Soul Catcher (55 page)

^{Perturbed, the man shoved the rest of a pig's foot into his mouth, got a label-less bottle from behind the bar, and came over and poured Cain a drink in a filthy glass.}

^{"Two bits," he said by way of greeting.}

^{"Any place I could get a room?" Cain said.}

^{"There's Tanney's boardinghouse over on Church. You want anything to eat?"}

^{"What do you have?"}

^{"Pig's feet," the man replied.}

^{Cain shook his head. "You wouldn't happen to have seen a small crookback fellow come through here?"}

^{"We get a lot of folks passing through on the pike."}

^{Cain shook his head. "He'd have been driving a big black caravan. If you'd seen him, you wouldn't forget."}

^{The man shrugged, went back to his eating. He seemed to eat more out of obligation than hunger, the way a body took medicine.}

^{Cain downed his whiskey and started to leave. It was then that the old loafer at the end of the bar called over to him.}

^{"Fellow calls himself Dr. Chimpanzee?" the man said with a snort.}

^{"Something like that."}

^{"His wagon was over near the railroad depot. He was peddling his cures."}

^{"He still there?"}

^{"That I couldn't tell you. Just a half mile past where you're headed."}

^{"Much obliged, friend," Cain said. He left money on the bar to buy the old man a drink and headed out into the street.}

^{He and Rosetta found the railroad depot easily enough. Nailed to a bulletin board near the entrance, a large handbill advertised: come see dr. delacroix's world-famous indian medicine show. Below was a list of all the maladies that Dr. Delacroix's various tonics and balms and ointments were guaranteed to cure. In a vacant lot just behind the depot, Cain spotted the familiar black caravan. The traces were, of course, empty, and when Cain knocked on the small back door, there was no sign of Dr. Chimbarazo within.}

^{"Now what?" Rosetta asked him.}

^{"I'll find him."}

^{First, though, as daylight was rapidly fading, he decided he'd better find a room. They rode back to Church Street where he located the boardinghouse named Tanney's. As they dismounted, a wide-hipped, red-haired woman came strolling out onto the front porch. She carried a bucket of slops, which she tossed into the alley on the side of the building.}

^{"What can I do for ye?" she asked with a heavy brogue. Her low bodice exposed a sizable portion of large, wrinkly bosom, and from beneath her jaw hung fleshy pink wattles. By the lantern light on the porch, Cain saw that she had comely green eyes and might have been pretty in her day, but that day was so long gone that it was hard to tell. He asked if she had a room.}

^{"Aye. Dollar a night. Another two bits if you'll be wanting food," the woman said. She glanced at Rosetta. "And what of your nigger? There's the barn out back."}

^{"I was hoping for a room for her?"}

^{"Huh! I run a respectable place," she said, offended. "There's the Hampton Hotel. They take in blacks."}

^{He wasn't about to lose sight of her again. From his vest pocket he took out a silver half eagle and handed the coin to her, an amount equivalent to five times what the room cost.}

^{Raising her eyebrows, she looked at the coin, then at Rosetta, weighing her conscience against the money. "'Course, a gentleman needs his diversions," she said, smiling lewdly, showing several missing teeth. "Bring her round back, though. But mind ye, 'tis between us."}

^{"Could she have a bath?"}

^{"So it's a bath she'll be wantin' now," she scoffed, giving Rosetta a sneering look. "If it got out I had a black nigger in the tub, they'd never set foot in it again."}

^{Cain took out another coin and handed it to her.}

^{"I'll find some soap and a basin for her."}

^{In the room, he told Rosetta, "You wait for me here. I want your word you won't try to run again."}

^{"My word?" she said, raising her eyebrows.}

^{"Yes. Promise me."}

^{"You are the most contrary man I ever did meet, Cain," she said. But finally she agreed not to run.}

^{"Lock the door and don't let anyone in except for me. Understand."}

^{"When you comin' back?" she asked.}

^{"Just sit tight."}

^{Then he headed for the door.}

^{"Cain," she said, her voice insistent.}

^{He turned toward her. She took two steps and stopped, her hands out in front of her, the way a person would walk in the dark, fearful of falling. He noted, too, something in her eyes, something he could not quite decipher. Fear for herself? Concern for his welfare? Then he thought, What if something were to happen to him, say somehow he was connected to the killing of those men, and he was arrested. What would become of her?}

^{"You comin' back, ain't ya, Cain?" she asked, as if reading his thoughts.}

^{"If I'm not back by morning, you go over to the livery we passed earlier."}

^{"What are you talkin' about?"}

^{"I'm just saying in case something were to happen to me."}

^{"What's gonna happen to you?"}

^{"I'm just saying if something did. The horses will be there. Take the mare. She's sound, has a smooth gait. Won't give you any trouble. Sell the bay for whatever you can get. Like I told you already, head due north, but stay off the main roads."}

^"Cain?"

^{"But I'll be back."}

^{"You'd better."}

^{As he shut the door, he heard her cry out, "You be careful, Cain."}

^{Riding over to the livery, he thought that there was nothing stopping her from bolting. Then again, she could have done that anytime while he was sick. Once more, he wondered why she hadn't. She'd said it was because she couldn't just leave him to die. And yet, she'd nearly killed him herself. He couldn't make sense of her. She was, he felt, a most peculiar creature. In fact, he'd never encountered a slave like her. He'd never encountered
anyone
like her. Sounding in the back of his head were Maddy's words:
That girl done gave you back your life.
She'd saved his life not once but twice already. In some ways he wished she hadn't, that she'd left him to die. It would have been simpler that way. Now he felt obligated, felt he was in her debt, and he didn't like being in anyone's debt. Not hers or Eberly's or anyone else's for that matter. He half hoped that when he returned, she'd have slipped away. Then he wouldn't have to decide what to do. He'd made up his mind about one thing at least: if she ran, he wouldn't go after her. No matter what happened, he wouldn't hunt her down again. He was through hunting down runaways.}

^{But there was something else, too, that troubled him, something that went back to the night he thought he was going to die. Not about Rosetta the runaway slave, but about Rosetta the woman. When he felt certain he was about to die, he'd permitted himself to entertain the notion, but he hadn't died, and now he was thinking it again. He recalled the look in her eyes up in the room, and he thought, too, of how her body had felt against his when he was feverish, how she'd warmed him that night and kept him from dying. Though he didn't want to admit it, there was something more than obligation at work here. It wasn't something he could deny any longer.}

^{By now it was fully dark, the sky peppered with stars. The street- lamps along the main street had been lit and the smell of coal oil was heavy in the air. He found the livery owner tossing hay into the stalls. He told the man, a thickset fellow with bushy gray side-whiskers, that he wanted the horses fed and curried, and that he thought the mare had a loose shoe. He'd heard it clinking as the day went on. He told him that his servant girl might be coming by in the morning to fetch his horses for him, and the man was to let her have them, no questions asked. Cain paid him in advance. As he was about to leave, he heard a familiar sound coming from somewhere in the back of the barn. He walked along, looking into the darkened stalls. In the last but one, he spotted a large horse with a blaze face looking out at him. Even in the dark, he could tell it was Hermes. On spotting him, the horse came right up and pushed his muzzle forcibly against Cain's shoulder.}

^{"Hey, boy," he said, overjoyed at his good fortune. Hermes's long tongue ferreted around in his coat pocket, searching for sugar.}

^{Cain walked back over to the livery owner.}

^{"Where did you get the chestnut stallion?"}

^{"A fellow is boarding him."}

^{"About so big?" Cain asked, holding his hand out waist-high.}

^{"That be him."}

^{Cain mulled over his options. He could tell the man the plain truth, that the horse had been stolen, that it belonged to him. But then again, in the world in which he operated, he knew the plain truth was often as slippery as an eel, and as likely to bite you. He didn't have a bill of sale, a shred of proof that the horse was indeed his. Who's to say that the livery owner would take his word over that of the crookback. Or he could simply stick his gun in the man's face and just take the horse, then and there. That would be the simplest thing to do. But of course they'd get up a posse and come after him. He thought of how ironic it would be if he got hung for stealing his own damn horse. No, he'd have to come up with a better plan.}

^{"Where's the owner?" Cain asked.}

^{"He's staying over at the Hampton."}

^{Cain inquired directions to the place, which turned out to be across town. Before he left the livery, he went back to the stall where Hermes was. He scratched the horse along his muzzle. "Don't you worry. I'll be back for you," Cain promised.}

^{Then he made his way to the Hampton on foot. The squarish, wood-sided building was three stories high with a mansard roof and a porch out front. Before he went in, he checked his Colt as well as the Tranter he kept in his boot. He wasn't sure what he'd do when he found the crookback, figuring he would make it up as he went along.}

^{Inside, he went up to the front desk, behind which a gray-haired Negro wearing a tie and waistcoat sat reading a newspaper.}

^{"I'm looking for a man," Cain said. "He's about so high. Has a hump on his back."}

^{The old man looked up from his paper, eyeing Cain suspiciously. "What's your business with him?"}

^{"I need to talk to him."}

^{"Ain't seen him."}

^{"I owe him some money," Cain lied. "He's expecting me."}

^{The man's expression changed immediately. "In that case, last door on your right," the Negro said, flicking his thumb in that direction. "Make sure you knock first."}

^{Cain walked down the hall and knocked on the last door on the right. It was opened a crack by a bull-necked Negro with a scar that started on his forehead at the hairline and angled down over one gray, sightless eye.}

^{"What you be wanting, mister?" he asked.}