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“For example?”
“He claimed to have run guns to the Apache, that he’d ridden the Chisolm Trail with a Texas outfit, and that he had a Mexican wife. He also said he had a good friend in Tucson, which is how he wound up working for Mr.Blanchard.”
“Did he say who the friend was?”
“Mrs.Landry’s husband, Charlie.”
Rhine paused. “I never knew that. I wonder if Charlie’s back from—did Missy say Kansas City or St.Louis, Kent?”
Kent shrugged. He didn’t remember but he did remember Mrs.Landry planned to disappear. He wondered if Landry knew his wife had flown the coop on the wings of Rhine’s bank draft. “If he is back, maybe he can tell us where Parnell’s likely to be.”
Kent then told Rhine about Howard Lane’s help in putting down the fire. “He and his men rode over because they spotted the smoke. He had the bodies driven into Tucson. He’s offering to help with the burial costs.”
“Howard’s a good man.” Rhine studied Kent for a long silent moment. “There’s not going to be much work for a foreman in the next few weeks but I will need help rebuilding. Are you moving on or staying?”
Kent smiled for the first time since the fire. “Too late for you to get rid of me now, old man. I’m here for keeps.”
“What about you, Matt?” Rhine asked.
“I’d like to stay on, too, sir, if you’ll have me.”
“Good. Once things settle down, we’ll talk about rebuilding and go from there. Kent you can have your old room back at the hotel. Matt, we’ll put you up in one of the guest rooms.”
“I’ll be okay out in the stable, sir.”
“Mrs.Fontaine is not going to let you live in the stable, son, and neither am I.”
Matt dropped his head and smiled.
Although Kent and Matt had used the pond to wash up as best they could, their clothes were covered with soot and reeked of smoke. “We lost everything we owned in the fire,” Kent told Rhine. “Do you have any clothes we can borrow until we get these washed up and can go into Tucson tomorrow to buy new?”
“I’m sure I can find something, and the hotel laundress will take care of what you’re wearing now. Just set them in the hallway when we get back. Shouldn’t take them long to dry on the line in this heat.”
Kent was relieved.
“So were you on your way back to the hotel when I rode up?” Rhine asked.
“Yes, but I wanted to see if I could track Parnell first. With the ground being so rocky and churned up by all the horses and Lane’s men, I doubt we’ll find anything but you never know.”
“Then let’s see what we can find.”
While they rode, Kent realized he hadn’t asked Rhine how the hotel’s guests were holding up. It wasn’t every day city people had a personal encounter with murder. Had he not summoned the doctors to aid Buck, Ada Jakes and the widow might have been spared the grisly sight. Under normal circumstances he would’ve asked the women to stay back, but nothing about the incident qualified as such. He had no idea if Portia had ever witnessed something like that, but she seemed angrier with the taking of the men’s lives than repulsed. First Blanchard and now Buck and Farley. It was a lot of death for a person to handle but she hadn’t acted squeamish. Not that he’d expected her to. She was tough, that Portia. One of the many things that made her stand out and drew him in.
Arriving at the hotel, they turned their horses over to Cal. Kent asked him, “No trouble with the guests on the way back, Cal?”
The older man shook his head. “None. City folks leaving in the morning though.”
Rhine nodded in agreement. “I forgot to tell you that.”
Kent wasn’t surprised by their decision. Life in the West could be cruel and harsh. It wasn’t the game of pretend many of the dudes wanted it to be.
Leaving the stables, Rhine said, “The maids will bring you lunch and you can join us for dinner this evening. Matt, let’s get you to your room. Kent, I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks, Rhine.”
In his bedroom, a weary Kent stripped off his dirty clothes, set them in the hallway, and walked naked into the washroom to soak in the big claw-foot tub.
As Portia and her family mingled with the guests before dinner, she tried to convince herself she wasn’t anxious to see Kent. She knew he’d returned earlier and was using the guest room he’d been given before. Logically she shouldn’t need to know more than that, but being around him made her illogical and the parts of herself that were attuned to him missed his presence. Seated beside her was Ada Jakes, who seemed to have recovered from the day’s ordeal. She was telling Portia about a women’s convention being held in San Francisco and Portia realized it was the same gathering Eddy and her friends planned on attending. When she mentioned it to Ada, the woman asked, “Are you coming along, too?”
