Something's Not Right
From what Kitty and Doc related to Matt Dillon the easy answer that Billy Poe killed Bud Hayes didn't sit right with the lawman. The young cowboy was mild-mannered and friendly. Poe showed no animosity when he accepted enough money back from his loss to Hayes for buying a drink in a poker game. On the other hand, the older loser in the game seemed more ready to assume that local man Hayes had taken him. Perhaps it would turn out to be Frank Walker was the murderer. All that the marshal really had to go on was the dying Hayes named Poe as his killer since both losers had disappeared. Those were the thoughts going through US Marshal Matt Dillon's mind a frustrating week later as he chatted with town blacksmith and friend Quint Asper.
A cowboy riding in from Elkader interrupted the friendly exchange. Matt finally had somewhere definite to go in his pursuit of Billy Poe, if not Frank Walker as well. It had been in October '69 when Joe Phy brought a semblance of law and order to Elkader. In the intervening years since he'd unmasked the pretend US Marshal as a fraud Dillon had only made the trip up that way a few times. The last trip was at least three years ago. Town elements, lacking respect for the law, ran roughshod over the respectable citizens without a strong lawman around to deter them. That criticism could be said of certain elements where he made his home, including the Texans coming up the trail to sell their cattle. Despite his presence Dodge was still a rough town. There was a sheriff in Elkader the last he'd heard but Matt wasn't certain how effective the man was. That cowboy sure seemed disappointed he wasn't rewarded for his information. Perhaps it was a good thing in general that Dillon was paying the town a visit. The US Marshal, whose jurisdiction included all of Kansas, was duty bound to periodically visit the frontier towns where effective law enforcement was scarce. Poe gave US Marshal Matt Dillon the perfect excuse for fulfilling his duty.
At least the cattle season wasn't in full swing Dillon mused as he set off to the northwest. Quint would inform those that mattered to him, especially Kitty, about where he was headed. As he saddled his buckskin gelding Matt thought maybe he should take the time to make sure his town was well looked after and that included his girl. He would have welcomed having time to say a proper farewell to Kitty, but that would mean delaying his departure. Nobody could know how long Billy Poe would remain in Elkader. Time was of the essence.
Worrying about his town and Kitty did him no good. Matt, like always, tried to focus on the task that lay ahead of him as he rode along. Of course, particularly at night in his lonely blankets, he couldn't keep his heart and mind from dwelling on lying in her arms in the bed they shared upstairs in the Long Branch as often as possible. That was a part of the job he had to accept. It would be best to focus on what he might find when he reached Elkader rather than on what might be happening in Dodge, Kitty's safety in particular. Her safety plagued him more than any other worry when he was away. With the determination that marked him out for success Matt Dillon turned his thoughts to what he knew of Billy Poe. Poe was a stranger, a loser in a poker game named by the dying Hayes as his presumed attacker. A man answering to his name was rumored to be in Elkader. It wasn't much.
Upon arriving in the small town Matt rode up to the sheriff's office. A hanger-on lounged in a chair outside the building. He wasn't rude, but also wasn't exactly forthcoming when it came to information. The lawman from Dodge accepted what this person had to say about the treatment of strangers, especially lawmen. Things had certainly deteriorated since fake marshal Phy made things uncomfortable for the riffraff. Dillon was sorry then for what he'd had to do to the essentially decent man with the assistance of the drink cadging Cicero Grimes. From what the hanger-on had told him, which included the fact that nobody was willing to take on the job of law enforcement in the six months since the last sheriff was run out, Elkader was again lawless. The decent citizens seemed only to remember that Joe Phy was a fake. The bravery of Grimes and what he stood up for had evaporated from the ken of all who might have lived here six years ago.
Elkader's regression and how the idler differed from Grimes filled Matt's mind as he entered Kelly's Saloon and ordered a beer. Here too things had changed. The barkeep was ready to pour a beer for a thirsty traveler but not ready to ask a fair price for it. Dillon countered his request for a quarter, the normal cost of bar whiskey in the Long Branch, with the offer that popped into his head "then I'll take two fifths of a glass". That brought a chuckle and an ounce of respect from the barman, who replied congenially with "Yah got me there" as he pulled a full mug from the tap.
Once he'd set the beer in front of Matt the man provided information on the state of the town in a non-committal yet friendly manner. By the time Matt turned down the approach of a saloon girl by remarking on the high cost of drinks in the saloon, he knew to beware of Canby, Wells and Danno, a trio of toughs masquerading as ranchers. He filed the information away, barely noticing their departure. Probably they were as disappointed in his reaction to their presence as he had been to the saloon woman.
Matt's instincts were already on full alert when the town drunk arrived. He smiled inwardly at how the bartender refused him a drink, thinking of Sam acting under Kitty's instructions when Louie reached his allotted amount. He had to agree with the man behind the bar about a bleeding body described by the drunk being his line of work. Matt did what he'd have done in Dodge. He promised a drink to the drunk after dealing with the reality of a body in the alley. Dillon had no room at the moment for what he'd filed away about the trio who hated lawmen or the nonchalance of most citizens about the law's official absence. It turned into a near fatal mistake.