Slocum and the Diamond City Affair (9781101612118) (4 page)

4

They didn't reach Los Nigra until late afternoon. The small village was a “high in the sky island.” It was much like the Chiricahuas and Mount Grant, where in the high altitude, they found a different climate than the lower desert country, cooler and filled with pines. A spring-fed stream had silver trout that darted for cover at the first shadow of a man walking by. There were small plots of land along the creek that the people irrigated for fruit trees and grape vineyards. Alfalfa and vegetable gardens adjoined the creek, where they saw one small aqueduct that took water uphill to irrigate some higher land.

Slocum stopped at the cantina in the village. Rosa introduced him to Paulo, the bartender, who reached over the bar and kissed her on the cheek. “Good to see you, my darling,” he said in Spanish.

“Good to be home, Paulo. We are looking for some stolen racehorses.”

He shook his head. “I have not seen them, but they could be at Pico's. He handles some horse deals that are not always right, huh?”

She nodded. “
Sí
, I know about him.”

“Who do they belong to?” the bartender asked.

“A man we work for.” She indicated Slocum, who was beside her sipping on his double shot of mescal.

“You sure found yourself a big man, Rosa.”

She laughed. “And no one bothers me.”

“I bet not.”

“Who's Pico?” Slocum asked her privately when her friend moved to get another man a beer.

“A small-time outlaw who lives north of here.” She wrinkled her nose. “But I doubt he has such valuable racehorses.”

“But he might know about them. These people have a wireless telegraph up here—sometimes they know before the rest of the world knows.”

“Oh, yes. Can we stop and see my grandmother for a short while?”

“Sure.”

She hugged his arm and proudly smiled up at him. “She will like you.”

Leading the way, she found the short, little, fragile-looking lady working in a fancy, weedless garden. “Grandmama, this is my friend Slocum.”

A warm smile crossed her wrinkled face. “Ah, he is a
mucho grande
hombre.”

Her arms were raised high for him to hug her, and he swept off his hat and bent over to lightly squeeze and kiss her. Where his lips touched, her hand quickly caught the mark under her palm and her eyes twinkled. “You are an exciting man.”

“You must have been exciting yourself when you were a girl.”

She nodded, amused. “But there is no one left alive who can tell you if I was.”

They laughed and went with her into the jacal. “You must have good help; this place is so neat.”

“My great-grandchildren spoil me helping me keep this place so tidy. This is my granddaughter Nana, who lives with me. Nana, here is Rosa come to visit, and this big hombre is Slocum. Can we feed them?”

“Oh,
sí
, Grandmama. We can feed them. Come inside.”

Slocum herded them inside the adobe house, put his hat on a wall peg, and looked around at the paintings on the wall. He pulled Rosa aside. “Who did this art?”

“Grandmama did it, but look over there. She taught Nana how and she is surpassing Grandmama now.”

“Does that upset your grandmother?”

“No, she wants Nana to become a master. That is her goal.”

“How long can you stay?” Nana asked Rosa, who looked to Slocum for his answer.

“Only an hour or so,” he said. They needed to go find this man Pico's place, the ranch that the bartender had mentioned.

“Then will you sit for me now?” Nana asked him.

“I guess.”

“Rosa, come with me.” Nana said, taking her by the hand toward the kitchen. “I'll explain the food you need to fix. I want to sketch him. Are you all right, Grandmama?”

From her woven rocker, the old lady smiled and nodded. “If my eyes were not so dim I'd want to catch him on canvas too.”

Nana brought a tall, three-legged stool when she came back, and she seated Slocum on it. She pointed to a mark on the wall for him to look at. Then, using a sliver of sharpened charcoal, she began tracing in his face on a canvas. Her fingers worked fast as she looked up and then reproduced on canvas the lines that she observed.

“We're searching for some fancy racehorses that were stolen in Tucson over a week ago,” he said, noticing the horse pictures on the wall.

“Who stole them?” Nana asked.

“We don't know. One of the Clantons' men picked them up in Benson and whisked them away.”

“Ah, the Clantons.” Nana lowered her voice. “Those devils are not worth spitting on. They came here six months ago, and some of them raped women and took anything of value.”

“Did they bother you?”

She chewed on her lower lip, and Slocum saw tears flood her lashes until she turned away. “Yes. Three of them—kidnapped me.”

He had his answer and it made him mad. A nice-looking girl near Rosa's age, who didn't deserve to be raped. The Cowboys were hard-hearted, but they needed their balls cut out for doing that to a young woman like her.

“You have some names of the ones who attacked you?”

“Gorman, Valdez, and Bach were the ones who kidnapped me.”

“What do you remember, and what can you tell me about them?”

“Gorman has a scar above his right eye. A thick one. He's a short and fat gringo. There are scars on his belly from knife fights. He was shot sometime in the left shoulder—you can see the powder burns around that scar.”

“How old?”

“Maybe thirty-five or forty. His hair is wavy and has some gray.”

Slocum nodded. “Who else?”

“Valdez has blue eyes. He is mostly Mexican. He lost the bottom two fingers on his right hand. Short, he was maybe in his midtwenties.”

“The third man?”

“Adolph Bach was German. He talked like one. Maybe five foot eight. Big black beard, steel gray eyes. A very ruthless, mean man.” Her shoulders shuddered under her blouse, obviously from the bitter recall of her horrible experiences with the men.

“If I ever find them, I'll even the score for you.”

She nodded without a word.

“I have the food ready,” Rosa said.

“Feed Grandmama and then you can feed him where he sits.” Nana laughed and took another hard stare at her subject before making more marks on the canvas. “I am coming along fine.”

“Good. Slocum, your face may be as famous as the
Mona Lisa
in Paris after this,” Rosa teased him.

“Or keep the ravens out of her garden in place of a scarecrow.”

The girls snickered.

Rosa fed him the tortilla-wrapped beans and meat.

“That's good food,” Slocum said, chewing on his bite, and winked at Rosa.

After Slocum finished his meal, Nana wound up her drawing and brought the canvas over to show her progress.

“Is that all right?” she asked, showing him the sketch.

“Sure, that's me.” He winked at her. “Nice job.”

“I'll get our horses,” Rosa said.

“Yes. Grandmama, we are going to leave you.” He strode over to stand in front of her.

“You are a nice man. I will burn some candles for your safety while you are looking for those horses.”

He hugged her gently and patted her back. “Be good.”

“Oh, I have to be, my big man.”

They laughed and he kissed Nana on the cheek. “I will find your attackers.”

She nodded silently.

Slocum and Rosa went on. She knew where the man Pico that the bartender mentioned was located. They rode across a narrow mountain pass and down the western slope. The place they found was snuggled in a valley.

“You want to stay up here while I ride down there and see him?”

She shook her head. “I am not afraid when I am with you.”

“It could be dangerous if we find those horses up here.”

“Let's go. I have been thinking ever since we left Grandmama and Nana. I did not know anything about Nana being raped.” She looked sad riding beside him.

Slocum nodded. “Those Clanton men are brutal bastards.”

She agreed.

He led the way and rode in through the front gate of the ranch. Some stock dogs began to bark down by the jacal. A woman in her thirties came outside and frowned at them. Hands on her ample hips, the buxom woman shouted something that Slocum couldn't hear. He watched for any threat she might call up.

“What's his name again?” Slocum asked Rosa as they approached the screaming woman.

“Pico. I don't know her.” She shook her head with a serious frown about what the woman in charge was doing down by the casa.

“I'm watching her,” Slocum said under his breath.

“Is she calling for some gunmen?”

“I see some men coming from those buildings over there.”

“What is your business here?” the dark-haired woman shouted. “This is a private ranch.”

“Is Pico here?” Slocum asked. Obviously it was siesta time, and these sleepy-eyed farmhands were hardly pistoleros, but he didn't lower his guard.

“No, he is away on business.”

“That's good. May I look at your horses? I am looking for some expensive racehorses stolen up in Arizona.”

“No.” She shook her head. “We have no damn stolen horses here.”

“If they're here you better surrender them. The
federales
will treat you much tougher than I will. I simply want those two horses back.”

“We don't have your damn horses!” she shouted at him and stomped her foot, then she wouldn't move aside and blocked his way.

“This damned ugly horse will run you over, woman. Now move,” Slocum said to her.

At last she retreated and he rode by. He stood in the stirrups as she continued to chew him out verbally and traipsed behind their horses. No sign of a stallion in the horses he could see in the pens.

“Look in that shed,” he told Rosa. “Ride over there.”

She short loped her horse and halted him at the open door. “No horses in here.”

“I told you we had no horses belonging to you.”

“Why did you deny us a chance to look for them if you aren't hiding them?” Slocum asked.

“This is our ranch. You have no business being here. Don't ever come back either.”

“Fine, we'll leave.” He booted his horse, Rosa did the same, and they rode off the place.

“Don't you ever come back!” she shouted at their backs.

He'd be certain they didn't.

Slocum and Rosa returned to the village and stopped at her grandmother's place. No news. Slocum knew he had to learn whether the horses were at Old Man Clanton's ranch, but he couldn't do it himself. He figured he'd need an Apache to enter that compound and let him know about them or to ride them out, and he said as much to Rosa.

“Do you know any Chiricahuas we can hire to go look up there?”

“Maria's husband, Benny, is one.”

“Good. Who is he?”

“We can go by their place on the way back to Jim's ranch,” Rosa said, turning to glance back and then twisting forward in her saddle again. “Boy, I can't get over that bitch back there. Pico's new woman is a mess.”

“Didn't you know her?”

Rosa shook her head and wrinkled her nose. “I never saw her before. He changes women quite often.”

He reached over and clapped her on the shoulder. “She was all mouth and ass. No worries. Now let's find this Apache.”

They rode up to Maria's place and scattered her bleating goats when they entered the yard. A woman in her thirties came from the squaw shade, drying her hands, then she recognized Rosa and openly smiled.

“This is Slocum,” Rosa said as she dismounted and ran to hug her friend.

“Good day, señor,” the woman said. She used her hand to shade the bright sun.

“He needs to hire your man,” Rosa said.

“Oh, Benny will be here in a moment. He is cutting wood, but he will hear you are here. What kind of work does he have to do?”

“Spying.”

Maria nodded. “He will like that.”

Rosa agreed. “I thought so too.”

Maria's husband appeared and for a moment stopped to size up Rosa and Slocum. Then he smiled at Rosa.

“Long time we no see you,” he said to Rosa.

“I have been away working. Benny, this is Slocum. He needs some help.”

“Sure, sure. It is good to see you again, Rosa. You look happy. He must be a good man.”

“He is. He really is.”

“Come in the shade,” Maria said to Rosa. “I have some new material to make a dress.”

“Oh, that sounds wonderful.” They went under the thatched-roof squaw shade.

“What do you need me to do?” the man, who certainly looked Apache, asked as he squatted in his knee-high boots facing Slocum.

“Have you ever been to Old Man Clanton's ranch?”

“Yes, but that is a bad place to go for a man who likes to live.”

“I am looking for two horses. A stallion and a mare that were stolen in Tucson and taken there, I think.”

“What should I do about them if I find them?”

“Find them there, I'll pay a twenty-dollar gold piece. You bring them out, I can pay you fifty dollars.”

Benny whistled through his teeth and held his right knee with both hands as they squatted. “That is
mucho dinero
for a poor man.”

Slocum agreed. “My man can tell you what they look like.”

He made a distrusting face. “I hate to scout at night. I know that is a fable of my people, but I worry about such things. Dying in the dark, you know?”

“I do know all about your fears.” All Apaches feared being killed in darkness because they believed that if that happened, their spirits would never get out of this world to the other one.

“How soon must I go?”

“We are going back to Jim Davis's ranch tonight. Meet us there.”

“I know Jim.” He nodded that that was no problem. “I will be there in two days. I may find a friend to help me.”