Ghost Killer (31 page)

“No?” His heart, his body, had relaxed at the inflection of her voice, at the
feeling
that everything would be all right. His lips moved upward then spread into a smile.
She’d forgiven him, and was treating him like a partner.

A very short discussion and stuff had been talked about and handled and they’d moved
on.

And that pursing of her lips? He bent down and stole a quick kiss.

“No,” she said softly, seriously, licked her lips as if to taste him. “I like the
New International Version of the Bible better when I read that verse. ‘Above all,
love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.’ I love you,
Zach.”

“Yes.” He had to squeeze her tightly against him. “Yes.”

All contemporary characters in this book are products of my imagination.

As Clare said, there is no definitive biography of Robert Ford, so a researcher must
see him through the lens of someone writing about Jesse James, Soapy Smith, or even
Edward Capehart O’Kelley (the man who killed him). The primary source for Ford in
Creede is Cy Warman, the journalist and editor who ran the newspaper, the
Creede Candle
, and wrote stories of the Wild West. So the man’s bias, and a storyteller’s wish
to make a good story, must be considered, but otherwise, I’d imagine the facts as
related by him were true.

My sources:

Frontier Stories
, by Cy Warman, New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898

“Creede,” by Cy Warman, in
The Colorado Magazine
, Volume 1, 1893

The later works I used most were:

Soapy Smith’s Creede
, by Leland Feitz.

I particularly liked Catherine Holder Spude’s,
“That Fiend in Hell”: Soapy Smith in Legend
, since it actually traced the making of the legend of Soapy Smith, compared it to
what we know of the man, and brought up some interesting facts about his death. It’s
fascinating to see how a legend, any legend, can come into being, and it gave me insights
on Cy Warman, my primary source.

And, of course,
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
by Ron Hansen, which is fictional and lists no bibliography, but is very interesting
all the same. The movie of that name was
not
filmed in Creede, but did snag a 2007 Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting
Role Oscar nomination for Casey Affleck, who portrayed Robert Ford.

Thank you to Johanna Gray and Jim Loud of the Creede Historical Society; the librarians,
as always, of the Denver Public Library, and of the History Colorado Center (who have
microfilmed issues of the
Creede Candle
).

Huge thanks to the ladies of the Creede Chamber of Commerce who let me use their phone,
sheltered me during my time of snow, sleet, and rain there (Sound familiar? But it
was May), and who pointed me to Robert Ford’s first gravesite.

And who provide free Internet for travelers! We were doing cover conference (e-mail)
at the time and we used one of the pics I took. I’m sure the ladies didn’t expect
to have their meeting room used for knife training (of
course
I looked into it . . . well, the door was open). But what can you do, I needed a
venue!

A website that proved invaluable was
http://www.findagrave.com
, that I’ve used before and will continue to utilize.

Other figments of my imagination: the knife (though thank you to Sarah of NaturePunk
Creations on Facebook for her information about a human femur as a prospective knife),
and the Subscription List (though I do have a pic of the newspaper wall in South Park
City on my Pinterest page).

Also fictional is the oral history of Buddy Jemmings. As far as I know, there is no
oral history of anyone that might have been connected with Robert Ford’s murder, though
the Creede Historical Society does have some oral histories and interviews of people
who were in the valley and canyon before the mining camp and town were founded.

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