The morning after identifying her husband's body, Iris had the difficult job of explaining to her 3 year old son, Davy, that his papa was never coming home. She wasn't sure what Davy made of it. For one thing the concept of never is impossible for a 3 year old child to really grasp, for another Carl had barely acknowledged Davy's existence for the past year, so Iris knew that there had been no closeness between her husband and their son. She wondered if Davy would miss Carl. She knew she would. Despite everything that had happened, she still loved him.

Iris, with Kitty's help went about making funeral arrangements.

3 days later.

Carl's funeral was a sorry affair. In attendance were Kitty, Iris, Davy (who didn't really seem to know what was happening), a preacher and a number of unsavory looking characters who seemed to show up out of nowhere.

The day after the funeral these unsavory characters starting showing up at Irises home. They continued to show up in the days that followed. Some were gamblers with IOU's, some were business partners with investment agreements that had not been met, some were loan sharks from whom Carl had borrowed money at exorbitant interest rates. There seemed to be an endless stream of creditors. It was a tangled mess, and now Iris was responsible for all of the debts. Iris and Kitty paid off the ones they could and promised the others payment at another time. The trouble was that many of these men weren't shy about threatening harm if they didn't get their money.

Iris continued to sell everything she could, including her fancier clothes to pay the debts, but both she and Kitty knew continued sales couldn't possible bring in enough money. The best items had already been sold.

Iris came to a decision. "Kitty I'm going to put the house on the market. It should bring a good price, being a nice house in a fancy neighborhood. I'm hopeful that selling the house will bring in enough cash to pay off the debts and help me start a new life. Kitty, can you stay with me long enough to help get it all settled? I know that you have things and people to get back to in Dodge, particularly one person, but I'd really appreciate your help."

Kitty smiled at her cousin, "Of course I'll stay. You knew that I had planned to stay for the birth of the baby, but be assured that after the birth I'll remain as long as it takes to get you back on your feet. Also, I agree that selling the house is the best way out of this mess. I'll help you look for a place to rent."

Kitty and Iris were talking about this when the door bell rang again. Iris thought about not answering it, but smiled, shrugged and said, "we can deal with one more creditor today. Especially now that we have a plan."

Iris was smiling when she opened the door. A somewhat distinguished looking man in a business suit came in.

"Hello, Mrs. Frank I assume."

Iris nodded.

"Mrs. Frank, I am Darius Smythe. I represent the New Orleans City bank. I regret to inform you that the bank has to foreclose upon this property. We have been sending notices but got no acknowledgement that they had been received. That is why I've come in person. Here is the official documentation."

Iris took the papers, in stunned silence. Carl had not told her that they might be losing the house. He must have known it. Iris realized that impending foreclosure was the real reason Carl became angry when she had suggested selling the house. He must have known that it wasn't really theirs to sell.

Mr. Smythe continued, "We are not a heartless institution Mrs. Frank, you have until the end of the month to vacate. That will give you almost 4 weeks to move to another location. Good day."

With that the banker turned and left. Kitty and Iris were speechless.

Right then and there Kitty decided to take action. "Iris, I will raise the cash to get you and Davy out of this mess, and I don't want to hear any protests. I'm going to sell the Long Branch. I'll start with selling half to see if that will do it."

Iris was shaking her head no, but Kitty continued, "You can't stop me Iris. I am going to wire my friend Hannah in the morning. She is new to Dodge and wants to be a business owner. I'm sure she'll offer a fair price. After that I'll write a letter to Matt explaining everything."

Thinking of the letter she would write to Matt brought him full force into her thoughts. She missed him so much. Often just thinking about his reassuring presence helped her.

Dodge City

Matt had been pretty busy during the weeks that Kitty had been in New Orleans. The town was getting bigger and more civilized, but Matt still had many things to deal with ranging from stopping hold up attempts to finding lost children. And then there was the young gunslinger who came to town to make himself a reputation. Matt had tried to talk the young man out of it, but the kid was convinced that Matt was no longer a gunman to reckon with. Matt shook his head at the waste of it all as the young man's body was carried off to Percy Crump's to be prepared to be buried on Boot Hill.

No matter how busy Matt was, his thoughts turned to Kitty over and over again every day and night. He read and re-read every letter. Her most recent letter described Carl's behavior, which Matt found inexcusable. She closed by saying that she and Iris were making funeral arrangements for Carl. Kitty said that so far she had been able to handle everything, but Matt decided that it wouldn't hurt to send a telegram to a certain New Orleans Police Captain that he knew, just in case.