The Sunshine Killers

by Giles Tippette

  Barney was the first to reach Saulter from the bunkhouse group. He stopped and stared openmouthed. “My god,” he exclaimed, “it’s the old boy that was supposed to have froze to death!”

  McGraw put a cigar in his mouth, staring hard at Saulter. Billy had come running up by now. McGraw said sharply, “Who is this man?”

  Before Bill could speak, Barney blurted out, “He’s the pilgrim that had a run-in with Tomlain. Now he’s killed Tomlain.”

  McGraw looked at him. “He’s done what?”

  “He’s killed Ray Tomlain, Mister McGraw.” Barney gestured behind him. “He’s layin’ out there with a hole in him as big as a boot and this one must have done it.”

  McGraw drew slowly on his cigar and stared at Saulter. “He killed Tomlain, Ray Tomlain?”

  They were all there by then and they stood ranged around McGraw and Saulter and the man with the rifle. “I guess he done it, Mister McGraw,” Billy said. “Tomlain’s layin’ out there with a hole in his chest and this here man has got a pistol.” He reached over with those words and jerked the revolver out of Saulter’s belt. “It even looks straight. Ray’s gun is out.”

  As if to see for himself, McGraw walked through the group and looked across the snow at Tomlain. Then he turned back and stared again at Saulter. “Goddammit!” he swore. “Goddammit to hell!” He turned and looked at the group around him. “Do you fools have any idea what this means? How in the hell did you allow this to happen?”

  Barney said, “Mister McGraw, we didn’t have no idea this feller had come back. We thought he was long gone.”

  Letty had come out on the back porch. She slowly sifted her way through the other women and came to the front. Her eyes went to Saulter. He was standing there like a stone, his hands still over his head. He glanced briefly at her and then quickly looked away.

  McGraw took the cigar out of his mouth and threw it in the snow. His face was contorted with anger. “Who is this man?” He turned and pointed a finger at Saulter. “How did he get here? What’s he doing here?”

  Barney spoke first. “It was like I was trying to tell you yesterday, Mister McGraw. This is the one through here a few days back. But we thought he was dead. We thought Tomlain beat him to death with his fists. I don’t indeed know what he’s doing standing here today.”

  The rifleman, who had relaxed his vigilance, lifted his rifle again. “You want me to tend to him right now, Mister McGraw? I can take him out behind the barn if you don’t want the ladies to see.”

  McGraw didn’t bother to answer, just went on staring hard at Saulter. “First, I want some answers. I want to know how this man came to be here and to shoot Tomlain.” He looked at the other men. “How did you allow this to happen? Billy?”

  Billy looked down at the ground.

  “Barney? You seem to want to talk.”

  “He come through here hurt or something. Wanted to stay, but Tomlain made him leave. Whipped up on him, don’t you know? We all thought he’d took on off. Supposed to have been killed. Froze or somethin’ cause his horse came back. Supposed to have been gone three or four days. But here he is. Beats hell out of me.” Barney looked closely at Saulter. “Thing is, where’s he been? Look at him. He don’t look like he’s been layin’ out in no snowbank. Looks considerably better’n when he left.”

  One of the other gunmen spoke up. “Say, I hadn’t thought on that. I believe Barney’s right. He don’t look like he’s had a flake of snow on him. He ain’t been holed up out in the hills and we searched every building in this town. Where in hell’s the sonofabitch been?”

  McGraw listened, drawing intently on a fresh cigar. “Am I to understand that this man might well have been around here for the last several days? Listening! Listening to our plans!” A little blood vessel began to throb in his temple as the anger worked its slow way through him. McGraw prided himself on never losing his head, but he could feel his control slipping as he contemplated the ruin these fool gunmen might have created. He breathed out a hard breath. “Somebody better goddam well get me some answers right now. Have you fools been letting him sleep in the bunkhouse? Have you been drinking with him? Do you idiots have any conception of how much money is at stake here?” He looked at them, glaring, and again they all hung their heads. He whirled on Saulter. “Well, sir,” he said with exaggerated calm, “you’ve apparently been my unwelcome guest. I own this town. I own these people here. I don’t owe you a goddam thing except a bullet if you don’t tell me what I want to know, quickly. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  Saulter turned his head slowly and stared at him.

  “Goddam you, answer me!”

  Saulter didn’t speak.

  “Where have you been? In Schmidt’s? In one of the barns?”

  Saulter glanced away, toward the snow-covered hills. Then he leaned his head down and spit deliberately between his boots.

  McGraw took a quick step forward and slapped him sharply in the face. “By god, don’t you come that on me, you sonofabitch! I asked you a question. You just think you won’t answer.” He whirled to the rifleman. “William, cock that weapon.”

  The man slowly brought his gun up, the muzzle only feet from Saulter’s chest. With a deliberate thumb he pulled the hammer back.

  “Now, sir,” McGraw said to Saulter.

  Saulter stared back.

  “Are you a fool? Do you want to join Mister Tomlain out there?” He pointed. “Believe me, it matters not to me whether I shoot you or not. What you have to tell me is not even particularly important except it might indicate which one of my men here has been negligent. That’s all your silence is doing, protecting one of them. Answer me, damn you!”

  Slowly Saulter’s jaw worked. “Go to hell.”

  McGraw hesitated only a second. “All right. Have it your own way.” He turned to the rifleman. “Shoot him.”

  In that instant Letty stepped forward. “Hold on,” she said. McGraw turned to her. She took another step forward. “All right, McGraw. He’s been here. I’ve been hiding him.”

  Everything stopped. McGraw’s hand was still up to signal the rifleman. It hung there in the air while he stared at Letty for a long second. Barney let out his breath. “I be go to hell,” he said.

  McGraw turned to face Letty. “I beg your pardon?”

  “He was hurt and sick,” she said. “He was dying.” She jerked her head toward where Tomlain lay in the snow. “Your damn bully left him beat to death out in the street. I took him in like you would a stray cat. That’s all. He don’t know nothing about nothing.”

  He nodded slowly. “Your philanthropy overwhelms me, madame. I didn’t know it was part of your profession.”

  “Listen,” she said, bridling her anger, “the hell with that kind of talk. He was wounded and I took him in to nurse for a day or two. That’s all. Just to let him get his strength back and put him on the road. I didn’t know this other was going to happen.” Again she jerked her head in the direction of Tomlain. “But what could you expect? Your goddam bully nearly killed him. Anything Tomlain got he had coming. Don’t blame this man for it.”

  “Don’t blame him?” He looked at her quizzically. “Madame, have you lost what little mind you ever had? Who shall I blame then?”

  “Blame Tomlain. If he’d left the man alone this wouldn’t have happened.”

  “Do you think we’re schoolboys playing at some game, woman? What is this talk from you? You amaze me.” He reached up and stroked a hand across his mouth. “But I will tend to you later. We’re going to have to discuss your part in this.” He turned around to where Saulter was still standing. “And now you, sir.” He walked to the front of the hunter and faced him. “You’ve done me much harm. Perhaps irreparable harm. I don’t know how much yet. I’m going to have to study the situation. I’m going to have you killed now, but I want you to understand I don’t do it maliciously, if that’s any comfort to you. There’s no pay in that sort of thing. But you have done me harm and for that there’s got
to be a settlement.” He turned to the rifleman. “William, walk this man out behind that barn and shoot him.”

  Letty said, “McGraw! Don’t!”

  He took his cigar out of his mouth and looked at her. “Well, well, well. This is deeper than I thought. Now you’re pleading for his life. What do you offer, your virtue?”

  Before she could answer Billy cleared his throat. “Mister McGraw ...” He took off his hat as a sign of respect. “Mister McGraw, I wonder if you wouldn’t let me talk to you about this feller. I know you ain’t the kind to go rushing up no box canyons and I think I might tell you something could be of considerable interest.”

  “Oh?” McGraw asked questioningly.

  “Yessir.”

  “Such as?”

  Billy looked uncomfortable. “I’d rather not get into it out here in the open like this, sir. But I will say that he was with the railroads. . . .”

  “Oh?” McGraw said.

  “Yessir. He was a meat hunter for them. He’s got a sharpshooter’s rifle.”

  “Ah?”

  “And we are a man short now that he’s killed Tomlain.” He hesitated. “I’d think he killed Ray Tomlain in a fair fight from the looks of it and the man that can do that . . .” He trailed off.

  “What do you suggest?” McGraw asked.

  Billy shrugged. “Well, why don’t we go on over to the saloon and have some breakfast and let me tell you my idea. Hell, you can shoot him just as easy an hour from now as here on the spot.”

  McGraw drew on his cigar, considering. “A good point.”

  Billy, his confidence growing, said, “I think you ought to listen to what I can tell you before you decide.”

  McGraw stood a moment thinking, drawing on his cigar. Finally he turned to the rifleman. “William, search the gentleman for any other weapons he might have. Be thorough.”

  While Saulter, standing calm but tense, was being roughly patted down, McGraw turned again to Letty. “You bewilder me, madame. I am hard-pressed to understand your actions. I think you may have some serious accounting to render later. Wait inside.” The words were calm and polite, but the threat was no less real.

  “Oh, go to hell,” she said, her anger still up.

  “Probably,” he agreed, “as will you.” He looked at Saulter, then back at Letty. “Perhaps in a much sooner time, madame, than you’d planned. Unless my man over here has better suggestions.” He turned to face Saulter. “You go inside with the women. You seem to like it in there, so you just go inside and rest while we decide your case.” He looked sharply around. “Barney! William! Put this man inside the house and patrol both doors. If he gets away I’ll hold you accountable.”

  “Yes, sir!” Barney said, coming forward. “Do we go inside, Mister McGraw?”

  With a bemused expression on his face McGraw turned to look at Letty. “No. There are only two doors. Stay outside and watch them. And the windows. Inside you might be seduced into letting stray cats run. You’ll be safer outside.” He said the major part of the sentence looking at Letty. Then he turned to Billy. “Let’s go have some breakfast.”

  As they walked off, Barney and William came forward and prodded Saulter toward the back door of the women’s house. “Just move it, boy,” William said. “Just get on in there.” Saulter went reluctantly, slowly. As he passed Letty he turned his face to hers. She stared back. There was nothing in either expression.

  He went into the house at the point of William’s rifle, and the door was shut behind him. “I’ll take the back and you get the front,” William said.

  The women opened the door and went in slowly, looking back over their shoulders as William settled down in the snow with his rifle across his knees. Inside, Saulter walked into the parlor and went to the front window. He stood there, staring out. Letty and the other women came into the room. She turned facing them, and said sharply, “Go to your rooms! Now! I’ll call you later.”

  Saulter was still standing at the parlor window, staring at the saloon across the street. The room was dim, but dappled with the early morning sunshine. Letty came up behind him. They stood there silently for a moment. Finally she spoke. “Well, you’ve done it now.”

  He would not look at her.

  “I warned you.”

  “All right.”

  “No. It’s not all right. You could have left. You could have run. You could have left Tomlain alone.”

  He said, “Listen, I did what I had to do. You let a man do what he did to me and let it go and you’re walking away the rest of your life. I don’t run.”

  “You goddam fool,” she said bitterly. “They’ll be coming across here in half an hour to shoot you. Is that what you had to do?”

  “It’s none of your concern.”

  “What?” Her voice bit out like the cold.

  He turned to look at her. “It’s none of your concern,” he said again.

  She put her fists to her hips for a second. They were knotted. For a moment she seemed to almost shake with rage. He waited calmly for what he could see coming. “None of my concern!” With two swift, strong strokes she slapped him on both sides of his face. “None of my concern!”

  He stared at her unflinching.

  “Oh, go to hell,” she burst out. And then she turned away. She walked a few feet back into the parlor and started to cry. Finally, he spoke.

  “Letty . . .”

  “Oh, shut up,” she said.

  He went near her, putting out a hand to touch her shoulder. She shrugged it off. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said awkwardly. “You’ve been damn fine to me . . .” He let the sentence trail off. “I don’t know what to say.”

  She turned on him. “If you’ve got anything you want to say, any last words, you better make them damn fast. You don’t know what you’re in with. This bunch will kill you like flicking out a candle. I told you you were into something bigger than you knew, but you wouldn’t listen to me. Now, goddammit, you’re going to pay for it.”

  “What, Letty? What?” He took her by the shoulders and whirled her to face him. “Dammit, tell me what you mean. No more of these half hints. I got to know what’s going on.”

  She faced him for a long moment. Finally she shrugged in resignation, breaking her shoulders loose from his hands. “What the hell difference does it make? McGraw is probably going to kill me now, too.”

  “Listen,” he said fiercely. “That’s not going to happen to you. Nothing is going to happen to you. Not as long as I’m around. McGraw or nobody.”

  “You?” She half-laughed. “You’re small game. Just a dumb cowboy that came blundering in. I’ve tried to tell you that.”

  “Then tell me straight out,” he commanded, his voice fierce. “What the hell is going on around here?”

  She studied him a long moment further. It seemed hard for her to bring the words out. Then she said, “They’re going to assassinate the President.”

  He didn’t seem to understand. “Do what? Assassinate the President? Who are you talking about? What president?”

  “The President of the United States. That’s who. The President. General Grant. U. S. Grant. Ever heard of him?”

  He still couldn’t seem to comprehend the situation and its implications. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about. The President of the United States? Here?”

  “Not here. Of course not here. Listen,” she said tensely, “this is all part of a hell of a big scheme. The President is coming down to drive that golden spike, or whatever it is. When the two railroads meet. Don’t you know that? McGraw and his gang are going to kill him there, assassinate him there.”

  He ran a hand over his hair. “Letty, is that true? Are you sure?”

  “Sure?” She waved a hand around the room. “What the hell you think this is all about? This private saloon and private cathouse. A place for killers to wait.” She laughed bitterly. “All the comforts of home. A little shade for the Sunshine killers, as McGraw says.”

  He still couldn’t seem t
o take it in. “Letty, give me this slowly. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Of course it doesn’t make any sense. But it’s true.”

  “But here, in this godforsaken place. Why hers?

  “It’s just a camp, just a place to wait. They build that track fast or slow. Who can say? But this bunch doesn’t leave anything to chance. So they set up this camp here. Just a little south of the line the railroads are taking. And they wait. Wait for the time, for the railroads to meet, for the President to come down and drive that goddam spike. And they don’t even care how long they wait because big money is paying them. I mean, big money. That’s who wants the job done. And pretty soon they’ll move out and do it. So you see, you see what you mean to them? They’ll kill you in an instant. You’re just some fool blundered into this.”

  “But why, Letty? What do they want to do that for, assassinate the President?”

  She shrugged. “How the hell do I know? I don’t even understand it. Something about delaying statehood for some of these western territories. I told you, McGraw is a man who does favors for people. Well, there are people willing to pay him to delay statehood by assassinating the President. Grant got bought off by the wrong money and this money paying McGraw can’t move him or something like that. So they got to kill him. And this deal out here with the railroads is the perfect setup. The perfect time. Then you come along and blunder in and kill Ray Tomlain. He was their main gun.”

  “Letty, how do you know this?”

  “I know,” she answered. “Some of the men know. Tomlain and Billy and a few of the others. I guess they all know part of it. And they’ve talked, just enough, drunk, for all of us to know. Even McGraw has talked about it to me. Hell, he don’t really care. They’ve got plans to get out of the country once they’ve done it with enough money to live like kings the rest of their lives. He’s asked me to come with him. Believe it or not. So there you have it. And the only problem they got is what to do with you. Only that ain’t really no problem.”