The fella riding down Main Street at the moment could well be making it twenty, but he didn’t seem to be in any hurry to do it.
What surprised the lawman about this man was that he rode right up to his office and stopped. Then he reined his horse in and looked down at him.
“Can I help you?” Holcomb said.
“You the sheriff?” the stranger asked.
“That’s right.” The man dropped his arms to his sides, either to get his hand near his gun or to show off the badge on his chest. “Holcomb’s the name.”
“My name’s Thomas Shaye, Sheriff,” Thomas said. He looked up and down the street. “It’s real quiet around here.”
“A town can generally feel when trouble’s abrewin’,” the lawman explained.
“You got trouble here?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“I have an idea.”
“Your friends are in the Somerset Saloon,” Holcomb said, “if you want to join them.”
“How many?”
“Maybe twenty,” Holcomb said, “with you.”
“Nineteen, then.”
“You ain’t with them?”
Thomas was still concerned that someone was going to see them. “Can we go in your office and talk?”
“Give me one good reason.”
Thomas looked around again, then removed his badge from his pocket and showed it to the sheriff.
“Okay,” Holcomb said, getting up from his chair, “that’s a good enough reason.”
He led the way into his office.
Aaron and Ethan exchanged stories about their bank jobs, and Aaron was quite interested to hear about the woman.
“So you just rode her down?”
“The bitch stepped out in front of us, Aaron,” Ethan said. “There wasn’t any way to avoid her.”
“You never killed a woman before, Ethan,” Aaron said. “How’d you take it?”
Ethan snorted and said, “She got what she deserved.”
The bags beneath Ethan’s eyes told Aaron his younger brother had not been sleeping well. Abruptly, though, he turned his head and shouted at Rafe.
“Get back outside, we’ll want to know if that lawman is comin’ this way.”
“Right, boss.”
“Take somebody with you.”
“I’ll go,” Ben Branch said. Grabbing his beer from the bar, he followed Rafe outside, but they were too late to see Thomas going into the sheriff’s office. They both saw the horse in front, but it didn’t register with either of them as unusual. They sat down and started exchanging stories about their bosses, ignoring the deputy who was still stationed across the street.
48
“So you’ve got a posse with you?” Sheriff Holcomb asked Thomas hopefully.
“Not exactly.”
“Got one comin’ behind you.” Holcomb began to pace the length of his office.
“No,” Thomas said. “I’ve got three men waitin’ for me just outside of town. My father is the sheriff of Epitaph, me and my brothers are his deputies.”
“Sheriff Shaye?” Holcomb asked.
“That’s right.”
“So there’s only four of you?”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re after these two gangs?”
“It’s one gang,” Thomas said, “run by two brothers.”
“Wait a minute.” The lawman stopped pacing and faced Thomas. “Are we talkin’ about…the Langer gang?”
“That’s right.”
“Oh my God,” Holcomb said. “I should have guessed. The leader of the first group…he must have been Aaron.”
“I guess,” Thomas said. “We’ve been trailing Ethan Langer and his men.”
“All the way from Texas?” Holcomb asked. “Because of a…a bank job?”
“Not just a bank robbery,” Thomas said. “They killed a woman…my mother.”
“Oh,” Holcomb said. “Well…I guess that’s worth travelin’ all this way.”
“Are they all here?”
“I guess,” Holcomb replied. “Like I said, eighteen, maybe nineteen. How many hit your bank?”
“About eight, maybe nine.”
“So four of you tracking eight. I guess the odds didn’t seem so bad then.”
“How many deputies have you got?”
“Two.”
“So now it’s seven against nineteen,” Thomas said.
“Not so good, eh?”
“I guess not,” Thomas said with a shrug, “but we’ve got somethin’ they don’t.”
“What’s that?”
“My pa.”
49
James came up next to Shaye and handed him a cup of coffee. “Worried about Thomas, Pa?”
“Yeah, I am, James.”
They had camped about half an hour before, and James was making them something to eat. The coffee was ready first. They’d made good time and had managed to camp before dark.
Shaye was standing away from the fire, looking off in the direction of town.
“He’ll be okay, Pa,” James said. “Thomas is smart.”
“Yes, he is.”
“And he’s good with a gun.”
Shaye turned to look at his youngest son. “He’s good at shooting at tin cans and bottles, James,” he said, “and varmints. He’s never had to face another man with a gun. None of you has.”
“But we’re gonna have to, ain’t we?”
“Yes,” Shaye said, “yes, it’s unavoidable…unless we just quit and go back.”
“We can’t do that, Pa,” James said. “Not after what they did to Ma. We can’t! Matthew and Thomas, they’ll tell you the same thing.”
Shaye hesitated a moment, then said, “Yeah, I know they would.”
“Pa,” James said, “you told us we couldn’t think about this too much. Don’t you start doing it.”
“You’re right, James,” Shaye said. “Thank you.”
“I better get the food ready,” James said. “Matthew’ll just burn it all up.”
“Okay.”
James went back to the fire, and Shaye went back to staring off into the distance, waiting for some sign of Thomas.
“So what do you plan to do?” Holcomb asked, looking out his window. It was starting to get dark.
“I have to ride out and get my pa and my brothers,” Thomas said. “We’ll come back under cover of darkness.”
“And then what?”
“Then it’s up to you and my pa,” Thomas said. “You’re in charge here, but I think if you listen to my pa, everything’ll go okay.”
Holcomb hesitated.
“They probably won’t do anythin’ tonight,” Thomas said. “We’ll be back in a couple of hours.”
“All right,” Holcomb said. “I’ll wait here.”
“Pull your men in,” Thomas suggested.
“Why?”
“It’ll make them think they’re in the clear. Give them a false sense of security.”
“A false sense of security?” Holcomb asked. “With their numbers, I don’t think it’s so false.”
“My pa will figure out somethin’, Sheriff,” Thomas said. “Just pull your men in and wait for us here.”
“Okay, Deputy,” Holcomb said, “okay. We’ll wait for you and your father and your brothers here, but I hope you’re right about your father comin’ up with somethin’.”
“Don’t worry, Sheriff,” Thomas said, “he will.”
Shaye was the first one to hear the horse, and he looked up from his plate.
“It’s Thomas, Pa!” Matthew said.
Both James and Matthew started to rise but Shaye waved them down and stood himself, his hand on his gun.
“Let’s make sure,” he said. “Just be still.”
They both settled back down, their hands on their guns, like their father. The sound of the horse came closer, and then Thomas came bursting into the light of their campfire, his horse kicking up dust as he reined it in.