Chapter 10
Aaron wiped the sweat from his brow with his bandana. “That’s it, men. We might as well go on home. Nothing here.” The sun hadn’t quite yet climbed to the noon hour, but they could get back to the ranch late. The landslide had proved to cover a lot of area, but it wasn’t deep enough anywhere to cover even one cow, much less seven hundred and fifty.
“Where do you suppose they took those cows?” Skipper asked.
“Probably sent them to some slaughterhouse.” Bert laughed. “Those beeves have probably been eaten long before now.”
Bert was probably right, but which slaughterhouse? “We’ll go into Rattlesnake Ridge. You fellows take the buckboard. You can get a drink at the saloon and head on to the ranch. I’m going to ride in and probably stay in town overnight. I have a lot to see to. Those Angus cows and the new men will come in on the morning train. I’d like to be there to meet them.” He figured it would take a crew of at least ten cowhands to run herds that size and so far he only had five.
“Sounds good to me,” Skipper said. “I’ll tell Gieselle. She’s probably standing at the window pining for you.” He slapped Aaron on the back, chuckling in that way that set Aaron’s teeth on edge.
Keeping himself in check, he swung on his horse. “Just keep your hands off Gieselle.”
He gave his big roan mare her head. The distance to town was less than two hours by horse. The sun had just reached its three o’clock zenith unless he missed his guess, and he kept time by the sun with fair accuracy and rarely consulted his watch when the sun was shining.
As he rode into Rattlesnake Ridge, a commotion caught his attention. Out in the middle of the street a woman stood with her back to him. With gun raised in both hands, she held off a man, who looked as if he expected her to fire at any moment. Gawkers lined the street.
The woman’s hair glinted like fine gold in the bright sunshine. No, it couldn’t be Giselle? She was the type of woman who might carry a derringer, but that was a full-sized pistol the woman held, probably a six-shooter.
But it was Giselle.
What was going on? Aaron rode up and stopped the mare several yards away from Giselle. He slid from the saddle, and called out to her, not loud enough to startle her, but loud enough for her to hear him. “Giselle, it’s Aaron. I’m back.” She didn’t flinch but kept her full attention on Dack Coley, the man she held off with her pistol. The only sign that she’d heard Aaron was a small shake of her head.
Coley kept his hands up and shouted something to Aaron, but he couldn’t make it out. Sheriff McCullough came running from up the street, so Aaron decided he’d wait until the lawman arrived. Better to let him take care of the matter. He sure didn’t want to start a gunfight, especially with Giselle in the middle of it.
The seconds dragged. Aaron wanted to pull his gun and come up beside Giselle, but looked like she had the matter well in hand. Still, it seemed the lawman took forever to get there. Finally, he came up behind Coley and snapped cuffs on him. Only then, did Giselle lower her pistol. She dropped it back in her bag and turned toward Aaron, a big smile on her face.
“Welcome home, Aaron. We didn’t expect you until tomorrow.”
“We didn’t find anything, so we came back. What are you doing?”
Before she had time to answer, Sheriff McCullough reached them. “Would you folks follow me to office? I’ll have to take a statement from Miss Dubois.”
Aaron had intended to report his findings to Sheriff McCullough, anyway. Now was as good a time as any. Besides, he wanted to know more about Giselle’s confrontation with Coley.
“Of course, Sheriff.” Giselle hooked Aaron by the arm and they tagged along behind the sheriff and his prisoner.
She gave Aaron a sidelong glance. “You didn’t find any dead cows?”
“Not a one.”
“Then they must have been stolen.”
“Looks like it. How are things at the ranch?”
She gasped, her free hand flying to her mouth. “Oh, big news. Aunt Liddy and Wally got married. That’s why I came to town—to get them a wedding gift.”
Now it was his turn to startle. “What? How did that happen?”
“I was as surprised as you.” Her familiar giggle tickled his senses. “Although you’d have to be blind not to have noticed Wally was in love with Aunt Liddy.”
“I have noticed.” Aaron had noticed from the first but he’d sworn Wally’s was unrequited love.
“Aunt Liddy is only thirty-six. She deserves a good man to spend the rest of her life with. And I was beginning to see there was more than sadness for Uncle Morris that kept her from accepting Wally’s love.” She skipped to keep up with him, reminding him to slow down some. “Who would have guessed she kept Wally at arm’s length to prove the gossips wrong?”
“I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”
“Reverend Brown admitted there’d been a falling out between a few of the townspeople and Aunt Liddy when Wally hired on and moved into the ranch house. Mrs. Handley picked up the story and spread it all over town, so Aunt Liddy refused to come into town or go to church after that.”
Now that sounded silly to Aaron, but he was too smart to voice his opinion. Not only was Liddy his partner, he didn’t know enough about women to know how they thought. “I’ve heard those disparaging stories running around town. I didn’t know they had affected Liddy that much. And yes, Mrs. Handley will keep the gossips going as long as she can.” He wasn’t sure Liddy and Wally’s marriage would stop the chief gossip, either. But he did know how to stop her. In fact, his former work as a detective served him well to discover some secrets about Mrs. Handley that would effectively shut her up.
They were almost at the jail. “You probably also know who rustled those cattle,” Gieselle said.
“I believe I do, but we’ll see what Sheriff McCullough thinks.”
By the time they entered the jail, the sheriff had already put Dack Coley in a cell and sat at his desk, writing. The two chairs in front of the desk beckoned, so Aaron offered one to Gieselle and took the other.
Sheriff McCullough put his pen in its holder and let his gaze settle on Gieselle. “Tell me what happened, Miss Dubois.”
“I was crossing the street in front of Handley’s mercantile when Mr. Coley approached me. He grabbed my arm to stop me and said, ‘You gonna make Bainbridge marry you and make you an honest woman like your aunt?’ I wrenched out of his reach and pulled out my pistol. I told him to get his hands up and told him men don’t insult ladies where I come from…and live to tell about it. People were gathering around and I asked one of them to go get the sheriff.”
All the while she spoke, Sheriff McCullough wrote. “What did Coley say for himself?”
“Nothing. I think I shocked him with my Colt forty-five. It belonged to my older brother, Eugene. He’s the one who taught me how to shoot and he gave it to me when he bought a newer one. He said the derringer most ladies carried didn’t have a good enough range. I admit the Colt is a lot heavier, but when I came west, I thought I would follow my brother’s advice.”
When she finally fell silent, the sheriff turned the paper around to her and held the pen out. “If you would sign the complaint, ma’am, I’ll take it from there.”
It took all Aaron could do to prevent a chuckle from erupting. He just imagined how taken aback Coley must have been. He was proud of Gieselle for showing Coley the business end of her gun, although it was a bit heavy-handed. Served the blackguard right.
He suddenly sobered. It could have turned ugly, though. She might have gotten hurt. If the law didn’t convince the town’s two-legged rattlesnakes to leave the area, he would.
“May I add a comment, Sheriff McCullough?” Gieselle asked.
“You may.”
She set pen to paper and then signed the document. Rising gracefully, she said, “If that’s all, sheriff, I hope to see you Sunday.” She turned to Aaron. “Will you leave with me?”
“If you can wait a few minutes. Sheriff McCullough, I’d like to have a word with you outside.” He lowered his voice. “I don’t want your prisoner to hear.”
The sheriff’s eyes narrowed as he nodded and followed them out of the jail.
“You can wait by your horse if you wish, Gieselle. I left mine not far down the street. I’ll join you in a few minutes.”
“Nothing doing. I want to hear what you have to say.”
“What’s going on, Aaron?” McCullough asked.
Aaron glanced at Gieselle as he gathered his thoughts. It wasn’t as if he couldn’t take her into his confidence. After all, she was involved because of her concern for her aunt, but he didn’t want to cause her worry. And he had a feeling she would worry.
He shifted his glaze to the sheriff. “When I returned from checking that landslide, the one that supposedly killed Miss Liddy’s cattle, I stopped at Handley’s to pick up my mail. I’d been expecting correspondence from Carson City regarding the Coley cousins. I suspected they had rustled those cows.” He stopped a moment and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. Would the sheriff think he was taking too much of the law upon himself?
“You might as well know, I believe one of them also murdered my brother, Anthony. That was my main concern and that was what brought me to Rattlesnake Ridge. I’d heard they were working in the mines.”
“What correspondence were you waiting for from Carson City and from whom?” McCullough asked.
Aaron drew in a breath. “The mail came from the sheriff over there. It was the coroner’s report on my brother and a copy of the witness affidavits of the shooting. These witnesses were watching the card game that my brother and the Coleys were playing when he was shot.”
“What did you find out?” Gieselle asked. Her face was bright with interest. He hadn’t explained what he was investigating but he knew she’d probably put two and two together.
“The witnesses all confirmed the position all the men were seated at the table. The shot came from under the table. No one could see which man fired. No one thought to smell the pistols of the Coleys. That would’ve identified the killer, but too much time had elapsed before Anthony was taken to the doctor. He didn’t die right away.” A wave of anger swept through Aaron as he again thought of how much his brother had suffered.
“The killer couldn’t have been Dack, but I’d like to conduct an experiment to determine which of the other two must be the culprit.”
The sheriff’s features took on an interested look. “I’ll help all I can. What kind of experiment?”
“I’d like you to bring in the other two Coleys, bring Dack as well, and take them to the saloon. We’ll find a table in the approximate place it would’ve been in the saloon in Carson City. The Coleys will sit in the same position they were seated on that night. I want you to watch as each man places his pistol, aiming at me from under the table.”
“They might shoot you,” Gieselle said, panic in her voice.
Aaron smiled and gave her wink. She might really care a little for him. “We’ll make sure the pistols are unloaded.” He turned back to the sheriff. “I’m going to have a straight stick. We’ll put one end of that stick in the barrel of the gun as each man holds it. The gun with the stick following in a trajectory that will hit me at the same place the bullet hit Anthony.”
“That might be enough evidence to convince the sheriff in Carson City to make an arrest,” Sheriff McCullough admitted.
“Especially since the doctor who attended Anthony was an artist and he drew a picture of where the bullet hit and where it went in Anthony’s body. Actually, I’m hoping it’ll make the guilty man confess, or the other two give him away.”
“So you don’t want Dack to know he’s ruled out?”
“No, that’s why I didn’t want him to hear any of this.” He felt Gieselle take his hand.
“Aaron, I so hope this solves your brother’s murder. I was worried you were seeking revenge, but you were seeking justice after all. I’m so proud of you.” She stood on tiptop and kissed his cheek.
The sheriff chuckled. “We’ll do your experiment tonight, if that’s all right with you. If everything goes as planned, I’ll make the arrest.”