Chapter 9 – The Break-in

It was well past sun up when the two former outlaws made their way out of the hotel. They had decided over breakfast, that simply showing up for a visit with Thomas Ames would be useless—and possibly even deadly. Instead, they headed back toward their old friend's home.

When the two men arrived, Silky greeted them at the door. "Lee told me what happened last night," he said in a rush of words. "Are you two okay? Come in. Sit down. Have you had breakfast?"

"Slow down, Silky, we're okay. We could use some breakfast though," Heyes answered.

Lee came in from the kitchen and brought all three of them coffee. Before returning to prepare breakfast, he gave Heyes a slight wink and made the thumb and forefinger gesture of a gun.

Heyes made eye contact with the young man and raised his eyebrows. Had Lee found hand guns for them this quickly?

Lee nodded slightly as he turned to go. This man really was resourceful! Heyes' opinion of Lee went up another notch.

Heyes smiled and turned to his host. "Silky, did you come up with any ideas? How do we get to him?"

"Well, since you asked," Silky responded smugly. "I've been thinking about that ever since you two left yesterday."

Heyes grinned and exchanged a glance with his partner.

"What you need is leverage," the former master con artist said brightly.

Heyes gave an impatient sigh. "Yeah I know that, but how Silky? What are his habits, his weaknesses, his vices?"

"Well, he gambles," Silky said. "Rumor is he was real deep in debt a couple of years ago, but then everything got worked out."

Heyes frowned. "That won't help. I can't play cards with him, or run a con on him, it'd be too risky with all of his people out looking for us. And besides, it would take too long."

Silky looked offended. "Well I know that," he scoffed. "But if you could prove he paid off his debts right after his train was supposedly robbed of about the same amount…" he let his voice trail off.

"That could work!" Curry exclaimed suddenly, and then frowned when he saw his partner's solemn face. "Couldn't it?"

Heyes slowly nodded. "Maybe. But it would have to be more than a theory. We can't just go to the law and explain it to them."

"But if Ames paid off two million dollars in debt wouldn't he have some kind of receipt?" Curry said hopefully.

"Maybe. Maybe not," Heyes said and began to pace. "But, he might have something we can use, some kind of evidence that he was keeping as an insurance policy or leverage on someone else."

"He might keep something like that in his safe," Silky suggested. "He has one in his study on the first floor."

"How do you know he has a safe, Silky?" Heyes feigned a shocked look. "I thought you were retired."

The older man glared back. "I am, but I ain't deaf and blind. I still hear things."

"So we break into the safe?" Curry asked. He said it so matter-of-factly that Heyes began to wonder if the wound in the Kid's shoulder was affecting his judgment.

"It will be dangerous. If we get caught, our amnesty will be history. We could also end up dead if Ames or one of his boys finds us."

Curry stared at his partner. "Just livin's getting' to be dangerous. If we don't find a way to call off Ames and his henchmen-we WILL be dead! Besides, I'll be there."

The look in the Kid's eyes told Heyes that he would be there alright—armed and dangerous. It was a look he knew well from their days at Devil's Hole.

"Alright, we'll go in tonight and start with the safe, his desk, and anything we can find to look in. Anything else we should know?" Heyes looked again to Silky.

"Lee might be able to help. He told me this morning that he has a friend that does Ames' laundry. He knows the layout of the house."

Heyes smiled. "Let's talk to him."

-oooOOOooo-

Armed with both their own six-shooters and the two small forty-five caliber handguns that Lee had procured for them, Hannibal Heyes and Kid Curry prepared to break into a private residence.

"I can't believe it's come to this," Heyes lamented as he pulled himself up and over the stone wall surrounding the property.

"Well, we didn't cause it," Curry said, hesitating as he looked up at the wall with trepidation.

"You sure you're up to this?" Heyes asked, suddenly worried that his partner's shoulder was not healed enough for a climb like this.

"A little late to worry about that, don't ya think? Just gimme a hand up."

Heyes reached down and hoisted his partner up by his good arm.

The window presented no problem and Heyes easily slipped the latch with the thin metal tool he'd brought along. The room they entered did indeed appear to be a study or library, with book shelves floor to ceiling and a large desk in the center. Lee had described the floor plan just right. Heyes lit a lantern and then moved quietly through the room, searching for anything that looked like it could conceal a safe. Curry went to the door and opened it a crack, peering out into the hallway to make sure their entrance had not been detected.

"Found it," Heyes whispered from the far corner of the room.

Curry glanced over to see his partner crouched in the corner. He took a deep breath and laid his hand on the butt of his revolver. He never welcomed trouble, but if it came he was ready. He estimated nearly ten minutes had gone by before he heard the sound of the safe door swinging open. "About time," he whispered.

Another five minutes went by as Heyes read through the papers found in the safe. "Well?" Curry whispered again.

"Nothing yet," Heyes responded. "He has a nice ruby ring, though."

"Better hurry, we been here too long," Curry shot back.

"Gotta find something first," Heyes said quietly.

"Uh oh," Curry said closing the door to just a crack. "Someone's coming."

Heyes quickly extinguished the lamp and crouched behind the desk.

Curry stepped behind the door and closed it the rest of the way without making a sound. He heard footsteps approaching. He held his breath as the sound neared, but the footsteps continued. Both men remained still for another few minutes and then Curry opened the door a crack again. Seeing no one, he nodded to Heyes, who lit the lamp again and opened the last folder from the safe.

"Let's go," Heyes finally said, swinging the door closed and returning to the window.

"Got somethin'?" Curry asked, his impatience evident.

"I'm not sure yet," Heyes said, and frowned. "I'll figure it out back in the room." He patted a stack of papers that he had slipped into his jacket pocket.

The men moved more quickly on the way out, and this time Heyes gave the Kid a leg up over the wall first.

Once back in the hotel room, Heyes lit a lamp and spread out the papers he'd taken from the safe. "See this, Kid?" Heyes pulled one paper from the stack.

"This is an insurance claim for a stolen ruby ring—the one that is right there in his safe. That's insurance fraud, and I bet it's not the only one. Here are four other payment stubs from insurance claims." He spread them out on the bed and stared at them. "These aren't enough though. We can't prove he has the other items and it would be easy for him to hide the ring if we threatened him with these."

Heyes dug into the stack of papers again and sifted through the other documents. "Itemized lists of items reported by the railroad as stolen in the hold-ups," he commented, tossing out a few sheets. "Tax returns for Midwest."

"Any receipts for payin' off big gamblin' debts?" Curry asked, hopefully.

"No, I'm afraid he didn't keep anything like that."

Heyes continued reading the papers. "Receipts for payments made to Silver City Railroad Construction & Maintenance. Midwest Railroad was paying them a fortune, no wonder it went broke. All of their profits were either reported stolen in hold-ups or paid to this Silver City company."

"I guess they did okay," Curry observed. "I wonder who owns that company."

Heyes' face lit up. "Kid, you won't believe it," he said, handing over a thick document that he had just unfolded. "Ownership papers for Silver City Railroad Construction & Maintenance."

Curry stared at the paper. "It says here that Thomas Ames owns that company."

"That's right, he was paying himself out of Midwest's profits—and anything that was left he claimed was stolen."

"So he got all of the railroad's money while claimin' he couldn't pay the rest of the employees."

"It looks that way, and now he's trying to negotiate a merger and take over the presidency of Central Railway."

"With us dead, there'd be no trial and no one digging' into the details of those robberies," Curry observed wryly. "We were just one little loose end."

"Well, we're about to become a much bigger problem to Mr. Ames," Heyes said, his expression darkening as he considered just how they would do it.