Chapter 11

The streets of Sweetwater were practically deserted, and only a few men were wandering aimlessly after their daily visit to the boisterous saloon. It was the only place that seemed to be alive in the quiet town. It was the last part of the day and the town's daily routine had stopped hours ago. Decent folks were at home with their families, enjoying a hot dinner rewarding them for a hard day's work.

Kid and Jimmy led their horses along the main town street. Kid looked around with curiosity. It had been so long since he had last been in Sweetwater. Nothing much had really changed; everything was as he remembered. The same shops, the same buildings, the only thing that was different was the small telegraph office in the middle of the street, and some new buildings had been added to the small town.

After the war more and more people were coming to the west, and new cities were emerging while the old ones were growing at a blistering pace. Yet, strangely enough, Sweetwater seemed to keep its old identity. The familiar building housing the marshal's office came into view, and both friends eased off their horses just in front of the premises, tethering them on the same spot that they had a long time ago. It seemed odd to be here after so many years. Kid had not seen Teaspoon since he left for the war. It was painful to think how much he had lost for making the wrong decisions. When he had joined the Pony Express, he had found the family he had never had. They had really cared for each other, and the feeling was incomparable to anything. More importantly still, among these people Kid had found the woman he had fallen so hard for. Now all that seemed a very distant memory. He had lost that family of his, and it seemed that he might have lost Lou as well.

There was a faint light coming from inside the marshal's office. The two men approached the place and from the walkway they took a peek inside through the big glass windows. Teaspoon seemed to be in his usual position behind the desk; his hat brim tucked over his eyes and his legs propped up on the table before him. Jimmy chuckled at seeing the old marshal slumbering as was his routine. He nudged his friend and said, "I guess old habits die hard."

Kid couldn't help but grin, and followed Jimmy into the small office. Hickok opened the door raucously, trying to make as much noise as possible. The sounds reached Teaspoon's ears, and he almost fell off his chair at the racket. He reached for his colt hanging on the wall next to him but stopped as his eyes fell on the two figures of those who had been his riders long ago.

"What the hell!" Teaspoon exclaimed, unsure of whether his eyes were acting funny or he was still in the middle of a dream.

"What a welcome we get round here, eh Kid?" Jimmy said jokingly. "We travel for days, and we'd expect more than this."

Kid was grinning amused and added, "You sure are right."

By now Teaspoon had managed to get a grip of himself after the sudden awakening. He rose to his feet and approached the two men. "That's not the way to wake an old man like me. I thought I had taught you two better than that," Teaspoon complained gruffly, but then his mouth twitched into a smile, and he came to hug the two men warmly. "What are you two doing here?" the marshal asked, not being one to beat around the bush.

"We need your help, Teaspoon," Kid said gravely.

"And Buck's could also be handy," Jimmy added.

The seriousness in the two men didn't go unnoticed by the old marshal. This sure wasn't a social visit and problems seemed to have touched his boys. "Something the trouble?" he asked.

Kid cast a glance in Jimmy's direction, and Hickok looked back at his friend with a troubled expression. Then Kid turned his gaze to Teaspoon once more and said in a serious tone, "It's Lou."

The following day Jimmy, Kid and Teaspoon rode towards the old Pony Express station in Sweetwater. The night before the two former riders got a couple of rooms at the hotel after their conversation with the marshal. Kid did not explain much to Teaspoon as they agreed that they would talk better the next day after a good night's sleep, and when all of them were present, including Buck. As a matter of fact, Kid had to admit that he was exhausted, not only physically but mentally. They had been on the trail for days now and this constant worry was really taking its toll.

The three men reached the little hillock from where their old home could be seen. Nothing much had changed, and Kid felt a lump in his throat as he scanned the property. Sitting on top of his horse, he could see the windmill, which had been the first thing greeting them after a ride, the bunkhouse, which looked much the same as years ago, the barn, the stables and Emma's old white-washed house. Everything was the same, except for some new buildings that had been added to the homestead. In a silly fantasy Kid kind of expected to hear somebody calling "Rider up" as they approached the property.

The place held so many dear memories for Kid that he felt a deep sadness all of a sudden. He looked at the corrals where he and Lou had kissed for the first time, the bunkhouse where he had spent many a sleepless night thinking of her, the stables where they had shared some romantic moments away from curious eyes, the barn where he had proposed to her, leading to their break up. Every little spot in this place reminded him of Lou and all the moments they had lived together. In another silly fantasy he expected to see her appear, smiling and kissing him shyly like she always did after a ride. Unfortunately, the reality was quite different, and all those memories and the notion about Lou's disappearance made Kid's mood sink deeper.

Teaspoon led them to a small one-story house at the far end of the property, obviously a new addition to it. It was very early in the morning and nobody was around. The normal activity at the ranch would begin approximately in an hour. The marshal eased off his horse and gestured the two men to follow suit. They reached the front of the small house, and Teaspoon knocked on the door.

"This is where Buck lives," the marshal said.

After knocking repeatedly a few times they heard a gruff voice saying from the inside, "I'm coming, I'm coming."

There was some ruckus inside the house as if somebody was stumbling over everything on their way to the door. Finally, the front door opened and Buck appeared. He was yawning exaggeratedly, and his attention was focused on the buttons of the shirt he was clumsily trying to do properly. He looked up and when he saw his former boss, he exclaimed annoyed, "For goodness' sake, Teaspoon, can't you choose a more decent hour to call on people?"

Teaspoon chuckled and said, "You boys always got too attached to your beds!" Buck snorted and the marshal added, "I have a surprise for you." Buck looked at the marshal skeptically, not having noticed the presence of his two old bunkmates, who had stayed out of sight. At Teaspoon's words, both men appeared before Buck and there was no doubt that it had been a surprise for his Indian friend. "Kid! Jimmy!" he finally managed to say, "What are you doing here?"

"It's a long story," was all Kid said.

Buck hugged his two friends, who he hadn't seen for such a long time, and added, "Why don't you tell me over some breakfast?"

"That sounds perfect," Jimmy replied as they followed Buck into his house.

"By the way, I have a surprise too," Buck remarked, and as the other two men remained silent expectantly, he said, "Cody's here."

"Cody?" Jimmy asked.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, boys," Teaspoon said with a big smile.

"Appeared three days ago; seems he's on some leave from the army," Buck explained, and added with a smirk, "Actually you can hear his snores from here. The brute wouldn't wake up even if the whole world exploded."

They all laughed as they followed Buck towards the room where Cody stayed. The snores were getting louder and louder as they came closer to the place. They got into the bedroom and found Cody sprawled on the bed and puffing nosily in his sleep.

"Cody!" Buck called loudly but his blonde friend didn't even stir. "Cody!" he tried again, this time jerking him energetically.

Cody grunted and taking hold of Buck's arm sleepily as if in a hug he mumbled groggily, "Let me sleep a bit more, baby."

"Cody!" Buck barked annoyed and yanked his arm free, almost making Cody fall off the bed. Teaspoon and the other two men laughed raucously at the exchange between his two other friends.

His almost fall woke Cody up completely and it was then that his eyes fell on the two new arrivals. "Kid? Jimmy?" he exclaimed, "Is it really you or am I still dreaming?"

"Shut up, Cody, and dress up!" Buck ordered, throwing the clothes scattered around the room at him. He was tired of Cody's indolent attitude as his guest. He was even considering sending him packing if he continued like this. "You'll hear everything over breakfast."

The sole mention of food made Cody sit up quickly, and he began dressing hurriedly, "Those are wise words, my friend," he said with a big smile. "Finally you seem to have learnt something in all these years."

Buck shook his head and grunting he left the room followed by the others. One of these days he would kill Cody and his obnoxious big mouth. His well-known attitudes seemed to grow bigger as he grew older, which was absolutely unbearable.

Half an hour later they finished getting breakfast ready. The men sat around the kitchen table as Buck poured steaming coffee into the tin cups. "So are you going to tell us now why you're here?" Buck asked.

Kid and Jimmy interchanged meaningful looks, and after a beat the blue-eyed rancher muttered. "It's Lou. She … she's disappeared," he finally managed to say.

"Lou?" Cody exclaimed. "How come? What the hell have you done this time to drive your wife away, Kid?"

Kid looked at Cody as if he were nuts. "My wife?"

"What are you babbling about, Cody?" Jimmy whizzed in the same tone.

"Lou and I never got married," Kid said, annoyed at Cody's remark.

"Are you still dreaming, Cody?" Jimmy continued, shaking his head at his friend's foolery.

Cody just shrugged his shoulders and added with a pensive expression, "I just thought…"

He couldn't finish his sentence as Jimmy cut him off, and giving a hard push to his friend's face he added, "Keep dreaming, Cody, and shut up."

Despite the bickering between Cody and Jimmy, Buck couldn't erase Kid's words from his mind. "Lou's disappeared, Kid?" he asked as if in shock. His friend nodded and Buck asked again, "When?"

"Over a month ago," Kid answered.

The men in the room remained silent, pondering Kid's words in their minds. Finally, it was Teaspoon who broke the silence and asked, "What happened, son?"

Kid sighed audibly and began to tell everything that had happened between him and Lou and her unexpected flit. It was the fourth time that he had to tell his account, and he wondered if it would be the last one. He had no idea where this search would lead him to. They hadn't found out anything so far, and Kid was already feeling very tired. Lou was somewhere, but so far he had been unable to find the smallest clue.

"She just left like that?" Buck asked, surprised at what his friend had told them. Kid nodded and Buck questioned again, "And no word? No letters?"

"Nothing at all," Kid muttered.

"It is really odd, indeed," Teaspoon admitted, deep in thought.

Kid turned to the old marshal and asked, "Teaspoon, did you hear from them at all lately?"

The old man kept thoughtful, and after a few moments he said, "Since Rachel's wedding I had promised to visit them, but never found the moment. Well, about two months ago I wrote to tell Rachel that I'd call on them in the following week, but she wrote me back telling me that it wasn't a good time for them, and she'd let me know when I could go next."

Kid turned two surprised eyes towards him. "Did she forbid you to go?" he asked with a shocked expression.

"Well, I wouldn't put it like that," Teaspoon retorted. "She…"

"You see, Kid?" Jimmy added, cutting the marshal off in mid-sentence. "I'm right." Kid cast him an incredulous look as his friend continued. "Rachel didn't want Teaspoon there because he's the law."

The marshal and the two others seemed to be lost at the meaning behind Jimmy's words. "One moment, Jimmy," Teaspoon said. "What are you talking about? Right about what?"

"Jimmy has this idea that Rachel's husband's behind all this," Kid explained.

"And I know I'm right. Teaspoon, I'm sure he's in trouble with the law and has somehow involved the girls in his stuff." Jimmy continued and began telling the boys and Teaspoon about his suspicions regarding Rachel's husband, based on what Kid had told him.

"I admit that Jimmy might be right there," Buck said, seeing the reason behind his friend's argument.

"I really can't tell. I don't know the man that much," the marshal added.

"You see, Kid? Seems nobody knows anything about him. He's hiding something, I'm sure," Jimmy said convincingly.

"Sam's gonna wire us straightaway if he finds out something against him," Kid said, "But I really don't know. Nothing makes much sense."

"Sincerely, the man didn't cut me as the dishonest type when I first met him," Teaspoon admitted. "And Jimmy, don't let your stubbornness blind ya. There might be some other reason for Louise's flit."

"Yeah," Cody spoke for the first time, rubbing his chin in a thoughtful way. "I got it," he exclaimed after a while, "they might be escaping from some band who's trying to blackmail Lou or Rachel."

"Blackmail?" Buck asked, looking at his friend as if he were out of his mind. "About what?"

Cody shrugged his shoulders and muttered, "I don't know, but all women have their share of secrets."

"I see you still read the same fascinating and constructive literature," Jimmy snorted sarcastically.

Kid remained silent and didn't even try to say anything to Cody's far-fetched theory. In a way, his friend was right: Lou did have her share of secrets, and that was the reason why he was in this crazy hunt. Somehow Kid hoped that Jimmy's suspicions proved to be right. If that was the case, he would find a way to help her out of whatever fix she was in with Teaspoon's and the boys' help. But if, as he strongly suspected, Jimmy's theory led them to nothing, Kid didn't know where he would go from there. There might be other reasons for Lou's disappearance, but if they had to trust Cody's instincts on that, they would certainly be lost.

Kid sighed audibly and shaking his head to clear his mind from bleak thoughts he added with a cracked voice, "I'm living a real nightmare, Teaspoon."

"I reckon you are," the marshal said sadly, but then he exclaimed encouragingly, "But now we're in it with you, son. We'll find Lou."

Kid tried to smile, but he failed miserably. "I hope so," he muttered, fixing his attention on the mug of coffee before him. He was beginning to lose all the hope that he could hear in Teaspoon's voice.

"We'll wait for Sam's telegram and only then we'll worry about the next step," the marshal said, leaving the four men in the room deep in thought.

After having fixed what to do about Lou's situation, Teaspoon and his former riders enjoyed a good chat, in which they exchanged bits and snippets of each one's life in the last years. Kid was the one who had almost no contact with his former bunkmates and boss. The realization that the war had broken all his ties to the people who he had considered his brothers filled him with an immense sadness. His regret about his wrong decisions didn't stop pestering him. However, after all those years apart, now that they were together, it seemed like nothing had changed, that they were still the same. He could see in Teaspoon's eyes that he felt the same way. He was beaming proudly to have his boys all together. But not all his "boys" were here. Apart from Noah and Ike who had died so long ago, Lou wasn't here and she should be. She was the reason for the reunion he had talked about a short while ago, and she had promised him it would take place but she wasn't even here to share the moment with him.

After breakfast was over, Buck offered to show Kid around the ranch that the old way station had turned into. Now the place had come to life, and Kid could see the ranch in full activity. He looked around in awe. The place seemed to be so familiar and so strange at the same time. Kid had the odd sensation that he belonged here, that he was part of all this. After all, he had lived the most beautiful moments of all his life in this very place.

"Your boss is really doing great, Buck," Kid admitted after visiting the whole ranch. He had always noticed that the old station had a great potential, and it was clear that the new owners were making the most of it.

Now the marshal and the four men were at the corral admiring the beautiful horses walking around, in much the same way that they had done dozens of times when the place was a Pony Express station.

"You got yourself your own ranch, don't ya, Kid?" Cody asked.

Kid nodded and added, "But something much more modest."

"You're the modest one," Jimmy intervened. "Your ranch is just great, Kid."

The blue-eyed man smiled proudly and just said, "I can't complain. But admittedly, this place is really outstanding. Maybe on another occasion I could have a word with your boss, Buck, and we can exchange ideas."

Buck laughed and said, "Yeah, on another occasion. Now's not the best moment. His wife's expecting their first baby any day now and he's fussing over her so much that he's driving her crazy. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes having to put up with her anger."

"Kind of reminds me of somebody we all know," Teaspoon remarked, making the other men guffaw raucously, but Kid remained quiet, feeling embarrassed and awkward at Teaspoon's words. He tried to direct the conversation to something else.

"Lord, all women I come across are either expecting or having babies."

On hearing Kid, Cody frowned as if an idea had struck him suddenly. "Maybe that's what's happening to Lou."

"What are you talking about, Cody?" Jimmy asked almost running out of patience and dreading his friend's answer.

"Maybe Lou's pregnant," Cody answered, beaming proudly at his train of thought, "and that might be the reason of her vanishing."

"Oh Gosh," Buck grunted annoyed.

"Do you ever give a thought to what's in your mind before speaking up, Cody?" Teaspoon chided really irritated. It was clear that Kid was taking all this business very hard, and it didn't help him any if Cody couldn't control his imagination and big mouth.

"But I might be right," Cody stated, not feeling discouraged in the least by his friend's remarks and hints. "Lou might have gotten into trouble, you know," he gestured to his middle in an exaggerated fashion. "And imagine that Rachel and her fella can't have children of their own for some reason. They disappear for a few months and when they come back, they're the proud parents of a baby." Seeing the incredulous looks around him Cody continued, "It happened to some neighbors of ours when I was a kid. The eldest daughter and her mother went away for months, and when they were seen next, Mrs. Porter presented her sixth child to the world. Mind you, nobody was fooled; the baby was as red-haired as the boy who used to hang about with the girl."

Jimmy shook his head, Buck rolled his eyes and Teaspoon had a scowl on his face expressing his irritation. Only Kid spoke up, after listening patiently to Cody's tale. "Lou's not pregnant." He knew that much. She was as thin as ever, even thinner and she hadn't changed a bit in all the time they had been together. "I was with her all that time and I'd have noticed any changes in her." He was beginning to get tired of Cody's foolery. He didn't feel in the mood nor had the patience to hear any more of that. He didn't even know why he bothered to answer his friend.

"And Cody, Lou's not a fifteen-year-old little girl," Teaspoon added. "She's a grown-up woman and if that was the case, she wouldn't have to hide."

Cody began to feel irritated by his friends' obvious lack of trust in him. He was an army officer, and in his profession he came face to face with all kinds of trouble. He knew life and surely he knew better than two ranchers and a drifter like Jimmy Hickok. "Well, Lou's hiding, Teaspoon, and there's a reason for it," Cody finally said with a resolute stance.

Despite his far-fetched theories Cody was right again, Kid thought. It was clear that when Lou had left without telling him, she was determined not to be found. In that case, they might never be able to locate her despite everybody's good intentions. Kid knew how clever she was, and he was sure that she would have known that he wouldn't sit idle while she vanished. No, it wouldn't be easy and the notion of not finding her, of not seeing her beautiful face again filled him with great dread. He knew that he had to think positively now that he had his friends' help, but the nagging feeling was coursing all over him. The boys and Teaspoon were still talking by his side, but he couldn't hear their words any more. His mind was in a haze and he felt like crying right now. He was frantic and needed to leave the place at this very moment; he couldn't stay. "I need to be alone," Kid finally managed to say and to everybody's astonishment he ran towards his horse as if the devil was after him.

It wasn't a week, but ten days later that they had received the expected telegram from Sam. For Kid it had seemed like ages, as he had felt unnerved and jittery by all that waiting. As empty days had passed one by one, he couldn't help but think that they were wasting precious time, doing absolutely nothing. In Sweetwater he really didn't have anything to do, most of the time, he hung around Jimmy and the rest in Teaspoon's office. During all these days he and Jimmy had offered the marshal to help in his daily duties, and he had accepted. The town was really peaceful and little more than locking up the usual local boisterous drunks had to be done, but Kid welcomed anything that could keep him busy and distracted. Not that his thoughts wandered anywhere but to Lou, but at least that activity had stopped him from going completely mad.

The day the telegram arrived Teaspoon and his four "boys" were sitting just outside the marshal's office, watching the people going by in their daily routine. The five men stayed in companionable silence, but the moment was broken as heavy steps were heard running along the walkway. The men turned their attention to the sounds that showed that somebody was in a heck of a hurry, and they saw Tommy, the telegraph assistant's little son, running towards them. He reached them breathlessly and silently flapped the piece of paper to the men.

Every day Kid had continuously gone to the telegraph office to check if Sam's wire had arrived despite the assistant's assurances that he would be notified as soon as it was received. So nothing needed to be said, as everybody knew what the paper the boy was holding contained. Kid rose to his feet and snatched the wire from Tommy's grasp, avid to finally finish this nerve-wrecking waiting. He turned silently from the boy and led his steps to the small office, his eyes fixed on the paper and without uttering a single word to anybody.

"Thank you, Tommy." Teaspoon ruffled the boy's hair affectionately and gave him a couple of coins. "Don't spend everything on candy or your ma will have my hide."

Seeing the coins the boy's face lit up with a gap-toothed smile and he exclaimed, "Why, thank you, Sir." He shoved the coins into his trousers pocket and ran off in the same way he had first arrived.

Teaspoon proceeded to enter his office after the boys had done so before him. Kid's back was to him, and in a few decisive steps the marshal came to stand face to face with the blue-eyed man. He was staring at the paper in his hands, his shoulders stooped. When he noticed Teaspoon's presence next to him, Kid looked up and shook his head morosely. He handed the marshal the paper and heavily dropped on the chair he had been doing his thinking all week on. "There's nothing against him," Kid finally said.

Teaspoon sat down on his usual seat behind the desk while the rest took positions around the small office, all pondering the last piece of news.

"That doesn't mean he's not trouble," Jimmy insisted. He had been so sure that they were on the right track. Anyway, the fact that the law didn't have anything against Rachel's husband didn't mean that the man was clean of all blame.

"Please, Jimmy, drop it. Your intuition hasn't gotten us anywhere," Kid said gruffly. He was feeling so frustrated right now that he couldn't bear Jimmy trying to prove that he was still right. Kid knew that Jimmy and the others didn't see the matter in the same light as he did. They were worried about Lou, but Kid was sure that they didn't realize how serious the situation really was. He didn't even know how to make them understand; not even he could understand the fear nagging him at the pit of his stomach. He just knew that Lou was in some kind of danger, and they weren't doing anything to help her.

Kid sighed deeply and asked, "So what do we do now?"

"You'll have to consider other possibilities," Cody said.

"Don't begin with your crazy ideas, Cody," Kid spat annoyed.

"I didn't mean it like that," Cody retorted, "But we need to think of following another lead."

Kid looked at his friend; an apology in his eyes. He really felt in a foul mood, and there was no excuse to throw his frustration to his friends. Everybody even Cody just wanted to help.

The five men remained silent and after a while Kid exclaimed, "I just don't know."

"What about that fella your housekeeper saw Lou with?" Buck remarked.

"What about him?" Kid asked.

"Well, there might be something in there to go on," Buck offered.

"Buck's right, Kid," Jimmy added, "after all, you said she lied to you over that man."

Kid nodded, remembering the events that Jimmy was talking about. He really never learnt what all that had been about. Rachel had made him believe that Lou was away on some business of Andrew's, but it had been a lie. He really didn't know why she had kept away from him all that week. He had never tried to learn the truth when things had got sorted out between them; he had been too blissfully happy to do anything to ruin it, but he had always felt that there was more than met the eye in all those circumstances. It was at that time that he had seen those bruises on her forearm. Back then he had been happy with her explanation about the buckboard reins, but could there be a link there with her disappearance? Maybe the truth was right before his eyes, but still he seemed too blind to see anything.

"So what do you know about that fella?" Cody's question snapped Kid out of his reverie.

"Not even his name," Kid said gravely. "Apparently, he's a friend of Andrew's."

"Andrew?" Jimmy exclaimed. "You see, Kid? Him again. The man's in the middle of it. I'm sure we've always been in the right path."

"Jimmy…" Kid warned, looking daggers at his friend.

"Don't you see?" Jimmy insisted. "We just have to find Rachel's fella. He's the key to all this."

Kid was about to retort when Teaspoon, who had remained silent in all this exchange, spoke up. "I reckon Jimmy's right."

"But, Teaspoon, we have evidence that he's not doing anything illegal. I'm not going on a wild goose chase," Kid protested vehemently.

"Hold your horses, Kid," the marshal tried to calm tempers down. "I say that maybe your perspective of the whole matter has been wrong from the beginning."

"How come?" Kid asked with a scowl.

"Well, you've reasonably been lookin' for Louise," the marshal began, "and you've spoken to all the people who really know Lou and nobody knows a thing." He paused a moment, checking that he had everybody's attention and continued after a beat, "But I think that somebody as business-like as Andrew Basset has necessarily to have some contact in the city where he has his dealings; there must be somebody actin' as a link between wherever he is and his businesses. So I say we go back to Meringdon and look for Andrew himself or his contacts. Wherever he is, we'll find Lou and Rachel."

The four men stayed in silence for a few moments and Cody was the first to speak up. "Teaspoon, even at your age you're still as sharp as ever," Cody quipped happily.

"Mind your words, boy. I ain't old, just maturely advanced," the marshal growled unhappily and turning to Kid, he asked, "So what do you say?"

Kid looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "When can we leave?"