The Bisbee Massacre Read online

  “It finally happened, Fred.”

  “What?”

  “Barney Riggs.”

  “Oh, shit,” Dodge said.

  “Yep,” Charley said, “he killed Hudson.”

  “Do you know it was him?” Clint asked.

  Charley looked at Clint for the first time. His face brightened as he recognized him.

  “Hey, Adams. I didn’t know you was in town. Um, well, nobody saw him do it, but Riggs ain’t exactly the type to brace a man from the front.”

  “Shot him in the back?” Dodge asked.

  “Yup. Snuck up on him.”

  “Damn. Okay, does Hatch know?”

  “Yeah,” Charley said, “he sent me after you. He rode out there.”

  “Okay, I’ll ride out, too. Guess you better stay in town and watch things.”

  “Okay.”

  “You wanna come?” Dodge asked Clint.

  “I wouldn’t miss it,” Clint said. “A chance to see you and Hatch in action together.”

  “I don’t know,” Charley said.

  “Know what?” Dodge asked.

  Charley gave Clint a sidelong glance.

  “You can say what you want in front of Clint, Charley,” Dodge said.

  “I ain’t so sure Bob wants to catch Barney, if you know what I mean, Fred,” Charley said.

  “Yeah, Charley,” Dodge said. “I know what you mean.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  The two houses were just out of town. They were small ranches, with the main houses actually being walking distance apart. Clint thought this must have made it easy for the cheating couple.

  When they rode up to one of the houses Clint knew this was the Hudson house because there was a dead man sprawled on the ground. Standing over him, staring down mournfully, was Sheriff Bob Hatch.

  “Glad you brought Clint, Fred,” Hatch said, as they approached on foot.

  There were some men milling about. Clint assumed they were employees of Hudson.

  “This was bound to happen,” Hatch said, as Fred leaned over the body. Hatch had no idea Dodge was a trained detective, but he deferred to him, anyway.

  “Shot in the back, all right,” Dodge said. “Damn it.” He stood straight up. “Not much doubt about who did it, Bob.”

  “We don’t have no witnesses, Fred.”

  “That don’t mean we can’t hunt him down,” Dodge shot back.

  “If he’s even on the run,” Sheriff Hatch said. “What if he’s just settin’ in his living room with his wife and Pa?”

  “Then we’ll take him in for questioning,” Dodge said. “You wanna go over there together?”

  “Sure,” Hatch said. “Let’s get somebody to throw a blanket over Hudson until the doc gets here.”

  They waited for one of the hands to bring a blanket over and lay it over his boss.

  “Don’t let nobody near the body,” Hatch told the man. “We’re goin’ next door to see if Barney’s there.”

  “He ain’t gonna be there, Sheriff,” the hand said. “He back-shot the boss and lit out.”

  “Did you see him do it?” Clint asked.

  “Well, no—”

  “Then keep your opinions to yourself, Sam,” Dodge said. “You’re the foreman, it’s up to you to keep your men in line.”

  “I understand.”

  “We’ll be right back, probably before the doc even gets here.”

  “I won’t let nobody near him, Dodge.”

  “Okay.”

  Dodge, Hatch, and Clint walked over to the Riggs house.

  When a woman answered their knock at the door, Clint was taken aback. She was a rare beauty, with long black hair framing a heart-shaped face. Now he knew why Hudson was dipping his wick next door.

  “Yes?”

  “Sheriff Hatch, Mrs. Riggs. Can we come in? We gotta talk to Barney.”

  “Barney’s not here, Sheriff.”

  “Where is he?”

  “I—I don’t know.” She lifted her chin defiantly. Clint admired her. She was standing up for a husband who cheated on her.

  “Is Bannock here?” Dodge asked.

  “My father-in-law is home, yes.”

  “May we speak to him, ma’am?” Dodge asked.

  “Of course,” she said. “Come in, gentlemen.”

  The three men entered, and as the woman closed the door behind them they all removed their hats. The house was small and they could see Bannock Riggs sitting in front of the fireplace. The old man stood up, slightly stooped but still tall.

  “What’s this all about, Sheriff? Dodge?” He frowned at Clint. “Who’s this feller?”

  “This is Clint Adams, Bannock,” Dodge said. “He’s helpin’ us with somethin’.”

  “Somethin’ that brung you here, lookin’ for my boy?” the man demanded.

  “That’s right,” Dodge said. Hatch seemed satisfied to let Dodge do the talking. “Bannock, somebody killed your neighbor, Hudson.”

  They heard a slight intake of breath from Mrs. Riggs.

  “That’s too bad,” the old man said. “What’s that got to do with us?”

  “Come on, Bannock,” Dodge said. “You know we got to talk to Barney.”

  “Barney didn’t do nothin’,” Bannock said. “Why would Barney kill Hudson?”

  With that the three men turned their heads and looked at Mrs. Riggs. She still seemed stunned by the news that her lover was dead.

  “Clint,” Dodge said, “why don’t you take Mrs. Riggs outside while Hatch and I talk to her father-in-law.”

  “Sure, Fred. Ma’am?”

  Clint knew what Dodge was doing. Separating daughter-in-law and father-in-law so they could be questioned separately.

  He escorted the lady outside.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Outside Mrs. Riggs hugged her upper arms, as if she was cold, but Clint thought she was feeling something else. Maybe guilt? Maybe she was feeling trapped?

  “Mrs. Riggs,” Clint said, “it’s in your husband’s best interest for you to tell us where he is. If the law has to track him down he might end up dead.”

  “Is Hudson really dead?” she asked.

  “He is.”

  “How?”

  “Shot in the back.”

  “And Barney did it?”

  “That’s what everyone thinks,” Clint said. “What do you think?”

  She thought a moment, then said, “Yes, I think he did it, too.”

  “Then will you help me find him?”

  “Didn’t you say if the law had to track him down he might end up dead?” she asked.

  “I did.”

  “Then let them track him down.”

  “You don’t care if they kill him?”

  “No,” she said, “I don’t care at all.”

  With that she turned her back on Clint.

  “Bannock,” Dodge said, “you must know if we have to track Barney down he could end up dead. You don’t want that, and we don’t want that.”

  “Why do you think Barney killed Hudson?” Bannock asked.

  “You don’t know?” Dodge asked.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “It’s about Hudson and your daughter-in-law, Mr. Riggs,” Hatch said.

  “What are you talkin’ about,” Bannock asked. “Linda didn’t have nothin’ to do with Hudson.”

  “That might or might not be true,” Dodge said, “but the fact is Barney thought there was somethin’ goin’ on, and that was enough for him to bushwhack Hudson on his own property.”

  “You say.”

  “That’s right, I say,” Dodge said. “Come on, you know me, Bannock. Why would I lie?”

  “I ain’t sayin’ you’re lyin’,” Bannock Riggs said. “I’m sayin’ you’re wrong.”

  “About what?” Hatch asked.

  “About everythin’,” Bannock said. “While you’re blamin’ my boy, huntin’ him down for somethin’ he didn’t do, your real killer is gonna get away.”

  “We got the right man fingered
, Mr. Riggs,” Hatch said. “It’s only a matter of time before we catch him.”

  “Then you go and catch him.”

  Hatch and Dodge exchanged a glance, then shrugged.

  “We got to search the house, Bannock,” Dodge said.

  “Go ahead, it won’t take you long.”

  It didn’t take long. When they opened the door and stepped outside, Linda Riggs still had her back to Clint.

  “Anything?” Dodge asked.

  “Not a thing,” Clint said. “She doesn’t care if you have to kill her husband.”

  “The old man won’t give us a thing,” Dodge said.

  “We better get to town and gather us up a posse, then,” Hatch said.

  “Let’s see if Doc is over at Hudson’s,” Dodge said. “He’s got to take the body back to town. We might as well ride along with him.”

  Hatch nodded and the three men headed back to the other house. Linda Riggs watched them go, then turned and walked back inside slowly.

  Linda had just closed the door and turned when Bannock Riggs slapped her across the face. She staggered back against the door, bounced off it. He reached out, grasped the front of her dress and tore the garment from her. Full, firm breasts sprang forward with dark nipples already hard.

  “You bitch!” he said. He grabbed her bare breasts and twisted them. She yelped in pain. He put both hands on her bare shoulders and pushed her to her knees in front of him, then undid his trousers.

  “You been ruttin’ with the neighbor, you might as well rut with me.”

  “W-what about Barney?” she asked.

  “Barney ain’t here,” the old man said. He dropped his pants and his huge penis came into view, already hardening. It had huge veins and a large, bulbous head on it.

  “You open your mouth, Missy,” he said. “And if you even think about bitin’ me, I’ll kill ya.”

  “I’m not gonna bite you, Pa,” she said.

  She took his penis in both hands, ran her hands up and down it. Then she held it at the base with one hand, and cupped his huge, hanging testicles with the other.

  “That’s it, gal,” he said. “The way I like it.”

  Bannock Riggs was standing at his full height, not stooping the way he’d been in front of the lawmen.

  Linda ran her tongue around the head of her father-in-law’s penis, wetting it thoroughly before taking his penis into her mouth and sucking him. She didn’t mind sucking the old man’s dick. It was better than being with Barney. That was why she had been having sex with Hudson, too. Anything was better than Barney.

  “Ahh,” the old man said. He dropped his head back, took her head in his hands while she rode him wetly with her mouth. “That’s a girl.”

  She sucked him for a while, and when she knew she had him she let him go and said, “Lie down on your back, Pa.”

  He did it, right there on the floor. On his back his penis stood straight up. She stood over him, straddled him and took him in her hand, held him firm so she could slide down on him. Then she closed her eyes and began to ride up and down on his rigid pole.

  “Shit, gal,” he groaned, “ah, shit . . .”

  TWENTY-SIX

  They all rode back to town with Hudson’s body on a buckboard. Hatch dispatched Charley Smith to gather up a posse. Dodge and Clint accompanied the doctor and the body to the undertaker’s office. They lifted the body from the buckboard and carried it in.

  They left the doctor inside with the undertaker and stepped outside.

  “The wife doesn’t care if you kill her husband,” Clint said. “But I didn’t get the feeling it was all because he killed her lover.”

  “The old man wouldn’t help, either,” Dodge said.

  “That’s a strange family.”

  “What do you think the old man will do to his daughter-in-law, for cheating?” Clint asked.

  “I don’t know,” Dodge said. “I didn’t think of that. I sure hope he doesn’t kill ’er.”

  “And why would she go back inside?”

  “Maybe she’s got nowhere else to go.”

  “No family in town?”

  “She’s not from here. Barney brought her back here with him one day.”

  “How long ago?”

  “ ’Bout a year.”

  “So she doesn’t know anybody else in town?”

  “She does. But nobody she’d go and stay with,” Dodge said. “At least, I don’t think so.”

  “Well, maybe she’d just stay with the old man, then.”

  “Look, I got to catch up to Charley, put a posse together for tomorrow. You want to ride along?”

  “Jesus,” Clint said, “last time I said yes I was in the Sierra Madres with you for weeks.”

  “Yeah, right, Bisbee,” Dodge said. “That was the last time we saw each other, right?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Well, this shouldn’t take weeks,” Dodge said. “Why don’t you just wait here till I get back? Then we’ll really have a few drinks and catch up.”

  “That sounds good to me, Fred,” Clint said. “In fact, I’m going to turn in now.”

  “I’ll be gone by the time you wake up, but stay around, do some gamblin’ and some eatin’ and whatever else you want to do until we get back with Barney.”

  “I’ll do that,” Clint said. “I’ll do just that.”

  Clint was drinking in the Crystal Palace when, to his surprise, Fred Dodge walked in.

  “What the hell?” he said. “I thought you were out with the posse.”

  “Yeah, I thought I was goin’ out with the posse, too,” he said, signaling the bartender for a beer.

  “What happened?”

  “Hatch. He told me and Charley to stay in town.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he’s the boss, that’s why.”

  “He’s not half the lawman you are.”

  “I know that, but he is the sheriff.”

  “Why would he want to go after Riggs without you and Charley?”

  “Maybe he wants all the credit,” Dodge said. “I don’t know.”

  “Well, look at the bright side,” Clint said.

  “What’s that?”

  “You and me aren’t riding around the mountains for weeks.”

  Dodge clinked his mug with Clint’s and said, “I’ll drink to that.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Clint rolled over and bumped into an impressive pair of breasts. He bounced off, opened his eyes, and stared at the pink nipples. They sat pertly atop a pair of lovely, full, heavy, pale-skinned breasts.

  The girl’s name was Angel. She was blond and buxom, in her twenties. She worked the floor of the Bird Cage, but not the cribs. She was a saloon girl, but not a whore, and she was in Clint’s bed because she wanted to be.

  He watched as she slept, wondrous chest rising and falling with every breath.

  She opened her sky blue eyes, and he was again startled by them, as he had been the first night they met, five days ago.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Morning,” he said. He leaned over and kissed her mouth. “Sorry I bumped into you.”

  She reached down beneath the sheet and grabbed hold of his rigid penis.

  “No, you’re not sorry at all,” she said, stroking him gently.

  He smiled and said, “No, I’m not.”

  He grabbed her and this time kissed her soundly. She returned the kiss with eagerness, her tongue blossoming in his mouth.

  She went beneath the sheet and took his cock in her mouth. He threw the sheet back so he could watch as she sucked him. She wet him thoroughly, so much so that at one point she was almost slurping. He settled back to enjoy her attention, but he was quickly becoming excited and didn’t want it to end too quickly.

  He grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off him. She laughed as he yanked her up onto him, and wriggled as he tried to poke her. After she’d teased him enough she allowed him to pierce her, and caught her breath as he filled her.

&n
bsp; “Oooh, ohh,” she said, sitting up on him and riding him. He watched as her breasts bounced and bobbed. He grabbed them, then, so he could bite her nipples as she rode him.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said, “harder, bite me harder, come on . . .” She began to ride up and down on him harder, so that when she came down on him there was an audible slap of flesh on flesh. For a sweet-looking blonde, she liked her sex hard.

  They were grunting as she hopped up and down on his cock. He could feel her gushing on him, soaking them both, and the sheet beneath them. He had only encountered a few women in his time who did this. She almost . . . squirted when she became too excited, but she kept going and going . . . until it happened again and again . . .

  He rolled her over, found a dry place on the bed, lifted her legs into the air by linking his arms beneath her meaty thighs. He fucked her that way until the bed was once again wet beneath them. Finally, he exploded into her with a loud shout, then rolled off her.

  “Thank God,” he said.

  She laughed, rolled away and sat on the side of the bed, her feet on the floor.

  “We could’ve drowned,” she said, laughing.

  It was no laughing matter. The first time she had . . . squirted . . . he’d been working on her with his mouth and tongue. He thought he would drown until he turned his head away.

  “How do you do that?” he asked her, now.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “It just . . . happens when I get excited. I used to be really embarrassed by it, but . . . well, I guess you didn’t mind after the first time, did you?”

  “No,” he said. “I didn’t mind. I find it . . . pretty fascinating.”

  “Exciting?” she asked, looking at him over her shoulder.

  “Everything about you is exciting, Angel,” he said. “Your eyes, your beautiful skin, your breasts . . . all of it. I saw that the first time I saw you.”

  She hadn’t been on the floor of the Bird Cage his first time in there, but after he and Dodge had gone there the night the posse left he spotted her right away. Now, five days later, she’d been to his room three nights in a row. The first night they were together had been in her room.