The Iron Horseman (18 page)

“We
received word from a Pinkerton agent that he’d been compromised and injured.
That was the last anyone had heard from him. When they selected me for this
mission, it was because the missing agent was my father.”

“So,
what is this mission of yours exactly?” Levi asked, pointing to the tube across
her back.

“It’s
sealed. I have no idea what’s inside,” she said honestly. She reached into her
pocket. “But, I have to deliver this to Mr. Durant before the last spike is
driven connecting the East to the West.” She handed the cloth-wrapped package
to Levi.

He
pulled back the material to reveal the diamond tipped gold spike and turned it
over to reveal an engraving. “A country united,” Levi read. “President Abraham
Lincoln.” He looked up at her. “It’s his signature. But how?”

“It
is to be one of five, the last spike that will fulfill the dream of a united
nation. Only a select trusted few even know of its existence.”

Levi
stroked the letters with reverence.

“Somehow,
President Lincoln must have known that he wouldn’t live to see his vision
realized and had it forged on the day the Transcontinental Railroad commenced.”
Cadence looked down at her hands. “But, that’s not all.” She tucked a stray
lock of hair behind her ear. “Threats from an unknown source have been made on
Thomas Durant and anyone involved with seeing the completion through. We think
there may be an attack at the ceremonial celebration that will prohibit the ability
to drive the last spike and complete the line.”

“I
knew about the threats on the railroad, but why didn’t you tell me any of this
before?” Levi asked, quietly folding the cloth back over the spike and
returning it to her.

“I’m
telling you now.”

Levi
picked up the reins and gave them a good slap. “We’ll I guess we’d better find
your pa.”

As
they pulled onto the main street, a tall wooden gallows stood ominously looming
over the town. Cadence shuddered. In her few short years as a Pinkerton, she
had not been unfortunate enough to witness a hanging, thank the Lord. A
strangely ill-omened feeling seemed to have settled over the people here. While
the street was busy with folks bustling about and wagons being filled, it was
oddly quiet, and Cadence wondered if some poor soul had already lost his life
today. In her line of work, she knew it shouldn’t bother her, but it did.

Clive’s
face, as he fell to the earth with a hole in his chest, invaded her memories
and she closed her eyes willing it to go away. Bottom line was, she’d killed
him. And no matter how much she’d tried to justify it in her mind, a man was
still dead because of her. She’d managed to suppress the incident this long.
She would just have to lose herself in her work for a few more weeks. She knew
she’d have to face the consequences at some point, but there was no time for
them now. She needed to get to her father.

“There’s
Eddie,” Levi said, pulling the wagon to a halt.

“Who’s
Eddie?” She called after him as he jumped down in front of a man in a blue
plaid shirt and scruffy beard.

“Your
dad’s foreman,” he replied over his shoulder.

Cadence
climbed down from the seat and rushed over to where the two men were already
deep in conversation.

“Who
put him there, Eddie?” Levi raised his voice—something that Cadence had yet to
hear. He didn’t wait for an answer. “I found your father,” he said as he
started across the street.

“I’ll
take care of your rig,” the foreman called after him.

Cadence
leapt down from the boardwalk and ran after Levi. “Where is he?”

Levi
didn’t stop. He marched up onto the wood planks in front of the sheriff’s
office and stormed inside.

“Where’s
Walker?” he demanded.

Cadence
stepped into the doorframe to see a man scramble from behind a desk to get to
his feet.

“Now,
don’t you come barging in here, Redbourne, like you know anything about what’s
been going on.” The man, Cadence guessed a deputy, righted himself and stood up
in front of Levi, barely reaching his shoulders. He took a step backward, but
did not lose the firm, focused expression on his face.

“Levi?”
A familiar, but weak and scratchy voice called from the corner of the office.

Cadence
stepped farther into the room.

“Daddy?”

Levi
lifted the scrawny deputy up by the collar of his shirt. “Explain, Merle,” he
said as calmly as he could. “Fast.”

“He
killed the sheriff, Levi. What was we supposed to do?”

Levi
growled, but he let the little fella down.

Killed
the sheriff?

“Daddy?”
Cadence questioned as she rushed to the bars separating her and her father.

Eamon
Walker was a Pinkerton. And a damn good one. Something was off here. Levi could
feel it in his gut.

“What
happened?” she asked, dropping down to the floor

“Did
you ever consider there might have been a reason?” Levi asked.

“I
know what I saw, and that man killed the sheriff.”

“Levi!”
Cadence’s voice filled with alarm. “He’s hurt.”

Levi
clenched his jaw.

Eamon
clutched his side, his shirt stained with dark reds and browns.

Levi
reached up and pulled the steel ring of keys from the hook on the wall.

“I
can’t let you do that.” The deputy had drawn his gun and pointed it directly at
Levi who raised his hands into the air.

“I’m
not going to break him out. He’s bleeding. Or don’t you care about doing what’s
right anymore?”

“Leave
them be, Merle. This is between you,” Eamon coughed, “and me. Neither Redbourne
nor my daughter have anything to do with this.”

“Why
hasn’t he seen a doctor?” Levi demanded, his hands still raised.

“Ain’t
one,” the deputy responded matter-of-factly.

“How
is there not a doctor in a town this size?”

“We
had one up until last week. He got thrown from his horse and broke his neck. No
more are moving in either. Since Black’s Fork started drying up last winter,
people have been relocating to Green River.”

“Look
at him,” Levi motioned toward Eamon. “He needs help.”

“We
tried to help. Got the bullet out and everything, but how would I know what
else to do for him? Besides, what’s the point? He’s just going to hang for what
he done.” Merle looked apprehensive and Levi wondered if it was the deputy
talking or a certain rancher who hadn’t been too keen on Eamon starting up his
own spread.

“What
happened, deputy?” Levi asked. “Why did Eamon kill the sheriff? Was anyone else
there?”

The
deputy didn’t say anything.

“Come
on, Merle. Eamon is your friend.”

“He
was
my friend,” Merle corrected. “Now, unless you want to join him in
that cell, I suggest you hand those keys back on over to me.”

Levi
had an idea. “What happened?” he asked again, slowly moving his hand with the
keys closer to the deputy as if returning them. “Last time I saw the two of you
together you were laughing over the poor hired hand out at the ranch who’d
stepped in a bucket and couldn’t get his foot out.”

Merle
snorted a laugh. “That was something, wasn’t it, Walker?” He stopped mid-laugh,
a serious expression returning to his face.

Drop
the keys.

Before
Levi could stop her, Cadence slipped between him and the deputy, his gun aimed
at her chest. Levi wanted to strangle her. She’d thwarted his plan. Pinkerton
or not, at the wrong end of the gun was no place for a lady.

‘Merle,
was it?” she asked, her voice as sweet and smooth as honey. “Surely, you
wouldn’t begrudge me a short visit with my father.” She took a step toward the
deputy and his gun.

Levi
tensed. “Cadence,” he called in quiet tones below his breath. It didn’t appear
that Merle was playing any games and the last thing they needed was for her to
get herself killed.

“Cadie,
honey, you need to get on out of here.” Eamon dragged himself up off the mattress
he’d been resting on with a grunt. He reached forward to grab ahold of one of
the bars to steady himself.

Levi
instinctively moved toward him, but there wasn’t much he could do from outside
the cell.

“I
plan on it,” she said, though her eyes did not waver from Merle’s.

Levi
glanced around the small room. He had to get Cadence out of there, out of
harm’s way. He would never be able to forgive himself if something happened to
her. But he wasn’t all that sure that she was the one needing protection. He
knew she was armed and he was well aware she knew how to use her weapons.

He
jingled the keys, then tossed them onto the ground in front of Eamon.

“Now,
what did ya go and do that for?” Merle asked, leaning to one side far enough to
see the keys. “Maybe you should step back, Miss Walker. I’d hate for you to get
hurt.”

Cadence
shot him a look that could freeze hell.

“Merle,”
Eamon coughed again, “I’m warning you.”

“A
girl needs her pa, Merle, don’t you think?” Cadence tucked a stray piece of
hair behind her ear and smiled up at the deputy, pulling his attention back to
her.

No
wonder so many men fawned all over her. She was remarkable.

“You
wouldn’t deny a girl the opportunity to say goodbye to her father, would you,
Merle?” Cadence reached up to his shirt collar and rubbed it between her
fingers.

“Of
course not.” Merle cleared his throat.

“Are
you going to shoot me, deputy?” she asked, a hint of a smile playing with her
mouth.

Merle
dropped the gun to his side and holstered it. “I guess it’ll be all right.” He turned
to Levi. “But just the girl. Do I have your word, Redbourne?”

Levi
nodded. He bent down to retrieve the keys and quickly slid them into the lock.

“Thank
you,” she told Merle with a pat to his chest. She rushed inside. “Daddy?”

Eamon
turned his back to the bars and, as if his legs could no longer keep him
standing, he slid down to the floor.

“Daddy?”
Cadence called, a tear streaking a path down her cheek. She laid her head down
against his chest just below the shoulder.

Eamon
kissed the top of her head.

Lying
there, Cadence looked almost vulnerable.

“Now,
let’s take a look at that wound,” she said, lifting her head and mustering a
smile.

Levi
looked over at Merle who stood so close Levi could overpower him without much
effort. However, he needed to think about how Raine or Rafe, his law keeping
brothers, would handle this situation. With Merle as the only law left in this
town, he had to make the man see reason. And in order to do that, he had to
find out what had happened.

Cadence
pulled back her father’s shirt. Angry red swells surrounded a black gouge in
the side of his abdomen where Levi guessed he’d been shot. Another inch and the
bullet would have missed him completely, but left unattended it had become
infected.

“Who
did this?” Levi asked.

It
took a moment for Merle to meet his eyes. He glanced up at Levi, looked down at
a rock on the floor, and kicked it across the room before glancing back up.
“The sheriff.”

“Levi,”
Cadence spoke without looking up, “we’ve got to find a doctor. What about
James?”

Levi
shook his head. The train had already left.

She
cradled Eamon’s cheek with her hand then turned to meet his eyes. “He’s burning
up. Help me get him back onto the bed.”

Levi
looked at Merle, who nodded. He rushed into the cell and lifted Eamon’s weak body.

“Wait.”
Cadence stepped out of the cell and grabbed a folded blanket from a shelf in
the open closet next to the deputy’s desk. She opened it, shook it out, and
laid it across the filthy thin mattress.

Levi
placed Eamon carefully on the bed. “It’s good to see you, old man.”

“Levi,
did you bring my little Cadie here?” Eamon’s voice was low and scratchy. He
sounded so frail, unlike the man Levi had grown to know and love.

“I
came with her, but she has a mind of her own.”

Eamon
laughed between coughs. “She’s like her mother that way. Stubborn.”

“I
think she’s more like her father than you know.”

Eamon
coughed again.

“You
need to rest. Just hold on, my friend. We’ll find help.”

Merle
stared at them all. He seemed conflicted. Levi didn’t care what the man said,
you didn’t just stop caring about a friend because it was your duty—perceived
or not. He couldn’t shake the feeling that this whole mess boiled down to
Adwell—greedy rabble-rouser.

“This
isn’t over,” Levi said. He clipped the deputy on the shoulder, threw open the
door, and ran out into the dirt road.

Masses
of people filled the street, bustling about tending to their business. The town
had grown amply since he’d last been here. He stopped an older man with graying
hair heading into the gunsmith shop.

“Excuse
me, sir. I’m looking for a doctor. Do you know of anyone here who might be able
to help?”

“’Fraid
not, son. Is everything all right?”

“No,”
Levi said with a wave as he turned back onto the street, stopping a variety of
people.

He
knew he probably looked like he’d gone mad. His manners were lacking and he’d
started to sweat, but he had to find someone who would know what to do. It
seemed this town hadn’t grown enough to include anyone in the medical
profession. He stepped up onto the boardwalk in front of the mercantile, pulled
off his hat, and ran a hand through his hair.

Then,
he turned back to the advertisement in the store window.

PHYSICIAN
NEEDED. See inside for details.

He
marched into the store, pulled the paper down from the window, and slammed it
onto the counter in front of Mrs. Turner, the shopkeeper.

“Has
anyone inquired about this?” He stared at her, trying to keep the desperation
from his voice.

“Had
a fella in here just the other day,” she said, prying the announcement from
Levi’s crumpled fingers. “But I gotta tell ya, Mr. Redbourne, he stank of
spirits. Told him to get out and come back when he’d had time to sober up.
Haven’t seen him since.”

“Do
you remember his name?” At least it was something.

“Melvin
maybe.” She looked up to the corner of the building as if trying to recall. “Or
Alvin.”

“Do
you know how I might find this Melvin-Alvin person?”

“I’d
imagine any of the saloons in town.” She shrugged. “Come to think of it,” she
snapped her fingers, “you ought to check the Sagebrush. He said something about
a Gloria and I think that that singer woman, Gloria Martin, is coming to
perform on stage at the Sagebrush tonight.” She rounded the corner of the
counter and pulled another flyer from the window and handed it to Levi.

He
didn’t have time to wait until tonight. If this drunkard knew anything about
medicine, he just might be Eamon’s only chance.

“Thank
you kindly, ma’am.” He tipped his hat, his manners apparently returning, and
headed out toward the Sagebrush. He hoped for Eamon’s sake that Mrs. Turner was
right about the saloon. There were more than a dozen of the watering holes in
this place. It would take him too long to check all of them by himself.

When
Levi stepped up in front of the Sagebrush, he stopped and took a deep breath.
He was not a fan of these places. He’d seen too many men ruin their lives
wasting their money and their time gambling away their farms, their horses, and
losing their families to drink and unwholesome women. If Merle was right about
the town drying up, he figured the saloons would probably be the last to go.

Levi
stepped through the barroom doors, which swung back and forth behind him. His
boot heels echoed across the worn pitted floor. The musty stench of liquor and
smoke burned his nostrils. The place went quiet for a moment and a mass of
heads turned in his direction. He scanned the room.

“I’m
looking for Melvin,” he said while he had their attention.

With
that, everyone turned back to their own business. A man with a white shirt and
bowtie sat down at a player piano and started with a lively tune. The sound of
coins flipping across a table and drinks sliding down the bar brought back
memories he’d sooner forget.

At
least it hadn’t been his own vices that had taken him into places like this.

Maybe
Melvin isn’t the right name
.

“How
can I help you, darlin’?” A woman in a bright orange dress placed her hand on
Levi’s forearm. “Can I get you something to wet that beautiful mouth of yours?”
She reached for a glass with a quarter full of amber liquid at the bottom and
held it out to him.

“You
know Alvin?”

“Sorry,
sugar. Why ya lookin’?”

“I
thought he might know something about doctoring.”

The
woman wagged a finger in front of him. “You must mean Elvin. He’s always
talking about how these spirits are good for disinfecting cuts and such. You’ll
find him over there.” She pointed to a man slung across the bar wearing a
particularly fancy, but disheveled suit with a deep burgundy shirt and a silver
brocade vest, empty glass in hand.