They had their dinner and laid out their bedrolls.
“Decker?”
“What?”
“Did you want me to stay with the Hudsons?”
“No.” His answer came without hesitation.
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want to see you become wife number three.”
“Oh, God!” she said. “There’s no chance of me ever marrying a Mormon.”
“Or an older man.”
“Well, not somebody a lot older, anyway.”
“Go to sleep.”
“I’m not sleepy.”
“I am.”
“No you’re not,” she said. “You’re never sleepy. I’ve never met anybody like you.”
“I’m just a man.”
“Decker,” she said, “when you lie down and close your eyes—I mean, when you decide that you’re going to sleep—you’re asleep like that. Then in the morning when you wake up, you open your eyes and you’re awake right away. You don’t even rub your eyes! That’s not normal.”
“It is for me.”
“See? You’re not normal.”
“Well, neither are you.”
“What do you mean?”
“Fourteen-year-old girls should not be traveling with bounty hunters. They should be home going to school, cooking for their grandfathers, and having boyfriends their own age.”
“Boys my own age are…boys.”
“They’re supposed to be.”
“Yech!”
“Felicia.”
“Yes?”
“I’ve just decided to go to sleep.”
And he did.
While Decker slept, Felicia watched him. If, as he had said, he was twice her age, that made him twenty-eight.
Sara had told her that she was seventeen, and that her husband John was forty-four. As far as Felicia was concerned, twenty-seven years was just too big a difference.
But it made fourteen years look like nothing at all!
On the south side of the rock formation was another camp, where one person dined on beef jerky.
In the morning a choice would be made as to which fork to take.
The east or the west.
A lot would depend on the decision.
Chapter XX
In the morning Decker and Felicia mounted up and faced the fork.
“Right,” Decker said.
“Why?”
“Because we’ve got to choose one, and if I had said left, you would have asked why.”
“And you would have given me the same answer. Okay—right.”
They took the right fork, heading for Eaton’s Fork.
At the south end of the formation the identical decision was made. To head left, to Eaton’s Fork.
Eaton’s Fork was a ghost town.
“Nothing’s moved here for years,” Felicia said as they rode down the main street.
“We’ll have to check it out before we decide we’ve made the wrong choice and double back.”
Decker was glad that Felicia had the good sense not to point out that the decision was his.
They stopped in front of what had been the saloon and dismounted.
“Stay here.”
Decker went inside and immediately knew they were in the wrong place. Layers of dust covered everything. There were full bottles on some of the shelves behind the bar. If anyone had been here, it would have been impossible to hide his presence. There was no guarantee that Fenner’s Fork wouldn’t be the same way, but they were going to have to check it out.
He stepped back outside and knew something was wrong. Felicia was standing too stiffly.
“What is it?”
Felicia looked to his right and he followed her eyes and saw the gun.
“Where is Brian Foxx?” the woman holding the gun asked.
The woman was tall, full-bodied, apparently in her twenties. It was also apparent that she had traveled a long way and was looking for the same thing he was.
“He’s not here.”
“Don’t bullshit me,” the woman said.
“Go inside and check for yourself.” He looked at Felicia and said, “Mount up. We’re going to have to double back and check the other place.”
“Don’t move!” the woman said.
Decker looked at her again. She had long auburn hair that tumbled to her shoulders from beneath a beat-up white Stetson. Cleaned up she’d be beau-tiful.
“Look. I’ve already checked inside and I don’t have time to play games. I’m looking for Brian Foxx, too, and if I want the reward money I guess I’m going to have to find him before you do.”
“You don’t ride with him?”
“Hell, no.”
She squinted at him and said, “Bounty hunter?”
“That’s right.”
“And her?”
“Meet the world’s youngest newpaper reporter. This young lady is looking for a story Would you like us to give her one here and now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean put that gun away before I take it away from you. You’ve already had it out long enough without using it. Its value has gone way down.”
“Look,” the woman said, obviously nervous, “how do I know I can believe you?”
From inside his shirt pocket Decker took out Foxx’s poster. He unfolded it and held it out to the woman. As she came closer and reached for it, he dropped it and grabbed her wrist. He spun her around so that she was facing the other way and pulled her to him, then clamped his other hand down on her gun hand. He took the gun away from her and pushed her aside.
“He’s telling the truth,” Felicia said to the woman. She mounted the boardwalk, picked up the poster, and handed it to the woman.
“He really is a bounty hunter. His name is Decker.”
“Let me do the introductions, please, Felicia,” Decker said. “What’s your name?”
“Rebecca Kendrick,” the woman said, rubbing her wrists.
“Why are you looking for Brian Foxx?”
“He killed my brother in Doverville, Arizona, when he robbed the bank.”
“And you trailed him this far?”
The woman nodded, still massaging her wrists.
“Look,” Decker said, “I’m sorry if I hurt you.” He held her gun out to her and she eyed him suspiciously. “Go on, take it and put it away. We have some talking to do.”
She took the gun and holstered it.
“Do you want to check inside?”
“No,” Rebecca Kendrick said. “I’ll take your word for it.”
“Where’s your horse?”
“Back a couple of streets.”
“Let’s get it and get moving. We’ve got to get to Fenner’s Fork.”
“What do we have to talk about?” she asked as they walked. Felicia had mounted Nellie and was leading John Henry along behind them.
“I’ve been trailing Brian Foxx from a town called Heartless, Wyoming. He pulled a bank robbery there on the same day your brother was killed.”
“But that’s impossible. Witnesses saw him in Doverville.”
“And witnesses saw him in Heartless.”
“But how could that be?”
As they reached her horse, Decker said, “Well, my partner here has a theory…”
They doubled back the way Decker and Felicia had come, Decker and Rebecca riding side by side. Felicia rode behind them, fuming. She didn’t like Rebecca Kendrick because she was so damn pretty.
“Twins,” Rebecca said, shaking her head. “I can’t believe that.”
“I don’t quite buy it either, but it is an interesting theory,” Decker said. “It would explain how they do it.”
“If there are two of them,” Rebecca said, “how am I supposed to know which one to kill?”
“Well,” Decker said, “it doesn’t really matter, does it? You kill one and I’ll take the other one in for the reward.”