Warren Epps (from Exit From Wickenburg)
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I was born and raised in Wickenburg and it's always been a nice, friendly little community, the kind of community you'd want to raise your family in. The people are hard working, and I was always proud to be one of them people. I've been a bookkeeper all my adult life. My first job was at the General Store. I worked there for four years and then took a job at the Wickenburg Bank and Trust, and in both jobs, I never called it a day until until every debit and every credit balanced out.
But about a dozen years ago Mr. Sloane came to town. He wasn't a bad fella and kept to himself mostly. I never saw him in church. He bought the Wickenburger Mansion just east of town and paid cash money for it. Then he started buying some of the buildings in town, but he didn't buy the businesses in those buildings. He bought the hotel building, the Mercantile building, the Saloon building, and even the Bank building, and he always paid cash money. Seemed kind of odd to me, a man wanting to make a career out of being a landlord.
After a while there was even talk of changing the name of the town to Sloaneville, but Mr. Sloane didn't want no part of that. I suspect he didn't want the attention that might bring, being as he was such a private man and all. Well one day he came into the bank where I was working and he offered me a job as a bookkeeper at a salary I just couldn't turn down. That was about a dozen years ago and I've worked for Mr. Sloane ever since. I've always found him to be a fair but quiet man and like I said, he preferred to keep to himself.
Being his bookkeeper, I probably worked closer with the man than anyone else in town. Only exception to that might be Sam Finrock. Sloane hired him as a sort of go-between to deal with anything that might come up with the businesses that rented the buildings. Sam had a quiet way about him, too. There wasn't nothing flamboyant about Sam, but he managed to keep Sloane and the business owners all on solid ground.
Then one day about a month ago, two strangers rode into town and spent the evening in Mary Cunningham's saloon. Sam said they was real peaceable fellas, but when they figured out a couple of fellas at the poker table were scamming the players with something called 'The Spread,' well, they not only exposed them two fellas, but the quiet one drew his gun so quick it drew the attention of most of the patrons. Finrock was one of the players and the next day, he told Sloane all about how the dark haired fella gave everybody's money back using the scammer's money, and when they protested, the fast draw just told em to 'consider it the luck of the righteous.' Mary Cunningham hired them two fellas on the spot to keep things honest in her saloon.
Well, I was in the room when Finrock told Mr. Sloane about it and Mr. Sloane asked Sam to describe the two fellas. Then Mr. Sloane got all nervous and agitated like I'd never seen him before. Mr. Sloane started giving Finrock all sorts of orders to get these two fellas out of town no matter what it took. Well, when none of Sloane's ideas worked, and Finrock got word them two boys was looking for Mr. Sloane, that's when Mr. Sloane got the idea of having me pose as him, and knowing where my bread is buttered, I wasn't about to refuse.
I'm not really clear about what happened after that, cause I thought those two bought that ruse hook, line, and sinker, and the next day them boys did up and leave town, and the really strange thing was that Mr. Sloane up and bought Mary Cunningham's business. As Mr. Sloane's bookkeeper, I know for a fact he paid Mrs. Cunningham thirty thousand dollars for the business that wasn't worth more than a third of that price.
Well, after seeing just how ruthless Mr. Sloane could be, and knowing he had made a very, very poor business transaction, I decided it was time for me to retire, cause Mr. Sloane just wasn't the same man he was before those two men came to town. I don't know who those two fellas were. They said their names were Smith and Jones, and that sounded a little fishy to me. But I decided it was best to just let the whole thing drop, and I never asked Finrock or Mr. Sloane about them two fellas again.
Funny thing though, about two weeks later I boarded the train for St Louis as I had a brother that lived there. As I walked into the passenger car, who did I see but Mary Cunningham and her two children. Well, I asked her if she'd mind if I shared her seat and she very nicely obliged.
Boy, did I get an earful on that ride.