She walks out into the street. She has money now, enough to last on a trip. Can she really face heading out alone? Who would ride with her? All her friends are gone. All but Mannion and he won't ride anywhere. She knows that she must go. She doesn't admit it to herself but she hopes to overtake Logan on the road, even though she doesn't know where he is headed. If she's going to do this, she must do it alone.
She squares her shoulders and puts a hand on the reassuring handle of the little derringer. She has a chance for a new life now, a chance to repent from the sins of her past. It is time to start anew.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Logan leads the horses up the narrow alley alongside the hotel. It seems too good to be true that he will get out of this town without any more trouble so he is still being cautious.
His arm throbs constantly from the exertion of loading up his horses. Being unable to use the arm makes him feel vulnerable, his gun hand is constantly needing to be occupied with other things like holding the reins of his horse.
'Deputy Tanner. I do hope this doesn't mean that you're leaving us.'
Logan whirls round to see the Sheriff stood behind him with the pearl-handled revolver held casually in his hand.
'Ah, I was just on my way to see you,' he lies.
'Really? And did you lose your badge?'
'No, I have it here.' He flicks the reins over the pommel of the saddle and reaches into his pocket to retrieve the badge.
'Why don't you wear it? Don't you want to be a deputy?' There is a bite of sarcasm in the Sheriff's voice.
'I don't think I'm cut out for it.'
The Sheriff takes the badge that Logan offers to him, all the while keeping the gun pointed at Logan's guts.
'That's really quite disappointing you know. I had hoped that making you a deputy would keep you out of trouble. I guess it hasn't worked out like that. Come with me.' He waves the gun 'I've got something to show you. It turns out there was more to McLaren's house than a bit of dynamite.'
Logan considers making a swipe for the gun or making a run for it but one-handed he'd have no chance. It was all going wrong again. His hopes of escaping the town are receding again. The Sheriff is going to lock him away for the dynamite and for killing the Mexican. He wonders if they'll try to pin Lake's death on him too.
The Sheriff ushers him to the end of the alley where they stop. A distant rumble from the bridge over the creek signals the arrival of several horses. Logan is confused, unable to fathom what the Sheriff wants to show him. Why aren't they just going straight to the jail? He wants to escape and ride away but there is still the problem of the gun pointed at him.
Rather than watching the riders coming up the street, Logan is looking at the front of Mannion's store. There is only one horse tied there now. Emily's horse has gone. She hasn't waited for him. He has missed his chance. She must have gone already. She has left without him. He tries to tell himself that he understands that she finds it difficult to forgive him for killing her friend, but it still hurts him. It hurts him more than his wounded arm. More than ever he wants to get away from Walkers Creek, if only for the chance of overtaking Emily on the road.
The riders come closer and Logan realizes that it is a posse of deputies. His last remaining chances of getting out of town are slipping away by the minute. Then he starts at the realization that there is a prisoner on a horse amongst this group. Could that be Emily? Have the deputies caught her? His emotions are torn between upset that she has been caught and delight at the chance to speak to her again.
This is all replaced with disappointment at seeing that the prisoner is not Emily at all. The deputies pull their horses to a halt alongside the Sheriff. Logan can see clearly that it is McLaren who sits bare headed on the horse with his hands tied firmly to the pommel.
'You see,' the sheriff says to Logan, 'if you'd taken being a deputy a bit more seriously you could have had the pleasure of bringing Mr. McLaren in to be hanged.'
'Hanged?'
'He killed two men. Of course we'll hang him.'
'Two?'
'Frank Lake, the man you fought with in the hotel and a man called Sanchez who used to be a friend of my father's.'
Logan takes a moment to take this in. McLaren is going to be hanged for killing the men that Logan has killed.
'How do you know he did it?'
The Sheriff bursts out laughing.
'You see,' he says, still chuckling, 'you'd really would have made a good deputy. Listen to yourself worrying about justice and fairness.'
'There are plenty of reasons to punish that man, but those murders aren't anything to do with him.'
'You really are quite slow and stupid aren't you.' The Sheriff is suddenly angry and pulls Logan away from the deputies so he can speak to him without them hearing.
Logan complains at the pain from being dragged along by his wounded arm.
'You have no right to complain to me Tanner. You just don't get it do you? Do I need to spell it out to you? Of course I know he didn't kill those men. I'm not a blind fool. You and I both know who did it.'
'Then why kill him? Your whole town is twisted.' Logan is no longer worried about what the Sheriff thinks of him. There is nothing left in the town for him, and the only person he felt any desire to protect has left. He will tell the Sheriff what he thinks of him and he doesn't care if that leaves his head in the same noose as McLaren's. 'What sort of a Sheriff are you that hangs a man you know to be innocent and makes a deputy of a man that you know is guilty? Is this all Humby's influence? Does he own you too?'
'For a man that's been protected, you're pretty ungrateful.'
'You call this protection?' he points at his bandaged arm.
'Shouldn't you be asking why anyone would want to protect you? This town has no space for traveling mercenaries and outlaws. Oh, don't look surprised, I know your background well enough. No, protecting you isn't doing the town a favor but I'm not just looking out for the town, I'm looking out for my sister too.'
Logan wonders why the Sheriff's sister has any relevance. He doubts he has even met her.
'My sister, you'll have noticed, doesn't think too highly of me and takes great care to avoid me but that doesn't stop me looking out for her. I could see she was falling for you.'
'You make as much sense as a man delirious with fever,' Logan says, interrupting, 'Who is this woman you're talking about? There's only one woman in this town that I care about--' he trails off as the pieces fall into place. The brother who offended the family so much that he was ostracized. That was no tall tale, it was the true story of her brother, the Sheriff. Emily had been trying to warn him.
'Sheriff?' one of the deputies calls out, 'We're going to put this man in the jailhouse before the townsfolk make themselves a lynching party.'
The Sheriff nods and the group moves off up the street.
Logan watches them go. The last rider is dressed in black and salutes them as he passes. It is Wilson.
'She didn't tell you did she?'
Logan cannot find the words to answer. All his ideas of the town were shifting around like colors in a kaleidoscope. Wilson is alive and well. That pleases him more than he expected. But Emily is gone and he is talking to the brother that she won't acknowledge.
'Now I see why you were finding it so hard to understand what was going on. Emily Nixon is my sister. I'm disappointed she didn't tell you that herself but I suppose I'm not surprised. I keep an eye out for her. I don't assign my deputies to watch over her because of the crimes she commits, I do it to keep her out of trouble as much as I can. I sent them to scare her into behaving herself and being a bit more careful. I didn't send you and Wilson to accompany Humby because I was worried about Humby's safety. I was worried about her. I know you care about her, even if you won't admit it.'