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“Does he have an alibi?” Jennifer asked.
“Shaky, if any,” I said. “Didn’t try to pin down Serena until we know the time of death.”
“And we don’t have time of death with Aunt Gee stonewalling me,” Mike grumbled. “But McCracken’s passionate about these outlaws and treasure. If he thought he was getting close, then Keefe blocked him...”
I couldn’t argue with the reasoning.
Besides, you covered all the bases.
“You’re right. He stays on the list.”
“Are we confident about focusing on Oscar and Pearl to the exclusion of the other women?” Mike asked.
“Let’s consider that. Etta Place — or whatever her real name was — disappeared after 1907. On at least two of her reported return trips to the United States from South America, she and Sundance went to medical facilities. There’s the possibility she was ill, which could have led to an early death.”
“Or she was pregnant,” Jennifer said.
“No reports of a child, were there?” Diana asked.
“None that I know of. As for Laura Bullion, she disappeared shortly after Ben Kilpatrick was killed in 1912 trying to rob a train, barely a year after getting out of prison. Nothing’s heard from Laura for years. She resurfaced in Memphis in 1918, claiming to be a war widow from World War I.”
“Well, she could have been with that kind of gap,” Mike said.
“I suppose. But her war widow story wasn’t given much credence.”
“When you say disappeared, you mean... what?” Diana asked.
I considered. “In essence, it means the Pinkerton agency stopped paying attention because they were after the men. Although they really should have kept track of Laura Bullion, since evidence points to her dressing as a man and participating in robberies. But maybe they figured they’d gotten the money back, so forget her.”
“They got the money back? Not from all the robberies,” Diana said.
“No. But most of the money from the Great Northern Railway near Wagner, Montana, on July 3, 1901. Ben Kilpatrick, Kid Curry, and a third man got away with tens of thousands of dollars in unsigned bank notes.”
“Kid who? Not Sundance?” Jennifer asked.
“No. Mrs. P said newspapers of the day frequently attributed actions to one or the other erroneously, but this was definitely Kid Curry. Not only had Sundance, Etta, and Butch left for South America earlier in the year, but Kid Curry’s girlfriend was arrested for passing notes. He got away, temporarily.
“St. Louis police arrested Ben Kilpatrick and found a hotel room key in his pocket. When they got to the hotel, they found Laura Bullion checking out. She had unsigned banknotes from the robbery in her luggage. Laura got out of prison in 1905. Kilpatrick got out in 1911 and was killed the next year trying to rob another train. From 1912 until around 1918, when she surfaced in Memphis, there’s little or no information on Laura. She remained in Memphis until her death in the 1960s. Apparently late in life she didn’t keep her identity secret.”
“What happened to the other robbers?” Jennifer asked.
“Curry was caught in 1902, imprisoned, escaped, then shot himself after being caught stealing horses. The third robber was killed in a drunken shootout with law enforcement, possibly a self-inflicted wound.”
“Not a lot of longevity,” Mike said.
“It was that kind of occupation. And the women slid away into the mists.”
“You want me to find out where the women went?” Jennifer asked.
“I appreciate your offering, but I won’t do that to you. That’s a majorly dangerous rabbit hole. Etta Place has baffled researchers for a century-plus. Theories all over the place, from dying, to becoming a prostitute, to marrying a fight promoter, to being shot in a domestic dispute, to becoming a schoolteacher. In South America or here. Living only a couple years longer or surviving into the 1960s. And each researcher’s positive he or she is absolutely right. Similar story with Laura Bullion’s blank of five years before she settled in Memphis.”
Abruptly, Jennifer said, “Did you know the first guy Laura Bullion paired up with had been married to her aunt? I read up on her during a break today.”
“He dumped the aunt for the niece?” Diana asked.
“No. The aunt died from fever a year into the marriage. He connected with Laura later. Then they split the blanket and—”
I interrupted, “Split the blanket?”
