No Less Than the Journey (29 page)

CHAPTER 17

Anabelita did not finish work at the Thespian Club gaming room until after three o’clock in the morning and she was not amused by Wes’s announcement that he needed to be up by five-thirty that morning.

‘You have only just come home,’ she pointed out, ‘We have spent so little time together. Can’t you put off whatever it is for another day?’

‘I’m afraid not,’ he said, ‘Aaron wants me to help him out with something that won’t wait.’

‘Aaron wants…? To do what? Can’t he find someone else to do whatever it is – and what is it that is so important anyway?’

Wes weighed up whether or not to tell Anabelita what was happening – and decided he would. He wanted her to be in a receptive mood when he spoke about their future.

He ended his explanation with, ‘… it was you who told me that he’s leaving for the East this morning – and Aaron is very grateful you did. Had we not known, Walsh, or whatever his real name is, would have got rid of anything likely to incriminate him while he was in Chicago.’

Still finding it hard to believe that Walsh was the criminal Wes had said he was, Anabelita said, ‘Is Aaron quite sure of all this, Wes? I don’t like Walsh, but he is an important man, here in Denver … and if he
is
so friendly with the Dentons isn’t he likely to have one or more of them with him?’

‘It’s possible, I suppose, although he wouldn’t like to be seen with any of them, but Aaron would like me to be with him, just in case. He’s made it all official by swearing me in as a Deputy United States Marshal. It’s something he’s been trying to do since we first met, but I’ve said I’ll only wear a deputy marshal’s badge until Walsh is safely behind bars.’

Still concerned, Anabelita said, ‘You must watch Walsh carefully, Wes, he carries a Derringer strapped to his leg, below his right knee.’

‘How do you know that?’

Aware that Wes suspected she and Walsh were friendlier than they in fact were, she said, ‘He came into the Thespian Club one night after he had been drinking and was at his obnoxious worst. He kept making lewd remarks about wanting to see where it was I kept the gun I’d used to shoot that man on the day we arrived. When I ignored him, he said he didn’t know why I was being so coy because he didn’t mind showing me his … and he did.’

‘Thanks for warning me, Anabelita, I’ll tell Aaron but I’m sorry this has come up tonight, I wanted to speak to you about the future … yours and mine – and the baby’s.’

Trying to sound off-hand, Anabelita said, miserably, ‘What is there to talk about? Once Walsh has been arrested I’ve no doubt you’ll be going up into the mountains mining or prospecting and I’ll stay here until I can no longer work then go off and have the baby. That’s all there is to it. I know you’ve offered to make an honest woman of me, Wes, and I do appreciate that, but I couldn’t live in a mining camp – and I
certainly wouldn’t want to bring a baby up in one.’

‘I agree wholeheartedly with you about the mining camps. I passed close to one up in the mountains and couldn’t stand the stench, even from a distance but now my uncle is dead I have no commitment to mining and I’m not particularly interested in prospecting. Aaron told me a little while ago that here, in America, a man can try his hand at just about anything and succeed. I thought I might do something new, but I wanted to discuss it with you and decide on something we would both be happy with. Although you talk of going your own way, it’s my baby too you’re having, Anabelita. I like to think we could become a family, either here, in Denver, or anywhere else you’d rather be.’

‘You mean … be married?’

‘Yes.’

Anabelita was silent for some time before saying, ‘You want me to give up gambling?’

‘Only if that’s what you want. I have some money – and there’s more that my uncle left to me in a bank. There are also one or two rewards still due to me. We could always go off and set up a small gaming-house – or perhaps go in with Aaron. He might feel like expanding when Walsh is put away, as he certainly will be.’

Again there was a thoughtful silence before Anabelita spoke again. ‘You don’t
have
to marry me, Wes, I can manage well enough on my own. I’ve worked it out …’

‘I
want
to marry you. If I didn’t I could have ridden away from Denver when you first told me about the baby. I didn’t, and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of us being married.’

‘That’s all very well, Wes, but you haven’t asked me if I want to marry you.’

‘But … you’re having my baby.’

‘That’s right and the baby will come whether we are married or not. If that’s the only reason for wanting to marry me, then the answer is “no”!’

It was quite apparent to her that Wes had never considered the possibility that she might not want to marry him … but he was thinking about it now.

‘The baby
isn’t
the only reason I am asking you to marry me, Anabelita. I couldn’t ask you before because I had absolutely nothing to offer you. I don’t have a huge amount now, but I feel I can make something of myself for the sake of you – and the baby – and will enjoy doing it.’

‘I appreciate what you are saying, Wes, and I know you
will
make something of yourself. I have never doubted that, but there is more to marriage than that – far more. For instance, I don’t think I have once heard you mention the word “love”.’

Taken aback, Wes said, ‘Do I need to actually say it to you.’

With a typical positiveness, Anabelita gave him a categorical ‘Yes!’

‘Very well. Anabelita Jones, I love you … now will you marry me?’

Shaking her head in mock despair, Anabelita said, ‘How could any woman refuse such a romantic and spontaneous proposal.’

Choosing to ignore her sarcasm, Wes asked, ‘Can I take that as a “yes”?’

‘I suppose you can! In fact … I think I would quite enjoy being Anabelita Curnow. Yes, Wes, I will marry you … so now you must take great care when you go off with Aaron this morning. You have a future wife and unborn son or daughter to come back to.’

CHAPTER 18

‘What if we find nothing on Walsh?’

Wes put the question to Aaron as the two men waited in the telegraph office at the railroad station for the arrival of the owner of the Palace. From here they could see both the approach road and the passengers waiting to board the Kansas-bound train.

‘I’d rather you hadn’t said that,’ Aaron replied, ‘The same thought kept me awake during the night. It really shouldn’t have, I doubt if he’d write a letter of complaint to President Grant. The worst that could happen is that I’d lose a self-appointed “friend”. He might even decide to move on from Denver and take another name, leaving me with a monopoly on gambling!’

‘Knowing what we do, couldn’t we arrest him anyway?’

‘For what? Sure, he’s suspected of crime by me and by the Chicago police and the Pinkertons are interested in him, but none of us can provide proof that he is, or even has been, involved in anything criminal.’

‘What about the things he did in Plymouth, in England?’

‘He could have committed a dozen murders there, Wes, but we still couldn’t charge him for them in the United States. No, we need to find some evidence against him today.’

Although Wes was keyed up by the thought of what would take place when Walsh arrived, his thoughts kept returning to Anabelita’s acceptance of his somewhat tardy proposal of marriage. He wanted to tell Aaron about it but this was not the right moment.

Every so often his hand went to the United States deputy marshal’s badge pinned to the shirt he wore beneath his coat. It gave him an unexpected thrill – but he was determined it was not a feeling he was going to become used to.

The train had just arrived at the station and Aaron passed a comment about Walsh missing it if he did not soon put in an appearance, when Wes saw the Palace owner emerge from an alleyway leading from the direction of the establishment above which he lived. Walking unhurriedly, he was accompanied by a man Wes recognized as one of the Palace doormen.

Leaving the telegraph office hurriedly, Aaron and Wes intercepted the two men before they mingled with the other passengers who had surged forward to board the train.

Walsh was obviously startled by their sudden appearance, but he recovered his composure quickly, greeting them and saying, ‘I am surprised to see you, I thought you were both out of town.’

‘So I believe,’ Aaron replied, ‘but I returned yesterday having received some very disturbing news, as a result of which I am afraid I am going to ask you to open that travelling bag you are carrying.’

His eyes narrowing, Walsh said, ‘Do you mind telling me why?’

‘Not at all, you have a right to know. I have received
information that you are in possession of stolen goods.’

‘It’s an absolutely absurd accusation,’ Walsh blustered. ‘Who told you?’

‘That doesn’t matter, but perhaps you would like to prove them wrong by opening the bag and showing me what’s inside?’

The item in question was a semi-rigid leather bag fitted with two locks.

‘I would like to oblige you, Aaron, but I can’t remember exactly where I have put the key – and the train is about to depart.’

‘Then unless you find the key pretty damn quick and show me what’s in the bag the train is going to go without you.’

The guard began calling, ‘All aboard…! All aboard…!’

Walsh made an attempt to push past the US Marshal and board the train, but Aaron blocked his path. It looked as though the Palace doorman would interfere at this point but, allowing his coat to fall open to show his badge, Wes called on him to stay where he was.

When the doorman moved in closer with the obvious intent of pushing him aside, Wes drew his gun. Pointing it at the doorman, he said, ‘I’d rather not use this, but I will if I need to.’

The doorman came to a sudden halt and in a last act of desperate bravado, Walsh held the bag out towards Aaron, ‘Look … I need to catch this train. Take the bag and we’ll sort everything out when I return.’

‘No! I want you
and
the bag.’ Taking Walsh by the arm, Aaron propelled him, still carrying the bag, away from the train. Wes followed, gun in hand, leaving the doorman standing by the track as the train pulled away.

The two men and their prisoner made their way to the US Marshals’ office and as Walsh still refused to hand them a key, Aaron broke open the locks and pulled the bag open.

Much to his relief it contained a large quantity of personal jewellery.

Exchanging a jubilant glance with Wes, Aaron addressed Walsh, ‘I’d say this is quite a haul, even at the deflated price that stolen jewellery fetches. Where has it come from, Walsh?’

‘I take it in from the punters when they can’t pay their gambling debts.’

Lifting out a necklace set with diamonds and emeralds, Aaron said, ‘You have lady punters in the Palace?’

‘It was probably bought for a wife or sweetheart but some unlucky gambler never got as far as home with it.’

At that moment a sleepy Pat Rafferty arrived at the office carrying his rifle. He explained he had been woken by Anabelita who told him Wes had gone with Aaron to arrest someone. She had been so concerned about him she wanted Pat to come to the Marshal’s office to make sure all was well.

Asking the one-armed man to remain with Walsh for a few minutes, Aaron left the room and went to the outer office with Wes. Here he said, ‘I hoped Walsh might talk if we found the jewellery on him, but he’s too damned clever. We’ve got the jewellery and too much of it is obviously taken from women for his story to be true. In due course we’ll be able to prove it’s stolen, when the owners are traced, but I can’t hold him until that happens. I’m going to have to let him go.’

‘We can’t do that, Walsh is as guilty as hell. Let’s have a proper look through the bag.’

Going back into the office where Walsh was sitting at ease in the marshal’s chair, engaging Pat in apparently unconcerned conversation, Wes took the bag and tipped its contents onto the large desk in front of the Palace owner.

Suddenly Wes’s stomach turned over and he reached out and picked up a gold watch. When he opened it a photograph
of two smiling women stared up at him. It was his mother and her sister.

Giving Walsh a look that startled him, Wes said angrily, ‘I’d like you to do me a favour, Walsh. Reach for that gun you have strapped to your leg, beneath your trousers. I want you to do that so I can justify shooting you like a dog, just as the Denton gang did my uncle when they took this watch from him.’

Genuinely frightened now, Walsh said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about … and I’ve made no move towards my gun … you can prove that.’ He directed his plea to Pat, who had been startled by Wes’s angry words.

‘You know
exactly
what I’m talking about, Walsh. Three men died on my uncle’s claim up there in the Rockies, and all the gunmen went away with was this watch. My uncle’s watch.’

‘Can you prove it was his, Wes?’ Aaron’s voice broke into the tension caused by Wes’s words.

Holding the watch out to Aaron, Wes said, ‘The photographs in the back of the watch are of my mother and her sister – my murdered uncle’s wife. Take the photograph out carefully and you’ll find an inscription there. It reads “Presented to Peter Rowse, September 1865. For Bravery”.’

The other men in the room waited with bated breath as Aaron carefully removed the faded photograph and exposed the inscription underneath.

‘You’re right, Wes. That’s exactly what it says and I know the way you must be feeling about the killing of your uncle. Would you like Pat and me to leave the office? We’ll come back in when we hear you shoot Walsh for trying to escape.’

‘You can’t do that … that’s murder!’ Walsh was genuinely terrified. When no one appeared moved by his plea, he said, ‘Look, I admit I got the jewellery from the Dentons and I knew it was probably stolen. I’ll make a statement to that effect, if
that’s what you want, but I swear I never knew they’d killed anyone to get it. I wouldn’t have touched it if I’d known that.’

‘A statement would be handy, I suppose,’ Aaron said, ‘but I’m not fussy, I’d just as soon save the country the expense of carrying out a trial. It’s your call, Wes. Would you like Pat and me to leave the office?’

Looking at the heavily perspiring Palace owner, Wes considered what Aaron had said for what seemed to Walsh an interminable time, before saying, ‘Take his gun from him before I change my mind, Pat. Aaron can take this statement he’s so anxious to make. I’d rather think of him spending the rest of his life behind bars, than enjoying a moment’s satisfaction in shooting him.’