Last Breath (A Gideon Johann Western Book 5) Read online

  “When I came to town, Doc was about the last person in the world that I thought I’d become friends with. He’s kind of like a boil. He grows on you. I hope age doesn’t catch up with him any time soon. The town wouldn’t be the same without him,” Finnie said.

  “He’ll probably outlive me and you,” Gideon joked.

  “Especially considering our line of work. Oh, by the way, Mary didn’t recall ever seeing the two men we’re looking to find,” Finnie said.

  “Interesting,” Gideon replied.

  The trading post sat about sixteen miles from Last Stand at the point where the road turned south at the confluence of the South Fork and Rio Grande rivers. They made good time as they traveled. The road was packed and smooth and only the considerable hills slowed their speed. They reached the post before noon.

  South Fork Trading Post had a reputation for dealing with the underbelly of Colorado. Rumors that highwaymen traded their loot there for money persisted. Since becoming sheriff, Gideon had no cause to investigate the post and had never set foot in the establishment.

  “Put your badge in your pocket. Maybe they won’t know us,” Gideon said as they rode up to the post.

  The place was empty of people except for a man behind the counter. Gideon and Finnie waited at the door as their eyes adjusted to darkness of the room. The two windows were covered with what passed for curtains and an oil lamp burned low. A path led directly to the counter with little room to roam elsewhere for all the goods stuffed inside the store. The air reeked with staleness from the burning oil and tobacco smoke hovering at the ceiling.

  “Can I help you?” the man asked.

  The man behind the counter stood a good six feet three inches with a protruding girth. His palms rested on the counter and his arms looked as big as Gideon’s thighs. He smelled and looked to have gone a good while without a bath. His dirty, uncombed hair reached his shoulders and fell across his eyes.

  “I’m looking for a gold ring,” Gideon said.

  “Aren’t you the sheriff?” the man asked.

  “I am,” Gideon answered. “I’m looking for a man’s gold ring.”

  “I got a couple for ladies, but that’s it. I don’t get much jewelry for men,” the man said.

  “There were two men in here last night. One had a tooth missing and the other had a walleye. What can you tell me about them?” Gideon asked.

  The man stood up straight and folded his arms. “You were just trying to see if I had a stolen ring. I don’t know nothing about those two fellows you described,” he said.

  Gideon rubbed the scar on his cheek left from the war and forced a smile. “That’s true. I’m just trying to find some men that killed a sheepherder and I think that they were in here last night. I need your help in finding them,” he said.

  The man’s jaw set. He leaned over and pecked Gideon’s chest. “I told you that I don’t know anything. Now get out of my place,” he growled.

  With Finnie’s fighting ability, he had always been protective of his friends. Pecking Gideon’s chest did not sit well with him. Though short in stature, Finnie had shoulders like an ox and he let fly with one of his haymaker right hooks. “Don’t touch him,” he yelled as his fist connected with the man’s jaw.

  The man’s knees buckled and he grabbed at the counter to keep from going down to the floor. He sucked in a big breath and lunged at Finnie. Finnie grabbed the man by the shirt and yanked the behemoth over the counter as if lifting a feed sack. Gideon jumped back out of the way as Finnie plopped down on the man’s chest and started waylaying him.

  After a few punches, Gideon said, “That’s enough, Finnie. We need him to be able to talk.”

  “You better tell the sheriff what he wants to know or I’ll make you look so bad that your momma won’t even love you,” Finnie hollered.

  Gideon had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. Finnie had a way with the English language like nobody else he had ever known.

  “Okay, I don’t know them. They’ve only been in here a couple of times. I heard them mention having a camp south of here along the river. That’s all I know,” the man said.

  “Now wouldn’t talking in the first place have been a lot easier than getting whipped by a little sawed–off shit like me,” Finnie said as he climbed off the man’s chest.

  The man labored to his feet, pinching his nose shut to stop the stream of blood. He didn’t say anything else and hurried back behind the counter.

  Gideon and Finnie walked outside and mounted their horses. They pinned their badges back on and headed south.

  “I appreciate you defending me, but you were a bit impatient about the whole thing. I planned to give him one more chance to back down. If he touched me again, I was going to show him how fast I can draw my Colt and lay it upside his head. I did that to Hank Sligo and he was every bit as big as that guy. Hank wasn’t the same for days,” Gideon said.

  “I have no mercy for bullies. They rile me up but good. I needed the practice anyway,” Finnie said, holding up his fist and smiling.

  They continued on the trail southwest along the Rio Grande River. After riding about a mile, they topped a ridge and could see a camp in the bend of the river a couple hundred yards away. The two men at the campsite also saw Gideon and Finnie. They mounted their horses and began riding in their direction.

  “Do you think they’re coming to surrender?” Finnie said in jest.

  “I think they are coming to see if we look easy to rob,” Gideon said.

  “You think?” Finnie said.

  “I think,” Gideon answered and worked his revolver up and down in its holster until satisfied that it moved smoothly.

  The two men rode slow and leisurely towards the lawmen until the two parties had closed to within fifty yards of each other. Gideon and Finnie had the sun to their faces and the other two men apparently saw the light reflecting off their badges. Suddenly, the two men spun their horses around and took off in a gallop.

  “Damn it,” Finnie yelled as they kicked their horses into a fast lope to pursue the men.

  For the first mile, Gideon and Finnie lost ground as the other two men rode in a gallop on the mountain road. Gideon remained confident that it was only a matter of time before the outlaws ran their horses into the ground and then they would catch them. A part of Gideon loved the chase. He locked into the rhythm of his horse and focused on keeping an eye on his quarry. His senses felt hyperactive. The horse sweat smelled pungent and the hoof beats seemed like drums next to his ears. His eyes could see the minutest detail as his mind processed the dangers. The horses of the outlaws began to wear out and slowed dramatically. As Gideon and Finnie rapidly advanced on them, the criminals pulled their revolvers and started firing. The lawmen lowered their heads, but the outlaws were so intent on escaping that they failed to level their guns. Trees were in more danger of taking a bullet than Gideon or Finnie. Closing in on the outlaws, the sheriff and deputy drew their Colts and returned fire. The outlaws made for easy targets at such a close distance and were hit on the first volley. Both men slumped in their saddles. As their weary horses came to a stop, one man slid from the saddle to the ground while the other dropped his gun and grasped the saddle horn.

  Gideon and Finnie pulled their horses to a stop and ran towards the men. Finnie yanked the man from the saddle and dragged him to the ground while Gideon checked on the other man.

  “This one’s dead,” Gideon called out.

  “This one’s alive. He’s got one eye looking at me and the other one is checking out the sky,” Finnie announced.

  The outlaw that remained alive had a hole through the right side of his back and labored to breathe. “I need a doctor,” he said.

  Gideon paused a moment to gather himself. His mind felt as if a million thoughts were happening all at once. He took a breath and willed calmness. “Yes, you do, and we’re a long ways from one. So the sooner you answer my questions, the sooner we leave,” he said as he walked over to the outlaw. “Did you
two kill Colin Young?”

  “Go to hell,” the man said.

  “I may, but you’re going first if you don’t get to a doctor and we aren’t leaving until you answer my questions,” Gideon said.

  “Yeah, we killed him. That old hermit didn’t have nothing,” the man said while gasping for breath.

  “What’s your name?” Gideon inquired.

  “Pete Decker,” the man answered.

  “Was there anybody else in on it besides you two?” Gideon asked.

  The man hesitated before answering. “No, just me and Colby,” Pete said.

  “Where’s the ring?” Finnie asked.

  “I don’t know nothing about a ring,” the outlaw answered.

  In a threatening tone, Gideon said, “Where’s the ring?”

  “I don’t know about a ring. Please get me to a doctor,” Pete pleaded.

  Gideon didn’t say anything more, but walked to his horse and retrieved some bandages from his saddlebag. The gunshot had not exited the man’s body and Gideon helped Pete roll onto his stomach. He then ripped the shirt and used his finger to shove the dressing up into the wound. Pete screamed as he worked.

  “That’s about all I can do for you. It should slow the bleeding until Doc has a chance to fix you,” Gideon said.

  Finnie grabbed an arm and Gideon the other as they pulled Pete to his feet and helped him onto his horse. The Irishman retrieved some leather strips from his saddlebag and tied Pete’s hands to the saddle horn and his feet to the stirrups in case the outlaw lost consciousness while riding.

  The lawmen tied the other man’s body across his saddle and headed for home. They were forced to travel slowly as the jarring caused Pete to groan in pain as he struggled for breath. By the time that they reached the trading post, the outlaw gasped for air and made a gurgling sound with each breath.

  “I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe,” Pete yelled. His face revealed sheer terror and a lack of color. He desperately fought the bindings holding him in the saddle as he panicked.

  “He’s drowning in his own blood,” Finnie said.

  “And there’s not a damn thing that we can do about it. We’ve seen this before in the war,” Gideon remarked.

  Pete gave one final effort to break free from his bindings before slumping over the horse’s neck. Gideon turned his horse and moved beside Pete’s mount. He checked the outlaw’s pulse.

  “He’s gone,” Gideon said.

  Solemnly, they rearranged the body across the saddle and resumed their journey.

  “Are we still going to stop and see that sheepherder about Colin’s sheep?” Finnie asked.

  “I guess we better. I wish we would’ve done that on the way down here, but I didn’t want to waste time,” Gideon said.

  “Nothing like dropping in on someone with a couple of bodies in tow,” Finnie said.

  “Do you ever think that maybe we used our guns too soon instead of trying to take them alive?” Gideon asked.

  “Gideon, they were shooting at us. We can’t say please stop shooting so that we can arrest you and hang you later. I don’t see where we had much of a choice,” Finnie said.

  “I know, but sometimes I wonder if Saint Peter will pull out this scroll of all the people I’ve killed and say that I apparently didn’t understand the sixth commandment very well and I’m not allowed through the gates. The older I get, the more taking a life bothers me. Life is precious and there was a time when I didn’t have much regard for it,” Gideon said as he rubbed his scar.

  “Neither one of us has taken a life just for the sake of killing someone. There may have been times where you could have used more discretion, but never a time where you were not on the side of right. Somebody has to preserve law and order and I have to believe that’s what counts,” Finnie said.

  Gideon grinned. “My little philosophical Irishman. I suppose you’re right,” he said.

  “I guess this is the end of solving Colin’s murder,” Finnie said.

  “I suppose so, but I don’t think that we got to the bottom of things,” Gideon said.

  “What do you mean?” Finnie asked.

  “I think he lied when he said that there were only two of them. Somebody else was in on the killing and that one got the ring, but we don’t have anything else to go on. Unless the ring shows up, we’re done,” Gideon said.

  “Any ideas?” Finnie questioned

  “No, but I wonder how they found out about Colin Young. They were either in Last Stand and heard someone talking about Colin’s money and we didn’t know about it or somebody else in town is the ears of the outfit,” Gideon said.

  “For now, I’d like to assume that this is all over with,” Finnie muttered.

  Chapter 3

  Joann waddled to her new stove. Seven and a half months pregnant with her first child, she began cracking eggs against the skillet. She and her husband Zack had moved into their new cabin a little over a month ago. They had been granted their homestead the previous fall and with the help of Gideon, Ethan Oakes, and others, they had built the cabin after the frost left the ground that spring. The couple had used reward money that Zack had received for his part in capturing the Cooper Gang to furnish their new home and to buy a mule, plow, buckboard, and other things necessary for their homestead.

  Joann had been born out of wedlock to Abigail Schone and Gideon, and raised by Abby’s aunt and uncle in Wyoming. After Gideon’s return to Last Stand, she had finally met her real father and the two had developed a father–daughter bond over time. She had met Zack on her trips to Colorado and the two had married.

  “If that ass is ever scrawny again, I’ll never complain about it once,” Zack teased.

  “You’re the one that made me this way,” Joann shot back.

  “I’m responsible for the bump in the front, not the one in the back,” he said with a grin.

  “Zack Barlow, you could hurt my feelings talking like that. You have no idea how hungry a baby makes me. Abs had three babies and she looks as good as she ever did and I expect I’ll be the same, but if you keep running that mouth, you may never get the chance to make me look like this again,” she said.

  “I don’t recall ever having to twist your arm,” Zack said.

  “Oh, shut up. My daddy found you out in the sticks and he can make you disappear just as easily,” Joann warned.

  “Gideon loves me more than he does you,” he said.

  “You’re awfully full of yourself today. He does take your side more than I think necessary. I’ll give you that,” she said begrudgingly.

  She finished cooking their breakfast and Zack helped her bring the food to the table. He gave her a kiss as he pulled her chair out for her.

  “I do love you,” he said.

  “I was beginning to wonder with the way that you were talking. What are you going to do today?” Joann asked.

  “I’m going to check on the alfalfa and the herd before I cut some trees for the barn. I’d like to have it built by fall. What about you?” Zack said before taking a bite of egg.

  Zack had plowed under twenty acres that spring and sown the land in alfalfa to sell hay to the other ranchers. He had worked full–time for Ethan and Sarah Oakes on their ranch until March and now worked for them part–time. Ethan had also sold him fifty heifers and allowed him the use of his bulls to breed his new herd.

  “Today is Wednesday. I’m going to go watch Chance so Abs can have her time to be with Sarah and Mary,” Joann answered.

  Chance was Joann’s twenty–month–old baby brother, eighteen years her junior.

  “Are you sure you should be riding over there? You’re getting awfully far along to get jostled about,” he said.

  “I’ll be fine. Just hitch the horse to the buckboard for me. That big ass you were complaining about gives me plenty of cushion,” she said, taking a sip of coffee and grinning mischievously over it.

  Zack smiled. “When we were courting and you gave me fits, I should’ve known I’d never get the las
t word in,” he said.

  “True,” Joann replied and winked at her husband.

  Zack set his fork down on the plate. “What are we going to do if we don’t have a clue on how to raise a baby? Neither one of us has any experience except for being around Chance. We don’t know what we’re doing,” he said.

  Joann reached across the table and patted her husband’s hand. “We’ll figure it out. People have been having their first child since the beginning of time and it will all work out. And besides, we have Abs and Sarah to help us. If I had to bet, I’d say we’ll be ready to throw them out of here with all the help they’ll be offering,” she said and smiled.

  “I know you’re right, but having a baby seems so scary. I’ve never had to take care of someone else before,” Zack said.

  “You take plenty good care of me,” Joann said, making Zack smile.

  After they finished their breakfast, Zack hitched the buckboard and saddled his horse. He walked with Joann to the wagon and helped her climb up to the seat.

  “You be careful. I love you,” he said.

  “Love you too. See you later,” she said before coaxing the horse to move.

  To lessen the jarring, Joann drove the wagon slowly to the Johann cabin. Abby sat with her daughter, Winnie, swinging on the porch and watching Chance play with their dog as Joann pulled into the yard on the buckboard. Abby walked over and helped her daughter down from the wagon.

  “Joann, I must say that being pregnant agrees with you. You look lovely,” Abby said.

  “Well, Zack told me this morning how big my butt was getting,” Joann said.

  “He did what?” Abby said.

  “Abs, he was only kidding and as much grief as I give that man, I have it coming,” Joann said.

  “I guess, but that sounds a little rough to me,” Abby said.

  “Trust me, it was all in fun. You know Zack doesn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Joann reminded her mother.

  Chance toddled over to his sister and she picked him up. Winnie made sure to nestle up against her big sister at seeing her little brother getting some attention.