Dawn the Next Day
Slumped down in an armchair in his hotel room, Matt ran a hand across his tired eyes and slowly straightened up. He looked across the room and remembered why the bed remained untouched, and why he'd dozed off in a chair. Yesterday, after Kitty didn't show up at the restaurant, and was not at the hotel, he went to the police. Despite his friendship with Lieutenant Haley, it was a fruitless and frustrating effort. Mike looked at him with kind and understanding eyes, and gave him a pat on the back, "Matt, I know how you feel about Kitty, it's written all over your face, but she's not missing, she's late for lunch, that's all. Go back to the restaurant or better still, wait at the hotel. She'll be there before you know it. If, heaven forbid, she's not back by tomorrow afternoon come file a report. You'll see, my friend, that won't be necessary."
Matt pushed himself tiredly up from the chair. After leaving Mike at the station, he returned to the hotel. She wasn't there, so he roamed the streets for half the night looking for some sign of her.
"YOU UP MATT?" Three brisk knocks followed Mike Haley's shout. Matt hurried to the door and threw it open. His friend was in the doorway holding 2 large mugs of coffee. He thrust one at Matt, "Swallow this down." Mike stepped into the room. "I was up a good part of the night thinking about you saying you had a gut feeling about Kitty. So, I took the morning off. We'll look for her together. If we don't find her by afternoon, you'll file a report and I can have my men start looking too," Mike chugged his coffee and set the mug down. "Do you have a picture of Kitty? It would help." Matt swallowed the last of his strong, dark brew. "Yep, 2 pictures in fact. One of her and one with the two of us. I'll grab them from the dresser." Feeling energized, Matt handed a picture to Mike, and put the other in his pocket.
"Matt, do know where she planned on going when you left her yesterday morning?"
"Not exactly, but she got a map from the clerk at the desk that showed all the shops and stores around." The two men looked at each other. "Let's get us a couple of shopping maps."
Kitty
Will blinked his eyes open and peered into semi-darkness. The lantern Adam carried down yesterday, still gave off light, but dimly. Beside him, Kitty shivered in her sleep. He put his free arm around her shoulders to try and warm her, but in truth they were both cold and their bellies empty. Will shifted slowly, trying not to disturb her. Yesterday's crazy events had taken a toll on Kitty, and before he got to describing his life after Dodge, she feel asleep with her head on his shoulder. It was just as well. Explaining it all to a woman like Kitty wouldn't be easy. When they met, 6 months ago, they talked about a lot of things but she never asked about his past, or his life as a gunslinger. Maybe she didn't want to know, for whatever reasons.
The door banged open. Footsteps clamored down the stairs. Kitty's head jerked up. Three businessmen were suddenly standing right in front of the them. Kitty recognized the large fleshy man, Jasper, and his slender companion, Adam. The third man was new to her, but Will seemed familiar with all three.
Adam watched Kitty struggle to her feet, as she tried not to show how stiff and sore she felt. He stepped closer and held out a small bag. "I hope you haven't been too uncomfortable. We brought you some warm, buttered rolls." She shrugged and silently accepted. Turning down food wouldn't help anything. She grabbed a roll from the bag and put one in Will's hand. "What do you want with me, and with Will?"
Jasper frowned. "Will? A first name basis, already?"
Kitty hungrily bit into her roll, swallowed quickly and bit again. "I already knew Will, we spent time in Dodge Cā¦" She quickly pressed her lips together. She'd blurted out words without thinking, and immediately regretted it. She instinctively knew that the less these men knew, the better off she was."
Adam, Carl and Jasper exchanged looks with the silent understanding that they had to talk in private. Jasper cleared his throat. "Let's move along with our morning plans. Carl I believe there's something you'd like to take care of."
"Right." Carl nodded and held up a new set of handcuffs. "Adam, take these and handcuff his free hand to that pipe like the other one. I want him more restricted. Jasper, take hold of the lady to hold her back. Off to the side is best." Calmly, without speaking, the two men did what Adam asked. Kitty struggled against Jasper's grip, but he firmly pulled her over to the side of the room. Will was filled with silent shame, there was nothing he could do for Kitty.
With Stambridge more fully restrained, Carl pulled a pistol from his coat pocket and stood across from him. Less that 2 feet separated the two men. Carl pointed the gun directly at Will's chest. Stambridge tugged hard against the handcuffs holding him to the pipe. Kitty froze in horror. "You can't, you can't execute a man like this."
Carl cooly held the gun steadily. "A man like you doesn't deserve to live." Will's eyes were filled with terror. A smile spread across Carl's mouth. "Not so easy to face certain death, is it?" He aimed and squeezed the trigger. A click echoed through the room. The gun wasn't loaded. Carl, Jasper and Adam looked at each other and laughed. Will felt his legs go weak. Carl put a hand on Jasper's back. "Isn't there something you want to do, before we leave?" The large, fleshy man nodded, suddenly deadly serious. He walked over to Stambridge, formed a fist and ploughed it into the handcuffed man's face, with the force of his 200 pounds. Will's head snapped back, he felt the world go dark. Jasper nodded with satisfaction. "My friends, I believe we're done here for this morning."
The three men left the basement and locked the door behind them. Jasper flexed his hand. His fist was slightly red from punching Will. He rubbed it with his other hand. "That felt good. It's better than our sons got from him." He brushed off his suit. "Of course, the two of them knowing each other complicates matters, doesn't it? Let's go about our usual morning business, then convene in Carl's office. We have to decide what to do with the woman."
Matt
After hours of going from store to shop to store with Kitty's picture, Matt glanced at the clock in a watchmaker's window. It was almost noon. Time to meet Mike and compare notes. He hurried to Washington Street and saw Mike waiting on the corner. Even from a distance Matt could tell by Mike's face, he too had come up empty. Mike shook his head. "Matt, I don't understand it. Between the two of us we hit a lot of stores and showed a lot of people Kitty's picture. She's a striking woman with distinctive red hair. And she's a stranger not a local. You'd think someone would remember her, but not a person does. Not one. It's as if she never went shopping at all, but when you left her that's where she was going." He pointed down the street. "Let's get back to the station. It's time to file that report. Then I can start a real police effort. I'll take everyone off the search for the banker's boys for now, and get them looking for Kitty."
Kitty
Kitty heard the basement door slam shut, and ran across the room to Stambridge. "Oh Will." She helped him slide down to the floor. He slowly opened his eyes. His head was pounding, his surroundings a blur. "
"Will, that's a real bad bruise on your face, there's nothing I can do for it, but I'm pretty sure your jaw and cheekbones aren't broken." He took a ragged breath and looked away, feeling disgusting and ashamed. She reached over and gently turned his face towards hers. Giving up was not an an option for either of them. "I met a man on a stage once. He saved my life, and he made me feel like the most desirable woman in the world, right when I needed it. He was a confident type person, kinda stubborn ā didn't like to take no for an answer. I will always be glad and thankful that I met that man. Do you where he is?"
"H-he- he's here Kitty." Will managed to lift his chin. "You always brought out the best in him."
"Please tell me what happened after you left Dodge, and why those men, those ordinary businessmen, are acting this way."
Will slowly nodded, but kept staring straight ahead. "One of the first times you and I really talked, I said that I knew very few people. Remember that?" He waited for her nod. "That had been a point of pride with me. I was a loner. I had no one making demands, pulling me in this or that direction, slowing me down or stopping me from doing what I wanted, when I wanted. I led that life for over 20 years, a gunslinger's life. When we met I'd grown weary of it, weary of everything." He smiled wryly. "We were thrown together you and I, and like I said before, you made everything seem possible. I became convinced that anyone who really wanted to change their life, could do it. So, when you turned me down in no uncertain terms, it stung like hell, but when I left Dodge I still had hope that I could find a new way of life somewhere, somehow." He looked at Kitty. "It didn't occur to me, at the time, that the reputation I'd built for 20 years, would hang over me like a big, dark cloud. Towns don't take to gunslingers, and having been a loner for so long, meant that I had no people in my life. There was no one I could go to, no friends to vouch for me, offer me work or take a chance on me. I had to make money, and so I tried saloons. What a joke. Why would anyone trust me, and besides, having a known gunslinger tending bar, or working a gambling table, was asking for trouble. Or so they said." Will saw was Kitty was listening intently and leaned towards her. "I was running out of money. I'd used most of my savings to buy that dirt farm near Dodge. I sold it before I left, but had to take a loss. I needed money, and a job turned up. A man needed my gun-arm. The pay was good. Nothing illegal. Not murder or assassination, just a gunfight with a man I could easily outdraw, to get him out of another man's way. I took that job, then another and another. Gun-arm for sale ā gun-arm, and soul. Turns out, shedding your past is not so easy."
St. Louis Sovereign Bank
"NO." Adam's fist came down hard. Carl's mahogany desk vibrated from the force. "I say we release her and move Stambridge to another location. She'll go to the police and take them to the basement. It will be empty, and they'll think she's a victim of hysteria. It happens to ladies all the time."
Jasper put a hand on Adam's shoulder. "It won't work. They know each other. You heard her, saw her face, there's something personal between them. He'll open up to her, tell her everything that happened. She won't think he's a lunatic, she'll believe him. If we let her go, she'll go to the police with everything he told her, and with descriptions of us. They'll believe her Adam. It will solve the mystery of what happened to our sons, and the'll come after us for kidnapping her and Stambridge. We'll lose everything. My god, Adam, isn't it enough that we lost our sons. Do we have to lose everything because of Stambridge, that piece of garbage?"
Adam pushed Jasper's hand from his shoulder, "That woman isn't garbage. She's innocent, we don't even know her name."
Carl grabbed Adam's arm. "You're right, she's innocent but we have to do what's necessary or we'll go to jail. Remember, this all started because we knew the law wouldn't bring Stambridge to justice, so we had to do it ourselves. All of this is his doing, not ours. We have to kill them both, and Will Stambridge is to blame."
Jasper nodded in agreement. Adam closed his eyes to think. The three of them had been through thick and thin together ā their wives funerals, raising their boys, helping each other's careers. Adam opened his eyes and reluctantly nodded. All right, but let's get it over with. We'll do it today."
TBC
