“I.. I don’t know. I didn’t know who they were. I never saw ’em before.”
“You’re lyin’, Luther.”
“I ain’t lyin’! I told you, I don’t know anything about any robbery!”
“It’s more than robbery, Luther.” Wyatt said. “It’s murder. Bud Philpot’s dead.”
“Passenger got wounded, too,” said Virgil. “Looks like he might not make it. That’ll be two murders.”
“Three. Virg,” Wyatt said. “Don’t forget Katie.” Virgil frowned. “Katie?”
“Isn’t that right. Bob?” Wyatt said, turning to Bob. “Didn’t you tell me Katie Elder took a bullet? Killed her on the spot, you said. Doc jus
t about went crazy when he heard about it.”
Bob Paul picked up on it, “Yeah. that’s right. I never saw Doc like that before. It was somethin’ terrible.”
“Doc Holliday’s woman was on that stage?” asked King. his eyes wide.”She was headin’ out to Benson, to take the train and visit some relatives for a spell,” said Wyatt. “When Doc found out she’d been shot, he swore up and down he’d get every last one of those outlaws if it took him the rest of his life.”
“Oh, my God.” said King.
“If Doc gets in his head you were involved, Luther. I don’t know that there’s anything in this world that will stop him,” Wyatt said. You know how he is.”
“Listen, Marshal, you gotta promise me you’ll tell Doc I had nothin. to do with it, I swear!” said King, in a panic. “Well, now, I don’t know that for a fact. Luther.”
“Marshal, please! You gotta believe me! Look, you gotta tell Holliday it wasn’t me! I didn’t do any of the shootin’.
God’s my judge! I only held the horses! You gotta tell Doc, I only held the horses! I never even fired my gun! I wasn’t even there! I was just down the road a piece! I didn’t know there was goin’ to be any killin’! I swear. I didn’t! Please. Marshal, you gotta tell him!”
“Well now. I might, Luther, if you were to tell us who the rest of ’em were.”
“It was Head. Leonard and Crane!” said King. “I don’t know which one of ’em shot Philpot! I heard the shootin’, but I didn’t see it! Like I said, I only held the horses!”
“Head, Leonard and Crane, eh?” said Wyatt. “Where are they now’?”
“They rode out a while back. I ain’t sure where they went and that’s the truth, I swear it! The whole thing went wrong! But you gotta tell Holliday I didn’t do any shootin’. Marshal. You gotta tell him!”
Wyatt glanced at Bob Paul and grinned. “I always knew that had temper of
Doe’s would come in handy one day.”
Sheriff Johnny Behan and his deputy. Billy Breakenridge, took charge of the prisoner and rode back to town with him while the rest of the posse continued on the outlaws’ trail. Lucas took the opportunity to ride back with the prisoner, expecting Neilson to volunteer to do the same, only the Montana Kid continued on with the posse. Not so much as a meaningful look had passed between them. Andre was waiting at the hotel when he returned.
“Did you learn anything?” she asked. “Did you have a chance to talk to Scott?”
“No, to both questions.” Lucas said, easing himself onto the bed. It had been a while since he had been on horseback and he was saddle-sore. “Neilson acted as if he didn’t even know me. The only explanation I can think of is that someone in the posse was watching him and he was aware of it. He’s still out there with them. I guess he thought that if he came back with me, it might tip off whoever’s watching him.”
“Any clue who it might be?”
Lucas shook his head. “It could’ve been any of them.” He frowned. “I don’t know. There’s something bothering me.”
“You, too?”
“You pick up on something’?”
“You first.”
“Actually, it’s a couple of things, but I’m not sure if it means anything. For one thing, there’s Masterson’s leaving town to go back to Dodge City According to our historical records. he shouldn’t have done that until after the stage robbery. He should have been on that posse. But then, our records have been wrong before. Maybe that’s all it is. The other thing is that Wyatt Earp claimed to know absolutely nothing about the deaths of those Observers. Said he didn’t even know any men named Summers. Billings and McEnery. He told me that someone must have been pulling my leg and making up a story for my benefit. It’s possible he just didn’t want to talk about it and denied the whole thing because he didn’t want to discuss a crime he couldn’t solve. I can’t think of any other explanation. but why would he want to lie about it? We could easily corroborate that story with anyone in town.”