by Nancy Howard
He didn't respond, he just shakes his head too proud to admit that something could be seriously wrong. And that she’s right.
“I know that.”
He finally gives in, “Okay, Missy, I'll go to the doc's tomorrow. Fair enough?”
“Yep, and I'll take you. Fair enough?”
He shakes his head yes, faking reluctance.
But that didn't happen. The next morning at about nine in the morning, Logan was down at the at the stable with Chase. When Zelda suddenly comes running out of the house and down the hill, yelling frantically, “Ms. Logan, you gotta come quick.” She yells this again, and again, until she gets to the barn.
“What's the matter Zelda,” She asks?
“It's Mr. Sanderson, mam.”
“What's wrong with him?”
They're now heading quickly back to the ranch house with Chase close behind.
“I don't know Miss Logan. He collapsed and is laying still on the floor of the dining room.”
“Where's my mother?”
“She's their with him, crying.”
“And my daughter. Where is she?”
“There in the dining room with her grandmother, at least she was when came to get you.”
They reach the front door and open it. Logan looks into the dinning room along with Chase and Zelda, and they see John lying on the floor. Catherine is kneeled down next to him crying. Little Molly is at her side with her hand on her grandmother's shoulder. Jose' and Lena are there, too, trying to comfort Catherine.
Sensing something is very wrong with her grandfather, Molly has tried to comfort her grandmother, and says, “don't worry grandma, mommy's here, and she'll fix grandpa.”
Molly turns to sees her mother, and runs toward her, “Mommy, there's something wrong with Grandpa!”
Logan picks up her daughter hugs her and kisses her on the cheek, then hands her to Zelda and tells her to take the little girl upstairs. Then she gets down beside Catherine, and puts her arms around her and hugs her tightly. Both women are crying.
“I told him last week to go to the docs, when he began to have those pains in his left arm. He was just too damn stubborn and proud to do that, Logan. And now he's gone! He's gone!”
Then she began to cry more profusely, as she and Logan just sit there next to John. Arms around each other, still hugging. Minutes go by, then Logan gathers enough composure, and tells Chase to go get George and Timmins, so they could get John upstairs and onto a bed.
She then gets Catherine up and the two of them walk into the parlor, each holding on to the other, still numbed that John has just passed away, suddenly.
After the men came back from taking John's body up stairs, Chase comes into the parlor, and asks her what else he can do. Logan tells him to ride into Rio Doso and get Mr. Grant the undertaker, and to stop by and tell Gavin what has happened.
LATER THAT EVENING Logan comes down the stairs, and walks into the parlor, where Gavin is setting quietly on the sofa. She's exhausted, as she takes a seat next to him, reaching for his hand.
“Did you get her settled down,” he asks?
“Yeah finally, she cried herself to sleep. I put her in the 0ther guest room, I thought that might help some. At least in there she might rest easier.”
"Is Molly asleep?”
“Yeah, she is. Zelda was great today. She was such a big help, and I told her so.”
“What about you? How are you holdin' up? I know how much that man meant to you, too.”
“Good as I can, I guess,” she sighs. “God, I'm gonna miss him!” Then she puts her hand over her face, and starts to cry. She lays back on the sofa, trying to wipe away tears that won't stop flowing. Gavin puts his arm around her, pulling her up tight to him as Logan lays her head on his shoulder.
“Remember how he greeted us in town that day, when we first got here,” Gavin remembers.
“Yeah, yeah, I do.” She manages a slight smile.
“When we told him who we were, he growled—bounty hunters.”
“Yeah, little did we know what would transpire after that day,” She says.
She pauses, still crying.
“God, Gavin. He's gone,” she cries. “I loved him as much as I love you.”
“I know that. Everybody knew that Logan. He loved you, too, and he was so proud of you. I used to hear him brag about you every time he came into town. He'd tell everyone what a fine steward of the ranch you were, and that you were the best daughter a man could ever have.”
She smiled, “I know. I knew how much he loved me, just by the way he always treated me. And the confidence he always had in me. It never wavered, Gavin, not once, not ever. "
“I know,” he said.
“I have him to thank for this position I’m in here. All of it.”
“You know why his confidence in you never wavered?”
Logan looks at him.
“Because he saw something special in you, almost from the day you got here, Logan. He saw someone like himself, strong and independent. Someone that he could trust and leave his legacy to and not worry about it. He was that confident in you. Everybody knew it.”
She shakes her head in agreement. Then they just set there in the quiet, both remembering John. Logan from time to time wiping tears from her eyes. As she thinks about the man who was a tower of strength in her life.
THE FUNERAL IS OVER and everyone who knew John, which is everyone is at Sanderson's Hill and in Folsom. Catherine sits on a dining room table chair as everyone gives her their condolences. They do this for Logan, too, as she sets at the table next to her mother. Gavin and Molly are there and he's taken charge of keeping her occupied, in order to give her grandmother and mother as much space as they need. As everyone reminisces about the man big John Sanderson who they all knew, respected, and loved so much.
Bill and Jane Chatfield approach Logan just before they leave, as they are the last ones there. “Logan, remember that day you came into my office and inquired about the land out by the mesa, that you bought for your parents?”
“Yeah I do.”
“I never told you this, but John was still interested in it. But then I told him that the government owned the land, again he said he wanted nothing to do with buying something the government. I told him I'd look into it for him, if he wanted me, too. He said to forget about it, that he never wanted to haggle with the government again. I also asked him if he'd discussed it with you, and he said no. He said that you had enough on your mind without being bothered by the purchase of that land.”
“Did he ever again, want to buy it.”
“Nope. I didn't hear anything more about it until you came in and inquired about it. Then bought it. So he never discussed it with you.”
“No,” she says, smiling and shaking her head at the irony of the situation. She had always wanted to buy that parcel of land for him ever since that second day she was here. She knew how bad he wanted it. He was thinking about that parcel of land just like her. She wanted to get if for him and for them to surprise them. She did both, and she's glad she did. She remembers the look on their faces, when she took them out there to surprise them that day four years ago.
As everyone still tries to get used to not seeing John and his huge presence at the ranch—something that will take a great deal of time. Catherine has been very quiet, as she continues to grieve over John. They had been together for over forty years. Catherine has tried to help her grieving process along by thinking of her family. She has, Logan, Gavin, and Molly.
Logan has just tried to immerse herself in her work, as well as being a wife and mother. Doing her best when she can to keep Catherine's spirits up. Gavin comes home each evening, and things are somber, but not all the time. Catherine has reminded Logan and Gavin that John wouldn't want them to be that way. He would want them to go on with life, and remember the good times they all had together.
PART THREE
34
Out on the high plains of Colorado, a hundred miles
north of Folsom a Conestoga wagon ambles slowly across the terrain. It is accompanied by three male riders on horseback, and a fourth man driving the rig.
One of the riders is an old familiar face to Logan. His name is Travis Belcher. He's with his three his criminal companions, Burl, and Duel Haggar, and a man named Kirk. They're taking the wagon to a Comanchero encampment in New Mexico Territory. The wagon is loaded with eight young women, who are tied, bound, and gagged inside. Once the wagon reaches it's destination the women will be sold as sex slaves in the Comanchero camp.
Belcher was well known to Logan from a longtime ago. He's a bully, a coward, and a brutal killer. Logan had him arrested many years ago for the murders of two women, in the town of Miner's Hill. Something that Belcher has not forgotten.
She had gone there to visit her old friend Jim Ramsey. When she arrived she found out that Ramsey had wrongly been tried and convicted for the murders of one of the women. Logan figured that Jim was not guilty of the murders. So she went about doing a lot of quick detective work, and found out that the real perp was Belcher.
She got Jim cleared of any wrongdoing, and Belcher was convicted of the murders and sentenced to hang. But unbeknownst to Logan, while waiting to be hanged, he broke out of jail before his execution. And killed a deputy, by bashing him over the head with a large rock. He got away, and after years on the run from the law in New Mexico Territory. He made his way to Denver. Once there, he met and became chums with the Haggars and Kirk.
While in Denver, these four quickly became cohorts in crime, as well as being known to the Denver Police. They spent any number of their days and evenings in the bars causing trouble, and starting fights. They only started fights they knew they could win. Then they'd try to blame it on the poor souls that they beat to a pulp. That is what Belcher liked to do, hurt people that were at a disadvantage. And apparently what he did was not a bother to the Haggars and Kirk. They went along with what he did, just letting him beat the hell out of anyone.
The Haggars and Kirk had spent time in the territorial prison in New Mexico together, and the three of them became buddies there. They were freed a couple of years before they met Belcher, and are mostly bank robbers and thieves. Not like Belcher, who is a cowardly, sadistic, killer.
Once in Denve Belcher has started a new business endeavor in the area along with the Haggars and Kirk. Money laundering. They were setting in one of the saloons one night, and began to think up this scheme. They decided to tell businesses in the area that they would protect them—for a fee of course. And if the business owner refused to cooperate, they would use a little persuasion. They would threaten him when it was time to collect. Often telling him they'd would beat him and burn his business to the ground, and kill him and his family if he didn't pay up.
Their little scheme has been going on for awhile, and right under the nose of the police. But as usual, with all of his illegal business ventures, his money laundering scheme has begun to unravel. Word has gotten back to Belcher from a snitch, that someone has told the cops about his activities. This riles Belcher, because this money laundering scheme is providing income for him and the boys. But rather than go looking for whoever has told the police about his activities. He decides it may be time to look for something else to do. Look for greener pastures so to speak, and possibly leave Denver before the cops get any closer.
In a bar one evening Belcher strikes up a conversation with a man sitting at a table alone. He's a big heavy set man with a beard and eye glasses on, and not wearing a gun. Belcher begins talking to him, and finds out that this man is looking for some hired help. He told Belcher that he needs some men to transport—what he called merchandise. And the man learns that Belcher may be interested in helping him. Travis asks the man his name, and he tells him it's Joe Biggs. He says he’s a traveling salesman. He confides in Travis that he has a side line business that provides him much more income, because of the type of merchandise. Which makes Travis even more curious.
He confides to Belcher that he deals in human trafficking, mainly supplying sex slaves to the ragtag, vicious Comancheros in New Mexico Territory. Along with other groups of men looking for “companionship.” He has a group of thugs that he calls “associates’ with him in Denver, that helps him pray on and find his would be human merchandise. They're all women, who live alone and work in the saloons and who have to walk home alone, usually at night. This makes them easy targets for Biggs and his so called, “associates.”
“So Mr. Biggs, you're lookin' for some people to work for you. Is that what I hear you tellin' me?”
“Yes Mr....
“Belcher. Travis Belcher. So what is it you need,” he asks?
“I need three, maybe four men to take a load of merchandise to a Comanchero encampment in Northern New Mexico Territory.”
Belcher thinks about this then says, “I might be able to help ya there. But what kind of merchandise are we talkin' about, and how much does it pay?”
“Well, first of all, if you want to do this, you have to tell me you have the men.”
“I do, they're sittin' right over there,” Belcher says. Pointing at the Haggars and Kirk.
Biggs looks across the room and sees them setting at a table drinking, and says, “very well, Mr. Belcher, is it?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me ask, do you and your men have a few minutes to come with me? I have something, I would like to show you. But first, I have to have your word that you won't tell a soul as to what your about to see.”
“Not a problem. Me and the boys there, we operate independently.”
Biggs looks at him and thinks about his comment, before asking, “By the way, you're not cops are you?”
Belcher throws his head back, and laughs out loud, when he hears Biggs ask that question.
“No, trust me, Mr. Biggs, we ain't cops. As a matter of fact, we're in their sights here, and need to get away from Denver, afore they get wise to our little operation.”
“Oh, yeah, and what kind of operation is that?”
“Well, you see, me and the boys there, we've got a little money laundering scheme goin' on around here, and the Denver cops are getting way to close all of a sudden. I been told by one of my confidants, that one of the businesses we's protectin' has ratted on us. So, I figure it may be time to move on. Ya know?”
Biggs shook his head that he did indeed understand, then said, “you and your boys follow me then.”
They both got up to leave, Travis stops to tell the others what is up. They get up, and all four of them follow Biggs out of the bar. They go out and down the street a hundred yards, and then turn to their right and into an alley. Then left walking another hundred yards to an old abandoned livery, near Cherry Creek.
Biggs walks up to the front doors and unlocks it, then opens the old wooden doors that creak and groan as he moves them. In the back of the old barn sets a Conestoga wagon along with four horses in front, all hitched up and ready to roll.
Biggs motions for Belcher and his buddies to follow him, as he goes behind the back of the wagon. He pulls back the cover, and tells the men to come and have a look inside. He has this big grin on his face. Belcher is the first to peer into the wagon, and then the Haggars, and then Kirk.
What they see inside are eight young women, all younger than thirty, tied up, chained, and gagged. All of them very dirty and filthy from not having bathed for days on end. The wagon is unclean, with the smell of sweat, urine and feces everywhere. The odor is so strong it causes Burl Haggar to turn away in disgust, as he stands back, not wanting to look inside anymore. Duel and Kirk are equally repulsed by the stench being emitted by the wagon and stand away from it.
“What's a matter, boys? Ain't ya got no, grit,” Belcher, chides them. Then he laughs out loud.
Biggs laughs, too, a low, guttural, and dirty laugh,
“They're the merchandise, gentlemen. You know, I was just going to drive them down there myself, that's why the wagon is hitched and ready to go.
But it seems since I've found you and your men Mr. Belcher, I will not have to do that. I'm glad, because I have other business to attend to.”
Then all five men go back outside the barn to discuss the rest of the deal. The Haggars and Kirk had gone out beforehand, to get some fresh air, and retreat from the smell coming from the wagon. Belcher follows Biggs out to discuss the dirty business of transporting the women.
“So, where is it you want us to take them, Mr. Biggs. And how much are we gonna get paid for doin' it,” Belcher questions?
“I'm getting to that—be patient. I want you to take them to a Comanchero camp, like I said over at the bar. It's north of Santa Fe in the high country, about sixty miles or so as the crow flies.”
Then Burl looks at, Travis, “I don't know, Travis. I ain't sure, I like the idea of dealin' with Comancheros. They're real bad eggs.”
“Noted. Let's hear the man out.”
“I'll give you directions to the place, and you get paid one grand each. Five hundred now, and five hundred when you deliver the goods. Fair enough?”
Travis looks a Burl, and the other two as they thought about what he said.
“So, tell me, Mr. Biggs. How in the hell will you know if we deliver em to where you tell us? What's to keep us from keepin' em for ourselves?”
“Nothing, nothing, at all, Mr. Belcher, but I have associates, and I will be there for the delivery. If you don't show up, I will contact these associates of mine. And trust me on this. I will have them hunt you and these three men down until they find you, and kill all of you. That's why. So, if you decide to do this Mr. Belcher don't you double cross me. Or you and your men here will pay with your lives.”
Travis thinks about what Biggs just told him, but figures a thousand each is a lot of money. A lot more than they been able to scratch out lately money laundering, because it has run it course and the cops are on their heels.
Then Kirk speaks up, “you know, we should do this, Travis. Cause we sure as hell can't stay around here much longer.”
