Whispers on the Wind (27 page)

Yet, there was no concrete
proof that Mary was innocent, and too much circumstantial evidence
to suggest that she was guilty. Carter blew out a long, disgusted
sigh. Now that he knew Mary, he found it hard to believe that she
was a cold-blooded murderer. Oh, he had no doubt she’d shoot a man—
most likely himself, if she were angry enough—but she wouldn’t
carve someone up with a knife.

He had some real issues
where Mary was concerned. One big, looming question was whether he
could let her walk out of his life. Hoping to get the cobwebs out
of his mind, he ducked under the cold water.

When he emerged, he had his
answer and it wasn’t fuzzy anymore.

He couldn’t let Mary
go.

If they found her guilty,
then he’d help her fight, and if that didn’t work, he’d break Mary
out of jail and they would go someplace where no one would find
them.

“Are you going to stay in
there all damned night?” Thunder’s voice rang out loud and
clear.

“Hold your horses. I’m
coming,” Carter snapped, then he added, smiling to himself as he
called back to Thunder, “Did you fix supper?”

Try some beef
jerky.”

When Carter walked back to
the campfire, they glared at each other, but he couldn’t resist
saying, “Maybe that water will cool off your hot head.”

“Don’t count on it,”
Thunder grumbled.

It didn’t take Thunder as
long to bathe as it had Carter, and soon they were both settling
down on their blankets, their backs propped against their saddles,
facing each other, separated by the blazing campfire. Both placed
their guns within reaching distance.

“Want some jerky?” Thunder
asked.

Carter nodded, so Thunder
tossed him a couple of strips. Carter also made himself a pot of
coffee. Good thing Thunder had been traveling and had had all his
provisions with him or they would have nothing but each
other.

What an awful
thought.

As Carter leaned back with
a cup of hot coffee in hand, he said, “I’ve heard bits and pieces
about your family from Mary. It sounds like quite a
group.”

Thunder laughed. “They are
most unusual and very special in their own way.”

“Mary said you didn’t want
any part of them at first”

Thunder folded his arms
across his chest “That is probably putting it mildly. I told Brandy
very bluntly to go find somebody else.”

“What made you change your
mind?”

“A marshal just like you,”
Thunder said with a slow smile. “I was in a gunfight and killed a
man. It was clearly self-defense, but because they thought I was a
half-breed, the marshal didn’t want to hear my side. He intended to
lock me up.”

“So that’s why you don’t
like the law.” Carter chuckled.

“I practice law,” Thunder
pointed out “However, the law can be blind and deaf if left in the
wrong hands.”

“Believe it or not, I can
agree with you there. But what made you change your
mind?”

“Brandy.” Thunder
smiled.

The thought of his pretty
wife waiting at home could turn even that ill-tempered son of a
bitch into putty, Carter thought

“She told the marshal that
I was their guide and that she’d be responsible for me. So it was
hang or go with them.”

Grinning, Carter replied,
“I would have liked to have been there just to see the expression
on your face.”

“I bet you would,” Thunder
said sarcastically.

“All joking aside, tell me
what Mary was like when she was younger.”

“About like she is now,
only stubborn and much harder to get along with. She hated
everybody.”

Carter’s brow rose. That
does describe her, though I can’t see her being much more stubborn
than she is now.”

“But she was worse when
she was younger,” Thunder said with a smile. “You’d tell her to go
left, she’d go right Get the picture?”

Carter nodded.

“And she hated Brandy,”
Thunder added.

“What made Mary
change?”

“We had to take the wagon
across the Missouri River. Mary and Brandy were riding on the raft
when Mary tumbled overboard. Her heavy skirts pulled her under and
she damned near drowned because she couldn’t swim, so Brandy jumped
in and saved her. After that, Mary mellowed out some and was a
little easier to live with.”

Carter stared at the embers
burning low as he thought about what Thunder had just told him.
Carter could picture the defiant young woman in his mind’s eye. He
had a feeling that Mary had been trying to prove something all her
life. Thanks for sharing your story with me.”

“Now I have a question,”
Thunder said.

“Ask.”

“Why are you so interested
in Mary? Or do you take an interest in all your
prisoners?”

Carter nodded. “That’s a
fair question. The truth is, I’m not sure what Mary is to me. I
care a great deal about her and I don’t want her to get
hurt”

Thunder gave him a knowing
look as he said, “I figured as much.”

Carter’s gazed snapped up.
“Figured what?”

“Mary has you hooked.”
Thunder grinned.

“Well, I don’t know about
that,” Carter shot back quickly. Perhaps too quickly. Maybe it was
better to talk about something else. “When do you think the
Carlsons will show?”

“I figure around dawn when
they think our guard is down,” Thunder explained. He pushed his hat
down over his eyes. “I’m going to get some shut-eye while I
can.”

After a few moments of
silence, Carter asked, “Have you ever wanted something so badly
that you could taste it yet you were afraid to reach out for
it?”

Thunder shoved the brim of
his hat up off his face and looked at Carter before answering him.
“Yes.”

“What did you
do?”

“I married her,” Thunder
said with a smile, then pushed his hat back down to signal the end
of the conversation.

Carter stared at the fire,
pondering Thunder’s words and thinking of Mary. What was it about
the woman that both attracted him and made
him
feel like he was losing his mind
at the same time? And what was he going to do about it? He recalled
the unselfish passion they’d shared when he’d held her in his arms.
He seemed to be blind where she was concerned, but he’d also taken
an oath to uphold the law, and he was a man of his word.

With his mind in turmoil,
he didn’t remember falling asleep.

What he woke up to was the
click of someone pulling the hammer back on a pistol.

“Mary,” McCoy said, “I
want you to take this six- shooter.” He placed the gun in her hand.
Her hand quickly fell to her side with the weight of the gun, but
she didn’t drop it “Do you know how it works?”

“Yes,” she said with that
same blank stare in her eyes and dullness of voice that pleased
him.

“Bring me the horse,
Sammy,” McCoy shouted, then turned back to Mary. “As I was saying,
Mary, you are to ride this horse until you come to the next camp.
You must stop before you get there because bad men are in the camp.
Do you understand?”

“Bad men,” Mary repeated
just like a performing puppet

“You are to take the gun
in your hand and shoot Carter Monroe, then turn and shoot the other
man. You’re to kill both men—no matter what it takes.
Understand?”

“Kill both
men.”

McCoy took the gun. He held
the horse for Mary to mount, then he handed her back the gun. “You
are to keep the gun hidden in the folds of your skirt.”

Since she was looking
straight ahead, he drew her attention back to him. “Look at me,”
McCoy said. “You’re still in a deep sleep and you’ll feel nothing,
but when you hear the gunfire, you’ll wake up and you will remember
nothing. You will not remember how you got here, and you’ll not
remember who I am. Now bend down and give me a good luck
kiss.”

Mary did as she was
instructed, then she straightened and obediently rode off. “You
know, I could get used to that girl,” McCoy said, wiping his mouth.
“Damn fine kisser.”

“You realize that they’ll
probably kill her,” Sammy said as he moved up beside McCoy. “When
she shoots Carter, the other one will surely shoot her.”

McCoy glanced at Sammy and
grinned. “I know. And that’s why I’m leaving you boys now.” He
grabbed up his gear. “By taking care of your problem, I took care
of mine,” he said after he mounted his horse. “Now I have a mine
that needs claiming.” He wheeled his horse around. “See you boys
around. Nice doing business with you.”

Sammy sauntered back to the
campfire. “Now the only thing we have to do is wait”

Carter heard the gun a
second before he rolled to the side. His eyes flew open. He reached
for his gun, but Thunder had already thrown his arms around
Mary.

“Mary!” Carter got to his
feet, a little dumbfounded. Thunder was trying to control her. She
still held tight to the pistol. She was struggling like they were
her enemies.

“Bad men,” Carter heard
her say.

She was going to kill him!
And to think a moment earlier he’d thought he loved her.

“Are you going to stand
there or help me?” Thunder bit out

Carter moved in and
wrestled the gun from Mary’s fingers, then tossed it to the ground
before grabbing her arms.

Thunder stepped back. He
was a little dazed that his sister had stolen into their camp
without either him or Carter hearing her. Not to mention the fact
that she was trying to kill both of them.

Carter shook Mary. “Why did
you do that? What the Sam Hill is the matter with you?”

“Kill Carter,” Mary
repeated.

“But why, Mary?
Why?”

Thunder finally felt his
wits return. He could see that his sister did not look like herself
or act like herself. She looked more like some evil spirit had
entered her body and taken her wits. “Look at her,
Carter.”

“I am looking at her, for
Christ’s sake,” Carter snapped. “She’s damn lucky I haven’t slugged
her. Explain yourself, Mary!”

“Kill Carter.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got that
part. The question is why?”

“Kill Carter.”

Thunder put an end to the
shaking of his sister. It wasn’t getting them anywhere. He grabbed
Carter’s arm. “Look at her eyes. She is looking at you, but it’s as
if she is in a daze and doesn’t see you at all.”

“Mary!” Thunder called her
name loudly. She didn’t respond.

Carter lightly slapped her
cheek. “Snap out of it” Still, she had that dazed stare that he
could really see now.

“Kill Carter.”

“I’d better retrieve the
gun before she does just that,” Thunder said. He reached for the
gun and it went off with a loud bang.

“Shit,” Carter swore, and
grabbed Mary to protect her even though she was still mumbling,
“Kill Carter.”

“Can’t you be more
careful?” Carter yelled at Thunder.

“The hammer was pulled
back,” Thunder said tersely. “You better be damn glad that I woke
up when I did or you wouldn’t be here.”

“Carter,” Mary
murmured.

Carter sighed. It was going
to be a long night.

“Yeah, I know, kill
Carter.” He repeated the words he’d already heard from her a dozen
times before.

“How did I get here?” Mary
asked as she shrugged out of his grasp.

“Mary?” Carter and Thunder
said at the same time.

She blinked several times
and looked around. “Where are we?”

Carter noticed the dazed
look was missing from her eyes. “We’re just outside of
town.”

“How did we get here?”
Mary asked. She had the oddest feeling, like a part of the day was
missing and both Thunder and Carter were looking at her as if she
were loco. The feeling she had now reminded Mary of how she’d felt
right after she found Big Jim murdered.

“Don’t you know?” Carter
asked, a little dumbfounded.

“If I did, I wouldn’t be
asking you,” she said begrudgingly, then added, “My head hurts. And
why are you both looking at me that way?”

“Because, my dear
sister”—Thunder paused— “you just tried to kill Carter.”

“I did not,” she said
firmly. However, neither one of them was smiling. “Did
I?”

They nodded their heads in
agreement.

“What is the last thing
you remember?” Carter asked.

“The
fire. The smoke. I thought I was going to die,” she recalled. Then
Mary looked at Carter accusingly. “Because
you
left me
locked up.”

“And,” Carter
prompted.

“A man came to let me out.
He said that you had sent him, so I figured it was because of the
fire. I rode out of town with him, but he kept riding farther and
farther away, so I stopped and demanded to know where we were
going.” She paused, taking a deep breath. “I don’t remember
anything after that.”