“Who?” Clay asked, turning in his seat to look toward the front door. He saw Tom, Dalton, Matt, and Rebecca coming in. He was so surprised to see Rebecca that he didn’t even notice, right away, that Mo wasn’t with them.
“Rebecca!” Clay said, standing as she came toward them. The other men stood as well. That was when they noticed that Rebecca was crying. Dalton’s eyes were also red. Seeing both of them crying preempted what would normally have been a question as to what she was doing here in Dodge City.
“What’s wrong?” he asked. “Why are you crying?”
“It’s Mo,” Rebecca replied in a choked voice.
“Mo?” Clay noticed then that Mo was not with them. “What about Mo? Where is he?”
“Mo is dead, Clay,” Tom said. “He was killed by a man named Frank Lovejoy.”
“Lovejoy? Wait, I’ve heard that name. He’s a big rancher up here, isn’t he?”
“Yes,” Dusty said. “We had a run-in with him a couple of years ago, if you remember. He wasn’t going to let any Texas cows come into Dodge because of the Texas fever, even though there weren’t any cases that year.”
“It wasn’t him, it was his son,” Rebecca said.
“Well where is Lovejoy now? Has he been arrested?”
“Better than that,” Dalton said. “He’s been killed. Matt killed him.”
“Are you in trouble, Matt?” Smoke asked.
“Not exactly,” Matt replied.
“What do you mean, not exactly?”
“The sheriff does want to hold a hearing tomorrow. I promised him I would be there.”
“It’s all right,” Dalton said. “Lovejoy drew first, and everyone in the saloon saw it.”
“What happened?” Clay asked. “What I mean is, how did this fracas get started in the first place?”
“It was all my fault,” Rebecca said. “Lovejoy tried to force himself on me, Dalton pushed him away, and Lovejoy started demanding that Dalton draw his gun. When he saw what was happening, Mo came over and Lovejoy drew on him and shot him without so much as a fare-thee-well.”
“Where is Mo, now?”
“The undertaker called for him,” Tom said.
“I expect I had better get my coat on, then go down there and make the arrangements,” Clay said.
“Clay?” Rebecca said, calling to Clay as he started toward the stairs to go up to his room.
Clay stopped and turned toward her.
“I would like to go back home with you,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am,” Clay said. “I expect your Pa is going to be real pleased about that.”
“Rebecca,” Maria said, going to her and embracing her. “Let me introduce you to a good friend.”
Maria introduced Rebecca to Sally Jensen, and then to Smoke, Falcon, and Duff.
As Dalton began to elaborate on the events of the night to Clay, Dusty, Smoke, Falcon, and Duff, Tom leaned up against the marble fireplace with his arms folded across his chest.
He watched Rebecca as she conversed easily with Maria and the others, trying to get out of his mind the thought of that beautiful body pressed up against his.
And how many others, since she came up here?
Back Trail Ranch, Ford County, Kansas
“Boss? Boss?” Doyle was in Seth Lovejoy’s bedroom, shaking him awake.
Lovejoy woke up, and startled to see Doyle in his bedroom, sat up quickly.
“What the hell? What are you doing in my bedroom?”
“Sorry, Boss, but I got some bad news for you.”
“Bad news? What kind of bad news?”
“Maybe you better come outside. We’ve got him lyin’ on your front porch.”
“You’ve got who lying on my front porch?”
“Frank, Mr. Lovejoy. He got hisself shot tonight. He’s dead.”
Still in his nightgown, Lovejoy pulled on his boots, then put on his coat and hurried out onto the front porch. Frank was lying on the porch. Someone had folded his arms across his chest.
“The undertaker wanted him, but we figured you’d rather see him first,” Doyle said.
“What happened?” Seth asked in a choked voice.
“It was some cowboy by the name of Matt Jensen,” Doyle said. “Ain’t none of us ever seen him before. He drawed on Frank and kilt him when Frank wasn’t expecting it.”
“Where is Jensen now?”
“I don’t know exactly where he is now, but tomorrow mornin’, Sheriff Bell is holdin’ a hearing, and this fella Jensen promised the sheriff that he will be there then.”
“I want you to make sure that we have that hearing packed with people who will tell the same story you just told me.”
“Yes, sir, well, ever’one who was sittin’ at the table with us will tell that story,” Doyle said. “We’ve done discussed it.”
“What about anyone else in the saloon?”
Doyle cleared his throat. “Well, sir, here’s the thing. It could be that the others didn’t see it exactly like we seen it.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Seth Lovejoy said. “We need to make sure that our story is told. Morrell?”
“Yeah, Boss?”
“I want you to go back in town, and take at least ten men with you. You’ll find all the building materials you need at my building and lumber store. I want you to build something for me, tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes, tonight. It has to be finished before the hearing starts tomorrow.”
“All right, what do you want built?”
“I’ll tell you when you have your men together,” Lovejoy said.
The Dodge House
“I know you are planning on starting the drive tomorrow,” Matt said. “So you can go ahead if you want to. If I get through this hearing all right, I’ll catch up with you.”
“We won’t be going tomorrow because we need to see to burying Mo. Also, I need to send a telegram to Big Ben to tell him what happened. But, what do you mean if you get through the hearing all right?” Clay asked. “You said the sheriff believed you, didn’t you? And didn’t all the others in the saloon back you up?”
“Yes,” Matt said.
“Don’t worry, Matt. We aren’t going to leave until this is resolved.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
When the town of Dodge City awakened the next morning, they were startled to see a fully erected hangman’s gallows out on Front Street, right in front of Lovejoy’s Building and Lumber Company. There was also a professionally painted sign, sitting on an A-frame in front of the gallows.
PUBLIC
HANGING
ON THESE GALLOWS
OF MATT JENSEN
THE MAN WHO KILLED
MY SON
FRANK LOVEJOY
“Look at that!” Dusty said he and everyone else from the cattle drive came out of the hotel the next morning. “I thought this wasn’t supposed to be anything but a hearing. Looks like they are ready to hang him.”
“I wouldn’t read too much into it,” Tom said.
“What do you mean? If the town has already built a gallows, they mean to hang him,” Dusty said.
Tom pointed to the sign on the store behind the gallows.
D ODGE CITY BUILDING AND LUMBER
Seth Lovejoy, Proprietor
“I expect Mr. Lovejoy had that built in front of his own property in order to make the others in town think that Matt is guilty.”
Everyone from the upcoming cattle drive, Clay, Maria, Dusty, Tom, Dalton, Smoke, Sally, Falcon and Duff were present for the hearing, which was held in the Ford County Courthouse, Judge Anthony Blanton presiding. There was no jury, as this was an inquest only, but the gallery was filled with both witnesses and the curious. And because this was an inquest only, there were no lawyers for the defense. There was, however, a prosecuting attorney who was representing the State of Kansas, and he handled the interrogation.