Little Girl Lost
By Singerme and Leighann
Chapter 11
After sending Matt on his way to do his rounds, Kitty looked around at the bustling barroom and decided she would be better off keeping busy helping Sam with the crowd of customers than up in her rooms fretting about something she could do nothing about. Kitty removed her cape, went around behind the bar, stowed it under the counter and went to work.
The business hadn't slacked any an hour later, and Kitty was working her way around the crowded room delivering whiskey, dispensing advice, and chatting with lonely cowboys here and there. Kitty had stopped at a poker table for a few minutes watching her house dealer play, when she chanced to overhear a conversation between two men at the table right behind her.
"Sure ain't liking this town." One man said. "That Marshal's got his eye on everything that moves around here."
"Yeah," the other man agreed. "But we gotta stay here til we find that brat of Warren's."
At mention of Robert Warren's name Kitty's ears perked up, and she lingered longer at the poker table than she'd intended hoping to hear more. Warren wasn't too uncommon a name but there weren't too many in Dodge with that name.
"I still don't like the idea of killing a kid." The first man remarked. "It just don't set right."
"Yeah, well, that money Warren's gonna pay us for doing that will set just fine with me." The second one stated.
"What you think he wants his niece dead for?" The first one asked. "I mean she's too little to have done too much to him. Maybe kicked him in the shins or something. But that don't seem like a reason to kill her."
"Nah, I don't think it's that. I think it's something more. That Warren fella is one smart cookie, I'll tell ya. If he wants his niece dead it's because he's gonna get something mighty valuable out of it. That's why I took on this job for us. I don't much like killing a kid either, but it makes us a pile of money when we do it."
Kitty swallowed hard when the two men chuckled, placed their empty glasses on the table, and stood to leave. Her mind kept circling around their conversation as well as what Matt had told her. In less then forty-eight hours Robert Warren was going to get his niece back into his clutches where he would surrender her to those two men to be killed.
Kitty made her way back over to the bar, quickly reclaimed her shawl and hurried out of the saloon. Maybe with this information, Matt could talk to the judge again and ban Warren permanently from taking Brenda away with him, Kitty thought as she rushed up the street towards the jail. But when Kitty arrived at the jail it was dark, empty, and locked up. Kitty had no idea where to go to look for Matt or even Chester, so she decided to head up to Doc's office. Kitty knew Doc would somehow help her to protect Brenda, but when Kitty got up to Doc's office she was surprised to find he wasn't there. Instead, Kitty found Ma Smalley sitting in a chair knitting.
"Oh, good evening, Kitty." Ma smiled at the red head as she came into the office. "What brings you up here?"
"Oh, I was just checking on the little girl." Kitty answered. She liked Ma Smalley very much, but Ma had a penchant to talk. Kitty didn't want Ma sharing with anyone what she heard those men say at the Long Branch, but with Matt or Doc. "Uh, where's Doc?"
"Doc had to run out to Gage Prill's place." Ma shook her head sadly. "His wife is expecting again you know, and what with Mrs. Prill losing those other babies Doc had no choice but to go with Gage when he came for Doc."
"I hope everything is okay with Mrs. Prill." Kitty had never been to the Prill place, but she remembered Doc saying the farm was quite a ways out of town, which meant that Doc might not get back to town in time to prevent Robert Warren from taking Brenda.
Ma smiled up at Kitty. "Was there something you needed from Doc, Dear?"
"Oh, no." Kitty quickly shook her head. "Like I said, I was just checking on the little girl."
"Well, she's doing fine." Ma answered. "Doc says her fever finally broke shortly before Gage came to get him."
"Well, I'm glad to hear that." Kitty offered up a brief smile and turned for the door. "I'll be getting back to the Long Branch then. If you need me or anything Ma, don't hesitate to send for me."
"Why, thank you, Kitty." Ma smiled. "But I doubt I'll need anything. Chester's supposed to be coming up here in a little bit to take over for me. Chester's kind of at loose ends since Marshal Dillon had to ride out to that immigrant camp this afternoon, so Doc asked him to relieve me up here."
"Well, I guess I'll be going now, Ma. You have a good evening."
"You too, Kitty." The older woman smiled as Kitty left the office.
That little conversation explained where Matt and Doc where at, and since the two men were not in town to help her, it also gave Kitty an idea of what to do about Brenda.
TBC