The notice even smelled new. Although the likeness hadn’t been touched up any since Lester had stolen that horse, the wording made it sound as if he’d killed a dozen men to get that animal, and the reward had been bumped up accordingly.
“Damn,” Lester muttered. “I hadn’t seen that one yet.”
“You don’t still have that horse, by any chance, do you?” Kinman asked. “I may get some more reward money if you do.”
Spitting out some more blood along with a tooth, Lester said, “I told you, it’s dead. If I did have it still, why the hell would I tell you, anyway?”
Kinman paused so he could fix a glare onto Lester that felt like two drills being slowly twisted through his face. The smile that flickered across Kinman’s lips wavered slightly as he explained, “It’s a long way to Texas, and there’s plenty that could happen along the way. If you keep me happy, I may be in a better frame of mind.”
Lester shrugged and did a bad job of trying to appear comfortable as he said, “No. That horse is dead, just like I told you.”
“That’s a shame. It must have been a hell of an animal.”
“Not really. The damn thing could barely run. To be honest, I only stole it ’cause I figured the owner would be glad to get rid of it.”
Kinman laughed under his breath as he shoved Lester ahead of him and grabbed hold of the iron between Lester’s wrists. “Looks like you made a bad call on that one, my boy. I appreciate the honesty, though. I would have bet you were going to hand over any old horse in your possession just to clear the path for you a bit.”
Anger flashed across Lester’s face as he cursed the fact that he hadn’t thought of that trick on his own. He recovered fairly quickly by trying to turn around and get a look at Kinman. “I know something else that may be—”
“Just keep moving, asshole,” Kinman snarled as he grinned to another local who crossed his path.
Even though he couldn’t turn around, Lester kept fighting to look at Kinman over his shoulder. “I know something that may spark your interest,” he said quickly.
“Save it for the ride. I ain’t in the mood to hear your bullshit right now.”
“It’s not bullshit,” Lester said. “It could be worth a lot of money.”
“You got a horse or not?”
“Yeah, but—“
“Where is it?” Kinman snapped. “I want to get the hell out of this piss bucket of a town before nightfall.”
“In the stable, at the other end of this street.”
Glancing in that direction before taking one more step, Kinman didn’t move until he spotted the small barn on the far corner. “You ain’t got any friends in this town, you know. You try anything and everyone here will stand by and watch me put a bullet through your head.”
“I’m not trying anything,” Lester insisted. “Jesus Christ, will you just listen to me?”
“Fine. You got until we reach that stable. After that, I’m stuffing a gag in your mouth and not taking it out for another day.”
Lester sucked in a few breaths as he quickly gauged the distance between himself and the stable. Already, Kinman had started walking faster, so Lester simply unleashed what he’d wanted to say in a torrent of urgent words.
“There’s some money buried,” Lester spat out. “Lots of it. I heard even some jewels. Diamonds, maybe. It’s the haul from a big robbery a few years back, pulled by some known men who were all killed.”
“All killed, huh?” Kinman grunted. “Then who buried the jewels?”
“Well…almost all were killed. At least one man walked away. Maybe even just one man.”
“Boy, you sure do know your facts, Lester.”
“I don’t know why they left the money,” Lester explained. “All I know is where it’s at. I was gonna go after it myself as soon as I could make the ride without fear of being spotted somewhere along the way. I was also gonna round up some men to go along with me.”
“Men you can trust, I suppose?”
“Yeah! That’s right!”
“Bullshit,” Kinman grunted. “I changed my mind. I want you to shut up starting right now.”
Glancing toward the stable, which was only about twenty paces away, Lester planted his heels into the dirt and said, “The money was stolen by Barrett Cobb! You ever heard of him?”
Kinman stopped behind his prisoner just so he could take a look up and down the street. Since none of the few people looking back at him seemed interested in mounting a rescue, the bounty hunter replied, “Sure I heard of him. Any man in my line of work’s heard of Barrett Cobb.”
“Then you gotta know he stole that much and nobody ever caught him. His gang’s pulled more and bigger jobs than most anyone else. The one I’m talking about was in newspapers and everything!”
Stepping in front of Lester, Kinman stared into his eyes and said, “I also know something else. Cobb’s dead.”
“He’s the one holding onto that money,” Lester insisted. “I’d bet my life on it.”
“You may be doing just that if you don’t pick up your damn feet and get moving.”
Lester shook his head and kept talking before he could be threatened again. “I been hearing this same rumor from a whole bunch of people. Plenty of men were asking me to go along with them to find the money, but I couldn’t go because I knew I couldn’t stick my head out from where I been hiding.”
“At least that’s one thing you got right.”
“Now that I been found, there ain’t no reason why I shouldn’t go after that money. Since you’re the one that found me, you can go along. We’ll split whatever we find and both get real rich!”
Kinman smiled and began to slowly nod. After mulling it over for a few seconds, he smiled a bit wider and then drove his knee into Lester’s stomach. “You think I’m stupid? There ain’t no way I’m about to give you an inch so you can try and run a mile. You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. The only way you know a damn thing about Cobb is from whatever horse shit you picked up in a saloon. I tried to hunt Cobb down for years, and I know for a fact he ain’t been heard from for so long that he’s gotta be dead. Even those newspapers you talked about say that same thing. Besides, Cobb’s last robbery went so bad, there weren’t no survivors from his gang.”
“Nick Graves survived.”
Kinman was about to punch Lester in his mouth again just to shut him up. Pausing with his fist cocked back like a hammer, he asked, “What’s Graves got to do with any of this?”
Anticipating the punch he was about to receive, Lester cowered away from Kinman. Tentatively, he looked up. “Graves is the one that put Cobb in the ground.”
“How do you know?”
“Because he’s the only one of the men who pulled that robbery with Cobb who survived it. Plenty of men seen Graves in the Dakotas after Cobb was killed.”
Kinman’s eyes took on a faraway look as he slowly lowered the arm that had previously been set to deliver the next punch into Lester’s face. “That murderous son of a bitch may have even been the one to put Cobb down…Do you know that for certain?”
Seeing the frustration bubbling up behind Kinman’s eyes, Lester quickly answered, “Graves knows for sure where Cobb is buried, but there’s a few others who know as well.”
“Let me guess. Some of those men you were talking to?”
Lester nodded. “They got no reason to lie. We was going to go and dig up that grave, on account of that’s where those jewels and all that money is buried.”
“Who started that rumor?”
“Men I can trust. They’re my kin, so it’s got a good chance of being true. Since them jewels was stolen, they ain’t never been found. That money’s buried right along with whatever’s left of Barrett Cobb. I know it.”
As much as Kinman wanted to knock out the rest of Lester’s teeth just so he wouldn’t have to listen to the man’s voice, there were too many words that stuck in the back of Kinman’s mind. He came to a complete stop a few paces away from the stable.
Lester may have been hurting, but he wasn’t blind. A thoughtful look had come into the bounty hunter’s eye, and Lester latched onto it like a tell from another man in a poker game. “If I’m right, we can both become rich.”
“And I suppose you’d want me to let you go in exchange?”
“Only if this pans out. If I’m wrong, you can still take me to Texas. That asshole rancher hasn’t forgotten about me by now, so he probably never will. That means I’m the only one with anything to lose here.”
“What about these other men who filled your head with this nonsense?” Kinman asked. “I suppose they’re going after this supposed stash of jewels, too.”
“Yep, but there’s a reason they came to me in the first place. I know a shortcut through the Badlands to get us in and out without catching much attention from the savages who frequent the area.”
“Indians shouldn’t be your biggest concern,” Kinman said. “If you think you can make me a fool, you’ll find yourself being dragged back to Texas by your balls.”
Lester didn’t even flinch. “When we find that treasure, you’ll be more’n happy to cut me loose.”
Rolling his eyes, Kinman shoved Lester toward the stable. “Let’s get moving.”