Mountain Woman Snake River Blizzard (6 page)

Man walked over to take a look.

“I talked with one of the owners of
Gem Mine
,” Chief Kincaid said.  “H
e said only four
men had the combination for that
big safe.  The four are owners.  They use the small safe for what they call petty cash.  Highsmith used it for p
urchases and supplies.  The
money for payroll was kept in the big safe.”

“So they tortured him to get the combination,
but he couldn’t give it to them because
he didn’t know it,” Kate said.

“That’s the way I see it,” Kincaid said.
 
“We have no idea how many were involved.  The body is cold.  It could have happened Saturday
night
or Sunday.  By the time we got
here,
there were a dozen horses in front.  The only door is the front.”

“Did you look in back
of this office building
?” Kate asked.

The question surprised Chief Kincaid.  “No, we didn’t.  Why should we?”

“If the robbery was on Saturday
night
or Sunday, horses in front might attract
attention.  I would think
they would put them behind out of sight.  Apparently they were here for a while.”

“I’ll go look,” Man said.

Kate went to the
body, knelt down,
and examined him.  “They used something hot on him.  I see burn marks on his arms and legs.  His feet were burned.”

“The way I see this,
” Kincai
d said,
“
Highsmith gave them the combination for the small safe, but they kept on, not believing he didn’t have the combination for the big safe.  They
finally killed him and tried to open the safe with hammers.”

“Where did they get the sledge
hammers?” Kate asked.  “They
had to know Highsmith was here.  Or did they abduct him?
  Where does he live?”

Kincaid
shook his head
and left the room.

She was looking at the body whe
n Man returned.  “Right on Kate.
I found where two horses were tied.  I got a good loo
k at the tracks.  Where is C
hief
Kincaid
?”

“
He went to find out where they got the sledge
hamme
rs and where
Highsmith live
d
.  Did
they abduct him, or was he here?
  If he was here, somebody had to know when to strike.”

Man nodded.  “I saw a small house behind this building.  It could be where he lived.”

“If this took place at night, where were the night watchmen?”
Kate asked.  “We need to question them.”

Chief Kincaid came in and heard her question.  He did an about fa
ce and went back out the door.

“There’s nothing more we need with the body,” Kate said.  “If they want to take it, I want to examine this room to see if they left anything.  Was there forced entry into the front door?”

She went to the door of the office and examined the latch.  “There’s no lock on this door.”  She went through
the door
to the fro
nt and knelt to examine the lock
.  “It wasn’t forced,” she said.

An older man came to her and waited until she stood.  He spoke with a heavy accent.  “I’m Jason Defee, one of the owners.”

“Deputy United States Marshal Kate Manchester,” she said.  Man joined them and she
introduced them.

The two men shook hands.

“How much did they get?” Kate asked.

“From the books, four-hundred-
seventy dollars,” Jason said.  “We never keep mor
e than five
hundred in the small safe for incidentals.”

“How much is in the big safe?” she asked.

“I don’t have the exact amount, but I would think about sixty-thousand.  As we make
sales, we put enough in the
safe to make payroll.”

“Who does that?” Kate ask
ed.

“Highsmith is in charge of payroll.  The four men that work here each have a table on payroll da
y.  The men come here for their pay
.  We have two shifts.  O
n payroll day, it’s hectic.”

“
And only the four owners have the
combination to the safe?” she asked.

“That’s right,
”
Jason
said.

“Who knows this?” Kate said.

“I have no idea
,” Jason said
. 
“
When we open the safe to put money inside or take it out for payroll, there are always two of us.  I doubt any of the miners know.  Maybe a few of the supervisors
,
Highsmith
,
and the four
that works
for him.”

Chief Kincaid had joined them and listened to Defee’s report.

“I talked to one of the supervisors about the hammers,” Kincaid said.  “He went to check.  They were taken from a tool shed near the mine entrance.  Highsmit
h lives in the house behind this office
. 
He was single.”

“What is the name of the night watchmen
working both nights?” she asked.

Kincaid glanced at a notebook he had in his hand.  “Two were on duty.  A man named Alejandro Valdez was on duty both nights.”  H
e looked up and met Kate’s eyes. 
“Robert Engledow on Sunday night.”

Kate did a g
ood job hiding her expression.

“
I’ll send
men to bring
Valdez and Engledow in for questioning,” Chief Kincaid said.
  He went to the
police officer
who had
brought Man and Kate to the mine and talked to him for a minute.  The
police officer
went outside and rode away.

Kate went over Highsmith’s office
,
but found nothing of importance.   She did find a metal rod with a cloth around one
end.  It appeared they
’d
heated it
over the fire in a lamp.

She turned to Man.  “I wonder
if they put something in his mouth when they were burning him
,
or did they let him scream.  If so, why wasn’t he heard by the night watchmen?”  She answered her own question.  “Unl
ess they did it
after the last shift went home.”

“Unless you have something else you need to look at,” Man said, “are you ready to get ba
ck to town?  We need to
see if they located Valdez and Engledow
,
and brought them in for questioning.”

She shook her head.

They rode bac
k to town with Chief Kincaid.  As they rode, he reported
his men had made several trips down the road where Lucille lived and there was no sign of Engledow.

Dunlap
was waiting when they entered the police station.  “There was nobody at home at Valdez or Engledow’s home.  I left men at
both places with orders to bring
them in for questioning.”

“I wonder if they decided it would be safer i
f they found a new place to hang
their hats,” Kate said.  “If they’re guilty of the r
obbery and murder, they probably hit the trail
.”

“I’ll put out a notice to all the surrounding police stations and sheriff’s offices,” Chief Kincaid said.

“We’ll notify Chief Marshal Meek,” Man added.  “We’l
l be at home if anything breaks.  S
end somebody to get us.  We’ll have everything ready if we need to hit the trail, should they be spotted.”

***

Alejandro Valdez and Robert Engledow stood looking down at the body of Wilburn Highsmith.  “You were too damn quick with that knife,” Al said.

“He didn’t have the combination
to
the big safe
,” Bob countered
. 
“
He gave up the combination to the little safe before we asked. 
I never dreamed the head accountant for the mine didn’
t know
how to open his safe.  I guess the owners
didn’t trust
him.”

“We had better get a move on,” Al
said.  “I see pink in the east.  I
t’ll soon be daylight and people will be coming by.  We could
beat on that big safe until next week at this time and never get it open.”

“I know, but I spent months setting this up
,” Bob said
. 
“
I
know there’
s enough money in that safe to last us the rest of our lives.  I intended for this to be my l
ast job and I was going where i
t’
s warm the year around and settle down.”

“I would have blown it like I always do on fast women and good booze,” Al put in.

The two men went to th
eir horses and rode to where Al
had
hid his
wagon.
  “Whi
ch way are we going?” Al asked.

“South,” Engledow said. 
“
Winter is coming and I want to go where it’s warmer.
”

“You’re the boss,” Alejandro said.

“It’s time to change our names again,”
Engledow
said.  “I’ve already
decided on
Robert White.”

Al thought for a moment
, and
then chuckled.  “Bob White, I like it.  Where did you come up with Engledow?  I never asked before.”

“He was a lawyer in the town
where I grew up
.  I never liked him
, so I thought I would give him
a bad name.”

“You’ve certainly done that with what you did to that woman that you referred to as your wife and that
Shobert
woman that lives down the road from you.  And you added to it tonight torturing and murdering Highsmith.”

Engledow, now White, made no comment.

“What happened to cause you to kill her?” Al asked.

“We got in
a fight and I lost my temper and hit her too hard.”

“So you tossed her body off the cliff to hide the marks on her
.”

“Of course
.  A
nd it worked. 
However, those damn m
arshals are probing into it and accused me of raping Lucille. 
They’re stirring
too much.  T
hat
’s
why I insisted we went ahead tonight.
”

“Yeah,” Al said.  “
It’s time we moved on even if we didn’t get what we wanted.”

“
Have you come up with your new name,” Bob asked.  “I need to start using it
so it
’ll come naturally.  I hope it’
s better than Alejandro
Valdez is
.  I had to work on remembering that
one for a month.  How did you come up with it?”

“I met a woman and she said she went for hot Spanish men.”

Bob laughed.
  “You’re about as much Spanish as me.  Did she buy it?”

“For a while, but then we were here and it was too late to change my name.  I knew we were going to move out tonight, and like you, I came up with a new name.  Alexander Clay.  I want to keep my fi
rst name like you, so you can still
call me Al.”

“Where are we headed?” Al asked.

“I have no pla
ce in mind, just a long way south of
here.  “I know those two m
arshals will be on our trail.”

“So why don’t we wait for them and end it so we won’t
have to look over our shoulder?
”

“That’s a thought,” Bob said.  “From what I hear both of them are fast and shoot straight.  We would have to drop them on the first volley.”

Al nodded in agreement.  “If we picked the right place and knew th
ey were behind us, we could knock
them off before they knew what hit them.”

Chapter 4

Man and Kate rode to where Dan and Roy were cutting
poles for the shed and walkway
to the barn
. 
They stepped down and the two boys came to meet
them.  “Did you see anything of
Engledow over the weekend?” Kate asked
.