Colorado.
I came home this afternoon after a long and hard couple of days with my father’s funeral. I knew I needed to talk to Chet and ran to Devil’s Ditch to find him. “Chet, We need to talk,” I said when I found him at his place.
“Of course. Grab a barrel ’n sit.”
“Inside?” I asked, nodding towards the door and he opened it, leading me into his home.
“Sure. Everything okay? It’s not about the incident at Bear River, is it?”
“You heard about that did you?”
“Yes,” he laughed. “Tom not one to keep mouth shut when ya get him drunk.”
“Chet,” I sighed. “I’ve pulled the Native column from the paper.”
“Which one?”
“The one called ‘No Boundaries’. The one that showed the Native perspective on events around the town. The one I was basically being suicidal to get.”
“Why you pull it? If it’s truth, needs publishing.”
“Because the Natives have declared war on Colorado, and according to the Sheriff if I print it he’ll arrest me for treason. Not to mention that I risked my life for these people and they seem to not care at all. Hawk doesn’t even want me in his village anymore, and he’s the only reason I was doing this. It was because his tribe kept me alive so many times that I wanted to preserve their perspective. But now…”
“He ain’t allowed to!” Chet smacked the table. “That’s not treason, it’s called freedom! Damn, why I have to be on stage out today? Very bad timing. Know what I gonna do?” he asked and took his gun out to check it before putting it back.
“Chet... It’s done. Hawk tried to kill my best friend. He has made it clear that I’ve overstayed my welcome there. Let it be.”
“No darlin’,” he shook his head. “The law here is corrupt. Look at marshals shooting lawyers. Ya know yesterday was fire at blacksmith’s n bunch of natives helped put it out. I gonna have to take action.”
“I got a telegraph about that fire from Lou. Didn’t tell me much about it but gave me a snippet of it.”
“Yea not looking much like enemies afraid. It time I took out the so called law here when I get back.”
“I’ve been out of town for a couple of days... Our father’s funeral was yesterday,” I sighed and looked at him with tired eyes.
“I know things been hard lately. I not saying I taking Native’s side, but law’s gotta be replaced ’n if they get taken out ’n new ones in, whole area safer.”
I sighed, knowing he was right. I wasn’t happy about how Chels acted that day either. “Adder told me that he could protect me from the natives but the natives couldn’t protect me from the law. Treason is a serious offence and I’m not gonna risk my life for people that couldn’t care less about me.”
“If I was still a marshal I’d have whole law here in jail.”
“Maybe you should become a marshal again. Or at the very least a deputy. Fix the problem from the inside.”
“Nah, I wish it be that easy, but won’t, ’n I telling you right now Trin, print your story. It’s not treason. But wait ‘till I am back. I’ll protect you.”
“No, I can’t support people who will try to kill my best friends for no reason at all. I already got Adder to throw the article in the fire.”
"Yer memory is good rewrite it n better add to it how law says free press is treason.”
“I’m done, Chet. I’m done with them,” I shook my head and stood. “Look Chet, do what you do. I’ll keep doing what I do and promote the story. If a Native wants to talk to me, fine, but I’m not seeking them out anymore.”
“No that’s for best. No sense getting in middle but keep what I told you under wraps. When I bring justice to town, I’ll be wearing a mask a lone umm marshal ranger sorta. Hmmm I like the sound of that. I’ll be the lone ranger.”
“Whatever, Chet. I’m just done trying to change things. It getes me nowhere. Actually, it gets me with a damn knife being turned on me. So it’s done. I’ll just say it like it is. If you see Tom before I do... Tell him we’re back in town?” I stepped closer.
“I will still need you. I have an idea. Press is popular, is it not?”
“I guess it is, yeah,” I shrugged.
“Well when I start doing my rounds next week I gonna want to strike fear in the wrong doors, without scaring the good. Wouldn’t hurt if paper reported a twelve-foot lone rider with a flaming horse.”
“We’ll talk when it happens Chet. I should go soon, the Natives usually attack at this time or soon and I wanna be home.”
“Okay, you take care. Oh, one more thing. Tom is crazy about you. Said he wouldn’t know what he’d do if ever ya got hurt.”
“That’s why I’m not gonna be a doormat for violence anymore. I happen to be crazy about him too,” I winked and squeezed his shoulder before walking out of the cabin.
***
This evening I walked over to Adder’s place where he was sitting on his front porch. “Hey Sheriff.”
“Howdy Trin.”
“Just got back this afternoon from my father’s funeral up north…”
“Ah, how was it?”
“Sad... but good to see family. I’m glad we went. I would have regretted it if we’d stayed, and I needed to get out of here for a couple days anyway.”
“Aye, I understand,” he nodded.
“Now I need to catch up on things for the paper deadline tomorrow,” I sighed.
“Well, there’s not a huge amount going on,” he chuckled.
“I heard about a fire at the blacksmith’s place? Lou sent me a rather brief version of the story. Was hoping I could fill in some holes. Need to talk to that girl about detail.”
“It’s news to me, when was it?”
“Today, apparently,” I said and handed him the note. “Was left in my mailbox when I got back. The line that confused me was ‘some of our natives’.”
“Natives helped? Natives probably started it,” Adder said.
“Probably why they helped,” I sighed. “So you haven’t heard about it... Okay... How about that fire on the saloon the other day? Any more info on that one?”
“One was arrested for stealing from the store today. Chels caught him red-handed.”
“Stealing from the store? What store? Grocery store?”
“Aye. There was a robbery there on Tuesday too.”
I pulled out my notebook and sat down on the fence of the deck. “Two robberies on the same store in two days. Sounds like a story to me.”
“As far as the saloon fire goes, the description I was given was that of a native looking man. Long dark hair, and so on.”
“But these robberies... What happened with those?”
“The one today, he was caught and arrested by Marshal Seetan. The other one on Tuesday was perpetrated by a native woman. Thats as good a description as I seem to get.”
“So we’re both in the dark on pretty much all of it,” I sighed.
“Which, I imagine, is the point,” he nodded.
“Guess so... Hard to print a blank newspaper though,” I said, feeling slightly relieved that I wasn’t the only one in the dark about everything. “Maybe that’s what they want.”
“They don’t want us to be able to distinguish one from the other, otherwise we can arrest the right one. The Army are supposed to deal with the Indians. Can’t say I’ve heard of them doing anything useful.”
“Adder listen... I know what you told me the other day wasn’t easy, at least it wasn’t easy for me to hear, but you were just doing your job and I get that. It was the wake-up call I needed and I’m not gonna be a doormat anymore. I won’t actively seek out information from the Natives anymore. It was done when I had you throw that article in the fire, and it’s still done. And I’ve started wearing my gun again.”
“Good. Cos sooner or later, they’d scalp you,” he nodded.
“I know that now.”
“Though I have requested an arrest warrant on one of ’em, for stealing horses.”
“Stealing horses?” I raised an eyebrow.
“Aye, I had a report in from one of my Deputies, of a soldier trying to sell a horse that was quickly identified as having been stolen.”
“When was this?” I asked, writing down the information.
“Wednesday,” he said after some thought.
“Which deputy? And which soldier? Maybe I could get some information out of them for the paper.”
“I can’t give that information at this point in time. I don’t trust the army.”
“I understand that. I wouldn’t either. So we have on my count now five stories... four of which I have very little information about,” I said, looking through my notes.
“Aye, ’fraid so,” he nodded.
“Great,” I said sarcastically.
“But you should be able to get a fair amount of story out of the Apaches and their allies declaring war,” Adder said.
“Not going to talk to the Apaches. They’re Natives, Adder,” I shook my head.
“Speak to the Marshals, hell, speak to that damn collaborator of a Mayor. No, thats not what I said. Write about them declaring war on this town. You don’t need to speak to them, just speak to the townsfolk.”
“Oh, that’s the one story I do have information for. The attack on Sunday.”
“See if the army has a plan of action..... though I doubt it!” he laughed.
“I’ll see what I can find out,” I nodded. “Adder, can I ask you a favor…”
“Aye, you can ask.”
“Before I put anything to print... Can I run it by you? Kind of like an editor?”
“Sure, I’ll give it a look,” he nodded.
“Thanks, Sheriff. I should get to work. Have a good evening.”
Adder watched a soldier walking up and down the street and said, “I don’t think those boys even know which part of this county is theirs to patrol.”
“G’night Sheriff,” I chuckled and headed down the street.
I walked over to the soldier’s outpost and saw Jonathan Marks and asked if we could talk. “I have a few stories I’m working on and I was wondering if I could get your input on them.”
“Sure.”
“What do you know about the thefts at the grocery store today and Tuesday?” I asked, starting off light.
“I don’t know, ma’am.”
“How about the fire at the saloon?”
“Well I heard about a fire in town a few days ago, rumour was that it was the indians. The Chief assured me it wasn’t.”
“Did you believe him?”
“Well the Chief and I have a working relationship, so I’m prone to.”
“Even though the natives have clearly stated war against the town?” I asked skeptically.
“When I met with the Chief in the camp the other day, he assured me there would be no attacks in town, and I assured him I would do my best to refrain the other boys here in the unit from attacking him. That was Sunday, I believe. I’ve been out of town for the past few days on a mission, so I’m unaware if there has been anything since then.”
“Sunday after or before they attacked the town? When both the Cheyenne and Cherokee chief were locked up in the courthouse cell?”
“It was after the fire in town. It was the Apache chief I spoke to. I haven’t spoken with any Cheyenne or Cherokee in a while.”
“Okay so you can’t tell me much more about the saloon fire other than that you don’t think it was a native..” I said and waved to Adder as he walked by and he chuckled at me.
“And why do you suspect it was the natives?” Jonathan asked.
“So you don’t think the saloon fire was set by a native? Even though an eyewitness gave me a description of a native?” Adder turned and asked.
“Just trying to get the story,” I shrugged to Jon.
“I know a lot of people like to accuse the indians of everything wrong, but I’m not going to judge anyone. The Chief told me it wasn’t the Apache.”
Adder laughed hard and said, “That’d be the same Chief who stood and declared war on this entire town?”
“Be that as it may, I’m looking for information here. Suppositions aren’t helping anyone right now,” I looked between them, not wanting to get into a fight.
“Trin, an eyewitness account isn’t supposition.”
“"Sure, Sheriff. But we still don’t have names and it could have been any one of the natives who did it,” I told him.
“Add it to the two robberies by natives this week, including one today, where an Apache was caught red handed,” Adder said.
“Gee, Sheriff, didn’t you harrass another soldier and I for simply having a friendly conversation with an indian last week... and now you’re the first to suspect a native,” Jon pointed out.
I debated running a story about the tension between the sheriff and the soldiers and listened as Adder said, “Last week was last week. When you’re ready to join us in the present day, I’d be happy to fill you in.”
“And when you decide to be consistent, I’d be glad to join in,” Jon said. “As I told the reporter, I spoke with the Apache Chief on Sunday. If he has declared war since then, I am unaware, as I was out on a long range mission so you can live the luxuries of a civilian, sheriff.”
“I’m pretty consistent. I didn’t like you last week, I don’t like you now. It’s a pretty safe bet that I won’t like you next week either,” Adder shrugged.
“Private, what can you tell me about a horse being stolen on Wednesday?" I asked, trying desperately to get back on point.
“Luxuries of a civilian? Like getting shot at by the natives YOU are supposed to deal with? Like investigating horse theft, perpetrated by a SOLDIER?”
“Sheriff, please…” I looked at him.
“We aren’t friends, sheriff? I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to move on with my life if yo weren’t my friend,” Jon said sarcastically and looked at me. “For the final time, I was out of town for a few days. I do not know of a horse being stolen.”
“Doesn’t seem to know much, really,” Adder chuckled.
“Just because you’re out of town doesn’t mean you don’t know what’s going on,” I said pointedly. “I was out of town for my father’s funeral and somehow I still heard about a blacksmith fire.”
“And I certainly do not like being accused by anyone, especially a madcap of a sheriff who has an identity crisis.”
Adder lowered his hands to his guns and I sighed, having seen the look in Adder’s eyes before. “I’d advise you to show some respect to the people who ACTUALLY defend this town, boy.”
“You have no more reason to suspect me than to suspect anyone else for a horse. Don’t call me boy.”
“Did I say I was suspecting you? I asked if you knew anything about it,” I looked at Jon.
“I know who stole the horse, BOY. I’m just waiting on the papers from the judge,” Adder said.
“Not you, miss. You’re being polite,” Jon said to me.
Glad we got that straightened out. And I do thank you for your time... It’s good to know I can come talk to you if I need to and I’m sure if you had information to give me you would have,” I nodded.
“Okay, young ’un,” Jon said.
“I’ll leave you two boys to it then. Thank you, Private,” I looked between them. “Sheriff, have a good night.”
“I must be going now,” Jon said. “Nice talking to ya, ma’am.”
“Of course, his information will be a week old, and whatever the Chief tells him,” Adder rolled his eyes.
I walked between them as if to make a point and I headed home, watching Adder and Jon continue to banter while Harley came over. I stood on Adder’s porch to watch and saw a Native woman walk over and then noticed Rayce coming over. I sighed, knowing I needed to get home. I decided to check back with Adder tomorrow to see how it all played out.
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