Vengeance Creek: The Sons of Daniel Shaye

37

Thomas had given himself the last watch when he outlined it the night before. James went first, then Colon, and Ralph Cory was third. When Cory woke Thomas, he told him that he’d just made a fresh pot of coffee.

“Want a cup before you turn in?” Thomas asked.

“Sure.”

They settled in at the fire with a cup each.

“I’m ready,” Thomas said.

“Ready for what?”

“To ask you the question.”

Cory picked up a stick and poked at the campfire, bringing it flaring to life. “Your Pa really didn’t tell you any of this?” he asked.

“Pa didn’t tell us anything about you, Mr. Cory,” Thomas said. “I guess he wanted us to get to know each other on our own.”

“First night out?”

Thomas shrugged. “Curiosity got the better of me.”

Cory fell silent.

“Where do you know my pa from?” Thomas asked, figuring the man needed a shove to get started.

“I never knew your pa,” Cory said, “but apparently he knew me from somewhere. He recognized me as soon as I moved to town.”

“And he told you that?”

“No,” Cory said. “He waited until yesterday for that. Waited until he needed me, I guess.”

“So what’s the big secret?” Thomas asked. “Who are you, really?”

“My real name is Dave Macky.”

Thomas frowned because the name sounded familiar—and then he got it.

“Bloody Dave Macky?” he asked. “The bounty hunter who always brought back his man dead?”

“That’s a slight exaggeration,” Macky said, “but it happened often enough to earn me that nickname. I thought you and your brother might be too young to remember me.”

“I only remember stories I heard.”

“Everybody heard stories,” Macky said. “That’s why I was forced into bringing back so many men dead. They couldn’t have it any other way.”

“Are you sayin’ they wanted to die?”

Cory/Macky dropped the stick he’d been using to poke the fire and looked at Thomas.

“I’m saying they all heard the stories about ‘Bloody Dave’ and figured they either had to fight or die. I told them to drop their weapons and I’d take them back live, but they didn’t believe me. They thought I’d gun them down in cold blood once they were unarmed, so they forced the issue.”

“So you finally got tired of it?”

“I got tired of the killing, yeah,” the man said. “I thought I was doing the right thing, bringing wanted men to justice, but it all changed. Too much killing. I walked away.”

“And went where?”

“Wherever I could go where people didn’t know me,” he said. “I’d use a phony name, try to start a life somewhere, but sooner or later someone would come to town and recognize me.”

“Like my pa did.”

Macky nodded. “Only he’s the only man who kept quiet about it…until now.”

“He only did it because nobody in town would volunteer for the posse,” Thomas said. “Nobody came out to help us when the bank was hit.”

“I know,” Macky said, looking away. “I…I feel bad about that. I started to grab a gun, to come out and help, but I hesitated…thought about it too long…and then it was all over.”

“So that’s why you agreed to help?” Thomas asked. “Out of guilt?”

“That’s one reason.”

“What’s the other?”

“Your pa, he gave me the option of saying no, said he still wouldn’t tell anyone who I was. How could I say no to that kind of an honest plea?”

“That’s Pa,” Thomas said. “He’s real honest.”

“I understand he wasn’t always that way.”

“He told you that?”

“Yes.”

“Just another example of how honest he is, now.”

“I realized that,” Macky said. “I tried to convince myself to say no anyway, but I couldn’t do it.”

“So then the stories weren’t true?”

“No,” Macky said. “Oh, I brought some men in draped over their saddles, but only when they gave me no choice. Soon, though, none of them did.”

“So that’s why you’re such a good tracker?”

“Experience,” Macky said. “I tracked so many men that soon it was my strength.”

“So you think you can track these men?”

“As long as they don’t manage to find some surface that won’t show sign.”

“Like solid rock?”

“You can track over solid rock,” Macky said. “Shod horses, anyway.”

“We gotta catch these men, Mister…what do I call you? Cory? Macky?”

“Call me Ralph,” the man said. “Ralph Cory is the name I’m hoping to go back to after this is all over.”

“All right, Ralph.”

“I expect you to tell your brother,” Cory said. “And Colon, I guess.”

“Yes, but I won’t tell anyone else, Ralph,” Thomas said, “I swear.”

“I believe you,” Cory said. “I’m sure your brother will keep quiet as well.”

“And Rigoberto?”

Cory hesitated, then said, “Go ahead and tell him. I get the feeling he’s got some secrets of his own. We all do.”

“I don’t,” Thomas said.

“You and your brother are young,” Cory said, getting to his feet. “But you will have secrets, eventually. I’m going to turn in, Thomas.”

“Good night, then…Ralph,” Thomas said. “Thanks for bein’ honest with me.”

“Seems to be what you Shayes value,” Cory said.

Cory rolled himself up in his bedroll, as it had gotten chilly during the night. Thomas poured himself another cup of coffee and dwelled on the fact that he was tracking bank robbers and killers with the famous—and infamous—Bloody Dave Macky.