“SHE AIN’T HERE,” Will Burdick called out as he held a match above his head and inspected the empty bedroom by its flickering light.
Dave Wilder, who had followed him into the room, took the match and lit the lamp.
Buck Halliday appeared in the doorway and looked thoughtfully around the room. Neither of the lawmen took any notice of him as they studied the torn blouse the deputy had found on the floor beside the bed. Halliday inspected the bed itself, then pointed to a smear of blood on the wall nearby.
“Looks like she didn’t go willingly this time,” he said.
Burdick grunted sourly and snapped;
“Dammit, Halliday, of course she didn’t. You heard her screams.”
Halliday shrugged and looked at Wilder, whose eyes were fixed intently on Halliday when he asked;
“Are you tellin’ me she went along with them two without a struggle when she was taken before?”
“A spirited woman like Norrie would take some dragging away without a sound, whether from the ranch or from here.”
Wilder nodded. “Meanin’?”
“Meaning that old Hash might be right. Jim Mitchell and Mrs. Findlay tried to pull a fast one on her husband.”
Still holding the torn blouse, Burdick grunted derisively. “What the hell are you talkin’ about now, Halliday? You ride into this town claimin’ you don’t know a damn thing and now you—”
“Enough, Will,” Wilder said, silencing his deputy, then regarded Halliday more intently. “Let it all out, Halliday. With no frills attached.”
Halliday nodded and looked casually at Tovey as the old-timer came into the room, still looking deeply distressed.
“The gist of it, as I see it, is Jim Mitchell and Norrie Findlay planned to cheat Sam Findlay by hiring Teller and Winn to make it look like she was kidnapped. Norrie figured she’d go with them to Butte Creek, catch the train back, wait until her husband paid over the ransom money, then pay off Teller and Winn and run away with Mitchell.”
“You’re loco!” Burdick snapped.
“Far from it,” Hash Tovey asserted. “Halliday’s right. I got wise to them two playin’ ’round behind Sam’s back an’ told ’em to tell Sam. But before I could, they framed me for a robbery. Sam believed his wife, naturally, an’ came after me, tryin’ to shoot my hide. That’s why I rode out, meanin’ to go back when he quietened down an’ might listen to reason. But by then, Teller an’ Winn had kidnapped Miss Nancy.”
This time, Burdick remained thoughtfully silent.
“That how you see it, Halliday?” Wilder asked.
“Most of it. It explains why Norrie jumped off the train, taking the risk of hurting herself to get away.”
Burdick grunted scornfully. “How come that fits if she was workin’ in with them? For mine, you’re talkin’ a lot of hogwash.”
Halliday regarded the deputy patiently. “I’d say one or both of them tried to get a little over-friendly.”
Wilder scratched his chin thoughtfully, and looked from one man to the other. Then he nodded, the pieces of the puzzle starting to fit together, and said, “Meantime, Mitchell had arranged for Sam to receive the ransom note, not knowin’ there’d been a foul-up between Norrie, Teller and Winn. Right?”
“That’s why Mitchell was in town tonight, to meet up with Teller an’ Winn,” Hash Tovey said eagerly. “Only Mitchell musta gone berserk, an’ those two beat the hell outta him. He was sure a mess. Out of his mind an’ ready to kill anybody an’ everybody ’cause not only had Mrs. Findlay betrayed him, but Teller and Winn planned to deal him out of the ransom money.”
“Which puts us right back where we started,” Wilder said. “Except for one thing.”
“Except you now know who you’re looking for, Sheriff,” Halliday nodded, “and where to start looking.”
Wilder smiled coldly at him, and asked;
“Where the money is?”
“Where else?” Halliday asked.
He crossed the room, brushed past Tovey and went out into the passageway. After another thoughtful look around Norrie’s room, Wilder followed him with Burdick and Tovey bringing up the rear. In the hallway, Wilder said;
“Will, you and me are gonna check this town from top to bottom, and if we don’t come up with Mrs. Findlay or those two hellions, we’ll have to ride out and fill Sam in on what’s happened.”
“Just us?” Burdick asked.
“It’s our responsibility and nobody else’s,” Wilder nodded, then looked pointedly at Halliday. “That’s what we’re paid for.” He led the way down into the lobby, where Nancy was standing at the lobby desk, staring forlornly at the floor.
“Mr. Pearce been notified, Miss Hailey?” Wilder asked. Nancy nodded without looking up. “He’ll be along soon.”
“Good,” Wilder said. “If we get back in time, we’d sure like to pay our last respects to your grandfather. If we don’t, I’d like you to know we’d want to.”
Nancy bit her lip and tears again started to flow down her cheeks. Wilder moved on, beckoning Burdick to follow him.
When they’d left, Hash Tovey breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and muttered;
“Glad it’s over, Halliday—my part of it, leastways.”
“It isn’t over yet.”
Halliday crossed to Nancy, and taking her hands in his, forced her to look up at him. Her mouth was pinched tight and her hands were trembling when he asked her;
“What now?”
Nancy shook her head. “I don’t know. It will never be the same without him. I loved him so much.”
“He knew that,” Halliday said. “But he had a good life. And part of that life was standing by old and trusted friends.”
Nancy looked past him at Hash Tovey, who was frowning heavily. She smiled sadly at the old-timer.
“If I had it to do again, Hash, I wouldn’t have stopped him going off and getting drunk with you. I just thought...”
Her voice trailed off, and when she lowered her head to her hands, Tovey came across to her and said;
“Ben and me, we been through lots together and I was the one in trouble. If it had been the other way around, he’d have come to my aid.”
“I know that.”
Tovey squirmed uneasily, and when he shot a quick look at Halliday for help, Halliday said;
“So in the end, he died doing what he wanted to do—helping a friend. I should have bought in earlier.”
“Earlier?” Nancy asked.
Halliday nodded, released her hands and looked into her eyes. “I can’t help him now, but I can help you.”
“Help me?”
“They killed him in cold blood,” Halliday said and there was a sharpness in his voice that made her wince.
“No,” she said quickly. “No more. It’s done and can’t be undone. I don’t want any more trouble.”
Halliday moved back from her, but Nancy quickly reached out and took hold of his arm.
“Please, not on my account. They’re murderers but Sheriff Wilder will find them and make them answer for what they’ve done. I don’t want you getting involved.”
“If it had been me they’d found in the street, they’d have tried to kill me,” Halliday told her. “Same with Hash. Same with anybody. And maybe Wilder and Burdick can’t handle them.”
“Why couldn’t they?” Nancy asked, alarmed now.
Halliday shrugged easily. “They have to do things by the book. I don’t.”
With that, Halliday walked away. He had reached the doorway and was staring thoughtfully into the street when Hash Tovey joined him.
“You goin’ to buy into this, Halliday?” Hash asked. “After the way we’ve treated yuh?”
“I guess I have to,” Halliday told him. “Teller and Winn won’t have gone very far, not with Norrie in tow. So what trail do you reckon we should take, old-timer?”
Color drained from Tovey’s face. “You mean you want me along, Halliday?”
“If you know a quick trail to Sam’s.”
“Sure, I do. I told yuh, I been in these parts all my—”
“Then get your horse.”
Halliday headed across the street to the jailhouse. But Tovey, instead of going for his own horse, ran after him and caught him by the arm.
“What ... do yuh expect me to do, Halliday? Hell, I ain’t no gun hand.”
“Maybe you can talk some sense into Sam Findlay. I’ll handle the rest.”
Halliday started to walk away and Tovey called after him; “Are yuh doin’ this for yourself or for Miss Nancy, or ... Norrie Findlay?”
Halliday shook his head. “Not for Norrie. That’s over.” When he moved off, Tovey said to himself;
“You ain’t such a hard bastard after all. You know thet?”
Tass was the first to see Buck Halliday and Hash Tovey when they rode into the clearing fronting the Findlay ranch house. Lumbering across from the bunkhouse, he blocked their way just short of the steps. He growled at Halliday then swung his stare on Hash Tovey.
“What in hell do you two want here?”
“We want to talk to Sam,” Tovey told him. “Is he around?”
“Where the hell else would he be? And, you old buzzard, will he be glad to get his hands on your neck.”
For a moment, Tovey looked worried, but when Halliday swung down out of the saddle, he dismounted but kept his horse between Tass and himself. Tass stepped quickly up onto the steps to again bar their way. But Halliday said;
“Look, mister, we’ve got somethin’ important to tell your boss. If you like, come on inside with us.”
“Why in hell should I?” Tass growled. “Sheriff Wilder maybe gave you a clean bill of health but I’m damned if I agree with him.”
“Let Sam decide, huh?” Halliday said, climbing the steps. The big man placed his gnarled hand on his chest as Halliday sighed and added;
“That way, nobody gets hurt.”
Tass’ heavily-fleshed face jolted with surprise.
“You mean, you’d—”
The door of the big house opened and a sturdily-built man in undershirt and range-weathered Levi’s appeared in the doorway. His thick hair fell down over his heavily-lined brow and his eyes were filled with hostility.
“What in hell’s this?”
Hash Tovey eased behind Halliday, who confronted the big man coolly.
“Sam Findlay?”
“That’s right. Who the hell’re you?”
“Buck Halliday.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
“I’ve come to talk. You’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
He glared at Tass and added, angrily;
“I thought I told you I didn’t want anybody messin’ up my evenin’. I got enough troubles. Throw them off... both of ’em.” He turned and was about to move inside when Halliday said;
“Your wife was in town an hour ago. I took her there.”
Findlay wheeled, his face turning gray. “What?”
“I found your wife wandering around five hours from Calder and brought her into town. Since then a whole lot of things have happened. For a start, your ramrod’s dead.”
Findlay’s mouth fell open. “Jim’s dead?”
“After being beaten up by a couple hardcases. Now don’t you think you should hear me out?”
Findlay stood there breathing heavily, clearly unable to come to terms with what he had just heard. Then he glared at Hash Tovey and snarled;
“You in this, too, you thievin’ bastard?”
“I never stole nothin’ an’ can prove it. As for comin’ here, it weren’t my idea. Far as I’m concerned, soon as I clear my name, you can go to hell an’ take your whorin’ wife with yuh.”
Findlay reached for Tovey’s throat, but Halliday stepped in and pushed him away, which caused Tass to start swinging.
Halliday ducked, then stepped in close, and with two short lefts, jolted the big man’s head back, bringing a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth. He followed up with a powerful right to the point of Tass’ jaw and the big man’s legs buckled as he went down with a crash that shook the porch.
Findlay cursed and rushed at Halliday, but Halliday was ready for him. Stepping aside, he grabbed the rancher by the arm and spun him around, pushing both his arms up his back and driving him against the wall. Findlay’s head hit hard and he groaned. Halliday held him there, and said;
“Hash is telling it the way it is, Findlay. Your wife’s no good.”
Findlay struggled but Halliday managed to hold him, although he doubted if he could do it for long. He said tightly;
“It’s not hearsay ... I can prove it.”
Tass had come to his feet, wiping blood from his mouth. But after looking dazedly around for a moment, he heard Halliday’s voice, then saw him. He charged in and Halliday was forced to release one of Findlay’s hands to smash another right into the big man’s face. When Tass went down again, Halliday swung back to grab Findlay, but the rancher flung himself bodily at him, smashing at his face with an elbow.
Halliday backed off from the blows and lost his footing as he tripped over Tass. Then for the first time, Tovey bought into the brawl. Drawing his gun, he fired a shot in the air. When Findlay swung around, he found he was looking down the barrel of a gun.
“That’s it, Sam,” the old-timer said. “So help me, it’s time you woke up to what’s been goin’ on ’round here. I know about it, and just about everybody else knows about it. You been played for a fool and it’s time you did somethin’ about it.”
Findlay glared from Tovey to Halliday and back again. “If you’re lyin’, I’ll kill you, Hash. You know that.”
“I know and I’ll take the consequences if what you’re about to hear ain’t the truth. So settle down.”
Findlay looked fiercely at Halliday, then at the unconscious man at Halliday’s feet. His shoulders slumped. Halliday relaxed and stepped back, but Tovey still held his gun on the rancher.
“Okay, let’s have it,” Findlay muttered. “Hash, you stay quiet.”
Halliday told him of his meeting with Norrie, the ride to the creek and what happened there. Findlay’s face tightened and his breathing became ragged again. But Tovey, sensing he was about to snap again, said;
“Sam, it was Jess she first started messin’ with. When she’d finished with him, she had you fire him. Remember? Then it was Mitchell—”
“Jim would never touch her,” Findlay roared.
“Would and did, Sam. Now listen to the rest of it, ’cause we got proof. What’s happened is Norrie and Mitchell hired a couple hardcases to pretend she was kidnapped. They took her to Butte Creek but came back to be close to where they could pick up the ransom money. Somewhere along the way, those two got on Norrie’s bad side and she broke away from them. That’s when Halliday stumbled onto her.”
Findlay lifted a hand and wiped sweat from his weather-ravaged face. Suddenly, he looked like a tired old man.
“Sam, it was Mitchell who arranged for you to get that ransom note an’ you got to believe it. Him and Norrie was in it together, only when things got messy, Norrie decided to break with Mitchell an’ come on home, hopin’ you’d believe her.”
Findlay leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. His breathing was so loud Tovey had to raise his voice when he went on;
“So Mitchell went lookin’ for his two hirelings. Only by then, they’d decided to kidnap Norrie on their own an’ cut Mitchell out. We ain’t sure how it happened, but Mitchell turned up earlier tonight, beat up somethin’ bad an’ near outta his mind. When he went berserk an’ tried to shoot Halliday, Wilder killed him.”
“Dave did?” Sam asked, incredulously.
Tovey nodded gravely. “Shot him down in the back street while he was checkin’ on old Ben Hailey. Someone had put a bullet into Ben, usin’ Ben’s own rifle.”
Findlay’s mouth sagged and he shook his head. “Ben’s dead?”
“I’m tellin’ yuh, Sam, all hell’s breakin’ loose in Calder. Halliday decided we should ride out here and talk to you, ’cause them two jaspers have Norrie again an’ they aim to make you pay to get her back. Now you know.”
Findlay straightened and eyed Halliday fiercely. “Did you know she was married, mister?”
Halliday nodded gravely. “I knew. But she had a sad story to tell.”
“What sad story?”
“That her life was a misery out here with you, that you treated her bad right from that first day.”
Findlay’s hands formed fists which he lifted to his gunbelt.
But Tovey was quick to break in again;
“Sam, I seen her an’ heard her. She gave you a blastin’ that’d make any man want to kick your teeth in. An’ it was way out there in the middle of nowhere an’ she came naked outta the crick, hopin’ to get Halliday off his guard so she could get his gun an’ leave him stranded. Only Halliday was awake to her little trick an’ had taken all the bullets outta the chambers.” Tovey shook his head and whistled shrilly, remembering. “Holy hell, Sam, then she tried a different tack, she was fallin’ all over him an’ there weren’t nobody within a gunshot, bar me, so Halliday ...”
Findlay swore savagely and knocked Tovey out of his way. Tass was on his feet again and Findlay grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down the steps. Then he turned to face Halliday and snarled;
“And you reckon they’ll come here? All three of them.”
“This time it’s real,” Halliday said.
“How long do you think it will be before they show up?”
When Halliday shrugged, Tovey answered for him;
“We came across the hills, Sam, and that cuts off mebbe half an hour, as you know. I reckon it won’t be long now though before they show.”
Tass had grabbed at the rail to stop himself from falling down the steps. Now he glared up at Halliday and Findlay, his shoulders hunched. But Findlay said;
“Go wash up and leave us be.”
Tass again studied Halliday menacingly, then turned and strode off across the clearing.
Findlay drew his gun and checked it, then glared out into the night.
“Let them come, damn them. Let them come!”
“How do you want us to handle it?” Halliday asked.
“I don’t want you handlin’ anythin’, mister. Just get to hell out of my sight and stay out of it. If I find you on my land, or near my wife again, I’ll kill you.”
Halliday held the rancher’s savage stare for a long moment before he said;
“Okay, Sam, have it your way.”
He was moving toward the top of the steps when someone called out from the darkness;
“Findlay, we got your wife here with us. You got the money?”
Tovey near collapsed in fright at the sound of the voice. But Findlay, wheeling away from Halliday, jerked his gun up and snarled;
“Come out where I can see you.”
“First, you put that gun down. And, Halliday, you stay out of it.”
As Findlay took three quick steps toward the end of the porch, his wife’s voice came shrilly to him;
“No, Sam. They have a gun at my head. They’ll kill me.”
“And I’ll kill them!” Findlay roared, and kept going.
A gun roared.
Halliday waited long enough to see the bullet thud into Findlay before he hurled himself down the steps. He hit the ground, rolled, then came up on his knees. In the light issuing from the house, he saw a burly man come around the corner of the porch. Halliday fired. The man yelled and staggered, his arms flailing. When he collapsed, Halliday jumped to his feet and broke into a run. Then another gun roared followed by another of Norrie’s piercing screams.
Halliday reached the end of the porch in time to see a second man backing away and at the same time firing wildly from the hip. Halliday’s gun bucked and three bullets tore into the man. Halliday felt the burn of a bullet along his right shoulder but ignored the pain. The first man had stopped groaning and was still. But the second was still standing, clutching at his stomach, hatred flaring in his eyes.
“You interferin’ bastard.”
Halliday lifted his gun again, but this time he didn’t have to fire. Sam Findlay had staggered to the end of the porch and grimly hanging on to the rail, emptied his gun at the man.
Ike Teller felt the bullets hammer home, fell to his knees, grunting curses, then snarled, “All for a no-good whore!”
Then he fell on his face and lay still.
On his way back to town, Buck Halliday’s thoughts were grim. So many people had died but justice seemed to have been done. He wondered whether Norrie deserved to die at the hands of Ike Teller, and couldn’t come up with a suitable answer.
He heard the sounds of horses coming toward him and pulled off the trail into darkness until the riders went by. Sheriff Wilder and Deputy Burdick would soon know the whole story. They’d hear Tovey’s version of what had taken place and learn that the oldster would stay until Sam was back on his feet. As far as Halliday could see, Calder no longer held anything for him.
Reaching town, he stopped in front of the rooming house and decided to stay the night and head out at first light. He climbed down and was securing his horse to the rail when a footstep sounded in the doorway. He looked up to see Nancy standing there, heard her say;
“You came back.”
Halliday walked across to her, and when she saw blood on his shoulder, she gently lifted away the torn shirt and made a quick examination of the wound.
“Come inside.”
Halliday didn’t argue. It was only a flesh wound but he knew that unless it was cleaned it would give him trouble later. Nancy led him through to the kitchen, sat him down and tended the wound. Then she went upstairs and returned with the shirt he had loaned Norrie. Handing it to him, she said;
“I pressed it for you.”
“Obliged,” Halliday said and turned around so she could slip the shirt onto his shoulders. He worked his arms into the sleeves and then became aware that her arm was still resting on his good shoulder.
He turned, bringing her chin up with one finger.
“It’s all over,” he said.
“I knew it when I saw you ride in. But I’m not sure whether I’m glad or not. I hate killing, all kinds of killing.”
“Norrie’s dead, too,” he said.
Nancy was so shocked she fell against him. With her face against his chest, she said, “Will you miss her?”
“No.”
“But Norrie told me—”
“It’s best forgotten,” Halliday said.
“I’d like to put it all behind me, too ... in time.”
“It’s hard losin’ someone close.”
“He was a lovely old man. Will you help me forget, Buck?” Halliday slipped his arms around her and held her close.