IT’S A LOT TO THINK ABOUT,” IKE SAID, THE DAY THEY made the deal.
“You want me to go over it again?” Wyatt asked.
“Go over it again.”
“Wells Fargo is offering a reward of twelve hundred dollars apiece for the men who attacked that stagecoach. That’s thirty-six hundred dollars for the three of them.”
Ike nodded. “I just gotta tell you where to find ’em.”
“And I’ll do the rest.”
“You’ll do the rest,” Ike said. “And I get the reward.”
“You get the reward.”
Ike frowned. “Why don’t you want the reward?”
“I’ll get the credit for bringing them in, and that’ll be better than money.”
Ike frowned harder, suspicious again. “Better than money?”
“Yes, because I’m running against Johnny Behan for sheriff next year. If I arrest Bill Leonard and Henry Head and Jim Crane, it’ll look real good to the voters. And Doc Holliday will be in the clear.”
“Doc Holliday,” Ike said. “I don’t like him.”
“I know, Ike, but I do. He’s a real good dentist. He’ll fix you up if you get a toothache.”
“He talks too fast. No. He talks slow, but he says . . .”
“Too many words,” Wyatt supplied, for he, too, found Doc wordy and confusing.
Ike looked over his shoulder, getting nervous about one of the Cow Boys seeing him with an Earp. “Thirty-six hunnert. For the three of them.”
“It’s a lot of money,” Wyatt said. “You could use it to get away from your old man. Go back to California. Maybe open another café.”
“I’m a good cook,” Ike said, confident about this. “I can open another café.”
“And you can take your sisters with you, so your old man can’t hurt them anymore. You could make a new life, Ike. Start fresh. I had sisters, too,” Wyatt reminded him. “It’s important to take care of them when your old man is a mean sonofabitch.”
Ike’s face darkened. “He is. He is a mean sonofabitch. I had to protect the kids.”
“Me, too, Ike. That’s just how it was for me.”
Ike circled around again. “What about Billy?”
Ike had taken care of Billy, his younger brother, the way Wyatt took care of Morgan. “He can go with you to California if you want,” Wyatt said, “but I think he gets along with your old man.”
“Yeah. Yeah, Billy gets along with the old man,” Ike agreed. “So I just gotta find out where Henry and Jim is.”
“And Bill Leonard, too.”
“Bill Leonard, too. I tell you. I get the reward. You get the votes. And I can take care of my sisters.”
“And Doc Holliday gets clear. You got it now,” Wyatt told him. “Don’t tell anybody else, Ike. This has to be our secret.”
“Our secret,” Ike said. “Don’t tell anybody else.”
“I won’t either,” Wyatt promised.
And he kept his word, but it wouldn’t matter in October. Not to Ike. Not to anybody.