“There’s nothing up here to give me a clue,” Matt Starr said. “Maybe if I ask around downstairs, someone may have seen someone come up here who might have been suspicious.”
“I’m sure if you look around here some more, you fight find something interesting,” Flo said letting her words out in a suggestive tantalizing tone.
“I think I’ve seen everything there is to see in here,” Matt said.
“Well, Marshal, I think I could show you something interesting.” Flo batted her long eyelashes. She sidled up close to him. He could smell her perfume and could almost feel her breath.
Matt stepped back warily. He knew where this was leading and he didn‘t like it one bit. But, always the gentleman, Matt Starr refrained from being blunt or rude. “Uh.. I really think I should check down stairs,” He said.
“But you don’t even know what’s missing,” Flo persisted, stepping closer again, softening her voice. Again her lashes flashed.
“You told me,” Matt retorted. “Money and jewelry. A broach.”
“Yes. A special broach. A gift from my first husband.”
“Your first husband?” Matt said. “I didn’t know you had been married.”
“Why, yes of course I have. Three times in fact. Men have always found me attractive. Don’t you, Marshal? She pressed closer, gazing up into his eyes. Matt couldn’t back up anymore. His back was already pressed to the door. The doorknob felt like a lump prodding his lower spine. He couldn‘t answer the question and she didn‘t wait for it. “Or should I say Matt, Marshal. I can call you Matt can‘t I?”
“Are you coming with me, Jim?” Jeremy Carlin said as he shoved Deputy Simms into the jail cell. He had the cell door open and Sarah was standing beside him. The deputy fell to the floor at Dandy Jim Butler‘s feet. He rolled over and gazed up at Jeremy standing before him, waving the pistol in his hand.
“The last time someone broke me out of jail, it only got me deeper into hot water. No, kid, this is your play. I think I‘ll just stay put where I am for a while.”
“Your choice,” Jeremy said. He swung the cell door shut with a clank, turned the key and pulled it out of the lock.
“And this is your choice, too,” Butler said. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t be too trusting of that girl.” He added, “If I were you, I’d make sure that gun you’re holding works. This could’ve been a set up to get you killed escaping.”
“Don’t listen to him!” Sarah shouted, much too quickly and with a hint of guilt in her voice. “I swear, I came to get you out. I want you, Jeremy. I’ve always wanted you. Remember the good times?”
Jeremy glanced from Jim Butler to the pistol in his hand to Sarah Price. Something in her face and voice told him that the gambler was making sense.
He pulled back the pistol’s hammer and ran his thumb over the inside. He felt the firing pin in tact. Then he flipped open the weapon’s cylinder and spun it. There were cartridges in every chamber.
“See,” Sarah said. “Now do you believe I’m here to help you?” Something in the pitch of her voice wasn’t quite convincing.
He ejected one of the shells and turned it over in his fingers. The shell was empty. He glared up at Sarah. His eyes darkened with anger. He ejected two more shells. Also empty..
Sarah was cringing with fear and shrank back from Jeremy. “I…I didn’t know……..” she started.
“You were setting me up. Weren’t you?” Jeremy raged.
“No! No!” Sarah protested. “I didn’t know the gun wasn’t loaded. I swear. He said he didn’t want to see my father hang you. He said we could help you getaway. I couldn’t let my father have your life on his conscience.”
“Simon Price doesn’t have a conscience.” Jeremy growled. “And who is “he” you’re talking about.”
“Peso. Peso Martin.” Sarah choked it out.
“Peso Martin“?
“Yes. He‘s the one who gave me the gun. We….we‘re in love. He proved that to me just tonight.”
“That figures,” Jeremy said. “I suppose the sheriff is waiting outback to gun me down too.”
“What…. What? Peso didn’t say anything about that. Peso wouldn‘t do a thing like that. Neither would Sheriff Trask.”
“Oh no. All I’ve got to do is open that back door and step outside to prove it.”
“I swear, I didn’t know,” Sarah pleaded. “I would never do anything like that to you.”
“But you have,” Jeremy said. “But now that the play has been opened, I’m just going to have to deal with it. I won’t be going out the back with an empty gun. I’m sure there’s more guns and ammo around this jail someplace. I’m walking out the front door and anyone who tries to stop me will be dead. Hell, you might be dead too.”
Sarah Price swallowed hard.
“Marshal, will do,” Matt answered nervously. “Just call me Marshal.”
“Now Matt,” Flo persisted. “We don’t need to be so formal. You know I’m very attracted to you. You’re a very handsome man.”
“And much younger too,” Matt cringed.
“I like my men young and virile. And I find most men like a woman with experience.” She reached up and placed both arms around his neck.
“Flo,” Matt protested. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“I tend to disagree on that,” she said and pressed her lips hard against his.
“Hey, Carlin,” Frankie the Kid shouted. “Seems to me you could use some help getting out of here. What do you say, you let us out of here and we all go together?”
“We might all get killed, too,” Jeremy said.
“Not if we take the girl with us. They won’t dare shoot at us as long as we got her.”
Jeremy shifted his eyes toward Sarah. Her eyes met his for a moment. She saw the hardness in them. The hurt, the disappointment, the anger. She shook her head from side to side. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
Jeremy thought long and hard. His jaw set tight, then he said. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Flo,” Matt Starr pleaded as he pulled his head back, forcing himself away from Flo’s kiss. “We can’t do this.”
“Oh, yes we can,” Flo insisted and pressed forward.
Frankie the Kid pulled the back door open with a jerk. The light from the office spilled out into the darkness of the night revealing a horse tied to a makeshift hitch rail.
The Kid shoved Deputy Sims through the open doorway. “Don’t shoot! It’s me,“ the terrified deputy shouted as he stumbled out, throwing himself to the ground and rolling to the right as a volley of gunfire broke the stillness of the night. A hail of bullets slammed into the door jamb above his head.
Sims was still screaming as the gunfire echo faded away, momentarily. ”It’s me, Sims. Stop shooting.!” He pushed himself to his knees and scooted around the corner of the building and rolled up to a half sitting position with his back to the wall. He was breathing hard. “They’re all loose and they got guns!” He shouted. “They got the girl too. Don’t shoot.”
“What the hell?” Harvey Trask mumbled from his perch behind a bush. He lowered his pistol and shouted to the two other men hidden on each side of him.
“Hold your fire, men,” he ordered. “’Til I figure this out.”
With the lull in gunfire, a voice sounded from the open doorway. Its owner was unseen. “Sheriff!” Frankie the Kid shouted. “Your little trick didn’t work. Carlin found out about the unloaded gun and the girl. He’s mighty mad at you and I can’t blame him. So, you see, sheriff me and my boys are gonna help him out here. You know, you left too many guns in your office and now we all got some. And we all want to ride out of here in one piece, so best you listen up and listen up good.”
“You’ll never get away with this,” Trask retorted. “Give yourselves up now or you’ll all die.” His bluff wasn’t even convincing to himself.
“Then the girl will die too,” Frankie answered. “Do you really want that?”
Of course he didn’t, Trask thought to himse
lf. How was Simon Price going to take this? “Let’s hear it,” Trask answered back. “What do want?”
“We just want to ride out, No one on our trail.” Frankie answered.
“Alright,” Trask agreed. “Come on out and be on your way.”
Frankie laughed. “What on one horse? That’s all I see out there.”
“We’ll get you more,” Trask shouted.
“Alright,” Frankie agreed. “We’ll need six horses. And we want them out front. You’ve got just two minutes to get them, so you better grab what saddled horses you find. They better be there by the time we come out the front door. Remember, the girl will be with us. Anyone tries to stop us and she’s dead. You got that.”
Trask swallowed hard. “I got it.”
He motioned to his deputies and said, “Do what he says Get those horses fast.”
The two deputies scurried away..
“One more thing,” Frankie said. “I understand a bank loot of twenty thousand dollars was returned today. Guess what? We want that too.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Trask answered.
“Wrong answer, Sheriff. The girl goes with us all the way out of town. You get her back when we get the money.”
“But…but I told you, that’s not possible. There isn’t……..”
Frankie didn’t let him finish. “There a place north of town called three rocks. At dawn I want a horse picketed on the south side of it. I want twenty thousand dollars in saddle bags on that horse. You understand? When I’m sure you’ve lived up to your part of the bargain, you’ll get the girl back.”
“I’m telling you, I can’t make a bargain like that.”
“You’ll have to, Sheriff,” Frankie answered “You’ll just have to.”
“Flo stop it!” Matt Starr said angrily and forgetting about being a gentleman, he shoved Flo roughly away from him.
“Oh, I like it when a man plays rough,” Flo said with a grin on her face and started forward again.
Matt extended his raised arm, palm upward in a halting position. “Now Flo. That‘s enough of this nonsense.” It was at this moment, he heard the volley of gunshots from somewhere down the street.
“You hear those shots out there?” Matt said. “There’s trouble out there and I’ve got to go see what’s going on.” He had a good idea what was happening. “Now unlock this door and let me out.”
“You said yourself that the law around here is Trask’s business. Not yours. You don’t have to go.”
“Yes I do. I’m a lawman too. It’s my job.”
“I’m sure our good Sheriff Trask can handle it.”
“Dammit, Flo,” Matt swore and pulled his right hand gun from its holster. “Unlock this door right now!”
“You wouldn’t shoot me, Matt.” Flo kept her voice low, calm and sultry.
With exasperation, Matt Starr growled. “Oh yes I would. Now give me the key.”
Flo shook her head, still smiling coyly.
Through clenched teeth Matt said, “I want that key. You have three, maybe four choices. You give me the key. I take it from you. I shoot you. Or, I shoot the door to pieces.”
Flo squared herself in front of him, thrust out her breasts and said, “Then take it from me, big boy.”
Matt’s eyes flared and darkened. He eared back the hammer of his pistol. The smile faded momentarily from Flo’s lips and her body stiffened with fear. Matt whirled on his heel and shot the door to pieces.
Chapter Nineteen