Shotgun Groom (29 page)

concerned, Harvey wasn’t her father. He might have been

there to get April with child, but it took more than that to be

a parent. She hung Nora’s coat up and held her hand to

her. “Come on, honey. Let’s see what I can fix for supper.”

Nora accepted her hand and went to the kitchen with her.

***

as Benny Hil s entered the jailhouse. “You said you got my

brother’s safe?” Benny asked, striding over to them.

“We think so,” Owen said and motioned for him to check

out the safe he’d put in the corner of the room. “You said

you knew the combination to get in?”

Benny nodded as he eyes scanned the safe. “I do and that

looks like it belonged to Randolph.”

“Let’s put it on the desk,” Sheriff Meyer told Owen.

Owen picked up one side of it and Meyer picked up the

other. The weight of the thing nearly made him buckle, but

Owen managed and they set it on the desk. “There must be

a lot of gold in there.”

“There is,” Benny said. “Randolph wasn’t known to spend

money if there was a way to get something for free. I

believe this money goes al the way back to when he was

fresh out of school and working his first job.”

Owen set his hands on his hips. “That’s dedication.”

“A lot of good it did him,” Benny said. “Al the gold he had

didn’t save his life that night.”

The sheriff sighed. “A real shame, too. He was a decent

fel ow.”

Benny turned the combination. “You going to catch Lou

Benny turned the combination. “You going to catch Lou

Edwards so my brother’s soul can rest in peace?”

“We’l do our best,” the sheriff replied.

“I want you to do better than that.”

“Unfortunately, it’s al I can promise.”

Benny grunted but opened the door to the safe. Owen

waited for him to verify the contents in it, but Benny looked

between him and the sheriff as if he couldn’t believe his

eyes. “I hope this is some kind of joke.”

Frowning, the sheriff and Owen stepped over to Benny to

see what was inside the safe. Owen’s jaw dropped.

“Bricks?”

“Yes, bricks,” Benny sourly stated and slammed the door

shut. “It looks like Harvey had a sense of humor. Too bad

he can’t come back to die again.”

“The scoundrel knew the combination,” the sheriff said,

scratching the back of his head.

“But why go through the trouble of burying the safe?” Owen

asked.

“To throw someone off the trail,” the sheriff replied. “Maybe

he never intended to share the contents with his brother.”

Owen shook his head. “Wel , it wouldn’t be the first time one

man did that to another. I’m just surprised he bothered to

bury it.” After a moment, he asked, “Do you think he’d leave

clues to lead Lou to the safe?”

“If they were in on it together, he’d have to if he didn’t want

to arouse Lou’s suspicions.”

After a tense moment passed, Owen went to the hook near

the door and grabbed his hat and coat. “I need to talk to

Joel.”

Sheriff Meyer nodded.

“Now look,” Benny told the sheriff, “I don’t want Lou getting

his grubby hands on the gold and bolting out of town. I want

you to do whatever it takes to catch him.”

“We’l try, Benny,” the sheriff said.

Owen checked his gun before he put it back into the holster

of his belt. “Maybe I can find some clues out there. Since

we’re looking for gold coins, possible hiding places have

just gotten a lot smal er.”

“Sounds good,” the sheriff said as Owen headed out the

door.

***

bedroom after supper. He got al the supplies ready and

laid out. He went ahead and painted the inside of the

closet, figuring it was a light enough task to do. When he

closet, figuring it was a light enough task to do. When he

was done, he looked at the wal s. His brothers did a good

job, and Richard had worked on the window frame and took

care of the draft coming in through the bottom of the

window, so the room was now a good place for a little girl

to rest at night. As soon as the light green paint went on the

wal s, it’d look like a new room. He stood back and took in

the smal space and sighed in satisfaction. Things were

progressing along nicely.

He went down to the kitchen where Nora sat in her

highchair, pretending to feed her dol while April stirred the

large pot on the cook stove. On the worktable were the

makings of some sandwiches. Ignoring his growling

stomach, Joel went over to April and asked, “Did Sep

come in yet?”

She shook her head and placed her ladle down on the

worktable. “No. I hope nothing’s wrong with one of the

animals.”

“I’m going to check on him. We’l be in soon.”

Turning her attention to the sandwiches, she nodded. “I’l be

done in ten minutes.”

He put his coat, hat and boots on and opened the door.

When he realized how quickly it was getting dark, he

decided to go back and light the lantern. Holding the

lantern, he left the house and made his way across the

snow. The area was littered with footprints from where his

brothers and their horses had tread on the property, and

some wel -trodden areas were muddy so he stepped

around those.

He made it to the barn and slipped through the partial y

open door. “Sep, do you need help?”

The place was dark, which made him frown. There was a

lantern out here. Sep knew better than to do his chores in

the dark. Something was wrong.

“Sep, are you alright?” he cal ed out, scanning the barn.

Too many shadows made it hard to pick out anything that

was amiss. He held the lantern up and stepped forward,

listening to anything that might clue him into what was

wrong. The cow in its stal seemed content enough so he

looked at the rooster and hens. Nothing unusual there

either. One of the three horses neighed and shifted in

irritation, bringing his attention to the left corner of the barn

which was hidden in the shadows.

Taking a deep breath, he examined the area and saw

something move. His gaze fel to the rake Sep used the

other day to clean out the stal s and he grabbed it. Setting

the lantern down, he gripped the rake in his hands and

crept forward. Whoever it was could see him, but he

needed to be careful in case he jumped out at him. When

he reached the corner, he held the rake up, ready to attack.

Then his eyes met the eyes of a scared Sep whose mouth

was bound with a gag. It only took Joel a second to realize

Sep’s hands were tied behind his back and his ankles

were tied to the legs of the stool he sat on. Sep nodded to

indicate that someone was behind Joel. Spinning around,

Joel got ready to take the offense when he realized a man

stood before him with a Colt .45 pointed right at him.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Joel’s gaze went from the gun back up to the man’s grimy

face. If he guessed right, this was Lou. “What do you want?”

“The gold,” he replied.

“What gold?”

“Nice try, but you know what gold I’m talking about.”

Joel glanced back at the gun before making eye contact

with Lou. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s

clear to me you know that I know what I’m talking about.”

Lou snickered. “Funny. Trying to distract me, huh? I didn’t

know you were so witty in the times I’ve heard you talk to

the boy and that woman in there. Al this time, I thought you

were al business.”

He struggled not to show any reaction. Lou was either

tel ing the truth—which meant he’d been spying on them—

or was bluffing, but by the stone look on his face, Joel

couldn’t tel which one it was. Unfortunately, he and Sep had

made enough tracks in the snow, so it was hard to tel one

set of footprints from another.

“I saw you al and the three men head on out here earlier

with a safe. That safe belongs to me. I did my part and

helped Harvey get it.”

Joel shrugged. “In that case, you knew where it was the

whole time. Why didn’t you just take it?”

Lou growled and rubbed the trigger on his gun.

“Let the boy go,” Joel said, deciding it wouldn’t be wise to

tempt fate.

“I don’t think so.”

“Oh come on. He has nothing to do with this.”

“He’s the reason you’re going to cooperate with me.”

“Seems to me that your gun should be a good enough

reason.” Giving a purposeful scan of Lou’s body, he

shrugged. “That is, unless you’re not capable with a gun.”

Before Joel had time to blink, Lou fired a bul et at Sep and

then pointed the gun back at Joel. Joel glanced at Sep who

gave out a muffled cry and tried to wiggle away from Lou’s

viewing range.

“Consider that a thank you for when you shot me,” Lou

cal ed out to Sep. Turning his attention back to Joel, he

said, “Next time I won’t go for his arm. So, are you going to

take me to the gold or not?”

Stepping to the side so that he blocked Lou’s view of Sep,

Joel said, “I can’t. The safe is at the jailhouse.”

“Do you take me for a fool?”

“No. I’m just stating a fact. We found the safe and lugged it

to town. If you were watching us, you know this. No one

opened it up.”

Lou chuckled and slipped his free hand into the pocket of

his coat. “While that’s true, I know the kind of man my

brother was. He wouldn’t leave the gold in there. He’d take

it out and hide it somewhere. Then he’d bury the safe to

throw his enemies off track. So, since he’s done and got

himself kil ed before he met up with me in Ontario, the gold

is somewhere on this property.”

Joel shook his head. “I’ve looked al over that house.

There’s no gold in there.”

“Oh? You were looking for it?”

“I was looking for a safe. I didn’t find one, and while I was

looking for the safe, I didn’t see any gold.”

“It’s not out here. I checked this whole barn.”

Joel sighed. “Then doesn’t it stand to reason that it’s stil in

the safe? Maybe your brother didn’t know the combination.”

“Oh, he knew it alright. I got it out of Randolph before I kil ed

him.” He snickered. “Harvey thought he got him, but Harvey

was a lousy aim. I knew he wouldn’t get the job done, so I

kept myself out of sight and shot when Harvey did.”

“If you got the combination, then why didn’t you open the

safe when you both stole it?”

“I ask myself the same thing every day. In my naivety, I

assumed Harvey wouldn’t be dumb enough to go to the

saloon where Randolph’s uncle frequented.”

Joel glanced back at Sep who squeezed his eyes shut tight

in pain and wiggled on the stool. Blood soaked through the

sleeve of his coat, and though Joel knew the wound wasn’t

fatal, he knew it had to hurt something awful. “Look, Sep’s

hurt. You made your point. Let him go to the house so his

sister can tend to him.”

“Not until I get that gold. You give me the gold, and I’l let the

boy live.”

A movement from the doorway of the barn caught Joel’s

attention, and for a moment, he feared it was April coming

to check on him and Sep, but then he realized the figure

was male. It was hard to tel if this man was working with

Lou or not, so he hesitated to react.

“What’s it going to be?” Lou demanded, his tone sharp.

“How much is the boy worth to you?”

“I’m tel ing you, I don’t know where the gold is or if it’s out of

the safe,” Joel said, his gaze flickering to the man in the

shadows who held a gun.

Lou’s eyes met Joel’s and then he spun around, firing his

gun. The man ducked, and Joel took the opportunity to

whack Lou in the back of the head with the rake. Lou

stumbled to the ground, so Joel threw the rake down and

jumped on him. Lou grunted and elbowed Joel in the gut.

Joel gasped but continued reaching for the gun in Lou’s

hand. Lou’s grip on the gun remained firm while he rol ed

over, pinning Joel beneath him. Grabbing for Lou’s wrist,

Joel tried to steady Lou’s hand so he couldn’t shoot him or

Sep. Lou fired the gun, but Joel couldn’t tel where the bul et

went. Lou grunted and rol ed over again, making an attempt

to kick Joel away from him.

Just as Joel felt his grasp slipping from Lou’s wrist, the

click of a gun settled right by Lou’s forehead. “Now hold it