Chapter Thirty-three
“You want me to kill him?” Shamrock asked after Duff left.
“No,” Houser replied. “That is, I want him killed, but I don’t want you to do it. I need him killed in a way that cannot be traced back to me.”
“Bodine,” Shamrock said.
“Who?”
“Didn’t you tell me that MacCallister kilt Zeke Bodine?”
“Yes, or so I have been told. The story I heard is that Bodine and two others attempted to hold up a stagecoach on which MacCallister and the Chinaman were passengers. The Chinaman killed one of the would-be robbers and MacCallister killed the other two. One of the two men that MacCallister killed was Zeke Bodine. But what does that have to do with the situation at hand?”
“Lucien Bodine is in town. I seen ’im yesterday. All I have to do is tell ’im that MacCallister is the one what kilt his brother, ’n he’ll kill MacCallister for us.”
“What makes you think he will believe you?”
“He’ll believe me,” Shamrock replied. “Me ’n him’s old friends.”
“Thomas! I know you have lived a most checkered life, but I can’t believe that you actually have been friends with someone like Lucien Bodine.”
“Yeah? Well, knowin’ ’im comes in handy now, don’t it?” Shamrock replied with a self-satisfied laugh.
* * *
For the last three days, Lucien Bodine had spent much of his time in the saloons of Chugwater.He talked little and listened much, trying to learn who killed his brother. He had never been here before, so he wasn’t concerned that someone might recognize him.
At the moment he was in the Long Horn, playing a game of solitaire, just listening to the buzz of conversation. He was looking for a black queen, and he dealt the three cards with no luck. He was studying the card layout when someone approached his table. Cautiously, he looked up.
“Hello, Bodine.”
“Shamrock,” Bodine said, surprised to see him. “What are you doing here?”
“I live here. My brother and I own a ranch just outside of town.” Houser had never offered a share of his ranch, but Shamrock was sure that was going to happen, especially if he was able to get rid of MacCallister.
Bodine’s only response was a nod, then he dealt out three more cards.
“Do you know who killed your brother?” Shamrock asked.
Bodine looked up again. “No. Do you?”
Shamrock smiled. “Yeah, I know.”
* * *
Meagan was making a new dress for Barbara Woodward, and as Mary Ellen Summers was about the same size as Barbara, Meagan had her put it on so she could take up the hem.
“Oh, Miss Parker, this may be the most beautiful dress I have ever seen,” Mary Ellen said.
“Turn to your left just a bit,” Meagan said, though her voice was somewhat muffled because she had a mouthful of pins.
The bell on the front door dinged as someone came in.
Meagan took the pins out of her mouth and laid them on the table. “I had better go see who that is.”
Just as she stood up, two men came into the back of the shop. She recognized one of them as Captain Harris. She had never seen the other one before.
“Oh, Captain Harris, I don’t allow any of my customers back here,” Meagan said, being careful not to allow her agitation to show. She smiled. “Besides, all the displays are out front. What can I do for you?”
“I am told that you are a friend of Duff MacCallister.”
“Yes.”
“I want you to ride out to MacCallister’s ranch and see to it that he comes to town.”
“Why should I go get Mr. MacCallister? I’m sure he is too busy to come to town right now.”
“This is Lucien Bodine,” Shamrock said.
“Oh?” Meagan replied anxiously. She recognized the name.
“You may recall that it was MacCallister who killed Mr. Bodine’s brother.”
Meagan didn’t answer.
Shamrock pulled his pistol and pointed it at Mary Ellen, who had been watching the conversation with an expression that was halfway between fear and curiosity.
“Oh!” Mary Ellen said, startled at seeing the gun pointed toward her.
“If he does not come to town within two hours, I will kill this girl,” Shamrock said.
“What? Have you gone crazy?”
“And if I see the sheriff come through the front door, the girl dies.”
“Oh, Miss Parker!” Mary Ellen said in a choked voice.
Meagan held out her hand. “Don’t do anything,” she said. “I’ll get Duff.”
Shamrock looked, pointedly, toward the grandfather clock that stood against the wall.
“Now you have only one hour and fifty-nine minutes. You’d better get started.”
“I’ll be back, Mary Ellen. I promise you, I’ll be back,” Meagan said as she headed for the door.
* * *
Elmer was the first one to see Meagan as she came riding up the road at a gallop. When he stepped out to meet her, he saw that the horse was covered in sweat.
“Here, girl, what’s wrong? Why would you come galloping in like that?” Elmer asked.
“Oh, Elmer, get Duff. He has to come to town!” Meagan said, the tone of her voice reflecting her distress.
Elmer didn’t have to go for Duff, he had just noticed her and was coming to greet her, but when he saw the condition of the horse, and the expression on her face, his smile faded.
“Meagan! What is it, lass?”
“Oh, Duff, Captain Harris is holding Mary Ellen! They say if you aren’t in town by three o’clock, they’ll kill her.”
“They?”
“Lucien Bodine is with him.”
Duff nodded. “I wondered when he might show up. What I don’t understand is his connection to Harris.”
“Duff, I . . .” Meagan started. “You know he wants to kill you. I would say don’t go, but . . .”
“I understand. The lass is in danger. Of course I’ll go.”
“Wang and I will go with you,” Elmer said.
“Not with, ahead of me,” Duff said. “I dinnae want us to be seen riding in together. You and Wang go in alone and . . .”
“I know,” Elmer said. “Take a look around.”
“Aye.”
“I’m going back with you,” Meagan said.
“There is nae need for you to go back. ’Twould be much safer for you here.”
“I promised Mary Ellen that I would be back. I’ll not be going back on that promise.”
Duff nodded. “Aye, Meagan, I understand.”
Duff and Meagan gave Elmer and Wang a fifteen-minute head start, then they started out as well.
* * *
“Here he comes,” Shamrock said, looking through the front window of the dress emporium. “That’s him, the tall feller ridin’ alongside the woman.”
* * *
Duff stopped in front of the leather goods store, which was at the far end of the street Meagan’s Dress Emporium was on. Dismounting, he tied off both his and Meagan’s horses.
“I want you to stay here until this is finished,” he said.
Duke Rudd came out of his leather goods store, and the druggist, Harry White, came out of the apothecary that was next door.
“What’s goin’ on?” Rudd asked.
Duff held his hand out. “Best you stay out of the street,” he said as he loosened the pistol in his holster, stepped out into the middle of the street, and started walking toward the dress emporium.
“Bodine!” he called. “Bodine, I’m the man who killed your brother. If you have an argument, take it up with me and turn the young lass free.”
Duff’s shout alerted several of the citizens of the town who were going about their business on Clay Street, which was Duff’s intention. They hurried off the street, which was his purpose.
“Bodine!” Duff called again.
From the front of Meagan’s store, a rather short, narrow-faced, hollow-cheeked man with a large, hooked nose came outside. He stepped out into the middle of the street.
* * *
Shamrock was watching through the front window of the dress shop, smiling that he had put into motion the event that would kill his brother’s principal enemy. After this, Brad would have to make him a partner in the ranch.
Because he was watching the street, he was no longer paying any attention to the young woman in his charge. Mary Ellen sneaked out through the back door, then locked it behind her to keep him from coming out after her. Once out of the building, she ran down the alley.
* * *
“My brother wasn’t much of a man,” Bodine said in a harsh, raspy voice. “If you hadn’ kilt him, I prob’ly would have gotten aroun’ to it m’ ownself someday. But you done it first, so now I’m goin’ to have to kill you.”
“’N would ye be for tellin’ me, then, Mr. Bodine, if ye had no love for your brother, why ’tis you would be wanting to kill me?”
“It just wouldn’t look good, I mean, me lettin’ you get away with killin’ my own blood like that.”
“Are you sure you’re nae doing this for the bidding of Brad Houser?” Duff asked.
Bodine shook his head. “I ain’t never heard of anyone named Brad Houser.”
“What about Paul Harris?”
“Ain’t never heard o’ him, either. Did you come to talk? Or did you come to settle this thing that’s between us?”
“I came to . . .” That was as far as Duff got before he saw Bodine’s hand start toward his pistol.
For just a split second, Duff wasn’t watching a hand dip toward a pistol, he was seeing Wang’s palm close around a pebble.
The Enfield Mark I revolver seemed to leap into Duff’s hand of its own accord and was spitting flame as Bodine was still in the midst of his draw. Duff saw a little spray of blood from the hole his bullet had put in the middle of Bodine’s chest.
Bodine dropped his gun, slapped his hand over the hole, then looked down with shock and disbelief as the blood streamed between his spread fingers. He sat down, and Duff moved up quickly, to kick the pistol away.
“You beat me,” Bodine said, almost as if fascinated by the fact that it could be done. “I didn’t think anyone could beat me but you . . . you . . .”
He took one final gasping breath, then fell on his back. By now, all the people who had left the street a moment earlier were coming back and crowding around Duff, who still held the pistol in his hand, and the prostrate form of Lucien Bodine.
* * *
“Damn!” Shamrock said aloud. “I woulda never thought anyone could beat Bodine!”
Suddenly Shamrock grew frightened. Duff MacCallister had killed Bodine, now he might be coming for him. Unless he could use the girl.
“Come here, girl, we’re goin’ . . .” Shamrock stopped in midsentence. The girl wasn’t there. “Where the hell did you go?”
Looking back out through the window, he saw the girl running toward the woman who owned the dress shop. They embraced in the middle of the street. How the hell did she get away?
The back door. Yes, she left through the back door, and Shamrock would do the same thing.
Hurrying to the back door, he tried to open it, but found it locked.
“Harris!”
The shout came from the street.
Hurrying back to the window he saw, not only Duff MacCallister, but Deputy Logan.
“Harris, come out with your hands up!” Deputy Logan called.
Shamrock opened the front door, then tossed his gun out into the street.
“I’m comin’ out!” he called. “I’m comin’ out with m’ hands up!”
* * *
Jeb Jaco had watched the gunfight from the boardwalk just in front of the Wild Hog Saloon. He was shocked by what he had seen, not only because he didn’t think Bodine could be beaten, but because he had never seen anything as fast as the Scotsman’s draw.
And now he was watching Shamrock walking down the street with his hands up.
Houser would need to be told.