Page 50 of Hell and Gone
And then Burke had turned a gun on him, shot his friends dead. Lawrence ran his hand down his face, scrubbed his jaw. “How did you survive? We found Bart Conway. He crawled out of the pool.”
“I’d gone to piss. I’d drank too much, and I stumbled away when it happened. I heard it, though. I thought we was under attack. So I ran back, tried to get my gun. I was gonna defend us.” Connor snorted. “And then Burke turned his rifle on me. Blew my arm off. So I ran. Everyone else, they was already dead or dyin’.” He shook his head, tried to shake something off. “I can still hear ‘em screamin’.”
“What happened next?” Everett, ever the lawman, refocusing Connor on the story. “What did Burke do then?”
“I was crawling the ravine. Tryin’ to get out of there. He shot me in the back as I was scramblin’ over a boulder. I fell. I thought I was dead, ‘cause there’s no good place to land down there. Guess he thought I was dead, too, ‘cause he didn’t come lookin’ for me. I landed in the dry brush, scratched myself to hell. But I was alive. I waited and waited. I kept my arm up, and I breathed the dirt and I sobbed, Law.” He looked up, his bloodshot eyes fixed to Lawrence. “I prayed, ‘cause I swear, I thought I was gonna die any moment. And then… the sun come up again. And I saw what happened to everybody.”
“Did you see the bodies?”
“He dragged ‘em in the pool.”
Everett nodded. “How did you get to Heart’s Rafter?”
“I climbed. Took me a whole day. Burke musta took our horses, ‘cause they wasn’t up where we’d left ‘em. But one of the guys had a horse that was crazy loyal and she came back. I was able to catch her. Rode her to Heart’s Rafter where we was hidin’ out some, and where we kept the stock.”
“You saw us when we were there earlier, didn’t you?”
“Yeah. I hid in the old bunkhouse. I didn’t know if you was with Burke or not, if you was comin’ to kill me. But, Law, I thought about it. Burke hates your guts. He was the one who threw you off Endless Sky all those years ago. He wouldn’t have brought you in. And anyways, you was always too high and mighty. You wouldn’t be a part of what we did. Not on your life.”
“You’re God damn right about that. You’re a fucking thief, Connor. You been rustlin’ stock for months and now your friends are dead!”
“I fuckin’know!” Connor shouted. “You think I don’t know I fucked up? I know it, Law! I fuckin’ know it!”
Everett stood, one hand on Connor’s shoulder. “You fucked up,” he said softly, “but you also survived. And you’re going to help us make sure Jim Burke pays for what he’s done.”
“Who are you?” Connor squinted up at Everett.
“Everett Dawson, Stock Detective.” He squeezed Connor’s uninjured shoulder once. “And Connor, you’re under arrest.”
Connor shrugged. “Figured. Least I can take that son of a bitch with me.”
Everett smiled, just briefly. Lawrence’s heart skipped, and he kicked himself for it. Not the time, God damn it. “Now,” Everett said, meeting Lawrence’s gaze, “we call the sheriff.”
Chapter 16
“Son,I am damn glad to hear your voice,” Sheriff Braddock said, sighing. Delaney had a wired phone installed, but it was old and static bled into the line. “I have been worried sick ‘bout you. I feared the worst. I didn’t go to Helena for the warrant, I stayed to search for you. I’ve had teams combin’ the whole area since you vanished.”
“Did you find the guys who shot up my hotel room?”
“We’re still lookin’. But we got good descriptions of their trucks and their license plates were snapped by a camera down by the highway. We’ll get ‘em, I promise.”
Everett nodded, pressing the phone to his skull. He had an ache behind his eyes, a dull pain that made him want to crack his head open. “Sheriff, I’ve got a lot of information for you. I think I’ve locked down what’s happening up here.”
“Tell me you have good news.You found the herd? Did you find the rustlers, too?”
“All that, and more.”
“Where you at, son?”
“At the Lazy Twenty-Two.”
A pause. “You’re with Law? You all right?”
“Yes to both. It’s not him, Sheriff. I can clear his name.” He sighed, rubbed his forehead. “We found the bodies of the rustling outfit in Whiskey Gulch and the missing cattle at Heart’s Rafter. The rustlers were waiting to drive it down for private sale. But they were all murdered. Butchered, more accurately.”
“Murdered?” Braddock cursed. Everett heard him breathe slowly, gather himself. “What else do you know?”
“I know who’s behind everything. I know who organized the rustling outfit. And who killed them all.”
