Blood Moon 6
"No! Stop it! Don't do that anymore," a young woman's voice rang out loudly.
"It was an accident!" The young man laughed uproariously, as he splashed more water.
"That was no accident, John," his sister yelled at him.
Kitty laughed and watched the antics of Bess's youngest children carousing in the water. She said, "I can't wait for Lena to get home. I miss the noise and chaos of having young people around."
"Maybe that's part of the reason that you enjoyed running The Long Branch," Hannah said. "You're a naturally friendly person and love people. Are you sure you don't get lonely way out here away from Dodge?"
"Hannah, I will not come back, so you can stop asking, and it's only twelve miles, as the crow flies," Kitty answered, pretended to be exasperated. "I've got my hands full here keeping up with the registrations and numbers since it's calving season, and Lena will be home in a month. I should have lots of noise and activity in the house then."
"Well, darn, you can't blame a woman for trying. I could use some of your magic with numbers about now" Hannah said in a dejected tone.
Before Kitty could ask her what was wrong, Bess Roniger interrupted them by plonking herself down on a weathered chair to join them.
"The youngsters are having a time out there in the creek. It's just the thing after hard week of planting and rounding up new mama cows and strays," Bess announced. "And, I've been so worried about Caroline. She's been heartbroken over the disappearance of her dog, Birdie. She's had that dog since she was three years old. I told her that her brother Samuel's collie dog has a new litter of puppies and she could have one of those. Nothing could sooth that child's tears."
"I'm so sorry," Kitty said. "It's good to see them having fun and to get a different topic of conversation. Festus has annoyed me to death for a week about rubs and seasoning for that pig! I thought for sure that Matt was going to tie him up and put him on a train to Wichita if he didn't stop talking about it."
"Festus does tend to get carried away when it comes to food," Hannah said knowingly.
"Oh, please, don't remind me of his 'near escape' from the 'clutches of marriage-dom," Kitty said. "To hear him tell it, it was as close a call as his escape from the Comanches fifteen years ago."
The ladies laughed. The gossip about Festus and his widow-woman had made the rounds. Kitty doubted if there was a person in Kansas or Arkansas who hadn't heard of it."
"Speak of the devil," Hannah said, gesturing up the hill where Festus was gesturing and yelling for them to come on and eat.
"I'll leave you ladies to round up the herd because I need to check on my final preparations," Kitty announced and headed up the little rise where Matt and the other men were gathered. She turned abruptly to look at Bess, and asked, "Do you think your son might have an extra puppy?"
Bess smiled. "I'm sure there will be, Kitty. In fact, I'd almost bet on it."
Several tables were set out and loaded down with water and lemonade, even a keg of bear. Corn on the cob, corn bread, biscuits, and green beans were only a few of the bowls of food spread out alongside a pile of plates and cutlery. Kitty took great pride in her skills as a hostess and this one of the first shindigs that she and Matt had thrown that included this many people. The Ronigers and twelve of their children and grandchildren who were available to come; Festus and their three hands, Grady, Tate, and Ash; Dr. Raymond Carter and Hannah. Newly had been invited along with his deputy Toby Ames and his wife Sarah, who was expecting.
Kitty was double checking the number of people compared to seating. Matt and Festus had built some picnic tables, adorned with tablecloths, and placed them in the shade. Quilts also covered the ground for the smaller ones. Her attention was so focused that she didn't hear Matt until he came up behind her and whispered in her ear.
"I think you have outdone yourself, honey, as usual." He gave her a sneaky kiss on the cheek.
"Thank you, but you're a little partial to the hostess," she responded drily.
"That I am." Matt enveloped her from behind in his big arms. In a low voice, he asked her, "Are you happy?"
She squeezed his hand and looked up at him with a beaming smile. "Very."
He returned her smile with a grin and yelled, "Let's eat!"
*********************************************************XXXXXXXXXX. M&K
The sky was a brilliant canvas of pink and violet as the last of their visitors packed up their wagons and headed home. The sun was taking its time setting tonight. Hannah was staying overnight, since it was Sunday, and she had closed the saloon. Dr. Carter had been invited to stay, as well, but he had a very expectant mother who lived along his way back to Dodge. The doctor felt he should check-in on his way home. Festus and his boys gladly snatched plates of food that Miss Kitty and Hannah divied out, and then they headed back to check the herds before bedding down for the night.
Matt and Newly assisted the ladies in toting baskets of leftover food and other paraphernalia back up to the house. Once they deposited their burdens inside, they headed to the porch with coffee and privacy. The tops of the trees began to sway in the wind, first in small puffs then sudden hard gusts. It had been an exceptionally warm day for early April and dark clouds were on the horizon, threatening a spring storm. Wind chimes stirred, harbingers of stronger breezes perhaps yet to come.
The warm light from inside the house and the women's voices and laughter drifted out on the evening air. Matt leaned back in one of the willow rockers that he'd handcrafted (he was quite proud of the way they curved to fit a person's back and Kitty insisted she was going to patent it) and took a drink of his coffee.
The rumble of Matt's voice interrupted the silence of the early evening air. "I assume there hasn't been more progress with the Hensley murder?"
"No. Not a damn thing. Though I can't say I'm ungrateful that no more bodies have turned up," New said, leaning forward with his arms on his knees, hat in hand. "I suppose that it could have been someone just passing through, but that doesn't seem to match up with Ray Carter's suppositions about the killer."
Matt peered at him in the fading light. "I must have missed something. Let's go through your time table and then go over what Carter supposed."
"There was a mutilated calf here."
"Maybe. Newly we don't know for sure that it was killed by a person. Still could have been an animal," Matt interrupted him.
"Yes, but within a week of that discovery, Miz Hensley is killed. I checked back through my notes and within one month, in an approximate twenty-mile radius around Dodge City, there had been at least five dogs, six cats, and two other calves missing. Completely disappeared. Yours was the only one that was found relatively intact.
"Now, before you say it, Matt, I know that domestic animals go missing and never turn up. Those are just the animals that we found out about by trying to keep a low profile. I have no idea what we may have turned up if we'd posted a notice about missing animals. Maybe nothing but a panic, which is why I chose not to," Newly said, and released a sigh of frustration.
Matt shifted to take pressure off his leg. "What about Carter? What were his final results? And his ideas about this killer?"
"Carter believed that a person like this would have a killing area, until he is stopped. Mrs. Hensley didn't appear to have been…. violated sexually. But Matt her face was just destroyed. That's a lot of anger, so doesn't that indicate a violent man, perhaps a madman."
The old US Marshal was quiet, parsing Newly's information. "Let me study on it. The doctor makes some good points but there are other reasons for destroying someone's identity after death. Even among the Indians. Some tribes feel that it can wipe away the evil in the person."
"Are you saying it could be an Indian? Or that the killer thought that Mrs. Hensley deserved it?"
Matt said, deliberately and with the wisdom of years of law enforcement, "I'm not willing to go out on a limb yet. You have one murder and some missing animals, and a doctor that has a lot of knowledge that he likes to share. Carter may be right, but until we find a pattern that we can document with evidence, it sounds like it is just as likely to be a random stranger killing—no matter how damn awful it was. That's probably not what you want to hear, but I hope that we don't ever have another murder to compare it to."
"It's been two months and nothing else. That's a good thing," Newly said. "I guess I will have to be satisfied not solving one murder if I never have any others like this to investigate. Not a happy trade off, but not bad either."
Kitty pushed opened the screen door and stepped out on the front porch. Matt pulled a chair close to himself and Kitty placed a tray between the four of them. Hannah settled in beside Newly, after she lit the lamps on either side of the exterior door.
"Are we welcome or is this a private conversation," Kitty asked, settling in regardless of the answer.
Newly said, "Miss Kitty, you can throw one heck of a spring fling. The food was delicious and the company was top notch."
"How about I freshen up that coffee and you have a piece of this blackberry pie. It has a perfectly browned crust, if I do say so myself." Kitty cut a piece and the first went to her husband who winked at her. It was his favorite.
Kitty handed two more slices, one to Hannah and one to Newly, when she heard the jangling spurs.
"That surely does look like fine pie there, Miz Kitty," Festus drawled.
She smiled as she handed him a piece, which she'd already cut for him. "Have a seat, Festus, and join us."
"I shorely will. Mmmmm. This here pie is a pure t slice of heaven, Miz Kitty."
"Thank you, Festus. You're certainly welcome."
Kitty reached over to take her husband's arm. "Do you remember back in February when we were snowed in and you said that I could pick myself out a birthday present later?"
Everyone laughed as Matt groaned. "You want a trip to Paris. San Francisco," he asked.
"No, I want a puppy from Bess's son. He has a new litter of collie pups. Now I don't suppose that's too much to ask, is it?"
"No, Mrs. Dillon, it isn't. When will they be ready to leave their mama?"
"I think about two weeks. Bess told me that Caroline's dog had disappeared, and she could have one of these puppies if Birdie hadn't returned by then," Kitty said, then taking a bite of her pie.
Sensing something odd from the sudden quiet, Hannah and Kitty looked at the men and each other.
Newly asked Kitty, "Did she say when the dog disappeared?"
"Not that I recall. Why?"
Newly shrugged. "I'll go by tomorrow. Maybe take a flyer to post. It could turn up."
She smiled at him, "That's very nice; I'm sure Caroline and Bess would appreciate it," she said, pretending not to notice odd expressions on both Matt's and Newly's faces and not buying their story for one minute.