“They’d be about to Lone Pine,” Sophie whispered so she could not be overheard. “Maybe past that by now.”
“Lone Pine,” Molly said. “I just knew that’s the way he’d travel because it is so much prettier!”
“Well, it’s true and here’s the good news. They’ve got Ford hidden in that old medicine wagon that was parked in the alley for so long.”
Molly’s eyes lit up. “Then we can catch them on a couple of good horses!”
“If you’re woman enough for it,” Sophie taunted her.
“I am!” Molly vowed. “But you’ve already gone for one ride this morning. Can you handle another?”
Sophie giggled. “Let’s get changed and rent some good, fast horses and I’ll just show you how ready I am.”
And so the two pretty young women hurried away. In less than an hour, they were leading a pair of tall, fast horses out of the back of the local livery.
“You ladies gonna ride very far today?” the liveryman asked as he adjusted their stirrups.
“Oh,” Molly said, “I don’t think so. We’ll just be gone for the morning. Should be back by early afternoon.”
“Be careful out there,” the liveryman warned. “You never know who you’ll meet up with.”
“We’ll be careful.”
“Ford Oakley’s men are swarming into town. I gather that something is wrong at the marshal’s office.”
“Really?”
“That’s right.”
“Well,” Sophie said, “I hope it’s not serious.”
“Me too,” the liveryman said. “Those boys are real killers, and they’d think nothing of shooting the marshal if he messed up and Ford got killed.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“I’d go with you if I could get away for a few hours, just to make sure that you’ll be safe.”
“We’ll be just fine,” Molly assured the man. “As you know, we are both excellent riders and with these two fast horses … well, no one could catch us anyway.”
“That’s true enough,” the liveryman had to admit. “Just be careful and don’t lame ‘em. They’re the best that I’ve had in a long, long time.”
“We’ll be very careful,” Sophie promised as she reined out of the livery toward the alley.
“Hey!” the man called. “Why are you starting off through the alley?”
Molly frowned. “Well, we just think it better if two young ladies like ourselves don’t advertise an unescorted outing. Don’t you agree?”
“Sure,” the liveryman said. “I think that’s a smart thing to do. There might be some hard-cases out on the main street, and they’d see you two innocent young ladies and might decide to follow.”
“Exactly!” Sophie said. “So don’t tell a soul that we’ve gone.”
“You can count on me!”
“Good!”
Sophie and Molly rode through the alley heading south. But when they were out of sight, they angled their rented horses east toward Lone Pine and the Ruby Mountains.
“How long will it take to get there?”
“About four hours,” Molly replied. “We can take the shortcut since we don’t have to follow the road.”
Sophie thought that was an excellent idea. She preferred to take life’s shortcuts whenever and wherever possible.
Chapter 11
Red Kane sat in a saloon opposite Marshal Wheeler’s office and watched as Molly Bean guarded the marshal’s door. Kane was a big man and although once brutishly powerful, he had now gone mostly to fat. His red hair was thinning, and his aging pale skin had begun to crust and bleed from too much Nevada sun. Kane drank his whiskey straight from a bottle, and a cigarette dangled loosely from his chapped lips.
“What do you think is going on over there?” Deke said as he joined his leader.
Kane squinted, blue eyes blank and expressionless. When he spoke, his cracked lips barely moved around his cigarette. “I think that those two women are trying to find out where the Hell them lawmen have taken Ford.”
“So you think that Marshal Wheeler knows?”
“Yeah,” Kane muttered, “I’m sure he does.”
Deke, like his boss, was not a man who appreciated the subtleties of life. “Then me and some of the boys oughta just go back there and beat the Hell outa Marshal Wheeler until he tells us! Honest, Kane, me and the boys are just plain worn out after screwing around with all this. Instead of waiting to ambush that stagecoach and spring Ford, we shoulda-“
“Stop waggin’ your gawddamn tongue!” Kane snapped. “Would you just look at that Flanigan woman.”
Both outlaws stared through the window as Sophie straightened her dress.
“What do you make of it?” Deke asked, his hot breath fogging the window.
“She looks mussed up to me,” Kane answered. “I think that old marshal has been fucking Sophie Flanigan right there in his office.”
Deke guffawed. “Aw, come on, Red! Now why would she be screwin’ the marshal in his office at this time in the morning? She’s a handsome woman and could have a man like either of us, if she wanted.”
“I know that,” Kane said, “but Sophie Flanigan don’t do nothing unless she’s got something to gain. My money says that she screwed the marshal while her friend, Molly Bean, guarded the door and that the both of ‘em are in cahoots tryin’ to learn where those lawmen have taken Ford.”
“But why’d that be so important to them two women? What do they care about Ford?”
“Because they hate him for diddlin’them both, and besides that, there’s that kid that Ford beat over the head so that he can’t think right anymore.”
Kane dipped his double chins. “I tell you, those women are willin’ to do any damn thing in order to kill Ford. That’s why they’re messin’ with the marshal.”
“I dunno,” Deke wheedled. “I still say it’d be a lot simpler just to pay another visit to Marshal Wheeler and knock the shit outa him until the old bastard breaks down and tells us everything he knows.”
But Red Kane shook his head. “The trouble with that idea is that Marshal Wheeler is on good terms with Judge Meeks, and that old sonofabitch is on good terms with the federal marshal in Carson City. If we rough up Wheeler, the whole thing could come down on our heads, and Ford wouldn’t be a damn bit happy with us for doin’ that. It could backfire.”
“He’s even going to be less happy if that federal marshal and Deputy Trout give him a necktie party in Colorado.”
“I know that,” Kane said, watching as Molly and Sophie hurried away.
Kane stood up and took another pull on his bottle and a last drag on his cigarette, which he then dropped and ground under his heel. “What we are going to do is keep a sharp eye out on them two pretty women.”
“I’ll be happy to do that,” Deke offered.
“We’ll both do it,” Kane decided. “I got a feeling that they’re about to fly the coop.”
Deke looked over at the bar toward their two partners. “What about Willard and Gus? Shall I tell ‘em to go and saddle up our horses?”
Kane thought a moment, and then he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll follow them women and meet you back here when I know which way the wind is blowin’.”
“Whatever you say,” Deke told the big red-haired man. “The main thing is that we just gotta find where they took Ford and kill that federal marshal along with Deputy Trout.”
“Trout will be easy,” Kane said. “He’s mine. It’s that big marshal that I expect might die hard.”
“Well,” Deke said, “there’s the four of us against the two of them, and then there’s Ford to consider. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’s already killed the both of them lawmen and is heading right now for the money.”
“I hope so,” Kane said, face reddening with anger. “That close-mouthed sonofabitch is the only one that knows where that four thousand dollars from our last bank job is hid, and that worries Hell out of me.”