Hidden Secrets

Jacobson did not wait for confirmation. He had a job to do, shoot whoever turned up to look at the horse. He fancied himself a real marksman, and bragged he could shoot a moving target from fifty yards away. No one knew whether this was hyperbole or not, but Jacobson was mean enough for them not to cross him. Which was why McCaffrey asked him to do the shooting.

Personally he did not care who it was, everyone at the old Sutherland ranch sided with that damned half-breed Cross, and in his mind, that made them all equally guilty. He would shoot them all, if they all fell into McCaffrey's trap. So he raised his pistol to shoot.

"Hold it!" McCloskey hissed. "There are too many of them."

"So? I can get them all."

"No you can't. Not before one of them gets back up to the house and raises an alarm. You don't want any witnesses. We may be able to make Pierce believe that the half-breed was stealin' Fire Eater, but not Andrews and his wife. They're too well known around here, and you'll be hung for murder. There is a better way of gettin' the Indian."

"Like what?"

"I don't know yet. Besides, look. That young McCloud kid joined them. McCaffrey won't be happy if you shoot a kid."

"After what he did to you yesterday, you'd protect him?"

"I want to get him, don't worry about that. But I don't want to have the law breathin' down my neck either. I'm going to retrieve Fire Eater. You go back and tell McCaffrey what happened."

"I'm gonna tell him everythin'."

"I expected that. Go on, before they see you. Wait, I have a better idea."

"What?"

"We both go down to retrieve Fire Eater. We can just tell them that we were searchin' for the horse."

"Like they're gonna believe that."

"If they see you skulkin' off in the night, they'll know we were up to no good." With that McCloskey slowing approached Buck and the others, in time to hear Buck say:

"Great! Next thing you'll know, they'll lynch me for bein' a horse thief."

"Do I need to?" McCloskey spoke up, as Jacobson joined him.

"What are you doin' here, McCloskey?" Kid asked.

"Lookin' for my horse, which I see you've found."

"Why look here? Did you just happen to think he could be here?"

"As I said, we were lookin' for my horse. That he was found here don't make a difference... unless of course he was brought here."

"What do you mean by that?" Lou asked hotly.

"I know what he means," Buck put in. "He's implyin' that I stole the horse. Am I right?"

"You said it," McCloskey countered, "not me."

"Well you're way off the mark," Kid said. "Buck was inside the house with us. We heard the horse and came out to check, since it could've been one of ours."

"That's your story, certainly," McCloskey had to raise his voice above the increased howling of the wind which had come up. It began to snow, lightly.

"It's the truth!" Jeremiah snapped.

"Think about it," Kid reasoned. "Would anyone go horse stealin' on foot on a night like this?"

"With Jeremiah in tow?" Buck added.

They had him there. That was one thing McCaffrey had not thought of. "All right," he conceded. "I'll just take Fire Eater, and we'll be on our way."

"In that?" Lou asked indicating the snow, which had begun to fall heavier.

"Like I'm supposed to believe that you would put us up for the night?"

"Despite our personal differences, I hate to think of anyone findin' their way home in a storm like this."

McCloskey bowed his head. "Well I thank you for your hospitality, but I'm afraid I must decline. We really need to be gettin' back, and I'd hate to leave Fire Eater in what's left of your stable for the night." With that parting shot, McCloskey looped the rope he was holding around Fire Eater's neck and left with Jacobson.

"You're not gonna let them get away with it, are you?" Jacobson asked when they moved out of earshot.

"They had us there. There was no other evidence that they were goin' to steal Fire Eater. They weren't dresses for ridin', and if you had shot all of them, sooner or later, Pierce would link us to the crime. Just go back to McCaffrey and tell him what happened. I'll take Fire Eater home and meet you at the saloon. And don't worry, I can make it through this sort of weather."

McCaffrey paced back and forth. Jacobson had been there for nearly two hours, and McCloskey was due back over an hour ago, but there was no sign of the man. Jacobson had already told him what happened at the old Sutherland ranch, but McCaffrey wanted to hear McCloskey's version before deciding what to do.

"What do you think happened?" Jacobson asked. "Do you think that Cross got him?"

"Could have," McCaffrey replied. "But then again, he may have decided that it was snowin' too hard for him to come out. Wait until mornin'. If he hasn't turned up by then, we'll ride out to the old Sutherland ranch and confront the half-breed."

Jeremiah hid a match in his bedroom, and not long after the rest of the house had retired he lit his lamp and settled down to read. The more he read, the more incensed he grew. Finally, about an hour before dawn he slammed the book shut and threw it across the room. Wincing at the noise it made, Jeremiah held his breath and waited to see if anyone stirred. When the silence reigned, the boy quietly got out of bed and got dressed in the warmest clothes he could find. Then he crept downstairs to Teresa's room.

Teresa woke with a start to find someone's hand over her mouth. "Who's there?"

"Shh, it's me, 'Resa," Jeremiah whispered, using her childhood nickname. "Get up as quietly as you can. We're leavin' here."

"Why? I like it here."

"Resa, Louise has been lyin' to us. I'll tell you everythin', but we must go now before anybody wakes up."

Somebody did wake up, alerted by he knew not what. He listened intently, but heard nothing. Lying back down, Buck tried to go back to sleep, but sleep eluded him. something was wrong, he could feel it, but hearing nothing when he woke up meant that nothing seemed to be wrong. Knowing that things were not always as they seem, he decided to have a look around, if for no other reason than peace of mind.

Creeping into the hall, the first thing Buck noticed was that Jeremiah's door was slightly ajar and that he could see a sliver of light. Wondering what Jeremiah would be doing awake at this time of the night, Buck peered into the room and quickly saw that it was empty.

Although his first instinct was to raise an alarm, Buck forced himself to think logically. As it was just before dawn, Jeremiah might have just gotten up extra early to complete some chores and prove that he wasn't a kid anymore, but that didn't seem like Jeremiah. Concerned, Buck checked outside for footprints in the snow. It had stopped snowing sometime during the night, so any prints made since then would clearly show—only there were none near the house.

Buck came back in and checked out Jeremiah's bedroom. Everything seemed in order, his clothes were still in the closet, so Jeremiah had not planned on running away. Frowning, Buck then went downstairs to see whether Jeremiah had just woken up early and gone down to start the kitchen fire. But the kitchen was dark and cold. He moved back through to the living area, carrying the lamp that Jeremiah left lit in his room. There was no sign of Jeremiah, but nothing else seemed amiss, so he decided to head back upstairs when he noticed that Teresa's door was wide open, and she always slept with it shut. Buck checked her room out and sure enough, it was empty like Jeremiah's, clothes in place and all. Dread settled in Buck's stomach as he rushed back upstairs to wake Lou and the Kid.

Sneaking out of the house via a secret passage that he discovered, Jeremiah led Teresa through to the barn. Talking softly, so as not to spook the horses, he tied the gentle brown mare, Bessie, and helped Teresa up. He intended on leading Teresa into Lone Tree Valley taking the long way round; only, in the dark, he soon became lost—not that he realised this at first. Just as the sky began to lighten with dawn's early rays, it began snowing again. Still, Jeremiah pushed on, refusing to admit that he was lost.

Always a light sleeper, Lou sat bolt upright when she heard a thumping at the bedroom door. "Who is it?" she called, waking Kid.

"It's Buck. Lou, the children are gone."

"What?!" Lou jumped up, grabbed her robe and rushed to open the door. "What are you talking about?

"I woke up suddenly for no reason. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to have a look around. There was a lamp lit in Jeremiah's room, but he wasn't there. I checked downstairs to see whether he just got up early and discovered that Teresa was gone as well. Jeremiah wouldn't run away, would he?"

"On his own, maybe, but with Teresa?" Kid shook his head. "He's always been protective of her."

"One thing, though. There are no tracks leadin' from the house, and I have a hard time believin' that Jeremiah would choose to run away in the middle of a snowstorm."

"He would have used the secret passage. He doesn't risk wakin' up the men in the bunkhouse that way." Kid said

"Secret passage?"

"The children discovered it shortly after we moved in," Lou explained. "There's a spiral staircase in the built-in cupboards, leadin' from the attic right down below the ground. The passage leads from the storm cellar below the kitchen, under the house and through to the barn. The spiral staircase leads down to the passage. Come, I'll show you."

Buck followed Lou and Kid round past the stairs leading up to the attic and down, to the inbuilt cupboard in the far corner. "Interestin'," he commented. "Does this open up downstairs?"

"In the study," Kid replied. "And the study isn't locked, so it would have been easy for him to get out that way. I'll go down to the barn to check it out."

"I'll go with you," Buck went back to his room to put a coat on.

"Comin'?" Kid asked his wife.

Lou shook her head. "I'll look in their bedrooms. Maybe one of them left a note or somethin'."

Jeremiah hadn't left a note, Lou discovered, but he had left something that told her exactly what happened. Lying on the floor behind the door was the diary. Lou's heart sank. It was lying open, in the middle of an entry, but the fact that it was here and not on the bed indicated that Jeremiah had thrown it across the room, and she had no idea how far he read.

Lou started when the door swung back and Kid appeared. "Find anything?" she asked.

"There were tracks leadin' from the barn, and Bessie's missin'. Buck thinks that Teresa was on Bessie, and Jeremiah was leadin' her. What about you?"

Lou showed him the diary. "It was on the floor. No doubt Jeremiah was readin' it. That's why he ran away."

"C'mon, Lou, you don't know that."

"Don't I? You know how Jeremiah was, how he thought of me, how he still thinks of me sometimes. With that attitude, is it any wonder that he would run away when he finds out that I lied to him."

"But you don't know how far he read," Kid objected.

"Maybe not, but I can guess. He must have read the entry where Ma found out that 'Boggs' was her husband. He'll know that I lied when I told them that Boggs wasn't our father."

"And he saw me kill him," Kid closed his eyes, the past was really haunting them now. "But why take Teresa?"

"Maybe he thought he was protectin' her." Lou shrugged. "I'll look in Teresa's room, in case she left a note."

But a quick search showed that she had not left one. "What are we gonna do, Kid?" Lou's big eyes filled with tears.

"Don't worry, Lou, I'll find them," Buck said. "I'll head out as soon as it's light."

"And I'll go with him," Kid added.

"I'm comin; too," Lou spoke with determination.

"No," Kid replied.

"Kid, you can't keep me here."

"Lou, someone needs to stay here in case they come back," Buck reasoned. "Now Kid would probably stay if you really wanted to come, but..."

"I do," Lou interrupted.

"...But who do you think would have more strength to carry them home if somethin' has happened to them?"

"All right," she said with resignation. "I'll stay. But bring them back quickly."

McCloskey had no idea what time it was. He had been riding all night, heading home—or so he thought. But the longer he rode, he more he realised that he was lost. Perhaps he was riding in circles? He didn't know, and he dared not stop and rest until the morning light. He knew that if he were to fall asleep in the snow he would not wake up again.

What was that? McCloskey turned in the saddle, but there was nothing to see in the darkness. At least it had stopped snowing. The darkness was impenetrable, the sky which was clear a moment ago was clouding over again. The silence was deafening, it seemed to McCloskey that he was the only person left in the world. Of course he knew that it was just his imagination at work, but somehow, here in the darkness of the night, he could not convince himself of that.

His eyes grew heavier and heavier, his head nodded, and the reins grew slack.

Dull sunlight drifted through the curtains, waking McCaffrey. He looked around, confused, wondering why he was downstairs in the saloon instead of his bed. He saw Jacobson slumped over one of the tables and suddenly remembered what happened.

"Hey Jacobson!" McCaffrey called.

The other man raised his head. "I didn't do nothin'," he mumbled like a petulant child.

"What are you on about?" McCaffrey asked irritably. "I just wanted to know if McCloskey's turned up yet?"

"What?" Jacobson sat up and rubbed his face. "Um, I don't think so."

McCaffrey rolled his eyes. Muttering something about incompetents, he went to wake up his henchmen, Dukore and Corbett.

"What's the news, boss?" Dukore asked.

"Saddle up, we're ridin' on the old Sutherland ranch. We're gonna catch ourselves a half-breed."

"Now hold on, McCaffrey," Meridian said, coming down the stairs. "I know you said we'll ride out if McCloskey ain't here by mornin', but lets give the man a chance to show up first. If we act hastily, we'll have Pierce down on us and we won't get the half-breed."

McCaffrey growled. "I'll give him one hour. If McCloskey ain't here by then, we're goin' straight to the Sutherland ranch."

"Where are we, Jeremiah?" Teresa asked softly.

"On the way to Lone Tree," Jeremiah said. "I told you before, remember?"

"Why's it takin' so long?"

"Because we're goin' the long way." Jeremiah repeated this automatically, as he had every time. He knew that Teresa was getting tired, and it seemed to be making her rather forgetful. But even as he spoke this automatic response, he was not sure of the answer. He would not admit to himself that he was lost, though.

Teresa's not the only one who's gettin' tired, Jeremiah thought to himself as he stumbled in the snow, belatedly realising that trying to run away after staying up all night was probably not the best idea. Maybe we should stop for a rest.

Even as he thought this, Jeremiah stumbled again, this time tripping over something. Bessie nickered, not liking her head being jerked as the boy fell in the snow. "What happened, Jeremiah?" Teresa mumbled.

Feeling like a fool, Jeremiah stood and brushed snow off himself. "I'm all right, I just tripped on somethin'."

"What?"

"I dunno." Jeremiah crouched down and brushed snow away from the object that caused him to stumble—not an easy task when more snow is falling. But he soon found out what it was. "Hot damn!" he exclaimed.

"Louise would kill you if she heard you say that."

"Well Louise ain't here."

"What is it?"

Jeremiah looked from his baby sister to what he had found. "Uh, nevermind," he said hastily, not wanting her to look down. "C'mon, we'll rest for a moment. How are you feelin'?"

"I'm tired."

"I know, that's why we're restin'."

"Why'd we have to leave Louise and Kid? I liked it there."

"I told you, Louise's been lyin' to us."

"What'd she lie 'bout?" Teresa's voice was getting fainter and slower as she started to fall asleep. This should have worried Jeremiah, but he was too preoccupied with his anger to realise that letting Teresa sleep just may kill her.

"She lied about our father. She told us that he was a good man who died a long time ago. Well he wasn't!"

There was no answer. When Jeremiah turned to look back at his sister, he saw that she had fallen asleep, slumped against Bessie's neck. Figuring that he'd let her sleep, Jeremiah sat down on a nearby rock to brood, not noticing that the cold was making him drift off too.

It was snowing lightly when Buck and the Kid set out to track the wayward McCloud siblings. "Are you sure we'll be able to find them in this?" Kid asked.

Buck shook his head. "I can follow the tracks as long as they still show, but when the snow covers them..." The Kiowa shrugged. "I'm not givin' up though. The pattern of the tracks should give me an idea of where they went." Buck bit back a groan, his shoulder was starting to hurt again, but the Kid heard it.

"Are you gonna be all right? You were shot the day before last."

"When has that ever stopped me before. Besides, we both know what could happen to the children if they stay out in this too long." Buck looked to the east, the sun was rising, but the clouds obscured the view.

Almost exactly one hour after the ultimatum McCaffrey gave, young Tim McCloskey raced into the saloon. This was rather an extraordinary event as Tim was only thirteen years old and usually not allowed anywhere near the saloon. Tim was small and slight, but very energetic and prone to exaggeration.

"What are you doin' here, boy?" Dukore growled.

Tim ignored him and went straight to Jacobson. "Do you know where Pa is?"

The marksman shrugged. "Why ask me?"

"Because Pa went out with you last night and he never came home. Mum's real worried 'cause Pa has the money for the bill at the General store that she has to pay today. She thinks that Pa just spent the night here drinkin', but I know different."

McCaffrey's head came up with interest. "Oh, how do you know?"

"Because Pa was out on Brownstone last night, and he had Fire Eater with him. Both horse were in the paddock this mornin', and Brownstone was saddled. Somethin' happened to Pa, somethin' bad."