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Portia felt pretty good about herself when she stepped off the train. She’d gone up to Flagstaff to meet a new client and the prospect looked good. Because there had been a cow on the tracks, the train from Flagstaff to Tucson had been late arriving and the sun was almost down. If she hurried to the livery, she and Arizona could make it home before full dark. There were very few people on the walks as she made her way. The livery was accessed off an alley and, as she entered, Edward Salt stepped out of the shadows. She would’ve swept by him had he not had a gun pointed at her, so she swallowed her fear and faced him bravely. “What do you want?”
“Not so high and mighty now, are you?”
“A gun will give any coward courage.”
The words were barely out of her mouth before pain exploded in the back of her head and everything went black.
When she came to she was lying in the dark. Groggy and disoriented, her head aching, she closed her eyes again until everything stopped spinning and forced herself to sit up. She was seated on a dirt floor. It took another few minutes for the cobwebs to clear and for her to remember how she’d gotten there. Edward Salt. The scene replayed in her mind. He’d had an accomplice who’d hit her over the head with something that must have knocked her out. Touching the tender spot caused her to wince. How long had she been here? And where was here? Looking around she saw only darkness. What was Salt up to? She didn’t know, but she did know that when she didn’t come home, Kent and her family were going to move heaven and earth to find her. That gave her hope and helped her manage her fear. In the meantime, she needed her raging headache to subside so she could think more clearly and find a way to free herself on her own, if she could. She thought she might be in a cellar. It was too dark to be sure, but her main focus was finding a way out and getting home to Kent because she knew he was probably sick with worry.
She heard a creaking sound above her head and tensed. A door opened, bringing with it the light of a lantern and a shadowy figure. She could now see her surroundings. There were earthen shelves in the walls, verifying that she was indeed in a cellar of some kind. The figure backed down the wooden staircase and she once again faced Edward Salt. But a second figure joined him, and she was surprised to see Mr.Blanchard’s son-in-law, Charlie Landry. She wondered if he was the one who’d struck her in the alley.
Salt sneered, “How far the haughty have fallen. I told you you’d pay for making me a laughingstock at the rodeo.”
Landry added, “Now your husband and that cheating uncle of yours will pay.”
She looked between the two of them. “What do you mean?”
Charlie said angrily, “You and Randolph are on land that should be mine. If Fontaine hadn’t cheated me out of it, none of this would be necessary.”
“So you’re holding me for ransom?” she asked.
“Yes. Ten thousand dollars. I’d hoped having Parnell burn the place down would make Fontaine change his mind about buying the place, but it didn’t.”
“Why did Parnell kill Buck and Farley?”
“We didn’t want to leave any witnesses. We thought they’d be gone.”
“So you were with Parnell that day?”
His eyes widened when he realized he’d implicated himself, and he didn’t reply. She also wanted to know how he and Salt came to be in this plot together, and if Salt’s parents were involved, but she didn’t ask. Instead she said, “You do realize that no matter how this pans out, my husband’s going to kill you both.” She doubted Kent would go that far, but they didn’t know that, and the fear that flashed momentarily in their eyes proved it. She was pleased. “So what are you getting out of this, Salt?”
Forecasting his death had apparently spooked him. Looking a bit less confident than he had when the visit began, he said, “Let’s go, Landry.”
He climbed the stairs, Landry followed, and they left her alone in the dark.
In Tucson the conductor verified that the train had been about an hour late. There’d been a couple of steers standing on the tracks. He also remembered seeing Portia. “She’s been riding with me pretty regularly the past few months.”
“Did you see which way she went when she got off?” the sheriff asked.
He hadn’t. “What this about? She in some kind of trouble?”
Kent said, “My wife is missing.”
The old man’s eyes widened. “If you need volunteers for a search party, let me know. She’s a nice little lady. Be glad to help.”
They thanked him and rode to the livery. The owner, Cassius Digsby lived up above the establishment. While the sheriff knocked on his door, Kent and Rhine walked to the stable. Arizona was there. Kent hugged her neck, needing the connection to his wife, and left her in her stall for the time being. He’d return for her once all the leads were exhausted. Where is my Duchess? He tried not to think about Portia being injured or tied up. He knew wherever she was, she was no doubt furious. He also knew she was tough and resourceful, two things in her favor. But he needed to find her before he lost his mind.
Sheriff O’Hara came down with the livery owner, Digsby. He’d known Rhine since they moved to the territory. “I’m sorry to hear about Portia being missing. I was just about to send somebody out to the hotel. It’s not like her to leave Arizona. I thought something might be wrong.”
“There is,” Rhine said. “Sometime between her getting off the train and walking here, she was taken.”
Digsby said, “I didn’t see or hear anything. It could’ve happened in the alley though. It can be pretty shadowy there once the sun goes down. Easy place for someone to hide. Talk to Raoul. Maybe he saw something.”
Kent didn’t know the man.
The sheriff said, “He has a small eating place that opens into the alley. We passed it coming in.”
They went immediately to the business and to Kent’s relief it was still open. Inside there was no one seated at the three small tables.
