"J.D.," Chris, spoke to the youngest member of the seven as they made their way down the clinic stairs and out onto the main street, "Go over to the Clarion and ask Mary if she knows anything about anyone stolen by Indians in the past few years. It's a long shot but its someplace to start."
"No need, Mr. Larabee," Ezra said coming to stand next to the two of them, "I do believe I know the identity of our mystery woman." Ezra Standish had watched closely as Vin and his companion had come into town and ever since he'd had a niggling feeling that he had seen the woman somewhere before, back east perhaps. He spent most the day trying to recall all of the dark haired beauties he'd ever had the pleasure of meeting…or bedding…and her name had finally come to him.
Wanting to deliver his news expediently so as to remove himself from the fire storm that would surely arise once the woman's identity was known he'd come looking for Vin Tanner but Chris Larabee would do quite nicely.
Chris looked askance at the gambler. The odds that the well dressed southerner would know a 'white squaw' were pretty thin but Ezra seem sure enough.
"I do believe that the…lady…Mr. Tanner is so taken with is Gaylan Waters, late of Baton Rouge, Louisiana."
"You sure, Ezra?" Chris wanted to know. He wanted to be sure before confronting the woman with the knowledge in her fragile mental and physical condition.
"I had the pleasure of meeting Miz Waters at a soirée thrown in her husband's honor, the Honorable Hanson Waters, Lieutenant Governor of the great state of Louisiana."
Chris cocked an eyebrow while J.D. simply gaped.
"All right, I wasn't exactly invited." Ezra confessed with a roll of his eyes, "I had need of safe haven that night and with a party of that scale one could most assuredly get lost and even find a secluded room in which to play a hand or two."
Chris huffed and shook his head. "Well, if it is her what's she doin' way out here?"
"I haven't a clue but if someone were to wire Baton Rouge I'm sure the matter could be cleared up post haste."
J.D. looked at Chris and mouthed 'post haste?'
"It means…now," Chris told the young man, his voice stern.
"I know what it means," J.D. said in his own defense.
"Well, then git," the gunman said sharply and J.D. took off at a run.
"She was a delightful woman," Ezra continued, "Well educated, sophisticated, always immaculately turned out. To be reduced to…that…" he added pointing up to the clinic, shaking his head sadly, "is indeed most unfortunate."
"Hopefully Mary has some old clippings," Chris said heading toward the newspaper office, "But if she's really who you say she is, this could get messy."
"For Miz Waters or for Vin?" Ezra wondered more or less to himself but Chris picked up on his drift.
"For both of 'em," he replied reaching for the door handle of the Clarion office.
Once inside Ezra voiced his suspicions and, searching her archives, Mary Travis laid one of the folios that held a years worth each of past editions of the paper onto the counter. Opening it up she flipped a few sheets then pointed to one with the first of many banner headlines. 'Lt. Governor Waters and party set upon by Hostiles' it read in big block letters.
"I remember when it happened," Mary said softly, "Everyone blamed the Lieutenant Governor for dragging his wife into hostile territory simply to impress some foreign dignitaries who wanted to see the "Noble Savage" up close and personal."
The three of them gathered around Mary and, as they stared down at the front page of the Clarion, the woman in Nathan's clinic stared back at them
Ezra cleared his throat and said, "It says here they posted rewards and searched but never came up with anything, not a single sighting nor a body." He continued to peruse the articles further, each one growing smaller and placed further back into the body of the newspaper until all mention of the unfortunate incident was gone…without resolution.
"Waters left the territory a few weeks later, lock, stock and entourage, his wife either dead or as good as dead to him," Mary said, her lips pinched in disgust, "They blamed him for putting her in harms way but, knowing the stigma attached to a white woman who's been taken by the Indians, they didn't blame him one bit for abandoning her."
"Be that as it may, I do believe we owe it to the Lt. Governor to let him know his wife is still alive albeit not well," Ezra said closing the folio.
"I'll do it," Mary volunteered adding, "I'm only sorry I won't be there to see his expression."