HELL HATH NO FURY (A Jess Williams western novel) (11 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

              Jess and Annie had a big breakfast in the morning and after that, Annie went to get the horses and Jess walked to the telegraph office to see if he had any messages. There were none. He walked over to the livery and Samuel came walking down the street with the two dead bodies tied down tightly on their horses. He handed the reins over to Jess and watched Jess as he tied an extra-long rope to his packhorse, to keep the smell from the rotting corpses from bothering either himself or Annie on their ride.

             
“Samuel, did you happen to go through their pockets?” Jess asked.

             
“Quite frankly, I didn’t even think to do that,” replied Samuel.

             
Jess went through their pockets and between the two dead men, he found almost one hundred dollars. He kept fifty of it and gave the rest of it to Samuel who thanked him repeatedly. Then, he went through their saddlebags and to his surprise, he found three thousand dollars in bundled bills that looked like they came from a bank.

             
“It looks like these two must have robbed a bank somewhere,” said Jess, as he handed Samuel one bundle of the bills, which contained two hundred dollars.

             
Samuel did everything but kiss Jess. “I’ll be able to fix up the saloon a little with this,” exclaimed Samuel.

             
“Well, if I can find out where they stole this money from, I’ll return it. If not, I guess I’ll just wire it to my banker in Black Creek,” said Jess, as he climbed into the saddle.

             
“I guess you can add that money to the pile you already have,” said Annie. “You know, you’re going to have to spend some of it before you finally get yourself killed.”

             
“You might be right, but I don’t seem to run out of men to hunt, so I guess it’ll have to wait a little longer,” replied Jess. He started to head out of town toward Clarence, Kansas, but he stopped at the end of the street. Annie stopped her horse and looked at Jess.

             
“What are you doing?” Annie asked.

             
“Well, I was going to head for Clarence to turn in these two, but Black Creek ain’t too far from here. I think we’ll go there and turn them into Sheriff Fowler and have a quick visit with some friends of mine there. Sheriff Fowler might be able to find out some information about Cliff Hunt for us, too. Plus, I’ve got something else in mind in regards to you,” replied Jess.

             
“What about me?” asked Annie.

             
“I’ll tell you after we get there,” replied Jess.

             
“If it concerns me, I want to know about it now,” insisted Annie.

             
“I have to wait and check on something first before I even tell you,” retorted Jess, as he turned his horse around in the other direction.

             
“You’d better tell me now!” demanded Annie.

             
Jess simply shook his head. “Yep, this is going to be another long ride,” Jess said under his breath.

             
“I heard that, don’t you take that tone with me,” retorted Annie.

             
Jess shut up and rode and Annie didn’t stop nagging him for a whole hour.

XXX

              They made camp about five miles out of Black Creek, and Jess shot two rabbits, which Annie quickly cooked up in a skillet with some beans. She also made some pan bread and they filled their stomachs with the food. After that, Jess gave Annie another shooting lesson and she was indeed getting much better than before.

             
“Annie, you sure are getting faster and your aim is much better, too,” said Jess, when they were finished.

             
“I just pray that when we catch up with that miserable Cliff Hunt, I’ll be able to summon up the courage to face him and kill him,” replied Annie.

             
“It’s been my experience in life that if a person can’t do it the first time, they never will; but I suppose it could happen,” replied Jess. “If you can’t do it though, I’ll be right there at your side and I won’t hesitate to put several bullets into his sorry ass.”

             
Annie poured them both a cup of hot coffee. “Jess, did you hesitate when you had your first confrontation with a man in a gunfight?”

             
Jess thought back to Red Carter, the first man he ever faced in a gunfight and killed. “No, the thought never even occurred to me when it happened. I just waited until he went for his gun and killed him and never gave it another thought. He deserved it and it led to a war with his father after that.”

             
“Did you kill his father too?” asked Annie.

             
“Yes, right in the middle of the street. He was still sitting on his horse when I just opened fire and shot him and two of his men before he even reached for his gun.”

             
“You just shot him without even letting him have a chance to draw on you?” asked Annie, somewhat confused.

             
“Well, yeah, but it was because he had a half dozen hired guns with him at the time, so I couldn’t let him have a fair chance of it,” replied Jess, trying to defend his honor.

             
“What happened to the other men?”

             
“Well, the townsfolk helped me out and we ended up killing Dick Carter and his six hired guns right there in the middle of the main street in Black Creek. One man tried to escape by riding out of town, but I plugged his sorry ass with a Winchester before he could get out of town and that was the end of that problem,” replied Jess.

             
“You mean you shot the man in the back?”

             
“Well, I couldn’t exactly ask him to turn around so I could shoot him in the front,” retorted Jess. “It was something that had to be done and I did it.”

             
“I don’t think I could ever shoot someone in the back,” replied Annie.

             
Jess laughed. “Hell, you can’t even shoot one in the front when he’s standing right there in front of you.”

             
“Don’t you get smart with me,” retorted Annie, embarrassed by what had happened.

             
“I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t pass that one up,” replied Jess, still laughing. Now Annie was laughing a little too.

             
“Jess, how many men have you killed so far?”

             
“Hell, I gave up counting a long time ago, but I’ve dispatched more than my share of men to the hereafter or wherever the hell they go. I have to say though, they were all very bad men and every one of them surely deserved to die.”

             
“I guess somehow that makes it right. Someone has to do it and it seems like you’ve taken up the task of killing men with the likes of Darrel Clemmon and Cliff Hunt,” replied Annie.

             
They finished up with the pot of coffee and retired for the night, but not before Jess went through his routine with the cans around his camp.

             
They arrived in Black Creek, a little after the noon hour. They rode up to the livery and Tony, the owner of the livery, walked out to see who it was and a big smile formed on his face when he saw that it was Jess.

             
“I didn’t expect you back so soon and it looks like you found some company and a mighty pretty one if I don’t say so myself,” said Tony, smiling up at Annie. “What might your name be, ma’am?”

             
“My name is Annie McCracken and I’m not a ma’am. I’m a lady and Jess here is helping me hunt down a man who raped me and my mother and killed my father.”

             
“Well, if anyone can help you do that, you’re riding with him,” replied Tony, looking at the two lifeless corpses strapped to their respective horses. “I see you’ve been busy again, like always Jess,” said Tony.

             
“Yeah, I got a little sidetracked over in Buford when I found these two riding into town,” replied Jess. “I’m going to turn them over to Sheriff Fowler for the bounty money.”

             
“I saw him walk into his office a few minutes ago so he’s probably still there,” replied Tony.

             
“Thanks, Tony. I’m going to walk these two over there. After you take care of my horses, will you take Annie over and introduce her to Jim and Sara for me?”

             
“Sure I will, Jess, anything for you, you know that,” replied Tony.

             
“Thanks and tell them I’ll be there as soon as I make a claim with the Sheriff.

             
Jess walked down to Sheriff Fowler’s office and found him looking over several wanted posters. He looked up when Jess walked in. “Welcome home Jess. Look around my newly remodeled jail that you so graciously paid for. There wasn’t enough left over for a new desk, but everything that needed fixing got fixed. We put in new bars for the cells and better locks on them too. I sure gotta thank you, Jess.”

             
“You’re welcome, Sheriff. I’ll tell you what, you check those wanted posters and see if you have one for a John Tatum and Lefty Waltham, because I have their worthless corpses tied down to their horses right now outside. I left the two of them on the side of the building because they started to stink pretty bad,” replied Jess. If I can file a claim for the two of them, I’ll pay for someone to make you a brand new custom desk made exactly like you want it.”

             
“Well, damn, let’s go and check on those two,” replied the sheriff. Jess followed Sheriff Fowler outside. The sheriff grabbed each one of them by the head. “Yep, this one here is Tatum and this one is Waltham and they’re worth four hundred dollars together. I guess I’m getting that new desk,” smiled Fowler.

             
“I believe you are right about that, Sheriff,” replied Jess.

             
“I’ll be more than happy to take care of all the paperwork for you, Jess.”

             
“Thanks Sheriff. Don’t forget to go and find yourself a good woodworker to make that desk for you Just take the bill down to Mr. Jameson at the bank and I’ll let him know about it. I’m going down there now to deposit some money I found on those two outside. I’m guessing they robbed a bank somewhere because they had almost three thousand dollars in their saddlebags. Have you heard about any bank robberies recently?” asked Jess.

             
“No, not really, but I don’t always hear of all the bank robberies. They did have wanted posters on them for murder so maybe they killed some poor rancher or maybe a rich man dumb enough to hide his fortune in his mattress,” replied Sheriff Fowler.

             
“If I can find out where the money came from, I’ll gladly return it, but for now I’m going to deposit it into my account over at the bank,” said Jess.

             
Jess walked down to see his banker. He found Jameson with his nose stuck in a thick ledger. He was wearing glasses now and he was still squinting at the small print on the paper. He finally noticed Jess standing there in front of his desk and he put the ledger down and looked up and smiled. “Well, I’m sure happy to see one of my best customers come in and see me. I didn’t expect to see you back this soon. What brings you in here?”

             
“This,” replied Jess, as he placed a leather pouch on the desk.

             
Jameson opened it and started to count the money immediately. “Looks like you have two thousand and eight hundred dollars in here. Do you want me to deposit it into your account?”

             
“Yeah, I found that money on two men who I killed over in Buford. I figured they robbed someone or a bank and I’ll return it if I ever find out who or what they robbed,” Jess replied.

             
Jameson went in the back and opened up the huge safe that was in the back room behind a set of very thick metal bars. When he finished, he walked back to his desk where Jess was sitting. Before Jameson even got to sit down, three men rode up to the bank and Jess gave them a quick once over and he did not like what he saw. One man stayed on his horse and the other two got off their horses. Jess noticed that even though it was hot outside in the sun, they were wearing long coats and Jess knew what exactly what that meant; they probably had sawed off shotguns hidden under their coats.

             
Jess quickly told Jameson to get in the back and take the one teller that was in the bank with him. Jess stood up and walked behind the counter where the teller had been. He pulled his double-barreled shotgun from his back sling and waited for the two men to open the door. The two men walked up the steps and as soon as the door opened, Jess was ready for them.