Midnight Visitors 1
"Oh, Hey-es," called a soft voice.
A gun cocked by the side of Heyes' ear.
Usually a light sleeper, tonight Heyes was tired and in a deep asleep, so the owner of the voice gave him a nudge for good measure. His eyes flicked open. He froze. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the gleam of a gun in the moonlight, held by a gloved hand. He slowly turned his head. Enough to see who was on the other end. The sight he saw made his heart sink. Oh, no! This was all he needed.
At the foot of the bed, stood the outline of another person. A match struck alight and a grinning face was illuminated. A full bottle of whiskey raised aloft.
"We brung us a party!"
"Hush up!" hissed the first.
Heyes groaned. He tightened his jaw as he sucked air through his teeth in irritation. He knew who these two were and he wasn't best pleased to see them. Certainly not in the middle of the night. In his bedroom, with his wife asleep beside him.
He threw back the covers carefully, glancing to see if Mary was stirring. Moving slowly out of bed, he grabbed up his pants, flicking the two visitors out in front of him.
"Get! Get!" he hissed.
The three of them tiptoed outside into the main room. Heyes winced as he shut the bedroom door. The taller of the two visitors lit the nearest lamp.
"What do y'mean busting into my home in the middle of the night?" Heyes asked as he furiously struggling into his pants.
"Jus' looking up an old friend," the first said, with a shrug.
"Couldn'ya done it in daylight?"
"Couldn't take a chance of running into that sheriff. Could we?"
The other shook his head furiously.
"How d'you find me?" Heyes was sharp.
The first grinned, drawing himself up, pleased and proud. "Well now Heyes I worked it out!"
"Yeah Heyes. He was real smart. Ya'd of been proud of him. The way he figgered it out," the second said, excited.
Heyes false smiled at him. "Yeah I'm real proud," he growled.
"See I told ya he would be!" The second grinned nodding at the first.
Heyes winced and made a quietening down motion with his hand.
"Keep it down will you. My wife's asleep."
"Ya wife! Why I figgered she was …" The first saw the look Heyes gave him and wisely decided to go no further.
"You's married Heyes?" The second wide eyed in surprise.
"Yes," Heyes confirmed. "What's wrong with that?" he demanded, offended that neither of them thought he would marry. He forgot his own caution to be quiet.
"Oh nothing," the first said, shaking his head furiously. "Jus' never figgered ya for the marrying kind that's all Heyes."
Before Heyes could respond, the bedroom door opened behind him. The not so hushed voices had woken Mary. Not expecting anyone else to be in her home in the middle of the night, she was surprised to see her husband standing hands on hips, half-dressed and looking fit to burst at two untidy, shabby and stubbled men. She didn't like the look of them. Both looked distinctly unsavoury. What did they want with her husband?
"Joshua, what's happening here? Who are these men?"
Heyes looked round wondering how to explain, when the second whooped.
"Whoo hee Wheat! Look what Heyes has been doing!"
Heyes sighed and rolled his eyes at the ceiling, smacking his lips.
It was obvious to all. Mary was very pregnant.
Wheat grinned and punched Heyes on the arm. "Heyes ya ole son of a gun!"
"Owh!" Heyes rubbed his arm and frowned at Wheat.
Realising her husband knew these men, Mary came further into the room. Quickly surmising her husband wasn't being threatened and appeared to be on familiar terms with these men, she had her suspicions as to who they might be. "Joshua aren't you going to make the introductions?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
Heyes wasn't inclined to do anything of the sort and his expression said so. However, before he could open his mouth, Wheat snatched off his hat. "Wheat Carlson ma'am. And that there's Kyle Murtry."
Kyle snatched his hat off too, held it close to his chest and nodded. "How do ma'am."
"We're ole friends of Heyes and the Kid," Wheat said with a grin, enjoying the look on Heyes' face for a moment, before sobering.
"Not exactly friends. And they were just leaving," Heyes said with a menacing growl, his eyes turning hard and black as he faced Wheat.
"We're in trouble Heyes," Kyle gulped. "Real big trouble." His fingers tightened over his hat.
"We came 'cos we need ya help," Wheat said, begrudgingly, when Heyes' eyebrow raised in his direction.
For a moment Heyes and Wheat locked eyes, then Heyes sighed. Finger combing his hair, he glanced behind him. "Mary please go back to bed. I don't want you involved in this," Heyes commanded.
Mary sniffed. And ignore him. "Have you two gentlemen had anything to eat recently?"
"No ma'am," they chorused.
"Well then–"
"Mary─" Heyes sighed. Mary continued to ignore him.
"I'll fix you something to eat while you talk … ." She paused and looked at her husband. "With Heyes," she added with a slight smile on her face.
She turned and disappeared into the kitchen.
Heyes looked at Wheat.
"How did you find me and what d'you want?" he snapped.
"Well now Heyes that's two questions long in the telling. So best we make ourselves comfortable while the little woman … Owh!"
Heyes had prodded him hard in the shoulder. "She isn't a little woman! She's my wife! Have some respect."
"So? She's …" Wheat's bravado crumbled under the stare Heyes now gave him. The stare he hadn't used for over three years.
Instead, Wheat looked round for some place to sit. "As I was saying them's two long stories."
Heyes moved quickly to his desk and picked up yesterday's newspaper. He pulled out a few pages and placed them on the seat of the chair Wheat was threatening to sit on, a few more on the sofa behind Kyle. He growled at both of them to sit in the places he had prepared.
"Well now there's no need to─"
"SIT!"
Wheat and Kyle sat.
Heyes stood hands on hips, his lips tight until he was satisfied they wouldn't dirty the furniture. Then he sat on the edge of the other sofa his elbows on his knees.
"Okay. How did you find me?" he sighed. Best to go with this and get it over with as soon as possible.
"It was in the newspaper, Heyes," Kyle burst out.
"What?" Heyes was alarmed at the thought of his whereabouts being in a newspaper.
"Yeah a few months ago. A story 'bout how we done got that ole pocket watch of ya's back for yous. 'Course I realise it was only supposed to be a made up story but I knew straight off. Didn't I Kyle?"
"Yeah he knew straight off." Kyle's features creased into a frown. "What did ya know, Wheat?"
Wheat growled. Heyes rubbed his eyes, amused. Kyle hadn't changed.
"That although it was supposed to be written by Hannibal Heyes. Y'know to add to the drama of the piece an' all but I knew ole Heyes hisself had written it." Wheat chortled. "Heyes ya sure got the details right." He reached over and slapped Heyes on the back.
"What details?"
"'Bout ya pacing up and down outside the cabin and the Kid rocking in the chair outside." Wheat chortled again. "Nobody else but you woulda remembered all that. Why I'd forgotten it myself 'till ya reminded me of it in the piece."
Heyes groaned, loudly. He put his head in his hands. Several months earlier, Heyes had written a story for the Porterville Bugle, entitled "The Mystery of the Pocket Watch" providing an explanation for a train robbery, which stood out as unusual amongst The Devil's Hole Gang's catalogue of hold-ups. The author of said story was allegedly Hannibal Heyes. The newspaper editor had agreed to publish under that name because he wanted publicity for his journal. Heyes had been careful to insist Craig Carmichael, the newspaper editor, add a prominent disclaimer at the top, which said, "This work was written purely for pleasure and the anonymous writer has earned no fee for its publication. Although based on a real event, the narrative is fictitious and is a product of the author's imagination. No disrespect was intended to any person, living or dead." The former Governor and his current successor accusing him of profiting from his criminal past was the last thing he wanted.
In hindsight, Heyes was discovering writing stories for the newspaper, allegedly penned by Hannibal Heyes was proving to be a very bad mistake. He had suspicions Craig though he was Hannibal Heyes, or at least a close associate. Nor was Craig the only person in Porterville, who had their suspicions about popular Joshua Smith, Hardware Store owner. There were times when Heyes avoided the saloon. Usually just after one of his stories had appeared in the paper. Regulars met to discuss the motivations behind some of the events in the stories and Heyes didn't want to become sucked into the discussions. No one ever said anything to him directly but there had been a few searching questions. Heyes often found he gave cagey answers. Which just added to their suspicions. It was all part of his plan for eventual acceptance and he'd have to weather it as best as he could.
Here was something else he hadn't considered. Members of the gang remembering all the details.
"So?" He looked up. "It's just a story in the newspaper. Why come here?"
"Go on Wheat you tell him. How ya figgered out the rest." Kyle squealed in delight. "Wheat was real smart."
A moment later, Kyle was sobering under the stares his current and former bosses were giving him.
Heyes pulled his gaze from Kyle and returned to Wheat for an explanation.
"Well it was in the Porterville Bugle and I knows this is the town where Lom Trevors is at. Hey, I heard 'bout the amnesty. Congrats by the way." He went to slap Heyes on the back again but then thought better of it. He cleared his throat instead.
Heyes rolled his eyes. "Thank you," he murmured and motioned for Wheat to get on with it.
"Figgered here would be a good place to start. We'd only been watching the town for a day ain't we Kyle? 'Afore we spotted ya coming out of that hardware store. Followed ya back here and we figgered we'd wait 'till nightfall 'afore we come talk to ya. So nobody sees us. Least of all that nosey sheriff."
"Ya still Joshua Smith, Heyes?" Kyle asked.
Heyes nodded. "To the town yeah."
"Does she know?" Kyle's eyes widened, pointing over his shoulder in the direction of the kitchen.
"Yeah she knows," Heyes confirmed.
"But she called ya Joshua." Kyle looked confused.
"Yes! She isn't gonna call me Heyes is she? And only Big Jim ever called me Hannibal!" Heyes spluttered. "You aren't here to discuss my domestic arrangements. You've told me how you found me so why are you here?"
"Heyes we're in a powerful lot of trouble," Wheat started.
"I know! I led you for most of it!" Heyes gave a resigned sigh.
"Ya're the smartest man we know Heyes," Kyle said, quietly. "Folks are saying ya some kinda criminal genius … ."
"Yeah Heyes so it's time to stand up and prove it," Wheat added.
"Fellas I'm violating the terms of my amnesty just talking to you!"
Heyes swallowed and took a deep breath. He opened his mouth to tell them to be on their way but the concerned looks on their faces took the fight right out of him. He sighed. He knew he was going to regret this but he asked anyway.
"What's happened?"
"Murder," announced Wheat.
"Huh?" Heyes looked up in surprise. Definitely wasn't the kind of trouble he'd expected.
"They done accused us of murder Heyes," Kyle gulped.