Leaving Epitaph
Authors: Robert J. Randisi
THE SONS OF DANIEL SHAYE
ROBERT J. RANDISI
To the sons of Bob Randisi
He never expected that a handful of dirt striking the…
The day after his wife was buried, Sheriff Daniel Shaye…
On the street in front of City Hall, Dan Shaye …
The Shaye men spent the rest of the day outfitting…
Ethan Langer poured himself a cup of coffee and replaced…
When Dan Shaye and his sons rode into Vernon, Texas,…
When Dan Shaye entered the sheriff’s office, the man behind…
In a nearby bathhouse, Thomas Shaye was drying off, while…
They walked to the nearest saloon—the Lucky Ace—and…
They walked the sheriff out of the crowded saloon without…
The point of leaving Vernon immediately was so that Sheriff…
Ethan Langer woke with a start, a scream sounding in…
Ten days into the hunt, Shaye and his sons were…
They rode into Lawton much the way they had ridden…
When they reached the restaurant called Magnolia’s, Shaye could see…
“Gentlemen,” the sheriff said when he reached their table, “my…
Shaye knocked on the lawman’s door before he entered, out…
The boys were waiting for him outside the hotel. Thomas…
Of course, turning in early did not appeal to Thomas…
Thomas was wracking his brain, trying to find a way…
Alone in his room, Dan Shaye realized that being alone…
Dan Shaye watched as his son Matthew dug his feet…
Shaye watched as Matthew squared off against the larger, older…
Matthew bunked with his father that night, so Shaye could…
“Why are we headin’ for Oklahoma City?” Terry Petry asked…
The Shayes camped between Lawton and Oklahoma City. There wasn’t…
The Langer gang camped outside of Oklahoma City. In the…
That same morning, two days behind, Dan Shaye woke all…
While Dan Shaye and his sons continued on toward Oklahoma…
The two men faced each other in the empty church.
“I loved your mother more than anything, Matthew,” Shaye said…
It was getting dark, and apparently the other men had…
When Shaye and his sons camped that night, the three…
When morning came, the other men in the Langer gang…
As the Shayes rode into Oklahoma City, the three younger…
Outside, in front of the church, Shaye found his sons…
They all had steak dinners that night, and there wasn’t…
With Petry dead, Ethan Langer actually started to miss having…
They stopped in Blackwell, just before the Kansas border. Prior…
Thomas and James found a good-sized store not far from…
In their absence, Sheriff Carmondy had once again picked up…
Shaye left the sheriff’s office with his three sons following…
Twenty miles north of Salina, Aaron Langer sat at his…
Aaron Langer and his men were the first to arrive…
Aaron Langer put two men outside the saloon in chairs…
Several hours after the arrival of Aaron Langer and his…
Pushing his horse hard, Thomas Shaye reached Salina one hour…
“So you’ve got a posse with you?” Sheriff Holcomb asked…
James came up next to Shaye and handed him a…
“What are we waitin’ for, Aaron?” Ethan demanded after his…
“A dream?” Aaron asked.
The seven men left the sheriff’s office by the back…
Holcomb and Thomas each pushed their man through the bat-wing…
The lawmen were outnumbered, but they had the outlaws outgunned.
Shaye and his sons checked all the upstairs rooms. There…
By morning people were back on the streets and things…
As they reached the outskirts of town, Shaye continued the…
They rode through the night and most of the day…
In the morning, Aaron Langer’s anger and resolve had not…
“Thomas?”
Aaron Langer stopped to take a drink from his canteen…
“Pa, why would Aaron Langer go north again?” James asked.
James had the presence of mind to clear his saddle…
The first thing Shaye had to do was make a…
“What’s wrong, Thomas?” Matthew asked.
It had not been James’s butt that caught the bullet…
The only thing Ethan could think to do was go…
There was still enough of summer in the air that…
Shaye rode into Red Cloud on a tired horse. He…
Upstairs, Aaron Langer was too busy continuing to satisfy a…
Thomas and Matthew rode into Oklahoma City one week later.
Once they had their horses placed in a stable and…
Thomas decided to start asking questions at the stable where…
Matthew saw the man in the first pew sitting with…
Father Vincent didn’t get very far with the Last Rites…
Dan Shaye, Thomas Shaye, and James Shaye stood at Matthew’s…
He never expected that a handful of dirt striking the top of a coffin would make such a loud sound.
Daniel Shaye stepped back from his wife’s open grave to allow his three sons to approach. One at a time they opened their hands and let the dirt fall. Each time it sounded loud as a drum to Shaye.
The three boys stepped back and stood abreast of their father, and the four of them folded their hands in front of them. As the townspeople filed by them, offering their condolences, the four men stood like stone. No one in the town had done a thing while Ethan Langer and his gang had ridden Mary Shaye down in the street while making their escape after robbing the bank. Neither her husband nor any of her sons would ever forgive them for that.
The last to approach them was the reverend.
“You can’t hold these good people responsible for what happened, Daniel,” Reverend Henry Mitchell said.
“Why not, Reverend?” Shaye asked.
“It was not their job to try and stop those bank robbers.”
“Job?” Shaye asked. “Who’s talking about a job, Reverend? They had a moral obligation to try to help my wife. Any sort of action might have caused that gang to stop, or swerve, or change direction. Mary was just crossing the street, carrying a bolt of fabric in her arms, and those animals trampled her into the dirt. That was no way for a woman to die—no way for my wife to die. It was senseless.”
“Still—”
“Save your breath, Reverend.” Thomas Shaye, at twenty-five, was the oldest of the three sons. Physically, however, he resembled his mother, favoring her slighter frame over his father’s powerful one. “Ain’t none of us listenin’.”
“We wouldn’t be listenin’ if God Hisself was talkin’,” said James, nineteen.
“That’s blasphemy, boy,” the reverend said sternly, but he took a step back when twenty-three-year-old Matthew, the largest of the boys, spoke.
“It was blasphemy what happened to our maw, Reverend!” he snapped. “If there even was a God, why would He let that happen?”
Henry Mitchell had been the reverend in Epitaph, Texas, for thirteen years. He’d known Daniel Shaye and his family since they moved to town twelve years ago. He not only considered
himself the keeper of their souls, but he thought of Daniel Shaye as a good friend.
He recovered his composure and said to Daniel, “You should tell your boys not to blaspheme the Lord, Dan—”
“My wife is dead, Henry,” Dan Shaye said, cutting him off. “You think I care what you or the Lord thinks?”
“You’re all grieving,” Mitchell said. “I know you don’t mean what you’re saying—”
“Reverend,” Daniel Shaye said, “when have you ever known me not to mean what I say? And I raised my boys the same way. We speak our minds, and right now we don’t have God in our minds, or in our hearts.”
“What then? Vengeance?” Mitchell asked.
“You bet,” Shaye said.
“As sheriff of Epitaph it’s your job to capture those men, and bring the money they stole back to town, Daniel,” Mitchell said. “Vengeance should have nothing to do with that.”
“It’s my job to catch ’em, Reverend,” Shaye said, “but it’s gonna be my pleasure to kill ’em.”
With that he turned and walked away from his wife’s grave. They had chosen to bury her out in a field behind their house, and not on Boot Hill with all the others. He had not wanted his loving wife to be buried with any of those miscreants on the hill.
Thomas, Matthew, and James Shaye all gave
the reverend one last, hard look and then turned and followed their father back to the house.
The boys found their father standing in front of the cold fireplace, staring, arms folded. They exchanged anxious looks, but none of them said a word for several moments. When their father failed to acknowledge them, Thomas finally took it upon himself to break the silence.
“Pa?”
Shaye didn’t answer.
“Pa?” Thomas said again.
“Boys,” Shaye said, without turning.
“What are we gonna do, Pa?” Thomas asked.
Daniel Shaye moved one hand, passed it across his face, then refolded his arms again.
“I’m going after the gang,” he finally said.
“Alone?” Thomas asked.
“With a posse.”
“It’s been three days, Pa,” Matthew said.
“That’s okay, Matthew,” Shaye said. “I’ll find them.”
“Can we come, Pa?” James asked.
Now Shaye turned to face his sons. “No.”
“But Pa—” Thomas said.
“No,” Shaye said again, sternly. “Your mother would never forgive me if anything happened to you boys.”
“Ma’s dead, Pa,” Thomas said. “We’ve got to do somethin’.”
“I know that, Thomas,” Shaye said. “The answer is still no.”
“Pa—” James started.
“The discussion is over.”
He turned and faced the fireplace again. The boys looked at each other and remained silent, but they knew the discussion was not over.