Also, Lester was too scared to be lying well enough to pull the wool over Nick’s eyes. Nick had lost count of how many chances he’d given Lester to trip up on his stories. So far, Lester hadn’t tripped over much of anything other than his own tongue. Lester could be an exceptional liar, but Nick’s eyes were telling him to go along with his gut reaction.
The surrounding landscape was jagged and made up of sharp lines. Even a man lying on his belly could be spotted if he was trying to spy on Nick and Lester from afar. If such a man was closer, he would have made noise, disturbed a rabbit, or done something else to tip his hand. If he was good enough to avoid doing all of those things, then there wasn’t much Nick could do about him.
“Come on,” Nick said as he turned Kazys toward a wide, rocky slope that led to the east.
Lester leaned back in his saddle as if that would put him out of harm’s way. “Where are you taking me?”
“You came along this far, you might as well come along for the rest.”
“Y…you’re gonna shoot me and bury me with Cobb.”
“I dragged Barrett a hell of a lot farther than this. If I’d wanted you dead, I would’ve done it a long time ago, just to keep from hearing you whine so much.”
Lester glanced around, but found nothing to give him any solace. Reluctantly, he nodded and gave his reins a limp-wristed flick.
Waiting until Lester caught up with him, Nick got Kazys moving just fast enough to keep pace with the other man. “What did you say your name was?”
“Lester.”
“I’d rather not kill you, Lester. In fact, I’d like you to get a good look at what I’m about to do and then go tell all your friends or cousins about it. In fact, tell everyone you know. I’ll even give you some money so you can buy drinks at all the saloons from here to Texas, have a few beers, and tell the story some more.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“I couldn’t care less,” Nick replied. “I’m not the sort who enjoys swapping stories with a bunch of drunks. In my youth, perhaps, but I did plenty of other stupid things back then that I’ve also given up.”
“But…why would you want me telling folks about you? Don’t you know there’s a price on your head?”
“I know,” Nick said.
Lester blinked and waited. When a hammer didn’t fall for what he’d already said, he decided to keep going. “I heard you were a killer. I heard about some of the things you’ve done and if even half of them stories are true…” He couldn’t even finish that sentiment as the conclusions ran through his mind.
Holding up his gun hand, Nick said, “Take a look at that.”
When he caught a full look at the gnarled remains of Nick’s fingers and the scars that were smeared across his flesh like so much tar, Lester winced.
Nick recognized that look, having seen it on plenty of other faces. “That’s just a taste of what I’ve been through.” He lowered his hand and let his eyes settle upon the trail that wound in front of him. “Whatever’s out there…whoever’s out there…it all gonna come to me whether I run from it or not. After a while, a man just gets sick of running.”
“So why bother to come here?” Lester asked. “You need your money back?”
Nick shook his head. “You ever see one of your friends get killed?”
“No, but my brother was stabbed in Dodge City when I was nine.”
“All right, then. How’d you like it if a bunch of assholes decided to dig up your brother, pull the rings off his fingers, rip the pins off his suit, or take whatever else you might have buried him with?”
“I don’t suppose I’d like that too much.”
“There you go.”
Something caught Nick’s eye. It wasn’t much more than a small movement to his left, but it didn’t blend in with the rest of the movement around him.
Nick had come too far to divert his path now. The grave was somewhere just ahead, and it was in a spot that would allow him to get a good look in all directions. His memories were of a pristine spot with nothing but open land for miles around. The land around him now seemed to rise up and close in on him like a set of giant hands getting ready to slowly crush him between them.
Kazys let out a few strained breaths as he negotiated a steep incline. Some loose rocks slipped from beneath his hooves, but the horse never lost his balance. Lester’s mount was having a bit more trouble, but still managed to climb the incline and get to the level ground on top.
The first thing to hit Nick’s senses was how perfectly the spot matched the memories he’d been sifting through moments ago. At the top of the incline, the land flattened out into a wide stretch covered by rust-colored soil. The dirt was hard and full of rocks, which made it heavy and reluctant to blow too far no matter how much the wind howled. A few trees sprouted here and there, but were outnumbered by tough, thorny bushes.
The spot was somewhat larger than Nick had recalled and since he hadn’t marked the grave with so much as a simple cross, he’d wondered if he’d be able to find it.
As it turned out, Nick didn’t have any trouble at all finding Barrett’s grave. All he needed to do was look for the hole that had been torn into the ground and the broken wooden planks sticking up like crooked, petrified fingers.
TWENTY
Nick dropped from Kazys’s back and ran to the desecrated grave. Stopping at the edge of the hole, he looked straight down at the mess of broken wood, which led down to a skeleton lying on its side. Nick dropped to his knees and began pulling the splintered boards up one at a time.
He cleared a spot toward one end of the hole, climbed down into it and reached toward the remains with both hands. Everything was there, right down to the bandanna Nick had tied around Barrett’s head. Everything, that is, except for the jewels that Nick had given to his friend for safekeeping.
Nick didn’t even realize he’d climbed back out of the hole. One moment he was standing more than waist- deep in dirt. The next moment, he was rushing over to grab Lester by his arm.
“Who did this?” Nick snarled as he pulled Lester closer to his level.
It was nothing but sheer panic that kept Lester from being pulled off of his horse altogether. His feet were wedged firmly in the stirrups and his hands were gripping the saddle horn so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. “Did what?” Lester asked.
Shifting so he could stretch out his other arm and point toward the grave, Nick snarled, “That! Tell me who did that or you’ll be buried in there with what’s left of Barrett!”
“I don’t know!”
“All right.” With that, Nick took hold of Lester with both hands and pulled him completely from his saddle.
Lester came along kicking and squirming. Although his hands were peeled from the saddle horn, one of his feet remained ensnared within the stirrup. After a few strong pulls, Nick got Lester’s foot loose and dragged him toward the grave. Once he was certain there was no way he was about to break free of Nick’s grasp, Lester began to talk.
“I told you I’m not the only one who knows about this!” Lester squealed. “It could’ve been anyone else who heard the rumors! Anyone else would’ve come looking for all that money!”
“But you seemed to know a hell of a lot,” Nick said as he continued dragging Lester along. “You and your cousins had a good idea of where to look and what was here.”
“Yeah, but—”
“And don’t try to tell me that anyone would be stupid enough to spread around where this spot was when they were intending on getting those jewels for themselves!”
As Lester tried to come up with something to say that would get him out of this mess, he found himself being hauled up by his shirt. Nick’s hands may have been wounded, but his gnarled fingers clamped around Lester’s shirt
