Preacher and the Mountain Caesar (26 page)

Kate Kerrigan's menfolk rode in just as day shaded into night and Jazmin lit the candles on the dining room table. The men waved to Kate as they rode to the bunkhouse to wash off the trail dust. By the time Frank Cobb, her sons Trace and Quinn, Moses Rice, and eight punchers she'd hired for the gather and drive up the Chisholm had finished with the roller towel it was black. Moses changed it in a hurry, fearing Kate's wrath because he hadn't done it earlier.

Hired for the gather and drive up the Chisholm, the hands ate in the bunkhouse, but Kate and her children considered Moses family, even though he was a black man. He sat at the dining room table, as did Frank Cobb. The tension between Frank and Hank Lowery was immediate and obvious. As a guest, Lowery sat on Kate's right side and Frank opposite him. In the flickering candlelight, the two men's eyes clashed, challenged, and held. Trace Kerrigan, seventeen years old that spring and used to being around rough men, dropped his hand to the Winchester he'd propped against his chair. He would not allow gunplay at the table and certainly not with his mother in the line of fire.

Lowery broke the silence and talked into an atmosphere as fragile as a glass rod. “Howdy, Frank. It's been a while.”

Frank gave a brief nod. “Seems like.”

“You don't want me here, do you?” Lowery said.

“No, I don't.”

“I stayed for the chicken and dumplings,” Lowery said. “No other reason.”

“Yes, there is another reason,” Kate put in. “Frank, I asked Mr. Lowery to have supper with us. The decision was mine.”

“Was that before or after he told you about Longdale, Kate?” Frank's voice was tight, thin, and menacing. “Ask Lowery about Levi Fry . . . or did he already boast of it?”

“Why don't you ask me, Frank?” Lowery said.

“Damn you, I will. Tell me why, when the old man was down on his hands and knees and coughing up black blood, did you put a bullet in his head?”

“Whoever told you that is a damn liar,” Lowery said. “And you were a damn fool to listen to him.”

“I won't let you play Kate for a fool!” Frank's chair tipped over as he jumped to his feet, his hand dropping for a gun.

Two things happened quickly. The first was the
clack-clack
of the lever of Trace's Winchester.

The second was Kate's shout of, “Enough!”

“Both of you, back away from my mother,” Trace yelled. “By God, Frank, if I have to, I'll kill you both.”

“Stay right where you are,” Kate said. “Trace, put down the rifle. The other two of you sit down. It's a beautiful evening. We're sitting in my new dining room of my new home and I don't want this occasion spoiled.”

“Ma, will the house fall down while we're eating?” Shannon asked.

The girl's question made Kate smile and did something to ease the tension.

As Frank picked up his chair, Lowery said, “Mrs. Kerrigan, it was far from my intention to spoil your dinner. Please forgive me.”

“There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Lowery,” Kate said. “Now unbuckle your gun belt and you too, Frank. Jazmin, take the revolvers into the cabin before you serve. Trace, you may give Jazmin your Winchester.”

“I bet Lowery's got a hideout stashed somewhere, Kate,” Frank said. “He's not a man to be trusted.”

Kate looked at the man in question. “Mr. Lowery, do you have a second weapon?”

“No.” He opened his frockcoat. “Satisfied, Frank?”

“I'll only be satisfied when I see you dead.”

“Everyone sit down,” Kate said. “I will not have our meal spoiled by bickering.” She looked around the table. “Ah, there is Jazmin with the food at last. A hungry man is an angry man, my grandmother always said. Once we have eaten, we'll all be perfect friends again.”

“I doubt it,” Frank said under his breath.

Kate chose to ignore that statement.

A high-riding full moon bathed the Kerrigan ranch in metallic light and out in the brush country coyotes yipped their hunger. The horses in the corral were restless, usually a sign that they'd caught the scent of a bear or cougar.

As sleepless as the horses, Frank Cobb stood in darkness under the oak outside the cabin, the tiny, scarlet glow of his cigarette rising and falling as he smoked. He turned his head as the cabin door opened and Kate stepped outside. She wore a green robe over her nightdress and her luxuriant mane of red hair was pulled back with a ribbon of the same color. As she stepped closer, Frank saw that she carried a steaming teacup in her hand.

“I brought you this. It will help you sleep,” she said, extending the cup and smiling. “It's two o'clock in the morning and you have a full day ahead of you.”

Frank took the cup and sniffed. “What is this?”

“Chamomile tea. It's very calming.”

Several times on any given day, Frank was struck by what a spectacularly beautiful woman Kate Kerrigan was, and in the moonlight, he was enamored of her yet again. He sipped the tea then said, “I'm sorry about tonight, Kate. I guess I pretty much ruined everybody's supper.”

Kate smiled. “Trace and Quinn ate like wolves and so did Moses. Ivy and Shannon always pick at their food, so there's no need to blame yourself for that. Why do you hate Hank Lowery so much, Frank?”

“It's getting late,” Frank said. “Best I turn in and grab some shuteye.”

“It will take the tea some time to work, so tell me about him. Come into the house. We'll sit in the dining room.”

Despite his depressed mood, Frank managed a smile. “Kate, four framed walls and a few roof rafters don't make a house, despite what the pirate tells you.”

“It is a house because I say it is a house. Frames and rafters do not make a home. It's the people who live within the walls that do that. Besides, I have my hearthstone in place, so the new Kerrigan home is on a firm foundation, even though it shakes and creaks.”

Frank laid his teacup on the dining room table, pulled out a chair for Kate, and then sat.

Kate eased him into his story. “All right, where is Longdale?”

“It's a settlement in the New Mexico Territory, up in the Rio Hondo country. Before the massacre it was a cow town like any other—small, dusty, and drab. Longdale slept six days a week and only woke up on Fridays when the punchers from the surrounding ranches came in to drink and dance with Flossie and Flora. It had a general store with a saloon attached, a blacksmith's shop, some scattered cabins, and not much else.”

Kate said, “Who were Flossie and Flora? Need I ask?”

“Working girls, Kate.”

“Ah, I see. Were they pretty?”

“The punchers thought they were.”

Kate smiled. “Please go on with your story. I ask too many silly questions.”

“A waddie shot dead during an argument over water rights started it. The Rocking-J Ranch and the Slim Chance Horse and Cattle Company claimed the same creek that ran off the Rio Hondo and one morning during roundup their hands got into it. It started with fists and then went to guns and during the scrape a feller who rode for the Rocking-J by the name of Shorty Tillett got shot and another man was wounded.” Frank drank the last of his tea and built a smoke. “After that, both outfits gunned up and brought in professionals. One of them was a draw fighter out of Amarillo who called himself Stride Lowery.”

“He was related to our Mr. Lowery?” Kate asked.

That “our Mr. Lowery” rankled, but Frank let it go. “He was Hank Lowery's twin brother.”

“Oh, I see,” Kate said, but she really didn't.

Frank lit his cigarette. “The ranchers' war lasted three months. During that time seven men were killed, another crippled for life, and Stride Lowery was one of the dead. Finally a peace conference was called, to be held at the saloon in Longdale. At three in the afternoon Levi Fry, owner of the Slim Chance, rode into town with two punchers. A few minutes later the Rocking-J crew arrived. Jesse George, a careful man, brought along three men. One of them was Mordecai Bishop, an Arizona Territory revolver fighter who'd made a name for himself as a fast gun in the Lee-Peacock feud in the Texas four corners country. Well, the seven men got to cussin' and discussin' and the ranchers poked holes in the air with their forefingers. They got to drinking and then to talking again.”

Frank stopped talking and listened into the still, mother-of-pearl night. “Coyotes are hunting close. They're making the horses restless.”

“Did the ranchers reach an agreement?” Kate asked.

“We'll never know. Hank Lowery stepped into the saloon and locked the door behind him. He had a Colt in each hand, cut loose, and put a lead period at the end of the last sentence those boys uttered.”

“But why?”

“Why? It seemed that he blamed both parties for his brother's death. Whatever the reason, when the smoke cleared seven men lay with their faces in the sawdust, five of them dead and two dying. Later I was told that old Levi Fry was gut-shot and crawled around the floor on his hands and knees coughing blood. Lowery's guns were shot dry, but he drew a .32 hideout, shoved the muzzle into the back of Levi Fry's head, and pulled the trigger.”

Kate drew her nightdress closer around her shoulders. “Frank, why should the Longdale Massacre trouble you? You weren't involved.”

“But I was, indirectly anyway. I'd worked a roundup for old man Fry and he'd paid twice what he owed me. I liked that old man and he didn't deserve to die the way he did.”

“Hank Lowery says he didn't shoot Mr. Fry while he was on the floor,” Kate said.

“And you believe him?”

“Well, no. But I don't disbelieve him either.”

“Kate, Lowery is a cold-blooded killer. He proved it in Longdale.”

“Has he killed anyone since?”

“I don't know.”

“Well, he may have. He says he has angry men on his back trail.”

“Who are they?”

“He wouldn't say.” Kate was silent for a while. The moonlight tangled in her hair and turned the fair Celtic skin of her beautiful face to porcelain. Finally she said, “Hank Lowery wants to join our drive. He says he's worked cattle before, and we could use another hand.”

It took Frank a few moments to recover before he said, “What did you tell him?”

“I said I'd speak to you. And I told him something else, Frank. I said if he killed a man while he was under my employ, I'd hang him.”

“Kate, Lowery is a professional gambler. When was the last time you saw a gambler eating dust? Riding drag? And he's a shootist. I bet you never saw one of them punching cows either.”

“And that's the whole point. Lowery wants to make a fresh start and put his violent past behind him. He thinks he might prosper in Dodge as a merchant, perhaps in the lumber business.”

“He wants to be a storekeeper? And pigs will fly.” Frank flicked away his cigarette butt. It glowed like a firefly before hitting the ground. “I'll tell you something about the Colt's revolver, Kate. It casts a mighty long shadow. A man who's lived by the gun and made a reputation can run, but he can't hide. Sooner or later the past catches up to him and he's forced to draw the Colt again. John Wesley tried to go straight and so did Dallas Stoudenmire, two men I knew and liked. Now Wes is rotting in Huntsville and five months ago Dallas was shot down in El Paso. Lowery will end up the same way.”

“I aim to take a chance on him, Frank,” Kate said.

“Then you're making a big mistake.”

“I took a chance on you, remember? You turned out all right.”

“Have it your own way, Kate. You're the boss. But if Lowery harms or even
threatens
harm to me or anyone I know, I'll kill him. Is that understood?”

“Perfectly,” Kate said. “But it will not come to that. I will not let it happen.” She rose and walked into the moonlight, her back stiff.