“Breakfast at seven?” he asked Jesus and Cole in the lobby, and they agreed. “I think in two days, or less, we'll know if they're here, or have been here.”
“Think they may slack up, too, if they think the territory line means the law is behind them?” Cole asked.
“That would be our best bet to catch them.”
In the room, he hugged his wife around the waist and rocked her back and forth. “I know I tell you this a lot, but you are the spark in my life.”
“I am so glad. I have known two men intimately in my whole life. I don't compare you two very much, but you squeeze something out of me that he never did. I don't know why.”
“You speak often of this aura you see around me. I see a spark of fire in you that I have never seen in any other woman.”
“You had an affair with another man's wife, you said?”
“She didn't have that spark, but she was good and kind. Her husband ignored her and ran around on her. And she was finally going to leave him. Each time I went over, I crossed through that brushy country so careful not to leave a track. I found her in a bed of blood and she had written the killer's name on the sheet in her own blood. She'd written a note to her husband before she was attacked, but I found it on her desk and he never got it. She didn't mention meâbut no need to torture another. Her death, despite his misgivings, shocked him. He really wept at her funeral.”
“Did they get her killers?”
“They were hung, and some folks blamed me for that.” Chet shook his head.
Liz buried her face in his shirt. “A feud going on and then that happened. You did have big problems.”
“I think it really was part of the feud, but I couldn't prove it.”
“That was not the lady you had to leave when you came here?”
“No, she had parents to care for, and they couldn't make the long journey here.”
“I know what Margaret saw in you when you and she rode the stage to Preskitt. Someone tall enough to dance with.”
They both laughed.
“And after you left me to go back to Mexico, I thought that cute little chili pepper is gone, gone, and gone.”
She squeezed him hard. “No, this little lemon said I wouldn't never get him. But I did.”
They went to bed and slept till dawn. Dressing for the day in the cool hotel room, he felt certain they'd get some new information. At least they needed a dim trail to take up. His wife kissed him during the dressing process.
“Well, do you feel better?”
“I always feel better when my wife kisses me.”
She shook her head. “I kiss you all the time.”
Suppressing his amusement, he hugged her. “I feel good all the time.”
“Good. We both do.”
Damn right. He wished they could soon be on the outlaws' trail, end this pursuit, and go home again. He hoped that would be the final outcome of their efforts.
C
HAPTER
20
After breakfast in a café down the street, they split up. Jesus and Cole left to check the horse traders and saddle and gun repair shops. He and Liz were going to the county sheriff and the local police department to see what they could learn about the men.
The county sheriff, Lopez, was gone to Santa Fe on business that morning. His deputy, Meredith, had no information on the three, but he acted friendly to the two of them and took down the information from Chet.
“You think they came through here?” he asked Chet.
“There's no reason they wouldn't go to another territory and think they'd escaped the law. But even large sums of money are soon spent, and they must rob again or go to work.”
“Most of that kind don't work anyway. I agree that, if they're here, we need to root them out.”
“My men are with me and we have help from some of our friends here. We send the cattle each month to the Navajos, so we have gotten acquainted a little.”
“That is where I heard about you.”
“Those are my men that make the drives.”
“Good to meet you, and I'll spread the word to look for these men. Check back; we may find them. And nice to meet you, too, Missus.”
“Thanks.”
They left his office and went next to see the town law. City marshal Ernesto Gonzales invited them into his office and was very polite to Liz.
“Mrs. Byrnes, do you go everywhere with this man of yours?”
“Everywhere he will have me.” Liz smiled.
“If I had such a pretty wife, I would never leave her at home, either.”
They laughed, but Chet figured the thickset lawman was serious as he could be.
“I'm looking for three bank robbers that I think headed this way.” Chet went on to explain about the wanted men.
Gonzales leaned back in his chair. “I don't know them, but if they were here, my men would have noticed them. When we get hard cases like that, we watch them like a hawk, señor. But I will have my men double check and see if they are around here.”
“I'm at the Adams Hotel for a few days. Send word if you hear anything. There's a reward on them.”
“We can do that, and, Mrs. Byrnes, if you ever need a saddle friend, I will ride with you.”
They laughed and shook hands.
Back out on the street, he wondered what his men had found out. They checked out a few stores to kill some time, but bought nothing but some hard candy, then found lunch in a diner. He asked the Mexican woman who waited on them if she had seen the three men.
“One is part Indian?”
Chet nodded.
“Those men, or three like them, were hanging around a
fandango
last Saturday night where I was. No one knew them, and someone said they might be
pistoleros
and we should not challenge them.”
“Where was this party?” Liz asked.
The woman looked around before she spoke softly. “Don Kataris's. It is on South Catalina. But please don't mention me . . .” She checked around. “My husband does not know I was there.”
Liz assured her it would be secret.
Chet gave her a five-dollar tip, then they went to the livery and checked out their horses. The stableman said the Kataris house was yellow and red, and on the right side at the end of the street.
Chet could tell how excited Liz was over their discovery. They trotted their mounts down the caliche-hard street and he soon spotted the dwelling. She stayed on her horse and held his while he went to the door and knocked. No one answered. Then a short man came around the house.
“
Buenos dias, señor
.” Then he saw Liz and removed his
sombrero
and bowed for her.
“That is Elizabeth, my wife. My name is Chet Byrnes. I'm looking for three men that came to your
fandango
last Saturday.”
He nodded. “I am Don Kataris. I know who you mean. We wondered about them. They finally rode away. No one knew them.”
“Were they staying here in town?”
He looked around to be sure no one could hear him. “Someone said they were staying at Ramon Egger's ranch.”
“Is it close by?” Chet asked in a low voice.
“Take the White Tank Road south to where the Logan brothers have a large set of holding corrals, then turn west a couple of miles. You can't miss their place.”
“I'm grateful. Can I pay you?”
“Just don't tell them I told you.”
“I won't.” He handed him a five-dollar gold piece.
“
Gracias
. Señora, you are a very fine looking lady. Sometime, come to one of my
fandangos
.”
“If I am here, I shall. Thank you, sir.”
He held up his index finger. “Trust me. My
fandangos
are the best.”
Chet mounted, thanked him, and they rode back to town. Cole stopped them when they approached the stables. “You two find something?”
“Yes. You do any good?”
“No. What did you learn?”
“They were staying at a ranch south of here.”
Cole turned to his partner standing on the boardwalk. “Jesus, we need our horses. They have a lead.”
Within minutes, the crew was ready and they left for White Tank Road.
“How did you find this out?” Cole asked. “Jesus and I never found a clue.”
“A waitress who'd cheated on her husband and gone to a
fandango
last Saturday night said she saw three men there that looked like them. We found the man who had the
fiesta
, and he said those men were staying out at this ranch we're headed for.”
Cole shook his head. “You heard all that?”
Jesus shook his head. “Yeah, we never heard a thing all day.”
“Then we are valuable to have along,” Liz teased.
“Yes, ma'am, very valuable.”
With Chet in the lead, they short-loped their horses out through the juniper brush on the dusty road. Unanswered questions crossed his mind. Was this ranch an outlaw hideout? Were there more fugitives there? And how big a fight would those three put up when cornered? All questions, but with no answers by the time they swept around the large set of pens Kataris described. Standing in the stirrups, he wanted to see this place before they rode in blindly. He saw windmill blades whirling and held up his hand for his crew to stop.
The three nodded over the discovery of the mill, and their hard-breathing sweaty horses stomped around some.
Chet pulled out a set of field glasses and gave them to the already dismounted Cole. “Go up high and look for activity. We'll wait here.”
Jesus took Liz's reins and she headed for some juniper shelter, no doubt to relieve herself.
After scoping the place out good, maybe Cole could tell something about what was going on. They might have a shot at capturing the three. After four days on the road looking for them, this was the first and best lead they'd had.
Cole came back, not looking very excited.
“There's a woman and some small kids. She's doing wash. I can't see any saddle horses or men there.”
Liz was back and mounted. “You come behind us,” Chet told her. “If hell breaks loose, you head for the brush.”
He turned to Jesus and Cole. “Get your rifles out. Don't take chances.”
Three abreast, they rode up on the small log house. The woman's clothes flapped on the line, and when she discovered their approach, she used her hand to shade her eyes to better see them.
“She knows we're coming.”
“She ain't warned anyone,” Cole said.
“Not yet. Just be careful. Lots of open ground here to defend yourself on.”
“She's gathering kids and coming around front,” Jesus said.
“Kick your horse out and go around back, just in case there is someone trying to get away.”
Jesus nodded and set out on his fast horse.
“Ain't no one here but me and these kids,” she shouted. The three were tight to her skirt, none of them very old. “Whatcha' want?”
“U.S. Marshals. We want Connors, Sattler, and Logan Blue.”
She had a hard look on her thin face. She might have been in her twenties, but a lot of gray streaked her hair. Her eyes were dark and deep set, like she bore some Indian blood in her veins. Her graveled voice definitely had a drawl. “They ain't here.”
“When did they leave?”
“I say they been here, mister?”
“We know they were staying here. Giving aid to criminals is a jailable offense.”
Jesus came to the front door. “No one in here.”
“I tole you that.”
“Where did they go?” Chet insisted.
“How am I supposed to know that?”
“Men talk.” Chet dismounted. “You heard them say. I don't want to have to press charges on you, but I want an answer.”
“They rode for Continental two days ago.”
“They have a hideout there?”
“Connors knew a whore there.”
“What's her name?”
“Bessie, I guess.”
“What do you know about her?”
She shook her head. “She's a black whore.”
Ask a question, you should expect an answer. “She live there?”
“They thought she did.”
“Where is your man?”
“Prison.”
“He knew them?”
“I guess.”
“You knew them?”
She shrugged.
“No, you knew them, and they came here because you hide such men.”
“I don't.”
“Lady, they did not come here for church services.”
Her thin shoulders shrugged under the wash-worn dress, and then she silenced a whining child on her skirt. “I don't know why they came here.”
“Next time you hide lawbreakers, the sheriff will come out here and take you in irons to jail.”
He mounted his horse.
She shook her fist at them. “Fuck you and the horses you all rode in here. You bastards don't scare me none!”
“Better heed my warning. Let's ride.” They left the place.
“We were in Continental before?” Liz asked him.
“Three times. We rounded up some criminals there once, and we rode through there going to find the herd and coming home.”
“Well, she was tough enough. I'm surprised she told you all she did.”
Chet shook his head. “We were a threat to her. She didn't know but that we'd stake her on an ant hill.”
“You wouldn't do that to her,” said Liz.
“I might have been tempted.” He chuckled and she shook her head at him as they trotted for the road.
“We need to get our packhorses and go find them tomorrow.”
She pushed in close. “We've ridden a few hundred miles and no sign of them. We had a break and the chase is on. That's how your law enforcement works?”
“We got lucky. That's how it usually happens. You track and track, then use your senses. They show up for a
fandango
. No one else we talked to, from Arizona to here, had seen them, but a waitress who cheated on her husband and attended a party saw them.”
“That is a needle in a haystack, isn't it?” she asked.
“Liz, as lawmen, we live on those straws,” Cole said, and they laughed. “We were down in Tombstone and they said this guy shot his brother and ran off. Then a man told us he didn't ride his horse, because his horse was still out on the range. Your husband got to kicking around and found a grave, or we thought it was one. But we found the truth when the woman who killed both of them hung herself.”
“I had no idea. But I can see how, if you ask enough people, someone may have seen them. I am learning, guys. I am learning.”
That evening, they camped off the road at a windmill and tank. The weather was still warm, but Chet expected any day a big cloud bank would come out of the north and winter would kiss them. All the cottonwoods in the high country were golden and they shimmered in the gentle winds. In another day, they'd be at Continental. They'd have to be quiet, for it was a small place and he didn't want anyone to learn who they were before they located the robbers.
“If we ever get somewhere again, I'd be for taking a hot bath and washing my clothes. That water out of that pipe at the windmill is too cold for me to hop in.”
“We should have done more of that at Gallup. Sorry.”
“No, I can stand any one of us downwind,” she teased.
The men all laughed. She smiled and shook her head and went on cooking supper on the campfire.
Continental sat beside the road, with several adobe
jacales
scattered about. Children ran around outside in noisy play, and cur dogs barked at the riders, then slunk away. They went by the saloon and Cole and Jesus went inside. Leading the packhorses, Chet and Liz went down by the dry wash where they had a pump and a water tank for stock. Under the rustling cottonwoods, he used the pump and she watered the horses by twos.
“They haven't gained much population since the last time we were here.”
“Oh, maybe a baby or two,” he said, working the pitcher pump hard to keep ahead of the thirsty horses.
Chet noticed a woman, wrapped in a blanket, working her way down the hillside. She moved from tree to tree, like she was making sure no one saw her.
“She some old girlfriend?” Liz teased under her breath, not looking at the woman.
Chet only chuckled and let the pump rest.
“Aren't you the lawman came here before?” the woman asked, standing among the horses, so short she would be hard to see.