CHAPTER 27
Mackey and Billy were situated in their own sleeper car, having rejected Mr. Rice’s offer of sending his private car for them. It would have taken too much time to bring it to Helena, and Mackey was anxious to get back to Dover Station as soon as possible. If Jerry really was holed up in the jailhouse, they did not have a moment to lose.
They were more than five hours out of Helena before Mackey saw fit to say anything. The silver pot of coffee on the narrow table had gone cold, and his own cup was unfilled. He had spent the entire ride looking out the window, though Billy doubted he had seen anything except his own reflection in the glass.
“You check the train for Hancock men?” Mackey asked.
“I did. Didn’t see anyone who looked like the family, but a couple of men are definitely heeled. Could be Pinkerton men. Could be just travelers. My guess is they’re Rigg’s men.”
“Rigg’s men is a safer bet,” Mackey agreed. “How many?”
“Five possibilities,” Billy said. “None of them were sitting together. All of them eyed me as I walked through the cars. I tend to get that when they see a man of my persuasion walking through a train not wearing a uniform or carrying a silver tray.”
“All of them look you over?”
“All except one,” Billy said. “Lean man in a moustache and a bowler two cars ahead. Was awfully interested in the paper he was reading, too. Got the feeling he was working real hard not to look at me.”
“Probably because he already knew who you were. Find out where he got on.”
“Already did. The conductor said he boarded the train after us in Helena. He’s the one I pegged for a Rigg man.”
Mackey kept looking out the window. “Might be best if you took another look around, see where he is now.”
“Sounds like a good idea.” Billy stood up and moved to the door. “You want anything?”
“Nothing that’s on this train.” He looked away from the window for the first time in hours. “Take your time walking through the train. Make sure they see you’re alone. Maybe it’ll make them think now’s their time to take a run at me.”
Billy figured that was what Mackey had in mind. “Hopefully, it’s just my nerves talking. Maybe it’s nothing.”
“It’s something.” Mackey went back to looking out the window. “Your nerves have saved our lives more times than I can count.”
Figuring his friend was done talking for now, Billy went off to tend to the business at hand.
* * *
Billy found he drew even more looks from the passengers this time around as he slowly made his way through the train cars. They all quickly looked away.
Couples quickly whispered to themselves as he passed. Under other circumstances, Billy would have enjoyed the attention. But for now, he saw everyone as a threat. Rigg could have hired any one of them to try to take their lives, even the women. The retired colonel was nothing if not crafty.
Billy spotted the man in the bowler hat still seated where he had found him before, two cars ahead of their compartment. He was no longer reading his paper and sat with his eyes closed. But he did not have the relaxed look of a man asleep.
He looked like a man who was waiting for something.
Billy took his time walking past him and into the next car. Knowing the man would probably be looking to see if he stopped, Billy kept moving until he got to the farthest car in the train. He found the conductor, a roundish man with a round head that had a conductor’s cap perched unevenly atop it. He was the same conductor who had told him the man in question had boarded the train in Helena.
“I need you to go back there and see if the man we’re interested in is still in his seat.”
“Was he there when you walked through just now?” the fat man asked.
“He was, but I want to make sure he didn’t get up since then. He looked like he was sleeping, but I think he might’ve been faking it for my benefit.”
“I don’t see why he’d get up now. I’m sure he’s still where you found him, enjoying the ride.”
Billy knew train conductors were famous for their laziness, but this one was working awfully hard at living up to the reputation.
He grabbed the fat man and shoved him toward the door. “Get moving. If you get to his spot and he’s not there, take off your hat. I’ll worry about the rest.”
The conductor scrambled to open the door and got going.
Billy stood by the door and watched the fat man keep his balance with surprising ease as the train rocked back and forth along the rails. The conductor had just made it to the car in question, when the cars moved out of alignment as the train went around a curve, obscuring his view of the conductor.
Billy punched the door in frustration. Come on!
It took a few seconds for the train cars to align again before Billy could see through to where the conductor was. He was well past the section of the car where the bowler man had been sitting.
And the conductor was not wearing his hat.
The man in the bowler was gone.
Billy bolted into the next car and began running up the aisle. People gasped and leaned out of his way as he ran past them. He opened the doors to the next car and continued through that one and to the next, finally catching up to the conductor and knocked him out of the way, sending the fat man onto the laps of the couple who had whispered about Billy when he had passed through a few minutes before.
He cut through the last car between him and Aaron and saw the man, without his bowler now, reaching into a bag as he walked closer to Aaron’s compartment.
He opened the door and was ready to barge into the last car when the train hit another turn, and the cars went out of alignment again. Billy almost lost his footing and spilled out of the train but managed to grab onto the door to keep himself upright.
By the time the cars once again straightened out, Billy saw Aaron had his attacker pinned against the window by the throat. A coach gun had fallen to the floor at the man’s feet.
Billy opened the door and rushed to join Aaron. The bowler man’s eyes were bulging and his face had turned beet red. He feebly slapped at Mackey’s arm in vain, trying to break his grip before he strangled to death.
But Mackey’s arm could not be moved, and his grip did not falter.
Billy reached his friend’s side just as the attacker gurgled his last breath before life slowly left him. When his eyes went soft and his body sagged, Billy knew the man was dead.
Mackey let go, and the dead man collapsed to the train floor.
The fat conductor gasped when he saw the sight of the dead man on the floor of the train car. His train car.
“Good God. What have you done? What’s going on here?”
Mackey did not look at the conductor when he said, “Billy, take care of that.” He grabbed the dead man by the collar. “I’ll take care of this.” He looked at his deputy. “Give me your knife before you go.”
Billy could usually figure out what Mackey would need before he asked for it, but he had not figured on this. “What do you need my knife for, Aaron?”
“Already told you. To finish up here.” He held out his hand and waited for his deputy to hand him his knife. “Time to remind Colonel Rigg that old habits die hard, Sergeant.”
A chill went through Billy at the sound of his old rank, for he suddenly knew why Aaron wanted the knife.
He pulled it from the scabbard on the back of his belt and handed it over, handle first.
Mackey took it from him and dragged the corpse into their compartment. “Tell the conductor this compartment stays shut until we reach Dover Station, or I won’t be happy.”
Mackey slid the compartment door shut.
The conductor was holding his hand to his chest, his eyes full of horrible questions.
Questions Billy did not dare answer.