Brother's Keeper (15 page)

AXTER WAS A SMALL TOWN
and somewhat off the beaten path. And, like many of the small towns like it, it had only one hotel, one saloon

and a few various run down buildings on the single main street. Jess, Murry and Carl arrived in town in late afternoon and Jess stabled Gray and his newly acquired packhorse. They all got rooms at the hotel after making a quick stop at the bank to wire for money. They agreed to meet at the saloon for something to eat in a few hours. Murry and Carl headed for the general for supplies and Jess went to pay a visit to the sheriff. Jess found the sheriff’s office, which was no bigger than a closet. It had a small desk, one cell that could hold maybe five people, if they could sleep standing up.

Ollie Bannick was a drunk. He started drinking whiskey after his first cup of coffee in the morning and didn’t stop until he passed out each night. He couldn’t handle a six-shooter anymore and had even quit wearing one a few years back; most likely because he had shot himself in the foot the last time he tried to use one. He was, however, the only person who would take the job of sheriff in Baxter. Jess found him sweeping up the small jail cell in the sheriff’s office. It looked like he was doing more leaning on the broom handle than sweeping but then again; he was on no schedule. He looked up at Jess standing in the doorway. He just stared at Jess for a moment and then he let out a belch that must’ve lasted a whole five seconds. When he was done he worked his tongue around his mouth as if he was trying to dislodge a ball of cotton and couldn’t quite get it out.

“What…what can I do for you, Mister?” Bannick asked.
“I’m looking for the sheriff,” replied Jess.
“You found ‘em.”
“You’re the sheriff? I don’t see any badge?”
“Damn town don’t pay me enough to wear it and I don’t even know where it is. I don’t like advertising it anyway.”
“Why’d you take the job, then?”
“I get free whiskey over at the saloon. Other than that, I get to sleep in the cell here and they pay me ten dollars a month to boot. Ain’t much, but it’s better than sleeping on the ground.”
Jess remembered about what Sheriff Diggs had told him about the lawmen in some of the small towns and how they didn’t amount to much. This was yet another example of it. He shook his head. “I came in to see if you had any wanted posters here in your office.”
Bannick put his broom against a wall and took a good look at Jess. He focused on the shotgun behind Jess and then his eyes went down to Jess’ pistol and Jess could see Bannick’s stare linger on it. “Where the hell did ya get that?” Jess had tired of answering that question and he figured it would be lost on Bannick anyway.
“Sheriff, do you have any wanted posters?” Jess asked, acting as if he never heard Bannick’s question. Bannick grunted and went to his desk. He fiddled with some papers and found what he was looking for.
“Here,” said Bannick, as he handed Jess a piece of paper. On it was a sketch of a man who looked to be in his thirties and with a full head of hair and a bushy beard and mustache. Written on it was Wanted for Robbery and Murder, Lloyd Aker, Reward $5,000, Dead or Alive.
Jess paid extra attention to the words at the bottom of the wanted poster. Preferably Dead! That was a little unusual and he asked the sheriff about it.
“Way I heard it was that he shot a woman while robin’ a train,” explained Bannick. “Only problem was the woman he killed was the wife of one of the owners of the train. That’s why the bounty is so high and that’s why they put Preferably Dead on there.”
Jess smiled. “Well, that’s the way I usually bring them in anyway. Do you have any idea where he might be?”
“Rumor has it he was possibly in a little town less than a day’s ride from here called Holten. Don’t know if that’s true, but that’s all I know.” Jess borrowed a scrap of paper from the sheriff’s desk to write down the name from the poster.
“Hell, take the poster if’n you want,” said Bannick.
“This the only one you have?”
“Yeah, but that don’t matter none. I ain’t gonna bother him if he comes around here. I don’t even want to know where he is. Ten dollars and some whiskey don’t buy a good sheriff; just one who keeps the cell cleaned out and locks up a few drunks once in a while including myself.”
Jess wondered about such people but he simply put the poster in his pocket and thanked Bannick for the poster. Bannick went back to sweeping the floor and Jess headed over to the general store to get some supplies and packed them in the oversized saddlebags he had purchased for his new packhorse. He wondered why he hadn’t done this whole packhorse thing earlier. He bought extra pans, canteens, beans, flour, cornmeal, rice and other such things a man needed to survive on the trail. Then, he went to the saloon to get a bite to eat. The saloon wasn’t much. He found Murry and Carl sitting at a table and they were sharing a bottle of whiskey. Jess sat down with them.
“How are you two men doing?”
“This stuff taste’s like crap,” Carl exclaimed, after taking another swallow of the whiskey.
“Yeah,” added Murry, “and they said this was their good stuff. I wonder what the bad stuff tastes like.”
Jess smiled. “In these little towns out here, they don’t get much call for any good whiskey. People out this way don’t have the money to pay for it and the ones that do don’t come here to drink anyway.”
“I don’t blame them,” Carl replied. “By the way, we hope you don’t mind but we told the barkeep that you would be paying for the drinks since we can’t get any money till tomorrow,” Carl said sheepishly.
“We will pay you back tomorrow, you have our word on that,” added Murry.
“I figure you two are good for it. I’ll even buy you both a good meal, providing we can get a good meal here.”
“They got food. We seen some of the plates coming out of the back and it don’t look too bad,” said Carl. “You want some of this…stuff?”
“No thanks. I could use a beer though.” Jess called over to the barkeep and asked for a beer. The barkeep poured him one and brought it over to the table. They ordered three meals and the barkeep went back into the kitchen area and ordered it. A few minutes later he went back into the kitchen and brought out three heaping plates of food. It was beef stew with two big biscuits lying on top of the stew. They all dug in and devoured the stew. They sat back and let the food settle in. Carl and Murry poured themselves another shot. They winced as they swallowed the cheap whiskey.
“I want to take a bottle of this back home with us,” said Carl.
Murry looked at him with a confused look. “What the hell you want to do that for? This stuff tastes like someone wrung out a dirty sock in it. Why the hell would you take any of this stuff back home with us?”
Carl smiled. “I just want to make sure we place it on our shelves with a sign that says: ‘We don’t serve cheap whiskey like this here.’
Murry’s frown turned to a smile. “You bet your ass we won’t. Only the finest whiskey will be poured at our establishment. We won’t serve any of this rotgut.”
“I think you two have a real good idea with the place you want to open up,” said Jess. “That is, if you actually make it back to New York. I just hope you two stay alive long enough to make it back.” Murry and Carl both had a hurt look on their faces.
“What do you mean, if?” asked Carl.
“It’s like I tried to tell you the other day. This isn’t the city of New York or back East. This is the West and the men out here, especially the bad ones who are wanted by the law; don’t have any sense of fair play or reason. They would simply put a bullet in you and they usually don’t care if it’s the front or the back or if you are awake or sleeping soundly. They simply will kill you unless you kill them first and I don’t think you boys are good enough with a gun to make sure it’s them first.”
“We know how to shoot a pistol,” Murry replied, almost indignantly. Jess looked at him with one of the looks Andy usually gives Jess.
“Yeah, when you can keep it in your holster so you can find it, that is,” said Jess, grinning.
“That was an accident,” Murry replied, “and it was only because of Carl here tripping around like an old woman.”
“Hey, I told you it was a mistake! I forgot about the rocks and the cans. Don’t blame that one on me, Murry,” exclaimed Carl. Murry was about to reply again when Jess cut him off.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you two. That one mistake would have cost you your lives.” Jess took out the wanted poster from his pocket and unfolded it. He placed it on the table and put his finger on the face of the man on the wanted poster. “See this man? He shot and killed a woman while robbing a train. What do you think he would have done if it had been him sneaking up on our camp the other night? I’ll tell you. He would have shot the both of you before you had a chance to pick up your pistol and then he would have drank your coffee, took everything you had and left your bodies for the scavengers to eat. And, he wouldn’t feel bad about it either.” Jess looked back and forth at Carl and Murry who didn’t seem to be listening now. They were both looking at each other and back at the poster again.
“Five thousand dollars!” Carl exclaimed. “That’s enough to start our business when we get back.”
“Yeah,” added Murry quickly. “Five thousand would be enough to get started. Maybe we lighten the inventory a little in the beginning and we don’t put the carpet down right away and…”
“Haven’t you two been listening to what I’m trying to tell you?” asked Jess, a look of frustration beginning to form on his face. Murry and Carl looked up at him as if they didn’t know what he was talking about. All they could think of now was the five thousand dollars and how that could start their establishment back East.
“This is enough money to go back East with,” replied Carl.
“Yeah,” added Murry.
“You don’t plan on going after this man, do you?” asked Jess, afraid he already knew the answer.
“Well…yeah. Ain’t that what bounty hunters do?” asked Carl.
Jess shook his head in amazement. “I’m sorry I even showed you this poster. I was just trying to make you understand how dangerous this business is. This man is a born killer and if you two go after him the both of you will wind up with dirt for a blanket.”
Jess called over for another beer. Carl and Murry looked at the poster some more and they began talking to each other, planning on how they would sneak up on him and capture him and then turn him in for the reward money and go back East and operate their drinking establishment. Jess was amazed at how naïve some men could be about certain things in life. He had thought about taking a few days and looking for this Lloyd Aker and collecting the bounty. Five thousand dollars was, in fact, a very large reward. He was certain though, that these two men were going to end up dead trying to collect the bounty. He was frustrated with these two but yet, for some reason unknown to him, he liked Murry and Carl. Maybe he liked the fact that they were naïve. Maybe he liked the fact that these two men came from a different place where men weren’t as ruthless and cold-blooded as some of the men out here in the West. Maybe it was the fact that Murry and Carl had hopes and dreams of what they wanted to do with their lives and it was a far better picture of what Jess had in store for him. He was destined for a life of killing. Maybe he was jealous of that, but he wasn’t really sure that he would change it even if he could. Then, an idea came to him. He took the wanted poster and folded it back up and placed it back in his pocket. Murry looked at him with an almost pleading look.
“Can we have that poster?” asked Murry.
“No,” replied Jess, staring at the both of them. Carl placed both his hands on the table.
“So, are you going after that man?” Carl asked, hoping the answer was no.
“Yes.”
“Damn it! I knew it!” exclaimed Carl. “I knew it was too good to be true. The one time we could’ve gotten enough money to go back East and we ain’t going to get a chance to collect it.”
“Carl, he did find the poster first,” replied Murry. “It’s only fair that he gets the first chance at the man. After all, he has treated us with kindness and respect,” he added. Jess took another long sip of his beer and put his glass down on the table ever so slowly, looking at the glass as if he was reading something that wasn’t there.
“I’ll make you two a deal,” said Jess, looking up at the both of them.
“What deal?” Carl asked impatiently.
“We will go after this man together. If we find him, we collect the bounty. If I let you keep most of the reward, will you promise me you will get on a train and go back to New York?” Murry and Carl looked at each other and they nodded in agreement.
“Okay, it’s a deal,” replied Murry. “It will mean we have to start smaller but we can make it work.”
“Yeah,” added Carl, we can even wait on the padded leather chairs and maybe the wood work won’t be so nice but it will still be Carl and Murry’s, a place where gentlemen will want to come and drink the finest whiskey in all of New York.”
“You said it, partner,” as Murry patted Carl on the shoulder, “Murry and Carl’s will be the place for gentlemen to go, even if we have to cut back a little bit on the opening expenses.” Carl was about to argue the point of the name of their establishment again and Jess was slowly lowering his head in anticipation of another drawn out debate. What stopped him was what, or rather who, walked into the saloon.
The man was tall and slender and dressed quite nicely. What stood out to Jess was the fact that he was dressed too nice for his demeanor. Jess could size men up in an instant and this man was nothing but trouble and his clothing didn’t fit in with what this man represented. The man had a fairly nice six-shooter worn low and tied down. He walked to the bar and ordered a drink. When the barkeep tried to take the bottle back the man grabbed the bottle and slammed it back down in front of him.
“I’ll be keeping this.”
The barkeep, a little man, thought better about making it a big deal, so he left the bottle and waited on a few of the other men standing at the bar. Carl and Murry had been exchanging glances while this was going on and Jess was amazed at how little these two paid attention to their surroundings. Jess scanned the saloon looking for any other men who might be with this one or might be a problem.
“So, you two still want to be bounty hunters, huh?” asked Jess.
“Of course,” replied Murry.
“Yeah,” Carl added.
“So when are you going to start acting like bounty hunters?”
“What are you talking about?” Carl asked. Just then, Murry took a good look at the man at the bar. He focused on the man for a minute while Jess talked to Carl.
“How are you planning to stay alive when you don’t even know what’s going on around you, especially now?” Carl looked frustrated and Murry kept staring at the man at the bar.
“I still don’t get what you mean,” Carl replied.
“I’ll tell you exactly what I mean. The man, who a moment ago, walked past the both of you? The man who is standing over at the bar right now? I noticed him the second he walked through the door and I noticed a few odd things about him. One, he is dressed too nice for the way he acts. Two, I’m figuring that he is wanted by the law. Three, he is going to be involved in some kind of trouble before he leaves this bar. Now, I don’t know these things absolutely. But I sure have a good gut hunch that I’m right on all three counts.”
“Now how could you figure all that out when you don’t even know who the man is?” Carl asked, in a sarcastic tone.
Jess glared at Carl “Because if you plan to hunt men, you need to learn real fast how to spot trouble or things that don’t seem to add up.”
“Actually,” chimed in Murry, who had been watching the man at the bar all the while Jess and Carl were talking, “we do know that man.”
Carl looked over at the man at the bar. He noticed the clothing. “Son of a bitch,” said Carl, “that mans wearing my shirt.”
Murry shot Carl a glaring look.” “No shit, Carl. He’s wearing your shirt; and those are my pants. I can tell you why too. That’s the man who robbed us the other day. That’s the man we captured at the hotel right here in town. You know, the one you let get away the other day by letting him keep a knife in his boot.”