing here?’’ the other man snarled.
Sol blinked and asked, ‘‘Nester? Is that you?’’
‘‘Yeah, it’s me. I’m supposed to be scouting this place out, remember? What’s yer excuse for bein’ here?’’
Trying to knock the old man’s hand away from him, Sol merely cracked his wrist against what felt like an iron post. Only after he made sure Sol knew he hadn’t forced him to let go, Nester relaxed his grip.
‘‘Come on,’’ Nester said as he shoved Sol away from the Jessup building and walked beside him. ‘‘Let’s get away from this spot before someone catches sight of you.’’
After they’d rounded a corner and put the Jessup building well behind them, Nester growled, ‘‘Start explainin’ yerself.’’
‘‘I finished what I was supposed to do, so I came over here to get a look at this place. After coming all this way, I couldn’t bear to just circle around this spot rather than—’’
‘‘Rather than dive in like a danged fool?’’ Nester cut in.
Sol shrugged, but didn’t have much else to say.
‘‘Eh, no harm done, I suppose,’’ Nester muttered. ‘‘Besides, it’s good you got the look you were after, because we ain’t staying around here much longer.’’
‘‘Why?’’
‘‘Because you ruffled a lot more feathers than I gave ya credit for, that’s why,’’ Nester replied with a smirk. Glancing up and down the street, he lowered his voice to a rasping whisper as he lowered his head so nobody could even see his lips moving. ‘‘The shipment’s already here, but they’re movin’ it to some other spot.’’
‘‘How do you know that?’’ Sol asked.
‘‘I skulked around long enough to catch sight of a bunch of well-dressed fellas marching to a lot out back. There’s a wagon and a real nice stagecoach bein’ prepared, but I’d say they won’t be leaving until the morning.’’
Sol looked at the old man suspiciously. ‘‘How do you know who’s traveling, where they’re going and why?’’
Scowling back at the younger man, Nester snapped, ‘‘Here I thought you’d be happy to hear about this.
With them on the move, it’ll be a whole lot easier to hit them.’’
‘‘I’ll be happy once I know it’s accurate.’’
‘‘There’s that instinct of yers,’’ Nester said. ‘‘I heard most of this after I got into the building. All I needed to do was follow the sounds of voices. It wasn’t hard, on account of the place was mostly empty at this time of night and the man who did most of the talking was real loud about it. Seems like you ain’t much of a favorite son around here. That price on yer head was upped to twenty-five hundred.’’
Sol blinked and took a moment for that last part to sink in. ‘‘What?’’
Nester nodded like a father watching his boy win a footrace. ‘‘Only a little ways out and you already got a decent price for yer scalp. Do you know how long it took for me
ta be worth that much? Of course, that was a few years ago and rewards weren’t quite as high as they are now.’’
‘‘So if there’s more money being offered for me, that means there’ll be more bounty hunters after me?’’
Nester kept nodding. ‘‘That’s what bounty hunters do. Then again, it also depends on how many of them notices were posted. Could be that nobody worth mentioning has seen them yet. We could always make sure they get seen, though.’’
‘‘Why would we do that?’’
‘‘So you get more men gunnin’ for ya,’’ Nester replied as if he were explaining the simplest thing in the world. ‘‘The more men you got gunnin’ for ya, the more folks are out there spreadin’ the word about what a tough hombre you are. That sort of word of mouth’s invaluable.’’
‘‘And what happens when they find me?’’ Sol asked.
‘‘Then you deal with ’em, of course. That’s how this whole thing works. The more of a reputation you build, the easier the jobs get. Soon, folks’d rather hand over what you want than fight you. An ounce of fear’s worth a gallon of spilt blood. That lesson’s worth more’n you know, boy.’’
Feeling as if his head were filled with a dozen swarming bees, Sol forced himself to look through the confusion and steer himself back onto his original path. ‘‘All I care about right now is this shipment you’re talking about. Are you sure you heard enough to know all the details?’’
‘‘I heard plenty,’’ Nester replied. ‘‘The rest I got from a real good source.’’
‘‘What source is that?’’
Now the old men grinned and showed a set of small teeth that ground against each other. His slender face could barely contain the excitement that was so obviously churning in him. ‘‘You want to know how I know? Why don’t you come along with me and see fer yerself?’’
‘‘Can’t you just tell me?’’ Sol asked.
Nester shook his head. ‘‘Nah. I think you’re gonna want to see this for yerself.’’
Sol didn’t like the grin on Nester’s face any more than he liked the tone in the old man’s voice. What burned Sol even more was the knowledge that he would have to play the old man’s game for now if there was any hope of getting the answers he wanted. Finally, Sol said, ‘‘All right, then. Show me.’’
Nester led the way to a small shack that Sol guessed was an outhouse. Upon closer examination, the shack was slightly bigger than an outhouse and too small to be a home. Any more of Sol’s guesses as to why the shack had been built were forgotten when he got a look at what was inside.
The man in the shack looked to be in his forties and might have been wearing fancy clothes at the start of the evening. Those clothes were ripped and dirty now, however. He was also gagged, blindfolded and hog-tied. When he heard the door open, the man squirmed and flopped in his corner as he struggled to get himself upright.
Although he tried to talk, the man’s words were reduced to a muffled flow of grunts and groans thanks to the knotted bandana that was stuffed into his mouth.
Sol couldn’t take his eyes off of the man. The fact that he was even seeing a captive in that state was enough to root him to his spot. He wasn’t shaken out of his trance until he heard Nester’s voice.
‘‘He thinks I left another fella in here with him,’’ the old man whispered. He then stepped forward so he could pull the bandana away from the captive’s mouth.
‘‘Is that still you?’’ the captive asked. ‘‘Is there someone else here? I demand to know what’s going on! My employers will not tolerate this!’’
‘‘Hush up now,’’ Nester said in a tranquil voice that seemed genuinely peculiar in comparison to that of the captive. ‘‘Remember what I told you before.’’
The captive’s mouth hung open, but he kept any more words from escaping it. Instead, he nodded vigorously.
‘‘Good,’’ Nester said. ‘‘Now tell me once more about that shipment.’’
‘‘I didn’t tell you anything. I won’t . . .’’
When Nester raised his hand, he was holding his pistol in front of the captive’s face. Although the blindfolded man couldn’t see the gun, he could certainly hear the metallic click of the hammer being thumbed back.
‘‘It doesn’t matter if you know or not,’’ the captive quickly explained. ‘‘You won’t be able to get to it.’’
‘‘Tell me anyways,’’ Nester prodded. ‘‘What’s being shipped?’’
‘‘It’s . . .’’ The captive’s throat pinched shut, which obviously required every bit of the man’s will. His efforts were quickly broken down when Nester placed the barrel of his gun against his forehead. ‘‘It’s a shipment of funds coming from some of our mining interests, ’’ the captive spat.
‘‘How much?’’ Nester asked.
‘‘I don’t know for certain. It’s several shipments that were held up since there have been some concerns with moving it safely. It would normally come here and stay here, but there’s been problems. There was a robbery of an earlier shipment, so we’re taking extra precautions.’’
Nester glanced over to Sol and gave him a knowing grin. ‘‘Where’s the shipment going?’’ Nester asked.
‘‘I don’t know the name of the town, but it’s about two days’ ride from here.’’
‘‘Which way?’’
‘‘East,’’ the captive sputtered as though he was on the verge of tears. ‘‘Two days’ ride east of here. Can I go now?’’
‘‘I don’t know,’’ Nester replied. ‘‘We’ll see if my associate and I can come to an agreement once you’ve told us everything.’’
‘‘That’s all there is. I swear it!’’
‘‘Why’s it being shipped anywhere?’’ Sol asked. ‘‘Aren’t there banks here?’’
The sound of another man’s voice made the captive jump and tremble. When he spoke, he sounded several steps closer to blubbering. ‘‘This money is kept separate from the rest.’’
‘‘Why?’’ Sol snapped. ‘‘Because it’s skimmed off the top before you send it on down the line?’’
‘‘Yes,’’ the captive sobbed. ‘‘Mr. Oberlee wants to make sure his share isn’t at risk if there’s going to be another robbery. Please just let me go now. That’s all I know!’’
Kicking the shack’s door shut, Nester pulled the bandana back up around the man’s face and stuffed it into his mouth. The captive squirmed and thrashed as if he were fighting for his life.
Sol could barely stand to watch.
Nester stepped outside and motioned for Sol to follow. ‘‘Anything else you want to ask? I’d say he’ll answer damn near anything right now.’’
‘‘No,’’ Sol said. ‘‘Just let him go.’’
Judging by the look on Nester’s face, someone might have thought he’d just been asked to cut off one of his own hands. ‘‘Let him go? Why would we do something like that?’’
‘‘What else are we supposed to do with him?’’
Nester cocked his head to one side and didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to say anything, since his intentions were written clearly enough across his face.
‘‘No,’’ Sol said to the unspoken verdict. ‘‘I won’t be a party to an execution.’’
Apparently, Sol had spoken a bit louder than he’d hoped. From inside the shack, the muffled voice lamented through the bandana in a series of shuddering moans.
Chuckling under his breath, Nester said, ‘‘I think you just hurt the man a lot more than I was plannin’ on.’’
‘‘You weren’t going to kill him?’’
Squinting so he could study every line in Sol’s face, Nester replied, ‘‘Not unless you think it’d be best.’’
Sol pulled in a breath and shook his head. ‘‘Maybe we should find out what sort of precautions he was talking about. Other than that, I’d say he’s told us plenty and we should let him go. That is . . . if you think he was telling us the truth.’’
Nester chuckled. ‘‘If that fella could
lie well enough to fool us in the state he’s in, he’d be working at a poker table instead’a at some crooked mining outfit. You go in and get what you need. I’ll stay outside to make sure you don’t get interrupted.’’
‘‘All right. I think I can manage.’’ Before Sol could walk back into the shack, he felt Nester’s iron grip close around his forearm.
‘‘Don’t you let him go,’’ Nester said in an icy tone. ‘‘You do that and we might as well ride right out of here and forget about that shipment.’’
Sol nodded and took a few deep breaths. He let them out like steam being pushed through a piston and then stomped into the shack. If he was asked about it later, he might not have been able to recall exactly what he’d said to that man who was bound and gagged. All Sol cared about was that the job didn’t take long. When he stepped outside again, Sol was glad to feel the cool air upon his face.
‘‘Well?’’ Nester asked.
‘‘There’s going to be some hired guns riding along with the shipment,’’ Sol reported. ‘‘There’s also going to be a few riflemen hanging back a ways to scout for an ambush and pick off anyone who tries to attack the shipment head-on.’’
Nester’s eyebrows lifted and he let out a low whistle. ‘‘Sharpshooters, huh? I didn’t hear that when I questioned him before.’’
‘‘Let him go,’’ Sol said.
Shaking his head, Nester replied, ‘‘Can’t do that. He’ll scamper off and warn the others.’’
‘‘He’s already missing. Maybe you should have thought about that before you kidnapped him.’’
‘‘He may be missing,’’ Nester said, ‘‘but he won’t be missed. He was sent away while all them others got the wagons prepared. His job’s to get a message to a courier and that’s been done.’’
‘‘What did the message say?’’ Sol asked. When he got a casual shrug, Sol didn’t hesitate to press the matter. ‘‘You must have talked about that before I got here. What did it say?’’
Death of a Bad Man Page 19
