XIV.
"Which way?" Crown snarled to Carter as the slam! of his office door accompanied him down the short corridor to the cells.
The other man gave him a malevolent stare from around Kihlgren's ministering form, eyed MacGregor's rifle held on him and did not reply. He was dirt streaked and beaten, one eye blackening, both lips split. Dried blood streaked his bared arm in rusty lines from the bullet wound marring the shoulder. The collarbone was lumpy and red-purple, broken by the looks of it.
Crown rocked to a stop before the open cell door. "Which way?" he demanded again. "Which train?"
The other man took a breath. "Should've finished ye when I had the chance," he rolled out in a hoarse tone.
"I know he's trying to disguise himself-" Crown threw down the derby hat and the glasses case. "And he's in it for kidnapping now – with you as his accomplice."
Carter's smile was grim. "Ye can't trick me…"
"Damage to town property," Crown went on. "Assaulting a federal officer, interfering with a lawman in his duty-"
"Not me. On Danforth's orders, it was."
"Kidnapping…"
Carter glanced about, lips pursed with amusement. "Who're you accusing o' kidnapping with me sitting in your stinking jail?
"You killed McShane," Crown said.
"Wasn't me, lawman. 'Twas Garth who-"
"Garth's dead so you'll swing for it."
Carter knocked Lars aside and struggled to his feet – MacGregor cocked the rifle and issued a warning. " 'Twas Garth, not me that done it!" he angrily exclaimed. "On Danforth's order, I tell ye!" He grabbed his arm and sunk back. "Dammit, you broke me shoulder…"
"Garth's dead – and you're the only one left, Carter." Crown drew his.44, pulled back the hammer, had to tamp down the blackened rage boiling through him. "A rope and a platform," he growled out. "That's the way we do it out here."
"He'll put a lawyer on," Carter gasped, grabbing the cell bars to hold himself up. Behind him Kihlgren stood quietly, eyeing both his patients and the guns, the rifle held steady in Mac's grip and the .44 grasped securely in Crown's bruised hand. "I'll be freed…"
"Danforth's gone and he's not likely to come back," Crown stated. "Either you catch up or you don't, but he won't wait. There's a hundred others back in Providence he can choose from. He'll pluck one right out of the same gutter you two came from. Dress them up in new clothes, get their pledge of loyalty and take their soul. And walk away whenever he wants."
"No…" Carter shook his head, though there was a dazed look of defeat coming up in his gaze.
"Unstop your ears, Carter," Crown barked. "You're going to take the full blame for Danforth unless you spill the truth. I got a dead boy at the undertaker's and I got you – that's enough for a jury. I can put you on a train straight to Fort Smith and Judge Parker."
"Judge Parker…" The color drained from the sweaty, bruised face. "Him that – that…?"
"You've heard of our hanging judge?" Crown's lips managed a sardonic smile. "He'll swing a bug like you at dawn then help himself to a hearty breakfast right after. Or…" he took a step closer, leveled the gun at the other man's chest. "Maybe you want to take your chances with me?" He didn't wait for the glower to fade from the other man's gaze. "Doc, Mac, clear out…"
"Hope you know what you're doing," Lars muttered even as Mac gave him a glinted look of amusement. But they tramped quickly back toward the office; Mac closed the door with a solid bang.
"Back against the wall," Crown ordered Carter. "Now, turn around…"
Instead the other man tried to straighten, the challenge clearly in his eyes. "You wouldn't-"
The shot was deafening as it careened by, nicking the top of his ear and then sailing out the window.
Carter ducked. "You're a madman!" he shrieked angrily but rose again, turned halfway around.
"Tell me!" Crown demanded. "Which way did Danforth go?" He fired another shot; it gouged the window ledge, sprayed broken brick over Carter's head, skipped over and flew outside.
"Stop…!" The other man cowered.
But Crown did not stop; he fired again, hitting the other ear this time, plowing up more rock.
"Stop, I tell ye! " cried Carter. "Stop!"
Two bullets left, and by God, he'd find a mark with them if he had to…
"All right," Carter gasped, half turning around. "I'll – I'll tell ye…"
"What?" Crown growled. "What did you say?"
The bigger man sank down, hugging the wall, blood running down the tops of both ears.
"North," he panted. "North…Kansas – Kansas City…"
North – Kansas City – then east…
"Get those train schedules," Crown barked to Francis, limping into his office. Time-time-time tapped a warning inside his brain like the steady drum of rain against a window. His heart lurched with worry and he could barely choke it back.
"Do you want him patched up or not?" Lars complained, watching as he sat heavily in his chair.
"What's this about kidnapping?" MacGregor asked as Francis spread a map before him and placed the train schedules on top.
"Keep him alive," Crown told Kihlgren and replied to his deputy, "Dulcey is a minor – she's not twenty-one – Danforth can't take her legally." And that gives me the authority to bring her back…
"But the contract," Mac frowned.
"Requires legal escort back to Rhode Island."
Understanding broke over Mac's face. "Should've brought his lawyer to Cimarron City instead of his ruffians," he snorted.
Or his gardener, Crown thought.
He grabbed the schedule for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific train, then traced the route with a finger along the map. "Sand Hill and then up," he murmured. He'd ridden that line many times, knew the stops – Liberal, Bloom, Kingsdown, Bucklin, Mullinville, … on north to Topeka and then on to KC… He had to get ahead of that train, meet it, because once it got past Greensburgh it would be non-stop to-
"You can't expect to catch that train," MacGregor told him doubtfully reading his mind, "even if you do have the power to stop it now."
"Wait, what time is it?" Francis suddenly asked and his startled voice had them craning their necks to check the wall clock in the dining room; six-twenty. "The Wells, Fargo Express line comes through at six-forty," he announced with a tight little smile. "Runs all the way to Greensburgh, no stops…"
The express company train caught the short line in Cimarron City and went straight over the border without any stops. If Danforth had taken the Chicago, R.I. and Pacific he would've had to grab that Sand Hill line going west, wait for the connecting line, then change over. That took time...
There was a chance to catch up, just a chance – at Bucklin, or Mullinville…
Crown got himself up, hobbled out to the staircase. "Get to the depot and hold that train!" he commanded to MacGregor. "Wake up that lawyer," he directed Francis. "I want a writ put into Judge Parker's hands within the hour."
Hold on, Dulcey he silently implored her as he took the stairs two at a time. Hold on, girl, I'm coming for you…