CHAPTER 30
Mackey was not expecting to see Billy leaning against the jailhouse where his rocking chair ought to be. It took him a moment to understand why.
His rocking chair was not there.
Billy held up his hands as Mackey drew nearer. “Don’t get upset.”
Mackey looked down at the grooves that had been well-worn into the boardwalk’s wooden slats by the rails of his chair. “What happened?”
“Sandborne said a couple of Grant’s men tried to seize the jailhouse while we were gone,” Billy told him. “Sandborne managed to hold them off, but they kicked your chair and my bench to pieces before he did.”
“Seize the jailhouse?” The words did not make any sense to him. “It’s federal property. He can’t just seize it.”
“His men claimed they could on account of us abandoning it,” Billy explained. “Fortunately, Sandborne was here and held them off until Underhill pulled them back. The kid hasn’t left since it happened. He takes that deputy badge we pinned on him real seriously.”
Mackey had done it as an afterthought before they left. He wanted the kid to keep an eye on the place to make sure no one thought to break in and steal the rifles. He never thought he was putting the young man in any danger. “They hurt him?”
“He’s fine,” Billy said. “Hasn’t left since they tried to take the place. Not that he’s been wanting for company.”
Mackey figured he meant the girl who had been sweet on Joshua after they had saved her from Darabont, but he didn’t care about that just then. He didn’t even care that the old rocking chair had been busted up.
He cared about how he could use all of this to his advantage.
Without looking, he asked Billy, “How many men does Grant have watching us from across the street?” He knew someone would be there. Grant had them followed from the moment he had stepped off the train. He wouldn’t let up now.
“Same five Hancock boys we ran off at the station earlier today,” Billy told him. “Standing around the entrance of that building like a bunch of jackals, just waiting to see what we’re going to do.”
“Good. That idiot Brenner with them?”
“Out front like he’s always been there,” Billy said. “Boy was a farmer before he came here, now he’s taken Underhill’s place.”
“Doesn’t make him a bad man.”
“Doesn’t make him a lawman, either,” Billy countered.
“And him being a Hancock man probably doesn’t make him too popular with the rest of his men,” Mackey said.
Billy looked down and smiled. “I know that look. You’ve got something cooking.”
Mackey would not be sure until he heard it himself. Many’s the idea that sounded good in his head only to sound like garbage when he aired it out. “A lot of Underhill’s boys may not have liked him much, but they respected him. I’ll bet anything that his men won’t like being stepped over for a Hancock man, much less five of them. Do you?”
“No,” Billy said. “I’d imagine not. You plan on using that resentment against Grant, don’t you?”
“I plan on giving it a try.” He glanced over his shoulder. “Right now.”
Mackey looked over and saw all five men grinning at him from the entrance of the Municipal Building. He turned so the barrel of his holstered Peacemaker was aimed in their direction. It would cut down on the firing time if it came to that.
Al Brenner saw Mackey looking at him and called out to him from across Front Street. “You look like you’re missing something, Marshal. Like maybe that famous rocking chair of yours.”
“As a matter of fact, I am,” Mackey answered back as a wagon moved past them along the thoroughfare. “But the chair can wait. I was hoping you might be able to tell me where Mad Nellie is.”
Al began walking down the steps of the Municipal Building. “That’s a name she doesn’t much care for, mister.”
“Didn’t ask you what she likes to be called.” Mackey moved his hand to his belt, close enough to draw the Colt if needed, but not enough to provoke him. “I asked you where she was. And I don’t like repeating myself.”
“Can’t rightly say.” Brenner kept walking down the stairs. “But I wouldn’t head back up to Hancock if I were you. You’ll find it a lot less friendly toward you this time around.”
Mackey could see he was itching for a fight, and this was his chance to goad him into one. “Never had a problem handling your people before, Al. Just like I didn’t have a problem cutting you down to size at the Ruby. Just like we had you pinned down in the woods outside Chidester. Quaking in the branches all alone like a scared rabbit.”
“Closer to a bunny, I’d say,” Billy added. “His teeth were chattering so loud, scared all the game away.”
Al Brenner stopped at the bottom step of the Municipal Building. His hands balled into fists and he shook with rage.
It was almost too easy, Mackey thought. James Grant had made a mistake putting this youngster in charge, and Mackey was going to make him pay for it.
Mackey glanced back at Billy. “See that? Still quivering.”
“I’d say quivering is just about the only thing he’s good at.”
Brenner bellowed before charging at him across Front Street in a blind rage.
His four relatives thought about joining him, but the sight of Billy’s Colt clearing leather made them think better of it. He stepped aside as Brenner came running.
Mackey didn’t move.
Brenner leapt up on the jailhouse porch, showing surprising agility for such a big man.
But he wasn’t agile enough to stop in time to avoid Mackey’s punch to the throat.
The blow brought Brenner crashing to his knees. His eyes bulged as he struggled to get air into his lungs.
Mackey drew his Peacemaker, kicked Brenner in the ribs, and brought the handle of the big Colt down on the back of his head, laying him out cold.
Mackey stepped on Brenner’s back and aimed the Colt at the Hancock men across the street. “Any of you boys want some while it’s hot, come and get it.” Out of the corner of his mouth, he spoke to Billy. “I’ll cover them while you go inside and get the shackles. Have Sandborne help you drag Brenner into a cell.”
Billy went into the jailhouse and Mackey kept the pistol aimed on the men. They were pitched forward and wondering if they should try to save their kin or wait for a better time.
“Any of you boys tired of living can either jump off that porch or go for your pistols. The result will be the same either way.”
The men stood upright and seemed to change their mind. The one with blond, scraggily hair beneath a faded bowler yelled out, “You’re a dead man, Mackey.”
“So you say.” The marshal grinned. “But what are you going to do about it?”
But neither the man in the bowler hat nor his kin had a chance to do anything before three of Underhill’s men came running out of the Municipal Building, rifles at the ready, only to come up short when they saw Mackey aiming the Peacemaker in their general direction.
The one he remembered as Edison yelled, “Whoa, Mackey. Put the gun down. What the hell’s going on out here?”
“You promise you’ll keep those boys covered?”
Edison looked around at the four Hancock men and shoved one of them back up the stairs. “Get inside before you damned fools get yourselves killed.”
Only the blond man in the bowler resisted. “You can’t talk to us like that, you damned piker. Al is the chief now. You do what we say.”
Edison shoved him even harder up the stairs. One of the other policemen gave Blondie a boot to the backside for good measure.
Mackey holstered the Colt before the policemen turned around. Edison kept his hands visible and his rifle at his side. So did the men with him. “You mind telling me what the hell that was all about?” He looked closer at the man Mackey had pinned to the boardwalk. “Is that Chief Brenner?”
Mackey stepped aside as Billy and Sandborne came out, clapped Brenner’s hands in shackles and dragged the big man inside. Billy heeled the jailhouse door shut behind him.
“That’s Al Brenner,” Mackey called back, “but he’s not the police chief anymore. You are.”
Edison took a step back. “You might be a federal now, but you don’t have a say. Only the mayor does.”
“Only as long as he’s the mayor,” Mackey said. “Because I’m on my way in there to arrest him right now on conspiracy to murder a peace officer. That peace officer was me. He so much as admitted it before he charged at me.”
The three policemen looked at each other. One of them called out, “You’d better be able to prove that.”
Mackey inclined his head toward the jail. “Brenner’s all the proof I need. He was one of the men who tried to kill me while me and some others were escorting Mr. Van Dorn to Laramie. And he did it on Mayor Grant’s orders.”
“That’s awful thin,” Edison said.
“It’s thick enough to make you police chief if you want it,” Mackey said. He had intended on using the resentment against the Hancocks to his advantage, but he hadn’t figured out who the new chief would be. Edison would be as good a choice as anyone else on the force who was not a Hancock. “Unless you’re happy taking orders from those inbred sons of bitches Grant put in front of you, then Brenner can remain chief.”
Edison looked at the two men on either side of them, and from even at that distance, Mackey could see they had reached an agreement. If there was one thing a lawman could always bank on, it was the self-interest of other people.
“The mayor’s been acting a mite squirrely lately,” Edison called out. “Made us serve a writ to seize your jail. That boy you’ve got in there held us off before Underhill told us to go away. Come to think of it, the mayor might not be in his right mind.”
Mackey liked where this was headed. “Sounds like a question of competency. Something for a judge to decide.”
“Certainly does.” Edison ran a hand across the stubble on his chin. “We also kind of busted up the bench Billy likes to set on sometimes. Your rocking chair, too.”
Mackey hid his anger about his chair. “That was then. Today’s a different day, isn’t it, Chief?”
Edison’s face broke into a wide grin. “Glad to hear it. But I’m afraid you can’t arrest the mayor here today.”
Mackey felt the good will the two had built up between them across the thoroughfare melt away. “Why not?”
“On account of him not being here, is why.” Edison pointed toward the Van Dorn House. “He’s just finishing up moving in there, all right and proper like. If you want him, you’ll find him there.”
Mackey tipped his hat and went to go inside the jailhouse to fetch his Winchester when Edison added, “Might look better if you had a proper escort while you were going about the execution of your duties. The three of us would be happy to join you.”
“Much obliged.” Mackey knocked on the jailhouse door, and Billy opened it. “Hand me my Winchester, will you?”
Billy stood at the half-opened door. He had the Greener cocked and at his side. “You really going to let them back you?”
“I’d rather it was you,” Mackey admitted, “but I need you and Sandborne here in case the Hancocks try to spring Brenner. Edison and his men might not be much, but they’ll keep the rest of the force off my back.”
Billy ducked back inside, pulled down a rifle from the rack, and handed it to Mackey. “Bring that bastard back alive and let’s end this thing once and for all.”
“Lock the door,” Mackey said, “and shoot anyone who isn’t me.”
Billy locked the door, and Mackey looked across the street at Edison and his men. “You ready, Chief?”
Mackey looked down the alley beside the Municipal Building and cut loose with a stream of Spanish words.
“What the hell was that about?” Edison asked, “Who you talking to?”
“Doesn’t concern you.” Mackey began walking toward the Van Dorn House. “Let’s go to work.”