He’d seen a woman climbing the hill.Before he spotted her, he’d been smelling smoke, and he knew he was close to a camp.So he tied Pirate off the trail and followed her up here.
For some reason, he wasn’t all that surprised to find Sheila Burnett on this overlook.But Calebwasfeeling something that sat too close to relief for comfort.
“Honestly, I never thought anyone would come after me.Come after us.”She was frowning.“I thought I’d die here, right here on this rock.After everything that’s happened, I’d never get to my father.That vile sheriff would kill him down there, and no one would ever know what happened to us.”
“Horner is here?”Caleb wondered what the hell he was doing here and what he was up to.The judge said he was keeping the sheriff in Elkhorn.
“He came today.”She looked over the edge.“He’s down there now.But he’s not a good lawman.He’s only wearing that badge to…to…I don’t know why he’s wearing it.But I can tell you, he’s no better than the ones who have my father.He doesn’t care that men kill each other in cold blood.”
This came as no shock to Caleb.
She was staring at one of the shacks.“I haven’t seen my father yet, but I’m praying he’s still alive.”
“Before we figure out what we need to do, Miss Burnett, why don’t you start at the beginning and tell me how you got here?”
“Sheila.Please call me Sheila.I’ve been through too much today to deal with formality.”
“Fine, Sheila.How’d you get here?”
“It started this morning.Actually, it was before dawn.I woke up to hear two people downstairs in my father’s house, going through his things.”
“Let me guess.You went down there and confronted them.”
She jabbed her elbow into a rib still sore from his wrestling match with that cougar.
“Give me more credit, Mr.Marlowe.”
He didn’t know why he should.She’d come out to his ranch in the middle of the night, trailing after a half dozen rustlers.But he decided this wasn’t the time to rile her.She was right.She’d been through the wringer today, and he wanted the story.
“Go on.”
“One of the men must have heard me.He came up and found me.Then the second one came up, and they tricked me into going downstairs with them.They said my father sent them, which I suppose was technically true.They were in Elkhorn to refill my father’s medicine bottles and bring his surgical case back with them.When they had everything, they forced me to go along.”
“Did you know them?”
She shook her head.
“Was the sheriff one of them?”he asked.
“No.One of them was a man named Wendell.The other was called Dodger.”
At the miner’s cabin, Imala had mentioned Dodger’s name.These had to be the same two who forced Smith to go and get Doc.
“Was Dodger young and big?”he asked.“A nasty sorta fella?”
“Nasty?He’s a heartless killer and a pig.I was terrified what he’d do to me without Wendell there.”
“I take it that was Wendell laid out by a creek a ways back?”
“You found him.”
Her eyes welled up, glistening.Caleb saw a surprising mix of sadness and pity flit across her face.It set him back some.Then her lips thinned, and her face hardened a little.
“Dodger killed him,” she said in a voice like ice.“He stood behind Wendell and cut his throat.When Sheriff Horner arrived only a minute or so later, I saw that Dodger was working with him.He was leading the sheriff out here.”
She faced the camp, and Caleb saw the derringer appear in her hand.“Oh, how I would enjoy seeing him get a taste of his own poison.”
He didn’t think he’d mention it while she was holding that gun, but Miss Sheila Burnett of the New York Spencers had changed quite a bit since giving him hell about dead rustlers.
