Sidewinder (22 page)

“You never mind about that, Phil,” Maude said. “You run upstairs and get your uncle Jeter. Run along.”

Phil lumbered off into the gloom of the front room and soon he could be heard clambering up the stairs in his work boots.

“Ma,” Delbert said, “I want you to keep these gals for me until I get back from town. Don’t let ’em out of your sight.”

“Sit down, Del, sit down,” Maude said. “So, you got yourself a pair of hostages, eh? Any trouble?”

“Nary,” Del said, motioning the two women to sit on the divan. “Their men weren’t there, so they may come a-lookin’, if’n you know what I mean.”

“Sure do. Hiram, you sit over there in that straight-back. Pa will want his own chair when he comes down. Del, set yourself. How did you do, anyways?”

“Got the whole herd, Ma,” Hiram said. “Pert near two hunnert head.” He took off his hat and held it by the brim in both hands.

Del kept his hat on, and he didn’t sit back in his chair but just on the edge.

“My, my,” Maude said to Hiram. “Pretty darned good I’d say.” Then she looked at Delbert, took a seat on another straight-back chair, and tapped back a strand of hair that had worked loose over her left ear. “So, you got deliveries to make, Del, and you look like you’re about to pounce.”

“I got to get into town, Ma,” Delbert said. “Wagons are already rolling to Denver, Cañon City, and Pueblo. Ridley’s bringing a couple of sides of beef out here to you and Pa. And, by the time I get to town, the Clarendon will be scratchin’ out new menus.”

Two sets of footsteps clumped down the stairs. Jeter Coombs and Phil came into the room. Jeter stood in front of Del, chewing on his pipe. He carried a heavy Henry .44 rifle with a brass receiver. He, too, wore a gunbelt and a .44 hogleg.

“I heard it, boy,” he said. “You done right good. Lotta beeves, eh?”

“Enough to fill all the orders.”

“I always said you was the smartest in the family, cutting prices on beef, settin’ up chow houses all over creation. Pretty damned smart.”

“Set down, Jeter,” Maude said, and the small, gray-bearded old man with thinning hair and a rosy bulbous nose sat in the big easy chair that was covered with cowhide and stuffed with cotton and wood shavings. The chair made a wheezing sound when he sat in it and leaned his rifle against an armrest.

He didn’t even look at the two women on the divan but puffed on his pipe, wreathing his head in a scarf of blue smoke.

Felicity stared at the family members, comparing their looks and their actions to Delbert’s. Pilar’s hand crept to hers and furtively squeezed it.

“What’re you going to do in town, Del?” Phil asked.

“Collect some money for one thing,” Delbert said. “Sleep. Drink some whiskey. See my gal.”

“Can I go with you?”

“Hell no,” Delbert said. Maude gave Phil a sharp look, and he dropped down to sit on the floor, cross-legged, his hair sticking out like an explosion of straw, a sheepish look on his face.

“What about these two doves?” Jeter said, finally looking at the two women on the divan. “They don’t look like whores.”

“Pa,” Maude said.

“Well, his gal’s a whore, ain’t she?”

“You mind your manners, Jeter,” she said. “These gals are Del’s hostages. He wants us to look after them.”

Delbert looked at Phil, then at his father.

“If they run, you either catch ’em right quick, Pa, or you shoot ’em. Got that, cousin Phil?”

“Is that what you do with hostages?” Phil asked.

“That’s what you do with these two. And anybody rides up lookin’ for ’em, you shoot them, too.”

“Who might that be?” Jeter asked.

“Don’t know what they look like. Hiram does. Hiram?”

“One’s a Mex,” Hiram said, “the other’s a white man, kinda tall, brown hair, maybe, and he got an eagle look to him.”

“What’s an eagle look?” Maude asked.

“Oh, you know. He sees everything, looks everywhere all the time. Only saw him once’t or twice, Ma. Big feller. Wide shoulders. A damned cowboy.”

“Ho ho,” Jeter said. “Just my kind of meat.” He held an imaginary rifle to his shoulder and sighted down the imaginary barrel and pulled an imaginary trigger.

Everyone in the room laughed except Felicity and Pilar.

Felicity sat up straight and gave Jeter a dirty look. He reared back, surprised.

“You’re all a heartless pack of . . . wolves,” she said. “My husband will be coming after me, and Pilar’s husband, too. They’re both good shots.”

“Well, now,” Jeter said, “we’ll give ’em both a kindly welcome, little lady. Don’t you worry your pretty head about that.”

“Your sons stole our cattle and burned down our houses and our barn,” she said. “How can you live with yourselves?”

“You mind your tongue, missy,” Maude cut in. “Don’t go castin’ no stones.”

“They’s some what grows cows,” Jeter said, taking his corncob pipe from his mouth, “and others what takes ’em to market. Who in hell do you think is smarter?”

“It’s still stealing,” Felicity said. “You’re all criminals.”

“Now, don’t you be callin’ the kettle black, missy,” Maude said. “You ain’t without sin. Ain’t nobody is.”

Felicity just glared at Maude, too furious to speak.

Pilar squeezed her hand as if to warn her.

Del got up.

“Hiram’s going to be riding guard tonight,” he said. “He knows what them two jaspers look like. You hear him shoot, you get ready.”

“You mind your tracks comin’ in here, Del?” Jeter asked.

“I don’t expect they’ll find us out here, at least not right away. We covered our tracks pretty well.”

He walked over to the divan and looked down at Felicity.

“I got a permanent room at the Clarendon, Felicity,” he said. “I’ll come back for you in a day or two. You might like livin’ high on the hog.”

She could not escape the look of lust on Delbert’s face. He was undressing her with that look, and she could feel his rough hands on her breasts. She wanted to cringe, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.

“Delbert,” she said, “go sleep with your whore. You’d have to kill me before I’d give you the time of day.”

“Bitch,” he said, suddenly angry. He brought himself under control then and touched a finger to the brim of his hat. “I like bitches. If they claw and scream, I like ’em even better. Be seein’ you, Felicity.”

She wanted to spit at him as he turned to go, but she just sat there and fumed silently.

Then she saw the look in Hiram’s eyes and in Phil’s, and sank back on the divan, trying to make herself as small as possible.

Pilar sighed and crossed herself quickly. She looked heavenward, a deep confusion in her mind.

She felt as if they had been brought to an insane asylum, and she was afraid. She was dirty and sweaty and very tired. Her body ached from sleeping on hard ground, and her buttocks were tender from riding. She missed Julio and prayed that he could come soon and deliver her from these godless and cruel people.

Delbert closed the door behind him, and the room was silent for a moment.

Maude looked at Pilar and Felicity. She smiled a wan smile.

“I’ve got just the room for you two,” she said. “It ain’t got no winders, and it’s pretty cramped. But it has two cots in it, and I can lock it up tight at night.”

Felicity glared at her.

“If’n you misbehave, I just might give the key to Hiram or Phil after we turn down the lamps.”

Felicity stared at the woman in disbelief. Maude had that same look on her face that she had seen on Delbert’s.

Felicity knew that she had somehow finally met a group of people who were more than criminals.

They were pure evil.

The most evil people she had ever encountered.

And Brad could not find her soon enough.

Brad was astonished to see the old town of Oro City teeming with people. He knew that they had incorporated the town early in 1878 after a couple of geologists discovered carbonite, and there was talk of mining lead. Lead mining might bring the town back to life, the old-timers said. Oro City had died when the gold ran out, but now the population had swelled with men digging out lead instead of gold.

He rode to the High Grade and saw that it was no longer a ramshackle saloon hanging onto the past but had a new false front and sign, and a much bigger floor space, complete with glitter gals in their skimpy lace, brocade skirts, and bodices. He tied Ginger to an empty hitch rail and walked through newly varnished batwing doors. A tinkling piano sounded from the far corner and nearly every table was filled. He couldn’t see much until his eyes adjusted to the shift of light, but then he saw empty spaces at the long bar, which, he noticed, was also new.

He found an empty stool at the far end of the bar and sat down. He felt out of place in the din, and none of the girls paid him any mind so busy were they plying the tables, flirting with hard-rock miners, young dandies, and fat men in business suits puffing on cigars.

A barkeep wearing a red brocade vest and black arm-bands, with a small apron tied around his waist, walked up to Brad.

“What’s your pleasure, Mister,” the bartender said.

“Beer cold?”

“It ain’t frozen, but it’s fairly cool.”

“Pull me a draft of the coolest, then.”

“That trail dust on you, or you been diggin’ on Carbonite Hill?”

Brad laughed.

“Does it show that much?”

“Mister, you look like a cowman who’s been ridin’ drag for forty mile.”

Brad laughed again.

“Well, I’m no lead miner.”

“There’s more than lead being mined.”

“I thought the gold ran out.”

“It sure did. But they been findin’ veins of silver in that carbonite. It’s a regular bonanza all over again. You still need a hot bath.”

“I’ll wash up at the Excelsior,” he said. “Just got into town.”

“How long’s it been since you’ve been here? The Excelsior burned down about a year or so ago, when we was old Oro City.”

“Been that long, I guess. So, the hotel didn’t rebuild?”

“Nope.”

“What’s the best hotel in town, then?”

“That’d be the Clarendon. Might be full up.”

“I’ll look around.”

“Try Main Street or State Street. You might find some-thin’.”

“Thanks,” Brad said.

The bartender brought him a glass mug filled with beer and two inches of foam. The beer was tepid but washed the dust out of his throat. He learned the barkeep’s name was Larry. Larry didn’t ask him his, and looking around, Brad could see why. Men came and went, dozens of them, most looking down-and-out. Brad didn’t see Julio anywhere, but he saw several Mexicans sitting at tables, smoking cigarettes, and eyeing the young women.

Brad sipped his beer and felt lightheaded after a few swallows. He didn’t want to get drunk, but he was so hungry he could eat the south end of a northbound horse. He kept looking at the batwings, hoping to see Julio come in. It had been three days, and this was where he had told Julio to meet him.

Larry walked by every so often and looked at Brad’s glass. When it was nearly empty, Larry leaned over the bar.

“Ready for another?”

“In a minute. You ever hear tell of a man named Delbert Coombs. He’s got a brother named Hiram.”

Larry’s expression changed.

The ready smile was gone, the laughter in his eyes had faded. Instead, the corners of his mouth bent downward and his eyebrows raised a good quarter inch and his eyes narrowed slightly.

“You got business with the Coombs boys?”

“Maybe.”

“I took you for a cattleman or sheepherder, Mister, not one of that bunch.”

“I’m not looking for a job with Coombs.”

“Good. Delbert and his whole bunch have a bad reputation in certain parts of town.”

“I never met the man,” Brad said.

“Then, why do you ask about him?”

“Maybe you can tell me something about that reputation he has in certain parts.”

“I could, but I ain’t goin’ to. Del Coombs carries a lot of weight in Oro City.

“That could mean anything.”

“Let’s say he’s on the shady side of the law. Nobody can prove anything, but he’s big in the beef business. Supplies all the hotels and eating establishments from here clear to Denver and points in between with fresh beef.”

“Where does he get his beef?” Brad asked.

Larry shrugged and looked around him to see if anyone was in earshot. They were alone.

“Nobody knows. But some people ask. Them who ask too loud don’t come in the High Grade no more.”

“What do you mean, Larry? Exactly.”

“I mean you don’t see those folks no more. Like sheriffs and lawmen who come here and start askin’ questions. You ain’t packin’ a star under that shirt, are you?”

Larry looked at the slight bulge in Brad’s shirt. The rattles.