Sins of the Father (2 page)

Steele knew that as soon as the message found Frank Reedy, Reedy would drop whatever he was doing and head to Timber to help. He just hoped that it wouldn’t be too late.

W
INTERS AND
J
ERAMIAH
Paxton arrived back at the Double ‘M’ with Harlen Woolsey’s body draped over his horse. They dismounted and handed the reins of Woolsey’s horse to one of the other hired guns. “Here, go and bury him out back by the others,” said Paxton. Sheriff Steele had already killed three men so far and they were buried out on a hillside behind Madden’s large house. Harlan Woolsey would be the fourth. Winters and Paxton went inside to talk to Rance, which was something they were not looking forward to. They knew their boss would be in an unusually foul mood over losing Woolsey. They found Madden sitting at the large dining table and the look on his face told them that he had seen the dead body already.

Madden looked up at them with a disappointed look. “I thought you two said Woolsey was the best. I guess you were wrong about that.”

Paxton and Winters sat down after pouring themselves a cup of hot coffee. Paxton was the first to speak. “Well, boss, we said he was
one
of the best.”

“Oh, and that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“I know you’re upset but we can get another fast gun. Hell, there are plenty of them out there.”
Winters broke in. “Boss, I know of another man we could send for. Actually, he works with a partner most of the time and I bet you could hire them both. They are both fast, and meaner than a basket of snakes.”
“All right, tell me who they are and where they might be. I’ll send for them both.”
“They won’t be cheap. You’ll have to pay more than you did for Harlen.”
“Well, Harlen obviously wasn’t a good investment. I don’t care what it costs; I need Sheriff Steele dead before I can run off Henry Thornton.”
Paxton spoke again. “We have a message from Sheriff Steele for you about Thornton.”
“What message?”
“The sheriff has set a meeting up between you and Henry Thornton for Wednesday at Jed’s Saloon.”
“Screw Sheriff Steele! I’m not going to any meeting with Thornton.”
“The sheriff said whoever didn’t show up at the meeting would be held responsible for this whole matter. If you don’t go, he will side with Thornton and you know that Thornton will go to the meeting. He would love to have Steele on his side in this thing.”
Madden shook his head in disgust. “That sheriff is beginning to be a huge pain in my ass. He keeps killing my men and now he’s going to try to force an agreement between me and Thornton. I guess I’ll have to go to the meeting, but the only thing I’m going to agree on is that Thornton sells out to me. Now, who are these two men you mentioned?”
Winters finished his coffee and sat his cup down on the table. “Quentin Unger and Gregory Timmons. Last I heard, they were up in Wichita. You want me to send for them?”
“Hell yes, and the sooner the better. I want the two of you to go into town right now and send a message to them. Tell them what the job is and that they will be compensated very well for it. Tell them I will pay each one of them one thousand dollars if either of them kills Steele.”
Paxton and Winters both stood up and started for the door. “I’ll bet that will get them here sooner than later,” replied Paxton. “That’s a lot of money.”
“I just hope they are as good as you say they are.”
“Oh, they are, I can promise you that either of them are twice as fast as Harlen was,” replied Winters.
Paxton and Winters mounted up and headed into town to the telegraph office to send the message to Unger and Timmons. Rance Madden watched them until they were out of sight. He thought about the meeting on Wednesday and a hateful look came over his face. “I’ll have something to tell the sheriff at the meeting, that’s for sure,” he said to no one but himself.
Sheriff Steele woke up to a gloomy Wednesday morning. The sky was heavy with dark clouds and he could smell rain in the air. He walked briskly through the damp cool air over to the only saloon in town where he knew Pattie was cooking up breakfast. He sat down at a table and watched the bartender, Jed, rearrange some bottles behind the bar. There were only a few men in the saloon and they were concentrating on their plates of food as if they were on a mission.
Pattie Nate came through the door from the kitchen with two more plates of food and sat them down at a table where a man sat alone. He began shoving food into his mouth before she let go of the plates. She had smiled at Steele as she walked past him and now she sat down at the table with him.
“Well, Sheriff Mark Steele, how is this day starting out for you?”
“No better than the last several days have gone. I have a meeting set up with Madden and Thornton this afternoon and I’m not looking forward to it one bit.”
“I guess not. Those two men are going to ruin this town before their feud is over with.”
“I’m not going to let that happen.”
“How are you going to stop it? Between the two of them, they have a small army. Every time one of them hires another gunman, the other goes out and hires two more. You can’t handle this with the few deputies you have and no one else will let you pin a badge on them. You’re lucky to still be alive.”
“I sent for some help a few days ago.”
“I’m glad to see you finally got some sense. Who did you send for?”
“My old pal, Frank Reedy, and I told him to bring some help.”
“I thought he was in the bounty hunting business.”
“He was, but he done got himself a U.S. marshal’s badge. I guess that whole thing between him, Spicer, and that Williams kid soured him and he decided to get back into the law business.”
“That’s who you should send for.”
“That’s what I just said.”
“No, I’m not talking about Frank Reedy; I’m talking about that nice young man, Jess Williams.”
Steele shook his head. “No, that boy has had to face some tough things for a young man of his age. You know, he finally found his brother.”
“And what happened?”
“He killed him and then he forced Nevada Jackson’s brother, Randolph, into a gunfight and killed him, too. Hell, I guess it ain’t his fault but he is a man-killer of a different sort from what I have ever seen in my entire life. If I called him here he would probably go and just shoot Madden and Thornton and get it over with.”
“Maybe that’s exactly what needs to happen.”
“Pattie, I’m a lawman and I believe in the law and I have to abide by its rules.”
“Even if it gets you killed?”
“Yes, now go and fetch me some of what you gave those other men. It sure looks and smells awfully good.”
“It’s always good, and you should think some more about what I said.”
Sheriff Steele shook his head again and Pattie headed back into the kitchen to get him some breakfast. He thought about what she had said but he withdrew the idea from his head.
I’m trying to stop a war, not start one,
he thought to himself. Pattie brought the food out and he began to eat.

uentin Unger and Gregory Timmons were locked in a hot game of poker with several other men in a saloon in Wichita, called Jake’s Place. Unger was winning and Timmons was losing. A

“What the hell you want, boy?” Unger demanded. The boy said nothing but simply handed the message to Unger and ran off. Unger unfolded it and read it. A smile came to his lips. He looked over at his partner Timmons who was now getting curious. “What does it say?” Timmons asked.
“It seems we have a paying job if we want to ride

on down to Timber, Texas,” replied Unger.
“What kind of job?”
“It looks like we’re being hired to kill a sheriff.” Timmons smiled. “Well, as long as we get paid a

“It says here that we will each be paid the sum of one thousand dollars no matter which one of us kills the sheriff.”

“One thousand dollars? Well, that is a lot of money for one man, even if he is a sheriff. When do we leave, partner?”

“I’d say first thing in the morning. Why don’t you stay here and try to win some of your money back while I go over to the supply store and provision us up for the ride. I’ll send a message back to this Mr. Madden and tell him that we will take the job.”

“That sounds good to me, partner. Let’s meet back here for supper tonight and unless I win some of my money back, you’re buying.”

Unger smirked at Timmons. “Some things never change.”
Quentin Unger headed for the Mercantile to get the supplies they would need for their ride to Timber, Texas. Unger was usually a cool-headed man but he also had a mean temper just below the surface and if you riled him, he could instantly turn dark and ugly. He had killed his first man when he was seventeen. The man was drunk and insulting everyone in the saloon they were in and eventually he got around to insulting Quentin who was minding his own business. Unger ignored the first insult and the man hurled another insult at Unger and that’s when Quentin Unger’s temper flared up and he invited the man out to the street and he shot the man straight through the chest. Unger’s temper was so bad; he actually went over to the dead man and began kicking his dead body in the street until a few men pulled him away. Unger finally cooled down and went back into the saloon. He had killed quite a few men since that day and he would hire out his gun to anyone who paid the most money. He didn’t have any conscience and thought nothing of shooting a man in the front or the back. He finished packing up the supplies at the livery and headed back to the saloon to have dinner with his partner, Timmons.
Gregory Timmons had won all of his money back along with some more. He had a big smile on his face when Quentin Unger walked back into the saloon. “Hey, partner, l guess supper is on me tonight since I won some money since you’ve been gone.”
“About damn time,” replied Unger.
They moved to another table and ordered two huge steaks with potatoes and carrots. “I think our luck might be changing for the better,” said Timmons. “I finally won some money and we have a job that will pay quite handsomely, and all in one day.”
“Yeah, well, don’t get too excited. You’ll probably lose your money in the next card game and we can’t be certain about this job, either. We won’t know until we get to Timber and meet up with this Rance Madden fellow.”
“Hell, you always try to take all the fun out of things, partner.”
“And you take things a little too lightly,” replied Unger. “Let’s turn in early tonight and get an early start in the morning.”
Timmons nodded in agreement and they finished their meals in silence. They turned in and rode out of town just as soon as it was light enough to see.

ESS RODE OUT OF
K
ERN
, T
EXAS
at daylight with a fresh load of supplies. It would be a long ride up to Abilene, Kansas and he knew the nights would get colder as he went north since it was early spring. He had purchased an extra blanket for warmth before leaving Kern. He always enjoyed being out on the open range. He didn’t mind staying in towns and

getting a hot bath once in a while, but he felt more at home on the trail. He had become quite an expert shot with the Sharps rifle over the last few years. It was high noon and the sun was shining through a slight hint of high thin clouds. There was a silence that felt comfortable to Jess. He was coming to the top of a hill when the silence was broken by the sound of gunshots. He prodded Gray and stopped just below the top of the hill. He ground-reined Gray knowing he would not move even in the presence of gunfire. He grabbed his telescope and climbed to the top of the ridge and placed himself on the ground between two rocks.

He did not like what he saw. There was a lone wagon at the bottom of the hillside and it was angled so that he could see inside the back of the tent covering. He saw a man, a young boy and a woman firing rifles up at the top of the opposite hillside. Jess looked up to the top of the opposite hillside and he spotted three men, one by one. They were spread apart by about fifteen feet each and they were firing rifles down at the wagon. They had already killed both of the horses who had been pulling the wagon so the people inside were helplessly trapped. The people inside had only the wood sides of the wagon and a few boxes of supplies that they had piled up on that side of the wagon to protect themselves and they were at a bad angle for the rifle fire coming from the top of the hill.

Jess had looked at each man and figured them for robbers or worse. Jess didn’t know for sure about the facts of what was taking place but he knew for sure that any men firing on a woman and a young boy were bad men and needed to be dealt with. Then he saw her. A young girl about the same age as his sister Samantha was when she was raped and killed. Jess knew what he had to do.

He immediately went into action. He grabbed the Sharps, the forked stick and a leather pouch that he had made to carry the rounds for the Sharps. The pouch had an extra long flap so Jess could set rounds on the flap and keep them out of the dirt. He also grabbed his Winchester. Jess checked for wind and there was only a slight breeze going left to right. He sighted in on his first target. He was an older looking man with a beard and wearing a red bandana. Jess figured the distance to be about three hundred yards. He aimed a little high and to the left of the man. The Sharps barked loudly creating echoes around the hillsides and a second later, the man on the other hillside slumped over and rolled down the hill.

All the shooting stopped for a few seconds. Everyone was trying to find out where this new firing was coming from. Jess had counted on that and he used it to his advantage. He took careful aim and hit the second man, a younger man who looked to be about in his twenties. The younger man flew back and landed solidly, the 50-caliber bullet had blown most of his brains out of the back of his head. The third man now had located Jess and started firing at Jess’ location but the family in the wagon peppered him with so many rounds that he ran off behind the hillside before Jess could get off another shot. Jess knew exactly what he had to do.