North of Laramie. William W. Johnstone

fair and legal. I’ve got almost a dozen statements on my desk back at the jail attesting to that fact. I’ll let you read them if you’d like, once you’ve had time to grieve over your losses.”

      “My losses?” The words hardly made sense to him. “My losses? We’re not talking about a bunch of horses who’ve run off or have been stolen, Earp. We’re talking about the murder of two young men cut down in their prime by a murdering giant and a drunken gambler.”

      “The gambler had nothing to do with it. And they disobeyed Trammel’s order to leave. They attacked him and got killed for their trouble. Serves them right for going up against a man damned near twice their size.” He brought his mug to his lips. “I told you to go collect your dead. I won’t tell you again.”

      “Not before I’ve had a word with Miss Lilly.”

      A chair scraping against wood pierced the darkness as Earp stood. “I said no.”

      Matt felt his neck begin to redden. He had always tried to have respect for the law as far as it went, but in the face of his own dead, that respect didn’t go far. “Now see here, Earp. You and your brother might have that old ninny Meagher buffaloed, but I’m no old ninny. You’re only one against twenty and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of the way and let us get answers on our own.”

      Suddenly, quietly, Earp strode out of the darkness and stood less than a foot from Matt. The rancher flinched and took a step back despite his intention to hold his ground.

      Earp didn’t move, not even a twitch. His flat blue eyes were locked on Matt until Bowman found himself taking still another backward step.

      “I know you’re grieving, so this one time, I’ll repeat myself. You’re not going to bother Miss Lilly. You’re not going to kill Trammel or Hagen or anyone else. You’re going to collect your dead and bring them home for the Christian funeral they deserve. And when you’ve had a chance to mourn, you’ll come see me in the jail and I’ll prove what happened here. Until then, you have to leave town. All of you. Right now.”

      Matt held his ground, his fading resolve beginning to weaken even further under Earp’s glare, until his cousin Walt Bowman said, “Damn you, Earp. You can’t stop us.”

      But Earp’s eyes never left Matt’s. “Looks like I already have. Go. Now.”

      Matt jerked his head up, trying to save some semblance of pride in front of his people. “We’ll collect our dead and bury them. But someone’s going to answer for this, Earp. Someone’s going to answer for this damned soon.”

      He turned and pushed his way through his relatives. The rest of the Bowman family filed out after him, Walt last among them.

      Earp stood where he was until the last of them rode away, then sat back down at the table and finished his coffee.

      CHAPTER 5

      “I need a drink.” Hagen was nearly doubled over his horse as they rode the flatlands north away from Wichita. “I need it bad, Buck.”

      “Don’t call me that.” Trammel rode several yards ahead of him, hoping the distance would encourage his mount to pick up the pace a bit. He could see Hagen was hurting. He was sweating something awful, and his hands shook like a man riding at full gallop.

      But Trammel also knew they needed to be farther from town than they were. Much farther. They had only a day or so to put as much space between them and the Bowman family as possible. At the rate they were riding, the family would be on them just as they reached the next town. “I only let my friends call me Buck, and you’re no friend, so let’s just leave it at Trammel.”

      “Fine!” Hagen cried out. “I’ll call you anything you want, even beautiful, but I’m hurting bad and I need that drink. I need it now!”

      Trammel kept riding. “You got your sip when we rested a while back. I’ll give you another sip when we make camp for the night as long as we get as far as we need to. That means you picking up the pace.”

      Hagen sneered. “It’s called a hangover for a reason, you overgrown imbecile. I didn’t ask to come on this crusade of yours. I would’ve been just as happy to sleep it off in my room and take my chances with those Bowman idiots when I had my wits about me.”

      “And a belly full of whiskey, no doubt.” Trammel normally didn’t let such insults go unanswered, but given Hagen’s current sorry state, he let it slide. “I didn’t have you pegged for a brave man.”

      “I never said I’d fight them, but I’d be able to avoid them easily enough if I was in better shape.”

      Trammel figured that was the case. “Well, if it makes you feel any better, we weren’t given much choice in the matter. Like I told you before, Earp pretty much ordered us out of town. Taking you with me wasn’t my idea, but we’re stuck with each other until we reach the next town. So the sooner you figure out how to pick up the pace, the sooner we’ll be rid of each other.”

      Trammel noticed something he had said seemed to snap Hagen out of it. He bolted upright in the saddle, as if an iron bar had been jammed up his spine. “Music to my ears. Just where are we headed, Mr. Trammel, or have you not thought that far ahead yet?” He looked around. “We seem to be headed north.”

      Trammel was glad for the chance to prove to Hagen he wasn’t an imbecile after all. “I let Bobby back at the livery think we were headed south. So we’re headed north instead. To Newton.”

      “Newton,” Hagen repeated as though the word itself was poison. He leaned over the side of his mount and spat onto the trail. “How predictable. You’re more Moses than Daniel Boone, aren’t you, Trammel? A real north-and-south, left-or-right man. The kind who picks out a point on a map and rides straight for it. The kind of man who gets himself killed.” He spat again. “Just like a bloody copper.”

      “I’m not a cop, damn you.” Trammel resented the insult to his logic. “You weren’t exactly in any shape to give an opinion on direction when we rode out this morning, so I made the best choice I could. Newton is a solid choice, and it’s got law to protect us if the Bowman family catches up to us.”

      “Thank God I’m beginning to regain some of my senses.” Hagen winced and doubled over, no doubt from the clawing in his stomach from the lack of booze. “Fortunately, the Bowman clan are no brighter than you are and are likely to do the same thing.” He looked around and saw a copse of trees just ahead. “That’s exactly why we’re not going to Newton.”

      Trammel resented the man’s affront to his authority, until he realized he didn’t have any authority. He wasn’t a Pinkerton man anymore, and Hagen wasn’t his prisoner. Hell, he technically wasn’t even his charge. Earp had told him to bring the gambler out of town with him, and he had done that. Whatever happened to him now that they were out of town limits was out of his control. Not even a man like Earp could hold him responsible for that.

      But Trammel also knew Hagen was right about him. Trammel was a straight thinker. He had picked out a spot and headed for it, just like he had always done. The Bowman family, or at least the few members he had known at The Gilded Lilly, were the same sort. They came in after a roundup to get drunk and that’s what they did. They came in to gamble for high stakes at the tables and did just that. Sometimes they won and sometimes they lost.

      They went straight at whatever they set their mind to, and they’d most likely do the same thing when they came after Trammel and Hagen. And he had no doubt they’d come for them and keep coming for them until they found them. It sounded like Hagen knew that, too, and might have a way around it.

      “Never took instruction from a drunk before,” Trammel admitted, “but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. Since we’ve both likely got a price on our head by now, where do you think we should go?”

      “A haystack where two needles like us can disappear quite nicely,” Hagen said. “Come, Moses. And let me lead you to the new and