RESCUED: CHAPTER 10

XOXOXO

The sun had completed its third exchange with the moon before they finally pulled into the Depot in Dodge, but home they were. This late at night all seemed quiet, and there wasn't any interest in the train anyway. If Matt had it figured right, the focal point of everyone in Dodge was the Dodge City Bank. And all he'd done for three days was think about the situation.

"This deal is going to be different," he'd told Kitty while the big wheels clattered eastward. "These are honest, hard-working people who think they've lost everything. They're not trying to steal, they're trying to claim what's rightfully theirs. Some of them are gonna be so scared they'll strap on guns for the first time. They'll band together like a pack of dogs and do stupid things. Kansas law can't afford to have a single one of them get hurt."

"You think Frank already has that in mind, don't you?" She knew full well how much Matt thought of Frank's skills and how much he trusted him.

"I know he does. He's got it handled. That's why we didn't get a telegram from him. The last thing he'd do is ask for help. He'd just say 'I've got this,' and put his head down and go to work like he always does. But this enemy isn't organized. They're going to come in waves day after day, some mad as hornets, some clinging to hope, but all of them wanting their money. Lots of these guys survived the Civil War. They're not gonna be beaten back."

"Will you please stay here in the Depot while I walk Ava home?"

"You know I will," Kitty said, wanting to do everything possible to convince Matt he hadn't made a mistake letting them come along. "Do what you have to do."

Matt helped Ava gather up her luggage. With two of them carrying, there was no need for a buggy. He took the back way with her to Ma's, circling up onto Spruce Street to stay clear of any chaos in town. But as he suspected, there was only a low buzz of chatter coming from near the bank. Ava's room opened onto the street, so it was easy to drop her off without any disruption.

"If you need anything at all, Ava, just find me."

"Same goes for me, Marshal. Thank you for letting me travel home with you. I can help with Sara any time. I hope you'll call on me."

As it always had, curiosity got the better of him after Ava was settled in, and he headed for Front Street, drawn like a moth to a flame. He could make out Quint and Festus standing guard in front of the bank, which meant the lantern in his office belonged to Frank. The door was locked as he knew it would be during this mess, so he used his key to let himself in. There was no one at the desk but he heard the creaking of the deputy's cot behind the half wall, so he drew his gun and waited behind the wall.

"Come on out and show yourself!"

"Oh, don't get in such an all-fired hurry!" And from behind the wall appeared none other than Charlie Cole, an ear-to-ear grin on his face. He pumped Matt's left hand furiously, then pulled him in for a bear hug. "You can leather that thing, Marshal. I got permission to be here."

"Charlie! What the . . ." Matt was stuck between dumbstruck and delight.

"I wired Stacey to let you know I was coming. Thought maybe an extra hand wouldn't hurt."

"Yeah, of course. I forgot. That was three days ago, in paradise!"

"I just beat you here. Got in yesterday. Doctor Adams brought your telegram over, said you were on your way. Didn't mean for you to catch me snoozin' though."

"Look, Charlie, I need a favor. I left Kitty and the baby at the depot. I need to take them home and I'll come back. Will you let Festus know? Looks quiet now, but if I show up over there, any of those guys I know are gonna expect I can do something about the bank, and they'll get all worked up."

"Yeah, sure Matt."

"You've got a key, then?"

"Right here in my pocket." He patted his pants.

Matt walked to his desk, opened the top right drawer, and pulled out a deputy's badge.

"Guess you'd better pin this on, especially since you came all this way to sleep in a jail."

"You want to swear me in, Marshal?" Charlie had a grin on his face that reminded Matt of Frank's.

"Swear yourself in. You know the words." Matt grinned right back. "I'll see you later."

He lowered the lantern to a dim glow, then slipped out the front door like a cat in the night. The pre-dawn dew had already settled, leaving a distinct chill in the air. He took one last quick look over at Festus and Quint, both talking with men who'd gathered in front of the bank. But there was no sign of a scuffle, so he pulled his jacket closed and hurried on to find Kitty waiting in the depot lobby.

"Kit, I can't carry all the luggage without a buggy. Pick out a few pieces you need for tonight and we'll go home. I'll get the rest tomorrow."

She chose what she needed, then Matt slid the last three into a corner. It was amazing the difference between Dodge and San Francisco: Nothing left out would have been safe there. It brought a soft smile to her face while she watched her husband. Matt wrapped his coat around Sara, and they took off into the shadows for home, Sara in Kitty's arms and Matt laden with four cases.

He unlocked the door and lit a lantern while Kitty instinctively settled the baby into her crib. "I'll get the stove started, Kit. You know I have to go back."

She smiled, remembering the temperate climate they'd left only three short days ago, then watched in silence while he loaded it and built a fire, knowing it'd only be needed long enough to take the chill off. Late September in Dodge was always hot while the sun was up, then transformed into fall by late night. Any other time, after any other trip, they would have wrapped their beautiful home around them and snuggled into bed together to celebrate nothing more than being there together. On this odd night, it was not to be. Instead of stripping down and crawling into bed, he changed into a clean union suit, his work pants, work shirt and vest while she dreamed about how it should have been. He was ready at Matt speed, as she knew he would be. Then, so typical of him, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her tenderly.

"You okay?" He studied her eyes when he came up for air.

"Yeah. Just wish I knew what's going to happen here."

"Kit, did you deposit that five thousand from Panacea?"

"No, Matt. It's still in your ammo box in the closet."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing that's going to happen." He fished his jacket off the hook, pulled an overstuffed envelope from the inside pocket, and handed it to Kitty. "Put this in the ammo box right with it. The Dillon family is gonna survive this mess one way or another."

"Money?"

"Eighteen thousand dollars, Mrs. Dillon."

"WHAT?! The money from Duncan? But Matt, how did you . . ."

"Remember when I was late getting to the Grill for breakfast? Stacey Cole was workin' some magic for us. I asked her if she'd vouch for me at her bank, but she cashed it out right there on the hotel because she knows Duncan so well. She knew we couldn't do much with it in Dodge."

"Oh, Matt! You should have told me!"

"And have you worry all the way home that I'd get attacked on the train? I was just a hometown guy coming back from vacation, sweetie. An ordinary man with his wife, his little girl in her beautiful pink travelin' dress, and their au pair." The gleam in his eyes was undeniable. "So now I'm telling you, and you can put it away."

"I will," she said softly. "Just wish I could have thanked Stacey too. She's such a genuinely nice person. Charlie and Martha sure raised a great one."

"Charlie's in town to give us a hand, Kit. Saw him at the jail before I came home. I'll bring him home when there's time. You can tell him yourself what he already knows about Stacey."

XOXOXO

Festus and Quint were more than glad to see Matt and Charlie, more out of boredom than needing relief. There was only a handful of men milling around at this hour, and only one family waiting quietly in a wagon.

"Matthew!" Festus jumped right in. "Yer' a sight fer' sore eyeballs! Doc give us yer' tellygram but we din't know exactly when you'd be a . . ."

"Good to see you too, Festus," Matt smiled at his deputy, determined to cut him off before he told the story of the date, or the clock, or how Haggens told time.

"Quint, thanks for helping Festus."

"No problem, Matt. It's not like the good people of Dodge are willing to spend any money having horses shod right now."

"When did all this start?"

"Two days ago when the Bulletin printed it. They never really started showing up for their money till yesterday," Quint said, while Festus for once stayed quiet. "Charlie got here on the Santa Fe at nine, so he and Festus stood watch till last night. Got a little dicey yesterday when I showed up, though. Some of the sodbusters heard, don't ask me how. We got real busy till about midnight, but now it's just back to what you see here."

"What about Bodkin?"

"He showed up for work both days, just like always. He paid those people everything they had coming to 'em. But yesterday he put up a closed sign at three."

"He's out of money?"

"Don't know. You'll have to ask him. Sure seemed like it, cause he put the people that were in line out of the building, and he and the two tellers locked up and went home."

"Matt," Charlie said. "You know as well as I do this is just getting started."

"Yeah. Look, you and Festus get some food and get some sleep. Charlie and I can handle this."

"Foot, Matthew! That's about as good a idea as these here ol' ears kin stand! Quint, let's me an' you head over to Delmonico's. Why, I culd go fer some eggs an' side meat an' some fried potatoes an' a'course biscuits with honey drizzled on 'em . . ."

Matt gave the hill man a swat on the arm.

"Get going, Festus."

"You bring Miss Ava back with 'ya?" Festus squinted at his boss.

"Indeed."

"I bin a-cravin' her vittles!"

Matt watched Festus and Quint walk off toward the restaurant, wishing he only had Ava's cooking on his mind.

"You seen anything of Frank Reardon, Charlie? Thought he'd be right here pacing the boardwalk."

"Nope. I've never even met him. Festus said he rode out before I got here, something to do with settlers south of here."

It was easy to step aside out of earshot, so Charlie motioned Matt off to a corner.

"Martha and I have some good savings, Matt. I can have her wire money to you if it'd help."

"Don't even think about it. Couldn't convert it to cash in Dodge if we wanted to. Kitty and I are okay on cash. Look, I need to find Harry Bodkin and get the full picture here. You mind watching this alone for a while?"

"What, THIS!? There's nobody causing any trouble here at night. I'm on it."

While he walked the short three blocks to Bodkin's house, he couldn't get Charlie Cole off his mind. Twenty years in the U.S. Marshals Service, retired with honors and even more important, alive. Even at his age, the badge looked good on him. It was a step down to deputy, but the desire to serve never went away. Maybe that's why it was so hard for him to even think about it when he and Kitty talked about their future. Never thought he'd live this long, anyway. And now maybe, just maybe, he'd make it to retirement. "But there's always something more a lawman wants to do," he reminded himself.

The sun was barely kissing the horizon when he knocked on Bodkin's door, not at all surprised that no one opened it. He knocked again louder and announced himself. "Harry! It's Matt Dillon!" Not exactly secret words, but words Bodkin was glad to hear. He welcomed Matt in, then locked the door again behind him.

"Matt, I'm sure glad to see you! Doctor Adams showed me your telegram. Sorry about my bathrobe. Sit down, sit down. I'll get some coffee."

"I had to close the bank early yesterday, Matt," he began his explanation, while the two men sat in his ornate parlor, bathed in tranquility that belied the situation. "I can't handle any more big withdrawals. I held back twelve thousand dollars for emergency reserves, but other than that, the Dodge Bank is out of money. My good customers, my depositors, they trust me to have their money available when they need it. The customers who wiped me out yesterday didn't need all their money at once, they were just trying to protect it like I'm supposed to do."

"Harry, I don't know a thing about how money moves. Is this the end for the Dodge Bank?"

"Oh, good heavens, no!" Bodkin brightened. "Chicago and Kansas City will have us supplied in a week or two. By month's end, certainly. But my customers aren't bankers, they don't know that. They're just scared to death. And that headline in the Bulletin didn't do a thing to help."

"Are you coming to work today?" Matt questioned.

"They'll be back, and more of them will come. The stage carries the Bulletin. The news will be all over Ford County. What good will it do for me to come to work?"

"It'll help ME, Harry. I'll be guarding a business that just needs a little time instead of guarding a shipwreck. You need to show up and give these people some hope."

"What am I going to say?"

"Just what you said to ME. I'm a depositor. I'm okay with what you said."

"Sure, Matt. But you and Kitty don't have land payments to make. You can afford to feed your family. You don't have harvest you need to sell, or seed to buy for next spring."

"Then come to work with a confident look on your face, how's that? "We'll figure something out. If you hide, they'll be all the more spooked."

Bodkin looked down at his hands, then rubbed them together thoughtfully.

"Okay, Marshal." He deferred to Matt's expertise in overcoming more than one bitter confrontation, which he'd seen time and time again. "I'll be there."

XOXOXO

"Oh my GOSH!" Kitty's eyes were wide with surprise when Charlie Cole followed Matt through the door. She gave Matt a kiss on the cheek, then gave Charlie a bear hug, which he returned eagerly.

"Matt said you were in town! I'm SO glad to see you, Charlie! Put that luggage down! You men sit and I'll get you each a whiskey!"

Matt looked up at the clock while Kitty retrieved the drinks. How could it possibly be six o'clock already? No wonder his stomach was growling. He decided to speak for both of them.

"Kit, we'll probably both be asleep after one drink if we don't eat something."

"I can make that happen, too. You tell me all about today while I cook."

"They're coming in steady, Kitty. Lots more today than yesterday. Had to disarm half a dozen who thought they could open the back door." Matt started. "Mr. Bodkin came in and stood with us. Gotta give him credit for that. He tried his best to explain that the bank isn't closed permanently and it'd be restocked with money real soon. Thing is, the bad news that caused all this panic was published in the paper. This glimmer of hope is getting delivered by one man to the customers standing right there in front of him."

"No question about that, Kitty," Charlie added. "It's a sad deal for the ones with families. These aren't criminals. They haven't got enough money in that bank to cause any trouble. They just need to cash out their crops and make their land payments. Us telling them their money will be in the bank "real soon" doesn't cut it. A lot of them only come to town a couple times a year. Some of them came in alone and now they have to go back home and tell the wife they didn't get a dime. Way too many are camping down by the river just waiting it out. The saloons are starting to fill up with angry guys spending the last of what's in their pockets. The drunker they get, the madder they get."

"When does Bodkin say the bank will be open again?"

"A week or two. By the end of the month for sure." Matt parroted what Bodkin had promised.

Kitty was processing all this while she put the food on the table. She'd seen problems at the bank before, but not on the scale Matt and Charlie were describing. Angry people became angry mobs soon enough, and once the whiskey started talking, somebody got hurt. As civilized as Dodge had become in Matt's custody, it still had that rough edge that could surface in tough times. Just briefly she wondered how San Francisco had survived the same, because surely it had with all the thuggery that went along with the fortunes of the gold strikes.

"Matt, why don't you start by closing the saloons?"

"And make 'em angrier?"

"You're describing men who don't know how or why to drink, so they sure can't hold their liquor. Take the alcohol away and at least they'll quiet down."

"You're volunteering to close the Long Branch?" Matt looked at her with skepticism. But there wasn't a shade of skepticism in her eyes.

"We don't want their business. They need food. They need flour and side meat and beans and coffee. They don't need a drop of whiskey."

"She may be on to something there, Matt."

"Look, Charlie. The Long Branch is something Kitty and I can control. There are five other saloons in town."

"You've shut them down before, Matt," Kitty reminded him, her voice soft and confident.

Silence ensued. He'd forgotten the times he had to close all of Front Street to put an end to brewing violence, and it had worked more than once. Kitty watched Matt struggle with the idea while he pushed the food around on his plate.

"Matt, I can talk with each saloon owner tomorrow. If I lead the way, they'll cooperate. Besides, to a man, each one of those guys owes you."

"That's only going to slow this down, it's sure not going to stop it."

"Maybe if you slow it down, you'll have time to figure out how to stop it." Kitty was pushing the big man hard. She knew she always risked an argument when she tried to work his side of the street. But he stayed soft with her and went back to eating. Maybe it was because he liked the idea, maybe it was because he didn't want to argue in front of Charlie. Their friend had seen about every bad situation a lawman could. This was just one more.

"Kit, there's a lot of people who trade in Dodge with plenty of money: Merchants, ranchers, you name it. I'd be punishing them too."

"Matt Dillon, you're a mastermind!"

"What?" He looked incredulous. "It was your idea to close the saloons."

"No, no, not that. What you just said about the people who have money. You go ahead and close the saloons. Give me tonight to think about what you said. I might have an idea." She put her hand over his, asking for his trust. As always, her touch worked magic.

"All right. I'll close 'em."

"I'll get to work on my idea in the morning. I'll leave Sara with Ava and I won't come anywhere near the bank." She had the gleam of victory in her eyes. "Wouldn't want those people to think I'm in cahoots with the law."

Charlie let go a belly laugh. They watched Matt amble off to the bedroom.

"He hasn't had any sleep for two nights, Kitty. Festus and Quint are working tonight, or he wouldn't get to sleep now, either."

"Where the hell IS Frank? He's worth three guys, all rolled into one."

"Some sort of settler problem down south. Festus said he rode out two days ago. Frank doesn't know about any of this."

Kitty sighed. With all the growth in Ford County, it seemed like they were always short a guy. "Charlie, you're in the guest bedroom for the rest of your stay. It's all clean and ready for you. And thank you for being here. I'm so grateful!"

"I haven't done a thing but add another guard to the display, Kitty. Now how about I clean this up. Then I'll take you up on that guest room. Sounds a sight better than the cot in the jail." He had the smile of a composed man on his face; a man who'd worked all day, then had a whiskey and a hot meal with friends.

"You go join Matt," he added. I'll see you sometime tomorrow."

"Charlie, Stacey is an amazing young woman. She sure did take good care of us in San Francisco. You and Martha must be very proud of your family."

"We are. But Stacey's all grown up and gone, Kitty, has been for a lot of years. She was born with all the ability. All we did was ground her, and that seems like it was yesterday. Everything she is today came from that start, but that's all. You'll see it soon enough. Treasure your daughter while you're still allowed to steer. What you teach her now will guide her forever."

"Good night, Charlie." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and headed off to the bedroom.

Eight o'clock. Any other night an eight o'clock bedtime would have conjured up all sorts of delightful possibilities with the love of her life. On this night, he was sound asleep in the big brass bed, the lantern glowing softly in the corner. She studied his rhythmic breathing for a minute and smiled. Such a challenge lay ahead, the most important one of all being Sara, and that grounding Charlie talked about. She went to the crib and picked Sara up, watching the sweetest baby in Kansas smile and wrap her fingers around her mother's. Time for baby's nightcap, even if her father wasn't awake to watch. She exposed herself and watched Sara latch onto her breast, knowing the days of this ultimate bonding were numbered. "Treasure your daughter," Charlie had said. "Don't blink, Kitty," Doc had said when Sara was born. If she could have one wish, it would be to fence time: Just keep her in this moment forever. Sara's gentle slap at her face broke the spell all too soon. She wasn't drinking as much milk these days, so it was time for a quick clean-up and then back to her crib.

Kitty glanced across the room. There was just enough light from the lantern to sit at the desk and make some notes. She undressed and put on her warm robe and slippers, then in another odd turn of events, took a seat at the desk instead of crawling into her husband's arms. One by one, a thought would gel and she'd write it down. Each time a doubt crept in she either pushed it away or went back to the paper, erased it, and fixed it. At midnight it was time for a quick trip to the water closet, so she heated a cup of coffee and went right back to her work. The list that stared back at her was impressive, the plan workable. But could she cover all this in a day? The clock slid past one, then two, and it dawned on her. A meeting! She finished her notes, read them two more times just to be sure. Then she put all the papers in the drawer, snuffed the lantern, and crawled in bed with the man responsible for her inspiration. He may have been asleep, but he always sensed her presence. She felt his big arm slide across her, then the irresistible contentment of him pulling her close.

tbc