“Teaspoon!” Kid hollered as the troubled Marshal came into the Sheriff’s office.
Sheriff Tabor stood up.
“Teaspoon Hunter, Sweetwater Marshal.” Teaspoon introduced himself.
“Certainly seem to be getting alot of Sweetwater law in today. I’m Sheriff Tabor.” He extended a hand to Teaspoon. Teaspoon shook it firmly.
“These boys are under my supervision. I maintain the Sweetwater, Nebraska Territory, Pony Express outlet, and they are in my employ...” Teaspoon tried to look imposing as he arched his back and dug his thumbs under his suspenders.
“I’m sorry I can’t let ‘em go.” Tabor shook his head. “I’m just doing my job, you know that. The long haired one, Hickok,” He pointed a finger over at the cell, “admitted to killing the Ranger. It was no accident. It was cold blooded murder.”
“I know it’s your job.” Teaspoon agreed. “But I hope to represent them before a judge.”
“A judge?” Tabor was surprised. He hadn’t figured there was any need to try a man who had already admitted to murder.
“Alright, but not everyone will agree with the necessity of such a procedure. As one man of law to another, I really hope you know what you’re getting yourself into.” Tabor was reluctant. “I’ll see what I can arrange. Come see me in the morning.”
Teaspoon nodded. Kid hollered to him as he left, but it fell on deaf ears, Teaspoon continued out the door without even a glance back.
Cody had not woke up until the morning sun streaked in. He was still dressed from the day before. Teaspoon was sitting at the foot of his neatly made bed writing on a paper with a small worn to the nub pencil.
“Morning.” Teaspoon looked up, then continued his scribblings.
“Did you sleep at all?” Cody suddenly felt guilty for enjoying one of the most comfortable slumbers he could recall.
“A few hours.” Teaspoon lied.
“Whatcha doing?” Cody stood up and stretched. His thighs were still sore from the long spell in the saddle.
“Just writing down some thoughts I had.” Teaspoon answered him.
“Oh.” Cody seemed surprised. “I do that too. Quite often actually.”
Cody admitted. “Maybe one day I’ll be a writer, if I can fit it in with being a performer and of course managing the large ranch I’m gonna own.”
Teaspoon chuckled. He had always admired the goals Cody laid out for himself, even the far fetched ones. With his unfettered determination, he knew that Cody would succeed in any path he would choose.
“Oh, I think you’ll find a way to fit it in.” Teaspoon encouraged.
“Yeah I guess so.” Cody agreed. “Have you been to see Jimmy and Kid?”
“I talked to the Sheriff thats holding ‘em.” Teaspoon set his writing materials aside.
“And?” An eager Cody pried.
“Supposed to go back this morning, see what we can work out.”
“Well what are we waiting for! Let’s go.” Cody smelled an awful stench in the air. He winced. Something smelled like it had gone horribly rotten. He then realized it was him. Time for a bath William Cody. He told himself. “Maybe I’ll meet you there.”
Teaspoon nodded.
“I’m sorry Marshal Hunter but there ain’t a man in town who sees the need to have a trial and I’d have to admit I agree with them.” Sheriff Tabor rose when Teaspoon entered. “Hickok admitted killing the man. I know he’s your friend and all but the law is the law. The punishment for murder is death by hanging.”
The deputy was unlocking Josephine’s cell.
“What’s going on?” Teaspoon looked over.
“We got no cause to hold the woman.” Tabor explained. “See, it was her partner John Harper that was the bad element. That man was a killer, a robber and a con artist. She was just taken in by him. She hasn’t killed or robbed nobody alone. So we gotta let her go. He died a few weeks ago in a robbery attempt, shot down by one of our local merchants.”
“This is crazy!” Kid yelled from the cell. “It was her all along!”
He ran to the edge of the cell closest to the Sheriff. “Jimmy only did what she wanted him to do!”
Josephine smiled at Kid.
“For God sakes... she told Jimmy that the man had killed her husband! Jimmy never saw his badge, he never even saw the man’s face!” Kid hollered.
“Husband?” Josephine looked confused. “I’m sorry, I’ve never been married.” She said sweetly.
Jimmy could feel his blood beginning to boil.
“Besides,” The Sheriff started. “This Hickok, he was quite the gunfighter a few years ago.”
“WAS.” Teaspoon emphasized.
“Once you live by the gun, you’ll always live by the gun. It’s something that gets under your skin and becomes a part of you.” The Sheriff reasoned. “I can give you the noisy one though, the one calling himself,” the Sheriff checked his papers, “Kid.”
“You gotta understand,” Teaspoon stopped to see Cody come in. “I know this boy. He’s not a gunfighter, he’s not a killer. He is a good man who just was trying to help a lady in trouble. She had him fooled good. She had us ALL fooled good.”
“I’m sorry Marshal.” Tabor unlocked the cell to let Kid out.
“Kid!” Lou came running in from behind Cody. She wore a long blue cotton dress and her hair was tied up in a white ribbon.
“Lou?!” Kid was in awe.
She turned serious right away. “Are you okay Kid?”
“Yeah I’m okay.” He hugged her. She smelled like lavender.
“Jimmy.” Lou walked over to the cell.
“Lou.” Jimmy stood and walked up to the bars.
“Don’t worry.” Lou said softly.
“I’m a little past worry.” Jimmy smiled thoughtfully.
“I know you wouldn’t have killed the man if you’d known who he was.” Lou assured. “Teaspoon says you didn’t even see his face. A faceless man is always easier to kill.”
“I’m no coward.” Jimmy snapped.
“No I wasn’t saying you were. My father told me a story many years ago...” Lou moved in close to Jimmy. Just the bars separated them. “He says that every gunfighter has a faceless man. Every killer has another man out there thats faster and quieter and luckier than he is, and he will never see him coming. Some men look into the face of their killer but all they see is death. Some men find it easier to not look at the men they’ve killed, this way they can’t haunt them in their dreams.”
“That’s a nice story.” Jimmy couldn’t understand its relevance.
“It is.” Lou’s voice drifted off.
“Jimmy we’ll get you past this.” She said as Kid came up beside her.
Sweetwater Sheriff Spencer Hawkins strolled in the door. “I see a gallows out there.” He looked right at Jimmy. “When’s the hangin’?”
“Tomorrow noon.” Tabor answered.
“Good I’ll be sure to be there.” He smiled. He took a look around and slipped back out the door.
Kid pulled Teaspoon outside after Sheriff Hawkins left. “Didn’t that seem odd to you?” Kid asked.
“What’s odd Kid?” Teaspoon seemed confused.
“Sheriff Spencer.” Kid clarified. “He was so obsessed with helping that Ranger guy find Josephine, he brings us all in as prisoners, and when he visits the jail he doesn’t even ask where she is, or why she’s gone?” Kid thought for a moment. “Maybe because he knows where she is, he didn’t have to ask.”
Teaspoon raised an eyebrow at Kid. “You know son, I think you got something. Stay on him.”
Sheriff Spencer Hawkins returned to his hotel room. Kid stayed outside. He hoped he was right about his hunch, if he wasn’t Jimmy was going to run out of time.
“Kid.” Cody came up to him. “Teaspoon told me what you were doing. Want some help?”
“Shhhh.” Kid instructed.
Sheriff Hawkins stepped out onto the street. Cody and Kid had their backs to him as he mounted up on his horse.
“Follow him. But don’t let him see you.” Kid whispered to Cody. Cody nodded and ran back to the Silver Spoon to get his horse.
Kid slipped into the hotel where the Sheriff was staying.
“Can I help you?” The clerk asked.
“Yes” Kid forced himself to look as sad as he could. “I’m Ike McCloud. A good friend of Sheriff Hawkin’s Deputy. I have a message for him, some very bad news I’m afraid.”
“Alright, you can leave the message with me.” The clerk seemed skeptical.
“He’s not in?” Kid tried to look surprised.
“No you just missed him actually.” The clerk explained. “He said he’d be back in a few hours, if you’d care to come back then,”
“No I can’t. I have business back in town. I rode all the way here, could I just to leave him this message. Please, if I could just slip it under his door.”
The clerk obviously didn’t like the situation but he didn’t want to interfere with a Sheriff receiving news bad enough to send a man to ride two days just to deliver a message.
“Alright. But I’m gonna have to go up there with you.”
“That’s fine.” Kid agreed.
“What you say your name was again?” The clerk pulled out a pencil.
“Ike McCloud.” Kid repeated.
“Lets go.” The clerk walked up the stairs behind Kid. Kid got to the door and he bent to slip the folded paper under the door. He could see shadows of movement inside.
“Come on.” The clerk urged.
Kid slipped the paper under the door and stood up. “Thanks” He said, once they got back into the lobby.
The clerk just grumbled, as Kid exited back out onto the street. He looked up and saw a flash of blonde hair turning away from the window. He had been right. Now all he had to do was prove it to Tabor.
Cody had followed Hawkins into the woods that ran along the river. He stayed quite a ways back, and was good at disappearing if Hawkins heard any peculiar noises. I’d make a good scout. Cody concluded.
The Sheriff stopped at a few trees sticking his arm into their knot holes. Cody realized he was looking for something. Finally, Hawkins found the right tree, and he pulled out a small burlap sack, tucking it into his saddlebags. Cody waited for him to pass by, then he followed him back.
Kid had gone to Teaspoon’s room to tell him what he had seen at the hotel.
“Good work.” Teaspoon smiled. He knew that all they had to do was find a connection between Josephine and Hawkins now. “Where’s Cody?” Teaspoon asked.
“He was following Hawkins. I’ll keep an eye out for him.” Kid looked down from the second floor window. “Nevermind.” He smiled. “Here he comes now.”
Cody was up the stairs and at the door in a flash. “Hawkins just grabbed a sack from the woods.”
He was out of breath. “I dunno what it was though.”
“That’s fine.” Teaspoon said. “I think we have all we need.”
Cody could tell by the look in Teaspoon’s eye, that he had an idea.
Sheriff Hawkins rushed up the steps two at a time. The clerk had told him a man named Ike McCloud had dropped in to leave him an urgent message. He knew of no such man. He opened the door and found himself staring up the barrel of a Smith and Wesson revolver.
“Woah.” He said cautiously. “It’s just me Sugar.”
Josephine lowered the gun and threw a piece of paper at him. “Look.”
“What’s this?” He was confused. He opened up the folded paper and read the three words aloud. “I know everything.”
“That boy, Kid, Hickok’s friend. He was by here. Slipped it under the door right after you left.” She caustically quipped.
“What are we going to do about this?” He fretted.
“First things first.” She smiled seductively. “Did you get the money?”
“Right here.” He handed the bag to her.
She opened it up and looked inside. “Good!” She grinned. “We leave tonight.”
“Hold on,” He stopped her. “Leave? Leave where?”
“Well I figured maybe Pawnee or Leavenworth, just somewhere till this whole thing cools off.”
“I can’t do that. I just got settled and got office in Sweetwater. You come up to me for the first time in almost ten years and expect me to use my new title to bail you out, while you set up that Hickok guy, We may have been lovers a long time ago, but Josie I can’t just give up my life like that for you.” He protested.
“Give up your life,” She repeated. “That’s a good idea.” She picked up the big six-gun, and pointed it steady at him.
The door swung open. Startled, Josephine fired. Sheriff Spencer Hawkins fell to the ground with a dull thud. Kid, Cody, Teaspoon and Sheriff Horace Tabor rushed in. The stunned clerk just stood at the door. They had all heard everything that had transpired in the last few minutes.
“I’m sorry Marshal Hunter, you had to understand how it looked.” Tabor apologized.
“Yes I know. You were just doing your job.”
“Looks like a hanging after all but It won’t be your friend Hickok.” Sheriff Tabor put handcuffs on Josephine. “I’d have to admit I feel a bit uneasy, ain’t never heard of a town thats hung a lady before.
“Don’t let her get to you.” Teaspoon was quick to give advice. “We all fell for her sad eyes and pretty face. She’s no lady, she’s a killer and a robber. Thats it, thats all, no more no less.”
As the Sheriff and Teaspoon came into the jail house, leading Josephine, Jimmy stood up. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve sorted this whole matter out, unfortunately it took another lawman’s death to do it.” Tabor frowned. “You can go now.” He locked Josephine in her cell and then came and unlocked Jimmy’s cell.
Jimmy and Teaspoon were walking back to the Silver Spoon when finally a solemn Jimmy spoke. “They were really gonna hang me.”
“Yes they were.” Teaspoon said honestly.
“Mostly because of who I am...” Jimmy pondered.
“Who you were.” Teaspoon corrected.
Jimmy disagreed. He knew he was still that man, and no matter how hard he tried, he always would be. He had wanted to kill that man. He had heard him call that he was a Ranger, and he didn’t care. He also found himself missing the girl he had thought Josephine was. The girl who had turned his heart inside out when she kissed him. He remembered his last tender moment. He went over all these things in his head. He felt a miserable feeling he envisioned as venom knawing away at the pit of his stomach.
It was their last night in the booming town of Denver, and Lou’s last night as a lady. Kid treated her to dinner at the fancy restaurant adjacent to the Silver Spoon Hotel.
Kid found all through the meal he couldn’t keep his mind on the food. She looked so beautiful. Lou’s face glowed from the light of the thick candle in the middle of the table. Her eyes twinkled and her hair glowed a deep auburn.
Lou couldn’t keep what she was thinking, inside of her any longer. “Kid, I have to know something.”
The seriousness in her face ruined his perfect moment. “What’s that Lou?”
“Did you write this to me?” She pulled the small folded piece of paper from her handbag, and handed it to Kid. It was the letter Jimmy had found outside of the kitchen.
He read it, then stopped and read it again. He wished he could claim those beautiful words, but he couldn’t. He felt a quick anger rise inside of him. “No.” He shoved the paper back at her.
Who would write this to Lou? Was he losing her? His mind raced. Teaspoon, Cody and Jimmy came in off the street. They sat down at the table beside Lou and Kid.
“Excuse me.” Kid stood up.
Lou, sensing what Kid was about to do, tried to stop him. “Kid don’t.”
Kid walked up to Jimmy and decked him square in the jaw.
“What in the blazes was that for?” Teaspoon was dumbfounded.
“This.” Kid dropped the paper as he stormed off.
Lou apologized to Jimmy and Teaspoon. “I’m sorry. I should have never showed him this letter Jimmy wrote me, I thought it might have been from Kid...”
Teaspoon bent down and picked up the letter. He started to read it. “Where did you get this?” He inquired.
Jimmy who was cradling his chin with his hand, cut in. “I found it. Outside a few days ago. I figured it was Kid’s. I was going to return it to him but I guess I misplaced it.” He winced, his jaw stung.
“Well it ain’t Kid’s.” Teaspoon verified. “And it ain’t Lou’s either.”
Lou was bewildered. “Then who’s it for? And who wrote it?”
Teaspoon surprised them all with his answer. “I wrote it, for my first wife and true love.” The heartbreak was evident in his eyes as he spoke. “I was not home much after I took on duties as a Ranger, eventually it’s what came between us. I wrote her this letter my last day that I saw her. I never got to give it to her. When I came back from Fort Decker, she was gone. She just left...” He tucked the letter into his pocket. “I’ve always hung onto it, and kept it close to me. Until now I guess. The wind and rain we had last week probably blew it out my open window.” He explained. “At least I have it back.”
Lou suddenly felt very foolish. “Kid!” She exclaimed. She rushed out to go find him.
They sat down and ordered their meals. Jimmy decided on soup, seeing as though chewing would likely hurt real good.
Lou found Kid sulking a few blocks away. He looked up as she ran towards him.
“I’m sorry.” The both said in unison.
“The letter was Teaspoon’s.” Lou was ashamed of her assumptions.
“Really?” He suddenly felt overwhelmingly bad for decking Jimmy.
They walked back to the restaurant hand in hand. They had lost their table, but they managed to squeeze in with Teaspoon and the other riders. Lou was squished in between Jimmy and Kid, She was glad she’d already eaten, she barley had room to move her elbows on either side.
“I’m so sorry Jimmy.” Kid profusely apologized.
“It’s alright.” Jimmy just wanted to forget about it all.
Cody tore into the slab of steak he had on his plate. “I guess things turned out pretty good after all.” His knife wrestled with the tough meat and sent the steak flying. It landed in Jimmy’s soup with a splash. Jimmy couldn’t help but laugh. They all laughed, except Cody.
They rode home at a leisurely pace. There were pressing matters that Teaspoon had to take care of with his running the Express Station, and now his part in holding the town’s elections for Sheriff. But such matters seemed to pale in comparison to a good night’s sleep in a familiar bed.
Rachel rushed out to greet them as they rode up. She let out a sigh of relief to see they were all there. “Ike’s in Kansas.” She informed Teaspoon. “How are the boys doing?”
“Well Jimmy’s been through a bit, I guess Kid has too.” Teaspoon realized. “But they’ll pull through. They always do.”
Noah and Buck rushed up as Teaspoon, Jimmy, Kid, Cody, and Lou came out from the stables.
“Glad to have you back.” Noah grinned.
“Not as glad as I am to be back.” Jimmy smiled. It really did feel good to be finally home. He just hoped he would be able to put the whole ordeal behind him.
