Return to Massacre Mesa - Edge Series 5 (22 page)

Her finely carved but mannish features showed greater compassion now as she spoke directly to the other woman. ‘We did this because both of us knew the young man could not survive the long journey to Fort Chance, you understand, Miss Lucy?’

‘Did he – ‘ Lucy started to ask.

‘He suffered some, I cannot deny that, but he died peacefully,’ Rose said. ‘I know something of Comanche healing ways but there was little I could do about the bullet that was buried so deeply inside the body of your man. It had caused much poison to form. And a little over a full day and part of a night after we found him the lieutenant died of his wound.’

‘What happened to the government dollars?’ Dingle implored eagerly.

‘Yeah, did the wounded guy talk about the money before he cashed in?’ Conners spluttered in his haste to get the words out.

Lucy Russell glared malevolently at the two self-centred, over-anxious men who peered intently at Rose and asked of the squaw: ‘What happened to Glenn’s body, please? Will you tell me now where it is buried?’

The squaw eyed the white woman mournfully and replied in a tone that matched her expression. ‘Yes, Miss Lucy: I can tell you that Hiram buried your man at the back of our cave. And I said some words from The Bible over what I thought would be his final resting-place. What little that will still be there after so many years should be easy to recover: for we did not have the time nor the need to bury the body deeply in such a 150

place. So – ‘

‘Did this Glenn Montgomery say anything about the money?’ Dingle insisted.

‘Yeah, tell us that, you – ‘ Conners started in a harsh tone that signalled he was ill-tempered enough to curse the squaw for giving priority to what to his mind was an inconsequential matter.

Edge cut in evenly: ‘You better watch your mouth, feller.’

‘What?’ Conners countered absently and irritably.

‘I’m as eager to know about the money as you are. But five minutes ago or five minutes from now ain’t going to make any damn difference to you or me.’

Conners continued to glower as he delved for a cigar and Dingle advised:

‘The guy’s right, Chester.’

‘Maybe so!’ Conners lit the cigar. ‘But I’m getting sick and tired of hearing about some cavalry lieutenant who ain’t nothing more than a heap of lousy bones rotting in the ground!’

‘If you’re sick and tired, you should maybe stretch out by the fire here, feller.’

Edge rose from where he had been hunkered on his haunches, attending to the skillet of bacon and beans. And as he came upright he pointedly twisted the fist of one hand slowly in the palm of the other. ‘Be my pleasure to help you a with that.’

‘Tough talk don’t scare me!’ Conners sneered and spun to face Edge squarely.

‘Back at the Wild Dog you caught me off-guard but right here and now – ‘

‘Look, don’t be so downright stupid, you men!’ Lucy chided. ‘Rose has told me everything I wanted to hear and I’m sure she’ll . . . Oh, I’m supposed to - !’ She stooped to resume the breakfast making chore and was abruptly much brighter in spirit now she knew she was going to find where her long dead lieutenant was buried.

‘Right: that’s absolutely right,’ Dingle placated and eyed Edge and Conners nervously. ‘Let’s all of us settle down and hear the rest of what the Injun lady has to

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tell us.’

‘It just seems to me she’s stalling, John,’ Conners muttered, the belligerence draining out of his big frame. ‘All that stuff about the dead guy and where he’s buried!

That ain’t of no damn importance!’

‘Depends on your point of view, feller,’ Edge growled sardonically. ‘For Miss Russell it’s a matter of grave concern.’

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CHAPTER • 14

___________________________________________________________________________________

EDGE WENT on, his tone lacking any hint of black humour now: ‘It figures that
if Lieutenant Montgomery rode out with the others to meet with the Comanche he couldn’t have known about the switch of the money for a heap of sand.’

Lucy Russell stirred the food in the skillet more vigorously and said with blatant self-satisfaction: ‘That has always been absolutely obvious to me!’

‘Damn, I guess that has to be right!’ Dingle was whiningly disappointed. Conners insisted to the squaw: ‘Yeah, but it could be the soldier boy had his suspicions, uh? He was dying, and maybe he remembered something that happened after the crates of money were delivered to Fort Chance? He put two and two together after the massacre and told you and this Ricketts guy you were going with all about what – ‘

Rose began to shake her head rhythmically as soon as Conners started to voice his theory. Eventually this and the glinting, hard-eyed expression on her gaunt, heavily lined face penetrated the man’s ill-founded excitement and he broke off. The glitter went from the man’s green eyes and left them dull and flat as frustration showed in the way he ran both hands rapidly through his unruly red hair and how he drew deeply against the cigar.

‘The young lieutenant died without saying anything that made sense.’ Rose glanced at Lucy, who was continuing to stir the contents of the skillet while one delicious smell of frying food and a second of brewing coffee permeated the clear morning air. The white woman appeared to be totally content with the chore and all she had heard: seemed not to be interested in what the Comanche squaw was saying.

‘I wish I could say he spoke of his feelings for Miss Lucy, but the unfortunate man said little. He came close to consciousness a few times but only briefly. Which was better for him because his pain was great when he was awake and it was good he did not suffer it for long.’

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Conners started to blurt: ‘Hell woman: so what the – ‘

Rose cut in and pointedly ignored Conners and Dingle to address her remarks to Edge: ‘The morning after the lieutenant died and we buried him Hiram packed up our things to leave just as he had done the day before: preparing to set off again for Fort Chance. I was in the back of the cave, making sure we left nothing of value behind when I heard voices outside: Hiram and another man. They spoke for a few seconds only. Then there was a gunshot.’ She paused and completed without emotion: ‘Which killed Hiram.’ Then the squaw became as sorrowful as Lucy Russell had been a few minutes earlier: but time had dulled the anguish of her sadness and she had clearly done all the mourning of which she was capable a long time ago, a lot closer to the time of the tragedy.

‘Yeah?’ Conners pressed, his anxious excitement rising again.

‘And then?’ Dingle urged, his small blue eyes gleaming with avarice. ‘We know for sure you didn’t get killed yourself the same as Ricketts. So what then: did you take up with the guy that shot him?’

His slack mouth hung open and Rose glared her enraged disgust for him, but a moment later her anger drained suddenly away and she sighed deeply.

‘I cannot blame you for thinking me capable of such an evil thing: after I had abandoned my husband and son to go with Hiram Ricketts. But, no, I did not do what you said. I concealed myself in the darkness at the back of the cave and listened to sounds from beyond the mouth. And I heard three men laughing and telling each other how well their plan had worked. How they were rich.’

‘
Three
of them?’ Dingle exclaimed harshly.

Rose confirmed: ‘That is so.’

Lucy ladled bacon and beans on to five plates and passed one to Edge then set down three on the ground in front of those who were too deeply interested in the events of long ago to be aware of the food they were offered. Edge accepted his breakfast with a nod of thanks and tossed his cigarette butt into the fire. Only he and 154

Lucy began to eat.

‘You know who they were?’ Conners asked.

She shook her head. ‘No. They were boasting of how smart they were and happy at being rich. They talked of nothing but the money and how they got it.’ She glowered pointedly at the eager Conners and Dingle, emphasising her opinion about people’s greed for unearned wealth.

Conners countered through teeth clenched to his cigar: ‘Anyone who don’t want to be rich is a crazy fool! So, what happened when they got through celebrating?’

‘They made breakfast.’ Rose was reminded of the food on the plate in front of her and for a time she ate two spoonfuls as hungrily as Edge and Lucy. Then continued:

‘They used the fire Hiram had lit and cooked the food they stole from us. It was lucky for me the death of the lieutenant had spoiled my appetite, so there were signs that only Hiram had eaten that morning.’

‘Damnit, woman, are you spinning out this yarn for the hell of it?’ Conners demanded. He ripped the cigar from his mouth and his expression darkened. ‘Or is it that you don’t know where the money is? So you’re just stringing us along for – ‘

Rose scowled: ‘Do you think I would choose to endure the company of such illmannered, greed driven men as you and your friend if I did not believe I was going to be rewarded?’

‘Okay, okay!’ Dingle made a series of palms down gestures to signal that Conners should keep his ill temper under control. ‘You tell it however you want to. Like Edge said, a few minutes one way or the other won’t make much difference. You just go ahead and me and Chester won’t butt in again.’

Rose showed a fleeting smile and inclined her head in a near regal manner, clearly enjoying her minor triumph over the impatient men. She swallowed a mouthful of food. ‘While they were there outside the cave I never saw them closely. I was too afraid to leave my safe hiding place in the back. And because of the distance between us and how they did not always talk so loudly after their excitement was calmed, I did 155

not hear all of what was said.’

Lucy and Edge finished eating and the woman lifted the coffeepot off the fire and silently offered it around the group. Only Edge saw the gesture and just he and she drank while Rose continued with her story and Conners and Dingle remained transfixed by it, like two small children fascinated with a tale being related by a skilful storyteller.

‘Much of the time they talked and laughed like drunken men about how they had exchanged the money for sand and rocks during the time they guarded the crates at the fort. And how they thought it was their just due for being such brave soldiers during the war in the east. And they felt much resentment because they were considered too old to remain in the army now there was no longer a war to fight.’

Lucy took a plate heaped with what was left of the hot breakfast across to where Crooked Eye slept and shook him awake while the food on the plates of Conners and Dingle cooled by the moment as their enthusiasm for other things was stoked by what Rose told them.

‘They boasted to each other about how smart they were to steal the money and replace it with worthless sand,’ the squaw went on contemptuously. ‘But they thought that the way they hid it was even smarter still.’

‘Where, woman?’ Conners demanded harshly. ‘Where did those guys – ‘

‘It was kept right there inside Fort Chance.’

‘Sonofabitch!’ Conners rasped.

‘Well, I’ll be . . .’ Dingle hissed. ‘Real damn smart, but – ‘

Rose continued: ‘And then they had a stroke of luck that helped them greatly. They were discharged from the army that had no more use for them just two days after two other soldiers deserted from the fort.’

‘The pair of deserters that the army thought had stolen the money?’ Lucy murmured. ‘Farmer and Crabbe?’

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Dingle fidgeted impatiently and made aggrieved sounds. Conners asked: ‘Okay, what did you hear next, woman? I reckon they must have had the money with them then – at this cave where you and the squaw man lived?’

Crooked Eye belched loudly and muttered an apology but nobody was paying the young Comanche any attention.

Rose answered: ‘They planned to hide most of it and then go to Mexico and wait there until the trouble they had caused died down. Then they would return for it and begin to enjoy the life of luxury the silver dollars could buy them.’

‘Where?’ Conners demanded, his anger approaching an explosive point. ‘Where did those guys hide all that money, woman?’

Dingle expressed a similar degree of simmering rage but was able to hold his tongue while Rose Bigheart tacitly but quite obviously experienced a few more moments of unfamiliar triumph over the two men as she approached the revelation they were so anxious to hear. Until Lucy said incredulously: ‘You didn’t kill those men for murdering Mr Ricketts, did you, Rose?’

The Comanche squaw sighed and shook her head ruefully. ‘Killing is not in my nature, Miss Lucy. If it had been, I would have made sure there and then on the morning they shot Hiram J. Ricketts that they died.’

Crooked Eye got silently to his feet and came to collect the empty plates of those who had eaten breakfast, eager to repay whatever kindnesses had been shown him and indifferent to the reason his benefactors were here in these desolate mountain foothills. Rose went on: ‘But I allowed those cold-blooded killers to leave Mesa Desolado and they took the wagon and all our supplies that would be of use to them. They even stole the burros.’