"Morning, Chester." Doc greeted as he shuffled into the small jail house the next morning and headed for the coffee pot. "Where's Matt?"
"Aw, I don't know, Doc." Chester answered dispiritedly, not even commenting on the grimace Doc wore as he took a sip of the coffee. "He took off early this morning, said he'd be back later."
"Well, where was he was going?" Doc frowned.
"I jes told ya, Doc. I don't know." Chester answered sullenly. He'd wanted to go but Mr. Dillon was adamant that he stay there and watch over things. What things, he had no idea. He'd already let the cowboy from last night's little fracas out of jail and there wasn't nothing left to do. But he couldn't go against his boss, so he stayed, albeit unhappily.
"Well, good heavens, Chester." Doc lightly chuckled. "It ain't the end of the world, ya know. Besides, he don't need you with him every minute. You know he's a pretty good lawman on his own."
Chester glared over at Doc. "I know he's a good lawman, Doc. And I know he don't need me along every little second. But what if something come up out there? What if he needed help or something? Huh? What'd he do then?"
Chester's voice rose with each word and Doc knew he'd irritated the younger man as well as put salt on an open wound. Chester was sensitive about the fact that he wasn't as physically able to do some things that others were because of his leg and he worked hard to make his handicap as little of a distraction as possible. Any suggestion, even a tiny one, that Matt somehow didn't need Chester and only hired him out of sympathy, set the assistant off.
"Well," Doc took a swipe of his mustache and sat the mug of bitter coffee down on the table. "I'll tell ya what I could use some help with."
Chester frowned. "What?"
"Eating a big breakfast over at Delmonico's." Doc grinned. "Want to come?"
As Chester and Doc walked over to the café, Brent arrived at the gates of the small abandoned farm and reined in. For some reason, he suddenly thought about what it'd be like to own such a place and work it. A man, with the right woman by his side, could probably make a decent living on a piece of land like this. He wouldn't be rich but with the right woman…
Brent forcibly shook that notion from his head. He was not a farmer and the only woman he'd ever want to settle down with wouldn't have him once she realized what he'd done, not only to her and the town but the man she loved.
Kicking his horse into a trot, Brent followed the narrow lane onto the farm house where he dismounted and went in. Glancing at the small shed nearby where the real lawman was, he noted Nick sitting on a stump by the door and a place on the side where two large, heavy boards had been nailed. Apparently Matt Dillon didn't take real well to being cooped up.
"Brent!" Hoke called when he entered. "What brings ya out here? Ain't nothing happened has it?" He wanted this deal to go through badly and he was scared half to death something might come up to stop it.
Brent shook his head as he took his hat and coat off and stepped up next to the fireplace. The previous warm days had given way to a cold north wind which chilled him to the bone. "No, nothing's happened. All is quiet. I just needed to get away from that town for a while. How's our guest out there?"
"Hurtin'." Hoke positively smirked.
Brent whirled around and scowled at him. "What'd you do to him?" He demanded. "I told you for this thing to work; he had to be in good shape."
"Hold your horses, Brent." Hoke waved a hand at him. "We didn't leave no marks. Least no lastin' ones anyways. He just tried to escape last night and we had to stop him, is all."
"That hole in the side of the shed, where he tried to get out?" Brent asked.
"Yeah." Hoke answered. "He actually kicked that hole into the wall. Me and Nick had jes delivered his food to him when we saw him trying to get out. When we tried to stop him, he fought like a tiger. He actually had Nick on the ground afore I got him a good lick with my rifle butt. He ain't an easy man to keep pinned up or put down."
"How bad did you hurt him?" Brent demanded with a sharp edge to his tone of voice.
"He ain't that bad, I'm tellin' ya." Hoke protested. "Just a tap on the back of his hard head. But I had to get him off Nick. He almost got Nick's mask off of his head."
Brent took a couple of deep breaths to calm down. Too much was at stake to have that lawman hurt. Too much for him and his partners and too much for the woman in town who loved him. "I thought you were drugging him like I told you to."
"We have. Been putting it in his water every day but I think he figured it out and he quit drinking his water."
Brent shook his head. Dillon was a smart one alright. "You sure he didn't see your faces?"
"Yeah, we're sure." Hoke hastily assured him. "Honest. We've been real careful. He ain't got no idea who we are or what we look like."
"And he's not hurt bad?" Brent verified.
"No!" Hoke answered with some irritation. "He ain't hurt bad. Ya wanta go and see yourself?"
Brent nodded. "Yeah, I do. Get me a mask." He wanted to do more than just see him.
Hoke stepped over to a table and grabbed a flower sack mask and handed it to him. "Nick's out there keeping watch." He told him.
"I saw him." Brent answered as he put the mask on went out to the shed. "Open it." He told Nick when he approached.
Nick quickly put his own mask on and then stepped to the door and unlocked it. Pulling his gun, he opened the door and stepped back for Brent to step in first.
Matt looked up when the door opened and two men stepped in. He realized instantly that the taller of the two was new. "Who are you?" He demanded, getting up, despite his pounding headache. "What do you want with me?"
Wordlessly, Brent studied him for several minutes. Once again, he was struck by just how much he and the Marshal looked alike on the outside and how very different they were on the inside.
"Who are you?" Matt asked again.
"Names aren't important." Brent finally answered. "You'll find out what this is all about tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime you need to just sit back and relax. You're not going anywhere until it's time."
"Time for what?" To Matt the man's voice sounded awfully familiar but his head was pounding so hard it was making concentration on that or anything else difficult.
"You'll see." Brent answered him. He turned and started to leave but then stopped and looked back at Matt. "Things are going to be hard for you for a while after this. If I were you, I'd think about the people around me who could help me through it and then cling to em tight. Make it a might easier."
Matt frowned as Brent ducked under the door and left the shed and the door was slammed behind him. Rubbing his very sore head, he wearily sat back down, too hurt and confused to do much more. But he now knew what ever these men were planning, it would happen within the next two days and it wouldn't be good for him.
TBC
