“So why bother to come here?” Lester asked. “You need your money back?”
Nick shook his head. “You ever see one of your friends get killed?”
“No, but my brother was stabbed in Dodge City when I was nine.”
“All right, then. How’d you like it if a bunch of assholes decided to dig up your brother, pull the rings off his fingers, rip the pins off his suit, or take whatever else you might have buried him with?”
“I don’t suppose I’d like that too much.”
“There you go.”
Something caught Nick’s eye. It wasn’t much more than a small movement to his left, but it didn’t blend in with the rest of the movement around him.
Nick had come too far to divert his path now. The grave was somewhere just ahead, and it was in a spot that would allow him to get a good look in all directions. His memories were of a pristine spot with nothing but open land for miles around. The land around him now seemed to rise up and close in on him like a set of giant hands getting ready to slowly crush him between them.
Kazys let out a few strained breaths as he negotiated a steep incline. Some loose rocks slipped from beneath his hooves, but the horse never lost his balance. Lester’s mount was having a bit more trouble, but still managed to climb the incline and get to the level ground on top.
The first thing to hit Nick’s senses was how perfectly the spot matched the memories he’d been sifting through moments ago. At the top of the incline, the land flattened out into a wide stretch covered by rust-colored soil. The dirt was hard and full of rocks, which made it heavy and reluctant to blow too far no matter how much the wind howled. A few trees sprouted here and there, but were outnumbered by tough, thorny bushes.
The spot was somewhat larger than Nick had recalled and since he hadn’t marked the grave with so much as a simple cross, he’d wondered if he’d be able to find it.
As it turned out, Nick didn’t have any trouble at all finding Barrett’s grave. All he needed to do was look for the hole that had been torn into the ground and the broken wooden planks sticking up like crooked, petrified fingers.
TWENTY
Nick dropped from Kazys’s back and ran to the desecrated grave. Stopping at the edge of the hole, he looked straight down at the mess of broken wood, which led down to a skeleton lying on its side. Nick dropped to his knees and began pulling the splintered boards up one at a time.
He cleared a spot toward one end of the hole, climbed down into it and reached toward the remains with both hands. Everything was there, right down to the bandanna Nick had tied around Barrett’s head. Everything, that is, except for the jewels that Nick had given to his friend for safekeeping.
Nick didn’t even realize he’d climbed back out of the hole. One moment he was standing more than waist-deep in dirt. The next moment, he was rushing over to grab Lester by his arm.
“Who did this?” Nick snarled as he pulled Lester closer to his level.
It was nothing but sheer panic that kept Lester from being pulled off of his horse altogether. His feet were wedged firmly in the stirrups and his hands were gripping the saddle horn so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. “Did what?” Lester asked.
Shifting so he could stretch out his other arm and point toward the grave, Nick snarled, “That! Tell me who did that or you’ll be buried in there with what’s left of Barrett!”
“I don’t know!”
“All right.” With that, Nick took hold of Lester with both hands and pulled him completely from his saddle.
Lester came along kicking and squirming. Although his hands were peeled from the saddle horn, one of his feet remained ensnared within the stirrup. After a few strong pulls, Nick got Lester’s foot loose and dragged him toward the grave. Once he was certain there was no way he was about to break free of Nick’s grasp, Lester began to talk.
“I told you I’m not the only one who knows about this!” Lester squealed. “It could’ve been anyone else who heard the rumors! Anyone else would’ve come looking for all that money!”
“But you seemed to know a hell of a lot,” Nick said as he continued dragging Lester along. “You and your cousins had a good idea of where to look and what was here.”
“Yeah, but—”
“And don’t try to tell me that anyone would be stupid enough to spread around where this spot was when they were intending on getting those jewels for themselves!”
As Lester tried to come up with something to say that would get him out of this mess, he found himself being hauled up by his shirt. Nick’s hands may have been wounded, but his gnarled fingers clamped around Lester’s shirt with so much strength that they even got some skin clamped between them along with all that dirty cotton.
Lester felt his feet leave the ground. When he looked down, he could see the broken planks stretching up toward him as if they meant to grab his boots and pull him into the gaping, stinking hole.
“Jesus Christ!” Lester hollered.
“Unless that’s the name of the man who did this, I don’t wanna hear it,” Nick growled.
“I don’t know if my cousins did this or not! I been on the run for the better part of a year!”
“You stopped running long enough to check in with your cousins.”
“They sent me letters, but I barely got a chance to answer them.” The more he talked, the shakier Lester’s voice became. Soon, it was difficult to tell if the streaks down his face had been put there by sweat or tears. “When I haven’t been runnin’, I’ve been getting my ass dragged here and there by someone or other trying to cash me in for the reward money.”
“My heart’s fucking aching.”
Feeling himself slip out of Nick’s grasp, Lester sucked in a desperate breath and spat out, “I know where they’re at!”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah! I’ll take you to them!”
“You want me to believe you’ll double-cross your own blood?” Nick said. “My guess is that you’re saying whatever you can just to keep from being buried alive in this hole.”
Lester looked down again as he thought about those words. Somehow, Nick had struck a chord that hit harder than when Lester had been worried about dying. Seeing the body curled up on its side amid all that dirt and broken wood made something crack within Lester’s brain.
“I don’t got a choice!” Lester said. “I’d rather take my chances with you than with Kinman!”
Lester felt the grip holding him over the grave tighten for a moment. Then the bottom of his boots scraped against the ground and he was set down. Nick let him go just long enough for Lester to realize he was standing on his own again. When he started to make a move, Lester nearly slipped straight into the very pit he was trying to avoid. Nick’s hand snapped out again to grab Lester by the collar. That was the only thing keeping Lester perched on the edge of the grave.
“So you’re with Alan Kinman?” Nick asked.
Lester nodded slowly. “Yeah,” he whispered. “He said he already crossed paths with you. He said he met up with you in—”
“In Rock Springs.”
“Yeah,” Nick replied in a tone that mocked Lester’s frightened whisper. “I know. A man like that’s not too hard to miss.” After studying Lester’s face, Nick asked, “Why do you look so surprised?”
“I…uh…didn’t know you knew who he is.”
“I know. Kinman’s a well-known bounty hunter,” Nick said. “He’s tracked down a bunch of my friends and he’s been after me for a while. I’ve managed to stay ahead of him because I make it my business to know which bounty hunters need to be watched.”
“Well, Kinman’s got his sights set on both of us.”