Reno
But for size, Reno, Nevada looked like any other western mining or cattle town of the late 1800s. Reno was larger than most, though could never be considered a city or even a big town as compared to Carson City, or Denver. The main street of Reno did stretch nearly a quarter of a mile and was lined on both sides with primarily wooden one or two story structures, most sporting a false front to give the appearance of being larger than was the actual fact. Both the jail and the bank were constructed of hand honed brick. Saloons, theaters, and gambling casinos lined the streets and brothels were abundant along several smaller side streets. Three hotels and seven boarding houses competed for business. Three dress shops, two Millinery shops, two drug stores, five restaurants, and the Reno Fire Department completed the very wide and unpaved main street.
The Indian Summer temperatures had given way to the Chinook winds, still warm but blustery and foretelling a boding change of the weather. This was the weather and the town that Kid Curry and Hannibal Heyes rode into in the early morning hours of that mid October day.
"Heyes," Kid said and nodded toward the one story brick building sandwiched between the Reno Bank and the Fire Department. Above the door hung a sign that read "Charles Smith, Washoe County Sheriff."
Heyes gave an indicative nod as they continued on down the street toward the Golden Eagle Hotel, a large two story, thirty room hotel that stood alone at the end of the street. It had the customary upper balcony that ran the full length of the building as well as a lower level porch with two gliders and several lounge chairs on its deck. Along one side of the hotel was a gated garden offering shade trees and additional garden lounge seating.
"Can we afford that?" Kid asked as they brought their horses to a stop in front of the hitching post.
"I think for a couple of night at least," Heyes replied.
"Well, if that wind is any indication, there may be snow coming in a couple of days. Wouldn't want to get stranded without a place to stay. There's probably cheaper ones down some of these side streets."
"Let's stay here tonight. If I don't win at poker, we'll consider our options."
Kid nodded and climbed down off his horse. Despite having ridden just ten miles, he felt stiff and very tired. They tossed their saddlebags over their shoulders and stepped up onto the boardwalk, then headed into the hotel.
The walls of the lobby were of inlaid mahogany with gilded framed European artwork and strategically placed sconces adorning the walls. Rich velvet drapery hung from eight foot tall windows. The registration desk was also mahogany with a highly polished marble counter. A hand operated elevator and a large mahogany staircase provided access to the second floor.
Heyes walked up to the counter to register and Kid followed but paid more attention to the décor than to registering. As they waited for the clerk to wait on them, Kid nudged Heyes with his elbow and directed his attention to the hand operated elevator.
"May I be of some service?" The clerk asked, startling Heyes just a bit.
Heyes smiled and turned back to the desk. "We'd like a room, two beds, window facing the street," Heyes said.
The clerk eyed both men rather critically but slowly turned the Registration book around for their signatures.
"The rate is three dollars a night," he clerk told them.
Heyes nodded. "Alright. I think we'll just pay for one night, till we see how well we like this town."
"Maybe a bath?' Kid asked.
The clerk looked at Kid as if he had asked for the moon itself. "There are two fully equipped bathing rooms on the second floor. Please be sure to use the one marked men's."
Kid looked at the clerk with some contempt. "Uh-uh," he muttered.
"The key please," Heyes asked after signing both their names on the register and paying for the room in advance.
Heyes picked up the key the clerk had laid on the counter and headed for the stairs. Kid followed closely behind.
"Don't pay him no mind, Kid. They probably don't even pay him enough to be able to stay here."
Kid's mood and tone improved significantly when they saw that their room was nearly the size of a suite with two large beds, two dressers with mirrors and wash basins, a table large enough to dine on, two very comfortable looking chairs, a fireplace, and a long satin rope next to each bed by which to summon a maid.
"And just think, a bath any time day or night," Kid said with a smile.
"Best take a bath in the middle of the day or the middle of the night so there's no one waiting on you to finish up," Heyes advised knowing how much Kid enjoyed long hot baths.
Kid sat down on the bed and felt the soft comfort of the mattress. "Ah, Heyes, all I want to do right now is sleep," he said and pulled off his boots before stretching out on the bed.
"You mind if I go scout out a poker game?" Heyes asked.
Kid shook his head lazily.
"I'll meet you back here at six and we'll get some supper."
"Kay... Ah, Heyes, I've never been in a finer bed," he mumbled as he drifted off to sleep.
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That evening they found a good steakhouse restaurant before heading to the Golden Nugget Saloon where they both played poker until nearly midnight. The atmosphere in the saloon was quiet and the poker game was amicable and Kid found himself thinking more of that comfortable bed than of the cards in his hand. So, after folding, Kid stood and excused himself from the game.
"I won't be far behind," Heyes said as Kid headed for the bat wing doors.
The hotel was several blocks away and Kid ambled lazily across the street, then down the boardwalk to the hotel. He stopped at the desk to retrieve the room key before heading up the stairs.
Kid stood outside the room and slid the room key into the lock. At that same moment a door three rooms down the hall was thrust open and slammed heavily against the hallway wall as a man staggered out into the hallway.
"Get out you bastard!" a woman shouted from inside the room.
Just as Kid turned to go to the woman's aid, the man fired his gun into the room, then turned abruptly and fired a second shot, this one hitting Kid in the left clavicle and spinning him around with such force he lost his balance and fell face first to the floor, unconscious from the blow to the head.
The man froze for just an instant, dropped the gun on the floor, and raced down the hall and out a window to the balcony where he jumped to the ground and disappeared.
Heyes who had arrived in the lobby, the hotel clerk, and two male guests heard the shots fired and, pulling his gun, Heyes and the others raced up the stairs to the second floor.
Heyes held out his hand, effectively stopping the others before taking a quick glance around the corner. There he saw the gun lying on the floor outside the room with the open door. Looking further down the hall he saw his partner lying in a prone position on the floor.
"Go get the Sheriff," one of the guests shouted as Heyes rushed to his partner's aid. "And the doctor."
One of the two guests hurried back down the stairs to find the doctor and Sheriff. The hotel clerk stopped at the open door and entered, seeing a woman lying in the bed in a pool of blood and a bullet in her head. He swallowed hard and turned and walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Heyes bent down and gently rolled Kid to his back. The shirt near Kid's left shoulder was saturated with blood. Heyes sat heavily on the floor and cradled Kid's head and shoulders in his arms.
"Doctor's on his way," Heyes whispered into Kid's ear.
The doors of several rooms opened ever so slightly as guests gained enough courage to peer out of their rooms to see what the commotion was in the hall.
"Please, everyone just stay in your rooms," the clerk instructed the curious guests and slowly doors began to close again.
"Where's the damn doctor?" Heyes shouted. He pulled his bandanna from around his neck and pressed it against the wound. Kid, still unconscious did not make a sound.
The minutes passed at an excruciatingly slow pace until finally lumbered steps could be heard climbing the stairs.
"There's a woman in that room. She's dead," the clerk told Sheriff Smith and the man over there seems to be injured."
The Sheriff took a quick glance at the doctor, then opened the door and entered the room where the dead woman lay while the doctor raced down the hall to assess and treat the wounded man.
"Anyone see what happened?" Sheriff Smith asked when he came back out of the room.
"No, except maybe that man whose been injured. There's a gun over there on the floor," the clerk told the Sheriff. "I didn't let anybody touch it. However did the shooting didn't leave through the front door."
The Sheriff walked over and picked up the gun and his eye caught a glimpse of a spent shell against the wall. He retrieved that as well. Looking about the hall he did not see a second shell, so he once again opened the door where the woman still lay and there, next to the floorboard near the door was the second spent shell.
"Doc?" The sheriff asked as he came back into the hall and closed the door behind him.
"This one is still unconscious. He must have hit his head when he fell. The bullet isn't too deep. I'll need help getting him into this room and into bed. I think I can get the bullet out without too much trouble. Have to watch him close though to see if he's got a concussion."
"You're not operating on the hotel's new mattresses?' the clerk said in a tone more closely resembling a command than a question.
"You got a better idea how I get a bullet out of a man that should only be moved at a minimum?" the doctor retorted. "Can't do it out here in the hallway in this light."
The clerk said nothing but turned and headed back downstairs rather than be a part of moving a bloodied man into one of the hotels fine beds.
"Anybody know who he is?" Sheriff Smith asked after Kid had been placed on the bed and the doctor began setting up his makeshift surgical area.
"His name is Thaddeus Jones," Heyes replied.
"And who might you be?"
"I'm Joshua Smith. Thaddeus is my cousin."
"I see. Either of you know the deceased woman?"
Heyes shook his head. "We just arrived in town this morning. We've never even seen her."
"You get a look at the man that shot your cousin?"
Again Heyes shook his head. "I was downstairs in the lobby when I heard the shots. By the time we got up here, there was no one around."
"Doc, you mind if I take a look at this fella's gun before you start working on him?"
The doctor shook his head and the Sheriff pulled Kid's gun from it's holster and examined it. "All six chambers are full. He didn't fire a shot."
"The other fella must have already had his gun drawn," Heyes thought aloud.
"What?" the Sheriff asked.
Heyes tried to think quickly. "Thaddeus' gun was still in his holster. I figure the other man must have already had his gun pulled. Probably shot the lady, then saw Thaddeus and knew he could be identified."
The Sheriff sighed but nodded his head. "I'm going to go get the undertaker. I'm guessing you already know not to leave town till I get a chance to talk to your cousin here."
Heyes nodded, then sat down heavily in a chair near Kid's bed and watched the doctor work on his patient.
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The bullet had not penetrated too deeply and by morning Kid was still a bit clouded in this thinking and had more than a bit of soreness in his heavily bandaged shoulder, but was able to sit up and feed himself a few bites of food. Neither he nor Heyes was surprised by the early morning knock on the door.
Thinking it was the doctor arriving to check on Kid, Heyes was only a little surprised to see the Sheriff.
"Come on in," Heyes said as he held the door open.
"You look a sight better than you did last night. I'm Sheriff Charles Smith. Came by to see if you are up to answering a few questions."
Kid nodded and motioned to Heyes to take his plate.
"Well, let's start with your name. Your friend told me your name last night but I just need to see how alert you are for answering questions," Sheriff Smith explained.
"Thaddeus Jones," Kid replied.
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-eight."
"Where you from?"
"Kansas originally. Been in Wyoming the last few years."
"What exactly did you see last night?"
Kid scratched the top of his head as he tried to gather his thoughts. "I was unlocking the door to this room...heard a commotion a few door down... I looked up and saw a man backing out of the other room into the hallway... I heard a woman shout something. Then the man fired into the room, then turned and shot me... That's all I remember."
"Can you tell me what the man looked like?"
"He was a...maybe five nine or ten, dark hair, dark mustache..."
"What kind of mustache?"
"A... Dapper style."
"How was he dressed?"
"Uhmm, a suit, a dark suit. I don't remember a hat."
"You think you'd be able to identify him if you saw him again?"
Kid nodded. "Yeah, I think so... Did he hurt anybody else? The woman?"
"I'm afraid he killed her... From what I could tell, he went out a window at the end of the hall, then jumped down into the alley. Looks like he landed kind of hard, maybe sprained an ankle."
"Shouldn't be too hard to find then," Heyes said.
"Well as a matter of fact, we may have already found him. I'm holding a man under suspicion until you are well enough to come by the jail and take a good look at him," Sheriff Smith told Kid.
"Doctor hasn't been by yet this morning," Heyes told the Sheriff.
"Well I can hold him for seventy-two hours, so there's a little leeway time there."
"Will Thaddeus be expected to testify at the trial?"
The Sheriff nodded. "Unless of course the fella decides to enter a guilty plea."
"How likely is that?" Kid asked.
The Sheriff shook his head. "Won't know that till he talks to a lawyer."
"What was the connection between this man the the woman?" Heyes asked.
"Clara Bledsoe, the woman that was killed, owned one of the lower end brothels. A couple of the ladies that work there said there's a man who has been trying to blackmail Clara out of a fairly large sum of money. If that's the case, this may well be a business transaction that went bed, very bad."
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The following afternoon, his head clear and feeling no dizziness, Kid was given the okay to walk to the Sheriff's Office if accompanied by Heyes. Kid carefully studied the man sitting in the cell.
"Yeah, that's him, Sheriff," Kid said.
"No doubt?"
Kid shook his head. "No doubt."
Sheriff Smith nodded. "I'll be by your hotel room in the morning with a Notary Public to get a full statement."
"And then we'll be free to go?" Heyes asked.
"Circuit Judge ain't due through here for three more weeks. As long as you leave me a way to get in touch with you then yeah, you'll be free to go. If this goes to trial, you'll have to return to testify you understand?"
"Yeah, I understand," Kid replied
"You done with us for now?" Heyes asked and Sheriff Smith nodded.
As they walked down the boardwalk toward the hotel, Heyes spied a saloon across the street.
"Kid, why don't you wait here and I'll run over and get us a bottle of whiskey to take up to the room. Might help that arm not hurt so much."
"I got a better idea. Why don't I go with you across the street and we have ourselves a beer. Then you buy a bottle of whiskey to take up to the room."
Heyes smiled. "You sure you're up to it?"
"Yeah Heyes, I'm up to it."
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The following morning, after the Sheriff and the Notary Public took Kid's statement, a statement that included Kid swearing to be one Thaddeus Jones, the doctor stopped by to change Kid's bandages and be sure there were still no signs of a concussion.
"How soon will he be able to travel?' Heyes asked.
"Well, that depends," the doctor replied.
"On what?" Kid asked.
"On just what means of travel you're talking about. If your planning to travel by horseback, I'd say another week. If you're planning to travel by stage, I'd say another four days."
"Why four days?" Heyes asked.
"Cause that's when the next stage passes through town. If you're planning to travel by train,...day after tomorrow."
"Cause that's when the next train comes through?" Kid asked.
The doctor smiled. "No sign of a concussion there, son. Of course you know there's a storm headed this way, don't you?"
"Where is it now?" Heyes asked.
"It's up in the higher elevations to the west. I hear it's dropped nearly two feet of snow in the high Sierras."
"When's it supposed to start?" Heyes asked.
"Sometime tonight or tomorrow morning."
Heyes looked at Kid and sighed. "Suppose we'd best sit tight for now," he said.
"I suppose so. Now that we're gonna be snowed in, I think we're pretty safe. After all we have pretty much covered everything that could possible happen. What more could there possibly be?"
"You know, Thaddeus, every time one of us says something like that..."
"I know...," Kid said with a heavy sigh.
"Something bad happens," they said in unison.
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Author's note: Charles Smith was the first Washoe County Sheriff