“Yes, well, like I said, the picture folks painted of Jensen after the train wreck just didn’t quite fit with what happened here. But then, the evidence is pretty strong that he did shoot Hayes after the train wreck.”
“I don’t doubt that he did that,” Cummins said. “I mean, we already know he was a killer, but he was in chains, and he didn’t have a gun, so the truth is, I’m wonderin’ how he did it.”
“Hayes had a gun, didn’t he?” Kyle asked.
“Yes.”
“We didn’t find a gun with Hayes,” Kyle said. “So I figure that the train wreck must’ve knocked Hayes out, and that’s when Jensen got the keys, unlocked his shackles, then took the deputy’s pistol. After that, he needed to keep Hayes from coming to and identifying him, so he shot deputy with his own gun.”
“Damn, that was a brand-new gun, too,” Duke said. “I was with him when he bought it off the gun salesman that come through here. A Smith and Wesson .44. Yes, sir, Hayes set some store in that gun.”
“Did you say it was a .44?”
“Yes.”
“That’s funny.”
“What’s funny?”
Kyle reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a bullet. He showed it to the others. “This is the bullet that killed Hayes,” he said. “I had the undertaker extract it for me.”
“So?”
“This is a .36 caliber.”
“You sure that’s a .36 caliber?” Cummins asked. “Sometimes a bullet will get all bent out of shape when it’s been fired. I’ve seen it a lot of times, and I know you have, too.”
“Does this bullet look all out of shape to you?” Kyle asked.
Cummins shook his head. “No, it don’t. But that don’t mean nothin’. Jensen must’ve had a pistol hid on him somewhere.”
“Are you telling me that you arrested him, tried him, found him guilty, and sentenced him, but in all that time you never bothered to search him for a pistol?”
“Well, it might have been one of them derringers,” Duke said. “They’re little and you can hide them real good.”
“The only derringers I know are .41 caliber,” Kyle said.
“Yeah, well, it don’t make no difference whether Jensen kilt Hayes or not. We know he kilt Gillis, and that’s what he was bein’ sent to Yuma for.”
“That’s true,” Kyle agreed. “No matter what happened with Hayes, it doesn’t let Mr. Jensen off the hook. He still stands convicted for killing Deputy Gillis. But it does make my job of finding out what actually happened to Hayes and the money from the train robbery a little more difficult.”
“Money?” Cummins said. “What money from the train robbery?”
“The train was carrying a money shipment of twenty thousand dollars,” Kyle said. “That money is gone, Jensen is gone. It stands to reason that he took it.”
Cummins whistled. “Twenty thousand dollars. Damn, what I couldn’t do with that money.”
There was a disapproving expression on Kyle’s face as he looked at Cummins.
“What are you lookin’ at?” Cummins asked.
“What do you mean, what you couldn’t do with that money?” Kyle asked. “That’s a strange thing for a law enforcement officer to say.”
“Hell, it ain’t like I was thinkin’ on stealin’ it,” Cummins defended. “I was just commentin’ on how nice it would be to have that much money. Don’t you agree?”
“It isn’t something I let myself think about,” Kyle replied.
Chapter Seventeen
“Marshal? Marshal Cummins?”
The lawmen looked around to see Joe Claibie standing by the bar. He was holding one of the wanted dodgers.
“Yeah, Claibie, what is it?” Cummins asked.
Claibie held up one of the wanted flyers that Kyle had brought with him. “Crack give me this here dodger a couple minutes ago.”
“Yes, I told him to hand some of them out.”
“Well, the thing is, him givin’ me this flyer and all makes me think I know who it was now that stole your horse.”
“Stole my horse?” Cummins said in an agitated voice. “What do you mean? When was my horse stole?”
“Not the horse you ride,” Claibie said. “I’m talkin’ about the sorrel you was goin’ to sell. You mind that sorrel?”
“Yes, of course I remember it.”
“Well, sir, I’m right sure that I know who stole it. It was this here same fella that you got on the wanted poster here.”
