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ALISTAIR TOTTERED ANOTHER step and then fell to his knees.
“Forget justice, Lorne,” he said. “Only we two can sort this out.”
Lorne backed away a long pace to stand beside Carter.
“I’m in Deputy Lyle’s custody,” he said. “We’ll let justice take its course.”
“We can’t do that.” Alistair wiped a red-streaked arm over his equally bloodied brow. “You and I both know it was your decision for Abe to bring down that tunnel.”
“He didn’t,” Lee said, standing in front of Lorne. “It was your decision.”
“Is that what Lorne said?” Alistair snorted and kneaded his bloodshot eyes with a shaking hand. “That man always was a liar.”
“Is this true, Lorne?” Lee said, turning to him.
Lorne’s eyes flashed with the hint of something that Lee had noticed in his eyes when they first met. Back then, Lee had thought it was surprise, but now he wondered if it was guilt. Lorne lowered his head and a short sob escaped his lips. Then he raised his head, a wetness gleaming in his eyes.
“I can’t lie to you anymore. The collapsed tunnel had nothing to do with Abe’s demands for more money. Alistair gave Abe that order and I didn’t oppose him.” Lorne clasped his hands together. “But believe this – I agreed that Abe should bring down an unoccupied tunnel. I reckon that didn’t satisfy Alistair, so he ensured that the miners were in the tunnel.”
“That’s a lie,” Alistair said from the ground, his voice weak.
Lee tried to gauge which one of Alistair and Lorne was telling the truth purely from their postures, but as both men hung their heads, he lowered his head, too. Carter walked between the two ranchers. He patted Lee’s shoulder and backed away until he had both men in his sights.
“We can’t decide who’s telling the truth now. I’ll arrest you both and we’ll work out who is to blame when—”
“We won’t,” Alistair said, his voice weakening by the moment. “It’ll be the word of one man against the word of another man. So we have to sort this out another way – Abe’s way – the way we should have settled our feuding long ago.”
Alistair slipped his gun from his belt and edged it up to point the shaking weapon at Lorne.
Lorne raised his hands. “Shooting me won’t prove who was responsible.”
“It won’t.” Alistair rolled on to his haunches and then staggered to his feet. “But whichever one of us is still alive in one minute can tell their story, and there isn’t anyone who can disprove what they’ll say.”
“We’re not gunslingers.”
“We’re not, but. . . .”
Alistair tried to slot his gun into its holster, but his hand was shaking so much and the blood that had dribbled from his tortured body had slicked the holster, so the barrel slid down the leather. He grabbed his arm and levered it up to rest it on his other arm, instead.
Lorne nodded. “I know. We just hire gunslingers to kill for us.”
“Now it’s time to take responsibility for what we did in Silver Gulch.”
When Alistair swayed back and forth and then stumbled to his knees, Carter raised his hands. He turned to Lee, who sighed and then shook his head.
“There’s been enough killing in Silver Gulch,” he said. “It ends now with proper justice for the murdered miners.”
A thud sounded behind Lee and when he turned around Abe had hurled himself at his guns and now clutched them in his two massive hands. Lying on his side, Abe aimed the guns up at Lee and chuckled.
“These two have to end this, and that will be proper justice.”
As Alistair and Lorne grunted their approval, Lee snorted his contempt for them all and backed away to stand beside Carter. Then Abe rolled to his feet and underhanded a gun to Lorne’s feet.
Lorne picked up the gun and slotted it into his belt. He rolled his shoulders and faced Alistair. On the ground, Alistair took deep breaths. He pressed his forehead to the dirt and levered himself back on to his haunches.
He stood up. Still he swayed. Blood continued to ooze from his battered body.
“Are you ready?” he said, holding his gun in a shaking hand and aiming it in the vague direction of Lorne.
Lorne licked his lips and widened his eyes, his stance more assured than Lee had seen before.
“Yup. Just holster your gun and we can get to it.”
“If you insist.”
Alistair turned his gun on Lorne and blasted a bullet into his shoulder. Lorne spun back and fell to the ground, clutching his wound. As he writhed, Alistair staggered forward to loom over him.
“You said we’d fight this out fairly,” Lorne said between gasps.
“I did, but I lied. I just wanted to see that hope in your eyes that you might live through this.”
Alistair ripped a bullet through Lorne’s throat, and then threw the gun aside and turned to Carter, a thin smile on his face.
“I’ve got to arrest you now, and I will find out the truth about what happened in the Silver Gulch mine,” Carter said.
Alistair sneered and then fell forward, but he threw out a leg and stopped himself tumbling to the ground.
“The only truth that matters is that twenty-seven miners died. The rest is just rich dead men squabbling over silver they never mined.”
“I’m not satisfied with—”
“Neither am I,” Lee said, pushing Carter aside. He drew his gun and aimed it at Alistair. “That shooting proved nothing. I have to know the truth. Which one of you two is responsible?”
Alistair looked down the barrel of Lee’s gun. His jaw slackened. His eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to his knees, and then keeled over on to his front. Lee hurried to Alistair’s side, dropped to his knees and threw Alistair on his back.
“Let me sleep,” Alistair said, his voice hollow, his eyes closing.
“You’re not going until you tell me who ordered those miners into the tunnel.”
Lee prized open Alistair’s eyes, but only whites were visible. Alistair chuckled, the hollow sound grating and ripping from deep inside his tortured body.
“It wasn’t me.”
“Then was it Lorne?”
In a last feeble gesture, Alistair shrugged from Lee’s grip.
“You’re acting like a lawman.” Alistair lay back, his breathing ragged and shallow, his voice fainter than the wind. “You figure it out.”
Lee shook Alistair’s shoulders, but Alistair’s head lolled back and forth. Spit dribbled from his slack mouth. Carter kneeled beside Lee and prized his hands away from Alistair.
“He’s dead,” Carter said. “He isn’t talking no more. This is over.”
“It isn’t over until I know who killed the miners. How will I ever find that out?”
“Like he said, you’re a lawman now, and so am I.” Carter patted Lee’s shoulder. “We’ll figure it out.”