“What about Ike and Caleb?”
“We’ll look after them.”
Maggie took a deep breath and then shook her head. “No. Not unless you let me take Caleb with me.”
“I said—” Garth began.
“I want my son with me.”
Gonzalez spoke up, saying, “The
Garth bristled. “I reckon you’ve forgot who’s givin’ the orders here.”
“I’m just saying that if you want me to cooperate and help you,” Maggie told him, “you have to give me what I want, too.”
Garth put a hand on the butt of his gun. “I could just shoot all three of you and be done with it.”
“And then you wouldn’t have anyone to spy for you,” Maggie pointed out. “I suppose one of you could ride into town and handle that chore, but you can’t be sure that Bodine or one of the others won’t spot you. They don’t know me, though.”
That wasn’t strictly true. She had met Matt Bodine—but he didn’t know her real name or that she had any connection to the outlaws who had been trying to free Joshua Shade.
“How about if I go ahead and kill your husband right now,” Garth said. “Gonzalez, go kill him if the lady doesn’t get on her horse and ride.”
“No, please,” Maggie cried. “I’ll go, just please don’t hurt Ike or my son.”
“Don’t worry.”
She did worry, though. That sense of fatalism still gripped her. They were all doomed, she thought. They had been ever since the outlaws had ridden up to the wagon. No one could change that.
But if anyone could, a tiny voice insisted in the back of her head, it was a man like Matt Bodine…
Chapter 29
The rest of the night passed quietly in the livery barn. After they gave Shade his supper, he ranted and raved some inside the wagon, but eventually he dozed off. Matt, Sam, Thorpe, and Everett took turns sleeping, with at least two of them always awake and alert.
After breakfast the next morning, Thorpe told Matt, “Go down to the train station and find out if that clerk’s heard any more about when the trestle will be repaired. If he hasn’t, tell him to come up here and let us know as soon as he does hear anything.”
Matt nodded and tucked his Winchester under his arm. Sam and Everett followed him to the back door to guard it as they let him out.
Pancake Flats wasn’t any more exciting this morning than it had been the night before, Matt noted as he walked toward the depot. Probably the only time the place really woke up was when a train came through.
“Bodine!” a voice called from behind him.
Matt swung around, instinctively bringing up the rifle and dropping into a crouch. His finger eased on the trigger when he saw the portly figure of the local lawman. Marshal Lopez had come to an abrupt halt as Matt’s Winchester pointed at him, and now he backed off, hands up.
“Don’t shoot, Bodine,” Lopez said. “I didn’t mean to spook you!”
Matt relaxed. “What do you want, Marshal?”
“I heard about what happened last night, with Dub Branch and Court Wesley, I mean. Those hombres were good with their guns.”
“Not good enough,” Matt said. “You’re not thinkin’ about tryin’ to arrest me, are you, Marshal?”
“No, no,” Lopez said quickly. “Their amigos told me what happened, how Dub and Court were drunk and Dub tried to molest some woman. They said you gave ’em a chance to go on with nobody gettin’ hurt, but they slapped leather first.”
Matt nodded. “That’s the way it happened, all right.”
“I just thought I should warn you, even though you’re in the clear with the law, those boys had some hot- headed friends around here who might not see it that way. I ain’t sayin’ they’ll come after you, but, ah…just when were you plannin’ on leavin’?”
Lopez didn’t care what happened, as long as it didn’t happen in his town and he didn’t have to deal with the aftermath, Matt thought. He said, “That all depends on when the train comes through. I was on my way to the station to check on that now.”
Lopez took off his hat and scratched his head. “The sooner the better, I’m thinkin’.”
“Sooner will be fine with us, too, but it’s sort of out of our hands. We have to wait for that railroad repair crew to do its part.”
“I’ll walk with you, if that’s all right.”
Matt shrugged. “Suit yourself, Marshal.” As they fell in step alongside each other, he took the opportunity to ask, “You know a young woman named Jessica Devlin?”
“Devlin?” Lopez repeated with a frown. “I don’t think so. No Devlins around here as far as I know.”
