Chapter Forty One

Heath rode into camp on a slathering, exhausted horse; as soon as he got the message; he left Charger at the lumber camp and got a fresh horse.

He rode it hard, too hard but made it to the Modesto destination of the Barkleys. He freed it in a pasture with water.

"Ralph, go get Heath a horse at the livery. Fastest one they got."

"Yes sir."

"Fill me in Jarrod!"

"Let's take a walk. "

Jarrod and Heath walked out in the moonlight. He filled his younger brother in on everything he knew.

"Thank God, Henry escaped." Heath spat.

"He's a brave little man," Jarrod complimented the boy.

"What is the plan?"

"Tomorrow night, one of the men will show up in the alley behind the casino for food."

"We trail him to their hideout."

"Until then?"

"Sun up, we keep searching. Buck and I need to have some words."

"I will go with you."

"Nope, Macklin or Fred. I need you to keep with our men searching. Barns, houses, pens near the rail line. They couldn't have gotten them off the train in town in broad daylight. Too much attention to three women and a boy, likely unconscious. We know the potatoes were delivered north of here and the cars cleaned. Found a shawl and a straw hat. So we keep looking Modesto and south."

Heath grumbled and cursed, "All right but Jarrod—-I may kill one of them iff'n they laid a hand on her or any of them."

"Me too, me too."

The brothers went over the scenarios again and broke to try to gather their thoughts and rest. Heath moved away from all of the men and stretched his roll down in the dark.

Jarrod dozed sitting up on a tree. He awoke with a jolt as he heard Nick cry out his name,

He lurched forward reaching for his gun. No one was there. He realized the voice came from his own mind

—-&—

Lisette was bound and gagged in a fancy, old-fashioned bedroom. She was tied,spread-eagle to a four poster bed and had been slapped with a crop several times. The smell of mildew was overwhelming and she could see heavy velvet drapes from a side view occasionally.

The man keeping her alive had occasionally popped her with a riding crop sadistically. Buck had said not to violate her —he did not want anything to happen at his mother's home. Every time she would try to remove her blindfold, the man would hit her again.

He would laugh and she swore she recognized the laugh from her hotel room. She steeled her emotions and refused to yell out.

Buck had brought her to his elderly mother's home as an extra insurance policy if Jarrod Barkley went to the authorities. His mother was bed bound with senility and losing her eyesight. He put an "ill guest" in her spare bedroom and kept her blindfolded and drugged. He got wind that some ranch hands came upon Nick and started an investigation with the authorities. He would wait and see if Barkley came through with the hotel sale.

He would open the door and gaze at her—-"She is a beautiful woman. I see what Paul and Barkley see in her. Might sample her myself before I kill her. After the sale."

—-&—-

Heath and Macklin split their men and took each side of the rail lines north past Modesto. They came upon what they hoped for —-Wagon wheel tracks in the dry dust. They got off the path so as to not disturb them and followed from the grass. They led to an abandoned farm with a dilapidated barn and collapsed house. They tied their horses in the brush and snuck up on the house.

They searched the house and barn carefully. It was empty but recent hoof prints proved they were in the right area. Some of the tracks were missing but they certainly led to this acre. They decided to camp back on the ridge so they could watch the property.

Their suspicions were confirmed after dusk. One lone rider brought a buckboard of food in parcels down the road. Heath watched them through his binoculars. It was food from the casino.

They watched from the ridge as the wagon passed the decaying house and barn—-passed the corral and went to a grove of cottonwood trees a mile further. He looked around to make sure he wasn't followed. When he felt safe, he pushed away scrub and limbs to uncover a brooder house. Heath had missed it on his first search of the abandoned property.

Jarrod and Macklin appeared riding, perpendicular to the buckboard. He nodded up to Heath on the ridge. He couldn't see him but assumed they were watching.

Jarrod and Macklin rode the long way up to the ridge to avoid detection.

"It's them. We ride out about 11pm by the dark of the moon."

"Agreed. We have enough men to storm them."

"I tried to meet up with Buck at his ranch. Something about his sick mother and he was out of town. I don't buy it for a moment."

Heath and Jarrod said silent prayers for the safety of the hostages. There was no doubt in their mind it would be a gunfight.

"Surprise is our best offense."

"Agreed."