Chris Larabee sat in the dark saloon, downing his sixth…or was it his seventh, shot of whiskey. The gunslinger always tended to get moody and short-tempered this time of year, but the past 12 months had proven particularly difficult. It was only within the last year that Larabee had discovered who had murdered his wife and son: an ex-lover by the name of Ella Gaines. Chris had always assumed that finding the truth of what and why the murders happened would help him put the tragedy behind him, but that wasn't the case.
Now, he KNEW he was responsible for the deaths. Cletus Fowler had been hired to kill his family because Ella wanted Chris for herself. That knowledge, coupled with the fact that he had been unable to find Gaines and avenge the killings, weighed heavily on Larabee in this week leading up the 4th anniversary of his family's death.
Upon staggering out of the saloon, Chris decided it would be best if he rode out of town for a few days. He had been drinking too much for weeks and had gotten into arguments with all of his fellow peacekeepers at one time or another. He hadn't even been to his cabin for three months. That was just another aspect of his life that had gotten pushed to the side in his quest for justice.
Chris' best friend and fellow peacekeeper, Vin Tanner, walked up to the hitching posts where Larabee was mounting his horse. "Goin' for a ride, Cowboy?" he asked. Vin worried about the turmoil he saw in his friend's green eyes.
"Just headin' out to my shack for a couple of days," Chris answered. "Send someone out to get me if there's any trouble." Chris and four other men had been hired to protect the town a little over two years ago.
"Will do, Chris, but I was thinkin' about sneakin' out of town for a few days myself. You want some company?" Vin didn't like his friend heading off alone in his current state of mind...and body. He knew Larabee had been drinking.
"Nah, just need a day or two to think," Chris grabbed Vin's forearm in a gesture that both men understood to mean, "thanks and watch your back."
Larabee arrived at his cabin just before dark. He unsaddled and tied up his horse, Pony, and then sat on the stoop of the front porch and stared at the sunset. He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his dark blond hair. Sometimes Chris hated the man that he had become. His fellow peacekeepers and a number of townsfolk, like Mary and Billy Travis, went out of their way to try and help him through these tough times, but he always pushed them away. His guilt and grief were things that he felt like he had to deal with on his own.
Chris pulled his long, lean frame up off the steps and entered the small, one-room cabin. He was surprised to find his bed un-made and only one can of beans left in the cupboard. He generally kept the place clean and well-stocked, but maybe he had left in a hurry last time or maybe one of his fellow peacekeepers had crashed here enroute to or from an assignment.
Larabee had brought a fresh loaf of bread and some honey with him from town, so he could make due with that and a can of beans. In all honesty, he was planning on drinking his meals for the next couple of days anyway. With that thought, Chris pulled out a bottle of whiskey, opened it, and took a long swig.
Within a couple of hours, the gunslinger was good and drunk. He began to turn over furniture, throw plates, and smash glasses... and in his drunken rage he didn't notice the shadowy figure looking in his back window.
The stranger watched the events unfolding in the small cabin. He had known Chris Larabee years ago, when his family was still alive, and he had never seen Chris drunk. He watched in shock as the blond man ripped his belongings apart and eventually collapsed to the bed.
After about an hour, the figure was sure that Larabee was passed out, dead asleep, and he quietly entered the cabin. He helped himself to a few slices of the bread and honey. He removed the gunslinger's boots, cleaned up the broken dishes, and lifted the long legs up onto the bed. The stranger then disappeared into the night.
Chris awoke the next morning with a killer hangover and a sense that something was amiss. He couldn't remember taking off his boots and going to bed, and he didn't recall opening and eating the bread that was sitting on his table. "Wow, I really musta been drunk," he thought, but then said out loud, "what the hell?" when he saw the cleaned up dishes in the trash. There was no way he would have done that in his state of mind last night.
"That damn tracker must have followed me," Chris figured that Vin must have come out, cleaned up, and then left. That was the only thing that made any sense.
Chris' stomach couldn't handle the idea of making coffee, so he decided to head back to town to confront his meddling friend.
He began to regret his decision not long after leaving his shack. "Why did Four Corners have to lie directly east of my cabin?" Larabee squinted as the morning sun shone directly in his eyes. This only managed to exascerbate the throbbing pain in his head.
Chris walked through the batwing doors of the saloon just as Vin and Ezra Standish were about to have lunch.
"Why'd ya follow me?" Chris asked Tanner.
"Good mornin' to you too," Vin said followed by, "I didn't follow ya nowhere."
"You didn't come out to my cabin last night?" Chris questioned. "When I woke up this mornin', someone else had been there."
"Well, it wasn't me," replied Vin, as he took a big bite of his sandwich. "Chris, are you SURE somebody was there?"
"No offense, Mr. Larabee," Ezra interjected, "but you were pretty well on your way to an inebriated state when you left here yesterday."
"I'm sure," Chris glared at the two skeptical men. "Some of my food was missin', and the person cleaned up the place."
"You had an intruder that cleaned your cabin?" Ezra smiled. "How very considerate of him or her."
"I know it sounds crazy, but somebody was there. That's why I thought it was one of you guys."
"Mebbe just a burglar who didn't end up finding anything they wanted," Vin shrugged his shoulders. "There has been an increase in petty thefts outside of town over the last couple of months. The Morrison's and the Beckett's both said they had stuff come up missing…..but it was kinda unusual items – food, blankets, and kid's clothes."
"I don't know of any burglar who would sweep the floor," Chris shook his head.
"Could be a mother, who needed food and clothing for her children?" Ezra suggested. "Maybe she was trying to pay you back for the food by cleaning your little domecile?"
"There was a lady with a boy move into town a few weeks ago," Vin recalled, "saw her asking around about work. Mary said her name was Dunne."
"I hate to cut our conversation short, but I am due to relieve Josiah over at the jail," Ezra stood, taking the rest of his sandwich with him. "Good day, gentlemen."
"Vin," Chris whispered once he and Tanner were alone,"I think whoever was in my house took off my boots and put me to bed."
Vin laughed and said, "hell, that don't sound too bad…especially if it's some cute, young lady."
"Somehow my mind keeps imagining someone that looks more like Yosemite tuckin' me in."
"Aw Larabee, you're such the pessimist."
After drinking a couple of cups of coffee, Chris could almost walk out onto the sunny boardwalk without feeling like his head was going to split in two. He was rubbing his temples when he nearly ran into Mary Travis, coming around the corner.
"Oh, you scared me," she said, "actually I was just coming to look for you. Another family – the Turners - reported a break-in this morning, and their homestead is close to the others who were burglarized. Again, it was mostly food that was stolen and also their boy's coat. Folks are starting to get a little nervous, and I was asked to call a town meeting with you and your men to discuss the plan forward."
"Yeah, ok…can you schedule it in a couple of days, Mary? Got a few things I wanna check out first," Chris now suspected that his cabin had been the victim of this same thief.
"I can do that, but I should probably warn you that some folks suspect that new woman, Mrs. Dunne, and her boy who moved into the old Garrett house outside of town."
"Vin mentioned that. I'll make sure I talk to her before the meetin' as well."
Tanner was walking from his wagon, and Larabee yelled, "Vin, find Nathan and Josiah and meet me over at the jail."
"OK, I just saw them both heading to the saloon, so we'll be over in 5 or 10 minutes."
Chris found Ezra sitting at the jail desk, shuffling his deck of cards. Vin, Josiah, and Nathan walked in a few minutes later.
"What's up?" Josiah asked.
"Have ya heard about the robberies outside of town?" Chris asked, and the four men shook their heads, "yes."
"Mary said there was another one last night, and," Chris paused, "when I went out to my cabin yesterday it looked like somebody had been in there as well."
"Was anything missin'?" Nathan asked.
"Some food maybe, and the bed was unmade…..I think our thief might be livin' there, at least from time to time."
"I want Vin and Josiah to go talk to this new woman in town, Mrs. Dunne. She and her boy are renting a place just west of town. I'm gonna set up a watch on my cabin and see if anybody comes and goes tonight. Mary said folks are startin' to get antsy about the burglaries, so Nathan and Ezra – keep a close eye and make sure folks behave themselves here in town."
As Ezra walked out of the jail, he noticed two of the town's men harrassing a woman outside the hotel. He heard one of the men say, "Ya better lock your doors, lady. This town don't look kindly upon thieves."
"Is there a problem?" Ezra walked up to the men and asked.
"If you and the rest of Larabee's gang were actually doin' your job, you would already know this woman's been stealing stuff from folks' homes."
"And you gentlemen have proof of that?" Ezra questioned.
"Well, no, not yet, but it has to be her. The thief has been stealing food and stuff for little boys, and she has a young 'en just about the right age. Plus, the robberies started happenin' just after she arrived."
"That, my friends, is called circumstantial evidence and does not carry enough weight to warrant an arrest. I kindly suggest that you desist harrassing this woman, or she will have real evidence to have YOU arrested."
"We'll leave, but we're warning you Standish. If you and your men don't do something about it soon, we will."
"Let me know, Mrs…"
"Dunne, Emma Dunne. Thank you for stepping in Mr. Standish."
"It was my pleasure, and as I was saying Mrs. Dunne, you just let me know if those gentlemen or anyone else causes you any trouble," Ezra tipped his hat and headed towards the saloon.
Emma Dunne was an attractive woman is her late 20's with dark hair and eyes. She had moved west just a few weeks ago from Boston. Her husband had passed away two years ago, and she lost her job as a chamber maid for a wealthy Boston family last month. The family had decided to move back to England, and she thought it was time for a change as well. She and her 7-yr-old son, John or JD as everyone called him, arrived in Four Corners with $20 and one suitcase full of clothing. Emma had been making the rounds in town, asking anyone she could think of for work: Mary Travis, Mrs. Potter, and she had just now inquired about a position cleaning rooms in the local hotel.
Most of the town's folks had been kind to her, in fact Mrs. Travis was currently watching her son while she talked to the hotel manager. It was her bad luck that a string of robberies began just as she and JD arrived in the small town. She had heard about the five men who watched over the town and hoped they could find the perpetrator soon.
"Good day, Mrs. Dunne," Vin approached with Josiah following behind him. "If it wouldn't be too much of a bother, we'd like to talk to ya for a few minutes. We could go over to the restaurant and buy you an iced tea or lemonade."
Emma replied, "I need to pick up my son from Mrs. Travis, but I suppose that would be fine if it will only be a short conversation." She knew what the men wanted to talk about, but she trusted that they were looking to figure out the truth – not pin something on her that she didn't do. The younger of the two men, Vin, she had met the day before. He was a handsome man with striking blue eyes. The elder man also had very kind-looking blue eyes, and she had heard that he was the town's preacher.
Over a glass of lemonade, she explained her situation very honestly to the two men. She told them that she was, indeed, very short on money and supplies right now, but that she had NOT stolen anything from anyone….EVER.
The two peacekeepers believed the woman and assured her they would do their best to find the real thief.
They parted ways, and she entered Mary's newspaper office.
"Mom!" JD ran to her. JD Dunne was a 7-year-old bundle of energy. The hazel-eyed, black-haired boy was small for his age, but what he lacked in size he made up for in attitude and sheer determination.
Chris saw the woman and her son head out of town on their buggy, and he followed about 5 minutes behind them. He soon veered off the main path for a lesser-known trail through the woods. It would take him within a half-mile of his cabin, and he would walk from there. Larabee wanted to make sure the intruder would have no suspicions of anyone being around.
Chris tied his horse to a tree at the end of the wooded trail. There was a small stream and plenty of grass within reach, so Pony would be content to wait here. From there, Larabee walked down the hill towards his little shack. He crouched behind some bushes on the hillside and waited for night to fall.
After it was fully dark, Chris moved down quietly to the woods just behind the cabin. He didn't have to wait long. Within the hour, a dark figure appeared, looked around, and walked right in the front door of Chris' shack. Larabee waited to make sure no accomplices appeared; it was too dark and he was still too far away to judge much about the shadow he had seen move across the front porch. The person did not appear to be very large though. "It really could be a woman," Chris thought to himself.
In another five minutes, a lantern was lit in the shack, and Larabee decided now was the time. He pulled out his Colt, walked softly across the yard, and up onto the porch. The gunslinger knocked open the door with one, hard kick and was absolutely shocked at what he saw.