Page 100 of The Veteran

‘What the hell just happened here?’ he demanded. The other three stared open-mouthed at the bedlam. The senior deputy listened to the waiter and told one of his colleagues: ‘Get back to the car and tell the sheriff we have a problem here.’

Sheriff Paul Lewis would not normally have been in his office on a Saturday afternoon, but he had paperwork he wanted to clear before starting the new week. It was twenty after two when the head of the duty deputy came round the office door.

‘There’s a problem out at the Bar-T.’

He was holding a phone in his hand.

‘You know, the Braddock wedding? Ed is on the line. Says the bride’s just been kidnapped.’

‘Been WHAT? Put him on my line.’

T

he red light flashed as the transfer came through. He snatched the handset.

‘Ed, Paul. What the hell are you talking about?’

He listened while his man at the ranch reported. Like all peace officers, he loathed the idea of kidnapping. For one thing it was a filthy crime, usually directed at the wives and children of the rich; for another it was a federal offence and that meant the Bureau would be all over him like a rash. In thirty years of service to Carbon County, ten of them as sheriff, he had known three takings of hostages, all resolved without fatalities, but never yet a kidnapping. He presumed a team of gangsters with fast cars, even a helicopter, were involved.

‘A lone horseman? Are you out of your mind? Where did he go? . . . Over the fence and away across the prairie. OK, he must have hidden a car somewhere. I’ll call in some out-of-county help and block the main roads. Look, Ed, get statements from everyone who saw anything: how he got in, what he did, how he subdued the girl, how he got away. Call me back.’

He spent half an hour calling in reserves and arranging patrol cars on the main highways out of Carbon County, north, south, east and west. The Highway Patrol troopers were told to check every vehicle and every trunk. They were looking for a beautiful brunette in a white silk dress. It was just after three when Ed called back from his car at the Bar-T.

‘This is getting very weird, chief. We have near twenty statements from eyewitnesses. The rider got in because everyone thought he was part of the Wild West rodeo show. He was dressed in buckskin, riding a big chestnut mare. He had a fur-trapper’s hat, a feather hanging from the back of his head and a bow.’

‘A bow? What kind of a bow? Pink ribbon?’

‘Not that kind of a bow, chief. A bow as in bow and arrow. It gets stranger.’

‘It can’t. But go on.’

‘All the witnesses say when he charged up to the altar and reached down for the girl, she reached up to him. They say she seemed to know him and wrapped her arms round him as they went over the fence. If she hadn’t she’d have fallen off and be here now.’

A huge weight lifted off the sheriff. With a bit of luck he did not have a kidnap, he had an elopement. He began to grin.

‘Now are they all sure about that, Ed? He didn’t hit her, knock her cold, throw her over his saddlebow, hold her prisoner as he rode?’

‘Apparently not. Mind you, he has caused an awesome amount of damage. The wedding ceremony was wrecked, the banquet pretty smashed up, the bridegroom pissed and the bride gone.’

The sheriff’s grin widened.

‘Why, that’s terrible,’ he said. ‘Do we know who he is?’

‘Maybe. The bride’s father said his daughter had a kinda crush on one of those young actors they’ve had out at Fort Heritage all summer, posing as frontiersmen. You know?’

Lewis knew all about the fort. His daughter had taken his grandchildren out for a day and they had loved it.

‘Anyway, she broke off her engagement to Kevin Braddock because of this. Her parents persuaded her she was crazy and the engagement resumed. They say he’s called Ben Craig.’

The deputy went back to his statement-taking, and Sheriff Lewis was about to try to contact Fort Heritage when Professor Ingles came on the line.

‘This may be nothing,’ he began, ‘but one of my young staff has quit and run. During the night.’

‘Did he steal anything, Professor?’

‘Well, no, not as such. He has his own horse and clothes. But he also has a rifle. I had confiscated it for the duration. He broke into the armoury and took it back.’

‘What does he need it for?’

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