Once a Ranger Page 24

  “But he wasn’t rich like this man.”

  “Rich or not, McAllen needs to be arrested and tried for murdering Mark Peters. That’s my job here, to enforce the law.”

  “It’s a different world down there,” Zamora said.

  “I know that. I’m going to talk to Vance when he comes in. We’ll see.”

  “Zamora is right, he knows Mexico,” Baker added.

  “I know you two want me alive, and so do I. I’ll investigate it some more.”

  He left the two shaking their heads and went downhill to have lunch with his wife amid the smell of sawdust and shavings. The men were making great progress on her new house and she grew more excited over it by the day.

  Dan and three hired cowboys were already driving the steers to Tucson and he should be close to turning them in at the pasture he’d rented. The price was thirteen cents a pound, and that was a good one. And the two– and three-year-old steers were still fat.

  The sky in the south looked like rain was moving in again. A big bank of thunderheads were moving his way. They’d cool the day off some if and when they dropped their moisture. It was already October and they hadn’t had such a bad season.

  Noble was there for the noon meal and then was heading for the home ranch. Over the meal, he told them about witching for some wells on the place Dan wanted to buy.

  “You know, they missed a big vein of water on that place when they drilled that well where the windmill sets. A hundred yards away there’s a helluva stream under the ground.”

  “Did you tell Dan yet?”

  “No, but I will when he comes back. Might even be artesian water. That would really make that place worth something.”

  “Just so that the seller don’t know about it. Were the squatters all gone?”

  “Oh yeah. No one was there.”

  “Good. Dan wrote that guy a letter making him an offer,” Cally said, putting their lunch on the table. Rice, gravy, fried ham, and biscuits.

  Guthrey put a brown-topped biscuit on his plate, opened it, and buttered it. He took a big bite and smiled. “Now, that is fine eating.”

  The other two laughed.

  “I do love your biscuits.”

  Her hand on his arm, Cally laughed. “I thought you liked them more than me when you first came here.”

  “I camped with three Rangers and none of us could ever get them like that.”

  “Well, ain’t that funny. Four Rangers could figure out crimes and criminals and not one could make a biscuit worth a damn.”

  “I’m not lying. None of us could ever get it right.”

  Cally laughed. “I’m sure glad I got it right.”

  * * *

  GUTHREY, VANCE, AND Noble climbed into the stagecoach headed for Lordsburg with tickets for El Paso. Cally was waving from the boardwalk. Their saddles, rifles, and war bags had been loaded in the back under the tied down tarp.

  Guthrey prepared himself for being stiff from the stagecoach ride when he got off in El Paso three days hence. He hated such a trip, with all the rocking and swaying while hanging on to the straps. The food would be sorry at the way stations and the outhouse facilities at the stage stops always stunk and buzzed with flies. Sleep would be imposable.

  He rubbed his itching upper lip with the side of his hand. Though clean shaven now, he knew before this was over he’d need a bath. Worse than he’d needed one when he’d first ridden into Steward’s Crossing and interrupted the shoot-out between Dan and those gunmen that had been unfolding in the street. Hours later that fateful day he met his future wife, Cally, and took a shower. He’d be glad to see her again when he returned from this quest to bring back the man who set up Mark Peters’s murder.

  After experiencing miles and miles of dust churned up by the horses’ hooves and the coach’s swaying, Guthrey closed his thoughts down and tried to sleep. That was impossible. The three men finally finished the torturous trip and stepped down in El Paso holding their backs and shaking their heads.

  Guthrey told the two, “We’ll get a bed. Too hot in the daytime to sleep.”

  Both men agreed. He had the stage station man hold their saddles, war bags, and guns. They slept in a hotel room on rumpled mattresses and were up at sunup. They took breakfast in a café, and the food was mouthwatering. When Guthrey looked up at his pleased men, he knew he’d struck gold choosing this place to eat. The coffee tasted rich and smooth. No words were necessary.

  They went by the Texas Ranger regional headquarters and spoke to Captain Jason Hawks, who was in charge. He remembered Guthrey and they had a nice visit, but all he knew about McAllen was they thought he was living on a hacienda in Mexico.

  Vance had gone to check out the Hispanic end of things in the barrio. Noble went to price suitable horses at some liveries for their transportation to go look for McAllen. They met in a cantina in late afternoon.

  “We may be lucky,” Vance said. “McAllen has a favorite puta here and a man told me he slips into El Paso to meet with her quite often.”

  “Who is she?”

  “Donna Lopez.”

  “You know where she works?”

  “He bought her a house. She has some children they say are his.”

  “Hard to find?”

  “No, but it has bars and an iron fence.”

  “Kinda unusual, isn’t it?”

  “Oh yes, but it is like a bank, I think.” Vance shook his head.

  “We can figure that out. How often does he come up here? Did your man say?”

  “He wasn’t certain. Thinks he tries to change so no one can count on catching him there.”

  “Keep listening. I may go back to talk to Hawks about that. He had no knowledge of McAllen coming here. It must be a real secret.”

  Vance agreed.

  “Sounds better to me than riding our asses off going down in Mexico to get him,” Noble said.

  “I won’t argue, but we can’t wait forever for him to come up here.”

  “Aw, young as he is, he should have the urge to find her pretty often.”

  Guthrey and Vance laughed.

  “I’ll check out this Donna Lopez with Hawks too.”

  Noble nodded and said, “Maybe I need to check things out too. He don’t know me either.”

  “Don’t alert anyone. This could be a good deal to get him on this side of the border.”

  * * *

  TWO DAYS OF detective work moved on to three. Hawks knew nothing about Lopez’s relationship with McAllen, but he had contacts too. Things began to leak out about their meetings. Hawks assigned Ranger Tod Enlowe to assist them. He looked like a typical freckle-faced cowboy. Guthrey and Noble interviewed some known snitches, but their information was not valuable enough. They rented a third-floor room on the opposite side of the street from the puta’s house, and Noble kept track of the traffic to Lopez’s place.

  Vance came in the back way late that night and spoke to both of them. “Christy, my contact, said tonight that McAllen’s main man, Don Carlos, was here in El Paso tonight. He may be making sure it is safe for his boss to come over.”

  “Noble said only vendors— Wait, there are horses in the street.”

  Noble was watching from the dark window when Guthrey joined him.

  “I think our man just rode up,” Noble said.

  They watched someone under a cape dismount. There were three armed men on excited horses armed with rifles. The person under the cape rushed to the door and hugged a woman in the lit doorway. They kissed wildly, then he turned and spoke in Spanish, “It is all clear. Come get me at dawn.”

  “Heeyah,” came the chorus, and the riders rushed off into the darkness.

  Guthrey nodded good riddance. “Noble, go get our Ranger Enlowe. Tell him the chicken is in the coop. Vance, you think we can come in the back way?”

  Noble soun
ded displeased. “It will take over an hour to get him here.”

  “We have the time. They won’t be back for him until dawn.”

  Noble hustled over. “I’ll get him. You two be careful while I am gone.”

  Vance nodded. “I may need to kill those two big dogs of hers.”

  “If you can do it without any ruckus, fine.”

  “Poison is quiet.”

  Guthrey didn’t know the details, but he agreed with his man. Vance went off to solve the dog problem and Guthrey watched the lit windows of the house. Nothing else. Once, he heard a dog bark, but it wasn’t from her place. The same lamps were on by the time Noble returned with the Ranger.

  “You sure he’s in there?” Enlowe asked, looking at the house.

  “We all three saw him delivered,” Guthrey told the man.

  “Where is Vance?”

  “Making the dogs be quiet,” Guthrey said. “When he gets through, him and Noble can guard the back side. You and I can crash down the front door.”

  “Sounds good to me. Will he be tough?”

  “I guess, with a murder charge hanging over him. He probably will try to deny us his arrest.”

  “How in the hell did you three figure all this out?” Enlowe asked.

  “We came a long ways to get him.”

  “What will you do next?’

  “Slap cuffs on him and load him on a stage for Soda Springs so he can’t get set loose by some high-priced lawyers hereabouts. Then he would keep his ass in Mexico.”

  Enlowe laughed. “You got quite a rep from your Ranger days. I’ve heard lots of stories about you when you were a captain. I’m glad to get to work with you.”

  They shook hands and Vance returned.

  “The dogs are asleep.”

  “You and Noble hold the back gate. Enlowe and I will come in the front door.”

  The two nodded and left. Guthrey and the Ranger followed them down the stairs. Soon he and Enlowe crossed the street. With a skeleton key, Guthrey unlocked the front gate, which squeaked loud on the hinges.

  Enlowe, six-gun in hand, went up the front steps. They stood aside of the door and he knocked. “Texas law. Open this door.”

  A woman screamed down the stairs, “The dogs will eat them up!”

  No, they won’t. He and Enlowe both stomped the door at the same time. The latch broke and it flew open.

  A shot was fired at them from the upper balcony and both men returned fire. A man, half-dressed, fell off the rail in a thick haze of gun smoke and crashed onto the table on his back.

  “Oh my God, you’ve killed him!” the woman screamed, coming down the stairs in a nightgown.

  Guthrey didn’t care if the fool was dead. No way to win a shoot-out with Rangers, even if one of them was a former Ranger. His fate was sealed when he decided to fight his way out.

  Enlowe wrenched the gun from McAllen’s limp hand. But even in the eye-watering smoke, Guthrey knew McAllen had seen his last look on this earth. The case was over.

  * * *

  AT THE JUSTICE of the peace hearing, Guthrey and his men were cleared of any wrongdoing. They shook hands with the captain and Enlowe, then walked two blocks to catch the westbound stage.

  In the middle of the night three days later in Steward’s Crossing, Cally met them with a buckboard and two horses for the men.

  Guthrey gathered her up and kissed her. “Good to see you again, girl.” He hugged her face to his.

  “Good to see you too, sir. Come next June there’s going to be three of us.”

  “Best damn news I ever heard.” He swung her around. “The very best. Hey, guys, we’re having a baby.”

  “Here?” Noble asked.

  “Lord, no. Next May, and you are all invited to his christening.”

  Noble squeezed his whiskers. “What if it’s a girl?”

  “Then I’ll have to think of another name.”

  “You dang sure will. Damn, missy, it don’t seem right, but I’ll be pleased when you have one.”

  “See you two in a couple of days. Me and Cally are going up on Mount Graham for a couple of days and cool things off.”

  The two laughed at him. He loaded Cally on the spring seat and they headed for the cabin. Hadn’t thought much about it in a while but he didn’t miss being a Ranger anymore.