The Deputy - Edge Series 2 (21 page)

‘No, Ted,’ North told the scornful man. ‘They know they’d most likely be gunned down. But Eduardo Martinez is paying them a big enough reward for his boy’s hide to make the risk worth taking.’

One of the small group of men that had gathered fifty yards away along Mossman Road yelled: ‘The sonsofbitches have gotta be outta their minds!’

Bryce thrust his rifle viciously against North’s temple: forcing the sheriff to tilt his head hard to the side. And amid sharp intakes of breath immediately out front of the law office and among the nearby group of anxious watchers who had gathered along the streets, Straker took a step across the porch and swung his rifle away from his chest.

‘Easy, Ted!’ North rasped.

Bryce counselled grimly: ‘Your boss is right, deputy. We don’t want any stupid mistakes made here! There ain’t no need for more killings if everyone does like we say!

And we get what we want!’

Straker lowered the aim of his rifle and Bryce eased the muzzle of his Winchester away from North’s head as he commanded:

‘So now just go and bring Martinez outta the cell, deputy!’

‘Then what?’ Straker sounded as tough as Harvey had but looked just as unsure of himself.

‘We’ll take him with us, deputy dummy!’ Harvey snapped.

Martinez yelled: ‘Well, hurry it up,
amigos!
Get me out of this lousy place!’

‘Shut up!’ Straker told him then raised his voice and maintained the commanding tone: ‘Everybody stay back from here, you understand?’

‘Make the most of it, deputy!’ Martinez sneered. ‘For it is the last time you will be ordering me what to do!’

‘Do like you was told and shut the hell up!’ Bryce sounded not at all like the prisoner’s rescuer.

‘But all the time that
hombre
has been telling me to shut up and I – ‘ Martinez began defensively.

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Straker tilted his Winchester toward the moonlit sky and squeezed the trigger. The report was followed by a brief silence that was perhaps as nerve wracking as the sudden gunshot had been. Edge closed his eyes tightly and by an effort of will remained unmoving in the saddle: stopped himself from making a doomed move to save his life.
Then Martinez ended the tension that gripped everyone when he demanded to know:

‘What was that shot? Did somebody get killed?’

Straker remained seemingly untouched by the dramatic effect of his action as a renewed babble of talk sounded in every quarter of town. Was apparently totally unaware of the degree of fear he had engendered in all within sight of where he stood and kept his tone even as he answered:

‘That was me, you bellyaching sonofabitch. Nobody got shot - yet. I was just relieving my feelings.’ He hardened his expression and tone as he switched his gaze between Bryce and Harvey as he asked: ‘But maybe next time I’ll need to aim at a target closer than heaven to keep myself calm.’

‘Ted, ease up for God’s sake!’ North pleaded.

‘Listen to the man, feller,’ Edge growled. ‘I guess we’re all aiming for heaven, but ain’t none of us in too much a hurry to get there.’

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CHAPTER • 13

_________________________________________________________________

‘LISTEN TO them, deputy!’ Bryce advised grimly, maybe sweating even more than
everyone else in the closely bunched mounted group. ‘Because they’re both talking good sense. And we don’t wanna kill anybody else. But if one dies, so will some others. And after that happens what you and me want won’t be so important as it seems to be now.’

Straker seemed stuck for something to say and North captured the centre stage when he asked:

‘Bryce?’

‘Yeah?’

‘How do you want to work the exchange?’

‘Yeah.’ Bryce swallowed noisily. ‘Let’s get it done. First the deputy goes into the jailhouse and brings out Martinez. Then Edge gets down from his saddle and lets the kid have his horse. And the five of us leave. Everybody in one piece.’

‘What five?’ Straker demanded.

‘Martinez, my partner, the woman, me and the sheriff.’

Straker snarled: ‘If you think I’m going to agree to that, you have to be crazy, mister! It means you get to take the prisoner and still keep George as a hostage.’

‘Listen up, deputy!’ Bryce said, shaking his head. ‘The sheriff will ride with us only as far as the end of the street. Then, if nobody tries to follow us, we’ll turn him loose.’

‘What guarantee do we have of that?’ Straker wanted to know.

‘You got my word.’

‘I got some words for you, mister! But they’re not the kind I’d use even in front of a so called lady like her!’

‘Hey!’ Isabella complained. ‘I have to look out for myself, Mr Straker and acting ladylike don’t - ‘

‘There’s another way,’ Bryce cut in.

‘What?’

He said flatly: ‘We blast the heads off North and Edge. And take our chances on getting out of town without the kid. See: the thing is me and Don Harvey never gave ourselves any guarantees.’

Martinez spoke a Spanish oath.

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The woman vented a small cry and covered her mouth with both hands: which maybe meant she felt twice as sick as out at the burial mound.

‘You’re not that eager to die,’ Straker challenged.

‘It’s a gamble, feller,’ Edge said and all eyes turned toward his sweat run face. ‘I don’t know how much they’re getting paid to spring your prisoner, but it’s plainly more than enough for them to risk their necks. They’ve ante-ed up so now it’s down to you to call or fold.’

‘George?’ Straker said.

Harvey spoke first. ‘If it works out right we’re gonna get real big bucks for this, deputy dummy. Enough to risk our lives and as many more as we need to.’

Straker was impatient with the interruption and repeated: ‘George?’

‘Up to you, Ted. With me in the position I am, you’re the law here now. So you have to make the decision. Edge said it right. It’s a gamble. And in my opinion, these two guys ain’t bluffing.’

Edge looked between the sheriff, who seemed suddenly, resigned to death if that was how it had to be, and Straker who was still deeply troubled by indecision. He allowed a short, silent sigh to trickle out between his pursed lips as the younger deputy said at length:

‘There’s only one thing I can do.’

‘That’s right, Ted.’

‘But I don’t trust them to turn you loose, George.’

During a heavy pause while the evening heat seemed to rise to an unbearable degree, Edge guessed North was recalling the cold-blooded killing of Rodriges out at the burial mound. Then the sheriff said:

‘I have to. We could talk back and forth all night, but it’d still be your decision, Ted.’

North sounded like he hated to admit it. ‘But from my point of view and still in gambling terms, I’d rather take a chance on them maybe not turning me loose later than going for getting my head blown off for sure right here and now.’

‘I’ll go for that as a side bet, feller,’ Edge said.

‘That is right!’ Martinez yelled.

Straker seemed about to counter the excited exclamation of the Mexican with his usual command. But suddenly seemed to be drained of the will to generate high emotion and said bleakly: ‘Okay, we’ll do what you want, George.’

‘What
they
want, Ted,’ North corrected.

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He slowly raised a hand and carefully pushed aside the muzzle of Bryce’s rifle so he was able to turn his head and look in each direction along Main Street. Where small groups of solemn faced, tight-lipped townspeople waited.

Then he yelled: ‘Okay, listen to me, you folks - I don’t want anybody to act the hero!

Stay there and watch if you have to! Or go back inside. But don’t anybody interfere in what’s happening here!’

There was a mumbling of corner-of-the-mouth talk. And Edge sensed the rising unease of Bryce and Harvey while many of the watchers withdraw quietly to the sides of the street. Reasoned that the two men with rifles must surely wonder if some in this town where the lawman was held in such high regard might choose to ignore North’s edict. Maybe the helpless sheriff was thinking the same thing as he faced front again and the Winchester muzzle was pressed against the side of his head once more because he assured in an overly confident tone:

‘They’ll do like I told them. You can count on it.’

Straker said anxiously: ‘How can you be sure there isn’t going to be any double cross, George?’

North, who was growing impatient with Straker’s constant pleas for reassurance, said: ‘The only thing I’m sure of right now is that none of us wants to die, Ted.’

‘Me included!’ Martinez snarled.

North told him evenly: ‘I won’t allow that to happen if I can help it, son. In this county executions are carried out in Railton City.’

‘Talk tough all you like, sheriff!’ the Mexican invited. ‘Just get me out of this stinking jail!’

‘Go ahead and turn him loose, Ted,’ North urged.

The dour faced deputy spun on his heels, strode purposefully into the office and through it to the jailhouse section of the building. And for a few moments little could be heard by those outside the building: the small sounds of footfalls scraping on the floor, the rattle of keys on a ring, the opening of the barred door of the cell and a low toned, angry, muffled exchange between Straker and Martinez.

Along Main Street and Mossman Road the few people who remained in the open did not venture far from the cover that doorways would offer if the stand off ended violently. Then the immaturely good looking, curly headed, well built Jose Martinez appeared in the law office doorway, just ahead of Straker who held his Winchester so the muzzle nudged the nape of the prisoner’s neck.

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The Mexican was clearly as afraid as everyone else on the street corner as Bryce and Harvey continued to hold their rifle muzzles within inches of the heads of North and Edge. Then Martinez, whose skin was pallid beneath its natural olive colour, showed an insecure smile when he greeted with false good cheer:

‘
Buenos tardes, amigos.
I do not know who you are but I am truly pleased to meet with – ‘

‘Shut up!’ Straker thrust the rifle forward and this caused Martinez to vent a cry of pain and alarm.

‘Yeah, keep that damn trap of yours buttoned!’ Bryce ordered. ‘Edge, you get off that horse now and go stand up there alongside the other deputy.’

Edge felt all attention fixed on him with a seeming palpable force as he craned his head away from the pressure of Harvey’s rifle, slid out of the saddle and moved off from the group and up on to the single step of the law office porch. In the forefront of his mind was the fear of sudden death and in back of this a vividly remembered promise he had made to himself in the recent past.

‘I thank you for the loan of your mount,
senor,’
Martinez said with sneering fake politeness. ‘I will try to take good care of him for you.’

‘Much obliged,’ Edge answered evenly, knowing that if he survived and Morgan Bryce did likewise, he would consider it necessary to kill the heavily moustached man for stealing the bay gelding from him.

‘And you be sure to take good care of yourself,’ Straker said as Bryce gestured for Martinez to go to the horse. ‘I’d like you to be fit and well for when they string you up.’

The Mexican halted beside the horse, hooked one hand over the saddle horn and snapped his head around to glower at Straker: began to direct a stream of Spanish invective at the deputy but was interrupted by Bryce.

‘Just get the hell mounted up and let’s go, kid!’

Martinez continued to glare at Straker when he said: ‘I think I should take that rifle off him.’

Bryce looked hard at the glowering, rigid framed Straker and said with great depth of feeling: ‘What I think is that if you try to do that, you’ll be the first one to get blown away. Then all hell will break loose and this whole damn thing will have been for nothing.’

He hardened his tone and expression. ‘So get mounted like I told you. And just in case you get any stupid ideas you better know that rifle in the boot ain’t loaded.’

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Martinez spat forcefully and did as he was instructed, muttering softly but vehemently to himself. And Straker moved the aim of his Winchester to track the Mexican’s head while he quietly rasped some profanities of his own.

Edge murmured: ‘Think whatever you like, feller, but don’t do it.’

‘Ted!’ North warned anxiously.

‘Don,’ Bryce rasped.

Harvey signalled for Martinez to back his horse away then sidled in closer to North and rested his rifle muzzle against the other side of the lawman’s head.