A Good Day To Kill

PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

Table of Contents

The strong smell of chloroform saturated Chet Byrnes's nostrils. He decided he must have been held hostage in some never-never land and was coming out with the worst hangover of his entire life. The medicinal smell surrounding him didn't help soothe his fear that he'd been shipped off to some foreign place, but he strained to regain reality. Both of his fists opened and closed, and he could feel his toes wiggle under the sheet. His feet were still there. He'd been in a dream world for a long time. Whenever he moved, his left shoulder felt on fire, and he could see that bandages covered that side of his body where he'd been shot.

“You alright, señor?”

“Jesus? Yeah, I'm a little dry. How about some water?”

The sight of the tan face of his
compadre
was a relief to him. Jesus Martinez, along with Cole Emerson, rode everywhere with him, to protect him from the enemies he made as a lawman.

“Certainly. I am so glad you are alive,
mi amigo
. Your wife is coming.”

“She didn't need to come, especially in her condition. I'll be fine.”

“No way we could talk her out of doing that.” The pleasant-faced young man was one of his right arms in the border law enforcement unit he managed for the U.S. Marshal's office in Tucson. The twenty-year-old youth smiled in the dimly lit room and held a dipper of water toward him.

Half raised up, he sipped from the cool metal cup. After a satisfying couple of swallows, he thanked Jesus and laid back down, shocked at how little strength he had. “Where have I been?”

“In bed, here at the doctor's house, for several days. They gave you much medicine so you didn't hurt.”

“You can stop that. I've been in a half-world and I wasn't really sure of anything.”

“You better tell them about the medicine. They won't listen to me. And we all wanted you alive.”

“Where are all the men now?”

“Roamer, Shawn, and Cole are down on the border checking on a stage robbery. Since you were alive, JD and Ortega Ninni went to check on the squatters and look at some of that ranch land. They took those squatter women more food, too.”

“Good, they only have us to feed them. But we need to get them moved out of there.”

“It would be a long drive by wagon to go down there and move all those women and small children. One wagon couldn't move them.”

“But it must be done.”

The young man made a pained face. “I can't believe their men just left them in such a hard place.”

“Me, either. But you took them food and never did learn anything.”

“I think they are Indians of some tribe from deep in Mexico. They don't speak border Spanish that well.”

Chet agreed, already half-asleep. “No more pain medicine. . . .”

When he woke again, the lovely face of his wife, Marge, looked into his own. He started to raise up.

“Lay there, big man. I'm here. I sent Jesus off to get some sleep.”

His own voice from inside his head sounded so dry. “How long have you been here?”

“Not long. Jenn came with me. She left the two girls to run the café.”

His wife was very big with their baby and seated in the chair next to his bed. But she looked fresh faced even after her long coach ride from Preskitt.

“Everyone in Preskitt said for you to get well.” Jenn, a tall rawboned woman in her forties with thick blond braids wound on her head, smiled, then bent over and kissed his cheek. “You look good, buddy.”

“I feel weak as a pup, but I'll whip that.”

“My lord, Chet, this town is big, isn't it?” Jenn asked, and shook her head in amazement.

“Tombstone is still growing.”

“We have a hotel room,” Marge said. “So we'll be close to you if you need anything. I spoke to your doctor a while ago. He says you're healing well, but he doesn't want you moved or that wound jarred for a while.”

He gazed at the copper ceiling tiles. That doctor would soon learn he had things to do that were better for him than to while away in bed on his back. “We'll see.”

Then he reached over and squeezed her hand. “I'll be up and running in a few days.”

He didn't like how she nodded so condescendingly at him. He knew her well enough to know she hadn't agreed with him. But he'd soon be stronger.

Marge and Jenn took turns sitting with him, and Jesus relieved them part of the time. Lucie, and his sister, Susie, wrote him long letters and they picked on him as well
. You are finally getting some rest. Mind your nurses
. The letters were cheerful from some great women. Lucie was his nephew Reg's wife. JD's brother had married a real cowgirl. After she became pregnant, they decided she should be house bound, but she could out rope any man and did.

Susie had been real close to him throughout their family's Texas feud that forced him to move them to Arizona. Her first husband was killed in a horse wreck and she married one of his foremen, Sarge Polanski, who operated the monthly ranch cattle drives to the Navajo Agencies over in New Mexico.

The women in his life, including his wife, were due to deliver in the next few months. His nephew, JD, called it an approaching baby diaper occasion.

With each day, he felt himself grow stronger and the pain in his shoulder from the bullet wound became less and less. He was soon walking around the doctor's house unassisted. Then he strolled around the block with Marge. He felt naked not wearing his Colt, but no one looked dangerous in the residential neighborhood. That first walk was long enough for him and he was glad to return to the house. When they came in sight of the house, he saw two jaded horses at the hitch rail, and that meant some of his men were there.

Seated on the porch waiting for him, JD and Roamer nodded and smiled at the sight of him.

“You two lost?” he asked, pausing before climbing the three steps up on the porch.

“Sort of,” Roamer said with his hat in hand for Marge. “Good to see you, ma'am.”

His twenty-year-old nephew, JD, added the same greeting.

“I'm warning you,” she said. “He can't ride out with you today.” She smiled and went on inside.

Jesus came out with a straight-back chair for him.

After taking a seat on it, Chet asked, “What's happening?”

“We've located another bunch of bandits hiding in the Mule Shoe Mountains, but there's a bit of a problem,” Roamer said.

“What's that?”

“One of them is Old Man Clanton's nephew. His name is Israel.”

“He isn't protected by law. Who else? Tell me about the rest of the gang.”

“Mostly Mexican thugs and a few
gringos
. They held up two stages we know about. Should we call in the Wells Fargo man?” Roamer asked.

Chet nodded. “That's Dodge. I bet he'd like to be in on it. They pay nice rewards.”

“Damn right,” JD said.

“We've stayed out of Old Man Clanton's way so far,” said Roamer, the freckle-faced, reddish-haired, thirty-year-old deputy sheriff he'd borrowed to help his task force. “I wanted to be sure about this with you. I know the old man has lots of political pull up here.”

“The old man stays in Mexico. But I figured since he supplies so much to the Army and Indian agencies we needed to keep our eye on him. But, yes. Clean them up.”

Roamer looked around. “We better not go look for Dodge. It might make someone suspicious. We need to be very quiet. Wells Fargo pays good for any arrests involved. But we need to slip into the area under cover.”

Chet agreed. “Right. This town is full of informers. Everyone alright?”

“Oh, yes, and we miss you,” JD said. “Any word on that Diablo Ranch deal?”

Chet looked at his nephew and shook his head. “No, I'm going to write Russell, my lawyer in Tucson, a letter and find out.”

Roamer was on his feet. “Well, with that resolved, we're going to move on this gang.”

“Sorry I can't attend the church picnic.”

They laughed.

“Is everyone's wife alright?”

Both men nodded.

“Tell the others I'm thinking of them.”

“You look lots better than the last time I was here,” JD said, and started off the porch.

“You know your mother-in-law is here?”

“Oh, we've talked already. She's a great lady. Bonnie's doing fine.”

“Good. Keep your heads down.”

The two men left and he stood up. The walk had drained his strength. He went inside to lie on his bed for a while.

“You alright?” Jesus asked, accompanying him.

“I'm fine. They want you to go with them?”

“I told them that I was here for you first.”

“Can you meet them tonight?”

Jesus nodded. “Yes. They told me where to go.”

“Good. I won't get into any trouble with those two women here. You'd feel better joining them to get those outlaws.”

A relieved smile crossed his man's face. “
Gracias
, I would like to be there. I can join them when they gather there.”

“Do that.”

“More trouble?” Marge asked, coming in the room.

“No, just everyday business in this game. Big secret. Tonight, Jesus is going with the team to get those outlaws. He needs to be there. They'll be stronger with him, and you two can watch after me.”

Marge laughed. “I won't tell a soul. You be careful, Jesus.”

“I won't leave until dark.”

“Good. Jenn and I will load our guns then.”

“And,” Chet swung his legs off the bed and fit his feet into felt slippers, “next week, we're going to Preskitt. It's getting too damn hot down here.”

“Just like Texas is in the summer,” Marge teased.

“I sold that ranch, dear. No, I want to recover at home. Besides, the baby can be born up there. These men can handle this business for a few weeks. Then I'll relieve the three married men for them to take a week off.”

“Maybe.” She stood studying him as he started for the facility out back. “You aren't looking that tough to me.”

He stopped in the doorway and turned. “I will be. Trust me.”

“Alright. I hope you aren't going too fast.”

“I'm not.”

At sundown, before he left, Jesus came to see him. “See you in a day or so. I am ready to do some real work. Thanks for letting me go.”

“God be with you, pard. Tell the men I'm thinking about all of them.”

“I will.”

Jesus left on horseback and Chet settled back in the rocker. Jenn and Marge joined him a bit after sunset, as the air cooled off.

“Will they get these men?” Jenn asked.

Rocking lightly, he nodded. “They're some of the greatest lawmen in the territory. They've rounded up more felons than any half-dozen county sheriff offices have in the same time. Of course, more bad guys drift this way as the law in Texas and New Mexico tightens the noose on them, so this is the place to go and try to commit crimes.”

“What will Roamer do when this is over?”

“I hope someone puts him to work for them. Maybe I can talk to the Wells Fargo man, Dodge, about hiring him. Roamer doesn't really want to run a ranch or a business.”

“What about him being chief deputy at home?”

“Sheriff Simms won't ever make him his chief deputy, because Roamer knows more about the job than Simms does.”

Jenn agreed. “Plus Roamer doesn't like bookkeeping, and a chief deputy has to do all that for the sheriff.”

“Well, good luck. Now tell us about this Rancho Diablo business,” Marge said.

“That's what JD calls it.”

“Why?”

“It's a pretty dry country. Lots of grass and maybe water can be developed on it.”

Marge threw her hands up. “Another ranch that requires a lot of attention. All you need.”

“We're doing respectable with our other places. If JD will put his shoulder in it, it'll be a helluva ranch.”

“JD is the least stick-to-it person you have.”

“He acts very serious about his marriage. And he's not dumb, a little too sarcastic, but he'll outgrow that. He knows what work is, although he's avoided it since he and Kay broke up. But since he got here, he's rode and worked damn hard on this job. Not a man out there that works with him would complain.”

“What was that all about?” Jenn asked. “I never heard the whole story.”

“Kay's husband was avoiding her and she wanted out of her marriage,” Marge said. “Chet knew her. He danced with her and felt sorry for her. I felt the same. When her husband left, JD took up with her. She needed someone to run the ranch. He was working his backside off down there. Chet offered to help them get going. The place had problems—machinery was broke down—horses were, too. She had a fit. We heard she said they didn't need any help from anyone. JD left her after that and never said why.”

Jenn nodded. “I knew when he left her.”

“Neither of us knows the details. But he hasn't been JD since,” Chet said.

“Maybe someday we'll learn the facts.” Jenn acted satisfied and sat back to rock. “I think my daughter and him can make it together. I deeply hope so. Both of them can get stormy, but if they love each other that will pass like a thunderstorm—lots of noise and then it's over.”

“Your Bonnie and our JD,” Marge said, shaking her head. “Some matchup. But, I agree, that match will work if they want it to last.”