Valley of Bones Read online

  Read all the adventures in the Byrnes Family Ranch Saga . . .

  VALLEY OF BONES

  DEADLY IS THE NIGHT

  PRAY FOR THE DEAD

  ARIZONA TERRITORY

  A GOOD DAY TO KILL

  AMBUSH VALLEY

  BROTHERS IN BLOOD

  BLOOD ON THE VERDE RIVER

  BETWEEN HELL AND TEXAS

  TEXAS BLOOD FEUD

  DUSTY RICHARDS

  VALLEY OF BONES

  PINNACLE BOOKS

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  Table of Contents

  Read all the adventures in the Byrnes Family Ranch Saga . . .

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  PINNACLE BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 Dusty Richards

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  PINNACLE BOOKS and the Pinnacle logo are Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-0-7860-3921-0

  ISBN-10: 0-7860-3921-3

  First electronic edition: February 2017

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7860-3922-7

  ISBN-10: 0-7860-3922-1

  Prologue

  The evening sunset painted blazing colors off some towering cloud formation that hung on for a long time into twilight. Way west of him, the formation made a red firestorm going down over the distant Colorado River and California. Chet Byrnes studied the day’s end from his camp for the night in the juniper/pinion country west of Center Point.

  The four-man team was headed for his Hackberry Ranch up on the rim, run by Shawn McElroy and his wife Lucy. Chet was checking to make sure their large cattle operation had all they needed and things were going smoothly. In camp with him was Jesus Martinez, a young man in his early twenties, married to Anita, who was the former maid of Chet’s wife, Liz. Jesus and Anita owned a small ranch of their own near the Prescott Valley main ranch.

  Also there was Miguel Costa, who had married Lisa Foster, now Liz’s head of the house, where she had replaced the late Monica. Miguel would someday take top place as Valley Ranch foreman when Raphael decided to retire. The fourth one in camp was Fred Taylor, an orphan teenager, who had been scraping a bare living in Prescott’s alleyways before Chet hired him.

  Liz didn’t accompany them this trip because she and Lisa had six students they were coaching in English so they could attend the nearby one-room Cherry School House. They were successful so far, with over nine ranch kids already there doing great on their grades.

  Chet’s work as a U.S. Marshal had been quiet for the past six weeks. His superiors knew how busy his ranching enterprises kept him and only asked for help when they really needed him. What Jesus called the real tough cases.

  The Northern Arizona Stage line was making two stagecoach runs a week from Gallup to the ferry on the Colorado at Hardeeville, plus two additional runs using buckboards each week over that route carrying mail like the stages did. Most Wells Fargo shipments went by stage. And the shiny steel wire that tracked the route was sending lots of telegrams across the territory. Chet’s partner on the wire and stage setup, Hannagen, was busy in D.C. trying to get Congress to okay payment to build a line from the existing one down to Prescott. That would connect Arizona from top to bottom. Well, almost. The Grand Canyon cut off a part of the territory, leaving the strip north of there with little development and little communications.

  In the south, on the border, a former Texas schoolhouse classmate of Chet ran the newly acquired BBP Ranch below Tombstone. Jerry and Twilia Boyd, now with children, ran the ranch with a great crew. Chet purchased it from a great old pioneer, John Davidson, who wanted the ranch to remain an active cattle operation and not some absentee rich man’s toy. Jerry’s wife, Twilia, had received a large inheritance and they asked if they could buy the ranch from Chet. All but the paperwork was done.

  Chet had no doubt they would meet John Davidson’s restrictions, even though Chet now owned the ranch. Jerry would continue it as a family ranch. He finally had word that Davidson’s attorneys approved the deal. A good family, after moving all over, now had a great ranch of their own.

  Chet had left Texas over five years earlier to get his family out of a very bloody feud. He never expected to have so many ranches, a stage line, a contract to furnish beef to the Navajo reservation, a telegraph company, two sons, and a wife as sweet as Elizabeth.

  He watched the last of the sunset and hoped for the development of the railroad to come one day. It would shut down his stages, yes, but it would be a big step for more commerce to come to the north half of Arizona. It would certainly make a better future business environment for his two young sons, Rocky and Adam. Ready to turn in while night draped the earth, he knew that the rails would, someday, bring statehood to this land as well.

  Chapter 1

  Having risen early, the group rode out for the Hackberry Ranch.

  Lucy McElroy came out on her porch holding her baby boy in in her arms. A small pretty blond daughter, barely walking, was hidden in the lower part of her dress.

  “Well, boss, and you guys, welcome to Hackberry Ranch. You know that it belongs to some great guy named Chester Byrnes who lives in Prescott Valley.”

  Chet laughed at her greeting. “Lucy, anyone been around asking that blond-headed daughter of yours for a date?”

  “No sir. I’d shoot them.” Then she laughed. “Chet, I dread those days.”

  “Don’t. They will come. You know everyone with me but Fred Taylor, our horse wrangler. Liz sends her love and well wishes. She and Lisa have several ranch children they are teaching English to, so they can enroll in the Cherry School.”

  “Wow, she is busy. Come on into the house. My sister Hannah is making coffee and doughnuts right now.”

  Fred and a ranch youth took the horses.

  “Fred, when you get them put up, come to the house,” Chet told him.

  “I’m coming, Chet. Thanks, ma’am,” he said to Lucy.

  * * *

  Starting for the house, Lucy continued with her information. “Shawn is out with his right-hand man Spud. They calved lots of first calf heifers this spring and hardly lost any calves or momma cows. Those two are a real tough pair of working cowboys.”

  “Spud’s wife Shirley doing
all right?”

  “Yes. They have a good spring and a windmill setup that waters the land. The men made her an irrigation system. Once a week most of the crew go up there and hoe the weeds to help her. She has almost two acres of garden. It will mean lots more canning, but we will help her. She is really proud, and we and all the men and ranch families will be eating real well this winter.

  “How are things going for you?” she asked Chet as he scooped up her daughter, carrying her inside.

  “Not many problems.”

  “You said Liz is all right. How is Susie?”

  “Fine. We were there a short while ago, before Sarge started for Gallup with the monthly herd.”

  “I thought maybe she’d be having another baby since Irwin is walking.”

  Chet laughed. “She is getting behind you. Her and Liz, huh?”

  “Yes.”

  “I have no news. Liz and her first husband had no children. I know it bothers her, but I guess it is all up to God. Hi, Hannah,” he said to Lucy’s sister, the shorter, dark-eyed youngest one, busy, making doughnuts in hot grease on the range.

  “We figured you’d be coming after Lucy read me that last letter.”

  “Oh we’re just making sure everyone is getting along and doesn’t need anything. You aren’t engaged?”

  “No. Who’d have me? The boys around here aren’t much to choose from.”

  “I bet several would.”

  “Oh, no.” She busied herself with making the doughnuts.

  They all sat down at the table.

  “I saw the invoice on my desk. Did you get that new mower?”

  “Yes, and our blacksmith Deacon repaired the others for this season. Shawn has most of those homesteads with mowable acres fenced for haying. He planted twenty acres of alfalfa close by. Hampt, via May’s letters, sent him directions. It is up and doing great.”

  “Victor has a new place at Camp Verde, he’s planting this spring. He’s another Hampt student.”

  “You really have spread out. How are Bonny and JD getting along?”

  “Great. They will have grapes and citrus this fall.”

  “I knew Miguel took Cole’s job. Where is Spencer?”

  “Back finishing up the new home place headquarters at Oracle. He’s the one that rolled out the telegraph wire across the territory in such record time.”

  “I knew that. Liz wrote me that the railroad has renamed Center Point as Flagstaff?”

  “Guess they have precedence over me.”

  They were laughing as Hannah delivered the doughnuts and poured coffee to all the cowboys. The ooh’s and aah’s about her treat made her smile.

  When Shawn and Spud returned, Lucy’s daughter ran to Shawn talking a hundred miles an hour and then she went and sat on Spud’s lap as the two men joined the party at the table. There were more laughs and compliments to the cook on the doughnuts. Lucy explained who married who, in the Byrnes community, to her sister. Hannah had met most of the women on her visits to Prescott Valley for weddings and such, so she was able to assure the married men she was not flirting with them and that she had met their wives.

  Shawn and Chet had left the table and gone into the living room to talk business. Shawn assured him he had enough help, including enough boys who needed work, around, to put up the hay when it was ripe.

  “I have already put up tons of hay and we will have even more if we have rain. I think we can find enough water at some of these places, but we could use a steam engine to pump water enough for irrigation in the dry years.”

  “I hear you. I will have Liz search for the pump companies and learn what they know.”

  “There might be some in California. A guy who worked here, but went back to live with a woman who asked him to return, made me think we needed one for the dry years. He mentioned California. Victor can use the Verde River water but there are no rivers like that on the top up here. The Colorado River is too far down to suck water from.”

  “We can sure find out. When we started our telegraph company everyone said no one needed it. But we are already doing big business on it. And the use will increase, plus it saves Cole lots of unnecessary trips when he has problems. Four hundred miles is a lot of road to cover east to west. Spencer headed up building that telegraph operation just like Cole did with the stage line, and my partner had no doubts that it would succeed. He knew that I had to have a man, somewhere in our fold, who could build it in record time.

  “Jesus insisted I had to have Spencer on that job. I worried some, not that I doubted his ability, but none of us had ever stretched slick wire that far. Well, he took hold and it worked.”

  “You guys did a helluva job putting it up. We are doing good with the cattle so far. We are still rounding up maverick cattle. I will pass five hundred head of mother cows by this fall. Spud, and some of the other men, are super at rounding them up without it costing too much.”

  “Are the local people still mad at us for rounding them up?” Chet recalled the complaints they had gotten a year or so back.

  “I don’t listen. They could have caught them. They’re loose and out there. Maverick cattle are free to capture, brand, and own. There are still lots out there that have escaped the hot iron. Lucy’s dad told me the ranchers around here were too lazy to even try. He’s been up here for years. That’s how he got his herd when he first came here. In those days there was no market at all, but the mines down on the Williams River have changed that.”

  “I have had some requests from them, but they won’t pay what the government will pay for them at Gallup. I talked to two different beef suppliers over there. They told me I was too high, so I’ll bet they, for the price they want to pay, are cull killers. I know what Sarge sends over on the Navajo contract. He does not ship cutter cows or thin cull cows to them.”

  Shawn agreed.

  Chet said, “If you need more help, if those ranchers come around and bother you again, hire what you need. I want no one hurt, but we won’t be pushed around, either. I won’t complain at any costs. You are in charge up here.”

  Shawn nodded and thanked him. “Between you and me, I’m damn lucky to have Lucy. I know some folks think I only wanted this ranch job. But I took her because she is such a special person. You know I’ve heard you talk about her. She’s tied down with two kids right now but she wants so bad to ride with us and round up maverick cattle. And she will. I love her and never could have imagined her accepting me.”

  “Good. Her daughter accepted you right off.”

  “I love that, too. They are my kids. They won’t know the difference. When they’re grown and ask me, I will tell them, and I won’t run their father down.”

  “Shawn, I believe you are a mature enough person to handle it like that.”

  “Thanks. What’s next?”

  “I will tell you, but you can’t say anything about it. There are coal deposits on the Navajo Reservation. A Navajo lady I met coming here five years ago has been at our setup at Center Point. She wants me to help her people get a contract with the railroad, when it comes, for the Navajo to supply the coal for the trains.”

  “Can you do that?”

  “I hope so.”

  “It would make jobs for her people, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes. But there are greedy people in Washington, D.C., who would try to steal it. I am going to make my best effort to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “I am glad you handle all that kind of business. All I want to build is a great cow herd.”

  Chet laughed. “So, you won’t put on a suit and go back there and talk to them?”

  “Chet Byrnes, I’d do just about anything you asked of me. You gave me chance to join the Force when I had no experience at law enforcement. But please, Chet, don’t ask me to do that.”

  “I think you’d make a sterling supporter to help me there.”

  “Chet, I am not a scholar or a professor or a lawyer.”

  “No. But you have a great sense of how to handle things
that few men have. You must have been born with it. I saw it when you went to work on the Force. Later no one else besides you could have convinced Lucy that she needed you. And she did need you. Indeed she did. You handled it in the way that it needed to be handled. Whether you know it or not you have some powerful skills. All I ask is continue to use them wisely.”

  “I was not aware of having any such skills. Now I know I will do as you say—use them wisely. But I’d rather not have to go back to Washington.” He shook his head hard.

  “I share that same feeling, but I will have to go.” He rose and went to watch the flames of sunset through the clean windowpanes. Anthills turned into mountains sometimes, and he feared that this might be one of those times. In six weeks he would have to be in Washington, D.C., talking to officials about allowing Native American people to run a coal mine operation supplying the railroad with fuel.

  These Navajo people with their hogans and colorful woolen blankets would rather be left alone with their own gods in this land. They’d suffered harsh imprisonment and, when released, a long death walk back to get home. Now the iron rails were coming. That steam power must have coal and water to cross their land. Their ground yielded that power.

  If the tribe had this new business, in time they could be more self-sufficient and provide better for their people who had so few skills they could use in a white man’s world.

  How would he ever start to convince those people in Washington of all that? God help him.

  And he hoped Liz was all right back at home.

  Chapter 2

  The trip from Arizona Territory to Washington, D.C., proved to be a complicated one. Liz, Spencer Horne, and Chet took a stage to Tucson and then to Lordsburg, where the railroad tracks ended. Chet had no doubts about his choice of men. Spencer could cover his back, and he understood the Navajo people since so many worked for him on his telegraph line building. He’d rather have Spencer than any lawyer outside of his Tucson lawyer, Russell Craft, who was too busy in Tucson court to leave the territory.