THE DODGE CITY MASSACRE (A Jess Williams Novel.) (28 page)

             
“True, but the fact is, I did show up and I think it’s time that you finally pay up for your misdeeds once and for all,” replied Jess.

             
“I don’t care what you have to say, I’m not coming out of this office and you’re not coming in,” exclaimed Welch.

             
Jess shook his head again. “You still don’t get it do you? You see, Manny, what you don’t seem to realize at this point is that you don’t have any say in the matter because your time is over,” replied Jess.

             
Jess finished the brandy, stood up and put his cut-down shotgun back in his holster, and chambered a round into the Sharps buffalo rifle. He took a few steps back from the heavy door and aimed at the deadbolt and fired. The sound was deafening in the room. Jess heard Manny fire off the shotgun at the door, but none of the buckshot made it through the heavy wooden door. Jess chambered another round and aimed and fired at the deadbolt again and the second shot broke the door open.

             
As the door started to open, Manny opened fire again, but the door was not open far enough so most of the buckshot hit the inside of the heavy door. As a result of that, it caused the door to slam shut, but the deadbolt didn’t latch and when the door bounced back open, Jess saw Manny in the process or reloading the shotgun. Manny had loaded two shells into the shotgun, but he hadn’t had enough time to close the breech of the shotgun yet and Jess dropped the Sharps rifle and slicked out his pistol and put four slugs into Manny Welch’s chest. He fell back onto a large table behind his desk and Jess walked into the office and heard Manny Welch take his last breath. Jess walked over to the window in the office and opened it. He hollered over to John that it was all clear and for him to come on in.

             
When Bodine walked into the huge living room, he found Jess sitting in one of the two chairs sipping some very expensive brandy. John also noticed a very large leather bag on the table between the chairs. He looked at Welch’s dead body still lying on the big table behind his desk. He turned to look at Jess with a strange look.

             
“What?” asked Jess.

             
“I’m out there, not knowing what the hell is happening in here and it sounded like a small war going on. Then I come in here and find you sitting in a nice chair sipping fine brandy like it was just another normal afternoon. You could’ve let me know what the hell was happening,” demanded John.

             
“Well, I’m sorry, but I was a little too busy to send you out a note letting you know what was happening,” replied Jess. “Now, pour yourself a brandy and have a seat.”

             
Bodine let out a sigh of exasperation as he poured himself a glass. “Damn, this is some mighty nice stuff.”

             
“Yes it is, and so is that big leather bag on the table that I found in Welch’s office,” replied Jess.

             
“What’s in it?”

             
“Take a look for yourself. It’ll sure put a smile on your face.”

             
Bodine grabbed the leather bag and opened it up and gasped. He started counting the bundles and each bundle came to exactly one thousand dollars apiece. He quickly counted the bundles. “Holy crap! There’s fifty thousand dollars in here.”

             
“I didn’t take the time to count it yet, but I’ll take your word on it,” replied Jess. “It seems that we have assured your retirement plans for certain.”

             
Bodine poured them both another glass of the brandy and they sat there for about ten minutes relaxing. Bodine looked around the room.

             
“Manny Welch sure had a nice place here,” said Bodine.

             
“Yes he did, and he could be still enjoying it if he hadn’t of been so damn greedy,” replied Jess. “Let that be a lesson to you.”

             
Bodine smiled at that. “Well, what next? Are you still going to burn it to the ground like you said?” asked Bodine.

             
“Well, I am a man of my word,” replied Jess.

             
“What about the man in the livery barn? Should we shoot him or let him go?” asked John.

             
“Let’s go and have a little chat with him first,” replied Jess.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

              Jess and Bodine walked out to the livery barn where the man was still tied up. Jess cut the ropes and removed the rag from the man’s mouth. “What’s your name, Mister?” asked Jess.

             
“My name is Dom Weller and I ain’t a hired gun for Manny Welch. I just take care of the horses and do some chores around the house once in a while and that’s all,” replied Weller. “Are you going to kill me too?”

             
“You said your wife was sick, what’s wrong with her?” asked Jess.

             
“We don’t rightly know. The local doctors around here think its pleurisy, but the medicine they keep giving her doesn’t seem to help much.”

             
“Dom, are you a man who can keep his mouth shut?” asked Jess.

             
“If it means that it will keep me alive, yes sir,” replied Dom.

             
Jess looked at Dom for a minute as if he was trying to read his thoughts. “I’ll tell you what Dom, you saddle up one of these horses, then release all the others in the barn here and meet me on the front porch of the house.”

             
“Yes sir, Mr. Williams, I will do exactly what you say,” replied Dom.

             
Jess and John walked back into the house. Jess removed five thousand dollars from the leather bag. He walked back out onto the porch and waited for Dom to ride up to the front of the house. He handed the five thousand dollars to him and he was astonished.

             
“This is a whole lot of money,” Mr. Williams.

             
“Part of it is for you keeping what you saw here today to yourself. If anyone asks you, you tell them that Manny Welch was upset about people finding out he was responsible for the death of Howard Tillman and he sent you home early and you don’t know anything else about what might have happened after that.”

             
“Okay, but what is the rest of the money for?”

             
“You take that wife of yours out to New York City and find some good doctors who know what they are doing. I’ll bet they’ll be able to help her. When you’re there, you go and find a place called Carl and Murray’s Fine Liquors and Cigars. You find one of the owners and tell him that your drinks and cigars are on the house. You tell him that Jess Williams said so. Also, give them a message for me.”

             
“Sure thing, what’s the message?”

             
“Tell him that my banker problem is solved.”

             
“I don’t understand.”

             
“You don’t need to. They’ll know what I mean. Now, after you get home, you send that horse packing because horse thieving is punishable by hanging,” said Jess.

             
“I won’t have any need for him anyway. And thanks for this money to help my wife see a good doctor. Nobody’s ever done something like that for me before and I just want you to know that I will always be in your debt, Mr. Williams.

             
“Just consider it your severance pay from Manny Welch. He won’t need it anymore. Now, get on home and away from here and don’t look back.”

             
Dom shook Jess’ hand and rode out straight north and he never looked back like he was told. Jess went back inside and walked into Welch’s office and found several bottles of the fine brandy in a cabinet. He grabbed two of them and he poured half of one bottle right on Manny Welch’s chest. Then he took the rest and poured some of it on the heavy drapes covering the windows and he left a trail of the brandy going out of the house and onto the front porch. He took out a match and lit the brandy and the flames worked its way inside the house. Then, Jess and John walked over to the large livery barn and set fire to the large pile of hay in the one corner. They then walked into the tree line and to where they had left their horses and rode inside the tree line so that no one spotted them. The house quickly became a raging inferno and the livery barn was burning as well.

             
John looked at Jess. “You know that was a waste of mighty fine brandy back there.”

             
“Maybe, but with all the money we’ve got here in this bag, we can buy all the fine brandy and whiskey a man could drink in a lifetime,” replied Jess.

             
“I guess you are right about that,” replied Bodine.

             
They rode back into Dodge City and to their hotel rooms. They both took a nice hot bath and headed down to Dottie’s Eats for some supper. They were halfway through their meal when Justin Watts came in.

             
“It seems like someone burned down the Welch ranch a few hours ago,” said Watts.

             
“No kidding?” replied Jess. “Do you have any idea who would do such a thing?”

             
“I could make a guess, but it ain’t my job to worry about such things anymore,” replied Watts. “No one is going to miss that man anyway.”

             
“What about Manny Welch? Did they find his body in the house or were there any witnesses?” asked Jess.

             
“All they found was some bones, but they won’t be able to identify who they were. The roof collapsed during the fire and crushed the skull on the one man in Welch’s office. The truth is, nobody really gives a damn if it was him or not,” replied Watts.

             
“Well, maybe Welch knew his time was up and he just packed up and moved on to another town. Maybe he went back to New York City or somewhere else,” said Jess.

             
“I suppose that might be possible,” replied Watts.

             
“Justin, can I buy you some supper? The fried chicken that Dottie is cooking up in the kitchen back there is really good,” said Jess.

             
“You know, I am kind of hungry,” replied Watts.

             
“Hey Mattie, could you please my good friend here and bring him a platter of that fried chicken?” asked Jess.

             
About ten minutes later Mattie came out with a huge platter of fried chicken and fried potatoes. She gave Jess a strange look, but she didn’t say a word about what she knew about the matter. She started to walk away, but she stopped and turned around. “Will you be leaving a little larger tip today, Mr. Williams?” she asked.

             
Jess almost chocked on his chicken. “Yes ma’am, I surely plan to do exactly that.”

             
“That’s mighty nice of you,” she said as she smiled playfully and walked away.

             
“What was that all about?” asked Justin.

             
“It’s nothing, just kind of a private joke. Justin, can you tell me who the banker is that made all those shady land deals with Manny Welch?” asked Jess.

             
“Oh, that would be Wilbert Haines. He works as the manager of the large bank down the street right there. He’s one cheating, lying character, that’s for sure. He’s swindled more money from the locals around here ever since that Manny Welch showed up,” replied Watts. “Why do you want to know?”

             
“I just thought I’d pay him a visit before I left town today,” replied Jess.

             
“I’ll bet he ain’t going to like it, is he?” asked Watts.

             
“Probably not,” replied Jess.

             
They finished their meals and Jess and John headed back to their hotel rooms. Jess told John to take thirty thousand dollars out of the forty five thousand dollars that was left in the bag. He protested that it wasn’t a fair split, but Jess told him that it was his share of all the bounty money they would collect. Jess would keep all the bounty money that got wired to his account. John knew that he was coming out ahead on the deal and couldn’t thank Jess enough.

             
“Well, now that that’s settled, let’s go and get our horses and make one more stop before we split ways,” said Jess.

             
“We’re going to see that banker, ain’t we?” asked John.

             
“You catch on real quick,” replied Jess.

             
They stopped at the bank that Justin pointed out and walked inside. A guard standing by the door inside the bank had a look of concern when he saw the two men entering the bank with so many weapons strapped on, but when he recognized Jess, he didn’t move an inch. Jess looked at him. “I’m looking for Wilbert Haines.”