Breathless(41)

“I want to take a look around and see if we can figure out which direction Parnell and the others might have taken. It could help us find them.” The murders hadn’t taken place that long ago but each passing minute put those responsible farther away from the scene.

“Then what?”

“We ride back to the hotel and see what Mr. Fontaine wants to do. If I know Rhine, he’ll probably want to rebuild. You’re welcome to hang on here until then.”

“But I don’t have a place to stay.”

“Neither do I but he’ll put us up.”

“You sure?”

Kent nodded. He understood the younger man’s worries. Being employed by Blanchard had given Matt a place to call home for the first time in years and he wouldn’t be looking forward to being at loose ends again.

“What about pay?” Matt asked. “Mr. Fontaine won’t pay us if we aren’t working, will he?”

“I don’t know what he’ll decide, but if not I have some money saved up. Should be enough to keep us both above water until things are worked out.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You didn’t ask. I volunteered.”

“But—”

“Look, we can sit here and argue or we can ride back to the hotel and get a bath and some food. How do you vote?”

Matt smiled. “I vote for the hotel.”

“Thought you would. Hopefully Rhine will have some word on the posse by the time we return, so, let’s go take that look around.”

They were walking to their mounts when Rhine rode up. He dismounted and scanned what was left of the ranch house.

Kent told him. “They used kerosene. Burned both buildings right down to the foundations. Is the sheriff getting a posse?”

“No.”

Kent stared. “Why not?”

“Geronimo escaped last night and the army wants all the lawmen in the area to help track the old chief down. O’Hara has no one he can spare.” Rhine then explained why the sheriff couldn’t deputize him or Kent.

The injustice of the illogical restrictions left Kent tight-lipped. “So did he say we couldn’t track Parnell down on our own?” Having to look over his shoulder for Apache while tracking down Parnell was a complication he hadn’t planned on.

“No, but we’ll have no legal status to arrest him.”

Kent didn’t care about that. He’d ridden in Wyoming’s range wars and not everything done there had been legal either, but it had been right. “If we bring Parnell in, will they jail him or not?”

“I don’t really know.”

Kent was so frustrated he wanted to punch something.

Rhine asked Matt, “What can you tell me about Parnell?”

“Not much. He bragged a lot but you never knew how much of what he was saying was true.”

“For example?”

“He claimed to have run guns to the Apache, that he’d ridden the Chisolm Trail with a Texas outfit, and that he had a Mexican wife. He also said he had a good friend in Tucson, which is how he wound up working for Mr. Blanchard.”

“Did he say who the friend was?”

“Mrs. Landry’s husband, Charlie.”

Rhine paused. “I never knew that. I wonder if Charlie’s back from—did Missy say Kansas City or St. Louis, Kent?”

Kent shrugged. He didn’t remember but he did remember Mrs. Landry planned to disappear. He wondered if Landry knew his wife had flown the coop on the wings of Rhine’s bank draft. “If he is back, maybe he can tell us where Parnell’s likely to be.”

Kent then told Rhine about Howard Lane’s help in putting down the fire. “He and his men rode over because they spotted the smoke. He had the bodies driven into Tucson. He’s offering to help with the burial costs.”

“Howard’s a good man.” Rhine studied Kent for a long silent moment. “There’s not going to be much work for a foreman in the next few weeks but I will need help rebuilding. Are you moving on or staying?”

Kent smiled for the first time since the fire. “Too late for you to get rid of me now, old man. I’m here for keeps.”

“What about you, Matt?” Rhine asked.

“I’d like to stay on, too, sir, if you’ll have me.”

“Good. Once things settle down, we’ll talk about rebuilding and go from there. Kent you can have your old room back at the hotel. Matt, we’ll put you up in one of the guest rooms.”

“I’ll be okay out in the stable, sir.”

“Mrs. Fontaine is not going to let you live in the stable, son, and neither am I.”

Matt dropped his head and smiled.

Although Kent and Matt had used the pond to wash up as best they could, their clothes were covered with soot and reeked of smoke. “We lost everything we owned in the fire,” Kent told Rhine. “Do you have any clothes we can borrow until we get these washed up and can go into Tucson tomorrow to buy new?”

“I’m sure I can find something, and the hotel laundress will take care of what you’re wearing now. Just set them in the hallway when we get back. Shouldn’t take them long to dry on the line in this heat.”

Kent was relieved.

“So were you on your way back to the hotel when I rode up?” Rhine asked.