Double The Bounty

by Robert J. Randisi

  Gonna get me a bank robber, she was thinking.

  It was her last thought in life.

  Brent felt the bullet strike him in the side, like a bee sting, and fired in return. His slug struck Mrs. Maxwell in the chest and the frail woman was thrown to the floor.

  “Damn you!” the manager shouted.

  Mr. Levi had no gun, but Brent didn’t stop to notice that. He was hurt, and he wanted to hurt back!

  He fired at Mr. Levi and his bullet bisected the bank manager’s mustache, taking out most of the back of his head. The teller screamed and held up his hands. Brent’s next shot went right through the palm of the young man’s left hand, which saved his life. The bullet was deflected just enough, and although it gave the young man a new, albeit bloody, part in his hair, the wound was not serious.

  Brent opened the door and bounded out of the bank in time to see a man with a badge coming toward him.

  “Hey, you—” the lawman managed to call out before Brent shot him in the chest.

  Damn, the deputy thought as he was dying, first you draw your gun, then you yell, hey…

  Brent mounted his horse, which had shown no signs of being lame, and rode hell-bent for leather out of town, leaving behind him a state of chaos that would take hours to calm. By that time, he’d be well away.

  But he was bleeding.

  Brian Foxx heard the horse coming before he saw it, and stood up. It was then he saw his brother riding toward him for all he was worth.

  “What the hell happened?” Brian asked.

  Brent tossed his brother the bank sack full of money and Brian caught it out of reflex.

  “Oh, Brent—” Brian said, shaking his head.

  “Can’t count it now, brother,” Brent said breathlessly. “Might be a posse on my tail. I, uh, had a little trouble.”

  “Brent—” Brian said, and it was then he saw his brother’s hand clutching his side. There was blood leaking out from between his fingers. “You’re hit!”

  “Not bad, but we’ve got to get going. It’ll take them time to get up a posse.”

  “Brent, how many people did you shoot?” “Brother Brian,” Brent said, “I lost count.”

  Chapter XXII

  Decker, Felicia, and Rebecca made Bell’s Crossing just before noon the next day. The state of turmoil was still very much in evidence.

  “Something happened here,” Decker said.

  “What?” Felicia asked.

  “That’s what I want to find out. Let’s find the sheriff’s office.”

  They found the sheriff’s office, and Felicia was told to stay outside with the horses, which she bitterly resented.

  Decker and Rebecca walked in and found the office crowded.

  A man with a badge stood behind his desk talking to five other men. Decker listened carefully.

  “Matt, you take five men and ride north. Sam, take five and go south—” And so on. It wasn’t hard for Decker to figure out that he was listening to a posse being deployed.

  When the men had their assignments and began filing out, the lawman noticed Decker and Rebecca.

  “Can I help you folks?”

  He was in his fifties, from all appearances, and Decker didn’t think he had too many more posses left in him. For one thing, his hands were showing sign of arthritis.

  “Maybe you can—”

  “I hope this won’t take long. I got a killer to catch.”

  “A killer?”

  The sheriff nodded.

  ’Fella came into town yesterday, bold as you please, and held up the bank.”

  “And he killed someone?”

  “An old woman, the bank manager, and my fool deputy.”

  “An old woman?”

  “Sounds funny, don’t it? Well, this is even funnier. The old woman, Mrs. Maxwell, she whipped out a derringer and plugged the jasper.”

  “How bad was he hit?”

  “Not bad enough. He did all his killin’ after that.”

  “Sheriff, what did this fella look like? Did you have a witness?”

  “Sure did—the bank teller. Fella tried to kill him, too, but missed. The teller said he was Brian Foxx. You hunting this killer?”

  “I am.”

  “And you, miss?”

  “Foxx killed my brother in Arizona. I’m looking for him.”

  “Well, he rode north out of town, but it got dark soon after. This is the first chance I’ve had to get a posse together. I don’t hold out much hope of catching him, so as much as I hate bounty hunters, mister, I wish you luck.”

  With that the sheriff pushed past them and went outside. Decker and Rebecca followed.

  “Now what happened?” Felicia asked. She hated having to be filled in last.

  “One of the Foxxes was here and held up the bank,” Decker said. “He killed three people, including an old woman who shot him first.”

  “An old woman killed him?”

  “She hit him, but she didn’t kill him.”

  “Then he’s traveling hurt.”

  “Seems like. The question is, is he traveling alone, and which way did he go?”

  “We’re farther behind than we figured,” Rebecca said. “We stopped for the night, but after what happened here you can bet Foxx didn’t.”

  “That’s a possibility. The sheriff said he rode north out of town. Let’s see what we can find.”

  They mounted up and rode out of the north end of town.

  Since Decker was the professional manhunter, Rebecca and Felicia left it to him to search the ground for signs.

  They headed south a ways, came to an incline, and rode up until they came to a stand of brush which even the women could see had been crushed down.

  “Pretty clear now what happened,” Decker said.

  “Want to explain it to us less fortunate people who don’t have your insight?” Rebecca asked.

  “The man who robbed the bank switched to the south after he hightailed it from town, and then he met his partner who was waiting for him here.”

  “They didn’t want to be seen together,” Rebecca said.

  “Or,” Felicia said, “one didn’t know what the other one was planning.”

  “Now, how do you figure that?” Rebecca asked.

  “I’ve read everything there is to read about Brian Foxx,” Felicia explained. “This job was pulled too close to the others, and it was sloppy. Foxx plans better than this. I’d say that if we’re dealing with two men, one was the planner, and he had nothing to do with this job.”

  “She may be right,” Decker said, “much as I hate to admit it. What if one brother did all the plan-ning and the other brother got tired of it?”

  “So he decides to pull a job on his own while his brother waits up here,” Rebecca said. “If that’s the case, there’s a very unhappy brother out there.”

  “I’d say two,” Decker said. He was kneeling on the ground and got up to show them the bloodstains on his fingertips. “One’s mad, and the other one’s hurt.”

  “Well, they’re farther ahead, but maybe they aren’t traveling as fast,” Rebecca said.

  “Only one way to see if we can catch them,” Decker said. He mounted up and said, “Let’s get moving.”

  Chapter XXIII

  “Sit still!”

  “Then take it easy!”

  Brian, still angry, was being unnecessarily rough as he tried to patch the hole in his brother’s side.

  “You’re lucky it was a small-caliber gun.”

  “Who the hell would have expected an old woman to shoot me?” Brent said, shaking his head in wonder.

  “You’ve got to suspect everyone. That’s what I’ve always tried to tell you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, you’re always telling me. Well, this time I told you.” Brent reached over and grabbed the sack. “Let’s see how much we got.”

  “How much you got doesn’t matter,” Brian said. “It was a fool play.”

  “I tell you what,” Brent said, buttoning his shirt. “If yo
u don’t want half, you don’t have to take it.”

  “I don’t want it,” Brian said, standing up. He used water from his canteen to clean his brother’s blood from his hands. He wished he could wash away the responsibility he felt as easily. He’d turned his brother into a bank robber, and now he’d come to this.

  Well, he thought, maybe I made him a bank robber, but he made himself a fool. All he had to do was listen once in a while!

  “Fine, then I’ll keep it all.”

  Brent reached into the sack and pulled out a handful of bills.

  “What the hell—”

  “What’s the matter?” Brian asked.

  Brent was frantically pulling another handful of money out.

  “That little son of a bitch!”

  Brian walked over to where his brother was sitting and immediately saw what the problem was.

  He started laughing.

  “What the fuck are you laughing at!”

  “You,” Brian said. “You hold up a bank and take one in the side from a woman, and you end up with a bag of one-dollar bills.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Brent said, throwing the sack as far as he could.

  “You’re lucky if you’ve got five hundred dollars there. That sure as hell isn’t worth getting shot for.”

  The Foxx brothers traveled another two or three hours, but then Brian noticed a waxy look coming over Brent’s face and saw that his brother’s side was covered with fresh blood.

  “Hold up,” he said, grabbing the reins of Brent’s horse.

  “What is it?” Brent asked. It came out as almost a gasp.

  “That bleeding’s not stopping. We’ve got to get that bullet out.”

  “It’s a tiny little bullet, Brian,” Brent complained, but Brian knew how much discomfort and pain the “tiny little bullet” was causing his brother.

  “We’ve got to get you to a doctor in the next town.”

  “What if there ain’t a doctor in the next town?”

  “Then we’ll let a vet do it.”

  “Brian—”

  “Don’t argue with me on this, Brent. I’m not gonna haul your ass all over the countryside because you’re too stubborn to have a bullet removed—even a tiny little one.”

  Brent shrugged and said, “You’re the boss.”

  “Now that,” Brian said, “is the biggest joke I’ve heard all day.”

  Chapter XXIV

  “Where do you figure they’re heading?” Rebecca asked.

  “I figure that since there was trouble with the Doverville robbery they’ve decided to change the location of their operation,” Decker said.

  They were riding three abreast, with Decker in the center, Rebecca on his right, and Felicia on his left.

  “Colorado?” she asked. “Kansas?”

  Decker shook his head.

  “I’d head farther east than that. I’d want to put as much space between myself and…what happened in Arizona that there wouldn’t even be a hint of it in the air.”

  “And that goes for what happened in Bell’s Crossing, too,” Felicia chimed in.

  “So then they’ll just relocate and start over again,” Rebecca said.

  Decker nodded.

  “We’ve got to stop them, Decker,” she said. “I don’t want what happened Tomy brother and those other people to happen to anyone else.”

  “We’ll catch up with them,” Decker said. “Even a small bullet has to be giving whichever one of them is hit some problems. They’ll need a doctor unless one brother wants to take the bullet out of the other brother himself.”

  “That means they’ll have to stop in a town,” Rebecca said.

  “Right.”

  “But which one?”

  “We’ll have to find out.”

  “That means we have to stop in every town.”

  “Pass through, anyway.”

  “But that’ll put us farther behind!”

  “We’ll only pass through the towns that aren’t out of the way. It shouldn’t hold us up that much.”

  “Why don’t I go on while you stop?”

  “And when you catch up to them, what will you do?”

  “I—I’ll—”

  “We’ll ride together, Rebecca.”

  “Why don’t you go ahead while Felicia and I stop in the towns?” Rebecca suggested.

  “Again,” Decker said, “what happens if you ride into a town and they’re there?”

  Rebecca didn’t answer.

  “I know you’re anxious, but you’ve got to be patient.”

  “I’m not a bounty hunter. I haven’t learned your kind of patience.”

  He wasn’t sure if that had been meant as an insult or not.

  “And you never will make a bounty hunter unless you learn.”

  “I have no intention of being a bounty hunter.”

  “Why? Don’t you have a bounty on Foxx’s head? And aren’t you after it?”

  “That’s different.”

  “Is it?”

  “Yes.”

  “I don’t see how.”

  “You’re after him for the money, and that’s all.”

  Felicia started to speak in Decker’s defense, but he waved her to silence.

  “People have to eat, Rebecca, and to do that they have to work, and most people work at what they’re good at.”

  “And you’re good at hunting people down?”

  “Yes.”

  “And killing them?”

  “What makes you think I kill them?”

  “Isn’t that what bounty hunters do?”

  “It’s not what this bounty hunter does,” Decker said, “and I don’t think it’s what most bounty hunters do.”

  “Haven’t you ever killed a man after you caught up to him?”

  “Yes.”

  “Because it was easier to bring him back that way? Facedown over a saddle?”

  “Because he was trying to kill me—and you should be the one to judge? You’re planning to kill Foxx when you catch up to him.”

  “It’s different, I told you.”

  “Revenge is a nobler cause than survival?”

  She turned to look at him and said, “He killed my brother!”

  “That’s fine. He killed your brother, so you kill him. See what that gets you.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “You started the conversation.”

  “And now I’m ending it.”

  “Have it your way.”

  “I’m only riding with you—”

  “Because you need me.”

  “I do not! We happen to be going in the same direction. I do not care to have my motives analyzed by you.”

  “Let me ask you one more question.”

  “What?”

  “What did you do back in Doverville—for a living, I mean.”

  “I…was a schoolteacher— but I can ride and handle a gun as well as any man.”

  “You were a tomboy as a child, right?”

  “What’s wrong with being a tomboy?” Felicia asked. She just wanted to get into the conversation.

  “I don’t care to pursue this any further,” Rebecca said. “Could we ride in silence for a while, please?”

  “That’s fine with me,” Decker said. “I’m not used to all this company on the trail, and I’m getting a headache anyway.”

  Chapter XXV

  The next town Brian and Brent Foxx came to was called Stillwell, and Brian decided that they’d wait and ride into town after dark.

  “We want to attract as little attention as possible.”

  “Why don’t you let me go in myself, get patched up, and then meet you here?”

  Brian gave his brother a glare and said, “Because I can’t trust you not to try and rob the bank before you leave.”

  Brent didn’t have an answer to that, and a low moan escaped his lips just at that moment. Brian wondered if he was really in pain or just looking for sympathy.

  After dark they rode in
to town at a leisurely pace, hats pulled down low over their faces.

  A townsman was crossing the street and Brian stopped him.

  “Can you tell me where the doctor’s office is?”

  “It’s down another block on the right, friend, but the doc will be asleep right now. You got an emergency?”

  The man was squinting up at Brian, trying to see his face through the shadow.

  “No,” Brian said, “no emergency, friend. I’ll just see him in the morning.”

  “Have a good evening,” the man said, and continued on his way.

  “We gonna wait until morning?” Brent asked.

  “Hell, no.”

  They rode up to the next block and located the doctor’s office. Brian helped Brent off his horse and to the front door, and then knocked firmly but quietly until a light came on inside.

  “What in the blazes—” the man said, opening his door. He was gray-haired, of medium height, and in his fifties. “What the hell are you knocking on my door at this time of night for?”

  Brian had thought of several explanations, but the doctor seemed so irate he decided to do it the easy way.

  He drew his gun and pointed it at the doctor’s nose. It was the sight of the two identical men as much as the gun that kept him silent.

  “Inside, Doc,” he said. “You got a patient.”

  The doctor lived alone, which was good. They wouldn’t have to deal with a wife and children.

  He led them to his examining room, where Brian instructed him to help Brent off with his shirt.

  “You gonna tell me how to take the bullet out, too?” the doctor asked.

  “No, you’re gonna do that one all by yourself, Doc—and if I see you slip even a little, you’ll be dead long before my brother is.”

  “Young man,” the doctor said, discarding Brent’s bloody shirt, “my job is saving lives, not taking them, no matter whose.”

  “Keep that in mind, Doc.”

  “My name is Petrie, Dr. Petrie.”

  “I don’t care what your name is, just get that bullet out of my brother’s side and patch him up good. We’ve got to get moving.”

  “Obviously you’re on the run,” Petrie said, examining Brent’s wound.

  “Stop talking, Doc, unless it has to do with my brother’s wound.”

  “It was a small bullet, wasn’t it?”