Blood Sky at Morning

saddled horses stood and there were two dark objects on the ground that Trask could not identify as being human or animal.

The men behind him caught up and fanned out to look at what Trask was seeing. None spoke a word, at first. They all just stared at Deets, trying to figure out what he was doing.

As if reading their thoughts, Trask said, “Studying tracks.”

Julio Delgado broke the silence among the men following Trask.

“That is the horse of my wife down there,” he said. “The brown one with the blaze face.”

“I know the other one,” Hector Gonzalez said. “Do you not recognize it, Fidel?”

“Yes, I know that horse, too,” Hector’s brother said.

The Mexicans all grew very excited. They slapped each other on the arms and exchanged knowing looks.

“That is the horse of Jimmy Chama,” Renaldo Valdez said. “Ay de mi.”

“Chama, ain’t he the boy what set up O’Hara for the capture?” Trask asked.

“Yep, he’s the one. A sergeant in the army out at the fort. But he said he was going to desert as soon as my men got away clean with O’Hara.”

“What’s his horse doing there, I wonder,” Grissom said. “And him not on it.”

“Carmen, oh Carmencita,” Julio breathed, “’onde stas?”

He twisted the reins in his hands as if he wanted to strangle someone.

“Let’s go see what we got,” Trask said, and dug spurs into his horse’s flanks.

Deets rode off toward a long low hill on his left. He stopped his horse, then looked at all of the other hills, a jumble of them, rising on either side and behind. He turned his horse and rode back to where the other horses stood and where the dead bodies lay. He kept looking back over his shoulder and then he rubbed a spot behind his neck.

As he rode closer, Trask saw that the dark shapes on the ground were human. And they were dead. A man and a woman.

“Al,” he said as Deets rode up.

“Found ’em like this,” Deets said. “That’s what brung them buzzards.”

“What do you make of it?” Trask asked, looking down at the body of Chama.

“Still tryin’ to sort it all out, Ben. Near as I can figger, they was three riders—Chama, that lady yonder, and one other. He might have kilt them two lyin’ on the ground, or some other riders come up and they could have kilt ’em, but that don’t make no sense, maybe.”

“What do you mean?”

“Three riders come from over yonder like they was ridin’ the stage road to Tucson. Then the tracks show four of them rode off toward them hills yonder.” Deets pointed in the direction from which he had just come.

“So, we’re dealing with four riders,” Trask said.

“Looks thataway. Less’n there’s more about.”

“What the hell do you mean, Al?”

“I mean, these are the onliest tracks I seen, Ben. Maybe this was some kind of bushwhack, and four people jumped these two, then rejoined their outfit. Could be the army, I reckon.”

“Shit,” Trask said.

The others crowded around to listen to what Deets had to say. Julio Delgado rode over to the body of his wife and dismounted. He bent over her and began to sob. Renaldo looked over at him and then rode his horse up close and dismounted. He patted Julio on the back. Then he, too, began to weep, so quietly the others could not hear. The other Mexicans drifted over, one by one, to console the grief-stricken Julio, who was cradling his dead wife in his arms and rocking slowly back and forth.

O’Hara suppressed a smile. This was not a military operation, but Trask was too dumb to see it.

Ferguson looked at Chama’s face, then turned away, as if death were too much for him in the harsh light of day. He gulped in fresh air to keep from gagging on the smell.

Trask looked over at O’Hara. “You know that man there?” he asked.

“He was a sergeant,” O’Hara said. “Rode with our patrol.”

“You know anything about this?”

“Not any more than you do, Trask. Two people dead. Probably killed by gunshots.”

“You’re not as smart as you might think you are, O’Hara.”

O’Hara said nothing. He kept his face blank, impassive as desert stone.

Trask turned back to Deets. “The tracks lead over yonder, right?”

“Right, boss. I figure they circled that long hill and either lit a shuck or are watching us right now.”

Trask scanned the top of the ridge. Everything looked the same. Rocks, cactus, dirt. He saw nothing move, saw no sign of life anywhere.

“Well, if there was an army waiting up there, they could have picked us off by now. We’re riding on.”