CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
Her doctor was dead, and all Manuel Garcia could do was return to the ranch and break it to Della Stark as gently as possible.
He stepped into the livery and told the kid in charge to bring his horse. “I’ll get my saddle,” he said.
“There’s a beauty on the rack there,” the kid said. “See it? I didn’t know there was that much silver in all Texas.”
Garcia recognized his boss’s saddle immediately. “Where did the man who owns that rig go?” he said.
The kid shook his head. “I don’t know, but he told me he’d be back, so he ain’t intending to go far. I reckon he’s feeling right poorly, so he might be seeing a doctor, if we have any left after this morning.”
Garcia discounted a doctor visit. Gideon Stark had never been sick a day in his life, and he always said that doctors kill a man quicker than any disease.
“Did you tell the man with the silver saddle about the murder of Dr. Bradford?”
“I sure did,” the kid said.
“How did he take it?”
“Take it?”
“Yes, how did he seem?”
“He was a bit shaken, but who wouldn’t be? Doc Bradford was a well-liked man in this town.”
“Leave my horse for now,” Garcia said. “I’ll get it later.”
He walked from the gloom of the stable toward the door’s rectangle of bright sunlight and then into the street. Where was Gideon Stark? And why was he here? It had something to do with Miss Della’s love for Ben Bradford, he was sure. But now the doctor was dead, the boss’s problem was over. So why stay in Fredericksburg? He’d want to tell Della right away that her lover was dead.
Then Garcia smiled. Of course . . . it was a long ride from the ranch so Mr. Stark was probably getting a bite of lunch. A quick search of the restaurants in town and he’d find him.
* * *
Manuel Garcia failed to find Gideon Stark at any of the beer halls and eating places in town, and he finally headed to the Alpenrose Inn, where there was a small restaurant.
Red Ryan stood in the street outside the hotel talking with a bearded old-timer. Red saw Garcia and nodded. “I thought you’d have left town already.”
“I was about to when I saw Mr. Stark’s roan and saddle at the livery,” Garcia said. “Have you seen him? I’ve been looking all over town.”
“Can’t say as I have, but I’ve been out back for a spell with a sick horse,” Red said.
“Maybe he’s eating in the hotel,” Garcia said. Suddenly Red was appalled. Oh my God, was Gideon Stark in the Alpenrose . . . within a few steps of Augusta?