Amiville.
The sun shone brightly into my window and I rolled over in my bed, not wanting to face the day. It seemed like my investigations leading me in circles and I didn’t know if it was even worth asking people about it anymore, since they all seemed to be done talking.
A noise came from the telegraph machine in the corner of my room and I groaned, wondering what was happening now. I dragged myself out of bed and went to the desk. When I listened to the message coming through in morse code, my heart almost stopped from the shock.
*** Dutch Solo Found in Utah Mines. ***
*** Medical Assistance Needed ***
Throwing on some clothes, I ran outside and went to the saloon. The man who’s murder I had been investigating since coming to town was alive, just as I’d expected. It was almost too amazing to be true and I knew I wouldn’t fully believe it until I saw the man in person myself.
The first person I found was Chels. “Chels, you must have been tickled that Dutch is still alive!” When she looked at me with an expression of being at a loss for words I asked, “You were close, weren’t you? If someone I knew that was close was suddenly found alive...”
“We were close,” she nodded and I realized that she was still in too much shock to talk about it so I backed off.
Beside me at the table sat a man named John and I looked over at him. “So John, didn’t I tell ya Dutch was probably not dead?” I remembered that he’d been one of the ones who’d called me crazy when I’d suggested the idea.
“Yes I heard from someone outside,” John nodded. “Supposedly he was spotted in Utah.”
“Alive and well this whole time,” I mused, still having trouble believing it myself.
“Baron will be interested in that news, as he is the one that found him when they said he died,” Allegra, a woman sitting with us, observed.
“Yes that’s true Allegra,” I remembered. “He showed me where they found the body originally. I even went with Iccabod to see the body but I... I had this sense... that something was wrong.”
“So does anyone know what happened that he was not dead?” Allegra wanted to know. “Was it a mistake?”
“I don’t know anything yet, Allegra,” I admitted.
“A mystery indeed,” she observed as the conversation moved to other topics.
I went outside and wandered around town, trying to process my thoughts. When I returned to the saloon that afternoon I spoke with Chels about her feelings and she admitted she’d had some tears over the revelation of Dutch being alive.
A man I hadn’t met yet came in and told us how he’d found Dutch injured and tied up in a mine. He insisted that Dutch seemed okay, considering the circumstances. He described how he’d taken Dutch out of the mine, let him adjust to the light, then Zakk and Avery came by to help take him to the clinic. He said he was nearly killed by a couple of girls who thought he was a liar.
“Rosa asked me to show her the mine. We went there and investigated. She was very upset. And we found a hidden room,” he explained.
“A hidden room in the mine?” I clarified with curiosity.
“Yes. Full of fresh supplies.”
“Oh my...” I gasped. “And he was so close to them but he couldn’t get to it...”
“Yeah whatever, he will have to tell you what happened. Was hard enough to calm down Miss Rosa,” he smiled.
“I don’t doubt it.”
“I gave him his badge back,” Chels sighed then. “He asked where I got it. I told him Gaide gave it to me when he came and told me Dutch was dead.”
“Why to you?” the man asked. “Was he your partner?”
I looked over to Chels, curious how she would answer. She bit her lip before saying, “I wasn’t law at the time.”
“Why would you need a badge then?” he pressed. “If he was, Chels, you must be very very happy now.” When she didn’t answer he laughed, “Okay I stop being curious.”
Chels took a deep breath and then shrugged. “I was asked a question by Lali, asked if he was gonna claim me.”
“And?” the man prompted, and I raised an eyebrow at Chels. “What do you think about all this then? If you are closer to him you must celebrate this day.”
“We are still in shock,” Chels admitted, “With him not being dead.”
“That’s for sure,” I put in, nodding.
“Not quite an answer Chels, but not my business,” he said.
I looked over at him and said, “The name’s Trin, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you Trin. I’m Brendan,” he smiled.
“Hopefully I will see you around again,” I said, knowing I needed to keep going in my investigation.
“I’m sure you will,” he smiled back and I went on down the street after waving goodbye to Chels.
I found Rosa in the saloon later that day and she told me about going to the mines and seeing no blood or anything.
Later that evening I went out walking through the streets by the cabins, hoping to find Dutch Solo himself or someone from his family who could give me information that I so desperately wanted to know. In front of one of the cabins near the stables, a man was standing on his porch so I went over to ask him for help.
“Good evening, Sir. I was wondering if you could help me.”
“Hello,” he greeted me. “Help you how?”
“I’m assuming you’ve heard the news around town... That Dutch Solo is alive.”
“Thought I heard ya out here Trin,” Corri came outside then and smiled at me.
“I’ve never been trying to find him, or his brothers. I...”
“I never thought he was dead.”
“Corri!” I greeted her and then looked from her to the man. Suddenly I put the pieces together and exclaimed, “Josh!”
“Trin, this is my man, Josh Solo. Love, this is Trin.”
I held my hand to my heart and said, “Oh my... Sir, I’ve been looking for you for weeks!”
We talked about how I’d been investigating his brother’s case and went inside to talk about possible motives and suspects. Josh looked at me eventually and said, “Let me see if my brother is here yet.”
Corri went to the kitchen to pour me a drink as Josh went outside. Before I knew it the door opened and Josh walked in, followed by the man whose murder I’d been investigating.
“Bout damn time you showed up,” Josh told his brother.
“I’m a little tired of being called a corpse,” Dutch complained.
“You do look a little peaked.”
“Asshat,” Dutch glared at his brother.
“Now Dutch, ya know we tease ya ‘cause we love ya. Come on inside,” Corri ushered him in.
I looked up and blinked at the handsome man standing before me. His hair was short and black, his eyes had an intense but intriguing feature to them. He looked to be a bit taller then me and his body looked thin from lack of eating much but his mere presence in the room was enough to make my heart start to pound. “Dutch...?” I finally managed.
“Ahh, the author,” Dutch looked at me.
“Dutch Solo, have ya met Trin?” Corri asked him.
“Howdy ma’am,” he smiled at me and I swallowed hard. His smile was electrifying and I had to take a deep breath.
“I...” I bit my lip, nervous.
“I have now,” Dutch answered Corri’s question.
Corri asked if he wanted a drink and I told Dutch, “Sir, I’ve been writing about your murder for the past three weeks. I had three suspects and now... Here you are, sitting across from me.”
“Wasn’t my murder,” he said simply. “I do have suspicions about who they buried though.”
“Well I’m sure ya do...”
“It obviously wasn’t me.”
“Well obviously... You’re too much a charmer to do somethin’ that awful...” I said and Dutch smiled at me.
Corri handed him a glass of Tequila and he downed it quickly as I told him about what Mercy had told me she’d seen while they played hide & seek.
“You do this again, Dutch, and I’ll kill ya myself,” Josh glared at his brother then.
“Do what? I’m the victim!”
“Somehow I doubt it,” Josh rolled his eyes.
“Dutch... do you want me to start from the beginning?” I asked. “I’ll tell ya what I know, where I’m comin’ from?”
“Okay,” Dutch nodded.
“Stop me if ya get confused,” I winked, “‘cause I sure as hell have been.”
“I’m confused,” Josh said already, making Dutch laugh.
“Hell, I’m still confused,” Dutch admitted.
I began to explain to them everything I’d investigated, along with all the conversations I’d had about suspecting that Dutch might actually be dead. As I spoke, Gaide’s wife Ascot entered the house and I was introduced to her.
“Folks, I wasn’t shot. I was smacked in the head. When I woke up, I was chained in a cave.”
“You’ll be interested in this next part, Dutch...” I told him, knowing I needed to tell him everything so that he knew about this next situation before he went back into town.
“Ok,” he looked at me and listened intently as I told them about having Peep over. I described how
I’d suggested that Dutch could be alive and she wanted to be the first to shoot him.
“What’d you do to Peep, Dutch?” Josh asked his brother.
“You have to ask?” Ascot frowned at him.
“Well,” Dutch started as Josh coughed. “Peep and I had a small tryst. Wasn’t nothin’.”
“Well... Tristan seemed to think it was something,” I remembered.
“Well he’d be mistaken,” Dutch shook his head. “Poor Peep, she’d never kill a Solo.”
I continued to tell them about going to the courthouse, where Tristan made me look like a complete fool. I told them how Zakk had said that if he were to arrest everyone in town that had fought with Dtuch, he’d have to arrest the whole town. Dutch just laughed at that, saying it were probably true. When I began to tell them about meeting Bravo, the conversation took an interesting turn in direction.
“Bravo is an imbecile,” Josh pointed out.
“He said you were expectin’ a child Dutch. And he said he knew who killed you... a Hav Taraug... Some guy who you guys got fired from bein’ a marshal or somethin’ or other.”
“Dutch! You’re pregnant?” Josh exclaimed, shocked.
“Dutch!” Corri echoed.
“He’s not related,” josh said about Bravo. “There’s no proof.”
“No, he’s not,” Corri agreed.
Since Dutch didn’t seem concerned with the announcement of him expecting to be a father I continued and told him about discovering Chels’ badge. I told him how I’d gone to Iccabod’s office to see the body and how I’d had a strong sense that the body laying there wasn’t him.
“Well obviously it wasn’t,” he said. “My back is without scars. I ain’t been shot in the back whatsoever.”
“Well, I can only see your front, Dutch, but I’ll take your word for it,” I chuckled.
“Claw marks maybe, Dutch,” Ascot suggested and Josh snickered.
“Like I said, I was knocked in the head in the caves where I came to,” Dutch reminded us. He took out a piece of paper and handed it to Josh. “Joshua, pass the telegram around the room.”
“That’s family business,” Joshua argued. “Not theirs.”
“I’d like to see it myself,” Corri put in.
“No, now it’s public brother,” Dutch told him. “Gaide is in jail.”
Josh stuffed the paper in his pocket and I gasped, shocked at the news.
“I thought it was him... I was wrong.”
“You did what?!” Ascot looked at Dutch and grabbed the halt of her gun.
“Azzie?” Corri was concerned.
“Azzie, how many fellas you know look like me and Gaide?”
“Ohh boy...” Josh slid down in the couch a bit as Corri scooted closer to him.
“Josh looks a bit like you two. A bit, yes,” Ascot deserved.
“No he don’t,” Dutch smirked at Josh.
“Not that much,” Josh slid down further. I looked from Dutch to Josh, listening to them argue about which brother was better looking.
Meanwhile Ascot was getting more and more upset. “My husband is in jail and you were saying that you put your own brother there? All because you thought he would ever shoot you?!”
Josh gulped and Dutch insisted, “Ascot, he’s gettin’ out.” Corri scooted closer to Josh to get out of the line of fire and Dutch looked at Josh. “Hand her the telegram Josh, ‘fore she damn shoots me.”
“We will get him out, doll. I promise,” Josh assured.
I looked from Dutch back to Josh and back to Dutch, thoroughly confused.
As if seeing my confusion Dutch explained, “When Gaide and I were born, there was a third.
Unmentionable as his mind wasn’t all there.” I nodded, assuming he was speaking about Bravo. “He was left at a home for children,” Dutch continued. “Haven’t heard anything of him in years.”
“Dutch, no!” Josh tried to stop him. “I mean it, brother!”
“Joshua, we got no choice,” Dutch shot back, “Gaide has been locked up for somethin’ he didn’t do.”
He handed me the paper and I read it out loud:
To any Solo
I came to Colorado and removed my son’s body to our home in Montana. I did not wish to go through all the rules and guidelines so he was taken by darkness. I mean no ill intent but y son should be buried among his relatives.
J.W. Solo
Corri looked at Josh and slid her hand in his, and I looked desperately at Dutch’s eyes for an answer as I drank my water. “That’s our father,” Dutch explained, making me choke on my water. “James Washington Solo. He did what any father might do. He is not to blame.”
“Our pa...” Josh said with venom in his voice.
“You get Gaide out,” Ascot yelled at Dutch, “or you will have bullet wounds. Ascot style!” She flopped down and frowned, kicking Dutch hard.
“Ouch. Shit woman,” Dutch swore.
“Dutch, there’s a safe spot over by me,” I said softly wanting to be closer to this man I’d been getting to know only on paper. “I won’t kick ya.”
“I deserve it,” Dutch smiled.
“Yes you do,” Ascot glared at him.
“Well, the town itself is enduring well,” Dutch observed.
“Oh wait. Let me get this straight,” I said, not quite ready to change topics until I fully understood what I was hearing. “Gaide’s in jail because he framed his non-existent brother to be dead while you were tied up in some mine by someone you don’t know...”
“Lord no,” Dutch stopped me. “Gaide ain’t one to do harm to no one.”
“I’m so bloody confused...” I held my head in my hands.
“The man that came to feed me in the cave looked just like me,” Dutch explained patiently. “So of course, I assumed it was Gaide.”
“Oh...” I started to understand. “It was your non-existant brother.”
“Justin was his name,” Dutch nodded.
“He tied you up and put you in the cave...” I held his gaze.
“Someone killed him,” Dutch said, “and the town of course thought it was me.”
“He existed once,” Josh remembered. “Long ago.”
“Justin was the body found in front of the mine?” I summarized, finally understanding.
“It was the triplet,” Corri nodded.
“Had to be,” Dutch agreed. “Gaide is alive. I am alive... Apparently Pa lied. Again,” he sighed.
“Pa took him away,” Josh said. “Told me he died with my ma.”
“JW is shipping the body back,” Dutch told us. “I wired him back and explained the troubles going on here.”
“There’s one question I have, Dutch,” I looked at him.
“Shoot. Not literally mind you,” he winked at me. “Got enough of that at the moment,” he glared at Ascot then.
“Why is Gaide in jail? Did they suspect him?”
“He obviously found me, us, and wanted revenge for how Pa left him God knows where.”
“Justin did... but that doesn’t explain why Gaide...”
“He should take it out on Pa,” Josh said.
“Lord only knows what that poor soul endured,” Dutch mused. “Well, when asked, Gaide didn’t do nothin’,” he looked at me. “Before I got this telegram I would have thought Gaide the only one that would look that much like me. The Solo’s have a sordid history,” Dutch continued. “Been three quarters Apache Indian and living as whites. This must be the crowning achievement of the family though, I must say.”
“It ain’t been easy,” Josh put in and the women remained silent.
“I understand, but I am still confused, if you understand my meaning,” Dutch admitted.
“Well you’re confusing us all, man,” Josh told his brother.
I looked to Dutch with my eyes wide. “Confused? You’re confused?!”
“Yes ma’am, I surely am,” Dutch looked at me. “The ‘why’ is the big question here. Just why?”
“You’re an idiot,” Josh said towards Dutch.
They continued to talk about ways to get Gaide out of jail and I just kept my eyes on Dutch. There was something about his presence that made me want to be alone with him.
He must have seen my gaze because he locked his own with me and said, “You seem truly engaged in all this, Miss Paige.”
“All the while hearing about you...” I hesitated. “I just... I feel like I was gettin’ to know you. When I
saw that body in the morgue I just... Dutch, I...”
“Ma’am?” he whispered with concern.
I looked around the room and then asked him if we could talk alone. We went outside and stood in silence while I stared into his eyes, completely at a loss for words.
“What can I say, Miss Trin?” he asked as I stared blankly at him. I reached out to touch his arm, as if to make sure he was real. He offered his arm and as if he could read my thoughts he said, “I’m real, Miss.” I squeezed his arm and felt my heart race as the electricity of the moment shot through me.
“So is this gonna be a big book?” he asked.
I chuckled and said, “Well Dutch, you’re quite the main character, I’ll give ya that.”
“Me? I’m a scoundrel at best, Miss.”
“I hardly think so,” I swallowed nervously. “You’re handsome... charmin’... sweet...”
He blushed a little and said, “You show me too much favor, Miss.”
I stepped back, feeling as though I’d crossed a line. “I’m sorry... I’ve just invested so much time into this whole thing and... My heart just knew you were still alive but... For some reason I had to prove it.”
“Well, I reckon you have. I’m a bit lighter in weight, but alive...”
“I just...”
“Just...?” he prompted but I shook my head as I felt my heart race faster. “It has been my utmost honor to meet you,” he finally said.
“Dutch, the honor is all mine.”
“If I survive this I swear I am handing in my badge and becoming a blacksmith or a horseman,” Dutch laughed and I chuckled, wondering if we’d ever truly solve the mystery of who wanted to kill the legendary Dutch Solo.
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