Роберт Паркер - Robert B. Parker's Revelation

Driggs knew human nature and he knew damn well the man would not be comfortable with losing Driggs that easy. Now Driggs knew for sure that it was indeed him that the man was interested in and Driggs was not going to have any of it.

It was dark where Driggs was standing inside the little alcove closet off the hall, but a bright flash of lightning outside briefly made the dark interior light up and when it did Driggs spied some loose lumber leaning up against the closet wall. He picked up a solid piece of hardwood that was about three feet long and fit perfectly in his hand like a club.

Virgil and I circled, looking around the settlers’ campsite, until we picked up the tracks of Ed Degraw.

“Looks like he took two horses,” I said.

Virgil looked at the tracks on the ground, then looked up in the direction of where the tracks were headed.

“He damn sure don’t think there is anyone left looking for him,” I said.

“Don’t seem,” Virgil said.

“Not just walking off like this,” I said. “Taking two animals, not moving too fast.”

Degraw made no attempt to hide his direction. The tracks we discovered were on the road. It was a well-traveled, deep-rutted wagon road, and the only other fresh tracks were those the settlers had left coming from the opposite direction. Degraw stole just the one horse he was now riding and was traveling northeast toward dark clouds that covered the landscape before us.

“That don’t look inviting,” I said.

“Sure don’t,” Virgil said.

Inside the dark there was a flash of silver.

“Been a bunch of it of late,” I said.

“More than,” Virgil said.

“That time of year,” I said.

“Is.”

“Damn sure don’t feel like a bright and uplifting spring, though, does it?”

“Damn sure don’t, Everett.”

We rode silently for a moment.

“Hard to believe all them got blown up like that,” I said.

Virgil nodded but did not respond.

“Stringer was a damn good hand,” I said.

“He was,” Virgil said. ”And those boys of his, too.”

“All them hands working with him damn sure looked up to him,” I said.

“Just these two men to go, though.”

“The worst two,” I said.

“Ain’t that how it goes,” Virgil said.

“I should have stepped back when I thought that was him,” I said. “When we saw him.”

“That was then,” Virgil said.

“Chastain not seeing Driggs yet there in Appaloosa might mean that the sonofabitch has more then likely moved on.”

“Very well could be,” Virgil said.

“Rolling stone,” I said.

“He’s brazen,” Virgil said.

“He is,” I said.

“Smart,” Virgil said.

“Sure wooed the woman,” I said. “Made it so he got out... took some conniving.”

“And then some,” Virgil said.

“Taking the warden’s money, horses, guns. Then Driggs outfitting himself in fancy clothes. The two of them acting like they are good to move about the country just as they please.”

Virgil looked to me and shook his head.

“They’re damn sure doing it,” he said.

“The whole of the prison break leaves a lot to the unknowing,” I said.

“He damn sure let out all the others so to make things easier on him,” Virgil said.

“Why Degraw, I wonder?”

Virgil shook his head a little.

“Tillary said there was not any love lost between the two of them, Driggs and Degraw,” I said.

“The fact that Degraw is one of the ones we are still chasing after is likely why Driggs made certain he was one of the ones that got let out,” Virgil said. “Knowing the bastard would be someone to reckon with.”

“He is at that.”

“I don’t know exactly just where we are,” I said. “But if we keep in this direction we should eventually get back to the Transcontinental line.”

Virgil nodded.

“We’ll have to contend with that though first,” I said, nodding to the dark clouds across the horizon in front of us.

“Lookie here,” Virgil said, then stopped his horse.

Ahead of us was a small cluster of buildings.

Virgil turned off the road through some brush and I followed. Once we were off the road a ways we stopped and dismounted.

We tied our horses, grabbed our Winchesters, and moved through the thickets toward the buildings. When we got to an opening where we had a good view of the buildings we saw clearly that it was a small supply store with a few outbuildings and corrals. There was a ridge beam that stuck out over the front porch of the store, where a man was hanging from a rope around his neck. There was blood caked around his crotch and his trousers were down around his ankles.

Driggs remained standing in the small closet under the stairs of the empty building. After a short time Driggs heard the distinct sound of chair legs scraping on the floor upstairs. Then he heard footsteps moving around and within a moment they came walking down the stairs. He waited as the footfalls got to the bottom of the steps then eased out of the closet and raised the piece of lumber, ready to strike.

When the man took the last step from the stairs to the floor, he instantly sensed Driggs’s presence and went for his pistol, but Driggs struck first, swinging the hardwood like an ax, striking the man with a powerful blow to his throat. The man fell back on the steps. Driggs quickly put his boot to the man’s chest and pinned his head against the last step and the wall.

It was just light enough for Driggs to make out the man’s face. He was the older fellow with the bowler hat who had been in Meserole’s the night his lanky partner was shot and killed.

Driggs picked up the man’s pistol, tucked it under his belt, then grabbed the man by a fistful of shirt and jerked him up on his feet. Driggs pressed the hardwood to the man’s throat and stared at him.

“Hello, Uncle Dave,” Driggs said with a smile.

“Don’t... hurt... me.”

“Hurt you?”

Driggs applied some pressure to the board he held across Dave’s throat.

“Please,” Dave said, coughing. “Jesus... please.”

“He’s not here,” Driggs said.

“Stop,” Dave said. “My God...”

“None of ’em are here, Uncle Dave. No Jesus, no God, no Holy Spirit. I’m the closest thing to God you will ever see, Uncle Dave.”

Driggs backed off applying pressure. Dave’s eyes were wide with fear as he gasped and coughed.

“Why did he put you to watching me?”

“He don’t know you are here. Least if he does know he never let on to me. I just saw you, and I thought I’d seen a ghost... I just had to be sure that it was you.”

“Don’t lie to me. You know I’m here, so he knows I’m here, doesn’t he?”

“Look, I saw you last night. Walking up the stairs. I was in the saloon late and was at the bar and I turned and I saw you walk by the door and go upstairs, and I thought, My God, that looked like Augustus. Then I went out front and I saw you turn on the lamp in your room upstairs. I knew the room and I figured I’d come this morning and see if what I saw was right.”

“You’re nothing but a lying fool.”

“I’m telling you the truth.”

“Truth? You know nothing of truth. You are just a lowlife peon, Uncle Dave. Why are you watching me, Uncle Dave?”

“I... told you. I... just wanted to know for certain it was you...”

“Stop,” Driggs said.

“What?”

“Why?”