Sudden--Troubleshooter (A Sudden Western) #5 (20 page)

‘Jim told me Lafe was
ridin’ up here to see me, accordin’ to young Gunnison,
there.’

‘That’s what he told me,
Harris!’ came Randy Gunnison’s spiteful voice.

‘Wal, he never arrove,’
said Jake finally. ‘There’s plenty o’ men here to back what I
say.’

Appleby nodded. ‘Never
thought he did,’ he said. ‘I figger he got no further than where we
found the blood. My guess is he ran into someone who mebbe argued
with him about somethin’. There was a fight; Lafe got a shot in
afore the killer dropped him.'

‘Who would’a’ wanted to
kill Gunnison?’ asked Harris. ‘I swear!’

‘Don’t make any difference
what you swear, Harris,’ cut in Randy Gunnison. ‘You could deny it
on a Bible, but everyone in this valley knows you would have been
glad to see my father dead, and so would your nester
friends!’

Appleby half turned in his saddle.

‘Watch yore lip, Randy!’ he
said, an edge in his voice. The rancher’s son bit his lip and
relapsed into sullen silence. The Marshal turned again to face
Harris.

‘Jake, things look bad up
here. I know I upset yore gal the last time I was here, but right
now I got a job to do, an’ I got to tell yu: things look bad for
yu.’

‘For me? What do yu mean,
for me?’ roared the old man. ‘I ain’t seen Gunnison in a coon’s
age!’

‘Can yu account for yore
friends between, say, nine an’ eleven yestiddy mornin’?’ He saw the
old man’s mouth set in a thin line, and held up a hand, Indian
peace-sign fashion. ‘Jake, don’t get sore. I’m on’y askin’ what I
got to ask.’

His voice was reasonable,
and the old homesteader nodded.

I suppose yo’re right,’ he
growled. ‘Well, let me see. I was in the house all mornin’. Susie
an’ the boy could tell yu that.’

‘By the same token, that
lets them out,’ nodded Appleby. ‘Go on.’

‘Alex an’ Terry was over at
the Lazy K, feedin’ the stock. They left about mid-mornin’ – mebbe
eleven.’

‘Times don’t fit,’ Appleby
encouraged him. ‘That lets them out. Gunnison was killed up near
the trail to Yavapai.’

‘Alex’s boys is over on
their own range. I misdoubt they went huntin’ a man they didn’t
know was comin’ here.’

Appleby nodded, his eyes
resting on the lounging figure behind Harris. ‘An’ yore man
Green?’

‘I was on my way into
town,’ Green answered quietly.

A mutter issued from the
possemen. Green’s answer
placed him
squarely in the area in which Gunnison had been murdered, and at
approximately the right time.

‘So yu could’ve met
Gunnison up in the Mesquites?’

‘I could’ve. But I didn’t.
I didn’t even set eyes on Gunnison,’ Sudden told
Appleby.

‘Hell, you could’a’ done,’
interrupted one of the posse-men. ‘Seems mighty strange yore ridin’
into town an’ takin’ on that Cameron
hombre
the same day Gunnison is
killed,’ added another.

An unholy gleam of triumph
lit Appleby’s eyes. One of the townsmen, quite unwittingly, had
given him the lead he needed, the key with which he could turn the
lock of the resistance of the homesteaders. He managed to suppress
his exulting feelings and asked Sudden, ‘What time yu get to town
yestiddy?’

‘Aroun’ two,’ replied the
puncher laconically. His mind was not idle; he was well aware of
what the lawman was leading up to, and he thanked his stars that he
had taken the precautionary steps that he already had.

‘An yu left
here…?’

‘Around eight.’

‘What took yu so long?’
pounced Appleby. ‘It’s on’y about three hours to town.’

‘I made a detour,’
explained Sudden. ‘Took a look at the Johnstone an’ Newley spreads
to make shore things was okay over there.’

‘Anyone see yu?’ demanded
one of the posse.

Sudden shook his head.

‘So we on’y got yore word
for it,’ gloated Appleby. ‘At least an hour, mebbe two, missin’.
Plenty o’ time to have met Gunnison an’ killed him.’

‘Now hold on there, Tom,’
protested Harris. ‘Jim here had no reason to kill Lafe
Gunnison!’

‘I can give yu one,’ hissed
the Marshal. ‘Randy had a sneakin’ suspicion that Lafe brought this
Cameron feller into Yavapai to drive yu an’ yore neighbors out o’
the Mesquites. I’m bettin’ we’ll find somethin’ to prove it,
too.’

‘No bet,’ said Sudden
coldly. ‘I’d guess it was goin’ to be a shore thing.’ His sardonic
words brought Appleby’s head around, and the venom was plain for
all to see now.

‘So: here’s how it probably
happened. Mr. Green here meets up with Gunnison. Gunnison an’ him
argue. Mebbe he accuses Gunnison o’ hirin’ Cameron to kill
Johnstone an’ Newley. Mebbe Lafe goes for his gun. An’ this jasper
kills him. Then he figgers he’ll finish the whole job an’ go into
Yavapai an’ pick a fight with Cameron.’

‘He shorely done just
that,’ enjoined one of the posse, a big bearded man who had been in
Tyler’s saloon when Cameron had been killed. ‘I seen the whole
thing.’

‘So, havin’ mebbe got Lafe
to admit he hired Cameron, this jasper here beats seven different
kinds o’ sugar out o’ Cameron, but Cameron damn’ near beefs him
instead. I got there just
in
time to stop Cameron doin’ murder, not knowin’
who’s involved. It’s on’y after Cameron’s dead I find out. Jake –
yu know who this jasper is?’

‘Shore, he’s Jim Green,’
Harris replied.

‘Jim Green, Jim Green,’
jeered Appleby. ‘This
hombre’s
wanted for murder in Texas! He’s got another name
down there, ain’t yu, Green? Or should I say “Sudden”?’

An astonished oath burst
from the lips of one of Harris’s neighbors inside. Kitson and
Taylor came to the window to look, as if for the first time, at the
smiling, quietly spoken man who was now revealed as the notorious
Sudden.

‘Hell, I knowed that!’
laughed Harris, enjoying the consternation on the Marshal’s face as
he said it. ‘He told me when I first hired him.’

Appleby regained his
composure and his face was serious when he said, ‘Jake, are yu
tellin’ me that yu knowingly hired a killer?’ The expressions of
his posse had turned grim and several of them were nodding
significantly at each other. Too late, Harris realized how his
words could be construed, but he was too proud to retract. He
glared at the possemen defiantly, as the Marshal went on
inexorably.

‘Jake, an unkind man might
figger yu’d hired this killer to do some dirty work for yu. He
might even figger yu’d cut down Gunnison to make it easy to run a
sandy over this valley, with someone like Mr. Sudden to do yore
gunnin’.’

‘An unkind man might get
his teeth knocked in if it wasn’t for the fact that my daughter’s
standing inside the house,’ Harris told the lawman coldly. ‘Yu
better take them words back, Marshal.’

‘Hell, I on’y said what
some might say,’ Appleby protested, his hands spread wide. ‘I ain’t
sayin’ that’s what yu done!’

‘Well, I knowed about Jim,
an’ I’m sayin’ here an’ now I don’t believe half of what they say
about Sudden is true.’

‘That’s as might be,’ said
Appleby pursing his lips. ‘It ain’t my decision. Green, I’m goin’
to have to take yu in. Even if yu ain’t the one killed Gunnison,
yo’re wanted by the Sheriff o’ Fourways in Texas.’

Randy Gunnison spurred his horse
forward.

‘I reckon Yavapai’s got the
prior claim,’ he shrilled. ‘This – this scum will stand trial for
murderin’ my father!’

A rumble of agreement came from the riders
massed behind the Marshal, and one or two of them even started
forward towards Sudden. Appleby held up a hand to stop them.

‘Yu better make no fuss,
Green,’ he told the indolent figure still leaning against the
door-frame as though he had no part or interest in the events
occurring before him. Sudden smiled and stood upright. His hands
hung negligently near his tied-down guns, and his voice was
deceptively mild as he spoke.

‘I reckon I could drop yu
an’ mebbe six more afore yu got me,’ he said. A jeering note
entered his voice, and he half crouched, his eyes narrow, his very
figure charged with menace. Randy Gunnison backed his horse away,
and several of the possemen, who had already seen the incredible
speed of this man’s draw, knew that he was making no idle boast.
Appleby, however, was unperturbed.

‘Yo’re probably right,’ he
told Sudden. ‘On’y yu better think about what would happen to the
kid in there – an’ the girl – if yu open the ball.’ He waited for
these telling words to have their effect. Sudden straightened and
the tenseness left his body. He could not take the risk.

‘Yore trick, Marshal,’ he
said. ‘But the game ain’t over.’

Appleby’s smile was
malevolent. ‘Yo’re right,’ he agreed. ‘See if yu can win it on
bluff.’

‘Tom,’ protested Harris,
‘this is a damfool thing. Yu can’t prove such a cock an’ bull story
in court!’

‘I got a man who had the
time, the opportunity, and the reason. Show me anyone else who fits
the bill an’ I’ll go an’ talk to him. Until then, yu better hold
yore tongue. I ain’t shore but what yu ain’t deeper in this than yu
say, Jake. I’m givin’ yu the benefit o’ considerable
doubt.’

‘I’ve seen men hung on
less!’ This from Randy Gunnison, his courage returning as Sudden
seemed no longer menacing.

‘Yo’re makin’ a mistake,
Tom. A bad mistake,’ Jake told the lawman.

‘Ain’t for me to decide,’
Appleby retorted. ‘Tell it to the jury. Now: yu Green! Reach down
nice an’ easy, an’ drop yore gun belt. Then step away from
it.’

He reinforced this order by drawing and
cocking his gun. Sudden shrugged and did as he was bid, whereupon
two of the possemen dismounted and bound his hands securely
together.

‘Get his hoss,’ Appleby
told another man. When Sudden was mounted, his hands were tied to
the pommel of the saddle, and the posse prepared to leave. Harris
stood for a second watching, then, with a stifled cry of rage,
rushed to the stable and emerged a few moments later on his horse.
Taylor and Kitson were only seconds behind him. They caught up with
the posse in the space of a quarter of a mile, and drew up
alongside Appleby and his prisoner.

‘We’re ridin’ in to Yavapai
with yu,’ Harris said, defiance in his voice.

Appleby shrugged, although
he could not keep all of the venom from his voice as he replied,
‘It ain’t necessary.’

‘Never said it was,’ Jake
told him. ‘I just figgered if we was along Jim wouldn’t take it
into his head to do sumthin’ foolish, like mebbe makin’ a run for
it.’

He smiled as Appleby’s head
jerked and the lawman laid a burning gaze upon the prisoner. The
old homesteader had made his meaning crystal clear, and none
of
the posse had missed the inference:
Harris did not trust the Marshal or his posse out of sight. Green
would hardly be the first prisoner to have been killed under the
umbrella of
ley del fuego,
the old bounty-hunter’s fool proof way of bringing
in prisoners who were wanted dead or alive, and were easier to
handle dead. Such prisoners were always ‘shot trying to escape’,
and their brutal murder was tacitly accepted by the Law which paid
the rewards for their bodies.

‘Do as yu please,’ snarled
Appleby. ‘I ain’t no back-shooter.’

‘Never said yu was,’ agreed
Harris equably.

The posse moved on down the trail towards
the town, leaving a cloud of sun-silvered dust hanging heavy in
their wake.

ON
THE morning of the trial old Smithy, the stove-up puncher who
kept the jail clean and acted as an unpaid jailer in return for a
roof over his head and a few dollars for drinks, shuffled over and
rattled a tin cup against the bars of Sudden’s cell.

‘Rise an’ shine, Mr.
Sudden,’ he cackled. ‘Yu gotta be up bright an’ early. Wouldn’t
want to miss all the fun, would yu?’ His rheumy eyes watered as he
enjoyed his own humor. ‘Want some cawfee?’

‘If yu mean that dishwater
I been drinkin’, no thanks,’ Sudden told him, smiling inwardly at
the old man’s enjoyment. Smithy had become more important these
last few days than at any time in his life. Having the celebrated
Sudden as his charge had made the old man garrulous, and he had
spent the night reminiscing about his years on the Chisholm
Trail.

‘Yu reckon yu could loan me
a razor?’ Sudden asked the old man. ‘Might as well look as little
like a bum as possible.’

He gestured ruefully at the
three-day stubble on his chin, and the creased clothes which were
the result of his confinement. Jake Harris had been in to see him
several
times; he and his two neighbors
were staying in town until the trial was over, and Sudden had done
his best to reassure the old homesteader about his
predicament.

‘They tell me it’s all
goin’ to be legal an’ above board,
he had
told his employer. ‘Appleby’s sent down to Tucson for a circuit
judge.’