Read Death Devil (9781101559666) Online
Authors: Jon Sharpe
Death Devil (9781101559666) (18 page)
“You will be,” Clyde boasted. “Before we're done, you'll wish you had left when you could. But now it's too late. Killin' Abner was the same as slittin' your own throat.”
Fargo half turned. “You can also let Orville know he won't have to bother looking for me.”
“Why? Are you fixin' to tuck tail and run, after all?” Clyde scornfully asked.
“I'm fixing to pay Orville a visit.”
“You're loco,” Clyde said. “It's a wonder you're not foamin' at the mouth.”
That reminded Fargo. “Where did Dogood and his van get to?”
“Charlie? He's stayin' the night out to Orville's, I think. Why?”
“He's on the list, too.”
“What list are you talkin' about?”
“The list of sons of bitches who have this coming,” Fargo said, and kicked him in the head.
22
Before daybreak Fargo was perched in a fork in a maple tree not thirty feet from Orville McWhertle's farmhouse. The Ovaro was back in the woods where no one was likely to come across it.
Clyde arrived half an hour before dawn. He'd ridden bareback and his horse was lathered. Sliding off, he stiffly went up the porch steps and pounded on the front door, hollering, “Orville! Orville! It's me! Open up, for God's sake.”
The glow of a lamp lit an upstairs window. The curtains were apart, and Fargo saw Orville and Mabel hurry from the bedroom in their nightshirts, Mabel pulling a robe about her.
“Orville! Come on! It's important, damn it.”
Even out in the maple Fargo heard the thump of Orville's heavy feet and then the front door was yanked wide.
“What in hell do you think you're doin'?” Orville roared, and grabbed his cousin by the throat. “Wakin' up my family this earlyâ” He stopped.
Clyde was struggling to pry his cousin's thick fingers apart.
“What's happened to you? Your face is all swollen.” Orville let go.
Clyde sucked in air and rubbed his neck. “Damn it, Orville. You had no cause to do that.”
Orville stared at the lathered horse. “I reckon I lost my temper.”
“Answer him,” Mabel said to Clyde. “You look like you were stomped by a bull. What happened?”
“It was him,” Clyde said, still rubbing his throat. “That Fargo feller.”
“Hell,” Orville said.
“He hurt me,” Clyde bleated, “and sent me with a message. I can't hardly believe it's true but why would he have said it if'n it wasn't?”
“What message?”
“He told me Abner is dead.”
Orville and Mabel looked at one another and both said at the same instant, “What?”
“That's right,” Clyde confirmed, bobbing his head. “The son of a bitch claimed he killed him.”
“You didn't think to swing by Abner's and make sure before you came here?” Orville angrily demanded.
“Hell, you know how far he lives from me,” Clyde said sulkily. “Be glad I even made it here. I keep havin' these dizzy spells.”
“Can it be true?” Mabel asked her husband.
Orville nodded. “I was afraid of this. Afraid this one was different.”
“Different how?”
“Some men bend but never break,” Orville said. “This scout has some thick bark.”
“Forget him,” Mabel said. “We need to find out about cousin Abner.”
Just then the morning quiet was broken by the clatter of a buckboard. Raising a cloud of dust, it raced out of the gray gloom. Abner's wife was handling the team. The three kids were huddled fearfully in the bed.
“Why, that's Phyllis,” Mabel said.
The buckboard slewed to a stop and Phyllis sprang down, barking at her brood, “Stay put, you hear?” She bounded up the steps. “You won't believe it!” she exclaimed.
“Your husband is dead,” Orville said.
“How did youâ?” Phyllis looked at Clyde. “Oh God. That devil paid you a visit, too?”
“Abner, dead?” Mabel said in disbelief. “Who does that son of a bitch think he is?”
“There's more,” Phyllis said. “He told me to say that he's comin' for you, Orville.”
“He told me to say the same thing,” Clyde said.
“The nerve,” Mabel declared. “We can't let this stand, Orville. We have to find him before he finds you. Call a gatherin' of the clan.”
“Hush, woman. I'm thinkin'.” Orville moved to the rail and gazed at his barn and then at the woods.
“What are you waitin' for?” Mabel impatiently demanded. “We need to act.”
Orville turned. “Rouse Sam and Tyrell. Have them dress and come on down. I have errands for them.”
Mabel nodded and hastened in.
“I feel awful,” Clyde said. He leaned against the house and put his hands on his knees. “I'm woozy again. Damn him, anyhow.”
“His days are numbered, cousin,” Orville promised. “I was easy on him before but I won't be easy now.”
“You'd think he'd have the sense to leave while he could,” Phyllis said. Her eyes watered and she said, “I can't hardly believe my Abner is gone.” She wrapped her arms around her bosom and broke into tears.
“Enough of that,” Orville said. “Cry inside if you have to, and take your kids along.” He held out a hand. “Wait. First tell me how he did it.”
“He shot him. Twice. First in the chest and then in the head.”
“What was Abner doin'?”
“Tryin' to shoot him, of course. Abner sicced our dog on him but the son of a bitch killed it, too. Stove its head in with his rifle butt.”
“Grit to spare,” Orville said.
“Quit soundin' as if you admire him,” Phyllis snapped. “He's not one of us. He's not a McWhertle so he doesn't count. Your very words.”
“He counts when it comes to killin' us,” Orville said. “It's not that I admire him so much as I respect how easy he pulls the trigger. Most men can't or won't.”
“Oh, he does that easy enough,” Phyllis said bitterly. “I think he liked blowin' my Abner's brains out. I truly do.” Gathering up her children, she went inside.
Clyde had a hand to his temple where Fargo had kicked him.
“I thought him and that doc would have the sense to leave and never come back.”
“The doc will. Him we'll have to do the hard way,” Orville said.
“I told him he's loco,” Clyde said. “Told him he can't lick our whole clan.”
“What did he say to that?”
“He asked me where Dogood got to.” Clyde looked toward the barn. “Say, where did he get to, anyhow? I don't see his wagon anywhere.”
“Charlie had a call he said he had to make,” Orville said. “He left last night for town.”
The door opened and out came two boys, one about sixteen, the other a few years younger. The oldest was pulling on a shirt, the youngest was barefoot.
“Ma said you wanted us.”
Orville placed a hand on the shoulder of each. “Fetch your horses. You're to spread the word that the clan is to gather here by noon. No exceptions. Make sure they understand that. Anyone doesn't show, they'll answer to me.”
Both boys quick-footed to the barn. They were inside only a couple of minutes before they reappeared on horseback and galloped past the house, waving to their pa as they went by.
Up in the tree Fargo leaned back and flexed one leg and then the other. He would be there a while. Movement in the bedroom window drew his attention. Mabel had shed her robe and nightdress and was getting dressed. She had tits the size of watermelons.
“Let's get you inside so you can rest,” Orville said to Clyde. “You look plumb tuckered out.”
“I do feel poorly,” Clyde said.
Fargo settled into the fork. He was well screened by branches. Unless someone walked under the tree, it was unlikely he'd be seen. He figured it would be an hour or more before the first of the clan showed up but barely twenty minutes went by and three men trotted up. He recognized all three from town; they'd taken part in the tying and the tarring.
Singly and in groups, on horseback and in wagons, over the course of the morning the rest of the clan gathered. The house became filled to overflowing, the drone of voices was constant. Shortly before noon they filed out and assembled on the front lawn.
Orville didn't keep them waiting. Attended by his wife and Clyde, he stepped to the edge of the porch and raised his arms for quiet.
“By now all of you have heard. Abner is dead. We thought that tarrin' the doc and her friend would send them packin' but we were wrong.”
“Let's find the bastard and do him in,” a man hollered.
“That's why I sent for you,” Orville said. “We'll split up into groups and hunt until we find him or we hear he's skedaddled, which I doubt.”
“What do we do when we have him?”
“Need you ask? He's killed Abner. It's an eye for an eye, a life for a life.”
“It's a good thing the marshal is dead so he can't try to stop us,” someone said.
Orville didn't waste any more time. He divided the men into groups and gave each group a section of Coogan County to cover. He divided the women, as well, and sent them out in wagons and buckboards, along with their kids, to scour the roads and byways.
“If you spot him get word to the rest of us,” Orville instructed them.
“How?” an older woman asked.
“Mabel and me will stay here with our boys,” Orville said. “Come straightaway and we'll send Sam and Tyrell out to round up everyone else.”
With a lot of enthusiastic whoops and yips, the McWhertle clan departed. Within five minutes the only ones left were Orville and his family. Orville stood watching the last of the wagons wind out of sight, then turned and ushered his wife and sons indoors.
Fargo waited another five minutes before he descended. He hadn't seen a dog anywhere so he felt safe in moving along the side of the house to the rear and peering in a window. It was the kitchen, and Mabel was at the counter, chopping carrots.
He could see the back door; it wasn't bolted.
Drawing his Colt, he gripped the latch and barreled in. Mabel turned and froze with a carrot in one hand and the knife in the other.
Fargo pointed the Colt at her face. “Put the knife down,” he said quietly.
She didn't want to. Her posture warned him she was thinking of trying to stick him.
“You can put it down or I can put you down,” Fargo said. He wouldn't shoot her. But after what she had done to Belinda, he wouldn't hesitate to rap her over the head with the barrel.
“Bastard,” she said.
Fargo thumbed back the hammer. “Do it quiet. If your boys come running in here, who knows what will happen.”
That got to her. Mabel set the knife down and smiled. “Happy now?”
“The carrot too.” Fargo wouldn't it past her to try and poke his eye out.
She set it next to the knife.
“Where's Orville and your sons?”
“Last I saw they were in the parlor.”
“Walk in front of me,” Fargo directed. “Try to warn them and lead will fly.”
“We should have killed you when we had the chance.”
“Yes,” Fargo said. “You should have.” He touched the muzzle to the back of her head to forestall her acting up.
She behaved until they were almost there and then she suddenly ran ahead and shrieked at the top of her lungs, “Orville! He's here! Kill him!”
23
Fargo was expecting her to try something. He was right behind her as she burst into the parlor and took a bound to the left so he had a clear shot at everyone in it.
Orville McWhertle was in a chair by a fireplace. His two sons, Sam and Tyrell, were on the settee. All three rose as Mabel burst in and froze when they saw Fargo train the Colt.
Mabel stopped and glared at her husband and gestured at Fargo. “What are you waitin' for?”
Orville had eyes only for the Colt. “Be sensible, woman. He's armed and I'm not.”
Fargo noticed both boys glance at the mantle; a rifle was propped against it. “You try and you'll die,” he said. He also spied a box of lucifers.
“No one is goin' to try anythin',” Orville said pointedly.
“What is it you want, mister?”
“A keg of black powder,” Fargo said, “but I'll settle for the four of you walking ahead of me out to the barn.”
“What do we want to go there for?” Mabel demanded.
“Because I said so.”
“Pa?” Tyrell said. He was fidgeting and the one who would make a play if he could.
“Do as he tells us for now, boy,” Orville directed. “He won't shoot us so long as we do as he wants.”
“He shot Abner,” Mabel said.
“Didn't you hear Abner's wife?” Orville returned. “Abner was tryin' to kill him.”
“I hate how you make him out to be worth a damn,” Mabel said. “He's killed one of our own and deserves to have his wick snuffed out. Nothin' else matters.”
“Breathin' does,” Orville said. “We can't avenge Abner if we're dead.”
Fargo cut their bickering short with, “Out to the barn. Orville, you go first. Then your wife. Then the boys.”
“Why us last?” Sam demanded.
“So he can see you,” Orville said. “If you were in front of me, I'd block his view.”
“I hate this,” Mabel said as she fell into step behind him. “I hate an outsider bossin' us around. And I hate your lack of gumption.”
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