A/N: I'm so sorry it's been over a week since an update. Combine a "virtual" vacation due to COVID-19 that glitched majorly every day, plus a horse show Saturday afternoon, and late hours at work, and that's what results.

Now that's it's here, though, enjoy! Tonight: The Trackers

Edited 2-18-21 to add line breaks.

Candy drove Ben down Virginia City's main street, Annie jogging Reno alongside the wagon. It was early, not long after nine, and most people were still inside, leaving the street nearly deserted.

"Let's see if we can get the supplies loaded quick, with the boys gone to San Francisco we've got a lot of work to get done this afternoon."

"Yes, sir."

"Annie, you did add the spices Hop Sing requested?"

"He hovered at my shoulder until I wrote them down."

"That should –"

"Help! Help! Someone help!" They all turned; Candy halted the wagon. Annie wheeled Reno, her hand going to her pistol, but it was only a little boy running out of the bank. He saw them and raced over. Ben hopped out of the wagon and crouched in front of the boy.

"What's the matter, son?"

"Inside! Mr. Evans is dead!" He pointed at the bank. Ben looked up, his face freezing. Annie and Candy exchanged glances.

"You two, get the supplies and get 'em loaded."

"But –"

"If he's dead, there's nothing either of you can do that I can't." Ben followed the little boy into the bank, Roy and a growing crowd hurrying after them. Deputies held the crowd back at the boardwalk. Annie turned to Candy, her lower lip clamped between her teeth.

What had happened?

"Maybe he just fell and hit his head." Candy shifted the reins from one hand to the other. "Could be he's just unconscious."

"I hope so." She stared at the bank a moment longer. A man ran down the boardwalk; when he came closer, she recognized Sam Bragan, the bank's owner. He shoved his way through the crowd at the door and disappeared inside. "We better get the supplies like Pa said. If he needs us after all, he'll send someone."

"You're the boss."

They were almost finished with the shopping list when a commotion on the street spilled into the mercantile. "Tom Evans was murdered!" A local farmer burst into the store. "They say Cully Mako robbed the Wells Fargo shipment and shot Tom!" Annie raised her head.

Why did that name ring a bell? Cully Mako …

"Guess I was wrong." Candy stared down at the counter.

"Guess so." She had to raise her voice to be heard over the farmer's recital of the events as he knew them.

"Sheriff Coffee is calling for riders, enough for two posses!" He took a deep breath. "Ms. Anne, your pa asked me to send you and Candy down to the sheriff's office once you're through here."

"Thank you, Vern." She turned back to the clerk behind the counter. "Can you get all this loaded up and have someone drive it out to the Ponderosa? They can borrow a horse from the barn to get back to town."

"Not a problem, Ms. Cartwright." She plopped her hat on her head.

"Candy." He followed her down the street. A swarm of armed men poured out of the sheriff's office, faces set in grim lines, talking among themselves. Ben stepped out the door, gestured them inside.

"You're just in time." For what if she didn't already suspect? Sheriff Coffee hurried over.

"Raise your right hands, both of you, and I'll swear you in." She raised her hand with a sideways look at Candy. He put his up without hesitation. "Do you solemnly swear as authorized possemen to uphold the laws of the state of Nevada and of Storry County?"

"I do." Their replies rang out in unison; another time it might have been funny. Had Joe been around, he would have made some comment for sure.

"Let's ride." Sheriff Coffee headed out the door.

"Spread out, search that whole slope, and the flats beyond. Anybody sights Mako, fire three shots." The posse split, Ben taking only her and Candy with him. They rode for hours with no sign that anyone, let alone a fleeing murderer, had passed recently. When they finally rejoined the rest of the group, it was late afternoon, the sun dipping towards the horizon.

"Hey, look yonder!"

"Thought they got lost, huh?" Annie shot them a withering glance as they rode up. All of them knew every inch of ground for miles. She almost said something, but a sharp look from her pa silenced it in her throat.

"Nothing?" Bragan shook his head.

"We covered the flats and tullies east of the river. No sign of Mako."

"Mr. Cartwright, you want to wet your whistle a little? It'll warm you up." One of the men laughed, his half-full whiskey bottle sloshing in his hand. Her pa ignored him.

"Sam, these horses look spent. We better backtrack about half a mile, camp by a spring there." He turned Buck and the posse made their way back to the spring.

That night, she and Candy sat around the fire with her pa, sipping coffee and staring off into the darkness. Candy stirred. "More coffee?" Annie shook her head, but her pa accepted. As Candy poured, he darted a quick glance at her pa. "Mr. Cartwright, do you think Cully Mako intends to kill you?"

"I don't know. He said so."

"Why's he after you?" Her pa set down his cup.

"It goes back a ways, long before you came around. Cully stood trial for a bank robbery. Sam Bragan identified him as the robber. I was the foreman of the jury that convicted him." Annie sat up. That was where she'd heard that name before, it was almost six years ago now.

"How much time did he get?"

"Five years." Candy blew out a breath, stared down at the fire.

"That's a big chunk out of any man's life." Annie took a slow sip of coffee. Did he speak from experience? He looked thoughtful. "Who is Cully? Does he come from around here?"

"Oh, somewhere up North a bit, he's a trapper." Candy stared into his empty cup.

"Well, I guess a trapper can hold up a bank as well as anybody else."

"Yeah, I guess so." Her pa took another drink.

A gunshot rang out. They looked at each other for a split second, then they were on their feet and running towards the commotion on the other side of camp. They rushed up and found one of the posse sitting on a horse with a noose around his neck, and the other men standing around laughing.

"Buzz." The man didn't respond. "Buzz!" Annie almost jumped herself, recognizing that tone as one you ignored at your own peril. The laughter died into utter silence.

"Yeah, Mr. Cartwright?"

"Get that man off that horse."

"We're just practicing a little, getting ready for when we catch up with old Cully, right boys?"

"Buzz, this is not a lynch party."

"Ben." Sam Bragan sauntered forward. "Cully is wanted for robbery and murder. We may have trouble proving that in a court of law. And if we can't, he's sure gonna kill one or both of us. Easier to hang him and get it over with."

"Sam, that's not what we're here for." Her pa's face could have been carved from stone. Oh, was he mad; she was glad it was Bragan and not her and Joe – mostly Joe – that had earned that look this time.

They stared each other down for a full two minutes before Bragan turned. "Buzz, you heard Mr. Cartwright. Turn him loose." Buzz nodded and lowered his head. Then he spun on his feet and slapped the horse on the flank with his hat, yowling like a bobcat. Annie's heart skipped a beat and she half-lunged, just as the rope slackened, and the man rolled over the horse's rump into the dirt, accompanied by howls of laughter.

Bragan looked back to them, a small smile touching his mouth. He sauntered away without another word.

"Pa, I know he's your friend, but I don't like him too much right now."

"Me neither." Candy watched him rejoin the other men gathered around the one who'd slid off the horse. Ben didn't say anything, just waved them back to the fire without a backward glance.

The next morning, they split up again, combing through the high country without spotting hide nor hair of Cully Mako. Not long after they set out, Ben called a halt.

"Something the matter, Pa?"

"I was just thinking. Mako's brother testified at his trial, they worked the trap lines together. Now, when a man's on the run, he usually heads to the country he knows best."

"And the people he knows best," Candy said softly. Annie shot him a covert glance. He was talking from experience, that tone said more than words ever would.

"His brother's place is just south of the double notch, just over the crest." Ben nodded at the nearby mountains. He spurred Buck into motion and they rode on, arriving in the yard of a small homestead not even half an hour later.

A woman was out front hanging laundry. She stopped when they rode in and hurried over. Ben dismounted, motioning for the two of them to stay put. "Mrs. Mako?"

"Yes."

"I'm Ben Cartwright. Is your husband around? I'd sure like to talk to him for a minute." The woman looked around.

"He's inside the house. You can go on in."

"Thank you." Ben disappeared inside. Mrs. Mako went back to her laundry with a nervous look at the house. He was back within five minutes, came over to Buck, and looked up at them. "Two people live here. Three plates on the table. He's been here and gone, but he doesn't have much of a head start." He swung into the saddle and led them out of the yard.

After a mile or so, he halted again. "We've got to be close. Fan out and we'll see if we can flush him out of wherever he's hiding. Follow my lead." Annie gnawed on her lower lip as her pa rode off alone. Cully had sworn revenge, and now, after five years, he had his chance.

The closest water source was a small spring about a mile and a half to the west. If he was nearby, he'd have to use it. And if he was just out to get her pa, well, he'd come. She and Candy watched the spring from two different directions.

Ben crouched by the water, then he straightened and slowly turned. Annie leaned forward. Why had she parked herself out of hearing range? She nudged Reno sideways and little closer, then froze.

A man stood across from her pa, holding a gun on him. She swung down off Reno and crept closer, her own gun at the ready.

"I figure if I shoot you now, and take your life, why we'd be about even, except me a little more." Her teeth ground together with the effort it took to not leap up and open fire. Her pa gave the man a disinterested look and slowly turned away.

"Drop it, mister," Candy appeared out of the scrub behind Mako, who whirled around. Candy fired and the man dropped his gun. Ben reached for his discarded gun belt – when had that happened? – and Candy hurried closer. Mako raised his hands.

"Now what?"

"We've been deputized to take you back into town, Cully."

"What for?"

"Murder and robbery."

"I didn't hear you name the person I was supposed to have killed."

"Tom Evans." Mako tilted his head and looked around at them, took a step forward.

"The Tom Evans that works in Bragan's bank? Somebody shot him?"

"That's right. And robbed the bank." Ben finished buckling his gun belt. "Where's your horse?"

"Over there." He seemed to focus on Annie for the first time. "That your little girl? She grew up right nice."

"I don't think that's any of your concern, friend." Mako shrugged.

"Just trying to be friendly."

"Candy." He nodded and retrieved Mako's horse, turning over the reins only after he'd removed all weapons from the saddle. Mako watched without much interest.

"How much money was I supposed to have stole this time?"

"A hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars," Annie said.

"Well, that's an important amount of money, that should make me an important man. Tell you what let's do, you all get in my saddle bags, get it out, divide it up, and let's make us a deal." Candy shook his head with a grin. Ben said nothing. Annie bit her lip.

"You thinking to meet up with that posse tonight?"

"I guess we better ride straight into town, be faster that way anyway." So he was worried.

"You fixing to save time, or trouble?" Mako called out. No one said anything. Annie finally shook her head.

"Come on, Cully, let's go." They grouped up around Ben, with Mako in the middle.

"Candy, you take point." Annie pressed her lips together. Yes, he was worried. That never boded well for things to come.

Annie waited with her pa and Mako while Candy rode ahead to check what lay over the next ridge. Mako studied them, then spoke.

"You sure are being mighty careful." Annie said nothing. "Look, I keep telling you I didn't do anything, why you taking me in?"

"Now, Cully, you were in town for four days, the moment something happens, the moment there's a murder, you disappear!"

"I said I'd kill a man, Sam bragan, five years ago, then I spend five years behind walls and I change my mind about pulling the trigger. But Sam Bragan didn't know that, so I went to town, figured I'd sweat him a little bit. Walk down the street, look in the window of his bank, make him wonder a little bit, make him sweat. Now that's mighty samll revenge for the five years he stole from my life." Her pa's face hardened.

"You keep talking how Sam Bragan stole five years of your life, I stole five years of your life! Sam Bragan testified under oath that you were the man in the bank!"

"Any man can put his hand on a book and still tell a lie!"

"Like you?" He whipped around. "You said, under oath, that you had nothing to do with it. Was that a lie?"

"No!"

"Sam Bragan built that bank on a handshake." That was fact, how she felt about him right now didn't enter into the equation.

"Oh, he's your friend, so he can't tell a lie? Come on, he can make one mistake. One mistake!"

"There isn't anyone alive who hasn't made a mistake."

"Who pays for yours?" Cully stabbed a finger at her pa.

"I do."

"And me! Don't forget that! I spent five years of my life paying for his mistake, a lie!" Annie shook her head. Cully Mako only had one drum to beat, and he was making up for lost time. Before she could say anything, Candy rode up.

"They're up ahead, resting their horses."

"They see you?" He ducked his head.

"Afraid so." Candy looked back over his shoulder.

"Well." Her pa sighed. "Come on." They rode out to meet up with the posse. Bragan hurried over before they'd stopped their horses.

"You got him."

"Yeah, we got him." Her pa straightened in his saddle. "We'll just take him back to town."

"What's the rush? We've got a few questions to ask Cully."

"Yeah," another man chimed in, swinging a noose in his hands. Mako's eyes widened. "We got a few questions we want to ask him." Annie just bet they did. She glanced over at Candy just as Mako spurred his horse into a dead run and bolted. A shot rang out.

"Hold your fire!"

She pushed Reno into a gallop and lit out, Candy racing along on her right. Up ahead, Mako's horse went down and he scrambled away on foot, vanishing into the overgrown scrub. Annie jumped off Reno and chased after him. She lost track of Candy almost immediately, but that was no surprise, the man could move like an Indian.

"Cully, settle down, now settle down," Candy's low hiss sounded somewhere off to her right and she dove in his direction. "We're trying to get you back safe so you can have a fair trial." She burst out of the undergrowth and skidded to a halt.

"He'll get a trial, but not the kind you mean." A posseman held a rifle on Mako and Candy. "Unless you want to be replacing your hand here, you'll take yours away from that gun, Ms. Cartwright." Her blood boiled and her eyes narrowed, but she wasn't about to call that bluff – if it was a bluff. She snatched her hand away from her holster. Candy lowered his head.

A noose dangled from the tree; the posse laughed while a man tied Mako's hands behind his back. "What's got into you Sam?" Her pa hissed, the thread of warning running so strong in his voice Bragan had to be deaf not to hear it. "This is not a court, we're not a judge and jury."

"We're Mako's peers, Ben." Her pa grabbed him by the shoulders.

"We were deputized to do one thing: find him, arrest him, and bring him into town, no more!"

"Sorry, Ben, but that's the kind of thinking that got Tom Evans killed." He sidestepped her pa and headed over to the waiting horse, and Mako. "Get him up on the horse!" A cheer rose. Ben lunged for Bragan.

"Now, wait a minute! Hold it!" He yanked the closest man away from Mako. "You all were deputized same as Candy, Annie, and me. You swore to uphold the law –"

"We're hanging a guilty man, that's upholding the law, right?" Shouts of agreement filled the air.

"Who says he's guilty?" Shouts rose again; her pa had to raise his voice even more to be heard. "This is cold-blooded murder, that's all it is, cold-blooded murder. And you'll all pay for it, much more than Mako ever did. Ten, fifteen years, you may even hang for it!" Annie and Candy exchanged looks, hands sliding down to their pistols. Angry mutters replaced the cheers. She hoped that would be enough to stop them, if it didn't, this could end up a bloodbath.

"Now don't listen to him, he's just trying to scare you out of it." Bragan looked around.

"I'm trying to scare you out of doing something stupid." One man threw his hand sin the air and stalked off.

"Bragan, I ain't going to jail for nothing or nobody!"

"That's right!" Other voices chimed in and Annie drew a relieved breath. Until Bragan opened his mouth again.

"Now wait a minute! We took a vote, we said we were gonna hang Cully and that's what we're gonna do. Now quit talking and get it done, get Cully up there!" Without even needing to look at each other, she and Candy slid a few feet apart, broadening their field of fire and the amount of possemen they could cover at once.

"Alright, you want to hang him?" Ben stalked over to Mako and Bragan. "Fine. Go right ahead. Sam, I think you ought to hear this." Bragan put his hands on his hips. "Before you hang Cully here, you ought to know there's gonna be a shooting." She and Candy drew in almost perfect unison, scaring one man so much he dropped his whiskey bottle. Candy slowly advanced, covering the man right behind Ben, who had his own pistol aimed at Bragan. "You're gonna have to kill all three of us before you get to him. So you better get your guns out, all of you. Come on, get 'em out." No one moved. "Go ahead, pull the trigger. You, too, Sam."

A tense silence descended. Annie kept her eyes moving, watching for the slightest hint someone intended to draw.

"Alright." Bragan stalked around Ben. "We'll leave it to a jury, like last time." He gave them all a smug smile and headed for his horse.

She kept her gun out the whole way to town, and one eye glued to Bragan's back, not drawing an easy breath until Mako was locked inside a cell in Roy's office and Bragan and his friends had wandered off.

Only problem was, they hadn't gone far. She could hear the muttered rumblings through the window.

"That crowd out there is getting uglier and meaner by the second." Ben rubbed the back of his neck.

"You just brought in a man accused of murder and bank robbery, what do you expect? I never lost a prisoner yet, and I ain't about to start." Roy took the keys back into his office. Mako sat down on the bunk and put his head in his hands. Bragan walked over to Ben, that smug smile still firmly in place.

"Sounds like most folks out there feel same as we do: hang him quick and get it over. Good night Ben." The urge to trip him as he went by was strong, but she managed to curb it.

Barely.

Candy closed the door after him and sat back down. Roy looked up from the papers on his desk. "Ben, I'm sending a telegraph to the circuit judge, he'll be here in a day or two."

"I'm in no hurry," Cully called from the cell. Ben stared at him for a minute.

"Cully. I've decided to have my lawyer defend you. He's in Carson City right now, but he'll be back in plenty of time." Cully raised his head. "And you'll have a fair trial, I can tell you that." He started to walk away.

"Last time I stood trial in this town, I got five years." Cully stood and came over to the cell door. "For something I didn't even do, and that was just robbery. This time, it's murder. You look at that crowd out there, and you know what kind of trial I'm gonna get." Ben didn't reply. "Thanks for saving my life so that they could hang me legal." Her pa sighed and turned away. She and Candy followed him outside.

"What do you think, Pa?"

"I don't know." He rubbed his neck again. "I just wish I knew what got into Sam." He headed for Buck. "Let's go."

The next morning, Annie was finishing breakfast while they waited for Candy to get back from sending a wire in Virginia City. She offered the plate of ham, but Ben shook his head. She frowned and set the plate back on the table. "You feeling alright, Pa?" He mumbled by way of reply and absently stirred his coffee. "You've turned down the ham, the biscuits, and uh, that's the second time you've sugared your coffee." Ben looked down at his cup. "I just wondered." He sighed.

"Two robberies. Forty thousand dollars, a hundred twenty-one thousand dollars. All that money just disappears."

"Folks say he stashed it someplace." Ben looked up.

"Do you believe that?" She snorted.

"No."

"Why not?"

"If he stashed forty thousand five years ago, why didn't he get it and take off somewhere he could enjoy it? Why go back for more – from the same bank – and risk getting caught again? And that's the third time you've sugared that coffee, Pa." He pushed the cup away, tossed his napkin on the table, and stood with a sigh.

"Not only the missing money bothers me. That theory about revenge doesn't hold water either. Cully Mako had me dead in his sights, he could have pulled the trigger any minute. And he didn't."

"Maybe he did change his mind after five years locked up." She shrugged and chewed a bite of biscuit. "He hung around town for four days, why didn't he kill Sam Bragan if he really wanted to?" She scraped her plate. "I wouldn't have waited that long."

"That's another thing. Sam Bragan. Why would a decent law-abiding man like him suddenly turn pure savage?"

"He and Mr. Evans were good friends. But he was your friend too, and you didn't go off half-cocked."

"He was so anxious to see him hanged – lynched – no trial, nothing." He sighed. "You think Cully's right?"

"About what?"

"About it being impossible for him to get a fair trial in Virginia City." Annie sighed.

"I wouldn't bet on it." The door opened and Candy came in.

"I sent the wire, Mr. Cartwright."

"Good, good." Ben shifted his weight. "Uh, have some breakfast, Candy." He gestured at the table.

"There's plenty," Annie added. "All Pa had was a little coffee with his cup of sugar."

"Candy, did Roy say anything about when the circuit judge may be arriving?"

"He'll be here tomorrow." Candy sighed. "if you ask me, the verdict's in already. The town's in a hanging mood. Bragan, Buzz, Grifty, and the posse are gonna do everything they can to keep it that way." They all looked at each other in silence. Annie broke it first.

"What are we going to do, Pa?" He sighed again and stood.

"Well, right now, I'm going to do this month's bookkeeping, and this afternoon, I'm going to ride into town and see if the answer to that telegraph is waiting."

"I changed my mind, I think I'll have a cup of that sugar." Candy headed for the table. Annie shrugged and gestured at the sugar bowl.

"There might be some left." Candy grinned and sat down, took a plate and piled it with ham and biscuits.

"What do you think, sweetheart?" She rested her chin on the heel of her hand and studied him.

"You still do it."

"You know I'm talking to you, what's it matter?" He said between bites. She said nothing. He set down his fork. "Come on, I said I'd tell you some day, just let it go for now. Please?" She stared at him for a minute.

"I think Bragan had something to do with it."

"What about Mako?"

"I haven't figured out if Bragan hired him and wants him unable to ever spill the beans, or if he was framed."

"I'd say framed, but that's just me."

"If it leaves hoof prints and manure, you look for a horse, not one of those African zebras."

They rode into town beside Ben and pulled their horses up at the hitch rail in front of the sheriff's office. "Wait around and stay out of sight. Roy and I will meet the stage from Carson City and we'll go from there. Keep a sharp eye out once we go in the bank."

"Right, Pa."

"You got it, Mr. Cartwright." They stayed together until the stage – an hour late – pulled in. Ben met a dignified looking man with gray hair and they headed for the bank.

"That's our cue. You want up or down the street?"

"I'll take down." He tipped his hat. "Watch yourself, sweetheart." Annie stepped inside the mercantile, nodded to Mr. Grant, and took up a position near the front window.

It didn't take long. Less than twnety minutes later, her pa and Sam Bragan left the bank and paused in the street. Did he really think no one would notice her pa wasn't wearing his gun belt? They started up the street towards the mercantile. She stepped outside and stood on the boardwalk, her hand resting on the butt of her Colt.

Bragan's face cracked. He said something to her pa too low for her to hear.

"Wait for me inside, Annie. Inside." She turned and went back inside, watching out the window as they went back up the street, only to run into Candy when he stepped out from around the corner. Bragan's face twisted and he pushed her pa into the street. Roy met them and she walked back outside.

Ben went for the gun; a shot rang out, going wild, and Roy started forward. Bragan struggled, but her pa soon got the upper hand, twisting the gun abck and out of Bragan's hands. She and Candy hurried over and they all stood in a ring around Bragan where he hunched over in the street, frantically trying to collect the scattered money he'd dropped. He looked up at them.

"I had to do it, Ben. I didn't know where to turn, I had shares in all the wrong mines, I kept losing … I couldn't cover it up anymore. I had to protect the depositors – you too, Ben! Ben, please, I don't want to die, please, I don't want to die! Ben please!" No one said a word. Bragan lowered his head, wads of crumpled bills clutched in his hands.

She wanted to feel sorry for him, but she couldn't. He should have thought of the consequences before he killed Tom Evans.

"Mr. Mako, I believe the state of Nevada ought to make some kind of restitution for those five years, possibly in the form of a cash reward." Roy handed Mako his gun belt.

"I'm not without influence in th estate capital, and I shall do whatever I can to help." Mr. Snell, the man from the stage and a bank auditor, wiped his face with a rag.

"Thank you. A man can always use money." Mako finished tying down his holster and straightened.

"There's your shotgun and your rifle." He collected them and turned to her pa.

"Well, Mr. Cartwright, I'll be seeing you." They shook hands. "You believed what Bragan said on the witness stand under oath, I can't fault you for that." He shook his head. "You were sure there when I needed you." He looked around. "All of you were." He hesitated. "Would you do me one favor though? Don't sit on any more juries." Annie laughed as he headed for the door. "Gentlemen, and lady." Her pa gave her the look, but it only made her laugh harder.

"I guess he has a point, Mr. Cartwright." Ben shook his head.

"And I thought I'd have it easy with just the two of you for two weeks, let's go."