Leaving Epitaph (17 page)

By morning people were back on the streets and things had returned to normal for the townspeople. The tension level had eased, and they were no longer worried about catching a bullet.

Sheriff Holcomb got the undertaker and some other men to clean the bodies out of the Somerset Saloon. Sam Somerset was extremely happy at having come out of the situation alive. He was offering the Shayes anything they wanted in his place for free.

All the Shayes wanted, however, was to find out how many men had fled with Ethan and Aaron Langer.

Thomas, Matthew, and James were waiting when Shaye came out of the doctor’s office with Sheriff Holcomb.

“How is he?” Thomas asked.

“He died,” Shaye said. “That belly wound finally got him.”

“What did he say, though?” James asked.

“Nearest he can figure, the Langers got away with their
segundos
, Esteban Morales and a fella named Ben Branch.”

“You know them?” Holcomb asked.

“I knew Morales a long time ago,” Shaye said. “He’s been riding with Aaron Langer for years. I don’t know Branch.”

“What are you gonna do next?” Holcomb asked.

“We’ll outfit and start tracking them,” Shaye said.

“Well, I can make sure you outfit for free,” Holcomb said. “You may have saved this town’s bank.”

“I’m not sure the town owes us that,” Shaye said, “but we’ll take it. Thomas, you and James see to that. Okay?”

“Sure, Pa. What are you gonna do?”

“Check the horses, make sure they’re sound. We’ve ridden them a long way.”

“And me, Pa?” Matthew asked.

“Stay with me.”

Shaye turned to Holcomb. “I’m real sorry about your man.”

“Thanks,” Holcomb said. “I guess the only silver linin’ here is he had no kin.”

“If there’s a silver lining to having a man die,” Shaye said, “I guess that’s it.”

“Stop into my office and say good-bye before you leave, will ya?” Holcomb asked.

“We’ll do it, Sheriff,” Shaye said. As the sheriff turned and walked away, Shaye said to his sons, “Okay, let’s get it done, then.”

Thomas and James went to the general store for some simple supplies, and talked while they shopped. Luckily, there was no pretty girl working in this store to distract them.

“How do you feel about what happened last night?” James asked.

“Relieved.”

“Relieved?” James asked. “That you didn’t get killed?”

“No,” Thomas said, “relieved that I was so calm.”

“Well, I wasn’t,” James said. “I was scared out of my wits. Why were you calm?”

“Because I knew this day would come, and I prepared for it,” Thomas said. “And because I made every shot count. I did everything Pa ever taught us to do.”

“So did I,” James said. “I mean, I’m sure I missed a lot of shots, but I kept at it.”

“You did good, James,” Thomas said. “Pa said so.”

“What did you think of how I did, Thomas?”

Thomas put his hand on his younger brother’s shoulder and said, “You did great, and so did Matthew.”

“I was worried about Matthew,” James said.

“Yeah, I was too,” Thomas admitted. “He’s still not as sure about this as we are. I thought he might hesitate.”

“He didn’t, though,” James said. “He did fine.”

“Maybe this will convince him that what we’re doin’ is right,” Thomas said. “Maybe we’re all finally together on this.”

Matthew was very quiet as he and Shaye checked over the horses in the livery.

“We’re going to have to replace mine,” Shaye said. “I think he’s got some ligament damage in the left foreleg.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Matthew? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine, Pa.”

Shaye straightened and looked at his son. “Do you have something you want to talk about? Like what happened last night?”

“Last night…we didn’t have a choice,” Matthew said. “We did our jobs, I know that.”

“Then what’s bothering you?”

“I killed somebody,” Matthew said. “Lots of somebodies, I think. I—I just have a hard time accepting that.”

Shaye regarded his son sympathetically. Why was it that some of the biggest men—physically speaking—were also the gentlest?

“Matthew, I never expected you to follow in
my footsteps,” Shaye said. “You’re not cut out to be a lawman.”

“I know that, Pa,” Matthew said. He looked down at the badge on his chest. “But I’ll wear this until we catch the men who killed Ma, and then…well, and then I don’t know what I’m gonna do. Thomas wants to be a lawman. So does James, I think. I’ll just…have to figure out what I want to do.”

Shaye clapped Matthew solidly on his broad back and said, “You’ll figure it out, Matthew. We’ll help you. Right now I need you to help me pick out a horse. All we’ve got to do is find the owner.”

Shaye and Matthew walked the four horses over to the sheriff’s office, where they met Thomas and James, who were carrying burlap sacks of supplies. Shaye had chosen a young steeldust to replace the horse with the ligament damage. They divvied up the supplies equally and hung bags from their saddlehorns, then went into the office to bid the sheriff good-bye.

“Ready to leave?” Holcomb asked.

“Moments away,” Shaye said.

Holcomb came around the desk and shook hands with all four of them.

“Again, I can’t thank you enough for what you did for the town…for me. I don’t know what I would have done—”

“You would have figured something out, Sheriff,” Shaye said.

“I wish you luck catching up to them,” the local lawman said. “I know how important this is to you…to all of you.”

“Thanks,” Shaye said. “They won’t get away from us. We’ll catch them.”

“If you catch up to them in this county,” Holcomb said to Shaye, “in my jurisdiction, you do what you have to do. Do you understand me?”

“I understand,” Shaye said. He stuck out his hand. “Thank you.”

Outside, they all mounted up, and James turned to his father. “Pa, did he mean what I think he meant?”

“He did.”

“What?” Matthew asked. “What did he mean?”

“He gave us permission to kill them,” Thomas said.

“He did?” Matthew looked at his father.

“Yes, Matthew,” Shaye said. “That’s what he was telling us.”

“But…he’s the law.”

Shaye reached out and touched his son’s shoulder. “He’s the law, but he knows what’s important, Matthew.”

“We all know what’s important, Pa,” James said.

Shaye could tell by the look on Matthew’s face that this wasn’t quite true.

“Don’t worry, Matthew,” he said. “It’ll be fine. I promise.”

“Okay, Pa.”

As they reached the outskirts of town, Shaye continued the lesson on tracking he had begun earlier.

“I’m no great tracker,” he said, “but if you keep your eyes open, the terrain will tell you when someone has already passed by.”

Thomas and James listened intently. Matthew, on the other hand, allowed his mind to wander. He was still thinking about the men he killed, and that he might still have to kill. His gentle spirit could not come to terms with the act of killing.

“We’ve also run into some luck,” Shaye said.

“What kind of luck, Pa?” James asked.

“Dismount, all of you.”

Thomas and James obeyed immediately. Matthew did not hear the order.

“Matthew!” James said, snapping his brother out of his reverie.

“Huh?”

“Dismount.”

“Oh, yeah, sure.”

When all three sons were dismounted, Shaye showed them the hoofprints on the ground. He went down to one knee, and they all joined him.

“See there?” he asked, pointing.

All three boys peered at the ground.

“What’s that?” Thomas asked. “There’s somethin’ inside that hoofprint.”

“Good eye, Thomas,” Shaye said.

“What is that?” James asked.

“I’m not sure,” Shaye said, “but something has either adhered to the hoof of this horse or something has caused a small amount of damage—not enough to make the horse lame, but enough to make the track unique.”

“So all we need to do is keep followin’ that track?” James asked.

“As long as the Langers, or whoever the horse belongs to, don’t notice that they’re leavin’ a unique trail.”

“What happens if they notice?” James asked.

“They could send the horse off on its own, leavin’ us to follow a false trail.”

“How can we know that?” Thomas asked.

“Well, if they send the horse off riderless, the print won’t be as deep—unless they take care to weigh the animal down.”

“There’s so much involved in this,” James said. “It’s more…exact than I ever thought.”

Thomas and James would pick this up quickly,
Shaye knew. Matthew would have trouble with it, but it really didn’t matter. If he could help it, Matthew would never again be tracking outlaws after this was over.

“The problem is,” Shaye said, “it’s not exact. If we follow the wrong trail, we won’t even know it until we get there.”

“And then what?’ James asked. “What happens then?”

“Then we backtrack and start over again.”

“How many men have you tracked this way, Pa?” Thomas asked.

“More than a few.”

“And did you ever give up?” James asked.

“Oh yeah,” Shaye said. “Sometimes it can’t be helped, sometimes they get away.”

“And you accept that?” Thomas asked.

“As a lawman you do,” Shaye said, “because you know somewhere, sometime, another lawman will catch them…but this is different. As a husband—and as sons—we won’t give up. I don’t care how many times we have to backtrack and start again, we’ll catch these men.”

“But we had them,” Matthew said, shaking his head. “We had them, Pa, and we let them get away.”

“I know, son,” Shaye said. “I know we did. And we’ll have them again, and next time they won’t get away.”

Shaye stood up, and his sons followed, mounting their horses again.

“They’re heading west,” he said, “toward Hays. There’s no tellin’ which way they’ll end up goin’, though. They probably don’t even know. We broke up both parts of their gangs, and they’ll have to reform if they want to start again.”

“What if they don’t start again?” Thomas asked. “What if they have enough money now to just stop?”

“That won’t happen,” Shaye said.

“Why not?” James asked.

“Because there’s not enough money for these men to stop,” Shaye said. “Not for Aaron…maybe Ethan is a different story, but I know not for Aaron.”

“Do you know him that well to say that, Pa?” Thomas asked.

“I knew him,” Shaye said, “a long time ago. I know what kind of a man he was then.”

“But you changed, Pa,” James said. “You’ve changed since then. Why not him?”

“I’ve kept track of his career,” Shaye said. “Maybe I wanted to see what would have happened to me if I’d stayed on that path, if I’d ridden with him. He hasn’t shown any inclination to change.”

“But Ethan’s the one we want,” Thomas said, “he’s the one came to Epitaph, robbed the bank…killed Ma.”

“They’re brothers,” Shaye said. “If we take one, we’re going to take the other.”

“Brothers,” Matthew said, “like us?”

Shaye looked at his three sons and said, “Brothers, yes, but not like you. Nothing like you.”

They rode through the night and most of the day, and then camped for the second night about ten miles outside of Hays.

“Are we goin’ into Hays tomorrow?” Ethan asked.

“We can’t,” Aaron said. “They’re bound to have sent word from Salina by now.”

“Then where do we go?”

They were sitting around the fire drinking coffee. They’d finished eating, and Morales and Branch were watching the two brothers. Aaron’s anger since finding out about Dan Shaye had been growing. They could all feel it.

“I don’t know where you’re goin’, brother,” Aaron said, “but I’m gonna head north, into Nebraska.”

“Why north?”

“I like the North,” Aaron said. “I know the country. I can get lost. I can also find some men and get started all over again.”

“I like the South,” Ethan said. “I could go south, through Dodge and back into Indian Territory. I could find some more men too, and start over—”

“No, Ethan,” Aaron said, “when I said start over, I meant it—without you.”

“Wha—What are you talkin’ about?” Ethan asked. “Why? Is this about Shaye?”

“This is about stupidity,” Aaron said. “You’ve got too much of it, brother. I can’t deal with it no more. In the mornin’, you go your way and I’ll go mine. Morales will be comin’ with me.” Aaron looked at Branch. “I don’t know what you want to do, Branch, but take my word for it, go off on your own.”

“I can’t come with you?” Branch asked.

“I don’t want you.”

“What about the money?” Ethan asked.

“We’ll split it four ways,” Aaron said. “We got four sets of saddlebags, so I’ll do it tonight.”

“Four equal shares?” Branch asked.

Aaron turned and looked at him coldly. “Four shares,” he said.

Branch shrugged and subsided. After what happened in Salina, he knew he was lucky to be alive.

“Aaron,” Ethan said, “you can’t blame me—”

“I do blame you, Ethan,” Aaron said. “You got Dan Shaye on our trail. Now, I don’t know what kind of lawman he turned into, but he was a stubborn sonofabitch when he was riding with
me, and that kind of thing don’t change.”

“What if I take care of him?”

“Like how?”

“What if I kill him?”

“You?” Aaron asked. “Kill Dan Shaye?”

“That’s right,” Ethan said. “Can we join up again if I do that?”

Aaron hesitated, then said, “I don’t know, Ethan. Why don’t you let me know if it happens, and then we’ll see? Right now I want to turn in. You set up three watches with Branch and Morales. In the mornin’ we’ll split the money up and go our separate ways.”

Ethan opened his mouth to protest, but Aaron wasn’t listening anymore. He decided to let his older brother sleep on it. Maybe by morning he wouldn’t be so pissed off and he’d change his mind.

“I’ll take first, if you like,” Morales said.

“Fine,” Ethan said. “Wake Branch for second, and I’ll take third.”

“As you wish.”

“What about you, Branch?” Ethan asked.

“What about me, Ethan?”

“Gonna go your separate way tomorrow, or ride with me?”

Branch thought it over only a moment. Riding alone would mean making all his own decisions—and he wasn’t so sure that all that had happened was Ethan’s fault…entirely.

“Reckon I’ll stick with you, Ethan.”

“Okay,” Ethan said. “Okay, then. Have a pot of coffee made when you wake me for my watch.”

“Sure…boss.”