Chapter Five

Beau was lying on the couch in Jack and Lydia's room, since the connecting room was now not free. He grimaced, running a hand into his hair. The horrible din Jack's father had put up with Lucrece Posey had destroyed any real hopes of resting for a while.

Not that Beau had really wanted to tune out what was happening; he wanted to know very much. But he wasn't sure of what was happening following the criminals' departure. The voices had lowered and they seemed to be in conference. When the door opened and Bret came in, Beau perked up. "Well, Cousin Bret. What was the final outcome?"

"Snakes' boss wants to be paid for her trouble in coming out here," Bret reported. "She's bound and determined that she's going to get something out of this scheme, no matter how unentitled to it she is."

"So what's going to happen?" Beau wondered. "I heard how singularly outraged Mr. Vandergelt was over the idea."

"I convinced him to pay off or they might try kidnapping Van," Bret said. "But since they really don't deserve any money after being so naughty, I also decided that they just wouldn't be able to keep whatever he pays them."

Beau sat up. "You're going to con them out of it?"

Bret shrugged. "Considering it's not really their money to begin with, yeah, I'm thinking of something like that. Do you disapprove?"

"No," said Beau. "I just question whether it will solve anything. And whether it could hurt Snakes. What if this woman becomes so angry at losing the money on top of everything else that she takes it out on him?"

Bret frowned. "I didn't think of that."

"You met her. Do you think she'd be capable of it?" Beau asked.

"I really couldn't say," Bret said helplessly. "She didn't seem like a very nice person, I'll tell you that. Snakes seemed pretty on edge the whole time he was in there with her."

Beau sighed. "Well, I don't know what to tell you, Bret. I agree that she shouldn't get Mr. Vandergelt's money, but I don't want her harming Snakes, either."

Bret placed his hands on his hips. "Too bad there isn't a stack of counterfelt money around here and we could give her that."

"With our luck, she'd be able to tell it was counterfeit," Beau pointed out.

Bret cringed. "Yeah, I guess that could happen too."

Beau swung his legs over the edge of the couch. "Let's just wait and see what Mr. Vandergelt has to say after paying her off," he encouraged. "Then we'll decide what to do."

"I guess that would probably be the best thing," Bret agreed. "By the way, where's Van and his wife?"

"Oh, they're talking in the bedroom, I think," Beau replied with a vague gesture in that direction. "I know they didn't go out."

"I'd hope not," Bret retorted.

xxxx

It was some time before Mr. Vandergelt Senior returned. When he did, he entered his room next-door and then came in through the connecting door, his face a thundercloud. Jack, who was readying himself for afternoon tea, looked up in surprise. "What happened, Father?"

"What happened?" Vandergelt echoed.

"Well, did you pay that horrible woman off?" Lydia asked.

"Yes, I paid her off," Vandergelt growled. "But not ten thousand dollars. Oh no. I insulted her and didn't accept the lesser payment when I could. That blasted cowboy of hers had the gall to lasso me and not let me go until I agreed to double the amount!"

Bret looked sick. "Twenty thousand?"

Vandergelt gave a firm nod. "Twenty thousand."

Jack looked rather ill himself. "Oh, Father, I am sorry." Standing up, he walked around the table and took the older man by the arm. "Sit down and have some nourishment."

"I doubt that I can eat," Vandergelt groaned, even as he let Jack sit him down at the table. "After today's experiences, I have very little appetite."

"Well, look on the bright side, Mr. Vandergelt," Beau spoke up. "Your son is safe and you didn't have to hand over any of your businesses to criminals. And they're leaving now, aren't they?"

"I'm not sure what they're going to do," Vandergelt said. "That woman acted like she might decide to stay on a while to look over the town."

"I bet Snakes doesn't like that," Bret mused.

"He didn't seem to like any of it," Vandergelt admitted. "He was very sullen and reluctant both times I saw him today." He looked to Bret. "Are you still planning to get back my money?"

"I want to," Bret said. "They don't have any right to it. But Cousin Beau here pointed out that losing the money as well as the businesses might make Miss Posey or Little Pinto attack Snakes out of anger, since this is one of his towns and maybe they'd hold him responsible somehow." He sighed. "I can't in good conscience leave him open to an attack, especially after he's tried to help us."

"So what are you going to do?" Vandergelt demanded.

"I don't rightly know yet," Bret sighed. "It would help if I knew what they're going to do. My original plan was to have the stage get robbed after it was out of town. Then Snakes would probably be safe, since it's unlikely they'd turn around and come back."

"That's likely true," Beau said. "But there's still problems with that idea. What if they shoot the robbers?"

"I planned on making it undesirable for them to do that," Bret said.

"Alright, but what if they don't take the money with them? What if they deposit it in the bank here? They might anticipate trouble, this being largely untamed country, after all." Beau folded his arms.

"I started thinking about that too," Bret agreed. "It's possible."

"Maybe we should just let them have the twenty thousand and be done with it," Jack worried. "We can make that amount back again easily enough."

"It's not a question of being able to quickly replenish the amount!" Vandergelt fumed. "It's a question of letting those blasted criminals get away with turning a profit at my expense!"

"So it's really about your pride, Father," Lydia pointed out. "It's good for the soul to let pride get wounded now and then."

"Oh, nevermind my pride!" Vandergelt grumped. "Give people like that an inch and they'll take a mile. They'll try this trick on other people since it worked on us."

"And that's exactly why we can't let it work now," Bret said. "We have to stop it and show them up. Then maybe they'll back off."

"I'm all for that, Cousin Bret, if there's a way to do it without putting Snakes in danger," Beau said.

"I think there is," Bret started to smile. "I'm sure there is."

"Well, do you have another plan, man?" Vandergelt exclaimed. "Let us in on it!"

"I've got a plan," Bret nodded, leaning forward on the table with folded arms. "A couple of them. Maybe the stage plan if they leave town with the money, but something else if they stay on here, which is looking more likely. We could probably also modify it to use in place of the robbery if they take the money with them on the stage."

"And just what is that?" Vandergelt objected.

"It shouldn't be too hard," Bret smiled. "I'd say all we have to do is . . ." He outlined the rest of his plans.

"Devious," Vandergelt said, shaking his head. "And devilish."

"Well, after all, you have to think like them to beat them," said Beau.

"Exactly," said Bret. "And that's what we're going to do. My only real question is whether Snakes'll forgive me either way, but we've never been bosom buddies anyway."

"Your plans are better than the alternatives," Beau said. "Snakes should be alright with them. I hope."

xxxx

Lucrece watched as Pinto counted up the bills on Snakes' desk for the third time. "It's still all there, I trust."

"All twenty thousand dollars," Pinto drawled. "We really took ol' Vandergelt for a bundle."

"He deserved it," Lucrece said in annoyance as she sat in Snakes' chair. "He had the foolishness and gall to believe he could walk away from us and not pay anything for our trouble."

"Yeah, we really made a big effort getting out here," Pinto said, perching on the edge of the desk. "It was pretty inconvenient."

"That isn't the point," Lucrece retorted. "The point is that we didn't get to where we are now by letting people walk all over us. We got to where we are by taking what we want, no matter who we have to hurt to get there." She looked to Snakes, who was sitting nervously to the side on a couch and leaning forward with his hands clasped. "Isn't that right, Snakes?" she said in a much-too-sweet tone.

"Huh?" Snakes started. "Oh. Yeah, that's how you got there, alright." He frowned at the rug. Lucrece and Pinto didn't care if they walked on the innocent, which was in complete contrast to how Snakes operated. His approach was in trying to keep the innocent safe from mobsters and other criminals who would hurt them without a second thought. He had to wonder again how he had ever ended up involved with this crew.

Pinto sneered at him. "You want some of this money we turned up, don't you? There's a share in it for you, for your trouble."

"Yeah?" Snakes looked wary. "How much?"

Lucrece regarded him calmly. "What do you think is fair?"

"I don't know," Snakes said. "This is my town, and it was my people who were trying to get the young Vandergelt for you, and it's my house being used as a base of operations. . . ."

"Unfortunately, with three people this money can't be divided up exactly evenly," Lucrece said, shooting Pinto a warning look before he could protest giving Snakes anything. "And then there's the issue of whether it should be divided among all seven of us instead or whether the entire bundle should be placed in the syndicate's funds."

Pinto shrugged. "It's just us three who've been involved in this caper. I say divide it up among us or else put everything into the funds. I don't see why the others should specifically get shares when they weren't involved."

"No, but it wouldn't look exactly professional if we lined our own pockets instead of the syndicate's," Lucrece pointed out.

"We wouldn't exactly be doing that," Snakes said. "There's expenses we need to take care of, and whatever's left over could still fund syndicate operations. After all, the towns I control are ultimately part of the syndicate now."

"That's true," Lucrece nodded. "And it would only be with that thought in mind that I would think of dividing it up among the three of us.

"Let's say six thousand five hundred each. Then we have five hundred extra left over. We can put it in the fund."

Snakes blinked. "Thanks," he said slowly. He did have to appreciate Lucrece's desire to be fair to all the board members. Pinto didn't always share that viewpoint.

Indeed, Pinto leered. "You're lucky Lucrece is so good to you, Snakes. Really, you didn't do that much to help things along."

Snakes' eyes flashed. "I did more than you," he said, getting to his feet. "All you did was come out with Miss Posey and stand around looking scary."

Pinto took a step forward, his lip curling in his anger.

"Alright, alright," Lucrece interrupted. "None of that. We'll divide the money up and take our shares away from here. It would probably be wisest to deposit them in the bank."

Pinto cast a last glare at Snakes as he turned away. "This is the wild West," he proclaimed. "Seems like there's always a bank getting held up in these one-horse towns."

"Things have been pretty good here," Snakes defended. "I've kept the town well-patrolled."

Lucrece nodded. "You've done well, Snakes. We're not disputing that. It's just that we don't tend to trust banks in general."

"And you think it'd be safer carting that much money around with you?" Snakes retorted. "Even if you put it in the strongbox on the stage's roof, it's no guarantee it'll get back safely to Justice with you."

"You make a good point," Lucrece said. "Naturally the strongbox is the first place highwaymen would look. They would be much less likely to locate the money if we kept it on our persons."

"You're crazy to take it with you at all," Snakes insisted. "A bank would be much safer. Or even keep it here in my safe. When you get back to Justice, I'll wire it to you."

Lucrece paused. "That is a thought," she mused.

"Of course, with all of that twenty thousand snuggled up cozy in your safe, what guarantee would we have that you wouldn't decide to claim it all for yourself?" Pinto said.

"Pinto," Lucrece scolded. "Snakes can be trusted. And he makes a good point. We'll leave it here with him."

Pinto stared at her. "Well, you're the boss."

"And don't forget that," Lucrece said coolly.

xxxx

Bret frowned as he and Beau stood outside the bank, waiting for Lucrece or Pinto to suddenly appear. "I thought sure they'd be coming out," he said.

"Yes, and we were all set to yell something about bandits on their way here," Beau frowned. "But that might not cause them to do what we want, now that I think of it. It might cause them to stay here and plan to shoot it out."

Bret cringed. "You could be right."

They waited for several more minutes. When Snakes appeared and not the others, Beau hurried over to him. "What's going on?" he asked. "Aren't your guests leaving?"

"Probably," Snakes shot back. "But the money is staying right here."

"In the bank," Bret stated rather than queried.

"No, actually," Snakes retorted. "It's staying with me until they get back to their headquarters." He glowered at Bret. "So if you so much as try to steal it back for Vandergelt, which sounds like something you'd do, you're gonna put me in a real bad spot."

Beau stiffened. "Well, we can't do that."

Bret looked sick. "He's right that we were planning to. Come on, Beau. We have a bigger obligation to the Vandergelts than we do to Snakes. He made his own choices in life."

"And so did Mr. Vandergelt," Beau shot back. "He chose to pay that woman off. I'm the first to agree that Snakes has made some pretty stupid life choices." He frowned at the crime boss. "But that doesn't mean I think we should just get him into a situation where he'll be harmed. Especially when he's tried hard to help us both now and in the past."

Snakes folded his arms. "That's right. What do you say, Mr. Maverick?" He looked at Bret with narrowed eyes.

Bret sighed, his shoulders slumping. "Beau's right," he conceded. "It wouldn't be right to do that to you. But I need to get Mr. Vandergelt's money back to him. He's counting on me the same way your boss is counting on you."

Now it was Snakes' turn to look sick. "I don't see that there's any way to get his money back to him unless I pay you out of my own pocket."

"Someone might notice the shortage," Beau objected. "Then you'd still get in trouble."

"I have money stashes Posey doesn't know about," Snakes said. "I just hate to think of dipping into any of them to pay back some big businessman. I owe him nothing."

"Well, I don't know about that, Snakes," Bret drawled. "I'd say you should be paying him as compensation for all the trouble he and Van have been put to."

"Maybe something, but twenty thousand dollars worth?" Snakes retorted.

"That's the amount your boss stole from him," Bret said. "I'd say it should really be paid back with interest."

"She's the one who did that, not me," Snakes growled. "So she should be the one to pay it back."

"How about she pay the twenty thousand and you pay the interest?" Beau suggested.

"You still haven't figured out how to get her to pay it at all," Snakes pointed out.

"Well, we did, but now it's all gummed up," said Bret.

"Oh, I never would've convinced them to keep the money here if I'd known it was messing with your little heist plans," Snakes said sarcastically.

"Alright, nevermind," Beau interrupted. "Arguing will get us nowhere."

Bret silently consented. "Isn't there any way you can get them to take the money with them after all?" he pleaded.

"I don't see how," Snakes frowned. "I convinced them it would be safer to leave it here. Unless Pinto gets Posey to change her mind, it's staying."

"How hard do you think it would be for him to get her to change her mind?" Beau wondered.

"Probably pretty hard," Snakes said. "She knows he doesn't like me and will always be saying things against me, so she won't pay a great deal of attention to it." He paused. "But he doesn't like the idea of leaving it here with me, that's for sure."

"Then let's see how persuasive he can be," Bret said. "Maybe he can take care of all the work for us."

"I'll go back home and see what's happening," Snakes said. "But don't expect too much."

"Snakes, if we can't get that money one way or another, I'm going to see to it that you pay the money back out of one of those private stashes of yours, whether you think that's fair or not." Bret spoke calmly but firmly; he meant every word.

Snakes glared. "And people wonder why I don't like you." He looked to Beau, his expression softening considerably. "I'll see you later, Beau."

Beau nodded. "Good luck, Snakes."

Bret sighed as they watched Snakes go. "This sure is a mixed-up situation. If we weren't worried about Snakes, we could go ahead and move."

Beau looked to him with a worried start. "You won't, will you, Cousin Bret?"

"No, I won't," Bret said wearily. "Even if it wasn't for you and Snakes being friends, I wouldn't want to get him in big trouble with his boss."

"I'm glad," said Beau. "But you're right, it does complicate things much more."

"We'll wait and see what happens," Bret said. "I sort of maybe convinced Snakes we were going with the robbery plan, but I'm thinking in reality we'll try the other one."

"That's more the Maverick way," Beau admitted, "but I don't know if they'd fall for it." He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Why not tell Snakes the real plan, though?"

"Even though he's helped us, he's still ultimately part of the syndicate," Bret said. "I just don't know that I trust him that much."

"I suppose I can't blame you for that," Beau conceded. "Alright, tell me more of how this plan is supposed to work."

"Well, I'd figured at first that the easiest way to separate these kinds of people from their money would be a straight-up robbery," Bret said. "But what if instead we could convince them that there's an old business in need of tender loving care they could buy if they put twenty thousand down? By the time they'd realize there's no business, we'd be long gone. Not that they'd trace it to us anyway. They bought the other con, and another one would be safer than a robbery. So many things can go wrong with those."

"Let's see if making it work is even feasible," Beau said. "And exactly who would we get to sell them this bill of goods?"

"I was thinking of Brother Bart, if he's nearby," Bret replied.

"That would work, I suppose," Beau agreed. "Provided they've never met him."

"Let's hope they haven't. Meanwhile, you'll have to keep up playing the part of Van. We can't let on any part of that trick now."

"I know." Beau glanced to some approaching townspeople and smiled at them. "Good afternoon."

Bret touched the brim of his hat in greeting as well. He hoped, when he saw their confused looks, that he and Beau didn't look like they were up to something.

xxxx

Snakes wasn't surprised when he returned to the house and heard the sounds of a disagreement through the open window almost immediately.

"Oh, for Heaven's sake, Pinto! What exactly do you think will happen if we leave the money here? Snakes is smart enough to know that if he loses it while it's in his care, he will be dealt with severely in spite of being on the board!"

Snakes cringed.

"I just don't trust him, Lucrece," Pinto answered. "He might decide that twenty thousand all to himself is worth the risk."

"No, I wouldn't," Snakes muttered.

"I trust him, Pinto," Lucrece retorted. "At least on this matter."

An uneasy silence followed. "You mean you don't trust him on other matters?" Pinto asked.

"Let's say I have some questions," Lucrece said. "I don't think he's entirely happy being part of the syndicate. He's a terrible liar; he doesn't hide his feelings well."

"Then why keep the money here?!" Pinto exclaimed. Then the answer dawned and he went on, "Or are you testing him?"

"You could say that," Lucrece smiled.

Snakes nearly moaned out loud. He was certainly relieved that he didn't have any intentions of taking their money. And, he thought as he covered his eyes with a shaking hand, he hoped he could really trust Bret Maverick not to do otherwise.

His hand fell away again. There was no way the money would leave his house under these circumstances, but even if it did and Bret enacted his highway robbery plan, maybe Lucrece and Pinto would think that any robbers were men hired by Snakes to get the money back for him.

Instead of going inside, he turned and hurried back towards town. He needed to tell the Mavericks what he had just learned.

Maybe, as much as he hated the thought, paying Vandergelt back out of his own pocket wouldn't be so painful after all.