“If the stage driver hesitated at all, my man would yell out and instruct the group in the bushes.Something like, ‘Give him the solid volley, boys.’Or some words to that effect.Once or twice, we had to shoot into the air to get their attention, but never once did we wound a driver or a guard or a passenger.”
To be a stagecoach driver on these dangerous roads, men took their lives in their hands.Caleb understood that seeing rifle barrels pointed at them from the bushes would seal the deal.A driver would gladly throw down a strongbox if he thought it would help him live to see another day.
“Very quickly, word got around.Five years we robbed Wells Fargo, and no one was ever shot.Not one drop of blood shed.They always did what they were told, and no one got hurt.During one robbery, a woman passenger even stepped out to voluntarily surrender her purse, but our man declined, saying that we only wanted the Wells Fargo box.”
This was starting to sound like some fanciful Robin Hood tale.But there was blood.
“You lost a man in a recent robbery,” Caleb asked.“What happened?”
“Jeb’s older brother was the one picked to step in front of the stagecoach.After the driver dropped the strongbox to the ground, the stage guard shot him.”
Mrs.Fields’s face sank.She was obviously still upset at the memory.
“What happened then?”
“He was hit, but we thought it wasn’t serious.My men started shooting to scare them, and the driver whipped up his team.We only found out later that he was badly wounded.He died within the hour.”
She used her left hand to rub her forehead.
“That’s when Dodger joined your outfit?”Doc asked.
She nodded.“We should have quit right them.Ended it.But as a group, we decided on one final holdup.To do that, Wendell felt we needed another gun, so he rode to Denver.That’s where he found him.”
Caleb glanced at the place where the bullet had struck the woman.“Why were you inside the stagecoach for this last robbery?”
“My gang was breaking up.I planned to ride the coach to Elkhorn and make arrangements for going on to California.There would be no reason to suspect me.What was taken in this robbery was to be divided amongst the men.I wanted no share.Once my son was done, he was to go Elkhorn.The others were to split up and go east or north.From here, Lucas and I would travel west and never look back.”
“Were there other passengers in the coach?”Doc asked.
“I was the only one.”
“What went wrong?”Caleb already knew who was killed, but he wanted to hear how it happened from her pale lips.
“Everything went wrong.Wendell went out into the road, and the stagecoach stopped.The driver was ready to throw down the strongbox, but Dodger stepped out of hiding.There was no reason for it.I’d like to think panic hit him, but whatever possessed him, he started shooting.”
“Who shot you?”Doc asked.
“It had to be Dodger.I don’t believe any of the others fired a shot.”Her brown eyes looked up at the doctor.“I don’t recall what happened afterward.They carried me here somehow.When I opened my eyes, you were tending to my wound.”
It all made sense to Caleb.Dodger had been hired by Horner to become part of this gang.They were after the loot accumulated during the years of holding up stagecoaches.Horner may even have taken the job of sheriff in Elkhorn for that reason.It was possible that shooting Mrs.Fields was an accident, but Dodger may have thought Lucas knew where this treasure was hidden.No way to know what was going on in that killer’s head.
“You don’t need to tell us what you’ve done with all the money you took in those robberies over the years,” Doc said.“But you said you haven’t a dollar to your name.You told me straight out that there’s no money or gold left.I’d like to know why you told me that…unless you were lying.”
“I wasn’t lying,” she asserted as vehemently as she could manage.“I sold my husband’s claim and our ranch in Montana.I used that money to buy some land for a new ranch south of San Francisco.That’s where I planned to settle.”
“And the rest?”Doc asked.
Mrs.Fields paused, looking from Doc’s face to Caleb’s.She looked like she was trying to choose her next words carefully.
“The rest went to charity,” she said finally.
“What charity?”they asked at the same time.
“When my husband went to war, I almost lost him.A great many other women did lose their husbands.That money has been going to two widows’ funds, one in Pennsylvania and one in Virginia.They help war widows and their children, women who may have lost everything in that fighting.Lost their men.Lost their future.I lost my own husband and all my children except for Lucas to company of gunmen in a single night.Mourning my family was one thing, trying to survive was quite another.”
Mrs.Fields’s attention turned to Caleb next.
“I can give you the names of the directors of those two charities.They can tell you how much money I’ve sent them over the past five years.And they can tell you the good it’s done.”
