Lijuan noticed he offered no explanation about her hammer or a mention of the other gun she had smuggled in. She wondered if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Winston looked at her with something akin to admiration in his eyes.
“Clever indeed.”
He tossed it into the pool where it disappeared with a gentle splash. Lijuan didn’t like that he had tossed the gun like that; she frowned and turned to him.
“That was Father’s gun. I borrowed it from his office. He taught my sister, Cass, to shoot with it when she was just seven years old. You owe me.”
Franks was already boiling with anger. “Shut up!” he said, as he landed a slap across her cheek. Then he turned to Winston. “Give me your gun, Winston! I’m getting my revenge here and now! Boy was a halfwit, yeah, but he was the only family I had left in this world! She ain’t walkin’ out of this cave!”
Winston shook his head and Lijuan found herself wondering which part of the sentence he disagreed with. “Simmer down! You’ll get your revenge, and you are right, she’s not walking out of this cave, but we’re not going to shoot her. We’re going to go through with our original plan. Only this time, it’s going to be Miss Wilde instead of the daughter rotting away in here with Huang. One change though, we’ll leave her in here alive instead of shooting her first. Payment for your brother’s death and her meddling, which by the way, begs the question just how do you come to be here? Where is the real Miss Huang?”
Franks shrugged and looked at her as if he was getting new ideas to torture her with. “Never mind all that. Time is wastin’. Huang got away and if he links up with someone people, they are gonna come here after us.”
Winston shrugged to this.
“Don’t worry about him. I ran into him on my way in here. I took a shot at him and I’m fairly certain I hit him, given the way he cried out, but he dashed off the trail into the woods. If he’s wounded, he won’t get far and we’ll drag him back in here to join Miss Wilde. Now tell me, how are you here?”
Lijuan calmly told him of volunteering to pick up Miss Huang and discovering that her father was a victim of a kidnapping. With no sheriff in Alamieda, Lijuan had taken it upon herself to rescue the man by enacting her charade as Shuen Yi. As she talked, Winston found himself gaining more and more respect for her.
“That’s very noble of you, Miss Wilde. A shame it will cost you your life,” he said with a rueful smile.
“That remains to be seen,” Lijuan said with a shrug.
“By the way, I knew it was you as soon as she told me a second telegram followed the first one to her. It could only have been you who sent it. It fit with your behavior when Jamison drafted you into that posse,” she swallowed and then made eye contact with him.
“Which reminds me, how did you get away? I can only imagine the few choice words Cattie would have had for you when she realized you ran off like a coward.”
Winston didn’t seem bothered by the jab. He shrugged nonchalantly and said in a calm voice, “It was easy. We were still in the woods, taking a brief rest break. Those imbeciles were bragging about how they were going to take down the rustlers. As for your sisters, one of them was busy making doe eyes at her fellow colored, and the Mexican was off by herself stewing. I think she may have been having second thoughts about joining up with those morons. When we mounted up to head for the plains leading to Twin Butte Valley, I simply hung back and being a stranger, nobody even noticed. Rode like the wind to get back here. Good work Franks for going into town to pick her up.”
Franks merely grunted at the compliment, still stewing and looking at Lijuan with hate. Lijuan knew that Winston was the only reason she was still alive. But she could not help taunting him.
“A trained ape is good for something, I suppose. Speaking of your henchman, what is the deal with Ping? How did you recruit him in on this scam?”
Winston shrugged again.
“No recruiting. He was in this thing from the get go. Ping and I met when we were doing stretches in a Texas prison. That was way back, of course, when I was going under my real name. Ping was from San Francisco, heading east to escape the law when along the way he killed a man in Dallas for his money to get him further east. We broke out together. We’ve pulled a lot of jobs as a team since then. When I heard about Jamison and his fake ranch, I saw an opportunity ripe for picking, so I brought Ping in.
Lijuan was surprised to learn this new information, but she held her poker face tight. “Your leg man in Galveston to collect the ferryman’s riches?”
Winston’s eyes narrowed and he seemed to be reluctant to talk now. “You know about that?”
Lijuan waved her hand off at his question. “Miss Huang said Ping was bragging about it.”
Franks sighed. “Always said you could never trust none of you Chinese. Sneaky bunch if I ever saw one! Look at this one pretending to be Huang’s daughter!”
Winston impatiently waved at him, “So what if he was boastful? It was Ping’s idea to return to San Francisco and look for marks. He’s the one who got the advertisement for this ranch into Huang’s hands in the first place. Ping pretended to be a businessman and approached Huang and a bunch of others at a bar exclusive to the rich Chinese of the city.”
Lijuan, seeing her opportunity, now said with as much calm as she could muster: “The show is over for you. You kill me and Huang, and try and pick up again at the Double J. You’ll be caught. I was already putting together that your account didn’t add up with the notion of an experienced sailor capsizing his own boat. Someone else will eventually start looking your way. Probably be my sister, Cassie. When I disappear, she will be on the case and that will lead to Jaden’s ranch because he knew I was coming into Alamieda. She will want to know everything.”
Winston hitched his shoulders nonchalantly. “We weren’t planning on sticking around as it was. Between what we got in Galveston, Ping cleaning out the valuables in ‘Frisco, and the money in those bags yonder, we are going to be set for years to come. That keg of black powder over there—do you see it?” She looked at it and shuddered inside because she knew what he was going to say next.
“What about it?” Lijuan asked.
Winston brought his face closer to hers and grinned wickedly.
“I brought it over with me this afternoon when I fetched food for Huang. Instead of blowing stumps with it like Jamison wanted, I was going to seal this cave off with the Huangs in it. A lot easier than trying to dig that hard as rock clay like we did when we buried the ferryman over there.”
Lijuan looked at the pile of rocks and then back at Winston. She could feel apprehension growing within her and it was telling her it was time to end this sooner rather than later, before she got into a situation she couldn’t control.
Winston looked at her with a small smile and said, “Now, we just have to get Huang back and then blow the tunnel, leaving you to die a very literary death in here! It’s going to be a very long, drawn out demise for you, Miss Wilde.”
Bereft of what else to say, she replied to him, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He only laughed at her. “Are you familiar with Poe? Edgar Allen Poe?” he asked.
Lijuan shook her head and shrugged. “Not my cup of tea. Now give me a good Mark Twain story any day.”
“Then you are not familiar with the Cask of the Amontillado? My favorite story as a boy.”
She didn’t respond. She just looked at him blankly. He continued to tell her the story, nonetheless. “A nobleman, Montresor, lures an enemy, Fortunato into the catacombs with the promise of the fine wine Amontillado. It ends with him burying his foe alive underground. He gets away with it because at the end of the story, Montresor reveals fifty years have passed and the bones have still not been disturbed.”
Lijuan crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “Literary genius at its finest.”
“And I suppose stories about celebrated jumping frogs of Calaveras County are better?” Winston parried.
She was about to
retort when they were startled as Franks roared out a curse and they both looked at him.
“We’re still wasting time here!”
Winston and Lijuan looked at each other and then back at him.
“The longer we take, then the more chance Huang gets away! Time’s runnin’ out! If you’re not going to let me finish her, let’s get on with blowin’ the tunnel shut.”
Winston nodded. “He’s right,” He agreed.
He looked at her face for a minute and then stood up and turned to Franks. “Take the keg out front and open the bunghole, and lead a trail back about to the middle of the tunnel. That will be good placement to collapse it.” Then he turned back to her and said solemnly,
“Damn, you must have been real confident in your abilities to come out here alone and try and save the day. Sorry, Miss Wilde, but it looks like you would have been better off joining your sisters on that posse of fools.”
Lijuan looked askance, keeping mute. He might be right, after all, if she didn’t end this now. It was time to throw a surprise their way. “Never mind that. I’ll say Franks is right!” she hissed. “Time really is running out! It may already be too late … for you.”
Franks looked at her as if he was about to split her head open.
“What ya talkin’ about, whore?”
Lijuan looked away from him. “I’m talking about your loose end here. The real Miss Huang.”
Winston nodded as if he had just received a revelation.
“Thanks for reminding me. I didn’t forget her. While Franks sets up the charge, I was going to start shooting you in your appendages until you told me where you have her stashed. On our way out of Alamieda, we’ll dispose of her. Won’t be as much fun as sealing her in with you, but it will work.”
Lijuan whistled happily. “It’s definitely too late for that! You better hurry. Enough time has gone by that my father and Mr. Jamison are probably almost here by now.”
The color seemed to drain out of Franks’ face as he became pale.
“What the hell ya mean by that?” he demanded. She took her time, pretending to be trying to bite something out of her nails, but she was just bidding for time, waiting for an opportunity.
“What do you mean by that, bitch?” Franks yelled again.
“What Winston said a moment ago was true; I did come here alone. However, I told Miss Huang how to find Gabriella’s Cantina on Main Street. I told her as soon as I left with whoever was picking me up to deliver a note to my friend, Gabriella. That note would have told Gabi to bring her to my father at Cedar Ledge. It also said for my father to get Jamison and to head on over here—just in case I ran into trouble.”
Winston’s face clouded with disbelief and anger. “Bullshit! You couldn’t have known to tell them where to go!”
Lijuan grinned then. A slow deliberate grin that instantly cast doubt over what he had said.
“You see, now that’s where you’re wrong! It only came to me later, of course, once I realized you sent the second telegram. Something I saw earlier finally registered with me. When you first arrived, and were standing side by side with Jaden and he was telling you to get cleaned up to meet Miss Huang, that’s when I saw it.”
“Saw what?” Winston questioned.
Lijuan nodded downward. “His boots were spit and polish and yours were caked with gray mud. I didn’t know what you were talking about at the time, but I later came to understand what you were saying was that you had just come from doing a final search along the river, hoping to find the body before Miss Huang arrived. That mud was making me remember something, but I couldn’t recall what it was. Probably another few moments and I would have recalled it, but that’s when the Cavendish Township men came riding up.”
Franks looked at her belligerently. “So what. You saw some mud on his boots!”
“After Shuen Yi told me her father was being held for ransom and I knew you were the kidnapper, it suddenly all came together—the gray mud on your boots wasn’t really mud, it was clay. This gray clay …”
She swept her hand in an arc, “… found here and here only. This I know because I grew up here, and I played in this very cave! My brother and I used to get the dickens for tracking that stuff into Cedar Ledge. It’s the only place in all of Alamieda I’ve ever seen it, and all the convenient “accidents” took place right around here. Made it easy for you to quickly stash the men once you staged their supposed deaths.”
Franks and Winston exchange dumbfounded looks at each other. It was obvious that they now believed her.
Lijuan pressed forward with boldness.
“It made sense, boys. I realized it would make an ideal place to hide Mr. Huang. Not sure how you found the cave originally, but I don’t really care. If David and I found it all those years ago, then you could have as well. Based on what you said before when you were supposedly out searching for bodies, you got that clay on you earlier when you brought food and black powder here.”
Winston sighed heavily in the realization that they were busted.
“I’ll be god damned,” he said dejectedly.
Lijuan uncrossed her arms and stood there her hands plastered on her hips. She enjoyed the looks on their faces and the panic she could sense from them, but more than that, she was still as pleased with herself as she had been earlier when she put all the pieces together. This was because she knew even Cassie wouldn’t have been able accomplish that, as the times Lijuan and Dutch had played and swam in the pool at the cave was still during the time when the two sisters did not get along, and Cassandra had never accompanied her to this place.
She loved Cassandra dearly, but she looked forward to later when she planned on boasting about this. But there were still the two men to deal with. For the moment, she was in a position of mental and psychological power. If only she could hold it long enough to figure out how to get out of the imminent trouble. These men were violent and ready to kill her, she had to act in the favor of self-preservation.
Franks looked up in anger and frustration. “Thunderation! Can’t we just shoot her?” he yelled.
Winston looked at him angrily “I’m tempted, but no!”
He turned to Franks who was still standing behind him. “Well, get moving with that powder now!”
He turned back to Lijuan. “I’m going to relish the idea of you starving to death in here over the next days or week … however long it takes you to die,” he said as calmly as he could, but she could tell that he was already averse to killing her right away. He needed to use her as a bargaining chip if it turned out that she was right.
Lijuan looked past him and saw Franks pluck the barrel from the ground, hoist it over his shoulder, and head out the tunnel. Lijuan’s eyes widened for a moment, as she saw a trail of black powder pouring out the bottom of the barrel where her hammer had shattered it.
A wonderful opportunity, just the one she had been looking for had just presented itself to her.
Her eyes momentarily shifted to the pool and she gazed down in the depths. It would be risky. In fact, if she was wrong, then she was as good as dead just like them. Risk, however, was something of an old friend to the Wilde sisters, so she welcomed it back into her world and made a decision as she was swept up in the heat of the moment.
“It seems your plan has sprung a literal leak,” she said with a shrug.
Winston looked at her puzzled and then turned around and saw the black powder trail. He took his eyes off from Lijuan and turned to the tunnel entrance. “Franks!!! Stop!!!” he yelled out at the top of his voice.
When he turned around, he found her leaping at him and grabbing his hand that held the gun. She jammed her small index finger into the trigger guard with his and forced him to begin firing. He struggled to shake her free, and a knee to her stomach made her finally let go, but not before the pistol had expended the four rounds he had left in it, having previously used one bullet to fire at the fleeing Mister Huang, and the other, to target her hammer.
Franks bar
reled in and looked at the sight of Lijuan on the ground and Winston breathing heavy from his struggles.
Winston was livid, but he wasn’t quite sure what the situation was yet.
“Where is the powder?” he asked with a frown.
“I left it in the tunnel when I heard you shoutin’! I had to come check on you.”
“It was leaking, you damn fool! How could you not notice?” Winston snapped at the man.
Lijuan had stopped listening after she heard the words “left it in the tunnel.” She leapt to her feet by the edge of the pool and snatched the nearest lantern resting on a boulder by the water’s edge. At that moment, Winston saw her with the lantern and hissed towards her angrily.
“What the hell do you think you are doing?” he asked.
Lijuan smiled cynically. “Lending you a helping hand, Montresor!” she said, with a nonchalant shrug. She sprang forward and gave a kick to the empty gun, sending it spinning away. With a splash, the pool claimed its third firearm of the evening.
With that, she raised the lantern and then hurled it towards the black powder trail as Franks and Winston paled at the sight. Their eyes widened at the horror of what was about to happen, but apart from that, the rest of their bodies seemed to have become paralyzed from just watching her launch the lantern towards a bad end.
The Coleman shattered on the hard-packed floor of clay, the burning flames and oil connecting with the black powder. Lijuan watched the trail of flames shoot into the tunnel and a moment later, the cave rocked under the powder keg’s explosion and a billow of dust blew back into the cave, enveloping the trio. They were temporarily blinded, but their hearing worked just fine to take in the sound of collapsing rocks as the ceiling to the cave’s tunnel fractured and fell, sealing the cave. The echo of the blast and the collapse slowly faded away into a finality of silence.
PART 4
RECKONING
CHAPTER 18
* * *
In the seconds before the man charging up the stairs burst through the door, two things occurred. Cassandra made a leap upwards and caught the oars suspended by ropes from the ceiling with each hand. Frantically, she brought her legs up and hooked them on the oars by her ankles. As she did so, she heard a cry of pain coming from somewhere outside the building.
Wilde-Fire: Wonder Women 0f The Old West (Half Breed Haven Book 1) Page 23
