“And where’s that?”
“Just go back the way you came,” Nick said. “Ride straight past that village without looking cross-eyed at it and you’ll be fine.”
“And what if they ride up on me again?”
Guiding Kazys away from the ridge and back toward the narrow trail, Nick replied, “Fall out of your saddle again. They seemed to think that was pretty funny.”
“Hilarious. You damn near got my leg snapped in two.”
“Better than your neck,” Nick said in a tone that was colder than the bottom of a frozen lake.
Rather than try to bargain or plead any more, Lester stayed put and let Nick go. Although his mouth was still, his brain was chugging like the piston of a steam engine. He squeezed the reins tightly and shifted his feet in the stirrups. His eyes snapped back and forth quicker and quicker as Nick moved farther away.
Finally, Lester managed to spit out a few desperate words.
“I know where you’re headed!”
Nick was just snapping his reins to get Kazys to jump a small pit where a piece of the trail had broken off. He landed on the other side, turned and said, “I know you do. I’ve mentioned it a few times.”
“Not just which direction. I know the spot you’re looking for. It’s the spot where Barrett Cobb is buried.”
Nick pulled back on his reins so quickly that Kazys shook his head to protest the bit pulling at the corners of his mouth. Nick sat in the saddle like a statue that had been chiseled out of ice. “What the hell do you know about Barrett?” he growled.
At first, Lester had felt relieved when Nick stopped. Now he wished the other man was safely moving away from him again. Doing his best to keep his chin up and the fear from his face, Lester said, “I heard he was buried not too far from here.”
“Who told you?”
“Some friends of mine.”
Nick was across the gap and within inches of Lester’s face in the space of a heartbeat. “That’s why you’re here? To defile a grave?”
“Considering what’s buried in there with him, Cobb himself shouldn’t have been too surprised that there’d be folks coming after him.”
“What do you know about it?”
“Just that him and his gang pulled off one hell of a job before he was killed, and none of the stolen jewels were ever found.”
Nick furrowed his brow slightly and leaned forward less than half an inch. His movements were slow and didn’t cover much space, but Lester pulled back as if he’d found himself in front of a rockslide.
“And how do you know so much about Barrett’s last job?” Nick asked. “Are you a lawman?”
“Hell no.” Lester gulped. “But I can read a newspaper. Anyone in this part of the country has either heard something about that job or something about the search for Cobb or his gang. When nobody found anything or anybody, word started to spread.”
“Rumors,” Nick grumbled, as if he’d just uttered a profanity.
“You should know all about that.”
Nick nodded to himself and looked Lester up and down. Letting out a breath, he eased back in his saddle and took on a more relaxed posture. Nick let his eyes wander just until he could see Lester following his lead and relaxing as well. That way, when he snapped his hand out to grab Lester by the front of his shirt, Nick was sure to put a fresh scare into him.
“Don’t lie to me again and don’t take me for a fool,” Nick snarled. “That is, unless you want me to shoot you full of holes and leave your carcass for the Indians.”
Lester shook his head vigorously until his hat toppled off. “I wouldn’t dream of it!”
“Either you were a friend of Barrett’s or you were chasing after him, because no newspaper stories are that detailed.”
“I wasn’t after him…or you! I swear.”
Nick asked, “Do you know who I am?”
Lester winced as he realized just how far ahead of his brain his mouth had been running. “Yeah, I know who you are. My cousins live not too far from here. There’s been plenty of talk about you and Cobb after all the shootings and such over the last few years.”
“So your cousins were after Barrett’s grave?”
“No, I swear!”
Nick gave him a shake and pulled Lester forward as if he was about to pitch him off his horse. Rather than struggle, Lester lost the will to fight and went limp.
“I’ve been on the run myself,” Lester whined. “Sometimes my cousins would get some work from Cobb since he was always lookin’ for steady gun hands. They would send me some money, since I couldn’t risk getting honest work from someone who would pay me real wages. They would always send word about the hell they had to raise to earn it. They also said Cobb was a good man.”
“He’s been dead for years,” Nick pointed out.
“He was still a good man. My cousins told me so. They told me all about how he would—”
“Oh, for Christ’s sake, shut up,” Nick said. “Just tell me what you know about where Barrett is buried.”
Lester blinked a few times as hope began to show within his watering eyes. “My cousins found the spot.”
“How?”
When Lester spoke, his words spilled out of him like water from a broken dam. “Two of them were supposed to meet up with Cobb after that last robbery with them jewels. They heard the shooting and went to see if they could help. One of them saw you two riding off, but couldn’t keep up. They caught up with you a while later, but you were carrying a body across the back of your horse. They followed you until they figured you were probably about to bury the body and then waited for you to leave the area.”
As he listened to Lester’s account, Nick thought back to the way things had actually happened. Barrett had always been a fast talker and had almost convinced Nick to join him on that one final job. But Nick had known there would never be a final job where Barrett was concerned. Barrett wouldn’t stop robbing, just as surely as a fish wouldn’t stop swimming. When Nick had gone along with him, he’d done so just to make certain his friend didn’t get himself killed.
Perhaps there had been other reasons at the time, but that was the only one that stuck out in Nick’s mind anymore. When the job was done, Barrett’s plan had proven to be as good as any of his others. They’d gotten the jewels and Barrett was ready for the next job. The only difference was that this time, Nick wasn’t.
It wasn’t the first time the friends had fought, but this would turn out to be the last. Nick’s hand was forced and he fired a shot that still echoed within his nightmares to this very day. To make amends, Nick had buried his friend with his precious jewels. He’d gone over the incident a thousand times since he’d first set out from Ocean, and the absurdity of it was still enough to strike him squarely in the face.
Nick shook the ghosts from his head and realized that Lester was still talking.
“There wasn’t anyone around when I buried him,” Nick said. “I made sure of it.”
“They never knew exactly where the spot was,” Lester replied. “But they had a pretty good idea.”
“So you or your cousins are some of the assholes looking to dig him up.”
Lester thought long and hard about how he should answer that. Even though he knew his life could very well depend on what he said next, he couldn’t come up with anything more profound than, “Not me. It was my cousins.”
“You’re here to meet up with them?”
Lester nodded.
Nick nodded as well. With a grin that sent a chill down Lester’s spine, Nick said, “Then we’d best not disappoint them.”
NINETEEN
As Nick rode from one trail to another, he kept a close eye on his newfound partner. He didn’t trust Lester any farther than he could throw him. Then again, Nick figured he might be able to throw Lester quite a distance. He might even be able to test that theory if the little rat proved to be even slimier than he seemed.